Introduction:
Acts 1:3 - He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Life in Christ is Faith-Based Not Performance-Based (John 16:25-33):
- Answered Prayers : Faith-based, not performance-based. (John 16:26-27)
- God's Love for you: Faith-based, not performance-based. (John 16:27)
- Peace : Faith-based, not performance-based. (John 16:33)
1 John 5:4-5 - For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:53-01:02
All right, open up your Bibles with me, please, to John chapter 16, as we continue our series, Knowing Jesus.
01:05-01:19
You know, while you're turning there, when I was in Bible college, I worked at Walmart, and I remember this one day in particular, it was a very important day in my decorated career at Walmart, it was evaluation day.
01:20-01:24
How many people get fired up for employee evaluation day?
01:26-01:26
Just me.
01:27-01:29
And one of these from Mike Wolski.
01:29-01:30
All right, awesome.
01:31-01:32
Okay, off to a great start.
01:32-01:34
Anyways, I was fired up because here's how it works.
01:34-01:37
I don't know how it works now, but this is how it worked back then.
01:37-01:45
You get your, there was this list of criteria and you were rated below average, average, or above average.
01:46-01:49
And then you would get this overall evaluation, right?
01:50-01:57
And the overall evaluation was the same thing, below average, average, above average, and your raise was based on that, okay?
01:57-02:02
So if you were average, you got, I think, like a quarter raise, I think.
02:02-02:09
If you were below average, you got, I think it was like 15 cents, but if you were above average, it was like 35 cents.
02:11-02:13
So you know what I was swinging for.
02:14-02:15
Like, daddy needs some new shoes.
02:16-02:17
We're going for 35 cents, right?
02:18-02:24
So I'm in this evaluation in the office with the manager and she's going through that sheet with all the criteria.
02:25-02:29
You know, it's like, you know, exceeds manager's expectations, above average.
02:29-02:30
I'm like, boom!
02:30-02:34
And it's like, you know, customer courtesy, above average.
02:34-02:35
Boom! I'm killing it!
02:35-02:36
I am just nailing it.
02:36-02:40
Left and right, on time for work, smells okay, everything.
02:40-02:42
Above average, above average.
02:42-02:43
I'm like, nailing it.
02:44-02:52
And I was just like, I can smell the 35 cent increase, it's on the tip of my tongue.
02:52-02:57
I practically have that change in my hand right now.
02:57-03:05
And we got to the end of this evaluation, again, all above average, and we get to the end.
03:06-03:17
And she goes, "So, Jeff, your overall evaluation, "your overall rating as an employee, "as an associate at Walmart is," You know what she said?
03:18-03:18
Average.
03:21-03:22
I'm not kidding.
03:25-03:28
I felt the life just leave my body.
03:28-03:29
I'm like, average.
03:29-03:30
I was devastated.
03:33-03:38
And I said, I said, I gotta ask you.
03:40-03:47
I said, if I was above average in every category, Why is my overall rating average?
03:48-03:49
And do you know what she said?
03:51-03:54
She said, "I don't know."
03:55-03:56
(congregation laughing)
04:00-04:04
And I said, "I think I know." I said, "I think corporate doesn't want you "to give the above average raises.
04:05-04:06
"I think they wanna keep them dimes for themselves.
04:06-04:13
"I think that's where you're holding us little people down." And that's why I left Walmart and became a pastor.
04:14-04:15
(audience laughing)
04:16-04:18
All right, the story was true except the last sentence.
04:19-04:22
That wasn't necessarily how that happened, okay?
04:23-04:31
But, doesn't it seem like a lot of life, a lot of life, a lot of life, is performance-based?
04:31-04:32
Doesn't it seem that way?
04:34-04:43
And like Walmart, doesn't it seem like in so many areas of our lives, Doing our very best just doesn't seem to be good enough.
04:47-04:50
Anyways, John chapter 16, are you there?
04:51-04:53
Let's pick up where we left off.
04:53-04:57
Jesus in this passage is preparing his disciples.
