The sermon titled 'A Remedy for a Troubled Heart' by Jason Dohm explores the teachings of Jesus in John chapters 13 and 14, where Jesus offers comfort to His disciples before His crucifixion. Jesus speaks of His glorification and departure, urging His followers to love one another as a sign of true discipleship. He provides a 'new commandment' and forewarns Peter of his impending denial. The sermon emphasizes the importance of faith as the remedy for a troubled heart, highlighting Jesus' assurance of preparing a place for believers in His Father's house. The speaker underscores the significance of understanding the context of Jesus' teachings, urging believers to fix their eyes on Jesus, who is both man and God, especially during life's storms. By trusting in Jesus as the source of everlasting strength and our forerunner who secures our place in heaven, believers can find peace and hope amidst adversity. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to live boldly, grounded in the assurance of Jesus' promises.

We'll be starting in 1331 going through 14 verse 6. So, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me and as I said to the Jews, where I am going you cannot come.

So now I say to you, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Simon Peter said to him, Lord where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going you cannot follow me now but you shall follow me afterward. Peter said to him, Lord why can I not follow you now?

I will lay down my life for your sake.' Jesus answered him, will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also, and where I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Let's pray. Oh, Lord God, such beautiful words. Pray that as we just sang that you would Come be among us Lord that we would see you on your throne Lord that we would behold your beauty.

Oh God I pray that you would be with Jason as he brings your word. I Pray that you would give him the strength to speak with the full authority of your word. Lord, I pray for us who are sitting and listening. Oh Lord, help us not to be distracted. Help us to set our minds on the words of Scripture, on the words of this sermon.

Lord, please let us not walk away from today and forget what we've heard, but let us hear your Word preached and look at our lives and seek out ways to apply it, seek out ways to be more like you. Oh Lord, help us to trust in you completely. Please bless Jason as he brings your word. Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, A Remedy for a Troubled Heart.

We're given medicine by Jesus for a troubled heart. He tells us how to deal with our troubled hearts by telling his disciples the day before his crucifixion how to deal with their troubled hearts. So we are to sit at his feet and learn deeply applicable to all of the people of God. We are in the upper room discourse, or the farewell discourse. It's never called that in scripture, but Commentators frequently call it that.

It's a single sitting. One time where Jesus is with His disciples and He teaches for five consecutive chapters. Chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, an unbroken time of teaching. Really, Jesus' last opportunity to teach at length His disciples. And why does He take advantage of it?

It begins at the beginning of chapter 13 with Jesus washing the disciples feet. And then he identifies his betrayal and his betrayer. And Then he gives them the new commandment and then he reveals that Peter would deny him. That brings us to our text. Friends, that is a lot.

We're already just barely into the farewell discourse and we've already heard a lot from Jesus that would have disquieted our heart had we been in the room. It would disquiet any heart to tell Jesus, I'm only going to be with you a little while longer. I'm going to my death. The betrayer is among you. Peter, you will deny me three times tonight." I don't think any of us would be able to hear these things and not have a disquieted heart.

Which is why Jesus brings his counsel to bear at this time. So as we come to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, I thank you for giving a lively hope to your people. You've not set us upon wishful thinking adrift On a boiling sea you've given us a real hope a substantial hope Our hope is literally and alive hope Jesus is literally alive at your right hand. Intervening for your people.

Interceding for your people. Oh, press it on our hearts today. I pray that you would. In the name of your son Jesus, amen. Let's begin by looking at the first verse by itself.

Hopefully your finger is still in John chapter 14. Follow along as I read again verse 1. Where Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me.

In this verse, We have the do not and the do. So if you're filling in blanks on your handout, you're taking notes that way. Do not fills in the first two blanks, and do fills in the second. The do not and the do. There's something that the Lord Jesus wants to hold us back from, and there's something that the Lord Jesus wants to hold us back from, and there is something that the Lord Jesus wants to propel us forward into.

We are given both of those things in this verse. Here is what J.C. Ryle says, We have in this passage a precious remedy against an old disease. That disease is trouble of heart. That remedy is faith.

I do think that's a good way to think of this verse. We have a precious remedy held forth by Jesus. Medicine for an ancient disease. He calls it an old disease. It's as old as sin in the world.

It's as old as trouble in the world. Sin brought all kinds of sorrows into the world that disquiet us. And we're given medicine for that ancient disease. Faith. Throwing ourselves upon Christ, believing in Him, trusting Him, is the medicine.

Context is king. In other words, you don't understand any verse of the Bible until you understand how it fits with what's around it. Context is king, so what is the context? Jesus has been telling them repeatedly that he's leaving. A little while, a little while, a little while.

That would disquiet them. That would trouble their hearts. In chapter 11 verse 6, as they were coming up to Jerusalem for the last time for this feast. Here's what Thomas says in 11 verse 6, Let us also go that we may die with him. So we're not that far removed from Thomas uttering this expectation based on what he's seen and heard that they're going up to the feast.

They're going up to Jerusalem this last time. It might cost them their lives. They might have to die with Jesus. This would disquiet your heart. This would give you a troubled heart.

The disciples have been watching the opposition intensify and intensify and intensify, to the point where one of the disciples would utter, let's go with him that we may die with him. They've been listening to Jesus and know that his expectation is that He's going to Jerusalem to lay down his life. And Jesus has just revealed that it will be one of them who will betray him. One of his close, intimate friends, one that he shares bread with, will be one who betrays him. Had you been in the room, that would have disquieted your heart.

You would have been troubled in heart to hear that one of you, It's not in John, but it's in the other day, they actually begin to ask around, is it me? Is it me? Is it me? It troubles them to think that one of them will betray him. And Jesus has just said that Peter will deny him.

He will not claim any form of association with Jesus in spite of his bold declarations to the contrary. Jesus has said, before the night is out, three times you will deny that you even know me. You'll deny any association with me. How that must have troubled Peter's heart, and all of their hearts. You wouldn't have been able to be in the room without being disquieted.

So this is the context. This is not whispered into the ear in a meadow on a warm sunny afternoon. Let not your heart be troubled. Trust me. It is called out over the howling wind at night on the deck of a ship in a hurricane.

Let not your heart be troubled. Trust me. What would the Lord Jesus hold these disciples back from? What would the Lord Jesus hold these disciples back from? What would the Lord Jesus hold back all disciples from?

Including the ones in this room in 2019. From letting their heart be troubled, even in the hurricane. From letting our heart be troubled, even in the hurricane. Jesus is calling out across the deck with the wind howling. It's at night and the waves are coming over the bow, threatening to sweep us into oblivion, and Jesus calls out, Let not your heart be troubled, trust me.

Here's the question that must be answered. How can you withhold permission from your heart to be troubled in a hurricane? At night with the wind howling, with the waves crashing over the bow, threatening to sweep you into oblivion. How can you withhold permission from your heart to be troubled? We know how to do that on a warm sunny day in the meadow.

That's not the question. It's easy on a warm sunny day in the meadow. How do you do it in the hurricane? Jesus' answer is this, to fix your eyes on Him, not in the self-accepted humility of his incarnation, but in the fullness of his deity. And so fully entrust yourself to him.

I'm going to say that again. Here's the answer. How do I withhold permission to my heart to be troubled in a hurricane? Jesus answers that question this way. Fix your eyes on Him.

Now, not as the man who appeared in weakness in his incarnation but in the fullness of his deity. Jesus says, you believe in God, believe also in me. You've known me as a man but I am God. See me not in the weakness of my incarnation, but see me in the fullness of my deity, and so you can throw yourself upon me in the hurricane. Remember, to believe in, as we have encountered it again and again and again and again and again in the Gospel of John, has two elements to it.

To assent to the truth, to grab a hold of the truth that is being articulated, but also the second element is to consent to the person. To assent to the truth, grab hold of the truth, but also to consent to the person. In other words, I trust you as the source of what's being said. Turn to Isaiah 26. God has always wanted to draw the gaze of the troubled in heart to himself.

