Facing A Difficult Future

Well, you can pick up your daily newspaper, you can turn on the evening news, you can click on your favorite internet news sources, and You will find a torrent, a literal flood of Troubling news that creates concern about the future. If it's the world scene, we seem to hear almost weekly of a new barbaric terrorist attack Somewhere in the world a senseless terrorist attack on people we hear of wars popping up on several continents We are concerned about the nuclear capability of Iran and North Korea and Pakistan and other nations And who in the world knows what's going on in Russia? You turn on the news and you wonder what is this world coming to and what is our future like in this world And it's no better when they turn to the national scene You look at the national scene and it seems that all we hear about is crippling debt and the possibility of imminent economic collapse We hear more news of moral decline in our culture and another fresh attack on Christian values and Christian people in the marketplace You say maybe it'll be better on the local scene No, just pick up your local newspaper and about all the headlines You see our increasing crime decreasing job market That's what we face in our area and then what about a personal level Maybe you're here this morning and it's not what's happening in Russia that bothers you as much as what's happening with your job What's happening with your family? What's happening with your health? What's happening with your own finances? There's a lot of troubling news to go around isn't there this is a difficult world in which to live and we face Seemingly and increasingly difficult future So if that's what you're feeling this morning have I depressed you enough already if that's what you're feeling this morning as you walk into this auditorium That's good Because we're walking right into the upper room with the disciples The disciples face an uncertain future a Difficult future and they are all bent out of shape over what Jesus is telling them about the future He's already told them and it is already underway that someone will betray him One of them will deny him before the night is over He says I'm going to leave you And you can't come where I'm going And after three years plus of ministry with him they are totally confused They are grief stricken in fact Jesus summarizes in John chapter 16 where we join the disciples in the upper room Actually on the way to get simmity by now, but the upper room discourse in John chapter 16 We join them in verse five today and Jesus summarizes what's going on? What he's already told them he says in verse five now? I am going to him who sent me yet none of you asks me where are you going? I mean, they're so distraught They don't even know what questions to ask they can't ask the right questions And he explains to them why they're so distraught verse six because I have said these things you are filled with grief So he's putting finger right on the problem their hearts are troubled They're facing a future that they don't understand what's going on and what will happen and they're fearful of what will happen Their hearts are grieving and so Jesus addresses them in that state As he finishes this upper room teaching at the end of chapter 16 as he finishes this and the verses we're going to look at today He basically reminds them of truth. He's already told them about in chapters 14 and 15 But he's going to really press it home now He's going to really make it personal and press at home very very importantly to these guys What he's going to tell them basically is this in form of a question Where do you turn when facing a difficult future? That's what his disciples are facing and now he's going to remind them of where they need to turn So let's ask ourselves the same question. Let's listen impently as Jesus answers But let's ask ourselves the same question. Where do you turn? How do you react? What do you do When you're facing a difficult future How do you handle the news that you see every day? How do you handle what's happening in your own life when it clouds your future and your future looks uncertain at best What do you do? Jesus is going to remind them of two things. He's already told them about but he's going to really remind them and press it home The first one is rely on the spirit You've got the Holy Spirit now don't forget that. I've already told you about that You've got the Holy Spirit now rely on the spirit look at what he says in verse seven He says but I tell you the truth It is for your good that I'm going away now. That's the exact opposite of the way they feel For our good that you're leaving I mean that's what they're struggling with that's what they're sorrowful about He just said that in verses five and six But he says I'm telling you the truth it is for your good that I'm going away unless I go away The counselor will not come to you remember that's the name Jesus uses four times in these three chapters for the Holy Spirit Talk about the Holy Spirit unless I go away the Holy Spirit will not come to you But if I go I will send him to you So Jesus says it's really better for you. It's for your good that I'm going away And this is the reason I'm leaving the Holy Spirit is coming Well, how can the Holy Spirit be an improvement on Jesus? Simply in this way Jesus is limited to one location at one time in a physical body When the Holy Spirit comes in the fullness of his power he will come to in dwell every Christian So You know before when you wanted something of Jesus you had to wait till he got to your town where you had to go find him And now the Holy Spirit's going to be in every Christian that multiplies the presence of God It multiplies the