The High Priestly Prayer

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Zac Lloyd; John 17 The High Priestly Prayer

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We're listening to the podcast recast Church in Matawan, Michigan Our desire is to help you draw near to God by growing in faith
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Community and service. All right.
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Good morning Thank you guys. Welcome to recast if you're regular here, you recognize that I'm not
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Don Phil sec Don In fact, my name is Zach Lloyd one of the elders here Don and his wife Linda and carry
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O 'Haran I've taken the junior hires on a retreat up to the Lower northern lower peninsula called camp barakal kids are there for the weekend and hearing good preaching and having a chance to get to know one another and establish some relationships and Early reports on Facebook look like things that the kids are having a good time.
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They've had good winter weather So wouldn't be my ideal for a winter fun time But they're having in terms of I don't like snow events of camp barakal is great
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But going there in the wintertime does not appeal but it sounds like it's going great So just a couple of brief announcements if you're new here we have coffee we definitely have coffee
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We have some doughnuts left. You're welcome to get up at any time During the service and go help yourself you should have gotten a what we call welcome brochure and in that would be a connection card if you're new and you would like to stay abreast of what's
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Going on at recast or learn one or learn more about us fill that connection card out
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There's a black box back there. You can drop it in there and you can get a free coffee mug as well we just send out a weekly email and if you don't like it, you can turn it off at any time, so That's it for the business.
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I'm gonna get to the text and I'm excited about my opportunity today Because I get to share with you
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God's Word and today what I get to share with you is Clear in the text. It really doesn't need much from me
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So that's good and it really reveals why God made us in what our purpose is
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That's that's it. That's good news. We oftentimes people have
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Anxieties or midlife crisis or depression. They don't know what are they doing? What God wants them to that? What am
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I even here for but it's clearly communicated in today's text and I'm excited with about that And I say clearly communicated, but I have to be honest
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I was I've spent some time with it and I it's clear to me now and if I'm completely honest a lot of times
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I'll wrestle with reading through the Gospels and if you've Spent timely reading the any of the
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Gospels you'll recognize that Jesus is the Son of God, but he doesn't always come right out and say it He says it in parables and I would just wish that man
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I wish he would just say I'm the Son of God and that there's a reason behind that but that's not the case in today's
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And I'm not saying that scriptures Insufficient or anything. I'm the problem, but it's not the case today so there are the
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Gospels give different accounts of Jesus life the four four Gospels are four different accounts of Jesus's life and in those accounts we see
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Several references to Jesus praying. I don't think anybody would argue that Jesus prays a lot We see him going off to pray coming back from the wilderness spending all night praying
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But rarely do we see in the text exactly what was he praying about? I mean we have the
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Lord's Prayer which is extremely helpful in that he's Identifying how we should be praying but it's not necessarily him praying
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We have the Garden of Gethsemane testimony where he's praying, you know at the night before he's going to be crucified
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Asking God if there's another way, let's do that pass this cup before me, but rarely do we see exactly what is he praying?
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Is he praying about us? Well today's text helps us understand what exactly he was praying for I think it is we would all agree if we knew exactly what
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Jesus prayed for us. That would be helpful So go ahead and grab your Bibles if you don't have a Bible We have
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Bibles in the seat backs in front of you. And again, if you don't own a Bible, you're that's welcome
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That's our gift to you We'd be delighted if you could take that home and be able to hear from God on a regular basis
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So if you turn to page 773 or John chapter 17 is the text that we're going to be reading from So a little bit of context before we just parachute into this passage
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Best Don has the opportunity What he does and I'm so grateful for Don his rightfully dividing the word week in and week out
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Is that he takes a book of the Bible and goes verse by verse So we're not getting what Don wants us to hear.
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He's not just picking verses from here and there He's getting we get to see the full counsel of God. So he is able to walk through a passage
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So we're just gonna jump into John 17 kind of ice -cold and I want to give you a little bit of a context so the
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Gospels the first four books of the New Testament if you've never been in church before our Accounts of Jesus's life and each of these four accounts
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Matthew Mark Luke John give different aspects of God's life They have intent behind them there. There's there's synoptic the three of them are but John stands out as sort of a mountain range in the landscape of Scripture in that his purpose is to reveal the deity of Christ to show that Jesus is
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God and for that reason I'm excited to share this with you, but it kind of stands out John takes the first two -thirds of the book displaying
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Seven miracles of Jesus and he takes time to do that But then he spends the last third of the book Doing what's called the farewell discourse and it's recording what
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Jesus did this starts with the Last Supper a week before he's going to be Crucified it's his last instructions to his disciples.
