The God That Is Preparing Our New Home

Good morning. Welcome to CCC Glad to see each of you here with us this morning

Some wonderful news to share with you. Next week is Easter which is wonderful in and of itself but we will also be sharing in a baptism next Sunday and also the following Sunday.

What an honor to be a part of obedience. To share in the joy of a young Christian declaring to the world they love Jesus, they have accepted Jesus, and they are committing their life to following Jesus

With that said we are having Men’s breakfast this Saturday we start cooking and fellowship at 7 am and eating about 8 am followed by a devotion. This Saturday we will also help clean the area by behind the stage where we enter the baptistry as it is a mess. Men plan on being here for that.

Let’s Pray

Start OBS

This morning we continue with our The God That series with The God That Is Preparing Our New Home

I think as Christians we lose sight of heaven.

We lose sight of the fact that heaven is our home

We are just passing through this life

Visitors

Aliens

Foreigners

Our citizenship is in heaven and heaven is our home

We must strive to keep that perspective as we deal with the things of this world

Heaven is the final and perfect destination

Heaven is home

So many are caught up in the here and now that they miss the eternal

Heaven is home

As we speak Jesus is preparing a place for each and every true Christian

John 14:1-3

___________________________________________

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye 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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Brothers and sisters we have missed the truth of this scripture and the truth of Jesus Himself!

Let’s dive in shall we?

Let not your heart be troubled....

be troubled comes from a Greek word that means stir or agitate

let not your heart be stirred

Let not your heart be agitated

Websters 1828 has 4 definitions for stir

to move; to change place in any manner

to agitate; to bring into debate

to incite to action; to instigate; to prompt

to excite; to raise; to put into action

Again Websters 1828 for agitate

To stir violently; to move back and forth with a quick motion; to shake or move briskly as to agitate water in a vessel

to move or force into violent irregular action as the wind agitates the sea

to disturb or excite into tumult; as to agitate the mind or passions

to discuss; to debate; to controvert; as to agitate a question

to consider on all sides; to revolve in the mind or view in all its aspects; to contrive by mental deliberation as politicians agitate desperate designs

to move or actuate

Let not your heart be stirred or agitated

I listed all of these different definitions because I felt like they all fit at different times of our lives

How many times have you let your heart become troubled and as a result you moved or change place only to realize afterwards it was a big mistake or

you allowed your heart to be troubled and ended up in a debate that did nothing but damage and ruin friendships

Or your heart was so troubled it incited you to action that you regretted

Some of you have allowed your hearts to become so troubled that you stir violently

rage

outbursts

self destructive behavior such as drug or alcohol addiction

turning to porn or sex

over eating to an extreme

losing yourself in netflix or tiktok or other social media things that drive you further and further from God

Jeremiah 17:9

___________________________________________

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Your heart

my heart is desperately wicked

it is the seat of your emotions and it is wicked

That is why truths like what Jesus is speaking of in John 14 are so important

Let not your heart be troubled........

Now some may say that John 14 and Jeremiah 17 contradict each other.....far from it

Jeremiah 17:9 is true so

Is John 14:1

Jesus was calling on you in John 14 to remember that your heart is wicked and the way to not let it be troubled is to keep it focused on Him

Jesus is saying here in John 14 that heaven is real

Heaven is our goal

He is preparing a place for each of us in heaven and if we focus on that our hearts will not be troubled

Church this is powerful stuff right here

You and I fail at this more than we get it right

This takes true Christian maturity.....Holy Spirit power

I like to claim I am a pretty stress free individual

I fully believe that lie some days but if I am honest and if you are honest our hearts are almost constantly stirred and/or agitated

God revealed to me Tuesday morning just how stirred and agitated my heart really is

When I..we…you....me…focus our attention…spend our time....consume worldly things our hearts will always be troubled

I struggle with a few things.....okay a lot of things....even though God delivered me from a porn addiction my flesh and mind are at constant war with Jesus and the Holy Spirit

I have no desire to look at porn....God destroyed that desire but our society has sexualized everything so you can’t even read a sports news story without seeing some sort of sexualized content

Why do you think that is?

To make our hearts troubled.

Advertisers don’t just want you to see content they want that content to stir you or agitate you

Best case scenario is you go by the product, now with smartphones it is much easier because you can impulse buy that product from your couch.

The world understands the world.

satan understands his children.....don’t take my word for it

I John 3:8-10

___________________________________________

“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

We are born sinful by nature…children of the devil....our nature is also sexual......that used to not be an issue until one reached an age where their body was maturing sexually

today we live in a hyper-sexual society where sex is sold and taught at early ages......drag time at libraries for kids and in schools.....elementary schools

that is by design.....the devils design to draw us further and further away from God by causing our hearts to be troubled.....stirred....agitated.