power of God. It multiplies our communion with God Everything about our relationship with God is enhanced and multiplied by the presence of the Holy Spirit So yes, it's better that Jesus leave and the Holy Spirit come Because of the multiplied presence and power and communion with God that we have through the Holy Spirit And then Jesus says here's how you rely on the Holy Spirit who's going to come and be with you Here's how you rely on first of all you need to understand his ministry to the world So that you can rely on him to do his job in regard to how he deals with the world You see what Jesus is going to basically tell them is it's not your job guys to save people It's not your job to even convince people of the truth of the gospel It's your job to be faithful and giving it out It's the Holy Spirit's job to do the convincing Notice what he says verse 8 in his ministry to the world he says when he comes he will convict the world of guilt In regard to these three things sin and righteousness and judgment So when the Holy Spirit comes his ministry to the world is summarized in this word convict It's a courtroom term Obviously we think of conviction as getting a result in a in a trial Actually this word backs up before that This word talks about the giving of the evidence So compellingly that you are convinced of the truth of it That's what this word convict means it means to expose it means to bring something to light So that you see it and you're convinced of it So the conviction of the spirit has to do with him convincing us about three things and Jesus tells us what they are Now here it is If you do not know Jesus as your savior This is what the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in your heart and light If you do know Jesus as your savior this is what he's done in your life To bring you to the point of salvation He convicts or convinces the world of three things number one He convinces us that we are guilty Verse 9 this Convictive convicting or convincing the world of guilt is verse 9 in regard to sin because men do not believe in me Notice it is sin singular not sins plural The Holy Spirit's job is to convince us that we are sinners And that we remain sinners because of unbelief So the Holy Spirit really zeros in on the sin of unbelief the fact that we are sinners And we remain that way the chief evidence of the fact we're sinners is because of our unbelief What the Holy Spirit wants to convince you of my friend is that your biggest problem is not the individual sins in your life The biggest problem is that those come from a nature that causes you to sin and that also causes you not to believe in Jesus And your biggest problem is your lack of faith in Christ He convinces the world of sin and the sin specifically of unbelief in Christ That we are a sinner and we have not trusted Christ as our Savior You see it's not a matter of you cleaning up your life and dealing with your individual sins Oh, I know I've got this problem. I know I do this wrong and I'm working on that I'm really working on my language so that I won't say those words anymore I'm working on this bad habit so that I can get rid of that. I'm working on this addiction All those things are great, but they will never get you to heaven What will keep you out of heaven is unbelief And so that's the thing the Holy Spirit's going to zero in on unbelief that you've never trusted Christ as your Savior Now he will take care of all those other things and will help you work on those things But if all you do is work on specific individual sins yourself you will spend eternity in hell Because you need to trust Jesus as your Savior That's what the Holy Spirit wants to convince you of Of unbelief that you need Christ Secondly, the Holy Spirit convinces us that we are helpless Not only are we sinners who are not trusting Christ and we need to trust him unbelief, but we're helpless Look at verse 10 In regard to righteousness, okay back to verse 8 He's convincing the world of these three things one of them is righteousness in regard to righteousness Because I'm going to the Father where you can see me no longer At first glance that verse is a little difficult to understand Righteousness, okay, we need righteousness. What does that do with Jesus going back to the Father How do those two connect Jesus says you need righteousness because I'm going back to the Father What you need righteousness because you're a sinner Here's what he's talking about You need the only kind of righteousness that God has ever put his approval on And that is the righteousness of Christ and God put his approval on the righteousness of Christ by raising him from the dead And then later Jesus ascending back to the Father As we saw last week on Easter it is the resurrection That that is God's stamp of approval on Jesus death and that that is the only way of salvation What Jesus is saying is there's a certain kind of righteousness you need to get into heaven And the only kind of righteousness that God approves of Is is the righteousness that I give you through my death on the cross and the proof of that is the resurrection and going back to the Father Here's the problem we have a tendency to have our own ascending scale of righteousness We are all too ready to set up our own standard and measure ourselves by that Paul condemned the religious Jews of his day for that very thing in Romans chapter 10 and verse 3 where he says Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own They did not submit the God's righteousness You see Paul draws a distinction between two different kinds of righteousness God's righteousness or Christ's righteousness Which is made possible through his death on the cross for your sins There's