Well, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us take this opportunity to silence our electronics out of love for our brothers and sisters and to find our seats and to prepare our hearts for worship. Let's do it. Well, we welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. Just delighted to have you with us for our corporate time of worship as God's people gathered together for His glory this morning. And I want to encourage visitors to sign our guest register and also take one of these booklets, Ultimate Questions, that we love to pass out to all who join us as visitors for worship. Also out on the hall table is this yellow flyer that gives you instructions all about the upcoming retreat next month. And so if you haven't already grabbed one of these, you'll want to grab one if you're coming to the retreat this year. We look forward to that. I want to direct your attention inside the bulletin. You'll see there that we are continuing in the Sunday school hour through 1st Samuel. We're just going chapter by chapter and we'll go all the way into 2nd Samuel. As well, we've got a rotation of five men teaching. This morning, we were in Samuel 16, David anointed as king. And that should have been recorded. If you were not here with us, you should be able to get that and listen to it online on Sermon Audio or through our website. And then down the page there, you'll see that there are no Wednesday night activities. Our sermon passage for next week will be John chapter 18, verses 1 through 11, as we wrap up chapter 17. Jesus' high priestly prayer this morning, so I encourage you in your family worship time, your private devotion time, to be meditating on John 18 1 through 11 this week in preparation for next week's Last Sunday evening's conference on church and politics went really well. We had members from churches all over Austin who gathered there at Park Hills Baptist and enjoyed a really good conference on church and politics. I understand that it was recorded, but they are going to take some time, I think, to put together a good edited package of that conference before they put it online for us So eventually, I'll have a link for those who want to go back and re-listen to it, or those who are unable to attend, it should be available to you. I'll have that as soon as I get it. And then the monthly free online resource that I'm recommending for the month of September are these selected sermons by George Whitefield. I've been very much impacted by Whitefield, not only his preaching, but also the letters that he wrote have been compiled and published. Here, though, is a collection of some of his most magnificent sermons. He was preaching at the same time Edwards was in the First Great Awakening. Many came to faith under Whitefield's preaching. He was an itinerant preacher. He would just preach in the fields. Men as renowned as Benjamin Franklin would come out and listen to Whitefield preach. But some remarkable sermons here in this collection that I encourage you to go and just read a few this month. We're also in need of nursery volunteers, and I understand that until we have a couple of new volunteers to serve together on the second Sunday of each month, that we'll be unable to provide our nursery ministry on those second Sundays, and so if the Lord's calling you to step up for that loving service towards your fellow Dayspringers. See Susie and she will add you to the rotation. We're also putting together a Dayspring cookbook and compiling that for the church. And so not just ladies, but men as well. If you have recipes that you think ought to be included, send those to Susie Phillips. You can email those to her to be included and published in the Dayspring cookbook. And then I want to bring your attention to the fact that we are coming up on Dayspring's 46th anniversary. The Lord has been so faithful and good to this little church over all of these decades, so we're going to give him the glory and celebrate our 46th anniversary on Sunday, September the 29th. have a fellowship meal after the service, and we hope that you can all join us. We're asking couples and families to bring two of these, a salad, a vegetable, or a dessert, and then singles should bring one of these, bread, drinks, or ice. Dayspring will be providing the barbecue, and it will be delicious because a certain elder will be tending the meat all night long before that celebration. We look forward to that time of celebrating God's goodness to this little church over 46 years. Then I want to remind you there's a parenting seminar coming up titled Reaching Your Child's Heart Parenting Seminar. It's going to be led by the Sanchez's and the Hayward's at Kenny Avenue Baptist Church. This will take place on a Saturday, October the 19th, and all the information you need is in the link that I give you there in the bulletin. And then, as I mentioned, our day spring retreat is coming up the last weekend of October. The inn is full. We have taken all of the rooms available, and the deadline to pay for those rooms is October the 13th, so keep that in mind, you can just drop a check in the offering plate in the back and say that it's for the retreat, or you can pay online on our website and just let Cliff know that that's what it's for. There also remains some service opportunities to serve at the retreat, and you can sign up for those in the link at the bottom of your bulletin. Well, as we begin this morning, please turn with me in your red hymnal to hymn number 629. 629 in the red. You can hold your finger there at what a friend we have in Jesus. And please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning, it comes from the 150th Psalm. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens. Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound. Praise Him with lute and harp. Praise Him with tambourine and dance. Praise Him with strings and pipe. Praise Him with sounding cymbals. Praise Him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let us sing together. Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to God in because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Every trial's a temptation. Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy burdened, Let us pray together. Our God and our Father, we do thank you that we can come to you in prayer through our Lord, Jesus Christ, our God and our friend, Jesus. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for manifesting your great love to us and sending your son to die for us while we were yet sinners. We thank you, Lord God, that in his name we can draw near to you today. In his name we can worship you, reflect upon your kindness, your providence, your grace, your faithfulness to all of your promises. Lord, we pray that as we come to worship you this day, that it would be in spirit and in truth. that your Holy Spirit would be active among us in our midst to give us joy in you, and that you would give us, Lord Christ, a reverence for you as our King. We pray that we might have a deep love for you as our Savior. We pray that you would work all of these things in us by the power of your Holy Spirit, that you would be with us as we praise you, that you would supply all that we lack, all that we need, as we admonish one another through the singing of these hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, as we meet with you in prayer, as we partake of the Lord's Supper, as we hear your word read and proclaimed, that you would be pleased and that you would receive all the glory. For Jesus' sake and in his name we pray, amen. You may be seated for the reading of God's word. Good morning. Scripture reading today is from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 8 through 12. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery for which ages has been hidden in God who created all things. So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. We celebrate that salvation every Lord's Day here at Day Spring when we come together and particularly as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. together, every Lord's Day here. We emphasize the unity of God's people and coming together and sharing of the one bread because we are one body. We make no distinctions among God's people as we invite you to partake. of the Lord's Supper. It is a great miracle and testimony to the power of the gospel that we are a diverse little group of people, young people, old people. We have pro-life Democrats, and we have Republicans, and we have Independents, and we have non-Americans, those Dayspringers whose earthly allegiance isn't to America at all, but to some other nation. We have pre-millennialists, post-millennialists, amillennialists. We have those who are anti-vaxxers and those who are very pro-vaccine. We have all kinds of people here. And we make no distinctions. You can be a pedobaptist or a credobaptist. All that we ask is that you are one who has been adopted into God's family by faith alone and Christ alone. So the first and most important thing that we ask is that you are one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, for his glory alone. Secondly, we do ask that you be a baptized believer, but we 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 local church where your membership resides so that we might respect the Lord as he sovereignly builds his church here in this world. As we prepare ourselves to partake of the Lord's Supper, I want to direct you in your red hymnal once again to hymn number 598, number 598, guide me, oh, thou great Jehovah. Let us sing together. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak for the almighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. Crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me on my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer, still my strikes unsheathed. Be thou still my strength and shield, When I dread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside. Death of death and hell's destruction, Let me sing for Canaan's side, Songs of praises sung, Many of you can remember the lives that you lived as unbelievers before you were ever saved. The Apostle Paul, writing to the local church in Ephesus, reminds the believers there of their pagan lives that they had lived before they got saved. Their spiritual deadness, he points out their disobedience, the carrying out of the passions of their flesh, and then he says, In Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Now, Paul doesn't mean that Jesus came and physically broke down that dividing wall in the temple courtyard that divided Gentiles from Jews. No, he says that he broke down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. He abolished the law, that's the language Paul uses. And he abolished the law, Jesus did this, in two ways. First, by perfectly keeping it in our place. Secondly, by bearing upon himself the condemnation of the law, that the law demands for our sins. So Paul is saying that by his life and death, Jesus has killed the hostility between us and God, and between us and our fellow creatures. He fulfilled and thus abolished the law, satisfying God's just wrath toward us and making us one new redeemed people of all nations. We have been made one in Christ Jesus. Paul concludes this section by