[00:00:01 – 00:00:32] You know when you hear um the names of these big companies, let me ask you what comes to your mind. Apple, HP, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Disney. You know, the one thing that's common to all of these big tech companies, the the big tech as they are called, is they all [00:00:27 – 00:00:58] boast as companies that began in garages. You know, the the seed idea that launched these companies and their founders when they dreamt of these, they happened in garages. But today we're going to see how your idea and my idea came to God. [00:00:55 – 00:01:26] When he thought about you and me, how he thought about you and me. What he did to draw you and me to him. You and I were not a garage idea to God. You and I were thought of way before that. And God just didn't think about you and me. He did something even more amazing. He entered into a covenant. So we are [00:01:24 – 00:01:55] starting and kicking off a new series called covenant. We are going to look at all the major covenants in the Bible over the next several weeks. And through this we we will see how covenants are one of the foundational underlying unified thread that runs throughout the Bible and how through each covenant God progressively reveals [00:01:52 – 00:02:24] more of his plan until it gets fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As we learn about these covenants, we are going to draw a lot of applications from this personally for our spiritual life. for our marriages, our parenting, our work, and all of that. And I've relished doing our walk through the Bible series. And and this is something that's very dear and precious to me. So I'm preaching this for the first time being [00:02:21 – 00:02:52] selfish for myself because I enjoy this and I I want to learn more for myself and out of that share some thoughts for all of you which I'm sure will be very edifying. So the covenant we are going to look at today we got a glimpse of it from this prayer that Jesus prays in John chapter 17. It is famously called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. [00:02:48 – 00:03:20] But in this prayer, Jesus reveals to us something that is mind-boggling and absolutely fascinating and encouraging for you and me. If somewhere I ask the question or perhaps you have asked this question, what was there before anything? What existed before the world began? What was there before as evolutionists [00:03:16 – 00:03:47] and secular scientists talk about as the big bang? What was there before the big bang? Right? Or rather who was there before anything? It's a very fundamental existential question and how you answer to that question has ramifications for all aspects of your life. And here in this high priestly prayer, [00:03:44 – 00:04:14] Jesus Christ is almost finished ministering to people. He gave his lengthy discourse for over five chapters from John 12- 16 to his disciples talking [snorts] about so many different things. And now he knows he has to go to the cross and and what comes after that. So he prays and John has captured this prayer because we know he's one of the closest disciples of Jesus. Perhaps he heard [00:04:12 – 00:04:43] Jesus praying this aloud and through that he has written this prayer, beautiful prayer in this gospel. And we can see Jesus is lifting the curtain of what happened before the world began to give us into a glimpse of a picture, a reality that only he knew because he was there. [00:04:40 – 00:05:10] And this is a blessing and a privilege that you and I get to see something that transpired within the Trinity when they were existing by themselves in perfect harmony and in all of their glory. A secret conversation between the father and the son and the presence of the holy spirit. You and I get a glimpse of that. [00:05:07 – 00:05:39] And this is one of the most amazing things about the Bible. Fundamentally, what we are going to see here was what happened within the council of the father, son, and the holy spirit before time began. So you and I can know that we were not created from chaos. [00:05:33 – 00:06:06] We were created from glory for glory. That's one of the main essence of this prayer. Can we repeat this together? We were created from glory for glory. And I want to try and unpack for that that for us today. And the title of my sermon is planned in eternity. We were not a cosmic accident. [00:06:03 – 00:06:35] We were not the product of some mythological first person from whom everyone deres. This is incomparably good news that inspires us to now live glorious lives for the sake of glorifying God now and forever. And this should inform everything we do, why we do what we do. So, we're going to look at three things [00:06:32 – 00:07:03] from our text today. We are planned in eternity to be known. We are planned in eternity for glory. We are planned in eternity to be redeemed. We are planned in eternity to be known. The first verse in this chapter begins. It says when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven [00:07:00 – 00:07:30] and said, "Father, the hour has come, glorify your son that the son may glorify you." You know when Jesus talks about the hour, it is referring to the hour of his death, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. It's an hour of fulfillment. This is not plan B. It was an hour that [00:07:27 – 00:07:59] was carefully thought of, crafted, planned within the council of God before world created and executed in perfect immaculate fashion. This is not God reacting to human failure. Oh, after he creates and man falls, then he's like, "Oops, what do we do now? Should we go and fix this?" No. Before the world existed, before