a difference between that and your own righteousness But we all have this tendency to build our own standard of righteousness It's kind of like an ascending scale and here's how it goes in most people's minds Okay, criminals are at the low end of the scale Criminals have about let's give them the benefit of the doubt 20% righteousness Okay The average person in most people's minds I have to fall somewhere around 50% you know some good and bad most people and About 50% really good people Really nice moral upstanding law-biting citizens they're about 80% and most people would probably say yeah God's 100% on that scale. He's he's he's righteous if they know anything about God at all But here's our problem we have a tendency To think that there is a point somewhere on that scale where God looks at a certain percentage of righteousness That you can do on your own and says you know, it's not 100% But it's pretty good, you know, and I think I think you deserve to be in heaven you've really worked hard And you've really done pretty well at least you're above 50% We have a tendency to think that's how we get into heaven And if we can just attain that certain percentage point or that certain amount of righteousness that we will be okay And the real problem is we tend to rate ourselves higher than we are on the scale That's the real problem It was an interesting study done last year 2014 a team of British researchers tested this I'm better than other people average tendency by surveying 85 criminals who were sentenced and were serving time in a prison in Southeast England and they they did this survey on them They surveyed them separately so that they wouldn't have a chance to talk to each other about the questions and what they were being asked And they surveyed them 85 questions 85 prisoners with a bunch of questions They were all age 18 to 34 and they had been jailed for acts of violence and robbery So they completed these questionnaires anonymously without speaking to anyone else here the results Compared with on the questionnaire compared with an average prisoner, okay? You're supposed to compare yourself with the other prisoners there Rate yourself in all of these different categories and every prisoner rated himself or herself As more moral kinder to others more self-controlled more law-biting more compassionate more generous more dependable more trustworthy and more honest than the average prisoner all of them without exception Rated themselves higher than the average prisoner Well, how do you get an average you know if everybody's higher than the average? I don't I don't get that Remarkably here's the real kicker remarkably. They also rated themselves as higher on all these traits than an average member of the community Except one one trait law-biting Okay, but listen to this they rated themselves as equal To the average community member on a law-biting He said okay those are convicted criminals in prison. They always think they're innocent right? I look at your own heart first. I'm gonna look at my heart too Because we're all born with that same tendency To compare ourselves favorably with someone else And so the average person on the street thinks he or she is gonna get to heaven If they can reach a certain point on that scale of righteousness that they're gonna rate themselves on And you know what? After all, I'm better than most people. I'm better than the average person And so a lot of people that most people feel like that's how they're gonna get to heaven if they have any hope of getting there at all Through the resurrection of Christ God was saying this This man is the only one I accept Jesus His righteousness is the only righteousness that can get you into heaven and that's what the Holy Spirit wants to convince you of that you are helpless Outside of Christ If you get 99.9% righteous You're still gonna spend an eternity in hell Because you do not have the only righteousness 100% perfect righteousness that God put his seal of approval on by Resurrecting Jesus and taking him back to heaven that is the righteousness of Christ here. It is my friend you need Jesus You need Jesus as your savior Stop trying to to to improve your life so much that you think somehow I'll reach a point on that scale that I'll get into heaven the Holy Spirit is wanting to convince you You will never reach that point none of your righteousness will ever be a good good enough You will never get to heaven on your 50% or 80% or 99% You need Jesus Christ's righteousness That was purchased for you at the cross and which will be placed on your record in heaven if you trust Christ as your savior That's what you need So that's what the Spirit of God is saying he's saying first of all you're guilty You're a sinner who has not trusted Christ as savior and you are helpless To save yourself you cannot do enough righteousness to get yourself there The third thing the Spirit of God wants to convince our hearts of And has convinced us of if we've come to Christ is that we will face God in judgment We will face God in judgment verse 11 And in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned So the third thing the Spirit of God convicts the world of is judgment That you will face God in judgment someday and proof positive of that in verse 11 is the devil who has condemned through the cross of Christ what Christ did on the cross condemned Satan To the lake of fire forever and ever As sentence hasn't been carried out yet. He's not been put in jail yet, but he's condemned He's already condemned by the cross And that is proof positive that if you do not know Jesus is your savior You will face God in judgment someday and you also will spend an eternity in the lake of fire If you've never