Introduction:
Knowing His Prayer: What Jesus Wants for His Disciples (John 17:1-19):
- He wants you to be Authentic . (John 17:6-7)
- He wants you to be Protected . (John 17:11-16)
- He wants you to be Used . (John 17:17-19)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:54-00:59
Open up your Bibles with me please to John chapter 17.
01:01-01:01
Amen.
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John chapter 17, are you there?
01:05-01:15
You know, we're going to be talking about prayer for the next couple of weeks, and kids pray the darndest things, don't they?
01:17-01:23
I taught Pioneer Club for many, many years, and I was in charge of the whole program.
01:24-01:28
So because I was in charge of the program, I could choose which group I wanted to teach.
01:29-01:33
So I chose the third and fourth graders because I loved that age group.
01:35-01:37
And Pioneer Club, if you don't know, it's like a WANA.
01:37-01:44
It was like a Wednesday night kids program, kind of like a WANA with a little bit of like Boy Scout type stuff in it.
01:44-01:48
but there'd be Bible lessons and games and all of that.
01:48-01:54
But one of my favorite parts of the night was taking prayer requests from the kids.
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And if you have ever done any kind of kids ministry, you understand what I'm talking about, don't you?
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Kids have the greatest prayer requests.
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And Aaron and I still to this day talk about some of our favorites over the years.
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Remember the one time we started out, you know, all right, what can we pray for kids?
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And one kid, he goes, "I wanna pray that nobody gets bitten by a snake." And I'm like, "I am so on board with that." And all of God's people said, "Amen, amen." But then we had one kid, I'm not gonna mention names, he's like an adult now and he might be watching this stream.
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But I remember he says, "Yeah, I have a prayer request." I said, "Okay, who do we wanna pray for?" He said, "I wanna pray for the man "who was riding his bike in the flood." And I'm going to be honest with you, I didn't know what to pray for that guy.
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I'm like, "Are we praying for his safety?
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Are we praying for his bike?
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Are we praying that he gets where he's going?" I don't know what to pray for this guy.
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I was just at a loss and that's where I was kind of, you know, the Bible says the Holy Spirit, you know, prays with us in things we don't understand.
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I'm like, "Holy Spirit, you're going to have to take this one because I don't even know what to say about that." But probably my all-time favorite prayer request in Pioneer Club was this, we had this one little boy and he talked faster than my brain could process.
03:17-03:18
Do you know anybody like that?
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They say three sentences and your brain's still trying to process the first phrase of the first sentence.
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This kid was like that.
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And he went on this whole brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I really wanna pray for this cat because he got caught in the recliner three weeks ago.
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Like your cat got caught in the recliner three weeks ago.
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I said, "Is he okay?" He goes, "I don't know, he's still there."
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(congregation laughing)
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Yeah.
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But you know, there's something honest and innocent about that that I just love.
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And sad to say that, you know what happens to those kids?
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Sad to say they grow up to be people like us and you lose that honesty.
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You lose that innocence and you lose that straightforwardness in prayer.
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And as adults, we get kind of lame when it comes to praying.
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Honestly, we pray things like, "God be with me today." You don't got to pray that.
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If you belong to Jesus Christ, He's already promised, "I will never leave you or forsake you." I don't got to pray that.
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But I know He is.
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Can we please get a little more specific in our prayers?
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or we pray, "God bless grandma." Bless grandma how?
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Her health, give her a million dollars.
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We're like, what are we saying?
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Can we please pray a little more specifically?
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And sometimes, and look church, I can be guilty of this too.
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Sometimes our prayers sum total is just the sick list.
05:20-05:21
And I get why that is.
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And like I said, this happens to me because there's so many health needs that consumes our prayer time.
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And absolutely we should be praying.
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I have a good friend right now who's very sick and I've been praying nonstop.
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We should be praying for that, but sometimes that's all we pray for.
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And we don't get to kingdom matters.
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We don't get to spiritual matters.
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We don't get to eternity matters.
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Do you hear what I'm saying?
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And sometimes church, since we're being completely honest here, so many of our prayers revolve around me, right, me.
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God do this for me, God give this to me.
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And yes, we should be praying for ourselves, but again, sometimes like the sick list, it consumes our prayers.
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And for the next two weeks, we're gonna be in John 17, and I want you to see what Jesus prayed for.
