WWUTT 987 You Have Loved Them As You Have Loved Me?

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There is a mind -blowing truth that I learned when I was very young, and that truth is this, that if you are in Christ Jesus, God the

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Father loves you with the same love that He has for His own Son when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the

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Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty. Here's your teacher,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to the High Priestly Prayer in John 17, and today

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I'll begin reading in verse 20 through verse 26. Jesus prayed,

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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 be one, just as you,

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Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me, the glory that you have given me

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I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me, and loved them even as you loved me,

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Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world,

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O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me,

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I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

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Verse 23 contains one of the most beautiful truths that I learned at a very, very young age.

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There in verse 23, Jesus says, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them even as you loved me.

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My dad taught me when I was very, very young that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, God the

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Father loves you with the same love that he loves his own son, and even as a little kid hearing that,

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I was astonished, really? God loves me with the same love that he loves

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Jesus. That was incredible to me even as a kid, and that is a wonder that I have desired to hold on to even into my adult life, the amazement that God the

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Father loves me as he loves his own son with the same love, with the same intensity that he has loved

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Christ, so I am loved. That's amazing because God the

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Son, he's the Son. He's been with the Father for all eternity before time even began.

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It was God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity glorifying in themselves.

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God glorifying in himself for all eternity, for ages past.

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It is a glory that he continues to have with himself, and that we are invited to partake in when we go to be with him in glory.

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The Son has always been with the Father, and yet the Father loves us with the same love that he gives to his own son.

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That's astonishing. That is incredible. That is an incredible love, and it is a love that surpasses all understanding.

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The way that the Apostle Paul explains it to the Ephesians, of course it surpasses all understanding because it's infinite, because it's divine, and who are we to conceptualize the infinite and the divine qualities of God?

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It would be impossible for us if not for the fact that God had shown his glory to us through the

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Son, through Jesus Christ. It is through his word that we come to know God and the glory that he has revealed to us.

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Consider this passage in Isaiah chapter 40, starting in verse 3, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

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Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Now where have we heard that before?

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That's a prophecy concerning John the Baptist, who would testify concerning the coming

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Messiah. Going on, verse 4, every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.

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The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the

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Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the

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Lord has spoken. How is it that we come to know the glory of the

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Lord? How is it that all flesh shall see it together? Because it is revealed to us in the

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Son, Jesus Christ, who came in human flesh, God incarnate, so that when he speaks to us, it would melt our faces off.

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Jesus Christ, God wrapped in human flesh so that he might dwell with us and we would not perish just being in the holy presence of God.

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He was veiled in human flesh, but we knew the glory of God through the word that he spoke.

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The holiness that he lived by, the miracles that he performed, certainly. But it was by the word that he gave to us that we came to know the

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Father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. And remember that Jesus Christ is described as the word, the word who was with God from the very beginning.

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And that glory has been revealed to us in Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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We have knowledge of his glory through Christ, the Son, Christ, who is so much holier than we are, so much more glorious than we could ever be apart from him.

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We would never attain to the glory of God if it was not extended to us to become part of it by faith in Jesus Christ, that we might share in that glory forever, witnessing that glory and praising

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God along with him for all eternity. That's the invitation that we've been given. If we would believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, we become fellow heirs of his kingdom and will glorify

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God forever. The glory of God revealed to us in Christ Jesus. So given that Christ is so much more glorious than we are, again, how amazing is it to consider that the father loves us with the same love that he loves his own son?

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And the reason for that is because Christ has paid the price for our sins and he has clothed us in his righteousness by faith.

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We have been forgiven our sins and we have been given his holiness. So when

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God looks at us, he no longer sees our sin, but he sees the righteousness of his son.

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So the love and affection that he has for his son has been given to those whom Christ has called to himself and has given his name so that we would be received by the father and become adopted sons and daughters of God through our elder brother,

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Jesus described as our elder brother in the book of Hebrews and in Romans 8, 29, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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So he is our elder brother. And as we have been adopted into the family through the invitation that's been given to us by our elder brother, because he has called us to himself and we heard the call and we believed and followed him.

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Therefore, our father who is in heaven loves us with the same love that he gives to the elder brother, to Jesus Christ.

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Did that all make sense? Did you follow all of that? All of that to say, God, the father loves us with such an intense love.

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How could we comprehend it? But it has been promised to us according to the scriptures. We have no reason to doubt it.

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We have no reason to question it. It is sealed in the Holy Spirit. It is given to us in Christ.

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We are loved by our father who is in heaven. Again, something that I was amazed to learn as a child, and I hope to hold on to that amazement as I consider the love that my father has for me, my father who is in heaven.

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My dad, my earthly dad loved me with a great love, but my father who is in heaven loves me with a love that's even greater than the love that my earthly dad had for me.

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That's also an incredible thing to consider, that God loves us with a love so great as that.

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No other person on earth can love us with a love as intense as the love that God has for us.

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Jesus said that if we want to enter the kingdom of God, we must be like children. That was amazing to me to learn as a child the love that God has for me, so that wonder, that captivation

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I need to continue to have. To be like a child before God is to know that we are helpless without our heavenly father.

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Just as a child depends on their parents for everything, so we must learn what it is like to depend on our father in heaven for everything, on our savior for everything.

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God is the one who saves. God is the one who makes us righteous.

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God is the one who forgives. He is the one who gives love. We have all of these things by faith in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus goes on in this particular prayer, that the world may know that you have sent me an

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I have loved them even as you loved me. Verse 24, father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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Jesus is asking the father that these disciples, the ones who are with him, the ones who are going to become disciples, even us right now, he was praying that we would get to be where he is.

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Father I pray and ask that they may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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Now Peter, James and John did get to see the glory of Christ unveiled. The human flesh had been pulled away.

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That fleshly veil was gone and they saw the glory of Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration along with Elijah and Moses who stood with him.

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But it was still terrifying to them. They still could not approach him. And so that glory, even though they saw it with their own eyes, still was mitigated to a certain degree.

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It was a lesser form of that glory because they would not have been able to stand it.

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When they heard the voice of God from heaven, they fell on their faces. And so Jesus is yet asking the father that all the disciples, the rest of them and us even now would have the opportunity to see the glory of God, which we would only be able to see standing in his presence.

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And we're only able to do that if we're wearing the righteousness of Christ. We're only able to survive being there in God's presence if what we are now is transformed into something else.

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As the apostle Paul said with the Corinthians, what we are now is not what will be. For what is perishable must become imperishable if we are going to dwell in the presence of the holy incorruptible almighty

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God. And so Jesus is asking that we would receive that transformation.

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When we die to be with God in glory, that we would be with him where he is.

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Because you have loved me, Jesus says, with the love that you had for me before the foundation of the world.

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This is like what Jesus said at the start of his prayer, as he said in verse five. And now, father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

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He comes back to that again here. The love that you had for me before the foundation of the world. God not only glorifying in himself, but loving himself.

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God is a community to himself. He is one God. He is three persons, father, son and Holy Spirit.

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So we are to have unity and we are to be one and we are to experience community just as God is a community.

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The fellowship that we have with the church is to be a picture of the relationship that the triune

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God has with himself. God is one. God has never not been one.

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And so we as the church are to be one. And that is accomplished through the Holy Spirit. It would be humanly impossible for us to attain that unity if not for the spirit of God that dwells within us.

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Mankind is constantly clamoring for some kind of unity. You will probably hear in elections that come up, whatever system of government you live in, you will hear those candidates talk about unity, how we need to be unified, how we need to come together.

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They might talk to just their constituency, just their particular political party. Let us come together and be one and be unified and chase after this thing.

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There are various causes and passions and worldviews that people will have, maybe even other religious views in which the people will say, we must be unified in these things.

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We must come together. And there's also that worldly sense of love where the culture says, let's come together and just love each other.

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Can't we all just get along? But apart from Christ, that unity, that unity is impossible for we are all sinful human beings who are selfish and always out for our own way.

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So whenever you hear some kind of leader say, let's come together and be unified, well, he's got selfish political ambitions, political gains that he wants to get from that constituency that he's talking to.

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It's not as noble as it sounds. And that's going to be the case with any sort of humanistic system.

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There's always going to be some kind of selfish motivation. It is never as selfless as it is presented to be.

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In Titus chapter three, verse three, it says that before we came to Christ, we were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy.

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Does any of that sound selfless to you? A person can give some sort of selfish appearance, but no one is truly selfless unless they are in Christ, unless they have died to themselves and are living for God.

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That is the only way that a person can really attain any kind of sincere humility or selflessness.

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As it goes on to say in Titus three, three, we were hated by others and hating one another.

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I mean, that's really who we are apart from Christ. We're hated by others and we're hating one another.

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There's nothing but division among people who do not have Christ. And then that passage goes on in verse four to say, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

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And we're able to do that together in unity of the Holy Spirit of God because it is that spirit that brings us together and unifies us.

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And we have one savior Christ. We have one father who is in heaven and it is these things that bring us together and unify us, the very presence of God within us.

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We go on now to verse 25, O righteous father, father who is right.

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That's what righteous means. It's being right. So the father in heaven who is right, even though the world does not know you,

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I know you and these know that you have sent me. There's a couple of ways to read that.

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These know that you have sent me. These know that you, the father, have sent me.

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Or you could read it as these that you have sent me know you could read it either way because remember that the father has given these disciples to the son.

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We who are the inheritance of Christ have been given by the father to the son and we know the father because we have been given to the son who reveals to us the father.

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That might be the way to understand that statement there in verse 25. So verse 26, I made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

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Jesus says, I have made known to them your name. See, knowing a person's name, there's kind of a personal connection there, right?

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Do you feel personally connected to a person whose name you do not know? And maybe you know their name, but do they know yours?

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Are you on a first name basis with one another? Would they remember your name again if you were to go away and then come back together again?

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There is something that is a close associated fellowship when we know one another's name, when we can call each other by name, when you can say, yeah,

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I know so and so, and he knows me. There's an establishment of fellowship there. And so Jesus is saying,

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I've made known to them your name. We know the father. We did not know the father before the son we knew of God, but we did not know the person of God that he is father, son and Holy Spirit.

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See, knowing God is triune is a personable thing. We get to know that when we are in fellowship with God.

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But the average person doesn't just know that God is one God and three persons.

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Think of how of the kind of intimate understanding of God that is necessary to know

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God in that way. And so it is Christ who reveals to us the father has made his name known to us that we may call upon him by name.

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Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I have made known to them your name and I will continue to make it known.

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So even when we, you know, after we call upon God and we go about the rest of our day, we still know the name of God.

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We haven't lost it. We haven't forgotten it. But his name would continually be on our lips and on our mind and written on our heart that we might seek

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God and love him with all that we are, all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. I will continue to make it known to them, not just in the sense that more disciples will come to know

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God, but even those disciples who come to know him will continue to know him. Wasn't just a momentary acquaintance sort of a thing, but we have a relationship with the father that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.

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We only have that love with God when we know God personally. We don't just know of God.

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We don't just occasionally reference him, but we seek after God and we desire to love him with all that we are.

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It is Christ Jesus who has called us to know the father, and it is through Christ that we have come to know

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God and be known by him. That is our study of the high priestly prayer in John chapter 17.

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Let us conclude with prayer together. Our father who is in heaven, what a wonderful thing that we can call upon you as our father.

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And we know you intimately in this way and that you look upon us with favor, with love, the same love that you have for your own son.

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How undeserving we are of that. But it is by your mercy and your grace that we have received this love.

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And so may the desire be in our hearts to live as worthy sons and daughters of God.

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We want to do what is pleasing to our heavenly father. Show us that way today, how we would have occasions to to lift up our moments unto you and give you praise even for these things that we will endure today, knowing that you are good.

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You have forgiven us of our sins. You have promised us an inheritance. There is no circumstance today that will separate us from the love of God, though there might be things that either delight us or cause us to mourn.

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Yet we put our trust in you as the God who saves through Jesus Christ, your son, in whose name we pray.

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Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals and other resources online at www .utt