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We welcome all of you in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are
glad to have you all with us this Lord's Day morning and glad
to have a couple of visitors among us. I want to encourage
you, if you're visiting us for the first time, grab one of these
booklet, Ultimate Questions. We have a stack of these out
on the hall table. We want to give this to you as
a free gift for joining us. for worship this morning, and
there's a sign up on the hall table as well if you want to
sign our guest register so that we can have a record of your
visit. We would love that. I want to encourage you to look
inside your bulletin. You'll see there that we are
continuing in the Sunday school hour at 945 every Sunday morning
right here in this room. Our Sunday school series through
Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel. This morning we were in 1 Samuel
14, the unhindered strength of God. If you were providentially
hindered from joining us this morning, that was recorded. You
should get that online this week and be blessed by listening to
it. You'll see also that there are no Wednesday evening activities
this week. There will be the following week.
We'll talk about that in a moment. Sermon passage for next week
will be John 17, verses 6 through 19, as we begin entering into
Jesus's high priestly prayer this morning. I also want to
direct your attention across the page to the announcement.
It's a busy time of year. It's hard to believe we're already
in September. A lot of activities, a lot of things going on. So
let me walk through these with you. First of all, the new monthly
free online resource that I'll be recommending through the month
of September are the selected sermons of George Whitefield,
which are 59 sermons by George Whitefield. If you don't know
George Whitefield, he was early part of the 18th century. He preached alongside around
the same time as Jonathan Edwards during the first great awakening,
and just like Edwards, he passed away just before the American
Revolution. He is a remarkable preacher,
and like Edwards, his sermons are worth reading and meditating
on. And there's some really excellent
sermons in this collection. If you follow the link there,
there are many ways to download this particular collection. You
can put it onto an e-book reader. You can download it to your computer
as a PDF or a Word document. You can just read it right there
online. A lot of different ways. But I would recommend just selecting
some of the sermons. There's one he preached. The
title of it is The Method of Grace, a great evangelical sermon
that I would recommend reading. His farewell sermon is included
in there, which is a very good sermon on the Good Shepherd.
A lot of excellent sermons by Whitefield that I encourage you
to be reading through this month. And then we have several opportunities
to serve just right over here where my wife and Susie Phillips
are currently serving and caring for the little ones. If you are
able to serve in that capacity, see Susie Phillips and she will
add you to the rotation to meet that need. Men's Prayer Breakfast
is coming up this Saturday, it's September, and so the men will
be gathering at 8 o'clock a.m. right here in the Fellowship
Hall. This Saturday we look forward to as many men as can join us
for that time of delicious food and warm fellowship and intercessory
prayer on behalf of this congregation. And then the September conference
is upon us, so one week from today. Park Hills Baptist Church
right here in Austin. They're located just off of Mopac,
south of the river and west of Mopac right there. They are hosting
a Christian conference that is absolutely free. It's titled,
The Church and Politics Quit or Conquer, Following Christ
Through Political Turmoil, an appropriate and apt conference
for this year. Doors will open at 4.30. Conference
begins promptly at 5 o'clock. There's no childcare provided,
but you're encouraged to bring your children into the meeting
room. And Pastor Ben Wright of Cedar Point Baptist Church will
be speaking on 35 Things We All Agree On. Josh Hayward of Kenney
Avenue will be speaking on How to Love Your Political Opponents.
And then I'll be there, I'll be speaking on A Biblical Theology
of Human Government. We're also going to have a Q&A
panel afterwards, and so I think this will be a great time just
to learn, to prepare yourself, but also to meet other like-minded
brothers and sisters in the Austin area who attend various like-minded
churches. Also, I want to point out that
on Wednesday evening, September the 11th, so not this Wednesday
but the next Wednesday, that'll be the second Wednesday of the
month at 630 p.m. We're going to have a lecture
right here in this room that I'm going to deliver on knowing
God's will for your life. So I've been going on these Wednesday
nights lecturing on topics that Dayspringers have raised as something
that they want to know about. And this is a common one that
I hear from multiple Dayspringers about decision-making and knowing
God's will for your life. How do you determine that? We're
going to talk all about that on Wednesday evening, September
the 11th. We will have a Q&A afterwards,
so bring your questions. We'll also have a brown bag supper
beforehand at 545 in the Fellowship Hall if anyone wants to come
early and eat together. And then a parenting seminar
will be led by Juan and Janine Sanchez, along with Josh and
Christina Hayward at Kenney Avenue Baptist Church on Saturday, October
the 19th. There is a cost, $10 per person. Child care will be provided,
and you can register using the link there in your bulletin.
I encourage any parents who are interested or if you know of
any parents of young children, to point them to this seminar
titled, Reaching Your Child's Heart. And then, finally, we
have the annual Day Spring Retreat. And so, as I have announced,
today is the deadline to register, and there is no more room at
the inn. We have filled the place, and
so we look forward to a glorious retreat out at the beautiful
River End Resort in Hunt, Texas. It'll take place October 25th
through the 27th. There are these yellow flyers
out on the hall table. If you haven't grabbed one, you
really want to do so. It has a map on how to get out
there, but it also tells you what to bring, what's there,
all the registration and cost information, activities, and
so forth, so you'll want to have one of these handy, especially
as we get closer to the time. I do want to let you know that
any cancellations now that are made after today will incur a
one night's room charge, so you just have to be aware of that.
