Life in His Presence | In His Presence He Gives Us Everlasting Joy: John 16:21-24

Lemanuel Williams: ⁓ my God. You have been so good to us. Faithful when we've been faithless. Always there for us when we abandon you, chasing us down, loving us with abundant mercy and love. ⁓ my gosh, Lord, you've been so good to us. We don't deserve you. Yet, Lord, we come here this evening and you see us here in this chapel. And you desire to open your mouth to us and speak to us words of life. Even when we're chasing after death, you desire to speak to us words of life because you are so good to us. Your love never fails, Lord. Your mercy is never ending. And so this evening, as we come to you and want to desire and hunger and thirst for your word, I pray, Lord, open our mouths wide. Quench our thirst and satisfy us through your word. Speak to us. By the power of your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Would you please remain standing or stand for the reading of God's Word? We will be in John chapter 16. John chapter 16, verse 21 through 24. You're the word of the Lord. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. When she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish. For joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again. And your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you've asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Truth of the text I want us to see this evening is that in his presence, he gives us everlasting joy. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. When something is taken from us without our permission, we ⁓ call that stealing, right? I don't know if you've ⁓ had anyone steal something from you before, but ⁓ yeah, that the feeling that accompanies that Is ⁓ reprehensible. You feel violated. ⁓ i i i it's it it's hard to actually even put a description on that. And somebody's been inside of your space and taken something from you. I'll never forget ⁓ running a ⁓ summer reading program in a classroom and my phone went missing. ⁓ and I had I had this sense, you know, that one of my students actually stole it, but I didn't want to really believe it. But ⁓ long story short, ⁓ we got to see the cameras HD later inside of that day, and I saw the moat. unlikely student actually pick up my phone from where I sat it down and sneak it and put it inside somewhere where he can hide it and take it. But we called mom ⁓ and we we had the conversation with mom. Mom confensated the phone, brought it back to us. And when they bought it back my phone was broken. He had broke the phone. I don't know why he broke the phone, but by that time I could tell you I was deeply disappointed. And there was kind of that sick feeling that comes to your stomach when somebody steals something to you. Now, it's one thing for somebody to steal something behind your back or to steal something in the cover of darkness. It's a whole other thing when a person looks you directly in your face, lies to you to gain your trust, and then uses that trust to take something from you. Now that's more than ordinary thefts. That's what we call exploitation. Exploitation happens when someone takes advantage of another person's trust, their weakness, their labor, or their vulnerability for their own benefit. And that kind of de theft, it doesn't it's just not them taking something that belongs to you. That kind of death theft is using you in order to benefit from you. Has that ever happened to you? So I I I got a further question than that. Have you ever seen someone getting taken advantage of? And that just begins to burn you up. Yes. I've seen that too. ⁓ where that person, you know they're about to get ripped off, but let's take it further. You ever seen someone who's been taken advantage of and you're trying to help them, but they think that they know better than you? Yes. ⁓ this brings us into a different kind of feeling. Dare I say, a very strange feeling in that scenario, one in which you you kind of Vindication for your judgment. One in which you feel the pain, actually, you want them to feel the pain of their poor decision. One in which you want to be able to say, if we're being honest, at the end of their poor decision and they get the consequences that they get, you just want to be like, see, told you so. But that the the difference between those things and those scenarios is that obviously one is stealing from you and you don't know what's happening, but in this scenario. It's you allowing someone to take advantage of you and letting them do you any sort of way. Then that person isn't wrong. You're wrong in that scenario. You let them take something from you that belongs to you and you watch them rob you. And here's why. Most of the time we do that is because we want the thing that they're going to give us in exchange so badly. That, my friends, is what the scriptures paint as the human condition. We know something inside of this world is taking something from us. We know that something is being robbed from us. We know that something is exploiting us. But we want the thing that these things, whatever it is, is offering us more than we care about it exploiting us. That's what happened in the Garden of Eden. Just imagine it with me for a second. Adam and Eve at the end of the long day inside of this garden. They've been working, they've been tending, they've been cultivating, working the garden. Now they're walking through this garden. And they're enjoying the goodness