That's not new with Jesus. We're not surprised to find. God has always wanted to draw the gaze of the troubled in hearts to himself. An example of that, one of many, is Isaiah 26. Follow along as I read Isaiah 26 verses 3 and 4.

You God, God, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah the Lord is everlasting strength. Jesus is essentially teaching Isaiah 26, 3 and 4. When you reverse the order of verse 3, look at verse 3, Isaiah 26 verse 3, reverse the order, start at the end and work back, you reorder it, you rephrase it, you get this, when you trust in God by fixing your thoughts on Him, God will keep you in perfect peace. When you trust in God by fixing your thoughts on him, eyes off the hurricane, eyes on him, God will keep you in perfect peace.

It is there for the taking. It is there for the having. But it requires ears off the winds, eyes off the waves to fix your gaze upon him and listen to his voice. He will keep you in perfect peace. Here's a very important point.

This is not the power of positive thinking. This is not turn a frown upside down. Look, it's a smile. This faces all of the realities, the real, disquieting circumstances that are brought to your doorstep, but also the real God, He's real, He is in heaven, who is everlasting strength. Look at verse 4, Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah the Lord is everlasting strength.

There's no end to it. Everlasting. At the end of eternity, there is no end of eternity. There is a God of strength. His strength has endured all the way to the end and beyond the end, to infinity.

And the Lord is everlasting strength. So the Bible doesn't dismiss that there's a hurricane. It's not saying act like there's not a hurricane. Mind over matter. Turn the frown upside down.

That's never the counsel of Scripture. The Bible always takes on the realities of life head on. The Bible just says that there is an overriding reality. Over and above the reality of hurricanes is the reality of The God of hurricanes. The God in heaven who governs all things.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the God of weather and relationship problems and work problems and family problems and health problems. God is the overriding reality. Here in John 14, Jesus is applying this to Himself. He is applying Isaiah 26 and God as the source of everlasting strength.

He is saying, that is me. You believe in God? Believe also in me. You believe in Yah, the God of everlasting strength? Apply that to me.

I am the God of everlasting strength. As God, Jesus is directing his disciples to entrust themselves to him. As God, Jesus directs us to trust in him. There's a final question which must be asked and answered and it is very important. I think it would be very easy to teach verse 1 in a way that puts a burden on you that God never intends you to bear as a Christian.

So, zone in now. Here's that question. Is Jesus giving us a surefire preventative that will keep us from ever having a troubled heart? Reads like that, let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. Is this a sure fire preventative so that you'll never ever have a troubled heart?

Or is Jesus giving us a solution, an approved reaction to an acknowledged life reality that sometimes we have a troubled heart. This makes a world of difference Without dismissing the preventative power of faith, faith does have a great preventative power against fear. So I'm not dismissing that. But I want to claim that Jesus is giving us a solution and a proved reaction to an acknowledged reality of life which is that humans have troubled hearts. Let me make two arguments for that claim, from the lesser to the greater.

In other words, I'm starting with the weaker of the two. I'm building up to it. First, what is Jesus doing? Jesus is addressing his disciples now after a string of disquieting things. I'm about to leave you, I'm about to be betrayed by one of you, you're going to deny me three times tonight.

Jesus is addressing them after a string of heart-troubling things. But he's also forearming them for tomorrow. What's tomorrow? The cross. Tomorrow Jesus will be dying on the cross.

He's for arming them for that. Do you think for a moment Jesus is saying, don't be troubled, don't let your heart be troubled when I'm hanging, dying on the cross? Is that what Jesus is teaching here? Or is he giving them a solution for what he knows will be happening in their hearts, an approved reaction to the trouble of heart they will experience as he dies on the cross. Second, second, At the heart of the question is this, is it inherently sinful to have a troubled heart?

We know there is such a thing as sinful fear. We know that you can fear and sin, but that's not what I'm asking. Is it inherently sinful? Is it always sinful? Is it by definition sinful to have a troubled heart?

Is it? We have an inclination that says, yes, to have a troubled heart is to sin by failing to have faith. We should be trusting Jesus, but we're not trusting Him enough, we're not trusting Him in that moment, and so we're sinning. By definition, we're sinning. I have that inclination to say that.

