All In, All Flame | Jesus' Prayer - Pastor Rusty Nelson

Welcome to the Fox Family Sermon of the Week.

For more information about our church, please visit the FoxFamily.

Now join us for a message from Pastor Rusty Nelson.

Let me have your Bibles.

Come on, let's dig it.

Let's just get started, can we?

If I don't, I'm gonna get in trouble.

Say this with me.

I am what his word says I am.

I can do what his word says I can do.

I can be what his word says I can be.

And today, I will hear his word, I'll receive his word, and I will obey his word because I love his word.

I want to prepare you today.

I will not finish this message.

And I don't know when I can do a part two, so you're gonna have to do all the notes that are, if you'll tap, you'll find the notes.

Because I want to take you through today.

This is something that, as I was praying over this service, I said, Lord, I need I need something that you've been really breathing in me.

You know, you always want that in a message.

Sometimes when you're in a series and you've been in an incredible series, all flame, this actually can go into that series.

But I want to deposit something into your life that is called the prayer of Jesus.

It's actually the high priestly prayer of Jesus.

And over the next three hours, I'm gonna take you through John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

Reese, you and Shana, I love you.

So proud of you.

I want to take you through John 17, where Jesus, in his ministry on earth, he taught on prayer approximately 30 times.

Fourteen of those times, he illustrated it by praying it publicly.

You really know someone if you get to observe their prayer life.

I'm not talking about just a public prayer that someone is sanctioning a moment or praying over a meal.

No, if you get to listen in to a passionate exchange.

Prayer is an exchange.

It's not just us talking to God.

Prayer is communication.

It's us speaking to the Lord.

It's sometimes us being silent to the Lord because prayer has a silence that many people are afraid of.

Prayer doesn't always vocalize itself with a language.

There's a language of the heart that is expressed even with groans, with sighs.

We know not how to pray as we ought, but we we pray by the Holy Spirit, but there are also groanings inside of us, longings inside of us.

Wordless prayers that reflect the passion of where we are.

But I'm so thankful that God gave us a language because he was the word.

He was the word made flesh and dwelt among us so that we could behold him in his glory.

The glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

So I want to talk to you about the heartbeat of Jesus today.

This high priest prayer.

I want you to, my prayer is that you will hear the burning in his heart.

You know, it says in Hebrews 9, before we get to 17, it says Hebrews 9 that, but Christ came as a high as high priest of the good things to come.

Not with the blood of goats or calves, but he came with his own blood.

He entered into the most holy place once and for all.

It actually says again in Hebrews 4 that seeing that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, it is Jesus the Son of God.

It says in Hebrews 7, therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost.

You say, What's the uttermost?

That means wherever you find yourself, you may think you are utterly unable to know him.

He comes to the uttermost.

And he saves those who come to God through him.

Since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Always.

It says in Romans that it is Christ who died.

Furthermore, it is he who is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

What does the high priest pray for?

You know, the high priest represented the people to God.

And he would come out of that place to represent God to the people.

So Jesus is our high priest.

He fulfilled on Yom Kippur.

He was the one who would go into the mercy seat.

It was his own blood he placed on the mercy seat once and for all.

No, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

But what does he pray for?

What does it sound like?

Not only is he forever praying, making intercession.

Hear me today, man.

Jesus is praying for you.

He's calling your name to the Father.

You say, how does he do that?

He's God.

He's everywhere at all places at all times.

You are actually engraved on the palm of his hand.

You're on his heart today.

But what does it sound like?

In 17, this is that priestly prayer.

It is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.

Because if you want to know someone's heart, listen to them pray.

Prayer is the outlet of our heart.

And on the threshold of the cross.

Here is the night he will be betrayed.

He will be arrested.

Suffering.

Crucifixion is just hours away.

Jesus prays.

It's before the crossroads of the Garden of Gethsemane.

He's not walked into the garden yet to face the crossroads of the will, where he says, Father, not my will, but yours.

If it's your will, please let this cut pass for me.

He's dealing with what is going to happen just hours ahead.

But that's not what he's praying here.

Things that burn in the heart of Jesus.

First of all, understand he came to seek and to save that which was lost.

His heart is for the world.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

Part of the heartbeat of God is souls, souls, souls, souls, souls.