of everything God made for them. And Eve and Adam, they walk towards the tree of life. And the scriptures say that the tree that was forbidden is actually right beside it. It's a beautiful tree. I mean, it says that it's pleasing to the eye, and the fruit on it is the it even looks appetizing. And so maybe Eve or Adam they stop and they begin looking at this tree. And Eve, she begins looking at it a little longer than what she's supposed to. And the serpent begins talking out from that forbidden tree. Hey, did God really say? And he begins to tell her, eating from that that that for Britten tree, that that, hey, Eve, Eve, i i God's God's keeping something from you. He's like the slimy car salesman that we all know about. Where somewhere deep down inside, we know if we're with that car salesman, that car salesman's trying to take advantage of us. And we know deep inside we're saying, Man, he's trying to take advantage of me. But we want the car so badly, we buy it anyways. You know you're getting rabbed, but You want what he's offering so bad that you're willing to be robbed and not walk away from what's happening there. That's Eve with the forbidden tree and the forbidden fruit. But more than that, suddenly the woman who had everything and the man who had everything, they begin to wonder if they're actually missing anything. And they begin asking the question: Maybe God is holding something back for me. Maybe God isn't telling me the whole truth. Maybe God is taking advantage of me. And that's the lie at the heart of every sin and at the fall story. The fall and the story inside of Scripture where sin enters into the world, humanity is believing that God was trying to steal something from us and withholding something good from us because He forbids something from us. And reaching for that thing that did not belong to Adam and Eve, when they reached for that thing that didn't belong to them, something was stolen and taken from them. What was stolen and taken from them? The scripture says two things that we've been trying to actually get back ever since the fall: our God-given authority and our joy. And the tragedy is that you can sue the slimy car person or get it, you got lemon laws and all that type of stuff. But there's no court where we can sue and get that back. There's no law that we can enforce and make restoration to get it. There's nothing we can do to recover what was stolen. You and I were meant to rule the world, but now the world rules us, the scripture says. You and I were meant to rule the powers of darkness, but now the powers of darkness rule us. You and I were meant to live in the joy in this world, but now the joy has been stolen from us in this world. And that's where our text today is actually overwhelmingly good news for us this evening. Because Jesus came to give back what was stolen from us. That's why when Jesus was born, the angels announced, if you remember on the hills, they announced to the shepherds on the field, Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Because before the Lord came, the only thing we had was the bitterness that comes with the world. The resentment and the disappointment and the betrayal and the wounds that we can't forget. The only thing we had was the hardship that comes with this world, the struggle and the frustration and the exhaustion and the burdens that never seemed to lift up. The only thing we had before was the pain and the heartache that comes with this world, the tears and the losses and the broken relationships and the prayers that seem that they go unanswered. The only thing we had before. That joy came into the world was despair and depression that comes with this world, the hopelessness and the heaviness, and the loneliness, and the feeling that tomorrow can't get any better than today. The only thing we had before that joy came into the world is death that came into the world, the graves that we visit, the people we visit and bury, the goodbyes that we never wanted to say, the reminder that everything around us is actually passing away. My friends. The joy that came into the world is not good news to you if you have not tasted the bitterness and struggled and toiled with life's hardships inside of this world. It won't sound like good news to you if you've not felt the pain and the heartache and been through the dumps of despair and depression and smelt and felt the sting and the stench of death. This is no good news to you because you won't feel like something's been stolen from you. But I want to talk to the people who are real in this room. Those who have felt the pain and the struggle of this life and all the things that make up human life. Since the incarnation in Jesus came into the world, I want to give you good news. The angels have sang since he came into the world. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. And when the Lord came, joy came into a world full of sorrow, although it may not feel like it. When he came, hope came into a world full of despair. When he came, life came into a world that is full of death. I say to you this evening: joy to the world, the Lord has come. And the Lord says this to us in verse 22. Listen what he said. You have sorrow now, but I will see you again. Wow. And your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. Jesus is saying to his disciples, listen, your joy was taken from you. But I've come to take back what was stolen from you and give it back to you. But I don't want you to miss this. This time, it can never be taken from you. It can never be taken for you. That teaches us something about joy, doesn't it? Joy is not something that is up one moment and down the next. It's not here one moment and gone the next, because joy is not merely a feeling. Jesus says, this joy can't be taken from you. In fact, in the New Testament, they command us to have joy. Paul says in Philippians 4, 4, rejoice in the Lord or have joy in the Lord. Again, I say, rejoice or have joy. Listen, you can't command somebody to have a feeling, can you? I can look out inside of the crowd and say, be angry. And you can try to conjure up the feeling all you want. You just can't. I can't make you be angry. That's because emotions, they're just signals to our conscious brain that are telling us something that needs our attention. It requires our action. Emotions are good. They give us information, but they're intended, they're not intended to govern us. They're just signals that we receive. They're not to be foundations that we build our lives upon. Christian joy is different, though. Joy may be expressed through our emotions, but it's not dependent upon them. Emotions respond to what's happening around us. Christian joy, hear this. It is rooted in our relationship that is within us. So joy is not merely emotional, it's relational. Paul commands, if he commands us to rejoice and have joy and it's just a feeling, then his words would be laughable. But notice the words that make the difference inside of what he says. He says, rejoice or have joy in the Lord. Our joy is not ultimately rooted in what's happening around us. Our joy is rooted in who God is and our relationship with him. But even more, verse 23, it says, In that day you will ask me nothing. Nothing of being. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. In other words, in that day, well, your joy can't be taken from you. The reason why is because you have access to the Father that's been given to you. Your joy comes from access to the Father. Oftentimes, ⁓ I'll be in my study at home or in my office working. And my children know ⁓ that their daddy's inside of their closed door. And so they've actually come to respect my closed doors in my office, surprisingly so. ⁓ and they do very well with it. I'll hear ⁓ outside of my door whispering, don't go in there, daddy, daddy's working. Or or ⁓ no ⁓ Rosalind, don't walk in there, daddy's working. But my one-year-old Rosalind, she doesn't hear the rule, right? She she will burst inside of that door and she'll come right around to that desk, thumb in her mouth, put her hand up, even if I'm in the middle of work. And she demands me to pick her up. It's her touching point. It's what she needs. She needs her father in that time. My my my other daughter also, she'll she'll if she needs that touching point, she'll also burst in and she'll ask the question, Daddy, what you doing? Even though it's like it's obvious, baby. I'm I'm working right now. But I'll stop things and be with them. They need that touch point with their daughter with their daddy. Jesus is saying, I am the door to my father in this. And you don't have to stand at the door to ask to see the father. I'm giving you a ⁓ permission to just burst through the door. and go straight to the Father. Your joy is found in access to the Father and founded on your access to the Father. But imagine this. Imagine that my sons and daughters came bursting through that office door and they begin to speak to me. But I tell them, Hey don't don't speak to me. I got a lot of things to do right now. They have access to me, but they don't have access to speak to me. I i it's another thing if they burst into the door and I have many things to do. And I drop everything that I'm doing to attend to them. I begin to listen to them. I begin to embrace them. I begin to hug them as if nothing else mattered. Yes, I got a lot of things happening inside of my world, a lot of things I need to do, but all of my attention will be set on them. Jesus is saying you get access to him, and you can come in and take up his attention and you can ask him anything. And yes, he controls heaven and earth, the entire universe. Yeah, he has a lot on his plate, but your prayer is the attention that he gives. He just gives it. Completely to you, and he sets his attention on you as if you're the only person with him. This is what prayer to the Father looks like. I love how C.S. Lewis describes it as being a character in a book that an author can spend countless hours thinking about. Listen to his description here. It's beautiful. He writes, Suppose I'm writing a novel, and I write, Mary laid down her work. And the next moment she knocked at the door. Okay, that's what he's writing in the novel. For Mary, who has to live in the imaginary time of my story, there's no interval between putting down the work and hearing the novel. But I, who am Mary's maker, do not live in the imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of the sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary as if she's the only character in the book for as long as I please. And the hours I spend in doing so would not appear in Mary's time at all. This is what this is what Lewis is saying. He's saying, God is not bound by time. He's the author outside of the story. He could sit down and think about you without having to worry about time. He could take as much time with you as he needs with you and as