4 Steps To Peace Of Mind, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Whenever you and I leave this body to be present with the Lord, I leave this earth to be present with God, Christ receives me. My thought is the very first thing that will happen to me, whenever the machine in the intensive care unit, a DJ, says that, he's gone. The first thing I see is Christ, welcome, welcome, absent from the body, present with the Lord, welcome, it's good to ring out.

How cool is that? Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. On Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. We're totally depraved sinners. What do totally depraved sinners do? They sin.

Against themselves, against God, and against each other. Stuff happens here. There's a lot of bad stuff that happens here. And the more coverage we get through social media and media, you realize how much bad stuff is going on. I often wonder this, don't you think now by watching anything you think it's worse than it's ever been? Is it worse than it's ever been or simply being reported anything that happens anywhere is reported to you immediately? And you go, this is really terrible. How bad have people been?

They've been incredibly bad. Oh, by the way, we're not just all sinners. We live on a cursed planet. So the planet's cursed and we're all sinners.

What is that a prescription for? Trouble. You're going to have trouble.

You've got them in every way. Relationally, you're going to have trouble. Diseases, trouble. Economy, trouble. Marriages, trouble. Child-rearing, trouble. There's trouble everywhere.

Nothing's going to change that. But Jesus says, look, you've got to believe, though, your future is assuredly great. He says, in My Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, and I'd go and I'd prepare a place for you.

What they want to know, where are you going, right? What did Jesus say? I'm going home. You see, I'm going home. Notice what He calls home, My Father's house. He could have said heaven.

He didn't. I'm going to My Father's house. He said, in My Father's house are many dwelling places.

It's an interesting thing. If you grew up on the King James Version, you feel now like once they've started to accurately translate this, you got gypped. If you read the King James Version, it says, in My Father's house are many mansions. That speaks to us, right? We're all getting a mansion.

It's going to be great. There's nothing even in the Greek close to mansion, nothing there at all. In fact, the reason we even have a word in Greek, mansion, is the Latin Vulgate, which was a later translation of the Greek text, used the word mansionus, mansionus, a Latin word. So, the King James translators translate that literally, mansions, only off the Latin Vulgate, which was a bad translation of the Greek.

The Greek word here is simply the word monae. That's the only word it means, and it means an abiding place. It means an abiding place. And it comes, monae comes from meno, which means a dwelling place. So, it's an abiding dwelling place. That's why the numeric and standard newer translation is called a dwelling place. It's not a mansion, but it is home.

That's an amazing thing when you think about it. It is home. Jesus says it this way. Why? He said, if this weren't true, how do you cope in a world full of trouble?

I cope with it because I know that there's something much better for me, much, much better. It's going to be great. It's not going to be great for a while. It's going to be great forever. It's just an amazing thought when you think about it, an overwhelming thought, and it's my home. You see, you're going to my father's house, and it's big.

I mean, it's really big. Hold your place there with me and go to Revelation 5, Revelation 5-11. By the way, if you want to lift your spirits one day, just read Revelation 5. It's a future glimpse into heaven. There's not too many of them we get in Scripture, but this one's pretty cool.

But 5-11, John says this. And then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. Now, the reason those numbers are there is that's all the numbers John has. Myriads of myriads is ten-thousands of ten-thousands. That's the biggest number they have.

They don't have a number. We could say trillion, but they say myriads, ten-thousands. Ten-thousands times ten-thousands. And thousands of thousands, a thousand thousands is a million. Ten-thousands, ten-thousands, you can see where the number starts going. It's countless. It's an amazing thing. And guess what they're all doing?

Singing. Could you imagine that? Could you imagine billions upon billions of angels and humans singing all together? It's an amazingly big place. You see, and you think in a way, well, it's that big. It's going to be sort of like, I mean, jazz fest or something. You know, it's going to be that we're just in the crowd.

No, it's not like that at all. Let's go back to John 14 for just a moment. In my father's house are many dwelling places, but were not so I would have told you. And I go and I prepare a place for you. There are myriads of myriads of beings in heaven now. But there's a place in heaven, I'll use this idea, there's a door in heaven. And on it it says, Bill with one L. That's my place.

Isn't that phenomenal? You have a place. And Jesus said, I'm going to go and prepare it for you.

For you. Every child of his, I go and prepare it for you. It's your place.

I'm not in the crowd. I've got my place. Paul Tournier, the great Swiss psychologist, said that one of the most basic human instincts is we all need a home. We need a home.

He said it's a basic human instinct. I need a place that's my home. And that's what God gives us. He gives us a place that is home. What a great forever home. He said, I go and I 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. Wow.

What a terrific idea when you think about it. He says in verse 3, he said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. Two basic interpretations of that.

