Dear Fellow Believers,

Do you ever get this feeling? You wish you could be at the next stage of your life. But, once you get there, you wish you could go back. As children we want to be teenagers. As teenagers we want to be adults. As adults we wish we could be kids again. The lives of children are so simple, aren’t they? Why? because children generally don’t have to worry. Children don’t usually worry about making meals, buying clothes, or paying bills. When children do have a problem, they always have a place to turn: HOME. Home is a very special place to all of us. Home is where everything is O.K. Home is where people love us. Home is where we can forget about our problems. Ideally, that’s what home is. This morning, in his own words Jesus again reveals the truth that so many of us know. Home Heals a Heavy Heart. Yes, Home Heals a Heavy Heart. So, it is important to know where home is and how to get there. First, Jesus will show you that I) Your home is in heaven. Second, He will show you that II) You know the way home.

Because we so readily make earth our home, we easily acquire a troubled heart. Those who make earth their home quickly learn to fear separation. Unfortunately, separation becomes a natural part of life. Once we become adults, as we wanted so badly, we separate from our old home to make a new home. Before long we lose contact with the old home. We don’t talk to mom and dad or brothers and sisters very often. We see them even less. Years later separation becomes more real when mom and dad die. The years continue to pass and friends begin to die. The separation never seems to end. Every stage of life has its own situations of separation, none easier than the last. Soon we are completely separated from all we knew and loved, from our home, and we too die.

As Jesus spoke with his disciples after their last Passover meal together, they too were facing another separation. Jesus had just told them that he would be leaving them very soon. The disciples were shocked. They wanted to know where Jesus was going. They wanted to go with him. No, they could not go; they could not follow him, not now. Separation from Jesus troubled the disciples deeply. They had left their families, their friends, their jobs, their homes to be with him. For three years he led them and taught them. He was their best friend, their family, their home. Now he was leaving them? Their hearts were heavy.

The problem is not that we fear separation; it’s why we fear separation. Most of the time we fear separation because we have attached ourselves to the wrong things. We make earth our home. Ever since our great grandparents lost our true home, we have been taking up permanent residence in the wrong place. Your home is heaven.

Home used to be the Garden of Eden. Home used to be what we dream about, a place without worries or concerns. We used to live with God. He took care of our every need. He provided the food. We didn’t need clothes. We even liked our worked. Then we sinned. Because of our selfish desire and ambition, we lost our home.

Ever since then, sin has separated us from our true home. Now we try to make our home in this world, but this world is full of our sin. We have to work hard to put food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. In this earthly home our hearts sink with worries and concerns. This morning Jesus again points us to our true home. Your home is in heaven and Home in Heaven Heals a Heavy Heart.

Jesus said. "Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you." All the while you have been trying to make a home on earth, your room in heaven has been waiting for you.

Everybody wants to have his or her own room. Your own room signifies acceptance and security. Even though I haven’t lived at my parent’s house for more than three months at a time over the past seven years, I still have my own room there. I know that at any time I can go home and I am wanted. At home there is someone to take care of my problems. At home there is someone to listen. At home I am safe. How much more my heavenly home! How much more your heavenly home!

Right now your room in heaven is prepared. Jesus himself prepared it. It signifies that you are welcome. It signifies that you will be safe there. God is your Father. He wants nothing more than to have you at home. At your home in heaven your Father will not only listen to all of your problems, he will erase them from your mind. At your home in heaven danger will not attack you. Nothing will be able to harm you. I bet you can’t wait to get there. It won’t be long now.

Jesus said, "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." What happens every time a mother lets go of her newborn baby? He cries, and cries, and cries until he is back in his mother’s arms. Since our birth into this sinful world, we have been crying out. We want so badly to be back with our Father in heaven. Jesus, our brother has promised to take us there. Like the big brother that carries the baby back to his mother’s loving arms, Jesus will take us home to our Father in heaven. Home Heals a Heavy Heart and Your home is in heaven.

In heaven our heavy hearts will turn to joy because we will finally be home. We will finally be reunited to our Father and Brother and the entire family of believers. Our Father will provide for us. Our Brother will take care of our every need. The rest of our family, those we thought we lost here on earth, will join us again to give praise and honor and glory to him who brought us home.

Therefore, do not let your hearts be troubled while living here on earth. Keep on believing in God and in Jesus. Keep on believing in God’s promises. Learn to forget the promises this world offers. Its happiness rusts, decays, and withers. Children have the same cares we have; they just don’t worry because they trust their parents to take care of them. Trust God to take care of you. Trust him to care for all of your needs until he takes you home. Your home is in heaven. His Home will Heal your Heavy Heart.

You can be confident that Home will Heal your Heavy Heart not only because your home is heaven, but also because you know the way home.

Getting lost is the worst feeling, isn’t it? If anything will give you a heavy heart, it is being lost. Although we know the way home, we often get lost. There are two reasons for this. One, we don’t pay attention. Two, we get distracted.

As the disciples tried to find their way home, they got lost because they weren’t paying attention. For three years Jesus had been giving them directions. He told them that his Father had sent him from home to this earth. He even described his home for them in parables. Again and again he told them that he had to return home. Yet, when Jesus told his disciples he was leaving them, they wanted to know where he was going. Hello?

We can’t be too hard on the disciples because we don’t pay attention either. For many more than three years we have been coming to hear Jesus speak to us every week. Many of us also heard him speaking in school, and Sunday school, and confirmation classes, but we weren’t paying attention. We still don’t pay attention. By Sunday afternoon we can’t remember the week’s epistle reading. By Monday morning the words of Jesus himself in the Gospel have left our minds. We’re lucky to remember the sermon theme at all. Even when we do happen to remember a line or two, we don’t bother to think about it anymore or to apply it to our lives. Having heard it seems to be enough.

It’s not hard to explain why we don’t pay attention; we are easily distracted, as were the disciples. They disciples were intently focused on helping Jesus establish his earthly kingdom. They kept looking for the right time for Jesus to make his move. The problem: Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world.

We too can’t seem to help but focus on an earthly kingdom or home. We are willing to travel down any road, any way, to find an earthly home we can be happy with. Many will take the way of money. Some will take the way of successful career. Some are even willing to try the way of stable family life. The problem: regardless of the way your home is not here on earth. Your home is in heaven. So why do you look for permanent happiness here on earth when you know the way home?

Home Heals a Heavy Heart. You know the way home because you know Jesus. He said, "I am the way and the truth and the life." First of all, Jesus paved the way. After sin separated us from God, the way home had been destroyed. There was a huge canyon between God and us, larger than the Grand Canyon. But, Jesus built a bridge. He lived a life of perfect obedience to his Father. Every step of that bridge is made from a perfect act of Jesus. He also put up guardrails. He suffered death on the cross so that we could never fall into the pit of death, the bottomless pit of hell.

Jesus also takes us along the way he paved. On our own we could never find the way. All we could see were roads of looking down on others, putting ourselves on pedestals, and stepping on whoever conflicted with us. Those were the roads we took to find happiness, the roads that gave us heavy hearts. Then Jesus led us to the bridge that he made, a bridge made out of serving God and putting our neighbors first.

Not only did Jesus create this way and lead us to this way, He IS the Way. Jesus is the only way home, the only way to heaven. No other road leads to heaven. Jesus himself said it. "No one comes to the Father except through me." Those who lead a good life do not get home. Those who believe in some god do not get home. Only those who trust in Jesus know the way home. You know the way home.

For the rest of your time here on earth focus on your home. Focus on staying on the Way. Faith will take you home. There is no more time to worry about what will happen next in our lives. There is no time to look back at our lives. Why do we wish to be children again? because we want the privilege of living without a care. That privilege is waiting for you at home. Home Heals a Heavy Heart. Your home is in heaven. You know the way home. Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God.