Greater Works, Part 2

[0:00] Amen. We're back in John 14, 12 through 14.! It's our second look at this wonderful text.! It's only a few verses, but they pack quite a wallop.

[0:12] Here now, what our Lord Jesus has to say to his church. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

[0:30] Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

[0:44] That is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. Thank you for that good music, praise team. All so appreciative. Thank you.

[1:00] You ever hear someone describe another person as living below or beneath their potential?

[1:12] Maybe someone even told you that once upon a time, that you were living beneath your potential. According to AI, it means this.

[1:27] Living below your potential means not fully utilizing your abilities, talents, and opportunities to achieve your fullest capabilities and desired outcomes.

[1:39] That's definitely AI language, isn't it? It often involves a sense of discontent, stagnation, and unrealized dreams. It can stem from various factors, including fear of failure, limiting beliefs, or settling for less than what's possible.

[1:59] End quote. In other words, you could be doing a lot better. You could be experiencing more. But you're not.

[2:11] Because you're shooting yourself in the foot. I wonder if this is not true of a lot of Christians. Disciples of Jesus.

[2:23] Kingdom kids. Disciples of Jesus. I wonder if many of us are living, actually all of us, are living beneath our potential.

[2:37] Beneath our privileges as children of God. C.S. Lewis, in his excellent essay, The Weight of Glory, says something very beautiful, and you've heard it before, I'm sure.

[2:49] He says, It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.

[3:16] We are far too easily pleased. We are far too easily pleased. Jesus offers us to enter into his works and his greater works.

[3:33] But are we okay with not being a part of that? Are we okay not being bothered, getting along easily rather than risking more for Jesus?

[3:47] Greater works are not seen in those who do not hunger for Christ and his power to be expressed in and through them. It's about Jesus, not about us.

[4:00] It's not about how much faith you have. It's about who your faith is in. It's not about your desires per se.

[4:13] It's about your desire for him because he loves you. In Christ's kingdom, the solution to experiencing these greater works that Jesus promised is beholding again and again the magnificence and glory of Jesus and trusting him.

[4:43] You see, we want more because he is more and if you see him more, you'll want more and he will not disappoint you.

[4:58] The disciples were mortified that Jesus said he was leaving. But Jesus said to them, whoever believes in me will do these greater works.

[5:11] So they were told that they could still trust in him even though they couldn't see him, they could trust in him and through faith in him alone, he would accomplish, he would accomplish greater works in them.

[5:30] Greater works we saw speaks of the extent of the works of Jesus that go far beyond what he accomplished in his earthly ministry. He's still working, but now he's working through millions of people who trust in him, who are going all around the world to spread the good news of the gospel.

[5:58] Greater works refer to the extent not to the quality. Now Lord, we'll go into more detail about how we're able to do these greater works and so I got maybe two, three points, we'll see how it goes.

[6:11] First of all, he said, greater works are possible because Jesus, he intercedes for us. The disciples want to know, right?

[6:23] Okay? Exactly, can you be a bit more specific? How are we going to accomplish these greater works? We are a small band of nobodies and Jesus, the somebody, is leaving.

[6:36] So he says in verse 12, it is because he is going to the Father. That's why I'm going to the Father.

[6:47] In verse 16 and 17, he says this, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

[7:11] Hmm. When was the Spirit of truth dwelling with them? When Jesus was with them. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.

[7:24] So in John 16, 17, he'll come back and says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.

[7:46] Jesus goes to the Father so that we can have the Holy Spirit who will empower our works. We will talk more about the Spirit in future sermons as John unfolds this study, but suffice to say, our Lord Jesus had a wonderful purpose in leaving us physically.

[8:09] He is there in heaven in our place and for us at the right hand of the Father. We don't often realize the necessity of the ascension.

[8:23] Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We talk about the death, we talk about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Amen. But we need one more.

[8:35] It should be the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. That is the completion of our salvation. The ascension is, I love how Chester and Woodrow put it in their book, The Ascension, The Humanity and the Presence of God.

[8:54] They say this, The ascension is the enthronement of Jesus. He received all authority and sends us out to declare that authority to the world.

[9:05] The ascension is the beginning of mission. See, without the ascension, there is no outpouring of the Spirit, which means there is no going in the mission.

[9:16] So they're right. This is one of the necessary results of Jesus leaving, that He would give the Spirit to take His place, His physical presence with us.