So then, Jesus sinned in chapter 11 when Mary is weeping over her dead brother and he groaned in his spirit and he was troubled. The same Greek word, Jesus sinned then. And Jesus sinned in chapter 12 when the weight of the cross and being made he who knows knew no sin being made sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him the weight of the cross bearing down on him he sinned in chapter 12 when the text says in 1227 that he was troubled. It's the same Greek word. And he sinned here in chapter 13, verse 21, when he identifies his betrayal and his betrayer and his heart was troubled that his intimate friend would betray him.

No, no. Jesus never sinned. No, no. Jesus never sinned. He was tempted in every way, and yet without sin.

Hebrews 4 verse 15. Jesus is our model as always. Jesus is our example. What do we need to be Christ-like? When he was on deck, on the deck of the ship at night.

In the hurricane, the winds howling, the waves coming over the bow. His heart was troubled, but he was not passive. He fixed his eyes on his Father, your will, your glory. We see Jesus with a troubled heart in chapter 11, touched by the effects of sin in the world. His eyes are fixed on his Father.

Your will, your glory. We see Jesus feeling the weight of the cross being made sin in chapter 12 and his heart is troubled, but his eyes are not fixed. Here his eyes are fixed on the will and glory of his Father. In chapter 13, Jesus is identifying that he will be betrayed. Who will betray him?

His heart is troubled by that. His eyes are fixed in heaven upon His Father, His Father's will, His Father's glory. So does trust in God have preventative power? Yes. Will it keep your heart from being troubled What then?

What then? When God puts you in a hurricane? Trust in Jesus as God. Trust in Jesus as the source of everlasting strength. We're not being given a license to wallow in fear and doubt.

That is sin. It is not sin by definition. It is not inherently sin. It does not have to be sin to have a troubled heart. Or else Jesus sinned in chapter 11, 12, and 13.

That's impossible. We are being given marching orders in an acknowledged reality which is that from time to time, God sends circumstances that trouble our hearts. We're in a sin sick world. The disciples are not being taught to look upon their Lord dying on the cross untroubled. They are not being taught that.

They are being taught what to do when they feel that trouble pressing in on them. Fix your eyes in heaven. Trust in Christ as God as the source of everlasting strength. Back to our text. John 14, 2 and 3.

Jesus continues, In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, you may be also." In these verses we have the reason, a sure future hope. The reason Why we shouldn't let our hearts be troubled, but that we should trust Jesus, is that there is a sure future hope. There is a certain hope in the future for the believer, for those who entrust themselves to the Lord Jesus.

First comment, the King James and the New King James have not done us any favors in translating this mansions. Shame on them. I love the New King James translation. I hate it when they translate it Bishop because it leads your mind to the wrong place. I hate it here when they translate it Mansions.

It is simply dwellings. The other translations get it. Why do they translate it as mansions? Because the King James translated it as mansions. Why did the King James translate it as mansions?

Because Tyndale translated it as mansions in the 1520s and the 1530s. The English language has changed a bit since then, when it just meant a dwelling. In other words, if you'd said to William Tyndall in the 1520s, come to my mansion, He would have thought nothing of coming to your house and he wouldn't be surprised to see your house as it is. It's just men of dwelling. So the sense isn't, I get a palace in heaven, which you may or may not.

I don't know what kind of dwelling you'll get in heaven. I just know this verse isn't teaching that. The sense is, I get to dwell with God in heaven. So it makes for great children's songs. In my father's house is many mansions.

Many mansions in my father's house. It makes for terrible translation. It's just a dwelling. So now change the singing of that song in your house. Many dwellings.

No, it does not have the same ring. I admit it. You can keep the song. But know this. The point isn't the size or luxury of the dwelling reserved for you.

The point is the three in one person you get to dwell with in heaven. It's His Father's house and He's preparing a place to bring you to be with Him. It doesn't mention the Spirit, but the Spirit is going to be there too. Check out Revelation. Father, Son, and Spirit.