trusted Christ as your savior When a person is truly under conviction This is what's happening in your heart. Is it happening with you this morning? If you're truly under conviction you will be convinced of The folly of continuing and unbelief That you need to trust Jesus You will also confess that you cannot measure up To the righteousness that God expects for you to get into heaven and so you're helpless to save yourself And you will also recognize with a dread and a fear that if you do not trust Christ as your savior and accept his righteousness You'll face God someday in judgment and you'll be an eternity in hell That's what the spirit of God speaks to unbelievers about the Bible says he convicts the world of those three things That's what he's doing this morning maybe in your heart I Trust that he is I pray that he is if you're not saved if you're just trusting in your own righteousness Your own good life your own good works your church membership baptism the fact that you're a decent person in the community and family person If you're trusting in those things to save you you're on that Self-made scale of righteousness that will never get you into heaven You're condemned because of unbelief because you can't get yourself saved through your own righteousness And you will face God to answer for that someday you need Jesus as your savior Now I recognize as we come closer to the coming of Christ Sometimes we don't see the moving of the spirit like we would like to see My heart breaks to see a moving of the spirit of again through the word of God Convincing people of these three things But I also know what Paul says in second Timothy 3 and 4 About the last days That the last days will be perilous evil will increase people will love themselves rather than God They will be so full of their own activities and pleasures They won't even listen to God and so they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to false teaching and persecution will increase and Faith will be absent from the earth Jesus said in Luke 17 when I come to earth while I even find faith on the earth So I understand that we may not see the great moves of the spirit that we once saw But the spirit is still at work He's convincing people he may be convicting you this morning and we can look around and thank God still see evidence of his working When that person comes to know Jesus that child in the children's ministry those 27 students at Mercer Christian Academy This year who've come to know Jesus as their savior people who get saved in celebrate recovery people who Occasionally comes to know Christ even in these church services or through a 101 class or whatever We occasionally see the spirit of God break through that darkness of our day and hardness of hearts And do his work of convincing people of their need of Christ Could it be that he has his fingers around your heart this morning? And you feel the pressure of the spirit of God Convincing you the fact that you've never trusted Christ convincing you of unbelief Convincing you that you need Jesus righteousness not your own Convincing you that if you do not trust Christ you will stand before God To hear depart from me you workers of a niquity. I never knew you Spirit of God calling you today where you come that's his ministry to the world to those who do not know Jesus But he also has a ministry to believers and Jesus goes on to talk about that as well Thank God we can rely on the Holy Spirit to do his work in people's hearts listen my friend If I felt like I was responsible to get numbers To get people up front and to tally him up and write him in a newsletter so I can impress people I would quit the ministry It is not my job to get results. It is the spirit of God's work And I dare not tread on his territory It is my responsibility as I understand the the word of God to be faithful in preaching and teaching the word of God It is the spirit's work to grab hearts and convince them and I pray for that like mad. I hope you do too It's easy to become so divisive and critical in the church Let's put our energy rather than doing that into prayer Prayer for the spirit of God to be at work powerfully in our midst If I could receive enough assurances that people are praying to equal to criticisms that I get I think God might work in this place the spirit of God might move in this place If we were earnest about praying for the spirit of God to work Let's spend our energy not in gathering and little clicks of people to criticize Let's spend our energy in heaven raw spirit filled prayer For God the Holy Spirit to do his work And if you're guilty I trust God will convict you of that And cause you to turn your energy to prayer Rather than divisive criticism in this assembly We need God spirit in power to work in this place May God grant that we'll see an outpouring of his spirit again And that he's not grieved by all the infighting and bickering and fussing that we have so much in this place Controversy competition between ministries God forbid that we grieve the spirit that way May we see the power of the spirit once again moving in hearts Could it be the reason he's not as he's grieved He's grieved at our worldly spirits The work of the spirit of God is to bring conviction to people But he also ministers to believers Verses 12 through 15 Jesus tells us how he does this He says I have much more to say to you More than you can now bear But when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth He will speak on his own He will not speak on his own he will speak only what he hears And he will tell you what is yet to come He will bring glory to me by taking from you taking from what is mine and making it known to you All that belongs to the