I'm not sure who originally said it, it's been attributed to a number of people, one of whom was D.L. Moody, the American Evangelist, but the saying is, don't fear failure, fear succeeding at something that doesn't matter. Don't fear failure, fear succeeding at something that doesn't matter. There is within our heart, within our soul, within our mind, something that recoils against the very notion that our lives would be lived for something that doesn't matter. That our lives wouldn't count. That our lives would be meaningless. In a way, this guides or ought to guide our lives every day. Are we living for something that really matters? Are we living for something bigger than us? I want you to see this morning, from this passage, this one big truth. I want you to plug it into your lives and then We'll see different ways that Jesus expresses it here, but this is the truth I want you to see and embrace and live and love. Those who trust Jesus live powerful and meaningful lives. Those who trust Jesus live powerful and meaningful lives. Now there's two directions in my mind that I want this to go. There are some of you here that haven't yet decided about Jesus. You're still maybe a seeker or a wanderer about Jesus. You're not sure if you want to give your heart and your life and your soul to Him. For you, I want you, by God's grace this morning, to place your faith and trust in Jesus. I want you to commit your soul to Him. I want you to lay down your rebellion, I want you to lay down your sin, and I want you to trust the one who says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. But then there's the rest of us in here that have claimed to trust Jesus, that have made professions of faith. I want you who have trusted in Jesus to live trusting in Jesus. That is, that trust in Jesus not be just something you think about, well, when I was five years old, I placed my trust in Jesus. I want this to characterize your life on a day-to-day basis. I want this to characterize my life on a day-to-day basis. Now, as we come to this point in John chapter 14, you may remember from last week, Jesus has told Philip that he, Jesus, reveals the Father perfectly. This is a passage, John chapter 14, which is about comfort to the disciples. It's about intensifying their trust in Jesus. Jesus has said, listen, how can you say, Philip, show us the Father? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Jesus perfectly reveals the Father. But Jesus also went on to say, Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. That is, he's saying Philip and the rest of the disciples, Thomas, Peter, the rest of you guys, believe that I am who I claim to be. Believe that I perfectly reveal the Father. One of the evidences that I am exactly who I said that I was, Jesus says, is my works, what I've done. Now, we just look at John's Gospel and think about the works that Jesus has done, and that is pretty amazing. You have everything from the first recorded miracle of Jesus, where Jesus turns water into wine, all the way to the raising of the dead, Lazarus. And Lazarus had been dead for three days and was starting to decompose. And Jesus, with a word, reversed all of that. So Jesus is saying, my works bear testimony that I am who I said that I am. So with that background, Jesus has just talked about his works. He says, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do He will do also, and greater works than these, He will do because I go to my Father." So Jesus, if you see, transitions from the works that He did to the works that the disciples and us would do. The big point that Jesus brings out here is this. Those who trust Jesus do great works. That's stating it as minimally as possible. Because Jesus says, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater works than these, he will do, because I go to my Father. Those who trust Jesus do great works. First of all, we see from this passage and what Jesus said that they do great works because they join Jesus in his mission. There are different goals and agendas and ideas and missions that people live for, and a lot of them really aren't worth living for. Not all that great. We pay people insane and obscene amounts of money to play sports. The sports themselves are not wrong. Huge stadiums are filled with people that are wanting to watch this and wanting to cheer for a team. But compare playing football or hockey or lacrosse to doing what Jesus says, the works that I do. Compare sports to Jesus' works and there is a huge difference. I'm going to come back to this in a little bit, specifically talking about one great sports figure, but let me just make a general statement that people who reach the pinnacle of sports find that it doesn't actually satisfy them. I mean, they thought, I'm going to be great, I'm going to do great things, I'm going to get to the top, I'm going to stand there on the medal podium, whether it's the Olympics, World Championship, whatever it is, I'm going to get there, and when I stand on that podium and receive the gold medal, I'm going to say, wow, my life is meaningful. And they get there, and they find out that it's not as fulfilling as they thought. It's not as great as what they supposed it would be. But Jesus here calls us to join Him to do great works. Jesus says, the works that I do, my disciples will do also. The huge question for us today is who are we trying to copy? Who are we trying to follow? Whose works are we trying to do? I was at the Yorkdale mall the other day. I don't get fashion. I'm going to tell you that right now. I don't get men's fashion right now. I really don't. Okay. I'm not necessarily saying something sinful about it. There's something sinful about it, but I just don't get it. I was there wearing boot cut jeans with cowboy boots. And my jeans were one pair of my jeans would have made about five pairs of jeans of the guys that I saw walking around the mall. I don't get that fashion. I don't get it. It seems more