He loves the world.

You can put your name in that.

But what was on his mind, this last dialogue that he's having, that from it's it's it's it's it's here's the Olivet discourse, which happened maybe the day before.

It's Matthew 24, 25, 26.

It's this, it's this Jesus getting them ready for what is coming.

But when you get to John 14, 15, and 16, here is the upper room discourse.

And and somewhere between chapter 14 of John and chapter 15, he leaves the upper room.

He's now walking toward the Kidron Valley, and he's going to ultimately cross over into the Garden of Gethsemane.

But just on the other side of the Kidron Valley, he stops.

And he's not praying for the world.

I know, I agree.

That's my granddaughter.

Is that my granddaughter?

Was that you, Lisa?

I'm sorry, that was oh okay.

That was Alex.

I'm sorry.

I please forgive me.

I that's how my brain works, so I can't help that.

I've tried.

Lisa has tried.

But let's watch.

He looks, he prays for himself.

And the first word he says, Father, glorify your son.

That your son can glorify you.

The word glory is that weighty recognition of God.

You put kabod and you put doxa together, and it is it's the weightiness of the Old Testament, and it's the recognition of God in the new.

And he says, Father, be seen in what I'm about to do.

I want you to be seen in me so I can be known in you.

He prays for himself.

But then he prays for his disciples.

When he prays for his disciples, he turns and shifts the narrative a little bit because he's not only praying for his disciples, he's praying for us.

It's for the ones who would believe.

The Bible says in verse 20, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe me through their word.

Welcome to 2026 that Jesus put a prayer back 2,000 years ago that entered into your life today.

We are in the prayer of Jesus.

Before we were born, Jesus prayed.

Before we faced temptation, Jesus prayed.

Before we walked through suffering, Jesus prayed.

Before we stepped into our assignment, Jesus prayed.

Before the church faced persecution, deception, compromise, division, Jesus prayed.

Before you ever battled something in your mind, Jesus prayed.

There are seven things I want to give you, seven reflections of his heart.

And I'm telling you, I won't, I'll hit all seven.

But there are probably two that I really want to just linger with.

The first thing he prayed was that we would know him.

He said, This is eternal life in verse 3, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

His very first heartbeat in this passage of prayer was, Father, I want them to know you.

I want them to understand eternal life because eternal life is not time without end.

Eternal life is knowing you, and you are the one who consumes time.

Time is all wrapped up in who you are, and when I know you, I fulfill time.

He didn't come merely to give us information about God, he came to bring us into this eternal relationship with the Father.

Eternal life is not merely living forever, it's knowing intimately the Father.

Paul put it this way and said in Philippians, I just want to know him.

And the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable to his death.

I want to be so intimately acquainted with him.

Everything else in John 17 that I want to pour out comes out of a relationship.

Everything begins with knowing him.

A.W.

Tozer says, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

Because what you think about God is what you think about God.

If you think he's a God who hits and misses and is not a God who answers prayer, then you will spend your life with a hit and a miss and not understand that in everything you can give thanks to him.

That there is a walk and an intimacy with him that if he doesn't, if he never blessed me again, I have been blessed a lifetime.

If he never answered another prayer, he has answered a lifetime of prayer.

Because it's based on something that goes deeper than a want inside of me.

It has everything to do is what do you desire of me?

Holy Father, keep them through your name.

The second thing he prays is not only to know him and what eternal life really is, but he says, Father, keep them.

Keep them through your name, those who you have given me.

The word keep actually means to guard or preserve or to watch over.

It's the Hebrew conception of this background, because these are Jews, he's writing to.

Understand everything, even in the Greek, would be filtering through a Jewish mindset.

Everything.

That's why, if we don't understand our Hebraic roots, if we don't understand the roots of our faith, we will never appreciate the covenant we stand in.

We'll never understand that.

And that's why, even at the Council of Nicaea, they tried to start ripping apart.

Constantine started trying to separate some of this stuff that we we wouldn't know who we are because Jesus wasn't just a Jew, he is a Jew.

And so when they're listening even to the Greek language of what the scripture is being written or even spoken at that moment, they are Hebrews who are who are knowing there's a deeper realm of a root system that explains and helps us navigate what Jesus is praying.

It is this word that means to guard, to keep.

