Stand Firm

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on May 7, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.

            If you pay attention to the news, it’s easy to believe that Christianity is in a state of decline.  It seems like every month, if not more often, there’s a poll someplace that has negative news about Christianity.  There are fewer people who believe in God, fewer people who call themselves Christians, fewer people who attend church regularly.  If you believe all those polls, you’d have to think that Christianity is on a downhill slide and that there’s not much we can do to stop it.

            And if you look at society, you might conclude that’s right.  We don’t notice it so much here, in small town South Dakota, but there are places where being a Christian results in being looked down upon.  And that’s especially true if you’re open about your faith and try to share it with others.  A lot of people say they’ll tolerate your faith, as long as you keep it to yourself.  But they don’t want you to be too public with it.

            And then, too, you’ll see all kinds of pseudo-religions out there.  People whose faith can be found in Mother Earth, or karma, or in some sort of vague “spirituality”.  They believe in something, but a lot of times they, themselves, are not really sure what it is.  But whatever it is, it is not the divine Son, Jesus Christ.

            When we see that kind of thing, it’s easy to get depressed about the future of our faith.  But you know, there’s nothing really new about it.  The people of the church of Thessalonica were apparently concerned about these same things.  And Paul writes to them to tell them how to deal with it.

            Paul says they should not “become easily unsettled or alarmed” at the fact that there was false teaching out there.  They should not even be unsettled or alarmed if the people spreading that teaching claimed to be representing Paul and his associates.  He warns them not to be fooled by it, but he also tells them to not get overly upset about it, either.

            And Paul tells them why they should not get too upset about this stuff.  He says, look, we knew this was coming.  In fact, he says, I told you this was coming.  Paul says, “Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?”  He tells them, this is not unexpected.  We knew this would happen.  

            But there’s another reason the Thessalonians were not supposed to get too upset about all this.  Paul tells them that, ultimately, these false teachings and false teachers will not prevail.  It might look like they’re going to, for a while, but they will not.  Eventually, they will be defeated.  He refers to those who spread false teachers as representing someone he calls “the lawless one”.  And Paul says, “The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”

            But Paul does warn them that it’s going to be tempting to follow those false teachings.  He also says this, “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.  He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.”

            Does any of this sound familiar?  Because there are a lot of false teachings out there, and there are false teachers, too.  And a lot of those false teachings are things that sound really good.  They can be really tempting.  And if we’re not careful, we can find ourselves falling for them.

            You’ve probably heard some of them.  “Well, you know, a loving God would never allow people to go to hell.”  “Well, it really does not matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere in your beliefs.”  “Well, all that really matters is that you be nice to people.”  “Well, you can do whatever you want, as long as it does not hurt anybody else.”   “Well, the only religion you really need is kindness.” “Well, it does not matter what you do in your personal life, as long as your public opinions are right.  Give to the right causes, support the right laws, vote the right way, and what you do or what you believe privately does not matter.”

            I’m sure most of us have heard at least some of these, are some variation of them.  And of course, this is not a comprehensive list by any means.  There are all kinds of false teachings out there.  And some of them are spread by famous people who seem like really nice, really good people.  But they’re all designed to do the same thing.  They’re designed to lead people away from God and toward something else.  Some watered down, mild, milquetoast version of niceness.  A method of living that allows us to do the things we want to do and call them okay, regardless of what God might have had to say about them.

            But again, we should not be too upset about this.  We should be aware of it, of course.  But all of this is to be expected.  Paul told us it would happen two thousand years ago.  Jesus said it would happen, too.  In fact, Jesus predicted they would come in exactly the way we’ve talked about.  In fact, if you’ve ever heard that phrase, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, this is where it comes from.  In Matthew Chapter Seven, Verse Fifteen, he says, “Beware of false prophets.  They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”  

In other words, it’s just like we were saying.  These false prophets, these people who spread all these false teachings, will do it in a way that sounds really good.  They’ll sound like they’re really nice people who just want everyone to get along.  And what makes it really deceptive is that there is truth in it.  Of course God wants us to show love.  Of course God is in favor of kindness.  But Jesus did not tell us that we should all just get along.  There’s a lot more to Jesus’ message than that.

Jesus is the one who told us to go the extra mile.  Jesus is the one who told us to show love even to our enemies.  Jesus is the only who told us to pray for those who persecute us.  Jesus is the one who told us that if someone wants our coat, we should also give him our shirt.  And of course, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of doing all those things and more when he went to the cross, dying for things he had not done, dying to save us from suffering the consequences of our sins.

            So what should we do?  We should do exactly what Paul told the church at Thessalonica.  “Stand firm and hold fast to the teachings” that have been passed on to us.  In other words, stay faithful to the word of God and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

            When we hear these false teachings, and when they sound really good to us, we need to go back to the Bible.  We need to ask, “Is that what the Bible says?”  “Is that what Jesus taught?”  Because, again, a lot of these false teachings do sound really good.  They sound really persuasive.  But if they don’t agree with God’s Word, if they don’t agree with the gospel of Jesus Christ, then they’re not true, no matter how good they might sound.

            You and I have access to the truth.  We need to make use of that access.  We need to make sure we are not fooled by the false teachings of the false teachers of the world.

            And of course, we need to do more than that.  We should not keep that truth to ourselves.  We need to share it with others.  We need to do what we can to keep others from being fooled by those false teachings.  After all, if they sound good to us, how much better will they sound to someone who does not have a background in Christianity?  How much better will they sound to someone who does not know what the Bible says and does not know the gospel of Jesus Christ?  

            Now, I’m not saying we need to go out and point a finger in someone’s face and try to force the gospel on them.  Jesus never did that.  What did Jesus do?  Jesus said, here’s how it is.  Here’s the truth.  You can choose to believe it and have eternal life.  Or, you can choose not to believe it and suffer the consequences.  If you have sincere questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.  But if you don’t want to believe the truth, well, that’s your choice.

