Entering Into God's Rest and Living There Always — Zac Poonen

The Warning Not to Neglect Salvation

I'd like to turn to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 1. If you can turn in your Bibles, please follow with me. The book of Hebrews has got a number of warnings for God's people. One of them is an earlier chapter.

It says in verse chapter 2 and verse 3, I'll read that first, Hebrews 2 verse 3, he's speaking to believers, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? The average desire for salvation for the vast majority of believers is that I don't want to go to hell.

I want to go to heaven for eternity. And their whole attitude is, what is the bare minimum I have to do to get to heaven? It's almost like saying, well, I want to enjoy myself as much as possible here on this earth, but I don't want to miss heaven.

So I'm willing to do the bare minimum to get there. Now, I just want to warn you, if any of you have that attitude, my fear is you will never get there. Because I don't think anyone's going to go into God's presence for eternity, whose attitude here on earth is, what is the bare minimum I have to do to please this God?

It says here, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? He's not talking about rejecting it. These Hebrew Christians have not rejected, and I don't think any of you have rejected the message of salvation.

He's talking here about neglecting it, neglecting. You know, you can have a child born in your home, you love that child, you don't reject that child, but you can neglect that child. Parents can neglect a child, neglect not in the sense that you don't feed them or clothe them or educate them, but you don't bring them up in godly ways.

That's neglecting them. And they grow up to be worldly, and then parents weep and say, oh Lord, what to do? My children have gone astray. Well, you neglected them all your life. So many children who we don't reject, we neglect.

And in the same way, a salvation which we don't reject, which we glory in the fact we have accepted a salvation, we may be neglecting the greatness of that salvation. And part of it is what we read here in chapter four, verse one, let us fear.

And here is one place where we can neglect this wonderful salvation that Jesus Christ at such a great price. If someone pays a tremendous amount of money to get us a very expensive gift, and they come along to visit us later and find that you've just neglected it and it's somewhere thrown away in the corner, ignored and full of dust, they'd wonder why in the world did I ever get this expensive gift for this person who doesn't seem to value it.

And I feel it's like that sometimes, the way we have treated God's salvation. The salvation of Christ is so wide and so fantastic that I believe in our whole lifetime, we will not plumb the depths of it.

We will not able to reach the extent of it. It's such a great salvation. And we have to fear, it says here, lest God having given us a promise of entering into a very restful life, we come short of it.

Adam's First-Day Sabbath Rest

The theme in chapter four is of entering into God's rest, which was God's original purpose for Adam, that's mentioned here in verse four, it says in the seventh day, God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

You know, I'm always amused by the way the writer writes something like this, somewhere it is written, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. All of us know that's in Genesis chapter one.

But you know, these writers of the scripture were not so particular about, you know, showing that they know where in the Old Testament this verse is found or that verse is found. It's a good thing to know it for our own benefit.

But they were more interested in experiencing it, not quoting it. It's good to know Bible references and to know Bible verses. We use scripture memory verses, that is for our benefit. But if I only know a reference or I can memorize a verse that hasn't fulfilled 1 of the purpose of that verse, I must experience it.

And there is a Sabbath that God ordained for Adam, which had a deep meaning. That's what it says here. And it says in the first verse, let us fear, lest we don't enter into that rest. In Genesis chapter one, we read that God made everything in the universe.

And after he had completed everything, the last thing he made was the animals. And then when everything was ready, he made man and woman in the last part of the sixth day, towards the end of the sixth day, towards the end of that 24-hour period, Adam and then Eve.

So what I get from there is God has prepared everything. He could have made Adam and Eve on the first day and said, well, just wait, let me make this beautiful world for you. No, he made everything. And when everything was ready, then he made Adam and Eve and says, I want you to enjoy this beautiful world.

It's like a father who has made everything available for his children and says, okay, I've made everything, my sons and daughters, it's for you to enjoy. And before they went out to enjoy that in the Garden of Eden, the Lord said to him, but I want you to spend the first day of your creative existence with me.

And I don't want you to work. I don't, there's a lot of work to be done in the garden, but that can wait. All the work I have planned for you can wait. You must first fellowship with me and I enjoy fellowship with you.

I made you in my image, Adam and Eve, and I have a great longing. I didn't make any of these millions of angels in my image. I could not fellowship with them, but you, you, I can fellowship because you've got my nature.

