SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantParquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: God, we are thankful for time to gather around.
SPEAKER_01: God, we're thankful for mandolins and slide guitars.
SPEAKER_01: God, we're thankful that we get to worship.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful for a place that is not perfect, but that values you, your call on our life, singing things that are true about you, to you, and opening your word together.
SPEAKER_01: And so take just a moment before we do that, before we open God's word, and say to God, what has my name on it?
SPEAKER_01: What do I need to hear?
SPEAKER_01: And I want that to be clear for me.
SPEAKER_01: Because God, we know that you are always speaking.
SPEAKER_01: We just want to be obedient and listen well.
SPEAKER_01: Eugene Peterson says the most important question we can ask when reading Scripture is not what does this mean, but what can I obey?
SPEAKER_01: Ask God before we open his word, what would you have me obey?
SPEAKER_01: God, we trust you and we're listening.
SPEAKER_01: We pray sings your name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And amen.
SPEAKER_01: How about Clyde Copeland and the Soggy Bottom boys, huh?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I said Union Station in the first service.
SPEAKER_01: It was lost on them.
SPEAKER_01: I just feel like my knowledge is sometimes wasted.
SPEAKER_01: Union Station, O'Brother Art out.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't really George Clooney singing.
SPEAKER_01: You're all aware of that, right?
SPEAKER_01: I know he's pretty to look at, ladies, but that was a big burly man with a glorious beard that was that voice in that movie.
SPEAKER_01: Union Station.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Wade Collier.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the Missions and Outreach Pastor here at Ed Graham Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I am honored to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Neil McClindon, our lead pastor who is normally preaching, is milling around drinking lots of coffee.
SPEAKER_01: So watch your back if you're gonna say things to him about him, rather.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm glad to be here.
SPEAKER_01: I am honored to be up here continuing um week two of this series.
SPEAKER_01: You see the art behind me.
SPEAKER_01: It is also on the front of your bulletin as well, 40 days to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Um, as we are looking at um, starting two weeks ago, as Jesus makes the turn, um as we read and hear, he sets his face like flint to go and do what he was purposed to do on the cross, uh, there is a 40-day countdown.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have been asked by Neil up here last week at this pulpit through emails over the past couple weeks by Neil, even one by Clyde, um, what does it look like?
SPEAKER_01: And we're posing the question of if you knew when you were going to die, how would it change your life?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get to come to one of the services last week.
SPEAKER_01: I was teaching at all the different hours and different places, and um I so I listened to the service online.
SPEAKER_01: I listened to the podcast like many of you guys do this week as I was driving.
SPEAKER_01: And Neil asked the question if you knew when and how you were gonna die, would you know?
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't even get to finish the question before people start yelling, no, I don't want to know.
SPEAKER_01: Um it's just interesting, it's an interesting response.
SPEAKER_01: It's an interesting response, especially because Jesus knew.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so it forced us to ask a couple questions that I want you guys to think about.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't part of the notes, but um one, as we've asked, what would you do if you knew the day you were going to die?
SPEAKER_01: How would you live in these final days?
SPEAKER_01: How would you pray, which is especially um poignant this morning?
SPEAKER_01: How would you pray in your last days?
SPEAKER_01: And then pose the question, as I referenced before, would you want to know how and when you're going to die?
SPEAKER_01: And if so, how would it change the way that you live?
SPEAKER_01: Um Jesus did know, and this morning we're going to look at one of those questions of praying in the way that he talked to his father.
SPEAKER_01: What did he ask, and what did he pray for us?
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bibles, um turn with me to John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, um look around you.
SPEAKER_01: There's a Black Pew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Um, find the New Testament there in the back, the back third of that, and find the book of John.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, please take that with you today as our gift.
SPEAKER_01: We would love for you to have that.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 17, there's 26 verses.
SPEAKER_01: It's known as the High Priestly Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Um so I've been highly creative this morning and titled my sermon, The High Priestly Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Um so as you walk into John 17, the first 12 chapters of John are Jesus' public ministry as represented in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next five chapters, 15 through 18, are what most theologians call the private ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's time with the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Um, that is as we read right here his prayers to our Father.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we enter into John chapter 17, there in verse 1, he has just finished what we call the upper room discourse.
