Praying Through to the Fulness of Joy — Carter Conlon

Want to speak to you tonight for a few moments. About praying through to the fullness of joy if you go to John chapter 16, please in the New Testament John chapter 16 praying through to the fullness of joy.

John 16 1 verse verse 24 Jesus said these words hitherto. Have you asked nothing in my name? Ask and you shall receive That your joy Might be full. Now, let me say it again Hitherto or that means up to this point.

You've asked nothing in my name and I see that in the context of In the light of what I can do. You've really asked for nothing nothing. They had already asked several things to teach us to pray. There's there were theological questions.

They'd asked there were practical issues that they've made inquiry over. But he made a profound statement to his own disciples and Subsequently to you and I today as the Church of Jesus Christ up to this time.

You've asked nothing in my name. I wonder how much that applies to our generation. I wonder how much of what we've done. God looks down on it Tonight and says you've asked but you've not asked for what you really can't have and really can't become in me.

Ask and you shall receive that your joy Might be full. Now there's a full joy that Jesus Christ Has for his church. It's a full joy. He said ask that your joy might be full now. I don't know about you tonight, but I'm not willing to settle for less than that if Jesus said I can have a full joy.

Then I want full joy. If he said there's something I can ask for that brings this full joy into my heart that I wanted even if I don't fully Understand it at the moment. I want it now. Think about for a moment the things that we have asked for the things that you have asked for the things that traditionally we asked.

For as the body of Jesus Christ now, obviously and initially we asked for salvation. Now salvation is an incredible thing. I don't know how many here tonight can remember the the day you knew you were forgiven your sin.

The day the joy of that forgiveness hit your heart in my case. There was a lot of tears, but followed through with a lot of joy. I remember when it fully hit me that God loved me and when it when it fully hit my heart that I was forgiven.

That the list of wrongs I had done was washed away by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary. I've cried for three days folks. I couldn't stop crying. I remember I was in a Christian policeman's conference in Speculator, New York.

I Must have gone through 16 boxes of Kleenex in that conference. I just could not stop crying. I sat in my seat in a three-day conference and cried for three days because it finally hit me as a brand-new Christian.

God loved me that I had been saved because of Calvary and The joy that was in my heart the scripture speaks about it as being unspeakable and full of glory. The sense of being in right relationship with God.

The understanding in my heart that I had a future not just in time. But an eternal future with God. The death was no longer to be a feared thing. That to be absent from the body as Paul says is to be present with the Lord.

That this was only the beginning of eternity forever and that there was nothing to fear in this life because I was now in the hand of God and Jesus himself said you have placed you in the Father's hand and nobody can take you out of my father's hand.

That means not time or circumstance or opposition. I was in the hand of God and I remember those early years of going. I remember one Specific experience. I was a brand-new Christian. I was invited by some friends to a church a rather large church and I Couldn't figure out what happened to these people.

Did they not know what I know? What happened where did the joy go. And I remember I couldn't wait for the service to be over so I could praise God in that place. And when the finally the service was over the preaching was done the choir left the loft the people left the church.

I stayed my wife and I pastor Teresa and our friends. I stayed in the church and I literally went up and down the aisles and I started singing. There's nobody there anymore. So I could actually finally now sing and I began to say lives he lives.

Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives he lives. Salvation to impart. You asked me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. I sang it at the top of my lungs.

But what a tragedy to have to wait for the church to leave so you can worship God. And I remember thinking what happened to these people. What happened? How come there's no joy left? You remember David the psalmist lost that joy at one point and in Psalm 51 12 He said restore to me the joy of thy salvation.

What happened? I? Think people try to set up camp in this initial place of joy without Pressing through remember it was pressing through to the fullness of joy is the title of the message. And they don't try to press through to where God Would have them to go and when we don't press beyond that initial experience in God a dryness comes.

I remember as a young Christian, I I Watched this one particular para church men's organization. Who had an incredible encounter with God quite a few years ago. And we're really becoming an evangelistic tool and a great blessing.

But many of the men in that organization they tried to camp around the experience of their salvation and. And what really happened is you had men 15 or more years in the Lord who's still trying to relive those?