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He's no longer meeting with the Pharisees And it's just him and the disciples in that room and he spends
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John does a fair amount of time on that in that room And then and that started in chapter 13 then we come to John chapter 17 and that's the context that we're gonna start reading here
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In a moment. He's just been in that room They've had the meal that he's spent time washing their feet and be an example to serve them
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And now he's gonna close that time with them with a prayer. So if you have your
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Bibles John 17 We're gonna read the whole text I'm gonna read along with me.
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Here we go When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come
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Glorify your son that the Son may glorify you Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him
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And this is eternal life that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent
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I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do and now father
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Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world
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Yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word now they know that everything that you have given me is from you for I have given them the words that you gave me and They have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me
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I'm praying for them I am NOT praying for the whole world or for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours
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All mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world.
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I and I am coming to you Holy Father keep them in your name Which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one while I was with them
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I kept them in your name, which you have given me I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled
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But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves
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I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world
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Just as I am NOT of the world I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one
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They are not of the world just as I am NOT of the world Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is true as you sent me into the world as you sent me into the world
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So I have sent them into the world and for their sake I consecrate myself that they may also be sanctified in truth
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I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they may all
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Be one just as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us
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So that when so that the world may believe that you have sent me The glory that you have given me and I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one
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I am them and you and me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you
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Sent me and loved them even as you loved me father I desire that they also
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Whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me
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Before the foundation of the world Oh Righteous father, even though the world does not know you.
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I know you and these know that you have sent me I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me
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May be in them and I in them Let's pray Father God in heaven for we thank you for your
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Revelation of your word and you showing us exactly how Jesus the Son of God prayed to you
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God we are grateful to hear your word and pray that it would find our hearts and it would cause us to rejoice in this opportunity that we now
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Have to praise you pray that our hearts would be humbled God that the words of something of my mouth
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I pray that for everyone here would be acceptable in your eyes and the meditations of our heart Lord that we would be Worshiping you in spirit and in truth through Jesus Christ, and it's in his name that we pray.
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Amen certainly love those hymns and nothing wrong with that and Appreciate these guys being willing to serve us each week.
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So we are in John's Gospel chapter 17 So we've just read what
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John has recorded for us and what in my opinion has to be in your top three chapters and all of Scripture is so dense and Encouraging it really tempted to just having read it and just spend the rest of our time praying this passage doesn't needs nothing for me
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I pray that I don't get in the way It really stands out in that as the peak of that mountain range of the
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Gospels This is one of the high points in Scripture, and I think it's helpful to understand
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When John is recording this prayer of Jesus he's recording it because Jesus spoke it out loud to those
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He's in the upper room with his disciples there It wasn't that he was quietly whispering it and somehow the Holy Spirit revealed it to him later
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What Jesus is actually praying now that could have occurred but that's likely not what did happen Jesus was praying it out loud for them
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This is his he's given them their final instruction. This is his final prayer his send off to them so that's likely how it went down and I think it'd be it's worthwhile noting here as a quick side note in Support of this being this entire canon of Scripture being inspired by God in that there are four accounts of Jesus's life so there's
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Matthew Mark Luke and John those first four books of the New Testament each having its own emphasis and if you are like Mark, and you just took 16 chapters you had
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Jesus's entire ministry his whole life is three years of ministry to summarize What did you want to communicate about that and Mark doesn't include this prayer that seems strange to me?
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But on the other hand, it seems like it supports the this is the inspired Word of God They had a specific purpose.
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In fact, John says at the end of this gospel He says if I wrote down everything that Jesus did there aren't there is enough space in this world to contain the books so what we have here is
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Deliberate everything in here is deliberate and specifically chosen for our good So we should be reverent and take every word in here as meaning as having some meaning for our lives
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So I just had to draw that out a little bit in that how unique that only John Records this prayer and how powerful that prayer is but there is a specific purpose behind all of Scripture So certainly we get to hear
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Jesus praying and we can learn a lot certainly It's helpful to have here an instruction on how to do something but to see them do it
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So we get to see here and I think of specifically in prayer and how you might have had the opportunity to see
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My back buddy. I don't know any check.
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I'm counting as a mic check We're good. Alright, so anyways So if you get to hear somebody pray for the first time as a new believer and how encouraging that is to hear them
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Praying just in sort of they don't know all the jargon They don't know the language and you you are encouraged to hear them praying but at the same time you can also hear somebody that's been praying for a number of years and and you can just be praying along with them and swept up in with The Holy Spirit and praying with them and you'd learn a lot about that person
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I think we get that same opportunity here when we hear Jesus praying So his we're gonna walk through the text verse by verse sort of it can be broken up into three major chunks
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The first nine verses where Jesus is praying for himself You know in a lot of ways and then the next section 9 through 20 where he's praying for The believers those and not the believers but the disciples those in the room and the last verses 20 through 26 are him praying for those that are yet to believe so us in the church and within each of those sections, there's
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Basically five themes and if you were noticing we were reading it It's him like a lot of things are being repeated and that's why it's a little difficult for me to walk through and and not
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Just be repeating myself So I've tried to draw out these and it might look like I'm skipping over stuff, but that's really not my intent
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I'll just highlight a couple of the key themes just so you hear them and maybe we you can hear them again when we address Them but in each of those three sections
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Jesus is praying for something either us or himself Each of those has a theme of glory
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In each of those he's addressing the father and he is mentioning in each of these three sections the fathers the followers of Jesus have been given to him from the father and In each of those he talks about how
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Jesus has revealed the father to us So we're gonna walk through this now in verse 1 and noticing his posture if you had the text before you
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Says when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven. That is helpful for me to Picture Jesus praying in that manner.
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It wasn't that he was off in a corner praying with his head bowed Now there's anything magical about our posture But to picture him if I was in that room and Jesus is praying with his eyes looking at God Praying father that that changes my perception of it and maybe it does for the same
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But what you see throughout the text, he's also addressing God as father So Jesus the
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Son God and so I'm using these terms a little bit Synonymously, but verse 2 he addresses God as father verse 5 and now father verse 11.
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Holy Father verse 24 father I desired verse 25. Oh righteous father. That's consistent with what we see throughout the
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Gospels and it provides a specific understanding of that relationship there's Jesus the Son and the
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God Son of God and God the Father and that can help flavor how this is Who he is in that in that dynamic and then you see he says
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Father the hour has come Now if you've read we're not gonna go this slow throughout the text, but I'll just highlight this
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He says that my that hour has come and if you've read the Gospels at all You recognize that is a little bit refreshing. There's a number of occurrences where he's saying my hour has not yet come
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There's the account in John just in John's accounts in chapter 2 with he's at the wedding feast and his mother
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Jesus His mother is like look, there's a problem with the wedding or the wine Can you can you do something about this? And he's like, hey, my my hour has not yet come or in chapter 7 of John where his brothers are like look
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There's a big feast going on in Jerusalem. You should go down on this You could tell everybody what who you are and he's like my hour has not yet come and in even the next chapter chapter 8
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He says when the Pharisees are trying to arrest him They're not able to arrest him because his hour has not yet come we see that a lot
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So it's really refreshing to see just like kids in the back of the van. Are we there yet?
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Are we there yet? We're here the father the hour has come so that is it's sort of refreshing to see that and Know that this hour has come is not referring to a 60 -minute stretch of time
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It's a it's a it's a theme about what's going to happen In fact, he knows his hour has come because he just set it in motion.
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They're in this upper room He has his disciples there with him and he's just told Judas the one that's going to betray him
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He tells him go do what you're going to do and do it quickly. So he set in motion go betray me
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He knows it's going down. I'm going to be crucified Shortly, so he he has fully understand and he's actually set the wheels in motion himself
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So let's look exactly. What does Jesus pray for himself? We get verse 1 and 5 and we see in both those verses the repeated requests and throughout the text
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In fact that God would glorify the Son and that the Son would glorify God the
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Father so a Few of us would argue with that. That sounds like a good thing But I don't know how many of us have a good understanding what is the glory of God and and how does it how do
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They exchange the glory. How do I give you glory in in vice versa? So we'll just start with I think it's important for this text to kind of get some kind of understanding of what the glory of God is and how they're exchanging it.
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So the commentaries and a lot of the definitions they say the glory of God I'll read it to you. The God's glory is his splendor and his majesty.
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I Didn't find it particularly helpful and maybe it gives you a picture But if we there's a quiz next week and you put down the
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God's glory is his splendor and his majesty will give you credit But let's just take a brief look at what Scripture has to say to kind of color and give you a better feel for What God's glory is and in fact, we'll start with John's Account in verse 1.
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Oh, I mean in chapter 1 of verse in verse 14 John says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory so this is talking about Jesus based on chapter 1 verse 1 we're talking about Jesus glory as of the
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Only Son from the Father full of grace and truth So there we see the glory of God is revealed how in Jesus Christ the
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Son God's glory is revealed in Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment the incarnation of God's glory
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You know, we're gonna keep walking through this and maybe you can get a better feel for What we're talking about when we say
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God's glory You might remember the familiar account in Exodus chapter 33 or 24 where he's on the
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Mount Sinai Receiving the Ten Commandments and he says in verses 15 through 17 of that chapter He says then
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Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain The glory of the
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Lord went Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai in the cloud covered at six days and on the seventh day
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He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud Now the appearance of the glory of the
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Lord was like a Devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel So there we can kind of you get a mental picture.
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This is not the glory of God. It was like this It was fire devouring a mountain and it's probably hard for any of us to imagine exactly what that is.
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But certainly supernatural all inspiring something is
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Different there and everyone recognized that's the glory of God What that was and we see also a couple chapters later in Exodus chapter 33 there's this
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Moses leading that the God's people has a tent of meeting and he goes out into this tent and whenever he does the
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God descends on that and he actually meets with the God of the universe meets with him one -on -one and Moses you gotta love this guy and how brave he is but also to give you know
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I feel like I would fall on my face in front of God and we probably will But he's able to just have a conversation with God and to be able to do that at some point in history or in Eternity future is encouraging to me.
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But Moses says in verse 18 of chapter 33 of Exodus he says moat, please
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Moses talking show me your glory and he said I will make my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name the
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Lord and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy But he said you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live and the
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Lord said Behold there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock and while my glory passes by I'll put you in a cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by so Moses is not asking for representation of his glory or reflection
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He wants the hundred eighty proof full throttle the glory of God uncut and God says it'll kill you
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I can't show you my glory So that can give us at least the weight of God's glory and what it actually is referring to But we also see other spots and and if you start looking for the glory of God in Scripture, you're gonna be shocked
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It's on it feels like it's on every page. It's why God he set this whole thing up is for his glory
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He says in and there's also another example where God uses the word glory figuratively in 1st
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Samuel chapter 4 this is the the account where the ark is with the people of Israel and Philistines have come and taken it from them and Eli is there and he falls over dead but he's just so overcoming his daughter -in -law is giving birth and she names the child
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Ichabod saying the glory has Departed from Israel because the ark of God has been captured and because of her father -in -law
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Eli and her husband Phineas So in that case, you can see an example where it's used figuratively
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So there's not a spot in scripture and we could go on and on word But there's no spot where it says the glory of God is
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We just don't have that it's a lot like trying to define beauty and there's not words you can say
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Beauty that's beautiful because if you get what I'm saying, I like the way CS Lewis puts it. He says Nature never taught me that there exists a
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God of glory and of infinite majesty I had to learn that in other ways So he never learned that there was a God of glory just by looking at nature and he says he goes on But nature gave the word glory meaning for me
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So put it another way he's saying that while we might stand before the Grand Canyon and see the giant splendor and the awesomeness and vastness of the
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Grand Canyon or per look at the stars or we might hold a newborn baby and just see how Perfectly woven their fingers on you put your hand and they grab your finger and just how wonderful that is
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That's a reflection of God's glory. That's not God's glory that's a reflection of it and it's not just physical things either
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It's it's Emotion, it's it's our the good example would be like when we have if you accepted
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Christ as your Savior and you are Forgiven of your sins and all of a sudden that burden is off of you in that experience and you feel like you can just Flow out of the room.
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That is that's God's glory. That's something that unique that you can only see that this is God That's that's kind of what we're talking about It's his majesty in his splendor as revealed and it can be in an infinite number of ways in Whether it's how he loves us or how he his justice his truth his mercy
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There's a lot of different ways it can show itself. So we'll get back to the text here and it says
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Back to verse 1. There's a logical progression in this prayer where it says Beginning back to verse 2.
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I guess where he's requesting that God would glorify him in verse 2. It says since So he wants God to glorify
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Jesus because or since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal eternal life
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So we have eternal life through Jesus. That is the reason why God is he's asking for glory
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We were once enemies of God and now through Jesus Christ We are are redeemed and it's through that redemption that there is glorification
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Being exchanged between the Father and the Son and he continues Jesus continues to reference his work in verses 4
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He says I have accomplished the work that you gave me to do. So Again, this idea of work that Jesus is doing he says in verse 6
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I have manifested your name and in verse 7. I have given them the words that you gave me So Jesus is glorifying
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God by doing the work Making God's name known and giving us the word that he gave him.
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Those are those fundamental mission in life Jesus why he was walked this planet These are not small things
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Verses Jesus made God's name known. It's not it wasn't that he was clarifying for everybody You know, the name of God is not bail.
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It's it's not Zeus. It's Jehovah's Yahweh That's that wasn't what he was doing He was revealing the character the idea of name is the embodiment of the character
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You have to have an intimate knowledge of somebody to say, you know that person I made known the name of the
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Lord means that you know that you can run to that name and find refuge so when we pray Something like that that we see in this off the name of the
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Lord is a strong tower the righteous run to it and are Safe, it's not that we're running to a name of the Lord and just some
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I don't know how that works But you can understand that we're running to those promises God's name He is perfect and his glory is he's loving and we can run to it and that is not changing
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And in addition we find Jesus also was revealing God's Word So God was giving his word to Jesus and Jesus was proclaiming it to those and this is the star breathing
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God of the universe He created everything out of words Things of infinite size in even life of infinite complexity that we still don't have a handle on and he did it by words
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God's Word according to Hebrews 412. It says the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit and of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart
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And one of the most amazing things to me about scripture Is that he just set all this up with something so simple as a word
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It's unique to mankind the animal kingdom doesn't have words and that's what God has set this whole thing up around his word
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But what's primarily important about God's Word? Is that it's is how we get faith?
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Romans 10 17 says so faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ So we our life our faith is created in us through God's Word being spoken
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You may remember when we went through Galatians chapter 3 verse 2 Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the
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Holy Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? So this Jesus requests that God would glorify him and that he would glorify.
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God Is based on that he had made known the character of God and given us the
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Word of God Because we have the Word of God We have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin
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Do we have the opportunity that for that faith that gives eternal life? And we see eternal life there in verse 3 it says and he gives us eternal life and what is this internal life
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How does he define it in verse 3? He says that they know you the only true
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God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent So eternal life is captured in the idea of an of knowledge.
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It's a relationship. It's not this academic Yes, I'm aware. Jesus is the Son of God. I got that just like the demons.
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They acknowledge Jesus Christ is the Son of God It's a relationship. Yes. I am trusting in him He died for my sins.
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I can count on him. He is the Son of God I fall before him and I trust him with my life. That's the knowledge that we're we're referring to that is eternal life and If you can imagine limiting
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Sometimes I picture eternal life being something different in a faraway galaxy or anything But it's it's able to walk with God in a relationship be able to have a conversation with without this sin flesh it's always warring for myself and in the selfish nature that I have where I want something for me and Everything just seems to be a little bit tainted if you can relate to that and that's that's what we have in eternal life is
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A pure relationship with God the Father how wonderful that will be So I spent a little bit of time this morning trying to define what the glory of God is and probably just confused you
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It's it's critical to this text, but hopefully you come up with a different understanding at least But again,
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I'm not trying to get in the way But I figured this text gives us quite an account of the
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Trinity or some new aspects So I figure while I'm explaining glory, why not just try and explain something as simple as the
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Trinity as well So the idea that Jesus was a man is
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Pretty well documented. There's even atheists There's very few people that refute that there was ever a man that existed named
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Jesus in the first century and he had a following That's that's not what's arguing anyone's arguing but that he was
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God. That's where that's the stumbling block for mankind And we see in verse 5 something sort of unique and interesting
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Jesus says in his prayer He's asking and now father glorify me in your own presence with the glory
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That I had with you before the world existed and we see that again that same reference later on that you had glory
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Now this is where it gets fun because Jesus is the Son of God and he was before Anything was created.
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He was with God and he was God yet Something happened and that he's unchangeable omnipresent omnipotent
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He can't put on flesh and he left some glory there in heaven So there's something that has happened there that they are distinct individuals of the personhood of God And yet and just sticking to this passage in verse 21 we see that the
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Father and the Son are also one and We see glory being exchanged back and forth between the Father and Jesus and also in verse 6 that the people are being exchanged
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When he says I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world Yours they were and you gave them to me.
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So they're not so much one that they can't exchange things So there's a perfect oneness God is giving souls of mankind to Jesus and Jesus is also keeping them their union is perfect This is stated again in verse 10.
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All mine are yours and yours are mine. There's no tension in this relationship So they're one and they're separate
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It's just an a free exchange for one purpose to bring glory to God to reveal the infinite value of the glory of God So in this exchange of people in verses 6 through 8
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We see that God the Father gave them to Jesus and so that you're hearing correctly This is referring to the people in verse 3 that have now had that eternal life
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If you're in that camp you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior It's not because you decided one morning today.
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I'm gonna believe in Jesus Christ No, the Father God gave you to Jesus and that's reason to fall on your knees and thank
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God It wasn't anything that you did. It's God giving you to the Father So in the next section we start to see what exactly
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Jesus was asking for in verse 9 we Witness Jesus praying for us and I say the word us, you know
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Rightfully understanding that this is Jesus talking to his disciples in that room So for us to say well, that's about me might be a stretch.