You've got my, I made you in my image. And so I want you to fellowship with me and enter into this rest, which I call a Sabbath rest. Then you can go out and work for six days in the garden. Now in the law, which came much later after Adam had sinned, 2 ,500 years after Adam sin, Moses gave a law saying six days you shall work and then you shall have a seventh day of rest.

But God's plan for Adam in the beginning was one day you rest with me and then go out and work for six days. That's amazing. God wanted Adam to see what a loving father he was. I mean, it's something like if you joined a very prestigious company for a job with a very high salary, and they told you, well, we first want you to take a one month vacation to start your work, one month vacation, and then come back and you can work for us.

You'd say, wow, what a good company this is, but that's how God was treating Adam. I wonder whether he realized it. I don't want you to go and work first. I want you to rest and have fellowship with me and enjoy that, and then you'll have the strength to go out and work.

That is the rest spoken of here. And he says here in the first verse, let us fear lest we get so busy doing things for God and going here and going there and trying to do something and we have not entered into that first day Sabbath rest.

The Sabbath rest is not here the seventh day rest, it's the first day rest. The first day for Adam was rest, you know, our dear Seventh Day Adventist friends think it is the seventh day. Some of them are born again, but we love them, but they're wrong.

It was not Adam's seventh day that was a Sabbath. We go back to the beginning. Adam's first day was a Sabbath. That's why we don't care for Saturday. It's the first day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead.

That is the day we come together. There's a significance of our coming together on Sunday. It's symbolizing that Adam's first day was a day of rest, that was a Sabbath. And the meaning of that Sabbath, more than the actual day of the week, is the meaning of the Sabbath that is important for us.

God wants us to enter into that rest and then serve Him. And if we try to serve Him without entering into that rest, that's the cause of all the problems we have, all the murmuring, all the complaining, all the grumbling.

And more than that, the questions we have about, does God really love me? Is He always looking at me with a frown? Do some of you feel like that, that God is, because you're not perfect, God's looking at you with a frown all the time?

I mean, He doesn't have a face, but there's a frown on His face looking at you. Well, I'm not so happy with you. Most believers, I think, live like this, that God's looking at them with a frown, which says, really, I'm not very happy with you.

You're a terrible disappointment with me, but I tolerate you. OK, I'll bless you in some way. But to tell you honestly, I'm pretty fed up with the way you're living. I'm not very happy with you. Now, you know, so many believers live with that type of attitude.

They haven't entered into God's rest at all, and they'll never get into God's rest and they'll never be able to do anything useful for God until we first get this matter settled. Looking into God's face, looking into Jesus' face, and to be sure that He's smiling at me.

The Holy Spirit and Assurance of the Father's Love

Now, I'll tell you why I say that. For so many of my years of my Christian life, I myself felt that God had looked at me with a frown. But it all changed for me when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit, not just once, but being continually filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, it says, comes inside and cries out, Dad, Romans 8, 16, the word Abba in that verse, the New Testament, the English translation is Dad. Have you ever... Now, I can teach you, dear brothers and sisters, please look up and call God your father, or be more intimate and call Him Dad.

And you say, is that what I have to do? Okay, Dad. The whole thing's so artificial. But can you imagine the joy in your heart when your little baby one day spontaneously looks at you and says, Dad, he's not being taught to do that.

It's just a spontaneous expression of affection and love and confidence that you are his father. Or he says, Mama. Imagine the joy in the mother's heart when a little baby says that for the first time.

And every time he says that, it's not artificial. It's not forced. It's not what somebody has taught him, saying you must call him Dad, you must call him Mama. No. Dear brothers and sisters, that's what God wants from us.

And only the Holy Spirit can produce that in you. I wish the Holy Spirit would convince you today of God's eagerness to have that relationship with you. He waited 4 ,000 years after Adam's failure till he could accomplish it.

And even after 2 ,000 years, after the day of Pentecost, when he sent the Holy Spirit, he still finds so many gloomy Christians who still don't rejoice in knowing that God's smiling at them. And the excuse that so many Christians make is say, well, how in the world can God smile at me?

I'm such a wretched sinner. I've got so many things wrong in my life. I'm not perfect. Well, that's why he sent his son. You know, Jesus often used to tell people the Pharisees were the people who thought they were perfect.

And Jesus said, I didn't come for you guys. No, because I have not come for the righteous. I've not come for the perfect people. I've come for the sinners. Have you read that verse? I did not come for the righteous, Jesus said, but I've come to call sinners to turn around towards me.

Repentance as Turning Toward God

Repentance. Don't get scared of that word. A lot of people make so much of that word repentance. It's such a scary theological word. We try to understand the depth of its meaning. I'll tell you in very simple terms today, and I hope you'll never forget it.

Repent means, you know, there's a beautiful word in the Indian Tamil language. It's the most accurate translation of repentance I've ever heard. In Tamil, the word for repentance is manam tirambal, manam means mind, tirambal means turn, turn your mind.

That is repentance. That means you're facing in the wrong direction. My son, my daughter, turn towards me. Is that a scary word? If your dad is standing behind you and offering you something very precious, and he says, my son, my girl, don't look at the other direction, turn towards me.

I love you. I've got something for you. That's repentance. I hope you'll never forget it. Manam tirambal, turn your mind around from looking in the wrong direction, from being gloomy, miserable, complaining, turn around and look at me.

I'm your father. I gave my son to purchase you, to make you my own forever. Turn towards me. That's how we come to rest. If I repent, I can come to rest. If I turn around, the reason why we don't come to rest is because we are looking in the wrong direction.

That's why I want to speak about what repentance means. First of all, it's repentance and faith. When I turn around and I look at God's face and you see him smiling at you, faith becomes very easy. See, if you always look at God as a grumpy, sour person, it's almost impossible to have faith.

The Parable of the Minas and Fearful Service

Do you remember the story of the person to whom the Lord gave some talents and told them to invest it? And one man, when he came back, he had not invested it. One of the people used that one mina. The story is in Luke 19 and verse 11 to 27.

And one man, each of his 10 slaves were given one mina each. Mina was the coin of those days. And one of those people invested that one mina. He didn't put it in a bank and get, you know, 2 interest or something.

He invested it and some type of stock exchange or something, and that one became 10. And the master commended him. And another chap invested him and made five mina. They were bold to take a risk to get something for their master.

But this, the other fellow who had only one, you read about in Luke 19 and verse 20, he did not, he didn't even put it in a bank. He wrapped it up in a handkerchief, it says in Luke 19 and verse 20, and he buried it somewhere.

In one place, it says he buried it under the earth. And when he came back, he gave the master, you gave me one mina, right? Here it is. This is the chap whose attitude is, what is the bare minimum I have to do to go to heaven?

I know God is a very demanding type of person. That's what he said in verse, read verse 21 and 22. Why was his life useless? A person who has given one mina and produced nothing with it is an example of a believer who has done nothing with his life for God.

He received everything from God, forgiveness of sins, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, 101 earthly blessings and spiritual blessings. And what has he given in return? Nothing. Why? Why is that? Why are so many believers like that?

And I'll tell you why. The answer is here in verse 21. I was afraid of you, Luke 19, 21. I was afraid of you. You're a very exacting man, you know, taking up what you did not lay down, reaping what you did not sow.

Boy, what an impression about God this man had. Don't be surprised. That is exactly the impression that many believers have about almighty God, their heavenly father. Probably some of you have. And then your lives would be unfruitful.

The one life you have, that's all you'll have to give to God with accomplished. What have you accomplished with it? Zero. You went to a few church meetings. Okay. And you sang the songs. And you attended the Bible studies.

That's all. When God wanted you to accomplish something fantastic through you, nothing could be accomplished. Because you felt God is so demanding. You felt he's always looking at you with a frown. He's always sort of telling you you're imperfect.

You're imperfect. You don't recognize that's the voice of the devil. I'll tell you something. Many, many years ago, I'm very thankful about this. The Lord taught me years ago. This is going back more than 40 years ago.

Rejecting Condemnation and Receiving God's Encouragement

I had a dream. Very rarely God speaks to me in a dream. But this is one of those dreams through which God spoke to me. And in my dream, I was coming back from a meeting. You see, I was traveling those days, different places, preaching God's word in different, different places.

And in this dream, I was coming back from a meeting where I had poured out my heart preaching God's word. And as I was walking back to the room I was staying in, it was not in my hometown, somewhere else.

I was walking back to my room. I heard a voice behind me saying, that was not good enough. You could have done better. That was not good enough. Your preaching was not good enough. You could have done better.

And, you know, I thought I poured my heart out, done everything to share God's word. And here was, I felt God saying to me it wasn't good enough. And my head, my face fell. And I said, Lord, why is it when I talk to you face to face, you always encourage me?

But when you speak from behind my back, you always say that's not good enough. And I felt the Lord saying to me, in my dream, turn around and look. And in my dream, I turned around and looked. And it was a devil, some black figure there that suddenly disappeared as soon as I came, as soon as I looked around.

I learned a lesson there that I'll never forget. God was trying to teach me. Sometimes God speaks through a dream. And the lesson was I never will tell you that was not good enough. That's the devil. Now, I thought the devil will never say to me that was not good enough.

The devil will never challenge me to do better. But there's a lot of difference between challenging someone to do better and keeping on telling him, no matter what he does, that that was not good enough.

So I learned something. I mean, you try telling your child who has worked hard and done something to make a gift for you, and you say that was not good enough. That's enough to crush his spirit. You should never speak to a child like that.

No sensible father will ever speak to children like that. I remember my boys, when they were small, three, four years old, they would give me birthday cards on my birthday. Birthday cards means what? We couldn't afford expensive cards.

It was just a piece of paper on which they had written, my dear daddy, happy birthday. And the spelling was wrong. The D was written crooked. It doesn't make a difference. It was precious to me. So precious that I still have copies of some of them after so many years.

What did it matter to me that the spelling was wrong? What did it matter that it was not written in a straight line? What do I call my son and say, that card was not good enough? Is that what I'll tell him?

I hugged him and said, thank you so much, my son, for thinking of me and greeting me on my birthday. I love you so much. And I thought, boy, that's how God is. When I present my imperfect effort to try and love him and serve him, he's not looking to see whether it's all in a straight line, whether the E is written the other way and the D is written crooked.

Not at all. He's a million times better father than me. He will hug me and say, I'm so thankful that you love me. Remember that, my dear brothers and sisters, and don't let the devil say to you that was not good enough.

The Need for Direct Dependence on God

I learned a lesson there that I'll never forget. Because, you know, I grew up, I never had a spiritual father to talk to me like I'm talking to you now. I wish I had. But I never had one. I don't know, I looked around and the elders in my church were not godly men whom I could look up to.

They never spoke about victory over sin. They never spoke about words that would encourage and lift me up. They never taught me how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They just taught academically scripture from here and there and all.

They had clever sermons. What could I do? So I had to learn to seek God myself. I was like an orphan spiritually, really. I longed, like Timothy, for a spiritual father like Paul, but God never chose to give me one.

And anyway, in one way that was good, because I had to seek God myself. And I became more dependent directly on him. Sometimes we can become so dependent on a man that we lean more on him than on the Lord.

That is a danger. If you are connected to a very godly man, it's very easy to lean on him and not on the Lord. And a truly godly man will never allow that. He'll always push you on to the Lord and never allow you to lean on him.

But anyway, because I didn't have a spiritual father for many, many years, I was not sure how God looked at me. I was so discouraged and condemning myself most of the time. So I'm very thankful that I discovered that God is not a demanding, exacting man.

Otherwise, I would have lived all my life and wasted this one life God gave me. I would have been like this man. And you know what the Lord told this man? See Luke 19 and verse 22. By your own words, I will judge you.

You worthless slave. Worthless slave? Did he go and commit some sin? Did he go and commit adultery or kill somebody or steal money? What did he do? Why was he worthless? Because the one life God gave him, he didn't do anything with it for the master.

He wasted his one life. He wasted all the thousands of days God had given him on earth. Accomplishing nothing. Just kept it. I'm going to heaven. My sins are all forgiven. I'm on my way to heaven. I don't have to worry about anything.

I'm perfectly okay. Well, and then he said, okay, that's what you said. Okay, I'll judge you by your own words. Did you know that I'm an exacting man taking what I did not know and reaping what I did not?

Okay, I'll treat you exactly like you said. At least you could have put my money in the bank, he says. And he says, take them in a way and look at this. He says, give it away to the other person. So I see there that this man had not come into this life of rest.

