Jesus' Prayer for You | Your End of the Bargain

We're glad you're joining us for A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast supported by Harvest Partners. Get more encouraging audio content when you subscribe to Pastor Greg's Daily Devos.

Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. Do you want to be safe in the protective arms of Jesus? And that's exactly where you will be. Listen, you are kept. You are safe. More than 15,000 lives are saved each year by seat belts.

But seat belts don't help one bit if you don't buckle up. It's our choice to be safe or not. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out we have a choice whether to avail ourselves of the safety and security we find in Jesus. This world is a scary place.

Don't we know it all too well? We'll find out how to look beyond this world for help. It's a message from Pastor Greg's series in John. The title of my message is Jesus Prayer for You.

So here's the question. What does Jesus pray when He intercedes for us? And that is revealed to us here in John chapter 17. Now we often refer to the very familiar prayer, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and so forth as the Lord's Prayer. The Bible never calls that the Lord's Prayer, but we do.

I think if we are really accurate, we might call it the disciples' prayer. Because to the point, that was not a prayer that Jesus Himself ever prayed. That was a prayer given in response to the request of the disciples, who said, Lord, teach us how to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. So Jesus said, okay, after this manner or in this way, pray our Father who art in heaven and so forth. So that is not really the Lord's Prayer. Jesus never prayed forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

Jesus said no sin to be forgiven of. Okay, so that is a disciples' prayer. Here in John chapter 17, this is the real Lord's Prayer. This is a prayer that only Jesus could pray.

So it really gives us an insight into His desire for us. Verse 7. They have known all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words You have given Me, and they have received them, and they have surely known that I came forth from You, and they have believed that You sent Me.

I pray for them. I do not pray 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. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father. Keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. So we will stop there. And so here is what Jesus prays for us. If you are taking notes, you might want to write this down. First He prays for our preservation.

Point number one. He prays for our preservation. Look at verse 11. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as we are. He prays for You to be preserved.

Now we all know people who have made a commitment, and maybe I will use that word in quotes. They have made a commitment to follow Jesus, and they mysteriously crashed and burned. You saw them in church week after week, maybe even for a time, month after month, and all of a sudden they are gone. You can't find them anywhere.

You call them and they change their phone number. They don't respond to emails anymore. They are just gone. Where did they go? What happened to them? And then you find out that they fell away spiritually. Maybe their marriage fell apart. Maybe they went back to the old life again doing things they used to do.

But they just no longer had any interest in following Jesus. And it freaks you out a little bit because you are thinking, wow, if someone like that could fall away, am I next? Could it be me next? Well, here is my answer to your question.

It may actually surprise you. That is entirely up to you. Do you want to be next? Do you want to fall?

Well, you certainly can because God has given you a free will. Do you not want to fall? Do you want to be safe in the protective arms of Jesus? And that is exactly where you will be.

Listen. God wants you safe. But you have to do your part. There is God's part.

And there is your part. Because the moment you fail to move forward spiritually is the moment you effectively begin to go backwards spiritually. Not overnight. If a train is rolling down the tracks at full speed and they cut power, the train doesn't just suddenly stop. If you threw the brakes on it, it will begin to stop. But if you cut power, it will still go very quickly.

In fact, there is so much momentum you won't even notice it at first. It will begin very quickly and then it is a little slower. Slightly slower. Just a little bit slower. Then a little slower. Then even slower.

And then it rolls to a slow stop. That is what backsliding is like for most people. It is not overnight. You don't call up your Christian buddy and say, hey dude, want to backslide tonight?

Just totally abandon our faith and ruin everything. Yeah, okay, what time do you want to start? There might be some idiot out there that has done that. But that is not generally how it works.

Here is how it works. Well, I am kind of busy. I can't really get to reading the Bible this morning because I spent an hour on Facebook, right? I can't really.

I can't make it to church. There are other things going on besides my favorite TV series just started. Or you know the football games are back on again.

We have got to follow our team. Or whatever it is. It is just sort of relaxing my grip here. Relaxing my grip there. A little bit less over here.

A little bit less over there. And it starts the process of slowing down. So if you want to be close to the Lord that is entirely up to you.

Listen, God will do His part. God will keep you. But if you are yanking your hand out of His hand that is a bit of a problem. Sort of like when you take a small child and maybe you are crossing the street. You grip their hand or maybe even their wrist a bit tightly.

