Fellowship Church Messages
8/4/24 - John 17:6-12 - "Whom You Gave Me"
Heavenly Father we thank you for today. As we look around we are missing quite a few of our brothers and sisters and we know there's a lot of sickness going around right now and we know there are some on vacation or other things prevented them from being able to come. We know there are also lingering health concerns, lack of strength. Lord we pray that you would be with all of them, minister to them through your Holy Spirit that we may all be worshiping you as one together. We thank you for the body of Christ, we thank you for who you are and how you have reached into our lives, you provided our salvation for us, you saved us, you picked us up, you indwelled us with your Holy Spirit and you're transforming us. Or we thank you that with each day you're changing us to be a little bit more like you. We thank you for your word, that it is always timeless, always true, we can always turn to it for the source of truth. It doesn't matter what the culture believes or what anybody else around us believes, we can always dig into your word and find what you say about any given topic. We thank you that gives us a measurable piece. I pray that you blessed our time this morning, that your spirit would go forth, work in our hearts and minds and then we'd walk out of here a little bit different than when we walked in and I pray all these things in Jesus name, amen. Well here we are on the first Sunday of August. Can you believe it? Is it just me or is the summer just flown by? Is that felt that way for other people too? All right, I'm glad I'm not the only one. It is the last partial month of summer vacation before school starts up and I know that most of the kids are gone. They're out but if they were here they might be groaning at that. Back to school sales you've already seen have begun. Fall decorations have already started creeping onto the end cap displays at stores. You guys have seen that too and there's a feeling of running out of time to fit one last getaway in, right? While many people vacation in July, some take their big family vacation in August. If you're driving anywhere, what is one of the most important details you need to figure out unless you're just a wild person and throw all caution to the wind? Well your directions, your destination, but may perhaps even more important in some ways on your route from point A to point B where the what are on that route? The rest stops, right? You better know where those are. Here's a piece of trivia which may just always be useless trivia for you or which may come in handy one of these days. If you're ever traveling from Kansas City, Missouri all the way down to Lafayette, Louisiana, if I can get this to work, yeah I know you need to squint. Up here, this right here, Kansas City, Missouri all the way down to Lafayette, Louisiana, you're gonna have to do some extreme planning. This route known as Interstate 49 lasts for a whopping average of 264 miles between rest stops. That's a marathon. If you're driving around 65 miles per hour, I did the math. I know not all of you drive 65 miles per hour here. That's four hours between rest stops, on average. And the route that comes in a close second is Interstate 22, not our route 22 between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but the Interstate 22, stretching from suburban Memphis, Tennessee all the way to Birmingham, Alabama down here. This has perhaps the least desirable title of boasting absolutely zero rest stops on that entire route from Memphis, Tennessee to Birmingham, Alabama. I think the one word question we're all thinking, especially if we were driving it with kids, is why would you do that? Why would you do that to us? This morning we're going to be using the illustration of a road map to work our way through today's passage. And while the aforementioned routes didn't have any rest stops or had entirely unreasonable average distances between them, we'll be getting off at several stops along the way as we make our way through these verses. Before we embark on this road trip, however, let's get our bearings and direction we're heading in by doing a bit of review from last week. Last week we laid the foundation for not only the rest of this chapter, what has been famously labeled Jesus' high priestly prayer, but for our salvation as human beings and what the gift of eternal life actually means. That entire foundation is the relationship between God the Father and God the Son and how God the Son fully obeyed God the Father's will even to the point of death on across in order to pay the required sacrifice to restore we as human beings back to God. In that way, God the Son glorified the Father and as such, the Father glorified the Son by exalting Him above all else and giving Him authority over every creative being, both natural and supernatural. That relationship between God the Father and God the Son and God the Son's complete obedience to the Father and glorifying Him is the only and crucially strong foundation for our restoration to God. You need to have that first. It's through the Son's obedience and glorification of the Father that we can be saved from our sin, that we can be restored to God and therefore be given eternal life. That restoration goes hand in hand with what eternal life really means. It's not some ethereal existence where we're either absorbed into the life energy of the universe or floating around somewhere or even flying around like angels with wings in a boring cloudscape. As we looked at last week, Jesus flat out described what eternal life is and what eternal life looks like when He said this in our passage from last week. This is