Euphoric moments of that first love and they ended up looking rather foolish. It's a sad thing to say they're dancing around like the new babes, but they're not anymore. It's there's a point in the in life where you have to move beyond kindergarten songs.

You've got to go beyond it. It's like a it's like if people had a reunion and It was like a grade one Reunion and they all went back to grade one and to the original classrooms and tried to fit behind that original desk and and relive.

The moment and would look so foolish wouldn't it if you're in your 40s and 50s and you're trying now to be six years old. Again, it just doesn't work. But that's what people do they camp around that initial experience and try to stay there and live there.

And there was joy there there there is joy in the fact that we are saved. But you and I can't camp there and every church I've ever known that tries to camp there goes dry In the long run because the Lord says no, I want you to ask for something deeper.

I want you to press through. I want you to go farther than just the experience of your salvation. We also pray along this journey for freedom and for provision. We read in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus said I've been I've been sent to the poor I've been sent to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives to give Sight to the spiritually blind and to set at Liberty those that are are bruised and and we become aware that we need freedom.

We become aware of the fact that Christ did die for us to be not only saved but free from oppression free from torment free from the wounds of the past and We press through we begin to ask. I Asked God to set me free from nine years of panic attacks nine years of literal hell on earth as far as I'm concerned anyway and In a moment of time he set me free in a moment of time I literally did walk out of a long-standing prison.

Walked into the freedom that God offers to those that are his. And if you're here tonight. And you're struggling and suffering you can be free. You need to know that you you can Walk away from bruises of the past.

You do not have to be hammered by the devil every night and every morning. Because of past experiences and past wounds in your life you can be absolutely Free from these things. You can be free from captivity whether it's in physical addictions whether it's mental addiction.

You can be free from these things. You can walk away because that is the promise of God in Christ and so now we not only ask for salvation, but we ask for our freedom and it's Christ's delight to set you free to set his people free and as we begin to study this book the promises of God come Into view where he says you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free and we do become That new creation that the Bible promises.

We will be. It's an amazing thing and there's incredible joy in that freedom. We seek for the provision of God we begin to realize that the Lord's promises us that if we seek first his kingdom and his righteousness that everything we need will be added to us and We rightly seek for provision.

There's not there's nothing wrong with that every every person here. You need to have the resources to to eat to eat to have clothing. To and it's not wrong for these things to ask for a place. To shelter your family to ask for the ability to give your children an education.

There's nothing wrong with these things and it's God's delight to give these things when the situations are applicable to his children. I want to you to turn with me to Acts chapter 12 just for a moment in the context of praying for freedom and provision in Acts chapter 12 the Apostle Peter was in prison and He was in prison because it was a very anti God moment in that society and the powers that be were starting to garner some delight and in oppressing that those that were bringing the gospel to their society and In chapter 12 verses 5 to 10.

It says Peter was therefore kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him and When Herod would have brought him forth the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and the keepers Before the door kept the prison now, it's in the context of freedom and provision I'm speaking and behold the angel of the Lord came upon him and a light shined in the prison and he smoked Peter on the Side and raised him up saying arise quickly and his chains fell off from his hands.

Now prayer was being made for his freedom and God sent a message to him or a messenger That smote him on the side. I love that. I love the practicality of God. Don't you it's as if God comes to you tonight.

Says hey, this is for you. You know, hey, hey, what what who is it? That's hitting me on the side. Peter must have wondered who is hitting me. It's an angel. I mean to say get up. It's just very practical and the angel said to him gird yourself.

Put on your sandals and he did so and he said put it put this garment on you and follow me. So there's freedom from captivity. There's provision given him. He's given a garment. He's given shoes. He's given the things that he needs and it says he went out and followed him and he he wished not that it was true.

He thought this has got to be a vision which was done by the angel and when they were passed They first and second ward they came to the iron gate that leads out of the city which opened of its own accord and they went out and passed on through the street and and as he's he's given this freedom and he's given this provision it says the angel of the Lord departed from him and folks that's there's there's it speaks of a further drawing to me a lot of people just Camp around freedom and provision.

Have you ever noticed that some camp around salvation, but others build camps around Freedom and they spend years Getting delivered from things they attend deliverance seminars. They go to deliverance churches.