So you have control of them. And God is holding on to you. But the question is not is God holding you? The question is are you holding on to God? God will keep you.

He will hold up His end of the bargain. Psalm 121 says, I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, he who keeps Israel will not slumber or sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. Now if I want to be in the shade of God, guess what?

I need to be close to Him. If you want to walk in the shade of another person you have to be close. Sort of like drafting.

You road bikers know about this right? If you are out riding and someone is ahead of the pack. If you get right behind them you can draft.

Which means they help to pull you a little bit right? So if you want to draft behind God. If you want to stand in the shadow of God you need to be close to God.

And if you are far from God or distant from God that creates the problem. The Jewish priests were told to pronounce this blessing over the people of Israel repeatedly. You know it. Number 624. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord bless you and keep you. Then in the New Testament 1 Peter 1 5 says we are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation.

Ready to be revealed in the last time. Jude 1 1 says to those who are called sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ. Listen you are kept.

You are safe. And by the way that phrase preserved can be translated continually kept. You are continually kept by the Lord.

It is a continuing result of a past action. Let's say that you had the good fortune to actually buy your home and pay off your mortgage. You no longer have to make payments on your home anymore. It is your home. So enjoy it.

Don't keep making payments unless you are stupid. You own it. Enjoy it. Live in it.

And that is salvation. It is paid for. You don't have to make payments on it. It is purchased for you. It is given to you as a gift from God. So live in it. Enjoy it. Let it affect everything that you do.

And so you are not going to lose it. You can enjoy what God has given. You are preserved in Christ. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

We really enjoy hearing when Pastor Greg's teaching and preaching are impacting lives. Pastor Greg, I grew up with a Christian father who told me about God's love for me. But when I was 16, my dad died. At that moment, I said, how could a God of love do this to me? So I walked away from God. And over the next 11 years, God sent people into my life to nudge me back to faith.

And then about a year ago, I was listening to you on the radio in my car at 4 30 a.m. one morning. And finally, I prayed with you leading me to ask Jesus into my life. I've started listening to your podcast every day and reading the New Living Translation Bible from you as well. Thank you for doing God's work.

Bless you. We're encouraged when we hear stories like that because it helps us know how these messages are impacting people. Have Pastor Greg studies in God's Word touched your life?

If so, would you let him know? Drop an email to Greg at Harvest dot org. That's Greg at Harvest dot org. Well, we're talking about the security found in Christ. Pastor Greg has been explaining how we are preserved in Christ. He continues his message now called Jesus Prayer for You.

Now, here's an interesting twist on this. Jesus mentions Judas Iscariot in his prayer. Verse 12 of John 17. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name.

Those who you have given me, I have kept. And none of them is lost except the son of perdition that the Scripture might be fulfilled. The son of perdition is Judas. And by the way, that could be translated to the son of waste.

And by waste, we mean excrement. Which I think is a really good name for him. Don't ever name your kid Judas. Or don't call your kid the son of perdition.

This is not a good title. Yeah, that guy, he's just like waste. I haven't lost him. Why did he not lose him? Because Judas was never a believer to start with. Oh yes, he was an apostle in good standing.

Oh yes, he was handpicked by Jesus. Oh yes, he could even legitimately say he was a friend of Christ. Because Christ addressed him as friend in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But the fact is it was not a reciprocal friendship. He took whatever Jesus offered but it was always in his heart to betray Christ. And ultimately the Bible says Satan entered the heart of Judas Iscariot. See, Jesus keeps his children.

But Judas was never one of his children. We're told over in the book of Jude, keep yourself and the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. This comes back to God's part and my part. I don't keep myself saved but I keep myself safe.

Does that make sense? I don't keep myself safe. God saves me. I am saved. It's a done deal.

So that's established. But I keep myself safe. And what that means is I want to keep myself in the love of God. Though God's love is unsought, undeserved, unconditional, it is possible for me to be out of sync with God's love. So when Jude says keep yourself in the love of God, he's effectively saying keep yourself away from those things that are unlike him. Keep yourself from any influence that violates his love. Keep yourself in a place where God can actively show his love to you. Because we all know some places that if I go to that place, I'm not really in a place where I'm keeping myself in the love of God. I know certain people I can hang around with. If I hang around with those people, that is not going to encourage me to keep myself in the love of God. So go to those places where you can keep yourself in the love of God and avoid those places where you can't. And run with other people that share this desire.

