You Are Going to Be Okay

Stay strong and carry on. That is our name for our series in the upper room discourse here on Sunday morning. Good morning, everybody. My name is René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. So I thought of calling the message today, not the name that's in your bulletin notes there. I thought of calling it "Kill the Ants." And let me explain.

Our house is experiencing an ant infestation right now. Every single morning we wake up to make coffee, they're already marching along our countertops. Merrily busy. We have tried everything short of dynamite. And now we've given up. Now we've just started naming them. Good morning, George. Now I'm making them coffee. Is anybody else experiencing this here right now in Santa Cruz County? Our church is experiencing the same thing.

Now, can I confess something to you? I, honest to goodness, don't think less of me, but I'm developing sort of a grudging admiration for them. I mean, if you think about it, God hit a home run when He created ants. They're like little perfect nanobots, right? That worked amazing. In fact, I've gotten so obsessed with ants and what they can do that I looked up some ant facts. Are you ready to be both very amazed and very, very discouraged right now? It's stunning.

Did you know ants are the longest living insects? Most insects live only days or some even hours. Some ants, this is verifiable. You can look it up. Live up to 30 years. That's how they're figuring out your house. They know it better than you do. Another amazing thing, the ant is the world's strongest creature relative to its size. A single ant can carry up to 50 times its own body weight and working together they can carry much more than that.

Ants also hold the record for the fastest movement in the animal kingdom. One species of ant closes its jaws at 140 miles an hour. That is a faster rate of speed than any other animal. Ants are found on every single continent except Antarctica, which is ironic when you consider the name. Thank you, dad joke. So get this, the largest ant nest ever found was over 3,700 miles wide. This was found in Argentina in 2000. And again, you could look this up. Google, don't do it now, but Google Argentine ant super colony if you don't want to sleep the rest of the week.

And did you know your brain can be infested by ants? Yes. I heard a therapist once say, "You have an ant infestation." And it got my attention, but it's not what you're thinking of. Ant was his acronym for automatic negative thoughts that can infest your brain. You know what I'm talking about there? You see everything through a negative lens. You start imagining the worst outcome to every possible thing. You're automatically assuming the worst. You automatically assume that everybody around you who makes a mistake has the worst possible motive. They're all against you.

Now, how do you know you have an ant infestation? Well, if you can't concentrate, you find it hard to sleep. You're not eating well. You're more irritable than usual, which can be kind of difficult to discern if you're normally very irritable. But you're more irritable than usual. You're tired all the time. You probably have an ant infestation. And you are being possessed almost by negative thinking, which is leading you in the wrong direction.

And you need to hear our key verse today. Jesus said it the first half here of John 14:1. Let's read it out loud together, all right? Don't let your hearts be troubled. Now, stop there for just a second, because for the whole rest of this section of Scripture, he is about to explain how to not do this. But let me just zero in on one tiny little word here. And this is really the key word to the whole rest of the message today. Three letters, L-E-T, let. Say that out loud with me. Let.

Let is a word of agency. Let is a word of accountability. Let is a word of responsibility. Yes, it's true that there is some trouble that's just going to come your way because life. Yes, it's true that there are mistreatment that you will receive from some people that you can't help and it's unfair. Yes, it's true that some anxiety is caused by actual alarming events or by just biochemistry. Yes, it's true that some trouble is just life.

But a lot of the stress we feel and a lot of the trouble, a lot of the weight that we're under when it comes to anxiety is about how we respond to those things and what we let into our minds and into our lives. It's just like ants are going to happen. But I can make an ant infestation a lot worse if I leave out those Super Bowl party snacks I was too depressed to put away last Sunday afternoon, all right? But a lot of it is about what you let.

Now, let me prove it to you. Did you know the United States has one of the highest rates of anxiety in the world? Did you know this? In fact, and this has consistently been true for the last 20 years. Right now, there are only three countries on the planet that have a higher rate of anxiety than the United States of America. Now, if you think about it, that means that countries, most countries with a higher crime rate, most countries with a far worse economy, most of the countries that are currently at war have a lower rate of anxiety than the United States of America.

We have less trouble, yet we are more troubled than almost anybody else. Now, what does that prove to you? A lot of trouble, a lot of the burden of anxiety is not about actual events that occur to us. It's about what we let, how we process it. We are in this country allowing an ant infestation. So how do we get rid of the ants, the automatic negative thoughts that can lead to despair? How do you not let your heart be more troubled than it needs to be?

