Text: John 17:1-10
Summary: How do we glorify God? By obeying Him.
Good morning, everybody. Please turn with me to John 17. For next week, if you want to read ahead, I think we’ll be in 1 John for a little bit. And it’s amazing. Obviously it’s from the same author, inspired by the same Holy Spirit. If you read 1 John right after meditating on John 14 through 17, you will be amazed at how much more understanding God will give to you.
John 17
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 6 “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. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 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. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
Father, in this final prayer, there is much that can be said. But one thing that Jesus opened with is glory, and how you, Father, are about to give glory to your Son and how the Son is giving glory to the Father. So as followers of Jesus and as children of God, we, too, want to give you glory. Teach us, Lord, through the life and the ministry of Jesus, how to give glory to you. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen
How do we give glory to God? According to the Western Catechism, that is the chief end of man — to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And the word, glorify or to give glory, it’s kind of an outdated term, so we may have a hard time understanding what it is. So another way to translate to “glorify” is to honor. It’s not quite the same word, but Ephesians 6:2, when it talks about children, it says, honor your father and mother. It’s not the same word as glorify, but it’s a very similar concept. To glorify, or to honor, is when you ascribe value to somebody.
So we have some children here who are still living under the roof of their parents. And so what is the main training that children receive while they are still living with their parents prior to you arriving at adulthood and eventually forming your own family? What is the primary training for children? When it talks about honoring your parents, it speaks of obedience.
And so in our home, it is not a democracy. It is an absolute dictatorship. Our children are being trained to obey parents absolutely so that one day, they will obey our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ absolutely.
If you have a difficult time obeying physical parents whom you see and who are giving you very clear instructions, do you think you will have an easy time glorifying and honoring and obeying your Heavenly Father and Jesus whom you cannot see? No.
Did you know that even Jesus as a little boy honored and obeyed His earthly parents? And if you think about it, Jesus is sinless and His parents were sinful. And yet Jesus obeyed His parents perfectly, absolutely.
That gives me comfort because I know I’m not a perfect parent, but my expectation, even in my flawed state, even when I say things that may not be the best idea, but children obeying their parents, that is the will of God. And the expectation is absolute obedience. And when children honor father and mother, they will listen to what their parents say.
In the same way, if you honor God and you ascribe value to what He says, you will listen to Him. And children, when they are disobedient while living under their parents’ roof, they’re basically saying, the words of my parents, they don’t mean much. My parents, they’re not that important. And so every time, as a child if you complain or you drag your feet and you disobey, you’re actually saying to the parents, you’re not that important to me. Your words don’t have much meaning. It is optional whether I obey or not.
And that is the rebelliousness of a child that God is trying to deal with and trying to uproot. Because later on, God will ask you to do many things that you will not want to do. And if you have not been trained to obey things that you do not want to do while you are a child, you will have a hard time being a Christ follower and obeying your Heavenly Father.
There are many sides to giving glory to God. And before I talk about the main thing, which is obedience, let’s read v4
John 17
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
That is the primary definition of what it means to glorify God and to honor God, it is to obey what He tells you to do and to accomplish the will of God and the works of God. But there are other definitions here.
John 17
6 “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. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 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.
Aside from the primary definition, which is obedience, how did Jesus glorify His Heavenly Father? He manifested the Heavenly Father’s Name. He bragged about His Heavenly Father. What did Jesus do? He is giving glory to His Heavenly Father constantly. He is manifesting and revealing the Name of His Heavenly Father to the disciples.
Also, He is attributing everything to God. He says, everything is from God. Nothing is my own. I can’t take credit for anything. Everything is from the Heavenly Father. And then even the words, even the teachings of Jesus, He did not take credit for it. He didn’t say, I am the teacher and therefore this is my teaching and I’m just going to teach whatever comes to my mind. And I’m just going to teach you on my own authority. No, even the words that Jesus taught, they came from the Heavenly Father. So that is what it means to glorify God. It is to bring all the attention on God. Everything came from God. The words that I’m preaching are coming from God.