            I think that’s the attitude you and I need to have.  We know the truth.  We need to share it with people.  But if they choose not to believe it, that’s their choice.  There’s not much more we can do.

            Except for one thing.  And really, it’s probably the most important thing of all.  We can pray.  We can pray that God will bless our efforts.  We can pray that God will touch people’s hearts.  We can pray that God’s Holy Spirit will break down someone’s resistance.  We can pray that God will show up for them in a way that they simply cannot deny.  We can pray that God will do what we cannot do.

            Because God can.  God can do that.  God can do anything.  In fact, that’s the only way anything is going to happen--with God.  You and I cannot bring anyone to faith by ourselves.  We can only do it if God chooses to work through us.

            There’s a lot of false teaching out there.  But don’t let that alarm you.  It’s to be expected.  Besides, we know that in the end, God is going to win.  What you and I need to do is simply stand firm and hold fast to the teachings of God and of the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  And then, we need to do what we can to share those teachings with others.  If we do that, God will take care of the rest.

 

Trust God Anyway

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on May 7, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:7-12.

            Do you believe God always do what we’d like God to do?

            I suspect for all of us, the answer is no.  That’s true for a few reasons, but the biggest one is probably our own experience.  We’ve all had times when we wanted God to do things, and God did not do them.  Now, sometimes, after time goes by and we can look back on a situation, we feel very fortunate that God did not do what we wanted.  We can see now that God’s plan was better than ours.  And we thank God that God did not give us what we thought we wanted.

            But there are other times when we don’t understand why God did not do what we wanted.  My guess is that we’ve all had that experience.  We’ve prayed for the healing of a loved one, for example, and they were not healed, at least not in this life.  We’ve prayed for God to help us get out of a difficult situation, and God left us in the situation.  We’ve prayed for all kinds of things, sometimes good things, sometimes things that seemed like they would be best for everyone with no possible downside to them, and God did not give us what we prayed for.

            We don’t know why.  All we can do is hold onto our faith and continue to trust.  We trust that God must have some reason for not doing what we wanted.  We trust that God knows better than we do.  We trust that God has plans and purposes we know nothing about.  We trust that God can see farther into the future than we can.  We trust that, as it says in Isaiah chapter fifty-five, God’s ways are higher than our ways and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  And we trust that God loves us, and so God must have a better plan in mind for us than the plans we have for ourselves, even if we have no clue what that plan is.

            But the thing is, what, then, do we do with our Bible reading for today?  Because Jesus seems to say that God will do what we want God to do.  Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  And then, Jesus says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

            We know that God does not always do what we want God to do.  But as Christians, we also know that Jesus’ words cannot be wrong.  So, what does Jesus mean?  What’s Jesus talking about?

            Well, first, Jesus says that if we want God to do something, we have to take some action, right?  Jesus says that if we want something to be given to us, we need to ask.  If we want to find something, we need to seek it.  If we want the door to be opened to us, we need to knock.  

            In other words, God does not just drop things into our laps.  God is willing to help us.  God wants to help us.  But God waits to be asked.  God waits for us to actively seek God’s goodness.  God does not open doors for us until we ask that they be opened.

            So that’s one thing, and it’s an important thing.  Because sometimes our “requests” are really demands, right?  We do not ask humbly.  We do not ask recognizing how much higher and greater God’s ways are than our own.  Instead, we act as if we believe God owes it to us to do things for us.  We act as if God would not know what to do if we did not tell Him, and if God does not do what we tell Him, then there must be something wrong with God.

            Now, when you put it that way, it sounds kind of silly.  But if we’re honest with ourselves, I suspect some of us have done that.  I know I have.  And I doubt I’m the only one.

            Not only that, but Jesus’ statement implies that, if we want God to help us, we need to do our part.  Whatever we want God to give us, we need to actually seek it.  Whatever door we want God to open for us, we need to actively knock on it.  If we just sit back and do nothing, waiting for God to do it all, we are likely to be disappointed.  God will do God’s part.  But first, you and I need to do our part.

            But, we say, we’ve done all that.  We’ve asked humbly.  We’ve sought what we want god to do.  We knocked on the door.  We’ve done our part.  And--God did not do God’s part.  In fact, it looks to us like God has not done anything.

            Well, let’s look a little farther.  Jesus uses a couple of examples of how human parents act.  He says, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?”  Then he says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

 Jesus says God will give good gifts to those who ask him.  But here’s the thing:  Is everything we ask God to give us really a good gift?

We may believe it is.  We may believe we’re acting completely selflessly.  We may believe that what we ask would be best for everyone concerned.  We may believe there is downside to it whatsoever for anyone.  But that does not mean that what we believe is true.

Let’s look a little more closely at those good gifts that human parents give.  Those of you who’ve had children, let me ask you:  do you, or did you, give your kids everything they wanted, just because they asked for it?  And if you don’t have children, think of your own childhood.  Did your parents give you everything you wanted, just because you asked for it?

I’m pretty sure the answer for everyone here is no.  Human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for just because they ask for it.  And the reason human parents don’t give their children everything they ask for is because they love their children.  And human parents know that sometimes, the things their children ask for are not, in fact, good things.

The children may believe that they are.  The children may not think of themselves as being selfish at all.  In fact, sometimes they could probably give you a whole list of reasons why they should get what they’re asking for.  They may not be able to see any downside to it at all.

But you can.  Because human parents know better than their children.  Human parents know that it’s more important to give their children what they need than it is to give them what they want.  To use Jesus’ words, human parents will give their children bread even if they’ve asked for a stone.  They’ll give their children a fish even if they’ve asked for a snake.  The children might not see anything wrong with what they’ve asked for, but their parents do.  And so, parents will give their children good gifts, even if their children don’t see them as good gifts at the time.

That’s what God does for us.  God gives us the good gifts we need, which may not be the gifts we’ve asked for.  We may believe we’ve asked for something good, but God knows that it’s a snake.  And God won’t give it to us, because God knows it’s not a good gift, no matter how strongly we believe it is.

