The Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:1-14)

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Good morning church. And go ahead grab your Bibles open up to John chapter 14 will be in John 14 this morning as we continue in our series on the I am statements of Jesus. As you’re turning to John 14, I think most of you would agree which we strive to live untroubled lives, is a huge part of our energy goes into making sure that things are as smooth as possible, I would say, we almost erect shelters against life’s storms. So that looks like things like we buy insurance. Of course, we’ve got a savings of Council, unexpected finances don’t ruin us, we go into medical checkups, so we’re not surprised. They’re all of that, sure, but also, just the rhythms and routines of our lives, we put in place to shelter us from I mean, from reality, from brutal reality, in some ways, the tenuousness of it all, the fear that maybe none of this matters, or the fear that maybe I don’t matter, at least not as much as I think I should. And so we kind of keep our eyes down, you know, just one foot in front of the other. That’s what I mean by the rhythms and routines, because to look up, is to be overwhelmed at times. Of course, every now and again, events conspire to rouse us from that sort of self imposed slumber, that may be the breaking in of external circumstances, a health concern, or financial trouble, or relationship that’s been lost. Absolutely. That’ll, you know, jolt us awake, but it may also just be the breaking out of an internal malaise or more, you know, picture of the midlife crisis, for example, you know, there’s this moment where you kind of go Yipes, you know, have I mattered? Have I made a difference? And there’s this this contemplation of mortality that comes in that moment, and really is the existential crisis that we all feel, we just kind of try and tamp it down as often as possible. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing? Is this, it? It feels in some ways, like we start at the bottom of a great peak. And we spend our lives trying to scale it to reach glory, whatever that looks like, maybe it is a religious glory, it’s nirvana or something like that. Maybe it’s more of a secular glory, like meaning that the the search for significance. But there are a lot of pitfalls. It’s a really steep climb, you take some wrong turns, and pretty soon you find yourself troubled and confused and realize you’re gonna be completely unable to scale the summit. So head down, one foot in front of the other, don’t look at the peak, you know, rhythms and routines. Didn’t pay paying attention. The news this week, you’ve probably heard the story of the really miraculous rescue of these kids in Colombia. The kids were trapped in the jungle had to survive by themselves over a month, if I remember correctly, what did they need, they needed someone to come and get them, and to show them the way home to show them how to get back? Not so dramatic in our lives, I recognize but that’s kind of a good picture of how we often feel lost, confused, helpless, hopeless, and isolated. Will someone come and get us and show us the way to go? Maybe show us how to scale this mythical summit before us. So the argument I’m trying to make this morning as we look at John 14 is that there’s a choice before us in the midst of all of that we can choose trust or trouble. That is we can choose to kind of have a hearts that are constantly agitated, constantly stirred up, or we can choose a peace that surpasses understanding. I’m gonna give you the main idea up front, and you’re gonna go I don’t know he hasn’t proven that yet. Correct. That’s where we spend the rest of our time doing okay, but here’s the main idea. While we wait for Jesus, what do you mean? Wait, we’ll get there. Okay, while we wait for Jesus choose trust, not trouble. Choose trust, not trouble. And I know some of you are sitting there thinking yeah, but how? Why even? Why would we possibly or how could we possibly trust when in this world we know we’re gonna have so much trouble. We got three reasons in our text all three reasons point to Jesus, who he is and what he’s doing. So let’s dive in our first reason that we can choose trust not troubles because there is a place that’s John chapter 14 Verses one to four. Let me read it for us now. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms that were not so what I have told you that I’m going there to prepare a place for you 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, you know the way to the place where I am going. Alright, we need a bit of context here. Cuz Jesus is in the middle of a paragraph, really, I know we got a big heading at the top there. It’s a new chapter break, Jesus comforts his disciples, but there is a an immediate cause to all this. Jesus is not talking about just generic trouble. But something in particular, you can look back up to John 13, verse 33, that’s where the trouble comes in. Jesus says this to his disciples, my children that I will be with you only a little longer, you will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now where I’m going, you cannot come. So Jesus is leaving them. There’s the trouble. And this leads to some questions. Peter says, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus said, where I’m going, you cannot follow now you’ll follow later. And Peter says, Okay, but why can’t I follow you now, in fact, I will lay down my life for you doesn’t matter where you’re going, I am there at your side of Jesus. And Jesus looks at Peter and goes, That’s a bold claim for a guy who’s going to deny me three times before the evenings over. So you can understand the trouble that are they’ve been following their master this rabbi, they think he’s the Messiah, he’s supposed to usher in the new kingdom, they’re arguing over where they get to sit in the throne room and stuff. And now he’s leaving without them. That would be troubling. They can’t follow him. where he’s going and worse, they’re going to scatter as a result of his going. They’re understandably troubled and confused. All of a sudden, they feel alone. Just like when you start a new job, and you finish the job training, and the instructor leaves, and you go, but I don’t know what I’m doing yet. This is trouble. That’s how they feel right here. And then Jesus says, you have a Don’t be troubled. Don’t be troubled. The word there for troubled is stirred up, like stirring sugar into ice tea. And the problem is, if circumstances are doing this to you, how are you supposed to, you know, not get stirred. It’s so easy to feel settled when they’re no bumps on the road when you’re cruising on the highway. And then you turn off onto the dirt road, the bumps come and the coffee spills. And Jesus is saying Don’t spill your coffee, and you’re going I’m not sure this is on me. What am I supposed to do here? Exactly. So how can Jesus takes us right to our main idea, really? Because what does he say? Yeah, sure, there’s trouble but you can choose trust and not trouble. You believe in God. Good. Believe also in me believe in Jesus, whom He sent. When we say believe here, by the way, this isn’t just intellectual assent. Like I’m going to acknowledge that certain truths are true. Yes, that’s part of it. We’re talking about trust, like a cleaning to him. What is trust? Exactly. Trust is resolute confidence in God’s faithfulness to His promises. God will do what he says he’s going to do. Those promises, those are like shocks in a car, so that when you go on the bumpy road, the coffee is fine. The whole way. It’s a stabilizer I know what he’s done. I know what he’s doing. I know what he’s going to do.
Okay, I’m okay. So what is the specific promise here of trust? Is this resolute confidence in God’s promises? What is the promise here? Jesus says, I’m going away, yes, but I’m going for a reason. I’m going to prepare a place for you. For us, in his father’s house. In his father’s house, there are many rooms, the picture there is probably of the temple that would make sense that is the father’s house, of course, and off the temple, where we’re living quarters for the priests. Well, we as Christians are a kingdom of priests. So that’s probably what we’re talking about here. But honestly, the image is not as important as the promise, the promises that Jesus is making a way for us to dwell with the Father to dwell with God. It’s like he’s building an in law suite off his dad’s house, but one for every one of his kids. That’s why he’s leaving. And that’s also why we have confidence that he’s coming back. Because why would he go build this nice little inlaw suite for us, and then not come back and bring us to it? Of course, he’s going to, he wouldn’t go to build your room, if he wasn’t going to come and get you that would be a giant waste of time. So there’s the confidence that we have Jesus will return. He is coming again, on the last day, the day of the Lord, the day when all things will be set, right. We just talked about this not that long ago at at our congregational meeting, we were talking about the end times the declaration of faith talks about Jesus’s personal and visible return that he is coming again. I know it can feel like maybe that’s never gonna happen. You know what, what is Jesus waiting for, like, look around, I don’t know, it can get much worse kind of thing and always been like this. I don’t know how to break that to you but, but still it feels like it but No, Jesus says he’s not slow and keeping his promises. He’s kind. He’s waiting for giving us opportunity to turn and trust in Him. But He will come and he will take us to this place. So what is this place? Exactly, you want to call it heaven. Great, that’s perfect. Heaven is where God is. Certainly this is where God is. But it’s more than that you look at Revelation especially, we know that this is a new heavens and a new earth that we’re talking about. I think it’s important is it reminds us that this is a real place. This is not a symbol meant to sue the US. So it’s not a fairy tale, we tell our kids so that they won’t be scared of the dark anymore. Because this would all be absolutely useless. If it isn’t true, there is no comfort, if this is just a fairy tale. It’s a little bit like we were talking about last week, like if you’re falling out of plane, you really want a real parachute picture of a parachute, nice symbol of a parachute, not good enough in that moment. That’s what we need here, too. So this is a real place it is a place like this Earth only more real, more substantial, more sublime than we can imagine. I know some of you have this vision of heaven, like it’s gonna be clouds and harps. That’s not it at all. It’s gonna be dirt, and rock and flesh and love and beauty beyond all reckoning. And all the pleasure we know, on this earth, which is very real. It’s just a foretaste. It’s a sampling, it’s a shadow of the pleasure yet to come. It’s meant to be a pointer to the substance. And that that explains the fleetingness of pleasure. And you all know that you’ve experienced this many times before you eat something really good, and then you’re hungry again a little bit later. Like that’s what we mean literally or metaphorically that that’s the point pleasure is meant to create a hunger in us. It’s like that summit is always out of reach on purpose, just keeps getting farther and farther away so that we keep striving after it. Here’s the way CS Lewis said in one of his most famous quotes, he says, creatures are not born with desires and less satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels a hunger Well, there’s such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim well, there’s such a thing as water. Now, if I find it myself, a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy. most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. So there’s this hunger that never satisfied and that’s okay, because there was something more real that will finally satisfy this hunger. But it’s not in this world. Most of us have heard that part of the quote, but CS Lewis goes on. And this is really important too. He says, if none of my earthly pleasures satisfy this desire, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud, probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it. But only to arouse it to suggest the real thing. Like we’re meant to get hungrier.