And so when you think of Christendom in the world, and maybe in particular Christendom in America, what comes to mind? Some very prominent churches come to mind. The name of a church comes to mind. And behind the name of this famous church, there is a famous preacher, and that preacher’s name comes to mind.
Is that how Jesus did His ministry? Was He trying to be famous? Was He trying to receive glory for Himself? No. He kept giving all the glory to God. He is happy to be in the background and to give glory to God and say everything is from Him. Don’t look to me, it’s not my teaching. It is from the Father. That is what it means to give glory.
And so as Christians, who do we give glory to? We give glory to God. But I want to give a little bit more clarification because many people will say, I give glory to God. And then my next question is, which God? Is it Mohammad? Is it Allah? Is it Buddha? Is it nature?
It’s actually much more PC in our culture to say, I give glory to God, but it is never PC to say, I give glory to Jesus Christ. Because if you give glory to Jesus Christ, just so there’s no confusion who we are actually giving glory to, we clarify and say, we are giving glory to Jesus, who was sent by the one true God among all the false gods and the false religions of this world.
And so if you have a chance to give glory to anybody, I would say, give glory to God, yes, it’s understood, the only true God. But so that there’s miscommunication, give glory to Jesus.
When that happens, the world’s hatred will be upon you. You can maybe avoid that hatred if you say, I glorify God, if you make it generic like that because the listener doesn’t know which god you’re talking about. But if you lift up the name of Jesus, the hatred of this world will be upon you. You see it when people are being interviewed on the camera. Already there’s discomfort when the person mentions the name of God. But as soon as Jesus is mentioned, the interview stops. They’ve been told, never allow the name of Jesus to be lifted up.
And so we don’t manifest our own name. We don’t manifest the name of Hill Community. You would never manifest my name as a pastor of this church. Never.
Jesus is the Head of the Church. And so we manifest, we reveal the name of Jesus. We give all the credit to God. When I teach, it is not my teaching. And even Jesus would say, it’s not His teaching. Jesus would say, everything is from above.
And that means when things happen in your life and prayers are answered, we want to be the kind of person who does not steal glory from God. Deep down, we shouldn’t think, I am a special person. That’s why this is happening. That’s why I am blessed. That’s why this answer to prayer came.
We really want to be careful not to think that we are the center of attention. Prayers are answered because of our blessedness. That’s why things are happening. When things happen, we want to be clear. It is not because of us. You want to give glory to God. He gets 100% of the glory and Jesus is showing us how to give glory to God properly.
And so how do we as disciples of Jesus give glory to God? We have to look upon the life of Jesus and He shows us how to give glory to God. And first and foremost what does it mean to give glory to God? It is to accomplish the work that God will give us to do. And the work that God gave Jesus to do was a very unique ministry. A very unique mission.
Is any of us going to ever do anything close to what Jesus did? Are we dying for the world? No, we are not doing anything close to what Jesus did. Jesus’ work was very unique. At the same time, we have our cross to carry.
Luke 9
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Jesus accomplished his work and He is seeing the finish line. He’s about to cross into glory back to where He came from in heaven and that is dying on a cross, a very unique mission. Jesus says, I have accomplished it. I’m seeing the end of it. And while it is so unique to Jesus to carry this cross of the sins of the world, we too have a cross to carry. And there is a denial that needs to happen when we accomplish the work that Jesus has assigned to you and that the Father has assigned to you.
And that gives me a clue that when it comes to obedience, the kind of obedience that God asks of us is going to go exactly opposite of what we want to do. Otherwise, it wouldn’t say deny yourself. Otherwise, it wouldn’t say it’s a cross to carry. It’s like Jonah. The last thing Jonah wanted to do is to preach to these barbaric Ninevites, the enemies. He must have been a victim, or someone in his family must have been a victim of these barbaric Ninevites. And the last thing that he would ever want to do is to preach because he knows God’s character. He knows how gracious and compassionate God is. And if he preaches to the Ninevites, then God will surely save them. And so he goes the opposite direction away from Nineveh. He goes to Tarshish.