SPEAKER_01: He has just finished giving instructions, talking about hope in the midst of what is sure to be horrible tribulation for the disciples upon Jesus' arrest.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about the fact they can have hope and they can have joy.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then he begins to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Neil told you last week as he was praying, he kind of gave you a timeline.
SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to do the same because all of these, as Neil and I talked about this sermon series, we wanted all of these to fit within the last week or so of Jesus' time on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so as Jesus prays this, as I mentioned before in John chapter 16, he is in the upper room.
SPEAKER_01: And then from there, we know that in John 18, his next stop will be the garden.
SPEAKER_01: Um so most theologians believe, and they're all smarter than me, and so I'll agree with them that he is probably still in the upper room.
SPEAKER_01: There are some folks who would say maybe he prayed this on the walk, um, but he is most probably in the room.
SPEAKER_01: But whether he is on the walk or in the room, we're less than 24 hours of him going to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so just a very pivotal, very interesting time for us to get a look at.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm gonna try to keep my quotes to a minimum in this sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, as you guys have, if you've ever heard me, you know I like to talk about people who are much smarter than me, which isn't hard.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but um there was as I studied this over the last several weeks, there were just things that I read that one shaped my understanding, but two, I believe uh shape our understanding of what we were about to read and what we were invited into with Jesus' prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And this is Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Warren Wearsby.
SPEAKER_01: Did you guys get that quote?
SPEAKER_01: You did get it this time.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Um he says this as relation to where Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: Whether he prayed it in the upper room or en route to the garden, this much is sure.
SPEAKER_01: It is the greatest prayer ever prayed on earth, and the greatest prayer recorded anywhere in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: John 17 is certainly the holy of holies of the gospel record.
SPEAKER_01: And we must approach this chapter in spirit of humility and worship.
SPEAKER_01: So with that in mind, let's look at John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read this in entirety, all twenty-six verses with you.
SPEAKER_01: It says this When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_01: Glorify your Son, and 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.
SPEAKER_01: And this is eternal life, that they know you are the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_01: I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you would have me do, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
SPEAKER_01: I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
SPEAKER_01: Now that they know that everything that you have given them, you have given me is from you, verse eight, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and they have come to know the truth, that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
SPEAKER_01: I am praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not praying for the world, but those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them, and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.
SPEAKER_01: While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.
SPEAKER_01: I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction.
SPEAKER_01: The scripture might be fulfilled, but now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have joy fulfilled in themselves.
SPEAKER_01: I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of this world, just as I am not of this world.
SPEAKER_01: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_01: They are not of this world, just as I am not of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctify them in truth.
SPEAKER_01: Your word is truth.
SPEAKER_01: As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they also may be sanctified in truth.
SPEAKER_01: I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_01: That they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me, the glory you have given me I have given to them, and they be may be one even as we are one, I and them, you and me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you.
SPEAKER_01: And these know you, that you have sent me, and I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This priestly prayer, um, we see it does two things for us in understanding Jesus' walk in this walk to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Um one, it depicts in great details, we just read what Christ has accomplished in his earthly life.
SPEAKER_01: That he came from the Father, that he has made the believers one, just as he is one with the God.
SPEAKER_01: He's accomplished in his earthly ministry and what is about to happen through crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: And two, it is this phenomenal 26-verse picture of Christ's love for us.
SPEAKER_01: His love for his disciples, his love for us.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no doubt, you read this, you could spend a month of Sundays or more walking through the high priestly prayer.
SPEAKER_01: There is a lot here.
SPEAKER_01: But I truly believe that God wants us to see three things this morning as we understand what it is to know what is coming, to know how it's going to happen, to know when it's going to happen, and how that shapes your understanding, and how it shapes your life.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and that is not beyond the realm of our understanding this morning, church.
SPEAKER_01: That there are realities that are promised to us.
SPEAKER_01: There's persecution that's promised to us, there's a broken world that's promised to us, and so in the same way, Jesus walks through that.
SPEAKER_01: And so, three things that I want us to look at this morning, and more importantly, I think God wants us to look at this morning.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is this is that God's glory demands obedience.
SPEAKER_01: That God's glory demands obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Um, much like in the foundations of baptism when we teach baptism, one of the foundations of the belief and the call to do that is built on the fact that Christ himself was baptized.
SPEAKER_01: He demonstrated that baptism.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way as we talk about this obedience to the Father, Jesus, beautifully, especially right here in this prayer as he talks to his father, discusses obedience and practices obedience.
SPEAKER_01: But obedience is one of those words that within the church culture, if we're not careful, we shy away from.
SPEAKER_01: Um even now, as I talk about obedience, some of us, and I'm going to talk about submission, and even more that word, we kind of shrink back at that.
SPEAKER_01: Um because we, if we're not careful, um, in a very sneaky way, um, we we begin complacency begins to slip in as it pertains to obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Um tell me if this sounds familiar.
SPEAKER_01: If you're having conversations about the Bible, you're having spiritual conversations with friends of yours who are believers, maybe they're not believers, co-workers, friends, family, um, and you say things like this.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what it means to me is Well, when I read this, what it means to me is sneaky, right?
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound familiar?
SPEAKER_01: That's that's it doesn't mean to you you're included, and God invites you into it, but what it means is what exactly what God said.
SPEAKER_01: And so it just starts with a just a simple vernacular as that, and then we begin to lose track of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in our effort to fit God into this acceptable deity presentation, we grossly misrepresent God.
SPEAKER_01: We've taken the God who demands obedience and tried to make him into our favorite advice columnist.
SPEAKER_01: Christopher Bloom says this there's only one way to glorify God, and that is to obey God.
SPEAKER_01: So, with all this in mind, what do I mean by God demands obedience?
SPEAKER_01: Look back at verse one again.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes up to heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_01: 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 have given him.
SPEAKER_01: So now in verse one, when it says that Jesus had spoken these words, and then he lifted his eyes up to heaven, Jesus is moving the discourse from Jesus and the disciples in the upper room to now Jesus and his father.
SPEAKER_01: And he says that he looks upward.
SPEAKER_01: And he's taking, what he's doing is he's taking a posture of submission.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by taking a posture of submission?
SPEAKER_01: When you pray, if you bow your head and close your eyes, you are taking a posture of submission.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe when you pray, just like Christ, maybe you look upwards.
SPEAKER_01: This is an acknowledgement of obedience and submission.
SPEAKER_01: Um in our house, we we don't have a ton of hard and fast rules, we have a few.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the one of the rules at our house is that when mom and dad are talking to you, we make eye contact.
SPEAKER_01: We we ask our kids to make eye contact with us when we're talking to them.
SPEAKER_01: Um especially if it's a serious conversation, if it's a shaping conversation.
SPEAKER_01: I have a six and a three-year-old, so most of our conversations are shaping conversations.
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm a Sasquatch in physical stature, I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: And so since I have little ones, most of their eye contact with me, when I ask them to look me in the eye, is looking up at me, looking beyond the distraction of my beard into my eyes, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so they're looking up, and and and when we have these conversations, as soon as our kids were old enough to talk, my wife Sally and I have been having two continuous, intentional, consistent conversations with our kids.
SPEAKER_01: And that is mom and dad are in charge.
SPEAKER_01: Mom and dad are in charge of this house, we're in charge of this family, and that you can trust us.
SPEAKER_01: And so my poor daughter, already at six years old, is worn out.
SPEAKER_01: And my answer to questions being, do you trust me?
SPEAKER_01: I dad.
SPEAKER_01: Do you trust me?
SPEAKER_01: Today I'm gonna go home after being out of town for five days.
SPEAKER_01: I've set a horrible standard, but I I I kind of enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: Um I bring toys to my kids whenever I go on a trip.
SPEAKER_01: And so today they've but they've learned politeness from their mom, and so she'll at my daughter will ask me how my trip was.