you need with him. Access to his presence and prayer in his presence, my friends, it's where we find joy. The question is this if we have unlimited access to joy and unlimited time to spend in that joy, why aren't we always living and walking in that joy? Here's what it is is because we're convinced that that's not where joy is found. Access to the Father and prayer and conversation with the Father is not enough for you. You think there's more to joy than that. We believe it must be access in something somewhere and in someone else. And we know this to be true because what we really believe about joy begins to come out when trials come, when good things in life begin to be uncertain and things that are that can be taken away in our lives. You believe that joy is found in your career, you find out. It's why when it's uncertain your career and your job's uncertain, it's why you feel as if joy has left you. It isn't. It's still there. It can't be taken from you. Wow. You believe joy can be found and ⁓ your joy is found in a stable financial position. It's why when you're struggling financially and things get uncertain, and it seems as if those finances are going to be taken away from you. You feel as if joy has left you. It hasn't. It's still with you. It can't be taken from you. You believe that joy can be found in having good times, right? It's why you're having, when you're having a good time, you just can't take it all in because you think, man, this is uncertain. It might not last. It might be taken from me. You feel that joy. Will leave you if those good times leave you. It hasn't. It's still there. It can't be taken from you. Here's what we have to admit. Deep down, we believe that our joy is only complete when we have access to the thing that looks good rather than having full access to the God who is good. You're finding your joy in the wrong thing, and it's why you can't do what James says. Count it all joy when you go through various trials. You're finding your joy in the wrong thing, and it's why you can't count it all joy when trials threaten. Everything. But friends, your trials hear this: it cannot threaten God. They can only threaten the good things that you're trying to make God. What James is trying to get us to understand is that you can have joy when trials come, but joy doesn't come from anything that trials can touch. Joy comes from the one who takes our trials to build us up into deeper fountains of joy. So trials can make our joy, ⁓ can take it, cannot take our joy. Trials just dig deep a deeper well in our hearts to fill us with fresh waters of joy that we can drink each and every day. Trials are increasing our size of the aqueducts of the water of joy inside of our hearts. They're increasing The size of the water lines of joy inside of our hearts. They're increasing the depth of the fountain of joy inside of our hearts. Trials are increasing our capacity to have more joy. So we count it all joy when we face various trials because trials increase our capacity to have more joy. Which brings us back to our text in verse 24. He says, Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive. That your joy may be full. He wants to fill us up with joy, that our joy may be full. Jesus says, until now you've asked for nothing. Now that seems to go against almost everything we find inside of the Gospels, actually, because the disciples have just about asked Jesus everything they could ask. They're walking on the road, the gospel say, and they're arguing amongst themselves. Hey, who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They hear Jesus talking about forgiveness, and Peter steps forward and says, Hey, how many times do I actually have to forgive my brother? They encounter a man who's born blind, and they ask Rabbi, who sinned that this man has to be blind? ⁓ Jesus tells a parable that they can't understand to the crowd, and they pull him aside and say, Explain this parable to us. Can you can you tell us what it means? That demons refuse to come out. And they ask him privately, why couldn't we cast them out? They stand before the grandeur of the temple that he says is going to be destroyed. In three days he'll raise it up. And when all those things happen, they're asking, hey, when's that going to happen? When are the signs of the time that the temple will be destroyed? So they ask him where he's staying. They ask him where the multitude is, how can we feed the multitude? They asked him who betrayed them. They asked him whether they are the betrayer. They asked him, where is he going? They asked him, how can they know the way? They asked him even to increase their faith. The disciples were not afraid to ask Jesus questions. The questions could be, Sincere, they could be selfish, they can be confused, they can be ambitious, they could be fearful, they could be faithful, but they asked them. They asked them about greatness and forgiveness and suffering and power and prophecy and faith and the kingdom. They asked so many questions that it's almost easier to list what they didn't ask. And when you consider everything they saw Jesus do, every sermon he preached, every miracle and everything, every life that was transformed, it's actually hard to believe what they never asked him. Jesus had said only. You've asked nothing, he'd be lying. But the words that follow make it all clear. He said, Until now, you've asked nothing in my name. But hold on, Pastor, you say, how does that make it