And so when God has a certain obedience He wants us to follow, there is our way, which will be very easy, which we will want to do. And there is God’s way, which will require denial and carrying a cross. And if we’re really honest, it’s the last thing we want to do.
Heb 5
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus[a] offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him…
It is a difficult thing to understand that Jesus as a sinless, fully human Son of God, also fully divine, He had to learn obedience through what He suffered. And so obedience, when it comes to what God asks of you, is not natural. It is something that you and I have to learn.
It goes against every grain, every fiber in our being, because it’s the kind of thing that among a list of 10 things, it is the last thing on the list that we want to do. There are nine other things that look more attractive and that are easier and that we want to do. And that kind of obedience, it will not cost us much. And we will not be changed in the process because there is no suffering and they are the kinds of things that we want to do.
But when God asks us to obey, there is a cross to bear. There is self-denial, there is suffering. There is a waiting upon Him and that obedience is from the Lord, and it will actually change you. And Jesus had to learn obedience through what He suffered.
Matt 7
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Who is saved in the end, who enters the kingdom of heaven? In the end, it’s the one who does the will of our Father, who is in heaven. It’s not even enough just to believe. Although there are verses that say yes, belief is all you need. Here, belief is assumed. Of course we believe. But then, after you believe, what do you do with the rest of your life? Do you just just keep believing and then just live your life the way you want to live?
Or do you believe and then start living the way God asks of you. And He will ask you to do certain things and you will accomplish certain things that will feel so difficult. But you’re doing the will of the Father who is in heaven.
Many people confuse that the will of God is ministry. And clearly from Matthew 7, ministry is not primarily the will of God. The will of God is whatever He uniquely asks you to do. And that means I have a unique path and unique missions and assignments from the Lord and you cannot fill my shoes. And I cannot fill your shoes because it is my discipleship and following Jesus. And it is your following Jesus and your discipleship with Jesus. And the Heavenly Father gives you unique things, and he gives me unique things.
For example, I am uniquely married to Jackie and I have three boys and so what God has told me through His word, His will is that I sacrifice for Jackie. That I serve Jackie and I raise up the boys in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Nobody else can do that. You can maybe counsel me. You can help me so that I can do a better job as a spouse and a father. But you cannot do what God has given me uniquely to do. Likewise, I cannot go into Matthew’s family and start doing what Matthew should do toward Emma and the kids. I can maybe help Matthew. I could maybe help, but I cannot step into their shoes.
And that tells us that the Heavenly Father has a unique will for you. And you have a unique cross to bear, and that cross will require you to deny yourself in unique ways. And through the process, you will learn how to obey through what you suffer. I used to think Jesus’ 30 years of waiting must have been so hard just because I am imposing myself.
If I were Jesus with my personality and the way I think and I put myself in His shoes, already that’s wrong. I can’t really do that. Jesus has unique shoes. Nobody can fill his shoes. But if I try to put myself in His situation, I would think the 30 years are so difficult and the three and half years, finally, I get to do what I’m called to do, and that must have been so much easier than the 30 years.
Now I actually think it is opposite. I actually think the 30 years for Jesus was much easier just to be with the Father, just to abide in the Father’s love, just patiently wait, just to honor parents as a two-year old, three-year old, four-year old. At twelve years old, Jesus’ authority is obvious. By that point, Joseph is not even in the picture so that there is no confusion that I am I going to listen to my earthly father. My heavenly Father God made it so clear. There’s only One Father whom you will ultimately listen to.
And that means when we grow up and we have our own household and we are adults, we don’t honor our parents in the same way that you do as a child. As a child, it is absolute obedience until 18 or until you leave your parents’ home, until mid-twenties, or at some point when you get married.