The three in one person that you get to dwell with is the thrust of what Jesus is teaching here. You know sometimes we need the person in charge to pound on the table and give us the assurance that they are going to make it happen. I had a boss named Ron Cosper one time. It was when I was in business development. It was the easiest job I ever had because he was in charge of our site, our factory.

When I would bring in potential customers and they would tour, he would go on the tours and then we would go back to the conference room, and he would pound on the table and say, everything you've seen here today is mine. The human resources are mine. The good equipment that you've seen here is mine and I'm looking you in the eye and I'm telling you if you give us this work I will make it a success. If you're unhappy with how things are going you Call me and I'll make it right." There was no doubt about who was in charge in our little factory. It was Ron Cosper.

And people who had seen the same equipment in other factories and the same kind of personnel and other factories would give him the work because he was willing to pound his hand on the table and say, I am responsible for this and I will Make this successful for you. That's what Jesus is doing here. If this weren't true, I would have told you, I'm telling you I'm going to prepare a place for you and I'm coming to get you, to bring you there, to be with me forever. Figuratively speaking, the one in charge, the one with the resources to make it happen, is pounding on the table to tell you he is committed to doing this. And he's not the general manager of a little plant in Raleigh.

He's the Lord of Glory. And he always does what he sets out to do. You know that's true. He's never set out to do something that he's been unable to do. And here, in this text, he's pounding on the table saying, I will do this for you.

I am able to do this for you. I am committed to do this for you. I promise to make a place ready for you and to come and get you and bring you to be with me in my Father's house. Within this great house, there are many dwellings. He's made it ready for you.

Those who have repented and believed the gospel have a sure future hope. They have the King of Glory pounding on the table, promising that He has made it ready for you and He will come get you and bring you there to be with Him. What a comfort these verses are. Turn to Hebrews chapter 6. The author of Hebrews takes up this theme in chapter 6.

I'll be reading Hebrews chapter 6 verse 19 and 20. But the author here speaks of a hope. In the verses leading up to chapter 6 verse 19 where I'll start reading, he's talked about the hope of the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that were fulfilled in the seed of Abraham Christ. Christ. Hebrews chapter 6 verses 19 and 20.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, in which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us even Jesus having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. This is what Jesus is doing with His disciples. He is anchoring their souls. This hope we have is an anchor for the soul. That God has made promises to his people and that he has kept them through Jesus Christ anchors the soul.

It keeps the soul from being blown about by the hurricane. What is this hope? That Jesus has come and fulfilled those promises and has gone into the presence behind the veil as a forerunner, the one to go before us to secure our place there, as our high priest there. This is what it means when Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you. I am your forerunner to go in behind the veil to make ready for you to follow me.

That's what it means to be a forerunner. You're going first where others will follow you. Jesus is our forerunner. It anchors our souls to know that. Listen to what J.C.

Ryle says, The manner in which Christ prepares a place for His people is mysterious and yet not inexplicable. He enters heaven as their High Priest, presenting the merit of His sacrifice for their sins. He removes all barriers that sin made between them and God. He appears as their proxy and representative, and claims a right of entry for all his believing members. He intercedes continually for them at God's right hand, and makes them always acceptable in himself, though unworthy in themselves.

He bears their names mystically as the high priest on his breast, and introduces them to the court of heaven before they get there. Jesus as forerunner. He bears their names on his breast. The high priest would have a breastplate that had the names of the tribes. He would wear the names of the tribes on his breast.

Jesus is doing that. Within the veil, he is the forerunner. He bears my name on his breast there. My place is secured there. When it says, I'm going to prepare a place for you, this is not Jesus overseeing construction projects in heaven.

That is unnecessary. He is going as a forerunner into the presence of a holy and just God to make claim to those places for his believing people. Amen to that. In the face of trouble of heart, Jesus redirects us to this, to himself, as the forerunner who has gone and carved out our place in heaven. Let me close this Let me close this section with two texts.

2 Corinthians 4, turn to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, beginning in 16, 416, and then extending into chapter 5 through chapter 5 verse 8. So I'm starting in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16, reading through chapter 5 verse 8. This is Paul's commentary on what Jesus is teaching in our text. 2 Corinthians 4, starting in verse 16.