Well, that is what Jesus is about to tell his disciples in today's passage. Listen, he's going to give you five guarantees, five promises, five facts to help you in troubled times not get even more troubled. So let's talk about it. Grab your message notes that looked like this. As I said, stay strong and carry on is what we've been calling our series in what's known as the upper room discourse in the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 17.

We're taking one section at a time every single week during Lent. Those are the 40 days leading up to Easter. And of course, we'll end with Jesus's crucifixion on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter morning. I'm so excited about the arc of the series. But what's going to happen is Jesus is about to be arrested in just a couple of hours after this happens and then crucified at nine in the morning. He'll be dead by 3 p.m. This happens at nine or 10 p.m. That's all going to happen on Thursday.

This happens, rather, that's going to happen on Friday. This happens Thursday night. And the Bible says Jesus knows that he has very limited time left with his closest friends, his closest followers, the disciples. How does he know? Well, one of the reasons is he knows that there's a conspiracy and he knows who the conspirator is. He knows it's Judas. So he knows, he knows the disciples can't see it yet.

The disciples think everything's going fine. I mean, just Monday, Jesus was welcomed into town with a crowd. And now he's starting to reveal all of the facts to the disciples. And they're completely puzzled and confused and thrown at a terminal. They're like, what did he just say? He's going to be betrayed. He's going to die. And they're rattled. Their entire sense of what was supposed to happen next. Jesus was going to be crowned king and they were going to overthrow the Romans. And it was going to be a violent revolution.

And Jesus keeps contradicting every single word in the sentences that I just said. No, none of that's going to happen. And I'm not here to have a violent revolution and I'm actually going to be arrested. I'm going to be killed and you're all going to be scattered. Their entire sense of their future that they've had for the last three years is just crumbling to pieces. And so in this upper room, their last meal together, Jesus comforts them in his very final speech.

So today, what I want to zero in on is the first half of chapter 14, where his main theme is, you are going to be okay. Would you say that out loud with me? You are going to be okay. Some of you may feel awkward, but you know, somebody really needs to hear that. So could you just look at somebody next to you and say, you're going to be okay right now? You're going to be okay.

I've told many of you that when I was little and my dad died, my aunt Pia, and here's an old photo of us. This is aunt Pia. That's my mom. That's me. This picture was taken just days after dad died. And I was troubled. I remember this very well, very rattled about my own future. And I remember then and for years afterwards, aunt Pia, she was Swiss Italian, a Swiss Italian immigrant. So she had this lovely, lovely unique accent.

And she would get down so that she could look at me eye to eye. And she would cup her face in my hands and she would say, oh, René, God is going to do great things for you. I can see it. Oh, I look at you. Oh, I can't, I can't believe how amazing you will be. Amazing. God will do amazing things for you. And she just kept saying these things. And after a while, I thought, maybe she's onto something. Maybe, maybe I'm going to be OK because aunt Pia keeps telling me I'm going to be OK.

Well, what aunt Pia did for me, I want to do for you today. Some of you walked in very troubled. You're going to be OK. And I'm going to do it on the authority of the words of Jesus Christ. To his followers that night, as I said, he starts with that phrase. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Now they were about to head into a boatload of trouble. He was going to die. They were all going to be scattered. They were going to be hunted. They were going to be arrested.

And 10 of the people in that room would be actually killed by the enemies of the early faith. But he still says it's going to be OK for them. How could he say that? But look at the rest of the sentence. He says, "You trust in God. Trust also in me." He's saying, "Do you trust me?" Not, "Do you understand everything that's about to happen?" Not even, "Do you understand me?" But, "Now you've been with me for years. You know me. Do you trust me? Do you trust what I'm about to say to you is actually true? Do you trust me?"

And his words are for all of us. You are going to be OK. If you trust him, trust his heart, his words are for you too. And here's what he tells the disciples. First of all, you're going to be OK because you have an eternal home. You have an eternal home. He says, "My father's house has many rooms." And some translations say, "Many mansions." You know, the Bible talks about heaven or the new heaven and the new earth in a lot of different ways, sometimes it's called paradise because it has beauty.

Sometimes it's called city because it has culture and art and fine food, right? But sometimes it's called a home because it's family. And when Jesus says, "In my father's house, there are many rooms," what he's talking about that we maybe don't understand in our culture is that back in those days, a family would buy a huge swath of land and they would build little suites of rooms so that eventually all the kids and all their kids could come and live together in a big family mansion that was beautiful.

