The Prayer Of A Pastor

Church Anniversary | February 1, 2026

Pastor Ralph S. Emerson

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

You were married, you had a family. How did you balance that? I tell them, really, there's no such thing as balance. And people want to know this because this is what they know that you can find yourself so engulfed in one place that you completely neglect the other. That your attention in one area can cause adversity in another place. You know, you're so caught up with the kids your marriage suffers. That both things need attention, but here it is, they just need attention differently in different seasons. What I have discovered is that we have to learn how to have healthy tension. There's a difference between pressure and tension. Pressure is an external force trying to move you, but tension comes from the inside. Tension is internal. Where pressure wants to move you, tension is designed to stabilize you. Why would I talk about this? Because our text is written to express tension. It is the tension that exposes that Jesus is both human and divine. That the Gospel of John is written to deal with the difficulty of this reality. That there is tension, there is conflict among these people in the Jewish community about Jesus. Some believed he was God and others did not. And John, after reading everybody else's gospel, says, let me step in for a second. Let me write my letter to make sure that you know that Jesus, yes, is fully man, but he's also fully God. That Jesus is the God man. He's God and He's man. And here's what I believe today that in the church culture today, we so easily focus on Jesus as God. We love Jesus' godness. We love his miracles and his ability to hear thoughts and his power and his transfiguration and his resurrection. But we miss the magnitude and the magnificence of his manhood. That as a man, he lived and walked and breathed on this earth. As a man, he wept and ate and suffered and partied. As a man, he got angry and flipped tables and had compassion. As a man, he lived just like we did. And in our text, Jesus transitions from talking to the disciples about him, that's divinity, to talking to the Father about them, that's humanity. He transitions from trying to expose to them the Savior of the world to actually being a shepherd for them. He moves from being just God over them to the pastor who loves them. Here it is, John 17. If you didn't know, it's classified as the high priestly prayer. It is a pastoral prayer. It is believed to be the prayer that Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is the detailed prayer of Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and Luke 22. And this prayer is where Jesus moves from just simply being a powerful presence above them to being a priest and pastor who is with them. And he is emphasizing the importance of prayer. Here's my my my issue. We like prayers about the pastor. We're familiar with prayers about the pastor. We pray about how a pastor handles his ministry and his money. We pray about his integrity and his family. We pray about his messages or maybe even his mess. You pray about the pastor to hear right and to see right and to live right and to do right. You you love the prayers from the pastor to you. You love the prayer at the hospital from him. You love the prayer in the counseling session from him, you love the prayer at the funeral home in the courthouse. We love to pray about them. We love the prayer we get from them, but I suggest Jesus says that you've got to listen to the prayer of the pastor. The prayer of a pastor's heart. That this is a prayer that Jesus praised for his church, for his 12 men that he loved and covered and taught. That this is not a prayer for the people that Jesus wanted to reach. This is a prayer for the people Jesus had already received. It was a prayer from a shepherd for his sheep. It was a prayer that the scripture teaches us that he sweat drops of blood for in Luke 22. This is a prayer that was painful in his heart to pray. And here's my issue with the prayer that if it is true, that if this is the details of the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, then the church will sleep on the prayer. My issue is that Jesus is praying and they're asleep, so they miss the entire prayer. And maybe, can I mess with you for a minute and ask you, are you struggling right now because you missed the prayer? And maybe your family isn't where you need it to be because you missed the prayer. Maybe your money isn't how it needs to be because you missed the prayer. Maybe you would see something different in your marriage if you paid attention to the prayer. So I want us to unpack the prayer just for a few minutes because I can hear you asking, what did he pray? You ask good questions. Here it is. This is what he prays. He first prays that the disciples would stay. He prays that they would stay in the world. John 17, 11, he says, I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. In verse 15, watch what he says. And my prayer is not that you take them out of the world. It is like when my daughter, my daughter, she she's nosy. She likes to eavesdrop on her mama and daddy at a point that it's annoying. And we'll sit down, we'll be having conversations, we'll be trying to plan a vacation. Babe, do you want to go here this year? Where do you want to go? And oh, we can do this and do that. And here she comes. Oh, well, this is what I want to do. And