The Village Church
Do not let your heart be troubled - Audio
to be here. I know the circumstances aren't the best to be here, but we're good. Thank you. But my wife Sherry and I, when we have occasion to be here, is one of our favorite things to do because just the people here, it feels like family and we feel welcome. And I guess as spiritual as I can think it just feels right here. It really does. And so we love to be here. So any chance we can, we will. But I looked at the sermon title and it says the end. And I got to think in, you know, probably at the two hour mark, you'll probably wish it was the end. But no, there's not, I'm not going two hours, I promise. But I'm going to pray. And this is a message that I enjoy preaching. I need to hear it. I need to hear this again today. So let's pray. Father, thank you so much. It is so good to be here. It is good to go before your throne and to submit again to you, to your lordship, your holiness and your goodness and to bask in the truth of your mercy and to know that you're sovereign and that the future, the what awaits, is certain. And it is so certain, Lord, that we are to live free in light of it. And so Father, this day, just open your word to our hearts, the preach word. May we once again fall in love with Jesus, that Jesus would be the end and he'll be enough. I pray this and believe this and trust this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, let me just jump in. There is an article, a story that I found. It was in New York Times. And it was a story about this photography studio that was being sued by a gentleman who was suing over his wedding photos. It seems as if this photograph studio missed the last 15 minutes of their reception. There were no photos of the bouquet toss and there were no photos of the last dance, the sort of the last important dances. There were just no photos. And so I can understand he was suing this studio for $4,100. And that was their fee to have them take the photographs. And so, but he didn't stop there with $4,100. He's suing for an additional $48,000. And the reason is because he wants to recreate those 15 minutes. He has envisioned he's going to fly everybody back and everybody is going to get in the same outfit and go back to the same room. They want to use a different photographer, but they want to recreate those 15 minutes and he figures it's going to cost about $48,000 to do that. But that's not all of the story. Here's the rest of the story. Getting everybody doing that's going to be a little tough because you need to know that since the wedding the couple has divorced. Here's the timeline for all this. The wedding was in 2003. They got divorced in 2008 and he started to sue the company in 2009. It's going to be really, really tough to sort of reenact this because his ex-wife has since moved back to Latvia and he has no idea where she is. This is, this former groom seems a little angry, doesn't he? And, you know, the photographs were his dream, I suppose, and it fell a little short. But this is definitely one troubled guy, right? Very troubled guy here. On the one hand to have a legitimate complaint. I mean, this is a 65-year-old Bronx New York photograph studio. They've been around for 65 years. They had three photographers there that day and they still managed to miss 15 critical minutes of his wedding. So I can sort of understand, you want to get your $40, you want $100 back. But listen to the ex-groom's reasoning on one part of this. He said that, this is what he said, okay? This is a guy who's now divorced, has no idea where this ex-wife is, but he's actually saying this. He says, we were actually very happy with the ceremony and just would like to have it documented for eternity, for us and for our families. This now has taken on eternal matters, right? It's eternal weight. The happiness of all his friends and family, for all eternity, are wrapped up in whether or not they have those 15 minutes, they're just missing from the photographs of a wedding that, of a marriage that no longer exists. Now, here's one other aspect of this. The longtime owner, an 85-year-old man, he's owned it from the very get-go for 65 years. He's run the studio. He had handed it off to his sons a little shortly before this actual incident, but this is what he said, okay? He's an 85-year-old man. He said this. He said, I had a good life and at the end of my life, this hits me in the face. You know, that's something that sort of troubled me too. I can see myself in this ex-groom kind of angry over the photographs. I can get like that. And I can sort of see myself as the owner of the studio as well. It troubles me too. I asked this question, will my life have been a waste when it's all said and done? I mean, will I get to the very end of it and it will have been a waste in some form or fashion? Will any good that I accomplished? Anything that I could do, I could say that was a great thing. Will any good that I have accomplished unravel, just sort of fall apart from because of some unforeseen situation. One of the many troubles our hearts can have is a concern for the future, right? I mean, just thinking about next week and are you thinking about five years from now? I don't know, just our hearts can get so wrapped up in things that are yet to happen. We get