Can You Believe What Jesus Said? Part 2
Pastor Glenn Newton Jan. 4, 2003
John 14: 12-21
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will
do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do
whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You
may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
JN 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and
he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The
world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him,
for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to
you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I
live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are
in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who
loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show
myself to him."
Have you ever wondered, “Does my prayers ever make a difference?” That’s an honest
question, God can handle a question like that.... He’s not offended when we ask that kind
of question...... If you have been a Christian for very long, there are times when that
question could come floating through your mind.
Our passage this morning is the passage that we looked at last week.... earlier Jesus
proclaimed that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life.....Jesus proclaimed that He is
one with the Father, if you know the Son, you know the Father.....
Part of what our Faith consists of is Believing what Jesus tells us in Scripture. We as
Christians must put our Faith in what we know to be God’s Word.... Jesus’ teachings... If
we truly believe that Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life... it makes a difference in
our everyday life.... Amen?
Does knowing Christ as your Savior make a difference in your everyday life? Is Jesus
relevant to your life today?
If you believe that Christ is who he claims he is, the Son of God.... then we need to pay
attention to what He has said to us..... that’s where our study of His Word takes on life
and relevance in our life......Let’s look at what Christ says to us today in this passage... I
think it’s literally life changing.
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will
do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do
whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You
may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
In verse 12, Jesus tells simply.... those who have faith in Him, will live their lives following
His example, doing what He has been doing..... Loving people, pouring out his life for
others, discipling new believers, Jesus spent time in prayer, in Worship, Jesus constantly
prayed for the Father’s Will to be done in His life.... there’s so much more we could add
to that list.... Christ carried out the Father’s mission... that’s what we should be doing
also.
There’s alot more I could say on that, but I want to get to the meat of this message......
Can I really believe what Jesus said about Prayer? Listen again to what Jesus says,
13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to
the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
This isn’t a secret formula to get God to do for you whatever you want him to do..... This
is a promise from Jesus to you.... If you will pray with faith, by the power of His name for
God’s will to be done in your life.....Jesus says.... “I will do it.” The key for us to
understand, this promise is for those who pray for God’s Will to be done, for His glory,
for His purpose, and through the power of Jesus name....
It’s vital that we see this important point: it is not that we wait for God, but that he waits
for us to come into agreement with his will and to speak it in prayer. Prayer is not the
twisting of God’s arm in order to make him do what he does not want to do. Prayer is
finding God’s divine will, coming into agreement with it, and declaring that his will be
done in that situation. As we learn to find God’s will and pray for it, we become
instruments in the hand of God.
Do you know what God’s will is for you? Do we know what God’s will is for this
Church?
We can discern God’s will through His Word. The Bible tells us that God’s will is for us
`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like
it: `Love your neighbor as yourself. Matt. 22:37-38
We can know that is God’s will for our lives... we don’t have to wonder about that.... it’s
something He has asked us to do.... it’s the great commandment.
This morning I want to share with you 2 things that I believe if we will pray for these
things for our own personal lives.... and for our church body....We will not be able to
comprehend how God might use us in the coming year.... if we will believe and pray for
these three things. These are just three things.... God will make it clear to you if your
open to this kind of life changing obedience, He will make it clear to you what to pray
for... you’ll know.
The First thing that I would Challenge you as individuals and we as a Church body to pray
for is this...... This would be my first prayer.... God, Help Me to 100% Sold Out to You
in every area of my life. Repeat.
Don’t you know that this prayer is God’s will for your life... we call it the Holy Life... the
Life that is set apart for His use, for His Kingdom.... It’s a life that makes a difference... it
can be our life if we will make that our heart felt prayer...... this verse tells us how to do
that listen... `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind.’
I want to share something with you personal.... God has made it clear to me that If
I am going to follow this command, then I have to allow his discipline to touch every area
of my life.... even my physical body...
God has made it clear to me... for a while now that I’ve got to let God have this
area of my life....... and to be honest.... for the last few years my weight has been a area
that Satan has been able to come to me and laugh at me.... remind me of what a failure I
am..... I’ve allowed it to be an area that causes me to be depressed and defeated.... And
God has made it clear to me that it’s not only a spiritual issue, but it soon can be a real
physical problem if I don’t deal with it.
Loving the Lord God with all my heart, and with all my soul and with all my mind,
for me means, loving Him so much that I want to take care of this body that He has given
me......
For some of you, weight isn’t the issue.... I’m going to guess though that most of us here
have areas that God has spoken to us about.... He wants it.... He wants you to surrender
and allow Him to cleanse and sanctify that area.....
Maybe God has spoken to you about your devotions..... maybe you talk about
other people, gossip is deadly as a heart attack........ maybe it’s cigarettes... maybe it’s
pornography..... if national statistics would hold true in our church, there would be at least
3 men or teenagers addicted to pornography in our building this morning.... God’s grace
can break that addiction, just like any addiction. What is it that God has his finger on with
you?
God, Help Me to 100% Sold Out to You in every area of my life. Repeat.
If we will pray that prayer together today and every day after this.... don’t you know God
will perform miracles in our lives..... this church would be on Fire.... People would come
just see the smoke......
How many of you saw that fire somewhere up Hwy 21 this week? Our first
inclination is to run up there and see what’s burning, isn’t it?
Don’t you know if we pray this prayer, if our church people sold out 100% to
Jesus, His Cause, His Mission, He would so fan the flame in our hearts that people would
be able to smell smoke, Holy Smoke all around us and they would come just to see what
in the world is going on over here...... that’s how the church grows...
The Second Prayer that I would challenge you as Individuals and we as a Church body to
pray this coming year is this......God Help Me to Love People like you do.
Remember the second part of the great commandment? `Love your neighbor as
yourself..”
Friends, Can I tell you how to build a church, how to grow a church? Love People... Just
Love them right where they are at.....
Can I tell you something else.... do you know how to kill a church.... don’t love
people.... talk about people.... get on the phone and say things that shouldn’t be said....
look down at people for whatever reason.... that will kill a church
Let me tell you a secret about our church, New Hope. Were never going to spend 3-4
million dollars on a building...... we may never have a list of programs that just WOWS
you when you walk in our doors.....We may never attract the upper crust, the financial
elite...... We haven’t set out to do those things..... there’s only one thing I want our church
to be know for....... We Love People. We Love People. New Hope is a place where we
will take people into our lives, into our homes... and we will love them right into our faith
community.... that’s what I want our church to be known for.....all the other things will
take care of themselves.
Friends, when we get to the place where we love people, love each other like Christ...
there won’t be anyone in our church that has a need that won’t be met. We will have a
whole group of people ready to serve, instead of waiting to be served......We will have
new people showing up every week telling about how “So and So told me about How
Jesus has changed their life, so I just had to come and hear more today.” That will happen
every week when we love people like Christ does.
There are times when Nola and I sit on our couch and we pray for you.....there’s been
many times when we cry for you, sometimes because we know you going through tough
times, maybe your struggling spiritually and we know you are, we cry for you.... many
times this last year we sit there and just smile and shake our head and say, I can’t believe
what God has done... isn’t a amazing.
We try to be as open and transparent as we can with you because we want to share
our lives with you..... and we are thrilled to be able to share in your life... but friends... it
has to continue to grow.... there are people who are desperate to know that God loves
them, and we can share that by loving them... being Christ to them.....
Will you pray that second prayer with me today.... and for the days to follow?
God Help Me to Love People like you do.
