The Deepest Desire of Christ
Given to Unity • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsJesus begins to pray for the not-yet saved future church members.
Notes
Transcript
The Deepest Desire of Christ (Given to Unity Series)
The Deepest Desire of Christ (Given to Unity Series)
When I was on vacation I went down the Youtube trail which lead me to one of the greatest speeches of all time.
He is careful say all that needed in the first half
Mahalia Jackson “Tell them about the Dream!”
Today we conclude Jesus’ prayer and in a similar way as Dr. King,
Jesus had given them a discourse from the upper room in 13, chapter 14 the importance Jesus’s departure and return, chapter 15 and 16 how they will carry His name into the world and it is all concise and organized and then he begins to pray and pours out his hearts.
He is praying for himself,
his disciples
and in the part 20-26 he is praying for the church. Like Dr. King, he’s just speaking from the heart about his deepest desires.
Main Idea: Jesus's greatest desire is for us to demonstrate true unity that stems from our connection with God, so that the world may believe in Jesus's love for them. 2x
Question: Is that your deepest desire?
Dr. King dreamt of that. That speech was given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and so he is addressing the government, but if you read his books like Strength to Love you see that his power to overcome hate with love streamed from his relationship with God.
In the US we are sold the American dream and it has become the deepest desire for most of us.
To have the job of my dreams,
The house I long for
More money and comfort
The power to control all of my situations as I want.
And if this world is all there is those are good desires.
However, Jesus’s desires are bigger than this world.
My desire this morning is that we will see His desire as better than the ones we have been sold so that we can exchange those desires for a greater one. One that we can surrender to.
I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message.
May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.
I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one.
I am in them and You are in Me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world’s foundation.
Righteous Father! The world has not known You. However, I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me.
I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them.
Pray
Christs’s deepest desire involves the church being united as He is united to the Father (v.20-23)
Explanation.
Notice this prayer is not for everyone. “For those who believe through their message.”
John 17:9 “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those You have given Me, because they are Yours.”
Those who are His, are brought out of the world by a belief.
A belief in what?
The message that Christ preached.
The message that the disciples preached.
The message that was from God.
The Oneness Jesus is speaking of in verse 21 is not oneness in “essence” but in purpose.
It is hard to define the one essence shared by the Godhead. What we know is that they (The F, S, HS), are all fully God, one in essence yet existing in three persons.
Jesus is not asking that we become the 4th person in the trinity.
Instead that we would have the same desire to fulfill God’s purpose that Jesus had.
The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,
Illustration
Those in Captivity do not always understand your motives.
The oppressed sometimes find it hard to live free.
Trying to convince a blind person of sight is a hard sell.
And in a fallen world full of broken people who have been deeply hurt by those in the pursuit of their own desires regardless of the pain it causes others,
distrust, anger, jealousy, fear, anxiety line the walls of their hearts and minds.
Maybe you can relate to that.
You tried to love someone, and they lashed out or rejected you. You have probably been hurt and even become anxious or fearful to share your faith because of those experience.
Jesus can relate to your situation! He also experienced those things. He even died at the hands of those kinds of people.
However Jesus understood His purpose was to do the Father’s will.
The Father knew that they would be overcome by His acts of love and that some would turn from their ways and seek to be one with Him.
God’s deepest desire is to see those trapped by hate, anger, fear, abuse, and all other means of oppression freed by His love.
In the same way, the church is to be one with Christ not in essence but in purpose.
Those who have been changed by the Love of God found in the message of Christ should want more than anything to see others loved beyond their hurts, habits and hang ups and brought into a relationship with God.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jr. (Baptist Minister and Civil Rights Activist); Tony Evans
Jesus could have prayed, “help them avoid this terrible world.”
I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.
What makes the evil one so evil is that he will try to convince you to settle for a lesser purpose.
The American Dream is God’s dream for you.
You should fear people, governments and crowds more than God.
Don’t put yourself in positions so that others may hurt you.
Love those that love you, Hate those who hate you.
The number one enemy to the unity of the church is narcissism.
Illustration Gallup Pole
The average church goers is only three experiences from leaving their church.
1. Bad sermon,
2. Someone says something that hurts your feelings
3. Some ministry of the church doesn’t do what you want it to
And people say I’m out.
This happens because people are not coming to the church to fulfill the Christ’s purpose, they are coming to be filled.
We should not ask what does this church have to give me, but What do I have to give to the church so that WE can love the world and see sinners saved.
VIDEO HERE
How do I fulfill Jesus’s deepest desire?
Start by asking yourself where does evangelism rank in you life?
Is it a priority or an inconveniences?
We began this summer doing the Love Community push sharing our faith weekly and inviting others to worship with you.
Have you made that a priority?
What would you need to move around to do that and is it worth it to you?
I was talking to one of our elders who help me see that I shouldn’t insist people be at the food truck Fridays, the farmers markets and the pickle ball events on Tuesdays
You may not be able to do those but what can you do?
Maybe the first step is…
Application
How do I fulfill Jesus’s deepest desire
1. Know that all of Heaven is rooting for you. (Jesus prayed and is praying)
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need repentance.
How do I fulfill Jesus’s deepest desire?
2. Know that the message of God is powerful and changes lives.
For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
Therefore you must know it
How do I fulfill Jesus’s deepest desire?
3. By remaining in Him
I have given them the glory You have given Me. May they be one as We are one.
This refers to the believer’s participation in all the attributes of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit “I am in them”
If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.
“I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.
No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.
You are My friends if you do what I command you.
Closing
Jesus loves those who rebel against Him even to the point of death. You were one of those rebels too.
Yet when someone shared the message that God loved the world and sent Jesus to teach the message of hope and fulfill its teaching you believed and were given His love and his spirit.
He is for you. His deepest desire is that you would share his glory in your life with others.
May that be our deepest desire as well.