caught up in the future. And so I can be gripped with the fear of the future, something that hasn't happened yet. Or I can be troubled by the actions of others, you know, an incompetent photography studio. I mean, you should just see me when I get home from the drive in, drive through, and there's mayonnaise on my hamburger. I mean, I will lose it because of the incompetency of somebody, right? I can, that can happen. This x-groom though, here's the thing, if you just sort of boil it down, this x-groom is really bothered, he's really troubled in his heart by just one simple thing. And we can be like this too. He is the very thing he hoped in, just didn't happen the way he wanted it. That's just the bottom line. He had hoped in something. He had hoped the photographs would be complete and they weren't. He had hoped in them, his intended end, as he thinks about how things should be and how they should all end up, the way he wanted his marriage to end up, the way he always envisioned the photographs to end up, just didn't work out. That's what's happening here, just didn't work out. And his happiness and the eternal happiness of his friends all around the world are wrapped up in the fact that this photograph collection is incomplete. There's 15 minutes missing. His happiness is wrapped up around in that. He has trouble. He's troubled at the end result, right? He's troubled at it. The end didn't work out like he hoped. And guess what? Somebody's got to pay. You ever been like that? Do you see yourself and that guy? I do. What troubles you as you think about it? I was just thinking today, what's troubling you today? What's troubles you ever in the past? Maybe what's getting you right now? Is it the incompetency of others? You know, it could be the incompetency of the government. You know, anything. It could be the drive-through person at Hardee, right? The incompetency of others that trouble you. The uncertainty could be just the uncertainty of the future. Maybe your job. Maybe the prospects for a job. The uncertainty for your kids. The uncertainty of the health of your family. There's maybe some things that you just know and it's uncertain. You just don't know. The future looks bleak. It just doesn't look like anything's ever going to work. Maybe the deal is too that you're holding it all together. Everything's going right. But you're just thinking, you know what? This is going to spin out of control at some point. And I'm scared. And you're just, that's sort of this undercurrent in your heart. It just might all sudden unravel. You know, it'll something at the end. It'll just hit you in the face unexpectedly. And maybe you're just worried that your trouble that you may have wasted your life up to this point. And you missed. You missed some opportunity. You know, there's some last dance out there, right? Some 15 minutes of your life. If it had just been a little different. You know, if I could have just done this, if I could have caught the bouquet, you know, if it were just happened. So what's troubling your heart today? Think about that. See our troubled hearts. This is true for me. Our troubled hearts can lead us to do lots of foolish things. And so that we can hope in some end that won't happen. And when it doesn't happen, we can say and do things that we're embarrassed about, humiliated about. And it usually happens because the things we're hoping in just didn't live up. They didn't live up to what we'd hoped and dreamed. It would be. Now, here's the good news, y'all. God knows this about us. Jesus was leading a band of 12 men that he approached them. And we're going to look at this. And their hearts were troubled. Their world was starting to spin out of control. The things that they were hoping in weren't going to happen. And Jesus looks at them and he talks to them about their troubled hearts. But the thing that they had learned, and we're going to be in John chapter 14, but right before that in John 13, he tells them the thing that's troubling their hearts. You know, their world is starting to unravel because guess what? They've been together for three years and Jesus is Jesus. He's God, right? He has been leading them. In the words he says, I mean, can you imagine walking with Jesus the kinds of conversations that these men had with Jesus? Their hearts are behind him. They want to do everything for him. And then he tells them this. He tells them in John 13, verse 33, he calls them little children. He says, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you." He says, "I'm about to leave. This isn't going to last. I'm going to leave." He said, "You will seek me. And just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I'm going, you cannot come." And so this is when after he says that Peter, they're the leader of the group, he speaks for the group so often, he says, "No, Jesus." He said, "Why can't we go with you?" He said, "I will lay down my life for you." And then Jesus looks at him and he says, "No, no." At least initially, you're going to deny me three times. This is not a great conversation to be having right now, as far as being one of the disciples, because your leader has just been told, "Even you, you're going to deny me after I leave." And so, here's a question. What sort of concerns do you think were going through the