Father is mine That is why I said the spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you The Holy Spirit is working also among believers And Jesus says he does three things For us as believers first of all he reveals truth to the apostles He reveals truth to the apostles if you look at the wording here The Holy Spirit in verse 13 is guiding them Jesus speaking to these 11 apostles in the uproom guiding them into all truth Verse in the verse 13 he will tell you what is yet to come verse 14 and 15 He will make known to you the truth of God And my friend all of those words Have to do with the Holy Spirit revealing to the apostles the truth that they would incorporate into scripture That they would write in the books of the New Testament Back in chapter 14 and verse 26 He had told them that the Holy Spirit would remind them of everything that Jesus had told them That's the gospel Here he tells them in verse 13 that the Holy Spirit will Guide you into all truth. That's the doctrinal truth of the apostles And then he has said also the Holy Spirit will tell you what is yet to come That's prophetic truth in the book of Revelation and other pieces of the the New Testament So we've got the whole New Testament right here in the in the uproom discourse The Holy Spirit would tell them remind them of what Jesus said to them And they would write it down in the gospels and throughout the book of Acts the history of the early church And then he would tell them the truth and they would record it in those magnificent epistles And he would tell them what is yet to come and they would record it in those prophetic sections of the New Testament So he's talking here about revealing truth to the apostles and you say what does that have to do with me? I'm not an apostle Yeah, but you have what they wrote So that's the spirit's ministry to us is to give us a Bible To give us God's instruction manual for us God's truth for us We have the truth of the spirit of God recorded in this book What a blessing that is that's part of the ministry of the spirit to us But secondly he ministers to us by pointing to Christ and the Father Did you notice what Jesus said here? He said in verse 13 he will not speak on his own That's a key statement Underline it in your Bible if you don't like to mark your Bible scoot over and underline your neighbor's Bible It's a key statement you need to you need to get that the Holy Spirit Jesus said will not speak on his own He will only speak what he hears and then he'll tell it to the apostles Okay, where does he get this truth from the Father? Read on Where are we verse 13 Verse 14 he will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you all that belongs to the father Is mine that is why I said the spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you It is the Father's truth through Jesus Christ that comes to the apostles through the Holy Spirit revealing it to them so that they could eventually record it in the New Testament So what the Holy Spirit is doing is not speaking on his own He points to two things two people he points to Christ And to the Father specifically the Father's words the words the message that he was not going to speak from himself, but he was going to speak from the Father and Christ You know a lot of people criticize us for not focusing enough on the Holy Spirit The Bible says If you glorify Christ and you magnify the words of the Father The Spirit is honored Because that's what the Spirit does The Spirit doesn't make much of himself And groups who want to focus everything on the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are missing the boat From what Jesus said Jesus said the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church to believers Is to magnify glorify Jesus Christ You see at the end verse 14 he will bring glory to me By taking mine and making it known to you by taking the words of the Father My words and making them known to you So he focuses on the words of the Father and glorifying Christ What we need to be focused on thank God for the Holy Spirit He's an equal member of the Trinity, but what we need to be focused on is Christ Christ And the words of the Father And so our ministry our lives must be focused not on the Spirit Because that's not his job To glorify himself his job is to point to Christ and the Father and his words And so if we glorify Christ and make much of him and we speak the word of God then the Spirit is honored with that And the Spirit can do his work with that that's his ministry to us And then there's another ministry to us and that is he opens our hearts and minds to God's truth Yes, there is an application for us in these verses he does guide us into truth He does lead us to understand truth, but it's always this truth this book That he made known to the apostles to record in the word of God The Bible says the unto saved man cannot understand or welcome the truth of God But the person who has the Spirit has the capacity to do that first Corinthians chapter 2 talks about that And so the Holy Spirit's job for us is to open our hearts and minds to God's truth He's going to make much of Christ and he's going to make much of the Bible And as we get into the word the Holy Spirit's job is to help us understand Open our eyes minds heart To the word of God So Jesus is saying rely on the Spirit rely on the Spirit to do his work Among the unsaid in the world and rely on the Spirit to do his work in the believers through the word of God and the exaltation of Christ That's what he's here to do But Jesus didn't leave us just with that as we face uncertain times and a difficult future Yes, he says rely on the Spirit. I'm sending the Spirit and that's far better for you than I've stayed So rely on the Spirit, but he also says rejoice In Christ rejoice in me Jesus says a number of times from verses 16 to 33 you'll find the word joy several times it pops up And Jesus is going to talk about joy. He's going to conclude this upper room discourse with that With a focus on joy because remember He's speaking to grief filled the disciples and he's just told them in verse 6 you're filled with grief He understands that he knows where they are emotionally They are sorrowful. They are confused. They are afraid just like us When we look at the newspaper in the internet and watch the evening news Just like us and so Jesus tenderly and patiently explains to them how they can have joy To face a difficult future. There are three things that are critical to having joy That we have to understand first of all joy comes through sorrow Joy comes through sorrow we were joy in Christ by understanding that joy comes through sorrow. Please I'm choosing my words carefully. I think you'll see them vindicated by our text Joy does not come in spite of sorrow Joy does not come in instead of sorrow joy comes through sorrow Now the disciples are confused and upset and they start questioning verse 16 Jesus summarizes by saying in a little while you will see me no more And then after a little while you will see me well the disciples are all confused about that verse 17 Some of the disciples said to one another What does he mean by saying in a little while you will see me no more And then after a little while you will see me and because I'm going to the Father they kept asking What does he mean by a little while we don't understand what he's saying? I can just hear the exasperation in their voices Jesus knows that Look at what he says in verse 19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this So he said to them are you asking one another what I meant when I said in a little while you will see me no more And then after a little while you will see me you want to know what that's about Well, I'm going to tell you but Jesus Explanation is not what we would expect Jesus is going to tell them that your joy will come it's going to come It will only come through suffering through sorrow That's the way God works look at it in verse 20 I tell you the truth you will weep And mourn while the world rejoices you will grieve but your grief will turn to joy In other words grief will produce joy It's not that the joy takes the place of the grief and you won't ever have any grief again It's not that the joy is in spite of the grief and you kind of set the grief aside It is that the joy comes out of the grief He gives an example in verse 21 a woman giving birth to a child has pain Because her time has come but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish Because of her joy that a child is born into the world so with you Now's your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy Now here's the principle that we must learn I'm struggling to learn it Believe me I struggle with this as much as you buy in this room The principle is this God brings joy not by substitution but by transformation God doesn't substitute joy for grief or sorrow or pain He uses the sorrow of the grief and the pain to produce joy The illustration of a mother giving birth is designed to show that Now I know what you're thinking John you have no right to stand up here and talk about the pain of childbirth I have not yet experienced that Don't expect to But I remind you this is what Jesus said and he knows all things Jesus gives the example of a woman giving birth and he says she has pain giving birth But when the baby is born she forgets the anguish Does that mean that the anguish wasn't true? It wasn't there. It wasn't real. No. Oh no It's just that the joy that is produced by seeing that newborn baby Equipses the pain and anguish and becomes more the focus than the pain and the anguish did It's not that the pain or anguish wasn't real wasn't there no longer is going to be a part of your life The same baby that brings the pain also brings the joy And It is the pain which produced the joy You would not have the joy of the child without the pain of childbirth It's a beautiful illustration of the principle that Jesus is talking about That joy comes through pain and the way God works to give us joy Is the opposite of the way we think he works and the way we would like for him to work We would like for him to say joy equals no pain no sorrow no suffering So I'll take away all the suffering and all the pain and all the sorrow and I'll put in its place joy That's not how God works I've done my share of wishing it were that way too There's not how he works So Joy is produced Through sorrow through pain through suffering Now the world does not get that the world does not understand that that principle is Contrary to all human reasoning A couple of months ago I read an interview by musician Bob Dylan in the AARP magazine yes, I do get that And Bob Dylan who's also an old guy Was talking about his music and his life on the road and true happiness And the interviewer asked him the question about happiness for the end of the interview Dylan answered this way he said okay a lot of people say there's no happiness in this life And certainly there's no permanent happiness I'm not exactly sure what happiness even means to tell you the truth I don't know if I personally could define it So the interviewer pressed a little bit more and asked if Dylan had touched and held any happiness in his life And he replied we all do at certain points, but it's like water it slips through your hands Now I want you to listen to what he says next He says as long as they're suffering you can only be so happy How can a person