Jesus Prayed

With all that being said, John 17, we are entering into this passage of Scripture together. This is the last text that we're going to look at in Six Hours with Jesus. And the reason is this. This is because this is the last remaining hour that Jesus really spends with his disciples before the Roman soldiers come and take him and crucify him. The end of Jesus's life. The Bible tells us he went to the upper room where he celebrated the Passover, where you see the famous painting of Jesus at a table that probably didn't exist with all his disciples around him. This scene happening in John 13 to chapter 17. In the Bible, John 17 concludes those final hours that Jesus spends in the upper room with his disciples. And John 17. It tells us he spends these final hours in prayer. I think it's a pretty important point that Jesus is making for us. And I appreciate the most, crucial thing I think Jesus is doing out of these four chapters that we've studied together. 13, 14, 15, 16 and now the fifth of 17. is that Jesus? Really? He makes the end of his life simplistic for these followers of his. You think in the beginning he started off in John chapter 13 and he's washing the disciples feet, this beautiful illustration of the way that he served the world in John 14. He reminds us of his promise in heaven.

John 15 he tells us, you are you are the branches, and he is the vine. If you abide in him, you you'll bear fruit. In John 16 he gives you the promise of the Holy Spirit. And at the end of John chapter 16, knowing that the disciples are facing hardship, their entire lives, he uses these chapters just to encourage them the adversity they have in front of them because they're pursuing after Jesus. And it's not going to be easy. And he begins to encourage them in the end of John chapter 16. After he tells them they have the spirit, he says, and listen when I when I go, you guys need to pray on my behalf and my name. Because whatever you ask of the father he gives to you. And he concludes John chapter 16, saying, I have overcome talking about his death. And in celebration of the victory that's about to take place, I'm going to the grave, but I'm going to rise from the grave and I have overcome. So when you pray and you pray in my name, you pray in that authority that has the ability to overcome the grave, there is nothing that can stop you. I love the beauty of the picture of 16, because Jesus then follows it up in John 17 to say, watch, I practice what I preach. And so now I'm going to pray for you in my name.

The world may hate you. The world may bring you trouble. What Jesus gives you is the opportunity to pray. To meet with him. And to talk to him about your struggles. God knows that he's called you into this world, and the day to day battles aren't always easy. And the secular humanistic mind within ourselves. The idea that we tend to carry is rather than go to God about it, we like to spend several hours complaining on it, calling friends to talk to them about it, and then, if we remember, maybe. Maybe we'll pray. And here we see Jesus at the end of his life, about to face the most horrific picture that anyone has ever endured by going to the cross in the most humiliating form of punishment that existed. And he reminds us not only that we should pray, but then he practices the ability of praying. And it goes before the father. The Bible tells us that when he starts his prayer, he initially just talks to God. He talks to the father. About the plan that the father has called him to in this world. Tells us in John chapter 17 and verse six. You think about this prayer that Jesus is praying before the father? He's just communicating the plan that the father and the son had laid out in eternity past. For Christ will come to this world, and Christ would sacrifice for sins. And now this plan is coming to be fulfilled.

And in verse six, as Jesus is in the middle of this prayer, you get a sense as you read these verses from verse 6 to 12, who is on Jesus's mind as he's saying this? I want you to pay attention. As I read these words, pay attention to how many times Jesus says, you or them or disciples, and communicating to the father about us as individuals. He says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you. For the words which you gave me, I gave to them, and they received them, and truly understood that I came forth from you. And they believed that you sent me. I asked on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world, and yet they themselves are in the world. And I come to you. Holy father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. While I was with them, I was kept.

I have kept them in your name which you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that Scripture would be fulfilled. Any indication, I think anyone could pick this up reading these passages of Scripture. As Jesus is about to endure the cross, the thought that is on his mind. As you. I think of the challenges that I get into in my own life when I face difficult circumstances. The thought that is on my mind is me. And when Jesus faced challenge in this world and he thought about the cross, the thought that he had on his mind was you. The Bible tells us the reason Jesus thought about you in verse 13. He will go on to say that your joy, his joy, may be in you. And then verse three will see that you may know him. As Jesus has given himself to you his desires that you might give yourself and return to him. Kind of want to just focus on these verses very simplistically this morning, because when we read John 17, a lot of the DNA that drives what Alpine Bible Church is found within these verses, in this passages of Scripture. But I say, as we get ready to look into what Jesus's prayer is all about. The thought that concerns me as I read these verses is verse 12. The idea of Judas. Someone who went to church every Sunday, who knew what Jesus taught, but he still rejected him.