eternal life. He point blank says it that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent knowing a personal knowing of the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. God chose us before He laid the foundations of the universe to save us through the death and resurrection of Jesus so that we could have a restored personal relationship with Him, getting to know Him more and more each day through the revelation of Himself in His Word and in prayer. And at the end of everything, what eternal life is, is a dwelling with God in His new heavens and new earth and perfect communion with Him and personally knowing of Him. That, as Jesus said, is eternal life. It's full and complete life in every way through a perfect personal connection with God Himself. That foundation, as has been pointed out, is what then flows seamlessly into the next part of Jesus's prayer. The part to the Father that Jesus addresses primarily where Jesus addresses primarily His original 11 disciples in that part of the prayer. That's the second section of the High Priestly Prayer which we're getting into this morning. The first part of the High Priestly Prayer was what we talked about last week, that foundation, the relationship between God the Father and God the Son which is the foundation to our salvation and our eternal life being restoration and a personal knowing of God. The second part now shifts to Jesus's original 11 disciples. We see that immediately in verse 6. So if you brought your Bible with you today, please turn to John chapter 17. We're going to be picking up in verse 6. If you didn't, that's okay. There should be one located in the pew in front of you. Please also turn to John 17.6 or look this up on your favorite Bible app on your smartphone. This is what we read. "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." Again, this all goes back to we referenced again last week that everything always, always, always starts with God. Here again, Jesus references John 6, 37, and 39 when he says, "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out and this is the will of him who sent me that of everything that he has given me I will lose nothing but will raise it up on the last day." In verse 6 of this morning's passage, Jesus draws the attention of the general language of John 6 and then bringing it up again in John 17.2, which we talked about last week, and now brings it specifically to the original 11 disciples who are following during this time, he's giving this prayer to the Father. These are the men who gave up everything in their lives to follow him, careers, family, and for most of them they're very lives within a few years from that point. They would be the very first apostles, those personally commissioned by Jesus himself, entrusted with his gospel message to take the first steps of bringing it to the farthest corners of the earth. The underlying power behind what those men would carry forth following Jesus' death and resurrection was again in direct connection with the foundation between God the Father and God the Son. Jesus starts out verse 6 by saying to the Father that he manifested the Father's name to those specific men. The word used here for manifest means to reveal, to make known, and to make clear. As noted by one biblical scholar by referring to someone's name, you were referring to who they were. You're referring to their character. It goes along the same lines as trusting someone according to their word. You trust them not on that they gave you their word, you trust them based on their character and that they're not going to break that word. So in other words, by Jesus saying that he manifested the Father's name, he means that he revealed, made known, and made clear who God the Father really was and what his character really was to his most trusted companions. This was not entrusted with just anyone, but Jesus entrusted who God really is to those original 11 who were following him because it was God the Father after all who gave them to him. They were his as we read and he gave them to Jesus. They were not going to exploit, mock, or selfishly take advantage of Jesus's revelation of the Father in himself because God had already predetermined in his plan that he had chosen them not to do so and to be trusted to honor, to obey, and to further the gospel message. What is also included in this choosing of these 11, that God the Father had given to Jesus. Exactly what we already read in verse 6, that they were taken out of this world and given to Jesus. They were separated, taken out of the world. They were separated and set apart from everyone else in the world. That's our first stop on our roadmap this morning. Jesus' original disciples were set apart from the world and as has been noted, this is what we also have to keep in mind what Jesus says later on. I am not asking on behalf of these alone, the original 11 alone, but also for those who believe in me through their word. Who is that? Us, by expansion over the past 2,000 years, that comes to us. We believed through somebody else telling us about Jesus. They believed from somebody else telling them about Jesus and you can trace it all the way back to the original 11. So everyone who is included in verse 20 here, everyone who would come to put their trust in Jesus for their salvation from these original 11's preaching across the past 2,000 years and across the world leading up to and including us. So in other words, everything that Jesus references about the original 11, even starting in verse 6, can also be applied to us as Jesus' disciples today. Last week we talked about how God chose us to save in order to know him personally. This week we're starting