Follow along. Paul writes, Therefore we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." He's calling the hurricane our light affliction. This is Paul with his eyes in heaven. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent grown, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has also given us the spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." Paul says, don't worry about the tent, this temporary dwelling, don't worry about the tent. There's a house, there's a solid eternal structure that the tent will give way to one day for you.

What seems to be a hurricane now is a momentary affliction, It's a light momentary affliction. It's not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed. Finally, 1 Thessalonians. Last place to turn. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

Verses 15 through 17. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 15 through 18. 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 15-18. Paul writes, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words." Paul says, what Jesus says. Jesus is coming back for his people. He's coming back to lay claim to his people.

This is speaking of the bodily resurrection and we're going to always be with the Lord. He's coming to get us, to take us, to be with Him forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. What should you do with that? We should comfort each other. We should speak this to each other as a source of comfort when the hurricane.

It's dark, we're on the deck, the winds are howling, the waves are threatening to sweep us overboard into oblivion. Not So, not into oblivion, maybe into heaven, never into oblivion. We should comfort each other with these words. Now imagine a life you can live if your mind is set like this. If we allow Jesus' words to train our minds, our thought patterns, What storm in life can you not face?

Thinking this. Where can you not go? If you think like this. Where can you not send your friends? If you think like this.

The Bible beckons us to abandon our games. Decide, either it's true or it's not. If it's true, this is a glorious truth which should shape and transform how we live and think and what we do and where we go. It doesn't bid us to be reckless and needlessly throw our lives away, but it makes us bold in these lives. It helps us to face life, even life circumstances that would disquiet us and trouble our hearts.

We know what to do. We believe in God, believe also in His Son Jesus who is God. Let not your heart be troubled. Number one, Let not your heart be troubled. Number one.

Let not your heart be troubled. That was a tough one to come up with, wasn't it? Let not your heart be troubled. Jesus is actually applying his doctrine here. We don't have to look far for an application because Jesus is applying.

What should we do with the fact that he is God? Don't be put off by the appearances of the incarnation. Jesus' self-accepted humility, that's not what he looks like now. His face shines like the sun and a two-edged sword is protruding from his mouth. Don't let your heart be troubled.

Trust in Jesus. Brings us to number two. Believe in Jesus as God, the one who is everlasting strength, like Isaiah 26 verse 4 says. If the Lord is everlasting strength, then Jesus is everlasting strength. Jesus is God.

Throw yourself upon Jesus. He is the overriding reality. The Bible never beckons us to ignore the realities of life or to turn the frown upside down. The Bible just plainly declares that there is an overriding reality. There is a God of health problems, and a God of hurricanes, and a God of relational problems, and work problems, and all the rest.

He is Lord of those things. You can trust Him and trust yourself to Him. Number three. Set your mind on things above where Christ is. Colossians 3, 1 and 2.

Set your mind on things above where Christ is. He's the forerunner. He's gone into the presence, through the veil. He's carved out our place. He's laid claim to our place by his work on the cross.

He secured it. Nothing can move it. When your eyes are fixed on your eternal home, Your troubled heart, you don't have to stay there. It is sin to stay there. It is sin to stay with a troubled heart.

I don't think it's inherently sinful to have a troubled heart. I've made the argument for that. But we know there is sinful fear. When does it become sinful? When you set your eyes on the object of fear and not your eyes on the object that you should fear.

God in heaven. Don't fear the one who can kill the body. After he has killed the body, he can't do anything else. Fear the one who can kill both body and soul in hell forever. That is the one to be feared.

God, thank you. Thank you for giving us a way out of trouble of heart. Giving us a medicine to this ancient disease. When we're disquieted by things that Your strength override, should override, can override, will override for your people. Give us such confidence, even when we are on the deck of a ship at night in a hurricane, and our ears are hearing the winds howl, and our eyes are seeing waves crash onto the deck, threatening to sweep us into oblivion.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, who is God, and our confidence to be fixed upon Him, be saved from trouble of heart. We want to live a bold life knowing these things are true. Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.