You know, by God's grace, there are times in our lives when we are more consciously aware of our neediness of the Lord. And as we approach John chapter 17 in preparation this week, I was consciously aware of my neediness, of my complete inability to try to stand before you and try to pull out and proclaim all that's in this glorious chapter. So I'm gonna pray that God would meet us here and help in this time. So if you'll bow with me. Father, it's in the name of Jesus Christ that we come. Father, We just confess as a body of believers our great need for you. Our utter inability to do anything without you. Father, we thank you for the grace of Christ and salvation accomplished and the grace of faith and repentance, the grace of your spirit, the grace of your word. The grace of the church, the local church, the assembled believers. And Father, we've gathered to make much of you, to make much of your son, to look to your word, to be led by it, to be transformed by it. Father, now here I sit, looking at these glorious truths and trying in some way to communicate them, to proclaim them. and just aware of the need for your spirit and your grace to come. Father, take the truth of your word and apply it as it goes forth to the hearts of your people. God, the truths herein are so rich and deep, and yet so simple in some aspects, and we need the grace of your spirit. I need it, so help. Hear our cry for help. For your glory, we ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus, amen. We're gonna read verses one through five today, and then just focus on verse one. Listen to the reading of God's holy word. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all who come, to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. May God bless the reading and preaching of his word. The setting here is that Jesus has finished talking with his disciples. That's what we've studied for the last, I don't know, six months, maybe. The upper room discourse, John 13 through 16. As you remember in those chapters, Jesus has been preparing his disciples for his departure as they are to carry on his ministry. They've left the upper room. They're walking. The prayer here recorded in John 17 is not the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane that the other gospels make mention of. John chapter 17 is referred by many people as the high priestly prayer. Remember saints in the Old Testament, it was the role of the high priest to stand before God and represent his people. The high priest would pray for the people and he would offer a sacrifice. for himself and for the people. And since we here in the new covenant, Jesus Christ is our high priest and that he represents us before God. We studied that he's our mediator. But instead of an animal sacrifice, he offers up himself on the cross. for our sin, but not to be repeated again every year, but once and for all. And in doing so, Jesus has put an end to the sacrificial system because he has secured complete and full atonement for our sins. He has secured eternal life for his people. And here in John 17, Jesus, our high priest, prays for us. And beloved, it's recorded for us. I'll tell you this, it's one thing to know that Jesus prays for you. The Bible tells us that he does pray for us. He intercedes for us. But it's a whole other thing to get to listen in on that prayer he's praying. The prayer, John 17, is divided into three sections. Section one through five is where Jesus prays for himself. In verses six through 19, he prays for the other disciples, the 11 there with him. And then in verse 20 through 26, he prays for all those who will believe through their message, through the disciples' message of the gospel, and that includes us. I think we all have people in the faith that we look up to. That's not a bad thing. Maybe people who have touched our lives in some way. Sometimes you get an opportunity to meet some of those people, spend some time with them. Maybe someone that had just a significant spiritual impact, maybe an author or missionary. Very often it's a preacher with the use of the internet. You can hear a sermon and you're sitting under that ministry of someone else's sermons, and then you get to meet that person. And you get to spend time with them. You get to have personal conversations with them. Whenever that happens, if it's happened to you, or if you're thinking about that, that you'd like to meet someone, often you have that desire in you that, I want to get to know this person better. I want to get some insights into their spiritual life, to their spiritual walk. Maybe I want to hear how they would evangelize someone if they were sitting next to them on a plane. I think at conferences, this is why the Q&A sessions are liked by so many people. You get John MacArthur up there or Paul Walsh or someone and they say, hey, tell us how you would evangelize someone. And people lean in. They start to listen in. I want to hear what this person has to say about that. We often wonder, what is this person like in private? If they're a preacher, you wonder, what does their sermon prep look like? What do their sermon notes look like? If they're married, what are they like with their wife? If they have children, what are they like as a husband or a father or a mother? What does their Bible reading look like? What does it look like when they meditate upon Scripture? These are things we wanna maybe get a glimpse into. Or maybe the most intimate thing that there is. What does their alone prayer life look like? I heard one pastor that a lot of people look up to, and I was having a conversation with him, and he said, he was talking with this young lady, and she said, Tell me what your prayers look like, your alone prayers in the closet. And he said, I felt like it was an uncomfortable, maybe even an inappropriate question. But we want to get that glimpse into that. And I think if we could get a glimpse into someone's personal prayer life, that might be the most intimate aspect of their spiritual life. What does it sound like when this person prays to God? Robert Murray McShane, the 18th century Scottish minister, said this. A man is what he is on his knees before God and nothing more. Let that sink in for a second. In other words, a person's prayer life is the most revealing thing about them. Not how much doctrine they know. What are their prayers like? Saints, before us today and in the weeks to come, if not maybe months to come, we have the most intimate look at our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in the longest recorded prayer that Jesus prays to the Father. In it, it will reveal a lot to us about this relationship between the Father and the Son. And in it, it will reveal to us the passion of Jesus Christ's heart. Many refer to John 17 as the most sacred scripture and all the Bible. You know who John Knox is? Scottish theologian. When he was dying, he asked his wife to read him John 17. He said, just read me John 17. He wanted to hear these words in his dying moments. I need to hear John 17. He said John 17 was instrumental in his conversion. But he said this about John 17. This is where I cast my anchor. You get that picture of a boat in the water of life. And he casts his anchor in something that is solid, that he can lay hold of, and that will lay hold of him. And for John Knox, it was John 17. Here I'm going to cast my anchor. Well, we're going to study this for a while. It's going to take us a while to get through. And we'll move on to John 18. But my prayer this week has been this. that although we'll move on in our study of the gospel of John, that you would cast your anchor as well in John chapter 17, and you would never leave these truths. It will give us guidance in prayer and in the heart of Christ, but more than that, it will secure a hope for you. that if we can begin to see these truths and dig deeper into them, the truths communicated in here in this prayer are the most rock-solid truths about who God is and our salvation. This is a good place to cast your anchor. There are some very deep theological truths in here that we need to explore. predestination, definite or victorious atonement. We're going to plunge those and look into them. And it's not so we can stand up with people and debate those truths. It is because of this. When you begin to grasp what those truths mean, it will lay a bedrock of solid foundation for you that you will be able to walk upon for the rest of this life as long as the Lord has you. These are glorious truths. John's aim through the whole gospel has been to persuade us all to set our hope fully upon Jesus Christ. This prayer has one main request that Jesus makes. He's gonna pray a lot of things, but there's one request that Jesus makes and everything else in this prayer is seeking to fulfill this one request. He makes a lot of petitions, but he makes one petition that every other petition is made to the fulfillment of this one petition. There is one end in this prayer that every other prayer is praying to fulfill this one end. this one aim, this one passion that Jesus has. And my prayer is that when we see it and grasp it, that it would become your one aim, your one passion, your one prayer. You're gonna be praying a lot of other things for the rest of your life, but every other thing you pray for should be filling and filtering through this one aim. And that's all I wanna try to help us see today. And we'll really just begin to look at it, and then we'll spend weeks and weeks and weeks trying to better understand it. So just verse one today, that's all we're gonna cover. Here we go. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. This first note here, when Jesus had spoken these words, this is referring to everything we have covered in the Upper Room Discourse, John 13 through John 16. And in this very first point here that Jesus does as he turns to prayer now, there is a important truth that all of us need to grasp right away. Jesus is a perfect teacher. He didn't leave anything out in John 13 through 16. He communicated clearly and succinctly and truthfully everything these disciples needed to know for his departure and how they would carry on the ministry. But then an important truth happens as we turn to John 17 here. And here's the important truth we need to learn first. Truth isn't enough. Truth isn't enough. Truth is necessary. We need truth. Everything Jesus said is true. He communicated it to the disciples. They have all the truth, but the fact that in John 17, he stops teaching and he begins praying, teaches all of us something. We need more than truth. We need the increase of God. And that comes through prayer. It's not enough to have truth saints. We need to be a church that's built on truth, that preaches scripture. We want to be faithful pastorally to truth. But even if we got it here, and we don't, but even if we did, we perfectly proclaimed truth. We rightly divided the word. We clearly communicated it. That's not enough. We need the increase of God. It's like in our evangelism. If we get our evangelism just right, it doesn't mean they're gonna be saved. Without what? Without the increase of God. So we need to be faithful to truth. The disciples needed to hear all they needed, but they need more than that. We need the increase of the Spirit of God. And beloved, God has made it so that that increase, which is towards us, comes through a means. Prayer. The fact that Jesus stops teaching and begins praying communicates something very important here. You need prayer. Listen, we're doing evangelism classes, we're doing marriage classes, but all the truth, I've heard the teachings, it's good truth, I'm thankful for the teachers. It's not enough. It's got to go beyond that into prayer and the increase of God with all that truth in us for it to become effectual. for marriages to begin to represent the gospel, for evangelism not to be an empty work of humanity, oh, we've got the gospel right, but for it to actually bring life into souls. And that only happens, saints, by the increase of God, and the increase of God comes as we cry out and pray for the increase of God. We need to pray more. Truth alone isn't enough. There's another reason why Jesus stops to pray here. It's because of this. Jesus's life is a life of prayer. This is his habit. We've seen it in the gospel of John, but we've done many teachings on this. It's most clearly represented in Luke's gospel. I'm not going to read through these today. I'll give them to you as part of the meditation when you go home. Just go read these texts in Luke and get a picture of the prayer life of Jesus Christ. And ask yourself this, if Jesus Christ, being fully man and fully God, yet without sin, had a life of prayer, what about you and I? His life is defined by this. He prays here because truth isn't enough, and he prays here because that's what he does. He prays. He lives in consistent union with the Father. Jesus Christ, in his humanity, is looking to the Father. He is depending upon the Father. And the dependence upon the Father, saints, is seen in his prayer life. What about you and I? Your dependence upon the Father is revealed in your prayer life. In other words, this, how much you believe you really need him is revealed in how much you pray. Remember in John 15, five, without me, you can do nothing. You know what our problem is? We don't believe John 15, five. We believe we can do most things without Him. And then when the vine dresser, the Father, in His loving providence brings situations to show you, no, you can't. Then we go, oh yeah, I can't do it, I need you, and we reach in prayer. But beloved Jesus Christ was perfect, and in his humanity had submitted himself to the Father, and he is relying fully upon the Father, and it's revealed in his life through what? Constant, continual prayer, a reaching God, Father, help, guide, lead, direct. How much more you and I? You see, God's making us into the image of Jesus Christ. This is one of the images he's making you into. He's making you into the image of a dependent son. And the more you and I are made into the image of Christ, the more you and I will come to the Father in prayer. and live there in unbroken communion and fellowship, a way time, as it was custom he went away by himself to pray. Is that as custom for you? If we say no, no why? Because I don't think I need you. Yeah, you got me into the kingdom, but this earthly stuff, I can handle this. That's the problem, it's pride. And the very next thing that Jesus prays here will help with that. Saints, look what he says here. He lifted his eyes to heaven. There's a lot of theology in that statement, isn't there? I mean, what does that teach us? You're in heaven and I'm on earth. You're above, I'm below. You're creator, I'm created. I even read earlier in Matthew chapter six, the Lord's Prayer, that's why I had him read that. When he taught the disciples how to pray, and he said the same thing, our Father in heaven. The revelation that we are looking up to God, high, exalted in heaven, is important. And Jesus believed that and submitted to that in his humanity. And he exemplified that in his prayer and he taught us to pray. And I'll tell you this, when you know that God is in heaven and you are on earth, it puts a posture in your prayer. There is a right posture to prayer. Like when you're driving, I know you're not going to get on your knees driving, but there's this recognition and there is a posture. There's a countenance that should be there in your prayer. We are praying to God who is in heaven. We're not praying to a co-equal here. This is not someone on our plane. This is someone totally other, wholly separate. And it's right when you pray that you look to heaven in the posture of you're in heaven and I'm here. And there's a lot more that's in that statement that for time, I'm not going to go into, but be mindful of it. There's a reverence there. There's a humility that should be there and all. I'm speaking to one in heaven and then that revelation and I'm instructed to call him father. And then all that that entails with mediation and union and reconciliation and adoption and those thoughts need to be there when we pray. Theology is important. So Jesus is praying in John 17 because truth alone isn't enough. We need the increase. He's praying in John 17 because It's his life. It's just this is what he does. But he's also praying in John 17 because the hour has come. The hour has come. What does Jesus mean when he says the hour has come? We've explored this, so if you weren't with us earlier, we've touched on this a lot in our study of the gospel. John, it's come up a lot. Here are a few of the references where we've covered what does he mean by the hour has come? Do you remember when the Jewish leaders wanted to arrest Jesus, but they couldn't arrest him because his hour had not yet come? So they, in their sinful desire, they wanted to put hands on him, arrest him, put him to death, but they weren't allowed. The hour hadn't come yet. There is so much truth in that statement, the hour has come. I mean, here's what it says to us at least. God the Father, who is reigning sovereign in eternity past, ordained a time, a set moment in history, time. And everything in human history has been working and working towards this hour to come. And nothing can thwart it. When you read the Old Testament, and you read about Israel being punished, but he keeps the lineage through, why? Because these people are so great? No. There's an hour to come when someone will come through that lineage. And it will come at this predetermined time. They wanted to arrest him earlier. They wanted to kill him sooner. They weren't allowed. What kept them? Father, please determine this time. There's a plan here. And since this is important, we're going to dig into this in the weeks to come. This plan of redemption and how glorious it is that it's all working according to the plan. And when we look at it on the eye level of human history, it seems like everything's out of control. But this is saying, no, there's a plan. And everything is following to this plan for this hour to come. when the Son would be glorified. And how's the Son gonna be glorified? Do you remember? Do you remember in John chapter seven, when we were studying on the Holy Spirit, and it said He had not yet been given because the Son of Man had not yet been glorified? And we tried to look through all that and we understood what it meant. That hour is pointing to the cross, the death, the burial, the resurrection, the atonement, the glory of Jesus Christ through the cross. That's what this hour had come to be. Jesus is praying here because of the significance of this hour. I want you to know this. All of human history teeters on this hour. We need Jesus to come. We need the incarnation, the taking on of flesh, but let me tell you this, if he comes and this hour doesn't happen, we all get what we justly deserve, hell, the wrath of God. This hour is important. This is the cross of the universe is all up teetering upon this hour. Will it be accomplished? Will he go to the cross? Will he die and will he rise from the dead? This is the hour that everything in the universe is waiting to see if it will happen. It's not something small. That's why Jesus is praying. Now, after this, Jesus makes the petition. This is where we'll spend the rest of our time. Here's the petition. Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. It's really two petitions, two requests being made. But it's the second request that's the most important. The first request is gonna fulfill the second request. But everything that Jesus is gonna pray, how about this, everything that Jesus does, The motive for everything Jesus does and prays, the passion of his heart, the aim for which everything he's doing is working towards is the second petition here. What are we talking about? We're talking about the glory of God. The end for which all things exist. is that, that the Son would glorify you. Your glory, God's glory. This is the prayer of John 17. Everything else we're gonna study for the next few months, is about that end being fulfilled. And he's gonna pray all these things, but they're all serving, they're all underneath working towards the one chief end, which is God be glorified. That's the prayer. That's the entire prayer summed up in a sentence. What is John 17 prayer? That God be glorified. That's the prayer. That's his aim. Beloved, that's the center of the universe. That's the driving end. This is Jesus's passion. This is Jesus's life. And this is Jesus's prayer. Everything serves this one end, that God be glorified. That's it. That's it. This is exactly the same thing that Byron read earlier. When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, here he exemplifies what he taught. What did he teach the disciples to pray in Matthew 6, verse nine? Our Father in heaven, there's the prostrate, hallowed be your name. Hallowed your name. Have you thought about that? We've studied that prayer before. That's first in the prayer that Jesus teaches them how to pray, at the center of everything that Jesus prays and does. That God's name be hallowed, honored, set apart. The prayer of John 6 and the prayer of John 17 are asking the same thing. They're asking God to set his name apart, to make it known, to be glorified, to consecrate his name, to revere your name, God. To make it known in the earth. To extol you, God. To praise you. To clothe you with splendor and majesty. This is the sum of Jesus's prayers. Everything is working to this end. If I had asked you before we started the sermon, what's the most important thing you can pray for? Don't answer, but would you have written that God be glorified? It's kind of something like we've been taught in Sunday school growing up. But I began to just think, is that really the aim of all of your prayer? You say, Jesus prays for something else. And he says, well, glorify me. See, he prays for himself. We need to pray for ourselves. But I'm going to show you in a minute and over the next few months that the prayer for the Father to glorify the Son is the prayer that the Father be glorified. And I think we pray prayers for ourself, but I wonder how much of it really has at the end the glory of God. I'm afraid so often our prayers are for the glory of self. Father, your will be done. What is his will? That he be glorified. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, the Father, his name is glorified. The prayer that we've been taught to pray and the prayer that Jesus is praying is God. What is true in heaven, make it true on earth. Whatever you have to do to make this happen, make it happen. Hallowed your name on earth as it is in heaven. And we get glimpses of that in heaven. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. We get pictures of that. And the prayer of the Christian instructed and the prayer of Christ exemplified is, God, what's happening there, make it here. at any cost, and every other prayer that we pray, especially for ourselves, is do in me to make that happen. Now, Jesus knows how he's gonna glorify the Father, right? He's gonna go to the cross. Here's something you and I don't know. We don't always know how God will give most glory in our lives. And this is why I want us to really search how we pray. We pray into our prayers as though we know that way will lead to your glory. And again, we've talked about this. I'm not implying it's wrong to pray for healing. But that seems like most of what we pray for. We see at times like health, wealth, and prosperity people in our prayers. But look, we need to shift our prayers. We have one end, the glory of God, and the prayer is whatever will get us there. And I don't pretend to assume I know what that's gonna be. If God had not told us, I wouldn't think it would come through a son being nailed to a tree, but that's how he's gonna get the most glory. So what about you and I's life? Let's humble ourselves a little bit. But I don't know, I can tell you this, I don't want to be sick anymore. I'm struggling. But above me getting healthy, bring glory to your name. You see the shift? And here's the question we have to ask. Is the glory of God really the thing we desire above everything else? Is it really the man's faith? Let's ask it this way. Is the glory of God really the best thing? You see how we don't believe that all the time. We think fuller, bending paths, healthier bodies, and perfect relationships horizontally are the best things, and so God, do what you have to do to make all those good. Surely that would be your greatest glory. Is that the testimony of this book? And then we hear that and we get discouraged because we start to think things like this. Oh, God wants me to be poor, unhealthy, and broken relationships? Ah, not a good God. And I hope to bring this together for you as we try to see how the first part of the request fulfills the second part of the request and how it will free you to pray for the glory of God and mean it with joy. That's my aim. I'm going to try to introduce it today and then really try to work through it in the next few sermons to come. Beloved, we know this. The glory of God is the chief end of man. That whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we're to do it to the glory of God. Everything small and mundane in your life should serve that end. Everything grand in your life should serve that end. Every prayer you pray should be to that end. You pray for other things, but so they serve that end, the glory of God. Let me tell you this, you want that. Even though you may not feel like you want that, you want that. This is the greatest thing in the universe. It is, but it's the greatest thing for you. That's what I want you to try to see. You want that. So here's what I want to ask. How does the first request, glorify the Son, serve the ultimate request that the Son may glorify you or glorify God? That's the ultimate request. How does the first fit into that? Where have you looked? I told you about John 7, 39. The Spirit had not yet been given because the Son of Man was not yet glorified. Okay? We looked at John 12, 16. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, We looked at John 12, 23, and Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And right after that, what does he say next? He's gonna be lifted up, remember that? That's the picture of Moses and the serpent that's pointing to Jesus. Jesus Christ is glorified through the cross and the resurrection. That's where the Son of Man, Jesus, is glorified. So let's put this together. The father glorifies the son by giving him authority and power. That's in verse two. Look at it real quick. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to what end? To give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Okay, so the father glorifies the son by giving him authority, power to carry out his work on the cross to the place of completion. The giving of eternal life. I can't wait to dig into that with you. The giving, in order for him to give it to you, it has to be completed. He's given you something that's already completed, finished, nothing to add to, okay? So the Father glorifies the Son by giving the Son authority to carry out the work of the cross, that's Jesus' first request, so that the Son can complete the work of the Father, which is what? To redeem all those whom the Father gave Him. to accomplish full atonement, to do it. Not a potential to accomplish and say, here's eternal life, I bought it for you, it's done. Receive it through faith. What do we add to that? Nothing. It's done, it's an accomplished reality. To give eternal life to the people the Father gave him and thus fulfilling the Father's plan. So Jesus' prayer is this, Father, glorify me so that I can accomplish your work, redeem your people, secure eternal life, and hand it to them, completing your work. And in doing that, you'll be glorified. You say, well, what about our prayers for ourselves? Think of what Jesus is praying. I want your glory at my death. At my enduring your wrath, give me your glory. And in order for that to happen, you gotta glorify me. You gotta give me power, authority to complete your work. Think of how you and I pray now for a moment. Glorify your name by filling my bank account. by making me healthy, wealthy, and prosperous. Look at Jesus's prayer. Glorify yourself by glorifying me to death. Do you see how committed he is to this? How committed he is to finishing the work of the Father. So, look at this. The Son glorifies the Father by fulfilling the Father's plan. Now, glorify the Father. We talked about this before, too. In the cross, most pointedly, we see the sum of all of God's attributes put on display. So creation glorifies the Father. Look at your power, right? Look at your creativity. But in the cross, We have all the attributes of God on most clear display. Think about it. We've been through this in a couple of sermons. His holiness is seen. His righteousness, that He can have nothing to do with sin. That's revealed in the cross. His justice, that isn't overlooked sin or scooted under the rug. He deals with it justly. or His love. It was the love of the Father that sent the Son that's revealed in the cross. Or His mercy. He didn't give us what we deserve. Or His grace. He gave us His Son. He gave us eternal life. Or His sovereignty. There was a definite plan set in time before eternity passed. Everything was working to it. Nothing could thwart it. This was His plan. It will be accomplished. And when Paul looks at the salvation of God, he says, look at this wisdom on display. God's attributes are most revealed clearly through the cross of Jesus Christ. This is where it gets really exciting. God has tied his glory being revealed to your salvation being accomplished, and the Son not losing any of them. Do you know how assuring those types of truth become? And that's what I'm going to really try to do in the next sermon. This is where things like, whatever words you want to use, particular redemption, gatherment, atonement, predestination, all these words that they have very practical implications to how you and I live today. They're not just big theological truths to sit around and talk about in our systematic theologies. They impact the hope you have today. The Father is all about His glory, and He should be, but He tied the revelation, the display of that glory, to the Son accomplishing your salvation. That's so, this is why I said, you wanna pray for the glory of God. You want that prayer. That's not a bad prayer. You're being deceived if you think, oh, I pray for the glory of God, things are gonna go bad in my life. No, you pray for the glory of God and Christ redeems every one of his people to the end. That's the prayer you wanna pray. It's the best thing for you. Trust him. Trust him in this. Beloved, if we can grasp this, this is one of the most freeing truths in the universe. Because here's how He simplified it for you and I. Are you ready? You have to think about one thing for the rest of your life. That's it. You're free! You have one thing to think about for the rest of your life. You know what it is? Gospel. And when we start to think like that, we go, well, what about me? And this is, He already took care of you. When you aim for His glory, your eternal future and your present provision is tied into that. You've been freed. You no longer have to worry about anything but set your faith, and your gates, and your run, and your prayers, and your aim, and your obedience to one thing. God's glory. I mean, think about things you're wrestling with right now. Maybe a broken relationship in your home, in the church, outside the church. And you're thinking about so many things. Look what's right. They look right. I'm right. My feelings were right. Their feelings were right. They're not being kind. This and that. Forget about it all. Think about one thing! How can I glorify God in this? because it's not about me anymore. I'm taken care of forever. I don't have to worry about my reputation. Well, won't they walk on me if I treat them like that? Yes, they will, but who cares? It's not about you. Get yourself out of the center of all things, your reputation, how you think you deserve to be treated, and look how God has treated you by rescuing you through Jesus Christ, and now live for that in His glory. It's so freeing! I'm not saying it's easy. This is the fight of faith. But you've been set free. But you, we enslave ourselves back to these things. Well, who's gonna think about me? I gotta think about me. No, you don't. Because the Father thought about you in eternity past. And he said this one. I'll set my love upon them. And I will send my son at the appointed time. And in the hour he will go by their eternal life. And I will be to them a father. And I will meet all of their needs. And I will bring them home safely. And I want them to focus on one thing while they're here, my glory. Do you know how freeing that is? Pray for his glory. Live for his glory. Let everything else you do serve to that end. And thank him for what he has done. Beloved, listen to this. We don't get to heaven by so living well for the glory of God. We so live well for the glory of God because he has already secured her. This isn't how you get there. This is in response to. And my hope for the next few weeks is to try to explore the absolute finished reality of Jesus Christ's work so he can glorify the Father. Let's pray. Father, would you, oh God, just help. We have looked at things that in one breath seem simple. I thank you for removing everything else to think about. We can just think about your glory. But in another area, God, this seems so deep. God, we confess, we don't know ourselves and our weakness and we don't know you and your intrinsic worth and what you've done. but we want to grow in these things. We know what happens through the word by the spirit. That's what we're asking for God to bring about change in the practical living, how we pray, how we act, how we think that every thought would be your glory. God, you've done so much to that. We can just fade into the background now. that people may see our good deeds and glorify our father who is in heaven. Apply these truths in my heart, your people's hearts, for your glory. We ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.