So that we hunger after the real. What is our chief desire? That is so unsatisfied in this life, even more so than love, which I think would be next on the list our chief desires immortality. We talked a lot about this last week, we want to go on death, rudely interrupts all our plans, dashes, hopes, crushes dreams, when so much of that existential struggle that I’ve been talking about relates to death. Again, that’s the midlife crisis. It’s just built into the title, isn’t it? Where you go, Oh, no, I think I’m closer to the end than to the beginning. And I’m not sure my life has mattered in the slightest. It relates to death, this crisis that the sorrow of partying the the fear of insignificance, the ache of fleeting time, all of that should arouse in us that unfulfilled desire, hunger for that unfulfilled desire. It’s a pointer to the real to the lasting. So we can choose trust, instead of trouble. Because we know that there really is a place heaven, for which we’re made. That we are immortal as we feel we’re supposed to be. So that’s good news. There’s a place that’s comforting but it’s not much comfort if we don’t know how to get there. Thankfully Jesus verse for you know the way to the place where I am going, okay, but do we let’s keep going verses five to 11. Next reason we can choose trust instead of troubles because there is a person let me read five to 11 Thomas said to him, Lord, we don’t know where you were going. So how can we know the way Jesus answered? I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my father is Well, from now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, don’t you know me, Philip, even after I’ve been among you such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father? How can you say, Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me the words I say to you, I do not speak in my own authority. Rather, it is the father living in me who is doing his work, believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. So Jesus says, you know, the way and Thomas says, No, we don’t he’s not convinced in the slightest. And the reason why is because he doesn’t know the destination. So he’s saying, If I don’t know the destination, how could I possibly know the route? This is when somebody says, Oh, don’t worry, you know, Bob knows how to go to the restaurant and you’re going, Yeah, but I don’t know which restaurant. So if I don’t know if it’s Russia, I know where lots of restaurants are. But you got to tell me which one. So was Jesus wrong when he said, you know, the way that would be a first for him, by the way? No, he wasn’t wrong. They knew the way they just didn’t recognize Jesus as the way he is the way we can choose trust and not trouble because there is a way and his name is Jesus. He is himself the way and the truth, and the life. So how do we get to the place that we’re made for and that we long for Jesus Himself is the thoroughfare it’s a little bit like saying, You don’t need to know the destination. So long as you know the route. It’s like, if you get on this bus, it will take you there. Jesus is the boss. Or better yet, if you want a more biblical analogy, he’s the ark. Right? Where’s the place where we’re going? Well, salvation is the place where we’re going doesn’t really matter where the boat lands, just get on the boat, and you’ll get where you need to go, Jesus is the way. Now it’s interesting that Jesus goes on because the disciples are saying, we don’t know the way and Jesus says, I am the way I may go, that makes sense. But then he keeps speaking I’m THE WAY and the TRUTH and the LIFE. How do those two connects away? Jesus is the way because he is the truth, because he is the life if his words are not true, if he is not the true revelation, self disclosure of God, he couldn’t possibly be the way he would be a fraud, a charlatan, a myth, a legend. And if he’s not the life, meaning the one who gives life by conquering sin, and death at the cross, and the empty tomb, then he couldn’t possibly be the way either. How could he lead us where he was powerless to go himself can possibly lead us beyond the grave if he gets stuck in it. So you see, he’s the way because he is the truth, and the life as such, we cannot reach God except through Him. He is, as he told us a few weeks back and another of our I am statements. He’s the gate, right? He’s the only door the only