Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the depth and significance of Christ's prayer in John 17, highlighting that it is not merely a prayer for the disciples but for the entire world. He illustrates the inexhaustible supply of God's grace, urging believers to approach God without fear of taking too much from Him. Ravenhill stresses the importance of purity in prayer, warning against hypocrisy and the dangers of impure speech that can sabotage our relationship with God. He encourages Christians to embrace their identity in Christ, recognizing that eternal life is knowing God and living in His presence. Ultimately, Ravenhill calls for a deeper commitment to prayer, reflecting on Jesus' example and the necessity of being sanctified and unified in purpose.

One of my favorite scriptures is, the river of God is full of water. We can't exhaust God's supplies. In one of his statements encouraging Christians, that very great Baptist preacher, Mr. Spurgeon said, never be afraid of taking too much from God. Otherwise, he said, you might be like a bird in the air that says, I better not breathe too much or I might exhaust all the air. Or he said, we might be like a mouse that gets in a great big granary and says, I won't eat too much, I might eat the whole granary up. In other words, it's impossible. And the river of God is full of water. The supply is there, whatever supply we need. And the manner is always fresh, it isn't stale. You may be stale, I mean, we may get stale, but the word of God is never stale. It's always fresh, beautiful and reinvigorates us. John 17, usually called, or very seldom I should say, called the Lord's Prayer. We talk about the Lord's Prayer, we say sometimes, a brother's going to sing the Lord's Prayer. That is not the Lord's Prayer, that's the disciples prayer. The disciples said, teach us to pray, and he said, after this manner pray ye. This is the Lord's Prayer. The disciples could not pray this prayer. And Jesus could not pray the disciples prayer. This prayer is divided very neatly into three sections. Verses 1 to 5, Jesus prays for himself. Verses 6 to 19, he prays for his disciples. And verses 20 to the end, he prays for the world. There are times when people say about this prayer, Jesus here is not, he's only praying for his disciples. This is not true, Jesus here is praying for the world. One of the conditions of prayer is purity. In the revival in the Hebrides, one day Dr. Duncan Campbell told me that there was, or one night in a meeting, there was no sense of God. The atmosphere froze, it was like brass, as we say the heavens are like brass. And he called on a boy, a boy about 16 years of age, a boy called John Smith, he asked him to pray. If I remember right, that boy prayed for 45 minutes. But before he prayed, he said, what's the good of praying if we're not right with God. What's the good of praying if we're hiding hypocrisy. We sabotage our praying. We blame the devil, we blame lots of things, but we sabotage our own praying. And he said no, let's remember, and he quoted and he read, a psalm that became a basis for revival in the Hebrides from 1949 onward. And that was the 24th psalm. This became the basis, almost every time they gathered for worship, they quoted Psalm 24, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. He hath not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully. I'm convinced, you may not be, but I'm convinced that we sabotage a lot of our own praying, because of gossip, slander, criticism, bitterness. In other words, these lips of ours are impure. I often think of a bride and bridegroom, a church full of wonderful people ready to celebrate a wedding, and somebody drags in a garbage can. Wouldn't that be lovely? Put it between the bride and the bridegroom, a garbage can full of old smelly fish and lettuce and junk. I've never seen that at a wedding. I've seen a lot of strange things at weddings, but I've never seen a garbage can there. It will be out of place. And I believe that conversation is as repulsive and out of place, in the presence of God. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands. Hands mean our relationship with the world. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. That hath not lifted up his soul to vanity. A few years ago I was riding in an automobile down the turnpike in Ohio, with some very famous men, world-famous preachers. And I was amazed, there was six of us in the car, my dear wife wasn't there, I was glad, but the preachers were there, their wives were there, and suddenly one of them told an off-color joke, and so of course somebody else had to try and beat it. And I was amazed that they'd been in a meeting urging people to be cleansed and filled with the Spirit, and then were telling the jokes that some people wouldn't tell even in a tavern, I'm sure. Very often criticism again, and bitterness and slander. We can't come into God's presence unless our lips are clean. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue. The tongue is an unruly member. When I look at a congregation singing all for a thousand tongues, I always praise the Lord they haven't got them. If you did as much damage with the other 999, or kept it as busy as the one you've got, you'd be in trouble. If you used your arm, if you used your arm all the time you talk, boy the next day you'd have to go and get some massaging of somebody. But the tongue never gets tired for some reason. It's a dangerous thing. So Jesus conforms to this standard. I can't think of anything more wonderful, more thrilling than Jesus praying. I was reading the next chapter this morning, 18th of John. And I notice in verse 2 it says, Judas also which betrayed him, knew the place. This is the garden of Gethsemane. He knew the place, for Jesus often resorted thither with his disciples. There were many miniature Gethsemanes before the final Gethsemane. I think when Jesus went to Gethsemane it must be like a man who was looking at a scaffold that he was going to be hung on. Jesus trained in prayer, if you want to put it that way. Jesus exercised prayer, there's nothing greater. I said this, I still affirm this, that there is, that no man is greater than his prayer life. I don't care how eloquent, how theological, how brilliant he is, no man is greater. The devil doesn't fear preaching, if he did he'd be scared to death every Sunday. But he doesn't bother about it. Prayer doesn't scare him, preaching doesn't scare him, prayer does. And I remind you again, if you want to follow the prayer life of the Lord Jesus, you would read the Gospel of Luke. Because he emphasizes prayer in every crisis situation that Jesus had. Jesus was baptized in Jordan, Luke says it was as he was praying he was baptized. Jesus chose twelve disciples, Luke says after he spent a night in prayer he chose twelve disciples. Jesus was transfigured on the mount of transfiguration, Luke says it was as he was praying, there's nothing more transfiguring. Romans 12 1 and 2 says, present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed. The word there is the same, be transfigured. By the renewing of your mind, it's more than knowledge, it's the renewing of your personality. There is nothing more demanding. Why, they said to Jesus, you talk about Abraham, you're not 50 years of age, he was 30. Would you like anybody to think you were 50 when you were 30? Why was he so old? Because he often went to the garden, he resorted with his disciples. Very often it says he went onto the mount to pray as was his custom. They went to bed as was their custom. Jesus was essentially a man of prayer. There's no fortification like prayer. For us there's no detergent like prayer. Because immediately you go to prayer, if you have an obstruction, if you have any dirt there, if you have any conscience at all, any sensitivity to the Spirit, the Spirit will immediately say no. There's an obstruction between you and God. This was not true in the case of the Lord Jesus. Jesus lifted up his eyes. If you, if you approach this portion in the life of Jesus as I do, you must feel like taking your shoes from off your feet, for the place whereon we stand is holy ground. Thomas Mamton, he was one of the Puritans, lived in the 1500s. And he has a thick volume, a huge volume on, on John 17. Not on John, just on John 17. And he calls this the dying blaze of the Lord Jesus. Very often when a person has been sick, even in a coma, they'll suddenly sit up and begin to talk something, and then they'll go out like that. The last effort they do, this was the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. His last great final utterance. It's the longest prayer. The second longest prayer was the prayer of Jesus when he called Lazarus from the tomb. That's the longest recorded prayer apart from this one. But this is essentially, again, the prayer of Jesus. This is the Lord's prayer, remember. The other is the disciples prayer. The disciples could not pray this prayer. Jesus could not pray the disciples prayer. They don't fit. Jesus lifted up his eyes unto heaven, and said father the hour has come. It says that again in that story of Lazarus. Jesus lifted up his eyes, we usually close our eyes. Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven. Psalm 123 verse 1 says, unto thee will I lift up mine eyes, all thou that dwellest in the heavens. It isn't possible for us, I'm sure, to in any way test, measure, or find the degree of relationship between Jesus and his father. I remind you again that Jesus says a little later to his disciples, you tarry here, I go yonder to pray. They never would have understood his praying. When I first went to Dr. Tozer's church, I said to one of the elders, I'm looking forward to praying with Dr. Tozer. I'd rather pray with a man than eat my dinner. Rather pray with a man than do anything. The greatest, most important work this side of eternity. And this man shocked me by saying, well Dr. Tozer doesn't come to prayer meetings. Well I said now, now I'm amazed. Well he said, you see he used to come to a prayer meeting, and and he'd give a dissertation on prayer, and then he'd say now let us pray. And nobody would pray. Nobody would pray till Dr. Tozer prayed. Then after he prayed, nobody dared pray. So they asked him to stay at home. Isn't that nice when you have such a spiritual anointed pastor that you say, could you please skip the prayer meeting, because you see everybody else, they kind of said their ABCs, they paddled around in waters to the ankles. He plunged off into the deeps. He knew a dimension in prayer that the rest of the people did not know. It's rather amazing to me anyhow, that if you go to say a seminary, I don't know if they teach music in seminaries, go to Bible school, they have a section where they'll teach you this, and they'll teach you that, they'll teach you something else. But I do not know of schools where they teach prayer. Andrew Murray has a book with Christ in the school of prayer. We very much need a school of prayer. I don't know how many candidates we get, I don't think we get too many. It will be very, very, very deep water. It will get very dry for the average person, I'm quite sure of that, but not to the person who really wants to know God. Jesus lifted up his eyes and prayed, Father the hour has come. If there was anything that Jesus was conscious of, and I'm sure there were many things, his ministry, that he had come to save the world, at least from a certain point he knew that. But if there's anything that Jesus was conscious of, he was surely conscious of this, that his life was worked out to a divine program. Father the hour is come. Elsewhere he says, for this hour I came into the world. To me the most biting thing, if I can use that phrase here, is in the seventh chapter of John, where John is, you remember, Jesus says you, you go up to the feast. Off you go, you boys, go to the feast. I go not up to the feast. Now the feast only lasted seven days, some people say eight, all right have it eight. Jesus says you go to the feast, off you go, it's the great feast of the year, the final feast. More than a million people went. Again we've lost all the pomp and circumstance, it doesn't mean much to us. When they went to feast, to the feast, they were marching to Zion, the beautiful city of God. They sang hymns, nor they sang songs. And they really praised the Lord as they went. And when they went there, there was a chandelier, it looked very much like a cross, and it had two baskets of fire. There was no other way to illuminate the city. When Jesus said I am the light of the world, they, they looked at that, and remember that this was the light only of the city. He said he was the light of life, he said he was the bread of life, and so forth and so on. But Jesus was very conscious that he was working to a time table. You go up to the feast, I go not up, and yet two days after he went up to the feast. In the middle of the feast, Jesus went up. Why didn't he go the first day? Couldn't waste the time. I've known men who said well I'm going to a conference, and good conference, famous conference, for six or seven days. And they say well please will you tell me what part of the program I'm going to preach? I don't have time. Oh you say he doesn't want to listen to somebody else, thinks he's the only preacher. No, no he's a smart man. He realizes that while God will forgive you for many things, this thing never forgives anybody. You can't turn it back. Sometimes you wish you could don't you? But you can't turn it back. Time like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away, they fly forgotten as a dream flies of the opening day. What's the most precious thing you have, money? No, you get to my age, you're older than I am, and you say well money doesn't matter, if I had just a little more time. I think I have about four books I've started writing, I don't know when I'll finish them, but, oh five maybe now, but I just wish I had more time. Sometimes I say I won't preach anymore, I'll just, I'll just go home and write. But I like to preach, I confess this. Other people don't like my preaching, but I like it. But anyhow, and so I have to, but I'd like to take more time. I'd like to find a clock with 26 hours on it every day, and a calendar with eight days, and a calendar with 13 months in the year. It might get through, but no sir, time is the same for all of us. You can't stretch it, you can use it wisely. You go up to the feast, I go not up to the feast. In the middle of the feast, Jesus went up. They said oh don't go through Jewry, and he said it's all right, my hour is not yet come, don't you worry about it. Now Hudson Taylor said, and I think he was right, that that we're immortal until our work is done. You can go to the gates of hell, it won't make any difference. One of the scriptures that comforts me when I'm flying in the sky, I don't think we should fly, flying's for the birds. But one of the things that comforts me in the sky is that Jesus has the keys of death and of hell, and I always kind of say that when I get in a plane. It won't go down, Jesus has the keys anyhow, and he he's going to look after me. We're immortal until our work's done. Go ye up to the feast, I go not up to the feast. Look after your time. If you look after time, eternity will take care of itself. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father the hour is come. Glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee. Jesus glorified the father. He glorified him in doing everything the father requested of him. He glorified the father in Gethsemane, he glorified the father on the cross, he didn't give up. He glorified the father in the resurrection, and that's all I'm saying about that there. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now Jesus is very conscious that this little group that he has is given to him of the father. Do you know why? Because he says this in verse 2, in verse 6, in verse 9, in verse 11, in verse 12, and in verse 24. He's not wasting his time, these are being given to him. Now if you know the answer to this, tell me I don't know the answer. Why did Jesus labor with twelve men for three years? If anybody could handle a hundred or a thousand men, Jesus did, why did he only have twelve? Well some say because there are twelve thrones up there. There are four and twenty elders. Are twelve of them the old patriarchs, and twelve of them the new patriarchs if you like, of the New Testament. Why did he only have twelve? Twelve is a sign, the number of perfect government, sure enough. Otherwise I don't know why he took twelve. And when he took twelve, they weren't all a success, some of them were a failure. Isn't it amazing that Jesus would sit patiently day after day, tutoring, teaching. And you know he never said take your notebooks out and take notes. He never taught them. Never gave them an outline. I don't know that he ever preached to them on the mysteries of Daniel's revelation, I don't know that he did. All Jesus did was walk before them, and show them how to walk as well as how to work. If you were to stand here, Brother Bill could do this I'm sure, and sing very beautifully, I walk today where Jesus walked. It's a nice hymn. You would raise an eyelash, not even a false one. That wouldn't worry anybody, you say I walk today where Jesus walked. But if you said I walk today as Jesus walked, somebody say do you think that's right? Well as we see tonight, Peter said that we should walk even as he walked. How did he walk? He left us an example that we should walk even as he walked. Now of course we're gonna guess how he, no we don't guess how he walked. You read the next verse, we should walk even as he walked, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, will revile not again. And so it gives you all the way that Jesus walked, and it says that's the way you're to walk. You're to walk without sin, you're not to backbite, you're not to retaliate, you don't let people rub you out if they want, that's quite all right. Don't worry about it. Walk as he walked. When you say it's impossible to live without sin, no it's possible, it's possible to live without sin, not impossible to live without sinning. If you can sin and be a Christian, well why don't you write a list down and tell these young people what sins they can commit and what they can't. You'll help them a lot. I'm sure they're quite confused over many things in modern life. What sins can you commit? What sins can't you commit? Can you commit sins of the flesh and not sins of the spirit, or sins of the spirit and not of the flesh? Now I know that's a big area, and somebody will say Ravenhill preaches sinless for faith, don't preach anything of the kind. I don't know a man in history that ever did. They accused John Wesley of it, because he preached sanctification. But Wesley said that sanctification, regeneration, is sanctification begun. As I've said so often, the Christian life is this, it's process, crisis, process, crisis, except it's not on the level, it's all uphill. It's process, and then a crisis. And you get through a big event in your life, and you say that's the biggest, God will never have anything bigger than that, I've just graduated. And all you do is get a bit further up the road, you live on a process for a while, you go on then, suddenly another crisis. And you say my, that's worse than last time. This must be the last hump I'm getting over. And you go on maybe, instead of two months, you go on for a year maybe, and then another crisis. And then, that's the only way you're growing grace. There's no plateau. There's not reaching a high where you say well beyond this there's nothing. Lowry wrote a book, I've been after it for 30 years, I got one recently. There are many abridged editions, but I managed to get an unabridged edition of Lowry's marvelous book. I haven't read it yet. I've got about 2,000 books at home I haven't read, but Lowry's book, The Possibilities of Grace. We don't explore the possibilities of grace. It's pathetic to go to some churches. We were in a house, I conducted a house meeting, and a lady said to another lady, the pastor is going to be after you, you weren't in church last night, Wednesday night. She said I haven't been for three weeks. Oh the pastor will be after you. He's been already. What did he say? He said I didn't see you in church Wednesday night. What did you say? He said I looked at him and said pastor I don't need saving three times a week. What do you mean no need saving? All you preach Sunday morning is a salvation message, Sunday night a salvation message, Wednesday night a salvation message. I want and didn't feed on. I am saved. I want to explore other areas of grace. Tell me something about trial. Tell me something about temptation. Tell me something about gifts of the Spirit. Tell me something about purity. Tell me something about sanctification. Tell me something about holiness. All I do is paddle around in waters to the ankles. Ezekiel is a prophet that measures everything. Everything is done in stages. That's, that's how God works. God could have made the world in a day. He could have said let the world be and it came. He took seven days to do it. He could have sent to a piece of dust, stand up and Adam would have stood up. He didn't do that, he made Adam. And then finally breathed into him the breath of life. Ezekiel has a vision, here is a boneyard. Big, stacks of bone. And the Lord says come and have a walk. I don't think God ever asks a man to do a task, a job, without showing him what that thing is, or giving him some idea of the size of it. And he says let's walk around the boneyard. Now can these dry bones live? And faith of course would say yes, and doubt would say no. And this man walks right down the middle and he says Lord our Lord. But did anybody ever have a more difficult job than Ezekiel? Prophesied to these bones. And he prophesied and bones started jumping here, there and everywhere. They laid out all in order, beautiful. Skeletons. But you've made progress. They were bones, they become skeleton. He speaks again and sinew comes on the bones. Well you've got a bit further. He speaks again and flesh comes on the sinews. He speaks again and skin comes on the flesh. Now you have a jungle of bones, look like a scrapyard of wrecked automobiles, except they were wrecked. Bodies, wrecked skeletons. There's a sudden knocking together and there's a noise. Well that would suit us, we like noise. We mistake rattle for revival and commotion for creation and action for unction. Bumping bones together and suddenly they're all beautiful skeletons. And then sinews and then flesh and then skin. And instead of having a valley full of bones, you'd have a valley full of skeletons. And instead of skeletons, you've got a valley full of corpses. They must have looked very nice. Hands but they couldn't move, eyes they couldn't see, feet they couldn't walk. That's all of it. Then he speaks again and breath came and then they became an exceeding great army. Now but there was process and progress. From the bones, to the skeletons, to the corpses, to the living beings. The same with the river. The river is water to the ankles. And then I measured a thousand cubits and it was water to the knees. And then I measured a thousand and it was water to the loins. Then I measured a thousand waters to swim in. Well it's up for you, I wouldn't try to do it. What, where are you now since you were saved? Are you still paddling in an inch of water? Or is it water to the ankles? Or is it to your knees or loins? Or have you got there where you've got your feet? Because that's the only place of faith, you get your feet. I can swim with one toe on the bottom. Real good, you should see me go. But if you tell me to jump into 25 feet of water, no sir, I'm gonna stand on the bank and watch the others do it. Launch out into the deep, Jesus says, and let down your necks. But we stay paddling around here don't we? 20-minute sermon is nearly too long. Oh, two or three hours in the recreation hall isn't too long. Three hours on the beach isn't too long. Eighteen holes on the golf course isn't too long. But you know I mean, you've got to concentrate. It gets a bit heavy doesn't it? Because you could do that if you're a scientist over the water there. You could spend hours when other people are sleeping, working this thing out and something else out. And mystifying language we don't know a thing about. Well, well why not be as earnest and zealous and, and determined to be an explorer in grace as other men are in space. If we'd explored grace as we've done space, though we'd be living in the millennium and got past that, we might all be in heaven now. But we're not as zealous about that. The perishing things of clay, as A.B. Simpson said, fascinates us a great deal more, don't they? The hour has come. You'll discover in your life, as I have done, and I'm sure you've already done this. There are hours in your life. You'll come to an hour of temptation. You'll come to an hour of disappointment. You come to an hour of grief. You come to an hour of joy. Come to a period in your life, which is just