Speaker: I am change.
I thought that was a campaign promise.
I thought that was supposed to be taken care of at this point, but
apparently the nation is divided.
I don't care.
Just leave the clock where it is and we're good.
You can have whichever side of it you want, just leave it where it is.
I, I'm good with that.
Um, that.
To do with the sermon at all.
I'm getting a little bit of ringing though, uh, up here.
If we could adjust that.
I'm gonna move this 'cause I, I'm not saying I'm gonna get super animated
and excited today, but this looks expensive and I don't wanna break that.
But, um, hey, there are perks that come with being what we call
a pk, uh, a pk, a pastor's kid.
Uh, and some of those perks are perks.
Like my kids experience back at our sending church, they knew
where the staff snacks were.
They could go into the.
The offices and they could get up to dad's office and then go find the, the
kitchen and, and get staff snacks where we kept those, or they had the, the ping
pong table in our break room up there.
And, uh, they, they had the, the different perks.
They got to go to some retreats and some camps that otherwise maybe they
wouldn't have been able to go on.
There were, there were perks that came with being a pk and my wife and
I were always trying to be mindful to, to teach them to be thankful.
Grateful for those things.
To be grateful for those things.
Not to be entitled, but to, to return a, a Thanksgiving to the Lord.
Ultimately for the, the blessings of being a pk.
I realize that not everybody in the room this morning fits that category,
but we all are in this room, gks.
We all are God's kids.
That is if you are here and you are in Christ and, and just like
there's blessings to being a pk.
In fact, even more so, there's far greater blessings in being a a gk.
I.
And these blessings are blessings that we're gonna find, some of them,
at least in our text this morning.
And they're blessings that I think as, as believers, as followers of Jesus, we
have a, a, a responsibility to be aware of these blessings and not just to let
them become white noise in the background of what it means to be a Christian.
Because these blessings are opportunities for us to worship God.
And when we fail to feel the weight of these blessings, there's
a degree to which we are robbing God of worship, that he is due.
Uh, because he's given us these blessings in Christ.
If, if you're here this morning and you're a gk, I hope to show you this
morning through our text that there are at least three main reasons that you
can be worshiping God this week for the blessings of being one of his children.
Take your Bibles to John 17 as we continue the high priestly prayer.
This is Jesus, the Son of God, praying to the Father, the second
member of the Trinity, praying to the first member of the Trinity, and
we get to eavesdrop on this prayer.
And we're picking up in this second section here, at
least as we've divided it.
As we looked at last week, Jesus was praying that the Father would be
glorified through the glorification of the son, that he was consumed
with the glory of the Father, and now he's going to turn to, uh, make some
direct requests about his followers.
He says in verse six, he says, I have manifested your name to the
people you gave me out of the world.
Yours.
They were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Uh, the word manifested.
We need to unpack that a little bit and, and unhitch some cultural
baggage from that word that is, uh, had been added of late.
Uh, we are not a church that believes in manifestation.
That that is, that you can believe something enough and have enough
positive thoughts, and somehow that's gonna happen in your life.
We don't find that in the Bible.
Uh, when Jesus says, I have manifested your name to those that you gave me.
It's the old school, not new age version of the word manifest.
It's the word that means to reveal.
He says, I've, I've shown who you are, and that's what it means with
his name, uh, the father's name.
It's not that he told the disciples, Hey, uh, your name is, is the,
the father's name is Father.
That's his name.
Job done.
Check the box.
No.
What Jesus is saying here is through my teaching, through my ministry.
Through my time with them over these last three years, I've revealed
you, Lord, I have exegeted you.
In fact, he's basically saying of John one 18 mission accomplished.
John one 18, John wrote There, no one has ever seen God.
The only God who is at the father's side, Jesus.
He has made him known and so as Jesus is right about to go to
the cross, he's praying and he's saying, father, I've done that.
It, I have manifested your name.
I've revealed who you are.
I've, I've taught the people whom you gave me out of the world, yours.
They were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word, yours.
They were.
Yours.
They were, the, the, the tense of that verb there were is,
is in the imperfect tense.
It, it suggests a, a, a state of ongoing being in the past.
And so we have to ask the question, in what sense were the disciples,
uh, the father's possession before they belonged to the son?
'cause here, contextually, he's talking about the 11 and he's saying
to the father, he's saying yours, they were, they belong to you.
And then you gave them to me.
Well, in addressing the 11 specifically, this is what he's already addressed.
Back in John 1519.
John 1519, Jesus said, if you are of the world speaking to the 11 the
disciples, if you are of the world, the world would love you as its own,
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world.
Therefore, the world hates you.
And so therein, Jesus is talking about the fact that he called these 11
specifically to come and follow him.
To enter into a relationship of discipleship with him, come with me
and I will make you fishers of men and, and so Jesus is saying yours, father,
they were until you gave them to me.
