In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of living in hope and pleasing Jesus. He shares a story about a child in a school who was joyful because they knew they would go home in seven years, illustrating the simplicity of rejoicing in hope. The preacher highlights the power of loving Jesus and being filled with the love of Christ through the Holy Spirit. He encourages the congregation to seek God fervently and tap into the fountain of life that Jesus offers, emphasizing the need for greater faith and trust in Him.

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. Jesus says those words and they're just as powerful this morning and the meaning is the same today as it was when Jesus spoke them to his disciples. They were being troubled because he had spoken to them about leaving them. He says, I came forth from the Father into the world and again I leave the world and go to the Father. And they were troubled. You can imagine how troubled we would be if someone that we thought a great deal of, upon whom we depended very, very much for guidance, for help, for blessing, said goodbye to us and left us. They were troubled but Jesus had to show them that there was something far better in store for them. That's the thing I thank God for. It's not a New Year's text, it's a text for every day. Every day, praise God. Let not your heart be troubled. The thing that is strange to me is that we're so slow in accepting this unspeakable gift of God. When Jesus Christ says, you believe in God, believe also in me. He has told us about God. He said that God was within him and God worked in him. And just like God was in him, the life and the victory and God worked through him. So he says, you can look for me to be in you. There's a fountain in every one of us, a wonderful fountain that's waiting to burst forth and to send forth rivers of living water. And Jesus Christ says, tap that fountain. Forsake the stagnant pools that can hold no water. You don't get anything out of them. Come, believe also in me. He authorizes me to draw out of his fullness day by day, grace upon grace. All that I need for life and for godliness is freely offered to me in this one word, believe also in me. The exceeding greatness of his power is toward those who believe. We heard a chapter read from Ephesians, and you have he quick and made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Are you alive today? Sometimes I see a meeting, I see the condition of the meeting. And while they're not entirely dead, they're already being pickled or something. Now the Bible says we're preserved, not pickled. Well, it's life preserves. We ought to be made alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It cannot be unless we tap that fountain. Like Edwin expressed last night, you gotta have a bigger tap. That's what we needed in our home. We needed a bigger pipe to bring the water into the home. And praise the Lord, you need a bigger pipe. You need more faith. You need to know Jesus. You need to trust him. You need to accept him and expect from him. And when Sister Herzog spoke this morning about the wonderful presence of Jesus being manifested, I thought, really? We're a happy lot of people. Yes, we are. Wonderful, happy lot of people. Before coming down this morning, I looked into a book somebody gave me years ago for Christmas. It's called, oh, I don't remember the name of it, Contemplation or something. It's a compilation of writings of the saints, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint John of the Cross, and Saint Catherine of Siena, and even Aquinas, and all these mystics. And really, you'll get misty when you read their writings. They'll talk about the contemplative life and what constitutes the contemplative life, and they'll dissect your soul, and they'll show you, oh, what a zoo there is inside of you, and it just somehow makes your hair stand on end, and you think, well, how will I ever get there? And God says, Jesus, Jesus, I am the way. Believe in me. Glory to God. Let him be the mystic within you. Let him be the teacher. Let him be the light. The Lord is my light and my salvation, and it reduces the spiritual life to such great simplicity. My whole duty on earth is to be devoted to Jesus, and Jesus is here, and he manifests himself. Thank God, and all I need to know about sanctification is not a lot of highfalutin words about psychology and philosophy and biology and phrenology and all those things, but just how to please Jesus. And the Bible tells me how. You call me Lord, why don't you do the things which I say? And the things he says are so simple. Rejoicing in hope is simple, isn't it? Rejoicing in hope. How do you do that? I think it's Pastor Funke, a minister in Germany, who came to an institution where poor children were kept in school. They were by benevolent societies, and one of them was there skipping around and laughing and rejoicing, and he caught hold of this boy or little girl. He said, what makes you so happy? Oh, he says, seven years, and I'll go home. He was rejoicing in hope. Seven years meant nothing. Well, folks, we're going home, too. Praise God. We're going to be like him. Praise the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Hope that is seen is not hope, but oh, how important that we be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. We're begotten again unto a living hope. Our inheritance is in heaven. It's waiting for us, waiting to be revealed. And God commands us to rejoice in this hope, not to be moved away from it. Gear your life to this living hope. Praise God, and the world will lose its charms, and sin shall not have dominion over you. And when Jesus Christ himself is your hope, and you know his coming, why, then you'll be looking for his coming. The church has been looking for his coming for 2,000 years, and