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[0:00] John chapter 17, verses 1 through 5.

[0:19] ! If you would please stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together. 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.

[0:46] 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 You gave me to do.

[0:58] And now, Father, glorify me in Your presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed. May God add a blessing to the reading of His Word. Would you please be seated?

[1:14] As we read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, one thing that we see Jesus repeatedly doing is praying. The four Gospels tell us that Jesus would often depart from His disciples.

[1:32] And He would go out often in the evening into the wilderness. Or He would go up into the Judean hills and He would pray for hours, often not being done until the early hours of the morning.

[1:52] While the Gospels tell us that Jesus prayed a lot, they don't tell us much about what He said when He prayed. The prayers that are recorded in the Gospels are short and direct.

[2:06] Usually, they are only a couple verses long. Like the prayer Jesus made before bringing Lazarus back to life. For the prayer He made in the Garden of Gethsemane when He requested that the cup of the Father's wrath pass from Him.

[2:23] On the cross, Jesus prayed another short prayer when He said, Into Your hands, Father, I commit my spirit. All very brief prayers, all very direct prayers, all stated in just a handful of words.

[2:44] In Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 13, and in Luke chapter 11, verses 2 through 4, there we have the Lord's recorded instructions about how to pray.

[2:59] In those texts, Jesus is providing an outline of how His disciples should pray. The model of prayer is often referred to as the Lord's Prayer.

[3:11] When we go to those texts, we call them the Lord's Prayer. But Jesus never would have prayed that prayer. Because part of the prayer is a request of the Father to forgive us our debts, to forgive us our sins.

[3:31] But Jesus never sinned. He had nothing to seek forgiveness for. The prayer is an instruction there for us.

[3:42] It establishes a pattern for us. It gives us a model for how we are to pray. But the real Lord's Prayer, in my opinion, is right here in John chapter 17.

[3:59] This prayer comes at a critical moment in Jesus' life. Jesus has spent His last night before His crucifixion with His disciples, teaching them and preparing them for what is about to come.

[4:14] Promising them also that the Holy Spirit would come. And then in chapter 16, verse 33, He concludes His instruction.

[4:26] Before He prays, He utters these triumphant words. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

[4:41] And so now having said that, Jesus begins to pray. And this prayer really marks the end of His earthly ministry. Jesus knows that the hour of His death has come.

[4:54] And He's not only focused on that, but in this prayer we see that He is looking beyond that. He is looking to what happens afterwards. He is looking forward to what comes after He dies and is buried and is raised.

[5:11] When He ascends back to heaven. And there He will begin His new ministry. His heavenly ministry. Well, what is that ministry?

[5:22] What is that heavenly ministry? Well, the Bible tells us in Romans 8, 34, for example. Who is to contend? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, He who was raised.

[5:35] Who is at the right hand of God. Who indeed is interceding for us. Presently. Hebrews 7, 25. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him.

[5:50] Since He always lives to make intercession for them. The Bible says that Jesus is currently interceding for us at the right hand of God the Father.

[6:05] He's our mediator. He's our defender. No accusation brought against us is able to stand because all of our sins have been paid in full by His sacrifice.

[6:16] And what He says in this prayer is an example of what He is currently doing for us right now in heaven. This is what Jesus has been doing for the last 2,000 years.

[6:29] And what He will continue to do until His church is gathered together with Him at the end of the age. In this chapter, we receive a preview of what Jesus is currently doing in heaven for us.

[6:44] And so, before He permanently entered into that role, He gives us this awesome prayer. Which, in my opinion, again, is the real Lord's Prayer.

[6:56] In this chapter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, God the Son grants us admission to hear Him pray to God the Father. To hear Him interceding for us.

[7:10] Now, have you ever been left out of an important meeting? An important closed door meeting? At work or somewhere else? And all that time you couldn't help but think, what are they talking about in there?

[7:21] And then when somebody would come out, you would try to dig for information. Try to figure out, well, what was said? Who said what? Well, here, Jesus opens the door to this meeting with the Father.

[7:34] And He invites us in to hear Him praying to the Father, interceding for us. And I'll tell you that I felt out of place this week preparing this sermon.