SPEAKER_01: And I can tell she's just dying to ask.
SPEAKER_01: And then she'll say, Well, Dad, you know, most times when you go on trips, do you trust me?
SPEAKER_01: And in the same way, Jesus is looking up in obedience and submission to the Father that he trusts.
SPEAKER_01: And so he demonstrates this with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: It says he lifted his eyes up to heaven, saying, Father, the hour has come.
SPEAKER_01: Gly your son, and 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.
SPEAKER_01: In our understanding of the sovereign prayer that Christ prays in this demonstration, in this last conversation that we are witness to, and the disciples are witness to, we see him giving this radical obedience to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And as we understand this sovereign prayer that Christ prays before then going obediently to the cross, there's two things we need to wrap our head around as we understand this obedience that Christ is teaching us.
SPEAKER_01: One is this question of God submitting to God, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you believe that Jesus Christ is God, which he is, he is now submitting himself to God the Father, which is God.
SPEAKER_01: And you're wrapping your head around this obedience of the God man, Jesus Christ, then submitting himself to God.
SPEAKER_01: It even says that Jesus Christ was present with God at the very beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there, it's going to be on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: In the very beginning of this book of John, it says this in the beginning was the word, that is Christ, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_01: In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
SPEAKER_01: And so now we're reading chapter 17, and Jesus, who is eternally God, even before Genesis 1.1.
SPEAKER_01: You get that, right?
SPEAKER_01: That before that he was the word and he was with God, and all things were made through him.
SPEAKER_01: So this Jesus who is eternally God is now submitting to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: For you eggheads in the room, this is called biblical subordination.
SPEAKER_01: Biblical subordination.
SPEAKER_01: So if you like to throw big words around, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_01: I just gave you one for work tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And this is different, though, from subordinationism, which is a false teaching that Jesus is lesser than God, or the Holy Spirit is lesser than Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: What we're seeing here is we are being able to understand the difference in the fact that Christ is submitting himself.
SPEAKER_01: There's this magnitude of obedience that Christ submits to and submitting to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the other thing: it was his plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say that again.
SPEAKER_01: It's raining.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds good, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hear that?
SPEAKER_01: It was his plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't come to earth, and then he's in the last 40 days, and God goes, Oh yeah, you're going to get on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: It was his plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: Submission and obedience was his plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there, but look, just earlier, just a few chapters earlier in John chapter 6, verse 38, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
SPEAKER_01: God the Son is doing the will of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He is obediently submitting.
SPEAKER_01: I said there's two things we have to understand about this obedience.
SPEAKER_01: The first is this submission, and two is the glory.
SPEAKER_01: Is the glory.
SPEAKER_01: When we think about obedience, we think about submission.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned earlier some of us shrink back when we hear those words.
SPEAKER_01: We probably, the reason we shrink back is probably because we don't associate glory with submitting.
SPEAKER_01: We don't associate accolades with doing what someone else is telling us to do.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, it was the plan all along.
SPEAKER_01: Father, the hour has come, glorify your son.
SPEAKER_01: Your son may glorify you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: I glorified you on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, in your own presence with the glory that I had been before the world existed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying, glorify me, so then I can glorify you.
SPEAKER_01: When he says glorify, what he is literally saying is, clothe me in splendor.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you grew up in church?
SPEAKER_01: BBS, Sunday school?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: There are some people shaking their heads yes, and the first some people, there were some people nodding no.
SPEAKER_01: For a lot of us, when we think about Jesus in scarlet white being clothed in splendor, this is what we think of, right?
SPEAKER_01: Creeperly Anglo Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Not sure how that works.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe standing in a field with flowing white robes and white sandals and sheep.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the splendor.
SPEAKER_01: The splendor that Christ is asking for, the glorification that he's asking for is going to happen on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't look like that.
SPEAKER_01: It looks like a death and a ransom that we'll get to in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: So this petition that Christ makes to the Father is a testimony to Jesus' commitment to be obedient to the Father's will.
SPEAKER_01: It's exactly what we read in Philippians 2.