And then the deadline to pay for your room isn't until October
the 13th, so you have plenty of time to do that. There also
remain several service opportunities that you can sign up for, and
there's an online sign up for those in the little link given
there at the bottom of your bulletin. Finally, one thing, that announcement
that is not in the bulletin, we talked about during our Sunday
school prayer time, is that Nancy Decker passed away late last
night. She was 96 years old, not one
of the founding members of this church, but close. She came along
a little bit after the founding and has a long and rich history
here at Dayspring. Arrangements will be forthcoming,
but I can tell you that ex-Day Springer and former elder Max
Smith will be officiating her service at a nearby funeral home. And so I want to say just a few
things about that. I was thinking of having a congregational
meeting afterwards to briefly talk about this since it really
is relevant mainly for those of you who have been Day Springers
for five years or more. But just a few things I want
to say to help sort of shepherd you through this particular circumstances. The first thing I want to do
is I want to protect my brother Max from any suspicions that
he is somehow inserting himself or sowing any further divisions
among us. He is not. He served as Nancy's
pastor for many, many decades. And it's Nancy's wishes that
her service be officiated by Max and that her sons make the
arrangement. So this was her desire, her wishes,
which we want to respect. Secondly, I want to encourage
you all to attend the funeral. We're not being excluded. Dayspring's
invited, and so I want you to feel free to show your respects
if you're able to. I realize that years ago, Max
did hurt many of you. He hurt me, too. But we have
forgiven him, because that's what Christians do as we pray
in the Lord's Prayer. We have forgiven those who have
trespassed against us. I have every reason to believe
that our brother Max, who I understand is a member in good standing
at an evangelical Protestant Presbyterian church, that he
will proclaim the true gospel, which is a brother of ours, a
brother in Christ he holds to. And so we rejoice in that, and
we're able to give him the right hand of fellowship, as I have
done at many other funerals and weddings that have taken place
that we've both attended in the past since the events of five
years ago. And then finally, I want to say
that I understand that forgiveness is often a process and not just
a one-time, you know, punctiliar event. So if these circumstances
stir up, you know, within your heart any resentment or anger
or unforgiveness, I would just encourage you to come and meet
with me so that I can help shepherd you towards forgiveness. So please come see me if that's
the case. As we begin worship this morning,
I want to encourage you to take your red hymnal, we'll be in
the red this morning, and turn with me to hymn number two. You
want to keep your finger in place at hymn number two, and please
stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning,
it comes from the great and prophetic 22nd Psalm. You who fear the Lord, praise
him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify
him. And stand in awe of him, all
you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted. And he has not hidden his face
from him, but he has heard when he cried to him. all the ends
of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the
families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship
belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. Let us sing
together. Worship the King, all glorious
above, O gratefully sing his power and his love! Our shield
and defender, the Ancient of Days, Pavilion in splendor, and
girded with praise, O tell of his might, O sing of his grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopies space, His chariots
of wrath the deep under clouds form, And dark is His path on
the wings of the storm, The earth with its store of wonders untold. Almighty, Your power has found
it of old, Established it fast by a changeless decree, And round
it has cast like a mantle the scene. Beautiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, In you do we trust, nor find you to fail. Your mercy's how tender, how
firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. O measureless might, ineffable
love, While angels delight to hymn you above, ♪ A humbler creation
though feeble there lays ♪ With true adoration shall live to
your praise Let us pray together. Almighty God and our great Father,
we praise you, Lord. We thank you so much for giving
the victory over sin and death and Satan by sending your Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our King, to live for us, to die for us,
to be raised again for us. including us in him and with
him, and having ascended back to you, ensuring that we are
seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We thank you,
Lord God, that in that status and great privilege that we can
come before you and worship you this day openly. We pray, Lord
God, that your Holy Spirit would be powerful in our midst, convicting
us of our sin and challenging us to increased devotion to you,
comforting us in all our afflictions and concerns and cares. We pray,
Lord God, as we draw near to you through Jesus, our great
High Priest, that you would cause us to worship you in spirit and
in truth, to give you all the glory Lord, we pray that as we
sing, you would remind us of your greatness and glory as we
partake of communion. We pray that we might know you
with intimacy and with certainty and assurance of your salvation.
We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would speak to us and through
us as we pray and that you would minister to us through the word
that is read and preached. We pray, Lord God, that you would
draw near to us now and know us that there would be a true
relationship of father to children today in this place. We pray,
Lord God, that you would ensure that all that we do here would
be done humbly and sincerely and in a way that would give
all the glory to you. We ask these things in your son
Jesus's blessed name. Amen. You may be seated. Good morning, everyone. All right,
please turn to hymn 469, How Sweet and Awesome is the Place. How sweet and awesome is the
place With Christ within the doors! While everlasting love
displays The choices of her stores, While all our hearts and all
our songs join to admire the feast, Each of us cries with
thankful tongue, Lord, why was I a guest? Why was I made to
hear your voice and enter while there's room? When thousand makes
a wretched choice, And rather starve than come, T'was the same
love that spread the feast, And sweetly drew us in. else we had still refused to
taste and perished in our sin. Pity the nations, O our God,
constrain the earth to come, Send your victorious word abroad,
and bring the strangers home. We long to see your churches
full, that all the chosen race May with one voice and heart
and soul sing your redeeming grace. Amen. As we continue to worship
God, please turn to hymn number 286. 286, Worship Christ, the Risen King,
and He Has Indeed Risen. Rise, O Church, and lift your
voices. Christ has conquered death and
hell. See the tomb where death hath
laid him in tomb. Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ the risen King. See the tomb where death had
laid Him, empty now its mouth declares. Death and I could not
contain Him, for the throne of life He shares. Come and worship,
come and worship, worship Christ the risen King. Hear the earth protest and tremble,
see the stone removed with power. All hell's minions may assemble,
but cannot withstand his power. He has conquered, he has conquered,
Christ the Lord, the risen King. Doubt may lift its head to murmur,
scoffers, mock, and sinners cheer, but the truth proclaims a wonder
thoughtful hearts receive with cheer. Come, He is risen, He
has risen, now receive the risen King. We acclaim your life, O
Jesus, now we sing your victory. Sin or health may seem to seize
us, but your conquest keeps us free. All right. Now we have
the reading of God's Word. The reading this morning comes
from Ephesians 1, verses 3-13. It says this, and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him. In love, he predestined us for
adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. according to the
purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which
He has blessed us in the beloved In Him, we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, and all
wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ, as a
plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things
in heaven, and things on the earth. In Him we have obtained
an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him,
who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so
that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the
praise of His glory. And in Him you also, when you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and
believed in Him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of
it to the praise of His glory. Amen. That is the word of our
God. We celebrate the climactic fulfillment
of that great eternal purpose between God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit when we celebrate the Lord's
Supper as we do every Lord's Day here at Dayspring. And as
I've said many times, this sacred meal is a dangerous meal. It
comes with a warning. It's not for everyone. Not everyone's
admitted to this table. And if the requirements don't
apply to you and you're not to be admitted to this table, I
just want to encourage you with the fact that we love you and
that we're glad that you're here and we just want to warn you
and exhort you to pass these elements along as they come by
and to think about what they symbolize, what they mean, what
they point us to. First and most importantly, this
meal is not for those of you who are good, upright people,
right? This is a meal for sinners who
know that they have no righteousness of their own and they have repented
of their sin and desperately turned in faith to the Lord Jesus
Christ to rescue them from all their sin and guilt and shame.
And so we ask that you are one who is trusting in the Lord Jesus
Christ alone for your salvation. You're not looking to any goodness
or any merit on your part. You're looking to Jesus's merit
and to his perfect life that he lived in your place in obedience
to the Father, the sacrificial death that he died in your place
on the cross, taking the wrath of God against all of your sins
so that you've been reconciled to God and made a son in the
kingdom. So you're one who has been saved
by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ
alone, to His glory alone. There is no boasting in our salvation. And then secondly, we ask that
you be a baptized believer, but we do leave the details of your
baptism up to your own individual conscience. And finally, we ask
that you not be under church discipline from your own local
congregation so that we might respect the work of our King
Jesus as he sovereignly builds his church in the world. As we
prepare ourselves for the Lord's Supper and reflect upon the cross,
let's ask one another the question, were you there? By turning in
the red to hymn number 260, 260, were you there? And let us sing
together. Oh. Were you there when they crucified
my Lord? Were you there? Were you there
when they crucified my Lord? Were you there? Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble,
tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified
my Lord? Were you there? Were you there
when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there? Were you there
when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there? Sometimes it causes me to tremble,
tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified
my Lord? Were you there? Were you there
when they pierced Him in the side? Were you there? Were you there when they pierced
Him in the side? Were you there? Sometimes it causes me to tremble,
tremble, tremble. Were you there when they pierced
him in the side? Were you there? Were you there
when they laid Him in the tomb? Were you there? Were you there
when they laid Him in the tomb? Oh, sometimes it causes me to
tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid
him in the tomb? Were you there? Were you there
when he rose up from the dead? Were you there? Were you there
when he rose up from the dead? Were you there? Oh, sometimes
I feel like shouting glory, glory, The answer to that question is
yes we were. Amen. See Romans 6 among other
places. Well, years ago, before I was
born, in the year 1939, C.S. Lewis, he preached a sermon titled,
Learning in Wartime. He was attempting to answer the
question as to whether it was reasonable to do something like
pursue education or scholarly work when your own nation, your
country, is in the midst of fighting a great world war. And his answer,
in short, was yes, but I don't bring up his sermon to focus
on why learning at all times is a good pursuit. I bring it
up because of a warning that Lewis gave in the midst of that
sermon. He was speaking of the person
who gives himself to scholarship, especially a scholarship in an
area like theology, and he wrote these words. The intellectual
life is not the only road to God, nor the safest, but we find
it to be a road, and it may be the appointed road for us. Of
course, it will be so only so long as we keep the impulse pure. That is the great difficulty.
We may come to love knowledge or knowing more than the thing
known. to delight not in the exercise
of our talents, but in the fact that they are ours, or even in
the reputation they bring us. Every success in the scholar's
life increases this danger. If it becomes irresistible, he
must give up his scholarly work. The time for plucking out the
right eye has arrived. What strikes me about that quote
is just how crafty our enemy is. There are times when he seeks
a person's downfall through ways that we're all aware of, like
appealing to his unbridled lust, or to a person's bitterness and
anger, or his feeling that he deserves more praise and recognition. that he's getting. We've seen
those kinds of desires lead to all kinds of moral failings. But as Lewis notes, the devil,
he may even take good pursuits, such as learning about God, learning
theology, and even corrupt that. tempting us to love knowledge
itself and our reputation for being knowledgeable more than
the Lord. Which is a reminder for us that
there's a great difference between knowing about God and actually
knowing God. Actually knowing him, knowing
is relational. It's intimate. You know, when
the Bible says that Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived
and bore a son, it doesn't mean that Adam knew certain facts
about Eve. And when Jesus says in Matthew
7 that many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't
we do all of these good works in your name? And I will say
to them, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness, for I
never knew you. He doesn't mean I never knew
you existed, or I never knew all about you. What he means
is simply you and I, We never had a real relationship with
one another. That kind of knowing, that deep
relationship with God, it's only made possible through the work
that Jesus accomplished on the cross. And this communion with
Him is just that. It is an intimate communion with
Him and an expression of that intimacy, that knowledge. And
so I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say.
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in
the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it
not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one
bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the
one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread
or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be
guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person
examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of
the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning
the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many
of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged
ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged
by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned
along with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take
a moment of silence in the presence of our Lord to examine ourselves. Our Heavenly Father, we confess
that we came into this world estranged from you and at enmity
with you, separated from you, and we would never have come
to know you had you not mercifully chosen to foreknow us before
the foundation of the world. And then send Your Son Jesus
to live for us and to die for us, to reconcile us to You by
winning our redemption. And then sending Your Holy Spirit
to apply this redemption to us, to make us alive and to indwell
us and to lead us to truly know You. And so we thank you for
the cross by which we've been reconciled to you, for your son,
Jesus, for his body and blood that was given that we might
truly know you and truly be known by you. And so we ask you to
bless this bread and this cup, sanctify them for their holy
use, bless us in partaking of them to do so by faith alone,
in you alone, to your glory alone. And so, in a worthy manner, in
Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord
what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night
when He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks,
He broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do
this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, He took
the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant
in my blood. Do this as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until
He comes. This is the body of our Lord,
crushed for our iniquities. This cup is the new covenant
in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of
sins. Please turn to hymn number 381
in your red hymnal. Brethren, we have met to worship. Brethren, we have met to worship
and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the word? All is vain unless the Spirit
of the Holy One come down. Brethren, pray, and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming, hell
is moving, can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and
our mothers and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray
and holy manna will be showered all around. Sisters, will you
join to help us? Moses' sister hated him. Will you help the trembling mourners? who are struggling hard with
sin. Tell them all about the Savior,
tell them that He will be found. Sisters, pray, and holy menna
will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely. Let us love each other, too. For sinners, too, our God makes
all things new. ♪ Then he'll call us home to
heaven ♪ At his table we'll sit down ♪ Christ will gird himself
and serve us ♪ With sweet manna all around Your red hymnal in hand, please
turn to page 819. 819 in the back of the red hymnal.
And please stand together. We're going to read responsibly
Psalm 96. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.
Sing to the Lord. Praise his name. Proclaim his
salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord
made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before
him. Strength and glory are in his
sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations, ascribe
to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord glory to
his name. Bring an offering and come into
his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor
of his holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord
reigns. The world is firmly established.
It cannot be moved. He will judge the peoples with
equity. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. Let the
sea be rebound and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant. then all the trees of the forest
will sing for joy. They will sing before the Lord,
for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the
world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Let us
pray together. Our Lord Jesus Christ, we do
pray that you would come quickly, to judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in your truth. Our hope and our joy is in your
unfailing love to your people. We pray for our lost loved ones
today, for those whom we so desire to call brother or sister. We
lift them up to you and ask that you would save those family members
and friends and loved ones who are far off from you. We especially
remember to you this morning Nancy's two sons, Stephan and
Stephen, and pray that even as they grieve their loss, that
you would bring them the blessing of salvation through faith alone
in you alone. Be with all who are grieving
the death of Nancy. Our God and Father, we thank
you for sending your Son, our King Jesus, into the world. We
thank you that you do your work of salvation throughout the whole
world, and so we pray for Ukraine and Gaza, all the places experiencing
war and persecution. We pray for protection over the
Karstens and for the beautiful country of South Africa where
three people are now murdered every hour. Lord, that you would
bring peace through the gospel witness there in that violent
land. Lord, we lift this congregation
up to you. We ask that you would work here among us to build us
up in our faith, build us up in our love, for you and in our
love for one another. We pray for our neighbors, we
pray for our city, we pray for our country, for Governor Abbott
and President Biden and all the leaders in our government, that
you would have mercy upon us by guiding them in wisdom. We
pray for all of our missionaries, for all of our brothers and sisters
who work to tell the world all about Jesus, that your living
and active word would go forth in great power and that you would
add to your church daily as many as are being saved. We pray that
you would be with Pastor Ben Wright this morning as he preaches
your word at Cedar Point Baptist Church in Cedar Park. Lord, bless
that congregation with unity in Christ around the glorious
gospel of his grace. We pray, Lord God, that you would
be with your church all over the world. We pray that all Israel
might be saved. And finally, oh Lord, we pray
that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the Lord. as the waters cover the sea.
In Jesus' name and for his sake we pray, amen. You may be seated
and our children may go out to Children's Church at this time. And as they go out, please turn
with me in your copy of God's inspired, inerrant word to the
17th chapter of the Gospel of John. During our study of the book
of John, over the last four months, we've been just looking at this
speech that Jesus made to his disciples on the night before
he was crucified, his 11 disciples, as Judas has left to betray him. It really runs from somewhere
in chapter 13 all the way to the end of chapter 16, this intimate
discourse in which Jesus has been intimately preparing his
11 disciples for what's about to take place. We've come now
to the beginning of chapter 17, which is technically not a part
of that discourse anymore. It's here that Jesus stops talking
to his disciples and starts talking to his Father. this prayer that
begins in John 17. It runs throughout the entire
chapter. If you look at the prayer, you
can see that it breaks down really nicely into three paragraphs.
So the part we're going to be looking at today is one through
five. That's the first paragraph. That's where Jesus prays mostly
for himself. He's praying to his Father about
what's going on, particularly with himself. We're going to
look at that in detail today. And then you've got that long
paragraph from verse 6 down through verse 19. That's where Jesus
is praying, in particular for the 11 apostles that are around
him, listening to him. And as we'll see next week, that
applies to us as well. And then from verses 20 to 26,
you've got this last paragraph where Jesus turns and just explicitly
says, I don't pray for just these 11, but I pray for everyone throughout
the centuries who is ever going to believe in me through their
testimony, through their word. And he goes ahead and he prays.
which is just incredible because it means it's a personal prayer
from Jesus, the Great High Priest, the Son of God, to God the Father
about you and me, if you're a believer in Jesus today, which is just
amazing. But for today, we're just gonna look at the first
part, so verses one to five, chapter 17. Look with me beginning
at verse one. 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 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. I mean, you can
just tell right immediately that these first couple of lines,
as we start to read this prayer, as Jesus begins to pray it, he's
just dropping us off into the deep end of the eternal plan
of our glorious triune God. Right from the beginning, we're
talking about things that happened in eternity past. We're thinking
about things that are going to happen for eternity future. I mean, just look at the end
of verse 5, for example. Jesus asks to be glorified with
the Father as he was in the beginning before the creation of the world. It reminds us of the beginning
of John, right? John 1, 1. In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So we're looking deeply. into the ocean of eternity, into
the very beginnings of God's intention to redeem sinful humanity. So in a sense here, Jesus, as
he prays, is just kind of pulling back the veil, in some ways more
clearly than he does in the entire rest of the book of John, just
pulling back the veil for us to see deep into the purposes
for which he was about to go to the cross. So here's the main
idea of these five verses. The main idea is this, the chief
purpose of your salvation is to propel you to worship God
the Father and Jesus Christ. The chief purpose of your salvation
is to propel you to worship God the Father and Jesus Christ. The old catechism got it right. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. In other words, to worship Him.
That's why you and I exist. That's why we were created. That's
why we were redeemed. That's why Jesus went to the
cross. That's why you and I have been
saved from our sins. So breaking that down just a
little bit more, we see here three main reasons in our passage,
three main purposes. for which Jesus went to the cross. So these will be our three sermon
points this morning. Number one, Jesus died so that
he himself would be glorified. He died so that he himself would
be glorified. Number two, Jesus died so that
his father would be glorified. He died so that his father would
be glorified. And then number three and final
point, Jesus died so that God's eternal plan to save us would
be accomplished. Jesus died so that God's eternal
plan to save us would be accomplished. So not just a short-term plan,
but one that goes all the way back to the beginning of everything.
God's eternal plan to save us would be accomplished. My prayer
is that as we look at this passage today, these five verses, that
your own hearts would be stirred up to worship. I pray that you'll
see more deeply what Jesus accomplished for you when He died on that
cross, and because of that, you will want to worship Him more. Let's start looking at it. Jesus
died so that he himself would be glorified. I think that's
just clear enough right there in verse 1. Father, he says,
the time has come. Glorify your son, that your son
may glorify you. So the first thing he says, Father,
the time has come, the hour is here. Glorify your son. Verse 5. Now, Father, also glorify
me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the
world began. Now, if you look at verse 5 really,
really carefully, glorify me with the glory I had with you
before the world began. This, by the way, is just one
of the strongest affirmations, the clearest statements in the
entire Bible of Jesus's pre-existence. So an important truth theologically
for you to sort of tuck away into the back of your mind. The
really astonishing thing about this request though, Father,
glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the beginning
of the world. The really astonishing thing
about that request, the thing that you know, might have caused
the disciples a little bit of confusion, is what does it mean
for the Father to glorify Jesus, especially when he's just been
telling them for the last few hours that what is about to happen
to himself is that he is going to be turned over to the Jewish
rulers and the Roman authorities, and he's going to be crucified. in the most brutal way possible. So what do you mean by glorify
me when you're about to be crucified? I mean, just look at the upcoming
headings in your copy of God's Word. If you have a Bible like
mine, you have these informative headings over major sections
of each book. Look at that and just flip through
the headings of the next few sections that are coming up.
My ESV Bible has the high priestly prayer here for chapter 17. And
then just kind of let your eyes run down the list with me. The
betrayal and arrest of Jesus. Jesus faces Annas and Caiaphas. Peter denies Jesus. The high
priest questions Jesus. Peter denies Jesus again. Jesus before Pilate. My kingdom
is not of this world. Jesus delivered to be crucified,
the crucifixion, the death of Jesus. I mean, that's what's
coming. It's gonna be betrayal, arrest,
a mock trial, denial by one of his best friends, crucifixion,
and death. That's what's coming in just
the next few hours. And yet here Jesus, at the beginning
of chapter 17 in this prayer, he's saying, Father, glorify
me." It just doesn't make any sense, right? There's no glory
in what's coming to Jesus is there, and yet he's praying,
Father, glorify me. What does he mean? Well, I want
us to look at a couple of phrases here that I think make it clear
what he means when he says, Father, glorify me, even in the shadow
of the cross. So first of all, look at that
phrase there, The hour has come. Father, the hour has come. What does that mean? Most of
you know by now that when Jesus talks about the hour, he's talking
about the cross. And for most of the book of John,
Jesus is very clear in saying that the hour is not yet here.
The hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet arrived.
But very recently he has said that his hour has in fact come. So Jesus knew that his death
was imminent. He knew it was coming, and he
also knew what kind of death it was. I mean, this wasn't just
a nice, peaceful death in his bed. It wasn't a death of sickness,
even. It wasn't a quick death. It was
a crucifixion. There is a fate so vile that
Romans wouldn't even subject their worst citizens to it. It was reserved for aliens, for
outsiders. And Jesus knew that it wasn't
just the pain and the humiliation that was going to make the cross
brutal to Him. It was that He knew that when
He died on the cross, He would do so utterly alone. All His
friends would forsake Him. He would be forsaken by His disciples.
He would be forsaken utterly by His own Father. So when He
prays here saying, Father, the time has come, He means, Father,
the time for all of that. The time for that horror is here. That's what He meant. And in
the middle of all that, you've got Jesus praying that His Father
would glorify Him. So what does that mean? Well,
we've already seen down in verse 5 that it means at least in part
that Jesus is asking His Father to return Him to the eternal
radiant splendor that He had with God before the creation
of the world. And the Father's going to do
that. He's going to raise Jesus from the dead. Jesus is going
to be seen in splendor for 40 days. Then he's going to be taken
up gloriously into heaven at his ascension to reign and rule
upon the throne of his glorious kingdom. So there's that, that's
part of it. But there's way more to it than
that. It is precisely the death of
the Son of God that would bring Him the most glory. So of all the things that Jesus
did that showed us the glory of God, the one thing that would
show us the glory of God the most was His death upon the cross. So for example, in John chapter
12, Jesus says, look, the hour has come, he says, for the son
of man, that's himself, to be glorified. And then he says this
strange thing. He says, I, when I am lifted
up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. Now you know
from one sense that could mean, when I'm exalted above all, when
I'm glorified, when I'm raised above all the people of the earth,
all men will come to me. That's what lifted up could mean.
But those of you who are Christians know that there's another meaning
to that. And it's not just lifted up in
exaltation and glory at his resurrection and ascension. It's when I'm
lifted up on that pole and tacked to it and crucified, I will draw
all men to myself. So you see what's going on there
in that phrase, when I am lifted up from the earth. He's talking
about glorification, exaltation, and he's mixing it all together
with his being nailed to and lifted up upon the cross, his
greatest glory. would happen through His being
crucified. All right, so I wonder now if
you're not a Christian, I wonder what you think about that as
you hear Jesus's words, as you hear Him taking glory and wrapping
it all up together with the crucifixion and saying, when I am lifted
up, when you hear him saying, Father, glorify me now that the
hour of my death has come, when you hear that, what do you think? I mean, how does it strike you
to realize that Jesus thought that the moment of his highest
glory was going to be his brutal death? I mean, if all you've
thought about Jesus is that he's, you know, this respectable historical
figure, this good teacher, I put him up there with Plato and Aristotle
and Confucius, just, he's a wise, gifted teacher, right? If that's all that you've thought
about him, though, then this kind of thing just doesn't make
any sense. Because Plato didn't think that
the hour of his greatest glory was gonna be his death. Mohammed
didn't think that. Confucius didn't think that.
Buddha didn't think that. Aristotle didn't think, nobody
thought that. Nobody except Jesus. Which tells
you that Jesus thought his death was just enormously significant. Not some sort of unfortunate
tragedy, Not a perfect storm of historical events stacked
against him. But what's the thing we Christians
talk about over and over and over again here? I mean, you
only have to have been to Dayspring just once, and you know that
we as Christians, we understand Jesus's death on the cross to
be hugely significant. And it's because we understand
that his death, his death on that cross, it didn't just happen,
he did that for us. He died so that we wouldn't have
to. He suffered so that we wouldn't
have to. He let the curse of God's wrath
fall on Him in all of its fury so that it wouldn't have to fall
on us. That's the significance of His death to us. That's the
significance of His death to Him. More than anything else,
His death would bring Him glory. We proclaim His death until He
comes. I want you to notice something
else in this, one other detail in all of this. Do you notice
that this prayer right before Jesus' death is not filled with
sadness and dread? Do you notice that it's a glorious,
triumphant prayer? I mean, Jesus felt sadness. He felt dread, to be sure. If possible, Father, let this
cup pass from me. But he doesn't feel it here,
not here. This prayer is just shot through with joy. This is
the prayer of a man who's just said up in 1633 that we looked
at last week, take heart, I have overcome the world. This is Jesus
seeing through all the suffering to the glory of it all. Death
is coming. The judgment of God, the wrath
of God is about to be poured out on Jesus's head and he prays
with joy. It's extraordinary. Jesus's joy
was beyond the cross. It was in what the cross would
accomplish. For the joy set before him, he
endured the cross. His joy was beyond his death,
and so is yours. One of the most important things
that you'll learn as a Christian in this life is to look through
and beyond your circumstances, through your suffering, to God's
eternal purposes and anchor your joy there. If you try to derive
joy from what is happening now in this world, in this age, let
me tell you, that project is going to fail. And you'll be
doomed to disappointment. You'll be doomed to trying and
failing to live a life of joy and just having the whole thing
misfire over and over again. And so what do you do? You do
exactly what Jesus does here in the midst of His looming death. You lash your shifting, wavering,
untrustworthy heart to the bedrock of the truth of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. That's what you do. You remind
yourself over and over and over again that your citizenship is
in His kingdom, not here. That your glory is with Him,
not here. that your pride and your joy
and your wonder is in the circumstances that have taken place in the
heavenly places, and that you will fully obtain that at the
king's return. That's what you do. That's what
Jesus did. Jesus died so that he himself would be glorified. In fact, he was glorified precisely
in his death. But secondly, here's the second
purpose. Jesus died so that his father would be glorified as
well. So Jesus died not just so that
he himself would be glorified, but so that his father would
be glorified. So look at the next phrase there
in Jesus' prayer. Father, the hour has come. Glorify
your son so that the son may glorify you. So you can see the
logic there, right? The ultimate end of Jesus' death,
of him you know, delivering himself up, of him being glorified through
his death and resurrection and ascension. The ultimate end of
that was so that God the Father would be glorified. Now just
pause and take note of that for just a second, and notice that
this is true of Jesus's life taken as a whole, from start
to finish. But here in this prayer, it's
just so obvious that Jesus was never self-seeking. He wasn't. He knew that he was
gonna be glorified. There's no doubt about that.
He knew that he was gonna be exalted over all the earth. He knew that
every tongue would confess him to be Lord. Every knee would
fall before him. He knew all of that was about
to happen, but he wasn't self-seeking in it. In everything he did,
Jesus' aim was to bring glory to his Father. His aim is to
glorify God. He tells his listeners in chapter
eight, I honor my father. I am not seeking glory for myself,
but there is one who seeks it, and he's the judge. In other
words, I'm not seeking glory for myself. My father wants me
to be glorified. If I glorify myself, he says,
my glory means nothing. My father, he's the one. who
glorifies me. And then he says, and I'm gonna
turn it right back around and glorify him. So you see the same
idea in verse four here. Look at that one. I glorified
you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to
do. Jesus's whole life from start
to finish was oriented toward glorifying God. He worshiped
God perfectly. glorified God perfectly, submitted
to God perfectly in all of his life as the representative Israelites
for all who would believe in him. He's saying every single
second of my human life on earth brought glory to God. And how
did he do that? Verse four, by obeying God. He did it by obeying his father. I accomplished the work that
you gave me to do. He says it in chapter five. I
tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his
father doing, because whatever the father does, the son does
also. When he faced the temptations
of Satan, the devil, in the wilderness, he obeyed God. And the greatest
moment, the moment of greatest obedience to his Father, would
be just a few minutes from now in the Garden of Gethsemane,
when he would say, Father, let this cup pass from me, let this
suffering pass from me, if there's any other way. But father, not
my will, but your will be done. If you're gonna call me down
this road of suffering, then not my will, but your will be
done. He brings glory to his father
by obeying him. But there's even more to it than
that. There's an even greater way that
Jesus glorifies his father. Look at verse two. He says, glorify
your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given the
Son authority over all flesh in order to give eternal life
to all whom you have given Him. And you see the logic of how
verse two works here. The whole of verse one. the glorify
your son so that the Father may glorify you. That whole thing
is dependent on, it's based on, it's grounded in the fact that
God is giving His own Son authority over all flesh to give eternal
life to all whom the Father has given the Son. Okay, so what
does all of that mean? Well, two things, two parts of
it. First of all, Jesus says that the Father has given the
Son authority over all flesh. He's given him authority over
all flesh. In other words, he's given the Son authority over
all human beings. It's what Jesus meant after the
resurrection when he said, authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me." And that is deeply worth thinking about, because
what it means is that Jesus's authority over you as the King
of kings and the Lord of lords, it is not dependent upon you
acknowledging it. He is your monarch, your crown,
your sovereign, whether you acknowledge it or not. He is your judge,
whether you acknowledge it or not. I think so many people in
our world today think that Christianity is just something you can opt
into or out of, sort of like a local gym membership, that
you can say, well, I don't want to be a Christian. I'm not a
Christian, and therefore, I have nothing to do with that Jesus
of yours. It's fine that he's your king,
but he's not mine. Oh, yes, he is. Yes, he is. The father has given the son
authority over all flesh. The only question is how you're
going to experience that authority, that kingship. Like right now,
today, the king's hand is extended to you in an offer of mercy. And he's saying, I will save
you. He will save you. And as the
reigning king, he will pull you right up out of the muck and
the mire of sin and rebellion and shame and curse that you're
in. He will set you on high with
himself. But that offer of mercy, it's
not gonna last forever. I mean, one day, everyone will
acknowledge Jesus as king. I will, you will, every knee
is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus
is Lord to the glory of God. The only question is whether
you're gonna do that with rejoicing because you've been rescued and
redeemed and saved, or whether you're gonna do that under an
iron rod of invincible power. So put your faith in Jesus now. Take his merciful hand, bow your
knee, before Him and say, Jesus, I cannot save myself. You stand
for me. You save me. The Father has given
you authority over all flesh. Secondly, he says that that authority
over all mankind was given so that Jesus could give eternal
life to all those whom the Father gave Him. So that Jesus could
give eternal life to all those whom the Father gave." And we've
seen this before over and over again in the book of John. Remember
John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me
will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will
never cast out. I mean, the Bible is not shy
about this. Jesus has been given authority. He is King of kings,
Lord of lords over all mankind. And he has been given certain
ones as a gift by his father, a people, a kingdom who are going
to be his redeemed, cherished, redeemed from their sin, sat
on high with him, his people to worship him forever. Look
at verse 3, because the eternal life that He gives them there,
it's way more than just life that goes on and on and on forever,
right? That's how sometimes we think
of it. A lot of times, eternal life, that just means life that
goes on forever. We're gonna live forever. But
that's not what it means. Look at verse three. This is
eternal life. This thing that I give to the
ones who are mine, this is eternal life, that they will know you,
Father, the only true God, and me, Jesus Christ, whom you have
sent. You see there that eternal life
is knowledge of God. But it's not base knowledge,
right? It's not academic knowledge. Like, I know these 16 attributes
of God, things about God. I have my systematic theology
in place. No. It's not just an acquaintance
with Him. It's not just information. When
Jesus talks about eternal life, He means the whole of the life
of the age to come. That's what we pray in this service,
every Lord's Day, we pray for that here, what Habakkuk said,
that in that day, in the age to come, the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea. The life of the age to come is
the life of intimate, loving knowledge of God, knowledge of
the glory of the Lord. It's to know the glory, the nature,
the character of the Lord, and therefore, because you know him,
to worship and adore him. That's the kind of knowledge
Jesus is talking about here. And he's saying that kind of
knowledge of God issues in worship of him. By the way, that's why
Jesus says that you have the life of the age to come right
now. You don't have to wait for it.
It's not like you're living a temporal life now and eternal life after. It's not like I have eternal
life in the sense that I'm not really living it now, but it's
a gift that I will receive one day once I get to heaven. That's
not it. The life of the age to come has
erupted in your soul. It's like lava coming up in your
soul. You've erupted as a creation
of the age to come, precisely because you know God. And that
knowledge of Him leads you to worship Him, to glorify Him.
I mean, when we gather in this place to worship God through
singing and prayers and listening to the Word of God, when that
kind of worship is happening here at Dayspring, that is part
of the age to come, because we know God. So you see the circle
that's happening here. Father, the time has come. You
glorify your son so that your son can glorify you. And the way that's going to happen,
God, is that I'm going to do what you and I planned from the
very beginning. I'm going to turn and save these
people whom you have given me by dying for them in their place.
And then they are going to know you and worship you because they
know you. Glorify your son so that your
son can glorify you by saving the people who will worship and
glorify you. It's just this beautiful refracting
light of glory and knowledge between the father and the son
and his people. Number three, here's the third
and final sermon point this morning. Jesus died so that that plan,
God's eternal plan to save us, would be accomplished. He died
so that all of that would be accomplished. So look back again
at verse 2. We saw already there that the
Father gave Jesus authority over all humankind, and that out of
humankind, He gave Jesus certain chosen ones who are going to
be saved from sin and become His own people. Just an absolutely
extraordinary thing for Jesus to reveal to us, that His Father
gave Him some to save so that they would worship and glorify
Him. Do you realize what he's saying
there? You realize what he's kind of, he's kind of pulling
the veil back and letting you see? He's letting you eavesdrop
in, essentially, on an agreement, a plan that was made between
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit within
the eternal Godhead before the foundation of the world. He's
showing you a sacred agreement that the three persons of the
Trinity made to save a people for God's own glory out of destruction
from sin. You're getting to see that right
here. Jesus is saying, let me tell
you what happened in eternity past. We all made an agreement
that we were going to save you. The Father said, I love them. I will elect them. I will save
them. I will give them mercy and grace. The Son said, I will become a
man and I will die for them in order to get them, in order to
rid them of that curse, to rid them of that sin. I will lay
down my life for them. The Spirit said, yes, and I will
bring them life. When all of that redemption is
accomplished, I will apply it to them, and I will take up residence
within them. I will dwell with them. I will
lead them. I will sanctify them. You realize
what a beautiful gift you are to Jesus? Why are Christians
said to be sons of God? It's because in Colossians, Jesus
is said to be the image of God par excellence, and He is the
eternal Son of God. are the Son of God, because Jesus
is the Son of God. You reflect Him. You look like
Him. There's this intimate relationship between you and Jesus that doesn't
exist with anything else in the universe, anything else in creation.
God said to His Son, I've made something for you. Look, it's
a little you, Jesus. And Jesus said, I love them.
I love them, and I'm willing to do anything to save them. Incredible thing. that Jesus
did. It's an amazing thing, isn't
it, that Jesus saves because He didn't have to. He didn't
have to. I mean, God could have left us
in our unrighteousness. He could have left us in our
sin, in our rebellion against Him, like we talked about last
month regarding the fallen angels, but He didn't. I mean, in the
middle of the service, we read from Psalm 96. Did you pay attention
to the words that we were reading together as a congregation? Because
if you did, I don't know if you felt it or not, but as those
words were coming off your lips and off of mine, we were basically
pronouncing a sentence of death upon ourselves. We were saying
that God deserves all the glory in the universe, and we were
declaring that the things that we chase after in our own lives,
we were declaring those other gods, that they were idols to
be worthless and empty. We did that together, and we
were calling then on the judge of all the earth, remember there
at the very end of the psalm, to come and to judge the world
in righteousness. We were declaring ourselves to
be guilty, and God could have heard that and judged us for
all eternity. But praise God, when Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit saw us in our sin, they agreed, they purposed,
they planned, they plotted to save so that the Father would
be glorified. See, that's what's going on here.
When Jesus, at the end of chapter 17, when he gets to the amen
of this prayer, he's gonna go to the cross. He's gonna bear
all the sins of his people on his shoulders. He's gonna die
for them. is going to be forsaken by God
for them, so that they won't have to be forsaken ever. And
if you're not a Christian, this is good news for you today as
well, because the King's hand is out to you. The King's hand
is mercifully extended out to you. It's good news to you because
God is calling on you right now to do what everyone who is one
of Jesus's people ultimately do. Repent of your sins, turn
away from your sinful way, and believe in him, trust in him,
rely on him alone and no one and nothing else to forgive you
of all of your sins. come to Jesus and take mercy
from his hand today. And you know, maybe you're sitting
there thinking, well, you just said that God has given certain
chosen, elect people to Jesus. How do I know if I'm one of those
who has been chosen? It's actually not that complicated.
You know how you know who are Jesus's chosen people? They're
the ones who come to Him. You come to Him. And then you
turn around and you look and you're like, oh, that's why I
came, because I was a gift from God the Father to the Son from
all the way in eternity past. But don't sit there fretting
about it now. Come to Jesus. And then you'll know that you
were one who was given to Him. Brothers and sisters, there is
so much here, so much to fan the flames of worship. I mean,
do you realize that you, as a saved and forgiven sinner, are actually
an object of wonder to the watching universe? And this is why Peter
says that the angels, they look in on this, they look at what's
going on, and they just long to look into these things and
to grasp them, but they can't. They're just dumbstruck with
worship at God's grace and mercy towards rebels like us. And look,
it's nothing in you. It's nothing in you that makes
the angels worship. Far, far from it. I mean, you
see Jesus' words there. You have been given eternal life
as a gift because the Father chose for you to have it. He gave you to the Son. I mean,
think about that. He gave you to the Son as a gift. You. You, in yourself, the only
thing that you managed to accomplish with your life is that you were
sunk in sin and shame, just a wretch. You were crushed under God's
guilty verdict and doing nothing except walking in darkness, awaiting
his judgment. And yet God, in his unending
mercy and grace, He reached down into the muck and he lifted up
your head and said, hey, you, I forgive you. I love you. And I'm going to
make you into a beautiful gift for my son. And the angels worshiped. Do you see how much Jesus loves
us? He loves us because we reflect
him. He loves us because he wants
us to be with himself. He loves us so much that he died
so that you could be with him forever. Isaiah 53 says that
Jesus will look upon those whom he has saved and he will be satisfied. Jesus is satisfied with you. Are you satisfied with him? Let
us pray. Our Lord Jesus, we do worship
you and bow before you this morning as the great King of all mankind
and the great Savior of your people. Father, we pray that
you would do your work of mercy. We pray that you would do your
great work of salvation, even among us here this morning. Lord,
if there's anyone here who doesn't yet know you and is thinking
that they need you, even before they leave today, Lord, we pray
that you would give them the faith to put their confidence
in your son, Jesus, to trust in him, and so be saved from
all their sins. Our Lord, we pray all of this
in Jesus' saving name, amen. Please stand together, be sure
to greet one another and greet our visitors, and be checking
your email as we get arrangements and information on time and place
for Nancy Decker's funeral. That will go out churchwide through
the day spring email. And now may the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His
Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.
Glory to the Father, Glory to the Son
Series John
Sermon begins at 49:50
| Sermon ID | 9124162514451 |
| Duration | 1:32:14 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 17:1-5 |
| Language | English |
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