disciples' minds at that time? I mean, think about what was happening. They were probably wondering, well, what is going to happen? Did I just give three years of my life for this? And it's going to come crashing down. Now you're going to leave. And now what am I going to do? What about the future? I thought we were going to be happy, and now I'm just confused. You ever been like that? If you ever poured yourself into something and you thought the end result is going to be, it's going to be awesome. And then at the end of it, you're just confused, hurt or bothered. I've been there, plenty. And so, those are some of the concerns I imagine they're thinking. You see, the end that they had in mind, as the disciples following, the end they had in mind was not the end Jesus had in mind. And what he's going to do in the rest of chapter 14, he's going to show his disciples, he's going to tell them, he's going to say, "I am not a means to your end. I'm not something that you can leverage to accomplish something you want." He said, "I am not a means to an end. He's going to show them, I am the end. I'm enough. I'm everything you ever needed." And he's going to show his disciples that and he's going to show us that this morning. And here's something though, before we jive into it, that I've, it has taken me a long time to learn. I'm still not there. I take sermons like this. I got to preach to myself over and over. But my greatest disappointments that I'm learning, my heart is troubled when I've made Jesus a means to an end and not the end. It's very subtle. And when we talk, I'll explain a little bit about that. And Jesus does a great job of doing that in this passage. But my greatest disappointments are when I make Jesus a means to an end and not the end. I mean, it looks something like this. I can say, I want to be a good father. I want to be a great father. I want to be a good husband. I want to be a husband to my wife, a great husband. I want to be a pastor like no other pastor ever. You know, not even, you know, better than even Alex, right? You know, I want to be an awesome pastor. And I can take all those things. That's what I want to do. And then I've said this. I've said this in my heart. And I say something like if I would just repent more, if I would just preach the gospel to myself, if I could just finally really get grace in some new way and some deeper way, then I'll be the kind of dad I want to be, the kind of pastor I want to be, the kind of husband I want to be. And then I'll be an example for the world to see. And see, then they'll look to me. They'll see an example that's out there. Do you see the subtlety? Well, that's really sort of very self glorifying. And that's just me so often. And I just want Jesus. Because Jesus is enough. And I got to tell you, maybe if you're here and you're not a Christian and someone, somehow someone got you to come here and you're listening and you're saying, you know what, that's what I've never really liked about Christianity. Because it's all about what's in it for them. You know, you Christians, you just, you do it for you and you want Jesus because it's something he'll get you. You know, and I've never liked that, they might say, you know, I don't like that one in myself either. Because I have made so often, I've made a way other than Jesus, something that is successful. See, Jesus is your success. Jesus is your victory. Jesus is your significance. Jesus is your security. Jesus is the way. And see, I've made my way, my desires, my preferences. I've made them something that I take Jesus and I leverage because that's what I want to get. I have some other end in mind. I do that so often. So I need this truth this morning. I need this truth that's revealed in this passage. And if you're anything like me and I bet you are, you need it too. Because Jesus wants us to see that he is the end, that he is enough. And he's not a means to him at some end that you and I have in mind. He's not a means to that end. He is the end. He's enough. And that's a glorious truth that I want all of us to embrace. I need to. So let's begin. Let's look at start with verse 1 of John 14. And this is how it reads. It says, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me." Now the word when Jesus says, "Let not your hearts be troubled." The great thing about this is, is those words were used by Jesus to describe himself or by John to describe Jesus. Look where it says, I'll, if you can turn there, that's great, but it's John, verse 33 of chapter 11. So Jesus is going to his friend's Lazarus. Lazarus has died and he's in the grave. And Jesus shows up late, but he's there. And people are crying, of course, because their brother and their friend is dead. And so he walks up on the crowd in verse 33 of John 11. And it says this, "When Jesus saw Mary weeping, Mary was Lazarus's sister. And the Jews who had come with her were also weeping. He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled." See Jesus knows this kind of trouble. It's trouble attached to a world that's falling apart, right? It's a world that's been infected by the fall. And Jesus looks at it and his heart is troubled by it. And he sees people who are experiencing death, the death of friends and loved ones, and his heart is troubled by this. Another passage in verse 27 of John 12, Jesus says this when he is talking about, he's about to go to the cross. And he's telling people that he's going to go and his hours come. And so when he talks about the hour coming, it's when he's going to go to the cross. And this is what he says. Now my soul is troubled. That's the word. He's troubled in his soul. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. So Jesus looks at what he's about to go through, and his heart is troubled by it. It's painting him, but he's going to go to a situation on the cross where he's going to be separated from the Father. It's deep trouble that he's experiencing. And he experiences and trouble in his soul as he looks at the suffering in the world. And so when he says to his disciples, "Let not your hearts be troubled," he knows this kind of trouble. And the trouble they're thinking through, "My world is falling apart. It's never going to be the same. It's all a mess. Nothing's ever going to work." I don't know how the future is going to work out. And Jesus looks at their hearts and he says, "Let not your hearts be troubled." And he gives the solution, though. Amazing. It's very simple. He says, "Believe in God. Believe. Believe in God. Believe also in me." And so what he's doing, he gives two imperatives. He gives two commands. He says, "Believe God. Believe me." And he puts them on par with each other because he's making the case. He has been making the case. I and the Father are one. We're two people, but we're one God. And he's going to make that point. He says, he's going to about to say, "When you see the Father, you've seen me." And when you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And so he gives us, he says, "Believe. Believe God. Believe me." See, it all comes down to Jesus. Jesus is enough. He is the end. Believe Jesus. It's how the Father... He's... Jesus is saying, "This is how the Father reveals himself." Do you want to know what love is? Look to me. You want to know how much thought the Father loves. Look at me. I'm enough. I'm the end. Jesus is enough for you. He is your end. He is the way. He is the end. Now, a big worry that the disciples were having was, "What's going to happen? What's going to happen in the future? What about it? You and I do the same thing. And what do we do when we're worried about the future? We just immediately set off to try to fix it, try to control as much as we possibly can. We try to gather and try to do it in our own strength and try to figure it out and how we can control the future. And so Jesus tells them about the future. Look at verse two. He says, because he knows their hearts. He knows what's troubling them. They're worried. Now, if you're going to go, what's going to happen to us? He says, "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?" What Jesus is saying, he says, "Look, in the presence of my Father, there's room." He's saying, "There's room for you. There's room, so you will be able to go and be in the Father's presence. There's room for you." And if it wasn't that way, I would have never said I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. So we now have Jesus going to prepare a place for us in the Father's presence. There's enough space for us. In verse three. "And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. That where I am, you may be also." He's telling us something. He's telling us disciples something. "By me leaving, I'm telling you first, there's room, but by me leaving, your place in my Father's house and his presence will be certain. My leaving makes it certain that there is room for you and that you will be there." Now, you're worried about the future. Now, put that in your pipe and smoke it, right? That's what Jesus is saying. Think on this. Think about it. It is certain now. My leaving will make it certain. So Jesus becomes the focus again, believe in me, believe in what I'm doing. It all matters. It has an impact on you. I am enough. He says, "I will come again." And this is most certainly referring to his second coming. When he comes at the end of the age, he will come to gather his people and those that are still here, he'll bring with them and those that have already gone before and will come with them to go get them and will all be in the presence of God, the Father, along with Jesus. It is certain. It is certain. Now, verses 4 and 5. And then Jesus says this, he says, "And guess what? And you know where I am going." He says, "And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus is telling Thomas, "You do know the way." He's saying it's not techniques. It's not something that you do. It's not this checklist of anything. It's not some sort of program you sort of tap into. It's a person. It's me. The way is a person and it's me. You do know the way because you know me, Thomas. In verse 6, Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And there we have it. It's Jesus. He is enough. He is the way. He is the end. It's enough. He's enough. All right. Let me tell you, there is a Puritan writer, a guy named John Bunyan, 350 years ago, wrote a book called A Pilgrim's Progress. And for years, when books were very scarce, Christian families had two books in their home. They had the Bible in a Pilgrim's Progress. I mean, those were like staples in the Christian homes. And