clear? Wouldn't they have used Jesus' name everywhere that they went? A loose gospel affirms that too. That he sent out the 72. They went out, they cast out the demons in his name. So don't miss this. Jesus is saying thus far, you've only used my name as authority to speak to the powers underneath me. But there's coming a time where you'll use my name as authority to speak to someone who is equal to me. It is one thing to command and cast out demons in my name. It's a whole other thing to ask the Father something in my name. Demons fear me. My father loves me. Demons obey me, under ⁓ obey under my authority. The father isn't under my authority, but he has granted me authority. And what authority has he granted him? Look at John 17:1 through 3. He says this. Jesus has spoken these words as later on he praised this and he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority. What did he give him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all you have given him? And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Jesus is saying to his disciples, It is one thing to have authority to cast out demons in my name. It's another thing to have access through my name to enter rooms you never could have entered and participate in what happens in those rooms. You know what that's like. So when children interrupt a conversation between grown folks, right? And they come into the room, they give their two cents, and you turn in, hey, this is a grown folks' conversation. I'm gonna I'm gonna need you to go somewhere and play, right? You and I are not ready for certain rooms that we can enter in. Let me let me let me let me understand that. One of the most important lessons that you and I can learn about ⁓ in influence is that the most important decisions are rarely made in public. Some of the most important decisions made in a home did not happen in front of the children. Some of the most important decisions made on your job did not happen at a staff meeting. Some of the most important decisions made in a business were not announced on social media. Some of the most important decisions made that have changed the course of human history were not made on a stage in front of a crowd. They were made behind closed doors in private conversations. And rooms most people cannot enter. That's why in Hamilton, that most famous line, he's like, man, I gotta get to the room where it happens, right? I remember when I first began being invited into rooms where things happen. And most of the time, I was I wasn't invited because of my own name. I was invited because someone else's name had carried their weight and brought me into that room with them. They knew the person who brought me in. They trusted the person who brought me in. And because they trusted that person who brought me in the room, they were willing to make room for me at the table. So I'll never forget being in a particular meeting. I I want you to imagine this room with me. Go inside of it, long conference room, you know, folders wide open, papers spread out, these people look important, numbers are discussed, people are So I was new to this real estate development thing and that's what I was sitting inside of this room for, this boardroom. I didn't understand all the terms, I didn't know all the acronyms, I didn't even know what the good numbers were or the bad numbers were. So I sat there quietly, taking it all in, right? And I'm listening to the language and I'm watching how people are reacting inside of the room. And I'm I'm trying to figure out the right questions to ask in my head. And to be honest, I'm also waiting for the right moment to say anything that would for approve that basically I should be inside of that room. Have you ever been in a room like that? You're sitting at the table, nodding your head, trying to look like you understand. Everybody else is talking, and you're you're praying nobody turns to you and says, So what do you think? But while I'm sitting in that room, something began to dawn on me. Anything discussed inside that room could eventually make a difference outside of that room. A question asked in that room could affect what was built outside of that room. A request made in that room could release resources outside of that room. A decision made in that room could change whole neighborhoods outside of that room. What happened in private had the power to change what people experience in public. And I was sitting in that room for one reason. Someone who already belonged in that room. Had brought me into that room. My friends, that is the picture Jesus gives us of the disciples when he says, Until now you've asked nothing in my name. Jesus is saying, You've used my name to speak to demons beneath me, but now my name is going to give you access to the room with the Father who sent me and loved me. You're about to enter a room you can never enter on your own. You're about to sit at a table where your name could never secure a seat. Not by your record, not because of your resume, not because of your righteousness, not because your name carries weight. In heaven, you are in a room because Jesus brought you into the room. But watch this: Jesus doesn't just bring you into the room and merely have you stand against the wall. He doesn't tell you to just remain quiet inside of the corner. He doesn't bring you in merely for you to listen to the conversation. He does not bring you in just to jot down notes and collect information and