I would say that even these disciples were part of God's decree and God's plan
to give to Jesus to fulfill the mission that Jesus had for them to fulfill.
But even on a broader scale, this applies to us as well, John 6 37.
John 6 37 says, all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever
comes to me, I will never cast out.
I just want you to see there the connection of the father giving.
All that the father gives me will come to me.
And so Jesus, there is again saying what He's praying here to the Father,
yours, they were, they belong to you first and then you gave them to me.
I think that's what the Bible teaches about us as followers of
Christ, that we first were the fathers before we became the sons.
Maybe to explain this a little bit more, I can go to Ephesians chapter one with us.
Ephesians chapter one, verses four through six.
Paul writes there even as he, the Father chose us followers of Jesus in Him that
is in Christ before the foundation of the world, in order that we should be
holy and blameless before Him in love.
He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons.
Through Jesus Christ.
And so all I want us to see here is that we belong to the Father before we belong
to the Son, that it was the father's good pleasure and goodwill as Paul continues
on here, uh, to give us to the son.
And so Jesus is praying specifically about the 12 or about the 11 rather
minus Judas here, and he's saying of them, the Father gave them to me.
But I think the broader point here can be made to us that the Father, if
you are in Christ this morning, there was a time that you belong to the
Father before you belong to Christ.
That is that you were already written in the Lamb's book of life, that the father
knew what would happen in your life, and yet the the father had not officially
given you to Christ through that act of faith and repentance to follow.
Jesus.
And so here he is talking to the disciples.
He's saying to the, to the father, rather yours.
They were.
And you gave them to me.
And, and then he says this, and they have kept your word again.
We're zooming back in on the 11.
They've kept your word, they've followed you.
They've persevered.
They've endured.
Contrast this with what had just happened in the upper room with Judas.
Uh, Judas revealed that the father had not given him to the son.
In what sense?
He did not persevere.
He did not endure to the end.
He went out from them for he was not of them.
Think about Judas.
Think about the rich young ruler, the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and
said, teacher, what must I do to be saved?
And Jesus said, well, you know the commandments.
And he said, I've done them all.
Jesus said One thing you lack, go and sell all that you have and come and follow me.
And that was the one thing he was unwilling to give up to follow Jesus.
And so he went away sad.
It said in the text there, that's somebody that the father had not given to the son.
Or think about John chapter six when Jesus had been teaching about
eating the, the flesh of the Son of God and drinking his blood.
And so many of the people were like, we can't handle this.
And, and we're leaving.
And Jesus looked at the disciples and said, do you wanna go away too?
And the only thing that kept the disciples there, the only thing that
kept Peter there saying, Lord, to whom we sh should we go, you have the
words of life and we've come to know that you are the holy one of God.
The only thing that that differentiated Peter from, you know, the, the other
guys that, that walked away from Jesus.
Is the fact that the father had given Peter to the son.
And that's what we're seeing here.
The evidence of our being given to Christ is our persistence, our
endurance, our continued following of Jesus, our continued discipleship.
Still this is dealing with the 11 I want us to to zoom out and think
about us 'cause it does apply to us.
The Father has given you to the son.
We're talking about being God's kids.
Gks, right?
One of the main blessings of being a GK is that as a GK
you have been given to Christ.
You have been put into Jesus, if I can put it that way.
In fact, that's a term that we use a lot.
That's a term we read a lot in the Bible, a phrase being in Christ.
It's all over the Pauline epistles being in Christ, and, and my fear is
that it becomes white noise to us.
It becomes a, a doctrine and, and it doesn't produce devotion.
It becomes this thing that we're like, man, yeah, I'm in Christ.
How great is that?
Great.
What's next?
But I think it's good and wise for us as we're considering the blessings
of being God's kids, of belonging to Christ, of being those that He has given
to Jesus, that we stop and we feel the immense blessing and privilege that it
is to be those that are given to Jesus.
Those that are in Christ.
Point number one this morning is this, recall the blessings of being in Christ.
Recall the blessings.
Of being in Christ, things that we just take for granted so often,
I think if I can, without being sacrilegious, compare this to,
there's blessings to being part of the United States of America.
Yes.
I ask Danny Mayer for permission to use this picture before I used
it, so if it offends you, you can write to danny@compassntx.org.
Again, that's danny@compassntx.org.
I was trying to find the most patriotic image that I could find.
This is it.
He said it's okay.
'cause his finger's not on the trigger.
Yeah, but there's privileges to be American, right?
Like free drink refills.
Yes.
Apparently.
You don't, you go international, you don't just get free drink
refills ice in your drink when they, they bring you your drink.
That's something that's a, a unique blessing of being an American
that we don't think of that often.
I've got more, my wife said, were you hungry when you thought of these?
I may have been.
I.
Um, barbecue.
That's a blessing of being American.
Right?
I know there's other countries that claim to have barbecue.
It's ours.
Okay.
It's, it's actually a blessing of being a Texan, first and foremost,
and then of being an American.
Yeah.
Uh, 4th of July fireworks.
That's a blessing of being an American.
You're not gonna find that if you go to England.
They're not, they're not celebrating 4th of July strange thing.
I know, but they're not shooting off fireworks on the
4th of July, Amazon Prime.
It's a blessing of being American, isn't it?
Overnight shipping.
The fact that we live in a culture where you can be inconvenienced, that you're
not gonna get it for 48 hours now.
It's a blessing of being an American, uh, the state fair of Texas.
That's a blessing of being an American again, of being a Texan primarily,
but of of also being an American.
Going there and eating good fried food and having a good time and seeing big Texs
and just enjoying the state Fair of Texas.
Seven 11 Day exists where you can go get a free Slurpee just because the day happened
and there's a a, a chain called seven 11.
That's a blessing of being an American.
And then last, but certainly not least, all of garden's never
ending breadsticks and salad.
That's a blessing that comes with being an American.
These are things that probably you don't often think about as
blessings of being an American, but that's the point that I wanna make.
The danger is in a much greater danger than ignoring never ending breadsticks
from Olive Garden, is that we don't often enough think about the blessings
that we have of being in Christ.
We don't feel the weight of that.
Sure.
Maybe when we're brand new Christians.
And we're being overwhelmed by all of these new thoughts and new
concept and new ideas coming in.
We're like, yes, this is so good.
I can't believe that.
But a year goes by how long?
Five years.
10 years, 20 years.
And you sit there as a seasoned believer or an aged saint, and you think to
yourself, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm in Christ.
I'm in Christ.
And I'm just saying, let's stop and let's think about the
blessings of being in Christ.
Some of these, how about Romans eight, one, there's therefore now what?
Come on.
No condemnation for those that are what in Christ.
That means that when you die and you stand before the Lord, you don't have
to fear him saying, depart from me.
I never knew you.
You don't have to fear him saying you didn't measure up.
You don't have to fear him saying you are guilty.
Why?
Because you have been given by the father to the son as a gk, he's put
you in Christ and that means there's no condemnation for you in Christ.
Or how about next?
In the next verse in Paul, I'm not gonna walk through all of Romans
eight, I promise though we could.
Romans eight, two, for the law of the spirit of life has
here set you free in Christ.
In Christ you are free from the law of sin and death.
That's why there's no condemnation for you in Christ because being
placed into Christ, you've been set free from the law of sin and death.
That means you don't have to try to be good enough for God
to welcome you into eternity.
In fact, you can't.
You don't have to continue to go back to the law, only for the law to show
you that you don't measure up anymore.
Because why?
Because you've realized the end of the law, who's Jesus, the fulfillment of the
law that the law's meant to drive you to him to say, he's my righteousness.
That's a blessing of being in Christ.
How about Romans 12?
Five.
So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
This place, this room, your brothers and sisters in Christ in this room, that's
a blessing of being in Christ, that you have a unity, you have a bond, you have
relationships that you are building right now that are gonna last for eternity.
There's not a single other institution or organization on the face of
the planet that can claim that.
And that's because you are in Christ.
One Corinthians one, two, Paul begins the letter to the church of
God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, that
you are sanctified in Christ Jesus.
Let's talk about sanctification for a minute.
What does it mean?
It means to be made like Jesus to be made holy, and its
actual root of the word there.
And there's three different ways that happens and all of
them are re, re related to.
They're all in connection to are being in Christ because the Father
has given us as gks to Jesus.
First is progress or positional, sanctification.
Positional sanctification.
That is that I was over here.
I was dead in my transgressions and sins, and then positionally.
When I am saved, positionally, I am set apart.
I'm sanctified as holy in the sight of God to be used by him.
Positional sanctification is ours in Christ.
This is connected to the concept of our justification.
That is that we are declared righteous, not just not guilty, but innocent
based on the righteousness of Christ.
With that comes the fact that we are positionally once for
all set apart as holy unto God.
Okay.
There's another type of sanctification though, and that's the second P.
It's progressive sanctification, and that's what's happening right
now in the life of every single follower of Jesus in this room.
That is that your life is a progression of you being made more
like Jesus day by day by day, from one degree of glory to another.
And, and, and so that's where you may start over here.
And this is the moment of your conversion and the moment of your death is over
here, and, and your life is, you are growing more and more like Christ.
The closer you get to the moment that you are called home to be with him,
that's progressive sanctification.
That's why being involved in a community group is so helpful.
That's why being in the word every single day is so helpful.
That's why prayer is so good, because we need to be
progressively made more like Jesus.
This is Romans 8 28.
God's working all things together for your good, that you would be
conformed to the image of Jesus.
Okay?
Progressive sanctification.
That's a perk of being in Christ.
And then the final P is perfect sanctification.
Perfect sanctification.
That is when you are fully made holy.
And so that's not over here anymore.
That's now over here.
You have finished your course, you fought the fight, you've, you've finished the
race, and now you are in the presence of God and sin is no more in your life.
That's perfect sanctification.
I.
And that also is yours because God has given you to Christ again, blessings
that come with being in Christ.
One Corinthians one, four, Paul says, I give thanks to my God always
for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus.
How about the blessing of being in Christ, meaning that we get to experience
the grace of God, unmerited favor getting that which we don't deserve.
We only know the grace of God because we are in Christ.
One Corinthians 15 22, 1 Corinthians 1522, Paul writes, for as in Adam, all die.
So also in Christ shall all be made alive because of your relationship with
Christ, because God the Father has given you to Christ, placed you into Christ.
Listen, the grave's not the end for you.
As we sing in the song, death is just a doorway into everlasting life.
Why?
Because the Father has put you in Christ.
Because you are united to Christ.
You have been given to Christ, and so you will overcome the grave.
Two Corinthians two 14, Paul says, but thanks be to God, who in
Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads
the knowledge of the fragrance, of the knowledge of Him everywhere.
This hearkens back to the old Roman generals when they would return home from
a, a war that they had won a victory.
They would parade behind them their captives as trophies of their victory.
You and I, Christians are trophies of the victory that
Christ won for us at the cross.
And so we are being paraded by Christ because we are in Christ.
We are trophies of his grace.
And so being in Christ means that we get to do that.
We get to be those that testify to the victory that Christ won on our behalf.
And so that we are now his two Corinthians five 17.
You know this one, I'm sure.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
Regeneration being born again.
The old has passed away and the new has come.
I was dead in my transgressions, but I've been made alive together with him.
That is with Jesus.
So in Christ, you are a new creation.
It's a blessing.
That's a perk.
That's a, an immense, massive blessing of being in Christ.
If we went around the room and gave a microphone and did just story time, if
you stood up and, and we went one by one, those of you that are saved, and you
said, this is who I was before Christ, and this is who I am now in Christ.
In fact, you're gonna hear five of those testimonies next weekend.
That's, that's what we're talking about in Christ, that change, that transformation.
The, the newness is because you are in Christ because the
Father gave you to the son.
Two Corinthians five 19.
Paul says that is in Christ.
God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses
against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation that in
Christ, God made a way for us who were aliens and strangers, far off exiles
to be brought near to him, reconciled.
That's what that word reconciled means, that in Christ, you have
been reconciled to the father.
Galatians two 16.
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law,
but through faith in Jesus Christ.
So now we're seeing our standing with God, which comes down to our
justification in our faith is the agent there from our perspective.
So our faith in Christ results in are being justified, declared a righteous
again, not just not guilty, it's not that you've just been acquitted.
You've been declared innocence of all charges with the righteousness of Christ.
That's justification that comes from being in Christ, Galatians three 14, so that in
Christ Jesus, there it is In Christ Jesus.
The blessings of Abraham might come to the Gentiles and that's great news for us.
'cause most of us in this room are Gentiles, not Jews.
And so in Christ, the blessings of being a part of God's spiritual family.
Are extended to us because of Christ in Christ.
Galatians 3 26, I've only got two more.
For in Christ.
You are all sons of God through faith.
This is in keeping with the theme of our message this morning.
You are all God's kids.
You're gks in Christ.
You've been adopted by the Father in Christ.
And then finally last but certainly not least, and and, and we could
keep going and going and going.
I just, I had to stop somewhere.
Blessed to be the gout and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians one, three, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places.
I mean, unpack that in Christ.
You've been given every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places
Church.
I just want us to see and be reminded of what it means to be in Christ.
It's not just a doctrine, it is that, but it's so much more than that.
It, it, it's not just this belief that we have.
Sure.
We're in Christ.
Paul says it a lot.
Hopefully that's clear.
All these references have just been Pauline epistles that
I've, I've referenced so far.
Being in Christ means all of these blessings are ours.
And again, it's an opportunity for us to think about that, to feel
that and to worship God, to make sure that we're not robbing him of
the worship that he's due from us.
By being grateful people for the blessings that we have by being
placed into Christ by being, being given by the Father to the son.
Recall the blessings of being in Christ.
Verse seven.
Verse seven, he says this, now they know that everything that
you have given me is from you.
Again, he's, he's zooming back in.
He's talking about the 11.
Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you, verse eight.
For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they've
received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you and
they have believed that you sent me.
Okay.
Now they know that everything you have given me is from you.
This is something that Jesus has been trying to convey
multiple times in John's gospel.
John chapter five, verse 19.
He said, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only that
which he sees the Father doing.
John chapter 12, verse 49, Jesus says, I've not spoken on my own
authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commitment,
what to say and what to speak.
And so this is something that, that Jesus has been driving home and Jesus
has been teaching them, and yet now it is that they're coming to understand this.
He's saying they, they, they now know that everything you
have given me is, is from you.
They're, they're progressing in their understanding here.
And then he says in verse eight, for I have given them the words.
Now, this is not the word Lagos, but it's a different Greek word here that suggests
the actual content, the, the, the words that he has spoken, the actual words I've
given them, the words that you gave me.
In other words, I've taught them the things that I've said.
The content of my message is what you wanted me to convey to them and
notice their response, and they have received them and they've come to
knowing truth that I came from you and they have believed that you sent me.
So I want you to notice the progression here.
Uh, the disciples, as they're being taught the words, the ramada, the, the
Greek, the, the content of the message of Jesus here, they have received them.
Meaning they didn't reject them outright.
They, they weren't like those that were the seed that was thrown
on the path that was snatched up right away by the birds, right?
They, they didn't do that.
They received them.
They heard them, they accepted them, and, and then he says,
and they've come to know.
So now it's, it's an understanding.
So now it's just, it's a reception and their processing and their
understanding, they've come to know in truth that I came from you.
And so again, he's talking about the, the specific message that
he has been sent from the father.
They've received that message now.
They've understood that message, they've known it.
And then finally, what have they done?
They've believed that you sent me.
This is something that has taken a while for the disciples.
It wasn't right away.
It, it wasn't an immediate thing.
It wasn't when Jesus said, come with me and I'll make you fishers
of men instead of fishers of fish, that they got all this.
But, but rather over time as God was disclosing more and more of
himself to them, they began to learn.
They, they began to receive, they began to know or understand, and
then they, they ultimately, it, it bore fruit in their belief in who
Jesus was and what he had to say.
This progression.
I think we see an example of it here in Matthew, here in Matthew
chapter 16, verses 16 and 17.
Uh, Jesus is with his disciples and they're away
from the crowds at this point.
And he asks, uh, his disciples, Hey, who does, who do the crowds say that I am?
And they say, well, some say John the Baptist, and others say, Elijah,
and some say, and and he says, yeah, but who do you say that I am?
In Simon Peter in a statement, very similar to what we find
at the end of John six, when he says, Lord, where should we go?
You have the words of life, and we've come to know that you are the holy one of God.
Simon Peter says this in response to him, he says, you are the
Christ, the Son of the living God.
You are the Messiah.
The Son of the living God is what he says there.
And then notice Jesus' response.
Jesus answered him.
Blessed are you, Simon Barona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you, but my father, who is in heaven.
This is part of the ongoing disclosure of the father to the disciples, his
ongoing revelation of himself to them, and it works that way for them.
It works that way for us.
Listen, this doesn't mean that the disciples were perfect at this point,
and in fact, we know that they weren't.
We know that they weren't.
Because what's about to happen in John 18 with Peter, the one that says, you're
the Christ, the son of the living God.
Where's Peter gonna go?
He's gonna go deny Jesus three times.
And, and, and then what about the rest of the 11?
They're gonna run for their lives except for John.
And, and so this doesn't mean that they're fully baked, uh, but I
just want you to think about, think about the disciples understanding
of the father before they met Jesus.
Think about what they knew about, who they would've called Adam.
I, at that time, even fearful to say the name Yahweh, for fear of pronouncing it
or saying it in a, in an unworthy manner.
Uh, think about the, the, the Jewish concept of God before Jesus
shows up, before Jesus shows up to reveal the Father to them.
And, and then think about it as this is three years that they've spent with Jesus.
And so over the course of three years, they're learning more and more through
Jesus and through his teaching and through his revelation of the Father.
They're learning more and more about God than they ever could have hoped to
imagine before they knew who Jesus was.
It worked that way for them.
It works that way for us.
What you know about God today as a follower of Jesus is different
than what you knew about God when you first came to faith in Jesus.
That's another blessing of being a gk.
That as a GK who's been given to Jesus, God is progressively revealing more and
more of himself to you Through your study of the scriptures and your growth and your
knowledge and understanding of the faith.
Point number two this morning, along those lines, is this.
Be thankful for that.
Be thankful for God's continued disclosure of himself.
Those of you who have been parents at any stage, how much did you
know about parenting on day one?
Not a lot, huh?
Even if you read what to expect when you're expecting, you didn't expect
what to expect when it happened.
I remember well.
When my son Joshua, who is turning 16 this week, which is hard to believe, when
we brought him home from the hospital and we had family around there, it was
like, great, there's grownups here to help us take care of this, this baby.
And then they left.
They left us.
They went away.
They went home to California.
And I remember, I remember sitting on the couch with, with my wife
holding this baby, looking at her going, we have to keep him alive.
We don't know anything about doing this.
And then by the time we had the twins, I was literally stacking
one on top of the other as I was carrying them around the house.
Your understanding of what it is to be a parent, it, it
progresses over time, doesn't it?
It changes you.
You understand it more deeply.
You, you don't panic about the same things.
You don't fear the same things.
You have a greater understanding.
You know what to do in different situations.
Or think about day one in calculus or for me last day in calculus.
Same thing.
You're looking at these formulas and you're hearing about an AP
exam, can you imagine taking the AP exam day one in calculus?
You wouldn't have any clue why, because you weren't yet ready for it.
You hadn't been brought along in your knowledge and understanding to the place
where you could be able to do that.
Christianity is not calculus.
Thank the Lord.
But listen, you and I are not expected to know all there is to know about what it
is to follow Jesus on day one or day 100.
Or day 10,000 of following Jesus.
There is a progressive disclosure of who God is that we get to know
more and more and more of as we continue to grow as believers.
Case in point, it's not a good idea to share the gospel with someone
for the first time and then to follow that up and say, and now
let's talk about the end times.
Or, now let me talk to you about free will and, and, and God's sovereignty, or, now
let me talk to you about spiritual gifts.
Those are important things, but those are things that we understand
that a person matures in their faith before they're ready to, to begin
to tackle some of those things.
As a new believer, you're gonna treat a new believer as a new believer, and
you're gonna help them grow and listen, this is backed up in, in scripture, right?
This idea of us growing as God's kids, that we're gonna grow in our knowledge
of him because he is gonna disclose more and more of himself to us as we grow.
Not new revelation.
Revelation is contained fully in the word of God.
I'm not implying that.
I'm just suggesting we learn this and understand more of it ourselves as
we continue to progress in our faith.
Peter says, like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk.
He's talking about the, the word of God there, that by it you may
notice, grow up into salvation.
And that implies that there is a, a maturing as a believer that implies
that it's not a, a static thing that implies that you're not walking
in day one knowing everything.
But rather as we give ourselves over to the word of God and God discloses
more of himself to us, and we receive his word and we come to understand
his word, and then we believe his word like the disciples did with Jesus,
we're gonna grow up into salvation.
Or how about Second Timothy chapter three.
Verse 16.
Uh, you, you're probably familiar with this passage.
All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching and reproof and
correction and training in righteousness.
And then verse 17, that the man of God may be complete and
equipped for every good work.
But notice what's baked into this and implied here is a, a progression
that you are going to be trained.
It's not that you are, are competent and equipped from day one.
But it's that the more and more you give yourself over to the word of God
and the study of the word of God, the more and more equipped and competent
you will be as time progresses, because that's the purpose of God's word.
It's got a training purpose in our life.
Titus talks about that too.
How about Romans 12?
Romans 12, two, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what
is good and acceptable and perfect Again, that's not a one and done situation.
You are not transformed in your thinking right away, but this
is part of that progressive sanctification that I talked about.
Back in point number one, you are going to see a, a progress,
a growth in your thinking.
You are going to be being transformed by the renewal of your mind as
you give yourself over again to the word of God, to the people of
God and the study of God's word.
That's a progressive thing that's gonna be taking place.
Or one more for Corinthians 1420.
Paul Wright's brothers, do not be children in your thinking.
Be infants and evil, but in your thinking, be mature.
And so Paul, again, is calling for a growth in our understanding of
who God is and God will en enable that in us as He brings us along.
Right?
There is a maturing that takes place through the disclosure of
who he is, as we receive it, as we know it, as we believe it.
Here's what this means, y'all, that as Christians, we don't
know everything there is to know.
And, and no matter how long you've been a believer here, maybe there are some
things that you think you understand this morning, that five, 10 years
from now you may have a different outlook on, a different perspective on.
Now there's different grip strengths on things when it comes to what I'm talking
about here, lemme give you an example.
The deity of Christ, that's not evolving, okay?
That's that's a deal breaker.
You deny the deity of Christ, you're outside the body of Christ.
Period.
End of story there.
There's no growth in our understanding of the, the nuances there.
Yes, we may come to appreciate it more, but we're, we're not gonna go from
thinking, well, maybe Jesus is God.
Maybe he's not God.
To being convinced that he is God.
At least not as Christians, as Christians, the deed of Christ.
That's a firm grip.
You're holding onto that with a white knuckle.
You're not letting that go.
Same thing in errand, seeing authority of scripture, holding
onto that with a white knuckle grip.
You're not letting that go.
The Bible is our authority.
Period.
End of story.
An example of something that might evolve over time.
That, and I'm not talking macro evolution, I'm talking micro
evolution, but that might be tweaked over time, is your understanding,
I already brought it up earlier.
Your understanding of the idea of God's sovereignty and man's free will.
If a Calvinist leads you to faith in Jesus, your first a hundred days,
you may be that cage stage Calvinist that wants to burn at the stake.
Anyone who says free will ever, right.
Hopefully over time you soften on that.
Right, and, and, and God's been been working in, in my life on that too.
Just this idea that man, the Bible I think teaches that God is a
hundred percent sovereign and we are a hundred percent responsible.
And, and those two things are both taught in the scriptures,
and we have to hold those things in equal tension with each other.
But that's gonna be something that I'm gonna continue to
grow in my understanding of.
Spiritual gifts, you're gonna groan your understanding of that.
See, there are things, there are doctrines that we may think that we
have a firm grasp on only to, to realize as we grow and mature in the faith
that, that, that evolves over time.
And our thinking changes on that.
And, and as long as they're not those first tier issues, that to
compromise would, would be to, uh, be an apostate, then there's room
for that within the body of Christ.
There's room for that.
I, I want you to think of your understanding of God, like a good brisket.
Right before lunch.
You guys enjoying that one?
Yeah.
Like a good brisket, right?
This one's actually straight from Hutchins.
This is a picture from Hutchins Barbecue right here.
No one is gonna take a brisket and nuke it in the microwave.
At least you better not.
We will send you away.
You will go out from us because you are not of us.
Nobody takes a brisket and cooks it in the microwave.
What do you do with a brisket?
You put it on the smoker and cook it low and slow.
At least that's the way God intended it to be cooked.
And then when you pull it off and you slice it and you get the juices and you
get the bark and you get the smoke ring and it just falls apart in your mouth.
If anybody wants to go to Hutchins afterwards, I'm in.
Let's go.
I want you to think of your relationship with God That way you become a,
a Christian and it's like you're put on the smoker, so to speak.
This is weird, but it's okay.
Just track with me.
And, and it's gonna be low and slow with you as God continues to get you
to the place that he wants you to get.
And, and he's patient to do that.
And that's a blessing that we have as being God's kids who
are given to Christ, right?
And so we can be thankful there.
There's a full smorgasbord plate right there.
If, if, if you were looking for it.
We can be thankful for the how, the way that God does this, the way that
God reveals things to us of himself.
Be thankful for God's continued disclosure of himself.
Verse nine.
Jesus says, I'm praying for them.
I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have
given me for, they are yours.
All mine are yours and yours are mine.
And I am glorified in them.
And so Jesus distinguishes the, the disciples.
He sets them apart again.
He says, I'm praying for them.
I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have
given me for, they are yours.
And before we get.
Been outta shape about this.
Jesus is not this text.
Nowhere says I, Jesus said, I hate the world.
He just said, I'm not praying for the world the way I'm praying for you.
I'm praying for you.
And, and that bears into that, that has to do with what he was praying for.
And, and we're gonna get into that as, as John 17 continues,
and as our study of it continues.
And I don't wanna preach my legs out from under me this morning.
Uh, we're gonna get into the content of what he prays in
the coming two weeks here.
Some of that though, he's, he's gonna pray for endurance.
He's gonna pray for perseverance.
He's gonna pray for our protection.
He's gonna pray for the sanctification of us as we, uh, give
ourselves over to the word of God.
He's gonna pray that we would be on mission and accomplish the work that,
that the father has for us to accomplish.
These are things that the sun is going to pray for us and I want
us to know he's praying that Why?
Because all mine are yours and yours are mine.
And I'm glorified in them, the ownership that the, that Christ has
over us and the father has for us.
There's a, a, a root underlying motivation there that's, that's
driving Jesus to pray this, I think.
And that's the fact that he loves us as his, he loves us as those that the
father has given to him and that love for us is gonna lead him to pray that
we would endure tho, that we would be sanctified, that we would persevere,
that we would know what it is to be in the world, but not of the world.
And so Jesus prays for these 11.
But here's the thing, church, he's praying for you right now this morning too.
The writer of Hebrews says, he's right now living to make intercession for you.
And that's why he's able to save you to the uttermost.
And he's doing that church because he loves you, because you
have a place in his affections.
And that's our third and final point this morning, is that I want you to
be thankful or to realize rather your place in the affections of your savior.
Realize your place in the affections of your savior.
One of the first songs that any child learns raised in a Christian
home is the song Jesus Loves Me.
What This I Know for the Bible tells me.
So that was actually first before it became a children's song that was a hymn.
It was published in a, a hymnal in fact.
In fact, it was taught to the cadets of West Point during the 18 hundreds.
And the reason being is the authors of that song were actually two
sisters, Susan and Anna Warner.
And Susan and Anna Warner hold the distinguished honor of still today
being the only civilians buried at West Point Cemetery, the only civilians
buried at West Point Cemetery.
And, and the reason is, is their house happened to be on
the land there that became West Point Military, uh, institution.
And, and they spent time with the cadets and they spent time praying for the
cadets and, and, and serving the cadets.
And, and they were both poets and they ended up writing this
song, Jesus Loves Me This, I Know, before The Bible tells me so.
And it became a song that encouraged the cadets.
It it became a song that they would sing together while they
were going through their training and their preparation for war.
Jesus loves me.
This I know for the Bible tells me so it, it, it just like we talked about in 0.1,
being in Christ
Jesus loves me is such a simple concept and yet so incredibly profound.
Jesus loves me.
This I know for the Bible tells me.
So listen, I I, I realize a final point here this morning
of, hey, understand Jesus loves you can be a, that's nice point,
but I, I want it to be more than that for us this morning.
'cause I want us to feel the profundity of that, of the blessing, of the fact that
because we're God's kids, we have a savior praying for us because we're God's kids.
We have a savior interceding for you this morning because he loves you.
Why does he love you all?
Mine are yours and yours and mine because the father gave them
to you, gave you to him rather.
That's why he loves you.
And, and that's more than just a, a platitude.
Jesus loves me.
This I know for the Bible tells me.
So
what should we do with that?
A couple of thoughts here.
Number one, respond in gratitude attitude.
Be thankful for the love that the Savior has for you, such
that he's praying for you.
Jesus loves me.
This I know because Jesus is praying for me right now before the Father
respond in humility.
To think that the second member of the Godhead is interceding for you
this morning because he loves you.
Respond in confidence he will hold me fast.
We sang that he will hold me fast.
He will hold me fast for my Savior loves me so.
He will hold me fast.
You're not going anywhere in your walk with Christ this morning because
Jesus is interceding for you, because he loves you, because he prays for
you, because he cares about you, because you have his affections.
And finally, respond in kind this morning, respond in kind
to know that the Savior loved us, needs to cause us to want to love others, to
follow his lead in that George Washington.
I remember growing up, I grew up first six years of my life in, in
Philadelphia, and, and then I got saved in Texas, so I'll leave you to
draw your own conclusions about that.
But I grew up for the first six years of my life in Philadelphia,
and I remember going to, to Valley Forge with my, my parents.
I remember walking the, the, the cabins in Valley Forge.
And I just remember thinking as a 5-year-old, 6-year-old, how cool this is.
Is to be able to walk in these cabins.
And this is where George Washington and the troops were, were camped out.
And then this last summer, uh, my wife and I and our kids took a vacation
to Washington DC and we went to Mount Vernon while we were there, and we
walked the grounds of Mount Vernon.
Uh, there is a stark contrast between Mount Vernon and Valley Forge.
Valley Forge was one of the worst winters that our military's ever experienced.
They were starving.
They didn't have enough food supplies.
They didn't have, some men didn't have shoes.
There weren't enough blankets for the soldiers.
And so a lot of them were just piling up straw that they could find and
hay that they could find in the surrounding fields to try to stay warm.
And here you had the commander in chief, the the general of the Army, George
Washington, who had Mount Vernon that he could have gone back to for the winter.
He could have thought, you know what?
Nobody's attacking right now.
The conditions are, are, are not such that there's gonna be any battles.
I'm gonna go be comfortable for right now.
But out of a love for his men, out of a concern for his troops,
Washington spent the winter there in Valley Forge with his troops.
How do you think that endeared him to them when he then called on them to go
into war, to go into battle, to fight, knowing how much he had cared about them.
It probably did a lot for them to say, I'll follow you wherever you want to go.
Yeah.
Jesus has done way more for us than George Washington did for those men, his love
for us, through praying for us, through his intercession for us, and ultimately
through the cross, such that we should want to respond in kind a new commandment.
I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another.
We respond in kind.
If your savior loves you enough to pray for you, pray for one another.
If your Savior loves you enough to a, sacrifice his life for
you, sacrifice for one another.
If your Savior loves you enough to care for your sanctification, your holiness
care about the holiness and sanctification of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
If your sanctification or if your your savior rather loves you enough to
patiently instruct you in your faith walk, then patiently disciple one another.
If your savior loved the least of these, you love the least of these.
If your savior loves you at your worst love others at their worst.
If your savior loved you enough to graciously forgive you.
Then forgive one another.
That's what it is to respond in kind to feel the weight of the reality.
That we have a place in the affections of our savior.
It's not just a simple platitude.
Jesus loves me, this I know,
but it should drive transformation in us.
It should cause us to say, that's overwhelmingly amazing.
It should cause us to worship the father because.
Jesus loves me.
This I know for John 17 tells me that the father gave me to the son.
We're not all pks, but we are all, if you are in Christ
this morning, gks God's kids.
And there's blessings that come with that.
And what I want us to think about this morning, and even this week as we go
from here, is just this reality that as believers, we have an obligation to
render God the worship that he's due.
And when all of these blessings that we've talked about simply become
white noise in the background of our Christianity, then we're robbing God of
worship that he would otherwise receive from us as we ponder the magnitude of
what it means for us to be God's kids.
We stand with me as I pray.