04:57-05:01
That's what John 13 through 16, that's what this whole chunk of the Bible is about.
05:01-05:07
Jesus is sitting around the table with his disciples and they're walking to the garden and he's preparing them.
05:07-05:25
I'm going to die, I'm going to raise from the dead, I'm going to ascend to heaven, but you don't need to worry because you're gonna have the resources of heaven because my spirit, I'm going to ask the Father and the Holy Spirit is going to come and he's going to live in you and he's going to empower you and you are, Jesus said you're gonna have all the resources of heaven.
05:27-05:34
So what we're looking at today are Jesus' last words to his disciples in this discourse.
05:36-05:40
And remember the disciples were completely full of sorrow.
05:40-05:42
Remember that? We've seen that over and over.
05:42-05:43
They were sorrowful.
05:45-05:52
So here Jesus is giving more words of comfort, but you're going to see here, these are like the ultimate words of comfort.
05:52-05:53
All right?
05:54-05:56
So John 16, we're gonna pick up in verse 25.
05:59-06:03
Jesus said, "I've said these things to you in figures of speech.
06:05-06:21
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father." Figures of speech, Jesus said, "That's how I've been talking to you, right?" That could literally be translated veiled statements.
06:21-06:22
Did Jesus use figures of speech?
06:23-06:24
All the time, right?
06:25-06:26
All the time.
06:26-06:27
"I am the good shepherd.
06:28-06:31
I am the true bread that comes down from heaven.
06:31-06:33
I am the light of the world.
06:33-06:35
I am," what else did we say?
06:35-06:40
"I'm the living water." and over and over, Jesus gave these figurative statements.
06:41-06:52
You're like, "Well, why in the world did he speak like that?" There's a lot of reasons, and I could do a whole sermon series on why Jesus preached like that in figures of speech and parables, but here's one reason.
06:54-07:01
It's important for us to understand today, is there are some things that happened yet that Jesus couldn't explain to the disciples because they just wouldn't get it.
07:02-07:16
Like, "Well, why wouldn't they get it?" because they were so full of sorrow, and they were so thick-headed, and they were so against this idea of Jesus dying and leaving them, and what are we gonna do without Jesus?
07:16-07:17
And they were so sorrowful.
07:19-07:20
We've already talked about this.
07:20-07:22
Jesus is like, there's some things that you can't get right now.
07:25-07:29
But he says here, did you notice, he said, but the hour's coming.
07:30-07:32
I'm gonna talk to you plainly about the Father.
07:32-07:38
And you're like, "Well, what hour is that?" I believe that hour is talked about in Acts 1.3.
07:40-07:56
It says, "Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God." Again, this is post-resurrection, but notice that last phrase.
07:57-08:03
"Jesus, before he ascended into heaven, he spoke to them about the kingdom of God." And I believe that's what Jesus is talking about here.
08:03-08:04
The day is going to come.
08:05-08:08
I'm just going to speak very plainly to you.
08:08-08:09
Look at verse 26.
08:10-08:14
Jesus said, "In that day, you will ask in my name.
08:16-08:23
"And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father "on your behalf." Jesus said, "That day is coming.
08:23-08:25
"You're gonna be able to go directly to the Father.
08:26-08:32
"You're not going to need to ask Jesus on your behalf." to Jesus to speak on your behalf.
08:33-08:37
You're not going to need, listen, you're not going to need anybody to pray on your behalf.
08:37-08:49
And I know there are some churches that teach you need to pray to this famous religious person or this saint, or even pray to Jesus' mom because you can't pray directly to God.
08:50-08:55
And I would just say, well, right here, Jesus completely contradicts that whole mindset, that whole teaching.
08:56-08:59
Jesus said, you can go directly to the Father yourself.
08:59-09:06
You don't need me, you pray in my name, but you go directly to the Father.
09:06-09:07
Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
09:08-09:10
So are you saying Jesus doesn't pray for us?
09:11-09:14
Hang on, Jesus does intercede for us.
