John 17

Please take a seat and open up your bibles if you have a bible with you to John chapter 17. John chapter 17, and we're in the final part of this prayer that Jesus is praying. But I'm gonna read the whole prayer, so from verse 1 to the end of the prayer. After Jesus said this, he looked towards heaven and prayed. Father, the hour has come, glorify your son that your son may glorify you.

For you granted him authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now, this is eternal life. They know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I've brought you glory on Earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you.

Before the world began. I've revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me. And they have obeyed your word.

Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you for I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world. But for those you've given me, for they are yours.

All I have is yours and all you have is mine and glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be 1 as we are 1. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name that you gave me. None has been lost.

Except the 1 doomed to destruction so that the scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now. But I say these things while I'm still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I've given them your word and the world has hated them for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil 1.

They are not of this world, even as I'm not of it. Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be 1, Father, just as you were in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me? I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be 1 as we are 1. I and them, you and me, so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you've sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you've given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous father, though the world does not know you. I know you.

And they know that you have sent me. I've made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. Well, welcome to our morning service. My name is Pete Woodcock. I'm the pastor of the Church.

And we're going through this fantastic prayer quite quickly, actually. I mean, there's lots of things we could talk about in this prayer, but I want to go through this last bit, but let me pray again. Father help us now, please. This is your word, none other than the word of a living, creator God, the 1 that has life, the word of life. Please, humble us, help us listen, by your kindness, by your spirit, open up our hearts to truths that we may worship you in Jesus' name, amen.

Now a few years ago, I had some sort of fluttering sensations in my in my heart and, you know, knowing everything, I just put it down to interjection. I think the heart and the bowels are very different things, but nevertheless, I put it down to indigestion. And then I remembered an incident when I was a teenager. I was about 18 and I was going out with this girl in old Windsor. And I met her her grandma, I think, for the first time, and she had pains in her chest.

And I came out with the old intogestion, you know, diagnosis and said I think it's probably introgestion. She actually died that day of a heart attack. So I thought maybe I shouldn't listen to my advice, And so I went to the doctors. The doctor sent me to the hospital to get an ECG, and I went to the appointment. And of course, at that time, whenever you go, it's like a car in the MOT, everything feels alright.

It wasn't fluttering. There was nothing going wrong. I'd said to the woman, this is probably waste of time. She said, well, I think we should do it anyway. She kept it going for 20 minutes, gave me a printout that I was supposed to take to the doctor who would then read it and tell me what's what's wrong.

But I knew that my heart was alright during that time at the ECG. And I actually took the printout out of the envelope addressed to the doctor and it looked perfectly alright to me. So I didn't go. The next year I mean, the year later, I had the same thing happen. And I went back to the doctor and he noticed that I'd had an ECG the year before and he said where is that?

And I told him that I'd read it and it was seemed alright to me. He said to me, are you a trained doctor? And I said, No. He said, do you know anything about the heart? And I said, well, I I do a little.

I know that we all have 1. And He then said, do you know anything about an ECG machine? No. Do you know how to read a printout? Have you ever seen 1 before?

No. And then he rebuked me. Now, I'm telling you that story, unfortunately because it shows up what a fool I am. But the thing is about it, if you ask me, do you believe the doctor knows more about your heart than you. I would immediately say, of course.

He's trained. He understands me. And he understands how an ECG, you know, printout works. And I think I would have said, yeah, you know, I believe he knows more than me. But in reality, I was an unbeliever in that.

The reality is I was an unbeliever. I thought I could read an ECG as well as he could and probably better. And it was borne out by my behavior. Now that illustration, as I say, shows up my foolishness, and I want to shift it around a little bit. And I wanna talk very frankly to us, all of us here, including myself, of course.

Let's shift this around a bit. Let's make Jesus the doctor. Let's make Jesus the doctor of your soul, the physician of your soul, of you. Yeah? The question I want to ask now then, are you going to be like me with my heart and my ECG?

When it comes listening to the doctor. Now, I know what you're gonna say because I say this. You might say, look, I utterly believe that Jesus is the physician of the soul. But I'm asking in the nitty gritty of your life. In the dark times that you can't interpret, do you interpret them rather than let the doctor do it?

I know what you're going to say because I will say this. I believe Jesus, I read his words every day, I do my quiet time. I defend the scriptures. I teach the scriptures. I memorize the scriptures.

I memorize the words of Jesus. But when it comes to the hard personal realities of life, are you interpreting those scriptures that you believe in? With a bias that you don't realize you've got. It's 1 of the reasons why church is essential, not not an add on. It's not a club.

It's essential that we're all part of a bible preaching community so that we don't misread the scriptures on our own or find out what suits us or fit it into the story seems to be being told to us from within or from without. Last week, Morris Gemened put preached a magnificent sermon. I was so pleased I didn't preach my sermon last week. He stood in for me. It's a magnificent sermon on Psalm 88.

Listen to it. You must must listen to it. Give it time. Have a listen to it. Listen not only to the words he says, but the directly says, but the the things he sort of fills in in the background just to see how this man coped with depression and darkness.

Listen to that sermon. He's talking about going through dark times, depression, anxiety, confusion of the mind, discouragements, those sort of things. Downtimes. And 1 of his helpful points was that our culture speaks increasingly loudly into those issues. And some of what they say, of course, is helpful, but some of what they say is not helpful.

In 1 sense, this is what people say and it's right, all truth is God's truth. So it might come from a non Christian psychologist or psychiatrist or counselor or atheistic scientist or whatever. And if it's true, it's true. All truth is God's truth. But his big point was this, do we just have to rely on that or has God spoken into our nitty gritty situations and knows us better than we know ourselves.

Has got specifically spoken into mental health issues. Morris's conclusion is, yes, And it's that word, even though other words may be helpful and true to some degree, it's that word that is helpful. It's the word of God and it's better than the word of the culture and If I am suffering, then I need a bible community to help me interpret it. I'll get it wrong on my own. Okay.

Here's a good truth that comes from the world. It from a psychiatrist, JT Fisher, it'll come up. Let me read it to you. If you were to take the sum total of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene, if you were to combine them and find them and cleave out the excess verbiage. If you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, And if you were to have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living prophets poets, You would have an awkward and incomplete summation of the sermon on the mount, summary of the sermon on the mount.

And it would suffer immeasurably through comparison. It should be for nearly 2000 years, the Christian world has been holding its hands to the complete answer to its restless and fruitless yearnings. Here, rests the blueprint for successful human life and with optimism, mental health, and contentment. Do you believe that? Do you believe that doctor Jesus can speak like that into into you, into your life?

Now, we're looking at the sermon on the mount in the evening. So those sermons are definitely worth listening to. But in this morning series, we're looking at this prayer of Jesus in John 17. And we come to this last section. And Ben was showing us very clearly last week.

It's a terrific sermon worth hearing as well. That this is none other than the son of God, praying to to God the father. About you and me. So it's worth listening into. It's the night before the crucifixion He's washed to the disciples' feet.

He's spoken about the coming of the Holy Spirit and that we need Him. He's prepared the disciples for his going away. He's prepared them for the or all of us for the centuries until he comes back and then he prays. And the first section of prayer that Tom opened up to few weeks ago, he prays about his own work, his crucifixion, that that crucifixion will be the place that glorifies God. And God would glorify him by him being obedient to the Word of God in going to be crucified.

The second section which we saw last week is specifically, although as Ben showed us, it applies to all of us, for the 11 disciples. He prays for their purity. Their sanctification in the word. And then we come to this last section where he specifically prays for you and me if we're Christians. This is Jesus talking to God the Father about you.

