Making Big Requests - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, February 9th. God Responds to Prayer. Are you taking advantage of that amazing privilege? Here's part one of Making Big Requests. Why do we hesitate to make big requests of God? Is it because we think that somehow we're going to exhaust His resources?

We're going to challenge His strength? Or is it because we don't feel worthy? Because we doubt that He will do what He promised to do. When you make a request of God and He doesn't answer your prayer immediately or when you expect, what is your response?

Do you just quit and give up? Or do you ask yourself the question, why is God not answering this prayer having made the promises He made? Well, what I want to talk about in this message, this is the title, Making Big Requests of God. And so I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter 14. And you'll recall that Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples at this point and some of the most precious, precious truths that Jesus ever gave, He gave in these chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. And if you'll notice in John chapter 14, He makes one of the most breathtaking, astounding, almost unbelievable, impossible promises to be found anywhere in the Bible. In fact, the truth is that when most people come to this verse, they just read right over that and they will say, well, you know, I know that's what it says, but it surely must mean something else because He certainly couldn't mean that. I mean, He just couldn't have meant that.

So let's see whether He did or not. Verse 12 of chapter 14, truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. There are three astounding promises from Christ. If I should ask you, how many of you really believe that?

Well, you believe it because it's in the Bible, but do you believe it in your everyday life? Did He really mean what He said when He said, the works that I do, you shall do greater works? Well, there are two things primarily I want us to see in this passage here because this verse is the basis for asking big things of God. So I want to begin with that whole idea that is the basis of asking big things of God, and I want us to look at this verse for a moment. And if you'll think about it, it's almost impossible for us to just say, well, you know, how in the world, nobody can do greater works than Christ.

I mean, He couldn't possibly have meant that. And so it's easy to skip over it and move on to say, well, that's one of those verses that has some mysterious meaning that one of these days when we get to heaven, we'll understand what it means. No, He intends for us to understand right now what it means because I want you to notice two things about it. First of all, He says, truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes in Me. So He's including not only His disciples, but those who will believe all the way up to the 20th century, which includes you and Me. He who believes in Me, the works that I do shall they do also, and greater works than the shall they do because I go to the Father. And what He's simply saying is that what He's promising is not limited to those disciples, but includes us. Secondly, it's all in the future tense, that is future tense from when He spoke it because He said, not in spite of the fact that I'm going to the Father, but because I go to the Father.

This is true. The things that you've seen Me do, He says, greater works than these you will do. Not if I go, but because I'm going to the Father, not limited to them, but in the future tense, everything following the crucifixion, the resurrection and His ascension. And so when He says in this passage, these things shall you do also, notice what He says when He says here that the works that I do. Well, think about the works that Jesus did. If you'll think about the Gospel of John and you go back to chapter 1 and go all the way through, here's what you'll find out. The Gospel of John is filled with physical miracles that Jesus performed. For example, He turned water into wine. He fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. He walked on water and He raised Lazarus from the dead.

That's just to mention a few. What we have to ask is what was the purpose of Jesus' miracles? The primary purpose for all of these miracles was not to alleviate suffering, not to feed the hungry, but the primary purpose for all of these miracles was to validate, affirm and confirm and prove that Jesus Christ was who He said He was. He said, I am the King. He said, I am the Messiah. He said, the Father and I are one.

If you have seen me, you've seen the Father. So Jesus went about performing miracles, not simply to heal, though that was a part of His loving compassion for people, but in order to say, here's one of the reasons you can believe what I say. And He performed miracles that they had no human earthly explanation for except that He had to be God.

And they would say, for example, no man ever spoke with this kind of authority. But even when He performed miracles, do you think that convinced the unbelievers that He was the Son of God? Some of them believed, but some of them did not. And this is one of the fallacies today of people saying, well, if I could see a miracle, I'd believe in God.

Not necessarily so. Not many people really follow Jesus because the miracle is very long. They followed Him for a while. But you see, the very purpose of the miracles was to validate to them, I am who I say I am. You and I don't need miracles today to convince us because I have something that's far more valuable to me than any physical miracle. He has given us His Word.

This is His revelation. He's spoken once and once was good enough to say, I am God. And so the reason for the miracles was not the reason that oftentimes people say that. People say, well, you know, I believe that God is a God of miracles and signs and wonders.

