You can find true peace by trusting Jesus rather than worrying about the future. Start today by remembering what He has already done in your life and surrendering your burdens to Him. Let His love replace your fear and guide you into the purpose He has prepared for you.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
*Father God, I just thank you for who you are. Lord*, I thank you that you love us. And Lord, I ask you to continue to speak today. And I pray for freedom, for everybody watching, healing, Lord God, for everybody watching deliverance, Lord. That people experience the goodness of grace and *truth* through this word today in Jesus name.
*Amen*. Amen. So as I kind of mentioned before, I was trying to preach something different today and and God just continued to lead me to John-14. And so, today's a little different. I'm gonna more do a Bible study type deal.
So, I I encourage you to go and get your Bible or pull up the Bible app on your phone, and let's just go scripture by scripture, line by line, verse by verse, through John-14. And and I'll go as long as time will allow, and then we'll worship some more, just letting letting the word like sink in deep, penetrate our hearts, and just kind of a time of response there. Know that when the Word goes forth, it it's it's the seed of the Word and it produces fruit. What what does that mean? Well, if it that means it produces results in your life.
And, it's God's word, and so those results are results that last. So, I encourage you then, if we're going through His word, then "lean on the edge of your seat", because if God's speaking, if it's His word, it has the potential to produce that in your life, to shift things, to shift outcomes in your life. So lean in. Let's go through this thing together. Okay?
So we started in John-14:1. We said, do not let your hearts to be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You believe in God, believe also in me. Another version says, believe in God, believe also in me. And another version says, you believe in God, you believe also in me.
And, just like we said before, that passive present imperative was the the be troubled, and do not let your "heart be troubled", meaning meaning, something on the outside continuously trying to trouble your heart, and you have a command from God to continuously not let that happen. How and why? Believe in God. Now, that word for believe is is present active indicative, meaning, it's it's a continuous. Let's continue, not just make a decision right now, but let's continue for the rest of our life to believe in God, despite the circumstances, despite the trouble that comes at us.
Let's not let that shake our hearts, but let our hearts be set and founded on the rock of of Jesus Christ and who He is, but not just saying, believe in Jesus, and that's good, now go on about my business. No. If we're gonna not let our hearts be troubled, then we're not just believing in Jesus, Jesus, we're believing in who He says that we are. That He loves us, that that we're His kids. Right?
And we're letting that transform our life. Now, let's keep going. Verse 2. He says, my Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you?
Verse 3, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may be where I am. See, the Bible, Paul talks about it a lot, that he's prepared a place for us. We are to have our eyes fixed on Jesus. We're to have our eyes fixed on our heavenly calling. We're forgetting what is behind, and pressing on to towards our heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
Like, we're supposed to be so "heavenly minded that we're earthly amazing". And and He is preparing a place for us, a place where we can know that all of the troubles that have been coming in against us, all of the troubles that have been trying to attack our hearts, that we're constantly not letting happen, those will not happen anymore. When we we lay down this body, when we leave, when we when we get to heaven, when we're with Him, to be apart from this body is to be with Christ Jesus. When we're there, there will be no trouble, no more pain, no more sorrow in this, in Him, we have our hope. He is our living hope.
So that's why in the midst of trouble, you see some Christians and they still have they still carry a peace. When family members pass away, and family members die, or circumstance come where their life is about to be ripped to shreds by cancer, this or that and the other, there's still you look into their eyes and you see peace. Why? Because their eyes are fixed on Jesus, on the eternal hope, And it anchors us through the troubles of this life. So many people in the midst of this trying time, and the bible is clear that as the end times draw near, there will be more and more troubles that come.
If our eyes aren't fixed on the place that He has prepared for us. What is to come? Then we might get tossed back and forth by the troubles that are in this world. And I don't know about you, but I want to be 1 of those strong believers that when other people see me in the midst of trouble, they see Jesus. They see the love of Jesus.
They see His peace. You can be. Let's grow together in our belief, in our understanding of who He says that we are. Amen? Okay.
Let's keep going. Verse 4. He says, you know the way to the place where I'm going. Verse 5, Thomas, this doubting Thomas. Right?
And rightfully so. This is why doubting Thomas said, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? A lot of times in life, we feel like we don't know where we're going. We don't know where Jesus is going, so how can we know the way? But Jesus is saying to you, in the midst of you thinking that you don't know where you're going, in the midst of you thinking there's nothing but chaos, Jesus is saying to you, if you have received him, that you do know the way.
You do know the way. But pastor, I don't even know what's next for me going on. You know the way. And I could say it with confidence, and you don't have to doubt like Thomas anymore. And here's why, the next verse, *Jesus* answered.
He said, I am the way. **Jesus is the way**. To know him is enough. You don't know what's coming tomorrow? That's okay.