so, in Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian life. It just tells in these real flowery language and real obviously named characters. It just talks about the Christian life and like what it's like. And so, the main character, his name is Christian. All right? So, that makes sense. Christian. And there's all kinds of other names of people that are kind of comical, but they help tell you what these characters are about. All right? So, at one point, Christian is walking on the way, right? He's on his way. He's come from the city of destruction. That was the world. And if we live in the world in the city of destruction, that's our end, is destruction. But he's on his way to the celestial city where God is. And he's marching along and he makes all kinds of mistakes. And he, you know, he just, just like you and I do. So, he's marching along and he looks over and he sees this, you know, that there's a wall that's on one side of the way. And these two men come sort of fumbling over the wall and they join him on the way. And so, they're walking along. And so, when you guys are reading this, they kind of look like they're the same. There's Christian and these two guys. And they start to talk. And Christian is kind of, you know, kind of a fanatic, I guess. But he says, "Whoa, you guys can't do that. You have to come in the way I did to the gate." And Jesus, and you, in John chapter 10, is the gate, right? The sheep enters through the gates. So, the analogy, the all starting to work, right, for the story. You have to come through Jesus to get on the way. And they start to argue with Christian. They go, "No, you don't. We came this way." And, I mean, what does it really matter? We look just like you. We're walking on the way, too. We look just like you. We're fine. And so, there are even back and forth. Now, the clue comes in, so as to figure out what's going on here, once we learn their names. Their names are formality and hypocrisy. That's pretty cool. You know, Bunyan was a smart guy. And so, what we learn is that it's not about externals, okay? Because if it's all about formality, things that you can do to be on the way, then you can just sort of look like you're on the way. But it's interesting, the other character's name is hypocrisy. If you are all about externals, the end result is hypocrisy, because guess what? I can look really good. Just ask my wife about really how I am, and you'll learn, right? It's about the heart. And it's about God changing our hearts about Jesus. It's about being on the way. It's about entering through the gate of Jesus, through his sacrifice, through faith in him. It's about heart issues. It's not about what we can do externally to fix it. It's about what God does in us in our hearts. Now, one last little thing before we leave, verse six, because Jesus has made it clear, it's about me. It's not about technique. Thomas, you do know the way. It's me. Not some secret 10 things I'm going to tell you, it's me. But one thing he did, it's interesting because he says he talks about the future. He gives no details about the future. He just says there's plenty of room. I'm going to prepare a place for you. It's all you need to know. And the reason he doesn't give details, I think, and one way to think about it is, he doesn't have to give details about what the future is like, because it'll be you and Jesus, and that's all you need. The details out of the work themselves out, you've got enough because you've got Jesus. So he leaves the details out because being with him is enough. And I believe that. And I want to believe it more. Now, verses six through nine, Jesus speaking, if you hadn't known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. So like, you know, done, get over it. This is the deal. He's just taking it really clear. You see me, you've seen the father. And then Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us. On the one hand, he's right. You know, it's enough just to have you, Jesus, but he doesn't really kind of get it. And then Jesus says, and I didn't say here, but I imagine the, you know, the, if this was a script, they would say, and Jesus slaps his forehead. But it says, Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long? I always pictured it like I was a Jewish voice, you know. I thought, well, I've been with you so long. But I just imagine, I mean, it's like he's telling them truth. But he says, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the father. And you say, show us the father. Okay, this is simply to say, Jesus reveals the father. We want to know, you know, how loving is the father? Look at Jesus. Look what he did. Look who he was attracted to. Look who he was with. He went to the sinners, you know, clearly, and he healed. He fed people. He, we see the love and the mercy of the father and Jesus. And it's revealed in him. And so it's about Jesus. It's nothing else. It's life, you know, the pilgrimage we're on. It's about being on the way. It's about being with Jesus. You know, Christian is on the way. He's with Jesus. That's us. We, it's enough. Jesus is the end. There's nothing else. See, not your happiness, not your success in this world. It's Jesus. That's enough. He is the end. He's enough. Versus 10 and 11 sort of expand this a little bit, but it