that when you come to John chapter 15, that Jesus is talking about the abiding life. And we've learned that the abiding life is a fruitful life. And He talks about the true vine, the parable of the vine and the branches, and how that we're in Him, and that because we're in Him, there is the potential within every Christian to bear fruit for His glory. And not just fruit, but we can bear more fruit, much fruit, fruit that remains, and all of that. So God wants to be a fruitful Christian, but I can't do that if I'm not abiding. And then we learned on our snow service, alright? You tuned in on that, and if you hadn't, you can go back and watch that service. And we talked about how an abiding Christian is a joyful Christian. and that a byproduct of our walk with the Lord is a joyful heart. And he talks in verse number 11 about his joy and our joy. He does. And the joy that you and I have flows out from our walk with the Lord. And you say, well, I don't have a lot of joy. Then my question's going to be, how's your walk with God? Because they go together. And you're going to find that many times our joy in our life is commensurate with our walk with the Lord, our abiding in Him. And then we're going to come to verse number 7 tonight, and we're going to see that an abiding Christian is a praying Christian. They're a prayerful Christian. Look what he says in verse number 7. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. That's a prayer promise. Did you notice that? He said, if I abide in Him, and His words abide in me, then I as a believer, as a branch in the vine, can ask and He'll answer it. That's what He just said. It'll be done. And we learn that the key is that word abide. That's to remain in fellowship. That has to do with my walk with the Lord. How I'm walking with Him. And here's the key. You can't and I can't abide in the Lord If two items aren't true of our lives, and he mentions them right here in this verse, and we're going to look at them, and he's going to talk about this matter of his words, his talking to us, and then ye shall ask our talking to him. Listen, that is crucial to the abiding life. If God's not talking to you, you say, Fr. how do I know he's talking to me? Well, every time you open the Bible, God's talking to you. That's it. I can't be assured that I'm going to hear a voice. Because God doesn't talk in audible voices. Okay? But God sure does talk through His Word. I can be assured every time I open the Bible that I'm hearing from God. I can. And you know what? God needs to hear from me. He does. And you say, preacher, that's so basic. That is so basic. I've heard this my whole Christian life. And you know what? You're right. But why do we struggle with it so? Why is it that we find it so hard to be consistent in His words and our prayer? How is that? I'm going to tell you why. Because the devil knows. The devil knows. Satan knows that if he can cut your prayer line and get you out of the book, that you and I won't walk with God. He knows that because we have to have that in our lives if we're going to walk with God. I want to talk to you just a little bit about this matter of an abiding Christian is a praying Christian. Let's pray real quickly. Father, we love You tonight. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the sweet Spirit amongst Your people, Lord. Our faithful livestream viewers, And Lord, we thank You for that. And our church family, Lord, as we gather in-house, and then those, Lord, that are livestream as well, God, I pray that You'd work in our hearts, that You'd challenge us tonight, You'd speak to us. I pray that we'd be tender to You, Father, and sensitive to Your working in our lives. And Lord, that we would glorify You. We would. And Lord, that we would learn this matter of prayer. And Lord, that I would learn it. How important it is, Lord, in my own life that we get so busy at times that if there's an area we neglect, it's right here. Lord, teach us tonight that this is crucial to our abiding life, and we'll thank You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, the Lord here talks to His disciples about this matter. He's getting ready to go to heaven, and He talks to them about how they can remain connected and abiding and in communion with Him, and He brings them to this matter of prayer. If there's an area, if there's an area of our Christian lives in which we all feel deficient, if we all feel like we've failed at times, it's in this area right here, isn't it? This many times where we struggle. And we've already learned we can't abide apart from this matter of prayer. And I want you to notice some that we would think that are unconditional promises. And they're many times just ripped right out of the passage. You shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Over in chapter 14, verse 13, He said, And whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do. And we begin to ask ourselves, well, I'm praying and I'm asking, but I'm not getting anything. And the reason is they're not unconditional. They're not. You're going to find that there's conditions here. There are prayer promises, but there are some conditions to the promises. And we're going to find there's some principles that need to be in my prayer life if I'm going to be effective and effectual, and I'm going to experience God's answer to prayer in my own life, and I'm going to commune with Him. And the first one is to understand this. And foremost, it goes right with our theme that prayer has a Purpose. Prayer has a purpose. And in this upper room discourse, and all the way through to the Garden of Gethsemane as the Lord's teaching His disciples, He's been talking to them about prayer. And don't you look back in chapter 14 verse 13, and you're going to find the first, what I would call, principle that needs to be in our prayer. That our prayer must have purpose, and God's going to tell us what that purpose is. Look what He says. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do." Many times we stop right there, okay? But God doesn't stop right there. The Lord goes on. He said that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You say, preacher, when it comes to this matter of prayer, what needs to be the purpose of my prayer? Friend, we need to pray for His glory. I want to ask you a question. Does your prayer life and does your prayers glorify Him? You see, Jesus said that our prayer, we ask that He might be glorified. We think, no, I ask that I might get. Now that's part of praying. We get answers from God. But the Lord is saying that's not the highest priority of prayer. That's not the highest motive of prayer. I pray that He might be glorified. Not what I get, but Lord, are You glorified? That ought to be the purpose of our praying. The Lord saying that the aim, the focus of our praying is that the Father might be glorified in the Son. And when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He had a single purpose. And that was to glorify the Father. He could say with the Apostle Paul, this one thing I do. Listen to what He said in the Gospel of John. He said, He said, I came not to seek mine own honor, but the honor of him that sent me. The same word honor has to do with glory. He's basically saying, I didn't come to seek my glory. I came that I might glorify the one who sent me. That was his purpose. Look over at John 17, his great high priestly prayer that ends this great discourse. And look, if you would, please, in verse number 1. The Lord's praying, and I want you to watch The priority of His prayer. These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, I love this, Father, the hour has come. That's the hour of the cross. Now listen to what He prays for. Glorify Thy Son. Why? that thy son also may glorify thee." Did you notice he didn't say, Father, keep me from the cross? He didn't pray, Father, do this or do that. That wasn't it. He said, Father, I want to glorify you. Look down, if you would, please, in verse number 4. He said, watch this, I have glorified thee on the earth. Wow! I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. Do you see the one desire? Lord, I want to glorify You. The hour has come. I'm going to the cross. Glorify Me that I might glorify You. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have lived for Your glory. Do you realize that everything about the Lord Jesus brought glory to the Father? And that reminds us of the one desire that ought to be true of our lives. 1 Corinthians 10 31, Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God, for His glory. Let's say it together. Are you ready? One, two, three. For His glory. We ought to be praying for His glory. It ought to be the aim and focus of our prayer. Can I tell you, the purpose of Jesus in heaven is the same as it is on earth. Did you know that? To glorify the Father. Right now in heaven, the Lord is seated. We talked about the heavenlies. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. He's our intercessor. He's our high priest. He represents us in heaven before the throne of God. And as we offer up our prayers to the Father, He takes those prayers and offers them to Him to the Father in our behalf. And listen, the Lord Jesus, God the Son, will not offer any prayer to the Father that will not glorify Him. You say, Preacher, I want to get my prayers answered. Then let glory, the glory of God, be the motive of your prayer. You see, I believe the way to get your prayers answered is to pray those things that will bring glory to God. And I believe the reason a lot of our prayers go unanswered, even right things that we might pray for, is because our motive's wrong, our desire is wrong. Some woman may say, well, I want my wife to be saved because, excuse me, a woman might say, I want my husband to be saved so that my life will be easier at home. Well, that shouldn't be the motive. The motive, God, I want my husband to be saved that you might be glorified. Or, I want this, my children to be saved because they're a burden to me and they're bringing stress in my life because of the way they're living. And if they'll just get right with God, my life will be easier. Your motive's wrong. Now listen, you're praying for the right thing, but you're praying with the wrong motive. We ought to be praying, Lord, I want my children to come back to You. I want my children to be saved, that You might be glorified. Listen, we pray to the glory of God and what we ask for. ought to be asked for, that God might be glorified. We pray, God, I want you to meet with us at church and give us a great day at church. Why? It ought to be for His glory. You know, I tell you so often, if we're not careful in our midst, and even among preachers and churches and all of that, a lot of times we have outreaches and we do this and we do that, but we're doing it for our glory. So we can say how many we had and what we've done, and can I tell you it's not about us, it's about Him. The goal of a growing church ought not to be to grow. It ought to be the glory of God. Growth is a by-product of glorifying the Lord and pleasing Him. That's why we've never set numerical goals of how many people. Like, okay, we want to have a hundred baptisms this year. We want to have this or we want to have that. Never done that. You say, why? Because I'm not in charge of that. I'm not in charge of that. All I do is share the gospel. It's God who saves people, not me. You can't save anybody. I can't save anybody. If we're just rushing people through a bad district to get a