entrance. He is the WAY and there is no other No one comes to the Father except through me. He says in verse six, I get it, that grates on us. And that goes against all our modern sensibilities. Like, was Jesus really that special? Or we’re trying to scale this mountain or something? You know, maybe Jesus shows us one path up, but who’s to say that some other guys didn’t show us some other paths up it? How can he say is the only way when so many others have claimed that they’ve found another path to ultimate meaning and significance in life? I can’t get into all of this course. That’s a giant topic. In fact, few years ago, we did a whole series called no other about the differences between Christianity and other religions. But here’s the key difference for sure. Every other religion, including secularism, by the way, teaches you how to climb the mountain. Like let’s get you some new equipment, let’s get you a map all that kind of stuff, compass. But here’s how you can get there by yourself. Do this. Don’t do that. Follow the Eightfold Path, obey the Torah, keep the five pillars practice social justice. And you may be sitting there thinking but yeah, isn’t Christianity like that too, because some Christians make Christianity seem this way. Go to church, pay your ties, pray your prayers. That’s how you get there. But here’s the trouble with us climbing with us trying to get to the top of a mountain by ourselves. The mountain is really, really steep. In fact, the climb is impossible. And there’s also a giant chasm in the middle of it that still separates us from God. Like there’s no mountain we can climb. I’ll put it to you in colorful terms. We’ve been to the top of Olympus at this point. It’s a mountain in Greece and there are no Gods there. Right, that’s the issue. There’s no mountain we can get to the top of and go, Aha, see, I did it. I got there. There’s no way that we can reach God. So Jesus says, Tell you what, you stay there. I’ll come and get you. That’s the difference. We’re not getting to him. He came down for us, he came down to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. All the do this don’t do that. He did all the stuff he was supposed to do and didn’t do any of the stuff that he wasn’t supposed to do. He kept all the rules perfectly, he lived the faultless life that we were supposed to live, and then died the death that we deserve to die, taking our punishment on himself. He did that. And he does what we couldn’t do to save us from a life of purposeless climbing toward an impossible destination. That’s love. That’s love. That’s true religion, by the way, not trying to make some cosmic scorekeeper happy, not forging our own significance to keep a different scorekeeper, our own ego happy. No, but this is love that He loved us and made a way for us the only way for us that we might know our father. Phillips turn, Thomas had issues now Philip has issues. Okay, if we’re trying to get back to the Father, Jesus and you’re leaving? Why not just show us the Father now? Good question. I like it, except that the question exasperates Jesus, because he says, Look, I’ve been here for a while, you really should know by now. And just a little aside at this point. That means that we should be increasing in knowledge. The longer we know Jesus, the more we should know Jesus, the more that we should understand. It’s not okay to stay put in your understanding of who God is your understanding of Scripture. Listen to the writer to the Hebrews. He says we have much to say about this. But it’s hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though, by this time, you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. So here’s Hebrews saying, you should be teachers. And you’re still in kindergarten, like what happened? Why did you stop moving? And I mentioned this because I think there is this feeling among certain Christians, that you can just kind of live with the basics. Like I just need to earn my love God love neighbor. That’s it. That’s all I need to know. And I can just kind of go on my merry Wait, no, you should be getting into the deep things of God. Like it’s okay. If a sermon makes your brain hurt. That’s good. We want to stretch ourselves. If you’re in Bible study, or journey group or something like that, and you’re like, Man, this is a lot of information Good. Go deep into it, we should be increasing in knowledge.