My flesh....your flesh…by nature....by birth are evil and sinful full of fleshly lust and desire

For me what happens is when I see something on social media…the sexual stuff is easy for me to pass…block…attempt to ignore

However the more I am exposed to it the more my heart is troubled

The more my mind begins to dwell upon the worldly thoughts the more I begin to justify watching..enjoying..laughing at evil things

Example. Many know I was at a state principal’s conference this past week for a couple of days

The 1st night…Sunday night we had a dinner followed by a national comedian/actor. It started okay but then a cuss word slipped in followed by several others....then a religious joke…then an all out attack on God and Christ through the jokes

I should have gotten up and went back to my room. I didnt. I chose to stay and allow that filth to penetrate my heart and mind

My heart was troubled but that was a result of staying instead of leaving

Why did I fail to leave?

i had been feeding on worldly things…

social media..

how I spent my free time…

lack of consistent…committed secret place time all led to a place where I failed to focus on heaven and leave.

Jesus is teaching this truth in John in relation to death…physical death and what follows in the spiritual but it applies to everyday life!

God also this week really laid my heart my physical health or lack thereof on my heart. I again give in to my troubled heart and eat all the wrong things and way too much of those things

I justify away lack of exercise

I am not relying on Jesus but Josh and look where it got me

46 years old 400 pounds…

a diabetic in denial

and headed for an early grave because of my sinful choices....letting my heart be troubled

Father take that from me…replace my desire for earthly..physical food and comfort with your food, your Word and your comfort

It may not be worldly pleasure or food for you but many chose to be troubled by anxiety or fear or depression or greed or pride or unforgiveness or work or hobbies or whatever you turn to instead of God that makes your hearts troubled

You become servants of bank accounts and debt and hobbies and self-desire

You leave the protection of the Father for the destruction of the world!

When you let your heart be troubled you open the flood gates to sin and the world and satan

So what do you do? What do we do?

You believe in God believe also in me

John 14:6

___________________________________________

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Here is the deal…belief without action is dead.

Works don’t save you

only Jesus saves you but works will always follow true salvation

So many think of fruit as serving and it is

Many thing of fruit as actions and it is

But fruit..the result of salvation because of the Holy Spirit living inside of you…is also thoughts and beliefs and attitudes

let not your heart be troubled.

That takes the Holy Spirit....that is fruit of the Holy Spirit

Without faith…belief in Jesus who cares if He prepares a place for you

If you have a true relationship with Jesus the fact He is preparing a place for you means everything to you

Look at verse 3....And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also

It is not about the place but about Jesus!

Praise God one day you and I as Christians will be with Jesus

That is why our hearts are not troubled…Jesus!!!!

How much of Jesus are you putting into you??????

Church Jesus was completely opposite of the world. Today His church, you and me, blend into the world

Our hearts are troubled

We are stirred and agitated

We are full of anxiety and worry and depression and fear and addiction instead of being full of Jesus and God’s Word and the peace that passeth all understanding...

We focus on bank accounts and job promotions instead of being focused on our neighbors who are hurting and broken...

We focus on putting the First church of the lake or the golf course or the baseball field or this or that instead of God and His church and living to fellowship with our body....you and I....Christians are the body of Christ....brothers and sisters in Christ that are called to gather and celebrate God together

We don’t bat an eye at spending $6 on a coffee but tithe nope cant do that

We find time to sit mindlessly for hours each week watching tiktock or looking at facebook or watching wordly movies or tv full of sin and blasphemy....check your screen time…I am not lying…but can’t find time to come to church and bible study and help with youth and ministry

Our hearts are troubled because we have become so worldly we have lost sight of the fact this world is not our home

Heaven is our home and heaven will be awesome. Jesus prepares your and my mansions

Streets of gold

Crystal seas

New heaven

New Earth

New Jerusalem

New bodies

Treasures....yes you store up treasures in heaven by the work of God you do on this earth and yes some will have a few treasures and some will have many

All of that is awesome but that is not why heaven is our home

Heaven is our home because God and Jesus are there

We will walk with them in reality

We will speak with them

We will have every tear wiped away from our eyes by Jesus Himself

no more pain

NO more tears

no more evil

no more sin

Just God and Jesus and Us in perfection

Pure holiness

That is the place that Jesus prepares for us right now

the question is are you in?

If you are not saved you are not in

If you have never accepted Jesus today is the day…come

If you are saved maybe this morning you realized that you are focused on all the wrong things and your heart is troubled

Come give that to Him this morning