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And I want us to learn how to pray for the same things that Jesus asked the Father for.
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And you're like, "Well, what did Jesus pray for?" It's easy, Jesus really only prayed for one thing.
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Prayed for one thing.
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He prayed for the Father's glory to be on display.
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That's what he prayed for.
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Specifically, Father's glory revealed, first of all, Jesus prayed for himself, but he prayed for the Father's glory to be on display through himself.
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He prayed for his disciples.
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He prayed for the Father's glory to be manifest through the disciples.
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And ultimately, in this prayer in John 17, do you know who Jesus prayed for?
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He literally prayed for you and for me, literally.
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So first of all, John 17, let's talk about Jesus' prayers for Himself.
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Again you're going to see, even though He was praying for Himself, these were not self-seeking prayers.
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Verse 1 it says, "When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, 'Father, the hour has come.
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your Son that the Son may glorify you." Jesus says it's time.
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"Father, I'm asking that you glorify me for the purpose of glorifying you." What does it mean to glorify?
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It just means Jesus is saying, "God, manifest your presence." Jesus is saying, "God, show them who you are." And when Jesus said, "The hour has come, the hour's here," He's talking about the cross.
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And we've talked about this before.
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Never in all of history was God's character more on display than when Jesus Christ was on the cross.
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That's what Jesus is praying about here.
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When you look at Jesus on the cross, What you see is God's love.
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I love you so much that I'm willing to let my son die on your behalf.
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And at the same time, you see God's hatred for sin.
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Sin is so wicked and your rebellion is so nasty that there has to be payment and my son is going to pay.
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You see the attributes of God perfectly on display on the cross.
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That's what Jesus is praying here.
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He says, "God, show them who you are.
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Show them!
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Two reasons the Son is glorified.
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Jesus goes on to pray.
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He says, "Glorify me that I can glorify you." Why is Jesus glorified?
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Two reasons.
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Who He is and what He's done.
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First of all, who He is.
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Look at verse 2.
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Verse 2, Jesus said, "Since you have given Him," meaning the Son, Jesus, "Since you have You've given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him." This is the who.
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Why is the Son glorified?
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Because He is the one who has all authority.
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Jesus rules over all.
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He's been given the name that is above all names.
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And this verse kind of sounds like the Great Commission, right?
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Jesus said before He sent the disciples out, "All authority in heaven and on earth "has been given to me," Matthew 28, right?
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Specifically here, Jesus is talking about the authority to give eternal life.
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How would you define that?
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Somebody says, "Hey, what's eternal life?" How would you describe that?
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How would you define it?
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I think for a lot of us, we define it in terms of time.
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Eternal life is living forever.
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You know, eternal is just never ending.
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We define in time, and for some people we define it as a place.
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Eternal life is being in heaven, and Jesus defined eternal life as relationship.
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Look at verse three.
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Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, "that they know you." The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
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Jesus said eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus.
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That's the theme of this whole three year series that we're on by the way, knowing Jesus.
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You notice there's a line through the word about because as a church, we wanna grow from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus.
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Like what's the difference?
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Everything.
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There's a huge difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus.
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You know, for somebody that's visiting this church for the first time, I could right now give you a list of factoids about my wife, Erin.
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I could just give you a list of things about her and you could write them down, and when you left here, you would know some things about my wife, but you wouldn't know her.
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You see, that's relationship, that's connection, and that's what Jesus is talking about here.
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He said eternal life is coming into relationship with God.
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When that happens through him, it's knowing God.
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Jesus points out that it's not possible to know God except through Jesus, right?
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So Jesus is glorified because of who he is.
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He's the one with all authority.
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He has the authority to grant eternal life.
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And he's glorified by what he does.
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Look at verses 4 and 5.
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Jesus said, "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
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And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence.
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With the glory that I had with you before the world existed." Jesus glorified God by his life.
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He finished the work.
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Did you see that?
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Jesus said, "I accomplished the work," verse four, "that you gave me to do." Jesus is talking about the cross like it's already a done deal.
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There's no backing out, there's no turning around, there's no changing your mind.
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Jesus said, "I'm here and I've done everything "and will do everything that you've called me to, "it's over." Jesus here is saying, "I'm finishing up the work "that you gave me, Father, and I'm ready to come home." The prayer then shifts to the disciples, to specifically here what we're looking at today, the 11, right?
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Because Judas left.