And let me give you an example from the town Jesus called home, Capernaum, where he based his ministry. Everything you see is basically one house. These are ruins from the time of Jesus Christ. And you could see there's steps, there's courtyards. This is one of those houses. This would have been at least two stories high, maybe three with a rooftop garden back in his day, a place where the whole family could come and live together. They would be room for the mom and dad and the kids and their kids and probably more grandmas and aunts and so on.

What he's saying is, "There's room for you. This is family. And you're going to be in the father's house." He says, "If that were not so, what I've told you, that I'm going there to prepare a place for you?" He's saying, "I'd never lie to you about this. I know what's ahead for you. And you can trust me on this. 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. We get to be with him forever."

Someone said, "When you're going through hell, keep your eyes on heaven. Do not let your heart be troubled. Not if you trust him about death, about where you'll go when you die, about whether evil wins in the end. Kill those ants. You're going to be OK. You can trust Jesus on that." And then the second reason he says, "You're going to be OK. You already have all you need in Jesus. You have all you need in Jesus already." Verse 4, I love the way this conversation goes.

"You know the way," Jesus says, "to the place I'm going." And Thomas, you know the doubting Thomas guy? He said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? Lord, Lord, a question here? We don't know what you're talking about." Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." He's saying, "I'm all you need. I'm the path to God, to the truth, to life."

In fact, look at those three words, way, truth, and life. Jesus says, "I am the way." The way isn't just principles Jesus taught. The way isn't just, you know, the dogma of the church. The way is just Jesus himself. And this is so rich you could spend a lifetime contemplating this, but he is the way because he made a way to God through his sacrifice for us on the cross. And then what about the truth? He is the truth about God.

In other words, you want to know what God's like? Look at Jesus. Look what he says next. "If you really know me, you'll know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You have seen him." And Philip says, "Lord, show us the Father and that'll be enough for us." Which I've always thought was such a funny thing to say. Just show us God. That's all we ask, you know? Ed Jesus responds, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."

I mean, number one, that's a claim to deity. But number two, he's saying, "Do you want to know the truth about what God's like? Do you wonder what God's like?" Look at Jesus. Look at Jesus as he heals. Look at Jesus as he accepts. People's society rejects. Look at Jesus when after people fail him and curse him and deny him, he forgives and forgives and forgives and loves. He's saying, "That's what God is like to you." He's the way. He's the truth and the life. The life you need, the abundant life, the deep, rich life, the good life.

He's saying, "Guys, when things go bad for you, it looks like all the wheels are falling off. Don't panic. Am I doing enough to get to heaven? Does God really love me? What's God really like?" You have all the answers you need when you look to Jesus. I mean, there's so much more to say. You could meditate on just that one verse for a year, right? But I want you to see the third reason that Jesus says you're going to be OK. He says, "You will do great things." Just like my Aunt Pia told me, right? Great things.

In fact, look at this. Look at these words of Jesus in verse 12. "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me," watch this, "will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I'm going to the Father." Now, what in the world does that mean? I mean, do you believe this? Jesus looks at you and your life is troubled right now. He looks at us as Christians. He looks at those disciples and he kind of cups their head in his hands. And he says, "I want you to look at me in the eye. You're going to do great things. In fact, in some ways, they're going to be even greater than the things I've done." He said it, not me.

So what does that—what could that mean? Well, first of all, the apostles, the Bible tells us, did do many similar miracles to what Jesus did. And it wasn't just one person, you know, it was the apostles. So in that way, it's greater. But I think Jesus is talking about the growth of the Jesus movement. Think of this. Nearly Jesus's entire life was in a little tiny country about 60 miles tall and just a few miles wide, right? Judea or Israel. 100% of the Christians were there at the time that he said these words.

And now the gospel has encircled the entire globe. It is growing so fast globally. The last 100 years have seen the most rapid expansion of Jesus followers in history, in the history of our faith. Just 100 years ago, only 1% of the world's Christians were in sub-Saharan Africa. Now it's nearly 25% of the world's Christians. There were less than 1% of the world's Christians were in parts of South Asia. And now it's over 13%. In our lifetimes, we're seeing a more rapid explosion of the gospel than any Christians have ever seen in their lives, including in the days of the Bible and the book of Acts. We are living in a miracle.

