Our Lord’s Prayer

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  Our Lord’s Prayer

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  If I haven't met you yet my name is Ronald Laitano. I serve as the director of worship here. If you're new to the church, welcome. If you're not new to the church, you're probably, again, used to seeing me over there with the guitar. Uh, but I have the joy this morning of sharing the word from John 17 as we continue a summer preaching series with The Son. We've been spending time with Jesus, uh, looking at particular passages that each one of the elders and Ronald, like in the Gospels. You'll notice in the bulletin, by the way, that this sermon has two points to it. And much like a kid in a candy store when he's given full rein in access to candy, he doesn't know what to do with himself, so he grabs too much candy. I am guilty of grabbing too much text. Uh, so I have, in fact, a sermon with two points. Uh, but I am going only going to preach a sermon with one point, because you will probably going to be getting hungry in a little bit, just like me. And I want to get you to that lunch soon. So thank the Lord for me this afternoon as you have your lunch, and for me shortening this sermon. But let's go ahead and read the text. John 17. Turn your Bibles to John 17 or turn them on. Uh, we're going to be focusing on, uh, verses one through five. This is the word of the Lord.
  When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to the heavens and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
  Let's pray together. Lord, our prayer is a promise of Jesus in this very passage. He lifted his eyes to the heavens and prayed to you that you would sanctify us through your truth. And so, Lord, we pray that the process of us becoming more like Jesus would take place as your word is proclaimed and as its truth penetrates our hearts and changes our lives. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.
  Well, some context is helpful here to get us started. The gospel tells us that Jesus had an active and vibrant prayer life. But interestingly, this is one of the few and only prayers that are recorded in the New Testament, and the longest one at that. Only the Gospel of John contains this prayer. The other three gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, do not contain this prayer. They do contain the prayer at Gethsemane, but this one is only contained here in John. And I think it's fitting that the Apostle would do this. If you recall John chapter 20, where the apostle gives the purpose of why he wrote this book. He says, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So the Apostle John understands that this prayer is a specific way of us being strengthened in our belief in Christ, and that our experience of life in his name become enlivened as we study His Word. I've entitled the sermon Our Lord's Prayer.
  There's two basic ideas to this prayer this passage from verse one to verse 24. The two ideas are the father's mission and the father's people. And like I said earlier, we're only going to focus on that first part where Jesus prays for the Father's mission. Some timeline of events to help you just kind of find your way around the, um, chronology of where Jesus is, where we are in the gospel narrative. Uh, look at verse one there. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. And just a few hours after Jesus prays, he will be crucified. This prayer takes place on Thursday of Passion Week before the other great prayer at Gethsemane, before the Lord's Supper, before his arrest, before his betrayal, and before the cross. The opening phrase in verse one when Jesus had spoken these things connects this passage, this prayer with everything that preceded it, all the way back to John chapter 13. So from John chapter 13 to John chapter 17, this is one unified collection of teachings of sayings. Theologians have called this Jesus's farewell discourse or the last discourse or something that just this is the last time Jesus gathers with his disciples and he has some kind of exchange with them, telling them the last important things he ought to share. So picture this scene with me. On the night of the crucifixion, Jesus is gathered with the 12 somewhere in an undisclosed location in Jerusalem, celebrating the Passover. On that night, he will wash his disciples feet, reveal the identity of his betrayer, institute the Lord's Supper, promise the Holy Spirit, offer his last words of teaching and guidance, and knowingly and willfully enter the final phase of his earthly mission. What is that mission? It's there in verse four. Jesus says, I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Now, what work is Jesus referring to? Well, the simple answer is the work that leads to eternal life. You've seen the Gospel of John. John the writer emphasizes all throughout the book of John, leading to this prayer. You see this in John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 5:24, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in me, who has sent me has eternal life. John 6:38 for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. John 10,  the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me. But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life. John 12:49 for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that this commandment is eternal life. There's a popular clothing brand, fishermen, people who like life at the beach called Salt Life. It's a clothing brand that emphasizes, characterizes, promotes the idea of hey, life in the water, life in the lake, life and adventure, life getting wet with salty water in the beach. And so they encapsulate their purpose under the banner...Salt Life. If Jesus had a clothing company, he would probably be called eternal life. That's what his life was about. The singular purpose of him coming was to obey the will of the Father, to accomplish and achieve eternal life for those whom he was given. And how did Jesus do this? He did this by sharing the message of eternal life, offering the way to eternal life, paying the price with his life to purchase eternal life, exercising his authority to give that eternal life to those the Father has given to him. And so his life was about eternal life. Take a moment to consider your life. What is your life about? If some kind of marketing company from New York would fly in to our wonderful metropolis of Hickory, and they would pull up to your driveway and knock on your door and say, hey, we want to feature you as a spokesperson to this company and your life, how you define that life, what you stick under the word that is going to be the emblem, the focus, the emphasis of this company. So what is that? What is that thing that defines your life? What would that be? Jesus accomplished a specific mission for his life, the purpose of eternal life. And he gave his life to have that purpose accomplished. Now, there's details to this mission, right? Look back at verse 2. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life. So, how does this work? How does the giving and getting and receiving of eternal life work? Who gives it? Well, Jesus does. Who does Jesus give eternal life to? Well, the passage tells us there...to all whom you, speaking of the Father, have given him. Jesus then defines eternal life in verse three as knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So what's going on here? Do we have to believe in Jesus and God the Father because there are two different beings, or are there two different processes at play? Are there two different puzzle pieces that we have to connect so that eternal life functions? When we get to heaven do we have to have two different forms that we submit there at the pearly gates? One of them says, eternal life from God the Father, and the other one says, eternal life from God the Son. And we have to make sure that those are filled out correctly. And if not, we don't get into heaven. What's going on here? Well, the answer is we don't have to do any of that because we are being reminded here that eternal life is knowing the Father and the Father can only be known through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 says, Jesus said to them, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. In other words, there is one purpose. There's one plan. There's one path...eternal life with the father through Jesus Christ, His Son. The mission of eternal life that Jesus accomplished has a specific path to it. It's a clear, objective, exclusive thing. Eternal life is this and not that. It's one thing and not every thing. There aren't a buffet of different options to achieve, attain or come to eternal life in God. You know, it's like going to Home Depot and my male brain cannot understand, you know, if I go and I ask for off white to be presented, you know, I'm painting my kitchen and I ask for off white and I'm presented with 32 different versions of off white. I don't get that. Like off white is one thing, right? It's not white, it's off white. Eternal life is one thing, not a myriad of things, not an option of things and a variety of things. It's knowing the Father through Jesus Christ, his Son. Notice also how Jesus wields the authority to give eternal life. Again, these details matter and we'll see why. But Jesus is given authority to give eternal life and look how he wields that authority. Still, in verse two he says, you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Notice Jesus's care and concern for God's will, the submission and obedience of Christ to His Father's plan. At no point in the life of Christ, and specifically in this passage, do you see Jesus flaunt his authority...try to make his way be his own way. Look what I can do. I can give eternal life. Zap eternal life. I could just walk around zapping people into eternal life because I'm Jesus. He doesn't do that. At no point is Jesus reckless in his use of authority, of giving eternal life. At no point does he go rogue with the giving of authority. He doesn't even fail to use the authority he's been given. Christ has been given the authority to give eternal life, and Christ willfully obeyed his Father's plan. Jesus models for us perfect, willful, joyful obedience in using what the Father gave him to accomplish the Father's will. And again, what was the Father's will?...to extend the grace of eternal life to those whom God would choose...to those whom the Father would give to Jesus. Not to everyone, but to those whom God would choose, and to those whom the Father would tell Jesus. Warning...we are in the deep end of the theological pool right here. The term for this is called the doctrine of election. And you may be new to HBC, and maybe you've never heard the doctrine of election, or maybe you've had and been told to stay away from it. Let me tell you something about us. We don't shy here at HBC talking about deep doctrinal issues in the Bible. And I'll tell you why. It's not because we're proud. It's not because we think we're smarter. It's not because we think we're anything. It's because we love God and we love His Word and because we love His Word we want to be faithful to what it says and teach it correctly. At the same time, we recognize two things. We recognize, number one, that our sermons can get long. It may not seem that way, but we do recognize that sometimes our sermons get long. I recognized that this week, and so I'm preaching half of the sermon I prepared. And so talking about everything all the time will just make them a lot longer. And you don't want that. Neither do we. But the second thing we recognize is that questions do remain right? We're in verse two and we're already into a deep, deep theological issue. So let me invite you to reach out. Listen, I'm glad to answer any question you would have about strong, difficult doctrines, about doctrines you maybe have questions about, about doctrines that you maybe struggled with, that you've been confused by or maybe angered by. So let me invite you to send me an email and I'd love nothing but to reply back, set up, you know, coffee or whatever. Just send it to me at Kurtis@hickorybiblechurch.org. That's Kurtis with a k k u r t i s and ask away. I love you, brother. The main point here is in the intimacy of prayer Jesus doesn't protest God's plan, criticize God's plan, sneer with disapproval at God's plan, seek an explanation and justification from God for his plan, modify God's plan or ignore God's plan. He is satisfied in using what God has given him authority...to do what the father has called him to do. Bring eternal life to his people. Jesus glorifies the Father by surrendering his will to the will of his Heavenly Father, and complete the mission he was sent to complete.