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But you're going to see very clearly here, there are principles in this passage, not just for these disciples, but for these disciples and for the disciples that are streaming and watching this on the internet.
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The disciples are going to be watching this later.
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There are principles here for all disciples.
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And I want us to look at this section of prayer from Jesus.
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By the way, this is the only extended prayer of Jesus we have written in the Bible, by the way.
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But I want us to look at this prayer, and I want us to do two things as a result of looking at this.
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First of all, we should be in awe of the things that God prayed for.
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Because make no mistake, this is God praying.
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So not only should we be in awe, but I want this to move us to pray for the things that Jesus prayed for.
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If Jesus thought these things were so important, the hours before His arrest and crucifixion and all that went with that.
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This was Jesus' last opportunity to really get before the Father and pray, and he thought this is what matters.
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So I would suggest to you, church, if this mattered to Jesus in this hour, it should matter to us.
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And we should take a hard look at the things that move God to pray.
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Right?
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So in your outline, knowing his prayer, what Jesus wants for his disciples, that's what we're going to see here, and these are the things that we need to be praying about, church.
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What Jesus wants for His disciples, number one, write this down, He wants you to be authentic.
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Look at verses 6 through 10.
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Jesus said, as He continued to pray, "I have manifested Your name to the people whom You have given Me out of the world.
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they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word.
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Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You.
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For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent Me.
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I'm praying for them.
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I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you've given me, for they are yours.
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All mine are yours and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
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Stop there.
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First thing you see, Jesus is praying for his disciples.
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Then, now, he wants his disciples to be authentic.
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Notice, Jesus referred to the disciples as those you gave me.
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That phrase comes up seven times in this passage.
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That Jesus makes it very clear, "Father, you gave them to me." When Jesus makes a very clear distinction here, Jesus says, "I'm praying for my disciples.
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"I'm not praying for the world." And somebody would look at this and be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
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"Are you trying to tell me "that Jesus doesn't care about the world?
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"I'm not saying that at all." Of course he does.
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But this prayer is laser focused, okay?
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This one is laser focused.
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He's praying for authentic disciples.
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Like, well, what's that?
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What is an authentic disciple?
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We notice Jesus didn't pray for church goers.
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Jesus didn't pray for part-time pretenders.
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Jesus didn't pray for those who made some sort of profession.
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Jesus marked a true disciple by one thing.
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Look at verse 6 again.
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He says, the end of verse 6, "They have kept your word." Jesus, that's how you identify a true believer.
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They keep God's word.
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And you're like, "Ahh, hang on, hang on, hang on Jeff, hang on, hang on.
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You might have forgotten this, but I haven't, but last week you did a whole sermon that our walk with Christ is faith-based, not performance-based.
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And now you're saying a true believer is one who keeps God's Word.
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And I still stand by everything I said last week.
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Your faith is not performance-based.
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But a true disciple by definition of being born again has been transformed.
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And what transforms in a true disciple is your appetites and desires.
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None of us are perfect, but you should have this desire and appetite to keep God's Word.
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A true believer has this attitude, to say, "God, Your Word is true, Your way is right, You provided wisdom, I want to honor You.
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I want to live this life that You gave me, this life that You saved, I want to live it in a way that honors You." That's what a true believer says.
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"Oh, I know I'm not going to do it perfectly.
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I'm going to mess up.
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I'm going to struggle, but God, I have this desire to keep your Word, to grow." That's a true believer.
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It's not about perfection, it's about direction.
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And if you're sitting here today and you're like, "Well, it's not performance-based, and I really don't have any desire to know God's Word and to keep God's Word," well, then you don't know.
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That's just all there is to it.
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You don't know Him.
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If Jesus Christ hasn't changed you, then He hasn't saved you, and you don't know Him.
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If you don't see this radical change to want to know and honor God in all things, if you don't see spiritual growth, if you're not striving to honor God's Word, if you're not looking to see like, "How can I incorporate God's wisdom in the home, in the workplace, my neighborhood, how can I live the way God has outlined in His Word?" If that's not you, then you aren't a true disciple.
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That's why the Bible refers to our life in Christ over and over and over.
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The Bible calls it a walk.
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Your walk with Christ.
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Why does the Bible call it a walk?
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We talk about this in the membership class, because a walk implies a couple of things.
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One, a walk implies intentionality, right?
