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Apr 28, 2024

What Jesus Wants For Us, Part 3

What Jesus Wants For Us, Part 3

Passage: John 17:20-26

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Practice the Presence - Prayer

Keywords: love, righteous, glory, one, sent

We’ve taken a little side-trail in thinking about prayer to ask what Jesus has prayed for us. And what he has prayed for us is by definition what he wants for us. Implicit in what he wants for us is what he wants us to want. Not simply do or perform or comply, but to want. What does He want us to want?

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Psalm 37:1-4

LEADER: Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!

ALL: For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.

LEADER: Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

ALL: Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/CREEDAL STATEMENT/SCRIPTURE READING: The Apostles’ Creed and/or Acts 2:42-47;

LEADER: What do you believe?

ALL: I believe in God the Father Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into Hell
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From then he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. Amen.

CENTRAL TEXT: John 17:20-26

John 17:20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

CONFESSION OF SIN:
LEADER: Let us confess our sin to God.

ALL: Our desires, it’s been said, are not too strong, but too weak. Though You are most to be desired, we are half-hearted creatures, and are far too easily pleased. We need not just your forgiveness for actions led astray by disordered desires; we need new hearts. A heart to love one another as you have loved us. A heart that longs to see you face to face, and until then longs to grow into your likeness. Pardon us for what is less than You living too loudly in us.

ABSOLUTION OF PARDON: 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15
LEADER: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

BENEDICTION: 1 John 2:28, 3:2,3
LEADER: And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. . . . Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • John 14:2-3
  • John 14:23
  • John 15:12-17
  • Acts 2:42-47

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What is your earliest memory of something you wanted intensely? What was it? Why that? Step back a bit and consider that desire: was there any part of your desire for it that may have stemmed from the fact that others might want it, too?
  2. Refresh your memory from the passage and sermon: what does Jesus want for all those who might end up following Him? (which becomes the basis of His prayers for them) Why do you think He wants those things for us?
  3. What are several ways we can be for one another as you think Jesus might intend by His desire we be one with one another?
  4. Why would an anticipation to see Jesus in His full glory motivate us to become more like He is and to imitate His way?
  5. The Holy Spirit so exalts Jesus to us, so endears Jesus to us, that we then long to imitate what He both does and desires. That is the Spirit’s primary way of working the life of Jesus into us. Discuss (or disagree!)

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

 

 

QUOTES:

  • There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.

    We do not want merely to see beauty--we want to be united with the beauty, to pass into it, to become part of it. C.S. Lewis
  • SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

    FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

    SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
  • One love, one blood
    One life, you got to do what you should
    One life with each other
    Sisters, brothers
    One life but we're not the same
    We get to carry each other, carry each other
    One
    One, “One,” U2

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