16 Ounces To The Pound - Jonathan Pickens

0:25 teamed up to conduct a survey of theology around what do evangelicals believe across the U.S. And much of the survey exposed what you'd expect to be true of typical traditional Christian beliefs, and yet some of them were a bit shocking or surprising. For example, we have a picture of the screen of one of them that grabbed my attention. This image will show, they asked the question, do you agree or do you not with God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam?

1:03 47% of believers said that they do. That they do believe that God would accept the worship. Or in other words, that 47% of evangelicals would agree that there are multiple ways to get to the Father, is what the survey revealed. And they're not asking unbelievers, they're asking believers. And I'm not sure where that lands with you. Maybe it's surprising, or maybe you're thinking to yourself, I don't know what I think about that. I've never thought about it. Be good to think about it. What do you think? I wanna know, what does Jesus think about that? Because today, and in this collection that we've been in, we're really not here to ask, what do other people think? We're really not here to ask, what does your favorite podcaster think?

1:59 We're not here to ask, what does your favorite preacher or teacher think? We're here to ask, what does Jesus think? because what Jesus has to say is going to speak to this issue. And what's concerning is that this statistic reveals at least ambiguity on the subject that is taken from among, assumingly Bible-believing people who identify with the words and teachings of Jesus. And so I wanna know, what does Jesus say? It reminds me of the words that J.C. Ryle put in his book called Holiness, where he said, There is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays, which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which nevertheless is not full measure, good weight, and 16 ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably something about Christ, something about grace, something about faith, and something about repentance, and something about holiness, but it is not the real thing as it is in the Bible.

3:04 And today I wanna know what is the real thing that's in the Bible? I'm not interested in 12 out of 16 ounces. I'm not interested in 14 or 15 out of 16 ounces to the pound. What is 16 ounces to the pound kind of Christianity? What does Jesus say about Jesus in Jesus word? So if you're taking notes, the title of the talk today is called 16 ounces to the pound. And so if you've got your Bible, we're gonna be in John chapter 14, verse six. We're just gonna start by looking at the word of Jesus. What Jesus says in the midst of a conversation that we're gonna get to look at more fully here in a moment is Jesus says, you'll see it on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you. Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus describes himself as Pastor Louis mentioned last week not as a way not as a truth or your truth or my truth but as the truth and the life Jesus is saying if you want access to the Father you've got to come through me what Jesus is saying is if you're looking for truth I am truth what Jesus is saying if you're looking for life I am life Jesus is saying I am the right option and I'm the satisfying option.

4:29 I'm both correct and I'm both life-giving. If you're looking for men, it just seems like life can be ambiguous and you wanna know where to go. Jesus is saying, come to me. I am truth. If you're looking, you feel depleted, sad, worried, not sure where to go in life. Jesus is saying, come to me, I'll satisfy you. I am life. But for some of us, maybe you're ready to say amen. Yes, this is exactly what I believe. And maybe for others, you're sitting there and you're thinking, man, I don't know.

5:00 And so I wanna look to this conversation that Jesus is having with his disciples and ask, why is this good news? Because it is. And I wanna see in this conversation that because Jesus is the way he offers comfort, he gives us clarity, we get communion with the Father and he gives us a call. Comfort, clarity, communion, and a call. So first, we're gonna look to comfort. In verse one of John 14, Jesus says, don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, what I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you, if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am, you may also be.

5:58 So Jesus starts off encouraging them not to be troubled. A little bit of the backstory is Jesus is at the last supper with his disciples. Judas has just been outed as someone who's going to betray Jesus. He's just up and left. And so the disciples are rightfully in a bit of turmoil. They've just found out that a close friend of theirs is a traitor. And so they're stirred. And not just that, But then Jesus follows that scene up with in John 13 by saying, I'm going somewhere and I'm going to leave you. And where I'm going, you can't come. And Peter pipes up in a Peter way. And he says, Jesus, I'll follow you anywhere. And Jesus says, really, will you? Because tonight you're going to deny me three times. And so in the wake of seeing a close friend turn out to be a traitor, their leader telling them that he's leaving and they can't run after him.