And think of all the lives that are being touched and how many lives are being changed. Let me put it this way. The other day, I was watching a new documentary about the making of that song from 1985, "We Are the World." Anybody remember that song? "We Are the World," "We Are the..." Yes, you do remember. Just checking. The documentary was called "The Greatest Night in Pop." The greatest stars in American music came together. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Hugh Lewis, Ray Charles, TV Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, many, many more, right? And they did a really great thing.

In the last 40 years, sales from that song have raised $80 million for famine relief in Ethiopia. That is a ton of money. It is awesome. But let me put that in perspective for you. Every year, churches just in the United States, churches, donate about $17 billion, not million billion, to world missions that include thousands of relief projects, medical clinics, famine relief, orphanages, about 200 times the amount raised by America's greatest celebrities.

Now, that works out to about $350 million a week. In other words, the Christian church gives to the needy at a rate nearly quadruple the amount of the world's most famous celebrity charity concert every week of every year. I mean, I think this is the kind of thing Jesus was talking about. It's to my way of thinking this is miraculous. I mean, let's bring it home. Jesus had the feeding of the 5,000. Our own People's Pantry fed 7,500 households last year, and most of those households had three, four, five people in them.

That happened right here every Wednesday. We give out free groceries every Wednesday afternoon at the People's Pantry. That means each household here at TLC fed the equivalent of five other households. Jesus said it. You will do great things. And you are doing great things. Do you see how receiving this is a cure for automatic negative thinking? You have to believe this is true because it really is. And think of the lives touched.

I spoke with Jose at our People's Pantry this past Wednesday. Jose picks up food for himself and his three kids. Look at what he said. He said, "I love People's Pantry. The volunteers are the best. It's so well organized, calm, peaceful, loving." Now look at this. This is the Lord's house. I feel like there's something divine here. Good will. I tell my family, "This is blessed food. This is such a great service you do for the community. Look at us all!" And he swung his arms around at the last ones in the rain. It was about 200 or so cars that were lined up for a food distribution. And there were young people, old people, black people, brown people, white people, rich-looking cars and very poor-looking cars. He said, "Look at us!"

He said, "This reminds me that as they say, God has a lot of casas in heaven, and there's room for us all there." What's he saying? When we give out food, we do more than give out food. We give out a preview of the Father's house. Now you might suspect where I'm going with this. The place we do this is falling apart. Now we have done our best to patch it and repair it over the last quarter century, but there's only so much you can do with portables. And so we hope to replace those with a new permanent building.

I want you to watch this if you've never been over there. Also this last Wednesday, I asked Robin Spurlock, our local outreach director, just why she thinks we need this building. Watch this. Robin, what are some of the reasons we need a new place for people's pantry? So we're standing where we give out the food every Wednesday afternoon. And this winter, it has rained every Wednesday the past two months. Therefore, that means my crew, the volunteers, are working in the rain.

Now it's great for those who are driving through because they don't have to get out of their car, but it is a little bit miserable for us. So this new building will be incredible because there's going to be an overhang that comes here where the cars can drive right through, and we'll be standing underneath the overhang so that we won't get wet, the food won't get wet. We can put it right into their cars and that will help out everybody tremendously.

This building is falling apart and it was not built to be a food pantry. It was a classroom. So there's lots of things that are not good for food. But look here. We got a door stop that's totally broken. This door is like all coming apart at the bottom rotting out. If you look up into the ceiling, there's all sorts of ceiling issues. There's one here and there's one over here. Here you can see evidence of the leak we had that we've tried to fix, and that just comes down the wall. Tiles are coming off, broken through. Taped carpet. You got another leak right into the skylight. This wall too had a leak, so you can see where it comes down. We've had to try to stop that. In here are roof issues. Leaks coming down all around here. You can see it floods inside here. The carpet gets completely wet. Look up here. You can see where the side is starting to crack. Issues underneath in the foundation. So this building is really needed.

Won't you please help Robin? Well, for more information, you can go to TLC.org/hope or pick up a brochure out at our display out in the lobby. There's a pledge card inside. Pray about it. We're going to collect our pledges on Palm Sunday. It costs a lot to build stuff around here, but it's very needed. And I get intimidated by raising this amount of money. But remember what Jesus said. You are going to do great things. Remember what my Aunt Pia said. You will do great things. So we can do this. I'm confident.

Then the fourth reason that you're going to be OK is you know the plan. You know the plan. I want you to look at this verse that, frankly, I hated as a kid. "If you love me, keep my commands," Jesus said. And I thought that was just a drag so uninspiring. Jesus is just saying, "Behave yourself." But it's intriguing. The Greek word here means orders. Instructions given to somebody more junior, like the orders a general gives to soldiers or the assignments that a coach gives to players. A game plan. And that's when I understood.