writing, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens. that you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, and who the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So now that there is a new man, one new man, a new people of God, we have become fellow citizens of Israel and members of God's family. Instead of God's presence dwelling in the temple, he now indwells his church, the new living temple built upon and held together by Jesus Christ, founded on the apostles and prophets, and indwelt by God's Holy Spirit. Therefore, let us come to this supper this morning as God's united, believing people, giving thanks to the one who lived and died and was raised for us so that our hostility before God and one another has been forever put away. So I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless isn't not a participation in the blood of Christ. 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 before the Lord to examine ourselves. Heavenly Father, we must confess that we did come into this world estranged from you and separated from your people. And we would never have come to truly know you had you not mercifully sent your son Jesus to live for us and to die for us, to reconcile us to you by abolishing the law of commandments through his fulfillment of that law. And so we thank you for the cross by which the dividing wall has been torn down. for your son Jesus, who gave his body, who gave his blood, that we might be brought near and made royal subjects of his kingdom, members of your family. So we ask you to bless this bread and this cup, that you would set them apart for their holy use. Bless us in partaking of them to do so by faith alone, in Christ alone, to his 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. It's the new covenant in Christ's blood. And based on Psalm 23, the Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. Let us sing together. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He leads me down to lie In pastures green He leadeth me The quiet water's fine He leadeth me, he leadeth me The quiet water's fine My soul he doth restore again Then me to walk doth make ♪ Within the paths of righteousness ♪ ♪ Ye for His own name's sake ♪ ♪ Within the paths of righteousness ♪ ♪ Ye for His own name's sake ♪ ♪ They though I walk in darkness ♪ ♪ When will I feel no ill ♪ ♪ For Thou art with me at the right ♪ ♪ Stop me of comfort ♪ me and thy rod, and staff, and compass, still. My table, thou hast furnished in the presence of my foes. My cup, thou hast cleaned the one night, and my cup overflows. My head doth thrusteth from the whip, and my cup overflows. Goodness and mercy, O my Lord, shall surely follow me. And in God's house forevermore my dwelling place shall be. And in God's house forevermore my dwelling place shall be. Psalm 100, it will be on page 821 in the back of your red hymnal. 821, we're gonna read this psalm responsibly together, so please stand together. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. Let us pray together. Our merciful God and great Heavenly Father, we come before you today recognizing that you are our God, that we are the sheep of your pasture, and to you we owe everything. You have substituted your one and only Son in our place, and you have purchased your people, your church, with His blood. We thank you, Lord God, that you do not demand any other sacrifice from us for our salvation than the one which you alone have provided in Jesus, your lamb, to satisfy your wrath so that you alone receive all the glory and honor for our salvation. And so we pray, Lord God, that you would help us to live for your glory, for your honor, for your praise. We pray, Lord God, that you would be with your church today. We lift up to you this congregation. We thank you for calling us together this morning, for sustaining us, for giving us spiritual gifts, for giving us extraordinary opportunities to share in the privilege of working to spread the glorious gospel of Jesus. We pray, Lord God, for all who are in need today, that you would provide healing to the sick and comfort to the afflicted, we remember to you our sister, Sarah Garcia, we pray that you would heal her body and strengthen her. We pray for Ali and George as they get married this week, that you would bless their wedding, but most of all, Lord, that you would bless their marriage, that it would be a covenant that reflects Christ's love for his church and the salvation that is provided in the gospel. We pray, Lord God, For all who are in need today, we pray for your church throughout the world. We ask that you would continue to bless it, to add to it daily, as many as are being saved. We pray for Pastor Matthew Breeden in Round Rock this morning at Faith Baptist Church, that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit as he exalts Jesus among our brothers and sisters there. Build that church up for their good, for your glory. We thank you for all the faithful churches in Austin and throughout the world who proclaim your gospel without compromise. We lift up to you President Biden and all of our earthly leaders and pray that they would be honored and that you would lead them in wisdom. We pray that all Israel might be saved. And we pray especially that as you have promised, 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 glory 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 and your copy of God's inspired, inerrant word back to the Gospel of John and to chapter 17, John chapter 17. We've been making our way through Jesus's prayer. We noted last week that what he prays for his 11 disciples, it applies also to us. But now today, he explicitly prays not just for those present, but for everybody, for us. So let's read it, John chapter 17, beginning in verse 20. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. Well, let me just give you up front the main idea of the passage. Here it is. Our unity with Jesus and our unity with each other in Jesus should encourage us as we press on toward home. Our unity with Jesus and our unity with each other in Jesus should encourage us as we press on toward home. That's where we're going this morning. Two points to the sermon. First of all, point number one, So our big point, Jesus prays that his people would be one. He prays that his people would be one. And then shorter, point number two, Jesus prays that his people would be strengthened by hope. Those two things. Jesus prays that his people would be one. That's pretty much verses 20 through 23. And then 24 through 26 is the second point. So point number one, Jesus prays that his people would be one. Point number two, Jesus prays that his people would be strengthened by hope. So point number one, Jesus prays that his people would be one. Before we dive into verse 20, let's remind ourselves just of the earlier parts of Jesus's prayer, because we want to have in mind an understanding of the flow of the entire thing, of what Jesus is aiming at through this entire high priestly prayer. So in the first place, in those first five verses there, Jesus prays that His Father would glorify Him. And if you remember from two weeks back, there was a twist. in that word glorify. Because when Jesus talks about himself being glorified, strangely and yet gloriously, the main thing he's talking about is that he'd be lifted up on the cross. So he's talking about his death. He's tying glorification to his death on the cross. So that the highest moment, the highest moment of His glory, of His glorification, is, in fact, His death. And then, of course, He prays at the end of that section, and after that's done, then glorify me with the splendor that I had with you before the foundation of the world. So that's in there, too. And then in the second section, verses 6 through 19, He prays for His followers, those who believe in Him, those who are His disciples, and He asks the Father to do several different things for them, protect them, sustain them, and then sanctify them, which is making them devoted to God for the mission that he is giving to them of taking the glorious saving gospel out to the ends of the earth, out to the world. So he asked the Father to do all of those things. Well, now in this third section, the prayer, it widens. So he says in verse 20, I don't ask for these only. I don't ask these things for these people who are sitting here at this table with me only. I am praying these things, he says, also for those who will believe in me through their word. So Jesus' prayer here, the first thing to notice is that it's for all believers in him, including you and me today. And so he makes it explicit here. And he says, I'm praying for everybody who will believe in me through their message. It's just remarkable that when Jesus says that he doesn't say, I'm praying for all of those who may believe through their word. He doesn't say, I'm praying for all of those who might believe. It's incredibly powerful, I think, that Jesus assumes the success of the mission, as though he knew that people would actually be saved through his death and resurrection, that that atonement that he made was definite. It was not just hypothetical. He wasn't simply hoping that it would happen. He knew for certain that it would happen, and even that it would include you, which is just an incredible thought, that as Jesus just sort of prays into the future and thinks down through all the centuries and all the millennia, that one of the people that he was talking about as being given to him by the Father in this prayer is you. What an amazing thought that is. He wasn't just hoping that you would be saved. He knew that you would be saved because that was the Father's purpose all along in giving you to Him before the foundation of the world. Anyway, let's look at what Jesus prays for his people. First of all, he prays that his people would be one. You can see it really clearly in verse 21. I pray, he says, that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, I pray that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And that's in several other places through the prayer, too, that His people, whom the Father has given Him and whom He is about to redeem, Jesus prays that they may be made one, that they would be unified. Now, before we think about what that means, I want to give you just a sense of the structure of this first section of the passage. I think it's helpful. So verses 20 to 23, those four verses. First, you've got verses 20 and 21. And then you've got 22 and 23. And Jesus is asking his father the exact same thing in those two parts. He asked the father to do something in verses 20 and 21. And then he asked the father to do exactly the same thing again in verses 22 and 23. And the best way to kind of break that down is to see that he asks something about the who, the what, and the why of unity, the who, the what, and the why of unity. So this helps us to understand better exactly what Jesus is praying. So we're going to talk about the who, the what, and the why. Those are going to be our subpoints of point number one. So first, the who. Who is it that is to be unified? When Jesus says, I want them all to be one, who is he talking about? Who is it that is to be one? Well, like I said, that question is answered in both halves of this section. It's answered at the beginning of verse 20, and then it's answered again at the beginning of verse 22. So look first at verse 20. He says, I don't ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. Now look down at verse 22. The glory that you have given me, in other words, the revelation of who you are as God, I have given to them, to those who have believed, So if you look at 20 and you look at 22, those who are to be unified together are those who have believed in and accepted and received Jesus Christ, who is the perfect revelation of God. That's who they are. It's not just people in general. It's not just people who want to be kind to one another or who want to visualize world peace together with one another. It is those who receive and accept and believe and trust in and rely upon the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, the Lamb of God, who has come to take away the sins of the world. And it's that certain knowledge that Jesus really was sent from God, as he puts it in another place, it's that certain faith in him which is the basis and the foundation and the grounds of this unity that Jesus prays for here. Same thing in verse 22. He says, those would be unified are those to whom he has given the glory which his father gave him. He shines the character and nature of God upon us. He's revealed God's glory to us. And we, as Christians, we have accepted that. We've seen the glory of God in Christ and we've accepted it, we've received it, we've believed in it, we've trusted in it and relied on it and are relying upon it and reveling in it. That's the kind of unity that Jesus is talking about here. The root and ground of our love for each other, the root and ground of our unity with one another, is the fact that each and every one of us is a believer in Jesus Christ. And that changes everything. Which brings us then to the what. So we've talked about the who. Who is it that's to be unified? Well, it's believers in Jesus. Secondly, the what. What is the nature then of this unity? What is this unity? What does it look like? Well, this is the point at which this passage in John 17 really starts to blow people's minds a little bit. It's got all this language of I and them, you and me, they and us. It can get a little bit confusing to kind of see exactly what's going on here. But the point is that the unity, the unity that you and I, that we are supposed to have as Christians is, and this is the mind-blowing thing, It's the same kind of unity. It's a reflection of the unity that the Son enjoys with His Father within the Trinity. It's an incredible thing because that's not the kind of unity that people out there have. It's not the kind of unity that we enjoy just with other human beings. There's a special kind of unity among brothers and sisters in Christ, believers in the Lord Jesus that reflects the unity that the Son and the Father and the Spirit enjoy in the divine Trinity. So let me show you that. Look first of all at verse 21. He says, I want them to be one, but then look at how he describes that oneness. I want them to be one, Father, just as you are in me and I in you. So whatever unity exists between Father and Son in the Trinity, that's the kind of unity Jesus wants us to share. It's a reflection of it. Do you see that? Look at verse 22, he says it again. The glory that you've given me, I've given them. And why has he done that? Why has he revealed God's character? So that they may be one, even as we are one. In other words, in the same way, Father, that you and I are one, so let them be one with each other. Okay, so what does it mean then that Jesus has this unity with the Father? What's the nature of that? Well, throughout the whole book of John, you've seen this even over the course of the last few weeks. Jesus just revels in his unity with his Father. It's everywhere throughout the book. So in chapter five, remember, he says, whatever the father does, the son also does, and only what the father does, the son does. In another place in the book, he says, believe me when I say that I am in the father and the father is in me. That's John chapter 14. Also in John chapter 14, he tells his disciples, if you really knew me, you would know my father as well. And then he says, from now on, because you know me, because you do know me, you do know him, and you have seen him. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. And then this most astonishing statement of all, he says, I and the Father, I and the Father are one. So Jesus, he shares a unity with his Father in the Trinity that is deeply, deeply profound. So what can we say? What can we say about this oneness shared by the Father and Son, given everything that Jesus kind of piles up in terms of those phrases? What does it mean? What does it consist of? Well, throughout the centuries, Christians have, from the very beginning, forever affirmed that Scripture teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in a lot of different things. purpose, action, essence, glory, excellence, power. But here's the real kicker of a truth that Jesus is bringing us into here in John 17. The unity that exists among the persons of the Trinity, the unity that exists among the three persons in one God, one God in three persons, the unity that exists there, Jesus says, is the same kind of unity that we as believers are to have with one another. And that is utterly and completely distinct from the world. Now, before we talk about it, we should just recognize that obviously we are finite creatures, right? We are confined to time. We are confined to space. to place in a way that God himself is not. And so our