a milestone if you like. Jesus said, Father the hour has come. Verse three, this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ. If Christianity is anything at all, it's a religion of knowledge. It's a religion of knowledge. Do you know that word, know, or knowledge, or knowing, occurs one thousand four hundred and thirty-six times in the Bible. That's an awful lot. I know in whom I have believed. We know that we have passed from death unto life, says God. He's always saying we know, we know, we know. If you say to somebody, are you saved? They say they don't know. Well it can always help them out, for they surely aren't. If a man is carrying a load on his back, and he's just sagging under that load, and you go lift it off his back, and he stands up straight, do you think he'd know that he'd lost the burden? If you've lost the burden of sin, you'll know. If you were locked up in a dark room, and there's a man there with a club, in case you got out, and somebody comes and clobbers the man, and knocks him down, and takes you out of the dark room into the sunshine, would you know that you come out of darkness into the most marvelous light? The man that doesn't know isn't saved, because the Spirit bears witness. And he not only bears witness, John Wesley preached on the witness of the Spirit more than any other sermon he ever preached. But not only does the Spirit bear witness that we're saved, he bears witness in everything. In the ninth isn't it, in the ninth of Romans where Paul says, I call the Holy Ghost, and look you to be very brave, to dare to ask the Holy Ghost, and say the Holy Ghost told me this, because he could kill you anyhow, like he did Ananias and Sapphira. He says I call the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost to bear witness, that I have a burden for you, that I could wish myself a curse, the literal word is, I'll be damned if need be. If my damnation would mean your salvation, I'm prepared to be damned in order to get you saved. Now you've got to be very brave to talk to God like that. That's not our language. Our language is, oh Lord bless us today as we go down the road, and don't let anybody hurt us, and oh bless John Smith working with weekly translators, that's about it. When you get alone in the secret place with God, does it become an arena. Now there are times when the sky will open, and you'll be transported to heavenly places. There are times when you feel it's like hell, when you battle principalities, and battle darkness. And God wants it that way. It's the only way you can become a Christian, become mature, get something out of here to down here. Your theology doesn't matter too much, until it gets in your bloodstream. As I say, well whatever I teach, God gives me it back on a plate, and says eat it yourself. Otherwise I'm just here directing the traffic, I'm just a philosopher. I talk about getting battered and beaten up. I've been battered and beaten up, and lied about, misrepresented by men. Many of them teach deeper life and whatnot. I won't retaliate. It isn't all of the fact they do it. You think you're having it rough? Jesus was the holiest person that ever lived. And you know what they said? You know I cast demons out of people, because he's the prince of demons, that's why. He's not from God, he's from hell itself. And so the demons, they respect him, because he's their king, he's their prince. Now nobody said that of you, did they yet? Maybe it's coming, but they didn't say it yet. As I say, it's very nice. I don't know if it's in your hymn book. Is the hymn, Oh to be like thee blessed Redeemer? Isn't in your hymn book. Not a full hymn book. But anyhow. In the Christian Missionary Alliance, they sing it a great deal. Oh to be like thee blessed Redeemer. Full of compassion, pure as thou art. It's a lovely, lovely hymn. But if you're going to be like him, you can't be choosy and say, well I want to be like you here, but not there. If you're going to be like him, you'll be lonely. He was very lonely. He went to pray, they went to bed. He went to get seminate. The greatest privilege ever allowed any man on earth, was to be with Jesus in that final critical hour, just before he died, and they went to sleep. And he came back and they were asleep. And he came back and they were asleep. And he gave up. He said all right, forget it. Forget it. Keep sleeping. They'd already vowed. Peter says you can't depend on this bunch. They're not very dependable. But me, I'll die for you. He didn't die, went to sleep. Easy to make vow. Every vow you've made this week, Satan will contest it. I'm going to talk about that tonight. If you yielded ground to God, Satan's going to fight to get every inch of that ground back. If you said my prayer life is sick, I'm going to pray. Maybe you've already seen to it that you didn't pray. I met a girl on the mall, down in Merritt Island the other night, after a meeting we'd had. My wife wanted something and we went on the mall after the meeting. There was one of these moonlight madness sales, and we wanted a bargain. This girl came up, she said Mr. Rayfield, the devil's doing his best tonight to keep me from praying. My mother wants me to go here, somebody won't, but I'm going to pray. That sixteen-year-old girl had met God in the meeting. She went home and prayed the whole night through. And I admire her for it. But you see Satan contested. He knew that if that girl tasted the deep things of God, and entered into a new relationship, and a new prayer life, that he'd lost an awful lot of ground. Because she was going to gain ground that night, and it would be harder the next day for him to get back. He wanted to get back what he'd already lost, before he lost something more. Before she got new, before she got new interests, and desires, and vision, and concern. This is life eternal that they may know thee. He says he gave to them eternal life. What is eternal life? Now we caught the scripture, we say now you got saved. The gift of God is eternal life. And we suggest it as though it's a gift from God. Here he gives you a bit of eternal life. He has a resource here, and he takes some and he says there you are, that is eternal life. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say eternal life is a gift from God. Eternal life is the gift of God. It's God himself coming to live in your personality. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath knowledge of the Son doesn't have life. He that hath the Son, the Son is living in you by the Holy Spirit. Mysterious, profound, beyond our understanding. God was contracted to a span, I don't know how. I don't know how the ancient of days became the infant of time. I don't know how deity became humanity. But I know according to the Word of God, that the Holy Spirit brooded over the matrix of the Virgin Mary and conceived Jesus Christ without any human father. The Holy Ghost who created in the beginning, he brooded in the beginning over chaos and brought cosmos. And now he broods over the matrix of the Virgin Mary and conceived Jesus Christ. And that same Holy Spirit brooded over you and created Jesus Christ in you if you're a Christian. If you're not, you're not a Christian. Satan knows the Bible inside out. It's a little shocking to say, but it's true that reading the Bible won't make you a saint. Reading the Bible will give you knowledge. Any more than reading a book. I could read a book on building a house, that won't build a house. I may have all the knowledge how to lay the foundation, the drainage, put up the superstructure, how to do this, how to give it acoustic properties, how to build in a hundred things. That won't build it by sitting in a chair and reading the book. I will not become a saint by reading the book. I become a saint by putting into operation what God says. But the basis of the whole thing is, unless we have the Son, we do not have life. Now having the Son, I have life. A lady returned a set of my books this week. She said, you said in a meeting that when I got Jesus Christ, I didn't get everything. And she quoted the scripture in Colossians. She's right and she's wrong. If we got everything in Jesus Christ, why does it say add to your faith virtue? Why does it say growing grace? Basically yes. I, I, I said the other day, well sounds a little facetious, it isn't, that somebody asked a man in England when they pictured all the village, any, any famous men born here? And he said no, only babies. Well you'd be a bit surprised wouldn't you, if your little boy that you've just put down there in, for somebody to look after, is three years of age. And if you go down at lunchtime and he's 23 and he says, hi mum. Boy you, you, you'd be a bit shocked wouldn't you. You'd say, well what happened, this isn't my boy. Oh yes, yes he just grew, he suddenly in one hour became a man. No, he's perfect as a child. He's not perfect as a man. Perfection is a relative to, you may have a perfect baby, you may have a youth, 15, and you say boy he's a good scholar, and he's a good physique, and, and other things being equal, he's a perfect boy. But he's not a perfect man. He could have a man's body and a boy's emotions. He can have a man's body and a boy's brain. You see we're, we're discovering, and we haven't discovered enough, the potential in that child of yours. We, we, you let them play around until they're five or six. My boys went to school, one of them went when he was three and a half I think, the other went when he was about four. It's compulsory to go to school in England anyhow when you're five. A good school, you'd have to take a second language by the time you're nine or ten, in Greek and Latin or something. And if you stay a bit longer, you'd have to take another language. It's compulsory. That brain of yours is so fantastic. But you see we don't develop it. We, we, we buy toys and say wind this up, or go in that room and look at TV. When you do that you insult your child, you hinder your child. You should take time, teach him. The potential in him is fantastic. He might become an artist, might play the piano better than John, or he might paint, or he might do some other thing. The potential is all there. But he doesn't wake up usually till he gets to high school. That's too late. There's a man in Japan, I wouldn't like to go hear him, but he has a class of two thousand children between two and three years of age every Saturday morning learning the violin. Can you imagine all those notes? Must like, sound like two thousand cats. But the potential is there. You see, he says this is the time to start. Get, get their ears tuned to music. Get them to, to learn to handle this thing. Now what is true in the, in the, in the natural realm is true in the spiritual realm. One man said not too long ago, no good going to church, send your children to church. All they do is give them a little book to crayon and say well shall we crayon Aaron's beard red or gray or something else. He said that's all they did. In a university on the west coast, a man took a class of students between 18 and 20 years of age and asked them to write just a short little sentence on Sodom and Gomorrah. And only one out of the whole class knew a thing about Sodom and Gomorrah. They didn't know a thing. Now that's lamentable. But, but it's very true in the, in the Church of Jesus Christ. You see this, this book is so profound nobody knows it. Many times I listen to Dr. Campbell Morgan, maybe one of the greatest Bible scholars in history. He had written at that time over 50 books on the Bible. And I remember one morning he said well here we come. And he always had that hymn, Break Thou the Bread of Life, beyond the sacred page. You see there's a danger of making an idol of the Bible. This is why people clobber each other with doctrine. Fight each other over eternal security. Fight each other about different versions of the baptism of the Spirit. They've never got beyond the sacred page, in the deepest sense of the word. But Campbell Morgan said this after writing 50 books on the Bible. He said friends I know so little about this book. Now the man who knows all the answers graduated last June, with a diploma under one arm and a trumpet under the other. And he's still looking for a church worthy of him. The man that knows the most, knows the least. That's why he gave some apostles, some prophets. This is why one man will spend all his life, and you could spend all your life in the epistle, excuse me, epistle to the Hebrew. My dear wife and I were in a meeting not long ago, where a young man preached the whole minor prophecy of Malachi, one Sunday morning. It was a broadcast, and he ran out of material five minutes before the end. You'll know that wasn't me of course. But five minutes before the end, he got away from the mic, and he walked up and down, and he tried to say some things. And at night he apologized. He said I'm sorry I ran, I had too much time this morning. Too much time to preach the whole prophecy of Malachi. You see preaching has deteriorated so much. I told, I mentioned here that one, one book is written on John 17, by that fantastic fellow Thomas Mannington in the 1500s. He has a little, he has a big book, on a small book. He has a big book on the epistle of Jude. The last word in the first verse of Jude is called. He has 65 pages on that one word called. There are 26 verses in John 17. My friend Dr. Tozer preached 52 Sunday mornings on John 17. Half a verse each morning. 52 Sundays on 26 verses. Maybe the greatest preacher in Europe just vacated his church in Westminster. My good friend Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, he preached 52 Sunday nights on John 316 without repeating himself. That's pretty good preaching. Could you do that brother Danny? Tell me after. But pretty good going isn't it? 52 Sunday nights on John 316. You see these men used to preach. They preached the word. They didn't preach about the word, they preached the word. You could be sure when you went to church you didn't preach, you didn't hear a little sermonette for Christianettes. You got a good slice of beef, or a good slice off the loaf. Beyond the sacred, here's this profound amazing word of God. This is life eternal, that they may know thee. Life eternal, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ liveth in me, Paul says, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. He was very conscious that he was the tabernacle, and God was living and moving and having his being in him. Verse 4, we're not going, breaking the speed limit this morning. Verse 4, I have glorified the unearth, I have finished, finished the work which thou gavest me to do. That's the way to die. Finish the work thou gavest me to do. Jesus never did anything else but what the Father told him to do. And it was a full-time job, and it always is, doing the work that Jesus has given us to do. If it's teaching a Sunday school class, if it's being a pastor, whatever it is, be sure that he gave you the job. You can carry any load. Two or three times we've mentioned this week, a dear brother mentioned last night in singing the hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross by Isaac Watts. Isaac Watts said, if you gave me six universes, not six worlds, six universes, all those constellations and everything. If you gave me six universes, if God gave me six universes to govern, I would govern them gladly. Because if he gave them, he gave me all the wisdom and power I needed to control six universes. I take care of six universes with the anointing of God, he said. But I wouldn't look after six sheep without his anointing. But Jesus was very conscious. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. If he orders your steps, he orders your start. Jesus why don't you go that way? He said I don't need to go that way, I'm going this way. My hour is not yet come. God is guiding the thing. God has a situation, and in that situation, it doesn't matter how, it would break somebody else, but it won't break you. Why not? Because you've learned to withdraw that the river of God is full of water. That all the resources are there, for any given situation that is given by him. I have finished the work, that thou gavest me to do. You could look at this for yourself, read it, study it, find out the differences. But in verse 5, you notice he says, Oh father, Oh father. Verse 11, he says, Holy Father. Verse 25, he says, Righteous Father. Verse 6, I have manifested thy name unto them. I'm going to skip that. Except say this, here you've got manifestation. You think about how he manifested his name. He manifested his power over sickness. He manifested his power over death. He manifested his wisdom in that fabulous, fantastic sermon on the mount. He was always manifesting that which would glorify the Father. Come down, because of the time. Verse 11, Holy Father, keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are. Oh boy, we're really playing this up now aren't we. It doesn't matter what denomination or sect of Barry, we say now we're all one, let's all be one. And we quote this, we say this was the high priestly prayer of Jesus, that they may be one. Wait a minute, don't say Jesus said what he didn't say. What did he say? That they may be one, what? As we are one. Who's the one? He and the Father. I and the Father are one. I want all them to be one, in the same relationship. He's praying here for their unification, not their uniformity. I remember when my dear sweet wife used to come to meetings. We had a large tent not far from the hospital, and the nurses used to come in. And sometimes they didn't have time to change. They'd come right off duty, and they'd all come in their uniforms and sit there. Because there's only one pretty one, one attracted me. But there were the nurses all sitting there. And I used to say that there you've got uniformity. They've all got the same uniform. But they didn't have unity. You say a lot of soldiers they've got uniformity, they don't have unity. Now Jesus prays for their unification, that they may be one. I and the Father are one. There was never any cross-purpose between Jesus and his Father. He submitted in all things. He learned obedience by the things he suffered. What makes us think we're going to skip suffering? He learned obedience by the things that he suffered. So here he prays then for their unification. I'm going to hurry on because of time. Verse 13, the end of it. But they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. My joy. First, manifestation. Second, unification. Here, jubilation. We don't usually think of Jesus in a joyous attitude. I'm sure he didn't tell jokes. I'm sure he didn't laugh, he wasn't facetious. I get so disturbed that well, very often I won't even go. You go to ministers meetings and you know when they sit around talking, you very, very, very, very seldom talk about Jesus. They talk about their golf average, they talk about their bus ministry, they seldom talk about Jesus. We went to a conference last year, we were shuttled from the hotel to the main hall across the city. The buses were packed. At this conference, it was a service put on free by the city, because of course they like these big conventions, they bring money into the city. My dear wife and I crowded in this bus twice a day, over to the auditorium, from the auditorium back. And you know at the end of five days, I said to her, you know dearie, nobody's mentioned Jesus once in this bus. I listened. Hi, how are you? How's your Sunday school? Hey, how many buses are you running? Say, is your golf score any better? Have you had so-and-so? Boy, isn't he a sensei. Do you know that not once did any of those ministers, hundreds of them, ever mention Jesus. Or even the things of God. What does Jesus pray for? That they may be happy? No, no, no, Jesus never prayed anybody be happy. God isn't concerned about our happiness, he's concerned about our holiness. Do you know we're gonna be happy forever and ever and ever, a thousand billion millenniums in eternity. He's not concerned right here about our happiness. He is concerned that they may have joy. No, he doesn't say that. What does he say? That they may have my joy. But what did he say in the 14th chapter of John? Peace, I leave with you. No, you'd say he said that. No he didn't. He said, peace I leave with you. My peace, the same peace that dominates my life. I've tried it, it works. I'm not saying Lord give them peace. Give them the same peace that has controlled my life. Give them the same joy that I've had. What was the joy of Jesus? Do you think there's any joy in hanging on a cross? Oh, we like to be modest. We cover Jesus, we put a loincloth on him. I don't believe for a minute that Jesus was covered. Jesus was stark naked, it was part of his humiliation. Any joy for us to stand and see all the priests there catcalling, and see the Romans there, and everybody saying he said he'd deliver us. He taught us to pray, thy kingdom come. I don't see a sign of his kingdom, can you see his kingdom? And they were facetious, and they laughed, and they mocked, and they sneered, and they cursed. And the politicians were there, and the temple guards were there, and the temple police were there, and everybody else. And Jesus is stark naked on the cross, and worst of all the disciples had quit. And there's coming a moment when not only does everybody forsake him, but suddenly the earth rots. There are many pictures around the world, different interpretations of the crucifixion of Jesus. Nobody saw Jesus die, not even God. Doesn't it say in that moment, that when darkness covered, that God turned his face away from him. Jesus understood Peter, he was always shaky. John, he thought he would have stood up to it, the others might have done better. But there came a moment of grief, when he said, my God, my God, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you deserted me? Why have you left me? Well I'll give you one answer I think from scripture, God is of holier eyes. I do not understand how God was contracted to a span and incomprehensibly made man. How did deity become humanity? How do you press a God, who the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and you press him into the tiny womb of a woman, I do not understand. But less still do I understand, though I do not understand how God became man, I do not understand how he became sin. He did not bear sin, he became sin. And God can't look on sin, he's of holier eyes. And there came a moment, and in the moment when God turned away, God put a blind over the sun and he said, this is too holy for anybody to see. Nobody saw Jesus die. It's not my conviction, may not be anybody else's. They made sport of him up to a certain point. God said no further. Here mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed each other. God is buried, God, for Jesus Christ was God, he's bearing the sin of the world. And he joined that, and he joined wading through Gethsemane, when everybody's quit, and he looks back, oh they're asleep, let me go, oh they're asleep. I go back in, oh they're asleep. I go further, oh they're asleep. And in the moment when they needed him, there he is left alone, totally deserted. Maybe somebody here deserted this morning. Well it's the way the Master went. Nobody suggests it's a nice experience. Deserted by men, deserted by God. All his years of training went down the drain at that moment, they tell it me. And yet it said, Jesus said I want you to have my joy, fulfilled in yourself. What was his joy? Loneliness, a broken heart, a broken body. They made a circus out of Jesus. Pilate says send him to Herod, Herod says send him back to Pilate. They took a dirty robe of a heathen king and threw it over him. They said well if you're a king you need a crown anyhow, cut something out of that bush. And they put that thorns and pressed them in his holy brow. They made a circus act out of it. Kept him up all night and made him carry his cross, no wonder he was tied out and fell under it. Is that joy? Yes it is. Not the physical side of it. One of the hymn writers says go labor on, spend and be spent, thy joy to do the Father's will. That was the joy of Jesus. Now whether it was hell or heaven. Whether it was a crowd saying what a wonderful man he's given us, he feeds us every time we come. Whether it was people saying thank you you heal my son, you cured my son who was a lunatic, you heal my husband who was blind, you unclog somebody's death. Whether it was that side or the other side, Jesus was right dead in the center of his Father's will. And who for the joy that was set before him, the Word of God says, endured the cross despising the shame. They thought they were despising him and he was despising that very shame. They said we'll make you know what sin is and he said I'll take sin and I'll completely transform it, I'll get victory over it. And I'll not only get out of this situation, but I'll bring you out of it. Who for the joy, and he says that they may have, just as they may have my peace. You know when they said we want to make you king and he said no thank you. When they said we'll shove you over the, push you over the precipice, he said no, you won't. That, that same peace balanced him the whole time. Whether there was hostility or happiness, whether they, they, they, they beckoned or put their fist, made no difference. And he says this is my legacy. Jesus didn't have a castle to leave, no soldiers, no money. He says my peace I leave with you, my peace I give it, not as the world give us, give I unto you. Now he says my joy, that you may have my joy, my, that you may have jubilation, that you may have my joy fulfilled in yourself. Verse 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil, or from the evil one. What is he praying for here? Well he's not praying for their transportation. First of all it was manifestation, secondly it was unification, then it was jubilation. And now he says I'm not praying for their transportation, that you should take them out of the world. But while I don't pray for their transportation, I'm praying for their preservation, that thou will keep them. What do we say? Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, Peter says. God's in the keeping business. Thou will keep him in peace, no thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid. Whose mind is staid. Your circumstances aren't staid, your mind is staid. Your mind is settled on the fact that God will do exactly what he says. That as we said in Hebrews, God hath spoken. And when God's spoken, he's going to do exactly what he said he'll do. All the unfulfilled prophecies of the Word of God are going to be fulfilled, because God's spoken, that's why. And he says don't take them out of the world, that's no way to develop character. You see you may envy Mrs. so-and-so and say they have a lovely life, and a beautiful home, by the water and everything else. That's all right. And you know that they've never had trouble, and she's such a devoted husband, and wonderful children. Fine, she's had it smooth all the way. Fine. You don't have a problem she's had either. But my side of the road, oh boy, I don't live on the sunny side, it's all the shady side, the heavy side. It's not addition, subtraction, it's not triumph, but trial. Well wait a minute, what about that day of rewards again? How do you make character? You don't take them out of the world. My dear wife and I know a family where, well, no I won't use the illustration anyhow. But what makes character? Testing, trial, tribulation, tough situations, don't take them out of the world. It was never easy from the moment that Jesus set off to do the Father's will. He was contested, he'd hardly got born, before they decided to murder him. Murdered all the children, two years and less. And we'd get rid of Jesus, but they didn't. And they were after him, to read the seventh of, seventh chapter in this same Gospel. What does it say? The people say, oh you said when Jesus came you'd kill him. Well here he is standing right in the middle of the, of the temple. Why did he kill him? Why did he do it? They were after his blood even in the temple. And he never backed off. Don't take them out of the world. There was a tragedy this week. A little miniature submarine. I remember seeing a miniature submarine over there in the, in the islands. Not long, when we saw, I guess wasn't more than about 15 feet. Some men went down off the Florida Keys, as you know, and they got trapped. I remember the first time I saw a submarine. No pardon me, I saw a diver. A ship had been wrecked in World War One, just off the English coast. And we were down there for a vacation, father, mother, my sister, myself. And one day a boat went out. Here was the rusty hull of this boat. When the tide was low, you could just see the peak of the hull. The ship was down there in the sand. And, and it was a danger, it was a threat to navigation. And so they decided to shift it. They were going to put some explosives in, blow it up. And I remember watching the diver go down. In those days he went down with his clumsy heavy gear, you know. And I saw the man go over the side of the boat, and go down, and the bubbles came up, and I wanted to know what was happening. My daddy said the man was going to walk on the bottom of the sea. So I said I'd like to go too. But I didn't get. I wouldn't go now, but when I was a boy I wanted to go. That man went down, down, down. Now I talked with a deep-sea diver long after this, a man who dives for the British government, one of the professional divers in the Admiralty. He told me about the hazards. He told me how many times he'd almost lost his life. He told me about an octopus gripping. He told me about the sharks coming. He told me about having, when the ship's at this angle, he used to try and walk down the staircase, and then he has to find in total darkness, because they have lamps now, they didn't a few years ago. And he had to find the treasures in the ship. He had to open the safe. He had to do all this when the floor's at this angle. I don't know how in the world he did it. He told me about crawling under a boat, and just by pushing his hand, that whole ship came down, because it was tilting in the sun. And he got out by turning a little switch that inflated his jacket and blew him to the surface. Got a thousand hazards. He said the one thing or two things I have to watch, I have to watch my lifeline, I have to watch the airline. I can stay down there. And I was amazed to discover he stayed as many as 12 hours at a stretch, on some of the big jobs. I have to keep this line so I can tug and tell them what's happening, and I have to keep the airline connected. I'm living in a world that isn't natural. Should be down with sharks and all the dangers. All right. I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but keep them in the world. How can he keep you in the world? By keeping your lifeline clear to above. What does the hymn writer say? Moment by moment, I'm kept in his love. Moment by moment, I've life from above. See that's the fallacy to me, of saying you can't live without sin. You can't live in victory. How long do you live? We used to sing a hymn when we were children in England. Lord for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray. But keep me, guide me, hold me Lord just for today. And people say sometimes I only live a day at a time. Well that's a way to get a break down. Keep me, guide me, hold me Lord just for today. Somebody else went home and wrote another hymn, I need thee every hour oh most gracious Lord. You say boy that's getting a bit nearer. And somebody said I don't live every hour. So they went and wrote another hymn. Moment by moment, I'm kept in his love. Moment. How long do you live? You only live by every beat of your heart. Can God keep you in victory, for one second? I would imagine he can when he hangs the world on nothing. Can he keep you in victory? If he can keep you a second, he can keep you a minute, a minute, an hour, an hour, a day, a day, a week, and so forth. I'm not saying it's impossible to backslide. I'm not saying that. I'm saying on the law of averages, where most of us fail, we should have success and victory. Don't take them out, keep them. You see it all depends where you're looking. I won't get through this because time's gone. But I'm thinking now the Scottish Covenanters. One of the finest of the Scottish Covenanters was a man called Hugh McHale. McHale. He was about six feet two, considered the holiest man in Scotland. If I remember he was about 24. 1666 was the great fire of London. 