until I can look down at it, I get the wrong chapter. Thursday, I said, oh my soul. Of course, we're in the book of John. I want to stay in it till we get through it. And we certainly, if we wanted to, we could go right back over again and find fresh thoughts and message as we go with the word. Gospel of John chapter 16. Jesus had promised his disciples, I'll never leave you alone. And so in chapters 14 and 16, you find he talks about the Holy Spirit of God's going to come and what he's going to do when he comes. Well, he's getting close to leaving. He's trying to prepare the disciples for his departure. He's trying to prepare him for the absence of his physical presence. That's a difference. He can say, I'll hear you, I love you, I'll be praying for you, no matter what. But physical presence is different. than just reading, hearing, whatever it might be of the relationship in absence. It's just not the same. And so he's trying to help his disciples. He's trying to prepare them for his departure. And it's going to be soon. He's warned him here in this chapter 16 that things are going to change. And they're going to change. And I don't know whether they accept that it's going to change for your better. It's going to improve. How do you improve from the presence of Christ? Well, he's worked on this. And I don't know whether I'll get this across tonight. I don't know whether I will this morning. But he's trying to make them see that he's making a way for them, that it won't be a letdown. It won't be discouraging when you get done. He said, I know you're going to have a hard time. I know that there's going to be a time when you're down in your spirit. And he's dealing with that here. He's dealing with this proverb, I mean, this problem of just the letdown in their lives and the sorrow they're gonna have in their spirit. He says it in here and tells us of these things that they'll have. They'll have sorrow and he wants them to have joy. And so he's trying to lift their spirit and prepare them and trying to convince them That there's things that's going to change that they'll benefit by it He's trying to help him with this thing of communications in verse number 24 He's dealing with this thing. He says hitherto. Have you asked nothing in my name? Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full he's trying to make them understand this new way of communicating, this new way of developing a relationship with the Father, this way that just gives a closer walk with God, a way that it can help them. And so he's showing them, it's gonna be in this way that you communicate with the Father through my name. Notice he tells them there, he makes it clear. He says, these things have I spoken unto you in the Proverbs, but the times cometh that when I shall no more speak unto you Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly the Father. Now, I want to get into that in a moment, but he's helping them to see that he's going to be the mediator. He's going to be the go-between. He's going to be the one that's going to help them to ensure that they have this relationship with the Father, of speaking to the Father, communing with the Father. And so, notice with me, if you'll follow with me this morning, look at 1 Timothy 2. Verse number 5, I think it is. Notice what it says here. Verse 4 says, "...who will have all been to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." How? Four, "...for there is one God and one Mediator." There's one God, one Mediator, between God and man. the man, Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2, 5. He is the one that's going to make the connection between you and the Father. He's going to be the mediator that's going to carry forth your communion, your talk with Him, your requests. The word asking, of course, stands for praying. You ask, have not, because you ask not, as James wrote. And so it's part of your communications is asking God for things. Seeking God's help you ask him course and prayers for healing or for End of problems what's going on in your life? uncertainty decisions you got to make all these different things and so you Seek help you ask God for the help and Paul's Making it clear here through the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that he's going to be that Jesus is going to be the one that is a mediator. Look with me quickly into the new covenant, the mediator of the new covenant, Hebrews 8, 6. Hebrews 8 and verse number 6. But now hath he, Jesus, obtained a more excellent ministry. It's not a letdown. It's not less. It's more. It's he that's obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. He's the one that's given us a way of communicating. He's given us a new way of life. This is a new way It's not like the Old Testament. You can do what you want to. You can make all the comparisons in the Old Testament. You can't compare them to what you have now through the Lord Jesus Christ, what's provided for you. You did not have that. I know a lot of people want to argue with this, but you did not have that. It was not possible. The Bible actually read it here in Hebrews to him. It's not possible that they could have the same way of relationship that they have now through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of bulls and goats. The blood of bulls and goats cannot wash away sin. Only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the blood that provides an atonement for our... If the blood of bulls and goats Could provide salvation would be no need for Jesus to die. And so without the shedding of blood, his blood, perfect blood, pure blood, the blood of a man without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sin. And so he's the mediator of this new. and living way. He's the one that's going to provide our contacts. He's the one that you're going to go to him, through him. He's going to ensure that you're asking the right things. He's going to be the one that no doubt sees your prayer, hears your prayer. Accepts your prayer or rejects your prayer He's the mediator. You can't bypass him. You can't just go to the father and