there was [00:07:55 – 00:08:27] anything, the father gave you and me to his son, before we were we ever knew God in time and space, you and I were known by God. This is not a random decision in human history. It's it's an eternal purpose. So it says Jesus prays father the hour has come glorify your son that the son [00:08:24 – 00:08:56] may glorify you. Let's see how does the father glorify the son and how does the son glorify the father. Again it says in verse two we can read how this panned out. since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. You know the father glorifies the son or like exalts him. You know when [00:08:53 – 00:09:27] you and I we all when you have children when they have birthdays we we try to do something to make them feel special isn't it? That's why we buy them gifts and and and and and whatever it may be. And we we because they are our children, they also know that everything that is ours is them. They get to live in our same house. They they get all the blessings from us. So what does the father do to glorify the son? Says you have given him [00:09:23 – 00:09:54] authority over all flesh. Number one, the Father gives Christ authority over every human being who ever lived on planet earth. Both to save them if he desires and to judge them if they don't because he is the king. The father glorifies his son by making him the king over all his creation. [00:09:52 – 00:10:23] Secondly, it says to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. A cosmic divine transaction happened before time began that involved you and me. Even before the world was created, we were not just in the mind of God, but our whole life and redemption was planned out. You and I were known by God [00:10:21 – 00:10:52] before time began. We all want to be known, isn't it? And which is why most of the recent social media apps um have gained traction to gain in uh likes and reach and followers cuz we want to be known by as many people as possible and as widely as possible and as famous as possible. But no matter how many followers you [00:10:49 – 00:11:21] have or how many likes and validation you receive on social media, nothing will make you satisfied than knowing you only need to be concerned about being known by one person and that is God. And he says, "I did that even before the world was created and before you were born." That's amazing, isn't it? What are the implications of this? The implications are that you are special. [00:11:17 – 00:11:51] You're not a cosmic accident of atoms or an afterthought or a random purposeless human being. You are not made just for this world. You were made for eternity. You were created for eternity and you were given to his son to be cared for. God knew you before time and loved you [00:11:47 – 00:12:19] in Christ. And Jesus prays in verse three, he says, "And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Jesus prays and he describes what eternal life is. [00:12:15 – 00:12:48] How does Jesus glorify the father? He says by giving eternal life to all whom the father gave him. What does Jesus Christ desire? He says it this is eternal life. Eternal life is not living happily ever after in heaven. It starts right here, right now. It says that they may know you. It's about knowing [00:12:44 – 00:13:16] the only true God. We have perhaps heard this quote from me several times. I want to go a little deeper into that because it has very serious uh and and significant ramifications for parenting and u and and for our understanding of the gospel. So stay with me on this. This is something I've thought to thought a bit hard and deep to share. Packer reminds us that knowing [00:13:12 – 00:13:43] God is different from knowing about God. He says you can know all about God and still not know God. There are so many people in this world, they know a lot about God, whether it's the God of the Bible or Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism, but really don't know God. Because knowing God is not just an intellectual exercise or is it's not just a purely mystical experience. [00:13:40 – 00:14:11] Knowing God is covenantal. It's relational and above all transformational. When you know God, it needs to transform your heart, your mind, your spirit and your whole life. And what is this transformation we are talking about? Knowing God begins with a humbling of our heart and mind. You know, as we [00:14:09 – 00:14:40] refer to the biatitudes as a template for the gospel in our church, Jesus Christ gave the blueprint. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." You know, when we think of poor in spirit, we think of being just a humble person from our heart and soft and kind and all of that. But what he is talking about is you cannot know God by [00:14:38 – 00:15:09] yourself. You know the biggest idol that we have today especially here in Silicon Valley is not even the idolatory of other religions. Maybe to some extent we idolize career or money or all of those things. But actually after I thought through a lot more, I don't think people in Silicon Valley care that much about money [00:15:07 – 00:15:41] because everybody has money. You know, this is one of the richest places on earth. I don't think people in Silicon Valley care that much about power because everybody has is doing incredibly good in in terms of their work. The biggest idol I think for us living here and especially perhaps for our children is faith in [00:15:37 – 00:16:13] the human mind and reason because we have some of the best schools in the world to which our children go to whether it's from kindergarten to to university. We have the world's best tech companies that create technology