[7:49] It's like when you stumble into a room. Have you ever stumbled into the room and you can tell there's a really important conversation going on and you feel instantly out of place? And you just backtrack out of there?

[8:00] That's the way I've been feeling in studying this text. Just thinking, who am I to offer comment on this conversation?

[8:11] I feel unworthy and I fear getting any of it wrong. In fact, I don't know that I've prayed as much for a sermon as I've prayed for this sermon this week. Because in this text, I believe that we are truly standing on holy ground as we hear the Son pray to the Father.

[8:33] This prayer is often referred to as the High Priestly Prayer. And it can be divided into three parts. In the first part, five verses that we'll go over this morning, Jesus prays for Himself.

[8:47] And then in the next part, He prays for His disciples who were with Him. And then He prays for all of the rest of us. All of the rest of us who would come to faith in Him.

[9:00] Praying for you. Praying for me. And the main theme of this prayer, as we go along through it, the main theme of this prayer is glory.

[9:14] Glory is the main theme. And so the main idea for this morning's sermon is that Jesus prays for glory. Jesus prays for glory.

[9:26] Jesus' prayer is for glory. He prays that the Father would bring glory to Him. And bring His disciples who were with Him to glory. And bring all of the rest of us who believe in Him one day to glory.

[9:42] That's the driving thought throughout this prayer. It's glory. And so therefore, it is a glorious prayer. It is an intercessory prayer. It's a prayer that reminds us that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is ours in Jesus Christ, His Son.

[10:05] John MacArthur said of this prayer that it holds us until we stand before Him in heaven. So the first part of this prayer, verses 1 through 5, record Jesus' prayer for Himself.

[10:18] And His request is that He be restored to the glory that He had before He left heaven. When He added a human nature to His divine nature.

[10:31] He is praying for His own honor. For a return to what is rightfully His. After He's finished the work that the Father sent Him to accomplish. To die as an atoning sacrifice for sins.

[10:44] That by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive forgiveness for our sins and eternal life. He begins by praying for His own glory.

[10:56] So that when He's been glorified, He may bring many other daughters and sons into glory with Him. Look again at what request Jesus makes in verse 1.

[11:09] When Jesus had spoken these things, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and He said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.

[11:22] Now, when you hear that, you could have a thought in your mind. You could be wanting to ask a question.

[11:34] But if we're honest, none of us would dare speak this question aloud. You know what that question is? Is Jesus being selfish to pray in this way?

[11:45] Is Jesus being self-seeking to pray in this way? I thought Christians were supposed to be humble. You know, you and I would hopefully never think to pray in this way that Jesus does in verses 1 through 5.

[11:59] You know, if I had started this sermon with a prayer and I asked God to glorify me in it, then we would need to find another, or we'd have to put together another search team pretty soon.

[12:11] Would we not? Hopefully, He'd be gracious to at least give me an opportunity to repent. But we don't pray in that way because we shouldn't pray in that way, because we have no right to make such a request because we don't deserve to.

[12:26] We don't measure up to God's perfect standard. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short, way short of the glory of God.

[12:36] We have no righteousness in and of ourselves. Our righteousness comes from Jesus Christ. It's imputed to us at salvation, and we did nothing to deserve that salvation which we've graciously received.

[12:51] But Christ is worthy. He is worthy. He's not asking here for anything that He doesn't deserve or that He had no right to ask for.

[13:04] So Jesus is right to ask for this and notice His posture when He prays. His eyes are open and He's looking up to heaven.

[13:15] You know, we, when we pray, we often pray with our eyes closed and our heads down. Why do we do that? Well, I think it's because it's a physical action that reflects what the attitude of our hearts should be towards God.

[13:32] It's an act of worship. It's an act of reverence. It's an act of contrition. We don't have to pray with our heads down, but we often do because we feel the need to do so because of respect for God.

[13:47] And we acknowledge that He is a being greater, infinitely greater than us. And we need His mercy and forgiveness. But Jesus prays with His eyes open.

[14:01] And He prays with His head raised. He has nothing to be ashamed of. He has no sin to confess. He lived His earthly life sinlessly in submission to the Father's will.

[14:16] But as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, He enjoys equality with God as God. And that was something that He never gave up.