SPEAKER_01: This is going to be on the screens behind me.
SPEAKER_01: This is Philippians 2, beginning in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: And this lays out this ultimate submission.
SPEAKER_01: This glorification is through submission and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, Paul says, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Let each of you look not only at his own interests, but also at the interests of others.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: And he took on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient.
SPEAKER_01: By becoming what?
SPEAKER_01: Obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, because of God was highly exalted.
SPEAKER_01: God highly exalted him and has bestowed on him the name that is above every name.
SPEAKER_01: Name, so that at the same name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is praying to his Father here in John 17, asking to obey, to empty himself, to take on the form of a servant, to humble himself to the point of death.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is obeying with the big picture in mind.
SPEAKER_01: And so the reason that many of us, Church, shrink back from obedience and submission is our perspective is too small.
SPEAKER_01: We're too driven by immediate gratification.
SPEAKER_01: We're too driven by what we want and what makes us feel good and what gives us success instead of understanding the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: But what we miss is this example, just like we're looking at this example of obedience with Christ, and he talks to his father and he's acting this out, just like every sermon he preached, every conversation he had, every miracle he performed was all with the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: It was all with intentionality, it was all with the end game in mind.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what we're called to.
SPEAKER_01: But let me love you enough to say that sometimes your obedience and your submission, the fruit of that, you're not gonna see.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna see it on earth.
SPEAKER_01: Some of those fruits of submission and obedience are not gonna be seen until your kids are grown adults.
SPEAKER_01: Or your grandkids are grown adults.
SPEAKER_01: This past week, I'll tell you what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: This past week, uh, most of the week and most of the weekend, I was at a conference, um, a men's ministry conference.
SPEAKER_01: It was called a boot camp.
SPEAKER_01: I was a little skeptical.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm not paying money to go run.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it was um a biblical boot camp, so I got to feel super holy and then come back and tell you guys about it.
SPEAKER_01: But um it was it was put on by Ransom Heart Ministries.
SPEAKER_01: If any of you are familiar with John and Stacey Eldridge, Wild at Heart and Captivating, I think is the name of the other first book.
SPEAKER_01: And um long sessions, over 600 men at this thing, and each session builds on the next session.
SPEAKER_01: And so we talked about what we were designed to be, what God intended for us, and then the things that we begin to believe about ourselves that keep us from being what God called us and intended us to be.
SPEAKER_01: And there comes a session early on in the week where John begins to talk about the wounds of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And the things that were done to the men in the room or not done for the men in the room, or said to the men in the room, or not said by the men to the men in the room, um, that begin to lead them to believe they were less than what God had created them for.
SPEAKER_01: And this told you 600 people full of men, and numbers and dozens and dozens of them went down as they began to recognize and admit and confess the things that they believed about themselves, and these obstacles to obeying and trusting and submitting to God because of things they had said.
SPEAKER_01: And if that wasn't enough, he then moved on to the wounds of the mom.
SPEAKER_01: And these men who had been told or not told things by their mom, and and and loved or not loved by their moms or their grandmothers or their aunts, and so now, um, in the same way that you might not see the fruits of your obedience, you might not see the fruits of your disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: And that could be even more dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: Because here I am seeing a man with Korean War veteran hat on weeping, weeping, because there was a man who was given stewardship to be his dad and called to obey, and called to steward that well, and trust God with his kids, and and and didn't do the greatest job with it.
SPEAKER_01: And so now you have these fruits of disobedience that have been played out in a 75-year-old man this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was beautiful to watch God restore these men and do a work in them, but for me, it became this really tangible reminder of the call to obey.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as Jesus in the last season of his earthly life, he tells us that God demands our obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And then our second point, as he moves on in this prayer, he calls us to understand that service is selfless.
SPEAKER_01: Service is selfless.
SPEAKER_01: Um, yesterday in Neil's Saturday email, if you don't get those, we'd love to be in touch with you.
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's usually a tomorrow email that goes out on Saturday, typically written by our lead pastor Neil, and he said something that struck me last night.
SPEAKER_01: It said, the nature of last conversations is that you say what you want people to remember.
SPEAKER_01: Um the reason that hung with me is that many theologians believe that the disciples were probably there as Jesus is praying this prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it was in the upper room or walking on the road to the garden, um, that they heard this.
SPEAKER_01: And so, why is that a big deal that they hear Jesus talking to his father in this last conversation, really, that we're privy to, um, or one of the last conversations.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse six.
SPEAKER_01: This is where Jesus stops praying for himself.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus spent about four and a half verses praying for himself, the one who's going to go to the cross, the one who's going to be brutally beaten and mocked and carried around from false court to false court, all these things he prays for himself four and a half verses.
SPEAKER_01: But then starting in verse six, he takes over three times as many verses praying for the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: The one who was setting his face like flint towards the inevitability of the brutality of the cross spent one third of the time praying for himself than he did praying for his friends.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' prayer to his father serves as an example to the disciples who are listening, right?
SPEAKER_01: And to us, how to orient our spiritual posture to service.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by spiritual posture to service?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know about three and a half years ago, I was a moron and forgot that I wasn't 18 anymore and jumped out of the back of an 18-wheeler tractor trailer thing.
SPEAKER_01: Luckily it wasn't moving at the time.
SPEAKER_01: I have someone, some of intelligence.
SPEAKER_01: Um I jumped out and knee went the wrong way and just destroyed my knee.
SPEAKER_01: I had to go in for surgery, have it rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: The surgeon said that thing looks like a bomb went off in there.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he told me after surgery.
SPEAKER_01: Um they had to replace and rebuild ligaments, and I went home.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you had knee surgery in here before?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So they normally send you home with this big torture device machine that bends your knee back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they brought that in to check us out, check it out to us, and they said, no, your knee's so bad you can't even have that.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta wait two weeks and let all these graphs heal.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so that what that meant was I wasn't able to really get around.
SPEAKER_01: Um, those of you who know my wife and have seen my wife, she's about half the size of me, and she was responsible for taking care of me.
SPEAKER_01: And when I say taking care of me, I don't mean chicken soup and Gatorade.
SPEAKER_01: I mean help me change clothes, help me go to the bathroom, help me bathe.
SPEAKER_01: Less than an ideal situation, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'd mentioned she was six months pregnant with our son in August in Houston, and a very rowdy, very stubborn, stubborn three-year-old running around our house.
SPEAKER_01: And then she's got her six foot four town husband that she's got to take care of.
SPEAKER_01: Less an ideal situation, yet she postured herself in this spirit of selfless service.
SPEAKER_01: Even more so, we see Christ as he transitions this conversation from about him to his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Um, look up on the screen, I want you to see just a list of the things that he prays for them between verses six and nineteen.
SPEAKER_01: And this is um I probably missed some, but these are the ones that that I wanted us to see.
SPEAKER_01: He says, to keep them loyal and obedient to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Umity, which we'll get to here in a little bit, and the importance of that, and understanding Jesus' last words, some of his last words on this road to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Fill them with joy.
SPEAKER_01: God, they're about to see some rough stuff.
SPEAKER_01: They are promised to see rough stuff.
SPEAKER_01: They are promised to be persecuted and hated because, as we've read time and time again in this prayer, they're not of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15 um he talks about keeping them from the evil one.
SPEAKER_01: Note this if you're taking notes or you have your Bible, note in verse 15 that Jesus does not say, take them out of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He does the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm not asking for you to take them out of the world.
SPEAKER_01: What they've been called to is to happen in this world.
SPEAKER_01: But while they're in this world, keep them from the evil evil one.
SPEAKER_01: Sustain a sojourn.
SPEAKER_01: They are aliens, they're not of this world, but they are here to do the ministry of me.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctify them.
SPEAKER_01: What he means by that word sanctify in the Greek literally means set them apart for service.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting, right?
SPEAKER_01: He is serving them by telling them that they are to be sanctified for service.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing, understanding, and believing your word, God is what I ask for them.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 18, he begins to explain why this prayer is necessary for the eleven and why it's necessary for us.
SPEAKER_01: And I say eleven, did you catch in verse 13 where he says, I've kept them all but one?
SPEAKER_01: Judas, he's gone, right?
SPEAKER_01: So the prophecy could be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is eleven.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this for them, he says this to his father, and for us, as you sent me into this world, so I've sent them into this world.
SPEAKER_01: Just like we read earlier in chapter 6, when Jesus said that he had come into this world to do the will of the Father, he is now sending his disciples in the world to do his will.
SPEAKER_01: In these 40 days to the cross, Jesus' preparatory prayer to leave this earth, demonstrating the obedience that God requires of us, right?
SPEAKER_01: The selfless service that he demonstrates and prays for his disciples, understand is key for us to walk with today.
SPEAKER_01: The prayer of Jesus isn't just words.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Jesus who washed the feet of his disciples in service.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Jesus who would climb on the cross in service.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus who selfishly served humanity's need for a savior by dying for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: If we believe this all of this, it has to be lived with abandon.
SPEAKER_01: It can't be us leaving here and go, you know what, that's a good word.
SPEAKER_01: I hope those disobedient people in my house start obeying.
SPEAKER_01: I hope those unsubmissive sinners at work get their life straight.
SPEAKER_01: This is for us.
SPEAKER_01: This is for us to obey.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is service, this is submission, this is selflessness to the extent of the cross, we're told.
SPEAKER_01: There is a Scottish theologian named William Barclay who missed it on a lot.
SPEAKER_01: Missed it on a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But I think he hit it on the head right here with this that Christianity was never meant to withdraw man from life.
SPEAKER_01: It was meant to equip him for better life.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity does not offer us release from problems, it offers us a way to solve our problems.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity does not offer us an easy peace, it offers us triumphant warfare.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity does not offer us a life in which troubles are escaped and evaded, it offers us the life in which troubles are faced and conquered.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian must never desire to abandon the world.
SPEAKER_01: He must always desire to win the world.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, God, don't take them out of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Protect them, fill them with joy and faith.
SPEAKER_01: One of Christ's final conversations on this road calls us to obedience, selflessness now, and lastly, belief.
SPEAKER_01: For us to unite in belief.
SPEAKER_01: When I was going over my notes last night, I thought, man, this is truly about as simple as it gets.
SPEAKER_01: We're called to obey, we're called to serve, we're called to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll confess to you that there's part of me that thought, okay, this isn't creative enough, right?
SPEAKER_01: I need to get an acrostic that spells out cross or road and be really impressive.
SPEAKER_01: And then I was reminded of something that I hadn't thought of in close to 20 years.
SPEAKER_01: When I was in high school, I was a subpar basketball player at best.
SPEAKER_01: At best, subpar.
SPEAKER_01: In the little bit I did play, the coaches were clear that I had a very simple task when I played.
SPEAKER_01: I had a coach named Coach Thorpe who called me Baby Huey.
SPEAKER_01: For the older folks in the room, you know who that is, and that is not a term of affection.
SPEAKER_01: For everyone else, this is what I was called in high school.
SPEAKER_01: And so he would say, Baby Huey, here's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: You go out there on the floor, you get in the way of the other guy with the ball.
SPEAKER_01: If by some miracle you end up with the ball, you pass it to someone else.
SPEAKER_01: You use all your fouls, and then you come sit next to me and make me laugh for the rest of the game.
SPEAKER_01: I think that was mainly more than my size.
SPEAKER_01: I think the fact that I he thought I was funny was the only reason I was on the team.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I was in high school, I had the opportunity to play in this local celebrity basketball game.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in Houston over on the other side of town.
SPEAKER_01: And um I got out on the floor, and I have to confess to you that I forgot Baby Huey's role on the floor.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't happen at first, but I was guarding the guy with the ball.
SPEAKER_01: The guy with the ball was named Ernest Givens.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know who that is.
SPEAKER_01: If you're from Houston, Ernest Givens was a wide receiver for the Houston Oilers, and by some act of God, I got the ball away from him.
SPEAKER_01: I did not pass the ball.
SPEAKER_01: In my mind, I'm sure it didn't happen this way.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd was chanting my name.
SPEAKER_01: I took off running with the ball.
SPEAKER_01: Um and as I was going down the court about to solidify my athletic prowess and lore, um, unbeknownst to me, Ernest Givens came sprinting down the other side of the court.
SPEAKER_01: Did I mention that he was a two-time all-pro receiver?
SPEAKER_01: He was the inventor of the electric slide touchdown dance.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the deal is here's what I believe.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't had a chance to talk to Ernest Givens since 1994, but I think that he was already angry because that offseason he had been traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
SPEAKER_01: I think he was angry, and now Baby Huey had just owned him in front of about 300 people.
SPEAKER_01: And so as I jumped to make a layup, I didn't really leave the ground much.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, as I jumped, he came flying through the air and blocked my sharp my shot so hard that I hit the ground with this enormous baby Huey thud onto the wood floor.
SPEAKER_01: And it was then laying spread eagle on the floor that I remembered there was one simple task I was called to do, and I did not do it.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason I was reminded of that is we overcomplicate the simple.
SPEAKER_01: And when we begin to overcomplicate the simple, that's when we start saying things like, Well, what this means to me is.
SPEAKER_01: Well, when I read this, I think it means, no, God says, this is what it means.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to obey, I want you to serve, and I want you to believe, and I want you to unite in this belief.
SPEAKER_01: Um let's read about this last part of it.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me for the last part?
SPEAKER_01: I want to read 20 through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: It says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may also be one, just as you, Father, in me, and I in you, and they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, and they may be the one even as we are one.
SPEAKER_01: I in them, and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me.
SPEAKER_01: You sent me.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be where I am.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to take these that have believed, God, and I give them to you, that you would bring them into eternity to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you.
SPEAKER_01: And these know that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known here, and then I will continue to make it known in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I give them to you that they could be with me, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 20, Jesus turns this conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, it was Jesus and the disciples, Jesus and his father, and now in verse 20, he is talking about us, all of us that have come to know Jesus through the ministry of others.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you are believers now because someone shared the gospel, whether a preacher or a friend or a family member?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And there's this generational obedience that then brings someone else to proclaim the gospel that God uses.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, you might not see it.
SPEAKER_01: You might not see it.
SPEAKER_01: And it continues to carry on, and it all ties together because Jesus submitted and served and believed and taught belief with the big picture in mind.
SPEAKER_01: He says, believe in this.
SPEAKER_01: What do we believe?
SPEAKER_01: That the Father sent the Son, that the Son in selfless service submitted in obedience to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: That on our own we are astronomically unable to obey, serve, and believe.
SPEAKER_01: Unable to save ourselves, unable to achieve this heaven that Christ wants for us.
SPEAKER_01: That only because of Christ's obedience and service we believe.
SPEAKER_01: It's because of Jesus' obedience to the cross that our inability was ransomed.
SPEAKER_01: It was purchased.
SPEAKER_01: You get that, right?
SPEAKER_01: You were unable completely.
SPEAKER_01: But then Christ buys your unability, your inability, rather, and he makes it able.
SPEAKER_01: By his ransom, by his purchase, he makes obedience, service, and belief possible.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Clyde's not going to come.
SPEAKER_01: We're just going to sit and think about this and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: That because of Christ's obedience and service, we can believe.
SPEAKER_01: This is our invitation.
SPEAKER_01: That because of Jesus' obedience on the cross, our inability was ransomed, paid for.
SPEAKER_01: Christ purchased our inability to do any of this on our own, made obedience, selfless service, and belief possible.
SPEAKER_01: As you sit here, it's possible because what Christ has done.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we are thankful.
SPEAKER_01: We are aware, we are thankful.
SPEAKER_01: Use us.
SPEAKER_01: We pray things your name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Do me a favor and stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: If you would, hold your hands out like this.
SPEAKER_01: You are astronomically unable.
SPEAKER_01: Live in that freedom.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.