They buy deliverance tapes and when they run out of the things to be delivered from they invent things to be delivered from. And their whole and the end actually in the long run end up more bound than they were in the beginning because they walk around Constantly afraid that some new Demonic thing is going to get a hold of them.

Because they've kept in the one camp becomes dry and the other becomes fearful and they're constantly going to meetings. To come to an altar and throw up because they're getting delivered of some new thing and some of you here.

You've known what I'm talking about. I've seen these places and the absolute insanity of it all really when you think of it. And then there's others that camp around provision. God wants us to be Healthy.

God wants us to be wealthy. God wants us to be wise. God wants us to be happy so that they build a camp around provision and and Everything in the scriptures is around provision provision and all of a sudden that this is this is Just a gold diggers map.

That's what the Bible becomes to them and anything that deals with sacrifice is more or less put away and everything that deals with gold is just comes into view and it's it's another camp and that can't leads to just a bankruptcy really because it's a it's a it's a seeking of the wrong thing and the irony of it is while they profess themselves to be getting rich they're actually getting poorer by the hour and to the point where they get to the end and There's an emptiness inside Dryness just focusing on their own salvation a Fearfulness focusing on their own deliverance.

A Bankruptcy in a sense spiritually focusing on their own provision, but then it says about Peter in verse 17. He beckoned to the people at the place that were praying for him. He says he told him to hold their peace and he told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.

And he said go show these things to James and to the brethren and he departed and went into another place. He departed he didn't stay there. He didn't camp there. He didn't create a Theological place around his division is deliverance and provision and he could have I mean he had a miracle.

He could have talked about it for the rest of his ministry. How many people had an angel come to them in prison? Give them shoes and a garment open the gate let them out. But it says he he left them there and said tell them what God has done for me and he departed and went in to another place.

Now that that place is clearly defined that he went to in John 21 18. Remember Jesus appeared to Peter on the shore and he said to Peter when you were a young man. He said you you dressed yourself. You form your own plans you went where you wanted to go.

But when you get older he says you're going to stretch out your hands and he said you're going to be led into places. That you would rather not go and might I dare say there places. That we can't go or don't want to go and we certainly can't go there in our own strength.

And the Lord said Peter you're going to be drawn because he's not a man who's going to sit still. He was not going to camper on his salvation. He's not going to stop and just Continually try to relive the story of his freedom and the provision that God brought into his life.

But he was going to be led of the Holy Spirit into something deeper. Into something that brings what Jesus described as a fullness of joy. Remember up to this point. You've not asked me for anything. He said ask now and your joy will be full.

We're talking about a full joy. We're talking about a joy that can't be taken away. We're talking about a joy that is not dependent on your circumstance or my circumstance. We're talking about a joy that is not imparted to you through any ministry through any man through any place.

It's something that God does inside of those that are his. I Believe it's a place where you and I become one with the heart of God for others. I'm going to show you what kind of prayer he's talking about and go to Luke chapter 11, please with me.

We're going to just we're going to see this whole Thing just out late in one passage of Scripture everything I've been talking about. Luke chapter 11. Now this is about prayer his disciples have said to Jesus teach us how to pray.

He said okay verse 2 when you pray say our Father which art in heaven Luke 11 to hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come you will be done. As in heaven so in the earth, so there's a there's a big he gives them the big picture in verse 1.

God is All majesties in him. His ways are right and what we should be asking for At the end of our journey is that the ways of God become our ways your kingdom come. Remember Jesus said the kingdom of God does not come with observation.

Behold the kingdom of God is within you Lord Jesus. What it is that you want my life to be or you want to do through me let that come. Don't let there be a hindrance to that. Don't let me stop on the journey to becoming the man or the woman of God that you want me to be.

Don't let me camp in any of these dry places. Don't let me be sidelined. Don't let me be sidetracked. Oh God. Help me to go through to that place that you say is a place where I pray and your Responses to my prayer bring to me a fullness of joy.

Now look up prayer starts give us. Day by day our daily bread. Look it's a personal thing. Remember we talked about provision. Forgive us our sins. Lead us not into temptation deliver us from evil. Now it's in the in the initial stages of prayer.