It’s still hard to understand, though.  We may understand the logic of it, but still.  When you’re loved one is in the hospital and you pray for healing and the healing does not come, it’s hard to understand why that healing would not be a good gift.  When we’re in a really tough situation and we don’t see any way out and God does not help us get out, it’s hard to understand how God helping us out of the situation would not be a good gift.  None of that makes much sense to us.

And so we end where we began.  Because again, it really comes down to a matter of trust.  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that what we are asking God to give us would not, in fact, be a good gift, even if every bit of our minds and hearts tells us that it would be?  Can you and I trust God enough to believe that, when God does not give us what we ask, it means that God has something better in mind for us, even if we cannot possibly understand what could be better than what we’re asking for?  In short, can we trust God enough to believe that God knows what He’s doing, even when what God is doing--or not doing--makes absolutely no sense to us?

This is where, as they used to say, the rubber meets the road.  This is where we find out whether we really have faith in God, or if we just say we do.  When we cannot understand why God is not doing what we’ve humbly and sincerely asked God to do, when we’ve knocked on the door and it seems like God has slammed it shut, can we continue to have faith anyway?  Can we continue to believe in God’s goodness anyway?  Can we continue to trust in God’s love anyway?

We really cannot know until we’ve been there.  And I know some of us have been there.  And those of us who have not been there yet will be at some point.  It’s just the way life works.

When we are there, may we trust in God’s greatness.  May we trust in God’s goodness.  May we trust in God’s love.  And may we trust that God will give us good gifts, even if we cannot see them as good at the time.  May we continue to trust God.

 

Follow Me

The Sunday evening message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on April 30, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Luke 5:27-32.

            Our Bible reading for tonight gives us yet another example of an ordinary person, sitting around minding his own business, doing what he does every day.  And suddenly, the Lord comes along, and in a few seconds the Lord completely changes this man’s life.

            It’s amazing to me how often this happens in the Bible.  And it’s also amazing to me how matter-of-factly the Bible always tells these stories.  I mean, here’s Levi, changing his entire life to follow Jesus, and the Bible handles it in two verses.  “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth.  ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.”

            That’s pretty incredible, don’t you think?  For someone to just immediately leave their entire way of life behind to follow Jesus?

            But you know, that seems to be how it worked with all of Jesus’ disciples, at least the ones we’re told about how they were called.  Jesus sees Peter and Andrew casting a net into the lake, fishing, and he says, “Come, follow me, and I will sent you out to fish for people.”  And we’re told, “At once they left their nets and followed him.”  Jesus sees James and John out in a boat with their father.  We’re told, “Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.”

            Think about that in the context of Levi.  After all, who was Levi?  Levi was a tax collector.  Tax collectors were not popular people in Jesus’ time.  I don’t suppose tax collectors have ever been popular people, really.  But Levi was a wealthy man.  Most tax collectors were, because they were allowed to charge people as much as they wanted and keep any excess over what Rome wanted.  It was not necessarily an honest way to make a living, but it was a way to get rich.  

And Levi was rich.  You can tell that because he was able to pull off this huge banquet in Jesus’ honor at barely a moment’s notice.  He must have had servants and a large room and the money to pay for all this food and wine and everything.  Levi was leaving behind an awful lot of wealth to follow Jesus.

            I wonder if, when Jesus came along, Levi know who Jesus was?  Jesus had started his ministry by this time.  He’d healed a lot of people.  He was attracting crowds.  Levi certainly might have heard of him.  He might have even been curious about him.  

            And maybe, Levi knew he needed to change his life.  We’re into speculation now, but again, think about how Levi was.  A wealthy man, but not popular.  Maybe friendless.  Maybe Levi had looked at his life and said, you know, I have all this money, but what’s it getting me?  What good is it all?  

            I wonder, too, if Jesus knew Levi before this?  I mean, as the divine Son of God, I’m sure Jesus knew who Levi was when he called him.  But had Jesus seen Levi before?  Did He know Levi had his tax collector booth in this spot?  Did He deliberately go there that day for the purpose of calling Levi?  Or was he just walking by, when suddenly He got the divine inspiration that Levi needed to be one of the twelve disciples?  

            And that makes me wonder, were the twelve disciples the first twelve people Jesus called?  Again, of those disciples that we’re given a call story for, Jesus comes up to them, says “Follow me”, and they immediately follow.  Were there people Jesus came up to, said, “Follow me”, and they said no?

            We’re not told that, but it seems like there could’ve been.  After all, in John Chapter Six, we’re told about a lot of people who had followed Jesus, and then stopped, because he was saying things that were too hard for them to accept.  In Luke Chapter Nine, we’re told about people who said they would follow Jesus, but they had to do other things first.  It seems to me that it’s at least possible that the disciples we know as the Twelve may not have been the first Twelve Jesus called.  They may have just been the first Twelve who said yes.

            What the twelve disciples did was not easy.  They left everything behind to follow Jesus.  You know, we talk sometimes about how Jesus came for the poor, but the disciples for whom we know something about their background don’t seem to have been poor.  We talk of James and John, and Simon and Andrew, as fishermen, but it’s not like they were just fishing for pleasure or for sport.  This was their business.  They were commercial fishermen.  I don’t know how good their business was, but it was good enough that they could afford the boat and nets and all that.  

            And not only that, they walked away from their families, too.  James and John left their father behind.  We know that Simon, at least, was married, so he apparently left his wife behind, too.  The twelve disciples walked away from everything to follow Jesus.  It’s not everybody who could do that.

            Now, it’s certainly possible that Jesus knew the twelve would say yes before he asked them.  But I think it’s possible that He asked some others and they said no.  Or, it’s also possible that there are some others Jesus would like to have asked, but He knew they would say no, so He did not bother to ask them.

            So you probably know where this is going.  You and I would probably consider ourselves ordinary people.  Suppose that tomorrow we’re just going about our business, doing whatever we do every day.  Maybe we’re at work.  Maybe we’re at school.  Maybe we’re out doing errands.  Whatever it is.  And all of a sudden, Jesus comes along.  And Jesus says two words:  “follow me”.