[14:27] So Jesus makes this request because He can. And He makes this request because He should. As He continues to pray, we are given two reasons why He should be the recipient of the glory that He asked for.

[14:43] Why He should be the recipient also of your utmost and highest and greatest praise. The first reason is this.

[14:54] Jesus deserves glory because of who He is. He deserves glory because of who He is. Again, Jesus prays. He says, And so Jesus begins by saying, And as we've gone through this gospel, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, we've repeatedly heard Jesus say, It's not my hour or my hour has not yet come.

[15:34] But now, according to God's sovereign and divine plan, the hour had finally arrived. What was that hour? It was the hour.

[15:48] The most crucial hour of all time in eternity. The hour upon which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, would shed His blood on the cross.

[16:01] The hour in which His work would be finished. What was that work? It was to become the sacrifice for sin. The application of which extends in two directions.

[16:17] From that moment, from that hour, to all who had believed by faith before the cross. And it stretches all the way future to those who would believe in Jesus Christ.

[16:32] All the sins of all of God's people, past, present, future, were atoned for by Jesus Christ in that hour.

[16:49] It was an hour that fulfilled God's divine design. An hour that He had foreordained from before the foundation of the world.

[17:00] As Galatians 4, 4-5 says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

[17:17] The time has arrived. This is the climax of redemptive history. It was the hour in which the power of the curse of sin would be broken. The veil in the temple would be torn.

[17:28] Access to God had been granted through Christ. And all of it occurred according to God's foreordained plan, as Peter testified to on the day of Pentecost.

[17:40] In chapter 2 of Acts, verses 22 and 23, men of Israel, he preaches to them, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him.

[17:53] In your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

[18:06] The King of glory would be nailed to a cross. He would be made sin for His people whom He loved. And there He would bear the righteous wrath of God for their sins.

[18:19] And when it happened, when that hour arrived, as Jesus hung dying on the cross, the sun refused to shine. The earth quaked in its disapproval, and the graves expelled their dead.

[18:34] There was no hour like that hour. To the disciples, though, the death of Jesus Christ in that hour seemed like a nightmare. Seemed like their worst fears had been realized.

[18:46] The cross was an instrument of shame, and Jesus died a brutal and shameful death as He hung, exposed, and unclothed before the watching eyes of His persecutors.

[18:59] Yet this shame was meant for glory. And Jesus saw the glory that He would receive and that He would give to the Father on the cross, despite its shame.

[19:14] Hebrews 12, 2 says, looking to Jesus, our model, our example in everything, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

[19:31] And so Jesus prays to the Father to bring Him to this hour, to take Him to the cross, to take Him to the borrowed tomb in which His body lay dead for three days, and then to take Him to heaven 40 days later as He ascended back to His rightful place, to take Him home, to take Him back to glory, to receive His rightful crown, to take His rightful place, having deserved it because of who He is and having completed His work.

[20:17] While others saw the hour as a tragic moment, Jesus knew the glory it would bring to Him, and He knew the glory that it would bring to His Father.

[20:30] And hasn't it brought Him glory? Hasn't it brought God the Father glory? How good and gracious and merciful and loving is our Heavenly Father that He would give to us His only begotten Son.

[20:45] How gracious, how good, how merciful and loving is the Son who would be willing to endure what He endured on the cross for you. How good and how gracious and how loving is the Holy Spirit who comes and indwells us and teaches us, instructing us, and helping us become more like Jesus Christ.

[21:09] And so Jesus prays here that He should receive glory because He is the one who's given His life, because He is the one who has authority over all flesh.

[21:22] He is the one who gives eternal life to all that the Father gives to Him. He left heaven beside to come to earth.

[21:36] He temporarily laid aside His heavenly place and authority so that He could become for us a suffering servant. Philippians 2, 5-11 says, Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant.

[22:00] Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[22:28] At His incarnation, the Son descended to earth. The Son descended by adding flesh to His deity, by becoming human, becoming like us.

[22:43] He humbled Himself even further as He became a servant. He was mistreated. He was rejected by His own people. He was unfairly tried and crucified by the Roman authorities.

