What Jesus Wants

John 17, 24 to 26, Jesus' final words in his prayer. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am,! To see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you. And these know that you have sent me. I have 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.

That is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. As you all know, the World Cup has just ended, and I didn't catch it, so forgive me.

We didn't have soccer in West Philadelphia. Spain defeated Argentina, I believe, 1-0 in extra time.

I don't get excited about such a low score, but amen. Amen. It's all good. I respect. Now, Spain and all their fans are basking in the glory of this moment, because winning the World Cup brings massive financial rewards, a boost to national pride, and increase in global exposure.

The key benefits include a multimillion-dollar cash prize, higher player marketability, and other positive economic effects.

According to AI, in the prize money, the winning National Team Association received a massive cash prize reaching around 50 mil. Player bonuses.

Federations distribute a portion of this prize money and its special bonuses directly to the players and coaching staff. I mean, I want to play the World Cup. You get federation funding.

The remaining funds help the country's football association improve local training facilities, youth programs, and future infrastructure. I mean, this helps the country.

But the most important thing that happens at the World Cup when you win it, national pride, baby. National pride. Spain is rolling.

I got one word for you. It all means one thing. Glory. It's about the glory. And that's okay. That's good. It's about the glory. But it's not enough.

You see, the next season begins. And in four years, the pressure will be on them to do it again, and it will be huge pressure. Because once you've done it, once you've won, you're hungry to do it again.

Because we want more glory. And this is true for all people. You see, we all want glory of one kind or another.

That's what we want. But let me ask you a question. What does Jesus want? I mean, that's a question we should ask as Christians quite often. What does Jesus want?

What's on his heart? What does he desire? What does he desire above all else? We come to an end of the prayer.

Our Lord's been praying on this solemn night. Verse, chapter 18, when we get there next week, it begins with his arrest. So this is it. This is it.

His final time with his disciples on this side of the cross. It's a dark night. He's prayed for the unity of his people. He's prayed for the protection of his people by the Father.

He's prayed for his immediate disciples, and he's prayed for us. He's prayed for himself. That's how he begins the prayer. He prayed for himself. And now he's come back to himself in some respects, but also he's tying us in it.

He's about to experience his final rejection. He has accepted the disrespect of human beings all his human life. Herod the Great tried to have him killed as a child.

The devil met him personally at a time of great physical weakness, 40 days of fasting to try and get him to rebel against his father. The scribes and Pharisees have dogged his steps, insulting him, accusing him, and plotting against him.

And now on this night, the forces of the darkness have gathered, and they will have their revenge. The plots are about to bear their greatest fruit.

He will be crucified. The most horrible, accursed death as an enemy of the Roman state. And more, to add insult to injury, the crowds of his own people, some of them who would have seen some of his miracles, will cry out in that moment when he is before the Roman governor, and he could be set free.

They will cry out, away with this man and give us the other guy, Barabbas. We want him to be set free. Take Jesus. And then Pilate will ask them, what should I do with him?

And they will cry out. The crowds will cry out, crucify him. The rejection, insult, and shame our Lord endured for his father's glory, and our salvation is beyond our comprehension.

You can't understand this. I can't understand this. That the Lord of glory will put up with such insult and injury. For us.

Even to this day, he is still rejected. He's misrepresented. His name is used as a swear word. And sadly, sometimes, this happens by those who name his name.

We who follow him, listen, we who follow him will experience some of what he did. The more we look like him, the more we grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus, the more he transforms us, the more we will experience some of what he experienced too.

So it's like in the last part of this prayer, it's like Jesus is praying that his disciples will see another side of him.

They've seen the rejection. They're going to see the suffering. But he wants them to see something else, ultimately.

I think I got three points. We'll see how they go. First of all, Jesus wants us to be with him. With him. I love this.

He's praying, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am.

He's not expressing a desire that he's not sure will be fulfilled by the Father. He's like, I desire to go to Japan, but I have no idea if that's going to happen.

He's expressing, the word there, he's expressing his will concerning a certain group of people. He's used this language in all the, throughout this prayer, he's used this language, he is speaking of those the Father has given him.

He said this before about us. This is a privilege. We have been given to the Son by the Father. You know, I like to say we are a love gift from the Father to the Son because the Father loves us and he gives us to the Son that the Son may love us by saving us, dying for our sins, rising again for our justification.

I would have thought, do you understand that you are a love gift from the Father to the Son? always makes me go, makes me want to cry.

We are his and he will give his life for us. He will give his life for us so that we will no longer live for ourselves.

This is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 15 that those for whom Christ died might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

The ones the Father gives to the Son are the ones who should no longer live just for themselves, just for them, just for their will being done, but now should live for him who for their sake died.

and was raised. He has a personal stake in our destiny. First it is for us to be with him, to be in his literal physical presence.

Literally the actual Greek language goes like this. He says, where I am they also may be with me. That's how it literally reads.

Where I am. we often describe hell as separation from God. But it's not in the way we think though because God is omnipresent meaning he's everywhere at all times, even hell.

To be in hell is to be separated from his grace and mercy and his loving presence, but is to experience his holy wrath and holy justice in his presence.

Jesus is emphasizing location that not hell but heaven. Heaven to be with him.

Never separated from him but with him. Location where I am with me there. What makes heaven heaven?

heaven? Seeing grandma and great grandpa? Beautiful. Amen to that.

Seeing my dad, seeing Sandy's mom. Amen. But that's not what makes heaven heaven. And I know, and that's the way the culture thinks.

See, stop, let the world tell us what we do to believe about what God says. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. Heaven is there. Heaven is heaven because God is there and Jesus says we will be with him.

He never misses anybody else. He will be with me. That's what makes heaven heaven. We will be with him. In every possible way we will be with him.

Our Lord Jesus promised way back in John 14 in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

If I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may be also take you to myself where I am you be.

Jesus seems to think that it's a good idea that we be with him. Who knew? He wants our presence.

It blows my mind. His desire as he's going to the cross is to call upon the father so that to make sure that the father knew quote unquote that he wants you with him.

for all eternity. He's praying in our hearing as it were so that we would know that's what he wants.

Amazing. But here's the beauty of this. Even today we live each day in his presence. Even now we are living each day before the face of God.

We his people live in his presence. And so what's happening right now is Jesus is giving us a little foretaste of what's to come.

He sent his spirit. He promised in John we studied it to send his spirit to take his place to be with us remember? So that we can know his presence now.

But here's the thing I don't know about you but I don't always sense it. I tend to become more aware in prayer and the gathered worship of the church.

I'm much more aware of his presence a lot of times then. But even in those times sometimes I can be a little distracted. Y'all don't know what I'm talking about.

I got two amens over here.! They don't know what we experiencing y'all. They don't know. Y'all don't get distracted. Y'all not checking your phone, looking at email, sending a text in the middle of worship service.

I was preaching one time at Covenant College and I love Covenant College. Go Scots, go Scots. I served in the board for eight, nine years, man. I gave my life and blood to that school.

I love that school. I even gave a daughter there. I'm giving everything I can.

I'm like, Lord, bless him, bless him, bless him. And this young man was sitting about eye level right in the middle, had his arms up on the chair with his head back asleep. He didn't know who was preaching.

See, I'm from West Philly. I ain't from around here. We were a little blunt! Sometimes. So I'm preaching, I'm looking, I'm like, no, he's not.

I'm serious, y'all, I'm telling the truth. I stopped preaching. I said, hey, you guys, hey, wake him up. Just wake him up. They looked, yeah, wake him up.

I said, son, this ain't no time to sleep, this chapel service. And I went on preaching. Haven't been back in a while, though. I don't know!

why. We get distracted. We're sleepy, we're tired, we don't sense his presence sometimes, even in the worship service.

When we're going through a difficult time, there are times when we're going through a hard time that we do, he shows up and lets us sense his presence carrying us. Come on, somebody.

You're going through a tough time. Emotionally, you're done. Physically, you're done, and God just walks in the room and lifts you. But there are some times he's present, but you don't sense it.

There are times of the dark night of the soul when you're going through a hard, hard time and you don't, and you wonder, where is God? I visited a man one time in the hospital, and I never forget, a godly man, man of God, and he felt so weak, and he started crying because he never felt weak before.

You feel that, and you have to remind yourself, don't you, what the word of God says, that he said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

You have to remind yourself what the truth says, what God says, that's the truth, y'all, and we have to remind ourselves that he's with us even in those dark nights of the soul. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

I gotta remind myself of that. I gotta encourage myself in the Lord sometimes, because sometimes you just don't sense that he's there.

there. But Jesus is praying for us, and he's saying, that won't always be true for you. I want you to be with me.

I want you to be in a place where you will never wonder where I am. I want you to experience the fullness of my presence, and I want you to do it with your eyes, not just with your spirit.

He's saying, I want you to be with me to see me. And first of all, to be absent from the body, I'm going to a funeral this week, one of the greatest elders I've ever served with, and he went to be with Jesus on me.

He didn't ask my permission. And I gotta go say goodbye. He is present with the Lord. Present with the Lord.

Lord. I have to say at funerals all the time, if we would have asked them to come back, they'd say, are you crazy? Leave the presence of the Lord to come back here?

No. I love y'all. I love you. Love. But I'm staying right here in the glory of the presence of my Jesus.

Being with him will heal us. being with him. And listen, listen, that's, stay with me, some theology here.

It's not just a disembodied experience we're looking forward to. Your ashes to ashes over you, body goes to the ground, spirit goes to Jesus. But that's not the end.

Here's the end. Jesus will come again. And whatever we plant in the ground will be resurrected. Oh my goodness, the upgrade we're going to get in our bodies will be resurrected and he will cleanse this new and create a new heavens and a new earth and you and your resurrected body will be capable of living there in your body.

He's going to give you a body that can withstand that kind of pressure. He's going to give you a body that can live, that's compatible with the new heavens and new earth and you will see him in that body, not just in your spirit, no, in your body, with your eyes, with your hands, to touch.

He said, that's what I want for them, Father. Because he loves us. He didn't die so that we could go off and leave him. He died for us that he could take us to be with him for himself.

But hold it, we ain't done yet. Jesus wants us to also in being with him to see his glory. Oh, that's the big point here. I really think it's the big point. To see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.

This is what being with him naturally brings and is the purpose of being with him. You see, most of the disciples, only three of them on the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus, you know, the Father speaks, Jesus is glowing, he's lit up with the majesty of God in splendor.

They saw that glory with their naked eyes. But that wasn't all of it. All the hosts of angelic beings and all the redeemed bowing before his absolute holy splendor is what Jesus wants us to see with our own eyes.

He doesn't just want to return to his glory, the first five verses of the prayer. He wants us with him so that we can see and experience his glory.

I don't know, maybe it'd be something like Revelation 5. You're familiar with this passage. Revelation 5, 6 to 14. And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb.

Standing, as though it had been slain. With seven horns and with seven eyes, this is John's vision of the glory, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. That's the father. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before of the lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song. Heaven's a place of music. Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open the seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation.

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, nimbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

Okay, I didn't finish reading it? Hold that applause, because we've got more. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and under the sea and in all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

and the four living creatures said amen. And they all worshipped. Family! Maybe it'll be something like that.

Maybe that's what we're going to see. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I don't know about you. Listen, let me be clear.

Don't picture a four-legged lamb laying there bleeding. This is imagery. He's talking about the fact that Jesus still bears the wounds of his sacrifice.

He will always have the wounds all throughout eternity. When we see him, we remember that he sacrificed himself for our sins that we might be his forever.

We'll always see the marks of his passion. Wow. Wow. Maybe we'll see this like that.

I'll take it. I'll take that any day. Believe it or not, the glory of God is hard to define.

It really is. I remember giving you a definition, a simple definition some time ago. I gave you a couple, but one of my favorites is the outshining of his holiness. When we talk about the glory of God, it's the outshining of his holiness, his otherness.

That essence that makes God God is his holiness. If God is not holy, he is not God. Holiness means he's transcendent. He's above us.

That which makes him him shines out as it were. There's always a sense of light we see in scripture. Glory is part of his very being.

I think pastor and counselor Paul Tripp is more helpful sort of here. He says glory isn't a part of God, it's all that God is. Every aspect of who God is in every part of what God does is glorious.

But even that's not enough of a description. Not only is he glorious in every way, but his very glory is glorious. I love that man.

Makes my hair stand on end. I mean, you think of the most glorious thing you've ever seen. Maybe you've been to the Grand Canyon or maybe you've been at the look at a high mountain or you've been to some places where you could see the Alps or I don't know, Mount Kilimanjaro.

I tried to see that mountain and clouds headed from me for two days. See, I never saw the mountain. I mean, clouds. Really? I went all the way to Africa to see glory and didn't see it.

Anyway, whatever it is you think is most, it's nothing compared. You can't even begin to compare the glory of the living God with what you've seen of glory in creation.

Sounds to me the best we can do really is describe his glory. Not so much define it. Isaiah saw it too. Remember in Isaiah chapter 6 he saw his glory.

His holiness, the angels were crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. And the other side said, the whole earth is full of his glory. There were angels going back and forth, antiphonal, back and forth, crying out to God.

They had wings and some of them covered their face, some covered their feet, and they flew and they couldn't even get too close. They couldn't bear the look as it were. His majesty was overwhelming.

And the prophet is there. Remember, Isaiah is a godly man. This is his call to be a prophet, not his salvation moment. He's called to be a prophet. And God, and when he sees the majesty and the glory of God and his wonderful holiness, what does he do?

He pulls out his iPhone and starts taking pictures, of course. He's recording like people do when they see an accident. They do nothing to help and just stand there recording.

When the police show up and try to do their jobs, what do we do? We just sit there and record them. No, Isaiah didn't do that. What Isaiah did was he fell on his face and said, woe is me and I am undone.

For I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. Lips represent the heart. And I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Listen, in the presence of the glory of God, we who are creatures and still fallen, still sinners, though we are saved, we're still sinners in that respect.

We can't stand in his presence. And the response is to recognize our weakness. When you see the glory of God and don't recognize your weakness, you're blind.

You haven't seen it. He cries out, I'm a sinner. That's what he's saying. And my people are sinners.

The whole nation, he says, is a bunch of sinners. We are nice, he's saying. And then the Lord does something marvelous. He gives him his grace and his mercy.

You see, when you see the glory of God and you're humbled before him, he responds in mercy to you. He responds in grace to you.

And he forgives him of his sins. Now he's still there in the glory. He's still beholding the majesty. He's still feeling his unworthiness. But because he's seen, he's experienced the grace of God, the kindness of God.

By the way, this is a picture of the sacrifice of Christ, by the way. Because that's where his sins are ultimately forgiven and cleansed, at the cross. But this is a picture of what's to come. It's a hot coal.

A hot coal is pressed to his lips. And it's taken from the altar with tongues. Go read the text for yourself. The angel wouldn't touch the coal.

But he puts it on his mouth. Now this is something. If you won't touch it, don't put it on me. That's what the angel did. The angel was too hot.

He couldn't touch the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. He couldn't touch it, as it were. And he brings it and he applies it to the mouth and the heart of the prophet now.

Cleansing him in the presence of holiness. He feels his sinfulness and God throws his grace on him. And what does he do at that point? I'll just lay here and just sit here and bask in your glory.

I'll just lay here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm just going to sit here. No, he cries out. God, as it were, speaks. He's like God's speaking to himself. Who shall we send?

Who will go for us? Hmm. Who's been touched by my mattress, loving grace, and I could send? If only there was somebody. Isaiah didn't miss a beat.

When the grace of God hits you, when you know the majesty of Christ and the forgiveness of your sins, you rise up and say, Lord, I'm your boy. I'm your girl.

Send me. I'll go wherever you want me to go. I'll go. I'll keep going until you tell me not to go. You say, jump, I'll say, when can I come down? That's somebody who's been touched by the grace of God after seeing the glory of God.

I wonder how many of us have been touched. I wonder how many Christians in this country have really been touched by that majesty and glory of God because so many of us are more concerned about our own comfort and our own pleasure.

Who's going? Now, going don't mean necessarily leaving the country, but it might. It means as you're going about life, you go in his name.

It means you go and you say whatever he wants you to say to whomsoever he wants you to say. It means you live a life of service to him and to others around you in his name. We need to see the glory so we can go.

And he says, this is what I want you to know. I want you to see my magnificence. I want you to be with me so you can see my glory. You can see who I am for all that you've seen thus far.

You've seen me disrespected. you've seen me hounded. You're going to see me lifted up on the cross. But I want you to see me. I want you to see my glory.

I want you to see who I really am. I want you to see my greatness and my beauty and my perfection.

I want you to see it fully and with your own eyes. I want you to see the glory that the father shared with me in love because he loves me before the foundation of the world.

You see God did not create us because he needed glory. He already had it. He didn't create you because he needed love.

He already had it. It kills me when people say at a funeral they say heaven needed the most. They read it in poetry sometimes.

Michael you've seen it right? Oh so and so is gone. Heaven needed him most. No heaven did not need him. What do we think of God?

We think he's like us. He says in the Psalms you think them all together like you. He's not like us. He needs no one. He's happy in the Trinity all by himself.

He needs no one. God doesn't need you to glorify him. He's got all the glory he needs. You are allowed. We are given the privilege of entering into his glory and Jesus says wonder of wonders I want you to see it in a way you've never seen it before.

I want you to be with me. I want you to get a front row seat of my majesty. See they've seen him disrespected like I said earlier.

They've seen it. They've experienced it. And they're going to see it even worse in a few hours. They're going to see it even worse. You and I day after day we see our Lord disrespected. You see it on TV when they use Jesus as a swear word.

You see it around the community where Jesus' name is taken in vain and we see people make fun of the church and make fun of his people.

It's not about us. It's about him. They're making fun of him. but we're going to see the other side of him. Never again will he be disrespected.

Never again he is coming in the clouds and every eye will see him. And he said even those who pierced him. He is coming and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

He is coming in majesty and power. Yes we're going to go and be with him but then he's going to resurrect these bodies and then we're going to see the glory in a way that we've never seen it before.

We're going to see his majesty. It's going to be so amazing that revelation says that there will be no need for the sun or the moon because the lamb will be the light.

Now that's glory. Why do you think if you read Revelation Genesis chapter one that before God creates the sun he says let there be light and there was no sun.

Where did the light come from? His glory. I can't wait y'all. I understand Moses more and more and I've been to this before so forgive me for being redundant but Moses show me your glory right?

Show me your glory. He has seen his glory right? The red sea crossing split the thing in half. The plagues on Egypt humbled all the Egyptian gods the plagues were doing. He has seen his glory and what happens he wants more because in this creation where we are now when we see his glory it should create a hunger for more.

Have you seen his glory? glory. You see when you see his glory you see it in all kinds of places. You see it in good food.

Come on. You see it in a beautiful I love palm trees. You see it in trees beautiful creation of trees and mountains and water. You see his glory in good music.

A taste. These are all his gifts. You see his glory in beautiful people. I look at my wife and go glory. glory. Ha ha. You know we see his glory all around us.

Are you looking? Do your eyes see? Can you see the majesty? We see it in a loving community among ourselves with each other. In the name of Jesus we see his glory. But something happened.

We got flim flammed. The devil and sin lied to us. us and told us we could have glory without God.

Adam and Eve reached for the glory. When they ate from the fruit they ate so they might be like God. They wanted the glory. And so we spend so much of our lives if we're not careful craving recognition, respect, and honor.

glory. I post, I gotta say it, I post on social media many times a quest for glory. To let people know we're smart and attractive and insightful and that we are right on our perspectives.

because we're craving glory. We're glory hounds. But we live in dysfunctional glory.

And Jesus is saying I'm gonna redo it. He redeems us that we can enter into true glory and behold true majesty and in his glory we will find glory.

We will find respect. We will find honor. We will find wholeness in his glory but not without it. Without submitting to his glory.

We will always be restless and hungry. The great North African church father St. Augustine rightly said God has made us for himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in him.

We want glory and we will never find it. We'll never be satisfied until we rest in his glory. And we get a taste of that now. But there's more to come.

And that should motivate us to live each day knowing that we will see as John says we will see him. We will see him in John first John 3 we will see him and we will see him as and we will be transformed.

We will be changed because we see him. we will see his majesty and glory and we will begin to reflect that image of glory as much as redeemed sinners can.

And that motivation that is what gets us up in the morning. That's what keeps us going and he gives us a taste to give us a little hors d'oeuvre here and there so we can see and keep coming and keep pursuing because we want more and we'll never be satisfied with less than seeing his majesty and honor.

Seeing him exalted. And lastly he wants us to know the love of God. That's not a minor thing by the way. Forgive me for making it sound like that. It's not what I mean.

He wants us to know the love of God and that's how he ends that prayer. He's reminding the disciples that the father loves him. He's going to continue to make the father known to us.

The father loves him and he wants that love to be in us. Us to be in the love of God. He wants us to taste it right now.

That love. Right now his love. We taste it when we know the cross is for us. We taste it when we know Jesus is mine. We taste it when we know that he loved the world so much.

He loved put your name in there. He loved James so much. He loved Ethan so much. He loved Amy so much that he gave his only begotten son.

See the father loved us. He didn't start to love us because of Jesus. Jesus was sent because the father loved us and the son came because he loved us and the spirit came because he loved us.

Oh my goodness. We are surrounded by the love of the living God and Trinity. And Jesus said I want you to know this love now but guess what?

You're going to know it from all. You're going to really know it. When you see me. When you're with me. When you behold me. Oh my goodness.

You've never been loved like this. This is better than any kind of love you ever hope to know. a love that knows you. Totally knows every nook and cranny.

Every thought and attitude. Knows you. Everything. And loves you. Will not let you go. He's jealous. For your love.

Because he loves you like a husband loves his wife. The church is the bride of Christ. And listen guys. Don't get carried. You know the church is the bride of Christ. I'm like being called the bride.

No. He's talking collectively not individually. No one. Ladies. No one is Christ's wife. The nuns are not Christ's wives.

Christ has one wife. The church. Collective. And we are part of that collective. And that collective is the bride. And we are loved.

Together. Family. We are loved. And individually. Yes. We are loved. It's a love that nothing can conquer.

Nothing can take away. I don't care what you're going through. I know you may be going through something tough. I'm wrapping up so don't go to sleep yet. I know you may be hard times.

Come. And they're coming. But remember this will you? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. We're suffering Lord. We're persecuted. Knowing all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure he's not doubting I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation fill in the blank will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That's your story. I suggest you stick to it. That's your destiny to know that love totally fully perfectly and even down we can pray that God will grant us to be strengthened with power through his spirit in our inner beings so that Christ may dwell in our heart through faith that us that we be rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

a foretaste right now are you praying for it? Pray for us pray for the church that we will know the love of God that we will know the presence of Christ and that we will see more and more of the glory of our great Jesus and that one day he will come and together we will see him as he is.

Can you pray for that? Can you live for that? Will you give yourself to that?

Father thank you thank you for this great prayer in John 17 thank you for causing the apostle John to write it down to remember it we know it was your spirit that caused him to remember the details and thank you that we get to read this prayer and re-read it and re-read it and pray through it and pray over it and in it we see Jesus we see his heart for us we see his heart for you we see his heart for glory and not just for himself but for us father we get to see so much here in this prayer when you ingrain these truths and realities upon our hearts write them stamp them chisel them in us and may we give ourselves together to the unity of the spirit and the bond to peace to the mission of our Lord to be an ambassador for Christ may we give ourselves to walking in this love together and walking in the fellowship of our Lord walking with our eyes attuned geared and focused on his glory and majesty so that we do not give up help us to do this together and father maybe just maybe you will make a name for yourself even more here at New City and throughout this city maybe you can use us please do amen