09:15-09:16
Absolutely, Romans 8.34.
09:18-09:22
But Jesus intercedes for us over matters of which we have no insight, okay?
09:23-09:25
But don't miss Jesus' point.
09:25-09:31
His point is you don't need somebody to take you to God somebody to pray on your behalf.
09:31-09:34
You can pray directly to God the Father yourself.
09:34-09:36
Like, well, why in the world would I have that privilege?
09:37-09:38
Oh, look at verse 27.
09:39-10:07
Jesus said, he says, "For the Father himself loves you "because you have loved me and have believed "that I came from God." Jesus said, "You have the privilege So get out of your head this idea that God's like this mean, angry deity who is so mad at you, but I'm the nice guy.
10:08-10:12
And he goes, "No, you gotta understand something." Jesus said, "The Father loves you.
10:12-10:16
"He himself loves you." We're gonna talk more about that in a sec.
10:17-10:18
Look at verse 28.
10:19-10:24
Jesus said, "I came from the Father "and have come into the world.
10:24-10:31
"And now I'm leaving the world and going to the Father." sums up his whole life story in one sentence.
10:31-10:32
Can you do that?
10:32-10:33
Can you sum up your whole life in one sentence?
10:34-10:36
That's what Jesus does right here in that verse.
10:37-10:41
From the Father to the world, now leaving the world back to the Father.
10:46-10:48
How do the disciples respond to this?
10:48-10:48
Look at verse 29.
10:49-11:05
His disciples said, "Ah, now you're speaking plainly "and not using figurative speech." Look at this, "Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you.
11:05-11:11
This is why we believe that you came from God." They said, "Oh, now we get it.
11:11-11:13
Now we get, okay, we get it now.
11:14-11:20
We know that," first of all, they said, "We know that you're God." Obviously, if you know all things, you have to be God.
11:21-11:34
But I love that the disciples at this point didn't say, "Oh, okay, Jesus, now we know that you know everything, or now we know that we know everything." Instead they said, "Now we know that you know everything." That's what they got.
11:34-11:35
That's where the lights came on.
11:36-11:39
Okay, we've been so thick, but now we get it.
11:40-11:41
You know everything.
11:42-11:47
And maybe that hour of speaking plainly that you were just talking about, maybe that hour is really now.
11:51-11:51
Look at verse 31.
11:53-12:03
Jesus answered them, "Do you not believe?" He affirms their faith where it was in the moment.
12:05-12:12
He goes on, he says, "Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.
12:12-12:23
Yet, I am not alone, for the Father is with me." That's a reference to Zechariah 13.7.
12:25-12:42
Jesus affirms like, "Yeah, you have faith, "but I need to tell you your faith is weak." And then verse 33, Jesus said, "I've said these things to you "that in me, you may have peace.
12:43-13:03
"In the world, you will have tribulation, "but take heart, I have overcome the world." Jesus said, "The world will give you tribulation." The Greek word is "phlipsis." It just means distress, meaning, this is what you're going to get from the world, distress.
13:04-13:05
Can I get a testimony on that?
13:06-13:11
Anyone, anyone experience distress from the world?
13:12-13:12
Anyone?
13:14-13:14
Have you been outside?
13:17-13:21
You're like, "Actually, we're not allowed to go outside." then you're experiencing distress from the world.
13:23-13:25
But you know what I love about this is Jesus didn't sugarcoat it.
13:26-13:36
Jesus didn't say, "Listen, every day of Friday." And you know what, let me tell you something.
13:37-13:42
You know, when you have enough faith, everything is just gonna be so great for you all the time.
13:44-13:45
He didn't say that.
13:46-13:48
Jesus said, "Listen, look right here.
13:50-13:54
Jesus said, "Hey, hey, hey, the world's going to give you trouble.
13:55-14:04
Mark that down." So many people are ready to abandon the faith, "I thought things were going to be awesome." Jesus didn't advertise it that way.
14:07-14:10
He said, "You will have trouble." So often that's left out of the gospel.