number, friend, that doesn't glorify God. I heard of a meeting. I fortunately wasn't in that meeting, and there was a guy up preaching, and he was bragging, and he made this statement. He said, we have more people saved in our bathrooms in our church than most people do in their church. Oh, and the people went crazy. How exciting! You know what? Friend, that may be true, praise God if it is, but guess what? You just got all the glory right there. God didn't get any. Because you made it all about you. And folks, it's not all about us. It's about Him. And I believe we keep our priority right. And we keep Him where He needs to be. Can I tell you, Calvary Baptist Church will stay front and center in what she's always been and what she should be in the days and weeks and months and years ahead and decades ahead. When we make God our goal and the glory of God our goal, it helps us stay on track as a church and be what we ought to be for God. whether it be the salvation of souls, the restoration of wayward people, whether it be our finances, our health, whatever it be. If we're not careful, it can be for all the wrong reasons, and we want to pray for the right reasons. I believe we can ask amiss if it's just about us and not about Him. There was a granddaddy, he was passing by the room of his little granddaughter, and he overheard her repeating the alphabet in a sort of an oddly reverent way. And he went through that on and on, and he finally, when she was finished, she was on her knees, and he asked her, he said, what in the world are you doing? And she said, well, she said, Pawpaw, I was saying my prayers, and I can't think exactly the right words tonight, so I'm just saying all the letters, and God's gonna put them together for me. He knows what I'm thinking. God knows what we're thinking for tonight. And if we ask for a right thing and a good thing, but the desire is wrong, then God can't answer that prayer the way He'd like to. But on the other hand, we may not even say it exactly right. We may not know how to say it right. knows what I'm thinking and my desire's right, He says I can answer that prayer. I just want to ask you, when you fill out your For His Glory prayer card tonight, what can you put on there that's going to bring glory to His name? Oh, that ought to be the desire of our hearts, church. We ought to be praying for His glory. Somebody said, the glory of the Father is the link between our asking and His doing. Isn't that good? Let me give you a second thing tonight real quick. I'm just going to give you two and we'll come back and finish it next Sunday night. Not only should prayer have purpose, but prayer should have power. Wouldn't you agree with that? But can I tell you, the power is not in you and me. I don't care how loud we yell. And I don't mind praying loud. I don't have a problem with people praying loud. I like to pray loud sometimes. Sometimes it's just me and God. Sometimes I'm in a group of people. Whatever it might be. I don't have a problem with that. But it doesn't matter how loud we pray, how long we pray, how eloquently we pray. It doesn't matter any of those things. Not any of that is going to add any unction, so to speak, or power to prayer. Now listen, I believe we ought to be earnest. I believe we ought to be sincere. Don't we agree with that? But my earnestness doesn't add any power to it. Because the power doesn't come from us. The power comes from God. It's God who makes prayer effectual and powerful in our lives. And if we want a powerful prayer life, then we need to be tapped into God. Isn't that right? That's where it's got to come from. Okay? And let me show you where the power comes from. Are you ready for it? You're going to find it no less than five times in three chapters as Jesus instructs us in this matter of prayer, and it's praying in His name. All right? Look back at verse 13 of chapter 14. He says, "...and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name," you ought to underline those three words, "...in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Then he reiterates at verse 14, "...if ye shall ask anything in my name," there it is again, "...I will do it." Isn't that powerful? Do you see the condition? He didn't just say, if you ask, I will do. He said, if you ask in my name. In my name. Look over at chapter 15, verse number 16. Alright? In our text passage. He said, you've not chosen me. Can I stop? Every time you see God choosing, it doesn't mean that He's choosing somebody to be saved. We have been preconditioned by commentaries and preachers and writings and radio to think that every time that God makes a choice, it's a sinner getting saved. Friend, listen, God doesn't choose who gets saved and who doesn't get saved. He lets you have that choice. And I'm going to talk about that when we get there next Sunday in this matter of chosenness in Him. Okay? You need to get yourself out of that condition that every time you see that word elect or chosen or choose, that God's choosing somebody to be saved. No, He's choosing people to bring forth fruit for His glory. That's what He's doing. Get this. Jot this down in your notes, in your Bible. Context matters. Don't add to what God's saying. Let God speak without you being like a Calvinist and add to what He says. Notice He says, You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, what? That ye should go and bring forth, what? Fruit. It's a choice of fruitfulness. I have chosen you and appointed you that you go and you bring forth fruit, and watch this, that your fruit should remain. It's not going to rot. Isn't that a blessing? And then He gives them a prayer promise. That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father, here's our words, in my name He may give it to