            What do we do?  Do we follow?  

            We’d like to think we would.  But would we really?  Would we walk away from everything we own?  Would we walk away even from our own family?  Would we leave everything behind, the way the twelve disciples did, to follow Jesus?

            It’s a hard question to answer.  Because the truth is that when we hear a question like that, we think of it as just theoretical.  We don’t really believe Jesus is going to come along and ask us to leave everything behind to follow Him.  And so, while we might give an answer to the question, we don’t really know what the answer is.  And we cannot really know what our answer is unless and until we’re faced with the situation, which we don’t really expect to be.

            But I still think it’s worth thinking about.  We talked sometimes about the kingdom of heaven being worth more than everything else in the world.  A situation like this is where we would find out if we really believe that.  I mean, we may say we believe it, and maybe we do.  But Simon and Andrew, James and John, Levi–they proved it.  They actually did give up everything to follow Jesus.

            And they did that, not really knowing all that much about Jesus.  We don’t know how much they knew, but Jesus was just starting his ministry when he called these men.  They had no idea what they were in for.  They had no idea what they were going to see.  They did not know the tremendous power Jesus had.  They did not know they were going to see Jesus do miraculous healing, feed five thousand people, and even raise someone from the dead.  They did not know they were going to hear Jesus arguing with the Pharisees and the other religious leaders and make them look like fools.  And they certainly did not know that Jesus was going to die so that they and all of us who believe in Him can have salvation and eternal life.

            You and I know a lot more about Jesus than the first disciples did.  We have the advantage of being able to read the end of the book, so to speak.  We may not know everything we’d like to know about Jesus, but we know all we need to know.  We know that He was and is the divine Son of God.  We know that faith in Him truly does lead to salvation and eternal life.  We know that the day will come when Jesus will come again, even if we don’t know when that day will be.  We know that, no matter what the world might look like right now, in the end, Jesus will win.  And we know that, if we stay faithful to Him and serve Him and love Him, we will win, too.

            Jesus calls each of us to follow Him.  What that looks like may be different for each of us, but Jesus does call each of us to follow Him.  We don’t expect Jesus to ask us to leave everything to follow Him, and maybe He won’t.  But those first disciples probably were not expecting Jesus to ask them to leave everything to follow him, either.  And He did.

            And when He did, those first disciples were able to say yes.  I don’t know whether I could say yes.  I’d really rather Jesus did not ask me to.  But if He does, my prayer is that all of us will be able to say yes.  It won’t be easy.  But it will be worth it.

 

The Narrow Road

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on April 30, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 7:13-23.

            God is love.  And God is forgiving.  And God is merciful.

            Those are some of the greatest things about God, right?  At least from our standpoint.  If those things were not true, you and I would all be in deep trouble.  It’s because of God’s love, and God’s mercy, and God’s desire to forgive, that Jesus was sent to earth in the first place.  Jesus Christ dying so that our sins could be forgiven is the ultimate act of love.

            But sometimes, we’re tempted to take God’s love and God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness for granted.  And we especially take it for granted when it comes time to talk about heaven and hell.  We say, well, if God loves us, and if God forgives us, and if God is merciful, than God surely does not allow people to go to hell.  Well, maybe a few people.  Maybe mass murderers and people like that.  But not most people.  Certainly not the kind of people we know.  God’s love conquers all and so God allows pretty much everyone into heaven in the end.

            We’d like to believe that.  And don’t get me wrong, I’d like to believe it, too.  I do not want to think of anyone going to hell.  If you take the concept of hell seriously, if you’ve read the Bible and know how hell is described, you would not want your worst enemy to go there.  I would like to believe that God will let just about anybody into heaven.

            I’d like to believe it--but that’s not what the Bible actually says.  It’s certainly not what Jesus said in our reading for today.  Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

            Man, I wish Jesus had not said that.  But he did.  Now, Jesus does not say this because he’s happy about it.  I’m sure Jesus wished that everyone would find the road that leads to life.  But Jesus knew that’s not the way it is.  And so Jesus says this, not with pleasure, but as a warning.  Jesus says this for our benefit, really.  If Jesus had not said this, and other things like it, we’d be tempted to keep believing that God lets just about anybody into heaven.  And if we lived our lives counting on that, we’d be in for a rude awakening when we found out the truth.  And by the time we did find out the truth, it would be too late for us to do anything about it.  Jesus knew it was important for us to know the truth now, even if the truth is not what you and I might wish it was.

            And Jesus continues that theme.  He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

            Think about that.  Jesus is saying that it’s not enough just to call on his name.  It’s not enough even to do all kinds of good things in his name.  Even driving out demons and performing miracles is not enough.  Jesus says that to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to do the will of God the Father.

            See, the thing is, Jesus knew a lot about human nature.  Jesus knew that calling on his name is not necessarily the same as really following him.  Because what do we human beings tend to do?  We tend to call on Jesus when we get into trouble, right?  We turn to Jesus when things are going against us and we need help.  But when things are going well, we tend to just kind of go our own way, doing our own thing, not really making Jesus much of a part of our lives.

            There’s nothing new about that, by the way.  It happens all through the Old Testament.  The people get in trouble, they call on God, God bails them out, they promise to be faithful to God, things going well, the people forget God, they get in trouble again, they call on God again, and round and round and round we go.

            So just calling on Jesus’ name is not enough.  But what about prophesying in Jesus’ name?  What about driving out demons and performing miracles?  I mean, Jesus says we need to do the will of God the Father, but would those things not be doing God’s will?  What’s Jesus getting at here?

            I think what Jesus is getting at is that doing good things--even really good things--is not the same as doing God’s will.  Am I saying God does not want us to do good things?  No, of course not.  Obviously God wants us to do good things.  But Jesus did not say that the way to heaven is by being good people or by doing good things.  Remember, Jesus told us in Mark Ten that we should not even call him good, because no one is good except for God alone.  All of us human beings are sinners who fall far short of being “good”.  The way to heaven is by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  And faith in Jesus Christ means that we do God’s will to the best of our ability, just as Jesus spent his life on earth doing the will of God the Father.

            Let me give you an example.  Wanda and I lived in Wessington Springs for several years before I became a pastor.  And we did a lot of “good things” there.  Not everything--I mean, we’re far from perfect people.  But we were part of the community club and we helped raise money for the senior citizens bus and we did a lot of work supporting the troops--we had a local National Guard unit that was called up to serve in Iraq at that time--and we did a lot of other stuff that most people would consider “good things”.

            But then God called us into ministry.  Had we said no, we would’ve stayed in Wessington Springs and we would’ve continued to do “good things”.  But we would not have been doing God’s will.  God’s will for us was not that we stay in Wessington Springs and keep doing “good things”.  God’s will for us was that we go into ministry, first in North Sioux City and now here.

            Now again, I don’t want to sound like I’m some sort of perfect person that everyone should look to as a role model.  There are plenty of times in my life when I have not followed God’s will, when I have gone my own way.  But the point is that doing “good things” does not make someone a Christian.  What makes someone a Christian is believing in Jesus Christ and do our best to follow God’s will.

            What that means is that there are probably people you know, people who we’d probably consider “good people” who do “good things”, who are not going to heaven.  I can think of people like that.  They are going on the broad road that leads to destruction, rather than the narrow road that leads to life.  And believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say that.  I wish it was not so.  But Jesus told us it is so, and any time we deny Jesus’ words, we become the false prophets Jesus told us to watch out for.  

            And so, there are at least two things we need to do.  The first one is to look at our lives.  Are we content to simply do “good things”?  Or are we truly trying to do God’s will?  It’s not always easy to know the difference.  We may need to spend some time in prayer.  We may need to spend some time reading the Bible.  We may need to spend some time talking to others whose opinions we trust.  We may need to spend some time truly listening for God’s voice, however God’s voice may make itself known to you.  

            But the second one is to do everything we can to bring others to Christ.  Including those “good people” who do “good things”.  We need to do what we can to help them truly accept Jesus Christ as the Savior and truly follow God’s will.

            Is that easy?  No, a lot of times it’s not.  It may lead to some very difficult conversations.  But remember, we don’t do it alone.  We do it with God’s help.  Any time we try to help someone accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, God will be with us.  God will give us the courage to act, and God will give us the words to say.  Will we always succeed?  No, probably not--even Jesus himself did not always succeed.  But one thing we know about God’s will is that God wants us to, in Jesus’ words, “go and make disciples of all nations”.  Any time we do that, we know we are doing God’s will.

           "Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  That’s not the way I wish it was.  But Jesus says that’s the way it is.  Let’s keep our faith in Jesus Christ strong.  Let’s do everything we can to truly follow God’s will, and be one of those few who are on that narrow road that leads to life.  And let’s do everything we can to bring others to faith in Jesus Christ, and help them follow God’s will, so that more and more people can find that narrow road.  Let’s do everything we can to make that narrow road crowded with believers, all doing their best to follow the will of God.

Jesus' Prayer for You

The Sunday night message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on April 23, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 17:1-26.

        Every Sunday morning, we have a time where we ask for prayer requests.  Lots of churches do that.  It’s called “Joys and Concerns” or something similar.  It’s a time for people to express what they would like the church, and the people in it, to pray about.

That’s a good thing.  We should pray for each other.  In fact, the Bible tells us many times that we should do that.  But in our Bible reading tonight, we have an example of Jesus himself praying for us.

That’s a pretty awesome thing, don’t you think?  That Jesus Christ, the Savior, the divine Son of God, would pray for you?  And for me?  It’s another example of how much Jesus loves us.  After all, at the time of our Bible reading, Jesus had a lot on his mind.  The prayer we read tonight is, according to the gospel of John, the last thing Jesus said before he went to the garden of Gethsemane.  And of course, that is where he would be arrested, an arrest that would lead to his death on a cross.

Jesus could certainly have been excused if, at that point, his thoughts were all on himself.  But they were not.  A little, yes, but not that much.  His thoughts were mainly on God and on his disciples and followers.

So, what does Jesus pray?  First, he prays that God the Father will be pleased with what Jesus has done.  He says, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

You know, when we talk about the sacrifice Jesus made, we immediately think of his death on the cross.  And of course that was a tremendous sacrifice that Jesus made.  But it’s not the only sacrifice Jesus made.  Jesus’ statement reminds us that Jesus gave up a lot just to come to earth in the first place.

“Glorify me in Your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”  Jesus, as God the Son, was with God the Father in heaven.  He always had been.  God the Son had glory with God the Father before the universe was ever created.

Jesus gave up that glory to come to earth.  And he had a specific job to do while he was here.  Now, his work on earth is nearly finished, and he prays that God will be pleased with what he has done and will return that glory to him again.

But again, Jesus does not spend much time on himself.  He goes on to pray for the disciples.  And it’s interesting, I think, to note that Jesus specifically says he is not praying for the world.  He is simply praying for those who are his, who follow him.

What does he pray for them?  Maybe not what we’d expect.  Jesus does not pray that God the Father will make things easy for them.  He does not pray that they will have anything material.  He does not even pray that God will keep them from harm.  Instead, he prays that God would protect them from the evil one.  And he prays that God would sanctify them with God’s word, which is truth.

Protect them from the evil one, and sanctify them with God’s word, which is truth.  What does that mean?  Why would Jesus pray that way?

        Jesus knows that now the disciples have a job to do, just as Jesus had a job to do while he was on earth.  They are going to have to carry on the ministry that Jesus has started, spreading the good news of salvation.  And Jesus knows it’s going to be a tough job.  He’s already told them they’re going to have all kinds of trouble.  In fact, he’s told them that the world is going to hate them because of him.  And he knows he’s not going to be there any more to protect them.

        But Jesus wanted the disciples to look at this the way he looked at it.  Jesus knew that, if he stayed firm, if he stayed with God the Father and with God’s truth, nothing the world could do could touch him.  Yes, they could kill his earthly body.  But they could not do anything to his eternal life.  If he stayed with God the Father, he would, as he said, return to his glory in heaven.

        And that’s what he wanted the disciples to do.  Stay firm.  Stay with God the Father and with God the Son.  Stay with God’s truth.  And so, he prays that God the Father will protect them from the evil one.  Protect them from the temptation to compromise.  Protect them from the temptation to back off, to get along.  Protect them from the temptation to soften God’s truth to satisfy what the world wants to hear.  

        Again, Jesus knows that, if they stand firm, they will get into trouble.  But he knows that, if they stay with God’s truth, there’s nothing the world can do to them.  Yes, the world could kill their earthly bodies.  But the world could not do anything to their eternal lives.  If they stayed firm, if they stayed with God’s truth, they would be sanctified.  They would be set apart, and they would go to heaven to be with the Lord.

        As I thought about that, I realized that we don’t pray that way for each other nearly enough.  We pray for others’ good health all the time, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.  We should do that.  We pray, sometimes, for protection from storms.  We pray for favorable weather or for safe travels.  We pray for lots of things.  But we rarely pray that God would keep us strong in our faith.  We rarely pray that God will help us stand firm and stand with God.  We rarely pray that God would help us stay with God’s word and God’s truth.

        That’s wrong.  And it’s at least partly my fault, as the pastor, that we don’t pray that way more.  I’m not saying every prayer we ever pray needs to be that, but we should pray that way more than we do.  And I’m going to try to do my part to correct that.

        Because that’s something we all need.  You and I are every bit as tempted to compromise as the disciples were, if not more.  We’re every bit as tempted to back off, to get along.  We’re every bit as tempted to soften God’s truth to satisfy what the world wants to hear.  And we’re also tempted to convince ourselves that the “softened” version of God’s truth is the right one, because sometimes it’s what we want to hear, too.

        But Jesus did not stop there.  Jesus continued, praying for all who will come to believe.  That includes you and me.

        What was his prayer for us?  It’s a prayer for unity, but not in the way we might have expected.  Yes, he’d like us to be united, but united because we have God’s Holy Spirit in us.

        Listen to what he says.  He prays “that all of them might be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”  A little later he says something similar, “that they may be one as we are one--I in them and you in me.”

        Again, Jesus does not pray for the whole world.  He prays for believers.  Jesus knows that there can be no unity between believers and non-believers.  We should love them, yes.  We should pray for them.  We should treat them as we would like to be treated.  But we cannot be unified with them.  As Jesus said earlier, his disciples are not of this world, just as Jesus himself was not of this world.  Trying to be unified with the world is what leads to the compromises that Jesus prayed his disciples would avoid.

        As believers, we are to be unified with Jesus.  That’s our goal.  To live as Jesus told us to live.  To treat others as Jesus told us to treat them.  To believe as Jesus believed.  To think as Jesus thought.  To love as Jesus loved.  To have the courage and trust in God the Father that Jesus had.  We’ll do it imperfectly, of course, because we’re imperfect people.  Even the disciples did it imperfectly.  But they did it, and we can, too.  And if we’re unified with Jesus, we can be unified with each other, too.

        And Jesus prayed for one more thing for us.  He prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

        Jesus wants us to be with him.  To be in heaven.  To be with God the Father.  To see His glory.

And when that happens, we truly will be unified with Jesus.  We will be perfect, just as God intended in the beginning.  Not because of anything we’ve done, but because the death of Jesus, and our belief in him, washes away our sins.  What an awesome thing.  What an amazing thing.  What an incredibly loving thing.  To be one with each other and one with Jesus in the presence of God in heaven.

We should pray for each other.  But when you get down, when you get discouraged, when it seems like things are not going the way they should, remember this:  Jesus has prayed for you.  Jesus is still praying for you.  With Jesus on our side, there is nothing we cannot overcome.  We can stand firm in our faith.  The world may not love us for that.  But if we stand firm in our faith, we can be unified with Jesus, on earth and in heaven.

How to Be Ready

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on April 23, 2023.  The Bible verses used are 1 Peter 4:1-11.

            Jesus Christ will come again.  That’s one of the most basic Christian beliefs.  In our communion liturgy, which we say every month, we say, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”  In our oldest creed, the Nicene Creed, we say, “Christ will come again in glory.”  And of course, Jesus Himself said that He would come again “on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”

    We don’t know when Jesus will come again, of course.  When Jesus was on earth, He said that He, Himself, did not know when He would come back.  Only God the Father knows.

    We do think about it sometimes, though.  Some people think it will happen soon.  They look at the things Jesus said would be signs of His return–wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, false prophets appearing, lawlessness increasing–and they see them happening now.  And I certainly cannot deny the truth of that.  On the other hand, we’ve seen these things happen before, and Jesus has not returned yet.  So I don’t know.  If Jesus Himself did not know, at least while He was on earth, I’m okay with not knowing, either.

In the first years following Jesus’ death, His followers expected it to happen soon.  Many of them expected it to happen in their lifetime.  That’s why the gospels were not written until thirty or forty years after Jesus’ death.  Writing was a laborious process back then.  It took a lot of time, and getting copies made took even more time.  And if you thought Jesus was going to come right away, well, you did not have time to go through all that.  You simply went everywhere you could and told everyone you could about Jesus.  It was only after time passed, and the people who were witnesses to Jesus’ life and death were starting to pass away, that people thought, hey, we’d better get some of this stuff written down while we still can.

And of course, in saying that, I want to note that the people who wrote it down did so under the inspiration of God.  Yes, they were relying on memories, but they were divinely-inspired memories.  You and I might be fuzzy on the details of something that happened thirty years ago.  But God was involved in the process of writing these gospels, and that helps us know they are accurate.

But the point is that the end times will come at some point.  We get a day closer to it every day.  And of course, even if the end times are a long way off yet, our own personal end time is also coming.  We get a day closer to that every day, too.  