we have to tell her, that's good, babe, but you're gonna have to stay. You you'll be with granny. We're going someplace else, but you'll have to stay here. Jesus wants them to stay, and he wants them to stay in the world. If that's not insult to injury, you're leaving me. You're leaving me, and then you're gonna tell me I got to stay in the world. And please understand that word stay in the Greek means to not be removed from location or state. It is about a mental and emotional and a physical disposition. Why, Jesus, if you're my pastor, why, Jesus, if you love me, would you tell me to stay? Okay, let me see if I can if I can help you. Uh uh, I'm lactose intolerant real bad. I I cannot do dairy at all. I can cook with it a little bit, but I cannot consume raw dairy, and I'm allergic to cheese. However, cheese is processed, I cannot eat it. I'm allergic to cheese. My family knows this. They hate it because lasagna went out the window. They want to eat pizza, I can't eat pizza. I never forget it was a couple months ago. My daughter wants to order a pizza. She comes to me, Dad, we're gonna eat pizza. Baby, I can't eat it. This is what we're gonna do, Dad. We just gonna take all the cheese off the pizza. I looked at her and I said, no. She said, why not? I said, I don't want tomato paste bread. Tomato paste, meat, bread, I'd rather make spaghetti. If I'm gonna have tomato paste and meat, let's boil some noodles. Let's have spaghetti. She said, no, take the cheese off. Watch. I said, no, because if you take the cheese off, it's no longer pizza. If I take the cheese off the pizza, the pizza no longer is any good. You're not hearing what I'm saying. Christ's community, what good is the world if you leave it? What good is the world if you get removed from it? And Jesus prays that you would stay, that as a church, you would stay in the community and in the world, because the world cannot be better if you're not in it. He's praying that you would stay to make the world better than what it is. Not to just sit here, but to help transform what you see. Because the prayer is for us to take what we have learned and apply it where we go, because what good is it to call yourself change if nothing around you is changing? God changed us so that you could change it. You say you are a believer. My question to you then is does your behavior align with that belief? I understand that you might have issues in the state house and the white house and even your house. But if you say you're a believer, then you need to stop complaining about the culture and activate the gifts God put inside of you and do something about it. Can I really say this? That maybe if the real housewives of the church live differently than the real housewives of Potomac, we might see something. The Lord is asking that you would stay. That you would stay faithful to what he's called you to, that you would stay faithful to the word of God, that you would stay faithful to serving and giving and loving, that you would stay in the fight and say, until he returns, God, I'll do what you've called me to do. That you would stay. Here's the second thing he prayed. He prayed that you would be safe. The pastor's heart, I believe this is your pastor's heart. That he that they would pray that you would be safe. That you would be safe from trouble. Let's keep reading verse 11. John 17, verse 11. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. Verse 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, here it is, but that you protect them from the evil one. As a man, as a pastor, as a priest, Jesus prays for the disciples' protection because pastors long for the people to be protected. It is a protection from evil. This word protect it means to be guarded, to be kept, to be protected from injury. Here's what Jesus knows: I'm leaving you in something you'll need help with while you're there. He says, So while they are in it, Father, protect them from succumbing to it. Meaning, right? That I'm in the world, not of it. Keep them while they are here. Now, here it is. Let's go to the deep end of the pool. Two types of protection are needed based on these circumstances. Why would Jesus pray for protection? Here it is. Watch, remember this that Jesus as a man is representative of the second Adam. The first Adam messed up. Jesus is the epitome of humanity because he is the second Adam. So if he's leaving them, he understands what happened the last time man was left to themselves. So he's praying that the Father would protect them. Two things he's praying for. Here's the first one that they would have fortitude in the midst of temptation. That they have fortitude in the midst of temptation. Why? Because in the garden, Eve was tempted by the serpent. She was tempted into deception, meaning the fruit looked good and was pleasing to the eye. And Jesus knew if we're gonna stay here, the issue will be when the world offers some things that look better than what he offered to us. That Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4, here's what happened: that Satan tempted Jesus to try to take a better offer. Can I talk to you for a second Christ community? That here's why relationships struggle, because when you're going through, you thought, oh girl, was a better offer. The reason why companies suffer is because employees don't like to be challenged. They're always looking for a better offer. The reason why churches are suffering and dying is because people don't