says, um, do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves. Jesus is saying, look, if you're having a hard time believing this, look at the works and the works point to me too, because at the works I'm doing reveal the love of the father. I heal the sick. I reveal the love of the father. And so you see, even in the works, the love of the father that I perform in his name, under his authority. So the works he does, how do I spend my time? I spend it with the lost. I speak truth. That's the father. Those are the works that point to the father. To look at the works, you see the father and then you see Jesus. It's all about Jesus. It's all about him. He is enough. And then finally, verses 12 through 14, Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do." Praise God. And greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the father. It's a good thing that Jesus is going to the father. It's a great thing. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Now on the surface here, now it seems like now we've come full circle. Now it is about the disciples. Now all of a sudden it is about what they desire. So anything you ask in my name, I will do. So is it about what they desire or is it about what Jesus desires? I think we know the answer. It's really about what Jesus desires. But one commentator said this, and it's really helpful to sort of zero in on it. He said this. He says, "It's not a matter of an individual's personal whims or desires." So it's really, when we think about our life, as we operate in this world, as we are involved with other people, as we do ministry, whatever it is, it's not about our individual whims or desires. But what it's about is bringing to realization all that Jesus wants to accomplish in the world. And so what we need to do is say, and if we ask as we're praying, we need to ask as if Jesus were asking. We need to ask as if Jesus were asking, ask what he would ask for. And for us to do that, we got to know Jesus' heart. We have to understand what brings him joy. Where does his desire? What is it attached to? What is the focus of his desires? What does he want in this world? When we go there, we begin to understand how to ask rightly and how to live rightly. Now, I had great clue for this. If you have your Bibles open, jump all the way down to verse 28 of John 14. This is how we learn what's in the heart of Jesus, because he says this to his disciples. He's sort of summarizing everything. He's kind of wrapping this little talk he's given. He said, "You heard me say to you, I am going away." That's the very thing that troubled your heart. And I will come to you. I promise. It's going to work out. It's going to be okay. But then he says this, "If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." Here's the deal. We're just like the disciples. We tend to put our emotions as the end. Our emotions sort of determine how things should work out. What will make us happy? That becomes our end. What will make us happy? What will bring us satisfaction? That becomes the end. With that, that brings me satisfaction. And I need to make sure I get to that point where I'm satisfied. And we're really subtle with that, too, with our emotions. We'll do this. We'll project on our kids. My kids, they'll be a success and happy. I just really want this for them. I want them to go to college. I want them to get the acceptance into the college. You know what we're really saying? It's, man, I hope they get into college because we're about to say that about me. What will it say about me if they don't? It's really subtle. We just want our kids to be successful. Okay, fair enough. But I think a lot, at least with me. I can only say it with me. It's kind of cool if your kid gets a scholarship and all that kind of stuff. But it's very subtle. It just shows up in that sort of situation. It is so hard to really just want what Jesus wants. But he gives us a clue here on how to do it. In an amazing twist what Jesus is saying to his disciples, he's saying to them in verse 28 of John 14, he says, "If you consider me first," he said, "if you loved me and love in this case is when you put others' needs ahead of your needs. I love you by figuring out what it is that you want and I can work to make you successful at it because I love you by putting your considerations ahead of mine." Jesus says, "If you loved me, you would have been happy for me because I said I'm going to go back to be with my father, back to the way the glory was from all eternity. You should have been happy when I said I'm going to my father because I am going to be as joyous as I've ever been to be back in his presence." Jesus was teaching his disciples something I learned in middle school. I had his friend, I swear he must have been like 30 years old, I think, because he seems so wise and we were 13 and listen, middle school, right? Middle school. What is middle school? It's that constant positioning to figure out who's better than the other person, right? It's constantly all that it is and so, and by the way, middle school is my final apologetic for the existence of hell, right? Am I right? If you know somebody that doesn't believe in hell, they don't remember middle school, I'm sorry. That was my experience. But when you're marching through middle school and you have