1665 the British were persecuting the Scots. The people that we call the Covenanters. They wouldn't bow to the powers that be. And they met in caves to have communion. And they met at midnight for worship and so forth. And they caught this man, young Hugh McHale. He was the, he was the kind of ringleader of this group. Very brilliant man, very wonderful young man. Six feet two, handsome, spiritual, as mature as a man at a hundred. They caught him. They brought him out of the trial hall in Edinburgh. Told him he was going to die in the grass market in three days. Public execution, terrible humiliation. The streets were lined with hundreds and hundreds, thousands of people. They were trying some of the ministers. Some of them were not sentenced to death. Hugh McHale was. He's going to hang in the grass market. They spread the news down the road. Hughie, dear Ken Hughie, dear Ken Hughie is going to die is this. He's going to die, he's going to die. They passed it right down the crowd. Hughie came out with a couple of guards and he walked down the road there with his big shoulders back and he strode down the road. Solemn, dignified, not worried at all. Came to the bend in the road, he had to turn the corner. There was another Hughie standing there in the crowd, a man he knew. And Hughie was like the rest of the crowd, he had his handkerchief out, they were wiping the tears away. And Hughie looked at him and he said, ah Hughie, Hughie, you Ken the news? Did you hear? Ah he says Hughie don't greet. They say greet for cry. Ah he says, Hughie don't greet. Man he said, did you really hear the news? Only three days and I'm going to see the King in his beauty. Makes all the difference. Where are you living? What are you living for? They said to John Wesley, your people die well. I think there's something wrong with us really. Though I'd like to live a bit longer and do a bit more. But I think when when life is more exciting than death, there's something wrong with us. When you'd rather live here and look at all this muck and rubbish around and see the King in his beauty, there's something wrong with us. As I said last night, Paul wasn't excited though he raised the dead and all he did do, and yet he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. He knew him, better than any man that ever lived. He knew his power, he knew his indwelling, he knew his wisdom, he knew his strength, he knew his authority, he knew his gifts. And then he says no I want to get nearer, I want to know him, I want to be with him. Don't take them out of the world. You know why? Because if you live in the world and really live, you'll get battered and buffeted and bruised and all it will do, it will do the same as a little boy that gets beaten up. What did he do? He runs to his mummy, he runs to his daddy for refuge. And the best thing that can happen to you is the devil to kick you around like a football. Because you'll run more to Christ and she'll give him the backslide one of the two. Don't take them out of this. Let them go right through the tunnel, let them get beaten and buffeted and baffled and bruised. And then you'll come and find me. He talks about manifestation, jubilation, preservation. Verse 17. I remember a man that wrote a brochure on John 17. And he called it the climax of revelation. And all he did was dwell on verse 17. He said this is the last rung on the ladder. He's prayed for what? For manifestation, he's prayed for their unification, he's prayed for their jubilation, he's prayed for their preservation. And now he prays for their sanctification. That's the last rung on the ladder. No it's not, no it's not. He prayed for their sanctification that they may be made holy. Sure he did. Isn't that the last rung? No, no, no. God doesn't make us ornaments to be put merely on exhibition, but instruments. I pray not only for these that thou hast given me, but for all them. Jesus prayed for you. Oh you say I wish I'd been around. I'd have run up and said Jesus will you pray for me today, I got problems. Well what's wrong with you? That's what he's doing this morning. He's living to make intercession for you. Why didn't you go to him before you call the pastor? Mr. Criswell there over in Dallas. They tell me that when he was in a tight situation, he needed some parking lot. And there was some old property across the road. And he was talking with the janitor. The janitor he said you know, he said I'm going to ask the deacons about raising some money and buying that lot over there. The old deacon says, the janitor said you're going to ask the deacon? Yeah I'm going to talk to the deacons about it. He said why don't you talk to the Lord about it. Nice to have janitors like that. And he said yes I should have done that. So he went in his office and he started to pray. Lord we need that parking lot. It's going to cost a lot of money. And while he was praying the phone went. He said hello. A little squeaky voice said, Pastor Criswell. Yeah. I hear you're interested in that property across the road. Yeah. Yes we are. It's very expensive though. How much will it be? A million dollars. Could you call up my house this afternoon? Yeah I'll be around. Little old lady said well nice to see you pastor. Pleasure. If you need a million dollars there you are. She gave him a check for a million dollars. Then he discovered, or maybe it was the other way around I forget which number, but then he needed a half million to clear the lot. Or maybe it was half a million to buy it. A million is a huge place. It all had to be pulled down and cleared. And he needed more money. Little old lady phoned and said are you doing the job? No we need a half million. Or else we need a million to clear it. He got a million, a half million the first time. I don't know which way around. But they're both right figures. And she said oh you need more money. How much do you need? So and so. Could you call around? Could he? Oh yes he could have walked never mind driven. He was there that afternoon. She handed him the check. Just like that. Now it doesn't always work as easy as that. I know that. You see sometimes we start talking to others, we ought to talk to him first. If Jesus was here physically, oh I'd go every morning and say Lord you know I got this problem and the other. Well you've got him every morning. He ever livers to make intercession. He prays for their sanctification only that he may have verse 20 to pray about. Neither pray I for these alone but for all them that shall believe on me through their word. What did he pray for? Evangelization. That the world may know. It's a wonderful prayer isn't it? We should take more time we won't. You go home and read it. Think about it. Pray over it. It's a complete prayer. Maybe it's the pattern prayer. The way we should pray. First of all Jesus prayed for himself. Then he prayed for the church. Then he prayed for the world. That's where we should pray. Start with ourselves. Not because we're selfish. But let's see we're in the relationship. Our hands are clean. We can ascend into the hill of the Lord. Come into his holy presence with joy. Praying for ourselves we're not just selfish. Praying for the believers, the church. Carrying the other man's burden. One member of the body suffers, the other member suffers with it. One rejoices, the other rejoices with it. And then the great outreach for the world. If Jesus had to pray like this, surely you and I have to pray like this. Jesus spent so much time in prayer. You and I need to spend this time in prayer. Again no man is greater than this prayer line. And it says in Jude 20 again. Praying in the Holy Ghost. And only as the Spirit of God controls us. You could pray driving a car. Sometimes you won't make it go, you'll make it go alone, not pray with anybody else. Sometimes prayer is hard. You've got to fight your way through it. Sometimes the heavens seem to open immediately. There's no way to measure it. But again the Spirit bears witness. I know, you know when you've prayed in the Spirit. You know when you've prayed in the flesh. You know when you've prayed because it's a custom to pray. Almost a superstition, oh I better pray before I leave the house. That's no good. One of the hymn writers said this, and I'm through with this. All earthly things with earth will fade away. But prayer grasps eternity. Therefore pray, always pray. With your feet on the ground. You can get the arms of faith through the clouds of time and lay hold of eternity. And we're going to be embarrassed when we get to heaven, to see our little praying we've really done. When God says there are all the resources through Jesus Christ. Because God not only gave Jesus, but he says with him he freely gave us things. No he says with him I freely give you all things. And then to pile it on he says all things are yours and ye are God's and God is Christ. Everything Jesus got from the Father, you and I can get. When we want it for the reason he wanted. That I may glorify thee on earth. That I may finish the work that thou gavest me to do. Again our Father we give you thanks this morning for this sweet time of fellowship. If our fellowship below in Jesus be so sweet. What heights of rapture shall we know when round his throne we meet. Dismiss us with thy blessing we pray. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.