[22:58] He who had life in Himself gave His life to give life. He impoverished Himself. He allowed men to touch Him, to manhandle Him, to mock Him, to place a crown of thorns upon His head, to drive nails into His flesh and kill Him.

[23:16] He gave His life to give us life. So, Jesus deserves glory because of who He is. John tells us who He is in His introduction of Him.

[23:30] Remember all the way back when we were in John chapter 1, verse 1? In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

[23:41] All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. So, who is Jesus, and why does He deserve glory?

[23:53] He is God. He preexisted as God with God. He is the author of life and the authority of all flesh. The one through whom everything is made.

[24:07] The one who continually holds all things together by His power. He is the one in whom there is life. He is the one who transfers us from death to life.

[24:19] From the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The one who receives all that the Father has given to Him, and He gives them eternal life.

[24:30] That phrase, all whom you have given me, appears seven times in this prayer. And so, if you are a believer, understand, it is because God gave you to Christ.

[24:44] Jesus didn't die to make salvation a possibility. He died to make it effective and certain for those whom the Father would give to Him. He died to make it and this is a truth that Jesus constantly made people aware of.

[25:02] Constantly. In a couple of places. In John chapter 6, for example, verse 37 and verse 44, all that the Father gives me, they will come to me. Certain. They will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

[25:17] That's certain speaking. No one, He says, can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will. I will raise him on the last day. Not that this might happen, this is going to happen.

[25:28] I will raise them on the last day. So Jesus says, I am worthy to return to glory that I had before because the glory belongs to me as the giver of physical and spiritual life.

[25:47] I give eternal life to all that the Father has chosen to give to me. And so the bottom line question is this. Do you or do you not trust in Christ alone for salvation?

[26:03] Are you trusting in Him and Him alone for your salvation? If you don't, then my hope is that today would be the day of salvation for you.

[26:16] That you would know how great of a Savior Jesus Christ is. That God will call you. You will come. You will be saved.

[26:29] That you will turn to Him. That you will trust in Christ. If you've trusted in Him already, then know that every sin, every sin that you have ever committed or will ever commit has been completely and totally and absolutely and absolutely atoned for.

[26:48] There is nothing less for you to do. You've done nothing to save yourself. You are the gracious recipient of eternal life.

[27:03] But what is eternal life? Jesus says in John 3 what it is. You know, we are creatures constrained by time, especially in our country.

[27:14] We're real big on time. Real big on scheduling. Real big on planning. We have clocks everywhere. Real big on time.

[27:26] But God is timeless. God exists outside of time. Time is His creation. He is not bound by time. He created it.

[27:38] He stands outside of time. Seeing all of time at once. In verse 3, Jesus says, this is eternal life.

[27:50] That they know you, God the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ. That they know me whom you've sent. Now we sing a song often here called 10,000 Reasons.

[28:03] 10,000 Reasons. And the lyric in that song is that we will be in heaven singing God's praises for 10,000 years and then forevermore.

[28:15] And I don't have a problem with that lyric because it helps me as a finite creature understand just how eternal eternity is. But listen.

[28:26] eternal life isn't so much about the quantity of life, about the quantity of time I should say, as it is about the quality of your existence.

[28:39] It's not so much about the quantity of time that you will have but the quality of your existence. Have you ever had a moment that was so good that you wished time would freeze?

[28:53] that it would just stop? I had one of these moments maybe a couple years ago when Danny and I took the kids down to the Spavanaugh River. And it was summertime but it was a cool summer day.

[29:10] Not too hot, not too cool. There's a nice breeze blowing through and Danny and I were down sitting on the bank with our feet in the water and our kids were playing and it was just such a great time.

[29:28] No problems, no worries. And I remember thinking if I could freeze this moment of time and live in it forever that would be good.

[29:41] That would be good. And now I know Danny is probably going to go home and plan our next trip to the Spavanaugh River. He's probably already taking notes.

[29:52] But listen, we can't do that. As much as we would want to, we can't do that. We don't have that power and even if we try to recreate those moments, there are so many variables that are outside of our ability to control that we cannot make that happen.

[30:13] We can't recapture those moments that we wish that we could freeze in time. But listen, eternal life is something like that but infinitely greater.