So, we need to be ready.  How do we do that?

Well, the obvious answer is to have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  And that’s the correct answer.  And it’s tempting to just leave it at that.

But I’m not going to leave it at that, for two reasons.  One is that this would be a really short sermon if I did.  But the more important reason is that Peter, in our reading for today, did not just leave it that.  He agrees, of course, that we need to have faith in Jesus Christ.  But he goes on to talk about what that means.

First, he says, be prepared to suffer.  Well, that’s not something we want to hear, is it?  But Peter says, look, the rest of the world is going to live for selfish desires–in fact, Peter calls them, “evil human desires”.  He lists some of them:  debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.  I doubt that Peter meant that as the complete list, but I think we get the point.  

And Peter goes on to say that people who do those things–who live for selfish, human desires, are going to be surprised if you and I don’t.  They’re not going to understand why we don’t.  They’re going to feel a little bit guilty, when they see that you and I don’t.  And so, they’re going to try to get us to join them in their way of life.  And when we don’t, as Peter says, they will “heap abuse upon us.”

And I don’t want to move past that too quickly.  The influence of the world is strong.  Those things Peter listed–you see them everywhere.  You see them on TV.  You see them on the internet.  Sometimes you see them in the lives of people you know.  And we see an effort, right now, to make those things seem normal.  All kinds of behaviors, all kinds of activities, that not many years ago would have been roundly criticized, are now being brought into the mainstream of society, and even celebrated.  And if anyone does not celebrate them, they’re told they’re haters and bigots, and an effort is made to silence them.

The influence of the world is strong.  Resisting it is not easy.  But, as Peter said, we will all have to give an account to Christ, the one who is to judge the living and the dead.  Not that we earn our way into heaven–no one could ever be good enough to do that.  But our faith in Jesus Christ is shown by our actions.  If we believe in Jesus Christ, our behavior should show that we are doing our best to live as Jesus told us to live.  Not doing so perfectly–perfection is beyond us.  But doing the best we can.  And when we fail, asking for forgiveness and trying again.

But it’s not enough to just resist the influence of the world.  What is it that we should positively do?  Peter tells us that, too.  

First, “be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.”  Think about that.  Peter could’ve just said “pray”, but he did not.  He said, “Be alert and of sober mind, so that you may pray.”  We say that prayer is talking to God, and it is, but Peter reminds us that this is more than just casual conversation.  If we want to really get something out of our prayers, we need to focus.  We need to concentrate.  It’s okay, sometimes, to say just a quick prayer to God.  But if we really want to get closer to God, if we really want to feel God’s Holy Spirit with us, if we really want to live a life in which we do God’s will, we need to put some effort into our prayers.  We need to think about the fact that we are talking to the almighty, all-powerful God.  We need to go to Him with respect, as if our conversation with God was the most important conversation we will ever have.  Because, in fact, it is.

Then Peter says, “love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”  You see, it does not just matter what we do.  It matters how and why we do it.  There’s an echo here of what the Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians Thirteen:  if we have the gift of prophecy and all knowledge, if we have faith that can move mountains, if we give all we have to the poor, but do not have love, we are nothing.  

So that goes back to resisting the influence of the world, right?  When we resist, we need to do so in a loving way.  Any condemnation will be done by Jesus Christ–we don’t need to do that job for Him.

But, of course, love sometimes requires us to say things people don’t want to hear.  Have you ever had someone do that for you?  Someone who loved you enough to tell you that what you were doing was not right, was not acceptable, and that you needed to change?  I have.  I did not want to hear it at the time.  I was not happy to hear it at the time.  But as I look back on it now, I’m very fortunate that I had people in my life who loved me enough to tell me those things.

But again, they did it in a loving way.  And that’s the key,  It’s not easy to do that.  But sometimes, it’s what love requires.

Peter goes on to say that whatever gifts we’ve been given, we should use them to serve others.  Each one of us has been given gifts from God.  There has never been anyone who has not been given gifts from God.  We need to use those gifts to serve God.  

And when we speak, we need to speak the words of God.  That does not mean our every statement has to quote the Bible.  But it does mean that our words should reflect God in some way.  They should reflect God’s love.  They should reflect God’s grace.  That should reflect God’s mercy.  And they should reflect God’s glory.  We won’t do that perfectly, of course.  No human being can.  But that should be our goal.  

Think about the words you say.  Do they reflect God?  I don’t know about you, but too often, mine do not.  It’s something I need to work on.  And I suspect I’m not the only one.

And all of these things–showing God’s love, using the gifts God has given us, speaking the words of God–need to be done for the glory of God.  In other words, we need to stay humble.  We need to realize that any of those things that we do–anything good we ever do–is not because of our own goodness.  As Jesus said, no one is good but God alone.  Any time we do any of these things, it’s because of God.  And we need to give God the honor and glory, because God deserves it.

I don’t know if the end times will come sooner or later.  I don’t know if they’ll come in my lifetime or thousands of years from now.  But I know they will come.  And I know that my personal end time will come, too.  So will yours.  So let’s listen to the words of Peter.  Let’s resist the selfish, human desires of the world.  And let’s get ready.  Have faith in Jesus Christ, pray, show love, use our gifts, and speak the words of God.  If we do, then we don’t need to be afraid of the end times.  We will know that, when the time comes, by our faith and God’s grace, we will go to be with God in heaven.

Untroubled Hearts

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on April 16, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 14:1-7.

            When we think of Jesus’ commandments, we think of things like “love your neighbor as yourself.”  “Pray for those who persecute you.”  “Turn the other cheek.”  “Love your enemies.”  

            We talk about those commandments a lot in church.  We talk about how hard they are for us to do.  We talk about how we should do them, anyway.  We talk about how God will help us keep those commandments.

            But when we think of Jesus’ commandments, the one we read tonight rarely comes to mind.  In fact, I suspect most of us don’t even realize that there was a commandment in there.  But there was.  Here it is:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

            Have you ever thought of that as a commandment?   Well, until I started thinking about the message for tonight, neither had I.  But it is.  After all, what is a commandment?  It’s something the Lord has told us to do.  And Jesus told the disciples, and us, “do not let your hearts be troubled.”

