5/9/21 John 14:23-29 “You Can Sleep When the Wind Blows!”

07 May 5/9/21 John 14:23-29 “You Can Sleep When the Wind Blows!”

5/9/21  John 14:23-29        “You Can Sleep When the Wind Blows!”

Welcome all on this Mother’s Day.  There have been many things said about this day and how we should celebrate it or how we shouldn’t celebrate it.  It wouldn’t surprise me at all if there was a group out there that didn’t want us to celebrate either Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.  Maybe in today’s world they might even riot, if they get paid enough.  I’m not going to go down that road today because I think that it is a grand idea to celebrate Mother’s and I think that Jesus would approve.  He wants us to celebrate good things and this is definitely a good thing.  I remember once, I had the honor to visit with a young man, who was the young age of 96.  We visited about God, baseball, farming and many other things.  One of the other things that we talked of was his mother.  Even at 96 years young, he still had fond memories of his mother.  His mother had obviously left a good legacy for her children.  I think that is all any of us parents would really want.  We would like to be remembered fondly when our children are 96.  Happy Mother’s Day.  Today, I would like us to take a little look at the legacy that Jesus left for us.

I would like to begin with a little stroll down memory lane.  For those of you who are under 50 years of age, you will not be able to relate to the first part of this.  When I was a kid, we got our first TV around 1954 or so.  And for many years we only had one TV in the house.  The TV was a big console and it was heavy.  It had a round screen and it would take a while for it to warm up and come on.  When we shut it off, there would be a dot in the middle of the screen that stayed on for a few seconds.  One of the shows we used to watch was Disneyland on Saturday night.  Please remember that we got our TV programming from Canada so Disney was on Saturday.  Our mother used to get us all cleaned up as it was also bath night.  We would get our one bottle of pop for the week, as pop wasn’t put in cans yet, and then we would sit back and watch Disney.  I have some fond memories of some of the snacks and things that happened on Saturday night.  It was a fun family night.  I have many other memories of my mother that are also great.  She left me with many fine thoughts.  I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my mother and father.  If we look at our Scripture, we find that Jesus has also left us a legacy that makes us who we are.

The first and most obvious legacy that Jesus leaves us is love.  He tells us that if we love Him then He will make His home in us.  Chapter 14 holds some great comfort for the disciples and us.  This is part of the farewell that Jesus gives to the disciples.  Most of this they probably didn’t understand until much later.  They are all probably feeling pretty proud about now because they all feel that they all love Jesus, all except Judas.

One of the things I like about the ancient languages is that they had many words that meant love.  In our world today we only have one word.  The way Jesus uses the word love is not like we would use at all.  He is not talking about that soft, mushy feeling that we associate with romance.  This modern type of love that we see on TV and in movies is where my grandson and I used to have to turn off the TV or turn our heads or close our eyes as it was too mushy.  The love that Jesus is talking about has nothing to do with this.  It is much more all-encompassing.

This is agape love or love that is an all-out passion for something or someone.  It is unmerited and selfless.   This is the type of love that Jesus showed for us when He stood up against the Pharisees.  This is the type of love He showed for the Father when He cleared the Temple.  Everything that He did, He did out of love, agape love.  I think that this is an important concept for all of us to grab onto.  I have never found a place in the Bible where I have had to close my eyes because of the love scenes.  And if you think about it, the Bible is full of these love scenes.  The love that Jesus has and shows is very different from the love we normally talk about in our world.

Jesus talks of this love that will be inside of us if we have faith.  This is basically an altar call.  Do you know Jesus?  Are you tired of going it alone in life?  Will no one ever listen to you?  Does life just sometimes get you down?  There is a way out of all of these problems and more and it lies in Jesus Christ.  All you have to do is confess your sins to Him and ask Him to walk with you as your Lord God, and He will be there to help you out of any situation.  You will always have someone to talk to and He will listen.  You can bounce ideas off of Him, you can get mad at Him or you can just seek peace in Him.  He will always be there and He will never ever condemn you.  This is what this first part tells us.

Then as we read on in verse 24 and we find a little about judgment.  If we don’t love Him or walk with Him, then we will not obey His teaching.  If you think about this, it is pretty harsh.  If you don’t know God, then the only time you will obey his commands is when it happens by accident.  This takes into account all the people that we know who only give lip service to God and then do whatever they feel like doing.  Our churches in this country are full of these people.  This also takes into account the people who talk about how they know God and work very hard for Him.  In reality they don’t know Him at all.  What good does it do to work so hard for God when you don’t even know who He is?  There are many of these people around too.

I think that there is a little test you can give yourself to see if you really know God or not.  This test is just a personal guideline that I use.  This is the point of the service where I should be handing out paper and pencils for the test.  But I don’t think that is necessary as it is only one question.  Do you know without a shadow of doubt where you will be spending eternity?  If you don’t hesitate in answering, then you are probably ok, that is if you said, “Yes, I will be in heaven.”  However, if you hesitated you might be in trouble.  If you only think you know where you will be, then you might be in trouble.  If you truly know God then you will know absolutely where you will spend eternity.  There should be no doubt or hesitation.  Doubt or hesitation come from not knowing God.  They also come when we are in a crisis or in trouble of some kind.  Trust in Jesus and throw away doubt.

The second thing that He is leaving the disciples and us is the Holy Spirit.  The disciples don’t even know what He is talking about here.  They don’t understand that he is leaving in the first place so how would they know what He will be sending in his place.  Jesus is sending the Counselor to them to teach them and to remind them of all the things that He has already taught them.

