This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're studying together
John 14 this week, day three of our look through John 14, verses 12 to 15. And
we're talking about what do you do when your heart is troubled?

How do you let not your heart be troubled? Yesterday, last few days, we talked
about looking towards home, the future, heaven, eternity. I can't tell you what
that does for me when my heart is troubled.

When I think about heaven, it calms my troubled heart. Jesus taught us a lot of
other things in this chapter about what to do when our heart is troubled. In
verse 12, he says, when your heart is troubled, here's what you do.

You do something, Jesus says, that I would do. When your heart is troubled, do
something Jesus would have done. That's one of the cures for a troubled heart.

John 14, 12, I tell you the truth, Jesus said. Anyone who has faith in me will
do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I
am going to the Father.

Now, let me talk first about the part that we usually get stuck on in this
verse. Jesus saying, you will do even greater things than these. That's
confusing to us.

How can I do greater things than Jesus? Well, obviously, we're not talking about
the physical works themselves. You can't heal a man born blind.

You can't raise a Lazarus from the dead. So when Jesus is talking about greater
things here, he's talking about the scope of what we're able to do. Jesus
Christ, when he was on this earth, could only be in one place at one time.

But you and I, as believers, through our prayers and through our presence, can
be across this world making a difference. 3,000 people were saved the first day
of the church on the day of Pentecost. Jesus wasn't there, but great things were
being done.

And while we are listening together, talking together about what Jesus does in
our lives, right now, there are thousands, literally, of people in this moment
coming to know Jesus Christ across this world, across this planet. Greater
things are being done because Jesus is working through us all. You will do
greater things than what I've done, Jesus says.

Don't let that phrase cause you to miss the most important thing in this verse.
Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. That's the most
important thing.

Faith means I do what Jesus did. And when my heart is troubled, one of the ways
that my heart becomes untroubled is to choose to do what Jesus did. What, walk
on water?

Some things you can't do, but there are a lot of things you can do. You can
choose to serve. You can choose to love.

You can choose to care. You can choose to pray. When your heart is troubled, you
choose to do what Jesus did.

There's a third thing to do when your heart is troubled. When your heart is
troubled in verses 13 and 14, ask in Jesus' name. Verse 13, and I will do, Jesus
said, whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the
Father.

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. I will do whatever you
ask in my name. Now, that causes a lot of us to say, wait, wait a minute.

I have asked, and it hasn't been done. So what does this mean? Well, let's just
think about this together for a moment.

Does this promise in verse 14 mean that God has to do whatever you ask? Think
about that. If that were true, that would mean that God had to do whatever any
believer asked.

If they just believed hard enough, and that would mean, you know what that would
mean? That would mean you would be at the mercy of everyone else's prayers.
Let's say you're single.

Those of you that are single listening to this, and let's suppose you met some
potential mother-in-law who was a believer, and you did not like, you did not
see any future for a relationship with their son or their daughter, but they
wanted you to marry their son or their daughter. If God had to do whatever we
asked, if we just asked hard enough, that meant if they asked hard enough, you
would be forced by their prayer to marry their son or their daughter. You'd be
married to them just because the mother-in-law believed hard enough.

I don't know about you. I don't want that kind of power in prayer. I don't want
other people to have that kind of power in prayer.

So what is Jesus talking about here? Well, we miss it because it's so familiar
to us. You may ask me, Jesus said, for anything in my name, and I will do it in
Jesus' name.

We miss the deep significance of that phrase because we're so familiar with it.
We say it at the end of every one of our prayers. And so we have this
frustration in prayer because the truth of the matter is we don't really know
how to pray in Jesus' name.

Jesus isn't saying here, I'll do anything you ask me to do. He says, I'll do
anything you ask me to do in my name. And what does that really mean?

When I say I pray in Jesus' name, what does that mean? Well, it means, first of
all, that I'm free to ask because of what Jesus has done for me. It means I'm
depending on God's power and not mine.

That's what it means to pray in Jesus' name. But when it comes to God's will,
when it comes to what God is going to actually do when we pray, it means that
when I pray, I pray prayers that fit with Jesus' purpose and Jesus' plan. I pray
prayers that reflect Jesus' character.

A person's name has to do with their purpose, their plan, their character. I
pray prayers that the answer to those prayers will glorify Jesus Christ. That's
what it means to pray in Jesus' name.

When I look at what it means to pray in Jesus' name, I have to honestly say that
there are many times when I pray in my name and not Jesus' name. When my focus
is on my purpose, or my focus is on how boldly I can ask, or my focus is in what
I want done and how quickly I want it done. But to pray in Jesus' name, that
brings a patience to your prayer life.

That brings a peace to your prayer life. But it also brings a new sense of
confidence to your prayer life. Because you realize that if I ask in Jesus'
name, if I seek it and get to understand it and pray for it, He will do it every
single time.

Maybe not when I want, maybe not even as I want, but He will inevitably do
whatever I ask in His name. When was the last time you prayed and instead of
saying in Jesus' name I pray, maybe you prayed a phrase like, and Jesus I pray
that you be glorified through the answer to this prayer. In fact, don't answer
this prayer unless you can be glorified through the answer to this prayer.

That's what it means to pray in Jesus' name. In fact, I'd like to stop right
now. I want to take a look at the next verse in just a moment together, but I'd
like to stop right now and pray together here.

In Jesus' name. Jesus said if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. And
I want to invite you as we pray together for a few moments to put in Jesus' name
at the beginning of your prayer.

Take a few moments to pray in Jesus' name. Here's what I ask for. And you know
what it is.

You know what you're facing in your life right now. You know what your needs are
right now. You know what your heart is troubled by right now.

So instead of praying a prayer and just tacking in Jesus' name at the end, say
in Jesus' name for His purpose, for His plan to glorify His character. In Jesus'
name, I ask for this. It may be a specific thing.

It may have to do with your heart. It may have to do with someone coming to know
Christ. It may have to do with, you know what it is.

In Jesus' name. Here's what I ask. In Jesus' name, we ask this.

Amen. What do you do when your heart is troubled? You pray in Jesus' name.

What do you do when your heart is troubled? Verse 15 shows us a fourth thing.
When your heart is troubled, obey God.

John 14 verse 15. If you love me, Jesus said, you will obey what I command. I
love this verse.

John 14, 15. If you love me, you'll do, you'll obey what I command. You do what
God has told you to do out of love for Him.

Now this isn't saying that you feel like obeying Him when it says if you love
me. This is not talking about feelings. This is talking about a kind of love
that says I value Jesus Christ more than anything else.

And this word obey, it's a beautiful word. Every beautiful thing that's ever
happened in your life and my life in this world. Every beautiful thing that's
come to this world through us as human beings has come because someone is
obeying God.

That's what brings true beauty into this world. The beauty that lasts. The
beauty that lasts all the way into eternity.

True beauty comes from obeying God. And Jesus says love comes before obedience.
If you love me, you will obey what I command.

He's going to say that a couple of more times as we walk together through this
chapter. We're going to see how love and obedience are tied together. The
important point as we close today is to remember that this is one of the ways
that we choose to not let our heart be troubled.

When my heart's troubled, I'm prone to temptation. I don't know about you. When
my heart is troubled, sometimes I want to go away from obeying God thinking that
somehow I can solve my heart trouble all on my own.

And Jesus says that never works. When your heart is troubled, that's the time to
obey God like no other time in your life. That is one of Jesus' cures for a
troubled heart.

Well, make sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to take a look together at four
more truths that Jesus has to teach us that empower us for what to do when our
heart is troubled.