Let me just illustrate it really simply. How many of you are going on a diet right now? You've gone on a diet. More of you should be raising your hand frankly.

From what I'm seeing, I'm thinking, come on. Anyway, I digress. I digress and insult simultaneously. So if you're on a diet or if you're trying to lose weight, don't hang around in donut stores, right? Don't hang around the pizza parlor or whatever.

So that's an obvious illustration. But there's those other things that can feed sin. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he said in the Lord's Prayer that we are to pray, lead us not into temptation. Basically he's saying, Lord, help me to not put myself in a place where I could fall into sin. So he prays for us. He prays that we will stay close to him. Point number two, Jesus prays for our consecration.

He prays for our consecration. Now look at John 17 verse 13. Now I come to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of this world. Just as I'm not of this world.

This is interesting. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of this world. Just as I'm not of this world.

Sanctify them through your truth. Your word is truth. We live in the world.

What does that mean? I think Christians get confused sometimes. There's an earth and there's a world.

Alright. The earth is made by the Lord. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It's not talking about planet earth. When the Bible talks about the world it's talking about a mentality. It's talking about a culture. It's talking about a way of thinking. It's talking about the whole planet or system under the control of Satan. That is why the Bible calls the devil the God of this world. And that is why 1 John 2 16 says, All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world. The New Living Translation puts it this way. The world offers only lust for physical pleasure and lust for everything we see.

And pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. So Jesus is saying in verse 14, The world hates you.

Well that's no fun. No one wants to be hated. We want to be loved. We want to be liked. We want to be appreciated. We want to be affirmed because we've always been number one.

Just for showing up we got a participation trophy and everything. And then you become a Christian. And people just hate you. I hate you. What do you mean you hate me? I hate you. I hate what you believe.

I hate everything you stand for. Well you just became light in a dark place. Let me ask you a question. When you're in a theater and you're waiting for the movie to start, do you like it when someone fires up the old cell phone and starts texting?

That little light. It's like turn it off and just start throwing M&M's at them. Don't do that. Because I did it and it was bad.

No I didn't. But you know that light it's irritating. It bothers me. I'm watching this movie and all I'm seeing is you texting or doing whatever you're doing on your phone.

Seriously? Well that's how you come off to people who are not believers. They're in their little dark place enjoying their little dark life and you come in and you're like. And they're like get out of here. I don't want you here.

I don't want you here. I'm not saying anything. I know you aren't.

But it's just you. Because I know what you stand for. Don't be insulted by that. Wear it as a badge of honor.

Because that's a Christian. Jesus said, Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say, All men are of evil against you falsely from Isaac. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for so persecuted the prophets that were before you. I love that he says falsely. Make sure it's falsely. In other words, don't have people get mad at you because you're just weird.

Or obnoxious or obtrusive or insulting or whatever else. Just let it be because you're a follower of Jesus. So Jesus says, Look, the world is going to hate you. And I find it fascinating that he says, I'm not going to take them out of the world. You know, if Jesus wanted to, he could have raptured you on the day of your conversion.

That would have been kind of cool. Just pray this prayer. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I commit my life to you. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name. Whoa.

Wow. But that doesn't happen, does it? He leaves us here to live in this world. Why does he leave us here? Why doesn't he just take us home? Because he wants to reach this world through us.

I don't know why. But God has chosen to primarily reach non-believing people through believing people. He has chosen to communicate his love and spread the gospel through us doing it.

And specifically through our verbal communication of it. But some of us want to keep as much distance as we can from non-believers. We sort of live in a believers bubble from sun up to sun down. We get up and we get ready for work that day and we're listening to Christian radio which is great. Then we go read our Bible and we read a little Christian devotion. And then we get in our car and we're listening to Christian music in the Christian car that we got from a Christian car dealer with everything's Christian and wearing Christian clothes. And then I get to the place where I work and I surround myself only with Christians and I ignore all the non-believers and I'm not making fun of anybody listening to Christian radio. We happen to have a radio program. Or reading Christian devotions or obviously reading the Bible.

This is all good. But your objective is not complete separation from all non-believers. How can they be reached if you're not out there among them influencing them? So we have a number of choices how we can live in this world. One is isolation. Isolation where we have little to no contact with non-believers. That's a mistake. Because the Bible says how will they hear unless someone tell them.