Trust Jesus for your daily bread. Trust Him to give you exactly what you need today. Let go of the control of your future, and trust in Jesus. He is the way. He is all you need to know.
Let Him lead you, and let Him guide you. But I don't know where He's leading me to. I don't know how He's guiding me. Look at all of it. No.
Take your eyes off of all of this that's going on. Put your eyes on Jesus. You don't have to understand. Philippians says that you can have *peace* that passes understanding. Meaning His peace, you can have His peace in the midst of understanding.
You don't have to understand in order to receive and to know His peace, and that comes simply by knowing Him. Knowing Jesus is enough. Don't say but. Don't say, well, just No. No.
Knowing Him is enough. Believe. Believe. Just believe. I encourage you when this message is over, and it's not over yet.
Flip it off, and with your family, with the people in the room beside you, and if they won't do it, go do it by yourself. Just get alone and say, God, I believe. Jesus, I believe. I don't even know all of the promise that you've spoken over me, but right now I know that you are the way and I set my heart at rest because you said that I could. I'm not letting any trouble affect my heart and I'm just going to believe.
I believe you are my peace, God. Let's keep going. *Jesus said, I am the way*, the truth, and the life. No 1 comes to the Father except through me. That statement right there makes Christianity the most exclusive religion in all of the world.
Now, you know me, I don't believe Christianity is a religion, I believe it's a relationship with God. In the eyes of everybody else, they say, no, it's a religion. Well, if that's the case, Christianity is an exclusive religion. You can believe all the other religions in the world cause you to get to some higher power and not Christianity, or you can believe Christianity and not all the other religions in the world, because Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. That's a deity statement.
Because God is life. That's 1 of them, 1 of his deity statements. But, He God's word, He is truth. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So, basically, every other religion is a lie.
As a matter of fact, scripture is clear. It says, they're taught by demons. Don't follow a lie. We can love people who follow a lie. We can love them, and we can love them and show them Jesus.
But don't get distracted by a lie. This is not a mental assent. No. The truth is found in Jesus. This is not some This is this is not like Hindu Hinduism, is it?
No. No. No. Buddhism. It's not like Buddhism.
This is not like Scientology, where where it's just, I'm I'm in I'm trying to find this truth, and as I grow in this truth, and I can be okay in life. No. *Jesus* is truth. He is the truth that we need. He is all truth.
There is no other God. Every other God is a lie, and is just a demonic lie to distract you from the truth of Jesus. That's it. Know Him, follow Him, run to Him. And He, through Him, we can know the Father.
*Amen*? Okay. Verse 7. He says, if you really know me, you will know my Father as well. And from now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.
That's a powerful statement. *Jesus is saying in that moment, it's a statement of communion*. It is a because they they just they have just taken communion in John-13. Jesus washes their feet, and and right around in there, they take communion, and then you have this discourse here. And Jesus is making a statement of communion.
*Communion*, very closely connected with community. Like, as we take communion together, we are declaring that we are in community together. And it comes from the word, the Latin word communis, which means common, or commonality. It also means sharing. And Jesus is making the statement here.
He's saying, hey, when you see me, Jesus is saying, when you see me, you are seeing the Father. Hebrews says, Jesus is the exact representation of the Father in bodily form. But Jesus is saying that because the Father is in Him. Watch. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father.
He didn't believe in that moment. He was he was doubting as well. Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us. Jesus said, don't you know me Philip? Verse 9.
Even after I have been among you a long time. Like this is Philip. This is 1 of the disciples. Some of us, we we feel criticism and and and disproval by We think that it's by God, but it's not, it's condemnation. When we have trouble believing something, let that go.
There's therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, simply fall into his arms and pray, God help my unbelief. Jesus didn't cast Philip from his presence for for making a dumb statement of unbelief. No. Jesus corrected him with truth and love, but then continued continued to speak to him, and continued to tell him that he is his. And that's what he's saying to you today, in the midst of your unbelief, in different situations, in the midst of your letting your heart be troubled, in the midst of all this, he's saying, hey, I love you, I'm with you, let me correct your unbelief with truth, and let's walk forward together.
Forget what's behind. Forget you even letting your heart be troubled. Forget that I paid the price for your past, and I knew that you were gonna make those mistakes, and I still died for any you anyway. Let's get up, and let's keep walking forward together. So what does he say?
Don't you know me, Philip verse 9, even I, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has *Father*. How can you say, show us the Father? Don't you believe that I'm in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority.
Rather, it is the Father living in me, doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Or at least believe, verse 11, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves, on the evidence of the miracles you've seen, on the evidence of what I've done. I want to encourage you today, maybe you've been having trouble believing. And then, this is a principle right here.
