Sermon Transcript
Oh gosh, it’s my turn. Sorry, excuse me. Pardon me. Here we go.
Sorry about that.
I’m sorry, I was zoning out. Welcome everyone. My name is Steve Durand. I have to be honest with you. I had forgotten it was my week to preach.
Forget the fact I have on this mic. I really forgot it was my week to preach. We had a great kids camp last week, really just outstanding. My mind has been in a variety of places, and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t have anything for you.
I don’t. So what I thought I’d do is maybe tell a couple jokes, but I could also just do what some of you guys have done before whenever it comes to reading. You just sort of open up, right, to somewhere, and wherever I open up, I’ll just share a couple things. I’m just gonna Yeah, just kind of ad-lib maybe a little bit. How’s that sound?
Yeah, it’s really kind of embarrassing.
I, yeah. So as I do this though, I’m hopeful that if I keep on talking that maybe eventually I’ll land on something that’s important or applicable, and then you can take it home and share it with your friends. How’s that sound?
Can you imagine how awkward it would be if you showed up for church and I was completely unprepared like that? By the way, I was acting just then. Thank you so much. Yes, acting. Thank you.
Oh, okay. Yes, thank you. How awkward would that be? There’s these silences. The person doesn’t know what they’re doing.
You’ve been in those sorts of environments, right, where you feel bad for the speaker up there and they’re just dying up there on the platform. I would never enter into something like preaching a sermon without forethought, without preparation, without planning, and neither would you. How many of you have ever had that dream that you wake up— yeah, I mean, like, David already knows where I’m going here with this one. How many of you have ever had that dream that you wake up and you’ve forgotten, like, you have, like, a test or, like, a final or some sort of project that’s due, like, that morning? Like, have you ever had that?
Yeah, that dream? That’s like one of the most recurring or most common dreams that’s out there. I think we’ve all had similar kinds of feelings. I hate feeling unprepared. There are times where I really can wing it and I can ad-lib it, but I hate feeling unprepared.
And I know from getting to know some of you that you hate that feeling as well. And yet here’s the reality. Many of us go through life unprepared. We don’t really know exactly where we’re headed, and we’re a little bit like the Olympian back in 2004 who, uh, is the US Olympian named Mark Emmons who competed in the Athens Games. He was a rifle shooter.
I love that we have rifle shooting in the Olympics. But this guy was just— all he had to do was hit anywhere near his target and he was going to win the gold medal. And he hit near the bullseye. It was beautiful, except He was on lane 2 and he hit the bullseye on lane 3.
And he lost the gold in that moment. And I think that’s symbolic of our life, right? Oftentimes where we’re headed in one direction and we’re aiming for a certain target and we find that we’re kind of just sort of drifting and end up somewhere else. And it reminds me of a quote that I want to share with you that I came across, and it’s by a pastor named Craig Groeschel who said, everyone ends up somewhere But few people end up somewhere on purpose. Everyone ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on purpose.
And it’s a little bit like our lives. Everyone’s going to drift. Everyone’s going to end up in some place, but very, very few people end up at a God-determined destiny or purpose. If I were to ask each of you here in the room, how many of you would love to have a stronger relationship with the Lord? Oh, I’m sure hands would go up.
If I were to ask you, how many of you would love to have a family that is passing on faith to the next generation and you have stronger unity in the home and a strong marriage and a vibrant relationship with your loved ones? Man, I bet hands would go up everywhere. How many of you would love to be debt-free or financially better off? You know, hands would go up. How many of us would love to be physically in better shape?
Hands would go up. How many of us would love to have work that provides us with purpose and with meaning? Hands would go up everywhere, but very few people end up at those places. Why? Because they have no plan or no vision for how to get from one place to the next.
Everyone ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on purpose. I came across a term that I really like when I was studying for this particular message, and I want to share it with you. And it’s chazon. Chazon. C-H-A-Z-O-W-N. Or it’s actually chazon.