14:12-14:18
Well, you think you're going to come to Christ and the devil's going to be like, "Oh, okay, I lost another one." What?
14:19-14:25
Jesus says, "Take heart." Literally, that could be translated, "Cheer up." Cheer up!
14:26-14:27
You know what's interesting about that?
14:27-14:29
Well, first of all, it's a command, which I think is interesting.
14:29-14:31
It's not like, "Here's an option for you.
14:31-14:35
I think maybe you should consider..." This is a command. Jesus says, "No, no, no, no. You cheer up.
14:36-14:42
You pick your head up." But you know, this command is always and only given by Jesus.
14:42-14:45
He's the only one that gives us command in the Bible.
14:47-14:50
He says, "I've overcome the world." That's in the perfect tense.
14:50-14:52
That's an abiding victory.
14:52-14:55
And I got to tell you, that is such an awesome statement.
14:55-14:59
He said, "I have overcome the world." You know what's so awesome about that?
14:59-15:09
As I can imagine Jesus saying that after the cross, I can imagine Jesus walking out of the tomb saying, "I have overcome!" He said this before the cross.
15:10-15:12
Jesus was already declaring his victory.
15:13-15:18
He goes, "Hey, hey, it's gonna look real dark and real bad, but guess what?
15:18-15:19
I've already won.
15:19-15:30
It is over, as far as I'm concerned, because this has been decreed in eternity past, and I am victorious." So pick your head up.
15:30-15:31
I've overcome.
15:33-15:42
And I look at this passage, church, and this verse especially, that last verse, And I'm just like, man, man, man, man, what encouragement we have here.
15:44-15:58
I mean, we got Jesus clarifying and speaking plainly, and we got promises concerning prayer, and we got peace because of Jesus' victory.
15:59-16:03
And I'm like, I read this passage, I'm like, man, this is all good stuff, right?
16:04-16:06
How would the kids say it?
16:07-16:10
The kids would say, "Man, it just gets you in the feels, right?
16:11-16:16
Isn't that what the kids say?" Is that still a thing?
16:17-16:19
Did I just use a five-year-old reference again?
16:20-16:22
Like, yeah, Jeff, that was cool in like 2017.
16:24-16:26
I'm bringing it back then.
16:27-16:27
How about that?
16:28-16:30
This passage gets me in the feels.
16:31-16:38
That I'm just like, "Wow." This is awesome.
16:39-16:45
I have hope and I have peace and I have promises because He has overcome.
16:46-16:50
He's victorious and He was even before He went to that cross.
16:51-16:52
That is just awesome.
16:55-17:13
You know, I look at this passage and I think, "This is good, but Jesus..." I hate to sound critical here, but here we go.
17:14-17:25
"Jesus, why did you have to throw in that 'you will all abandon me' part?" I mean, the rest of this stuff is really like positive and you had to, why'd you throw that in?
17:26-17:26
Right?
17:27-17:28
This was all good.
17:29-17:34
And we're like, "Eye of the Tiger," and we're celebrating with you.
17:34-17:36
Why did you gotta throw that in?
17:36-17:40
This, you know, the day's gonna come that you're gonna scatter and abandon me and...
17:42-17:43
Why did you have to say that?
17:47-17:59
But here's the thing, church, that is actually the most encouraging part of the whole passage.
18:00-18:21
And you're like, "You're going to have to explain that one to me." Get this, Jesus had to tell them that, so that when they fled, they would know that He knew.
18:25-18:32
And get this, He loved them, even knowing what they were going to do.
18:35-18:36
See, think about it this way.
18:36-18:40
Imagine if Jesus didn't say this about the abandoning part.
18:40-18:41
Imagine if he left that out.
18:42-18:53
Well then the events transpire and Jesus is arrested and he's taken and the disciples do scatter and go to their houses and then, you know, resurrection and victorious and ascension.
18:56-18:58
I think the disciples always would have wondered.
19:00-19:10
"You know, remember when we sat around the table with Jesus and He made us all those promises about loving us, and He made all those promises about prayer, and He made all those promises to us.
19:10-19:11
You remember?
19:11-19:15
Oh yeah, that was awesome." But you know, we royally messed up, guys.
19:17-19:18
Oh yeah, we did mess up, didn't we?
19:19-19:20
Yeah, we royally messed up.
19:24-19:26
So do you see why it was important for Jesus to tell them?
19:29-19:30
I know.
19:31-19:33
I know what you're going to do.
19:37-19:39
But church, this is what the disciples needed to learn.
19:42-19:45
And this is what you need to get straight yourself. Okay?
19:47-19:48
Because a lot of you are messed up in this area.
19:49-19:50
And this is a new day.
19:53-19:54
Get this straight.
19:55-19:57
Your life in Christ is not performance-based.
20:00-20:02
Like, oh, that's why he told that Walmart story.
20:04-20:06
Your life in Christ is not performance-based.
20:07-20:16
And I want to acknowledge, church, that it seems that way because it is that way in so many other areas of our lives, true or false.
20:19-20:26
Don't we feel like that sometimes, married people, that my spouse is only happy with me when I perform properly.
20:26-20:27
I mean, not my marriage.
20:31-20:33
But for a lot of people, isn't that how it feels?
20:35-20:38
She's only happy with me when I check all the boxes, right?
20:39-20:42
My husband only seems to care about me when I do what makes him happy.
20:43-20:44
Performance-based.
20:45-20:46
And we take that to the work environment, right?
20:49-20:55
You know, my boss only really cares about me if I'm doing right, but if I mess up, that's all they care about is my performance.
20:56-20:57
That's all they care about.
20:58-20:59
And we feel like that at school.
21:00-21:01
My teacher only cares.
21:02-21:05
The teacher only seems happy with me if I'm performing well.
21:05-21:08
That's all they care about is the outcome, the performance.
21:09-21:15
And sadly, sadly, many children grow up in homes like that.
21:16-21:24
Mom and dad only really seem happy with me when I'm a good little boy I mess up, boy, they seem like they don't really care for me that much.
21:27-21:33
But doesn't so much of life seem performance -based?
21:34-21:35
And here's what we do, church.
21:36-21:54
We take that mentality into our faith, and we sort of ascribe those characteristics to God, and we say, "God's only happy with me when I'm good, and when I do really good, And I didn't sin very much today, and I tried really hard to do the right thing, and when I do that, God's happy with me.
21:55-21:59
But when I sin, oh boy, God is ticked off.
22:00-22:08
And He is mad at me, and He is disappointed in me, and He's looking down on me saying, "What an absolute loser.
22:08-22:24
I can't even believe that I sent my son for this piece of garbage." But here in this passage, you can't miss this, because I missed it a lot reading this passage, but I'll tell you what, this time it jumped off the page.
22:25-22:48
That Jesus, right here in this passage is saying to His disciples, "All these things I've been telling you, sitting around the table, all these promises, all the love, all the peace, all the joy, all the victory, all of that is true, even though I know that you are going to completely mess up, the promises are still true.
22:49-23:05
And he's saying, "Disciples, I want you to remember that." So, to unpack that a little bit on your outline, here's your sermon.
23:06-23:09
Life in Christ is faith-based, not performance-based.
23:10-23:17
I wanna just go back and look at a couple things here in this passage, in case there's somebody still on the fence about that.
23:19-23:20
If you're like, no, I totally get it.
23:20-23:21
Okay, you can go.
23:21-23:23
You can turn off the stream, whatever.
23:24-23:29
But if you're like, I would like a little more clarification, awesome, because I put a lot of work into this, so.
23:32-23:36
Look, this is my day of the week to justify getting paid, so I appreciate you paying attention.
23:37-23:40
Highlight, highlight, number one.
23:40-23:43
Life in Christ is faith-based, not performance-based.
23:43-23:45
Number one, answered prayers.
23:46-23:47
Get this straight in our heads, church.
23:48-23:50
Answered prayers are faith-based, not performance-based.
23:52-23:53
Go back to verse 26 and 27.
23:54-24:02
Jesus said, "In that day, you will ask, 'In my name.' And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf." We're gonna stop there for a second.
24:04-24:07
Answered prayers, faith-based, not performance-based.
24:07-24:16
Now, I do have to say this, though, Because at this point in the message, there's somebody that is hearing this going, "Oh, faith-based, not performance-based.
24:17-24:18
"It doesn't matter what I do.
24:19-24:21
"I can sin as much as I want.
24:21-24:30
"I can do whatever the heck I want, "and it doesn't matter." And I would say, that's spoken like somebody that has not been transformed by Jesus Christ.
24:31-24:36
That's spoken like somebody who doesn't ever Bible, like ever.
24:37-24:48
And if you have that attitude, that, "Oh, it doesn't matter," then I would say in a loving way that you are biblically clueless and spiritually dead.
24:49-24:56
If your attitude is, "Oh, it doesn't matter, "so I'll just live however the heck I wanna live," you're clueless biblically, all right?
24:56-25:02
And I would doubt your salvation because Jesus changes you and he changes your appetites.
25:03-25:04
So, okay, we got that out of the way.
25:05-25:17
But for those of us who have an authentic, but sometimes weak faith, sometimes we fall back into the worldly thinking.
25:20-25:21
We take it to the spiritual realm.
25:23-25:32
And we say, if I want God to hear and answer my prayers, I better have all my ducks in a row.
25:35-25:37
Well, I got a word for you.
25:39-25:41
Your ducks will never all be in a row.
25:43-25:43
Ever.
25:45-25:51
Have you ever gone through a long season of prayerlessness because you didn't feel worthy to pray?
25:52-25:52
Have you ever done that?
25:52-25:54
Don't raise your hand, but just...
25:56-25:57
Have you ever gone through that long season?
25:58-25:59
I don't feel worthy to pray.
25:59-26:00
I screwed up.
26:00-26:01
I know I screwed up.
26:01-26:02
God knows I screwed up.
26:03-26:05
Hopefully nobody finds out how I screwed up.
26:06-26:07
I don't even feel worthy to pray.
26:08-26:09
I feel like such a hypocrite.
26:10-26:16
I would feel like such a hypocrite to get down and ask God for anything, because I was ashamed of myself for the things that I did.
26:17-26:18
You ever felt that?
26:18-26:19
Don't raise your hand, but have you ever felt that?
26:20-26:27
I have a feeling every single person in this room and watching this stream has felt that at some point in their lives.
26:28-26:30
I'm too embarrassed to pray.
26:30-26:31
I'm too ashamed.
26:31-26:32
God's not gonna hear me.
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Well, I want you to consider a couple of questions here because there might be some people right now that are in that season of their life.
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Like, yeah, I haven't prayed in a long time because frankly, it's exactly what you're saying.
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I'm embarrassed.
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I feel like a hypocrite to pray and ask God for anything.
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I just want you to consider some questions.
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When you feel beat down by sin, who can fix that?
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Shout it out.
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Who can fix that?
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Tell me.
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Jesus, right?
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Who, more than anybody else in the universe, wants to see you get to a better place in your walk?
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Tell me.
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Jesus.
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Who would want to see you avoid prayer?
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Shout it out.
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Satan, right?
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Who would want you to try to fix yourself before you went to prayer?
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Who would want you to do that?
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That's Satan.
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So do you see where I'm going with this?
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Where Jesus went with this.
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Verse 26, we're invited to pray in Jesus' name.
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You know, we talk about that.
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We think it's this little magic phrase at the end of a prayer, you know, in Jesus name.
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It's like, you know, Alakazam, I said the magic word.
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That's not what that is at all.
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You're saying I'm not coming to you, God, based on my merit.
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I'm not coming to you as if Jeff deserves anything from you.
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I'm coming to you because Jesus Christ told me to come to you in his name.
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Access to God was purchased by Jesus.
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Access to God is based on the blood of Jesus, not my blood.
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So I'm gonna give you something right now that will change your life because it changed mine.
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If you're struggling with sin, and specifically here, you're struggling to pray because of your sin, here's what I want you to do.
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I want you to get alone with the Lord.
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I want you to get on your face, And I want you to start your prayer with something like this, okay?
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Doesn't have to be verbatim, but you can get the spirit of what I'm about to tell you here.
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But start your prayer like this.
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Get on your face when you feel beaten down, I don't deserve to pray, God shouldn't listen to me.
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Get on your face.
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Pray something like this first.
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Say, Father, I come to you by your invitation.
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Father, I know that I am unworthy on my own, So I thank you that you provided the way for me through Jesus.
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I believe your word that He provided the way to you.
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Start your prayer with something like that.
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Acknowledge this before God.
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Say, "I know God in and of myself, I am insufficient.
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But my sufficiency is not in myself, it's in Christ." Then get praying.
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Because answered prayer is faith-based, not performance-based, all right?
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Number two, God's love for you.
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God's love for you, faith-based, not performance-based.
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Again, verse 27, Jesus says, "For the Father himself loves you." Like, well, why would he love me?
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We'll talk about that in a second.
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But as soon as we hear God loves you, Somebody would say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you.
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I hear you, yeah, God loves me, yeah.
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But you know, Jeff, doesn't God love everybody?
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I mean, if everybody's special, doesn't that mean that nobody's special?" And I would say, first of all, that's from the Incredibles, that's not from the Bible.
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And second of all, I would say, hold on a second.
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Because the Greek word for love in this verse is phileo.
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That's personal affection.
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And that's different than John 3.16, "For God so loved the world." That's agape.
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The difference is phileo is personal.
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Like, what's it like?
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Well, parents, it's like this.
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It's the kind of love you have for your children that you don't have for other people's children.
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I mean, I'm sure knowing the families in this church, you'd be like, "Yeah, I love other people's kids." Right?
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The kids all get together and they do their harvest kids thing and they go to school together.
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I love other people's kids.
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You do not love other people's kids the way you love your own kids.
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True or false?
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The answer is true.
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So how do we receive this love?
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God has this personal affection for us.
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We receive this love by our performance, like we do really good and we try really hard and that's why God loves us.
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Is that what Jesus said?
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Look at verse 27 again.
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He says, "The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." Jesus said it's because we love Him and we believe in Him.
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It's faith-based, not performance-based.
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You love Jesus, you're loved by the Father, right?
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And I get that.
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And parents, you get that.
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Don't you love people that love your kids?
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If somebody shows affection or kindness towards your kids, don't you love that person?
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That means something to you.
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"He cares about my kids.
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That means a lot to me." And I can't tell you, I can't even begin to tell you the way so many people in this church I've reached out and loved my kids.
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And what that does for the way that I care about those people, like man, that means a lot to me that he reached out to my kid.
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It means a lot to me that Dan and Alicia invested my kid.
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That means so much to me.
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You love people that love your kids.
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And Jesus is saying the same thing.
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You know the Father, He loves you because you love me.
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You're like, well, I don't understand the connection.
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I'll tell you the connection.
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because through Jesus we're adopted as children of God.
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That's why.
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Remember that you love your own kids more than you love other people's kids in a different way, remember that?
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We'll see John 1.12 says, "To those who received Jesus, "to those who believed in his name, "he gave them the right to become children of God." We are adopted by God through Jesus.
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In other words, God has a personal affection for you as his child that he does not have for people who don't know him.
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And he loves you because you love and believe in his son.
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In other words, it's faith-based, not performance-based.
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And finally today, peace.
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Faith-based, not performance-based.
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Look at verse 33 again.
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Jesus said, "I've said these things to you." Now, I want you to look at these next two statements here, because you're going to very clearly see these are parallel statements.
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And that's very important for us to understand.
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Here's the first one.
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In me, you may have peace.
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Here's the parallel statement, in the world, you will have tribulation.
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Do you see the contrast?
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There's a contrast of in me versus in the world.
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There's a contrast of you may have versus you will have.
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There's a contrast of peace versus tribulation.
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Well, we could spend a long time on this, but I just want us to look at that middle contrast.
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Jesus said when it comes to being in the world, you will have tribulation.
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In other words, we all live in the world and tribulation is the default status.
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In other words, everyone's got problems.
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Everyone's got problems.
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But you don't have to live consumed by your problems.
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You don't have to live stressed out.
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You will have trouble in the world, but you see, Jesus said, you may have peace in Him.
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Meaning not everybody has it.
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But it's for the people that will believe in Him and come to Him for it.
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See the difference?
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That's why Jesus commands us to cheer up.
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Not because we have the power to overcome, but because He has overcome.
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And by faith, His victory is our victory.
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By faith, church, we see the cross as Jesus saw the cross.
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Jesus wasn't some martyr that was executed.
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He was the Lamb of God, offering up His life to pay for my sin.
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He was the Lamb of God who shed His blood so that I wouldn't have to.
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So Jesus, through the cross, us by faith appropriating that victory.
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We are victorious because Jesus defeated Satan through his own death.
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So church, you have to catch this.
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Peace isn't performance based.
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Oh, granted, you may feel more at peace.
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You may feel more of the victory of Jesus when you're in a good place in your walk.
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Absolutely.
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You might feel it, but what we need to highlight here, the disciples were promised that their mess ups weren't going to derail Jesus' victory.
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And because our mess ups cannot and did not derail Jesus' victory, that also means our Our mess-ups can't derail the peace that we have in His victory.
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I have to ask you, where's your peace?
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Have you been trying to find your peace in your ability to cope?
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Or have you found your peace in the victory of Jesus Christ?
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Because only one of those paths will take you to peace.
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Jesus' victory started officially on the cross.
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Jesus' victory continued through the empty tomb that He walked out on.
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Jesus' victory continues as He's alive and active in His church today.
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And Jesus' victory is ultimately going to be consummated because He is coming back and He is coming soon.
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And it is going to be the victory party of eternity when He does.
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And you're like, "Yeah, you know what Pastor Jeff, I thought this sermon was about victory, but it seems like you spent most of the time talking about faith.
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You know, maybe I was on a website and I saw that you were going to talk about victory and that's what I was fired up for, but really you spent most of the time talking about faith today." All right, then I'll close with this.
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First John chapter 5 verses 4 and 5 says, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world." And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
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Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
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Your victory is faith-based, it's not performance-based.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I just want to close this time and ask God that Your Spirit would renew our minds.
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Your Word tells us that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and Father, So many of us try to take a performance-based mindset into faith issues.
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But Father, we see very clearly here in this passage that Jesus knows ahead of time, even before we mess up, Jesus knows how badly we're going to screw things up.
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And your Word says He loves us anyways.
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The promises are true anyways.
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the promises of prayer and peace and everything he wants to give us, Father, are things that he provided.
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So I pray, Father, for renewal of minds, and Father, I pray for repentance.
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That for those of us who have maybe, those of us who have been having a little standoff with you, maybe because we haven't felt worthy, we felt ashamed, I pray, Father, that we would stop being so arrogant to think that our performance merits our presence with you.
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But instead, it's the cross of Jesus Christ that provided that entrance.
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Our performance didn't tear that curtain in the temple.
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The death of Jesus did.
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Father, by faith, by faith, let us embrace everything that you have for us.
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We pray to you directly as Jesus commanded, as he invited, in his name.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 16:25-33
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why did Jesus, in the midst of all these promises, tell the disciples that they would scatter and abandon Him? (John 16:32)
Why do so many Christians think that prayer, God's love, and peace are all performance-based things with God? What does Jesus say about that?
Have you ever been reluctant to pray because you were struggling with a sin of some kind? How did you get out of that rut?
Breakout
Pray for one another.