And he says, While I was with them, I kept your name, which you have given me.

So he's asking the Father, would you keep them through your name, those you have given me?

The Greek name means name.

Well, that's deep.

But biblically it takes on a deeper meaning.

The name, my dad always raised us and said, Keep a good name.

How do you keep a good name?

You keep your word, you do what you say.

Understand, God's name represents his word.

But it is his word that sustains his name.

God has a good name.

You can claim his name because his name represents a word that he will never allow to return void.

It fulfills what he sends it to do.

Is anybody with me today?

Come on, hold on.

I only have two and a half more hours.

Just hold on.

But the word name, even in the Greek, goes deeper.

Biblically, it means identity, character, authority.

It means reputation, revealed nature, the presence of the person.

When Jesus said in verse 6, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world, the word manifest means I've revealed it, I've made it visible, I've made known, I have disclosed, I have revealed who you are.

He would say in 14, chapter 14, if you've seen me, you've seen my father.

If you've known me, you've known my father.

So out throughout throughout the Old Testament, God places his name on Israel.

He places his name on the tabernacle, on the temple, he places his name on Jerusalem.

But Jesus says that the Father has given his name to the Son.

We're going somewhere.

In numbers, it's pretty incredible.

Because here's the high priest who's not only praying, but he's blessing.

It's where the ironic blessing in numbers, where it says, the Lord bless you and keep you.

So he will, it says at the end, and even when you hear the ironic blessing, there's something that I've always added here for years.

I have blessed you with the ironic blessing.

From day one, I would start before you walked out the door, I would say, The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you shalom, give you peace.

And then I would always add something that many rabbis would not even add.

And the Lord will write his name on you because you belong to him.

See, it's still a part of the blessing.

It is when God puts his signature.

Buddy, if you get a buzz light here, and I used to when I bought one for my kids, I made sure I put their name on the bottom of that shoe so that they wouldn't get it mixed up with something else.

And when you put your signature on something, you're saying, I don't know why I said buzz light.

You're saying that belongs, that belongs to me.

That's my toy.

That's my toy.

I signed it right here.

You know what Jesus is saying?

He's saying, God, I have put my name on them.

I took the name you gave me, and I have written the name.

I've given them the name.

So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.

Here's the language: the name is placed upon the people, and God blesses them, He keeps them, He makes His face shine upon them, and He gives them peace.

He's praying, Father, preserve them within the reality of who you are: your character, your authority, your covenant, your faithfulness, and your revealed presence.

And they're understanding this, even within a Hebraic understanding that Shem or the word name means identity, character, authority, reputation, presence, the revealed nature of the person.

That's why in Proverbs 18 it says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.

And the righteous run into it and are saying, What are you doing?

Running into a name?

No, I'm running.

You can't run into his name without running into him.

And Solomon's saying, Man, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The Lord is the strong tower.

And the righteous run into him and are safe.

That's why one little boy said, What do you do when the devil comes knocking at your door?

He said, I sent Jesus.

And man, sometimes when you go and you open that door and you have no idea, there's someone standing behind you.

There is someone who is for you, who is with you, and who is inside of you.

Name represents his word, his word sustains his name.

The Lord is your keeper, it says in Psalm 121.

Jesus, hear his heart.

Father, preserve them inside the covenant reality of who you are.

The name I have revealed to them, the name you have entrusted to me, the name that carries your character, your authority, your presence, and your covenant faithfulness.

It's the Father.

This is the Father that drew us.

No one can come to the Son except the Father, draw him.

It's the heartbeat of Jesus.

Father, keep them.

He knows what his disciples are about to face.

He knows every temptation.

He knows all the opposition.

He knows every persecution.

He knows every spiritual warfare moment.

He knows the hatred of the world.

But Jesus does not pray that they would be removed from the world.

He prays that they would.

Would be kept from the evil one.

He doesn't pray for isolation, he prays for preservation.

He does not pray for removal from a battle, he prays for faithfulness in the middle of a battle.

We are in this world, but we are not of this world.

The church was never called to escape the darkness.

We were called to shine in the darkness.

And here is what he's praying.

Here's what he didn't pray.

He did not pray.

Hear it again.

Jesus didn't pray.

Father, keep them from trouble.

What he was praying for us is, Father, keep them faithful in the middle of trouble.

You can live in Babylon, but you don't have to let Babylon get inside of you.

Come on, hear me.

And 2,000 years later, empires have risen and fallen.

Governments have tried to destroy the church.

Persecution has tried to silence the gospel.

False teaching has attacked the truth.

Hell has fought against the people of God, but 2,000 years later, the church is still here.

Why?

Because Jesus prayed, Father, keep them.

Keep them.

He not only prayed, keep them, he said, sanctify them.

Transform them.

Make them holy.

Give them a bite in their life.

Give them something that's different.

That the world can stand up and take notice.

They've been with us.

To sanctify means to make holy, to consecrate, to set apart.

This is the third heartbeat of Jesus.

It's to belong completely to God.

He does not merely want a protected church, he wants a transformed church.

Is anybody hearing me?

Sanctification isn't merely separating from something.

We think it's just, I heard a guy the other day said it's just demonic if men have beards.

Go on.

Jesus had a beard.

You're just wanting to be sane if you got a beard.

And I'm like, that's not the holiness he was talking about.

Listen, I believe you gotta, you know, dress modest.

Be modest.

Represent, we gotta represent God in modesty.

All things.

And if a barn needs paint, paint it.

It's alright.

That just went over a lot of people's heads, and I'm very glad that that did.

We've put so many details in holiness that you gotta do this, you gotta do that.

No, he's already done it.

It is about walking in him.

He doesn't merely, he's not talking about just being protected or having some look.

He's talking about being transformed, separated unto someone, set apart to belong to him.

It's the instrument of, and it's this instrument he uses is truth.

His word is truth.

We're not transformed by culture unless we let it.

And truth is what brings freedom.

The word of God does not adjust itself to fit in our lifestyle.

No, the word of God transforms us for a purpose to be like Jesus.

Truth doesn't change because culture changes.

Truth doesn't bend because pressure increases.

Truth does not need to be rewritten because society changes its mind.

Truth is truth, and that is what transforms lives.

Nations, households, families.

Set apart.

Set them apart, Lord.

Father, set them apart for my image.

We're not here to just survive.

We're here to be different.

Just to be different.

We are kept and sanctified, set apart because of the fourth thing I want to give you that he said, send them.

Because we are to be sent.

Sent means mission.

We are to be image bearers.

I've used that term for 20-something years.

We're to be image bearers.

Jesus said in John 17, 18, As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into this world.

Father, send them.

He doesn't pray for a church to hide from the world.

He prays for a church to be sent into the world.

He said, As I was sent, so I'm sending you.

It is the mission, it is an extension of the mission of Jesus.

Doing the will to finish a work.

Doing what pleases him.

To co-labor and to finish a work.

We were sent to reveal the Father, proclaim the kingdom, seek and to save that which was lost.

We were sent to heal the brokenhearted.

We were sent to confront darkness.

We were sent to destroy the works of the devil.

We were sent to be set apart, different, so that we can represent who he is in a broken, desperate world.

Hear me.

We gather into his presence so we can carry his presence.

It isn't to do something that strokes our ego or even to fill our time card.

No, it's about him.

We gather in his presence.

We carry that into our neighborhoods, into our city, into the school, into business, into government, into broken families, into a nation that is desperate for really what truth is.

Into dark places.

The purpose is of being kept is not to make us comfortable.

But it's a purpose.

No.

It's to be Jesus.

To be the life.

And Jesus said, Father, as you sent me, I'm sending them.

How?

An intimate knowledge of you.

That you would keep them on this journey from the devil that would try to destroy them.

Give them discernment.

Give them discernment.

Give them that inner knowing.

This is right.

This is wrong.

Give them discernment as to even the, we're not dumb of the schemes of the enemy.

You know, we don't have to be naive to an attack of the enemy.

We don't have to be naive to strategies the enemy wants to come with to seek to destroy.

He comes to kill, steal, and to destroy.

Listen, there is a strategy that is coming in America right now that is it's called Islamophobic people.

That they want to try to say that just that there is a group of people that's that they're just like everybody else.

Let me tell you something.

There is an agenda that has already taken over Europe, it's already taken over France, it's already taking over, and it is conquering.

And if you think that you can just stick your head in the sand and pretend something to go away.

If you can think like even, listen, I'm not here, it's not a political moment, but what I'm telling you is if you think that Iran, if it did not have a new weapon, if it had a nuclear weapon, it would launch it on America as soon as it had it.

A regime that is demonically influenced, that is saying, according to its Quran, it will do anything to kill, steal, and to destroy so that it can conquer.

We are people who are more than conquerors in Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.

And we better not be dumb to the schemes of the enemy that we would sit idly by and watch freedom that truth produced go by the wayside.

I just thought I'd throw that in there.

You can just have that for whatever you want.

But we are kept and sanctified so we can be sent.

Number five, and I'm I'm not almost done.

But I'm going to number five.

I only have two more after this.

Are y'all getting anything out of this today?

This is just the heart of Jesus.

Hear me.

Make them one.

He said that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I'm in you.

Without him, that's hard to comprehend.

Father, make them one as we are one.

It's one of the most repeated desires in prayer.

He understood that one of the greatest threats to the church would not only be persecution from the outside, it would be division from the inside.

Please, if I don't get past this point, tag in with me for a minute.

You know, the Holy Spirit came to do when Jesus talked about him who was coming just like him in John 14, 15, and 16, and then what happened in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came basically for two major reasons.

To testify of him and to unify us.

To make us one.

On the day of when they were all together in one house in one accord.

That wasn't a Honda.

I don't know why.

In one accord.

They were together.

They were together.

I won't say that again.

They got together.

Come together right now.

Over me.

Here come Lord Jesus.

He comes.

Moving up slowly.

He got eyes of fire.

Holy, holy.

He said, I know you.

And you know me.

If you want to see the Father, then you look straight at me.

Come.

All right, so.

Jimmy Zink, I thought I'd give you that.

Watch what Paul said in Philippians.

He said, if there's any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from love, any participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

When you look at the word unity, it actually means agreement or harmony, accord or unison.

Johnny, if you don't.

When you look at putting unity with synergy, it actually means it multiplies the power.

It's bringing together people of like heart, of like mind.

It doesn't mean they agree on everything.

As long as we agree on the non-negotiables, the virgin birth, the efficiency of the blood of Jesus, the cross and the empty tomb, the inerrancy, the authority, the infallibility of the Word of God.

When we get to the non-negotiables, those, I don't care if you stand and quote liturgy.

I don't care if you dress in a collar.

I don't care if you if you have very traditional views of how worship is to be performed.

That's fine.

It doesn't bother me.

But if we can hang on what we believe, what is what we call the non-negotiables, when we come together, there is a synergy that starts happening and it multiplies the ability to reproduce.

God-given unity requires conformity to Him, not to one another.

It's not uniformity, it's not looking alike, acting alike.

But the posture of the day of Pentecost became the model for our unity, and it is the relationship between the Father and the Son.

Unity does not mean, again, uniformity.

We do not all look alike, worship alike, preach alike, come from the same denominations, carry the same assignment.

But beneath our differences, there is one Lord, one faith, one spirit, one baptism, one gospel, one kingdom, one mission, one.

And he connects the unity of his people directly to the credibility of our witness.

Watch this.

Please don't miss this.

He is connecting unity with the credibility of who we say we are.

It's why we have such a dispersed view of Jesus.

Because the church lives off clickbait social media.

And I'm of a Paul and Apollos and this one and that one.

And nobody can get together.

Nobody wants to get together.

No one likes each other.

Because we feel like we got it all together.

We do it on.

That's our thing.

And as long as it's our thing, it will never be his thing.

But our unity is apologetic.

Even when I use the term apologetic, most people think that means you're apologizing.

Well, I think we probably should apologize.

I'm sorry I say I belong to the church because we're acting like a bunch of idiots most of the time.

We don't even like each other.

We can't even come together.

We're apologizing for this.

That's not the word apologetic means.

It actually is the discipline of explaining, defending, and giving reason for the truth of the Christian faith.

The word comes from the Greek apologia, and it means a defense.

It's a reasoned answer.

It is a response given in support of a position.

Hear me.

The visible unity of believers is itself an argument.

It is a defense.

It is a demonstration of what?

That Jesus is who he claimed to be.

Francis Schaefer said this.

He said, Our relationship with each other is the criterion to the world, uses to judge whether our message is truthful.

Our unity is the visible evidence of an invisible kingdom.

Please hear me.

Jesus said, Father, make them one as we are one.

What would happen?

What would happen if we do you know what's happening in Iran right now?

I know we've we've gone back in and started bombing again.

I read this morning.

God have mercy.

And God have mercy on the church.

One of the greatest revivals the world has ever known is happening underground in Iran.

And it's being run mostly by women.

And they're not Baptist.

They couldn't be.

If you go and get stuck somewhere, just get stuck right there.

It was in a beautiful hotel.

And yeah, we were in bomb shelters, but but man, when you came out, it was just beautiful.

And we're traveling on our way, we're taking them through down the Dead Sea route, going crossing over into Egypt, and then going up to Cairo.

I'm on the bus, Lisa and I are, it's just two guys on this three buses of women.

And across the aisle from us is a Coptic believer.

Coptic Christians, Coptics go back to Egypt.

These are one of the oldest movements of Christianity.

You remember when the Coptic Christians, where Islamists lined them up on the beach, and they said, Deny him, or we will decapitate you.

And they would not deny him, so all of them were killed there on the beach.

That was just a few years ago.

She was a part of the Coptics.

And I said, Tell me what happens in Egypt.

Tell me, tell me, in in from the the attacks and the persecution of the brotherhood, the Muslim brotherhood, and all of these other things that are trying to arise.

She said, Oh, I could take you to the caves.

There are caves where you have to go through a literally, you have to travel through piles of trash and the garbage heap.

You walk, you get through this garbage dump, and on the other side, you go into these caves.

And you walk into these caves, and it's divided into three sections.

One of the sections you will hear the sound of over 10,000 believers worshiping in a cave.

You'll see Bible studies and breakouts throughout the cave.

This is the church.

This is the church that has risen even in persecution, that is unified, that they come as one.

It is not a denominational tie, it is only one tie, and that is the tie to the Father and to the Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's what happens when you get unified.

And Jesus said, Father, make them one as we are one.

We preach about revival.

We pray for revival.

We sing about revival.

We hold conferences about revival.

Everybody's saying they're in revival.

But what if one of the greatest demonstrations of revival is when the church lays down pride, it lays down competition, it lays down jealousy, it lays down offense, it lays down division, and we become one once again as the Father and the Son.

What would happen?

I'm almost done.

Know him.

Father, keep them.

Father, set them apart, make them different.

Let them look like me.

Father, as I've prayed, glorify your son as your son glorifies you.

Unify them.

Unify them.

Do you know it is the place of unity that God commands blessing?

Behold, how good and pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity.

It is like the precious oil, Psalm 133 says, upon the head, running down the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down the edge of the garments.

It is like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Unity creates atmosphere where God commands blessing.

And I close with these two.

He said in verse 24, Father, I desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be with me where I am.

That they may be whole, my glory.

You know what his heartbeat was, Father?

I want them with me.

It's one of the most tender moments of prayer in the heart of Jesus.

That the one who created you and me.

The one who knows everything about me.

He knows my strengths.

He knows my sane moments and he knows my stupidity.

And he says, Rusty, I want to be with you.

And I want you with me.

The one who knows everything about us.

He says, I want you with me.

See, the ultimate destination of salvation is not forgiveness.

It's not merely purpose.

It's not just about some ministry.

It's not about just blessing.

It's not simply about heaven.

The ultimate destination of salvation is to be with him.

He is heaven.

He said that they may be with me where I am.

What is so beautiful is the gospel begins with God coming to be with us.

And it ends with us going to be with him.

He left glory to come for us.

He entered our world.

He carried our sin.

He conquered death.

He ascended to the Father.

And one day we will see him again.

We will behold him in his glory.

We will be like him forever.

Those who long for this day, Jesus was saying, Father, I long for them to be with me.

Bring them home, Father.

When was the last time you thought about heaven?

When was the last time I had to ask myself that?

When was the last time I just got quiet enough?

I just thought about heaven.

I thought about heaven a few months ago.

Because I've got a mother that's waiting on me there.

The older I get, sometimes the more real heaven becomes.

Because there comes a moment in your life when you got more people on the other side than you do on this side.

See, there is a heaven to gain and there is a hell to shun.

Jesus said it's eternal life to know the Father.

And he's ending his prayer by saying, Father, bring them home.

I want them to see me in my glory.

I want them to see me.

They won't, he will not come again as a lamb to be slain before the foundation of the world.

The next time he comes, he comes with a statch that says, King of kings, Lord of Lords, he comes as God of all creation.

He comes as the Prince of Peace.

Mighty God, everlasting Father.

The one who said, Father, bring him home.

I want him to see what John saw.

And when I returned and I heard the voice speaking behind me, I saw one standing in the middle of the lampstand.

He had a garment down to the foot, his hair, his head were white like wool, his eyes were like fire.

His feet looked like they were on fire in a furnace.

He had a sword coming out of his mouth.

And when he spoke, it was like the sound of many waters.

So when I saw him, I fell at his feet, his dead.

He would see him later upon a throne.

He would be like a lamb slain, but yet he was the king who reigns.

What was saying earlier, he would hear all the 24 elders bowing down, throwing their crowns at his feet, saying, We're holy, holy, worthy is the Lamb.

What would happen if we lived our life with just a glimpse of eternity?

What would happen if we lived with the end in mind?

If we lived realizing that senator who, Mitch McConnell, I guess I woke up this morning, 71 years old, no one expected.

Like I said, Lindsey Graham.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I it was early this morning.

I didn't get the whole word.

Lindsey Graham.

Whoever it would have been, we're not promised tomorrow.

We're not promised that our position is gonna hold us here.

No.

I was riding, I had not ridden my motorcycle.

I I love to ride.

That's been there have been times through the years, Lisa look at me and go, just please go ride.

It's you know, I've I just enjoy riding.

I have a new ankle from I still enjoy it.

But we went to be with our kids in Addison the other night on the 4th of July and watching the fireworks display.

And I'm driving, and it was about 10 at night, and I'm driving through the woods of Winston County.

And I'm trying to adjust something, and then I see out of the peripheral, I see this huge doe coming at me.

And I'm realizing that doe is about to, I'm about to hit this deer.

And I swerved as quick as I could, and when I swerved, I literally felt the nose of the doe swipe my bike.

And I felt it push my bike.

And when it finally came to reality, I'm just going, God, I could have seen you just now.

But I thank you.

That crossroads of my life when I was hit in 2021, it changed my whole life.

I go by that crossroads where I was T-boned, that ultimately became the knowing of handing this church to Pastor Scott and Britt.

It happens in a flash, in a moment.

You say ready or not, here it comes.

Because Jesus made a prayer, Father, bring them home with me.

We all have a scheduled moment to meet him.

But the key is, are we ready to meet him?

Because the final thing he said was, Father, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them.

He's praying, Father, let this walk that exists between you and I exist with us.

Would you close your eyes, please, and bow your head?

Thank you, Father.

Thank you.

You know, today I've just tried to take a few moments.

And just talk about what was the heartbeat of Jesus.

The longest prayer we have recorded of him.

I've not, I've really not done this justice.

But I pray you hear something today, no matter who you are, what you walked in here with, what you're facing on this summer day.

That you would hear the prayer of Jesus for you and I.

Father, I want them to know you, the one you are eternal.

To know you, to be intimately acquainted with you.

He's prayed for you to know him.

He came to seek and to save that which was lost.

He loves you today.

If you hear and you felt unsafe, he also prayed for Father to keep you, protect you.

In his name, the name that is above every name, even the name he bears throughout all of eternity, the name of Yeshua, that every knee bows, every tongue confesses that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

But in the name, Hashem, the name, the unspokable name we don't really know how it was Yahweh.

It was it was the one who is, who was, who is, and is to come.

He prayed, Father, keep them by your name, set them apart, sanctify them.

Lord, let them be separated to us.

We send them out separated, that there's they make a difference.

They become image bearers, sent out into a world that is desperately needing Him.

Into a company here in the city, into a school.

As you sent me, I send them.

Unify them.

Let them be as one as we are one, Father.

Bring them home.

I want to bring them home and that they will know the love of Father the way you have loved me.

And they will love each other that way.

We hope and pray.

This message was encouraging and impactful.

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Have a Jesus filled week.