bypass the Lord Jesus Christ There's no way you see God wants you and me to honor the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on giving himself as a sacrifice for our sin and And one of the honors is, is that you have to recognize the son of God. And in your prayer life and understanding who give you this salvation. God the Father wants you to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ and look at Him and see Him. He's the one that paid it all. He's the one that has the name above every name that there is. He's the one that God has appointed to be the one to be a mediator between Him and you and I, instead of allowing us just to come and bypass the person that made it possible for us to be saved. This way by you going through Jesus, the mediator, you're acknowledging him. You're acknowledged him as the one is your savior. You're acknowledged him is the one that the father has chosen to give glory and praise to because he provided an atonement for your sin. Every prayer through the Lord. Jesus Christ is honoring him. The name above every name, the one the Lord has chosen to be lifted up, that name above every name is in Philippians 2, 9, and I'm not going to go there. I'm saying he's making it clear that he wants this process of Jesus being the mediator, Jesus being the go-between. You never forget who it is that it made possible that you could get to the Father. There's no way you could get to the Father without Jesus Christ. And so you'll never forget that. You'll be honoring Jesus for giving you that great and wondrous and glorious privilege that you can identify and speak to and come before the Heavenly Father through the Savior, through the one that made the sacrifice that you could come. through the one that provided a way. And so I'm saying to you, it's meant specifically to honor Him what He's done for you. He gets the glory for it. Nobody else gets it. He gets the glory for being the sacrifice and becoming the mediator of our sin. Notice back in our text here. He desires, and you wonder how he's gonna accomplish this. He wants your request so, notice in verse 24 again, ask and ye shall receive. And he said, that your joy may be full. I want it to make a difference in your life. by your receiving. You're getting through to the Father. You've went through the Lord Jesus Christ as a mediator, and now you've come to the Father, and He's made a way. He's made a way. Is my voice too loud? He's made a way that you can receive the answer from the Father that will bless your life. God doesn't want the Christian to be down like he's missing something, like there's something better. There's nothing better in the Old Testament than the New Testament way of salvation and the relationship with God. There's no relationship. What was in the Old Testament was for the Jews, and they had their relationship. In Romans 9, you'll find out that God turned from the Jews and grafted in the Gentiles. That's what you and I are, of course. And so he's made a way for us that we could have a relationship even superior to the one that was before. And so the people before, that's where you get your Catholic Church kind of doctrines is that In the Old Testament, what did the people, who did they go talk to? Who did they pray through? A priest, a priest, a priest. They weren't praying directly. They went through a priest. And so that's where the Catholic church got their idea from. But here we go through our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's made a way that we can receive such blessings from the father. We can receive such blessings from the father that we will have joy in our relationship. It won't be down and it won't be where it, you know, it's just something that your procedure you go through and it doesn't do anything for you or to you or change you or help you or support you and encourage you or lift your spirit. God wants this relationship of the answered prayer you receive. Notice he says, he says, ask and you shall receive, ask and you shall receive that, that your joy may be full. He wants this whole new process of communicating with God to be such that it just carries with it the joy of heaven. I, I, there's a song, is there a song of joy of no one? And I, and I, I can't find that song just the way this word, but I, the joy of just having that communion with the father where he answers you, um, David said even in morning anew will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice What good is prayer What good is prayer if you don't have an answer What does the answer do to you? Let me just, I used to quote these verses, but I let up on practicing on them, and I just got away from, Barbara got so she could practice, I mean, quote it, but I lost my hold on it. But in Psalms, I'm gonna give you this, and I think it just, it goes with this good. Come and hear all you that fear God, and I'll declare what he hath done for my soul. This is Psalms 66. Now just listen, this is what is speaking about here. Come and hear all you that fear God, and I'll declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me. A very strong truth that you need to read and understand. If your prayers are not getting through, you're the one that's plugging the line. You're the one that's causing the hindrance. If I regard iniquity by heart, the Lord will not hear me. Now listen to these two words, two verses. But verily, Listen to the psalmist, he says, but verily, God hath heard me and attended to the voice of my prayer. Then he says, blessed be God, that's joy. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. That's that rejoicing that he received from knowing God answered his prayer. He didn't turn it away. He didn't turn my prayer away. He heard my prayer. Blessed be God. And he didn't turn his mercy away from me. He extended his mercy towards me. It's the way prayer ought to be. It's the way it ought to, you ought to be able to get up off your knees. You've heard me tell that story about the time Brother Underwood and I were praying for this boy who was in the UVA and was unconscious and they expected to live. I know I tell my story and I, you know, you, you know, you're, you wonder if anybody believes you, but I, I was home. He called me. I got down and went in a bedroom. I got up. She said, would you pray? I said, I'll pray. I told brother Underwood, brother Underwood taught me to pray. If he didn't do nothing else, he taught me the value of prayer. and made me meet with him different times to pray. And I would think things were going good, but he said, no, brother Owen, you and I need to pray. You and I need to pray for the church. Come. Well, anyway, this night I went in the bedroom before the Lord. It's exactly what happened. I fell on my knees and start praying beside that bed. And I was praying and praying. And all of a sudden I felt like my words were being shoved back in my mouth, like I wasn't getting nowhere. I stopped. I got up, walked out of the bedroom, told my wife, I says, one or two things happened. I said, either God turned me down or the man is healed. One of the two. I went on, probably for another hour, and Brother Underwood called, says, Brother Owen. I said, yeah, I'm sorry. My faith wasn't that great. I thought maybe it's bad news. He says, Brother Owen, he woke up from the coma. And that man is a preacher today out West. Rejoice, he said. joy over blessed be God. He didn't turn away my prayer. That's what he wants you to have. He wants you to have that relationships up in a prayer that you can sense God moving and God working the life. Remember the time I had to go on a trip and I've told you, Danny was, I think probably about four or five. I don't think he's that old. And I had to go out to this meeting. And all of a sudden, Danny couldn't walk. He was paralyzed from his hip down. He couldn't walk. And I prayed all the way down. I was going to Norfolk. I had to go to a meeting down there. I went and I prayed all the way down. I said, Lord, I can't accept that. I can't accept that he won't be born. I said, he's got to be walking when I get home. He's got to be. I prayed all the way down, all the way back. I walked in the door, he's running around the house. Not me, but I rejoiced over the answer to the prayer. Blessed be God, he didn't turn away my prayer, he heard my voice. I'm saying that's the kind of relationship that Jesus wants us to have now. That this relationship to where you can pray and you can sense and know the certainty that God's heard you. Just praying, just praying to pray, it don't work. God wants prayer that has effect. God wants prayer that has an answer. Does prayer do you any good if it's not answered? I hate to, you know, automatically, I'm just, well, he's just talking about himself. I've had this congestion and they put me on medicine. That ain't helped much. But I've had some bad, bad nights with it. The other night I got coughing and coughing and I couldn't stop. I got up, I was coughing and coughing and coughing and bringing up stuff and coughing. I said, Lord, I need some rest. Would you please help me? That's all I said. Went back to bed, slept longer than I normally even sleep on a good night. Slept, I think, four or five hours right through. I said, praise the Lord. I woke up and said, hallelujah, praise, thank you, thank you. Prayer without receiving is emptiness, it's fruitlessness, it's sorrow, it's lack of faith in God. Makes your life miserable. How come God don't answer me? You remember times in this church when people stood and rejoiced that God answered their prayer. You know that. You might've prayed it. You've seen God heal people, you've seen God do miraculous works, wondrous works. Does God always have to? No, he don't always have to. But he wants to. He wants you to come to the right spirit. He wants you to come with the right faith. If you don't believe God, there's no sense praying. You pray without doubting, Jesus said. He wants you to pray without doubting. He wants you to pray believing. I don't want you to walk around and, what does it do to the lost people? Here I'm saved and I'm walking around down the mouth. Like God doesn't know me, God doesn't hear me, God doesn't answer me. Am I helping other people at all? What do people want to hear that there is a real God that does answer prayer? Nothing thrills your soul more than know that heaven answered your prayer. that God heard you. I'm gonna be able to preach the second part of this message, but look back at it again. Look at John chapter 16. Notice it says here in verse 25, on the last number of words starts with but, He says, I shall show you, P-L-A-I-N-L-Y, of the Father. I said, wow. That's a whole message. He says, I'm gonna make, now listen to me carefully. He says, I'm gonna make the Father real to you. Without this, it's a mystery. Without this, it's not a reality. You know, Paul said in Philippians, he says, oh, that I may know him in the power of the resurrection. Jesus is saying, I'm gonna fix you. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna reveal to you. I'm gonna make it clear to you what God is like. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna magnify the Father. I'm gonna open your understanding. I'm gonna help you know Him personally. Not just fantasizing or building an image of your own, no. This is the reality of knowing a true and living God. I'll go quickly, look at 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter four and verse number 14. Knowing that he, knowing that he, the he is the father, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus. He that raised up Jesus shall raise us up by Jesus and shall present us with you. Notice Ephesians 1. I know I don't have time, but I'll just read the verses. I wanna deal with them. Oh, the joy of knowing. Oh, the reality. It's not just the far off imaginary being that we really can't communicate with, no. He said, I'm gonna show him to you. I'm gonna reveal him to you. I'm gonna open your understanding. I'm gonna help you take you to a way that your knowledge, your wisdom, no matter what you do, can't get you there. It's gonna have to come through by the grace and the mercy of God and the Lord Jesus Christ enlightening your mind that you might see these things. Ephesians 1 in verse number 15. Wherefore, I also heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints. Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him." Who's going to do that? I was saying to you, the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the work of His mighty power, which He, which He wrought in Christ, when He, always speaking of the Father here, raised Him, He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own, set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. It's Him that you, that you can know the Father, I'm gonna show you the Father. I'm not gonna leave you in a state where you just have to build your own concept and envision what you think God is like. No, no, no, no. I want you to know Him personally. I want you to know, I want you to know His heartbeat. I want you to know about His love, that great love of God that so loved you while you was yet a sinner. I want you to understand that love and what kind of a person, being it is, that loved you such a way. Such a being that He was long suffering towards you, put up with you for years and years and years of rebellion and resistance. Loved you while you was at a sinner. I wanna introduce you to him. I'm gonna show him to you. I'm gonna make him real to you. You're gonna really know him. Not about him, not just about him. You know him, you really know him as God. The reality, the wonder of the reality of having that true understanding of a living God. I think probably most Never get beyond just saying, well, I believe in God. How many real feel a personal? Just talk about it. A personal relationship? A personal experience? How could it be personal unless it's real? Unless you sense it in reality. It's not just, Imaginary in your mind, you really sense him. You feel him. There's a song, I Feel His Touch, and there's a song that goes like that. I feel his touch. He touched me, oh, he touched me. And all the, oh, he preached on joy. That floods my soul, something happened. And now I know he touched me and he made me whole. There's a, I have poems here about him knowing Jesus showing you. He said, I'm going to show you him. I'm not going to leave it in a way that you just feel so distanced from him. I want you to where you can just sense. You see, I'm not saying things that are not written in your songbook. Over and over again. Under his wings, I have safely abided. The songbook, the songwriters are full of this knowledge of God that's brought it into such a relationship they can identify with it, sense it as a reality. They know there's a God and they sense His presence. If we don't have that, we're missing the most vital part of our relationship of being able to talk and hear from our God. He wants us to be people that though the world around you is mixed up, the world around you is people having all kinds of problems and taking drugs and doing all kinds of crazy things just to exist. He says, I want you to be a people they can look at and say there's something inside them that's different that keeps them going. They've got something inside them that feeds their soul and their spirit. Something that's going on on the inside that encourages them and helps them and lifts their spirit and makes their life worth living. It's not just going through a regimen of laws and rules and things His Word isn't grievous to us, it's sweet, sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb. He speaks to us through His Word and through His Spirit and through His answers. Amen, shall we stand? Oh, the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is mine. Reckon that's why we're so weak at times. I remember when I first got saved, I'd sing that song. I'd sing it at the telephone poles. I was going down the road. And I'd look at that telephone pole. I'd be driving. I said, if you want joy, real joy, let Jesus come into your heart. Man, I'd sing it. Y'all believe that? You believe he gives you joy? Joy that's unexplainable? Unspeakable and full of glory, is that what that word says? Unspeakable? Somebody's get that. You know the Christians, you look at me, you know the Christians you'd like to be around? Happy Christians. Two of you want to be around? Happy Christians. I said I want to be better, but I need to work on mine at times. You let the pressures of this world and this life, you let it take you down. You gotta get with the psalmist then. Just read what the psalmist says. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God. Just discipline yourself. Correct yourself. Why are you like you are? Why are you down? Why you got a God in heaven that loves you and has saved you? What are you doing in the spirit of despair and defeat and discouragement? Where is your God? I guess that's who we're supposed to display with our life, our joy. I think one song says, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. Father, in Jesus' name, help us to believe and to live so as we show the world, I believe my God is real. He's real in my soul. I don't believe it's just a figment of imagination. I don't believe it's just something somebody said or the book says. but it's a personal relationship with me. I know he's real, praise God, the doubts are settled. I know he's real. Thank you for this avenue of prayer that you opened for us. That we can get answers. And we can commune with the Father. And you help us to get through. I thank you, I thank you. Work of the lives of each one of these people in this building. How I pray that each one will be ready. Seek you with all their heart. Acknowledge their relationship with you, where they stand. If you come today, will they be left behind? May that be a reality. May it drive in their soul. May it cause them to lose sleep. May it cause them to be troubled to mind until they turn from their sin and turn to you. Courage the sight of God. All of us have allowed these pressures of this world to take us down and our candle isn't hardly burning. Help us to shine for you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen, amen. You are dismissed. you