6:59 And not just that, but Jesus predicts their failure in front of them. Jesus says, don't be troubled. Could you imagine being in that moment? What do you mean don't be troubled? Why on earth should we not be troubled? We just lost our leader. We just lost a friend and we're told we're gonna fail. yet Jesus gives us several reasons not to be troubled. First, Jesus sees you in your trouble. Jesus sees us. Jesus sees his disciples in his trouble. He speaks to their trouble. He doesn't let them stay in it. He notices their trouble. He says, don't let your heart be troubled. Why? Because he sees them in their trouble and he sees you in your trouble. Have you ever gotten sick before as a grown adult and you pick up your phone and you just call your mom?

7:41 No other reason, no agenda. you just want to tell her that you're sick. And all you want is just, oh, I'm sorry. What hurts? Is it your throat? Did you sleep okay? Yeah. You just want her to listen. You just want someone to see that they see you. And what Jesus, what we see of Jesus in this is he sees you in your trouble. He sees not just what hurts you, but how it hurts you. He knows why you're let down, but he knows how that letdown is affecting you. He knows the dreams that you have that you think are never gonna happen and he knows why it's bothering you. I love the way Matthew Henry says it. He says, he describes it, that wound that bleeds inwardly. He knows not only how we are afflicted, but how we stand affected under our afflictions. He knows how near they lie to our hearts.

8:39 He knows the trouble that you're going through and he speaks to it. And when you have access to the Father through the Son as the way, God comforts you because he sees you and he knows. But he doesn't just leave you there. He also speaks to it. He says, believe in me, believe in God. I'm giving you something. Don't let your heart be troubled. He knows what he's doing when you think that he doesn't. Undoubtedly, the disciples thought, Jesus doesn't know what he's talking about. We lost a friend, our leader's gone. He doesn't know what he's doing. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. He was leaving so that he could take them to himself. He had a plan the whole time. Jesus knows what he's doing when you think that he doesn't. Behind every unwanted circumstance is a loving God of providence. God knows what he's doing when you think that he doesn't in your life.

9:34 Think about Moses standing before the sea. Are you serious? He had no idea that his sea was about to split so that he could crush his enemies. Think about Joseph being in prison. Are you serious? He had no idea he was about to raise him to the palace. Think about the Israelites in exile. Are you serious? They had no idea he was crushing them so that he could bring him to himself. Think about Jesus going to his death. Are you serious? They had no idea that a resurrection was coming. And God looks at us in our trouble and he says, even when you think I don't know what I'm doing, I know what I'm doing. Behind every unwanted circumstance is a loving God of providence. God knows what he's doing even when you think that he doesn't. Don't let your heart be troubled. But he also speaks to them. When Jesus is your way, you can hear Jesus speak to you in this way. He speaks to you and says, don't let your heart be troubled.

10:24 He acts as if you have power over what you're feeling. What a thought. Don't let your heart go there. Just because circumstances around you are troubling doesn't mean that you personally have to be troubled. Just because other people are freaking out and chaotic doesn't mean you've got to freak out and be chaotic. Just because the volume of others is getting louder doesn't mean your volume needs to get louder. Don't let your heart be troubled. I love that it's what Martin Luther says. He says, you can't stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. You can't stop what's happening around you, but Jesus says you can control how it affects you. Don't let your heart be troubled. And then he gives them a solution. How would you even do that? He says, believe in God, also believe in me. Do you see that in verse one?

11:18 Believe in God, also believe in me. He gives them an object that's strong enough to hold them in their uncertainty. Reminds me of the Psalmist in Psalm 61, where he says, lead me to the rock that's higher than I. You ever been on a turbulent flight before? Any nervous fliers in the house? somebody's freaking out, you know what you do? It's been said before, you know what you do in a flight that's getting real turbulent? You look to the flight attendant. If the flight attendant's freaking out, you should freak out.

11:51 But even if it's turbulent and you look to the flight attendant and they're calm, their calmness gives you confidence in uncertain circumstances. And when life is crazy, Jesus says, you just believe in me. I'm the rock. I'm steady. I'm not freaking out. I'm sitting on my throne. I know what I'm doing. You can have confidence in your chaos because I'm not moved. Believe in me. I love the quote from Charles Spurgeon where he says, I've learned to kiss the wave that throws me on the rock of ages.

12:21 He's bringing you to himself in trying times. Don't let your heart be troubled. But then he gives them another reason why. He goes, look again in verse two, what he says, in my father's house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, what I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. Jesus did not primarily come to give us hope in this life. Jesus primarily came to give us hope beyond this life. Our gospel is not a temporary self-help message. Our gospel is an eternal hope beyond this life, that we have hope beyond the grave. We have hope beyond death. And that eternal confidence gives us confidence and hope for today. This is what he tells the disciples that in my father's house, there are many rooms. Side note, he says there are many rooms. If you're here this morning and you think there's no room for you, I've got good news. He's got many rooms there. If you feel like you're on the outside, there's more room. If you feel like you're barely squeaked in this morning, he's got many rooms.

13:20 And I find it interesting that at Christmas time, we often celebrate and talk about how at the beginning of Jesus' life, he was quite literally born as an outsider. There was no room for him in the end. And we see at the beginning of his life that he was cast out. And we can make sense of it at the end of his life when he was cast out again, that Jesus was cast out so that you and I could be brought in. There was no room for him at the end so he could look to you as his followers and say, there's many rooms in my father's house. You can come. I went out so you could come in. So if you're here and you feel like an outsider, good news, there's more room and you can come. But you can also have comfort because Jesus didn't come to invite us primarily to a place. Jesus came primarily to invite us to a person and that's the father.

14:13 Look again at verses two and three. He says, in my father's house, there are many rooms. And then in verse three, he says, if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself. So that, and now I would expect him to say, so that you can come to heaven. I would think that he would say, so that you can walk the streets of gold. But that's not what he says. What he says is, so that where I am, you may also be. that the best thing about heaven is not what's there, it's who's there. The best thing about heaven is not that we'll get awesome things, it's that we get to behold an awesome God. It's that Jesus is the goal. The Father is the goal. I've come to get you so that I can bring you to where I am. He emphasizes it again and again and again. I've come to take you to myself.

15:07 Jesus did not come primarily to get us into a place, but to bring us to a person. You were made to know God. Jesus came so that you could know him. That's why the psalmist says in Psalm 73, 25, who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you. The best part about heaven is that we get God. God is the good news of the gospel. You get to know him in his mercy. You get to taste him in his love. You get to experience him as father. And then Jesus goes and he tells them the way and how they're gonna get there. And that's where we see that he doesn't just give us comfort, but he gives us clarity as the way. Look at verse four. Jesus tells his disciples who are in turmoil and kind of freaking out. He says, you know the way to where I'm going. Verse four, Lord, Thomas said, don't you love Thomas?

16:00 We don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father. You see it even here. The goal is to get to the Father, not to heaven. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him. He calls himself three things, the way, the truth, and the life. The way, Jesus is saying, I'm telling you the way because I want you to come. But he takes it a step further and he says, I'm the truth. I don't say true things. I am truth. I don't say some of my things are good. You got to kind of pick and choose what's right. You know, no, no, no, no, no. I'm truth. What comes out of my mouth is correct. What he does is right. We don't get to pick and choose like we're Thomas Jefferson making our own Bible. And suddenly like we can laugh and make fun of how he clipped out what he thought wasn't right, but we do the same thing.