Resting in Christ's Finished Work

He didn't reject the salvation. He neglected it. Turn back to Hebrews chapter 4 now. Hebrews in chapter 4, we read here. He speaks here about verse 9, Hebrews 4, 9. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For the one who has entered his rest has himself rested from his works as God did from his. Hebrews 4, 10 and verse 11. Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall or fail through following the same example of disobedience.

So it says here that there is a Sabbath rest for us today to enter in. And we enter into this rest. It says here earlier on in Hebrews, yeah, verse 10. The one who has entered rest has seized from his own works as God did from his.

He's using the example of God having finished all the work in six days. And the seventh day there was nothing more to be done. And the person who enters into rest is one who is convinced that as far as my acceptance, please listen carefully.

As God rested from all his works on the seventh day, having finished everything on the sixth day with nothing more to be done. We are to enter into a rest in the same way, absolutely convinced that as far as my acceptance before God is concerned, there is nothing more to be done.

There are a million things to be done in order to serve God. That's another issue. That's the work in the garden for the next 900 years. Adam lived that long. But as far as my acceptance before God is concerned, he has completed it all.

So I'm resting from my works. My works are not going to make me more acceptable to God. No. That's what I need to understand. On the sixth day when Adam was created, everything was finished. Adam just had to enter into the seventh day without having done one single thing to earn it.

And that's the example pointed out as to here. My dear brothers and sisters, you cannot serve God in the garden or anywhere else. You cannot go out and live a life for God or try to please him if you don't enter into this rest first.

That is what God wants first of all. He wants you to recognize that he's done everything on the cross for us and through the resurrection of Christ and having sent the Holy Spirit. There's absolutely nothing you can do to find acceptance before God.

Acceptance Is Based on Christ, Not Human Merit

If you try to do something to find acceptance before God, you're going the way of a heathen. They do pilgrimages. They burn candles. They give tithes. They give money to find acceptance before God. Even Christians.

There are Christians who are taught by some groups of people, you give money and God will be pleased with you and he'll bless you a hundredfold. They're always trying to do something to find acceptance before God.

Can I give money? Can I go on a pilgrimage? Can I help the poor people, Lord? Will you then accept me? You'll never be happy that way. I don't need to do anything to find acceptance before God. He's done it all on the cross and through his resurrection and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

It's all over. I have to find that must be the basis of my life. I'm not talking about the building of the house. I'm talking about the foundation now. Don't forget. This is the foundation. We have to build a house on it, a lifetime of service.

I'm thankful that I was converted 61 years ago in this month, July 1951, 59, sorry. This month it is 61 years. I laid my foundation then, but it wasn't very shaky. It was a very shaky foundation for about 16 years.

Then I began to build on it. It was shaky because I thought I had to do something to please God. I always need to do something. But when I came to rest and say, I can do nothing to lay the foundation.

God wants to work with me to build the house. The foundation is already laid. It says in 1 Corinthians 3, you cannot lay any other foundation other than what Christ has laid. Don't try and add your righteousness, which is like filthy rags to that foundation.

The foundation God has laid for your acceptance before him is complete in Christ. Let me repeat, picture in the way God completed everything before he created Adam. He completed everything before he asked you to come and be his child.

So my service for God today and my love for him, my sacrifice and anything I do is not to find acceptance. It is because I have found acceptance, because he's done everything for me. I've entered into his rest.

I'm sitting on his lap. I can't do anything more to win his acceptance. But I'll do everything to live for him. Like that little couplet says, I cannot work my soul to save for that my Lord has done. But I will work like any slave for love of God's dear son.

Remember that. I cannot work my soul to save for that my Lord has done. But I will work like any slave for love of God's dear son. We need to understand the difference between foundation and superstructure.

Just like in our earthly foundation, we don't put windows and doors into the foundation. In the foundation, we have only stones and rocks, big boulders. That's laid in the foundation. And it's all hidden under the ground, the foundation of a building.

But it's the strength of that foundation that keeps the house solid. And this rest that is spoken of here is the foundation of our Christian life. And that's what ensures that our house is not going to topple or shake in a wind or a storm.

So I'm telling you about the foundation here. Let us enter into this rest. Let us fear lest we remain always confusing the building with the foundation. And thinking that we are putting some doors and windows into the foundation.

No, there's not one single thing you can do. The foundation has been laid in Christ. You have to come on to that. Like I said, now I work like any slave for love of God's dear son. If my service for God doesn't come out of love for him, out of gratitude for what he's done for me, I want to tell you it's worthless.

I mean, if there's anything you do, if you even go for a church service, out of obligation, oh, Sunday I have to go. Brother, sister, don't go. Sit at home. Go and do something else. Go and play games or go for a walk.

It's no use going to church if you think, oh, God wants me to come there. I am obliged to go. No, sir, you don't have to. God doesn't want anything from you. If I don't do something out of love for Jesus Christ, it has no value before God.

You need to understand that. You can't put big mortars and, I mean, big boulders in a building. That's all in the foundation. You know how buildings are built here. They don't build the walls with big boulders.

So I'm not going to do work to find acceptance before God. It's very, very important. And because in the church, particularly in CFC churches, we preach so much about pressing on to perfection and denying ourselves and taking up the cross and seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit and being righteous in all matters, righteous in money matters, not wasting our time, giving up bad habits, and all these things, we can unconsciously, gradually begin to think that my acceptance before God is based on all this.

It isn't. It's based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And then people may say, well, you mean that means I can live as I like? If you speak like that, I would say you have not even understood what salvation is.

No person who's understood salvation can ever speak like that. Oh, Christ has done everything, then I can live as I like, right? The person who speaks like that has not repented. He has not done this manan tirambal.

His mind is not turned around. He's still facing in the wrong direction. He's facing in the wrong direction. His back is towards God. And he says, oh, you told me that Christ has done everything, is it?

Then I can live as I like. I said, brother, you need to repent first. Christ hasn't done everything for you if you have not repented. You're facing in the wrong direction. You need to turn around and look God face to face, look into his face, and see what he's done for you, and you'll never talk like that ever in your life.

Oh, I can live as I like now. I'll tell you honestly, I do not believe I can live as I like. But that's not because some force is frightening me saying you better live carefully. I don't live in fear.

No. My life is pure joy. It's a delight to serve God. I left my job in the Navy in May 1966, which was 54 years ago. And I'll tell you, I've seen other Christian workers who are gloomy, miserable, grumpy, but my life is exciting.

Joyful Christian Service and Freedom from Fear

I like that translation in Proverbs 14, 14 in the Living Bible. It says, the godly man's life is exciting. And I'm not trying to sell anything. I'm not a salesman. But I'll tell you honestly, the Christian life is exciting for me, totally.

It gets better and better as the days go by. I'm never gloomy. I can't think of a single day where I was gloomy in the last so many years. How can I be when I have such a wonderful, loving Heavenly Father smiling at me all the time?

Imagine if you can see a wonderful, loving Heavenly Father smiling at you all the time. You don't be gloomy. No, it says in the book of Psalms, they looked unto him and their faces were lightened. Their faces became bright because they saw God smiling at them.

That's exactly how I feel. Oh, yeah, I'm tempted. The devil tempts me sometimes. You know, we like to do our best. We are pressing on to perfection. And sometimes in our pursuit of perfection, it may not be conscious sin, but we've sought to overcome conscious sin.

But, oh, I could have done more there. I could have done that better. I could have spoken a little kinder to that person. We're always pressing on to perfection. I'm not perfect yet, so we're pressing on to perfection.

But that pressing on to perfection can sometimes make us discouraged. But I say, no, that's a temptation. I will not get discouraged. I'm pressing on to perfection. I know I've got a long way to go. I've not reached the finishing line of this race, but I'm pressing on, and I'm not going to give up.

Jesus' Prayer and the Father's Love for Believers

I want to encourage you today. Your Father in Heaven loves you immensely. I've shared many times that in the years when I was wandering around without an earthly spiritual father, I remember about 45 years ago, God gave me this verse from John 17.

I want to share it with you. Please turn with me to John 17. This is the prayer of Jesus for his disciples. It's not for everybody. I might as well tell you that, because he says very clearly here in John 17, he's praying to his heavenly Father, and John 17, the whole chapter is a prayer.

It's the longest recorded prayer of Jesus, and he begins by saying, Father. It's a prayer just before he went to the cross. And one of the things he says here is in verse 9, I'm not praying for the world, but I'm praying for these disciples.

So whatever he has said in this prayer is not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry out in the world. It's not for everybody who calls himself a Christian. No. I ask on their behalf. These are the people who they believe you sent me.