be happy if he has misfortune You see the world's view is that those two things are contradictory You can't have happiness and we would substitute that with a more lasting spiritual fruit of joy But you can't have joy and pain at the same time You you can't have joy in your life if you have sorrow. That's what Bob Dylan says I'd prefer to listen to what Jesus Christ says Jesus Christ says you get joy through suffering isn't it the way God's always worked I'm reading once again in my Bible reading the story of Joseph this morning. I was in Genesis 37 just starting into the the story of Joseph and his betrayal on the part of his brothers and Selling them selling him into slavery and something occurred to me that I'd never thought about before I've preached several times through the life of Joseph and and there are many wonderful stories But I'd never thought about this often we just go with the story and pick it up when Joseph gets down to Egypt and and the the horror of being in a foreign land language He doesn't know sold into slavery as a 17 year old boy who had been communicated to by God that he would be the head of his family But I got to thinking this morning in the story of his brothers selling him into slavery What it would have been like immediately after he's pulled up out of that sister and sold to those Midianite traders and he had to spend days maybe even weeks in chains being dragged along like a piece of property barefoot in hot sand all the way to Egypt How would that hit a 17 year old boy I'm sure he questioned everything Everything about God everything about the dreams God had given him about his future You talk about facing a difficult future And then he gets to Egypt and he's thrown in in the slavery sold to be a slave and then As he does his best as a slave he's possibly accused and thrown in prison For 13 years 13 years until he's 30 years old Nothing but heartache and reversal and pain and suffering in that young man's life But it was through all of that that God all the while was working out his purpose to bring him to a place that he wanted for him all along To ultimately deliver his family and the people of Israel and to end his life with joy the joy came through It was necessary that the suffering be there or the joy could not have come David is proclaimed king of Israel and spends at least seven years running from Saul Who's out to killing David's hiding in caves For crying out loud the Holy Spirit came on him and told him he's gonna be the next king and this is what he gets this is what happens But some of the richest Psalms David's writings come out of those caves And they're all about being mistreated and chased like a wild animal And turning to God to find his strength and his refuge The joy came through the suffering Christ himself Hebrews 12 to who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame The only way you could get to the joy for Christ was to go through the suffering through the pain through the sorrow the shame the degradation of the cross It was through the suffering that he went to joy The joy of seeing his family come to him us That's how Jesus works That's how God works So that's how he uses your broken family That uses your illness That's how he uses your financial reverses that's how he uses your tragedy that's how he uses persecution I pay something whether whenever Johnny Erickson taught a talks about suffering. I listen Whenever I read anything or hear her speak about suffering. I sit up and listen You know Johnny's story 17 years old dives into a bay in Baltimore hits her head breaks her neck And has been paralyzed for over 40 years now from the neck down in a wheelchair not able to do anything much for herself Has to have everybody take care of her But out of that has come an amazing ministry And she is one of the most outstanding examples of joy through suffering Listen to what she wrote in her book called a place of healing She talks about going to France and having the chance to see the Notre Dame Cathedral She says I'll never forget years ago when I had the chance to visit Notre Dame Cathedral while I was in Paris There it was almost a thousand years old standing there so huge and black I had never seen such a dirty cathedral after hundreds of years of Dost and smoke Notre Dame was covered in layers of black grime It was even difficult to make out the beautiful carvings and details on the exterior But then the grand old cathedral went through a year-long restoration scaffolding was erected and the entire exterior was sandblasted I was stunned when I saw a recent photograph of the cathedral. It was beautiful And so very different from the way I remembered it The ancient stones glowed bright and golden You could see details on carvings that hadn't been visible in decades It was like a different cathedral What a wonder a bit of sandblasting can accomplish When I use the word sandblasting And when I think of how that process changed that cathedral in Paris I can't help but consider that That way God uses suffering To sandblast you and me There's nothing like real hardships to strip off the veneer in which you and I so carefully cloak ourselves Heartache and physical pain reach below the superficial surface places of our lives Stripping away years of accumulated indifference and neglect When pain and problems press up against a holy God Suffering can't help but strip away years of dirt Affliction has a way of jackhammering our character shaking us up and loosening our grip on everything we hold tightly But the beauty of being stripped down to the basics sandblasted until we reach a place where we fall Empty and helpless is that God can fill us up with himself When pride and pettiness have been