Chazon, and it means a dream, revelation, or vision. I share this with you first of all because it’s really, really fun to say. Because we don’t have this equivalent in our language, the CH, the ch. You know, one of my youngest son’s favorite places to eat is Chuck E. Cheese. That’s not the CH on this.
Here you have to make a hacking sound in the back of your throat. Let’s practice this all together, shall we? Let’s all say chazon. Turn to your neighbor and just welcome them. Chazon.
I’m expecting our middle schoolers in the next service to be really, really good at this one. It means a dream, a revelation, or a vision, and it’s much more than the terms that you and I use. In the scriptures, this is where we get the idea of where there is no vision or where there is no chazon, people what? People perish. Not necessarily physically, but we drift and we fail to hit the mark that we’re aiming for.
If we’re not intentional enough. Where there is no chazon, people drift. People end up overweight. Where there is no chazon, marriages fail. Where there is no chazon, people end up unsatisfied in their lives, and they’re looking for one thing to simply satisfy them.
And in this particular chapter that we’re going to be looking at, not only this week but the following week, John 17, if you’ll open up your Bibles there. John chapter 17. Jesus is nearing the end of his life here, and it’s almost as if he’s going back to God the Father and is sort of reporting back for duty about all the things that he’s seen and all the things that he’s done. He’s just closed out his Upper Room Discourse. We’ve been studying the book of John for a while now, and we come to this important chapter that many theologians love because it expresses so much about who God the Father is and God the Son and his relationship with him.
And it’s really Jesus looking back. And when you and I reach the end of our lives, we look back very often if we know when that end is coming or when it seems imminent. We look back and we reflect, and that’s what Jesus is doing here. And there’s so much in his prayer that’s really just too much to unpack. I’m going to focus on a couple things that I think will really help us this week and next.
To stay on target and to stay focused, to have the chazown, the vision that God has for us so that we don’t drift, so that we’re not unprepared, so that we’re not unfulfilled, so that we’re able to get to the places that God has for us. Jesus in chapters 14 through 16 in the Gospel of John had his Upper Room Discourse with his 11 disciples, Judas having already been dismissed. And so now Jesus— really the entire chapter is him praying. It’s about 625 words. You can read it in about 3 or 4 minutes, but it’s powerful.
We’re gonna focus on the first 5 verses today about a couple ways that I think that God can remind us of how to have the proper focus in life and how to get our priorities straight and reminders of the express purposes for which God created us. And I’m excited about sharing that with you. Let’s bow our heads and let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you have a plan and a purpose. Your desire is that we would not wing it.
Your desire, Lord, is that we would not feel like we have to go through life hoping that tomorrow is better than today.
Lord, thank you that your plan and your purpose means that we can have confidence that you are sovereign and in control. And I just pray in these few minutes, Father, that we’re together, that we would listen and be still and know that you are God.
I have nothing of value, Lord, to share, but I believe your Holy Spirit does. And I pray that you would speak through me and let me get out of the way so that your message is clearly heard. May our eyes be open to new truths from your word, and may we leave here, Lord, with greater focus and greater purpose and greater intentionality than ever before in our lives and, of course, in our relationship with you. We pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
John chapter 17 is where we are.
John chapter 17, and I’m just going to read here first couple verses and stop along the way. We’ll sort of talk about it as we go. After Jesus said this— this meaning all the things he said in chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 in the Upper Room Discourse when he was with his disciples, all the things we’ve been teaching about the last several weeks here as we’ve been going through the book of John— after Jesus said these things, he looked toward heaven and he prayed. And then the rest of the chapter is all in red because it’s Jesus praying. Father, the time has come.
Can I stop here for a moment, by the way, and just share a little aside, just a little something that’s been on my heart recently and a little word of encouragement. This idea of Jesus praying to the Father, the time has come. I have to admit that most of the time in churches today or in Christian books when we talk about prayer instruction or we talk about prayer lives, it’s usually filled with guilt and shame as in You are not praying enough. Jesus got up early and yet you sleep in. Look at your prayer life.
