[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John, entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:14] Please join me in John chapter number 17, and we'll be looking at verses 1 through 5 tonight. I must ask you, as I was thinking, what does your heart cry out to? He says, the heart, the cry of my heart is to give you praise.
[0:27] And every one of us have a heart crying out for something today. And I'm always challenged by that song to think about my heart crying out to give praise unto our Lord. Because what somebody prays for and what somebody wants from their heart tells a lot about them.
[0:40] And that's true in John chapter number 17. We're going to learn about Jesus in his prayer to the Father. We're going to learn about his priorities, what's important to them. And you learn that when you pray together. I'm in your brochure when you came in tonight.
[0:52] I encourage you, if you read that, I encourage you to find a prayer partner for the next 10 days. As we're in John 17, find somebody that you can pray for. Peyton just cut a glance at his wife there and winked at her.
[1:04] Okay, that's cute. You too can be prayer partners. I like that. We've got two matched up here. But find somebody and spend time in prayer with for the next 10 days. And it's a great way, one, just to do what you want to do.
[1:15] Which is, you want to be time in prayer. And that's accountability. Helping you do what you know you want to do already. And then secondly, you get to know a brother or sister in Christ better. Men, we get to learn more about our brothers. And my wife, we get to know more about another sister inside of the church here.
[1:29] Because when you pray, your priorities come to the top. And so as we see Jesus praying to the Father, we learn about some things about the Trinity. As when I pray, I'm reminding myself, acknowledging he is God and I am not.
[1:43] He's all-powerful and I am not. He's in control and I am not. And so I recognize my relationship with him. So we'll see the son's relationship to the Father and the Trinity. We also see some priorities, some things that are important to him.
[1:57] And so I encourage you to do that. In John 17, verses 1-5, we see Jesus is praying for his glory and for the glory of the Father.
[2:08] Before we jump into it and I read a couple verses. We've already read the five verses, but I'll read a couple more to you. Let me give you a refresher course real quickly. Some of you, Brother David Dubois told me he read John 16.
[2:21] As I asked you the other night on Sunday night, I told you if you will commit to go read in the John 16, I'll let you out at a reasonable time. And I did. So I encourage you to continue to read that. 14, 15, and 16 were what some people refer to as a table talk.
[2:35] It's a discussion between Jesus and the disciples. It's before the hours come where he's going to go to the cross. And he's speaking to them and he's offering, he's telling them these things. And so we've come to a conclusion.
[2:47] During that time, if you'll remember, he promised them peace. Let your heart be not troubled. He promised them joy. He promised them love. He promised them access to the Father and his name. You can go and pray to him.
[2:58] He promised the comforter would come, that the Holy Spirit would come. He also promised them trouble, as we saw in chapter number 16. And then in trouble, he said, I promise you victory, that in all of this, in verse 33, when that I will overcome the world, it's already happened.
[3:15] He was going to the cross, but he already stated it as fact because he is God. And he said that. So he made these promises to him. But all the promises he gave around the table with the disciples, 14, 15, and 16, all of them were purchased for us or secure by the cross.
[3:30] And that's where we're headed right now. And scriptures were headed to the cross. And so his whole discussion and now this prayer in chapter number 17, it centers around the cross.
[3:41] And it expands our understanding of all that God is going to accomplish and his redemptive plan on the cross. All the things he promised in 14, 15, and 16, in his prayer in 17, all of them were made possible by the cross.
[3:55] And so he is speaking of that during this time. Real quickly, before we get back to 17, you'll see in chapter 18, so he gets up. He's with the disciples. Some people believe he's walking already to the garden.
[4:06] We're not told that. Others say he's standing there in the upper room with them. We don't know exactly where he's at, but he stood up from the table. He's speaking to the disciples there. And then he gets done. And then he looks up to heaven.
[4:18] And then he has his prayer in chapter 17. And then look where he gets to in chapter 18. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook of Cedrum, which was a garden which he entered.
[4:31] And his disciples and Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place. For Jesus oftentimes resorted thither with his disciples. So when he says that the hour has now come, you know the hour has now come.
[4:46] Finishes the prayer. Walks with the disciples. Gets there. And then Judas comes and betrays him. And things begin to move real quickly. It was said of this by Scroggie that of chapter number 17.