in keeping with Peter Pan than jeans, but that's me, okay? But you see people sometimes choosing a style they don't even really feel comfortable in or they don't like. And why do they do it? Because they think it's cool. Because they think it's fashionable. Because they see somebody that they love and admire wearing that. And they're like, oh, well, I have to wear weird colored jeans, because One Direction does. I have to. And people are like, okay, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, and people are, they follow after and try to do what other people do. Who are we trying to copy? Who are we trying to be like? I'm not just talking fashion here, I hope you understand that. But who are we trying to be like? Whose works are we trying to do? When we had a birthday party for my son, John, this past summer, and we had people come over, and our neighbor's grandson was over, so we invited him over as well, and partway through the party, this boy said, hey, I want to do a music, I want to do something for John, I want to do this music for him. Okay. He stands up, and he looks at John, and he starts launching into this rap. This thing was a tirade. It was so negative and horrible, and I'm like, I want to do this for John, and he's like, you know, you're going down, you're stupid, you know, all this other stuff, and I'm like, whoa. And I was thinking, you know, this guy had the actions down, everything, you know, he must, and I wondered how many times did he watch the music video? How many times did he listen to that track before he got every single one of these words down? But it's not just kids that are running after and trying to copy people. And it's not just teens that we sometimes pick on teens. We have a tendency to fix our focus and attention on somebody and follow that person and try to be like that person. Jesus calls us to do the works that he does. But Jesus goes even deeper than that. And this is where my mind gets blown. Because Jesus says, He who believes in me, the works that I do, He will do also. And greater works than these, He will do because I go to the Father. Because I go to my Father. Greater works than Jesus works? Because that's what Jesus says. He says, The works that I do, He will do also, and greater works than these He will do because I go to my Father." What could Jesus possibly mean that we, His disciples, could do greater works than Jesus? Let me give you a couple things that Jesus doesn't mean. Jesus doesn't mean, when He says greater works, He doesn't mean more spectacular. That's not what Jesus is talking about. There are some people who kind of think that. They're like, well, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. I'm going to raise 10 people from the dead on my crusade. And usually they end up in all kinds of trickery and that sort of stuff. Jesus is not saying that those who follow him are going to do things more spectacular than him. It's kind of hard to do something more spectacular than raise Lazarus. It's not what Jesus has in mind here. One other view that's very prevalent is the view that while Jesus is going to the Father, so that means he's not going to be around anymore to work, so Jesus is just saying that you're going to do greater works as in greater works in number, because I'm not going to be around to work, so you guys are just going to, over the years, your tally will get larger than mine. But that's not what Jesus means either here. It is true that as the church has advanced in these 2,000 years after Jesus, there have been more people brought to faith than were brought to faith in the three years of Jesus' ministry. But that's not what Jesus has in mind here. If Jesus had meant more, he could have told us more. If Jesus had just meant, and more works than I do, others will do, he could have told us that. But Jesus says that greater works will be done. The context seems to point to something grander, more than just addition. So we're left with this question, what does Jesus mean when he says that we, his disciples, can do greater works than him? Okay, follow me. You might need to put your thinking caps on. You might need to actually stay with me on this one. The key to this is found in Jesus' words when he says, I'm going to my father. The basis, the foundation for these greater works is the fact that Jesus is going to the Father. The point is this, when Jesus goes to the Father to prepare a place to intercede for us, Jesus will have lived and died for sinners. He will have accomplished his plan and purpose for his earthly ministry. The full effect of Jesus' works, which testify that Jesus is who He is, the full effect of His works of living and dying and rising for sinners, the full effect is seen after that. So Jesus lives for sinners, He dies for sinners, He rises for our justification. The effect of that comes after that. With Jesus' return to the Father, the New Covenant comes into full effect. And Jesus will build His Church. Jesus said in Matthew 16-18, I say to you that you are Peter, And upon this rock, I will build my church. Jesus is in the process right now of building his church. Jesus continues now, having gone to the Father as the builder of the church, the head of the church, the intercessor for the church, and he is unlimited by human body. Jesus continues that work to this day. So the greater works we're talking about now is the explosion of God's kingdom, the explosion of the church, as God's plans and purposes come to fruition, as Jesus' name is spread through the earth. We will talk about this next week, but it is linked to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is going to talk about the Holy Spirit just a few verses later. He's going to start talking about the Holy Spirit in verse 16. If you think about the link between the mission of the church going forward, the spread of the gospel going forward, and the Holy Spirit, think also of Acts 1.8, where Jesus says that they would receive power after the Holy Ghost had come upon them, and they would be witnesses unto Him. everywhere, ultimately to the uttermost part of the earth. That mission is ongoing today. Jesus is working today. The Spirit is working today. The fact that we are on the other side of the globe from where Jesus was when he said that is evidence that Jesus is doing that. But what about us doing these works? Because it says here that we're going to join Jesus in His works, and then we're also going to do greater works than these. What is that all about? If I keep pointing us to what Jesus is doing, and what the Spirit is doing, what about our work in this? And I think the key to that is found in John 17, 20, where Jesus in His great prayer said, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. So Jesus is working building His church, and the Spirit is empowering the church to go forward with the message of Christ. But Jesus is using us. He's using the clay pots. He's using the earthen vessels. He's using us to declare the gospel. So Jesus prays for those who will believe through our Word. So there's a power of Jesus' work as it goes forward that was not present in the same way during His earthly ministry. The Spirit has come. The Spirit is empowering the church. The message of the gospel is launched out of a small geographic area to the uttermost part of the earth. And that's happening today. Now all of this to say, let me return to that first point that I wanted to make here. Those who trust in Jesus do great works. It really depends on who's defining great, right? Sometimes kids at school will say, hey, have you seen this YouTube clip? It's great. And I watch it and I'm like, it doesn't seem all that great to me. Hey, have you heard this song? It's great. A great waste of time, maybe, but Depends on who's defining it, right? But here it's Jesus saying, they'll do greater works. Those who trust in Jesus do great works. We must move on here. Secondly, those who trust in Jesus, those who trust in Jesus experience answered prayer. Look at what Jesus says there. Whatever you ask in my name, That I will do. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. That is an astounding promise. I mean, it was huge for us to hear Jesus say, you're going to do greater works than I did, and this is huge, that Jesus says, if you ask anything in my name, I'll do it. But again, let's look at what this doesn't mean. Because there are all kinds of crazy ideas about what this means. There are some people who say, well, this is a blank check for any request. As long as you pray in Jesus' name, right? You get anything. So, I'm going to start praying for... Mike, I'm going to start praying for a six-figure salary. See how that works. And it's going to happen, right? That's not what it means. That's not what it means. We know that for a number of reasons, which I'll get to in a second, but we know that at least from James chapter 4 verse 3, where James talks about asking and not receiving because you ask amiss that you might consume it on your own lusts. Some people look at this promise of Jesus as though the name of Jesus is a magic word. You just say Jesus, it's like hocus pocus. You say Jesus' name and you're just guaranteed to get what you want. That's not what Jesus means either. In fact, there's much of scripture that speaks out against that kind of foolishness. In Acts chapter 8, there was a guy named Simon who basically wanted to do that. He wanted to figure out how I get God's power so I can just do my own thing and do incredible stuff and have people follow me. It's not about some magic word, like saying hocus pocus and it's all going to come to pass. It's not clicking our heels together and, you know, no place like home. That's not what we're talking about here. So what is it that praying in Jesus' name is about? If Jesus says, if you pray in my name, if you ask anything in my name, I'll do it. What does He mean by that? Well, first of all, praying in Jesus' name is praying in accordance with His purposes and His will. That's really, really important, guys. It's really important. Imagine if somehow I was able to get a hold of a credit card that is for the company PETA. You know what PETA is? People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Have you ever heard of that organization? So imagine if I were to get a credit card, PETA's credit card. And I were to go to the Burlington Coat Factory, you know where this is going, and I were to start grabbing all the leather coats and all the fur coats I could off the shelf. And I'm doing it with PETA's credit card. When I got to the cashier, if she didn't ask some pointed questions, she would not be doing her job. How could I, in the name of PETA, be buying leather coats and fur coats? It doesn't make sense. And a lot of times what people do in Jesus' name is they do things and pray for things and ask for things that are contrary to His plan and purposes. And yet they think, I've prayed in Jesus' name, so we're good. Praying in Jesus' name is about praying in accordance with His purpose and His will. Listen to what 1 John 5 says, verses 14 and 15. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. So to pray in Jesus' name is to be praying in accordance with Jesus' will, in accordance with His purposes. Now, let's stop for a minute and think about that. Brian Chappell, in his book, Praying Backwards, actually suggests maybe we should, just for, to help us think through what we're praying, maybe it's a good idea for us to put, in Jesus' name, at the front of our prayer. Because that's a good test about what we're going to pray afterwards. Can we really pray, Father in Jesus' name, give me more money. Father in Jesus' name, make me successful. Father in Jesus' name, it really is a test of our prayers, isn't it? So praying in Jesus' name is praying in accordance with His purposes. And that's so key. If we don't get that, we're going to get really frustrated and really disillusioned in our prayer life. Because we're going to start praying and we're going to say, hey, I prayed in Jesus' name and I prayed this for five years and it didn't happen, so Jesus is a liar. No, no, no. He didn't understand. You have to pray in accordance with His purposes, with His will. There's so much more we can say about that. You look at the Spirit's ministry even in our prayer, that's so important. Romans 8 actually talks about how we get to the point sometimes where we don't even know what we should pray for as we ought to. We don't know what we should be praying for, how we should be praying for it. And in those times of prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And the Holy Spirit takes our requests and fires it in the direction of God's will. So it's like here we're aiming and the Holy Spirit takes that request. Amazing. But we'll have to come back to that another day. Praying in the name of Jesus is about praying in accordance with His purposes and His will. Praying in the name of Jesus is praying in the authority of Jesus. When we do something in someone else's name, there's a sense in which we are appealing to their authority. If the kids are complaining about one of the rules at school, and I say, Mr. Cleland said that. Well, Mr. Cleland is the vice-principal. Ah, I'm appealing to his name because he had the authority to make that rule. It's not just my idea, it's his idea. It's his rule. I'm appealing to his authority. When we pray in Jesus' name, we are appealing to Jesus' authority. Think about Hebrews 4 verses 14 to 16, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We're praying, not in our authority. That's my point here. When we pray in Jesus' name, we're not praying, Lord, because I'm such a good person, grant this request. Because I'm so faithful, grant this request. Right? We're not praying that. We're not saying, Lord, I'm so sinless, grant my request. We're praying in the authority, in the name of Jesus. Praying in Jesus' name is also, I think, very important. We recognize this, and I'm only going to spend a minute on it, but praying in Jesus' name is praying, recognizing that Jesus is the only mediator. That's really important in our day and age. It really is. Because the pressure of the world to conform us into its mold is huge. And when we stand up, when we say things like Jesus did in John 14, 16, or 14, 6, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's not well received. When we pray in Jesus' name, we're saying there's only one person by whom we can access the Father, and that's Jesus. Paul would put it this way as he spoke to Timothy, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He alone is the mediator between God and man. He is the only one. We cannot come to God through any other person's merit. We cannot come to God through any other person. We cannot come to God any way but Jesus. And when we pray in Jesus' name, we're recognizing that. Now, some of you might say, well, that really wrecks it for me. I mean, I really thought I was having a blank check here, and now you're putting all these qualifications on it, and my wonder is diminished. These qualifications really shouldn't diminish our wonder. Actually, these qualifications should increase our wonder. And this is how. The requests that are granted by Jesus, the requests that Jesus promises to obey, are ones that really matter. In other words, if we just said, well, any one of my requests that I give should be answered by God, Come on God, give me a fuller bank account. Give me a better vehicle. Give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. We become the focus. And our petty little desires, and our petty little whims become the center of it all. We look at Jesus though, and Jesus says, I'll grant you requests that are given in my name, and all of a sudden, when we understand what that means, we understand that Jesus is granting requests that really matters. That is, Jesus is doing what really counts, and He's doing it through our requests. And that's amazing. We can wish and long for all kinds of things that don't matter. But when we pray in Jesus' name, in Jesus' grants that request, this is something that really matters. Well, let me give you one final point that Jesus brings out here, and it's tied in with this matter of prayer, but it's bigger than just prayer. Those who trust in Jesus glorify God. So we've said that those who trust in Jesus do great works, and we've said that those who trust in Jesus experience answered prayer. But the heart of it, the foundation of all of it, is that those who trust in Jesus glorify God. Look at the way that Jesus says it. Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The Father glorified in the Son. As we trust Jesus, And as we live trusting Jesus, God is glorified in Christ as Christ answers our requests. We talk about glorifying God, and a lot of times in Christian circles we just kind of throw that word around. What does the glory of God mean? What does it mean to glorify God? The glory of God is God's greatness on display. So to glorify God means to show the world what God is really like. It means to show the world that God is great, that God is inexpressibly glorious. John 13, if you remember when we went through that passage, John 13 verses 31 and 32. So when they had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him now, immediately. Through the work of Christ, the Father is glorified, and the Father glorifies the Son. That is, the greatness of the Father is shown, and the greatness of the Son. Through our work, the glory of the Father, the greatness of the Father, and the greatness of the Son is shown. There are so many ways that this can take place. When we give someone the gospel, for example, we set forth the great grace of God. We set forth the great justice of God. We set forth the great power of Christ. A powerful sacrifice that is greater than all sin. We are putting God on display when we