Jesus says we should know, well, what is it that we should? What should Philip know? Here in this moment, what he should know is that to see Jesus is to see the Father. Kyle read the quote for us earlier, right? No one has ever seen God. But God, the one and only son, who is Himself, God has made him known. John 118, Jesus makes known the Father to us, He reveals him. We’re getting into the doctrine of the Trinity here, which if you want stuff that will make your brain hurt, that’s a great place to start. If you’re not familiar with a doctrine of the Trinity, it’s this that there is one God, one God and only one God but that he exists eternally in three persons, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We’ve got the Father and the Son already mentioned in this passage, we were to drop down to verse 17, you’d see the spirit. We’re not going to get there today. But here he is. So in one sense, of course, these three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct. And yet in another sense, of course, they are the same. So that to see one would be to see all because they have this shared essence. They’re all made of the stuff of divinity, if I could put it somewhat crassly, this goes back to the whole idea that Jesus is the truth. He is the true revelation of God, He truly makes visible, the invisible godhead, which means and this is really important if you’ve got questions, and if you’re seeking God or you’re seeking what does the top of this mountain look like? If you’re seeking God, look at Jesus? Because God is invisible, but Jesus has made him visible we can see what God is like you do that look, you You open this book, you read Matthew, you read Mark, you read Luke and John, these gospels that tell us the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, look at Jesus. And as you look, you will see abundant reason to trust. It’s kind of what Jesus says in verse 11, right? Believe me when I say I’m in the Father, and the Father is in Me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Like if you can’t just get there in one giant leap, he says, I’ve given you everything you need to believe. Like, look at his words, which have the ring of truth to them, of course, look at his works. There’s some pretty impressive works, the resurrection comes to mind. For example, I love this Bible, because there’s such grace because God says, You, you all who are in rebellion against me, and who wanted me dead, not only am I going to save you, but then when I say Believe in me, I’m going to make sure you do believe I’ll give you what you need in order to believe me such grace, such mercy. So while we wait for Jesus, we can choose trust, not trouble, because of who Jesus is. That is, there’s a person to trust, not just an idea to believe. Here’s the way Thomas campus in his famous devotional, the Imitation of Christ, 15th century or so put it a love this, he says, Follow me and he’s speaking in the words of Jesus paraphrasing this passage, follow me. I am the way in the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going without the truth, there is no knowing without the life there is no living. I am the way which you must follow the truth, but you must believe the life for which you must hope. So we know we should trust while we wait. But is there anything else we should be doing? Whereas life just one giant waiting room? With Bad out of date magazines? No, it’s not there is something we should be doing there is a purpose. last reason we can choose trust and not trouble. Let me read the rest of the passage, verses 12 to 14 for us. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the work that I have been doing. And they will do even greater things than these. Because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, the Father may be glorified in the Son, you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. Anyone have any questions after reading some of that? I got some, like, how exactly are we supposed to do greater works than Jesus did? Because he did some really impressive stuff. Like he raised Lazarus from the dead last week. Or there’s that time when he fed the 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, the walking on water one, that one always gets me I like that. I don’t know about your life, my life does not look like I’m doing greater cooler things than that. And yet, that’s precisely what Jesus says you are going to do greater things even than that. Talk about giving us purpose, by the way. I mean, the whole reason for our being here, amidst all this trouble is to do even greater works. And so much of the trouble we said to start with is the search for significance will my life matter? Like maybe you’re setting out in life right now you’re in high school, you’re in college, you’re just out of it. You got a career, you’re worried already? This isn’t the right career? What are you trying to figure out? What am I going to do with my life so that my life has any meaning, purpose significance? For the midlife crisis we keep talking about? I’m halfway through and I’m worried it didn’t have any significance. And maybe it’s too late for course correction, or the retirement blues. We kind of go I don’t know, this was the thing that was giving me significance. And now it’s over. We’re empty nesters. The kids are gone. I got no chance now to make my life matter. You see how it always goes back to that same question in so many ways. Does my life matter? Absolutely. Jesus just told us absolutely. Your life matters. Why? Because here’s what you’re here to do, to continue Jesus’s work. That seems important to continue Jesus’s work, in fact, to do even greater work. Alright, let’s answer the question now greater how? Because we’re still confused about that. Here’s how it will be greater than Jesus’s work. It is greater geographically and ethnically related points. Jesus stays pretty tight to Israel. Every now and again he branches off he’s in the Decapolis or something like that, but he’s pretty much within the nation of Israel and pretty much only speaking to Israelites to the Jewish people have come to the lost sheep of Israel again, it’s a couple scattered conversations with some Gentiles you know, cast out a demon here. Get some crumbs from the table there, but pretty much bound up but not us. are not us. Geographically we’re supposed to go to the ends of the earth. persons from every nation and tribe and language and people greater numerically also, Jesus at the end of his life has how many followers 120. That’s not a bad number for a church planter after three years, but it’s not like the most impressive number ever. Of course, that wasn’t Jesus’s point to gather the largest possible crowd, he could have done that. But look what happens at Pentecost day, one of the birth of the church 3000 people after one sermon, greater numerically. But then here’s the key one, greater spiritually, also. Why? Because, Jesus, I mean, take Lazarus is the classic example. We looked at him last week, Jesus raises Lazarus physically, new physical life, we participate in people being raised to new spiritual life. That’s a major difference. You’re wondering if your life matters. If you are proclaiming Christ, you are altering the trajectory of eternity. Like not just building sand castles here on Earth, but changing it turning it seeing new spiritual life? I’d say yes, I’d say yes, your life matters. Definitely. Now all of this happens because Jesus goes to the Father. So when he tells us that’s because then he can send to us the spirit. That’s why we get into the spirit in the next few verses. So he actually tells us at one point, it’s better that I go away, because Jesus was bound by time and space only so many people could be with him, but not the Spirit, Jesus, when he was in the flesh, but not the Spirit, the Spirit can indwell every one of his people. And Jesus is going to go is going to send the Spirit and he’s going to stay with the Father to make intercession for us, so that we can now pray to and through Jesus. And then he says, I will do whatever you ask in my name. Anything. This sounds cool. Well, he keeps talking, I will do whatever you ask him. My name is so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. I think that’s key, that last little part so that the Father will be glorified. It’s a really important qualifier, it constrains the promise somewhat, explains what is meant by in my name. What tends to the Father’s glory? asking the Lord for a shiny new red sports car does not tend to the Father’s glory. Why? Because treating God is nothing more than a cosmic vending machine debases God that doesn’t exalt Him.