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If you're going to take a walk, that doesn't happen by accident.
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You have to think, "I'm going to stand up and I'm going to move one foot in front of the other." That's an intentional choice.
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So it is with Christ.
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It is an intentional choice.
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I'm going to walk.
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But walking also shows progress over time.
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Right?
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I mean, this isn't rocket science.
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Walk is I'm here, now I'm walking, and now I'm here.
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And a walk shows progress over time.
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Like, you know, a few seconds ago I was there, and now I am here.
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That's how it is in your walk with Christ.
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Spiritual maturity.
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To say, "You know, when I first came to Christ, I was there.
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And I didn't understand a lot, and I was immature in a lot of ways, but I can see how far Christ has brought me, and look where I am now, and here's where I'm heading, and by God's grace, I'm going to get there." But you should be able to see progress over time in your spiritual growth.
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That's why it's called a walk.
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"What's that look like?" Well, Jesus tells us in verse 8, look at verse 8 again real quick with me, please.
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Jesus said, "For I've given them," this is how it works, "For I've given them the words that you gave me, and they've received them.
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Come to know the truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me." Did you see all the elements?
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The word is given, the word is received, the word is believed, and that changes your life.
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That's how it works.
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That's authentic.
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So your view of God's Word honestly tells me everything anybody needs to know about you.
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Your view of God's Word says everything about you.
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Because according to Jesus, the number one characteristic of a disciple in this prayer, he says, "They have kept your Word.
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They've received it, they believe it, and they've kept it, and they're yours, and you gave them to me." So I would just ask church, can we agree with Jesus in prayer for authentic disciples that glorify Him?
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You one of them?
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That's something we should be praying about.
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Authentic disciples glorifying Christ.
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Number two, knowing His prayer, what Jesus wants for His disciples, write this down, He wants you to be protected.
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He wants you to be protected.
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Look at verse 11.
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Jesus goes on in His prayer.
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He says, "And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm coming to you.
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Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
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While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.
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I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
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You know who he's talking about there, right?
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You know who he's talking about.
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Talking about Judas, right?
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Judas was never really on board.
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Jesus said, "I've kept everybody "except the one that didn't want kept." Verse 13, he goes, "But now I'm coming to you.
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In these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
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I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.
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Just as I am not of the world, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
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They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.
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Stop there.
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Like, what's Jesus saying?
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He's saying a lot.
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But the overall thing that Jesus is praying for in that section is just simply this, church.
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He wants you protected.
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You see that?
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Verse 11 to 12, he says, "Keep them as I kept them when I was here." Protect them.
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Why, Jesus?
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Why are you so concerned about protection?
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He tells us in verse 14, he says, "The world hates them." And verse 15, "The evil one is after them." So he says, "Holy Father, keep them." Now certainly, we have our responsibility, right?
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We don't just walk in the world stupidly, like, "I can do whatever I want because God's going to protect me." Like we're not stupid, right?
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The Bible is clear that we have our responsibility.
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The Bible says things like, "We are not unaware of the devil's schemes," right?
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The Bible says things like, "Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves," right?
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But whether we face insults or we face imprisonment or we face death, we're on the path to glory and God is going to make sure that we get there.
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And that's why Jesus here is praying for the disciples to be kept by the Father.
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He's like, "I was here and I looked after them "and I guarded them because I'm coming to you.
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"So I'm handing them over to you.
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"Watch after them." That's what he's praying.
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Jesus does pray a negative here though, doesn't he?
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Verse 15, he prays, "Don't take them out of the world." Jesus said, "Don't take them out of the world." And I read that and I'm like, "Come on, man.
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Like, the world's dangerous.
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And Jesus, if you really love me, shouldn't you keep me away from these people that absolutely hate you because they are gonna hate me by default then?
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I mean, didn't you say we're gonna be sheep among wolves?
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Wouldn't it be better?" Like, you know, God's never asked my opinion on anything.
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Unsolicited, but wouldn't it be better if like once somebody got saved, born again, child of God, he was like, "All right, you're coming to heaven." That would be fantastic.
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He doesn't do that.
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So, why are we still here, right?
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If He saved us and we have eternal life, we're heading to heaven, why are we still here?
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We're here to put His glory on display in a lost world.
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We're here to show a dying world the glories of Jesus Christ and 2 Corinthians 5 calls it the ministry of reconciliation.
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That's why we're here.
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We're still here because God wants to use us to lead more people to Jesus Christ.
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That's why we're still here.
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We can't do that in heaven.
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People ask me all the time, what's heaven gonna be like?
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What are we gonna do in heaven?
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What are we gonna look like in heaven?
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What are we gonna do?
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What about that song that says, there's a big yard, we're gonna play football.
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You think that's true?
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And what are we gonna do in heaven?
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And well, the Bible says a lot of things, but I know for a fact there's one thing we won't do in heaven and that's evangelize.
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And I know that if there's an unemployment line in heaven, I'll be in it, hoping for a STEMI from God.
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I'm not going to have a job.
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The worship team will.
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They were smart to jump on that bandwagon early, right?
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Like, yeah, we'll still be playing in heaven, worshiping the King.
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I didn't think this through 20 some years ago.
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Like this job is only for here.
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Like it's awesome to tell people about Jesus and how he can save you and change you and watch God transform somebody.
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That's awesome.
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But you realize I'm like 15 minutes away from the unemployment line and that's hard.
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So, for the little bit of time that I have to do it, I guess we'll do it hard, right?
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We will do the heck out of it while we have opportunity.
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But that's why we're still here.
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Evangelism.
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Jesus prayed in this prayer, he reminded us we're not of this world.
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We're citizens of heaven.
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So while we're in the world, It's our job to bring heaven to the world.
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So I just want to ask you, church, can we agree with Jesus in prayer for God's protection as we seek to glorify Him?
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That's something Jesus prayed for.
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Shouldn't we be praying for that?
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God protect us.
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Look, the world hates us.
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Have you noticed?
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The world hates us.
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Protect us.
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There is an enemy of your soul that would love nothing more than to see you shipwreck your faith, walk away from your family, destroy your testimony, get the world laughing at the church.
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There's an enemy of your soul that would love that.
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He's out to get you, like a lion, right?
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Shouldn't we be praying for protection?
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That's what Jesus prayed for.
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Let's agree with Jesus in prayer.
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He wants you protected.
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And finally, He wants you to be used.
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He wants you to be used.
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Now, when I say used, I don't mean like a used car.
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I mean He wants you to be used by God.
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He wants you, maybe a better word is usable.
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Maybe that's a better word.
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We'll look at verses 17 through 19, and we're going to end with these few verses here today.
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Jesus said, "Sanctify them in the truth.
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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 also may be sanctified in truth." And you're like, "Well, there's a couple of unfamiliar words here.
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Sanctified, consecrate, can you explain those?" Well, yes.
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It's the same word actually in the Greek.
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And it just simply means this.
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Sanctified consecrate.
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to be set apart for an intended use. That's what it means. You're set apart for an intended use. When we were kids, I remember this one afternoon in particular, we have a younger brother and this is how far back it goes, he was just old enough to crawl, okay? And it was this, I think, Saturday and my father took a nap on the couch. When I say took a nap it wasn't one of those little 20-minute twilight things, it was on his side, mouth open, you know the ones I'm talking about? You guys take naps like that? Because I sure do. You know what I'm talking about? Just mouth wide open. Our younger brother was just old enough to crawl. And I don't know whose job it was to watch him. It wasn't mine.
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We'll say our sister, right? Because she's not here to defend herself. Okay, it's probably our sister's job to watch him. So what our younger brother did, he crawled into the bathroom and he got the toilet brush.
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And he took that toilet brush and he crawled out to the living room.
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And he saw dad sleeping.
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And he had that toilet brush.
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And he put two and two together.
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I saw mom cleaning with this.
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And he shoved that toilet brush in dad's mouth.
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And started brushing his teeth with it.
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How would you like to wake up that way?" That is a true story everywhere.
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I got a witness.
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I got a witness.
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So we had to lovingly remind him, "That's not what that's for." That was something that for sure was set aside for an intended and specific use.
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That's sanctified.
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And you're like, "Wow, that was the best illustration you could come up with, wasn't it?" Hang on.
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It's like the chair you're sitting in.
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You know that chair you're sitting in right now?
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We set that there for you to sit in it.
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You're using it right now for its intended use.
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It was put there for that reason.
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So you could say that that chair is sanctified.
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You know the guitar?
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We could say this guitar is sanctified.
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It's set aside for an intended use.
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I mean, wouldn't you think it was stupid if you came in and I was hammering in nails with the guitar?
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You're like, "That's not what that's for.
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That has a specific use.
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That's why it's set aside.
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Now we're getting the idea of what it means to be sanctified.
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You're set aside because I've got something very specific I want to do with this, right?
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Jesus here is saying in verse 19 that He was consecrating or sanctifying Himself.
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What was He talking about?
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He was talking about the cross.
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Jesus said, "This is why I'm here.
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I was set aside for this.
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I am the only one who's qualified to do this.
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The only sinless one who can pay the penalty for the sin.
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The only one who is God in the flesh who can offer a sacrifice that's effective for all who will believe.
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I'm the only one who can do this.
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I was set aside for this, and that's why I'm here.
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That's why Jesus said, "I'm consecrating myself." God, this is why I'm here.
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I'm not getting distracted in other things.
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I'm here for this.
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This is why I'm here.
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For us, we too are consecrated.
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We too are sanctified.
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You're like, "For what?" It's for reflecting God's character and accomplishing God's will.
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That's why you're saved.
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That's why you're set apart.
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And that's what God wants to do through you.
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God wants to show the world what He's like through you.
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God wants to accomplish some kingdom things in the world through you.
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That's what it means to be sanctified, to recognize that I am set apart for this.
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I don't get involved in the meaningless, stupid world things because God set me aside for eternal kingdom things.
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That's sanctified, and that's what Jesus is praying for.
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Like, "Oh, oh man, Jeff, oh, that's awesome.
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That's awesome that God would want to do that, but like how?
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What does that look like?
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Yeah, yeah, what does that look like?
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Do we know what that looks like?
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Do we know what sanctification is?
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If only God would show us what sanctification really looks like.
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Like hypothetically, what if God wrote it all down in a book?
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Hypothetically.
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Like God, he gets a book and in this book he says, like, here's who I am and this is the character of me that you're to reflect.
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And this is what my kingdom's about and this is what you're gonna do.
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Like, oh, wouldn't it be really cool if he wrote that down and had it in like a book?
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I bet you that book would sell a lot.
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And I bet you that book would be so popular, they'd probably stick it like in the drawers of hotels.
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Could you imagine?
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Well, that's exactly what Jesus was talking about, right?
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Look at verse 17 again.
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He said, "Sanctify them in the truth." Like, whose truth?
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Look at the next phrase.
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It should be highlighted in your Bible, every Bible, every Bible here highlighted.
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Somebody will be at the door to check.
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Look at this phrase, "Your word is truth." We are set apart by the truth.
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It is God's Word that sanctifies and unifies God's people.
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That's why at this church we are so serious about the Word of God.
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That's why Harvest Bible Chapel, Bible is our middle name.
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Because the Word of God is the means by which we are equipped to be set apart from the world.
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Because this book establishes our character.
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These are the things that I'm about.
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These are the things that I value.
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The world doesn't define those things for me.
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God defines those things for me.
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And it is through this book that we are set apart in our identity.
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This is who I am.
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This is who Jesus says I am.
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This is what He saved me to be.
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This is what He is making me be.
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This is how God is conforming me into the image of His Son.
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This is how my mind is being renewed.
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It is through this.
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So I find my identity in what God says I am.
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I don't find my identity in what the world says I am.
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That's what it means to be sanctified by the truth.
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It comes from the Word.
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This book defines what our mission is.
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What am I to spend my time doing?
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Look, we're only here for a little bit.
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What are you spending your time doing?
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We have a mission to take the love and the word of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.
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And oh, what incredible wisdom that God would give us an objective source of truth.
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Thy word is truth, right?
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What wisdom?
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Because if we didn't have the Bible, we'd just all be sitting around, "This is what I think is true.
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"Oh, that's interesting.
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I think something completely different is true.
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Well, here's what I think the church should be doing.
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Here's what I think the church should be doing." That's why we should be sitting around doing that all the time.
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But God gave us this so that we don't have to do that.
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Like, look, we know what God said.
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We know what our character is to be.
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We know what our mission is to be because God wrote it down.
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That's why Jesus said to the Father, "Sanctify them, set them apart.
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And the truth, your word is the truth.
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God wants to use you.
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And the mission couldn't be more important because there's eternal souls at stake.
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So for those of us who are entrusted to carry out the mission, which is all disciples, Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified or set apart by his word.
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By the way, remember earlier in verses nine and 10, Jesus said, "I'm not praying for the world." When it comes to evangelism and praying evangelistic prayers in the Bible, we have a very clear pattern in the New Testament.
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Jesus very specifically said here, "I'm praying for the people "that I'm sending to reach the world.
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I'm not praying for the world.
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And so often when we pray evangelistic prayers, we pray for the lost person, right?
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I pray that Tim comes to know Jesus.
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I pray that so-and-so would come to know Jesus.
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And look, it's great to pray that way.
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I'm just saying that's not the New Testament pattern.
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It's just not.
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You don't see that in the New Testament.
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Pray for Epaphroditus to come to the knowledge of the Lord.
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Pray that Phoebe repents from her sins.
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You don't see that, but do you know what you see every time?
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Every time you pray for the workers, you pray for the one bringing the message, pray to the Lord of the harvest to bring, you know, to put workers in the field.
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Paul so often said, "Pray for us that we may have boldness." Right, over and over and over, and here again you see it.
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Jesus couldn't make it more clear.
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I'm not praying for the world.
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I'm praying for the people that I'm sending out.
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That's who I'm praying for.
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So church, we don't see pray the lost gets saved, we always see pray for the messengers to take the message to lost people.
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Jesus made it clear how to pray for the messengers to be used, sanctified in the truth to be sent out into the world.
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Right?
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So can we agree with Jesus in prayer for God's word to equip us to carry out his mission?
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Shouldn't we be praying for that?
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If Jesus thought it's such a worthy thing to pray that His Word would set us apart for His mission, I think that's something the church needs to spend more time praying about.
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I just want to close as the worship team comes up.
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I don't know what else to do at this point except to close our time here in the Word by praying for these things that Jesus thought was important to pray over.
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And we commend you to do the same, to make these things part of your prayer.
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Would you bow with me please?
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Father, as we bow before you, we thank you for the privilege of prayer.
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And so often, Father, we just pray it safe.
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Maybe we're afraid that we pray too specific, you won't answer, and we'll be disappointed.
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Or maybe we don't really believe that you have the power to do what you promised to do.
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I don't know, God, but I pray for those of us who have struggled in prayer that Jesus' example would motivate us and direct us and get us laser focused as He was.
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Here Father in this passage we see your Son hours away from a horrific death and you've given us unique insight to see the things that He's praying for.
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And Father, as a congregation, we just want to come together right now and pray for those same things.
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Father, I pray for authentic disciples that glorify your name.
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Father, I pray for us as a church that we are known as a people who keep your Word, that we have received it and we believe it, that we are people that are constantly striving to be the people that you've called us to be.
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Father, we know it's not performance-based, but Father, we are fools to think that we can navigate through life in our wisdom when you've given us your wisdom.
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So Father, we pray for authenticity, that we are people who are known, not just for our profession of faith, but for our conduct as children of God.
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Father, like Jesus, we want to pray for protection for your people.
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We live in a world that is becoming less and less shy about showing their hatred for you.
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Less and less shy for showing their hatred towards your people.
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We know the enemy's prowling around like a roaring lion.
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Father, there's just danger all around us.
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I pray for your protection as Jesus did.
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Father, I pray that you would keep us.
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Protect your people.
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Father, I pray that your word would equip us for carrying out your mission.
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Jesus said that your truth sanctifies us, and he's sending us into the world the way that you sent him into the world.
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And that is such a weighty statement.
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He's sending us as you sent him.
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Father, I pray that you would set us apart for your intended use.
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That that flows from the authenticity, and it happens in the context of your protection.
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But God, use us.
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Father, we thank You for what You've done, and I thank You ahead of time for the things that You are going to do.
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We trust You.
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We love You.
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We praise you in the glorious name of your Son, Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 17:1-19
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think many Christians' prayer list is mainly for physical illnesses? Why don't many Christians pray for spiritual / Kingdom matters?
Why ISN'T Jesus praying for the world (John 17:9)? Why is Jesus' prayer focused on disciples? What does this say about how we should pray?
Since Jesus prayed for protection for us, why do so many disciples experience hardships? What exactly was Jesus praying for when He asked the Father to “keep us” (John 17:11)?
Breakout
Pray for the 3 things Jesus prayed for disciples: that we would be authentic, protected, and used by God.