live our lives, not pursuing what the world pursues, but pursuing God. We're showing that God is more important to us than, fill in the blank, fame, better wheels, whatever the case may be. When we pursue God, and He's at the heart of everything, And we see that He's more important to us than anything else, He's really valuable. What we follow really betrays what's valuable to us, doesn't it? If sports are more valuable to us than anything else, we're going to throw our time and our treasure into those things. If God's more valuable to us than anything else. Everything rearranges. And all of those things, which may even be good gifts from God, are seen as gifts, not as the great end for which we're living. So those who trust in Jesus glorify God. We have been built for glory. We've been made for glory. We spend our time fooling around, pursuing things that are never going to satisfy us. We spend our time drinking out of broken cisterns, broken water pots, broken wells that can't hold water. We follow after these things, we long to grasp them, and they're never going to satisfy us. Only the infinite greatness of God will satisfy you. And I've talked about this over and over again, but we all need to hear it. We all need to live it. Think about the most pure, enduring joy that you can think of. Maybe you think about a time where you stood at night and you looked up into the heavens and you saw, away from the city lights maybe, you saw millions of stars. in the heavens and you're just lost in the wonder of it. Maybe there was a time when you stood at the edge of the ocean and you looked out and you saw the vastness of the ocean. Or perhaps you stood at the edge of Niagara Falls and you watched that water tumble over and just were lost in the bigness and hugeness of it. Or maybe some of you have been to the Grand Canyon and not just seen the pictures but actually stood at the edge of it and just been caught up in the wonder of it all. You don't stand there thinking about how great you are. You don't stand there in those moments caught up with thoughts about you. You're lost in the amazement of it. But even those amazing joys do not satisfy you forever. There's a reason why the people who live in Niagara Falls don't go down to the falls every single day. They've been there, done that, and sold the t-shirt, right? After a while, it's old hat. Something as amazing as that. We were made for something bigger. And only God and Christ is ultimately going to satisfy you. So you might pursue all kinds of other things, which seem great and glorious to the world around you, but when you stand there and grasp Whatever it is you're longing to hold, you'll find that it's a soap bubble. It looks all shiny, and lovely, and multicolored. When you reach out and grasp it, it pops in your hand. Only God is going to satisfy you. How many of you know how many NBA championships Michael Jordan won? Six NBA championships. Thank you, Stefan. I think that was Stefan, was that you? Oh, Kyle. Thank you, Kyle. Six NBA championships. Kyle, how old is Michael Jordan today? 50 years old. There's a great article in ESPN this week about Michael Jordan and his life now. He stood and received the NBA championship ring Six times. He hoisted the trophy six times. He's 50 years old now. And he's living with the ghosts of the past. He wants that. He keeps thinking about 218. What's 218? That was his playing weight. That was how much he weighed when he played. He obsesses about that. He longs to be back there. He wonders, could I, could I play again? Could I do it? He's 50 years old. The tragedy of this is that it never satisfied him the first time. He won the championship six times. Not to mention being part of the dream team at the Olympics. He stood at the height of his profession and it never satisfied him. And now he's past that. His body is not going to get down to 218. He's not going to make the NBA again. He's an owner of a team that has the worst record in the NBA. He's never going to be satisfied by basketball. If there was anybody that could have been satisfied by basketball, it was him. But it didn't satisfy him. You see, as big and amazing as basketball is, Michael Jordan was made for something bigger than that. It's never going to satisfy him. Now, I don't know what you're living for today. I don't know what's in your mind that you're pursuing after and you're thinking, If I can get there, if I can grasp this, my life will be meaningful. It'll be worth something. It'll be the great work that I long to have with my life. I don't know what it is you're longing for. But if you pursue that above God, it's not going to satisfy you. If you pursue God first and you see that as a gift from God, you'll enjoy it immensely. You pursue that as the end, you'll end up bitter and disillusioned and angry. And by the way, as the years go by, Michael Jordan's temper is not going to improve. Not that it was great when he was in his playing days. We were made for something bigger. Only an infinite God can satisfy you. So let's draw this Believe in Jesus and live for something worth living for. Live for something, the cause of Christ. Live for someone, Christ, that is bigger than you. A life like this is a life lived trusting Jesus. It's a life lived working with Jesus and seeing Him at work in you by His Spirit. It's a life lived putting Jesus on display, showing the world that He is great. And you're really not going to do that until you're convinced of it yourself. We talk about what we are convinced is great. We talk about as great, that which we think is great. We see an amazing goal and we tell everybody else about it the next morning because we think it's great. Until you really believe, until you really see Jesus as great and glorious, it's not going to overflow into the lives of others. But when you truly trust Him and when you really come to see Him as your all-satisfying treasure, that will overflow and you will live a life worth living.