[30:27] And it's hard to understand. Eternal life is a continuous, everlasting moment of perfect knowledge of God, of perfect knowledge of Christ, of perfect peace with God and with one another, of perfect fellowship, of perfect love, an uninterrupted moment in which everything is as it should be.

[31:01] Can you imagine that? Let's go! Oh! We should imagine that. We should seek to imagine that all the time because, man, that makes me feel joyful.

[31:14] And listen, if you know Jesus Christ, you will. Not just imagine that, you will experience that forever and ever.

[31:31] And you will because of who Jesus Christ is. And you will secondly because of what He has done. Jesus deserves glory because of what He has done.

[31:46] He deserves glory because of who He is. He deserves glory because of what He has done. As He continues to pray, He says, I glorify You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.

[32:04] And you know what? I love how Jesus talks. I love how Jesus speaks. The cross hasn't happened yet, but He's so confident, He'll go.

[32:16] It will be hard going. We know that He'll have His moment in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweats drops of blood, but He still is going to go. He's going to go all the way.

[32:27] He's going to endure it all. He will accomplish the work. There's no doubt. And what was that work that the Father gave Him to do? Well, we've already been talking about it, to live a sinless life, to bear the cross, to be sin's curse, and to die.

[32:43] That work as a substitutionary sacrifice. He was condemned for our transgressions. He was pierced for our iniquities, and it's by His wounds that we are healed.

[32:56] He was forsaken for our reconciliation. Everything Jesus did on earth was done to glorify the Father. He was always talking about that. He was always talking about how whatever He did, He did it for the Father's glory.

[33:10] And you know what? The Father has answered this prayer because He would die. Later that day, He did die. The Lord of Lords, the King of Kings became the suffering servant, the one in whom all authority was given, was oppressed, and was afflicted.

[33:31] Yet He opened not His mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is before its shears is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

[33:41] He died willingly. He died owning nothing. People in this world make a game out of accumulating possessions. They think that the point of life is that He who dies with the most wins, but when Jesus died, all He had that we know of were the clothes that were on Him when He was tried, that He was stripped of, in which the Roman soldiers were gambling over at the foot of His cross.

[34:09] He had no money. He had no money to pay for His burial. It was His friends who claimed His body and wrapped it in linen and spices and placed it in a borrowed tomb.

[34:20] To the world, that seemed like a shameful end to what could have been a promising career, but not to us, because we know Christ, and because we know that wasn't the end, on the third day, on a Sunday, the tomb was empty.

[34:36] Sin, Satan, and death were defeated and after appearing to His followers over the course of 40 days, He ascended back to heaven, back to glory, back to His rightful place at the right hand of the Father where He is enthroned forever and where He currently lives to make intercession for you.

[35:00] And listen, after He's made this prayer for Himself, He spends the rest of the prayer, the majority of the prayer, praying for us, seeking the glory of those who the Father had given to Him.

[35:20] And listen, just as the first part of that prayer in verses 1 through 5 have been answered, He was glorified, He is glorified, He was glorified out of the grave, He was glorified in His ascension to heaven, He is glorified by being seated at the right hand of the Father.

[35:37] Just as all of those requests were answered, so will His requests that He's made for you and me be answered. Skip ahead and look at verse 24 in chapter 17.

[35:53] Hear this request, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given to 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.

[36:12] Nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of God which is yours eternally in Jesus Christ.

[36:25] Our King is a King who shares His glory. Human kings don't often do that.

[36:36] Our King gave up His life to give us life. Our King is a good King and there is no more glorious King than the King whom we have.

[36:48] And so, since this is who Jesus is, and since this is what Jesus has done, how then should we live our lives in light of that truth?

[37:01] Well, Christ is always our example, isn't He? Always. And as He's told us, in this life, there is a cross for you to bear, but then there is a crown for you to receive in the next life.

[37:18] Matthew 16, 24-25, Jesus, direct, plain speaking, forthright says, told His disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

[37:32] For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. See, it says there that the way is narrow and it's a crossed shape entrance.

[37:47] It is only through Christ that you can be saved. And being saved means that you acknowledge your sin. You repent of your sin. You see it as God sees it and you agree with Him and you turn from it and you confess that I can't do it.

[38:05] I can't save myself. I need Christ. I need the cross. I need His righteousness. We have no hope without Him.

[38:19] We need to be forgiven and we can't do it. We cannot save ourselves. Our ways end in death. Always.

[38:31] But faith in Christ is life. And you know what? He makes life worth living. Doesn't He?

[38:42] when you know Christ there is a cross to bear and there is suffering that comes along with that. But there's joy in that suffering isn't there?

[38:55] There is hope. When you know Christ your life makes sense. When you know Jesus Christ your life has purpose.

[39:08] When you know Jesus Christ no matter what you go through in this life and we go through some hard things. We know that we're not alone and we know that we have an intercessor and we know that we have the spirit and we know that we have eternal place with the Father forever in heaven.

[39:28] And so He makes this life worth living. It has a purpose. And so we like so many others who have come before us live this life bearing that cross knowing that one day it will end and then comes glory.

[39:52] Like what the Apostle Paul said he's late in his life. He's run the race. He knows that he's coming towards the finish line. And instead of looking back and having regrets over how he spent his life he's looking forward to what is about to happen next.

[40:08] Look at what he says to Timothy. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is not maybe I hope that it will be there. There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day.

[40:27] And look and listen and not only to me but to but also to all all who have loved his appearing.

[40:39] There is a cross to bear in this life and there is a crown to receive after it. And so the main application of this sermon is this live to glorify Christ.

[40:53] What else is worth your time? What else is worth your efforts than to do all that you do to the glory of your Savior Jesus Christ?

[41:08] Knowing that it's worth it. Knowing who he is. Knowing what he's done for you. There's no greater endeavor in life than to live our lives to glorify Christ.

[41:21] One of my heroes of the faith is Martin Lloyd-Jones who is a preacher of the early 19, mid 1900s. English pastor.

[41:32] He was a physician. He was a doctor. And he left that occupation to enter into ministry. He's a great preacher, great man of God.

[41:45] And when his life had come to its end, he could no longer speak. You know, the one who talked about preaching is logic on fire.

[41:57] One who preached these amazing sermons, he could no longer speak. People were gathered around him and he knew that they were praying for him to be healed. And listen what he wrote down.

[42:09] He wrote this down. Do not pray for healing. Do not hold me back from the glory. May that be the words that we echo when our time comes.

[42:23] Don't hold me back. God will know what is mine. I know who is there. I can't wait for it. I want it. Until then, we must live to glorify Christ.

[42:37] Four questions for application for our study groups tonight. Question number one. Glory is mentioned five times in these verses. How does the world define glory?

[42:51] And how does Scripture define glory? glory? Question number two. Why is Jesus Christ worthy of glory?

[43:03] In what ways can you and our church ensure that the glory we seek is not our own, but His? What can we do to ensure that all selfish, self-centered thoughts are absent from us and from our congregation?

[43:20] And question three. How does Jesus define eternal life in verse three? Is this definition different than what you've been taught?

[43:31] How does He define it? How is it different from what you've been taught? And then question number four. Jesus says that the ultimate display of God's glory is the cross and that He is glorified in its shame.

[43:44] What are the implications of that truth for believers today? What are the implications of that truth for believers today? Let's pray.

[43:59] Lord God, we are so thankful to know You, so thankful to be known by You, so thankful to know the salvation that we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ, so thankful to know, Lord, that in You there is reason always to be hopeful, reason always to be joyful.

[44:21] God, You deserve the glory. Forgive us, Lord, that so often the glory we seek is not Yours, but our own. Forgive us, Lord, that so often our thoughts are about how this affects me or impacts me or makes me look good to others, instead of first thinking about You and how we can live to give You the glory.

[44:43] So, God, I pray for me, I pray for every one of us that we would seek Your glory all the time in every situation and circumstance in life because, Lord, You are worthy and because, Lord, in You, You have made us heirs to an eternity that gives us chills to even try to think about.

[45:10] God, until that time when You bring us home to bask in Your glory, again, may we be diligently seeking to give You glory in all that You would have us to do because Jesus is worth it and Jesus is worthy.

[45:28]  It's in His name I pray. Amen. Amen.