I've heard studies done of churches in the past of what it means to know Jesus and how well a church grasps that concept of what Christ did on the cross for their sins, that they may come to know him because of the sacrifice that he paid for them, the alienation that sin brought from God. Jesus paid for so that we could have that relationship with him. It's the core of what the church is about. And yet I've seen studies before, done in churches. And I'm not saying this is our church family where pastors have been asked and churches have been literally tested if they understood what it means to know Jesus, what Jesus has done for them, and placing their faith in them. What? What does that mean? And the results have been so extreme that over half of the church membership didn't even know what it means to say, I'm saved in Christ, and Jesus has died for my sins, and he's rescued me. Do you imagine pastors of churches looking at individuals and saying, I don't know if half my congregation will spend eternity with Jesus? And you look at the life of Judas, and Jesus is bringing up a point here and saying, I've spent 12 years with these people and even me, Jesus, spending 12 years or excuse me, three years with 12 people, even me doing that, there's still one that rejects me.

That's why he gave us the illustration in John 15 of the vine and the branches it says, abide in me, and you will bear much. What? Fruit. The implications of you knowing Jesus is that your life demonstrates fruit. I got to say, it's not the only indication, because there are people in this world who do plenty of good things that do not know Jesus. But the indication of that. This fruit. Got to see what you say. Allow your spirit to live within me. I pursue after you. I just seek your face. And in seeking his face, the fruit is naturally buried. We just don't go bear fruit. We seek Jesus. And he says in this passage, as I'm praying this prayer, and I've given my life and I've done all that I could, father, I've lived your will in this world. There is still one who did not know me. Bible says in Matthew seven that people will come to Jesus at the end of days and say, Lord, did we not do this in your name? Did we not cast out demons? Did we not heal people? And Jesus said, yes, but depart from me. I never knew you. Knowing Jesus is the centerpiece of what the Christian faith is about. There was a pastor I was listening to this week talk about the dumbest thing he'd ever he'd ever done. And I listened to it because I wanted to know if I had done something dumber.

So. So I was thinking, I want to listen to this. I'll make myself feel good if I have it. If not, I'll just laugh about be doing something dumber. So. So this pastor said, I came to church and I. And I was given an illustration, and I and I blew up a balloon and I would, I would do the illustration, but it's too dangerous. I blew up a balloon and I stuck it to the wall, and I brought a gun to church. It was a BB gun. And he said, and I stood on the other side of the room, and I pulled up the gun, and I asked the congregation as I'm pointing at the BB gun, how many of you think I could hit that balloon? And he looked out and he said about three fourths of the congregation lifted up their hands. Well, we think you can do it. We think you can hit the balloon. He said. Okay, okay. If you guys believe that, if you have enough faith in that, how many of you are willing to come up here and hold the balloon while I shoot the balloon? And he said about about that point, only about 25% of the hands remained. And so he looked at the congregation again and he said, okay, okay, you guys are willing to hold it. How many of you will come up here right now? Put the balloon in your teeth and let me shoot it out of your mouth, he said.

About that point. There were only two hands left. When he gave the invitation, only one person came forward. We know he's dumb, right? He's going to watch anything in the news lately, right? Guns are bad, right? Anyway, so. So this guy comes up here and he says. And he didn't want he had no plans to shoot this balloon at all. And so he just wanted to scare this guy. And so he brings out this little table and he has this waiver form of liability. So if anything does go wrong, the church is not going to get sued or anything. So this guy comes up and he says, okay, I want you to sign this paperwork. And then he signs it and he says, okay, go down there and stand by the balloon and put it in your teeth. And then the pastor pulls the gun like he's going to shoot. And he and he was just going to psych the kid out. But then he said, all of a sudden, as I'm pointing the gun, I realize I can hit that. I can hit that balloon. And so he fired and he hit it, and he was so excited. And he turned around and he looked at the church, and he was expecting everyone to be celebrating with him.