want to serve anymore. I just want to go where everybody else is going because it looks like a better offer. The reason why you're broke is because those shoes and them J's and that purse and those video games look like a better offer than your budget. The reason why you're unhealthy is that Popeyes looks like a better offer than that broccoli. You gotta be careful that you always wanna take a better offer. The world is a tempting place, and Jesus says, Hear me, Christ community, that even after 27 years, you gotta have fortitude. You gotta have fortitude in the midst of temptation, because temptation isn't the sin giving into it is, though. Fortitude tells temptation that when I see you coming, I know how to run. You some somewhere you gotta have a Genesis 39 kind of anointing that Joseph is in Potiphar's house, and here comes Miss Potiphar, and she got all of the right things to say. Oh, you fine, Joseph. Oh, you look good, Joseph. My husband isn't here, Joseph. It's just me and you, Joseph, and the Bible says that he runs naked. Meaning he was willing to leave everything he valued so he would not fall into that sin. You gotta learn how to have fortitude in temptation. Here's the other thing when Jesus says protect them, he also understands that you need a fortress in the midst of trouble. You need a fortress in the midst of trouble because Eve has bitten the fruit, but Houston, we have a problem because now she offers it to Adam. Trouble is flashing red in his face. And if we be honest, Adam needs a covering in this moment. He needed to run to the fortress. Because here's the real issue. Come here, listen to the tension in the text that Eve is his wife. Eve is his partner. Hear me, y'all. Real trouble is not having to choose between what you like and what you don't like. Real trouble is having to choose between what you love and what you love. Real trouble is not when you're stuck in the middle of bad and good. That's easy. Real trouble is when you're stuck in the middle of good and good. I can prove it in the text because Adam loves God. But Adam also loves Eve. Now, who do I listen to? Because Eve was deceived. But when Adam ate, now Adam disobeyed. And Jesus is saying, listen, they need protection, Father, from the trouble that causes them to disobey. Okay, let me see if I can help you. Let me embarrass her a little more. Uh uh my parents bought my daughter uh an iPad. My parents, you know, grandparents be spoiling these things, bought her an iPad. So when she got the iPad, uh, we set it all up. She was excited, we put everything on there. She came downstairs, she said, Daddy, uh, I tried to download this app and I couldn't. I said, I know. She ran upstairs, she said, Daddy, I tried to buy some Robux and I couldn't. I said, I know. She said, Why? I said, because it is my fingerprint on the iPad. It is my face on the iPad. Meaning you have access to it, but I have authority over it. You've got to go through me to get what you want. She said, Why, Daddy? I said, because I'm trying to protect you from stuff you don't need to have in your life. Jesus says, protect them from trouble. That you would be kept from the pain that you could cause, or even the pain caused against you. Because here's the truth: reality is many of us suffer from the pain of somebody else's disobedience, but I just need five people who are a witness and grateful that we serve a keeping God. A God who will keep us when we cannot keep ourselves, a God who will hold you when trouble shows up, a God who reminds you that never will I leave you and never will I forsake you. He prays that we would be safe. Here's the next thing. He prays that we would stand. That we would stay, that we'd be safe, that we would stand, that we would stand where? On truth. That we would stand on truth. Watch there, it's in the text, verse 17. Sanctify them by the truth. What's the truth? Your word is truth. Jesus wants the disciples to stand on truth. He says, sanctify the word hagias, meaning holy, the tense of the word hagiaso meaning to make them holy. He says, make them holy, make sanctify them, make them stand. Lord, make them holy. How? By the truth of your word. Because here's the truth. We live in a time where nobody wants truth. It's all about my truth. It's my truth. This, this is my truth, this is how I feel. This I like it, then you love it, be quiet. No, it needs to be the truth. We live in too much of a I'm gonna do me culture and leave me alone. We live in a you do you and I'll do me, and then we wonder why the world is jacked up because nobody likes truth. Christ community, you gotta remain a church that loves the truth. Here it is. What do you gotta do with that truth? You gotta digest it. You gotta digest it. That you would you would teach, you would treat truth like spinach. Let me let me help you. You would treat truth like broccoli to a four-year-old. Meaning it may not always taste good to you, but you gotta remember it is good for you. You gotta digest it because here's the problem with the four-year-old. Their palate has not been developed to appreciate the taste of the food. Their palate is so used to the milk and the sweets that they don't have an appreciation by how them collard greens simmered overnight. In other words, you gotta grow up to digest the truth of his word that understands that even if it's hard going down, it does something on the inside of me. We got too many Christians surviving on donuts and hating vegetables, and then wonder why everything is so messed up. You are Christ's community. Meaning you gotta you gotta hang on to the truth of who Christ is. You gotta digest it, then you gotta disseminate it. You gotta disseminate it, you gotta give it away. That you can't keep truth to yourself. Verse 20 says, My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also, watch what he says, for those who will believe in me, watch, through their message, though. I ain't gonna preach another sermon, Jesus says. I'm out. But they will believe because of their message. Jesus implies that there will be others who believe through the disciples' message. This means they need to get a word because they also need to give one. You need truth for you, but you also need truth for them. And many of us, our life is the truth that people are hearing. So here's my challenge to you. If no one new is believing, what is your life speaking? You've got to give the truth away. You've got to stand in a way that says, Lord, speak to me so that my life can speak to somebody else. Jesus is praying this high priestly prayer. He has been these disciples for three years and he's pastorally praying over them. He is, I believe, your pastor echoes this heart. That he prays what I believe every pastor echoes, and he would pray that you would stay, that you would be safe, that you would stand. But hear me, Christ's community, that even in the year 28 and 38 and 48, finally, that you would stick. That he prays that you would stick together. He prays that we would stick together. Watch the end of verse 11. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, watch, so that they may be one. As we are one. Verse 22, he says it this way: I have given them the glory that you gave me. Why? That they may be one as we are one. Jesus bookends this prayer 22 is the end. He bookends his prayer by praying that we would stick together. Remember, John writes this gospel to explain how Jesus is God. And subsequently, when you realize this man was God, how you should live as a human. And so he says, if you get this accurately, then you need to understand we have to stick together. That we have to be one. Why? Because God is one. In this word stick, when he says be one, it is the idea of being stuck. It is the idea of being single. It is the idea of being same or one unit. You ever see scotch tape on a wall you forgot about? And then you can't find the tape. You're trying to peel it off, and what happens? You got wall on the tape and tape on the wall. Because it's been on there so long that you can't differentiate between tape and wall. Okay, maybe that's the wrong crowd. Let me try again. Maybe some of you remember the episode of Martin when Gina's head got stuck in the headboard. That she became one with the headboard. They tried to cut it off, couldn't get it off. So what they do, they put a wig on the headboard, they put a scarf on the headboard, they put a coat on the headboard. Why? They were one. The Lord is praying that you would be one. And it does not erase our diversity. We will be different. This is why Revelation 5 and 7 say, every tribe and nation and tongue. It does not remove your individuality. You need to be yourself. Because if you're not you, then we lose something special in this earth. But the question is, are we one? Are we together? Are we the same? Because my biggest fear in this season is that the church becomes just as divided as the world does. But I pray, I pray your pastor prays that Jesus prayed that the church, that Christ's community would be one, that you would stick together. I'm done. Why? That you would stick so that you could see. That you would stick so that you could see, that you would see the glory of who He is. I'm done. John 17, verse 24. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am. Glory, you have given me because you love me before the creation of the world. You must not know what glory means. You would have shouted differently. Glory, the brilliance and the brightness of God. Glory, the weight and the heaviness of God. That glory can do what your work ethic cannot do. That glory can do what no other professional resume could ever do. That glory can do what money cannot buy. That what power cannot obtain. God, I want your glory. Because when your glory shows up, lives get changed. When your glory shows up, marriages get restored. When your glory shows up, addiction has to break. When glory shows up, bodies get healed, and minds get regulated, and hearts get fixed, and depression rolls away and anxiety dies. God, I want to see your glory. Because your glory changes everything. That it is your glory that can do what no amount of work can do. And God, we will stick together because we know where two or three or gather, you show up in the midst of us. God, how we thank you. We thank you for this 27 years of ministry in the life of this church. God, we thank you for this pastor, his wife, and these people. God, we hear your prayer today. God, that we would stay. That the world needs light and dark places. And that, God, as we live and serve, that you would keep us safe from trouble. That when opposition and the enemy and even policy in America shows up differently, that we would stand on truth. And that, Lord, that while we are ourselves, that we would stick together. Because then we can see the glory of who you are. Lord, have your way today. We love you and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.