John: The High Priestly Prayer

Pastor Fletcher preaches from John 17 about Jesus’s prayer for his followers at the Last Supper. Discussion points: The true glory of God is revealed in the Scriptures and in seeking fellowship with Jesus, God embodies unity in diversity, Christian unity demands that we deny our own preferences because our priority is Jesus.

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  Scripture reader: [John 17] When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven 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. I have manifested your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. Yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you for, I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you. And they have believed that you sent me.

  I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me for they are yours. All mine are yours and yours are mine. And I am glorified in them and I'm no longer in the world but they are in the world and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one while I was with them. I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled.

  But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word and the word has hated and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth as you sent me into the world. So I have sent them into the world and for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

  I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me. Through their word, 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. The glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you and 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, 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.

  Oh righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me. 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.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: Yeah, in case you have ever wondered what kind of people would name their child, Ernest Fletcher, which is my name. I have the answer for you. Hippies. My, my parents were hippies. and my dad was a vagabond, drove all over the country kind of like lived in different national parks before. That was cool. you know, before COVID, before we all start doing that and he drove a AVW bus through my teenage years with a bed in the back. So this is less HGTV and more Matt Foley living in a van down by the river. Ok. This not, not super cool at the time, I mean, I thought it was kind of cool but it's more cool now than what it was back then.

  And so because my parents were of the hippie persuasion. The Beatles have been the background music for my entire life. I can tell you many songs that give me specific memories. And when you know my first dance with my mom at my wedding was a Beatles song and there was just background music for the life, just The Beatles, right? And so a couple of years ago Disney Plus released, I, I don't know, some of you guys are like, what's up with this guy on Disney Plus? I just gave an illustration a couple of weeks ago of a Disney Plus documentary. I guess it's all I watch. There, there was a Disney Plus documentary that came out called Get Back and anybody seen Get Back. You have to be a pretty super fan of the Beatles. Honestly, it's three hours of just watching the Beatles. No narration. OK? It's just recording the Get Back sessions which the Get Back sessions are the sessions that they recorded to make both Abbey Road and let it be two of the greatest albums that have ever been made in the history of the world.

  And so because they were making those two albums, they, they wanted to make a special documentary. They knew they were gonna be doing something special, but they never released a documentary. They had thousands of hours of footage and they never released the documentary. And why did they never release the documentary? Well, if you watch it, you'll see why it's because they fought all the time. They were just bickering like siblings that didn't want to be with each other anymore. It was obvious that the band was on the very edge of collapse. At one point, you thought the band did break up. George just went home, they didn't know if he was ever going to come back.

  And so as you're watching this documentary, you get a real inside peek into the way that The Beatles made this music that has gone on to inspire millions and millions of people and not only to inspire but to influence much of the popular music that we listen to today was influenced by these two albums that were made. And the most pivotal scene of the entire thing is they have just this one camera, I think it's just like one that they had running all the time.

  And Paul the bass player, but he's also like one of the big geniuses in the Beatles. Not that any of them aren't. he's just kinda like jamming away on his guitar and then he just finds a groove and he just settles into the groove and then he just starts singing the words to it and then he just, it, it just keeps on, he's just tinkering away and tinkering away. And then the other guys come and sit down and you watch him live, create one of the biggest hits of the Beatles. The song. Get back and it's just this amazing thing. And as a Beatles fan, I felt like I was getting up to peer into the soul of the genius that had influenced so much of my life. I really felt as though I was standing on sacred ground as I was watching this amazing display of musical creativity.

  And that is very similar, but just a small picture of what we get to enjoy today because today's passage is sacred ground in today's passage. What we see is the very Son of God praying to his father. This is what we call. Why is it escaping me? Right? As I say it, this is what we call the high priestly prayer of Jesus. And it's the very end of the upper room discourse. And we've been going through this series in John for, for several months now. And this is definitely a crescendo in the whole book and what we see in this prayer is not Jesus teaching us how to pray. That's the Lord's supper. No, Lord's supper. That's the Lord's prayer. Excuse me. This is right after Lord supper. That's the Lord's prayer.

  Jesus teaches us how to pray and it's really shocking how many things that he teaches us in the Lord's prayer are echoed in his own prayer here. It's almost as though he's using the Lord's prayer to shape his own prayer. Nor is this a theological treatise, own prayer? Ok. That's like what we have in a lot of Paul's writings and in Romans eight and many other places here, we have a window into the soul of the Son of God and how he relates with his father. We get to see his priorities as he's heading to the cross. Jesus knows that his time has come that he's going to the cross.

  And so we get to peer into this sacred ground of what does the Son of God's prayer life look like? What does he care about? What are the things that he's praying for and friends? It's you, it's you. He's praying for you. He cares for you.

  Verse 20 I do not ask these for these only, but I also ask for those who will believe in me through their word. He wants believers to be experiencing his glory and being unified. What we see in this passage is kind of a, a big circle. Ok. So this is the, the way that it happens. A lot of John is not super focused, it's not like the type of sermons that you can give breakdowns that are very mathematical. OK? It's, it's artistry. And what we see here is just a, a kind of a, a circle that Jesus is praying. This is what he prays.

  He prays that we might all experience the glory of God that we might share in his joy, that we might be one with Him, experiencing the glory of God. And next, he prays that through, by experiencing the glory of God, that we might be unified with one another, experiencing unity in the life of the church. And that through the unity of the church that we might multiply and other people might see the way that we live together and might decide to start following Christ and experience His glory.

  And so we have this divine circle where we go glory, unity, multiplication, glorify, unify multiply, and we see Him praying through these things and it just goes over and over again for his own glory, which is at the top of the circle. So let's walk through each of these things that Jesus prayed first that we might be glorified. He prays that we as his followers might be glorified.

  How do you experience the glory of God? I've talked to many different people and heard many different answers to this. And one of the most popular things I hear is that I really experience the glory of God in nature. And I think that that is so true. There is something so real about that. I love being in nature and I love going and, and standing on mountains. I love hiking, those types of things. I've been to several of the national parks. I've hiked half dome in Yosemite twice because once was not enough pain to do it again. And it's just a really, this was before you needed permits and everything. But you get to the cables, you actually, it's like a really severe slope. You have to pull yourself up on the cables and you get to the top and it's just amazing.

  I mean, the entire Yosemite Valley in, in California just amazing. There's nothing like driving into that valley for the first time and seeing, you know, 6000 ft sheer cliffs on either side of you. It's just your jaw drops at the glory and the majesty of our God who created it all.

  And many of us have experienced those things and it is true that creation shouts the glory of God, maybe, maybe you're not a Christian here today, but you can resonate with what I'm talking about here because you've seen a sunset and you say, wow, there's something. Why do people keep on taking pictures and posting pictures of sunsets on Instagram? A picture? Never does it justice.

  But we just can't help ourselves. We can't help ourselves because it's glory. We're getting to experience glory when we see something so beautiful and magnificent. And so maybe you're not a Christian here today and you resonate with that, that I'm sharing that. There's a sense of God in creation.

  I want to let you into the secret though, that this is just a dim, dim reflection of His glory compared to what Jesus offers. Because what you are just getting to see a piece of which is true. There's something really true about it and it's really refreshing, but Jesus opens the door and lets you in the God that you get to glimpse at the glory of just from the external Jesus opens the door and he lets you into the inner life of who God is that we get to experience full glory with Him that we get to actually know the God who crafted the cosmos that we get to talk with Him. That's what Jesus came to do to take what we get an inkling of in our observation of nature and to just allow us completely into it, just welcome us into the heart of God. That is the whole purpose of what Jesus has come to do.

  Verse six of John chapter 17, Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world, yours, they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. And when Jesus says, I have manifested manifest means revealed, I've revealed my name, your name. So when he says, I've revealed your name, what he's talking about, when he says name, often times we see this happen throughout the Old Testament. To see someone's name being revealed is to reveal their entire character for who that person is.

  So Jesus is saying, I have revealed your true nature to all those who have you have given me. I have opened up the doors and let them in to the glories of who you are God. What is the glory of God though? What are we experiencing when we talk about this? The glory of God is what is revealed when we finally see God as he really is.

  And many of us have images of who God is in our minds and that must be put aside and replaced with the true name that Jesus has revealed of who God is. And the only way that we can get that is through what He's revealed in His scriptures and then connecting with Jesus and seeking him and allowing him to reveal that to us plainly.

  I love that the way that Ray Orland describes this, he says, triviality is the opposite of glory. Triviality is the opposite of glory. There's nothing about God that is cheap. That is second rate, that is disappointing. The ultimate display of God's glory is Jesus. And the ultimate display of glory in Jesus is the crucifixion showing the length of what he is willing to do to redeem the unworthy. And one day all those who are in Christ will appear with Him in glory. This is what Jesus came to do. He wants to bring us into the glory of God.

  Many of you are hearing that and you might think it's true, but you dare not believe it. It just sounds too good to be true that you actually might be invited into the glory of God. But that is what Jesus has come to do to open the door between God and man and allow us to experience that glory. Jesus gives us the true intimacy with God that we are all longing for. Let's look at his prayer. Let's look at a few of the passages. I don't want you to take it from me. I want you to take it from Him.

  Jesus says, verse four, I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. He's talking to the Father, right? And now Father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. And so Jesus is saying that he's been enjoying this glory with God throughout eternity past and now he's asking that he might experience it even more now as he's headed to the cross.

  Verse 10, all mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. So what's he saying? He's saying? He wants to share His glory that He is glorified in those in which God has given him us verse 13. But now I'm coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves, the joy that Jesus shares because He is fully content in who God is. He wants to share with us that we might have in ourselves. That is why He is returning to the father and going through the crucifixion that we might share in the joy that he has shared throughout eternity past and sharing in the glory of God.

  What's the first question? I don't know how many of you were catechized as kids. OK. We're doing a little bit of catechism with my kids, catechism questions. Some traditions of Christianity have like a list of questions that you ask Children. You teach them the answers to these questions is a way to teach theology to Children. And the first question on in almost all of these catechisms is what is the chief aim of man? For what purpose was humanity created is another way to say that and almost all of them answer it in the same way and they answer it to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Now, that sounds really rote. But think about that glorify to glo. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever to enjoy His glory.

  And I love the way John Piper swaps it up. He says to glorify God by enjoying him forever. And that is what we're here for is why we exist that we might share in the glory that Jesus has shared in throughout eternity, past, by being united with one another in the way that He's united with the God, the Father and the God, the Holy Spirit.

  And so what Jesus knows is that if we're going to share in His glory, what that will actually do because we're, when we share in His glory, we see Him as he is. And who God is, is unity among diversity. God is Trinity. There's God, the Father God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. Each one are distinct, unique, but also one, just one God. You have unity and diversity in the person of who God is, the persons of who God is the essence of who God is. It's a confusing topic, but it's one you have to dive into.

  If you wanna be a Christian, if you wanna follow Jesus, yes, I will share this with you. Let me read this verse and this, this graphic will explain this verse verse 21 through 23 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 the glory that I, that you have given me. I have given to them that they may be one even as we are one i in them and you and me that they may be perfect, become part perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you love me.

  So a lot of this is kind of divine mystery. It's hard to understand and you might not be able to see that exceedingly well, especially if you're sitting in the back. But what it says is the first one is that the father, the little circle says father and the big circle is son. So in verse 21 and 23 it says the father is in the sun. And the second one on the top, right, it says that the son is in the father. So it goes the other way around. The little circle is the son and on the bottom left, you have believers are in the father and the son. So the the we are believers are, are in the father and the son and then the bottom right that the Son is in believers.

  And so we have this really kind of holistic idea of being unified with God is what he's trying to say. I and you, you and me, me and God, perfect harmony, right? This is what he's saying is that just as I've enjoyed fellowship with God in this mysterious Trinitarian way throughout eternity, past I'm inviting you into that experience. That is what Jesus has come to do and, you know, this is a lot to wrap my head around at the same time. It is. but Jesus understands it and this is what he's praying and that's kind of good enough for me.

  It's like when I talk to some of you about your PhD dissertations, it's like, I'm good for like the first sentence. You tell me the thesis. I'm like, OK, tell me a little bit more about that. And then I'm gone. Like I just glaze over, I'm like, looking for a bagel. I don't know, it's just I'm done sometimes it's OK for me to be like, I'm glad you get that. Jesus, if anything, he has a PhD in the glory of God and the unity that he, he shares with Christ, but it seems as though the church, you can take that off now. It seems as though the church has completely forgotten this part of jesus' teaching, does it not?

  Almost every day, you hear of another church that's divided almost every day, but Jesus is teaching is that real unity in the church is possible. That's what he wants for us. And this is the vision that he has for Christian community that we have unity in our diversity, that Christian unity requires, that we deny our own preferences. Hear this Christian unity requires that we deny our own preferences because our priority is Jesus. We deny our own preferences because our priority is Jesus. That means that we become absolutely committed to one another, not just committed to those who think like us and look like us and have the same preferences as us.

  Let me give you a few examples of what this looks like po politics. OK. To have unity in our diversity in politics, it means that we have to deny our preferences, sometimes our comfort because Jesus is our priority. Now, most churches in this country have gone through over the past, you know, four or five years have gone through what we call the great resorting of churches. And what that means is that many of the churches that were kind of purple that had people that were from both conservative and liberal backgrounds have become increasingly red or increasingly blue. And in fact, it's easy to grow a church in many areas of the country. You just become more politically polarized than the next church down the road and you will have people that gravitate toward that.

  But that is to the detriment of both politics and the church. It's to the detriment of politics because we need to have diverse sets of opinions, to talk about political topics. You need to hear from a real life human, not just someone you see on the computer, a real life human, what they think about things and then be able to talk about such things and have a real conversation and not just lob insults at each other like our politicians do in their debates.

  That's not what we're here for. We need to have actual relationships to have a holistic political mind, but it's also terrible for the church. Terrible for the church. How are we going to have unity in our diversity when we all look the same and believe the same, you need to have churches that are diverse place where we actually have to deny our own preferences. Because Jesus is the priority where we have to love people who think differently than we do. And this means practically for me, I don't give a lot of teaching on specific politics in the church. And the reason for that is I wanna teach you the biblical principles and let you draw the conclusions there and call me crazy. I don't think the Bible endorses one economic system over another. I think that there's a lot of freedom in many of these things.

  And so I want to give you the principles and let you draw the best conclusions that you can. Many of you are smarter than me anyways. And so I'm going to try my best to do that, but we have to be able to deny ourselves and love those who are different than us, which is very difficult with politics. And here's why it's difficult with politics because politics have become the modern day religion that if you follow the, the, the politics that I follow, that means you are a righteous, good person and we see it as almost moralism but friends, we need to take a step back there and be reminded of who Jesus is and what he has come to do.

  Let me give you another example of unity in our diversity. Let's talk about ethnicity. Our church is intentionally seeking to be a multi ethnic place and that means that many of us have to deny our preferences at different times so that we can make Jesus the priority. Now, different ethnicities have different cultural backgrounds that they come from and we want to honor and celebrate all the different cultural backgrounds. There's things to honor in every cultural background and there's also many things in every cultural background that are not things that we want to see happen in the church. And so we're all equal in that.

  But one thing that we have to do is be willing to sacrifice some of our preferences so that we can have unity. For example, in our church, we'll do sometimes music that might not appeal to you and your ethnic background and your church background. And the reason why we do that is because that might be the only song that your brother or sister on the other end of the aisle connects with on that day, the only one. And so you might not enjoy one of the songs that we do that day. That's OK. You just know that unless it's bad, which is never bad. Right. Yeah. And never bad. That, that, that might be the only one that they connected with. So you're denying your own preferences so that you can serve your brothers and sisters.

  I've had to learn this many different ways and I'm still learning it as someone who lives in a majority culture as a, as a white person. I have to go the extra mile because I often times think that my way is normal and everybody else's way is weird. That is so just not right though. OK. That is not right. My way is not normal. My way is white and everybody else's way is different. And that's OK. We can recognize those things and I can deny my preferences to make Jesus the priority.

  Another example, financially, when you look at the early church, you read this, the disciples had all things in common. There was no one who had need and that means that some of the disciples were going and selling possessions to provide for the needs of those who didn't have what they needed. That meant that the vision that Jesus had painted was so radical that people said I'm gonna deny my preference to have more, which is always the preference. Is it not? I very rarely is someone I just prefer to have less. I'm going to deny my preference to have more so that my brothers and sisters can be taken care of. Jesus is the priority.

  This is gonna look crazy in, in the world today. We like to be very independent with our finances. There's almost no that it's so hard to have an honest conversation with someone these days about finances. Is it not where someone's actually gonna let you in there? It just feels so private, but in Christianity we're, we're to have an openness about that type of thing. I love the old Tim Keller quote that the world tells you to be open with your sexuality and very closed with your money. When the scripture tells you to be very open with your money and very closed in your sexuality, sexuality being reserved for, for marriage. In that case, it's really kind of amazing thing that we can live counter culturally like this, denying our own preferences for the priority of Jesus.

  And lastly, just one more example before we move on to the last point, here is this commitment to gather regularly, commitment to gathering one of the ways that we pursue unity and our diversity is just getting together regularly. You cannot replace face time with real people when we gather to worship God. He's really in our midst and we enjoy his presence through our relationships with one another also. And so he uses other Christians to speak truth into our lives. And we get to have this beautiful face time with one another and be our hearts are just slowly shaped to be willing to love our neighbor as ourself and be able to sacrifice our good for their good.

  So, because of that, you cannot skip church for like, three months and show up and be like, oh, where is God? I mean, I just don't even know if I, I don't know where God is in my life. I, I feel so distant from him. Well, of course you do. You've been skipping the family meal for the past three months. Like, of course, you're starting to feel distant. You haven't been around. And so I'm not singling anyone out here whatsoever. I don't mean to do that, but I just need to tell you that that going to service isn't just something we do, but it's something that we enjoy together and it actually shapes our hearts. And so thank you, there's many of you who make this such a huge priority. And I think that that is just so good for your spiritual life.

  But Christian unity is an amazing thing to experience and it has these fringe benefits and, and the French benefit that that comes out of this. So we, we start with glory, we move to unity or the glory of God leads us to the unity that we experience with one another by denying our preferences and living for the priority of Jesus, which as we live out, the priority of Jesus and denying our preferences. And as we really live out joyful community with one another. We see ourselves multiply. We see other people see the way that we live and we love one another and give God glory and eventually come and join us. There's no better apologetic than this.

  I've watched many different debates about the existence of God. I've talked with that and with many people about this and I will tell you that it has been so much more fruitful in my life as I've observed, as I've just lived in community with other Christians and invited people into it right now. We have several people that live on my street that go to our church and our neighbors know we all go to church together and that has an impact and they've, they've shared the impact. It's really been kind of an amazing thing to watch our, our neighbors say like, hey, I don't know, but like you guys are definitely here for the good of our street. And I, I appreciate that. I don't know about God, but I'm, I'm more interested now than what I was before.

  I've seen that happen in community groups, bring someone to community group, they get to meet Christians that I've had someone join our group and be like, this is the only time in my life where I sit down with people and talk about real stuff where I talk about what I'm really thinking and feeling. And I can tell you guys care about each other. It's just an amazing thing that we get to invite people to. But we are oftentimes think so private to l like we, we aren't going to let anybody into that part of our life. We have to, we have to let people into it because we want them to share in the glory of God as we've shared in the glory of God. So the unity that we experience becomes our evangelistic tool.

  Verse 23 Jesus says I and them and you and me that they may become perfectly 01 so that the world may know that you have sent me and love them even as you loved me and loved them, even as you love me. He wants the world to know John 13. This is back a couple chapters. He says, by this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, our unity. It's what brings us to Christ.

  This is what brought me to faith. As a young teenager, I started going to church just because well, honestly, there was like a girl that I was interested in at the church and I she, she she didn't care that I was interested in her. That was not something that continued. But I, they asked me to go to camp that summer and I went to like a, a Christian camp. And I just remember I driving down to the camp being, I don't know about this whole God thing. And then there was one night at the camp, I looked around and I see people hugging and crying. It was one of those emotional youth camps, you know, you laugh, I guess you've experienced it.

  And, and just being like, man, people really seem to love each other, you know, and youth group isn't perfect for sure. There's lots of backbiting and bad stuff that happens and, you know, we're humans. But I was just amazed at the love that people had for one another. And it brought me in. I said, you know, I think I do believe in God. I think that this is an amazing thing that I get to experience today. And basically, what I'm saying is this, that your gospel culture proves your gospel doctrine, your gospel culture proves your gospel doctrine, that the way that you live out, your faith proves that your faith is real and that we want this culture of love and safety and time in our church and commitment that communicates what we believe about the gospel.

  I wanna, I wanna end with this encouragement as Jesus, just pray for us. OK? As we go and live these things out. I want you to dive into each one. If you've been around the city on a hill network for a little while, you'll know that the three things that we emphasize as a network we don't, our, our core values here just to be really clear, are sound doctrine, multi ethnicity and gospel culture, which I think you're getting in all in the sermon through and through.

  But for the, the network, the things that we always talk about our gospel community and mission and you can just say glorify, unify, multiply is what Jesus is all about. That's what we're all about and that's what he's praying and that's what He seeks. And we need to take steps into experiencing the glory of God. Take steps into experiencing the unity that we can share and take steps into a multiplying and sharing that love with others. That's, that's very practical. Those are the three things that we're doing.

  But I just wanna end with this encouragement that Jesus prays because look at what he says in verse 24. So amazing father, I desire that they also whom you've given me may be with me where I am to see my, my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Friends in jesus'. Last hours. He is praying for you Christian brothers and sisters. And what is he praying for you that you might be drawn near Jesus doesn't look at you with disgust. We often times think of Jesus as almost like a, a young child reaching out to touch a slug. But think about him teach touching us in that way.

  But that is not the way that Jesus looks at us. He looks at us with open arms and he desires for us to be near. He wants you to come closer to him. He loves you very simple. Not because you've done anything. In fact, that's why he came because you can't do it yourself. He had to do it for you, but he wants you to be near. If you hear nothing else. Hear this today, Jesus is not trying to get rid of you. Don't we live our lives so often? Feeling that and we're just inconvenience Jesus. I'm sorry to bother you with this one. No, he wants you to draw near. In fact, it's the deepest desire of his heart. That's what he prays as he's on his way to the cross. That's why he's doing these things. I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am. I want to be with them. God, I want to be with them. Father, bring them with me where I am, where you are to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

  He wants to share these things with us. This is our savior, not stingy but deeply filled with compassion, not feeling revulsion from us, but feeling a godly draw towards us and wanting to draw us near. Would you draw near to him this morning? Would you seek him in wherever you are and see that he doesn't want to push you away. Some of you that might mean turning from some of the things that you've been doing that's been pursuing selfishness and turning to him for others. It might mean, I don't know what it means, but I would love to pray with you. I would love to see you turn to him, draw near to him today and after the service today, we'll have some, some prayer counselors in the back during the communion meal that you can pray with, they'll come up here after the service and pray with you. If you want to pray with someone, how do I draw near to Jesus today?

  We're going to turn now. And one way that we do that is through a communion meal. Jesus instituted this meal as one of the ways that we sacredly draw near to him. And each week we participate in a communion meal where we take of the bo the, the bread which is the represents the body of Christ that was broken for us. And we take of the, the juice or the wine which represents the blood of Christ, which was shed for us.

  And Jesus instituted this on this sacred evening before he was betrayed and we do this in remembrance of him and he's really with us in a powerful way as we do this. And so if you are a believer here today, we'd invite you to come and receive this meal and allow it to be something that connects you to God even in this moment, as we prepare our hearts to respond to Jesus, would you stand with me as we pray? And we seek the Lord in this.

  Father, we, we pray that you would draw near to us that we would experience your grace an new time and time again, day in and day out, that we would be drawn up with you, that we might experience unity with you that might bring us to unity with one another. God, we pray that you enlighten our affections and help us to really show love to one another. God just, we pray that our church might be a place where love is, is captured.

  We pray for those who might not feel loved here this morning. God, would you just captivate them in your love? And God would you have someone greet them with a warm smile? And uh how are you doing after church today? That they might not feel alone, that they might feel loved by you. And God, we pray that as we take this meal, that you would be delighted in us and that we would do whatever it takes to enjoy fellowship with you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.