There’s a transition from 18 to that point, but the way you honor your father and mother is not absolute obedience. If I absolutely obeyed my earthly parents, I would never obey the Heavenly Father because they are at odds often times. So there is a unique training as a child. Think about Jesus and how He submitted to two sinful parents as a sinless child. That tells all of the children here, you must obey your parents, honor them, obey them absolutely, even as flawed as your parents are, and as we are.
For 30 years Jesus just waited and He was just resting in the Father’s love. And He was tuning His ears to the Father’s frequency. He was learning how to be faithful with what He had been given. It’s just carpentry, just working with His hands, just having His mind free so that he could just pray throughout the day and be in the Father’s presence.
And that was such a necessary training. Then 3.5 years, I think those are the most difficult 3.5 years of Jesus’ life. And it only got worse from the first day of public ministry until the last day. It was just getting increasingly more difficult as the days went by. But He did it because the Father told him that it’s time to do it and He finished it. He accomplished the work by agreeing to die on a cross.
And was that an easy decision? Was that something that He wanted to do? Was that humanly speaking natural for Him? Or did Jesus fight God the Father? He asked the Father, is there any other way? Can this cup pass, and yet He submitted Himself to the Father’s will. He accomplished 100% to the end. Let’s say Jesus did not learn obedience. Let’s say Jesus didn’t learn obedience through the 30 years.
Let’s say He was in a rush. Let’s say He thought, well, I am the Son of God. I am talented. I am gifted. I know the Father is telling me to wait, but I don’t want to wait. I see the need as a 12 year old, I’m just going to start going to the synagogue. He already went there and there was an authority upon His life. And already people can see that He’s different. Let’s say He just said, I’m just going to do it on my time table and forget about obedience. I’ve been obedient to Joseph and Mary, and I don’t need to obey my Heavenly Father anymore. I’m just going to do this ministry.
I just feel like how would that have unfolded if Jesus never learned obedience? I often think about myself and I used to be so impatient because in 1996 God called me as a senior in college and I knew it so clearly that I was called to be a pastor. And then from 1996 until 2011, those 15 years I was constantly complaining. I was wondering, why is it taking so long? God, why aren’t you giving me a chance? And then when it started and when I was ordained, I had all of these plans.
By year five, I wanted to plant a second church. I wanted to be very active on missions. I wanted to plant churches. And is it because the Lord told me? No, the Lord didn’t tell me. I was just copying other people because there’s a certain model, you know.
The Father’s will for us is so unique. And yet I bypassed all of that. I’m just looking at people and looking at models of success, and I’m just copying. And I wonder how many pastors do that, they’re just copy because they have a goal, I want glory for myself. I want to be glorified. I want people to know my name and to know the name of my church.
How many people? Deep down, that is what drives them to exhaustion to burn out. Because there’s so much vain ambition and selfish conceit that drives a person. And that was in my heart. And so what did the Lord do? He slowed me down. He showed me how difficult doing church was. And those early years were very difficult. And it made me say, why was I in such a rush? I should have been prepared more. I’m not ready for this. And so, God, he has been redoing it and working on me.
And every time God has asked me to do something in the last few years, honestly, it is against my DNA. Everything He has asked me to do is against what I would want, because I thought quitting my job and becoming a pastor and trying to be bi-vocational at a lower salary was enough. But when God was asking Jackie to quit full time and go part time, that was a lot because all of our benefits went out the window. And then from Jackie to go part time to quitting. That was a lot. And so every decision, it was against my DNA.
Three years ago and God told me to homeschool and that was against my DNA. Because I am such a deep introvert at heart. I need to be alone. I need to go up to the mountain and I don’t know the last time I’ve been alone for more than a few minutes in the last few years because that is just the nature of what God asked me to do.
And, of course, God is refining me. And He’s dealing with certain tendencies that He wants to uproot. I mean, there is a part of us that is introverted because where do we get our energy? It is from the Lord. But maybe all that we can have in certain seasons of life is five minute chunks. Can I connect with Him for five minutes and then spend 99.9% of my day with people? And will I be okay because there are certain days Jesus was alone or just with disciples, very low activity days.