We need to be reminded of the teachings in the Bible today.  I think that this is one of the reasons why we should be attending church every Sunday.  We need the constant reminders of what we should be doing.  I had a fellow tell me one time that I must not be a very good preacher because he asked a couple of people who were at last week’s service what I had said and they couldn’t remember.  He didn’t realize that this happens in every church in this country every Sunday.  I don’t think that it is my job to make you remember every sermon I give.  But it is my job to lay out the principles of Jesus to you every week so that you may walk with Him a little easier.  It is up to me to allow the Holy Spirit to work through me to remind you of what Jesus has already taught you.  The Holy Spirit is doing for you today the exact same thing that He was going to do for the disciples 2000 years ago.  I think that it is just amazing how timeless our Lord and our Bible really are!

One of the things that cause us a lot of trouble today is that we cannot see the Holy Spirit.  For many this means that He doesn’t exist.  They tell us that science has proven over and over that the Holy Spirit and God do not exist.  Well, I, for one, know that they do exist and they are as real as you are watching this.  So how do I take this knowledge, this faith and tell others?  I do this by telling you that we have to keep reading and praying and gathering together.  Ken Ham did a DVD series a few years ago that I showed at our churches.  It tells us of what God is really like.  It was so good that we have shown it in several places and even given it away once.  I need to keep showing things like this Ken Ham series.  I know that many people will refuse to listen to this but I have to keep showing it anyway.  I know that there are many people who don’t need to see it because their faith is so strong.  I know that there are many who have seen it or want to see is so that they have an answer when someone attacks their faith.

But I also know that there are many who need to see it so that they can believe.  As a society we live in a world where seeing is believing.  Ken Ham starts in the Bible and applies the very principles of science that we live by to the Scriptures.  What he ends up with is that the Bible is everything that it says it is.  The world was created in six actual days by God.  There was a great flood that covered the whole world.  There are dinosaurs in the Bible and we are all descendants of Adam and Eve.  He proves all of these things and many more by using the very science that we all believe.  Many of you folks don’t need to see this as your faith is so strong.  But I would guess that 80% of this country needs this type of thing to get them going in the right direction.  We want these people to hear so that they will follow the teachings of Christ.

The last legacy that Jesus tells us that he is leaving for us in this passage is peace.  Once again, I don’t think that the disciples at this time know what He is talking about.  If anything, they would be thinking that they would be free of the Romans and have peace.  They will know what this is later as the Holy Spirit, who we have just talked about, will remind them.

This is a peace that we don’t understand.  Take a look around the world.  Is there peace?  No, there are wars everywhere.  Just this past little while, we are reminded again that we are in a war that we like to deny.  Whether we like it or not, whether it is politically correct or not, we are in a holy war.  We don’t have to be rocket scientists to be able to figure this one out.  I don’t mean that we should start to pick up guns but we do have to realize the situation.  We are not at peace.  This has gone on for years and could go on for years in the future.  We could sure use some peace in this area.  But that is not the peace that Jesus has in mind.

Our country has also just passed legislation for $1.4 trillion spending bill.  We have many people who are for this and many who are against this.  I have found that there are very few people who are in the middle.  So, we have all these people on one side against all these people on the other side.  Both sides are calling each other names and lying as much as they can to get people to think their way.  It gets to be very tiring when there is no one in the middle.  We need some peace in this area but this wasn’t what Jesus had in mind.

A few years ago, Franklin Graham was uninvited to speak at the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer.  The reason given for this was that he dared to speak the truth about Islam.  But Franklin Graham did not get upset or anything.  He simply went to Washington and prayed anyway.  Praying is one thing that, no matter who is in charge of this country, they cannot stop us from doing.  Mr. Graham has the peace that Jesus was talking about.

The peace that Jesus left the disciples and us is the peace we get when we are in a walk with Jesus.  It is the peace that we have that no matter what happens, we can turn to Jesus for help.  This is a peace that our enemies don’t understand and they don’t like.   This is a peace that we are missing in this country and our world.  We live in a world controlled by Satan and look at all the bad things that he has done.  We need the inner peace of Jesus.

Jesus then promises to come back to us again.  As far as I’m concerned, this will happen just like the sun will rise again tomorrow.  Jesus Christ leaves us with love that is everywhere.  He does this through the Holy Spirit who is everywhere.  All of this leaves us a peace that is really hard to describe.  Lleven Rodriguez tells the story of a farmer who lived on the Atlantic Ocean who needed help on his farm.  He was having a hard time getting help because the weather is harsh along the ocean.  Finally, a small man who was well over middle age came and wanted the job.  The farmer asked him if he was a good farm hand.  The man replied, “Well, I can sleep when the wind blows.”

The farmer thought that this was a rather strange answer but he was desperate so he hired him.  It turned out that he made a wise decision and was very satisfied with his work until one night when a storm was coming and the wind was howling.  The farmer jumped out of bed and ran to the building next door where the hired hand slept.  He yelled at the little man, “Get up!  A storm is coming!  Help me tie things down before they blow away!”  The little man just rolled over and said, “No sir.  I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.”  This made the farmer really mad and he thought of firing the guy on the spot.  But there was too much to do in a hurry before the storm was fully upon them.   The farmer ran out to prepare his farm for the storm.  He discovered to his amazement that the haystacks had been covered.  The cows were in the barn, the chickens in the coop and the doors were barred.  Everything was secured.  It then dawned on the farmer what this hired hand had meant when he said that he could sleep when the wind blows.

Today, I challenge you to deepen your faith walk with Jesus so that when the storms of life are upon you that you too will be able to sleep when the wind blows.  You do this by having total trust and faith in Jesus Christ.  This is a dream of all mothers and fathers.  Happy Mother’s Day and praise the Lord.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.