to talk about how God choosing us equals. You can't have one without the other, that God choosing us to save equals separation from the world. You can't have one without the other. If you want God to choose you for salvation, God has also chosen you to be separated from the world. You cannot have the joy of being chosen and saved by God from your sin and unto eternal life and want and do be fully immersed in and have everything the world desires and pushes, including the way they see and process things. You can't have it both ways. We have been chosen out of this world. We shouldn't look like the world in any way. The world weirds been thrown around a lot these days. We should look like the biggest weirdos to everyone else who is fully immersed in this world. That's the way it should be. We should look like giant weirdos to everyone else who is fully immersed in this world. That's the first stop. The establishment of the truth that all of Jesus' disciples, both then and now, have been chosen by God the Father, not only to be saved from our sin, but to be set apart from this world. That's the first stop. The first stop, if you think about it, is the who of this passage. The who of this passage. Those set apart from the world are one and the same as those God has chosen to give to Jesus, to give His salvation and eternal life to. Those disciples of Jesus then and we as Jesus' disciples now. That's the first stop, is the who. The second stop, the next stop, is the where of this passage. Probably the simplest to see and understand out of all of these stops. We find the where by skipping ahead to verse 11, which we'll come back to later on, first part of verse 11. I am no longer in the world and yet they themselves are in the world. So what's the where rest stop here? The world, right? That's what we're talking about. The who is us or separated from the where, the world that we continue to live in. Jesus says that He was leaving the world when He ascended back to the Father, but the disciples and us today are still in this world. The where is the broken, fallen, sin-filled world. Jesus' disciples then and now are still in to carry out Jesus' message as has been pointed out, but are to remain set apart from. We have the who, the where, the next stop is what sets us apart from the world. This is the second part or the third part of verse six through verse eight. 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 have given to them and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you and they believed that you sent me. What word stands out above the rest in these verses? Well, I gave you a big hint. The word, word. Jesus says at the end of verse six that his particular disciples at that point have kept God the Father's word. What's that mean? That's what Jesus delves into next in verses seven through eight. Throughout the gospel of John, we've seen that Jesus has declared that he was sent by the Father, that he and the Father are one, and that to see Jesus means you've seen the Father. He's also revealed that he would die and be resurrected and be given authority over the destination of human souls according to what the Father had already predetermined in his will. And he's also revealed that that death would be in payment for sin on our behalf. What are some of these specific words Jesus has already said about these truths which we've already covered extensively in the past? The basis of everything Jesus said was I and the Father are one. Jesus' Jewish audience realized his declaration of deity so much so that they immediately that immediately following that the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. They fully understood what he was saying that Jesus was making the declaration that he is God. Anybody who tells you that Jesus never claims he's God and the Bible has never read their Bible or has never dug into their Bible. Next up in John 824 Jesus said therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am, there is another reference you will die in your sins. Jesus stated here that all of us stand condemned to hell for our sin by default. You will die in your sins is what Jesus flat out says for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. That's what the default is. We don't automatically get into heaven or automatically headed for hell and the only way to be rescued from that is believing in Jesus as I am. It's only by recognizing Jesus as I am or the name God used for himself to Moses back in Exodus and other words by first recognizing Jesus as God that we will be rescued from that destination. John 522 through 24 for not even the Father judges anyone but he has given all judgment to the Son so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly truly I say to you the one who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life. We're all automatically in death but when we believe Jesus' word and that God sent him we pass out of that death into life. I can do nothing on my own as I hear I judge and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of him who sent me. Jesus is God the Son states that he was sent by God the Father and has the same authority and honor as the Father judging those who don't believe in him according to God the Father's will. What God the Father had already determined and giving eternal life to those who do according to that same Father's will. John 6 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever and the bread which I also give for the life of the world is also my flesh. So Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in yourselves the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Again when we covered this Jesus flat out said that he was using this in spiritual language as an illustration to talk about identifying with his death. We also identify with his death by observing communion regularly as we will this morning. Here we have Jesus' point blank declaration that we cannot have eternal life in and of ourselves or by anything we can do but the only way to be given it is to identify with Jesus' death represented by the flesh and blood that he is giving in sacrifice. You notice that the first section here he says I will give for the life of the world. There's the sacrifice aspect there to give life to those in the world but in these verses we also find that Jesus won't stay dead because he can't raise people up on the last day here if he's still dead if he remains dead but if we put our trust in Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection on our behalf then we can be given the full assurance that Jesus himself will raise us up in resurrection when he comes back for us. So what do we have in Jesus' words he's already said that he's referencing in this morning's passage one that he's God and one with the Father two we all stand condemned to hell already for our sin that's what we automatically are defaulted to and there's nothing we in and of ourselves can do about it three in order to be rescued from that eternal destination we must recognize and surrender ourselves to the truth that Jesus is God and as such that he died as a perfect and sinless sacrifice for our sin on our behalf to pay for our sin that he rose again from the dead in order to raise us up when he comes back for us for as God he is to be honored as having the same authority as King over the rest of the way we live the rest of our days in service to him. We find all of that in the words Jesus already said. Now we just scratched the surface here of all that Jesus was recorded as saying but it's all of these statements of truth that we just read that Jesus means in verse eight of this morning's passage by the words which you gave me I have given to them and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you and they believed that you sent me they put their faith in the words Jesus had already told them as such the eternal life that is the access to personally knowing God and the everything of life in every way that goes along with that as Jesus references in verse seven is granted to Jesus to give to them. That comes back to what sets Jesus's disciples both then and now apart from the world. What is the belief in Jesus wholly hinged upon? Lived experiences? No, not at all. Belief in His words, belief in His word, which as Jesus says time and time again are only the words the Father gave Him to say. As has been pointed out, salvation is found in belief in the stated word of Jesus' gospel. The Apostle Paul flushes this out a little bit more when he wrote. How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? So faith comes from hearing and hearing by what? The word of Christ. Faith in Jesus starts with trusting His word. The revelation of the foundation of the gospel message of salvation. True faith starts with trusting Jesus' words found in the word and that faith is grown and developed through the reading and digging into that same word through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and the application of it to our lives. And like we talked about last week, we get to know God personally more and more each day through His revelation of Himself in His word. Do you see what sets us apart? The what on the road map? The what that sets us apart? Or rather what must set us apart from everyone else in the world? What must set us apart from everyone else in the world is a confidence in God's word as the absolute truth. As John 1 and John 14 declare, first unto salvation and then growing in that faith. A confidence in God's word as the absolute truth. We'll build more on that next week. So our first stop was the who. That is who is set apart from the world. Our second stop was the where location of the fallen world we still live in. Our third stop was the what that sets us apart from the world or the word of God. Our fourth stop is the how we are set apart from the world. Verse 9. I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world but of those whom you have given me for they are yours. Firstly again, there's an undeniably clear distinction between those who God has chosen for salvation and surrendered to Jesus in His word and those who are blind to it. And as we've made reference to over and over again lately who as the apostle Paul notes in 2 Corinthians really obey and follow the lowercase g God of this world. Those who have been given to Jesus are really God the fathers to begin with. They are yours. You have given them to me. Chosen by Him and predetermined in His will as Jesus says at the end of verse 9. Those who are of the world blind to the truth and obeying the lowercase g God of this world are really Satan have no part in these promises of Jesus. No part. None of these things Jesus is interceding to the Father for are for those who are of the world. There is no oh I'm a religious person that's good enough or God knows my heart. I'm good or I'm generally a good person. I'm good. No you're not. No you absolutely are not. If you have not surrendered in repentance of your sin to Jesus as both Savior and King you are on the outside. And what is on the outside? The outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's what's on the outside. You have no assurances or promises of protection, of provision, of being a child of God or anything Jesus is interceding for on behalf of His followers in these verses as Jesus references in verse 9. But for those who have surrendered to Him and His salvation and His kingship verses 10 through 12 and all these 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 won even as we are. While I was with them I was keeping them in your name which you have given me and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition so that the scripture would be fulfilled. Our next stop that has to do with how we are set apart as noted by one biblical scholar is the protection by Almighty God towards those who have been chosen to follow Jesus. That's the how we are set apart is the protection by Almighty God towards those who have been chosen to follow Jesus. Jesus references this with Holy Father keep them in your name. In verse 11 and I guarded them in verse 12. Now this is not promising protection from danger, persecution, imprisonment, torture, loss or death or what? God has woefully failed on that promise hasn't he? No Jesus actually promised the opposite that we would endure danger, persecution, imprisonment, torture, loss or death for following him. Jesus already blank revealed this to his disciples and to us back in John 15. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before I hated you. If you are loved by everyone in the world, that is a huge red flag. If you are hated because of your faith in the biblical Jesus, that is a huge good flag. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. If you are just readily accepted by the world and your views about certain things are readily accepted by the world and your theology is readily accepted by the world, guess who you are a part of and not set apart from the world. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this the world hates you. Don't be caught off guard by that. Don't be surprised by that. Remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, which they did, they will persecute you as well. If they followed my word, they will follow yours also. But all these things, the torture, the imprisonment, the death, the loss, they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me. Crystal Clear, isn't it? Jesus promises that the world will hate us because it hates him first. And the same arrest, mockery, humiliation, torture and death that happened to him will come upon his followers. Our brothers and sisters all around the world have known this all too well for thousands of years. We've been blessed here in the United States of not facing the full brunt of this yet. Our brothers and sisters do not be surprised if and when we are called to. We should not be surprised because Jesus already promised that we would have to face this. So if the protection that Jesus prays for in verses 10 through 12 is not physical protection from persecution, what is it? It's spiritual protection. In other words, the preservation of our souls in faith. David spoke of this exact same truth in his famous psalm. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of his name. Throughout the rest of the New Testament and other words, Jesus is praying that God the Father would sustain, guide, convict, teach and empower those he had predetermined to be saved to live lives in accordance with that salvation and sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Jesus praised this request, not for our glory and honor, but that the Father would accomplish this for his name and character and glory and honor. We'll come back to that in a second. That protection is accomplished through the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Again, given by God for his name's sake. In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of the promise. Notice it's past tense, who is a first installment of our inheritance, a down payment in regard to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory. Again, for the sake of his name. Through this same Holy Spirit, God will sustain us in his faith, preserving our soul for his kingdom until the day of our, the last day of our earthly breath. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. The how of how those who are chosen by God to follow Jesus are set apart from the world is his indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That's the one thing that sets us apart from everybody else in the world is that we have been indwelled by the Holy Spirit to seal us for the kingdom, to sustain us, to protect our souls through every trial in this life, preserving our salvation and still seeing us blameless because of Jesus' justification of us until the very end, reminding us of who we are as God's children that he will take care of our needs. He does all of this not to bring us glory, but for his name's sake to the praise of his glory. He does all this not to bring us glory, but for his name's sake and that is why it will never fail. Let that not be lost on us nor let that ever be taken for granted. In the immediate context of this morning's passage, the son of perdition is a clear reference to Judas Iscariot who was no longer with them at that point as they were walking through Jerusalem and Jesus is praying this prayer. Judas Iscariot would perish as has been noted in every sense both in that life and suffer the second death of eternal torment because he was never one of Jesus' sheep to begin with. The prophetic scripture Jesus speaks of at the end of verse 12 that was fulfilled as we've referenced in the past is Psalm 41-9 where David speaks of a friend who shared bread with him stabbing him in the back in betrayal unto death. Now we've hit the stops on the road map of the who, where, what, and how Jesus' disciples, including us today are set apart from the world. So what do we have left? The? Okay. Thank you. The why we're set apart from the world. And that's our last stop on the road map of today's passage. We all recovered the who, the where, the what, and how, and now we're covering the why we're set apart from the world. This why stop is going to spill over a lot into next week's passage and message. So we're just going to introduce this this morning and then build upon it then. As pointed out by one biblical scholar, we get the why of us being set apart from the world and a few different, but all connected places. The first is found in verse 10. All things that are mine are yours and yours are mine and I have been glorified in them, in the disciples. Again, building on the foundation set up last week, all of the things of God, the sons, are God the fathers and vice versa. These things have been given to Jesus' followers in the eternal life he gives them. And because of that, as we read this last part of verse 10, Jesus' followers glorify him. That's the basis of the why. Just as God the son glorifies the father and the father glorifies the son, we as Jesus' followers are set apart by God the father through the sacrifice of God the son to be given eternal life and the personal knowing of him so that we would live to bring glory to him and through him bring glory to the father. You see how it's all connected? Once we see it's pretty obvious. Again, we're not saved from hell and given a relationship with God just to go on living our lives the way we want and pursue our desires and pursue our dreams and what we want to achieve and accomplish in life. We're saved from hell and given a relationship with God in order to glorify him with the rest of our lives. Like we talked about last week, the biblical understanding of glorifying God is to value him for all of who he is. That's the biblical understanding and definition of glorifying, valuing God for all of who he is. How do we do that? Well, Jesus gives that answer as well found at the end of verse 11 that they may be won even as we are. I want to be right off the bat. This is not a call to ecumenism. That is the blind belief that all denominations and so-called sex within Christianity from Roman Catholicism to charismatic Pentecostalism need to just set aside our differences, break down the walls and unite as one. That is not what this is saying. As is pointed out elsewhere, calls for that are really thinly veiled calls that will lead to a one-world religion and worship of the Antichrist. I don't think any of one of us want to be a part of that. I'm a contrary, the statement being won even as we are, as is pointed out by one biblical scholar in the immediate contextual understanding is a call to be won in purpose and mission. That is one in the great commission of the gospel message. That is why understanding the foundation of this prayer, like we extensively dug into last week, is so crucially important. The foundation of this prayer is the relationship between God the Father and God the Son in accomplishing God the Father's will in saving those the Father chose by way of the Son's sacrifice. What is that? That's the gospel. Again, we'll be getting into this more next week. But the underlying why of us as Jesus' followers being set apart from the world is to glorify God through Jesus by living as one for the sharing of the gospel message of the great commission Jesus left for us. It's not all kinds of different directions living as one for the great commission of the gospel message. We've been given the meaning of life already as Jesus' followers and it has nothing to do with what we want in life. It has everything to do with what God wants for us in life as He preserves us for the next life. And that's to be one in living for His glory by sharing His gospel. Those are the who, where, what, how, and why stops of the road map of God setting us as Jesus' followers today apart from this world. All of this can be found in this famous passage of running the race of faith following the stops of this road map all dependent upon God. Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let's rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us. And let's run with endurance the race that is set before us looking only at Jesus. The originator and perfecter of the faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, spising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for these different stops on this road map of the who, where, what, how, and why you set us apart from the world. There's no denying that You have set us apart from the world and I hope we now have a better understanding of what that means, what it means to be set apart from the world. And we'll build on this more next week. But we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that it is our absolute truth, that it is our road map from here to heaven, and that we follow it as we would a road map. Lord, we thank You for first of all providing the salvation that we so desperately need. We're opening our eyes to see the truth of who You are and who we are standing before You, that we need to repent of our sins and that we need to surrender our lives to You as King and Savior. And that means everything and every way. And that the eternal life that is given to us through that is an eternal knowing of You personally and deepening of that relationship with each day. As we look forward to the day when that will be perfectly fulfilled. Lord, You have given us the meaning of life. You have given us our purpose. You have given us our mission already. And I pray that we would fulfill that as one. Take being a part of that great commission, taking Your gospel message to the ends of the earth. And I pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.