[9:32] Now He is not only with us, He is in us. Hallelujah. The life we have and the works that we do through faith in Him are really Him doing the works in us and through us.

[9:48] Just as He said that the Father is in Him doing the works, He now says He is in us doing the works.

[10:04] It is immensely comforting to note that Jesus is in heaven for you.

[10:16] For you. To intercede on your behalf. To intercede is to intervene on behalf of another.

[10:27] Typically it means to help or plead for them often in a situation of difficulty or conflict. Jesus is like our lawyer in the courtroom.

[10:39] You've heard that before. He's a lawyer in the courtroom. He's a doctor. Amen. He stands as it were He stands between you and the judge or jury to plead your case.

[10:52] The writer of Hebrews says it so beautifully in Hebrews 7.25. It says consequently He Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them.

[11:12] Jesus always lives to stand and to plead your case. The Kelloggs need help.

[11:24] Let's send reinforcements. The Blakenees are in deep water. Let's send them a boat to get them out. He's always there.

[11:36] Eternally He lives to intercede for you His people who trust in Him. We can do these greater works that He says we can do because He Himself is there to make sure we get all the resources we need to do them.

[12:01] Hallelujah. Just think about that. Let's apply that just for a second. A couple things. One, I think it means I have an exciting purpose every day.

[12:14] And it includes doing my job. It includes going to school. That's all part of that purpose. But it's not just for me. There's something else going on.

[12:25] I am a vehicle for Christ to reveal His power and presence in my works. Every day you walk out the door, every day you wake up.

[12:35] You are a vehicle for the power of God to be realized in your life and to touch people around you. You're not just going to work. You're not just going to school.

[12:48] You're not just staying home to care for the children. You are like a battery full of the power of God and He wants to unleash it in your family, in your job, in your school.

[13:01] He wants to use you to do the greater works He's talking about. Every day you have an exciting purpose for living. Two, it means I can have confidence that I can live through any situation, no matter how difficult, because Jesus intercedes for me.

[13:20] I can keep getting up, no matter how many times I get knocked down. Fear does not own me.

[13:31] Jesus is interceding for me. Somebody needs to hear this.

[13:42] I don't care how many times you've awakened and said, oh no, it's today. If you will turn your eyes toward Jesus and remember what He is doing for you right now, right at this moment, you can experience His presence and you'll find yourself going when you thought you couldn't go.

[14:06] You'll find yourself getting up when you thought you were out for the count. And God help you, you may find a moment of joy because you recognize you are not alone.

[14:23] You are loved. There's a presence with you. Whether you feel the presence or not is immaterial. He is with you because He promised.

[14:39] The third thing I want you to think about is that this means no matter how bad I mess up, and if your name is Kevin Smith, you know how to mess up. I know the Father will never turn His back on me because Jesus represents me in His very presence.

[14:59] He will never turn His back. No matter how much I screw up, if I am trusting in the finished work of Christ for me, if Jesus is the center of my joy, if He is my life, the Father will never turn His back.

[15:18] Heaven will never close up and say we don't care. We don't care. my destiny is secured. It doesn't mean I won't face God's discipline because He's a good Father, but it does mean He will not punish me because Jesus took my punishment.

[15:44] While the Lord's work of intercession leads to the final point that He makes, and it's a big point, He says greater works come through greater prayer. How do we obtain this power to do greater works?

[16:00] It's through prayer in Jesus' name. Just in case you missed it. Whatever you ask, verse 13, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

[16:13] If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. He says it twice. He wants us to get it. If you ask Him my name, I will do it.

[16:28] Now, here's the problem. We don't know what that means. Normally, we signal that we finish praying by saying, thank you.

[16:42] I mean, come on. Thank you, Lenard. In Jesus' name, amen to. But I can't, I know, I can't help it. When I'm praying, when I'm finished praying, I cannot help but say, it's ingrained in me, in Jesus' name.

[16:58] Second thing we do, we use that in Jesus' name like a formula. Because with enough faith, we can get God to do what we pray as long as we say the magic words.

[17:13] Here's a strange thing. Now, I hope I didn't miss something, but I went through the New Testament looking at, in particular, at the Apostle Paul's prayers. They're magnificent.

[17:25] You should study those prayers. Pray those prayers. I mean, there's so much there for you to grow in Christ in. But you know something? He never says at the end of his prayer in Jesus' name. Matter of fact, no one does.