that's impacts the world. So for people who are here, especially if you're a church-going regular Christian family, sin doesn't show up as addiction to [00:16:07 – 00:16:41] drugs or alcohol or murder or violence. So, the question I keep getting asked a lot and I see several um of us struggling with how do I know I'm a sinner? I'm not doing all those bad things. I'm I I didn't even have a chance to do all those bad things for most of us, isn't it? But you know where sin is how it shows [00:16:35 – 00:17:09] up in those situations especially for us it shows up through our implicit faith and trust in our mind because we are smart. We can think well. We can solve math in our sleep. Come up with answers to complicated things just like that. And so we begin to trust our human mind. [00:17:07 – 00:17:38] We think we can reason our way to God. And if God is not able to be rationalized, then we have a problem. We think we can reason our way out of our problems in life too. Our default response when something happens is let's think about it. I want to process this. I want to dissect it and partition it like we do in our in our jobs. Find the [00:17:35 – 00:18:05] root cause so I can fix it. That's sin right there. And I'll explain even more. You need not be doing big external behavioral sins. But if you're relying on your mind and a reason to analyze everything, you know what that is. It's pride [00:18:03 – 00:18:33] and arrogance. And you're not experiencing what Jesus described as the first step. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Saying, I have nothing to bring to the table, not even the ability to know you. I find this is very hard to do if you grow up in this in this intellectually stimulating environment like this. I saw this in Europe and this is why it's hard. Most of the European countries are [00:18:31 – 00:19:03] post postChristian because of enlightenment and and how they came to place their faith in the human mind. If you're a first generation immigrant, you're just in survival mode. But our children who are growing up don't have any of the pressures we faced. And they may not think they have a problem. But we may be fueling their problem by emphasizing education and career and academics thinking if those [00:19:01 – 00:19:31] things are given their life is going to be great. But those very things can fuel their pride and their self-thinking preventing them from being poor in spirit and go to God. And how does this play out? It plays out in the broader American culture of individualistic extreme autonomy to think I am important. I need my [00:19:29 – 00:19:59] personal space. My feelings are important. Individualistic absolute autonomy is an expression of a proud arrogant mind before God. So the sin is not in the doing but in the thinking and it's not a Silicon Valley phenomenon. It's a Garden of Eden phenomenon. [00:19:56 – 00:20:27] Remember what happens after the fall. The fall happened because they eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. because they thought that's what Satan tempted them and when they did now they thought they can know God by themselves. That's what philosophers from Emanuel Kunt and others after them have said. It's phenomenology. You can know God [00:20:25 – 00:20:59] through your experiences, through your feelings, through through through what you can touch and feel. And what did they do? They covered their body with fig leaves. They got so preoccupied with their physical body and the physical senses and how it panned out in human civilization is now to try to discern truth merely through our human faculties. Maybe in the eastern world this leads to [00:20:56 – 00:21:28] mysticism and idolatory and other religions. But in the west it's the idolatry of the mind and faith in human reason that's the biggest expression of our sin. Does this make sense? Think about it. I'd like to hear because this will help you when your children come and ask you why do I need the gospel? Why do I need Jesus? I don't do any of this bad stuff. I haven't had any of these problems. [00:21:24 – 00:21:55] Well, just ask how you think and how yourself comes out every single time. Whether it's in a fight with your sibling or how you respond to your parents or how you even think about life in general. It may lead us to think we can reason our way to God. We can think our way out of suffering. We can control truth through logic. Teaching our kids mere logic [00:21:53 – 00:22:25] can be devastating. Logic can never lead one to truth. It can detect errors, but it can make you think because you're able to logically state your facts. You're very smart and you're thinking the truth. No. But at the same time, the scripture is not against the mind. It talks of a transformed mind, a mind that is humbled and submitted to the word of God, to God. And as the psalist says, in your light [00:22:22 – 00:22:56] we see more light. You actually can see more beautiful things, reason more wonderful things when God opens your mind. I remember my days at IBM and Stanford and working with some of the best scientists and doing amazing things. Wonderful. We we we worked on the world's thinnest MOSFET, 2 nanometers. We're trying to advance scientific knowledge of the chemistry and physics of such [00:22:52 – 00:23:28] dimensions. It was exciting. Anybody can know that. But just because you can do that doesn't mean you can apply that same mind to know God. No, you cannot. It's only the Holy Spirit when he comes and opens the eyes of your heart and mind, you can know God. And no one can truly know God unless God first reveals himself. The problem is not reason. It is [00:23:25 – 00:23:59] prideful autonomy. The human mind must not be shut down but be humbled and submitted to God's revelation. It's very hard I tell you my dear friends, especially for those who are born and raised here. And that's why Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." To be poor in spirit is to say, "I have nothing to bring, not even the ability to know you unless you make yourself known." Instead of this, if we start defining [00:23:55 – 00:24:27] sin purely as behavioral problems, you're going to be in a dead end. And and and and unless God makes himself known, we cannot know. And that's what Jesus prays. that that's why he prays. It's so significant. Jesus prays that this is eternal life that they may know you. And God did not decide to reveal himself after he created you and me. The triune [00:24:24 – 00:24:58] God decided to make it known before creation through what they are doing here is called as the covenant of redemption. That's amazing grace. Human mind finds it hard to accept this simple fact. Not because it's very complicated or hard to believe. You know why it's hard? Because it strips the human mind of any [00:24:54 – 00:25:25] credit it can take in knowing God except being the agent of knowing him. Only when the Holy Spirit's regenerated. Our mind is merely the agent and not the cause and therefore it will fight and fight and fight. Maybe some of you have experienced that too. So as a diagnostic question let me ask [00:25:22 – 00:25:52] you have you experience true spiritual poverty in your mind or do you feel you are important and your feelings are important and no one can offend you? The best thing place to test this is in your marriage. Ask yourself, why is it so hard? Why do I fight with my spouse all the time? Or are you trying to know God through your mind and rationality and these [00:25:49 – 00:26:22] things don't make sense to you because you feel you have no part to play? Or does it make you rejoice [snorts] that God did this purely unilaterally of his own accord by his grace so we don't have to bring anything to the table and just be loved by his grace. you're incredibly loved. That it [00:26:19 – 00:26:49] moved God to move down to earth to rescue and redeem you and me without me bringing anything to the table. We don't work like operate like that in human relationships, isn't it? this covenant of redemption that happened in eternity that Jesus is talking about in this whole passage where God the father decides in his counsel to pick us and [00:26:46 – 00:27:17] give us to his son and Jesus Christ submits to God the father to say I will redeem them my father at the cost of giving my own life and his holy spirit part and privy of this council and this covenant that was made before time began applies it to your heart and my heart. This is called the covenant of redemption and this forms the basis of all the covenants we see in the Bible. The [00:27:15 – 00:27:48] covenant of grace that gets acted out after the fall flows out of the covenant of redemption. So the question for you is, does this covenant of redemption make me joyful or sad or angry? That's a diagnostic question you need to ask yourself and ask your children. It will tell a lot about your true spiritual state. Are you worried and bothered by the behavior or the external [00:27:45 – 00:28:16] sins that you or your children do? Or does it bother you by looking at your own heart and mind and that of how your children respond to ordinary life situations? That should bother you more than this. We are not called to fix behaviors. We are called to transform our heart. Our knowing, this is what I mean by saying knowing is covenantal because it flows from God's covenant of [00:28:12 – 00:28:45] redemption. And it's transformational because it is supposed to strip every last ounce of pride from our human mind and make it to submit to God. And if that brings you joy, then you know you're loved. You don't have to fight it. And may I plead with you to come humbly before God accepting you had no part in him knowing you and sending his son [00:28:42 – 00:29:12] Jesus Christ for you. And secondly, Jesus prays that they may know Jesus Christ who was sent. You know, God didn't just create this covenant between themselves and stay there. He chose to send Jesus. It's called the mission of God. The whole missions flows out of this because God sent his son. We are now sent and we are [00:29:10 – 00:29:42] called to go out. It's called the Msio day or the motus day. The move of God. This is captured beautifully in Westminster confession of faith in chapter 7. One of my favorite in the entire confession. It's called the voluntary condescension of God. God did not have to make himself known to you and me. Yet he voluntarily chose to do that. And and it captures this beautiful I'd love for you to go home and read this. This is what it says. The Westminster [00:29:39 – 00:30:10] confession. The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their creator, yet they could have never fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he has been pleased to express by way of a covenant. The covenant is God's voluntarily coming down [00:30:09 – 00:30:40] decision. He just didn't. It's not a decision he made. It's a covenant. And so because your salvation and my salvation now does not rest merely on how good of a Christian you are or how bad of a Christian you are or if how how much I am missional or not missional. Though all of those things are absolutely important, it rests on the covenant of redemption. So you and I can live free. There is no other religion that tells [00:30:38 – 00:31:09] you that. No other philosophy that gives you that. Every religion says while you have to climb these mountains and these uh and hurt yourself or or walk on fire or do charity. It's only in the Christian gospel it says you can't bring anything. You don't have to bring anything. You are free. You can live free. Secondly, we're going to move on to see how we are planned in eternity for [00:31:06 – 00:31:38] glory. Verse four says, "I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work that you gave me to do." How did Christ glorify God the Father? He says, "By accomplishing the work." What was the work that was accomplished that he he desired to accomplish? To suffer, to die, and to rise again. Christ's path to glory was not avoiding pain and suffering. [00:31:34 – 00:32:06] It was going through pain and suffering. It was embracing death and resurrection so he can prepare us for a life of glory. We were made to glorify God and for glory. What does that mean? We are always drawn to pursuing worldly glory. Isn't it the counterfeit glory if we may call it? It always involves the opposite. [00:32:04 – 00:32:35] The worldly or counterfeit glory is always about how can I remove pain and suffering in my life? How can I live a pain-free, suffering free, luxurious, comfortable life? And that is what is sold by many as a great and glorious life. You have made it if you have all these things. True glory is not external, my dear [00:32:32 – 00:33:07] friends. It's internal. Our path to glory too will involve pain, suffering, experiencing death of a loved one. Because glory refers to character. You know the Hebrew word for glory is cavod, which was used to refer to something that was weighty. What makes you significant? What makes you a person of character and valuable? You know the glory of Jesus Christ [00:33:06 – 00:33:37] came through his life, death and resurrection because real glory through Christ was about his sacrificial unconditional love. Real glory is about displaying grace and mercy even in the face of unjust treatment or suffering. That is what it means to glorify God. And that is what you and I are called to do. We'll come back to this in a moment. In verse five, he says, "Now Father, [00:33:35 – 00:34:06] glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." Christ longs for glory with the father. going home to the father as he sees the cross. Not alone by himself, but along with all whom the father gave him. Jesus Christ didn't just come to make your life and my life better, but glorious for eternity. [00:34:05 – 00:34:36] This is where it all began, my dear friends. The covenant, the grand covenant of redemption. This is the source or mother of all covenants. What a glorious covenant of redemption that you and I didn't even have any part to play in. Even before we were born, before the world existed, the father and the son covenanted not only to create us, but in this covenant of redemption to redeem us [00:34:31 – 00:35:02] and bring us home into his presence. A covenant, if we can throw a short phrase to describe, is a bond in blood. God the father initiates the covenant. Christ became the enforcer or mediator of this covenant through his blood. And this holy spirit applies to us in our time. And how did the covenant of redemption [00:35:00 – 00:35:31] unfold? Through Christ. Verse 6 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." You know the Greek word manifested means displaying, revealing, showing something to the world. And what did Jesus reveal to the world? He revealed his attributes. [00:35:29 – 00:35:59] says, "I have manifested your name to the people." The name of God refers to the attributes of God. The character, the cavode, the things that make God glorious, the weightiness of his God. He revealed all those wonderful attributes through his life, death, and resurrection. He showed us in tangible, unimaginable ways what the love and grace of God looks like through how we interacted [00:35:56 – 00:36:26] with people. When he engaged with tax collectors and sinners like Zakius, he demonstrated this unconditional love of God. Zakius had nothing to bring. But Jesus went to dine in the home of Zakius. The Samaritan woman whom the whole world neglected, thought low of was lonely alone. [00:36:22 – 00:36:55] Jesus met her in her loneliness and offered her living water. That's really the heart of God. Or when he meets the moralist, he displays the wisdom of God that shows the moralist the truth of how he can't make it by himself or his anger at the temple when he sees unrighteous things. And through all his teachings we get to [00:36:52 – 00:37:23] know the attributes of God. We might have heard like father like son and here it's like son like father. If you have seen him you know the father and he says we were his we were given to him and we believed and followed what he said. We were created for this glory. My dear friends that's why we will not be able to find fulfillment in less glorious things. [00:37:19 – 00:37:51] So let's live for this glory. Let's pursue this inward glory that external glory. Let's not chase the glory of this world. Let's not live for our glory or what I can make out of this life. And how this play can play out is in our career choices. Perhaps not what will make my life comfortable and great and glorious but what will make God glorious or perhaps at work. [00:37:49 – 00:38:20] Not how I can look better than the others, but how I can give how I can display God's love to someone who is trying to take credit for my work or step over me and show love and grace to that person. That's glory. or at school perhaps not falling for acceptance by peers by wanting to do things that you would not normally do but you still do because you want their [00:38:17 – 00:38:49] acceptance but rather display God's characteristics that make you attractive for others. No one said this will be an easy path but God's spirit will enable you to do. So finally in the end God alone gets glory and you get the satisfaction knowing that you displayed God's glory. So let's live for glory. And lastly planned in eternity to be redeemed. Says [00:38:47 – 00:39:18] 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. What are we expected to know? Everything he has given. What has God given Christ? He has given us to him. He wants us to know that we are safe. Christ has us. He's got us. [snorts] He's not going to leave us. No one can snatch us out of [00:39:16 – 00:39:49] his hands. We were given to the son to be redeemed and he accomplished that. Redeemed not by our self efforts but purely by his work. That should lift a tremendous burden from us when our faith feels fragile, when we fall, when we go through trials or suffering and wonder if God really cares and loves and sees. And he says that he has given us his [00:39:46 – 00:40:17] words which we have which will reassure that our redemption is not in our hands and it will not be lost any time no matter what. And as we read in Romans 8, we had our intro video. Neither death nor life nor trials or suffering, nothing can separate us from this love of God because it is sealed before eternity in this covenant of redemption through his words as we receive them and [00:40:14 – 00:40:45] apply them in our hearts [snorts] to the know the truth that Christ came from God and that our father sent him for us. But you know what's beautiful above everything else? We see here Jesus, he's praying now to seal this covenant made before time began. Verse 9, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for [00:40:42 – 00:41:15] those whom you have given me, for they are yours. Isn't this so beautiful? Christ is praying for you and me to make it home. You know, Paul's last words in second Timothy when he's battling desertion and loneliness was that Christ will deliver him from all of these and take him home. And me making it home [00:41:12 – 00:41:42] is not based on my efforts. It's not based on my achievements. It's not based on how holy and pure I live as as those things are important. It's not based on my successful ministry or preaching or teaching or doing something for God. It's because Jesus prays that what he came for he has accomplished and he will take us home [00:41:39 – 00:42:11] with him. You know, this um famous movie Saving Private Ryan, though fictional, is very gripping to the heart to watch cuz here is a team of five soldiers who are going to bring a private Ryan from World War II war zone home because all his other brothers have died. He's the only one his parents have got. So they take an [00:42:09 – 00:42:40] oath, a covenant that they will sacrifice their own lives. And they do. The captain of the troop dies literally because they go into the trenches, find Private Ryan, and bring him home. And he and generations after him are grateful to him. It's fictional, but it's a beautiful story. And that's what Jesus says. He came. He took the bullet for us on the cross. [00:42:37 – 00:43:07] But he got us. He is taking us home. He will take us home. Not based on how we look or do or feel, but because of his grace. And it's for all people at all times from all places whom God the father gave to Jesus Christ. He's praying for that. Even when you are not praying, Jesus is praying and God the Father hears this [00:43:05 – 00:43:35] prayer. Isn't that encouraging my dear friends that my salvation is not merely flippantly based on my faith? My faith is merely an instrument to receive it, not the reason for it or my accomplishments or dare I even say our holy living as important as they are. but in the covenant of redemption that was accomplished between the father and son in eternity. [00:43:32 – 00:44:05] And what's the consequence? I can rest. You can breathe. Verse 10, it says, "All mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them. Because we are his and he is ours, nothing can shake us." What do we need in this world? Christ and Christ alone. And that's why that song reverberates so beautifully, isn't [00:44:02 – 00:44:33] it? And how is Christ glorified in us? He's [snorts] not promising a happy ever after life. He is promising us he's going to impart and impute his glory to us, his weightiness, his attributes to make us like him even if we walk through pain and suffering. Because our salvation does not rest on the strength of your faith as many preachers talk about sometimes. [00:44:31 – 00:45:03] Our salvation does not rest on the consistency of your obedience. Our salvation does not rest on the success of our ministry. It rests on Christ's finished work. It rests on Christ's ongoing intercession. He's praying even right now for you and me. And it rests on this covenant of redemption sealed by the blood of Christ that can never be broken. Our faith is not the ground of our salvation. It's the God ordained [00:45:01 – 00:45:32] instrument by which we receive what Christ already secured because Christ prays. We can persevere because he said all mine are yours and yours are mine. We belong to him and he will bring us home safely so we can rest. So live assured my dear friends because we were planned in eternity known by his grace redeemed by Christ and kept by intercession. Let us live accordingly. [00:45:30 – 00:45:46] Let us live free from performance-based identity. Let us live for glory not ours but his. Let us live a life of assured freedom and joy because Christ is praying and he will not fail.