Number two it's insulation. Turn a blind eye to them. Well I don't care that they're not Christians. That's their problem. I've got my salvation. Why should I bother with theirs? Another is imitation.

Where I become like the world and not the Lord. But the best one is permeation and infiltration. So it's not isolation. It's not insulation. It's not imitation.

It's permeation and infiltration. So without compromising my values I go into their world and I shine the light of Jesus Christ to them. That's what we're supposed to do. Pastor Greg Laurie, with biblical insight today on how we're to leave our bubble and reach out to those around us who need the light of Christ. Glad you've joined us today here on A New Beginning for a study called Jesus Prayer for You. And then we're so happy to be making available a book that will be available to you that will be available to you that will be available to you that will be available to you and then we're so happy to be making available a book that has some wonderful insights, well-researched insights into heaven and the afterlife. And Pastor Greg is speaking to his friend Lee Strobel, the best-selling author of this new book. So Lee Strobel, you are 70 years old.

Yes, I am. I'm an old man. Well, I'm right behind you.

So I'm 69. But you've just written a book about heaven. In fact, it's called The Case for Heaven. You know, we all leave a legacy. We're all remembered for something. How would you like people to remember you?

Wow, well, that's a great question, Greg. I think about something, what would I want on my tombstone? And I think I'd want something along the lines of he dragged as many people to heaven with him as he could. I love that.

I love that. You know, I mean, God redeemed me, he changed me, he transformed me, he gave me a mission, he gave me purpose in life. And I just want people to experience that. I want people to have what I've had, which is the joy and the adventure and the wonder of knowing God personally through Jesus Christ, and experiencing that on a daily basis, of being enriched by Scripture and the wisdom and the stories and the insights that we get from Scripture.

I just want people to experience that. And I think of my father-in-law was an atheist, and he had a stroke, and the doctors told us he was going to die soon. And so we had him at our house in a La-Z-Boy chair, and I said to my wife and his wife, who was a Christian, he said, you know, give me one more shot.

And they went out to do something, and it was just me and Al. And I looked to him and I said, Al, do you realize you're dying? I don't want to be in heaven without you. Your daughter, your grandchildren, your wife, we don't want to be in heaven without you.

Al, please. And for 45 minutes I cajoled him, I reasoned with him, I explained the gospel again and again, and then I began to see tears in his eyes. And I said, you want to receive Jesus right now, don't you? And he nodded, and at the age of 87, 87 years old, an atheist his whole life.

Unbelievable. Yep, he prayed, he received Christ, and then my wife came back, and his wife, and we had a celebration. We were going to cook a dinner and have a party to celebrate Al coming home to God, but then we noticed something was wrong. His left side was sagging. He was having another stroke. We called an ambulance. Leslie, my wife, got in the ambulance with him, went to the hospital, I got in the car. She got to the hospital, and they put him on a gurney, and they were wheeling him into the emergency room, and he looked up at Leslie, and he said, tell Lee thanks.

Oh, wow. And he went in, and that stroke ended up destroying his mind, and he lingered for a while, and then he died. You got in under the wire.

Under the wire. It was the last cogent conversation of his life, and he received Jesus as his Lord and Savior, and I will spend eternity in heaven with him, and that's the wonder of God's grace. That's Lee Strobel you're hearing from, everyone, and he has a brand new book out called The Case for Heaven. It's subtitled A Journalist Investigates Evidence for Life After Death, and we're sending it to you for your gift of any size to help us continue to teach God's word and proclaim the gospel because we, like Lee, want to drag as many people to heaven as we can.

Yeah, that's it. In fact, our mission statement is knowing him and making him known. That's the heart and soul of what we do, and we love hearing when others have taken the baton. We heard from a listener who talked about recently sharing Christ with a family member, which can be a little challenging. He said, I shared the gospel, and it truly felt amazing. Pastor Greg, you've helped give me the confidence I needed to talk with her tonight, so thank you. That's so encouraging to hear and a good confirmation that people are being helped and encouraged and confirmation that your investments in this ministry are making a real difference. And when you invest right now, we'll be glad to thank you by sending you a copy of this brand new book, The Case for Heaven. So call us at 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us any time. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more from Pastor Greg's message called Jesus' Prayer for You. We'll consider the Lord's appeal for unity. Yes, even in the midst of this divided culture. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Lord. This is the day, the day when life begins Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.