And everyone just had their arms crossed with a big scowl on their face, like, you fool, what are you thinking? Do you know what could have happen? And he said, it was the dumbest thing that I've ever done as a pastor. But what it did was give me one of the Beautifulest beautifulest illustrations I've ever had. Because then I looked at the church and I said. Who in that room was really the believer? Was it the person that raised their hand when they thought I could just shoot it off the wall? Was it the person that was willing to hold it in their hand when I asked them? Or was the person that said I believed this so much that they were willing to put it in their teeth and come up here and take a stand. That is a celebration, right? Think of what it means to be a follower of Christ. And the prayer that Jesus is carrying for these disciples in this moment, knowing that he's going to go to the cross and they're about to endure the same torture. And the question and the prayer that Jesus is carrying for them is, will they put this balloon in their teeth and do something for Christ? And he's coming to the end of his life and he's reflecting on Judas. God, I've done everything that you've called me to do. But there's just still this Judas. Jesus continues, let me go to the beginning of his prayer.

He opens it up this way as Jesus starts to pray for us, he he's just reflecting over what the father and the son had spoken of in eternity past and coming to fulfill his plan in this world. And it says, Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son. That the son may glorify you. Love that beautiful picture of the Trinity. The father honors the son, the son honors the father. And it says in verse two, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life. If you don't catch that Jesus is the one who holds the ability in his hand to give you life for eternity. And so he says this in verse three, and this is this is a theme verse I think of our church, if you if you were to leave Alpine Bible Church on the entry table, there's only one other room you're going to walk through on the entry table. When you go, there's a there's a red book on the table called know. And really the know book is about that relationship with Jesus, how to start that relationship with Jesus and what it means to have that relationship. And the book is themed on this verse. It says this is eternal life, that they may know you.

The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life. If you don't get this, let me let me just rehash it. Eternal life is about living forever. Living forever is about knowing the father and knowing Jesus, knowing the Triune God. This is eternal life that you may know him. Meaning eternity doesn't start when you die. Eternity starts the moment you come to know Christ. Eternal living can start today if you don't know the Lord. And if you do know the Lord, eternal living has already started for you. And I love the word know in this context because it's not talking about just a knowledge. I know what Jesus did for me, right? You're from America. You know there's Jesus. You know he's on a cross. You know. You know he died for you. But the word know here is a word of intimacy. It's actually a word that's even used in the Greek language to refer to the intimacy between a husband and a wife. This is about living forever, that you know and are intimate and your relationship with Christ. Bible tells us in this passage that it's both the father and the son, this triune God. And so he goes on and says, I glorified you on the earth talking to the father, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. If I could say Jesus is desire in verse four is that he would go into this world and point people back to the father and die for sins, that we could all have a relationship with him.

The desire of us here at our church is that every person within our church knows what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, to know that you can have a relationship with Jesus and know that Jesus has given his life dying for your sin, because you could never atone for it. That you could enjoy the presence of God both now and forever. That is what we are about. That is why I spent till 1030 last night. My muscles are aching from this building down the street. I don't care about a building, but I just want a place where people can come and they know what it means to know Jesus. This is the DNA of our church. And so he goes on in verse five, now, father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. I just want to say, when it comes to God, God, the Bible tells us that God only gives his glory to himself. Okay, look at this in Isaiah 42. And Isaiah 48 says, I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another. God is glorious and God does not share his glory. God is the glorious being through whom all glory belongs. And so he says in Isaiah 48, my glory I will not give to another, and just implications.

To further support the idea of what the Trinity is about, Jesus says in verse five, now, father, glorify me together with yourself. This glory that God does not give to anyone else. Jesus is saying, we share this together with the glory. Look at this. The glory which I had with you before the world was. And so when God is saying this in Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 48, God the Father, God the Spirit, Triune being, working together, Holy Spirit as well, is glorifying self-glorifying within, within its nature. You see the father and the son, even in this passage, glorifying each other. God doesn't share his glory with any other Jesus and the father working as one, sharing in this glory. And Jesus just opens his prayer. But just reflecting on what he's done in this world. And the passage goes on. As we looked at the first 12 verses. It begins in verse 13 as Jesus shares about what he did in this world. He then turns his attention to those he's leaving behind. His prayerful concern for them starts in verse 13. It says, now I come to you. And these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves. Meaning, that hardships about to arise, difficulty and challenges are going to come your way. But when you look at Jesus and you see in John chapter 16, verse 33, when he says, I have overcome them, the end result of the battle is victory for you.

And so you look at the celebration of the presence of God in your life. Because eternal life began at the moment, Jesus overcame the grave and you had the opportunity to know him. His spirit dwells within you and you receive joy. And he's saying, I'm sharing this prayer in these moments that we may they may have joy. Verse 14, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I heard a pause right here and say, if I were to pick one more verse that really shared the DNA of what Alpine Bible Church is about, it's going to be verse 15.

Because as Jesus prays for us at the end of his life, this is the prayer for all of his church. And so he says this for the goal for the individuals he's praying for. I do not ask that you take them out of the world. But to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I'll explain how we live that out as a church in just a moment. But there are ways people have lived this out in this world that are just scary. You read this verse about Jesus and you recognize Jesus has called us to live in this world, and this world doesn't necessarily live according to what God's agenda is unless its desire is to know the Lord.

It lives contrary to that. And so it tells us in this passage, the world hates the disciples who want to live in favor of Jesus because they want to live in favor of them and whatever gods they want to make for themselves. And so Jesus prays that you be in the world, but not of the world. And some people look at this and they get scared of the world. I've been in churches like that. Really. We treat this place like it's a fortress, and we don't go out there because it's bad and bad. People live there and they do bad things. Right. And you get in a church like that and it gets extremely legalistic. They don't respect the freedom that they have in Christ.

And so they start to make these ridiculous rules, like if you dance and play drums, you go to hell, right? Have you ever been there? You wear tattoos and you go to the movies. You're going to hell. Don't you know if you dance and play drums at the same time? That's what make babies. It's wrong, it's sinful and it's wrong. And you look at the world and you think it's just full of badness in the world.

Made stuff like that. So? So we don't want to do that. And so you begin to think legalistically. You treat life like you have to hide from the bad guys. And you read verses in verse 13 where Jesus says that my joy may be in you, and you think, what? What? That is just foreign to me. I'm supposed to live hidden from this world and not enjoy anything that God created because it's all bad. The other extreme to that is people tend to get liberal in their thinking. Let me just say this real quick. Some of us who live legalistically think that we're really godly just because we don't do bad things. Not doing bad things doesn't make you godly. It just makes you not doing bad things. There's nothing spiritual about not doing bad things. The Christian life isn't about. I come to church so I can learn how to be good, and I feel guilty, and I walk out, and then I try to be good and then I'm bad again. So I feel bad about being bad and so and so. Then I'm just bad and I want to be godly. So I'll try not to do bad things. That's not the Christian life. If you want to find a joyless, stupid existence in this world, it's that. My encouragement to you would just be do whatever the flip you want, go out in this world and just have fun.

There's nothing fun about just not doing bad things. That's not what Jesus came here for. Jesus came that you may know him and enjoy him. And the result of that, in knowing him and knowing him, your life becomes beautiful and your life begins fruit bearing. But your pursuit is never about the fruit and not doing bad. It's Jesus. Jesus's prayer. Verse 15 is that we be in the world. And not of the world. Tendency of some people that grow up in legalistic backgrounds is to become rebellious and liberal. Just express freedom. It's even written about in the book of Romans where they say this Jesus died for my sins, and all my sins are covered so I can live like hell. Doesn't matter. Jesus paid for it. Romans. The Bible tells us that Jesus, in dying for your sins, paid an unbelievable cost, and we take away from the understanding of the beauty of Christ's sacrifice and prove that we don't really know him by the way we choose to live. Can I just tell you that the battle for the Christian life is never won on the outside? It's never won about on how good you do or how good you do at not doing bad. The battle of the Christian life starts in the heart. Stays in the heart. The result of us doing bad is not because our environment is bad. The result of us doing bad is because our heart is bad.

So you think some people give the excuse? Well, that person would have chosen better if they grew up in the right environment. Maybe they would have been influenced to do good for a little while longer. But who do you think created the environment? Bad people with bad hearts. We produce the environment that produces bad people. And changing the environment and stopping playing drums and not dancing doesn't make you better. Just make sure you a not good dancer. Fun to watch, but you're not good. Paul says it this way in Romans. Reflecting on his own nature. Realizing his whole life that he tried the legalistic way, the Jewish law to make himself better. Paul finally says this in Romans. He says, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I like that because he doesn't say, thanks be to all the good rules that keep me from doing bad things. But he talks about Jesus. I brought this verse up in recent weeks, but I just really want to talk about the picture of what Paul's saying here. When Paul calls himself a wretched man, he's using an illustration in Roman culture. In Rome, when you murdered somebody, a part of the punishment that you had to endure was you had to be chained to the person that you killed until their body decayed.

And Paul is looking at the sin of his own life that's manifested in his own heart. No matter how many rules he wants to put on himself, he still breaks God's laws. And he says this, O wretched man that I am! I am still chained to this body of death. The result of losing this body has nothing to do with your own nature. Paul even says it's not him that frees himself in this. It's not his own efforts. It's what Jesus has already done. Thanks be to God. And so God has called us to live in the world, but not of the world. I like reading about how the early church did that. Could you imagine? There's no place more messed up than Rome. I've read statistics that 50% of all women in households in Rome earned a side income by being a prostitute. Could you imagine that? How much debauchery existed in a civilization when over half of the women are prostitutes. I don't know. That's the only statistic out there, but it's the most recent that I've read. And now you've got to come to this culture, and Jesus is praying that you be in this world, but not of this world. How difficult that must be to walk that way. When you read the early church, the way that they were able to do it, they went out into society and they had a strong relationship with Christ as they began, and they just engaged the lives of people around them.

I think we have holidays today. Like Easter and Christmas have nothing. They have nothing to do with God in their origin. When you read them, when you study about them, their origins have to do with false gods. Easter. That's not even a that's not even a Christian word. It has to do with the goddess Esther, a fertility. And we say it every Christmas, every year at Easter. But you know what it says to me? The early church saw a holiday that civilization was grabbing a hold of, and they recognized that on that day there, Jesus did something incredible as well. And so they began to influence their culture, to change the holiday of the goddess Esther and the Christmas Festival of Lights, to start honoring Jesus with those days. And they were in the world, but not of the world. They didn't have to run and hide because they had the power of the Lord behind them. And they sought to seek after their society and engage it for the sake of Christ. And rather than hide from a world that seems difficult and full of adversity, Jesus then begins to excuse me. To pray. It says in John 1717, if you want to know the results of how to build your relationship up with Christ, this is what Jesus says sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world.

I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself that they themselves also may be sanctified. Jesus is saying, I set apart, sanctified, set apart. I set apart myself for death. Now I'm setting them apart to live in this world for me. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word. Jesus is literally praying not just for the 12 disciples. They're with him or the 11 disciples. He's praying for the entire church. And he's saying, if you want to know how to stand for me, if you want to know what it looks like to pursue me and follow me, God, my prayer for them is that you sanctify them in truth. So the results of facing a world that lives counterintuitive to God's plan is not to hide from it. It's not to join it, but to get with Christ and allow His Word to set you apart for the work that he's called you to. Renew your mind on the things of God. I think all the propagation we learn daily in our lives are things that should be important to us, and how little time we allow the Lord to saturate our minds with the things that are significant to him. And because we belong to him, things that should be significant to us. That I may know you. This is eternal living that I may know you.

You get the opportunity and sanctifying God's truth to learn about things of the Lord that you're going to be doing for eternity with him. The Bible goes on gives us the last part of Jesus's prayer. As we're set apart for the work of the ministry, as Jesus prays for us to be in the world, but not of the world, to be sanctified in truth. He then goes and talks about the significance of the one another as well. He says that they may all be one. Can I tell you if Satan can't tempt you and the sinful nature of yourself. Meaning, if Satan can't bring the world to you and make you fall into the world, the second way that Satan will attack you is to bring division into your life. And Jesus is saying, not only by praying for them to be with me and be intimate with me and be set apart with me. But God, that you create them in a powerful way to work with each other. That they know me in this world and that together they know me in this world. And knowing that Satan is going to tempt them away from him as an individual and tempt them to create division within the body, Jesus prays for the unity that they all may be one, even as you are father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

And as we live with this unity in Christ, the world gets to see Jesus in verse 22, the glory which you have given me, I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one, I in them, and you and me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am. So that they collectively may see my glory which you have given me. For you. Love me before the foundation of the world. Jesus is in prayers, not just for the individual. But for the community. But the community would work together and experiencing the glory of the Lord and the relationship that he's given us. Leaves me to say real Christians aren't solo Christians. Yeah, I feel bad for people who have been a part of churches and walked away and felt burnt by it. And they don't really want to belong to another group of believers because the scars from that. I can tell you one of the most effective things Satan can do in your life. As to allow you not to belong to a body of Christ. Because the things that you can do collectively with each other are far more powerful than you can ever do on your own.

And if you're honest about it, if you're living it on your own, you're really not that good at it. It's easy just to slip back into doing things that count for nothing as far as eternity is related. But God's called you to a body, and it's important for us to recognize that when we're in the body, it's not perfect and it's not always pretty. We're people. I'll give you my job for a week, and you can see that, right? We get we get messy. But it's a beautiful mess for the Lord. It's a mess where we get together and we're about encouraging. We understand the prayer of Jesus. The last thing Jesus prayed for his church is that we would be one, that we would understand the significance of being in the world, but not of the world, that we would sanctify ourselves and the truth, allowing the truth of God to communicate to us what reality really should be and living for him, and that we would take that and just be one a powerful force for Christ in this world. Talking about the DNA of our church. How do you do this? How do we live this out? Let us say a few things. First, is this the last thing Jesus did for his church as he left was prayed? He prayed for those that were closest to him. Parents. When you leave your house, you walk out into your garage.

If you have one, you get into your car and make your garage your prayer room. Every time you cross that door and you hit that button to lift the garage, make that room a time of prayer for the family that's about to divide for the day before you come back at the end of the day and unite. Make it about prayer. That's what Jesus is doing here. I'm about to leave. We're about to divide. There's about to be some tension. But what I want to do is pray. We need to pray that God brings unity, that God brings oneness in our relationship with him. With everything that we're about to face today. Let's pray. Second thing is this. If you're serious about your walk with God, put the balloon in your teeth and get to know him. Don't just say I believe, but really believe. Get to know the one you're spending eternity with. Allow his mind to saturate your life, that you may live the beauty of that fruit in this world. It's not about not doing bad. It's about knowing him. Oh, Jesus. And last is this. That we would be a church that's in the world and not of the world. We try to do this as a church family to encourage us to live this way, that as we come to know him, to go out into this community and share that. And so we do things all summer long.

We're about to hit that. We need to hurry up and finish our building so we can do summer ministry. But we go throughout all of this valley, at carnival booths, at parks, and we just hold events just to reach out to this community. We're in the world. We want to be in the world. And whatever ideas you have that you want to pursue, we want to encourage that. However we can reach this area. If you're the kind of people that I believe that you are that like to put the balloon in your teeth and say, I really believe you're going to think the place that you live, there is no greater place where your relationship with God is going to mean more for the sake of the community and the sake of the world. How privileged it is to wake up every day and in your knowledge of Christ and your relationship with him, to really go out and live. And so the encouragement. Nothing specific. But just live. The power of Jesus in John 1633, saying, I have overcome is to be the encouragement to you to say, no matter how nasty this world may look, the power that you carry with you in you is far greater than any power this world might possess. Go out and live. For his name. In his glory in Jesus says this his prayer. As that is, he and the father are one. We would be one in him.