unity with each other will always and only be reflective and derivative from that in the Trinity. We are not God and never will be God. But even so, I mean, look at what Jesus is saying in chapter 17. It's just astonishing that Jesus would say that he wants us to be united together just as he and his Father are united. I mean, it's true, we'll never be like God. That's a mystery of the Trinity, that we will never, ever be able to fit into our finite minds. And yet here in John 17, Jesus looks at the unity that exists in the Trinity and says, that's what I want you to have right here in your little church. It's an astonishing thing that Jesus does. So let's just think about it for a second. Think about the unity of purpose and action. The unity of purpose and action. I think that's not too hard to understand. I mean, sometimes it's incredibly hard to do, but it's not that hard to understand. A church can be united in purpose. It can want the same thing. We can all have our hearts and our minds sort of locked in on one thing that we're after, that we're trying to accomplish and to do. We can have our mission, our singular mission. Hopefully that's the great commission that Jesus gave to us. We can have oneness in purpose. It's easy to understand, too, how we could have oneness of action. We're all gonna do the same things. We're all gonna face the same way like an army and march after something that's out there. It's not hard to understand. As hard as it is a thing to do, it's a pretty simple thing. But what about the unity of essence, which really sets the Trinity apart from every other kind of unity? Do we? Do we have a unity of essence as believers in Jesus Christ? Well, no, we don't, which is why I use words like derivative and reflective. We don't have a unity of essence. So where Jesus can say, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, because they have this unity of essence. I couldn't really say, if you have seen me, you've seen Bill Phillips. That just doesn't work. And you couldn't say that about any other person, because we as believers, we don't have a unity of essence. I mean, Jesus can say, I and the Father are one in every way. I can't even say that about my Sandra. Sandra and I are united in marriage, but we're not one in every way. We're not. We're two different people united in purpose and action, but we're not one in the same way that Jesus and the Father are one. So we don't have that. But even though we don't have a unity of essence as believers, I think what Jesus is getting at is that underneath purpose and action, there's still something else. There's a deeper unity than just the same way a political party can be united in purpose and action, or a nonprofit could be united in purpose and action. There's something underneath that for those of us who are believers. And what is that? Well, it's a reflection of a unity of essence. And it is. Here's the key phrase. It's a unity of identity, a unity of identity. We as believers in Christ, we have a unity of identity that no political party, no sports team, no corporation, no one has in the rest of the world except for us. And what does that mean? What is that unity of identity? Well, right here, we are on the white hot core of the glory of what Jesus has done in saving a people for himself. Because what he has done is that he has changed our identity so that we are not just ourselves anymore. All of a sudden, we are united to him. And we are therefore united to all of those who are also united to him. You remember that language that Jesus uses in John 15 about the branches being united to the vine. Well, the glorious thing about it is that when a branch is united to the vine, well, the life and the sap of the vine flows into the branches. But at the same time, as more and more branches are united to that vine, what happens is that those branches become united to one another. because the same resurrection life and glory flows into them from the same vine. It's the same thing that Paul uses when he talks about the unity of the body. It's a deeply Christian understanding of what it means to be unified. A human body has many members, toes, fingers, elbows, but joined together into one body. What affects one affects the rest. It's one of the profoundest reasons for why Paul uses that image of the body to describe a church, because each and every one of us, if we are united to the vine, if we're united to Jesus, we are also united to one another. We have a new identity. You are not just you who showed up here at Dayspring and made a decision to become a member of this local church. I am not just me who showed up here and decided to become a member of Dayspring. When we come together, united to the vine and then covenanted with one another in a local church, we become united to one another into a new identity. And what is that identity? Well, whatever else we are, we are above everything Jesus' people. Whatever else you are, whatever other identities you have, whatever other thoughts about yourself that you have, you are above all those other responsibilities, interests, obligations, roles, all of it, you are above all Jesus' people. Think about me. I am all kinds of things. I wear a lot of hats. I have a whole lot of different identities. I am a husband. I am a father. I am a son. I am a teacher. I'm a friend. I'm a pastor of this church. I'm a citizen of the United States of America. I'm all kinds of things, and all of those things are important to me. All of those things I am, but above all of and underneath all of that, and more importantly than all of that, I am, above all, a saved sinner, redeemed