I do, too. And I'm going to tell you one of the greatest wonders of all is that He saved you and me. That's not the only kind of miracles He's still up to. God still performs miracles, but His purpose for doing so is entirely different. So when we come to this passage and He says, the works that I do, you shall do even greater than these.

For example, let's look at this. Here He was, Jesus, who never probably went over about 75 miles anyway from Jerusalem, somewhere thereabouts. And He never left the borders of Palestine. And then let's take the Apostle Paul. Let's take Peter, first of all. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, preached the gospel to thousands of people. And the Bible says that 3,000 people were added to the church. I don't know how many times Jesus preached to that many people or had that kind of a response. In fact, so many times Jesus turned around and said, in fact, in the sixth chapter of John, one time He looked at His disciples and He said, are you all leaving, too? I mean, Jesus wasn't known for having big crowds that lasted very long.

Every time He got a crowd, you know what He started talking about? Suffering, death, and the cross, they couldn't handle it. Peter preached, 3,000 people saved.

That's recorded. And then here comes along the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul went all over his known world, the Asian world, into major city after major city after major city, establishing churches, preaching the gospel. Look how God worked through the life of the Apostle Paul. Look at what happened at Pentecost, the beginning of the church, Jesus spent most of His time with about 12 men. But following Pentecost and following, there was the establishment of the church and the body of Christ began to grow and they began to spread and men began to preach the gospel and people began to be saved and the body of Christ began to move out across the world. And the Bible says that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, he said in chapter 1, verse 8, he said, your faith is known throughout the world.

Well, if you took the Apostle Paul and stood him up beside the Lord Jesus Christ as far as physical ministry and as far as location and distance and establishing churches, you'll have to say that the Apostle Paul, if you counted numbers and all the rest, would be a stretch ahead of Jesus. But you see, that wasn't what Jesus was talking about. He says, you're going to do greater works than I do. And he meant exactly what he said.

He wasn't giving some symbolism. He meant exactly what he said. For example, they also preached to the Gentiles. Jesus came to preach primarily to the Jews. But the Apostle Paul and the early church began to do what? Envelop the Gentile world under the preaching of the gospel.

And so what he said, he meant exactly what he said. Let's take a few examples. Someone could say, well, what about healing a blind person and giving them sight? When Jesus says the works that I do, you shall do greater, you answer this question. Which is the greater, that a person receive their physical sight or that they receive spiritual sight, understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, see him as the crucified risen Lord and receive him as their personal savior and live eternally with God?

Here's a person, for example, who's a leper. And it took a miracle to cleanse a leper from their leprosy. But what is the greater miracle but to cleanse a person from all the sin they've ever committed, ever will commit by one great act of Jesus at the cross and save them to live for God and for all eternity? What is the greater miracle? Raising Lazarus from the dead, who would soon die later on, or bringing a person who is dead in trespasses and sins into a saving knowledge of Christ and raising them up to become a new creation in Christ and to live eternally for God. The flesh wants physical miracles to prove something. And Jesus says the works that I do, you shall do greater works.

And what he was doing is comparing the spiritual work that his servants were doing that the people of God would perform compared to the physical miracles that he was doing. Does that mean that you and I would be, would perform miracles greater than God? No. Does that mean we are in competition with him? No. Does that mean we could be more successful than him? No. Doesn't mean any of that. He was simply making a statement that he meant to be practically and literally true. The things that I have done, he says, you will do greater than these. Is that a room for pride?

No. Because you said, notice what he said, he says, because I go to the Father. When he went to the Father, what did he do? Exactly what he promised to do. He said, if I go, I'll send to you the comfort of the Holy Spirit. He'll be in you, with you, and upon you.

At Pentecost, the Spirit of God came, baptized the whole body of Christ, released the supernatural resurrection power of Christ in the life of every single believer so that today every single believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit through whom supernatural resurrection power can be released if we're willing to trust God to do it. He meant exactly what he said when he said, greater works than these shall you do also. Now, with that in mind, you say, well, what in the world does that have to do with the whole idea of asking and making big requests of God? Simply this. Here's the basis of it.

And the basis of it is simply this. Jesus said, you can do it and you can expect great results. It is very interesting to me and extremely crucial that you and I understand the link between these two things.

The mighty works that God wants to perform and the means by which they're to be performed, which is prayer. If you'll notice what he says, look at this now. I want you to follow along. Every word's important and placed properly. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father.

And what's the next word? And, and whatever you ask in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. You cannot separate the great works that God wants to perform through his people. You cannot separate them from prayer. They go hand in hand. They're knit together.

They are absolutely inseparable. Prayer is God's means of performing his work, his mighty works, his great works through his children. Now the problem with us is we don't really and truly believe that God is willing to do that kind of thing through us. He is willing. He said it. He couldn't have said it any clearer. The works that I do shall you do and greater works than these shall you do. What honors God is for a believer to look in the Word of God and say that's what Jesus said. That's what I believe. That's what I'm going to live by.

Not here's what Jesus said. Now when he shows me in some physical miracle, then I'm going to believe him. What you're saying is what he says isn't enough.

He's still got to prove who he is. And I want to tell you, my friend, folks who are living and working by miracles today and have got to see one more and got to have one more and got to experience one more to believe God has little faith. The desire for miracles is an expression of doubt toward the living God who has said if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. So on the basis of that promise and its link with prayer, here is what I really want to get to in this message. That is, what are the conditions then that I have to meet and that you have to meet in order for God to release this power in and through your life so that he can do mighty works in your life? First of all, first requirement, complete dependence, complete dependence upon the merits and the mediation of Christ, complete dependence upon the merits and the mediation of Christ as the only ground for expecting his answer. The only ground for expecting his answer. Now what do I mean by that?

Simply this. The only authority and the only right you and I have to come into the presence of God is as a result of who Christ is, what he did at Calvary and what he's done in our life and who he is in us. And the fact that he is seated at the Father's right hand making intercession for you and me now. You see, there's no amount of work, no amount of giving, no amount of anything that opens the door to the Father. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. There is none of the name given among men unto heaven whereby any man must be saved. If he shall ask anything in my name that is coming by the authority of the person of Christ.

We come to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. That is as a result of what he did at Calvary and applied to my heart and made me clean and pure in his sight. And the fact that he sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, that's our access to him.

Now it's extremely important that you and I understand that otherwise we come to him in a very subtle subconscious kind of fashion. Well, Lord, I just want to thank you today. We should come to God every single time. God, Father, have you addressed him in Jesus name. I thank you for what Jesus Christ has done in my life.

I thank you that he's made access. That is we should be conscious of it. Whether you state it or not, praising the Lord Jesus Christ that he's made it possible through the shedding of his blood and the forgiveness of our sin that we can come to him. And when we come to him in any other way we come to him on the basis of our pride and our works, our self-sufficiency and God just wipes that out. He is holy God who has clothed us in righteousness because we have received his son and acknowledged, listen to this, we acknowledge that the greatest event in human history, second to nothing that has ever happened and nothing that ever will happen, is the twofold experience of the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The greatest event in all of human history, past, present and future. Anything that that's important to God, when I come to him, I need to recognize that I can come only by what Jesus has done at the cross. That's the first thing. The second requirement if I'm going to ask big things of God is that I must come separated from all known sin. He says if I regard iniquity in my heart, if I hold on to it, he says I'll not hear you. And so what are we to do? When we sin against God we have to confess it and to repent of it, to turn away from it.

You may have to turn away from it and turn away from it and turn away from it, but turn away from it. And God understands and recognizes and accepts our repentance as believers. Now, usually we think about sin, people say, well, I don't lie and steal and cheat and this that and the other.

What about gossip? And what about not paying the debt? And what about just a plain old critical spirit? What about laziness? What about not giving a full eight hours on the job? What about those little things that we just sort of push aside and think, well, God doesn't see that? Listen, slothfulness, laziness in the eyes of God. If you want to know what God thinks about laziness, read the book of Proverbs. God made you for a purpose and the primary purpose for which he made you is to glorify himself.

Slothfulness, laziness, purposelessness, and no sense of direction, carelessness, indifference, spending God's money on other things, God isn't going to honor it. So you see, those kind of things we have to deal with in our life. We want God to answer our prayer. Thank you for listening to Making Big Requests. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.