  So two application points with a series of questions. Application number one...examine your prayers. John 17 has been called the High Priestly Prayer. John 17 is not a teaching per se. He's not talking to his disciples. He's talking to God. Now his disciples are listening, which I find there so wonderfully beautiful. But Jesus is now pouring his heart out to the Father in prayer. You will never know how you're doing before the Lord if you don't go before the Lord in prayer. And I'll remind you, Jesus is well aware that the path to glorifying the Father is through the horror of the cross. He is well aware of the death He is going to die. He is well aware of the pain he will endure. He is aware of the mocking, the beating, the humiliation. The spiritual onslaught He's going to receive when the wrath of God is poured on him and his instinct, his default, the comfort zone that he goes to... The only place a person who is going to be crucified for the sins of humanity can go and find strength, joy and peace is to the Father in prayer. So how is your prayer life? What do you turn to when life gets real? In a really basic sense are you praying? Are you enjoying the access you have to the Heavenly Father to come to him and to be with him? If you are praying, what do your prayers sound like? Do they sound like Jesus? There's something unique about this prayer. This prayer is intensely relational. Six times in this chapter, Jesus calls God the Father, the Father, the Father, Father, Father, Father. It's not because there's some magic formula, some kind of mystic thing that happens. He's not summoning God in some weird spiritual way. This is faith. It's intimacy. It's affection. It's, a nearness. Jesus is enjoying the time he has with the Father. Whatever is communicated in prayer, whatever words are exchanged, whatever needs are expressed, whatever provision is received, prayer is first and foremost a conversation between the one true God and the people he calls his own. Another way of saying this is that prayer is the children of God speaking to their heavenly Father.
  This prayer is also directional. Notice that Jesus looks up to the heavens and prays. Jesus is not praying internally. He's praying externally. He's praying to God. Jesus knows where he is and he knows where God the Father is. There's an awareness of not what matters in prayer to Jesus, but who matters in prayer to Jesus. I want to encourage you, Christians, to be careful that this is what unhelpful prayer sounds like. This is an example of how not to pray in the direction of God. A Christian should never give thanks. I'll say it again in case you think I stumbled. A Christian should never give thanks. A Christian should give thanks to God. What does giving thanks mean? You know the next big holiday coming up, I guess, is Thanksgiving. And you're going to gather around the table and eat, and you're going to be thankful. What does that mean? If Thanksgiving is not attached to the giver of things that we give thanks for? So that's an example of a prayer that, as a believer, makes no sense to be generically, you know, etherially, spiritually thankful. We give thanks to God. You're not speaking into the air or the universe. You are speaking to God. And God's people know their place and they know their God. Simply put, prayer has two parts to it, right? What you're praying for and who you're praying with. And remembering who you are praying with will greatly influence how we ask what we are praying for. So application one was examine your prayers.
  Application two is examine your life. Just from these two verses, we can see some pretty clear things about Jesus and how he valued his life and how he saw his life, and how he moved the events of his life to do one great thing. The Father's mission of giving eternal life that was the focus of Jesus's life. Consider how he spent his time. Jesus spent his time as a young man, learning about God, learning about the Word, growing up in faith and stature. And when he became a man, he spent his time teaching about God, preaching about God, praying about the kingdom of God, leading others into the kingdom of God. Consider how Jesus used his power. The miracles Jesus performed were never ends to themselves. The purpose of the miracles the Bible tells us where signs. And I don't know about you, but signs aren't meant to stop you. They're meant to lead you. You're not supposed to come up to a sign and look at it and say, well, there's a sign. You supposed to go where the sign tells you to go. You're supposed to follow the signs direction to where the sign is leading you to. Consider who Jesus surrounded himself with. The last three years of his life, Jesus devoted himself to a small group of people and made everything about his life, their life as it pertained to eternal life and the Kingdom of God. So questions for you. Consider your life. What are you committed to? Now don't answer that question. What do I think I'm committed to? What are you committed to? I'll give you a real practical way to figure out what you're committed to. Look at your calendar this week. What are you doing? This and the next week. How are you spending your time? How are you spending your resources? How are you using your gifts? Do you notice how Jesus employs...He uses something the Father gives him. The Father gives him authority, and Jesus is found faithful in using that authority for the purposes of God. What I'm trying to point out here is the fact that he used something God gave him. Are you using what God's given you? And then lastly, who are you surrounding yourself with? You answer those questions and you're going to find what your commitment is to. So the details of the mission lead to the accomplishment of the mission. Right? The mission of Jesus is the procurement, the achievement, the offering of eternal life. But what is it actually like? What is eternal life? Fortunately for me, I don't have to come up with a definition. Fortunately for us, we are blessed that God Himself has defined eternal life. And you see it there in verse three, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus.  If I were to give you a survey and asked maybe someone again, another marketing agency. I've been getting a lot of phone calls, y'all. So just marketing people are just in my mind I've got these text messages, hey, would you vote for this? Would you vote for that? So just freshly aware of how annoying marketing can be. So I wanted to share my annoyance with you, in other words. But, if some kind of marketing company, a surveying company were to ask you. Hey, um, how would you define eternal life. If you could flesh out the constituent components of eternal life? Like, what is it like? What are the ingredients in eternal life? What is eternal life made out of? What does it have? What do you what do you see that you would say? Oh yeah, that's eternal life, because of this, because of that and because of that. How would you fill that out, that blank space in that question? Would you possibly relate it to freedom? Would you say, you know, eternal life is being free from bondage of sin, being free from the effect of sin and sickness and stress and suffering and sorrow. Being free from the punishment of hell, that that's eternal life. Or maybe you would relate it to salvation. Maybe in your mind, as you think of eternal life, eternal life is the same thing as being saved, being rescued from the wrath of God, being rescued from hell. Well, to be sure, eternal life brings us both the promise of freedom from the effects of sin and rescues us from the impending judgment. But here Jesus is being very specific. He's talking to people like me...very simple minded people. What is eternal life, Jesus? You, the author of life, the giver of life. What is this thing that you offer called eternal life? He says it's knowing God and knowing me. Now, I hope you see what's implied here. By Jesus defining life in this way He forces all of us in this room to rethink our definition of what it means to be truly alive. Because anything short of eternal life is not being truly alive. That's being alive, in one sense, it's being alive in a momentary sense, in a temporal sense, as being alive for a period of time, but then not being alive. There's nothing like having eternal life. So eternal life is true life. That's what it means to be alive. The Bible here looks at our humanity and says, there's a type of life that you can have, but outside of Christ right now, you don't. And the word the Bible uses to describe what you have is not a different life. It's not a lesser life. It's not a limited life. It's not an okay life. It's not an on the way to eternal life. The word the scriptures use to describe what we have outside of eternal life. The other category that exists in the mind of God as He looks at humanity and says they have either eternal life or they have...death. You are either alive in Christ or you are dead. You have no life. I'll remind you how the story of the Bible begins with the life giver himself giving life to humanity and warning them about what happens when life is lived outside of God's gracious will. Genesis 2:15 says, the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of the tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Here's an odd question for you. What if this were a movie and the screen went black? What sound do you expect to hear right after God says that? That moment where Adam and Eve bite in the fruit and they die. Screen goes blank, but there's a sound effect. What do you expect to hear? A thud. Boom! Boom! Is that what happens? No. They remain alive, but a death has occurred. There is a spiritual death. That's right. Something has happened. Something has been removed from man. What they have is, in a sense, life. But they don't have eternal life. They were death walkers in some sense. In one sense, I think the whole narrative of zombies is just, you know, a funny thing. But the idea of a zombie is what happened to Adam and Eve. The idea of a zombie is what happens to all humankind when they don't have the eternal life that God has offered to them. In one sense, we are all alive, right? In one sense, you came to church this morning. You woke up, you brushed your teeth, you had breakfast. You may or may not be falling asleep as I preach, but you're alive. You're here. Right? Like you exist. It's like. Ronald, I don't know this thing about being dead, man. i'm looking at you right now. Right. In one sense, you are alive. 4th of July on Thursday, right?...maybe you went to a barbecue, went to a party, saw some fireworks. Maybe you just got back from vacation. Maybe you're going to vacation. Not only do you have life, but you enjoy it, right? You have recreation. There's entertainment. There's things that fill the joy component of your heart. You have life. And my life is actually pretty good. You have responsibilities in this life of yours, right? You have a job. You have family. You have friends. Maybe you're on break from college. Maybe you just graduated from college. Maybe you're going to college. So your life is full of stuff that you could come up to God with a big old, you know, 12 inch folder of stuff and say, I've got life God, I don't know what you're talking about. But the Bible looks at humanity and looks at all the busyness of our lives and says, you are dead. You do not have life without the life that Jesus has to give, there is no other option. You are already dead. You could say to me, Ronald, but I'm a really busy person, man. Well, dead people can be really busy. We can fill our times with things that lead us away from eternal life, and certainly don't denote that we have. We actually read this earlier in A call to worship, right? Ephesians two. This is the language of Paul. He says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but listen how deadness is described. This is interesting. He says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, among all whom we also lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. There's some action language here, right? There's doing stuff. There's active verbs, dead life has components that would confuse you and convince you that you're actually alive, but you're not. The Bible calls us dead, but describes our deadness as walking, following, living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of our bodies that lead away from the eternal life that Jesus is offering. We are dead to God. That's his indictment, not mine. We are dead to eternal life. And so we do what dead people do. We pursue things that lead to more death. Now, this is intensely practical for the life of the believer. Next time you're tempted. Next time you are engaging in real life where your flesh, the world and the devil are beckoning you to live according to its passions, to carry out the desires of your body and mind. Don't think of temptation just as doing something wrong. Giving into temptation is not just doing something wrong. Giving into temptation is eating death. You are walking towards death. You are gobbling up death. It's no less than that. It's just as bad as that. If that makes your heart recoil, that's what it is. Simply put, unless you know God, you do not have life. Two applications from this. Friend, if you don't know Christ, if you are here as a guest, maybe a friend of yours brought you here, this is your first Sunday. Maybe you've been coming to the church for a few Sundays this summer, come to Christ, repent of your sins. Believe in him. Give Christ your life. I have yet to meet a person on this planet. I've yet to have a conversation with somebody who would look at their life and say, yeah, I'm good. I got everything I want. Every category of my life is just as good as it could be, you know. Financially, yeah, I've I've made it. Relationally, yeah, every one of my relationships. Physically, you know, I was the one person in the world that started that fitness plan at the beginning of the year, ten years ago, and I've kept it up. So, you know. No, again, if I were to look at your calendar, if I were to look at your life, if I were to ask you specific questions about what you do, all of us, all of us are looking for upgrades right?...in our home and our finances and our relationships. All of us want something better than we have. We move to get new jobs. We go from place A because place B is better. We move around from relationships because this one doesn't give me what I want it to give me. So we go to another one in hopes that it that that one does. We're constantly wanting upgrades to our lives. Friend, Jesus offers you the ultimate upgrade, but it's more than just an upgrade. Jesus did not come to make bad people better. Jesus came to make dead people live. Amen. And that's the invitation for you. Turn to Christ, believe in him. Receive the eternal life that he would offer through faith in His Son.
  Now, for believers, the application for you is this. Enjoy the eternal life that you have. Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God. Now for the small number of you that like to do smart things like read...this if knowing God is just about reading about him, just about using your mind to kind of gravitate into higher levels of consciousness, that maybe you're staying up and applauding. Now, knowing God, we know God through His Word. God has revealed perfectly through His Son, but he's given us a book to know about him. But there's more to this knowing God than just knowing the Bible, knowing his commandments. We have to do that, and we delight in doing that. But I remind you again, this is a prayer. In this moment of prayer, Jesus not only defines eternal life, but shows us the out-workings of a man who has eternal life. The Bible describes knowing God as something that satisfies, that fulfills. That's exciting, that's delightful, that's delicious. That gives pleasure. You don't believe me? Well, some verses your way. Psalm 16:11. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 36. How precious is your steadfast love, O God, the children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you will give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life. Oh, Ronald, but that's the Old Testament. They said weird things in the Old Testament. Well, okay, take it from Jesus himself. John 4:14. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. John 6:35 Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. John 15:8, by this my Father was glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. And Jesus models for that himself in John 17, just a few verses later, verse 13, but now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves....Joy. Pleasure. Delight. Fulfillment. Satisfaction. The Christian life is not boring. The Christian life is not burdensome. Eternal life is glorious and rich and satisfying. Here is Jesus, the Son of God defining life. No one is wiser. No one is holier. No one is more powerful. No one is more knowledgeable about life, about how life is and ought to be. He is the author of life, the giver of life, the sustainer of life, the preserver of life, the one and only one authorized to give eternal life. And this man defines eternal life in this way...to know God and to know him, his Son. Friends, eternal life is not the absence of what makes our everyday lives difficult. Eternal life is knowing God and being known by him. Every now and then you read something that just can't be improved. Worship team is probably sick of me using this passage. I'm going to read to you guys, but our elder brother in the faith, J.I. Packer, wrote a fantastic book called Knowing God, and in a section where he talks about the glory of knowing God, he talks about another great glory, of being known by God. Listen to this.
  He says, "What matters supremely, therefore, is not the fact that I know God, But the larger fact which underlies it, the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as friend one who loves me, and there is no moment when his eye is off me or his attention distracted from me, and no moment therefore when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort, the sort of comfort that energizes in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me in the way that I am so often disillusioned about myself and quench his determination to bless me. There is certainly great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see, and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself. There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. Brothers and sisters. That is what knowing God is. The satisfaction of the human soul in the presence of God being welcomed by him fully and completely. Some application questions your way and will be done. Until you know Him, believer as the all satisfying, all pleasing, all encompassing reality of your life? How do you know God? How do you know him? Do you know him through religion? Do you know him through ritual? Do you know him through rules? Do you know God relationally? Can you call God Father? Do you know God as a theory? As a doctrine, as something to be studied, as a boss, as a religious deity in the sky, or some detached spirit you have to obey? Or do you find pleasure and delight and fulfillment and joy in knowing him? This is how Jesus knew the Father, and this is how Jesus experienced fellowship with the Father. And this is what Jesus prays for us, that our experience of the Father, of that love, of that bond, of that acceptance, of that forgiveness, would be like the one he has with his Father.
  In just a few moments, Pastor Kurtis will come up and lead us in our time of communion. But let's pray now and prepare our hearts.
  Father, what greater thing can we ask you for in our lives that you would make it so to help us in the endeavor of knowing you more? Lord, reveal yourself to us through your Word. Remove, Father the obstacles that we place our sin, our sloth, our lack of discipline, Father...our weakness. The things that steal our experience of knowing you more and more. Father, we pray that what Jesus prayed Father would come true, that we would experience it more and more, Father, as we commune with you in prayer. Lord, as we learn and know you in your word, Father. And even now, as we remember your sacrifice on the cross as we take communion, Lord, be glorified, Father, be exalted. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.