and forgiven by Jesus Christ. That is my identity. And the same thing is true for you. Your identity, above everything else, is in Christ. And that's got enormous implications, just absolutely enormous implications for how you live with your brothers and sisters in Christ, the way you live out your faith together as the local church. I mean, just think about it for a second. Your brother or sister, all the way across the opposite end of the room from you, has an identity that is the same, the exact same as yours. as one who has been forgiven and redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Is your understanding of that deep enough to bury and sink all the little ways that they might annoy you? Is it deep enough to give you motivation to get to know them, to love them, to care for them, to pray for them? I mean, even harder, is your understanding of your shared identity in Christ Jesus deep enough to swallow up genuine hurt that others have done to you? How deep is your understanding that you have a shared identity in Christ Jesus? One more question that we should ask, why does Jesus want for us to be one? He wants us to be one, those of us who are believers in Christ, that's the who. The what? The nature of it is that it's supposed to reflect the unity of the Trinity, because we as believers in Christ, we now share a single identity as those who are united to Christ. Well, third, why? Why then does Jesus want us and desire for us to be one? What's the purpose of our unity? Well, two times Jesus says what the purpose is. Verse 21, I want all this to happen, he says, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. so that the world may believe that you, Father, have sent me." In verse 23, he says, I want all this to happen so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. to the reason, the purpose, the reason he wants for us to be unified is so that the world will see it, so that the unity shared by this church will be a brilliant witness to God's work in the world around us. Paul talks about the same thing in Ephesians chapter 3, in the passage Adam read for us earlier, he says, you know, through the church, through the people of God unified as one in Christ, through the church, he says, the manifold wisdom of God is made known to the universe. See what he means there? What he means is that the unity on display, right here at Dayspring, among a whole bunch of people who, in a lot of different ways, don't have a whole lot in common, right? That we will be an amazing display of God's work in the gospel. the coming together of Jews and Gentiles, of rich and poor, of young and old, married and single, pro-life Democrats and Independents and Republicans and non-Americans, blacks, whites, Asians, Europeans, Latinos, Africans, North and South Americans, maybe even some Texans here. and the coming together of all of these diverse people in the same place at the same time saying, despite all of these other differences, we are the people of Jesus Christ. We'll show the world what God does in the gospel. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, I hope that you will have eyes to see that the love that we have here for one another in this place today is not just born in the fact that we have a ton of stuff in common. There are people in this room right now from all different kinds of backgrounds, from all different kinds of socioeconomic statuses from all different ethnicities, different generations, different politics. We're supporting different candidates in the upcoming election. We have different nationalities here. Four different that I can think of just off the top of my head. We are clearly not here together, gathered together as a church, unified together as a church, because we have so much in common. We are gathered and unified here as a church because we are people of Jesus and he has forgiven each and every one of us. The unity that exists in the divine trinity is reflected right here because our identity is in him. because we have been loved by Jesus. I hope that that is compelling to you. I hope you can see that whatever various kinds of unity that you may see out in the world, and those seem to be just crumbling everywhere, right? I hope you can see that what we have here is not just a surface-level, superficial unity. It is a unity that goes all the way deep down into the heart of the Trinity of God himself. Our unity is reflective of the unity that exists in the Godhead. So that's the first point. Jesus prays for his people to be one, just as he and his Father are one. Here's the second point, simpler and much shorter. Jesus prays for his people to be strengthened by hope. Jesus prays for his people to be strengthened by hope. From this unity that we're to have as those who are united to Jesus, his prayer reaches kind of all the way out into eternity. Look there at verse 24. He says, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, I desire that they may be with me where I am to see my glory that you've given me because you've loved me before the foundation of the world. I want them, Jesus says, to be with me. I think that that has got to be one of the sweetest statements in the entire Bible, for the King of kings and Lord of lords, the creator of the entire universe, to say to the Father, those people whom you have given me, for whom I have died, I want them to be with me in the end. It goes back to John chapter six, doesn't it? I'm not gonna lose, Father, I'm not gonna lose any of these that you have given me, but I will absolutely raise them up at the last day. Do you ever think of Jesus in that way? As just absolutely determined to have you with him in the end. It's an incredible thing to think about, isn't it? To think of Jesus up there on the throne of the universe longing to be with you and with me. Father, I want them to be with me where I am. I want them to see my glory. I mean, you know, you know what it's like to long to be with someone. And that longing is exactly what Jesus says he has for you and me right now, even as he's seated on the throne. I want them to be with me. Do you remember what Jesus said after instituting the Lord's Supper? He said to his disciples, truly, truly, I say to you, I tell you the truth. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my kingdom." It speaks to this very kind of longing. You know what wine symbolizes across the world, the world over? Celebration, joy, just celebration. Jesus is saying, I am not going to celebrate again, not when I'm enthroned, not when I'm seated at the right hand of my Father. I will not celebrate again until I celebrate with you in my Father's kingdom. It's an incredible thought, isn't it? That Jesus, he's holding back the heavenly jubilation for our arrival. Even more beautiful is that he knows exactly who's coming, those whom you have given me, Father. Jesus wants you to be with Him. He wants you to be in His presence. He wants you in His presence now through His Spirit, but He's longing for the day when you are in His presence once and for all, face-to-face, physically. Look also at what being with Jesus is gonna mean, verse 24. He says, I want them to see my glory, the glory that you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. That's an incredible statement because the whole story of the Bible has been about the fact that human beings cannot see the glory of God, right? From the flaming swords that flashed across the way to the tree of life in Eden. To those archers who were supposed to shoot anybody who crossed the boundary to go up on Mount Sinai, where the glory of the Lord was. To the fact that the glory of the Lord, when it filled the temple, it filled only the most holy place and no one else got to see it once it was there. To the fact that when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain that separated the people from the presence and the glory of God was ripped in half from top to bottom, so that the way to God's glory was made open again. The whole story of the Bible is the story of how human beings, they cannot see the glory of God and live. How can they be brought into his holy glorious presence. And Jesus says, let me tell you how, through what I'm doing for you, I'm bringing you into my presence. And Father, I want them once they're there. I want them to see your glory again. So it's just so beautiful when the Bible says the statement, they will see his face. That's an amazing promise that you have as a believer. That's the amazing promise that Jesus holds out to you right now from the throne. Come to me and I will show you my glory. We will be together. We'll celebrate together and I will show you my glory. What an amazing promise He's given to you. It's a reason, isn't it, to press on. That's what the Lord Jesus holds out in front of us, that there is a day coming that we are striving for, but a day when we will be with Him and we will see Him face to face. We will see His glory. I want you to see just one more thing here. Look at the very end of this passage, verse 26. Look at what He says. I made known to them your name. and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them." Look at that second phrase. I've made known to them your name, but then look at the second phrase. I will continue to make it known. You see what's going on there? Jesus is praying all of these things for you as a believer. Father, I want them to be with you, with me. And there in that little phrase, He commits himself to answering his own prayer. I will, from the throne, continue to make your name known to them. What an incredibly encouraging picture that is. And in the midst of hardship, in the midst of trial, in the midst of situations that throw you into the need to forgive other people, what an incredible encouragement that is, that your king sits upon the throne, holding up the celebration, right? Delaying the feast, not drinking of the fruit of the vine until you get there, until you come into the throne room, and yet he's committing himself at the same time to make it all so, committing all the resources of his power to bring you safely home. Revel in that, take comfort in that, and live this week in its truth. Let us pray. Our dear Lord Jesus, we thank you and we praise you that right now you sit upon the throne of the universe and you have committed to answering your own prayer that we would be with you and see your glory. Continue to make your Father's name known to us. Continue to make the gospel known to us, and let it encourage us in our faith. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would do the thing that you've already promised, and that is answer that prayer. We pray that you would help us to lean hard into our identity in Christ as your people. each and every one of us, especially here at Dayspring, in this particular local church. We pray that you would cause us to be unified, not just superficially, not just paper thin at the top, but all the way down, understanding who we are because of what you have done for us. Our Lord Jesus, we pray all of these things in your wonderful name and always to your honor and glory. Amen. Please stand together. Be sure to greet and fellowship with one another before you leave here today. 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.