It's all about us and God understands that what I was not overly concerned about other people when I first got saved I don't know about you. I didn't even like other people. I missus I'm being honest with you.

I didn't I mean that had to happen over time. I mean I was in this for myself in the beginning. I'd be honest with you I mean it was all about me and it's exactly the same with you. I have no doubt about that.

I mean, you just don't have it the wherewithal to think about other people in the beginning. You just got so much baggage. There's just so many chains. There's so much torment. There's so much pain. I just didn't have the time to think about other people.

Every prayer was Jesus, please help me. Give me lead me forgive me. Deliver me. Every service I went to every altar call. I answered it wasn't about you. It was about me. Help me and that's honest. That's the way it starts.

It's like a child because when a child is born How many two-year-olds walk into the kitchen? Good morning, mother father. God bless you. How can I serve you today? Please dress me quickly. I've got to get to daycare.

I'm ministering to the other children. Well, it doesn't work that way does it? Give me that that's mine. And and we're like that we are babes in Christ and it and God doesn't despise that there's a growth Process when we get saved and there's nothing wrong and many of you are there.

Right now you're young in the Lord and God understands you. You said I'd love to even think about Brundy or Haiti. But listen, I got I got Brundy in my heart. I got Haiti in my heart like I got to get the victory here before I even think about going there and that's Reasonable, but I want you to know that you can go so far beyond your own struggles.

There's there's something that God can do if you will not stop short so Here's how we begin to pray we start by Acknowledging that we need the kingdom of God within us, but then our prayers become give us forgive us lead us deliver us.

It's all about us. But then he takes it another step further. In verse 5 he said and he said to them which of you shall have a friend and Go to him at midnight and say friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine in his journey Is come to me and I have nothing to set before him now, that's incredible.

This is prayer at its culmination. This is this is prayer That brings us to that place of the fullness of joy that Jesus spoke about when when we're no longer Focused solely on ourselves, but we're going to the throne of God and we say God listen.

It's dark out there, and there are people around that need Provision they need encouragement they need healing they need God. They need what only you can do and I don't have what it takes right now, but I know you do.

And I'm asking you to give me these three loaves and that that speaks to me of the the Trinity really it speaks to me of all that God is and all you intended to be in me as God and What you intend my life to be.

I'm coming to your throne and Lord. I I Want to be given for other people. And I'm asking you to flow through me that they might be fed. It's midnight. It's dark. They're hungry this man this woman this friend has come to my house, and I don't have anything to set before him and Jesus said The man might say trouble me not for the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed.

And I cannot rise and give you but he said I say to you though He will not rise and give it to him because he's his friend. Yet because of his importunity he'll rise and give him as much as he needs and the word importunity means just simply recklessness.

Because of his insistence because he just says I'm not going away. Until you give me what I need to feed my friend. I'm not going away. I'm not going away God until your love is formed in my heart. I'm not going away until you take the selfishness out of me and help me God to In the power of the Holy Ghost to become an extended hand of heaven to those who need to know that God loves them.

I'm not going away until you do this in my life. And Jesus said and I say to you ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find Knock and it shall be open to you. Can you imagine the joy. Can you imagine the joy of this man?

Coming with these three loaves to his friend at midnight and saying look at what I've gotten for you from the Lord. It's not for me. It's for you. I got this for you. I Got this love in my heart for you.

You see I got this freedom to tell you what God can do for you. I've got this perseverance to come to your house or to come to where you are or to sit where you sit. Or to listen to what you have to say.

Because God loves you, and he loves you through me. He's given me his heart. See, that's what Jesus meant when he said thy kingdom come. Thy will be done is the beginning of our prayer and That's what Jesus meant when he said.

That your joy might be full. The finally it's not joy about my circumstance joy about my own freedom. Joy even about my own salvation. But it's the joy that's in heaven when one sinner comes to Christ.

It's a joy that's deeper than anything that you will ever know in this world. Do you know when you lead a soul to Christ? The Bible said Jesus said the angels in heaven begin to rejoice. There's a joy in heaven and the angels I believe rejoice because they're fully attuned to the heart of God.

They know what's in the mind of Christ. This fullness of joy comes when you and I are walking with one mind and one heart. With the Son of God who came into this world to save that which was lost. Whose chief is joy is that?

Those even with the hearts of children would have the kingdom of heaven revealed to them whose joy was Touching people in society that nobody else considered worthwhile. You might say he was downwardly mobile.

How many people use the cross to try to become upwardly mobile and yet the Savior was downwardly mobile stooping down reaching People that nobody cared about. The woman in the dust with the religious crowd with the stones in their hand.

The leper that had to walk around saying unclean unclean and Nobody would even go near him. Not scholars of the scripture, but ignorant fishermen if God can get this in our hearts. The chiefest joy the lasting joy is that you and I be given for other people.

How the devil has tried to rob the church of this truth in our generation? How he has distorted it how he has put angels of light even in pulpits. To divert the Church of Jesus Christ from this truth that the greatest joy That you and I can ever experience is that we are given in the power of God for other people.

That's where the miraculous begins to happen folks that we what you saw in a video tonight. That was miraculous. I Have seen the power of God come down. Trenchtown in Jamaica was a community of a hundred thousand 100 unemployed people controlled by six drug gangs.

The government plowed down a plot of land and they called it no man's land and creating a boundary between the six gangs and the six divisions in that area and They said no man crosses this land. They tried to create a buffer zone actually to stop the war in the area in 30 years.

There were 800 recorded murders on that piece of land by the Jamaican government and they said there countless others that are not recorded. It was a fearful place. We saw God come down and bring an entire community under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

A lady in this church was 84 years of age led 58 people to Christ names addresses. People with guns were coming to Christ. Everybody was weeping not just in the services, but during the day everybody you spoke to started to weep.

I had hired a mercenary soldier and To Help with security and to visit the six drug lords so that they would not kill our people when we went into the area. That's a reality. We had to do that. He told us he said you guys are absolutely nuts.

That was his words. He said you are absolutely nuts. He said I've been here 13 years in this area. He was like a one-man Rambo and He said nobody's coming to this thing. You guys are nuts. He said you mean well, but he said you and he kept saying it to me you're nuts, you know and After the second night, he was driving me home.

He said I don't believe it. I don't believe it. I don't believe it. He had seen the power of God. I Said now are you are you willing to believe are you willing asked him to give your life to Christ? He said well, I have to go home and talk to my wife about this.

He wasn't as tough as he thought he was. Do we have the courage. Do we have the courage to press through and go farther? It's it's really your choice. The Lord Jesus Christ is an absolute gentleman. He stands at the door and he knocks.

But do we have the courage to go beyond the casual cold Self-seeking normative Christianity of our day. Do we have the courage to go deeper? Do we have the courage to go farther? Do we have the courage to say Lord Jesus?

Not my will but thine be done. Do we have the courage to pray a simple prayer say God? Let your love that sent you to Calvary be in my heart if you do reside in this body. It's possible for you to give this to me.

Would you give me the measure of love that I need? Would you help me to love my generation? Would you clear up my vision? Would you clear up my heart? Would you give me the power that I need? Would you give me that fullness of joy?

It's a difficult call. Because it's going to cost something to walk this path. This path doesn't come easy, but I want to tell you you're delivered from the whole Christian circus. When you start walking this path, you don't need anybody around you to tell you who God is.

You know who he is. I'd like to give an altar call. It's for those tonight who have said I've heard you Lord. I've heard something in my heart and I'm going to press through. I don't want to open the front of this church if if that's in your heart tonight and You want to press through to what you've heard as we stand?

I'm gonna ask you just to come to the front of this church and we'll pray together and we're gonna believe God together to do This. Let's stand together. Balcony annex edge. Main sanctuary. The Lord's drawing you.

Just come just come. Don't be ashamed. Just come. We're gonna pray together. And you've got to believe that God's gonna answer you tonight. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. To be given for other people. Thy kingdom come that will be done.

Thy kingdom come. Oh God. Let's worship for a moment. Just give people a chance to respond then we'll pray together. What what you heard preached tonight is not new. It's all through the scriptures. It's been clear from the beginning.