If Jesus needed to pray, how much more does someone as pathetic as you and I? You know, how much more do we need to pray? And I have to say that that’s the wrong focus. Anytime you put the focus on you or on how much you pray or how little you pray, how often you pray, you’re going to end up filled with guilt and shame, or it can lead to pride and arrogance. On the other end.
That’s not God’s desire for you and I. If in your prayer life you’re focusing on you, the focus is on the wrong thing. The focus from God’s perspective should be on hope and joy that is found in prayer, and the only way you get there is by remembering who you’re praying to. Jesus never forgot who he was praying to. Do you ever forget who you’re praying to?
We’re praying to the Heavenly Father. We celebrated Father’s Day last week. I don’t know about your earthly father and whether or not he was a good guy or not, Whatever your relationship was like, but how much more does God as our Heavenly Father who is perfect know what you and I need and how to meet our needs? And when you’re praying, let’s remember who we’re praying to. Jesus is a great model for that.
After Jesus said these things, he looked toward heaven and prayed, Father, the time has come. What time? Do any of you have the hour has come in your translation? What hour are we talking about here? Well, this is the hour that all creation has been waiting for ever since Adam and Eve fell in the garden.
This is the hour that from all eternity past, including the 33 years of Jesus’ ministry and life, that Jesus is now saying that the hour has come. The time has come. The time for him to reconcile man and God. The time to destroy the power of sin and death and the enemy.
Throughout Jesus’ life, there were times when people were saying, is now the time? And Jesus said, no, the hour has not yet come. The hour has not yet come. The hour has not yet come. People tried to take him by force and to kill him.
No, the hour has not yet come. People wanted him to do things. No, the hour has not yet come. The hour has come, right on schedule. And when Jesus died on the cross, his last words, it is finished, meant the hour was over.
He’d accomplished everything he was supposed to do.
He had reconciled God to man and destroyed the power of death, sin, and Satan so that we might have a relationship with him. The hour has come— we’ll come back to that idea in just a moment— Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you, for you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Let’s talk about this idea of glorify or glory. This is one of those words that we use in the church world quite a bit, but it’s sort of like describing beauty or love.
It’s hard to put into words. How would you describe beauty? Well, I know it when I see it. How do you describe love? Well, I know it when I feel it.
What is glory? And in the Bible, we need to describe this here because it sets up all that’s to follow here this week and next. The word glory in the Bible has a definition of to be weighted, to be heavy. And it’s this idea of something’s importance, its weight, its greatness, its worth.
And we can ascribe importance and worth to any person or any object. So God may not be necessarily the only one that we give glory to. And there’s 2 aspects to God’s glory, by the way. First of all, God has this intrinsic glory that just belongs to him and exists whether or not you or I say something about it.
We would use the word awesome. He’s filled with greatness. It’s the sum total and the visible manifestation of all of his attributes, his character, and his perfections. It’s everything that makes God who he is. God is glorious.
He is filled with glory, and the heavens declare the glory of God. It is part of who he is, and you can’t add to it, and you can’t take away from it. And Jesus knows this, and he’s saying, Father, you are glorious. But there’s also a glory which we give unto God. And so to glorify God is to render unto God or to give unto God the credit or the honor or the respect that is due him because of who he is.
He is glorious because of who he is, and Jesus is ascribing that to God. And just as birds were made to fly and fish were made to swim, you and I were created for the express purpose of glorifying God in our lives. And so the things we’re gonna look at in John 17 centered around this idea of glorifying God. And what does that look like in the context of our daily lives, day after day after day, of how we glorify God? We’re going to look at Jesus’ example, and then we’re going to apply those things in our own lives.
But this is something Jesus was absolutely focused on. Again, verse 2, for you granted him authority over all people. Jesus had authority over all people, and he could give life to whomever he wanted to. But he is saying, Father, glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you. If we are reading that, it sounds like Jesus is praying selfishly.