you. And you're going to see it again, just jot it down for sake of time. In chapter 16 verses 23 and 24, the fourth and fifth times, you're going to find that little phrase. You say, preacher, I do. Every time I pray, I always say in Jesus' name, Amen. You know what? It doesn't have to be at the end of your prayer. Maybe you need to start out that way. You may not be on praying grounds yet. You see, it's not just a little magical formula that I tack on to the end of my prayers and then the Lord's going to answer it. No, in my name stands for something. It's a ground of access. What I'm acknowledging is this, church, that I have no right into the presence of God in myself. I have no merit. I am not worthy to enter into the presence of God. I'm not worthy to enter into His throne room. There is absolutely no reason for God to answer my prayer based on me and based on you. None. We have no access in ourselves. But in Him, we have access. How important that is. I'm going to use Nathaniel and brother Dan here, father-son, okay? And a little instance here. And I can go up to brother Dan and say, Dan, I want your best fish and lure. And he's going to look at me and say, who are you? You're not getting my best fishing lure, and you're not going to my best fishing spot. Now, I just know he's a selfish guy when it comes to fishing. I just know it. He's already given me the thumbs up, the amen. But if I go to him and say, Nathaniel, your son sent me, and he wants your favorite fishing lure. Now, you got to play along with me here and not be a selfish dad, okay? Suddenly, everything changes. Because I'm coming to Him in Nathanael's name. I don't have any relation to Him. We're not family. But Nathanael is. And when Nathanael says, you go talk to my dad, you ask him where to go, and tell him what that lure is, and ask him for one of them, you just tell him Nathanael sent you. Suddenly, I'm going with a whole lot more confidence to talk to Dan about that fishing spot and that lure. I am. Because he's not going to turn Nathaniel away, I hope. Okay? Because we're just talking about fishing. Alright? Now, we said that in a funny way to give you an illustration. I can come to God, but I don't have any merit. But when I come to Him and I can say, I'm coming in your sight. He's given me His name to pray in. He told me to use His name. And I'm coming in His name. I don't have any right. I don't have any merit. I'm unworthy. But I'm in Him. And I'm coming to you in Jesus' name. Oh, friend, suddenly you just went on different ground. Because He is worthy. And He said, I'm going to give you My name to pray in. And when you use My name, He's going to do it. Maybe we need to stop putting it at the end and start using that name at the beginning because there's acceptance and there's access in that name. But not only is there acceptance and access in that name, there's authority in that name. People might say, well, I'm a power of attorney. Well, someone gives you the power to use their name to carry out their business in their absence. That means you represent their interests rather than your own. And you do what they would do if they were here in their place. And the Lord has given you an authority. He's given you His name. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Bible says. Authority in that name. Oh, there's power in that name. Friend, listen, at the name of Jesus, listen, every knee's going to bow, every tongue's going to confess. Listen, it's through that name that people are saved. It's through that name that mighty works are done. It's in His name. Friend, there's authority in that name. And then there's accord in that name, and I'm going to finish with this. There's accord in that name. You say, Preacher, what do you mean accord, harmony? You see, when I use His name, I need to really be representing His interests and praying His desires rather than my own. That's so hard. Do you know we're inherently selfish? I am. And if you're honest, you are too. Now, some people may be more giving and generous than others, but we all have a natural, sinful, fleshly selfishness about us. Seeking our will or our way or what we want or what makes us happy. That's where it comes back to where it's not my will but thine be done. That's it. Praying in His name. Praying according to His will. Somebody said praying a prayer that the Lord can really sign His name to. I'm going to tell you, I probably don't always pray that way. There's times I probably pray selfishly. And I believe the secret to prevailing prayer is to pray in His name. Because there's acceptance and access in that name. There's authority and power in that name. And there's accord in that name. Because when I recognize what His name represents and what His name stands for, it begins to become the paradigm, so to speak, or the filter through which I pray. That I begin to pray on a spiritual plane. I begin to pray for those things that please Him and what He wants, and it brings me in tune with Him. And you know what? It's really going to narrow down our prayer list sometimes. Did you know that? Because we're praying in His name. But listen to what He said. He said, if you ask anything in My name, I'll do it. That means I'm praying. for His glory and in His authority and in His acceptance and in His access and in accord with Him that it might please Him and not please me. And can I tell you, friend, that is the key to prevailing prayer, abiding Christians or praying Christians in whatsoever you do. in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. I just want to encourage you tonight, dear child of God. Let's determine that we're going to abide in Him through prayer, and we're going to pray for His glory and in His name. Let's bow our heads in prayer.