friends, you're constantly trying to outdo the other one. I never really made a test. I think it was probably like, "I made a B." I'd say, "Hey, I made a B." And so, you want them to feel bad, but I had this friend, this sort of 30-year-old, 13-year-old guy, but he said, he would say, "I'm happy for you." I go, "Oh, okay. Hey, man, we're going to take this great vacation. My family, we're going to California this year." He goes, "Oh, okay, great. I'm happy for you." He would say, "I'm happy for you." He did that a lot. I started to pick up on that. It diffused the kind of attention. And so, I would say back to him, when he told me something I should have been jealous of or tried to outdo, I would just say, "I'm happy for you." And it started to, even at the weird age of 13, made you sort of think about the other person rather than yourself. And so, Jesus was teaching his disciples. He said, he was saying to them, "Consider me. If you love me, consider me. When your focus is on me, on my joy and not yours, you'll love me. And if you really love me, you'll find peace." Because he said right before verse 28 and John 14, he said, "Peace I leave with you. I give my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. How does the world give peace?" They did fine for us. What's that commercial with the little yellow stripe where you get on your 401k and you follow the green stripe that the guide plays out for you. If you just follow this path, then you're 401k and you'll retire and just be real happy. The world says happiness is a 401k if you follow the green line through life. The world says happiness is success. The world tells us that happiness is a gated community. The world says that happiness is the kind of cars we drive. The way our kids turn out, the happiness, the world defines happy and truly in peace in a different way. Jesus says, "I don't give peace like that. I give peace through you considering me. Your peace comes when you know me." Because he says it this way and I'll read the whole thing. "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives to you do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid. Think about me." So here's the question. Let me just wrap this up. What's troubling you right now? What is it? The disappointment. I'll just have things unraveled. Maybe you were marching along and then all of a sudden just unraveled. It's not how you thought it was going to turn out. You know, there's 15 minutes now missing in your life somehow. And there's disappointment. So what is it? What is it that you're troubled over right now? And here's the thing I've learned for sure. The disappointment we feel is not because we have Jesus. The disappointment we feel in life and the devastating nature of it is not because we have Jesus. In Jesus we lack nothing. Philip was right. It is enough for us to see the Father. It's enough. But he doesn't get that being Jesus is seeing the Father. But Philip's right it's enough if we have Jesus. When you have Jesus we have the Father. Disappointment is not found in Jesus. So much of our frustration and disappointment is because we're looking to things and the people that we believe will make us happy or satisfied. But we find that it wasn't Jesus we wanted but what he could give us. And see that's the hard part. That's probably the most disappointing part. We find out that we really didn't want Jesus. We wanted what he could give us. Instead, you know Jesus becomes a means to an end and not the end. And we need to work to make Jesus the end and not a means to an end. So here's the final thing I want to look at. What does it look like? What does it look like to make Jesus the end and not just a means to an end. Now we started with Jesus addressing troubled hearts right? Fear and disappointment. He's talking through his disciples. He says I know you're disappointed. I know you're troubled. And see I can be like the ex-groom that we talked about and I can have in mind how everything is going to end up with my life. I know how the photographs are going to lay out my life. And they're all supposed to be there. There's not supposed to be 15 minutes missing. I'm supposed to be able to catch the bouquet and have the last dance. It's all supposed to be here. And I have a dream for how my marriage is going to work. I have a dream for how ministry is supposed to work. I have a dream for how the church is supposed to turn on. I have a dream for everything. And I have this laid out just like that. How my home's going to turn. My neighbor all that stuff is going to work out. And I can fret though over 15 minutes that I've missed in my life somehow. Some last dance I missed. Some bouquet I never caught. I can fret over it and fret and fret. But Jesus becomes my end. He becomes the end. He becomes the way when I consider him. He becomes your end. He becomes enough for you when you consider him. And here's the deal. First, not what you think you can say is right. Not what you think. He can give you to make you joyous. But when I consider what makes him joyous. It's a slight difference. Not what he can give you to make you joyous. But what makes Jesus joyous? Because that's what he was saying is his disciples. He said, if you loved me, you would have been happy that I'm going to be with the Father. Because that makes me joyous. And so when we consider what makes him joyous, we begin to have Jesus be enough and not just leverage him for something you want. So here's the deal. My go-to verse on this is Hebrews 12, verses two and three. I go to this verse when I'm troubled, which is a lot. When I've been living for myself, which is a lot. When I've been leveraging God for gain. When I've been lifting up my preferences. When I'm not happy for you. When I'm not happy for someone else. And I'm disappointed for me. Because things didn't go the way I wanted them to. My life isn't working out. The kids didn't tell whatever it is. I go to Hebrews 12, verses two through three. But in reverse order. Here's how verse three reads. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. So that you may not grow weary and faint-hearted, beautiful, weary and frank and faint-hearted. Right? Because we thought the pictures were going to turn out some way. And I'm just weary from life. There's 15 minutes left missing. Didn't work out the way I wanted it to. And I'm weary. I'm faint-hearted. But God's word, God tells us, consider Jesus what he endured. And then verse two reads this way. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, our faith in him. That he's enough. That Jesus is the end. But looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. You see the joy that was set before Jesus. Jesus explained it to his disciples. You should have heard, if you loved me, you would have rejoiced that I go to be with the Father. Because from all eternity, it's been the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And when I go to the cross, I'm going to be separated. But then I'm going to go back to be in his presence. To be in the throne room with my Father at his right hand. But also, if you remember what Jesus said, his joy is also you. His joy set before him was you. Remember how all this began in verse one of John 14. He says, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me." You see, in my Father's house, in his presence, there's lots of room. There's plenty of room. If it were not so, I would have told you that I go, I wouldn't have said I've gone to prepare a place for you. There's room. And he says this, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back. I will come again, and I will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also." Here's the truth. His joy is to be with his Father, but his joy is complete when he brings us with him. You're his joy. You're his joy. He wants to be with us. See, that's the end that you and I were created to enjoy. Because in the garden, what do we see? We see Adam and Eve. We see the Father. We see God walking with them. We see them enjoying the presence of God. And that's what we were created to do, to be with God, to be with Jesus, to find your end in him, not in achievements, not in success, or having things the way you always imagine them. You know, everything works out. The pictures are just right. And so what we're to do is we're to look at the links that Jesus has gone to secure that place in his presence. Where did it take to get him there? Where did it take to get us there with him? It was the cross, the cross of Christ, the pain. He endured it because you're the joy set before him. And the joy of being back in his Father's presence, he wants us to take us with us. Now here's the last little thing. So what the author of Hebrews is saying, and what Jesus is saying to his disciples is essentially this. When we gaze at the sacrifice of Jesus, it's like a complete photo album. It's complete. There's not 15 minutes left missing. You caught the bouquet. And there's a last dance that never ends. And he says, open the pictures. Thumb through them. Thumb through them. And you'll see the sacrifice. And the truth of the matter is you won't want your way. You won't want your way anymore. And nothing that you would give up, nothing that you would sacrifice for other people, nothing you would do and give up in this world will seem like a sacrifice in light of the cross. And so those pictures are complete. There's no 15 minutes missing. You caught the bouquet. And the last dance lasts forever. Isn't that awesome? Let's pray. Father, thank you that you're enough. You're enough. Like Philip, we say, hey, show us the Father and that will be enough. And you have revealed the Father and you're enough. You're the end. You're not a means to an end. Because Father, there's nothing we could give up that would seem like it should seem like a sacrifice in light of the cross. In light of the cross and the truth of the cross, we don't want our way. We want your way. We want to give up things for your glory. Father, that's what we want. That's true life. That's the peace that you promise, not as the world gives. In our hearts are troubled Lord right now. There's so much and we need to believe the Father. We need to believe you too. And so Father, through the strength of your spirit, through the hope of the glory of the cross, as we look and gaze into the sacrifices. We consider you, Father, the joy that was set before you. It's us. It's in your presence. Father, let us be different people. And let us never look back. Father, let us hope in you. Let us live lives sacrifice for you to your glory. In Christ's name. Amen.