            And just like those other commandments I mentioned, this one is not easy for us to keep.  It seems like there are an awful lot of things that trouble our hearts these days.  Some of them just have to do with the everyday things of life.  We have health concerns, we have financial concerns, we have concerns about our families and our friends.  Some of them have to do with events happening in our country, or in the world.  We see wars and threats of wars, we see economic problems, we see rampant crime.  Some of them have to do with our faith.  We are called to be faithful to God in a country, and in a world, that seems to be turning away from God.

            But you know, when Jesus said those words to the disciples, they had a lot of things troubling their hearts, too.  Jesus said these words on the night of the Last Supper.  The night on which He was to be arrested.  The day before He was to be killed.  The disciples did not know all that was going to happen, but they knew they were in trouble.  They knew the Pharisees and the other religious leaders were plotting against them.  They knew that things were coming to a head, and that something big was going to happen soon.  But they did not know what it was or how it would come out.

            And to top it all off, Jesus has just told them He will be leaving them soon.  They probably did not understand that He meant He would be killed, but they knew He would no longer be there for them.  They were wondering how they would go on without Him.  They were wondering what they were going to do.  

            To say the disciples were worried would be an understatement.  And then Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  Do you think that helped?  I mean, to me, it’s like when your wife is mad at you and you say, “Calm down.”  You’re probably going to get the exact opposite response from what you wanted.

            But Jesus tells them why their hearts should not be troubled.  First he says this, “You believe in God; believe also in Me.”

            Jesus understands why the disciples are worried.  He’s not mad at them for being worried.  But He’s saying to them, look, you really don’t need to be.  It’ll be all right.  Just trust Me.  Just believe in Me.  I’ll take care of you.

            But Jesus does not just leave it at that.  Jesus goes on to say, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am 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.”

            He’s telling the disciples, yes, I’m going away.  But it won’t be forever.  Hang in there.  Whatever happens to you here, it’ll only be temporary.  Because eventually, I’m going to come back.  And when I do, I’ll take you out of here.  I’ll take you to where I am, and we’ll all be together again.  

            And then, Jesus says this, “You know the way to the place where I am going.”

            Well, if the disciples' hearts were starting to get untroubled, this got them troubled again.  You can imagine them, staring at each other, with confused looks on their faces.  Finally, Thomas, of course, is the one to put into words what they’re all feeling.  “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

            And of course, Jesus answers, “I am the way.”  If we want to go to where Jesus is, we have to follow Him.  There’s no other way to do it.  There’s no one else we can follow who will get us to Jesus.  

And when we get to where Jesus is, there’s no reason for our hearts to be troubled.  Because, as Jesus says, “If you really know Me, you will know My father as well.”

When we follow Jesus, we eventually get to where Jesus is.  And when we are where Jesus is, we are in the presence of God the Father.  And at that point, there is no reason for our hearts to be troubled.  We are in the presence of God, and God will have everything handled.

We don’t know whether the disciples’ hearts became untroubled after this.  I somehow doubt it.  I imagine them thinking, well, yeah, that’s great that someday we’ll get to go to be with you in heaven.  And we look forward to that and everything.  But in the meantime, we’re here on earth.  We’ll be here, and You’ll be gone.  And we’ll have the Pharisees coming after us.  And maybe the Roman soldiers, too.  You’re going away, but we’re stuck here, having to deal with all this stuff without You.  How can you tell us to not let our hearts be troubled?

I suspect a lot of us feel that way sometimes, too.  We have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  We believe in Him.  We look forward to the day when we’ll be in heaven with Him and with all those who have gone before us.  It’ll be a great day.  It’ll be a grand reunion.

But in the meantime, we’re stuck here on earth.  And we have all those problems we talked about at the start of this message.  And we see the country and the world turning away from God.  How can our hearts not be troubled?

Well, the way we can do it is the way the disciples could do it.  Jesus goes on for the next few chapters telling them how to do it.  But what it amounts to is this.  Trust Me.  Believe in Me.  Be faithful to Me.  Do the things I’ve told you to do.  Love God.  Love each other.  Stay faithful no matter what may happen to you.  Yes, there will be times when things are bad for you here on earth.  But the Holy Spirit will be with you, and the Holy Spirit will help you through it.  And if you stay faithful to the end, you will go to be with Me in heaven.  As Jesus Himself puts it, “In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

Jesus has overcome the world.  He did not just do that for Himself.  He did that for us, too.   And knowing that, and believing it, and trusting it, is how we can keep our hearts from being troubled.  

            This world we live in now seems so real to us.  And it is real, of course.  And the thing is, it’s the only world we’ve ever known.  And so, too often, we act as if we believe it’s the only world that is.  I mean, yes, we say we believe in heaven.  But we’ve never been there.  We’ve never seen it.  We don’t know what it’s like.  

Because of that, there’s a sense in which it does not seem real to us, at least not in the way this world is.  And so, our focus is on the problems of this world.  Our focus is on the things we see and hear and experience here on earth.  And a lot of those things are troubling to us.  When we have problems, when the people we love have problems, when we see things going wrong in this country that we love, our hearts are troubled.  

But they don’t have to be.  Jesus knows we’re going to have trouble in this world.  That’s the way it’s set up, ever since sin entered the world through Adam and Eve.

But Jesus gave us a promise.  He promised that He has overcome the world.  He promised that He will come back to take us to be with Him.  And then, we will be where our hearts will never need to be troubled again.  We will have nothing but peace and joy and love, in the presence of the Lord.

When we look at the world, it’s hard for us to not let our hearts be troubled.  It was hard for the disciples, too.  But take heart!  Jesus has overcome the world.  If we stay faithful to Him, and trust Him, and believe in Him, then through Jesus’ power, we can overcome the world, too.  And we will never need to have our hearts be troubled again.