It just Got obscured. I think in our generation, but listen to what the Lord said through the Prophet Isaiah. Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry and you bring the poor that are cast out to your house and When you see the naked you cover him and don't hide yourself from your own flesh.

Then your light will break forth as the morning and your health will spring forth speedily. Your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rearward or means your your will be your.

God says I'll literally scoop you up in my arms. If you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul then your light will rise and obscurity and even your darkness will be as the noonday and The Lord will guide you Continually and satisfy your soul and drought and make fat your bones and you'll be like a watered garden and like a spring of water.

Whose waters fail not? The fullness of joy. The fullness of joy. The only prayer that the Lord is looking from your heart tonight is Lord. I will not draw back from what I heard tonight. I Will not draw back.

God you lead me you show me it starts with it. It starts with somebody crying on a park bench somewhere and instead of passing by you stop. And you don't have to throw the whole Bible at them you just tell them God loves them and pray for just a moment.

That's where it starts. It starts by hearing that somebody has some kid has no lunch for school and you make him one. That's how it starts and it will grow from there. You'll end up in the in another country you'll end up doing things you never dreamed were possible and Your joy will be full.

It's a joy that is not taken away. I've been a Christian thirty Three years, I guess now I love God more than I ever have in my life. I Feel More of a compassion than I've ever known. There's a joy that God says I want to give it's full.

It's full Father. I do pray Lord for those that are at this altar tonight. I pray for this church Lord and for the churches that would be represented here tonight. God, would you help us Jesus Christ to hear these words?

Would you help us Lord to put aside? All of the places we've camped and to go through to that final moment Lord where we are released. To the purposes that you have for us in the earth. Your ministry Lord Jesus was always all about people it's not about anything else or it's all about other people.

Help us to understand this to move in it help this church God to retain it. Lord, I thank you Lord for the people here tonight will not draw back. They will not. This is a life-changing moment for many.

I I can see it on their faces. I can feel it in their hearts. It's a life-changing moment. And God, I thank you Lord. I thank you for this father With everything that's in me. Now would you take a moment and just talk to the Lord those that have come to the altar and in the same just lift Your hearts your hands if necessary and just talk to the Lord now.

Just just please do that. Just talk to God. Tell him the thoughts of your heart tonight. Tell him how you feel about what you've heard. Tell him where you want him to take you. Just tell him but you're asking for a deeper reason than you've ever known before God give to me that I may have to give to others.

I Come to you Lord tonight. This is a very very dark hour and It requires more than anything I could ever bring out of this natural body Lord, I need those three lows Lord. I need the love of the Father.

I need the dedication of the Son. I need the power of the Holy Spirit God. I need everything Lord that you have for me to be of any effect in this generation. I ask you Lord for an increased tenderness.

I ask you God For words of knowledge. I ask you for giftings of the Holy Spirit. I ask you God for the power to dig into your word and go deeper than I've ever known before. I ask you for the courage to never say no to you Lord.

No matter what you ask me to do that. I would have the courage to say yes Lord. I'm asking God for the power to make a difference in this generation. Lord, this is a dark time. But no darkness can resist you for you're the God in the beginning who said to the darkness let there be light and light came Lord nothing can resist you nothing nothing Lord can stop you when you've determined to do something.

We yield ourselves Lord to you tonight as a church as a body as a people Lord as individuals. We yield ourselves to you Lord and ask you to be God in us and be God through us Lord. Help us not to hide from humanity any longer and from the needs around us.

Help us God to not close their door. But open our door Lord to the stranger to the ones with questions and ones who need to know who you are Father let the provision of heaven be released through us God and father.

We thank you for this God. We praise you for this tonight. We bless you Lord for this. We bless your holy name tonight. We thank you God. I thank you for lives that are being changed tonight. They'll never be the same again.

I thank you for missionaries being born this very moment at this altar giftings of the Holy Spirit being given visions. Oh God of what you can do through a surrendered heart being released Lord into all of us.

I thank you Lord for the unlocking of your word God leading us God into the fullness of what you have Intended us to be in Christ. Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus set your church free God from all the entrapments of this age.