[17:40] I can't find one prayer in the New Testament where they ended in Jesus' name. Amen. But we know they prayed in Jesus' name.

[17:52] Here's the thing. It is possible to say in Jesus' name without praying in Jesus' name. So what does it mean then?

[18:05] First of all, it means that we are trusting in the work of Christ, his death, resurrection, and ascension for our sins personally to allow us to even come before God.

[18:19] He is our way. He is our truth. He is our life. That's first. That's why I can pray in Jesus' name. That's the first thing about praying in Jesus' name, acknowledging and realizing that truth.

[18:33] The second thing, it means expressing prayers or performing actions according to Jesus' will and for his glory.

[18:44] Listen, it implies acting with the authority given by Jesus for his benefit, trusting in his power and his name would represent who he is.

[19:02] It means seeking to honor and glorify Jesus through our words, our deeds, and in particular, our prayers. There's a lot of stuff going on there.

[19:18] Maybe an illustration might help. Suppose who I'm going to pick on today. Dan. Dan. I'll pick on Dan today. Dan. Dan has just been made the U.S.

[19:31] ambassador to China. Okay? Hope that's okay, man. Now, when Dan accepts this post, he is functioning in the name of the United States of America.

[19:48] His job would be to represent our country in whatever he says or does while in China. Dan would not be there to represent his family, his own desires or his own personal policies, neither for his own glory.

[20:10] But he would be there to represent the glory and the policies and the desires of the United States of America.

[20:22] If Dan asked for anything while he was there, it would be the U.S. making that request, not merely him. Even if he asks for basic comforts, he needs some more Fiji water in his room.

[20:44] It would still have the effect of asking for Fiji water in the name of the United States of America. If they refused him water, water, and there was nothing else to drink, it would be an affront.

[21:09] When we pray in Jesus' name, we are seeking to represent his desires, his policies, his ideas. Can I say it?

[21:19] His kingdom, will, him, while we're making those requests, even to him. How do we do it?

[21:32] First of all, we pray in his name, he must be the center of our greatest joy, without longing to follow him wherever he leads. Listen, the Old Testament similarity to this is in Psalm 37.

[21:46] Remember this? Delight yourself in the Lord. And he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him, and he will act.

[21:58] Now listen, we love that passage. I know I do. Because I love that place where it says, he will give me the desires of my heart. That's my favorite part. But there's something that comes before that.

[22:14] And it colors the whole thing. Delight yourself in the Lord. See, that colors everything. If I am truly delighting in the Lord because of who he is and what he's done, if that's really the center of my joy, listen, let me just fill you in.

[22:35] If I'm delighting in the Lord, then the desires of my heart will be the glory of the Lord. God. And he said, I will give you whatever you want.

[22:49] Hallelujah. Second, John will later explain this in 1 John. He's going to, his second, his second book, he's going to talk more about this situation, about prayer.

[23:01] In 1 John chapter 5, he says this, and this is the confidence that we have towards him, Jesus, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

[23:14] And if we know that he hears us, and whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. He's just following what Jesus said.

[23:28] He remembered. This is one huge reason, family, I can't, I know I say this a lot, so forgive me for being reputed, repetitive, but we have to study and memorize and know God's word.

[23:44] Because in his word, he reveals his will in it. Our prayers are better when they are saturated with God's word and concepts.

[24:00] Listen, when you let the word of God fill your mind, you will find yourself praying using biblical language. You might not even know where the verses come from.

[24:11] You know they're in the Bible. You might know, I know it's in 1 John somewhere, or I know it's in the Psalms somewhere, but because you've soaked up the word, you're soaking up God's word in your heart and mind, you find yourself praying in that kind of language.

[24:28] And especially when you are petitioning God, it is wonderful, and I want to encourage you, it is necessary to pray his word back to him.

[24:41] Because now you know you're praying, now his word in context now. Don't be doing that lucky dipping thing. Judas went out and hanged himself.

[24:58] Go thou and do likewise. I mean, that's not a good way of doing it, okay? You studying and reading the Bible. Systematically.

[25:09] Stopping and when God speaks to you, hold it. Ooh, that was good. What is that? Meditate on that. Think about it. Turn it over in your mind. Visualize it. What would happen if God did that in my life or in the world or in our city or in our church?

[25:25] What would it look like? I mean, begin to really stay with the word. It's called reading it existentially. Put yourself in it. Oh, brothers and sisters, sometimes I think we see very little action from heaven in our prayers because we're praying about what we want more than what heaven wants.

[25:50] We're praying about our ideas and concepts and things for our life. Now, don't get me wrong. Pray. Keep praying. But fill the word. Forget the word.

[26:01] Fill in the gaps. Jesus is calling us to pray kingdom prayers, right? That's what he's doing. He's saying, when you're praying in my name, you're praying kingdom prayers.

[26:14] Remember, the disciples said, Jesus, teach us how to pray. And he taught them how to pray in his name. We call it the Lord's prayer. In Jesus' name, we approach the heavenly father who is our father in heaven.

[26:28] God, not based upon how good we think we've been. We approach God even not on how desperate we are or how sincere we are, but we approach God only in the name of Jesus.

[26:46] You see, you can be desperate and still not pray in the name of Jesus. You can be desperate and not even know Jesus. A lot of people pray.

[26:59] Especially when the car is about to go out of control. Oh, Jesus! Or when something, some tragedy hits life, you know, there are no atheists in foxholes, right?

[27:13] You know, when we're under the gun, everybody, even atheists have been found to pray. When you're desperate, you wonder if there's someone up there who can help you.

[27:27] Someone in the universe. desperation does not equal praying in Jesus' name. Sincerely wanting something does not equal praying in Jesus' name.

[27:42] It must be according to the word, according to his will that he's revealed in his word. And the best way of doing that is to pray his word and walk through the Lord's prayer.

[27:53] Notice the Lord's prayer. I mean, we pray our father in heaven, but then in Jesus' name, we are so overwhelmed by the glory of our heavenly father that the God of heaven is truly our father, that he's our help in times of need, that we fall in reverence before him, and when we start praying, holy be your name, we are preoccupied with his glory, that we want the whole earth to see his magnificence, and we're praying, hallowed be that, holy be your name, and start with me.

[28:30] Your will be done, your kingdom come, your will be done, start with me. Notice the Lord's prayer how it begins, it's always about your, and I don't mean you, your name, your kingdom, your will.

[28:51] that's when you're preoccupied. And there are times when you don't have time to have a good time of prayer, and it's, oh Lord, help, you know, that's all right, that's no problem with that, but those moments when you set aside to pray, kingdom prayers, his agenda is on my mind, maybe these are some of the greater works that we pray for, maybe.

[29:21] His name to be hallowed, his kingdom to come, his will to be done, hmm. Phil Reichen is helpful here in his book on the kingdom. Most of us spend a fair amount of time offering emergency prayer.

[29:35] The things that really motivate us to pray are the things we feel desperate about. As a result, God hears a lot about our physical, I add, emotional problems, our financial needs, and whatever struggles we are having in our daily work.

[29:50] These are good things to pray about. Amen. Give us this day our daily bread. It's there. Our Father loves to hear what we need and then provide it.

[30:02] But kingdom prayer is explicitly directed toward the greater glory of God. It is prayer for the unhindered expansion and unlimited extension of his rule.

[30:18] It is prayer for missions and evangelism, for pastors, hello, and churches, yes, for towns and cities, Chattahoochee, for nations, America and China and people groups.

[30:34] Hallelujah. It is prayer for people who are lost to find their salvation in Jesus Christ. prayer in Jesus' name is much more than praying that God will heal me of my diabetes.

[30:55] Nothing wrong with praying with that. You heard that, right? Give us the daily bread. Physical needs. Amen. Amen. But the glory in prayer is when you see him marching through history, when you see the kingdom of God moving through nations.

[31:13] The glory in prayer is when the name of Jesus is being named in a people group that never knew him. The glory in prayer is when we are praying for our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus that they will stand against the forces of darkness and not give in.

[31:30] The glory of prayer is calling out for him to be revealed in all of his magnificence so that people, boys and girls, men and women will fall before the glory and declare that Jesus is Lord.

[31:45] That's the glory. That's what, that'll sweep you. That kind of thinking is grand. It takes us out of our minutia.

[31:56] It takes us out of our myopic nearsightedness. It causes us to see with the eyes of God what he's doing in the world.

[32:09] It's exciting. He'll grab you because my goodness saints, God is doing much more in the world than what he's doing here at New City Fellowship.

[32:26] And I'll tell you one thing, I want to be a part of it. And the way I can be a part of it is I'm praying in Jesus' name. I'm praying for the greater glory. I'm praying for his kingdom to come.

[32:38] I'm praying. Come on, y'all. We gotta pray and we gotta do this together. Lizzie Newbegin, great missionary who came back, said, the going of Jesus to the Father by the path of suffering, death, and resurrection is the setting in motion of a far vaster movement in which the glory of the Father will be manifested through the works of the disciples done in the name of the Son.

[33:09] The glorifying of the Father and the Son through the victory of the cross will be extended to the whole creation through the believing words and works of the church until the whole earth is filled with his glory.

[33:25] Yes. Okay, let me wrap this up real quick. Getting close. will you enter, will you ask God to help you enter into these greater works?

[33:39] Can I offer some, oh, a few things to think about? Let's start small. Choose someone to pray for. Choose someone to pray that they might see and enter the kingdom of heaven.

[33:53] And be ready to speak the words of life to them as the Spirit of Jesus gives you opportunity. Pick somebody. Everybody in this room knows somebody who's not saved. If you don't, help you.

[34:06] I want you to go outside and go down the street, maybe walk into a store and get to know people at the store. Go to your favorite Starbucks and get to know the baristas, the place where you shop all the time.

[34:23] Say hello to the person behind the counter. Engage them if you have a moment, if they have a moment, get to know their story. They're all around you. You've got co-workers.

[34:33] Do you talk to your co-workers about something more than Tennessee football? I'm loving you. You should be talking about the Dallas Cowboys, but that's another story.

[34:45] How about this one, too? Choose an issue in our city that needs to be reformed by the power of Jesus and pray. Is there something in this city that you recognize something's wrong with it and will you go to the world and ask God to do something there in that place.

[35:02] Ask God to move. Maybe it's where you work. Maybe it's where your friends work. I don't know. Maybe you know, but will you pick something? Just put it out there. Give me some ideas. Pray for our nation.

[35:14] Oh, please pray for our nation. Our religious freedoms, morality, ethics. Pray for good government. Pray for revival in the church.

[35:25] Pray for how we treat immigrants. illegal or otherwise. Pray for the president. Please pray for the president and his vice president and his cabinet.

[35:37] I don't care if you voted for him. That really means nothing. You understand that, right? If we're told to pray for Caesar in the New Testament, believe me, you can pray for Donald Trump.

[35:49] lose that partisan spirit and get the Holy Spirit in you and start praying. Okay, huh? Choose another country or people group to pray for.

[36:07] Operation World. Are you familiar with that book? Operation World? It's an amazing book that looks at the nations and the work of the gospel around the nations.

[36:19] It comes out every 10 years or something, I don't know. And it is amazing. Operation World is yay thick paperback book, but you can open it up and go to Bangladesh.

[36:32] What's happening there in the church? It's amazing work that is put out. Who does that work? Do you know, Carl? Okay, yeah, don't worry.

[36:43] But it's good stuff. You know David? David, do you know? Okay, YWAM. You said YWAM? Okay, but just go to Amazon, Operation World book.

[36:57] Gotcha. So think about that. Maybe where some of our missionaries are. Pray for that group. Amen? It's all right. Join with your five.

[37:07] Join with your brothers and sisters as often as possible to pray for the kingdom come now and the return of the king. Prayer by yourself is beautiful. But you know what's hardest for us?

[37:20] Putting time aside, leaving our home, and making time to pray with other people. That's why look at the New Testament. You're going to find more group prayers than you find alone prayers.

[37:35] Go to Acts. The church is praying and God is moving. They set aside time. They said, oh, we're going to leave work, we're going to leave the TV, we're going to leave the cell phone, we're going to leave the internet, and we're going to go pray.

[37:54] Lastly, pray that God will use you and our church to do Christ's greater works and be available. Don't pray for me to do them.

[38:07] Pray for us to do them. You can pray for me too, but I'm just saying us. I'm watching you. You know, I'm going to wrap this up.

[38:18] Hey, I'm doing pretty good. During the American Civil War, there was this young soldier in the Union Army. He lost his father and his brother.

[38:35] And so his sister and mother are left alone on the farm. And he realizes spring is coming, we got to get the crops in, whatever, and he's, I got to go home.

[38:52] So he decides he's going to go see the president. And to ask for an exemption. So he can go home and help with the farm for a little bit. So he goes to the White House.

[39:03] He gets to the gate. He has to see the president. The guard on duty told him, are you crazy? You just can't see the president, young man.

[39:14] He's a very busy man. Now go away. Get back out there to the battle lines where you belong. He walks away, and I think there's a park near the White House.

[39:28] Isn't it a little park? I keep thinking, we used to live five miles from there, and I'm pretty sure there's a park nearby. I think that's a park. He goes into a park nearby, and he's weeping.

[39:38] He's distraught. It's a little boy who happens to see him. He's in the park playing, and he says, hey, sir, what's the matter with you? What's wrong? And he says, can I help you? This little boy wants to help this soldier.

[39:51] He says, I don't, said nothing you can do. He told the little boy, he just blessed out, you know. He says, but you come with me? He grabs him by the hand. He walks up to the gate, White House gate, walks through with the man, walks into the White House building, walks up to the Oval Office, and goes in with the soldier.

[40:15] Now, this is crazy. Nobody's stopping them. The generals are stopped. Nobody. Secret Service. Nobody's stopping him. Well, he knocks on him. He comes in, and Abraham Lincoln looks up, and his secretary of state was with him.

[40:30] They look up, as they were going over the battle plans, and he says, Lincoln says, good afternoon, Tad. Can you tell me who your friend is? Tad Lincoln, the son of the president of the U.S., says, Daddy, this soldier needs to talk to you.

[40:50] So the soldier pleaded this case before Lincoln, and right then and there, he received the exemption that he needed from the war. What made the difference?

[41:03] The son took him in. The son took him to the throne, as it were. The son took him to the over office. The son gave him entrance. Brothers and sisters, don't you understand?

[41:15] You're in the son. When your prayers go up in his name, the father says, let's roll, roll it. The angels of heaven start moving.

[41:27] Remember what Hebrews once says, they are ministering spirits sent for us. Heaven starts moving when you pray in Jesus' name, child of God.

[41:38] Do you understand? Prayer is not a waste of your time. it's not an add-on. Prayer is the battle.

[41:51] Prayer is life. I'm trying to learn this myself, so I'm talking to me too, okay? Prayer. And prayer in Jesus' name. Jesus says, I will do it?

[42:05] I think he meant it. But I wonder, are our desires too weak? like Lewis said, do we hunger and thirst for the kingdom to come?

[42:18] Or do we hunger and thirst for our kingdom to come? Do we yearn for the name, the name of Christ to be revered all around us?

[42:29] Or do we yearn for our brand to be revered? Our name to be seen and respected? Don't you understand that if you live for the name of Jesus, you will not be respected sometimes?

[42:45] Your name will be mud sometimes. Oh, but in heaven, it will be gold. It will be glory. glory. Lord Jesus, help us to pray.

[43:09] Lord, help me. It's so easy even for me, Lord, to go to the study of your word. Prayer is harder for me.

[43:21] Help me to pray. Help the elders and the deacons of this church to pray in the name of Jesus. Help our Sunday school teachers and our small group leaders to pray in the name of Jesus.

[43:34] Help the members of New City Fellowship and the regular attenders and the students who come here from Covenant College and for other schools. Help us to pray in the name of Jesus.

[43:47] Help us to pray for that glory of his name. That make his name glorious in us and through us. Help us to know your word.

[44:00] To stop making excuses and to dive in and let your word be cemented in our hearts and minds. Help us to know how to study your word so we can make sure we pray in context that we're not twisting scripture to say what we want it to say.

[44:19] help us to pray your word truly and give ourselves to the work of the Lord knowing that our labor in the vain in the Lord is not in vain.

[44:31] It is your work. The work you've begun in us. Lord, complete that work into the day of Christ Jesus. Father, Father, we give ourselves to you.

[44:48] Our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to you, which is our spiritual service of worship. We surrender all.

[45:00] Renew our minds that we may know your will. Renew our minds and thereby renew our hearts so that we long for the right things.

[45:15] Stop us from relying on ourselves, but learn to rely on you who raises the dead. Have mercy. Bless this church.

[45:29] Those who are visiting with us in their churches. Hear our cry, O Lord, we ask in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name.

[45:40] Amen. Amen. Please stand.