Maybe you have trouble, sometimes you have trouble believing that Jesus is with you. You have trouble believing that he has an amazing plan for you in the future. You have trouble believing that that there is this this place that Jesus has prepared for you, because you get so focused on the circumstances, and so focused on the things going or so focused on on what other people have said to you, or said about you, and it troubles your heart, and you get so focused on that, that you have trouble believing. Jesus is saying, even when you don't believe, just out of relationship, at least believe based on what you've seen me do. And in my life, when I feel my heart getting troubled, I do the exact same thing that what he's saying right here.
It's when I feel my heart get troubled, have an alarm that goes off, and what do I do? First first, I just go back to Jesus. And if I have trouble seeing Jesus, or I have trouble remembering that, then I immediately, I go back to what has he done in my life. And I just begin to thank him, remembering that he has set me free. He healed me of depression.
He called me to be a pastor when I didn't deserve it. He sent me through school. He gave me a wife. He gave me a family. He gave me amazing church.
I see what you have done. Thank you for what you've done in my life. Some of you are watching right now, and you're like, I don't know. I don't see him doing anything in my life. Well, at least believe based on the works that you see.
Maybe not in your life, but look at the lives of those around you. Is there somebody in your life where you see this radical life change? This miracle of they used to be this 1 person, and now they're a completely different person. I think of Don backs. He used to be an alcohol in our church.
He used to be an alcoholic. Received Jesus, God completely shifted and changed his life. And he went from being a terrible father and a terrible husband, to now an amazing father and an amazing husband, and he's growing better and better every day, and it's proof that God works in people. Look around your life, and see what God has done in the people around you. And at least believe based on what Jesus has done there, until you can see His work in your life.
Until you can see what He's done and what He's doing. Excuse me. So, let's just begin to thank Him. Right now, just begin to remember. Remember what He's done in your life.
And, as your belief grows, guess what? The trouble leaves because your focus is going off of you, and it's on to what He's done, what He's doing. And and guess what? What God does flows out of who He is. So, as you focus on what He does, you're you're you're able to see more clearly who He is, and your faith is growing.
Your belief in Him is growing. And, that's amazing. I did an encouraging word this past week that that had us focus on the testimony, the story of what He's done in the past. And, I encourage you, as we go into worship, focus on and just remember what He's done. If your heart's if you're having trouble setting your heart at rest, the trouble, then believe.
And how do you do that? Remember what He's done, and let let that remind you of who He is. He's good, and He loves you. Now, there's a lie that's coming at you, some of you right now, and you're saying, well, God took my my father, or God took my mother, or God gave me this sickness. No, God didn't do that.
The Bible says, It's the enemy that steals, kills, and destroys. So, stop blaming God for what Satan did. **God is good**, God is love, and He cares for you. And, He's a gentleman. So, He's not going to force Himself on you, but He will freely give.
As you draw near to Him, He draws near to you, constantly saying, Son, "look what I've done". Daughter, look what I've done. I love you. I gave my life for you. Some of you right now, as you're listening to this, you're like, man, I don't know that God.
I need to know him. The time is now. *Jesus* loved you even while you were a sinner, even while you were running from him, even while you were doing everything that you've done that's caused the guilt and the shame, the lack of peace in your life. Jesus loved you, knew that you were gonna do those things, and chose to die for you anyway, so that you could know Him. And he's saying, right now, come to me.
Give me all of your burdens and I will **give you rest**. Rest for your soul. Some of you are so tired right now because you've been so focused on the trouble. But Jesus said later in John-14, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. So don't let your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.
Problem is, we let our heart be troubled because we don't believe he really gave us peace. But right now, let's just believe and receive his goodness. Believe and receive what he's given. I want everybody right now, if you've been experiencing trouble in your life, or if you need Jesus. Maybe you've never received him, everybody right now.
Every single person watching. Just lift your hands. It's just a "sign of surrender". Lift your hands right now and just say this. Lord, I believe.
*Jesus*, I believe. Help my unbelief. *Lord*, help me to see you. Help me to believe in your love that you love me. Teach me what it means to not let my heart be troubled anymore.
To have peace in the midst of a lack of understanding. If you've never received Jesus and you want to receive, you want to know God personally, not religion, not a bunch of religious bull crap. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about a relationship. I'm talking about knowing Him in a "real way" where it oozes out of your person.
When people see you and they see something's different. Not an act, not hypocrisy, but real. If you wanna know God and you never have, say this with me. Believe it with your heart. Say, Jesus, I've lived for me.
And right now, I need help. Would you forgive me of my sin? I believe you died for me. Would you forgive me of my sin? I believe you rose again.
And I don't know what all that means, but teach me. I give you my *sin* and I receive you. I receive your life. Say it. I receive your future.
I I give you my past and I receive your future. Thank you, Jesus. Teach me what it means to call you Lord. You're my Lord. Teach me what it means to follow you.
And, I want everybody right here to say this together as a confession. Thank you that I'm forgiven.
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Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.