Know by asking, in his name, we’re talking about asking, according to His will, so how he taught us to pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, would you be glorified, your kingdom come, Your will be done. There’s the focus of our prayers. John makes us a little clearer for us even in First John, 514 and 15. If we ask anything according to His will, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him. So what are we asking his name, we should be asking what is according to His will, to the glory of his name. One of the reasons we pay such close attention to God’s promises in Scripture, by the way, increases trust and we know what to pray for. What is it that he’s doing with ask him to do that? Like, here’s a really good example, First Thessalonians four, Paul says, This is God’s will, your sanctification. And if you’re a Christian, you look more and more like Jesus every day. You know what you could pray with absolute confidence that God will answer that he sanctify you, that he makes you more and more like Jesus every single day? Is God still saving the last? Absolutely, we can pray for the confidence, knowing he will give us what we ask. Note also that the mere act of praying glorifies the father, because when we stop and pray it is an admission of helplessness and inadequacy. There’s this sense of I can’t do this, Lord, I need you to do this in me and through me. I need you or Allison that glorifies Him. And kind of see what that progression that understanding might look like in prayer. This quote from Hudson Taylor missionary to China, and he says this, he says, I used to ask God to help me. And then I asked him if I might help him. If finally I ended up asking him to do his work in and through me if he would be so pleased. Like, that’s it exactly. Like there’s just, it’s John the Baptist, right? There’s just less and less of me and more and more of it. him right, I must become less he must become greater in our prayer lives as well. Prayer like this fixed on God’s work, and it is truly God’s work. Because I know some of you are still uncomfortable about that whole, we’re doing greater things than Jesus. Well, what does he say at the very end of this passage, verse 14, you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. Hmm, this is still Jesus, it’s actually his greater works. We’re just instruments in his hand. It’s exciting. We can choose trust, and not trouble while we wait for Jesus to return. Because we’re not just here, twiddling our thumbs, trying to endure the trouble that comes our way. No, we are carrying out his commission. So get to work, get to work, do the greater work that you have been given to do especially proclaiming the gospel to the people around you building for His Kingdom. Like we keep talking about trust, choose trust, not trouble, but it is an act of trust. It’s not a passive trust. It’s not just a sitting back going. I know he’s going to make things right. In the end. It is an act of trust. In fact, the very next verse, it’s not in our passage, but he says, If you love me, keep my commands, like trust manifests in action, obey, carry out his commission, don’t strive for an untroubled life. Because the shelters we erect, keep out the gales Yes, but they keep up the glory. Also, we have shocks for the troubles, we can drive on the bumpy roads, because we have the promises of God. We don’t need to scale the summit. Because Jesus came down to get us already. We’ve scaled it spiritually already. We’re already in the heavenlies. With the Father. We just need to keep our head down. Because the summit is they’re accusing us that we’re not going to reach it or something, you know, he came and got us he’s coming again. So do what he’s asked you to do while you wait. While you wait for Jesus choose trust and not trouble. Living, resolute, active trust, even in a troubled world. Because you know who he is. There’s a person because you know what he’s doing. There’s a place that he’s preparing for you. And you know what you should be doing in the meantime, there’s a purpose that he’s given you. Let’s pray. Father, we pray that even now you would still are troubled hearts. And teach us to trust in you to have that confidence in who you are, what you’ve done, what you are doing and what you will do for us in the end, that you will come again, and you will carry us home to be with you and the new heavens and the new earth. And as our trust increases, Lord, because we know who you are because we we’ve seen Jesus as our trust increases. May it show up and the way we live our lives, living lives of peace and an anxious world. But living lives of purpose fixed on what matters most shaking eternity, because we’ve carrying out the work you’ve given us to do. And they all this be for your glory we asked in Christ’s name Amen.