There are other days when God asks Him to feed thousands of people and it took all day and it’s so exhausting. But Jesus was so obedient because He learned obedience. I hate traveling. God is dealing with my issue about traveling because if God asked me to go to the other side of the world to preach, well I don’t want to get on a plane. It’s so much of a hassle. I just don’t like waiting at an airport. And I have all of these excuses.
Or is there a training in whatever He asks me to do, because He’s been testing me in these very concrete areas, of finances, of homeschooling, whatever He has asked me to do, that was against my DNA. I am taking up a cross. I am denying myself. I am obeying the Heavenly Father. And then He sees, ah yes, Ray is actually starting to listen to me. He’s going against what he wants to do because what he wanted to do was easy.
And I could have planted churches. I could have done missions. I could have been so active, so busy, so tired and never change. And so if God asked me to do something, and I did it but I hadn’t changed, I hadn’t tuned myself to His voice, then of course, I will not do the will of God. I would just do my own will.
But I think I have shown to the Lord that to the best of my ability, I want to obey Him and it’s not my preferences. I will go against my preferences. I will do what it says in God’s Word. I think God sees it, and so God wants to test each of us.
Do you really want to do the will of God? Will you really accomplish the work that He has assigned to you? Because if you say yes to that, you’ll have to deny yourself guaranteed. It will feel like you’re carrying a cross. It will not be easy, and along the way, because of suffering, you will learn obedience. You will change.
And that’s why it says in Matthew 7 – doing the will of God is not necessarily ministry because we can do this and Jesus doesn’t know us. And so part of us doing the will of God is always asking, Jesus, are you in this? Are you with me? Are you going before me? And you are unloading your burdens to Jesus along the way. As you do this cross bearing life, this denial, that denying of oneself and you’re doing it, not solo but you’re doing it with Jesus, in the process you are getting to know Jesus.
Because remember, the Father gives the green light. He has a will. He gives the green light. We ask the Father to answer certain prayers. Father gives a green light and Jesus does it. And that means if we are to do the will of God, Jesus is part of it. He’s essential. He’s the one who’s leading us. He’s shepherding us and we just follow Him.
Matt 7
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
The will of God, just to show how it goes against the grain and how it is not natural, when Jesus says who hears these words of mine, He’s talking about the sermon He just preached. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. It’s things like, do not be angry, that goes against the grain but that is the Father’s will for you.
It’s for us to become like Jesus, who does not get angry. Unless you’re making money out of the church and you’re oppressing the little ones and stumbling the little ones, there are times when there is righteous indignation. But for the most part, Jesus does not get angry. And that’s why it says here, do not get angry. Jesus did not lust.
Do not lust. Love your enemies. And as you just go through the list, you realize, this is not easy. Planting a church is easy. Leading a Bible study is easy. Doing the will of God and becoming this transformed on the inside, now that is hard. And so I know clearly that if I were to wait, what is God more interested in? Is He interested in all the ministry that I will do for Him out there? Or is He more interested in me?
It is so clear He is interested in all of us. He’s interested in you internally changing more than He is in the world that He will save through your hands and through your participation in the work. Jesus is saying He is much more interested in you and me.
How do we glorify God? By manifesting the Name of God and to be more precise, the name of Jesus. There’s no confusion by attributing everything to Him. Every blessing, every job provision, every promotion, every good health, everything, we attribute and give glory to God. It is not because we’re so diligent. It’s not because they’re so talented or clever.
It is because He gave it to us. Everything is from him. Jesus is showing us, this is how you give God glory. If God uses you and thousands of people, tens of thousands are saved through the ministry of your preaching, of the work of your own hands, Jesus wants to make clear that we never steal glory from God because everything is from Him and we manifest the Name of Jesus.
And most clearly, how do we give glory to God? You have to accomplish the work that He has uniquely assigned to you. It is a unique assignment. And so I think at least we may have a difficult time hearing God’s voice and knowing what His will is on a moment by moment basis. Hopefully we’ll get there. But at least at a seasonal basis, like is this a season to work? Is this a season to wait? At least at that level, you must know the will of God. And when it’s time to move, He will tell you it’s time to move or it’s a time to wait.
I was in such a rush even not too long ago, and complained, why do I have to wait so long? Why do I have to wait. Now I’m getting a little bit of a sense that it’s time to move now. I’m not sure I want to. Before, I used to want to move because I have certain plans. Now, I’m not sure I really have to do that anymore. I’m not defined by that ministry.
But if God, if you’re in it, I’ll do it just out of obedience. I’ll do it. So that is where God wants us to be. Whatever He asks of you, whether it’s to wait, whether it’s to serve, whether to do something very visible or very invisible. Whatever He asks of you in this season of life, can you perceive it? And when He asks of you, will you complain the whole time or will you do it?
Let’s pray.
Father, we want to give you glory because everything is from you. And Jesus did such a good job giving you all the glory. Because his main thing is to manifest your name, Father, to the disciples. He wasn’t even interested in His own name. He wanted to highlight the name of the Father. And that’s why He taught his disciples to pray to your Heavenly Father. He loved you who sent Him.That is where Jesus’ heart was. He wanted to give glory to the Heavenly Father, to manifest the name of the Father, to attribute everything to the Father. Even the teaching was not His teaching. It was from the Father. He was so good at giving you glory.
And we see it most clearly from day one, He was for 30 years waiting and that was the easier part of His life. Just abiding in your love. Just praying to you, working with His hands, living a quiet life. That was the easier part of his 33.5 years and the last 3.5 years, that was the hard part where the hatred of the world was getting ramped up day by day, where He was exhausted ministering to thousands of people, where He was ministering to disciples who were hardened off heart. That was a difficult part of your earthly life.
Lord Jesus, you are so obedient to the Heavenly Father. Whatever the Father asks, you did. You did it when He asked you to do it. And so we don’t know uniquely what you’re asking us to do in the future. But day by day, we know that you prepared good works in advance for us to do. And there are certain things even right in front of us you’re asking us to do. And there are future things that you will ask of us that we can’t even fathom or imagine. But you’re teaching us how to learn obedience through suffering by doing things that we don’t want to do and are in our own DNA and in our own preferences.
Even children, they don’t really want to honor parents and listen to every word that they say. But it is for their good. It is so that they can be trained to be obedient. Even when God asks us to do the last thing on earth we would want to do, we want to be so obedient. And Jesus accomplished Your work by dying on a cross. And we also take up a cross. We will deny ourselves as we obey step by step whatever the Father asks of us. And Jesus, lead us as our Shepherd step by step.
So we ask in the partaking of the Lord’s Supper that you meet us. That is our main goal for every time we gather. We want to meet you. We pray that if there is a unique assignment around the horizon, that during these moments you would begin whispering to us. What is that assignment? What do we have to prepare for? What season are we about to end? And what season is about to begin? Teach us, is it involving our spouse or kids? Our work, our schooling. What is it, Lord? We ask for clarity because whatever you ask us to do, it will not be easy.
But Lord Jesus, we know you’re there as you’ll be with us. And so in some sense, it will be easy and light. It will not be burdensome. No, it will require self death and carrying a cross. But it won’t be so burdensome because, Jesus, you’re with us. You’re there with us. You’re leading us. You’re yoked with us. You’re carrying our burdens.
So Jesus, we’re excited that whatever the Father asks, Jesus, you’re there to do the will of God with us. You’re there and so we are excited that whatever you ask of us, Father, that we will know Jesus better in the process. And we will learn obedience in the process. And we will die to self will in the process. This is the blessing of a person who wants to glorify God. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen