Gospel of John 54 - Jesus Prays Us [August 13, 2023]

John chapter 17, and we will finish up John 17 this morning.

And usually I have some type of little story or something as an introduction. And this morning, I really don't have one as much as a song lyric, I think. And I'm a little, I'm not singing. I'm not, I said a lyric. I didn't say a song. I said a lyric. And it's a country song. And many of you know it, I think, probably most famously by Willie Nelson, though he was not the first one to sing it, but probably the most famous version of it, You Are Always On My Mind.

And I hate to—it's one of those things that popped into my mind. I was like, let me go check out the lyrics in the beginning of it. I didn't love you as much as I always should have. And I was like, well, that's probably not the best introduction to talk about Jesus, because he always has. But the point at the end remains true that we have always been on his mind.

When you come to John chapter 17, and we've talked about this before, that this is the last of Jesus' teaching to his disciples before he goes to the cross and the crucifixion and the resurrection and everything that happens. Instead of sitting down with them and teaching them, he teaches them as he prays. And we looked at how he prayed for himself, how he prayed specifically for his disciples.

And then when we get to verse 20, he begins to pray for, he says, for everybody who will come after you.

Now, this is the amazing thing about that. Everybody who comes after the disciples is you, is me, is all the believers that have ever lived and ever will live from the time of the disciples until the time that Christ returns. And so in the moments leading up to the cross, because remember, we get to John chapter 17. John spends so much time on the cross. The cross is just hours away. And in those last moments, the last part of Jesus' prayer is for you.

It's for you. It's for me. It's for us. It's for the church. It's for Red Bank. And in that last moment before the cross, you are always on his mind. And so this morning, we're going to look at that and see exactly what Jesus prays for us as he prays. And so let's read all of the prayer this morning, beginning in verse 1 down to verse 26 of chapter 17. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

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. And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, 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. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given to 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.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, 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, 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. But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world. Just as I am not of the world, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you may keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they may also be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, 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, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I am them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them, even as you love me. 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 love me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, know that you have sent me. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I may know unto 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. So right there in verse 20 through 26, Jesus prays for us.

And in praying for us, I just want you to notice four ways that he prays for us. Number one, Jesus prays that we would be one. He prays that we would be one. This, again, is not the first time that Jesus has prayed this. You go through this prayer, there is a call over and over and over that we may be one. The only reason that I can think that he would pray that is because we're hardheaded. Some of us more than others. And so he begins his prayer and says, I pray that you are one.

And there's some truths about that prayer this morning. I want you to just notice four aspects of that prayer. And the first is this, it's a supernatural unity. It's a supernatural unity. He says, I pray that you may be one as I am one with you. Father, I'm praying that my people, that the believers that come after the disciples, you and me this morning, that we may be one just as God and the Son, God the Father and God the Son are one.

Father, as we have this supernatural unity, and we've talked about this, the unity between the Trinity, God in three persons, but there's a unity. They are all God. They are all one. They all have the same mission. They all have the same purpose, the same perfections, everything about them. They are one. And so Jesus prays just as we are one, I pray that we will be one. Now, I know this is like the third week in a row we've looked at unity, right?

I mean, Jesus is really driving this home, and I don't want to harp on our differences this morning so as to make them our focus. At the same time, we recognize that we have differences. Greg put it well this morning in Sunday school. We just got a personality that you got to live with the rest of your life. That makes us different. He said it in the way only Greg could say it. So that the only way then that we can be one has to be from outside of us. It has to be.

Otherwise, we can't be one. It has to be a supernatural unity. And that supernatural unity only comes from the power of Christ and from the unity that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit has. And you've seen this before in your life, right? You go to the hospital and strike up a conversation with somebody. You go to a restaurant and you strike up a conversation with somebody.

You go on a trip to another part of America or another part of the world and you strike up a conversation with somebody. And in talking to the person, you say, you know, well, I'm a believer. And they say, really? So am I. And in that moment, right then, in that instance, all the things that make us different melt away because we realize that we have something in common with the person that we're talking to.

We're one. And there's a connection that is there that is immediate, that cannot be described by any other thing than the unity that we have in Jesus Christ, because it is supernatural. The unity that we have is also a genuine unity. It's a genuine unity, meaning it's not superficial. You know what superficial unity is? And I think Greg had a copy of my notes this morning because he touched on a lot of this on Sunday School. Do you know what superficial unity is? Superficial unity is uniformity.

Superficial unity is uniformity. And we are not called to be uniformed. Now, I know that sounds like, Gary, is there really a big difference between uniformity and unity? And the answer is yes. Yes, because the way that we typically judge unity is we judge it through uniformity. We are one if we think alike. We are one if we carry the same copy or the same translation of the Bible. We are one if we show up on Sunday wearing the same clothes.

Now, should we obviously look, we're not wearing the same clothes. We could go through and hold up our hands, depending on which translation of Scripture you're using. We could talk about third-degree issues of theology and find some differences. And I'll use me. I know y'all disagree with me on this, but I firmly believe that the believers go through the tribulation and that Jesus returns after it.

And when we've gone through Revelation, and I've talked about that, some of y'all have come up to me and go, Gary, I don't think the church is here during the tribulation. I go, why? And you go, and I love your theological reasoning. You go, well, it just makes me feel better. Hey, it makes me feel better too, but you don't thankfully kick me out of the pulpit and I don't kick you out of the church. That would be uniformity. And if everything is uniform, where's the unity?

There's no unity at that point. So Jesus doesn't pray, make you clones. He doesn't pray, make all my believers look, sound, and be exactly the same. I mean, the flip side is, at least we'd know who was who. But that's not what he prays. And so where there is a push for superficial unity, where there is a push for uniformity, actually that becomes very disunifying. Because in that push, what you're saying is, unless you're just like me, you can't be part of us. It's not the message of the gospel.

The message of the gospel is that the gospel triumphs every difference that we have, triumphs every personality that we have and we have to live with for the rest of our life. A greater testament to the power of the gospel is we are all different, yet we are all one because we have a genuine unity in Christ. And the glorious thing is Christ gives us our individuality. He gives us our personality. And what you see is when different personalities are working together, that glorifies Christ.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 12 for just a minute. 1 Corinthians 12. This whole chapter is on spiritual gifts, and I'm not going to read all of the chapter, but drop down to verse 4. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, varieties of service, but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all and everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For the one is given through the Spirit, the utterance of wisdom. And he begins to list the spiritual gifts that we have. But drop down to verse 12. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. one body, many members. But in case that's not clear enough, look at verse 27. Now, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

God is glorified. Jesus is glorified in the gifts that we have and the fact that we are individual members, but we are one body. And that's what makes it a genuine unity, because we are one, even though we are individuals.

Nextly, it's an observable unity. It's observable. Specifically, this is the second time that Jesus has said that the world will look at us and judge us by something that we do. Have you noticed that? And here this time it says the world is going to look at us and see individuals who are unified and they're going to go, hey, this comes from Christ so that the world can see, so that the world may know there in verse 23. So if the world is going to look at us and see that we are one,

there's got to be a depth to our unity, right? It can't be superficial. There's got to be a depth to it. And I found this quote that I think is a longer quote, but it's a great quote talking about unity. It says, quote, It is not achieved by hunting enthusiastically for the lowest common theological denominator.

But by adherence to the apostolic gospel, by love that is joyful, self-sacrificing, by undaunted commitment to the shared goals of the mission, which Jesus' followers have been charged by self-conscious dependence on God himself for life and fruitfulness. It is a unity necessarily present amongst genuine believers. That is a deep unity. And if we are doing that where we're just not looking for the lowest bar that we can cross over.

But where it is a deep commitment to the apostolic gospel, to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that the apostles preached, where it is a deep commitment to the mission of Christ, where we share in the same goal and want the same desire for Red Bank, which is the same desire that Jesus has for Red Bank, when we want that, when we work together, and when we say, hey, we may be small, but we're going to be excellent.

We're going to fulfill the Great Commission because we understand that everything that the church needs, that Jesus gives the church resides here at Red Bank. When we are on mission together like that, The world sees it and knows it. And remember, that's the unbelieving world. The world isn't people who are like, oh, I kind of like God. The world is antagonistic to the things of God.

But through their antagonism, they are able to set it aside and see this unity that has overwhelmed us because of our deep commitment to Christ and go, they belong to Jesus. They still might not agree, but they recognize and they understand.

And Jesus says, our unity is observable. But then lastly, he says, it's missional. It's missional. I mentioned just a minute ago, this is the second time that he has said that a characteristic would mark you. You remember back in John 13, verse 35, we're told that the mark of believers is love, that we belong to Christ. It's not that the fact that we are here this morning, there's a cross on the

steeple that tells everybody we are disciples. It is the fact that we love one another demonstrates to the world that we are disciples. But here, he ties our unity together with mission. Look down at verse 21. He says, I've given them to you and the world has hated them. They're not of the world. Excuse me, that was in verse 16. I forgot my glasses, so all the numbers kind of look alike.

So verse 21, there we go. that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. There it is again. And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Why does Jesus keep going back to the fact that they want the disciples in the world to know that Jesus was sent by the Father because it was his mission? It was his mission to bring eternal life.

That's why that's the mission. You need to know that Jesus came to die on the cross for your sins so that you can have eternal life. Now, listen to this. This is both amazing and scary. When Jesus says that you may be one so that the world may know that you sent me, Jesus is giving the world permission to judge his mission by our actions. Now, does that just kind of make you go, whoa. Debbie's trying to figure it out. What is he talking about? All right. So here it is. All right. Verse 21 again.

Jesus says that I have given, I'm one, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. So our actions, missional actions, our unity is judged by the world and saying, all right, is it true then that Jesus was sent by the Father and he is the Messiah?

So if we're not in unity, if we're arguing, and down the road is Second Red Bank Missionary Baptist Church, and a little while down the road is Third Red Bank Missionary Baptist Church, because we keep fighting, the world looks at that disunity and goes, I don't believe that they have the unity that is required to have in Christ that Scripture says.

Because if they really believe that Jesus was sent by the Father on mission to save and redeem the world and change their lives, then they are going to demonstrate that unity in their mission. But you can't demonstrate that unity in the mission if you're too busy arguing with one another if you're too busy being disunified over things that we shouldn't be disunified over. And so Jesus says the world can look at the unity and says, all right, judge them.

Judge them by that, right? Because we know that the gospel has power, that the gospel has power to save. The gospel has power to unite us. So the world looks at it and says, all right, look, look at them, look at Red Bank. The way they behave and the way they act, do they validate my mission of being sent to save the world, according to John 17, verse 21. Now, the hard part about that is to realize it means that we have to be engaged in the world. I mean, we have to.

Now, full confession right now, if I could buy a little island about three miles off the coast and just shuttle my boat back and forth to the dock to pick up groceries once a week, I would probably be happy because the world has gone insane. I really would. But we're not called to isolate ourselves from the world. Jesus says, I'm not praying that you take them out of the world.

And if we went and we lived on the island, or if we went and we lived in the cave, We would be taking ourselves out of the world, but we're not allowed to do that. Because his mission depends on us being in the world and being one. He's got to have a missional unity.

Now, when we read through this and we see where Jesus is going, talking about our unity, about us being one, and it's one in Christ, and it's a genuine unity, and it's observable, and it's missional, and the world gets to look at it, what we need to then come to realize is that the biggest barrier sometimes to evangelism and the mission is not our knowledge of scripture. It is not how well we can articulate the gospel in 30 seconds.

It is not how one time at Southeastern, Franklin Graham came to preach in chapel. And before he preached in chapel, I think Dr. Patterson was the president at the time. He asked Dr. Patterson, has anyone ever taught your students how to give a gospel hook? That was his terminology, a hook, where you just kind of throw it out there and hook somebody with the gospel.

And he said no. And so that morning in chapel, it was a message, but it was how in circumstances to put the gospel out there like a hook to be able to reel people into the gospel. And it was, I mean, it's Franklin Graham. He knew how to do it. His dad was Billy Graham for crying out loud, right? I mean, he knew how to give a gospel invitation. And so we're sitting there listening and everything. That's not a barrier. That's not the greatest barrier.

Gary, I don't know how. Well, I understand that. We can train, we can learn, we can do that. But that's not the barrier. The greatest barrier to missional engagement and the greatest barrier to evangelistic engagement is the lack of unity in the church, right? Where there's slander, gossip, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiven spirit, destructive, selfishness. I mean, those are signs that a church is not one and a sign that the world looks at and says, I don't want what they have, right?

So this is why he prays for unity, because it is critically important for the mission. And that unity only comes from God, and he will give it, which means we don't have to manufacture it. If it was left of us to do it, we wouldn't be able to do it. But since we are believers, we are already one in Christ. So the challenge then becomes to us not to generate the unity, but to live in the unity, to live in an authentic unity so that when the world looks at Red Bank, they will notice two things.

They will say, number one, man, those are disciples of Jesus because they love each other.

And number two, man, they are one, they are on missional engagement with Christ because they're unified in him. Tell you what, like I said last Sunday, we demonstrate love to the world and unity to the world. We can conquer the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Secondly, though, Jesus prays that we would display his glory. Look down in verse 22. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them. He gives us his glory. That's an amazing, amazing thing.

You go back to the Old Testament and you see all the verses about God's glory and you go back to the book of Exodus and you go back to maybe Exodus 24, right? Moses is on top of the mountain. He's receiving the covenant and it says that God's glory covers the mountain. So when they look up at the mountain, they see the pillar of fire that is up there and Moses is up on the mountain.

But at the end of Exodus, in Exodus chapter 40, verse 35, it says that the glory moves from the mountain to the tabernacle. Moses is given all the instructions to build the tabernacle. He builds the tabernacle that's there. And when it is set up, God's glory goes from the mountain to the tabernacle and resides in the tabernacle. In verse 35, it says that no one was able to enter the tent of meeting because God's glory was in there.

They couldn't go in it. They could kind of get a glimpse of it through the pillar of fire, but they could not go into the tabernacle and be in God's glory. All of a sudden, we come to the Gospel of John, and it says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father. So notice what has happened. You couldn't see God's glory in the Old Testament, too. We have seen God's glory. We've witnessed His glory.

Jesus becomes and replaces the temple as the location of God's glory. And so now Jesus says, look, to the church, to you, to me, he gives us that glory. The glory given to us because we are in him and he is in us. And what's so amazing about that, and I don't mean this flippantly, but the fact that he gives us his glory and you're not dead, it's pretty amazing. Because in the Old Testament, if you transgressed his glory, if you trespassed into the temple, you died.

You didn't mess with God's glory. There was no, let's play footsies. Let's see how close I can get, right? You know that game you play where you see how close you can get to the line? There was no, let's see how close I can get to the line with God's glory. He was walled off. You didn't just walk into the tabernacle. But secondly, it means that God's glory now resides in us. Again, something you never saw in the Old Testament. God's glory didn't just reside on somebody.

Sure, the Holy Spirit would show up at times and come upon people and enable them to perform tasks, but then the Holy Spirit would dwell or leave, but that's not God's glory. God's glory never was in or descended upon his people. And so now Jesus says, hey, look, I give them my glory. And in doing so, we are to reflect that glory back to the unbelieving world. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 12 through 18. Listen to what it says.

He's talking about God's glory. He says, Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that Israelites might not gaze at the outcome that was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and the Spirit of the Lord is there. There is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory for another.

So what he does, he goes back to the Old Testament. There was a time when Moses, when he was on the mountain, and God was up there with him, and he came down, and Moses was radiating, And he had to put the veil over his face so that people would not be struck by that. And he says that now when people read the Old Testament, he's talking about the Jews specifically read it. He says, you know, they see the Old Testament and they see God's glory through a veil.

They still can't see it completely and clearly. And he says now in verse 18, but we with an unveiled face, our faces are not veiled. we can look at and behold the glory of God. We can look on the glory of God. And he says, not only that, but we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another. You ever thought about the fact that you grow in God's glory? I know we talk about growing in God's grace and God's mercy and God's knowledge, but you grow in God's glory.

And as you grow in God's glory, you reflect that back into the world. How do I do that? So many ways, right? We go through Scripture, and Psalm 50 tells us that when we give thanks, we glorify God, and the world sees God's glory. When we pray, prayer in Psalm 50, verse 15 glorifies God. The fact that we come and confess our sins to God, He's faithful and just to forgive us, that glorifies God. When we forgive one another, that glorifies God. When we produce fruit, that glorifies God.

When we grow in the fruit of the Holy Spirit, when we grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, that glorifies God.

In other words, when we are one in Christ and we are seeking that deep level of commitment to be like Him, we are being moved from one aspect of glory to another, and in doing so, we reflect that to the world, to the point that even Jesus says in Matthew 5, 16, that when we do the good works that God has laid out before us, the world will see and glorify God, even though the world does not know him. That's what we do. We reflect God's glory to the world.

But then third, he prays that we see his glory. Verse 24, look at how he says it. So strong. 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. I like that word desire. That's a strong word. Jesus is praying. He says, I desire. Y'all ever pray and you pray the right words, but the desire is just not there. Y'all don't have to agree. You don't have to nod your head, keep your faces stoic so I know that you don't do that.

I struggle with that every now and then. It's like, God, I know this is the right prayer, and you pray it, but it's just, you know the difference. You do. Here Jesus says, I desire. I desire, and his desire is for us to see his glory. And to see his glory simply means that we understand and comprehend who Jesus is. And maybe the best way is to know who Jesus is not.

Jesus was not just another teacher that sat in the synagogue that was hoping for a greater following than the rabbi across the courtyard. Jesus was not just a great philosopher, you know, in the lines of Plato or Socrates, who just came to philosophize to the Jews. Jesus was not a political leader who came to overthrow Rome and reestablish the Israelite nation.

Jesus was not a false messiah like you see in Acts 5, 36 through 37, that has two false messiahs that pop up, claim to be messiahs, amass a few followers, and then end up being killed. The disciples or the people that follow them are scattered, and both of those people who claim to be Messiah are still dead today. So to see God's glory is to recognize him for who he is, to recognize that Jesus is the one sent from God, to recognize that he is the one who has come to redeem the world.

That is validated by his resurrection and testified to by the fact that he has returned to the Father. And he confirms it in verse 24 with a promise. It says, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am to see my glory. There it is, may be with me. So there's a future promise to this that we see and recognize his glory now, but one day we will see and recognize his glory face to face.

1 John 3, 2, beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. We will see him in all of his glory. And we won't have to have a veil over our face. We will be able to witness that firsthand.

So Jesus prays for us that we would see his glory. But then lastly, Jesus prays that we would complete the mission. We complete the mission. Verse 26, he prays, O righteous Father, O righteous Father. Now that's only the second time John has used the word righteous in his gospel. If you look in chapter 16, verse 8, that's the other time. And he tells us why. It helps us understand at least chapter 17, what he's praying.

He says, and when he comes, talking about the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father. And so Jesus right there, what he is doing, he is tying the righteousness that God will use to judge the world. He says that there is a standard. We talked about this last week. Jesus said, your word is the truth. It is the standard.

If there was no standard, think about the carpenter and the electrician and the plumber showing up at your house, and all of them have a different tape measure to measure. And you say, go build my house. You're not going to have a house. It's not going to work. There's no standard by which they measure. God's Word is the standard. And so we're told that His Word is truth. And so when we hold the Bible, His Word, little w, in our hands, we have the truth.

When we read His Word and we read about the Word, capital W, made flesh, Jesus, we are reading the truth. And he says that in this truth, in his righteousness, he will judge the world because they refuse to believe that I was sent by God. Again, that goes back to our unity, that the world will know that you have sent me. And so we have a mission, again, that we're called to complete. The world, I mean, you know, right now the world has all the information about Jesus that they need.

I'm sure that there are some people somewhere in the world, and we talk about unengaged people groups, who don't have access to Jesus. But the main barrier now is not access. The main barrier is people refuse to believe. Refuse to believe. They don't want to believe. They don't want to believe that there is someone greater than them. They don't want to believe that they are a sinner. They refuse. And it is into this world that the disciples are sent. It's into this world that we are sent.

Just as Jesus was sent so that he comes and so that through him, the world might be saved. That's our mission. And Jesus says here, I will continue to make it known. I will continue to make your name known. I will continue to make it known that you have sent me. I will continue through my believers that come after me to continue the mission. So that's what we're supposed to do.

We continue the mission. We continue here at Redmate to tell them about Christ, the good news of salvation, only found through him. We continue to be part of the community here and now and go out and share like we will at Backyard Bible Club and tell them how their lives can be transformed just like ours in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And part of that transformation that we have, as he says right here, he says, you know, the love that which we have.

Father loves the son, the son loves the father. And he says, as they go out on mission and they share the gospel and people come to know Christ, then they can share in that same love with one another based again on the supernatural love that we have.

He says, but until I return, complete the mission. Keep going forward. Don't retreat. And one of the great things about this prayer and this is where we're going to end this morning is we can be encouraged for this you know why?

Yes, Jesus prays for us and that's pretty cool encouragement but have you picked up and we've talked about this as we've gone through Jesus teaching with the disciples in the vineyard he said it over and over and over again, that Jesus' prayers are not denied by the Father All right. Jesus doesn't praise to the Father and the Father say no. Jesus prays to the Father and gives to Jesus what he prays.

So this morning, when we think about this and we at his church at Red Bank this morning, when Jesus prays, Father, I want them to be one. When Jesus prays, I want them to reflect my glory in the world, Father. I want them to see my glory. Father, I want them to complete the mission? We know that the answer is yes, because the Father does not say no to the Son. So this morning, we can take comfort in that. We can be encouraged that the answer to Jesus' prayer from the Father was yes.

And we, the church at Red Bank, can be encouraged this morning because we can realize that no matter how hot and how fiery the gates of hell rage against His church anywhere on the world, that those gates of hell have never and will never prevail over His church. Why? Because he said that it wouldn't, and he prayed here in John 17 for us, that it would not either. And Jesus says, I love y'all. You're on my mind. I've prayed for you. It's going to be yes.

Now go and be my church. Let's pray together this morning. Father, we thank you this morning for Jesus. We thank you for his prayer for us. It's humbling to know that we were on his mind just moments before the cross and prayed for us. Thank you that this morning we know that the answer is yes. And so, Father, this morning we pray that we would live in that unity because we see how important it is and impacts everything that we do. And so, Father, this morning we pray that we will be one.

We pray that in the world we would reflect your glory. We pray, Father, that we will see your glory recognizing who you are. We pray that we will finish the mission, that we will continue to march forward in confidence and boldness because we know that your prayers are not turned away. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for empowering us to do what you have called us to do. We pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.