leave. Jesus brings you to the table and he says, Ask. You can make a request in that room. You can talk and bring your family issues to that room. You can bring your children to that room. You can bring a church that's struggling in that room. You can bring a neighborhood that's struggling in that room. You can bring grief and burdens and your confusion and your concerns in that room. And you can ask in that room that whatever you ask inside of that room can make a difference outside of that room. Prayer offered in heaven can produce fruit on earth, my friends. A burden carried into the presence of God can become breakthrough in the life of somebody you love. A request whispered in a presence. private and the private can actually become a testimony proclaimed inside of the public. That is the mystery of intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer. Now we don't enter into that room to give God information that he doesn't possess. We don't enter that room offering wisdom that he doesn't have. We don't have veto power inside of that room. We don't have an agenda that we can tell heaven to do. We don't sit as equals with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit in that room. But as God brings us inside of that room, he invites us to participate in that room. The God who can accomplish his will without us has chosen to work through the prayers of his. So, how in the world do we get to this place in this room? Well, we've heard it is through Jesus' name and his authority. We'll get back to that in a second. Notice what Jesus says here: Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. Your joy begins to fill when you practice his presence and you become aware that he's near, as we talked about inside of the series. Your joy begins to be filled. Imagine it like a cup. When you begin to be still in his presence and remember that he is God, as we talked about in the series. Your joy begins to fill up even more when you receive his love and you respond by pouring out adoration and love back to him, as we've learned in the series. Your joy continues to be filled when you stand naked before God in confession, not pretending, not performing, not hiding, and you discover he already knows you completely and he still loves you, as we talked about last week. His presence fills you with more joy. His stillness in his presence fills you with joy. Adoration in his presence fills you with joy. Confession in his presence fills you with joy. Every spiritual rhythm we talked about, he pours something more into your cup to fill up your cup more with joy. Little by little, drop by drop, moment by moment. But in this text, Jesus says there's something that fills the cup until it runs over. He says, Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full. There is a joy that comes from knowing God is near, but there's another kind of joy that comes from knowing God has heard you. There's a joy that comes from resting in his presence, but there's another kind of joy that comes from watching his power move in response to your prayers. There's a joy that comes from receiving his love for yourself, but there's another kind of joy that comes from carrying somebody into his presence and then watching the Father work on their behalf. Your joy becomes full when prayer moves from something you merely practice. Into something in which you actually participate. You ask and the Father answers. You intercede and the Father intervenes. You carry the burden into the room and then you watch God make a difference outside of that room. You pray about it in private and God begins to move upon it inside of public. You whispered that name on your knees, and later you watched that name become a testimony at their feet. That is the joy of intercession, my friends. It is the joy of discovering that your prayers are not disappearing into a ceiling. It's the joy of knowing that the Father hears you. It's the joy of seeing the will of heaven touch the conditions on earth. It's the joy of being invited into a room, making your requests in the name of Jesus, and then witnessing God work in ways that only God can work. So, how do we practice this intercession? Well, Jesus taught his disciples to intercede by praying: Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That means that there are two moves in intercession that we should be making as we continue practicing the presence in prayer: releasing in prayer and asking in prayer. So, first, we pray your will be done. So, in this part of intercessory prayer, we're going to think of something in your life where you're wrestling to have control over inside of your life. You need to name that thing that you've never released to God, and perhaps you've released it but you're trying to grab back onto it. Name that thing, release it in prayer. And ask for filling from the Spirit in place of releasing that. Maybe it's peace in the place of anxiety. Maybe it's trust in the place of fear. So your will be done. Second thing we're gonna pray in intercessory prayer is we pray his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So after we release what we're controlling and we surrender our will, we're now free to see our lives and our relationships and our community and our world through the eyes of God. And we can ask for his kingdom to come with our hearts full of faith and hope. So we ask this by asking God's kingdom to show up where we see it absent in our friends, outside relationships