Father, glorify me. What does that mean? Well, to glorify something means to put it on display. And so Jesus is saying, Father, by going to the cross, put your attributes, your character, your perfections on display so that the whole world will see. And Jesus had said, when I am lifted up, I will do what?
I will draw all men to myself. And so the focus is not, Jesus is saying, on him, it’s on the Father. Jesus is saying, my life exists to put the Father’s love and his character and his perfection and his attributes on display. And the same is true for you and I. Birds were made to fly, fish were made to swim.
You and I were created for the express purpose of glorifying God in our lives. And if we’re not doing that, then we’re not living life the way that it was meant to be lived. Plain and simple. If your life does not glorify God, you are adrift, you’re off target, you’re missing the vision that God has for you and for me. And so Jesus is saying, Father, glorify your Son that your Son may glorify me.
And I think that that’s a reasonable prayer for us to even pray. Father, give me more opportunities to do what you want me to do so that you will be glorified. Father, put me in a position where I can be of influence to others so that you might be glorified. This isn’t about you and it’s not about It’s about the Father. And Jesus’ entire life has been about the Father.
And again, it’s like the soldier who’s reporting back after doing all these things. The Son is coming back to the Father here saying, I’m reporting in. I have glorified you and glorify your name still by glorifying me as I die on the cross. That’s powerful. Verse 3, so Jesus says, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
So the first way that we glorify God, the first way that God desires all men and all women and all children to glorify God in all contexts and all cultures is by receiving eternal life and living an authentic relationship with him. We glorify God when we receive eternal life and we live in authentic relationship with him. When does eternal life begin?
Does eternal life end at death or begin at death? Jesus is saying it begins the moment that a person knows God, and when do we first become to know God? When we give our lives over to him. See, we make the mistake of thinking that eternal life is a length of time, some sort of thing that’s stretched out, as if going on and on and on without end would be meaningful. That wouldn’t be meaningful.
You and I can only play a harp for so long, right? That would be meaningless. Jesus is talking about the quality of life that he wants us to have. And we’ve been talking about this. In fact, it’s so interesting, the last several times that I’ve preached, this topic of knowing God comes up again and again.
And again, the last time I preached was John chapter 14 on the idea of, is God knowable? Can you know God in a personal way? And it’s a reminder that the word know in Scripture implies far more than just intellectual knowledge. It’s not just knowing about something and knowing something from afar and having an idea or concept of. To know God is to know him personally, authentically, and to live and experience eternal life which is God’s desire for all people, is to know Him, and it’s to live life the way that it was meant to be lived.
Anything short of that is not eternal life. You and I know that there is all the difference in the world between living and existing.
Medical technologies allow us to keep a person’s life functions going indefinitely, but is that really living? And are you really living? And if you don’t know God and aren’t pursuing not just the knowledge of God but knowing God personally, authentically, not for show, being able to call him Father and growing in that relationship as modeled by Jesus, if that’s not a part of your life, you don’t have eternal life because eternal life begins the moment that you make that connection. Eternal life equals knowing God. So the first way that we glorify God is by receiving eternal life and by experiencing authentic relationship with God, with Him, which is the purpose for which you and I were made.
How do we experience that? Well, it’s all right here. It’s all right here. First of all, you have to know the only true God there in verse 3. How do you receive eternal life?
You have to know the only true God. God, we’ve talked about this before. If you want to get to know me, you don’t get to know me on your terms. You get to know me on my terms. If I want to get to know you, I get to know you on your terms.
I can’t just force my way in and say, no, these are the terms by which I’m going to know you. That’s how we treat an object. I’m not an object. You’re not an object. And yet we treat God in a way that you or I would be offended if somebody treated us.