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But if you think about it, it's not so much We are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are sons of God if we're trusting in Christ So these instructions these prayers for his disciples can be extrapolated to us without any problem he says
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Under the in verse 11 He says Holy Father keep them in your name that God the
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Father would keep us and again in verse 12 the idea of being kept And this is repeating what
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Jesus told the Pharisees in John chapter 10 when they were asking like if you're Jesus just tell us you're Jesus you're the
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Son of God and He he says to them he says in verse 28 He says I give them eternal life and they will never perish.
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No one will snatch them out of my hand and again Paul says in his letter to the
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Romans and Romans chapter 8 verses 38 and 39 I know Romans 8 is another one if you're looking for favorite chapters
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I would put John 17 Romans 8 and maybe Psalm 23 and whatever comes about you can count on those texts
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So but that's not really my goal isn't to have you have three favorite chapters But just so you have a know that those are good references to keep if you're struggling go to those chapters
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But he says in Romans chapter 8 verses 38 and 39 Says for I am sure this is Roman or Paul talking for I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers
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Nor things present nor things not come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus So as long as we're in Christ Jesus Nothing is able to separate us from God and that is good news
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We are eternally kept God the Father or God the Son is asking God the Father Omnipotent that means all powerful all present to keep us.
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We're not we're being kept There's no chance of us falling or anybody Satan sneaking in there and you might say well
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What about this son of destruction in verse 12? How isn't that gonna happen to me and maybe you want to look at it says
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Not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction So just so you're hearing it clearly this situation is that God has
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Jesus chose Jesus Judas and he set him up or he used him to betray him.
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It's part of the plan It wasn't that Judas just or Satan come up and snatch Judas and wasn't when
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Jesus wasn't looking it wasn't that at all In fact, it was part of the plan in John 13 18 when they're at that Last Supper We see at the beginning of the meal.
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Jesus is quoting Psalm 41 9 He says even my close friend in whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me
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So, how is this guy lost what the text says so that the scripture may be fulfilled?
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That's why he was lost so if we think about Us the reason that we're not going to be lost at a minimum
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It's so that Romans 8 38 and 39 can be fulfilled scripture. This is going to stand for eternity
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This isn't going away. What everything that's written down in here is will be fulfilled. God will accomplish all his purposes so if it says that Nothing's going to separate us from the love of God in Christ.
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Jesus if nothing else It's because that says it not because of anything that we've done. So that is a reason to praise
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God In verse 13 Jesus also prays that we may have joy fulfilled in ourselves
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Jesus is asking God that we would have joy and how do we get this joy? If we look at the text verse 13 he says but now
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I'm coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves The argument there it says but now
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I am coming to you and this is Jesus talking to the Father God He's here in this world and he's coming gonna go back to be with God in heaven
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God the Father the only way he does that is by dying on a cross for our sins
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So, how do we have our joy fulfilled in ourselves by remembering what Jesus is going to do in that because he dies for our sins
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We and he resurrects and he has puts on immortality We also have that same joy to look forward to we also are going to be hidden Colossians 3 3 says for you have died in your life is hidden with Christ in God when
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Christ who is your life appears Then you also will appear with him in glory So we have this idea of Resurrection that we have eternity to look forward where we can shed this mortality this corruption we can put on immortality incorruptible
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How good better news is that we can spend eternity with God without sin?
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But there's also joy in the today because we are hidden in Christ if we're in Christ We are loved by God and we can have we are we have victory over sin and we just need to walk in that So Jesus is foreseeing his death.
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He's he's looking he's at the shadow of the cross here. It's within the next week He knows that's what's coming He's about to be relieved this earth
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We see that in verses 14 15 and 16 He says and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am
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NOT of the world I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one
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They are not of the world just as I am NOT of the world So, please know that John's using the word world here in two different ways
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There's the world this place that we live and there's the world the idea of those that are Opposed to the things of God.
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So we there's it can be a little bit confusing But the idea here is that we would be in the world but not of the world and you may have heard that before and really that's the basis for the
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Simplicity the S in the acronym of recast is that we would be in the world and how do they relate?
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So simplicity the idea is that there are a lot of things that we could be doing at recast That would be getting people in God's Word more and be doing things that are good and you would have our hard time arguing
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No, that's not a good thing to be doing They would be we could have children's program But how many of you know that every thing that you set up you have to have people to set that up?
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You have to have workers you have to have people preparing for that and then that time is gone So the simplicity is to not do those things because those take away from our opportunity to be in our communities
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I can't have my neighbor over tonight because I'm going to church and then tomorrow We're taking the kids to this retreat and then you see how keeping things simple enables us to stay in our community so well
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That's good for us to be in our community The danger is that we go so far into the community that we lose our message
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That would become so much like the world that no one can tell the difference that we've totally compromised the truth
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Because we want it to be in the world and will tolerate anything And I think of the example of lot if you're not familiar with his story
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He sets up he takes his family to a city Sodom and Gomorrah just completely wicked God says angels to tell him
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I'm gonna light this city up. I'm gonna destroy it You got to go and he says he tells his sons -in -law. Let's go.
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We got to go and they laugh at him He's a joke to them because he's totally lost his credibility with them
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So our challenge is to hang on to the truth, but be in the world So we should be in the world, but not of the world
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Okay, that makes sense and you can understand why we have the simplicity in our acronym in verse 17
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Jesus asked another thing that yes, he has God to sanctify us and choose the sanctifying is being set apart made holy
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God Jesus is Asking God to sanctify us How do we get sanctified
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God does it how does Jesus ask God to sanctify us? How does
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God do it? By working in us and through us by truth That's what the text says verse 17.
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We'll read it sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So What is truth?
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It is your word. This is God's Word. That's how he's going to do it Is he's going to change us from one degree of glory to another by his word and I know in our current culture
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Absolute truth is not a popular concept a lot of people Well, your truth is your truth, but it's not mine.
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What's good? What I think is true is not necessarily true for you it's all about perception and different realities and We have this information age where we have so much
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Information you can Google anything and unfortunately you can find two different perspectives both saying the exact opposite thing
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And how are we to know what is true? What isn't I mean you think of this guy? He's been tested hundreds of times.
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He's never had a positive example. Surely these guys are just ad for him That has to be true, but it's not the case at all. I Work in research and there are
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Peer -reviewed legitimate journals you guys they're looking at objective data.
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There's no Witchcraft involved there's no slant on it They're just looking at the data and making conclusions and that's what science is and that's why science has become
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Sort of like our God that will sciences the current research says this is the way it's going that has to be true
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However journals 30 and 40 years old carry no weight We know so much more now that no means referencing those things and I'm not saying
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I work in research I'm not saying science is wrong. It's just we have such a narrow scope. We don't see everything that's going on We don't know exactly.
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What is truth. I brought up the example of If you have a newborn and you bring them home Should you sleep a month should they sleep on their stomach or their back and it's changed 14 times and since I've been having kids
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So we can't count on What God or what the world says but we can count on this
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This is not changing your word is truth and we can bank on we can die on this because it's not going away
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In verse 19, we see Jesus indicating that for our sake he is
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Consecrating himself so consecrates him. He's he's preparing himself. This is where we get the title of the chapter high priestly prayer
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He is acting as our high priest. He's preparing himself. What is he preparing us himself for? He's going to the cross.
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He's going to do what? It's the whole host of human history pivots on and that is
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Jesus dying and raising again to conquer death and have victory and that that really is the fundamental verse of this whole text it is
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Centered around that because he is making intercession to God the Father on our behalf. He is acting as our high priest so we move to the third section of this prayer in verse 20 and Jesus is praying for those who will believe and this assuredly applies to us and He has a specifically in mind when he's saying these things those that who yet will
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Believe and he prays for us in verse 21 What he prays for us is profound to me.
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He says that they may all be one so it's not He's not praying that we would have a oneness in a vision or a oneness in attitude he says and how he characterizes it is
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Just as you father are in me and I in you that they also may be in us
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Well, that's a that's different. That's taking it up a notch Jesus is praying that our unity with one another would be like the unity between the
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Father and the Son We see in verses 23 and 25 that this relationship is founded on love that we would love one another
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Like God loves us That we would be one Just as God and Jesus are one and perfectly one no tension in that relationship they're exchanging things freely
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This is a profound prayer for recast. It's also instructive
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We who are in Christ are in unity with one with Christ and the Father. So we have this relationship. We're in Christ He's made that he's reconciled us to him.
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So we are one there But we're to be one with one another to that same degree.
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I Don't know about you, but I think there's room for us to grow here I have a hard enough time knowing everyone's name with the rapid growth that we've seen at recast
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Let alone loving everyone here to that extent. We're having a relationship. I Don't think
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God's asking us to have a deep relationship with one another But the relationship that we have with those here that we know are in Christ and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ is a
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Should be a relationship that's altogether different than the relationship we have with our own family if those family members are not believers
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This text is a correction to the idea that we should just show up at church He wants us to be part of church. He wants us to engage in church actively engaged in bit in loving one another
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The church is a body an active body of believers We should be loving one another showing up and singing once a week without engaging is missing the mark as elders
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Our prayer is the same as Jesus. We desire for everyone to be engaged in a relationship
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Relationship I recognize that it's hard. I'm introverted I don't find it's not easy for me to talk to people and to get to the point where I can share my struggles
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With someone is not an easy thing to do. So what we've done at recast We've tried to lower that hurdle that bar a little bit and get you into a smaller group
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So we have small groups eight to twelve people That love God and you can exchange you can have love for one other
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It's just a it's an easier opportunity for you to share Your burdens your struggles with one another and to be praying for one another and to be serving one another just like Jesus in that Upper room wash one another's feet that we would serve one another we would wash each other's feet figuratively
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Small groups are not for everyone. We understand that and I'll just pause and go back and not so Recast the on -ramp for small groups is through Rob can old here one of our elders.
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He's coordinating all that He has a list of names and leaders and he can get you plug in if you desire to have this relationship We pray that you do that is an on -ramp and it doesn't work for everyone
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If you're not in a small group, that doesn't mean you're out That's just what we've created what we would encourage you to is be in a relationship where someone can be asking you
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How is your walk going with your spouse? How are you loving your spouse? How are you loving your kids? How are you? How was your walk going with God?
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Are you? Are you growing in God? so if you don't have that relationship we desire for you to have that and we desire for you to have that because that's what
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Scripture is asking and you can find a greater joy there Then I think that you can find on your own certainly not that I think that I know that you can find on your own
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So I'm done. I have a pretty good track record of the blazing through a 15 -minute sermon in like 15 minutes
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So it says but I want to be clear on this. It says our our goal is not unity
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Might say it we all should be one But that's not our goal if we make unity our goal, we will end up in destruction what we're going to end up doing is compromising the our core value of truth if we get into a
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Situation where someone has a different belief than ours and we tolerate that for the sake of unity
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We've totally compromised everything that we have the basis for our unity So we believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, and if we compromise that core belief
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Then we don't we don't have a relationship anymore we're going to end in destruction unity is a byproduct of being sold out for the glory of God that I Am going to live my life for the glory of God and you are too and that is how we have unity
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It's not that we have some other vision in mind And I get this from verse 23
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It says I in them and you in me that they may become perfectly one That we may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them
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Even as you love me our purpose in life The reason we were created is to know the love of Christ and to share that and to manifest the glory of God to others by loving one another so by serving one another by sharing truth by Just loving in in praying for one another we are displaying the glory of God and that's why we're made
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That's what we should be pursuing in our lives So and so doing those things our goal and our purpose in life is to glorify
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God Our lives should manifest that perfect majesty that splendor of God and that should be revealed
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It should be clear to people that that whatever that is. However, that relationship shows itself to others They see the way we treat one another they see the way we love one another
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They should stand out to this world like that's different that however you want to say that is that's the glory of God And that is why we were made so each week at recast we take an opportunity to celebrate the
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Lord's Supper and by doing that we are celebrating and Remembering what Jesus Christ did for us.
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He bought for us this reconciliation that we have with God We're able to have oneness with him through his perfect life and in broken body the cracker
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Representing his broken body on the cross and his blood being shed for us it forget we have forgiveness and sins
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So we invite you we're gonna pass crackers and juice for you to take an opportunity to remember what Jesus did for you
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However, if you are not in Christ It's not a you shouldn't just feel pressure to Eat the cracker and drink the juice because it is an act of remembrance
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You'd be better off to not do that, but it also just take an opportunity while you're sitting there No one's gonna judge you to just consider what is holding you back from accepting
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Jesus Christ as your Savior. Let's pray Father God in heaven
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Lord. We thank you again for your word We thank you for giving us this window into your relationship
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Jesus with the Father God that we can see how you were praying for us and how you loved us and that we would have love for one another
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God we are Desiring to be used by you and to glorify you that we present our bodies as living sacrifice to you
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Holy and acceptable that we might worship you by our actions Lord We thank you for dying on that cross and reconciling us and as we remember that death
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Through the eating of the cracker and drinking of the juice. We pray that our hearts would be One with you and that we would be one with the one another as we see one another doing this
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It's your name. We pray. Amen. I just like to close in a quick word of prayer
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Heavenly Father we thank you for For your love for us Lord for Jesus Christ for For his blood shed on our behalf father we thank you for your word preached and proclaimed this morning and as we reflect on the many themes and Just the powerful message from John chapter 17
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Lord, I just pray you would encourage us Lord help our hearts be united in in love for one another in in true love and sacrificial love that we can show
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Lord help us be your representatives here on earth As we go out today. We pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus.