We have had a great, I want to again thank everyone for the work. Don't forget we're having a good dinner downstairs with the other folks. It'll be a great time of fellowship to conclude this great conference. Thank you, Rick, for being our pastor. I remember a number of years ago, how shocked I was, I was speaking at Toccoa Falls Bible College at one of their missions, their annual missions conference. And these two young Koreans stood up, and they were talking about the work that the Lord had called them to. And they were just well prepared, like you guys. I appreciate your old efforts, by the way. I know you do this a whole lot, but really clear, and I appreciate your presentation. But these guys, I was just like, where are these guys going? You know where they were called? Los Angeles. In 1982. And I thought, we need missionaries in America? In 1982? May their tribe increase? And how ironic it would be in these days of spiritual decline. And it just seems to be that the breath of the Holy Spirit is no longer blowing in America. There are pockets. There's pockets of revival and renewal. But overall, we've ignored him. Overall, We grieve the Holy Spirit here in America. And, you know, we just need to pray that the Lord would break our hearts, that he would send revival. He has. He has in the past, in our storied past. But, you know, we can't put him in a box and say, now, you've got to do it now. And I'm afraid that if there isn't a spiritual awakening in America, we're down the tubes, morally, ethically, economically. And everything that we've known about the American way of life will be gone. Europe's already gone. Europe is a sad, sad place to see and to go. And the churches are museums, or they're empty. But as our speakers have reminded us, the global Southern emphasis now, especially among the Latinos and the Asians, the Africans, My, what revival. And as I was reminded at the Jets house today, it's not really revival. It's the book of Acts in Senegal and other places in Western Africa of just the spectacular things that God is doing. My mind heard what Calvin said this morning about 45 churches that are being started or established there in Senegal. But my mind said four or five. You know, it's got to be four or five. I can't put 45 in there. But man, what a wonderful, wonderful work that the Lord is doing. We certainly should pray. Giving ourselves over to mighty prayer. Pray for Andy, your pastor, because one of the things that the scriptures teach us is that mighty praying will produce mighty preaching. And then the mighty preaching will bring about mighty conversions. And we need that. But we have a great responsibility in the church today to pray, as we've never prayed before, that the Lord would bring revival and renewal to us. Well, I promised you that we would bring this matter to a conclusion. Now, Andy, you keep me sensitive to the time, because we don't want to offend our brothers over here and make them Can you hear them stirring around when they're finished? Okay, I don't want to mess up that opportunity. But let's turn back in our Bibles to John, John's Gospel, and chapter 14, and hear the conclusion of this message that Christ is giving to His disciples. Now remember, the Upper Room Discourse is a discourse that debases the glory of man and exalts the glory of Christ. If you have that as your foundational thinking and understanding, you're not going to miss this. But a lot of times we look at the Scriptures, we don't really know where things are going, how they got there. But if we understand this, that this is Christ and His time of exaltation, And revealing unto his disciples, absolutely, you can do absolutely nothing without me. Now, see, up to this point, all of his miracles, all of his parables have brought us to this very hour, because especially within the feeding of the 5000, consider that. What was really but the message that Jesus wanted his disciples to understand about the feeding of the 5000? I can multiply fish. Or, watch this, let me pull this out of my hat. No, it wasn't that at all. It was this. As long as you're connected to me, as long as you're abiding in me, whether your basket is filled or empty, I'm always going to be the source of the supply that you need. So that when your basket is empty, you can come back to me and I'll give you more fish and loaves. And when you throw, not throw, but when you deplete that, come back to me And I'll fill it up again. That's the whole idea. That's the whole understanding for us as the disciples of Christ. In that He is the source of our very lives. Now, let's go back to verse number 12 of John chapter 14. To set again the stage of Christ. And this is classified as one of the hard sayings of Jesus. If you've ever looked at that series of some of these difficult things that Jesus is saying of Himself. And here it is again, amen, amen. He sets it apart now. I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do. And greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of this portion of his word to our hearts tonight. Surely our Lord doesn't mean that we will be able to do the works that only are reserved for His infinite glory. Only the works that God can do in the flesh here on earth. Surely He doesn't mean that. And that's absolutely right. He doesn't mean that. None of us would ever for a moment dare to try to attempt The miracles of our blessed Lord, we would be buffoons. We would do a great deal of harm to the body of Christ. A little side story real quick about that. My wife, I wish she was here because she would verify and go, yeah, you're right. Again, you know, I've told this so many times because it's just so stunning. You remember the fellow who assassinated, not assassinated, but murdered John Lennon, Mark Chapman. He was in her youth group, the Chapel Woods Presbyterian Church. in the Atlanta area when she was in high school. And she knew Mark. She knew him. And she knew that he was a little off. You can ask her about what that means. We've talked about it several times. But one of the things that Mark wanted to do with the youth group, they went on a retreat. She said she was a junior in high school. And Mark said, okay, and he had a following of the young people. He said, all right, the Lord has spoken to me. You know, always let a red flag go up in your mind when you hear that. And the Lord has spoken to me and he wants you all to go down with me to the lake and I'm going to walk on water. He was dead serious. He was dead serious. And Evangeline and a couple of her girlfriends just stayed behind and let everybody go down to the lake to watch Mark walk on water. Well, you know, he came back, he was just dripping wet and he was so mad and so angry and everybody was trying to console him. trying to comfort him, and the girls had a conversation with him, and it just didn't take. It didn't take. And then the next thing that you know, the next thing Evangeline finds out is this guy has shot John Lennon. And she was just, it was just an incredible thing. We can't walk on water, folks. I don't even know that I've ever attempted that. I've attempted some things that I won't talk about, but I've never tried to walk on water. You know, 300 pounds of flesh doesn't do well with water. But anyway, he's not talking about that. And we know that the glory of God is a very serious matter in Scripture. As a matter of fact, Moses, I think in his ignorance or in his anger, Some 38 years they had been in the wilderness. Think of this. They're getting ready to go into the promised land and Moses flies off in a fit of anger. I know none of you have ever done that. We don't know anything about anger and having fits of rage. Moses was angry once again with the people, but this time God. And he took matters into his own hands. You remember? The Lord said, speak to the rock, son, and I'll bring the water again. I'll do it again. Moses said, all right. He goes out. Strikes the rock. Strikes it. Striking a picture of Christ. Taking matters into his own hands. Well, the Lord certainly didn't throw him out of the kingdom. But the Lord said this. Think about this. Almost. Almost to the promised land. On the 38th year. Moses sins that sin. And the Lord says, you can see it, but you can't enter in. What a sad thing. We need to remind ourselves of that. As the old Puritans would say, Lord, help me to live as a Christian, but more importantly, help me to die as a Christian. Help me to persevere in the faith of the saints from beginning to end. And now I'm in the latter stages of my life. And what do I bring? Lord, I want to finish strong. I want to finish well. I don't want to limp home, but I want to be able to finish for the glory of God. Think of Peter and John as they were there filled with the Spirit of God and all the wonder and the newness of this power that was within them as apostles. Man, I'm thinking if I had that kind of power, I'd be a dangerous cat walking up and down the street as an apostle and I can rebuke this. I can raise this up. I can. But Peter and John had enough sense when they looked at the man that was physically impaired, silver and gold, I don't have. But what I do have, I give to you in what? In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. Thank the Lord that they understood that. So you can go on and on and on to give biblical defense. Time won't want to let me do that tonight. But we can talk about example after example within scripture that says to remind us there are things that belong only unto God. And let us leave that within His glorious hands. So certainly we know that Jesus is not saying to His disciples, nor is He saying to us, that you are going to be primarily known as deities, as demigods. Not at all. He's not saying that. But what is He talking about in these works? But then He takes it a step further to say, but you'll also do greater works than these, because I'm going to be your advocate. I'm going to the Father and I'm going to plead before him for you moment by moment. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Now, let me just start with small beginnings. I appreciate what the pastor has there in the pulpit, despising not small things. And I don't know if that's a reminder to you or if it's a reminder to the congregation, but it's outstanding. When I was just a boy, I'm dyslexic, by the way. And man, oh man, did I have trouble. I couldn't get the right hand to do what the one on the right had the left hand to do. When I would look at a word, I would always begin in the middle of it. For some reason, I would just try to pronounce the word in its middle. Now, think about how confusing that is. I'll never forget. Now, here's my connection with you folks, and I have a connection with you. I grew up in a Baptist church near Gray, just right down the road, and this missionary came And he showed a slide, a presentation. Now, back then, slides was just, you know, that was 3D in color. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. And he was showing us all the things of Africa where he was ministering. And at the time, I think he ended up in Indonesia. But he was there. And man, that thing went on for an hour, an hour. And I just couldn't believe it. I could not believe what this man was saying. You know, help me. I don't know if his name was Calvin, but I know his last name was Fish. You know where I saw his card? The last time I was in the church was over at Cash Hollow. What was his name? Larry Fitch. That was the guy. I was probably six years old. And the Cash Hollow folks, maybe you folks, have supported Larry. I don't even know if he's with the Lord now or not, but I do remember this as a boy. When that man said, do you think that the Lord may be calling you into mission work? My little hand went right straight up in the air at six years of age, and I never got over it. Don't discount it. Don't think that the little ones cannot understand or know. At that moment, my heart was captured for world missions. And the next thing I knew, in the fifth grade, I was eating all that I could eat and digest about the continent of Africa. I just couldn't get enough of it. And the next thing that I knew, Well, I think I've made 16 trips to Africa now and doing some things over there with the Ugandans and people in Central Africa. Don't despise the six-year-olds and putting their little hand up and saying, you know, Dad, Mom, it may be that I might end up in Africa. OK, you know, little whatever. You'll get over it. You'll get a hold of your life. They never did that. My parents never did that. They encouraged me to do that. And I'm building upon the understanding of what Jesus is saying of greater works than these. I've already said something about what Calvin said about the 45 churches in Senegal in a nation of Muslims. I mean, really folks, think of the power and the impact of the Gospel of Christ that is happening worldwide even as we speak. The world is coming alive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A lot of times without us, or in spite of us, God is doing a magnificent and a wonderful work throughout all the ends of the earth. So what are these greater works? Well, now let me go back and try to sandwich this all together to help us to see humble beginnings and to see the wonder of God. Are you familiar with the earliest of early church fathers? His name was Telemachus. Has anyone ever heard of that guy's name? He's really an obscure, obscure fellow, and he really wasn't called unto world missions until he was 85 years old. Now, folks, living to be 85 back in the day, that was quite an accomplishment, I think. But the Lord called him to world missions, oh, it was somewhere around 160 A.D. Think of that. Cause was the great crime, the great calamity that was being had by the gladiators. He was so convicted by the gladiators. And it was just a problem that was in the Roman Empire, throughout the Roman Empire. And this agent man had enough. And he said, I can't stand it any longer. Did you know that Christians were not allowed to go to the gladiatorial meets. It was so awful and gruesome that Christians weren't supposed to go. Well, Telemachus did what a good Christian did. He broke that violation and went. Not to observe and cheer and yell and scream, but there he was sitting on the front row of the upper parapet. We know this from Tertullian, by the way. And this aged man was watching all of the different bloodlettings that were going on in the various sections of their arena, and he couldn't take it any longer. Now, get this. He jumps and leaps out over the parapet, about 10 feet. He leaps out over the parapet, and down he finds himself still alive, and he's in the arena. And he goes around to each of those areas, and he says, in the name of Christ, stop this madness. In the name of Christ, stop this madness. And you know what happened? I guess it was because of his age, but maybe more than the power of God and conviction came upon those gladiators and they stopped momentarily. And it stopped all the fun of the 60,000 people that had gathered. And just for a moment, there was silence within that large Roman arena. And then with the maddening cry, because their fun had stopped, they wanted to put Pellamachus to an end, and they did. They put the sword to him, and this ancient Christian died. But you realize that in just a few years, throughout the Roman Empire, all of the gladiatorial combat came to an end because of the blood and the testimony of this man. Tertullian says that in his own writings. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? But you know, Jesus never did really say anything about gladiators because it wasn't a problem in his particular parish. Does it mean that he approved it? It just wasn't a problem. Let me give you a second thing. Let's talk about Tertullian a moment. Early church father Tertullian lived in the third century, the early 200s, a Carthaginian lawyer. Did you know in his early days he was quite an evangelist? Before he became the scholar that we know and read about, Tertullian would go in the street and preach the gospel of Christ. On this particular occasion, he went to a pagan Lactarian temple. The practice in his hometown at that particular time was for the noble women to become impregnated by the priest of this Lactarian temple to bless their womb for future children to be born to them. But they did not want the children when they were born. You know what they did with them? They put these newborn infants on the steps of that Lactarian temple, just hours old, and they would let them bake in the sun or they would let the wild beast of the field carry them away. And sometimes even worse than that, the temple prostitutes would have mercy upon them and raise them as prostitutes later on. What a horrible thing. What did Tertullian do? He had enough. He stands on the steps of the end trials. Some fingers of these infants are all around him, and he stands to proclaim the gospel of Christ to these people to say this one thing. Even the wild beast of the field know how to treat their young better than you. In the name of Christ, stop this. And he did. Brothers and sisters, do you realize today that infanticide has better laws against it than abortion? You drop a child off in one of the dumpsters here in Johnson City and see what the law will do to you if they catch you. You're in jail for a very long, long time. Isn't that kind of ironic that the 58 million unborn children from their mothers' wombs cry out, even from the ground, against this government and against this nation. It's an amazing thing to see what these greater works and these that Jesus means is all about. Let me give you a couple of more and we won't delay. OK, is it OK? All right. Fourteen original universities in the colonies, there were 14 of them. I think that's a staggering figure, don't you? With the exception of one, I did this up north for my Yankee brother. Man, I really made a guy mad because I was at 10th Street in Philadelphia and I was talking about this very illustration. And let me just tell you the story. With the exception of one, and that one was the University of Pennsylvania, because it was founded by Benjamin Franklin, and I said this, Franklin was no Christian by any stretch of the imagination. Oh my gosh, I thought he was going to just leap right out and grab my throat. He knew I had no idea what I was talking about, but I had the evidence and the proof like the Lord. The 13 of the 14. You know why they were established? One reason. One reason only. To train men to learn how to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the college. Isn't that amazing? I did my PhD work at Princeton, and I finished not too long ago. It took me seven years and three psychotic episodes to get through. I did. It was awful. I said, Lord, what am I doing here? What a horrible, horrible seminary. They believe absolutely nothing. Do you know that their God is nothing? And they explain what the particle of nothing is as it deals with eternity. And they defend it. It's an amazing thing. But you know what? Jesus Christ never built one university. Tongue in cheek, I know, it's funny. But you have to apply that to this text when you look at it. He didn't build one building, one university. But look at all of the things that have happened over the course of history as a result of the cross and the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. It's an amazing thing. And it's easy to prove my case with you guys. You think of this martyr pastor that this conference is dedicated to. Think of the lives that he breached. Think of it even now as his blood cries out from the ground. And back in the 50s, he was killed and put to death for the cause of Christ. The number of people that have been reached by that brother alone is more than Jesus Christ reached. in his earthly ministry. Greater works than deeds. And it's true. As we hear and as we see how the church is multiplying and is multiplying. So I want you to pick up on that. I really want you to see it and to know that when Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It's not a statement where we can sit back and take our ease and drink our tea. But it's a statement that Jesus is saying to us, as you are going and as you are pounding the gates of hell with the gospel of Jesus Christ, my gospel, I will win the day, ultimately. So in our discouragement, let us be encouraged. In the face of death, let us look to the Savior. And no matter what we face, as long as we face it, We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the success of the gospel in this place. We thank you for the success of the gospel throughout all of the ends of the earth. So that when we see passages such as this, help us, Lord, to see the big picture. Help us to look to all of the ends of the earth to see your glorious, beautiful church, this bride that is coming down from heaven adorned for you and for you alone. Keep us faithful. Help us to endure as we live as Christians. Help us to die as Christians. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would continue to reveal your glory to us in the days that are ahead. Thank you for our time together. Bless us now in Jesus' name. Amen.