Football players, basketball players, often say they got to trust the system, especially when they're losing. Jesus is saying, "Guys, it's going to get tough. Trust the system. What's the system?" Well, his marching orders to us. "Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Serve one another. Love one another. Love one another." Jesus is saying, "You have the plan. Stick with the plan. Do what I told you." You're going to be OK. You have an eternal home, right? You have all you need in Jesus. You're going to do great things. You know Jesus' strategy.

And then one final huge promise in the passage. And for some of you, this may be the most important of all. You are not alone. I love the way he puts this. "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." You never have to worry about abandonment again. The counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things. The Holy Spirit, the word translated counselor, advocate, depending on your Bible, fascinating in the original Greek language. Pericles, one who comes alongside is what it means. It was actually originally a warrior's term.

Greek soldiers went into battle in pairs, so when the enemy attacked, they could defend themselves back to back, each covering their fellow soldiers' blindside. Jesus is saying, "He's got your back. The Father's going to send the Holy Spirit to empower you." You know, many times when I talk to an audience, maybe this might surprise you, but I struggle with nerves. But as I've told some of you, I was inspired by this story. Charles Spurgeon, pastor of the famous Metropolitan Tabernacle Church in London. And he grew it in the mid-1800s, from a church of about 2000 to a church of 8,000 people.

He also started a ton of schools and orphanages. Charles Spurgeon was just a dynamo. But when he died, his very frail son Thomas was asked to take over. He was not the charismatic guy that his dad was, but he decided he would try, and he did, and the church prospered for a while, but then a devastating fire hit. In April 1898, the church went up in flames, completely destroyed. And some people even died. And Thomas was shaken, dreading the day that he would have to climb the stairs of the rebuilt church stage to preach for the first time.

And the day the church reopened, time for the sermon, he walked toward the steps, and then he froze thinking, "I cannot do this." And he nearly, he said, kept on walking, walked right out of the building and then quit. But he didn't. He prayed under his breath, "I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit." And he took one step. And then he said it again, "I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit." And took the next step. All the way up one step at a time, until he reaches the podium, and he preached there another 14 years.

Since I heard that story, I have said to myself, "More times than you know, as I'm walking up these steps, I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit." And you have the Holy Spirit with you too. You are not alone. That gets ants out of your head for sure. And then Jesus ends this section with, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives." And he circles back to the same sentence he started with. So do not let your hearts be troubled.

Where you have agency, take that agency. You don't have to just accept every thought that comes into your head. And do not be afraid. You know, when those ants started invading your brain, instead choose to trust Jesus when he says these five promises. And a way to do this throughout the week is look at the Bible reading plan on page three of your notes. Each week during Lent, we're gonna be walking through the upper room discourse. This is a way to replace troubling thoughts with true thoughts, like the five facts Jesus talks about in this video.

And we're gonna be talking about the five facts Jesus talks about in this section. Let me close with this. Once I was on a pastoral visit to the VA hospital in Palo Alto, and I met a man named Dave. Dave had had an aggressive cancer that had robbed him of his speech. And the way we were able to communicate was he had a pad of paper by his bed and he would write down sentences. And at the end of our visit, I closed with a prayer. I said something like this, "I will make your presence through his valley of the shadow of death so he won't be afraid." Amen.

And as soon as I say amen, Dave grabs with one hand my arm, like don't go yet. And he grabs his pencil and he vigorously writes something on that pad of paper. And he grabs it and he kind of shoves it in my face. And in all caps he had written, "I am not afraid." He prayed for me to not be afraid. I am not afraid. And he lets go of me and he scribbles something else in all caps and he shows it to me. And it's this, "Perfect love casts out all fear." And I thought he was mad at me, but I looked at him and he was smiling.

And then he wrote something else on the pad. And it was this. He said, "We all have to go sometime, but I'm a perfect peace." Why? Because I trust God implicitly. What did Jesus say? You trust in God? Trust also in me. When you do, trust him. That's when you know you're gonna be OK. Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for these words of Jesus Christ. And we know that some anxiety is a normal part of life, but where we have agency, help us not to let our hearts be troubled even further and instead choose to trust in you.

Help us to place our trust in you. We don't always understand you, but we can trust you, trust you. When you tell us we're not alone, trust you. When you tell us we're going to be OK. Help us to live in the confidence this brings. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.