[4:58] It says, the outpouring of the soul of the Redeemer is for our worshipful contemplation rather than for our critical analysis. And what he says as we study this, we must take a second and just realize that when God is speaking to God in prayer, the first thing that should happen in our heart is just simply worship and gratitude to our Heavenly Father that we even get to see that.
[5:22] That in the Old Testament, in the Holy of Holies, that only a slight group of people, Jewish people, and then a slight group inside of that group, and then out of that, one man at a time, we have to go into the Holy of Holies. And now in the New Testament, the disciples are seeing the Son of God speak to the Heavenly Father, and they're watching that, that they have entered into the Holy of Holies.
[5:42] They get to see it. And that you and I have it recorded. And that we get to see it. We see Jesus praying through the Bible. When he's being baptized, they say he's praying. At other times, we know he's praying through that during his time in the wilderness for those 40 days.
[5:54] But right here, we get the words recorded for us to see what he said to his Father. And I think that's wonderful. And I think that's something that, as I see this, it is something for me to contemplate and to think about and to praise my Father that he would give it.
[6:10] It is a wonderful gift that we have this. It's incredible to get to look into the heart of God. Possibly the greatest chapter of depth, some would say, that when you read the Bible, we have the Holy Spirit giving us understanding.
[6:22] But we know that for all eternity, we'll learn how wonderful he is. And we're not getting all of it. And so I definitely know this true about this chapter, that we are only getting the top of the surface of what's going on.
[6:33] So in chapter 17, verses 1 through 5, we learn what's important to him, as I said. So first of all, he talks about his glory. The Son's glory and the Father's glory. Sunday morning, we'll see verses 6 through 19, his prayer for the disciples.
[6:47] And then after that, verses 20 through 26, it's prayer for the church. He says, I'm not praying for the world, I'm praying for my disciples, but I'm not only praying for my disciples, I'm praying for everybody that they will take the word of God to, and I'm praying for them, which is the church.
[7:02] I am reached because the disciples did their job of their generation. They taught the word to a group of people, and it's continued to us till the day. And so this is what is the Lord's prayer, not to confuse with the prayer he taught the disciples in Matthew 6.
[7:16] And Jesus is praying and allowing his disciples to hear it. He's speaking to the Father. He ends up by talking about his disciples in this prayer, and how he will instruct them in the word.
[7:27] As I think about this, you say, well, why is Jesus needing to talk to the Father? And we'll get to that in a little bit. And that's the first question. Wes and I read over chapter 17. We wrote a long list of questions. The first one is, why is God talking to God about the future?
[7:41] Why is that even necessary for him to do? Why would God have a request for God of what is going to happen? And so we'll look at this. But know that when he is praying, he is really praying.
[7:53] This is not a continuation of his talk to the disciples. He was not pretending to pray so that the disciples would hear him, that Jesus the Son was speaking to the Heavenly Father. I hate public prayers.
[8:04] I hate it when you know you're not necessarily really praying, you're just pretending to pray so that people hear you. Some of you are looking at me like I'm the worst person in the room right now. When do you do that?
[8:15] An invocation for the city of Milton. I've been there a couple times. And I know that I'm praying, but I feel a little bit nervous. I feel like I've got to get the mayor's name right or whoever is there. I feel like I've got to say it.
[8:25] It's what Kyle and Hannah will do when they're up here praying. They're getting married and say at this time, Kyle and Hannah are going to be praying. They're not going to be praying, all right? He's going to continue impressing her.
[8:36] He's going to say, oh, Heavenly Father, you know I love my baby girl. He's going to be saying all kinds of things that you're not supposed to be saying in a prayer, okay? And so Jesus is not doing that. He is not continuing. He is teaching the disciples.
[8:47] The disciples hear it. But no, he is speaking to the Heavenly Father. And we have so much that we can learn from that. And so distinguishing the prayer from the conversation in verse number 17, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to the Father and said, Father, the hour has come.
[9:07] Glorify thy Son that thy Son also may glorify thee. It says, Abba, Father. He looks at him and he sees that and he looks up the heaven, which makes it an indicator to the disciples he is not talking to them anymore, that he is now in communication with the Heavenly Father.
[9:25] So we're going to see the prayer and action of Jesus for the glory of God in this passage. So the first three verses, what we will see is what he will do.
[9:35] As I said, this whole chapter centers around the cross. But what will he do? Glory brought to God from the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. He is speaking about the cross here in verses 1 through 3.
[9:46] It says, The hour has come. Glorify the Son that the Son also may glorify thee. Hast thou given him, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many thou hast given him.
[9:59] And this is life eternal that thou might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The hour has come. If you've been staying with us through the book of John, and that's one of the exciting things in our church as we keep going through it, it kind of keeps building up.
[10:12] He said to us early on in John 5, 28, he said, Don't marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, into which all the graves shall hear his voice. He says the hour is coming.
[10:23] John 12, 23, he says, The hour is the time that the Son of Man will be glorified. So he not only says the hour is coming, but in that hour the Son of Man, Jesus, will be glorified.
[10:35] In John 12, verse number 27, he says, Now is my soul troubled, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour.
[10:47] The hour that he said was coming, and the hour that he said he would be glorified in, he said, I'm going to that hour for a mission, for a purpose, for a cause. I'm going to it as it was always planned from the beginning.
[11:01] And he goes there for this cause. And what was that cause? It was you, and it was me. It was the redemption of man. Why did this hour come? Because God so loved the world that he was giving his only Son, and his Son looked to the cross with joy, and the Father was satisfied in that hour.
[11:19] So this is an hour that will bring sorrow, that will be transformed into joy. As we saw in chapter number 16, that was given as a mother who's bearing a child. You don't talk so much about the delivery.
[11:30] That is not what you're looking forward to, but you're looking past the delivery time, and the mom's screaming at you, and they're hating you because of the pain that they're going through. But they're looking past that time, the seeing baby JoLynn, if you're the Talbies or that.
[11:43] And so they look past it. And so that's it. In this sorrow, you're going to find joy. So they're looking past it. And that's what he told the disciples. You're about to weep, and you're going to cry, but you need to look past it.
[11:53] Jesus was looking past that to what God would do. This is the hour that will bring the Father and the Son glory. Is the Father and the Son, are they God? Yes, but in a way at the cross, there's a way that the Father will be glorified, and there's a way that the Son will be glorified.
[12:09] The Son will be killed by men, and then he will return to the Heavenly Father, where he will be back to his original state, original position, and he will be glorified, continually glorified for all eternity.
[12:20] And at the same time on the cross, the Father will be glorified by men for who he is. That at the cross, we learn more about our Heavenly Father and his love for us.
[12:30] Verses 2 and 3 that I've already read, it says, That was given power over the flesh, that he should give eternal life. Jesus is the life giver. He's able to provide eternal life to them.
[12:41] As we read there, power over flesh. In John 5, 26, it says, For as the Father has life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And he is the life giver.
[12:53] Jesus not only conquered death for us, but he also gives us life. John 1, 4, In him is life. John 5, 40, We must come to him to receive life. John 6, 33, He is the bread of God that gives life to the world outside of him.
[13:06] There's no other place to find life. John 20, 31, Believing gives life through his name. If you want to find life, you can only get it in believing in Jesus. And without the Son, you have no life.
[13:17] In 1 John 5, 11-13, Those that believe in the Son have life, and those that don't, don't have life. Because he is the only source of life in this world. And he is being glorified in the fact that he gives life to those that believe in him.
[13:30] An illustration I like as we think about Jesus as the life giver, And that there's no other place that can give life. As we've said many times, that the world can mimic many things that Christianity does.
[13:41] But only Jesus can give life. In the story of Exodus, chapter number 8, verses 17-19, They go back and forth, the magicians, and with Aaron, and they go back and forth.
[13:51] But in verse number 18, it says, And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, But they could not, so there was lice upon man and upon beast. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God.
[14:02] And Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he hearkened unto them as the Lord had said. Simply that the men in the story recognized that when Aaron took something that was dead and made it alive, That this was the hand of God.
[14:14] Because the only God can say that he is the life giver. And there's no other place in which it can be found. He not only says life, but he says eternal life. Because he died for us, we will not perish.
[14:26] John 3, 16. In giving his life, his death for us, he is giving us life. And that only speaks about the length of time that we have. Have you ever seen growing up, maybe in a vacation Bible school, Somebody take a long piece of paper and put a one on it, And put a hundred zeros after it, And talk about how long eternity is.
[14:45] That's one aspect of eternal life. But another one is the quality of life that he gave us. At the point of salvation, that we have life eternal. And with our eternal lives, he has a purpose, Which is to glorify his name.
[14:59] Verse number three helps us understand what life eternal is. And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
[15:11] That knowing Jesus Christ, and having a relationship with the Father through Jesus, Not only gives us eternal life, but in verse number three, He says, this is life. It not gives you life, it is life.
[15:23] What is life? It's knowing the Heavenly Father. What is heaven? It's eternally worshipping the Heavenly Father. What is death? Not knowing the Father. What is eternal punishment? Forever being cast out of His presence.
[15:34] So knowing and believing in Jesus is not just giving us eternal life, It is eternal life. There's nothing else greater than that. So not only will He gain great glory, Be given to the Father for what Jesus will do upon the cross, But great glory will be given unto the Son for what He has already done, In His earthly ministry.
[15:52] Verse four, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou hast gave us me to do. So Jesus is telling here that He has finished the work that God gave Him to do.
[16:04] He lived a life of perfect obedience. Hebrews four tells us that He was tempted like you and I were, But without sin. That even though He was God, He put Himself, The humiliation of Him, He came and He put on flesh, So that He would be a high priest that has sympathy for us, That He knew what we had went through.
[16:23] And it said that He lived the perfect life of obedience. It also tells us that Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, That He fulfilled the law. He didn't just skip over it. He came and He fulfilled it for me and you.
[16:34] So the life we now have, The law has been fulfilled through Jesus. It's what was said of Him after He was baptized, That He did this for the fulfillment of all righteousness. Because baptism was a step of obedience to us, And He was showing us the obedience here.
[16:50] God and man testified of His perfection. What is it Pilate says? I found no fault with this man. And he walks over there and he washes his hands of it. Pilate, who had all these people gathered around him, Telling him what Jesus did, That we hate Jesus so bad that we want to kill Him.
[17:06] But Pilate looks at this man's testimony, The Son of Man, Jesus, And he says, I find no fault in Him. When Jesus goes there before John the Baptist, He's going to be baptized. Our Heavenly Father says, This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.
[17:19] That God, the Heavenly Father, And that man testified of His perfection. And His perfection on earth brought glory to God. And He is telling Him this. He is reminding the Heavenly Father of this.
[17:32] Do you say the Heavenly Father, He knows all these things, But Jesus is still telling of them. And we find prayers like this all throughout the Bible. In Exodus, Moses tells God, He is praying and He says, Father, will you do this for your name's sake?
[17:47] And Daniel, something that had already been prophesied. The same in the weeks Daniel said, Well, you'll do this because you've already prophesied that it's happening. More of my prayer life and your prayer life Should be reminding God of what He wants to do in this world And what He promised would happen.
[18:01] Not reminding in the sense that He forgets, But reminding yourself of what's important. Of Heavenly Father, You desire that all men would come to you. And it's my desire today to be used of you to share the gospel.
[18:12] Heavenly Father, You desire to be glorified of all men. And use my day to glorify you. Not reminders as He's absent-minded, But reminder, He's already told us what to ask for. And you can't come with up anything new.
[18:23] You think, I'm going to come with something He doesn't know that I want. He knows what you want. And so you say, Why would Jesus talk to God? Because Jesus is God, And the Heavenly Father is God. Why would they even talk? He knows what you're thinking too.
[18:34] He knows everything about you. Why do we pray? Because we have the opportunity. Not just the command, An opportunity. Why would you not pray to the Heavenly Father? And that's what Jesus is doing here.
[18:45] He's saying, Father, And they're talking, This is our plan. It's always been our plan. And I'm asking now to bring glory. And so He's reminding them here, He glorified the Father. So in His perfect death on the cross, I traded those deaths.
[18:57] The death He died on the cross, Why would perfect Jesus die that death? Because Trent Cornwell, From his whole life, Has done crimes, He's done wrongs, He's done transgressions, And the death that I should die, Should be upon the cross.
[19:09] It should not be king of the Jews, But it'll be Trent Cornwell, Sinner, Rebel of God. So He died my death, And He also lived the life that I couldn't live. So not only do we have an exchange death, But we have an exchange life.
[19:21] And He is saying here to the Father, In my perfect life, In my perfect obedience to you, What He says in Philippians, That He was obedient to the cross. He says, In my perfect obedience to you, I brought you glory.
[19:34] Jesus said, Father, In my perfect life of obedience, I brought you glory. And I want that to be my prayer, When I go to bed at night, In the morning, Say, Father, I desire to be obedient to you today. I'm not earning salvation, I'm already a son, I'm already a child of God, But I pray that my day of obedience, Was worship, And glory to you.
[19:52] So we not only have an exchange death, But we have an exchange life. One of my favorite songs, I hadn't heard in a while, Hint Ed, Okay, One of the songs I heard in a while, They talk about exchanging the field, That I had planted, For the field that Jesus had planted, That I take that, All the work that had been done, And all that would grow up in his, And all my wickedness had been done, They had been exchanged, And so we are seeing the life that he gave us, And that Jesus glorified the Father, By demonstrating to man, His divine attributes, That Jesus, He did not, It would be not correct, It wouldn't be correct to say, That he emptied himself of glory, Jesus had not come, Some people would believe this, That Jesus came to earth, He stopped being God for 33 years, He just was man for 33 years, And then he went back to being God, That's not what the Bible teaches, The Bible tells us, That some people would say, He put aside, Or his glory was veiled, That he put on a robe of flesh, And he could have demanded with authority, Many things, Remember when he could have taken the rocks, And he could have put it in the bread, At any time, He could have called a legion of angels, But he chose,
[20:53] To set those aside, To not benefit from those, To set them aside for you and I, Because he came in flesh here for us, So he could die our death for us, And the disciples saw this, In John chapter number 1, In verse number 14, If you want to turn with me real quickly, I want to make sure you see this, Maybe mark this in your Bible, In John chapter number 1, In verse number 14, It says, And the word was made flesh, And dwelt among us, Who is that?
[21:19] Who is the word that was made flesh, And dwelt among us? Jesus, thank you, And we beheld his glory, The glory as the only begotten of the Father, Full of grace and truth, So the disciples testifying of Jesus, As they say, We see the attributes of God, We see the heavenly Father, Here in Jesus, So even through the veil of flesh, They recognized, This is God, And in John 16, They said, You came from the Father, And you're going back to the Father, You are God, Nobody could answer all our questions, If they were not God, And so living this life on earth, He was teaching people, What who God was, We have a book today, And we read it, And we get to learn about God, And those disciples were looking at God, He said there, He says, If you have known me, You've known the Father, If you've seen me, Thomas, Growing up, He would want to know about God, He believed in God, And he says, I want to know more about my heavenly Father, Remember their cry out, Would you just pull back the clouds from heaven, So I can see God, Because they had a desire to know Him, And Jesus said, If you're looking at me, Then you're looking at God,
[22:20] And knowing me, So we learn when we read the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, We read the entire Bible, We're learning more about our heavenly Father, And doing that brings glory to Him, Because anytime you learn anything about God, Your heart says, He's amazing, There's nothing you'll find in scripture, There's nothing you'll find anywhere, That would make your heart do anything, But worship Him, There's no small detail about God, That does not captivate our hearts, And say, That is amazing, So as they watch the disciples, They say, We glorify the Father, Because in Him is grace and truth, In Him is compassion, In Him He's loving, There's nothing they saw in Jesus, That they would not find in the Father, Because they are God, He finished the work that He had been given, In Philippians 2, And being found in a fashion as man, He humbled Himself, And being obedient unto death, Even the death of the cross, He humbled Himself, He became obedient unto death, And it says, Even the death of the cross, Going back to the fact, That He had the worst possible death, Imaginable, There upon the cross, And so we've seen,
[23:21] He says, What glory will be brought to the Father, By Him going to the cross, And then also in these verses, He said, This is the glory that I brought to my Father, In my life, You know, Many people say, They like to die for God, They like to die for the cause, But you can only live a life, That is a martyr, Where you die for Him, If you live for Him, So Jesus is saying here, I've given my life, And obedient death to you, So I'll glorify you, I've given my life, And obedient to you, Being obedient to you, And that brings you glory, And then in verse number five, He makes a request, And if at this point, People listening to Him, Did not know He was God, Remember, He is crucified, Because He is God, And He says He's God, And everybody watching, Knows that He says, He is God, If these disciples, Did not believe He was God, This right here, Would have been very hard, For them to understand, Verse number five, And now, O Father, Glorify thou me, With thine own self, With the glory, Which I had with thee, Before the world was, Could you imagine, If the disciples, Did not know He was God, And they heard Him pray,
[24:22] Heavenly Father, Glorify me, Creator God, Glorify me, If He was just a man, They wouldn't stand for that, That would have, Would have been treason, Against their God to them, But they knew that Jesus was God, And that His request, Was something the Father would want, And it was something, That had always been, A part of the plan, So what Jesus requests now, As He headed, Is headed to the cross, We do not see this here, As a payment plan for a job, This was a mutual plan, From the same person, Glorify me, Is the same thing that's being said, And glorify thee, In verse number one, Is the same request, That by glorifying Jesus, We're glorifying the Heavenly Father, When the Father is glorified, Jesus is glorified, With the glory that He had, Before the world was, Jesus was not created, He says here, He says, I want to return to you, That was His heart's desire, He wants to go back, He wants to continue, Bring glory to the Father, And He wants to, To be there in heaven, Where the angels will continue, To sing His praises, And He says, Return to me, The glory that was before, The world was, Not just before,
[25:23] I came to earth, But before the world was even, Created, I was in heaven, Which is another reminder to us, That Jesus was not created, And not only was Jesus not created, John 1, 3 tells us, That not only was Jesus not created, But all things that were created, Were created by Him, He's not creation, He is the creator, God, He will be glorified, As He was before the earth, And how does this happen, How does Jesus bear the sins, Of the Father, Of all the world, And go to the cross, And it says for that, For that moment, That the Father turns, There's that separation, Between the Father, And the Son, And He bears all the sin, Of all the world, In the past, Of all history past, And in the future, And He bears it, And then after that, He goes to heaven, And He's worshipped, And glorified by all people, Because that sin, None of that sin was His, It was all ours, And He was sinless, Received from the Father, He says here, He says, Now Father glorify thou me, Which I had, Thine own self, With thy, The glory which I had with thee,
[26:25] Before the world was, He is praying to receive, Of the Father, Jesus being God, He has power, We're told in Acts 17, 31, When Paul is on Mars Hill, He is told that Jesus, He's telling those people, That Jesus has power, Over judgment, Because He appointed a day, Which He will judge the world, And writes this, By that man, Whom He hath ordained, Whereof He has given assurance, On all men, And that He has raised him, From the dead, So we see here, That He's requesting something, From the Heavenly Father, We see in Acts 17, 31, That the Heavenly Father, Gave him power, Over judgment, And so He is receiving, From the Father, Jesus has authority, But does not exercise it, During His time of humility, But He receives it, From the Father, As you and I do, He went to the Father, With request, Jesus, The Son of God, Came to the Heavenly Father, With request, And asked things of Him, Jesus who knows everything, Asked things of the Heavenly Father, You and I, Who do not know everything, And you and I, Who don't have everything, We go about trying to learn everything, And get everything, Without ever going to the Father,
[27:26] Jesus who could have got His things, He could have exercised authority, He went to the Heavenly Father, And He requested those things of Him, He received what He could have claimed, With all authority, Ephesians 1, 22, It says that, The church, It says all things, Are under His feet, And He gave Him to be the head, Over all things of the church, Jesus who brought down, He brought Himself, The humiliation, Took on the robe of flesh, And He is receiving of the Father, And we're getting great learning here, Of the Trinity, It's true to say, We can't understand everything, About the Trinity, But it's wrong to say, We can't understand anything, When He says the Son, It reminds us He's God, But when He says glorify Thee, It reminds us that He is in that robe of flesh, And could I challenge you, Encourage you in here, To not think about the Trinity, In terms of water, And smoke, And ice, Or as egg, And yolk, And shell, Or as we are made of three parts, Do not look at any of those things, But to look at it as something totally different, Because it is totally different, It is holy, And it is separate,
[28:27] Than anything we understand, And we don't understand it, But we know that Jesus, In flesh, Knew that it was important, To request things of the Father, And to pray to Him, And we should know this as well, He will return to the Father, He finished the work that He has done, Salvation has been provided for, He is the door, Satan has been defeated, That through death, He might destroy him, That had power over death, That the power of sin had been destroyed, Romans 6, 11, Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead, Indeed of the sin, But alive unto God, Through Jesus Christ our Lord, That death had died, O death, Where is thy sting, O grave, Where is the victory, That every tongue will confess, That Jesus Christ is Lord, To the glory and praise of the Father, His job is, Has been completed, One person said, As if it was a person, Who was given a job, And the doom, And he went about it as a knight, Who had finished his task, And then he came back, And he said, I've accomplished my job, But we know Jesus is so much more, Because he is not a knight, Who ran out and did a job,
[29:28] And came back to a king, But he is the king, Who came out dressed as a man, Who fought the battle for us, And not did he become victorious, By killing everybody, But he became victorious, By giving his life, There's nothing like it, There's no story like it, In all of the world, And that in that, In Philippians 2, 11, That every tongue will confess, That Jesus Christ is Lord, Because of his death on the cross, And that will be to the glory, Of God the Father, So God was intentional, In having his precious conversation, Recorded in his holy word, He was also aware of the fact, That you would be here tonight, That no word was put in this Bible, By accident, That Jesus as he prayed, It was recorded, So that we would have it today, Because it would do something, As I told you in here, If you came looking for something, For me to give you to do, The Holy Spirit will have to drive that in your heart, And what do you do, Based upon what you have heard tonight, I'll give you a few things, That the Holy Spirit brought into my heart, As I read this, And I looked at it, And I was amazed,
[30:28] I knew it was in the Bible, But as I read this, I just could not fathom, How incredible it is, That we get to see Jesus, Speaking to the Father, Are you challenged by the fact, That Jesus the Son of God, Prayed to God, Even when he had all the answers, And you do not, You carry so many burdens, To perform and do everything, As a man you got to be the head of your household, And at your work, You're told to do all these things, And you feel like you have to come up, With the answers everywhere you go, And in our Christian lives, We forget that there is a person, Who has all the answers, And we are not that person, Are you convicted by seeing, How every action of Jesus, Yielded glory to God, Should you reconsider your actions, I was amazed, That as he was going to the cross, In one way it brought glory, To the Heavenly Father, In another way it brought glory, To the Son, That every step he took in obedience, Brought glory to God, I don't know about you, But sometimes I feel like, Parts of my life, Are just completely mute, You can't do anything with it, It isn't good, It isn't bad, But I'm just living, I live for those times, Where I'm doing something for God, And I try to stay away from those things, Where I'd be serving Satan,
[31:30] And I try to, Many times I feel like I'm in the middle, Nothing's in the middle, Every step that Jesus took, Was obedience to God, And brought glory to him, That everything from tomorrow, As I sleep, As I wake up, Everything I can do, Can be to the glory, Of our Heavenly Father, So we should reevaluate, Our prayer life, Do we see it as the privilege that it is, We should reevaluate our schedules, And our actions, And our attitudes, As we're on our way from point A to point B, Just that process of getting there, Has a way that we can glorify God, And ask yourself tonight, Is it more shocking to you, That God in human flesh, Spoke to God in heaven through prayer, Or that you have the same privilege, And you do not, See, Jesus speaking to God, Is shocking, Why is this happening, Why is he doing requests, Because he took on a robe of flesh, Suffered the humiliation, To demonstrate unto us, How we ask requests of the Father, And what our prayer life should look like, And I'm challenged tonight, That my prayer life needs to be more filled, With the words of the Bible,
[32:31] Asking him, For what he said he would give us, And asking things in his will, Than coming up with things, That would never be mentioned, That would never be part, Of his heart, Let's pray, Heavenly Father, I pray that you'll take these truths, Lord, That the Holy Spirit, Will take the truth, These words, And take it deep, Into the heart of people, Lord, That you will challenge us, In our prayer life, And to live a life of obedience, That through our life, Lord, You'll be glorified, And through our prayers, You will be glorified, That we will be concerned, About your glory, We thank you for the reminder, In your word tonight, That Jesus was concerned, About glory, And on the way to the cross, With all that was going on, He found time to pray, He found strength to pray, Lord, And that he spoke to you, And as a higher priest, Lord, He showed us, How we should speak to you, And what we should ask for, And I pray that you'll bring, Conviction in the hearts, Of all of us in here tonight, Concerning these things, In Jesus name I pray.
[33:28] This message was recorded, At Vision Baptist Church, In Alfred, Georgia. For more information, Log on to, www.visionbaptist.com, Where you can find, Our service times, Location, Contact information, More audio and video recordings.