Four requests of the Lord Jesus in John 17

When Ike got up and his first reading was in John, I thought, there goes. When William got up and his first reading was in John, I thought, there goes. John chapter 17.

We've heard about his speech and we've heard about his knowledge. I would like to talk about his prayer. In John chapter 17, this is the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, and because of the constraints of time, we'll read the four requests rather than reading the entire prayer.

Verse number 11. Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.

The next request is verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. The next request is verse 21.

That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The final request is in verse 24.

Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Keep them, sanctify them, unite them, and let me show them.

We are kept positionally. We are eternally secure. We are kept by the power of God.

Conditionally, we have a choice to make, and that's what the Lord Jesus is praying about here. He's saying, Father, keep them because they're mine, and help them to keep themselves. So I just want to talk about three things that we can do, that we have choices on in answer to this prayer.

We have the Word of God. We have the Spirit of God. We have the support of one another.

We have all heaven for us to keep ourselves in the love of God, but we fail. Number one, we have a responsibility or a choice to keep pure. Number two, we have a responsibility or a choice to keep pursuing.

And number three, we have a responsibility or a choice to keep preaching. As far as the pureness is concerned, Paul wrote to Timothy, and he says to this young man, I really want to help you, and I really want to encourage you to keep pure. Because being defiled brings a lot of mud, mars the fellowship, renders us ineffective as far as our testimony is concerned.

And the Lord Jesus is praying for his own, us. And he's saying, Father, keep them from the evil. Actually, there's some translations, and I think it's probably correct, that it's keep them from the evil one.

We have an enemy who is ruthless, who is tireless, who is ferocious. His desire is to make us ineffective in our testimony for Jesus Christ. And one of the things that will render us ineffective is impurity in our lives.

So, keep pure. Keep pursuing. Paul, this is in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul's talking about running in the race.

And he says at the end of the chapter, I want to win the prize. I keep my body under. I keep it in subjection.

Because bodily things, worldly things, things have a tendency to weigh us down. The writer to the Hebrews says, let us lay aside every weight that so doth easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. So, discipline ourselves so that we can run to the best of our ability in the Christian race.

Because there's a prize. And what Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 9 is that if my body gets in the way, stuff gets in the way, it's a possibility that lest when I have preached to others, I might be a castaway. And I don't want to be that.

Last summer, when I took three grandkids to, three little grandkids to Canada, well they were 8, 12, 8, and 6, to see Roxy and her family. And one day, she wanted to take her children and those grandchildren to Triathlon, where they swim for a ways, and then they ride a bike for a ways, and then they run for a ways. I think that's what it's called.

So I have this one 8-year-old granddaughter that has what I would call an inferiority complex. She gets down on herself really easily. She's not outgoing.

I'm trying to help her. And of course they had different classes, age groups. The males, the boys were here and the girls were there.

The swimming course was laid out. And about 20 girls started out. And my granddaughter came in last.

I thought, oh Lord, she's going to drop out of the race. They had to go from all wet to run to a parking lot and get on a bike and start the bike part of it. And when they went out of the gate, obviously she was the last that went out.

But I'm standing on the sideline saying, go Olivia, go, go, go. You know, don't give up. She wasn't smiling.

I don't know where they went. They went out of sight. They went for a mile or something, and pretty soon they came back.

She came in second. I thought, wow. They put the bike away and then they had to go out another gate and do the last lap of the triathlon.

And believe it or not, she came in first. I thought to myself, brothers and sisters, sometimes the swimming gets pretty tough and we're about to go under. But keep paddling, keep breathing, keep going.

It might get easier. It was easier for her to ride a bike than it was to swim. And it must have been easier for her to run the race than ride the bike.

In fact, I was at the end of the line and she's running up there and I see she's first and she made a terrible mistake. She looked back. Well, there wasn't anybody that was really close, so she still won that part of it.

But I told her afterwards, honey, never look back. Keep your eye on the goal and run with all your might. So Paul is saying, this will help us.

Jesus is praying, keep them, Father. Keep pursuing. Paul tells Timothy, he said, that which was entrusted to you, keep by the Holy Ghost.

Now, I just put preaching just to have another P. He was entrusted with a gift, the gift of an evangelist. But Paul said at the end of his journey, I've kept the faith, which I just interpret that to mean what God gave him, he obeyed, he kept it, he lived it. And Paul is passing that on to Timothy.

And he's saying, Timothy, what God has given you, what God has given you, brother and sister, what God has given you above and beyond salvation, He's given you some gifts. There's 21 of them, and I know they're not all being used today. Some of them have ceased, but you have one.

You may have multiple gifts. Use it. Keep it.

Spread it. Preach it. The Lord knows we need preachers.

We need witnesses, whether it be verbally or whether it be in our lives. We're writing a gospel, a chapter each day by words that we, things that we do and words that we say. Men read what we write, whether faithful and true or true.

What's the gospel according to me, according to you? Sanctify them. Same thing. We are sanctified positionally.

First Corinthians chapter one, to you are sanctified, called saints. We're saved. Conditionally, he has set us apart.

We are the treasure in the field. He loves us. He died for us.

He lives for us. We are it. We are to live and do for his good pleasure.

We are to please him. So therefore, we need to sanctify ourselves to please God. There's three things that please God.

Well, there's more than three. There's more things than I said that we can do to keep and there's more things than three we can to please God. But all you children in here this morning, just quit drawing or texting or whatever you're doing and look at me.

OK, you know what children can do to please God? Obey your parents in all things. For this is pleasing to God. You boys got that? My mom was 42 when I was born.

And when I got to be a teenager, why, I thought that the generation gap was too wide. She was way too old. She didn't understand me.

You know, they talk about the terrible twos where there are the terrible teens, terrible teens as well. That's a struggle going from a child to an adolescent. And then I found out I was 21 when our oldest was born.

And I learned when he got to the teenage years that there was a generation gap there too. And I learned a verse in Colossians that follows children, obey your parents. And it says fathers provoke not your children to wrath.

I heard that again and again and again and again. Well, it's there and it's right. But what pleases the Lord? Children, listen, your parents have your best interest at heart.

All you girls back there, are you hearing me? Do you listen? Your parents have your best interest at heart spiritually. And though you might not understand now, the older you get, the better you will esteem the fact that your parents have gotten smarter. I learned that.

My parents weren't, there wasn't such a big generation gap after all. And I think my kids have learned that too. I'm glad for that.

And now they're raising their own and they have to struggle with it. That pleases the Lord. All you unmarried people in here this morning, this is your turn.

Look at me. Eye contact. You know what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 7? He said, a person that's married cares for their spouse and they should.

I never cared for my wife as much as I did the last eight months that she was here. I wish I would have cared for her more for 52 years, but the last eight months, I am thankful God gave it to us. But Paul says, he that is unmarried careth not for a spouse, but he careth for the things of the Lord, not diviseth.

And so therefore, you may feel this morning that whatever, if you're unmarried, whatever, however you feel about it. But remember this, you can give yourself totally and wholly to caring for the things of God. You have a work to do.

You have a place to fill in this life to please him. And then all of us, this is in Timothy, we're servants. And he talks about when Paul talks, writes to Timothy, he says, a good soldier keeps himself from being entangled, that he might please him that hath chosen him.

I'll tell you right now, I don't understand predestination and election and all that. I just know that he loves me and he chose me and he saved me. And I say, thank God.

And because he saved me, the least I can do is try to please him to be a good soldier. Then there's the next thing is he said, Lord, unite them. This gets tougher as it goes along.

This is positional and conditional too. I'm going to call it the global church, the universal church, whatever we want to call it. We're one.

That's Galatians chapter three. There's neither male nor female. There's neither Jew nor Gentile.

There's neither bond nor free. We're one in Christ. Locally, we are not one.

Amongst the evangelicals that preach the gospel, we're not one. We might be one in the gospel, but we're not one in doctrine. But I want to talk about us.

Are we one? That's a big problem. Paul had a big problem with it. It's hard to believe that, isn't it? But they had a young fella, Paul and Barnabas had a young fella named John Mark that they were taking with them.

And he dropped out. He went back. And later on, while they were going on a missionary journey again, and Barnabas says, let's take John Mark.

And Paul says, no, he dropped out. He stays home. They weren't one.

And they couldn't agree. And they didn't agree. Silas went with Paul.

John Mark stayed with Barnabas. And I'm not sure exactly what happened to Barnabas. Somebody can tell me during the noon hour, but I know this.

Later on, Paul said, bring John Mark. Send John Mark. He's profitable to me for the ministry.

So I guess the point that I learned from that is in judgmental differences, whether it's personality or whatever, when you don't have a thus saith the Lord for it, you know, what is vital is clear and what's clear is vital. But beyond that, when you have situations like that with John Mark, don't burn all the bridges. In fact, don't burn any bridges because God is a God of reconciliation.

Now, I haven't looked up the time on this, but I'm assuming that this little thing or this big thing between Paul and Barnabas happened before Paul wrote to the Philippians. And it went when he wrote to the Philippians, why there was a couple of ladies that had a problem at Philippi. What was her name? Yudia and Syntyche.

And Paul from experience, he says, I beseech you, just be of one mind in the Lord. Lord, Lord, unite them when the last one is shown. Father, I want them to be with me.

Do you remember when you were dating? Right? I think I see a few people that are dating and you left her and you were driving home in the dark and you were thinking to yourself, I want her to take her with me because I want her to be with me. And the day came and you said, I do. And you took her with you.

Wow. That was almost heaven on earth. The Lord Jesus says, Father, I want them, you, us, I want them to be with me.

I want to get them. And father's been saying, wait, wait, wait, wait. But brothers and sisters, someday, someday, someday, the father is going to say, go, go get him.

And he's coming for us. And we're going to be with him. And I'm going to apply this because I couldn't, it's an application, so don't be too hard on me.

But Isaiah 53, this is how I'll apply it. He shall see of the travail of his soul. Just think about that as we get ready for tomorrow.

The travail, that's the anguish. His body was mutilated beyond recognition, but he's going to see the travail of his soul. When we're all together and he sees us, the bride, he'll see of the travail of his soul and say, and be satisfied.

He'll say, Father, here they are. I loved them. I died for them.

I rose again for them. I'm interceding for them. And now they're home.

They're with me. He and I, in that bright glory, one deep joy shall share. Mine to be forever with him is that I am there.

I wish, I wish, I wish that I wanted to be with him as much as he wants me to be there. I got my stakes too deep, brothers and sisters. Do we really want him to come today? Not only are we going to be with him, but then what? So they can behold my glory.

I know it's a golden street we'll walk on and all those things, but we're going to see him in all his glory. I think Dennis Gintz, Annie, Ann Orr's nephew, shared the service with me yesterday and he quoted the words of this psalm. I'll know him, I'll know him by the print of the nails in his hands.

In his glory, the highest display of God's excellence will be manifest throughout the ages to come. And in the ages to come, he'll show unto us the exceeding riches of his glory through Christ Jesus. I'll tell you, I'm glad I'm saved.

I'm glad that he tells us how to talk, left an example. I'm glad that he knows everything. Whether I like it or not, I'm glad.

I'm glad for the positive. I'm glad he prayed for us. Keep him, sanctify him, unite him.

Best of all, someday he's going to come and get us and then he'll show us.