removed God can fill us with Christ and you the hope of glory She has something to say about the process of coming to joy He is through suffering But quickly there's also joy through prayer versus 23 through 27 talk about that In Jesus makes this remarkable statement about prayer verse 23 He says in that day you'll no longer ask me anything But instead he says in the rest of 23 through 26 you'll come to the Father You'll come directly to the Father in my name in my authority with my credential Now think of think of the benefit of that If if you have to come to Jesus with your needs you got to wait for him to get to your town Where you got to go find him and then you can ask him for your forgiveness and your miracle and your healing and The explanation of some teaching you heard but you got to be face-to-face with him if he's going to stay here on earth But now that he goes back we have this wonderful privilege of prayer And it's that we can come to the Father anytime Anywhere as many of us at the same time as can pray We don't have to wait for Jesus to show up in our town We don't have to wait in line to come to him one by one to bring him our need We can come straight into the presence of the Father through Christ That's what he's talking about in these verses And he says the reason for that is that God loves us verse 27 the Father himself loves you Because you've loved me and I believe that I came from God So when we receive Christ we not only receive salvation We not only receive the Holy Spirit We receive a welcome mat into the presence of God He loves us and he invites us with open arms into his presence To ask him whatever's on our hearts what a joy that is to have the privilege of prayer So joy comes through sorrow. Yes joy also comes through prayer Thirdly joy comes through faith verses 28 to 33 Jesus summarizes everything he's been telling me verse 28 I came from the Father and entered the world now. I'm leaving the world and going back to the Father bottom line That's it Came here for a purpose. I'm going back to the Father Verse 29 Then Jesus the ciphal said now you're speaking clearly and without figures of speech now We can see that you do know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions This makes us believe that you came from God This remarkable Explosion of faith that pierces their gloom and darkness and sorrow and questions and confusion all of a sudden They get it they get it They understand what Jesus is saying and there's a remarkable Explosion of faith in their hearts and it's all because of his word Jesus spoke to them. He said you're speaking clearly. They said without figures of speech because we understand what you're saying Now we believe and the same thing is true for us if we understand what Jesus is saying in his word That's what produces faith and so there's faith in his word but They're still weak I love what Jesus says in verse 31 you believe it last Jesus answered You believe it last But verse 32 time is coming and has come when you will be scattered each to his own home You will leave me all alone. No yet. I'm not alone for my father is with me. That's going to happen in just a few hours Where they'll be scattered like sheep from the Garden of Gethsemane So They're still weak You find yourself living like that Sadly, we all do don't we At one moment on the mountain top of faith trusting God for whatever and the next day in the gloom of despair Running for our lives thinking Jesus is nowhere around We're just as unstable and weak as they were But I love the way Jesus closes this section by focusing them again on faith Faith in his victory in verse 33. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace In this world you will have trouble But take heart some translations say but be of good cheer I have overcome the world You notice the contrast there in verse 33 in me and in the world In the world. Yeah, trouble trouble Again, look at the news Trouble That's the world, but in me in Christ Victory Peace Good cheer take heart Joy Why because Jesus has overcome the world His death makes possible for us to live even in this troubling frightening world With joy and peace in our hearts So just like these disciples we face a difficult future No question It's troubling it's uncertain. It's scary the world our nation our area Your own personal life Scary and yet We can face that future By relying on the Holy Spirit And rejoicing in Christ Here's what we need to ask ourselves as we leave this morning As you head into that future as we head into that future What will you do? How are you going to react how are you going to respond where will you turn As you face this uncertain future ahead What Jesus says is this Hey, don't forget you've got the Holy Spirit with you rely on the Holy Spirit To do what he has promised to do through his word And rejoice in Christ I will use even your suffering to build joy You can come to me anytime in prayer And trust my word And you'll have joy Thank God we can live facing a difficult future Because of the Holy Spirit because of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together Father, we thank you for the hope that you give us in Christ Thank you for the help that you give us in the spirit of God being with us The point our hearts and minds to Christ and to your word So that we might find joy and peace therein Father, I want to pray today for anyone who's here who does not know Jesus that today they would come to know Christ And I want to pray for every believer that we would focus Our eyes upon what the spirit of God is here to do for us And pointing our hearts and minds to Christ and your word And help us to rejoice even through suffering Rejoicing you, we ask in Jesus name