God, I want to know you in the following ways, and you need to sort of bend yourself to meet my criteria. And God is saying, no, you need to know the only true God and not just know about me or know me from afar. You need to know me in order to have eternal life and a personal relationship. You have to know the only true God. And then secondly, while it’s not expressly written in here, we can glean from the rest of Scripture to say the second way you receive eternal life is to not only know the only true God but to ask and receive.
You have to ask and receive. You have to go to him and you have to say, I want that. I need that personal relationship. You can’t just take it by force or come any old way that you want or any old way that I want. You have to ask, and because it’s a gift, nothing you or I can earn, we have to receive it and then just leave it at that.
Don’t add to it. Don’t try to take away from it. You ask and you have to receive, and if you’ve never asked for eternal life, you can. That’s the great news. And this is the purpose for which God made you.
And if you don’t know God in a personal way, or you don’t know him as well as you would like, or have that relationship, you can ask and you will receive.
God gives to those who pursue him, and when you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. The third way, and it’s written in here, that we can receive eternal life is you have to know it through Jesus Christ whom God has sent.
The only way to have access to God the Father is through God the Son. Period. John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one, what? Comes to the Father except through me.
You can’t get to God any other way. We try to add to this, but Jesus is saying right here, this is eternal life. You have to know the only true God. You have to ask and receive, because Jesus isn’t going to force us. To have a relationship with him.
He’s not. And then thirdly, you have to know it through Jesus whom God the Father sent. And Jesus said this is the purpose for which he even came into the world was to give eternal life to all. That this is eternal life, that they may know you. That they may know you.
Eternal life, listen, we’re all going to end up somewhere. Nobody ever ceases to exist even after death. Let’s never forget that. Existence goes on and on and on in one place or another. So it’s important then that we understand that you can have eternal life here and now, and I hope that you’re experiencing that in your life.
Oh yeah, you simply have to ask and receive. Verse 4, I have brought you glory on earth, Father, by completing the work that you gave me to do. So Jesus is saying that the second way that we glorify God in our own lives, certainly the way he glorified God and the way that we can glorify God, is by being completely obedient to the Father and completing the work that he gives us to do. We glorify God when we are obedient to him and we complete the work that he gives us. Again, Jesus is our model for this.
I love how passionate Jesus is about this. If you go back over the course of his life and even just in the book of John that we’ve been in for a long time now, you can find ways in which this This idea, this concept has come up again and again and again. Jesus living life on purpose, with purpose, instead of drifting and just again waking up one day, what’s going to happen? I don’t know. He lived with purpose.
His whole purpose was to glorify God. Go back just a page or 2 to John 12, verse 23.
John 12, verse 23. Jesus is speaking to a group of people, he is predicting his death and he replies, the what has come? The hour has come for the Son of Man to be what? To be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and it dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies it produces many seeds.
Verse 25, the man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. Verse 27, now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this— what?
This hour? No, it was for this very reason, for this very hour, that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Jesus was passionate about this. His whole purpose was to put God’s love, his character, and his perfections on display.
Is God loving? Absolutely. Was that shown on the cross? Perfectly. God is all-powerful and can do all things.
Was that shown through Jesus’ life? Was God honored and glorified by Jesus’ life? Absolutely. God is all-knowing. He knows all things.
He knows the hearts and minds of men. He’s omniscient. Was that demonstrated in Jesus’ life? Absolutely. God’s glory is the sum total of all that makes Him who He is, and Jesus is saying, I’m going to put that on display by obeying You completely.
Not halfway, but completely, and I’m going to complete the work that You give me to do. You say you love God? Demonstrate it by your obedience.
When I talk to my kids about obedience, and again I’ve shared some of this with you all, when I talk to my kids about obedience, especially when they were little, how do I define obedience? It’s right away and it’s all the way with a happy heart. That’s what I’m looking for from my kids. Right away, not later on, that’s not obedience. All the way, not halfway, that’s not obedience.
But with the right heart too. Because our heart’s involved in that. Hello, this is what God wants for us. Obedience that’s right away and all the way with the right heart. And are you obeying God in that way?
And are you completing the work that he’s given you, or are you stopping short? I think that when it comes to obedience, many of us will obey up to a point until it doesn’t make sense anymore, until we don’t want to go any further with it.
What if Jesus had done that? What if Jesus had been completely obedient all the way up to the cross and then said no?
We would not know the love of God if Jesus had stopped short even for a moment. We would not be able to have that eternal life and that relationship with him if Jesus had not completed the work that God gave him to do. And God has given you and I work to do, and I’m not talking about our occupation or jobs, I’m talking about to glorify God. How do we do that? By receiving eternal life Knowing God in authentic relationship and by being completely obedient and completing the work that he’s given us to do.
We’re going to talk about some practical ways that we can do that in just a moment. But Jesus’ whole mindset the whole time has been, Father, glorify your name. I find that sometimes it’s hard for me to figure out ways to be able to pray for people. Just this last week there have been prayer requests that come to me about people who are sick or hurting. Well, it’s obvious, right?
Just pray for those people’s health. And I find it hard sometimes because I don’t know the heart or mind of God and what he wants to do. Can God be glorified in a difficult circumstance? Yeah. Can God be glorified in trial?
Absolutely.
So what I’m finding in my own life, and I hope this is helpful to you, is when I don’t know what to pray, certainly I’ll pray for healing. If somebody’s physically sick, if somebody needs provision, I’m gonna pray for that. I’m gonna pray for practical needs, but I’m finding myself more and more as I look at this to say, Father, glorify your name, whatever that means. As this person’s lying in the hospital bed, glorify your name. My 92-year-old grandmother who apparently fell and hurt herself, she lives in Illinois and we’re wondering what to do with her and long-term care.
Father, glorify your name. You’re out of work. Father, glorify your name.
Your marriage is struggling. Your kids are not walking the ways that you want them to go. Father, glorify your name. Whatever that means, Father, glorify your name. Put your love, your character on display so that my life is a testimony and a revelation to the whole world of everything that you are.
And it may very well be that God wants the things that you’re going through to be a testimony to everybody else. I don’t know. I’m just saying that God knows exactly what he longs for in your situation. He can do miracles. But let’s begin and end every prayer with, Father, glorify your name, as the cry of our heart.
In complete obedience, send me wherever you want me to go because I’m going to be completely obedient all the way. All the time with the right heart. And then Jesus closes out this first section by saying, and now Father, glorify me. There you are again. Glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus— excuse me— Jesus is already, because he’s one with the Father, and we’ll see that all throughout this chapter, he too is filled with glory intrinsically. It’s who he is. But he stripped himself of that when he came to the earth And for those 33 years lived in subjection to the Father. And in fact, let me ask you a question. Why is Jesus even praying here?
Doesn’t he know all things? Isn’t he God? Why is he praying? He’s doing so as an example for you and for I. Why is he even praying out loud?
Did he have to pray out loud?
No, he didn’t have to. He’s doing it as a model for you and for me about subjection to the Father. Parents, you want your kids to have an active prayer life? Do you? Do you have an active prayer life?
Grandparents, you want your grandkids to have an active prayer life and a devoted heart to God. Do you have those things? We model those things, and so Jesus is saying, I’m going to demonstrate what this looks like, and he’s going to submit himself. And yet, let’s never forget verse 5, that Jesus has been filled with glory from from the beginning of time, and he’s going to glorify God by going back to where he began, at the right hand of the Father, complete surrender to him. So here’s my question: what can you do this week?
What can I do this week to glorify God in our world?
You see, it doesn’t really matter what you think or what I think or what you want or what I want. What is it that will glorify God in your world this week? And I bet you know something practical right now. A conversation you need to have.
Halfway obedience that needs to become full obedience. Maybe it’s a relationship that needs to be strengthened. Maybe it’s pursuing God with greater purpose and intentionality.
Maybe God’s calling you to Take something that you have that’s important to you and use it to bless another person financially or give of your time.
What would it look like for you to glorify God in your world this week? What’s one thing you can do to glorify God in your world? And if you don’t have any ideas, I think John 15:8, which is just 2 chapters before, gives us some great ideas. It says This is to my Father’s what? This is to my Father’s what?
Glory. There it is again. That you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. So if you’re not sure how to glorify God in your world this week, let’s start with this. To bear much fruit.
What does that even look like? Well, Pastor Dave did a great job, I thought, a couple weeks ago of expressing the ideas of the 4 different kinds of fruit in John chapter 15. You have those with no fruit, you have those with some fruit, you have those with more fruit, and then you have those with much fruit.
And Jesus desires that we be the much fruit people, that we bear much fruit. What is the fruit that we are talking about here? Well, we can go to Galatians 5 and start there. The fruit of the Spirit is what? It is love, it is joy, it is peace, it is patience, it is kindness, it is goodness, it is faithfulness, it is being gentle and having self-control.
Things right there. How can you in your life and in your world this week glorify God by demonstrating fruit? Not drumming it up in and of yourself. An apple tree doesn’t have to concentrate hard to produce apples. Neither does a Christ follower have to work hard to drum up love or peace or patience.
If you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, it just flows out of your life naturally, and we show who God is in our lives. So pick one of those if you’re not sure how to demonstrate fruit in your life this week, how to glorify God in your life this week. Let’s start with kindness. Who’s somebody that you need to be kind to that you haven’t been kind to recently? Who’s somebody you need to be patient with?
How can you respond to somebody in a gentle way this week that would glorify the Father? How can you express love in a practical way? Don’t just say it, show it. How can you demonstrate that kind of practical love to somebody? And so put God’s love and character and perfections on display this week in your world.
By these things is the Father glorified when we demonstrate that kind of fruit and so prove ourselves to be his disciples.
May God be glorified this week in your life and in my week as we pursue him. And as we do, we’ll find that the vision for our life will begin to return that God has for us, the plan that he has for our lives. Jesus was Just, boy, he just focused like an arrow. Some of us have drifted a little bit. We get a little unfocused at times.
Let’s get back focused on what really matters by receiving eternal life and by completing the work that God gives us to do in complete obedience with joy. And next week we’ll look at 3 other things that glorify God and can put him on display. Let’s pray. Father, in a room of this size, I would imagine there’s got to be somebody in the room here who has never asked and received eternal life, asked for or received eternal life. And yet that’s the purpose, Lord, for which we were made, and this is the foundation of it all.
And I pray, Father, that in the quietness of this room, that for anyone here, who needs to know you in that way, that now, Lord, would be that time, that the hour would come for that individual. And if that’s you here in the room, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, just simply ask. Say, Father, come into my life. I want to receive eternal life. I want to know you.
And for those of us here in the room who have strayed from the knowledge of God, from knowing God, and we begin to drift more into knowing about God and we forsake our relationship with him, if that’s you here in the room and you need to recommit, do so right now.
Father, may our heart’s desire be that you be glorified. In our actions, in our words, in our thoughts, so that when the world looks at us, just as when they looked at Jesus, they would see the Father’s love and greatness and awesomeness on display. For this is the purpose for which we were made. We were made for this, to glorify you. So glorify your name.
I pray all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. You know, one of the things that’s always my heart’s desire is that if you’re here in the room and you have a prayer need, that you would never come to a service like this and then leave with having a prayer need going unprayed for. If I can pray with you in any way, at the close of this service, I and perhaps one or more of our deaconesses will be down front, and we’d love to pray with you. If there’s something you want somebody to agree with you in prayer about, any kind of a need, or if you have questions about what we talked about here today, we’ve got plenty of time to do that.
Okay, but let’s glorify God the rest of this day, the rest of this week. Amen. Alright, have a good morning.