I happen to like the second one. The first one is he's talking about the second coming. At the second coming, he'll call the church to himself and he'll call us home. And I think there's truth to that. He will receive us to himself.

Tony Evans was the first guy I heard that talked about the other. He said, for each and every one of us, because he's emphasizing the singular here, whenever you and I leave this body to be present with the Lord, I leave this earth to be present with God, Christ receives me. My thought is the very first thing that will happen to me, whenever the machine in the intensive care unit, a DJ, says that, he's gone.

And some of you, oh, it's just terrible. He's gone. The first thing I see is Christ. Welcome. Welcome.

Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Welcome. It's good to bring you home. How cool is that?

I mean, that's an amazing thing. Now, it's sad for those who love you at home, but not for you. That's why we had, Matt wrote a song that, based on what I say, the best day of your life is the last day.

Now, I didn't say it is for your family and your friends. That's a hard day. But for you, what a day. I'm with him. He's welcomed me home.

And I can just see you sort of going through and you say, no, see over there, go look at the door. Yeah, there's my name. There's your place, Bill.

Welcome home. I mean, it's an amazing thing when you think about what he's doing. His third step is you must believe in my promise. He said, that's what I'm telling you. I go and I prepare a place for you.

You've got to believe me. So, if I know that my future is assuredly great, nothing can change it. I know that the Lord is going to welcome me into heaven himself.

All of a sudden, I start thinking that I can cope with what happens living as a sinful person on a cursed planet. I can cope with this. You see, I don't need to numb it. I don't need to medicate it or drink it to such a point that I'm numb. That doesn't help anything because sooner or later, I'm not medicated and I'm not drinking and I still feel the same anxiety and depression I felt before. That doesn't do anything to solve my situation.

All that does is numb it. What Jesus is saying, look, believe me. You need to believe in me.

You need to believe that you have an assuredly great future and you need to believe what I'm promising you. You see, that's what I'm doing. And he's saying to these men who are having enormous trouble with the time. It's a profound thought. I don't know if you've thought about it. One of the great desires in the universe is Jesus Christ wants to be with me and you. I want you to think about that.

Not that you believe in him, you're going to go somehow and you become some number. I want to spend eternity with you, just with you. So much so that I died for you so you could be with me. I want to be with you. See, we all want to be with him because it's way better than the alternative, right?

That's for sure. But he's saying, no, I want to be with you. How does that make you feel? The creator of everything wants to spend eternity with you.

You see, that changes your frame of reference and your way of thinking and everything you could possibly want. It's profound. Karl Barth, the great German theologian, one of the great theologians since the Reformation, he started what was called neo-orthodoxy, new orthodoxy in Germany. It was a reaction against all the liberalism in Germany. Barth was a genius. Now, his form of neo-orthodoxy isn't mine. We would disagree on a lot, but he is true genius. One of the most brilliant men since the Reformation who would call himself Christian. And Barth was asked the question at a conference. He's asked, what is the single most profound thing you've ever learned?

That's a pretty big subject matter. Here's what Karl Barth said. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Think of that. That's the most profound thing I've ever heard. Jesus loves me.

Wow. That's an amazing thought. Because you're so lovable. Because you're just like him.

You almost never sin. He just chose for you to be the object of his love. It's an amazing thing. It's profound. It's wonderful. It should have a great effect on us. Almighty God wants to spend eternity with me and you. How does that make you feel? You see, that's an important part. David Jeremiah writes this.

He said, listen to me. This is the way you win the battle over your anxiety. Great victories are never won by those who have no trouble. The people who don't have any trouble aren't on the front line.

They're back home waiting for the people on the front line to fight the war for them. No, you don't win victories by not having any trouble. Nor do you win victories by fearing that the battle was already lost and there's nothing that can be done about it. But if you know in your heart that victory is ultimately already won and that the end of it is already clear, if you're in a war and you're fighting in a battle and you know you're going to win and you know it's going to come out on your side, then you fight that war with great confidence. He said you can fight with confidence. You can live with confidence. That's what I'm here to tell you. That's so perceptive and true. No matter what happens around us, we have confidence. The battle's over. You see the cross and the resurrection, it's over. You and I should fight from that point of view.

Let me use an illustration I've used before. When the Saints won their single only Super Bowl, Velma and I were watching the game, and if I could say, what was the picture of you like as you watched the game? It was horrible. Until Porter intercepted that pass, I was just unbelievable angst, anxiety. About two years later on one of the channels they ran, they did a game again, the full game, the whole game. And so I watched it.

It was unbelievable. Not a shred of anxiety. Why? Because I knew who won. Then why are you anxious?