17:07 We just do it in our heads. I'll believe this, not that. I like what he says about mercy, not what he says about that. I'm not sure that I wanna live according to this way in my life, but what Jesus says is he is the truth and he's inviting us to be a people who take him at his word. What is truth? What does that mean? In John 17, 17, he says, your word is truth. He calls the word truth. In John 1, Jesus is called the word. In John 8, he says, if you abide by my word, you will experience the truth and the truth will set you free.

17:46 Jesus is saying, I'm truth, my word's truth. And our responsibility as believers is to cling to his word and put ourselves in submission to it, not to be judged over it, picking and choosing what we live by. But he also says that he's the life. That's why outside we've got a light bulb wall that says Jesus is life. Because when people find an experience the all satisfying good news of what it means to belong to Jesus, you get to put a light bulb in the Jesus life while signifying that you've gone from death to life. Because you've come alive in him and you know that nothing can satisfy the quench in your soul like he can. There's not a lot of good things that can help satisfy you. He says, I'm the only thing. I'm the life. no other substitute will satisfy. And you say, you can listen to that if you're reading it correctly, like me, I'm trying to listen and make sense of this.

18:39 Wow, that sounds exclusive. And in a sense it is. What he's saying is that there is no other way to the father except through the son, Jesus Christ. He is the only way. There is no other religion that can make it to him. Jesus and Jesus alone will do. And yet at the same time, he's incredibly inclusive. He has invited us to come. He showed up himself. He paid for us to be there. He said, anybody can come. He's welcomed us and he wants us. Imagine this. Imagine you had a friend in New York that's close friends. They reach out to you and they say, hey, it's Christmas season. We haven't seen you in several years. I'd love for you to come up and visit me in New York.

19:33 I'll completely pay for your trip. I'll cover your gas money and I'll prepare my guest room. I'd love for you to be with me where I am and that you can eat some food and it'll be amazing. Bring the family, bring the kids. It's gonna be an awesome trip. You hear that and you say, wow, that sounds amazing. I've always wanted to go to New York at Christmas time. I'm gonna load up the car in the morning and head up. And so you get in the car and as you pull out of the driveway, your friend kind of checks your location because you're close like that and they're looking at your location and they see that you're heading south. You jumped on 75 south, you're headed that way. And then your friend gives you a call. They said, hey, I thought you said you wanted to come see me in New York. And you respond and say, yeah, I do. I'm on the way right now. And they would simply respond and say, well, I see on your location that you're actually heading south right now.

20:28 To come to New York, you've got to go north. And you respond and say, well, I would really like to come, but it feels a little exclusive that not all roads would lead me to New York. Your friend would be like, dude. I paid for your gas. I've prepped a place. I've invited you to come. I told you that I want you. I've done everything I could to include you. You just have to go north to get north.

21:03 And maybe you respond and say, well, that seems elitist, entitled to me. I'd like to head south. I'm believing that if I just head south long enough, I'll get there. Your friend would lovingly tell you, no, no, no, because I love you and because I want to be with you, I'm telling you that road will not get you there. What I want you to know is if you keep going south, you will be met with an ocean and you cannot cross that ocean by yourself. If you want to be with me where I am, you must get off that road and onto the road that takes you north. It's true that the only way to get north is to go north, but I'm telling you the way, I'm telling you that I want you and I'm telling you I want you to be with me where I am. Will you come? And as a believer, when we read this text and we say, wow, is that exclusive that Jesus is the only way to the Father? In one sense, we could say, yes, it is exclusive. But in the other sense, we could say, absolutely not.

21:59 It's incredibly inclusive. It's inclusive because he's paid for you to come. He's invited you to come. He wants you to be with you where he is. Not just that, but consider who he's invited to the table. He's invited the outcast. He's invited the least. He said, you can only come and be with me if you're a sinner. You can only come and be with me if you admit that you've done wrong. And some of us need to have a wake-up call that says today, I thought that I'm going north, but I'm looking at my life and I'm actually heading south. And the invitation this morning is to say, Jesus is inviting you to come because he's incredibly inclusive and he wants you to be with himself. and yet there is no way to God except through God. Why is that? Because God's not a perfected human being, he's a God. If you could attain to God by moral superiority, we would be worshiping a perfect human today.

22:59 We don't worship a perfect human, we worship God. And if you continue down this path of going south, you will be met with an ocean of separation between you and God that you cannot cross. And because we love you and we want you to know him, we will say, you've got to get off this road. And you've got to get on the only road that will take you to the Father. You can only get to God by going through God, Jesus Christ himself. And he's saying, I want you to come. So will you evaluate your life and say, where am I heading? Where am I going? Because your father loves you so much that he sent his son, that he could invite you to be with him where he is. He's prepped a place and he's prepared a meal. He came himself and he's invited you personally. He did it because he loves you and he wants you to be with him where he is. That gives us clarity and it gives us confidence.

23:53 So get on the road because he's where you find life, walking in his truth. Matthew 7 does say, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. But there is good news on the other side of getting into the narrow way. You'll encounter life himself and that's where we're going next, that you get communion with the father. Look at what he continues in this conversation. Look at verse eight. Lord said, Philip, speaking of the father, show us the father. That'll be enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been among you all this time and you don't know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Don't you believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?

24:46 The words I speak to you, I do not speak on my own. The father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me. Otherwise believe because of the works themselves. This line is one of the lines that struck me most in studying this text. When he says to Philip, who said something pretty spiritually elite, right? Like this is Moses' prayer on the second time. This is what he says, God, show me the Father. Wouldn't that be enough? You'd expect Jesus to be like, ah, at last, a good disciple. But he doesn't do that. He actually gives him one of the most severe rebukes. He says, after all this time, you still don't know me.

25:30 And that struck me, because I don't wanna get to the end of my life and stand before the Lord and have him say, after all this time around me, you still don't know me? After all this time, one person said it this way, those who spend the most time in the light are not always those who see best. Spending a lot of time in a kitchen doesn't make you a good cook. Spending a lot of time in a hospital doesn't make you a doctor. Spending a lot of time in a church doesn't make you a Christian. and spending a long time saying you follow Jesus doesn't mean you're the closest to Christ. What he wants you to see is that he wants to be known, but you know him through the son, and that's how you get to the father. But why is he so indignant? Like, why is Jesus so angry? How can he say that you don't even know me? Like to know him, to ask to see the father somehow is to be equated with saying, you don't even know me.

26:28 it would be kind of like if you worked at Chick-fil-A and in the middle of your shift, you turned over to somebody and you said, man, I wish we knew a place where we could get some good chicken. They'd be like, you don't even know where we are. Or it'd be like if you're on the way to a Taylor Swift concert and you looked over at your friend and you're like, man, I wish we could just hear somebody sing about relational drama.

26:54 She'd be like, you don't know where we're going. this is her thing and so for Jesus For Philip to say, show us the father. For Philip to say to Jesus, Jesus, show us the father. Jesus is saying, dude, you have been missing it, man. Because this is the mistake. He viewed Jesus as a good guy. He viewed Jesus as a rabbi. He viewed Jesus as a leader. He viewed Jesus as a friend. He viewed Jesus as a prophet. But he did not yet view Jesus as one with the father. God himself. And to know Jesus as all of those other things, but to miss him as the one true God is to miss Jesus.

27:40 Completely. John Owen has helped me immensely in understanding this. Listen to this quote from him on his book On Communion with the Triune God. Though there be no light for us, but in the beams, yet we may by the beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all of our refreshment actually lies in the streams, yet by them we are led up unto the fountain. Jesus Christ in respect to the love of the Father is but the beam, the stream, wherein though actually all our light and refreshment lies yet by him we are led to the fountain, the son of eternal love itself. He says, imagine the sun, it lets off beams of light. And when you're standing in a beam of light, you can see things and it's useful. It's actually the beam of light that's helpful.

28:33 If you look at the sun, you just kind of get blinded. But if you have a beam of light, it's helpful and useful for you. But if you follow that beam of light, you can see where it comes from, the sun. He says, if you go down a river and you find a little stream, you can bend down and scoop some up and find refreshment by drinking some water from the stream. But if you follow that stream all the way up to its source, he says, it's gonna take you to the fountain. And so if you're drinking from a stream and you say, man, I wonder what the fountain tastes like. He's gonna say, you've been drinking from it the whole time. If you're walking in the light and you're seeing for the first time and you say, man, I wonder what it would be like to see in the sun. He's gonna say, you've been seeing in the sun the whole time. And so for Philip to say, I wonder what it would be like to know and see the father. He's saying, I'm the beam, I'm the stream. You've been encountering the father the whole time.

29:28 Hebrews says that he's the exact image of the radiance of God. Colossians says that he's the image of God on display. He is the father personified. And by Jesus, you can experience refreshment, communion, an intimate personal relationship with the father himself. That today you can actually talk to the father. Today you can actually experience what it's like to know your father loves you. That the one who holds the universe holds you in his hand. that because Jesus is the way, you have access to communion with the Father, to walk with him day in, day out. That's why in chapter 15, the next chapter, he says, just abide in me. The life of the believer is made up of communion with the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. To know the Son is to know the Father and to have communion with him. Is your life marked by communion with God?

30:22 Jesus, I believe, has more on the table for us. And that's where we end. Because he doesn't just give us communion with God, he also gives us a call. Look at John 14, we'll close out. Verse 12. Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these. Wow. Because I'm going to the Father. whatever you ask in my name I will do it so that the father may be glorified in the son if you ask me anything in my name I will do it this is one of those texts that when you're studying for me at least to preach I've just got to kind of look myself in the mirror and be like do I believe this like what are you serious Jesus greater works raising people from the dead healing people with leprosy.

31:20 Like, do you believe that? Like, I have actually been wrestling this week. Like, do I believe this? And yes, absolutely. But we gotta ask the question, what does he mean by it? Because it doesn't get much better than raising people from the dead. What could Jesus possibly mean by greater works? I think he means greater works in both quantity and quality. Quantity in that because he's going to the father, he now can establish the power that he has in himself to us as his people to walk with him. And so now many of his people, all of his children now have access to that same power to do the works that he's been doing in quality because you can do the things that Jesus has been doing now. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and connection to your father through prayer that Jesus has purchased for you, you now have access to the great works that Jesus did in your life to pray and see God come through, that the miraculous is available to you because you have a connection to the miraculous God.

32:18 He breaks it up into two categories. He says, if you pray and ask anything, I'll do it. But he also says, you're gonna be doing greater works. It's works and praying. But Jesus specifies why that is. He says, because I'm going to the Father at the end of verse 12, which I was trying to think through how to describe that. It would be kind of like if there was a soldier in the midst of a gunfight in the army, In the midst of the fight, one soldier gets up and he runs off. And the rest of the people in his platoon are gonna look at him and say, where are you going? And the soldier runs off, but little do they know that the soldier's running off to gain high ground so that he can call in air support. It was sad when he left, but man, I'm glad he did. Because now higher power has been available to them and given access to the troops. And in the same way, Jesus is saying, I'm calling in air support.

33:12 you've got air support in your life now. You've got access to the Father, the same access Jesus himself has to the Father, you and I have as believers to our Father. That is the same way Jesus has a Father. We have that Father. That's why Romans 8 calls us brothers with Christ, that we now have the same kind of access and we can call on him through the power of prayer. This is exactly what he says. But then he says this crazy thing where he says, anything you ask in my name, I will do it. Does that mean that every prayer we pray should get answered? Because I have failed that test.

33:48 I think what he means is that every prayer we pray in his name or according to his will will be answered. If my kid asked me to have candy for breakfast, it would be a pretty easy no. But if my kid's been playing all day and she comes inside and says, dad, I'm thirsty, can I have some water? It's gonna be an easy yes. one question was asked outside of what I would want for her. The other question was asked within the framework of what I would want for her. When Jesus says, anything you ask in my name, I will do it. What he's saying is when you're walking according to his works, when you're walking according to his ways, you have access to a supernatural power in your life to do the things God's asked you to do. And so when you're praying, think through that lens.

34:44 Is this according to his name? I want to know him. I want to please him. And I want to see God come through in my life. Don't you want to see God come through in your life? Is it blowing anybody else's mind today that Jesus says about you that you are going to do greater works than he did? Like, what does that mean for you in your life? And some of you are like, man, I'm just trying to get through the carpool line.

35:10 I'm just trying to make it through my business meeting next week. It at least raises the vision for your life that Jesus has. Maybe Jesus has more in mind for your life in following him than coming and listening to a sermon once a week. Maybe what Jesus wants for you is to be engaged with the power of God, living on mission for God, killing the sin in your life and inviting outsiders to say, hey, I found the guy who says he's the way and the truth and the life. Turns out I've tasted and he is. You should come and experience this life too. And when you run up against the closed door, you run to the father in prayer and you say, father, will you open this door? It's closed. I want him to know you, but he doesn't. And then you see God come through in power and he answers prayer and you say, are you serious? This has been available to me the whole time. And you look back and you're like, that's a greater work than Jesus did. Don't you want access to that in your life?

36:10 Don't you want to look back on your life and say, I had more than a comfortable American dream. Don't you want to look back on your life and say, I saw God come through in my life. I saw the power of God marked my story. Did you know the power of God can mark your story? That's possible because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And when you come to the Father, you get access to the Father and his power, his love, communion with him, and the strength to walk through the life that he's put before you to live for his glory. It makes me think, I'll close with this about George Mueller.

36:45 I've mentioned him before in here, but for those who don't know, George Mueller was a believer in the 1800s and he was convicted because he saw several orphans running around with no one to take care of him. And so he had a conversation with his wife and he said, hey, I think God might be asking us to start an orphanage. But his primary burden was not simply to start an orphanage. He decided that he was going to start an orphanage and he wasn't going to ask anybody for the money or the means to take care of them.

37:22 He decided he wasn't gonna tell anybody about it. he decided he was only going to pray and ask God to meet his needs for the orphanage, God's work, without telling anybody else so that when God answers prayer, he would have a journal full of answered prayers to show people how God comes through. And when we get to the end of George Mueller's life, when he didn't ask anybody for a single thing, just praying, and we read his prayer journal. We read of over 50,000 answered prayers. At the end of his life, he had taken care of over 10,000 orphans. He had started over five orphanages. He had started Bible schools and distributed hundreds of thousands of Bibles across the world. He had seen millions of dollars come in. Were there close calls?

38:15 Oh yeah. Were there days they didn't have dinner? You bet. But did they see God come through? Absolutely. Here's what he says about it. This way of living brings the Lord remarkably near. I'll bet it does. Morning by morning, he inspects our supplies that he may send help as it is needed. I have never had a greater awareness of the Lord's nearness than when after breakfast, nothing was left for dinner. And then the Lord provided the dinner for more than a hundred people. Every child of God is not called to establish schools and orphan houses, yet there is no reason why you may not experience far more abundantly than we do now his willingness to answer the prayers of his children. And I would like to encourage us to be a church who is asking and seeing God come through to answer the prayers of his children.

39:16 Why? Because we know Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. We have access to power on high to do greater works than even Jesus did himself. Because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, we've received comfort in our time of need. We've got clarity on the way to go and where other people in our life need to know. We've got communion with the almighty God, and we've been called to a higher life than we have now. And if you want that, you can have that because Jesus has come to say, I'm the way. And you can come. You're invited. Whoever is willing can come. The question for you is, will you take him up on the offer? If you don't know him, will you get off the road heading south and get on the road to go north? And if you do know him, are you making full use of the benefits that you have in Christ to know the Father?