all those that have been looking for his coming and delighted themselves in the thought. They who love his appearing, their bodies are laid away in the grave, but they're not dead. None of them are dead. God's not a God of the dead, but of the living. They simply grew out of this dust, and they went into their home. Glory to God. Oh, this living hope, rejoicing in hope. How simple is this instruction, and yet how few people really live in this hope. Seven years, nine gone home. Glory to God. Can't hold me down. The hope of the whirling, of course, is darkness. I went to visit someone in the Wyckoff Heights Hospital and lost my way. And I got into a place, the vestibule of some large ward, where there were a number of young men. They all looked so dark. They looked like the gladiators going into the arena to be killed, you know. Hail Caesar, we who are about to die salute. And they looked at me with such pity as if they said, here's another customer. And I thought, goodness, where am I? I found out I was in the vestibule of the maternity ward, and these were hopeful fathers. They were all in hope. That's why they were in such despair. But you know, you come into some churches, and you find the people looking just like. There ought to be joy, rejoicing in hope. Every meeting of ours ought to be marked by that joy. Why we're coming to meet Jesus. Jesus is here to meet us. Praise God. And no matter how bad off you are, you're going to be like Him. Oh, I thank God for the simplicity of believing also in me. I'm with you always. Do you believe that? All powers mine in heaven and in earth. And lo, I'm with you always. And though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. Oh, beloved, believing in Jesus will bring His presence. That's the wonderful thing about it. And a lot of these mystics didn't seem to know much about it. You don't have to know much about it, but you've got to know Him. I always think of Sister Spatula. You ask her about mysticism or any doctrine, she wouldn't know a thing about it. Nothing. But she knew Jesus. She walked with Him all the time. From the day she accepted Him, why she started shouting. When she first came to the altar, she didn't want to come at first because she was a Roman Catholic. She had come out of Austria. And for two years she looked for a Catholic church where the priest could talk Bohemian. That was her language. And she couldn't find one for two years. And finally someone directed her to a Bohemian priest. And she went to confession. Or as the Catholics say, to confess herself. So she confessed herself and the priest sent her. Two years, she says, no hope for you anymore. She was in despair. Absolute despair. Sixty-six years old. She didn't know how long she lived. And she'd go to hell. And when somebody brought her to us, she thought, well, she'd get the same. How do you do? So when she came to the altar, she was weeping, weeping. Her heart was broken. I said, Sister. She looked at me. Sister, I got one brother in Vienna. And I said, what are you weeping for? She said, all my sins crushed me. I said, hallelujah. You're the lost sheep that the Good Shepherd has found. Then telling her the gospel was a bomb for her soul. And she opened her heart. And that night she began to laugh and she laughed for 45 minutes straight. Mind you, coming to a Protestant church for the first time in her life and laughing for 45 minutes. And when she was through, her sins were gone. Her rheumatism that had troubled her for 30 years was gone, never to return. Asthma had troubled her for 20 years. I remember when she came for the first time, two sisters had to assist her. She couldn't walk alone. Now everything was gone. She told me 66 years she grunted and dumped. And the moment Jesus came into her heart, Jesus was her everlasting portion. And she never stopped shouting. I'm glad I have a tape recording of her shouting and her dancing. I'm going to play it back for some. Praise the Lord. I want you to hear it. Why it was real. And for 20 years until she was 86, she kept shouting. You never met her, but she let out a yell. She'd shout, well, it was real. Oh, Jesus is real. Jesus is real. And you don't need to know anything under the sun, but Jesus. Praise God. Therein lies all the mystery of the Godhead. Praise God. And all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are revealed to the heart that simply loves Jesus. How simple are his words in that 14th chapter? If any man love me, oh, that's it. You don't have to make a study of theology or make a study of mysticism or anything like that. If any man love me, oh, Jesus, who could help but love you? And you know, that love of Christ is poured into our hearts when we're baptized with the Holy Ghost. How that heart burns within us. Isn't it burning now? You know, last night, I can't help it. I saw Jesus in that meeting like I'd seen him. Hadn't seen him in a long, long while. I was so happy. Why was it? Why? Because we'd been praying all week. We have been waiting upon the Lord. Thank God. And when you want him bad enough to seek him, he'll give himself like that to you. He has a greater desire for you than you have for him. He died on the cross to purchase unto himself a church, a bride. And if any man love me, he will keep my words. How simple are these words? But you know, to get acquainted with them means that we, we read the Bible, we read his words, and we meditate there in day and night. How can I please my heavenly bridegroom? And have you ever noticed how simple they are? Those words quoted by Ralph. How simple. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. It really expresses the same thing. On another word, judge not that ye be not judged. How simple. How simple. Aren't you happy you don't have to judge me? And yet I can see it in the faces of people not here this morning. Of course, present company is always accepted. I've seen people. Judge not that ye be not judged. Thank God I'm relieved. Any man love me, he will keep my words. How simple are the words of Jesus? The sermon on the mount. How utterly simple. Take no thought. Where are your sleepless nights coming? Your troubled expression? The wrinkles on your brow? Well, the bills are come and due. I wonder what the mailman will bring this morning. Pause the fellow that writes the checks, but they bounce. Take no thought. Jesus says somebody else takes thought for you. He knows. Casting all your care upon him. How simple is that? Why beloved, that gives you more knowledge, more wisdom, more understanding than all the books and magazines about divine healing that you can read. Casting all your care upon him means that you, you don't have to care anymore. You care about him. Oh my Lord, you're present with me. Not only present, but you're within my heart. You're that fountain waiting to burst forth with life-giving streams and I don't give you a chance. It is as simple as all that, but beloved, it's so sublime. It is so heavenly. Our conversation is in heaven. From hence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how very wonderful heavenly will my life be when I'm occupied only with Jesus. And we Pentecostal people are particularly happy, like Sister Schutte said. Did you ever hear of a people that knew Jesus Christ in the midst, that saw him by the Spirit, that talked to him and heard his voice? Praise God. Have you ever heard of a church where Jesus Christ manifests himself in every meeting so that you can meet him? You can be sure. You've got the guarantee. When I come to that meeting, I'm going to meet the Lord and I'm going to get exactly what I need. I don't know how many thousand meetings I've been to, but every meeting's been like that for me. I've known people that go to sleep in the meeting. They get nothing. But I make sure that I meet my Lord and oh, how very wonderful, how interesting this life is. How thoroughly interesting. And you know when you meet the Lord like that, you take him with you wherever you go. He makes you bring forth through these rivers of life that he pours into your soul. They pour forth from your life and others are made to drink of the water of life. The life that Jesus Christ has in store for us is life more abundant. And it all hinges on my believing that Jesus Christ is all in all. He's mine. Paying loving attention to him will keep me praying without ceasing. That's prayer without ceasing. It isn't talking without ceasing, but it's this interior regard. Something the Holy Ghost has done. Your heart becomes a flame with love for Jesus. Oh, Jesus. When the Lord had come to me, as I often say, I was still a boy, but I prayed without ceasing, without knowing it. I never dreamed of such a thing, but I loved Jesus so much that I couldn't help it. If you've ever been in love, you know that you can't help. There's no effort for you to think of Susie or of George. You can't help it. Pursues you day and night, doesn't it? That's what they tell me. Well, that's the way it was with Jesus. Only more so. Couldn't help it day and night. Jesus. Why was it? Why? Because he gave himself to me. He'll give himself to every heart that wants him. Oh, Jesus. Wonderful Jesus. I think we're a happy lot of people. And you know, it relieves you of all responsibility to be a big shot. You don't have to be nothing. In fact, the better you understand to be nothing, the more Jesus Christ can reveal himself and be what he is. Hallelujah. Oh, the simplicity. The Apostle Paul says, our conscience gives us this testimony that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in this world. And I believe we've learned something about that. You know, somebody said to me, where did you go to college? College. I went to college one time to visit a student. Praise the Lord. But I couldn't go to college. I had to go to work. And that was my college. Do you know that was the best college there was? I would have ruined my chances for the kingdom of heaven if I hadn't followed Jesus and learned to work. That's the best cure for preachers too. The best training for ministers is to put their nose to the grindstone and go through the school of hard knocks. It'll knock some of that conceit out of you, which usually develops and enlarges in many schools. You know why they have to wear these square hats? Oh, but to know Jesus is life eternal. This is life eternal. That they might know this secret, this indwelling fountain, that you might tap it. That you might give it a chance. That you might know that you don't know anything and never will know anything. But that God Almighty unites you to this tap of heaven, this fountain, this wonderful stream that issues from the throne of God. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And ye are complete in him. And you'll never know anything until you know Jesus. And when you know Jesus Christ, you'll be through with yourself. You'll draw out of his fullness grace upon grace. And as Edwin spoke so well last night, you don't need to expect a great ocean to be dumped on your head. You know, when you draw electricity, they'll tell you now, only for 110 volts. When we go to Europe, we always have to have a transformer or we'll kill all our instruments because they have 220 volts. Your instrument has to be adjusted and the socket has to be adjusted to your instrument. And so the power of God is adjusted to every vessel. He'll fill you. He'll keep you filled like a channel. As the channel empties himself, he receives more. It keeps flowing all the time. Oh God, how wonderful is Jesus. Jesus, let not your heart be troubled. Right now, don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in me, Jesus.