Why are you living like this instead of this? You've won. It's over. The battle's been fought. It's over. You've won. You see, there's no need to feel all of this tremendous pressure and anxiety that we feel.

It's just the way it works. So Jesus says, look, believe in me, believe your future is assuredly great, and you need to believe my promise is sure. And then he says in four through six, you must believe in my plan.

Why wouldn't we? He said, and you know the way where I'm going. He assumed that with him.

They don't know. He's talking on one level, and they're listening on another, and that can happen. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How do we know the way?

Jesus is so funny. Instead, he said, well, let me explain the way again. He said, look, I'll simplify it for you. I'll make this as simple as possible. This way, you don't have to try to figure out the way. One of the great verses in the entire Bible, verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me. I don't know the way.

You know me. I'm the way. You see, I am the way.

He can't be clearer than he is right there. Notice he doesn't say, I am a way, you see, or I know of a way. I am the way. I am the truth. If you know me, you know the truth. If you know me, you know the way.

And you know what that adds up in? I am the life. See, if you know Christ, you know the way and the truth in Christ, you know the life. I have eternal life. What life do I have?

His. I have his life. So do you. That's why it's eternal. I have eternal life.

I have him. He says, oh, by the way, there's no other way. That is very unpopular in our world. I mean, what does our world say? It's not new with this, but what does our world say? There's thousands of ways. Every way leads to the same God.

Everything works the same. Everyone gets to go. No matter what it is you believe, everyone.

It's amazing. I actually heard years ago on television here a Catholic priest that was teaching at Notre Dame, and he actually said this. He was saying how every way gets the God, and he was debating an evangelical pastor in the area. And he said, as long as they're sincere. And so the pastor asked him a straight question. You mean if I'm a sincere atheist, I'm going to spend forever with God?

He said, if you're sincere. Every way leads. The world loves that.

Who wouldn't like that? Everyone goes to heaven no matter what. I'm not exclusive. Look, there's already billions of souls there.

I don't care if there's more to marry or to me. I don't really care about that, but I do care about what he said. And he said, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one will come to the Father but through me.

And boy, there's no newness to this at all. The Romans believed in thousands of deities, thousands. They could absorb any culture in their religion because they believed all of them were the same. Isn't that interesting?

How'd that turn out, though? If you read the Book of Acts, by the way, what was the church called in the first century? What was the church called? They weren't called the church. They were called the way. The Romans said, you know what they're like? They believe that they're the only way to God. They did. And in 300 and some years, they overcame the whole Roman Empire. And by the way, you can't remember hardly any of those thousands of deities now.

They're gone. You see, is there an exclusiveness to Jesus Christ? Yes. And you know why? He's God incarnate. That's why. The position of God is pretty exclusive. You see, everything else that exists is not God. There's just God and not God. And you can't make not God gods. There's only God. And this is why Jesus said this.

Here's my plan. I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one finds. You see, no one will come to the Father but through me. And it's not unusual in Scripture. Acts 4, 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. 1 Timothy 2, 5, for there is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.

There's no other way to do this. Now, the Bible does address the way we think in our culture. Proverbs, there is a way that seems right to a man, and it ends in destruction.

And that's the culture in which we live. Do not let your heart be troubled, imperative mood. That means that you and I can do something about our anxiety. But I pray for all of you.

If you suffer from a lot of anxiety, depression, fear, there's no reason for it. If you know Christ and you know just what he said, there's no reason for that. Jesus said to you, you must believe in me, you must believe your future is assuredly great, you must believe my promise is sure, and you must believe in my plan.

You already believe that Christ's death is the way you have a relationship forever with God. He says, now believe these things. And remember, he's telling him the disciples are having the worst night of their life. They're having a terrible time.

And by the way, they didn't get it very well. The next day, he's crucified. How many of his disciples are at the cross?

One. John took those words and said, I'm going right to the cross. I don't fear what the Romans or the Jews can do. What the others do, they hid out.

What Peter did, he denied the Lord. So this isn't easy to apply to our lives. Boy, it's essential that we do, though. The only thing between peace and comfort and anxiety and fear that you feel is one word. Trust.

Ask yourself the question, do I trust him? The choice is yours. Let's pray. Father, we all face bouts of this.

It appears in the country in which we live, it's become epidemic to us. We are so full of anxiety and depression and fear, we are trying to do everything we can to mask it, to just do something to numb our fears and our anxiety. But Father, we who know Jesus Christ, we who know who he is, we who know what our future is, we can, with all of our faith and trust, believe him when he speaks to us. We don't have to have troubled hearts. That choice is ours. We can look at our circumstances or we can listen to our Lord.

Father, I pray we make the right choice. In Jesus' name, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .