chapter 17. I had other things I wanted to do this morning, and there's a number of people missing that I wanted to address them some. And the Bible tells us to confess our faults one to another in James 5.16, and I wanted to really speak to some. Apostle Paul, Put something in your mind, and I appreciate what he had to say about your conscience. Your conscience is where you realize whether you're right or wrong. And Apostle Paul said these words. He said, I exercise myself. I work at this. I exercise myself to keep. conscience void of offense and that's my desire. I preached here thirsty on subjects of wanting to know if there's something wrong within me and and I meant it. You realize that people are watching your lives and They, from it, they make a decision about you, whether you're worthy to follow or to believe that you really are what you say you are. And so that's been in my mind, in my heart, and I really did, I wanted to I wanted to talk to some people this morning that I was sorry for my attitude and things like that and just deal with things and apologize. And so I will do it when they get here. Some are sick, some are away. But that was on my heart. Why? Because I want a conscience void of offense. There's nothing more miserable to live with with a conscience that's hammering you, you're wrong. You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. And it won't let up unless you decide to sear it. And you sear your conscience and you won't have to worry anymore about ever feeling wrong. You just face God and your sin. Lord, my helper, I'm going to do that, still going to do it, because I mean, when you preach something, there's an old statement, physician, heal thyself. And so preacher, go the same way, live what you preach. I never was one that wanted to preach one thing and live another. I want to be an example, a testimony. Even says in Hebrews that the people are supposed to whose faith follow is the way it says it in Hebrews, the last chapter. And so I want to have a faith a belief in God and obedience to God, a servant of God that's worth following. The apostle Paul set that example. He said, follow me as I follow Christ. You ought to think about that sometimes. Your mate, children, friends, Think that you could say that to him. Watch me, listen to me, watch how I live, and I will lead you to Christ. That's quite a testimony. That's saying a lot or meaning a lot. And that's vowing a lot. to be an example and a testimony. Well, I'm gonna deal just a little bit this morning with the Lord Jesus praying. It's called an intercessory prayer in John 17, the gospel of John. And he's not only, he's not only praying for these disciples, he praying for himself. Some things he wants, some things he desires. The more I read it and read through it and read through it, the more it speaks to me about a lot of it here is involved in his humanity that we forget. He had feelings and emotions. He was a man. And he could, certainly he could sense the same things we do. And I believe you'll see that in there. This portion kind of deals a lot with what's going through him, what's in his life, what he's interceding for, praying for, seeking from the father. He's praying to him and he's, See in distance. He can see. There's just a little ways over and cross a little brook and he'll be in that garden where they're going to capture him. He can see beyond that in his spiritual nature. He can see the treatment he's going to receive by people that hate him. And so he's interceding. He really is. And he's puts himself in here some places that he has a need. And he's crying to the father. The word father, he mentions it in verse four. He says, I have glorified thee on the earth. And I look back, I can't figure whether I look back just the book of John, it was 90 times the word father was mentioned. Just in chapter 16, it's mentioned nine times he mentions the father. So Jesus did exalt him. He did lift him up before the people. He let people know what the father means to him. He sought the Father for everything, for counsel, for wisdom, for support, for strength. He'd go to the Father and speak to the Father and ask the Father. And so it's a beautiful relationship. It's one that I believe you'll see in here that is precious, very precious to him. And so he, the Lord begins to pray. I have glorified thee on the earth, verse four. He said, I have lifted you up. I've told the people about you. I've glorified, I've magnified your name before people. I've exalted you to show how what a great God, what a great father you are. And certainly it's something we can learn. in this relationship. It says it in 2 Corinthians that if you come out, be separate. He said, I'll be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughter. You'll have that kind of relationship. You'll be able to cry, I have a father. It's almost like saying dad. It's saying that he's that close to you. that you can cry out his name for help and seek him for grace for the days ahead. And so it's a beautiful, wonderful, loving relationship that Jesus exalts here and how he says that he lifted him up. What a great father he is. I have glorified thee on the earth. just lifted you up, I've showed people how wonderful you are, how caring you are, how merciful you are, how long-suffering you are, how patient you are with me, how you really encourage me and comfort me, and you really care about me, and so and so. He, through his example of this relationship he has with the Father, he's presented the Father to the world around him as one they really ought to know, one they ought to seek to know, one they ought to draw nigh to, one they ought to study to know him better. I lift you up. I told people about you. I've told about our relationship, how good you are to me. And so I've glorified thee. I've magnified your name. I lifted up your name. He said, on the earth. Look at verse four again. It says, I have finished the work which thou, which thou hath gaven, gavest me to do. He had quite an assignment. He had quite a ministry. He didn't go at it until, it's amazing, until he got 30. You need to think about that. The age 18 means nothing to the Bible. Actually, it means you're not mature yet at 18, nor 19, nor 20. Actually, the little I've studied on it, this thing up here isn't totally mature until you're 30. There's some things that change and develop in your mind, and they're not there until you're 30. This thing, well, I'm 18, I'm free. That's not in the Bible. That's in the philosophy of this world. When kids and people think that, hey, I'm free, I can go, I can tell you, dad, mom, and y'all, I ain't got to listen to you. You better check your Bible. Jesus, I sat down one day and I was just really thinking about it. He'd come in, Joseph say, go get me that Block of wood out there so I can finish this. Yes, Father. He's 29 years old. Perfect obedience to his parents. He set an example for every young person. You gotta look at his whole life. They try to portray him a baby as being the most important. No, no, no. He had a life of obedience to his parents. The only time they see that they were possibly having problems with him is when he was out. He's just a young boy, and he's talking to men that were doctors of decrees, of knowledge. And he was explaining to them some things. That's what his parents had to go back and find him. But I believe he said, am I right? You check that out. I think he said, I must be about my father's business. Isn't that what he said? Dad told me to do this. The father led me to do this, to be a testament, an example wherever, whenever I could. And so he, can I say to you, he left that example of obedience up to 30. And you need to weigh that out good, really do, that's important. We think everything arrives and everything's, we're ready, we're ready for the world, we're ready for whatever it takes. No, I wish I could stand here and tell you, the teenagers, that took off at 18, 19, and 20 and what happened to it. I wish I could. You'd be shocked. The average now is from 85 to 90. I do read a lot of statistics and a lot of information that comes out about what's going on. Up to 85% of the young people After 18, depart from the Lord, 85% of them. Proves they're really not ready, I don't think. And you know yourself, you've seen a lot of young people. I had a woman call me, she says, do you think my daughter would be right to work at a fast food place? I said, no. She said, well, she's just going to work. I said, no, she's not ready for it. She doesn't know. She's not been out there in that kind of environment. And so she ignored my counsel. The girl didn't work in this fast food place. She didn't work a few months. And she run off with a married man, got herself in a terrible mess. They're not ready. There's a lot of things we got to learn about life. And the last thing we need to do is hurry it up without knowledge, without experience, without counsel. And that's not my message, but I'm just saying it's certainly a need of this hour that young people realize they need to move slow and patiently Every one of us adults could probably say we was impatient at 18, 19, 20, and on up to 30. We was impatient. It certainly is costly. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. He had a mission. He had a mission that the Father give him. of showing and being an example of what a Christian ought to be, how obedient he ought to be to his father, what kind of life he ought to live. He had the example that he was supposed to show, just what powers his father had. He give glory to the father, uh, when he performed miracles, but he was responsible to show that power and how it was used, how it was supposed to be used and what he did for people and how he went about, as the Bible says, he went about doing good. That was the testimony or the main testimony he put before people. Everything he did was good. He was doing good to people. He was trying to help people. He healed people. He took time with people. He counseled with people. He gave his life for people. He was a testimony showing the way that God deemed that he... And it was God's will that he show the power of God, heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, feed the 4,000, feed the 5,000. I'm saying he was constantly an example of praying to the Father. I believe... correct me here, but I believe when he got that little lad's lunch, I believe the first thing he did was pray over that lunch. Bless it. It wouldn't have been multiplied unless he brought the Father's power and presence into it. And he prayed. I'm saying he didn't just go out and do it on his own. He recognized the Father in everything he did. The Father giveth him this power. The Father giveth him this mission. It's that I'm in the Father's will. And so he was a testimony, constant testimony, example of praying. You want to know how to pray? I'll teach you how to pray. They said, how do you pray? He said, pray this way. Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Who do you pray to? Our Father. Now, you can't do that if you don't know him personally. You haven't been introduced to him by the Holy Ghost of God. You haven't, if you haven't been converted to where your heart is for the Lord, and you look to Him and receive that as saving grace. It's the only way that you can have that permission and right. You got to be in the family in order to call Him your Father, is that right? You got to be in His family. It says in Romans 8, that God's spirit bears witness that you can cry, you can cry. Abba, Father, you're my Father. And you get that permission through the Holy Ghost of God that recognizes that there's a saving work done inside your life, the Holy Ghost of God's moved in your life, and now you can cry. Abba Father. I'm saying he answered the Lord's will, the heavenly Father's will, and moved on the lives of people, and always brought the Father into it, whatever it was. Jesus paved the way. You see, he's our example. No preacher, no person, no prophet. You're not spiritual because of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You're not right with God because of David, Daniel, whoever, or because of any preacher. The only reason that you're a child of God is because of the Lord Jesus Christ obeying the Father and presenting himself as a sacrifice for our sin. He proved... See, he took on the form of a man. Hebrews 3, it tells that in the likeness of his fellow man, He wanted to be like him. He wanted to be so like him that he could be tempted at all points like as we are. He was tempted at all points like as we are. All points like as we are. He was tempted. And what did he do? You can't say he sinned, can you? If he sinned one sin, If he sinned one sin, he couldn't be the Savior. The Lamb had to be spotless. Christ had to be perfect, sinless, Son of God. And so he He was in a flesh just like you and I are. And he finished his course. What do you mean, preacher? I said he proved, he proved what a man could do if he really wanted to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit of God inside of him. John the Baptist baptized him. He received the Holy Ghost of God, which every Christian, every Christians receive the Holy Spirit. Every Christian's just like Jesus, in a way. Jesus set aside his deity. Bible says he's kind of laid it down. He set it aside. And what he did was prove you could overcome. You really could, through the Holy Spirit of God, overcome the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. finish the work that thou gavest me to do, to be a perfect savior in a wicked world, to overcome evil, to be willing to offer myself a sacrifice unto God. Well, we don't, oh, yes you do. I will teach you, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your body a living, Sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God. Holy, acceptable unto God. Holy, acceptable unto God. Which is something you can't do. No, it's what your reasonable service is. You can, and I can, and we have no excuse. You'll never have an excuse. You just swears to omit it. I failed you. It's all my fault. Every sin is all my fault. I can't blame nobody else. What a thing. But won't work. Won't work. Won't excuse you. Won't give you a right. He showed, he proved without a doubt, regardless of the experiences he had, threatened with death. Many times they tried to throw him off a cliff. They tried to stone him. There's so many things they tried to do. I'm saying he kept, did he run off and hide? No. Even his disciples say, don't go up, don't go up, don't go up. They were fearful. He was on a mission that he had to accomplish, obey the father. And he did. He obeyed him. I mean, regardless, regardless if he was even rejected, this hurts a little deeper. You recognize other people that don't like you, but it gets kind of tough with your own family. doesn't love you." He went back to Nazareth and his own family, and I don't know who all that, of course, it wasn't Mary, but it was some brothers and sisters that rejected him, and he never went back to that area again. The Bible says, he did not many mighty works there because of their Unbelief. Hometown. Hometown. That's what that's recorded at in his hometown. He did not mighty, mighty works there because of their unbelief. Did he quit? No. Get mad? No. Did he still love them? Sure. I don't know. That's rough to do. I'll admit that. You wonder how he kept going. The way people treated him, and he's down here to take their place for their sin, and they mistreated him. Man of sorrow and grief. Man that was just treated as a criminal, as an imposter. They even, in John 8, 52, they called him a devil. Could you imagine that? They called Jesus the devil. Did he quit? No. Did he keep going? Kept going. He had a mission that he came to do. What's his mission? To go to the cross. That's his mission. He knew where he was heading. He knew what was going to happen. Yet he didn't falter, he didn't fail, he didn't give up, he kept going. But Tom's gone just about. I wanted to read Isaiah 53, and you know what it is. Who believe I report, and to whom will the Lord receive? And it goes on, tells all that happened to him, the mistreatment that happens in Isaiah 53. I just want to touch this one point. Look at verse five. He said he finished in verse four, finished the work that he had to do. And now, oh, Father, now watch closely. Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I read that and read it and read it. And I said, man, he's homesick. I said, that stirred my soul. I read that the more I read it. Father, I, you remember the times we had together before the world was even founded? How I long to have that wonderful, loving presence of being close to you. Seated on the right hand of the Father. How I miss that. How I long for that. I told you he's interceding for the disciples, he's interceding for his work, but he's interceding also for himself, Lord. I can't wait. I so long to where I could have that same wonderful experience in your presence, besides you, sitting besides you, in heaven, showing I'm your son and you're pleased with me. And that love and experience we had, You begin to see it over kind of towards the end. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me, where I am that I may be behold by glory, which thou hast given me, for thou, listen to these words, verse 24 in chapter 17. He says, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Oh! Oh, you see it, you see it back there where he says it in verse five. And now, oh, father, you see it here. Oh, father, oh, righteous father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. And these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare that the L-O-V-E, wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them and I in them." I want you to experience what I did He's saying, I'd love to get home. Oh father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with you, in your presence. Like we used to way back there before the world was even made. That beautiful relationship before this sinful, wicked world was even made. He says, I long for that. I miss that. I want to be back in that again. I would say he was looking forward to going home. He was seeking it, desired it, and knowing that when he gets in heaven, all this stuff that's going on here will change. He'll never suffer again. Man will never be cruel to him again. Man will treat him like the Son of God. It's quite a mission he has, and it's a wonderful prayer. But he is, he is praying some for himself, because he misses the Father, shall we stand? I had that in my, I wanted to sing that song with you. You don't, we don't sing it much, I don't think. Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on. I thought how this really related to him. Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand. I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm worn. And that's kind of like what Jesus is. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord. Lead me home. When my way grows drear, boy, it fits Him. When my way grows drear, precious Lord, linger near. When my life, see, it all just fits perfect to Him. and my life is almost gone. Hear my cry, hear my call. Hold my hand lest I fall. Take my hand, precious Lord. Lead me home. When the darkness appears and the night draws near and the day has passed and gone, at the river I stand, guide my feet, hold my head. Take my hand, precious Lord. Lead me. Amen. Father, in Jesus' name, how beautiful your word is, how glorious and gracious you are. What a wonderful testimony. What a glorious example you are. I bless your holy, holy name. Thank you for interceding for us now. Can't understand that hardly. You praying for us all the time. I'm thankful, Lord, that you understand us, you care about us, and you pray for us. I pray we'd see that example and we'd want to be, we'd want to be, we'd work at it, We'd want to be an example of your grace and your image of being a wonderful, holy Lord. Work in the lives of each one here. I pray your spirit would draw us closer to you. I pray it'd take us, take the, take the me-ism out of our lives to where we're always looking for something to please us. And I pray we'd be a people that desire the most thing in the world would be to please you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.