that we have, ⁓ needs in the city, in the world, troubling or challenging circumstances, people that are suffering from physical and mental illness. Ask for Jesus to come. Anywhere, everywhere you know. You want God's love and peace of his kingdom. Wherever it's lacking, pray for it. And when you make that type of request, don't make it vague. Make it very specific. One of the pastors that I had the chance of pastoring underneath in Tennessee, Jed, he wrote a book on prayer. One of his lines inside of that, inside of that book is specificity leads to visibility in prayer. So pray specifically. One author says it this way: In your asking, be brief and specific. We tend to pray wordy, vague prayers when asking, almost like we're afraid to lay our request before him boldly. Resist the urge to cover for God or make it easy on him. He can handle your request. Just ask. I don't want us get this twisted though as we come out of this. Jesus does not promise that your joy can't be taken because every prayer you pray will be answered. Answered prayer may complete your joy, but answered prayer is not the source or the security of your joy. So what secures our joy when it seems like it's actually leaving us? Or it feels like no one actually can keep it for us. What must we do? Who can protect it? We we we look as the psalmist did in Psalm 121 and he asks this question I lift my eyes to the hills, for where does my help come? And he answers My help comes from the Lord. Who made heaven and earth? Don't miss this. Lord, this word, Lord, in our text, Jesus says, Until now, you've not asked anything in my name. This does not mean the disciples have never spoken Jesus' name. Jesus' name was given to him at birth. In fact, it was a very common name inside of his time. But he was about to receive a name that was above every name. What is that name? Paul tells us inside of Philippians. He says, after Jesus' death upon the cross. God highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name. And at that name, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is. Here it is. Lord. Lord. His personal name is Jesus. But the name and the title and authority bestowed upon him is Lord. Kyrias in the Greek. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. The psalmist knew it, and Jesus declared it when he rose from the grave. He said, All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me. This is the new name he has been given, Lord. And this is the Lord who keeps your joy. The Lord, as the psalmist says, who made the heaven and earth. There is nothing beyond his authority and nothing beyond his ability to keep you from him in heaven and earth. The Lord who will not let your foot be moved when life becomes unstable. ⁓ slumbers nor sleeps. There is never a moment when he stops caring for you and watching over you, even when you are asleep. The Lord who is your keeper in your shade, when the heat of light bears down on you, his presence covers you and keeps you in his shade. The Lord who keeps you from all evil and keeps your life, even suffering and death cannot ultimately steal your life, because he has all power to bring you back to life. The Lord who keeps you going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore, as the psalmist says. So whoever and wherever you go and whatever comes, he is the one who will keep you. Keep you forevermore. So the reason your joy can remain is not because your circumstances remain the same. Your joy remains because the Lord remains the same. Amen. The one who defeated the great is the one who keeps you. And if he keeps you, he can keep your joy. Amen. Let us pray to that Lord right now. Heavenly Father. We know you are the Lord that keeps us. I'm reminded of that hymn where we are prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. ⁓ and they cry out with those words, Father, here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Father, we're so fickle. Our feelings are so fickle. We we treat you in a way that is not faithful based on that. But Lord, as we heard this evening, we have your joy in us. A joy that cannot be taken from us. And we know that's only been made possible, but because Jesus came, lived a life that we could not live. He died the death we deserve. He rose from the grave and he declared all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to him. And because he has that name that is above all names, that joy cannot be taken from us. And so I just pray this evening, Lord, for your people. Holy Spirit, teach them not to operate according to The waviness and the ups and downs of feeling, but to operate in the depths of your joy, knowing they have access to the Father. Lord, that they can come into that room with you, into your presence, and be built up. Lord, I pray for them as well, Lord, as they may go through the trials of life, even this week. Lord, build them into a people that would be able to count it all joy when they face various trials. Lord, that they would know that you are building depths inside of them. Lord, for fountains of water of joy. I just pray, Lord, make us a people who could walk by faith, not by sight. Lord, who would walk in the strength of your joy and be reminded, Lord, nothing can take it from us. We thank you for all you've done for us. Thank you for your word that encourages us. Continue to build us up in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.

John 16 · chapter mention John 16:21–24 John 17:1–3