Alright? And he'll show us his priorities. He's gonna show us his priorities for us. God is being asked, God, the Father, by God, the Son, that you and I will see the important things in life that will actually lead us to sanity, all of us, because we're all a little insane. So that's what we're going to do.

We see here a blueprint. This is a printout of the heart and the mind. Let Doctor Jesus read it for us. 3 important things, that please don't dismiss this, because I know what happens, I really understand, and it's happening more and more in the church, and it's a disaster. People are now saying, you cannot speak about mental health issues from Jesus.

You can't do that. You have to have gone through this or that or this and that. So we're becoming non evangelicals, non believers in the physician, the physician, the doctor Jesus. So please don't dismiss it. Listen to it through the end.

I'm gonna get Ben up at the end, and we're gonna draw some pictures to So we've got it in our head. I can't draw. He's gonna draw them for me. Well, he's gonna copy my pictures. I could draw anything I like, and then he has to draw it up so it goes on the internet, and it will be with Ben signing it.

But we're gonna see that in the end. But there are 3 important things that you'll see again and again. In this last section of the prayer, but Jesus wants us to hear him pray for. We have a word of authority a word of authority, above all authorities that we should listen to about life, my life. We have a name to identify with, which brings us an identity above all the other names that I might be called.

This is the name. And we have an overall purpose for life. Above all the sub purposes that we're to get on with in this world, there's an overall purpose that brings your life, whoever you are, whatever you're suffering, meaning. So let's get into this prayer then. Here's my first point.

Jesus prays for you. Look at verse 20. My prayer is not for them alone. That's the disciples alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

So he's still praying for the 11 11, but he opens it up. And now he's praying for those who will believe the apostolic message. If you believe that message, he's praying for you and he's praying for you before you were even born. Before you knew anything about you. He knew you before you knew knew you.

He was had thoughts of you before you had a thought. He knows you, all over the years before your conception and beyond. He knew you. That's the extraordinary thing. He knew you.

He knows about you. He knows how you tick before your father's sperm whacked into or whatever the the the official word is into into the mom's egg and created you, he was around. So yeah. I can see the glenn's creeping about that. And Naomi's saying, oh, what if you say things like that?

Do I have to have this idea of my mom anyway, forget that. Let's move on. But let me say it again, Naomi, before your father's sperm broke into your mother's egg, God knew you. Jesus knew you, and he prays for you See, he's not a doctor that doesn't understand your medical history. All things that have formed you, all the things that have influenced you, all the things that have been good in your life and influenced you all the hurts that have broken you.

All the horrible things that people have said and done to you. All of the situations that you find yourself in. He knows everything. He's a doctor that knows your ups and your downs, your joys, and your sadnesses. He's praying for you.

Because he knows you intimately. And he's praying that you'll get these things established more and more and more in your life. That there is a word to listen to above every other word that you hear, the word of God. That there is a name to belong to, that every other name that you give yourself or someone gives you. That there is a purpose to live for, above every purpose that you've got and everybody tells you you should live for.

It's amazing, isn't it? Isn't it? This is a doctor who knows everything about your medical history. And your mental history. First 20, them.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who believe in me through their message. That all of them may be 1 father just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me? If you're a Christian, it's because you have believed the message of the apostles. That's what makes a Christian.

You believe the historic message of the apostles, the apostolic message. We saw that in 1 John. It's a big thing with John. Yeah? And that message has come through the centuries, through preachers, through the scriptures, and you've believed that.

So there's the word about who Jesus is that you've believed and we need to live by. That's the word of authority. And his prayer is that you'd be 1 with the apostolic message. You see what he says? My prayer is not for them alone.

That's the apostles. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them, the apostles, and now us will be 1. So that's his prayer that will be 1 with the apostolic message. It's not anyone that just claims the name of Jesus, doesn't believe anything about him. It's those who believe the apostot they have 1 mind They have 1 doctrine, they have 1 opinion, 1 heart, 1 practice.

Just as Jesus and the father are 1, just as Jesus obeyed the Father even to the Cross are 1, then he wants us to be at 1 with the Estolic message, the received message or the given message from Jesus, which is in the scriptures. We are to be 1, we are to hear that message. That's the message. To be 1 with. Whatever the good news stuff that other people say might be helpful, this is the message that should take us up and we should be 1 with.

Verse 21 to 23. But all of them may be 1, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be 1 as we are 1. I in them and you in me.

So that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. If I get this, we're to be 1 with the apostolic message, It's that message that we should listen to more than anything that should take us up, that's the Bible. But not only that, As we're 1 with that message, he prays that we would be 1 united together. This is the family that we belong to.

This is the name that we need to belong to. I cannot Get this. This is so important for people that jump into church and stuff. I cannot be 1 with the apostolic message as an individual. You're not 1 with the apostolic message if you're an individual.

You're not. I'm 1 with the apostolic message when I deny my individualism and I I'm at 1 with those to believe the apostolic message. Just as the triune God, that what he calls upon to illustrate that just as the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are united in 1. Look at verse 23. I in them, plural, I in them, God himself shows that we believe the message as we are 1 together.

Verse 23, this third the the the end of it. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. How does the Father love Christ? How does the Father love Christ? That's how he loves you.

If you're 1 with the apostolic message. This is extraordinary. There is eternal love here. This is who you are. This is the word you've got to keep hearing and you won't hear it as an individual.

As soon as you separate yourself from the then, you'll mishear. You'll misread. You'll think you're wise. You'll be like me with the ECG. I have loved them.

And look at verse 22, I have given them glory. We'll come back to that in a minute. That you may that that that you you gave me. Sorry. I've missed something out.

We're not only 1 and loved by him. No. No. I'll move on to that in a minute. Sorry.

I'm getting confused. I'm getting too excited. But look, the glory that you have given me. In other words, you're going to have the glory of the son of the living God to your account. Everything that Jesus that God, the father looks at at Jesus, he says, that's my son.

That's my son. Eyes, my son, he obeyed me. Even in those dark moments, he was obeying me. He loved me. He was serving me.

He was doing the cross for me and my glory and wow. That's my son. That's my son. Mean, when you read the gospels, you it's constantly. That's my boy.

That's my son. That's how Jesus, the father thinks you. You're not only acceptable. You're is darling. Amazing, isn't it?

First 24. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. The father gave you to Christ. We saw that, I think last week. That is that's the past.

But look at the future. The ones that he's given, he wants to be where he's going to be. That's the future. That's who you are. Your past, present, and future are well covered.

Look at verse 25. Righteous father or holy father. Though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. So these are people that know who Jesus is. They're persuaded that word know is.

They're persuaded that Jesus is the doctor, the physician of the soul, a persuaded verse 26. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and I myself may be in them. A better translation is that I have made your name known to them, your name known to them. We know God as Father because Jesus has made the Father known. And listen, he continues to make the father known.

There's a it's not just oh, I know that doctrine. Let's see. I can just get He's continually praying that you'll know that you are you are loved by the father. You're in the family of the father. You're a child of the living God.

As God loves Jesus, he loves you. You're in the family. Your past is sorted, your present is sorted, your future is sorted, and Jesus is praying that you'll be in that orbit, you'll understand. And you are more and more as he continually reflects the father to you and the father's love to you and the cross to you. And as You'll be magnetized by it.

You'll be drawn to it. You'll be around the orbit of who Jesus is and what he's done to declare you as a son of the living God and that God is not just God. His father. And all of that is the mission, the purpose. Look at verse 18.

As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify or I consecrate, I set apart for this mission. I sanctify myself, I'm going to go to the cross, set apart for that mission, are they to may truly be sanctified set apart for that mission. Verse 21, the end of it again. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me, verse 23, then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you've loved me.

So as we're united with Christ and as we're united in Christ, We united to his mission. That's our purpose. We used to make Jesus known, to make Jesus known. Now, That's the purpose thing. I hope there's some you've got something, but I'm gonna rub it in.

Here's my second point, which is exactly the same as the first. The word glory here. Now it's big. It's far too big for a part of a sermon. The word glory here in John's gospel, it's big.

But you see the word glory. And I think this sums up what Jesus is praying for you. And me. Verse 22 then. I have given them the glory that you, that's the Father God gave me.

I have given them what you gave me, that they may be 1 as we are 1. Now, what is the glory that God gave Christ? What is the glory of Jesus. Well, as Tom showed us in the first part of the prayer, it's the cross. He doesn't talk about crucifixion, he talks about glorification.

It's Jesus going, as Morris showed us clearly, through Psalm 88. All the horror and the depths that Jesus went through It's that is the glory that the father gave. It's a summary of the glory that father gave. To Jesus and he gives that to us. And you see that in the first 5 verses.

You see that very clearly. So glory then is in this work of the cross, and we see our words in that because Jesus obeyed the word of the father and went to the cross. And in doing that, He was the true son of God, there's the identity. And in doing that, his mission was that people would be saved. There's the purpose.

You see that? He went to the cross to bring sinners to the kingdom. He did it under the word of authority He did it in the name of the father and that's the mission to bring people to Christ. That's the glorious crosswork word and the glorious crosswork. Let me just try and show this to you.

Just put the next slide up. Again, because of time, I can't take you through all of those verses, but you could follow those verses through. I want to just keep this theme up because this is the theme and then we're going to apply it in just a minute. The word that the father gave to Jesus, Jesus gives to his disciples You can see it very clearly in verse 8. For I gave them the words you gave me.

There's the word. That's the authoritative word that you should live by. Above every other word. The name that the father revealed to Jesus, Jesus revealed to the disciples. You can see it in verse 26.

I have made you known to them. So God's court is to be called Father from now on. And then the that the father gave to Jesus. Jesus give to his disciples. You see it very clearly in verse 18.

As you sent me into the world, I send you. That my dear friends, I mean this, is what you've gotta get rooted in your life. That they're the things. And as they're rooted in your life, you'll become more sane. And the less rooted the more insane.

This is sanity. This is Jesus praying for your sanity. This is Jesus praying that these are the things that you need to get more and more continually in your life. All done of course in the power of the spirit. And that could be part of the word glory he gives to us.

Because the spirit's job is to give the word of God, which is about the son of God, and to gift us to be about the mission of God. So that's the prayer of Jesus, you see? That's the prayer of Jesus. The word you need to listen to, It's the word of God. He's the doctor of your soul.

The name that identifies you, God, the father. The mission that you're called to is to bring glory to him in this world by showing Jesus by showing God his father. Now let's get into drawings. I've got Ben up here to do some drawings for me, and I hope this is going to work if it doesn't, I have a contingency plan. Sorry.

He's gonna do it on Zoom, and it's all complicated. It's far too complicated for a simple preacher like me. So he's gonna copy me whatever I draw he draws. Are you ready? I could draw anything here and really get him into massive trouble.

Let's draw the Glen family. No. No. Okay. So I want I want to show you this.

Here's my first picture that I want you to see what Jesus is saying, and I hope it does make sense. So let's give a circle, big circle, And inside that circle are all those that God gave Jesus. All those that believe in the message of the apostles. So we'll put a circle in the middle and we could we could put a cross in there or we could put word as we've been seeing, We could put name, and we could put mission in there, and we could put glory in there. So you've got across with those things in the middle there.

You know what? Yeah. Copy it. Let me draw out pictures here too. Got that?

Yep. Brilliant. He's brilliant, isn't he? It's it's gonna look more and more like a pizza as we go on. Here are we then.

Here are all the people that say surrounding this glorious thing. We're in orbit around this wonderful this wonderful message. Yeah? And as we continue to believe that message more, let's draw an arrow, so we're going into that message. Yeah?

As we're believing that message more and more, we're being drawn into that glorious message, that word, that name, that mission. And therefore, obviously, we become closer to each other. We become 1. As we're more 1 with the message we become more 1 together. So, you know, suddenly we would start with the circles now in that inner circle.

Do you understand that? That's what Jesus is praying for. We're 1 as we go to the 1 message which is the cross shaped message, which is about the word, the name, and the mission, and the glory of God. Yeah. That makes sense.

That's my first picture. Now the trouble is There are false words or not necessarily false but alternative words that try to get our attention. Some are false and some some are just alternative words. So let's do the circle again. Yeah.

Let's put the circle in the middle with the cross in there. With WN MG. Sounds good, isn't it? Yeah. Got that.

And then let's put some people in. Just the circles for the moment. Looks like a bear. Yeah. Okay.

Just the circles for the moment. Now we are drawn 2 messages, names, missions outside of what price has given to us. So there's this tension, there's this magnetism that's pulling us out. And we're not going into the direction. We're becoming more and more individualistic and we're going outside of the circle if we're not careful.

And outside the circle, you get words like this, you get words like anxiety, because that takes us up, and suddenly I've got to name myself as the anxious 1. You get depression Listen to people that have mental health issues. They often call themselves by the name that they're given. Very dangerous. I'm not saying they're not real.

Come I'll come to that in a minute. Don't dismiss. If you've got this, don't dismiss it. But if you're calling yourself by those names, you're not hearing what Jesus the doctor is saying. There might be family, that might be a mission that you're into, there might be revenge that you think will be sweet, which I was supposed to talk on last week, but it was a pretty funny thing to talk on after my mom died.

You've got comfort. People are into comfort. Politics outside here. People want to get into politics. You've got sexual orientation.

You spell that because I can't. You've got sin out here, you know, whatever it may be. Everything that's unglorious, really. It may it may be pornography. It may be, you know, whatever it may be.

Whatever your sin is is out here, out here drawing you to go outside of it. You might have a mission of save the planet. Lots of churches are getting into that. Save the planet and, you know, pick up plastic and stuff. All these Don't get me wrong.

Some of these things are really helpful and some of these names for you are helpful diagnosis of what you are, but they're not the real thing. You might have your job becomes your mission or self. You're gonna listen to self or guilt as we saw in that song. At the beginning, or fame, or bitterness. Yeah?

All kinds of things. Whatever it is. I don't know what it is for you, but all of those things and they're all calling us, they're names by which you're going to be called, you're the and you may even call yourself. I'm the their missions, their words that are calling for your attention. And they're all calling us out away from this glorious thing of what you are.

You're a son of the living God. Christ has died for you. God, the father loves you. If you can listen to that, then you become more sane. If you don't listen to that, you go more into the darkness of insanity.

So there, that's my second 1, my second drawing. I hope you're beginning to get this. What we actually need is a flipping a flipping Christian preacher. I wanted to call this sermon, a flipping Christian. Because a flipping Christian or or flipping Christians are gonna say, flip over.

Stop being drawn to names out there. Turn around and be drawn to what Jesus is praying for you. See who you are in Christ, That is what I think is going on. There. Back to Morris's sermon, you can just sit down for just a minute.

Back to Morris's sermon. In his dark times, he revealed a lot of good stuff, so much good because he was rooted in these things. He revealed that he didn't want to read the Bible in his dark times. He just didn't want to read it, but he did read it. His mental torture was so much he could only read a children's bible, but he did read the bible because he needed the word.

Everything inside of him was saying, don't, but he did. He didn't want to pray, but he did pray. He couldn't pray big prayers. I mean, if you know Morris Gannett, he's a terrific prayer. I would employ him here just to pray.

He's fantastic. He's on contagious. And when he prays, it's just a joy to hear him pray. He's got the gift of prayer. But he could only pray simple prayers.

Do you see the same with Tara if you listen to him and saw that thing? Simple prayers, Psalms, the Lord's prayer. He couldn't think up his own prayers. He just prayed. Those prayers.

He but here's the big 1. And this is 1 for those for I think who suffer from depression. He didn't want to go to church, but he did go to church. He did because he is to be in the worshiping community. Let me talk about the battle.

Because I understand that this sermon is gonna get some letters. It's fine. Send them. I understand that some of you want to switch off I understand that you've got a whole load of lists where this is wrong. Please listen.

I'm not I'm saying you've got the battle. And at the moment that you don't want to hear the word and you don't want to be about the mission and you don't want to be praying and you don't want to be in church, that is your battle. That is the spiritual battle. To go off into individualism on your own in the dark, is a temptation that is the spiritual battle. That's where you mustn't be.

Even though you want to be there. Now it's not wrong to suffer, and some of you suffer greatly at these temptations massively. It's not wrong to feel bad. It's not wrong to have depression. There's all kinds of reasons for that.

But I want to show you that's your battle and that's where you've got to get into the orbit. Not only of the apostolic teaching. But of the apostolic community in that teaching. And that may well be your battle. And so I'm asking you, dear brother and sister that suffer that massive battle, help us to help you.

Never go on your own. Make sure you're well connected. I'll do a drawing in a minute. Wake sure you're well connect connected. See satan's oneness is always a digital oneness.

That's what hell is. We'll be out in the outer darkness on our own. Satan's won this is always whispering, always calling for us to go away on our own. But Jesus prays that we'd be 1 united in this mission and as we're united in this mission then we come closer together. So I'm not belittling your battles.

I am not belittling in battles. In fact, I am actually raising your battles up to say they are so big. They're so tough that some of you go through. It's so dark some of you go through. You mustn't do it on your own.

It's too big for you to do it on your own. Sanity comes from sharing of others helping, praying, understanding, never on your own. Let me draw another picture. Ben. Here we go.

So let's go back to our pizza. K. Here's our pizza. There's the mission or the cross with the letters in. And here are you.

Let's say this is you. Yeah? Quite a few views. And you're being tempted by these outside things. Yeah.

Or you might actually just be tempted to look within, if you can draw that 1. Can you do that 1? Yeah. Just look within. You're looking away from the mission.

You're looking within. That's your temptation. That's your battle. Listen. Every 1 of us has battles for this sort of thing.

What you need is not to go off on yourself, but you need a community of those who are at 1 with the apostolic teaching, that are going further and further continuing understanding that God is their father, what their mission is, They're going further in and you need to be attached. These ones that are looking in need to be attached to not just 1 but probably several. You need to be attached. Yeah? You need to be chained to them.

So that when you're losing perspective, when the darkness is coming, you're you're not listening to yourself, You're not on your own. You've got a community that are pulling you in and say hey, hey, hey, hey. It's very very important that we get this. That we're chained to these things. We're chained to people.

It happens. Let me just show you what, you know, to to keep that 1. Because you can you can have it with couples as well. It's not just depression and those issues, but you might have you've got this and you've got say a couple in here. Yeah.

Oh, he's brilliant. He's doing it all from start. Here's the cross. And you as a couple are so introverted, you've never got connected, and this happens again and again, you've never really got connected into church. So you just talk amongst yourselves.

Most of your influence is from the outside, calling you to other missions and to other purposes, and other names, and all kinds of things. And so as a couple, you need to be connected, and you'll be leaning out there, but you want to get connected to other couples and other friends so that they are going in towards the oneness and to the mission and they're helping you. And I want to tell you this happens again and again in my experience. Those people that go off on their own or don't connect into family church are on the periphery and they their bubble explodes and they've gone. So don't treat church like something little like a club you can come to or not come to.

It's important that we're 1. I hope you get this now. Thank you very much. Let me just apply this a little bit more. I know it's quite long, but it's important, I think.

I'm not belittling your battles. 1 of the things you have to decide is is genuine relationships, are they utterly necessary? If you say no, I can make it on my own, you don't believe doctor Jesus. You just don't believe him. Is Jesus right when he says salvation is not just individual.

You're called to a body. To a family, to a fellowship, to be a brick in the temple? Is he right that that's the way you thrive and become sane. Sanity is not a well structured internal psyche. That's torture.

Sanity you'll never find on your own. That's narcissus. Totally everything out of perspective. Talking to yourself. Sanity never comes on your own.

Listen to Jordan Peterson. Here we are. We go outside the Bible now, but listen to him. If you are embedded in a functional social community, then every every everyone around you is constantly reminding you how to be sane. They let you know that your jokes aren't funny.

They let you know that you're too irritable and you're arrogant. So that holds you together. It's interesting that he's saying that the latest psychologists are talking about social distribution sanity now. It used to be you've got to find yourself and that's of course the big popular thing, and you will find yourself on your own. And in the Christian version, I'll read the scriptures, I'll go off on my own, and I'll discover it.

No, you won't, according to Jesus. You need the community of God's people, to invest the word of God into you because the problem is you don't see your own faults. You don't know how bad tempered you are. And tells me that's good. Others tell me we have a very good eldership.

They'll tell me Peter, you're a grumpy old so and so or something like that. We need others. There's lots of things wrong with you, and there's lots of things wrong with me that I just can't see in the mirror. I mean, you can't even see the back of your head. You have never ever seen yourself by the way.

Only this bit, only the front. You've seen images of yourself, but you've never really seen yourself. But others see you, all of you, and you need them. You cannot battle on your own because you don't know that your perspectives are out of joint, that they're wrong. You need someone to say stop it, you've got the wrong perspective.

You need someone to say, you're just being foolish. You need someone to say, look, just forgive them for goodness sake. It wasn't that bad. You need someone to say to you, no, no, no, they didn't mean that. You need someone to do that with you and that's the community.

Single people, you cannot be a Christian on your own, you have to be united. And there's no good saying, well, I believe in trends of the apostles? No. You don't if you're an individual. You don't.

You don't. You're the same as me with the ECG. You seek you can interpret it yourself. Now, the temptation in relationships to not be investing in relationships, is massive these days. It takes time.

You don't get to know If you're new to the church, it takes you time. It takes about 2 years, doesn't it? Really to get to know people? It may be that you've been once bitten and twice shy. Yeah.

Well, I get that. We've all had that. That girlfriend dumped me after her grandma died. When I gave the grandma advice. What's up with her?

Yeah? It may be that cried narcissism. It may be that you're so offended when someone says to you something. Maybe right now you're offended. Terrific.

It's great to be offended because you can see whether it's right or wrong. But it also helps you in the area of doctrine. We go askew without the church, doctrinally. If you're drawn to doctrines outside, you need to get back to the apostolic teaching of the word. Look, there's other things I could say and I've gone on long enough.

Work some of these out yourself. Don't just dismiss this. Think this stuff through. What I'm saying is, Jesus is praying that you will understand this and increase and we've got to all grow in this area. That it's not just me on my own with God, never has been.

We are united in 1 message, yeah, apostolic message. Under 1 name, a family name. God is our father. About 1 mission which is the glorified Christ as we together come closer so that we can be about reaching the lost. Don't think I'm having a go at anyone that suffers in these areas.

I'm not. I'm pleading with you and saying brothers and sisters, Together, we need each other. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for these amazing words and prayer of Jesus. Reminds us just of what he has done, of who you are, of who we are, thank you that Jesus leads us to sanity.

We look out the world and see the insane world that we're in listening to so much advice, but rejecting the same 1. Help us listen, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.