“Come Let Us Adore Him To God’s Honor”

John 12:17-26

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

Some Greeks Seek Jesus

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

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Pastor Thom Rittichier:

Well, there’s a couple of connects that I want to communicate with you this morning. So if you have a sheet, if you take it out, everybody have one who needs one? Okay, great. On the back side of that handout, there’s some back there, if you need one, at that table. On the back side, we’re going to interrupt our prayer time of moving through the 50 most persecuted nations, because during Christmas time, I would like us to focus on Israel, and prayer for Israel. I want you to note an update on the circumstances in Israel, and what’s prevailing. And number one in this, is that there’s an increase in the interest of Gospel, especially among the Jews, and especially for the last few years, which is an interesting sign that there is seeking out amongst the Jews information about Jesus, taking an interest in Jesus. In the book of Romans chapter 11 verse 25, it talks to us about Israel, and God’s use of Israel, and Israel being in a place right now where blindness in part has happened to Israel. And that is to last until a certain time. It’s to last until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. In other words, Israel’s blindness lasts until God has called from among the Gentiles all that he’s intending to call. And as of recent, there is an increase, a growing increase among the Jews, about Jesus, about him being the Messiah. Now, there have been may Messianic Jews right along, there’s the disciples, there’s Nicodemus and others who came to Christ. But here is a growing increase. And I want you to know, that’s an encouraging sign. As a matter of fact, it was expressed to me last week when I made mention of the increase in downloads during this time, 52 million downloads concerning Christian literature, and now since the pandemic 450 million plus downloads going on, and it was reported to me, that this is true in Israel. This has been a great increase of download information about Israel. So what are we to do for Israel? We ought to pray. We ought to pray. And thus we have our prayer connect. Because we call Abraham our father through faith in Jesus Christ. He is our father. And we get to pray for Israel. So take a look at this. Update yourself on it. And we are going to be praying about Israel, for a spiritual awakening to the Messiah for Israel.

One other connect note that I want to share with you this morning, just before we take a look at God’s word. This evening at 6:30, we have an opportunity to be involved in expressing community solidarity and seeking of the face of the Lord in it. We have an opportunity to be involved in a prayer vigil that starts at 6:30pm and will involve several people. And that’s going to take place at the hospital, it’s going to be broadcast from the hospital to cars that are in the hospital parking lot. And this prayer vigil will be communicated that way. So 6:30pm if you are interested, I’m going to encourage you if you’re not interested, to be interested, to come out and do this. We, in our Thursday prayer time, have been seeking the Lord’s face about ministry opportunity during COVID. And especially concerning praying for our community. And this opportunity was brought to me and I thought this sounds like an answer to prayer. So we’re going to do that. And there has been other opportunity that has been opening up relative to that very area, COVID patients at the hospital, for ministry. So, amen.

Let’s pray together now. Father in heaven, we come to you and we pray for our local area, not just our local area, though indeed, our local area concerning the pandemic and its impact on people. Father, this week, a counselee that I have, over the phone, reported to me, their parent was taken to the hospital due to this, and so we pray for them, that person who is in a weakened, very weakened condition. Father, we know that you are the God in charge of all things. And you work this after the counsel of your own will. And during this time, Lord, the encouraging things that we’ve seen, added increase in your gospel, not church attendance, which is down, but so many of the churches are live streaming, so many of the churches putting out information, so many that are working and getting these things more available electronically and being accessed electronically. Even in the nation of Israel, Lord, an increase of interest that they’ve seen over the years. And Father, we rejoice in that. And we pray that you would open the hearts of Jews to become Messianic Jews, that they would recognize Jesus and we know this blindness will happen in part until you have called from the Gentiles all you intend to make your eternal people through faith in Jesus Christ. So we pray for Israel. We pray for the work there. We pray for your opening of people’s eyes. And we pray for your strengthening here, as we carry on a ministry of showing to people’s eyes Your truth in Jesus name. And God’s folk said, Amen.

Well, it was dated December 13. That’s today, by the way, today is December 13. And what I am referring to is an entry that was in this book called Come Let Us Adore Him. By the way, that is our title for this morning, at least in part, Come Let Us Adore Him. I’d like to share with you a bit of this book this morning. Because I think it is very pertinent to where we’re at and what we’re doing. This booklet is a 31 day guide concerning the first coming of Christ to us. It’s written by Paul Tripp, and he says this, “History marched towards his birth; that baby’s life would march to his death, all so grace would march, with life and hope into our lives. What the Old Testament gives us is the history of God marching his world to the moment when the conditions were just right for the coming of Jesus. With sovereign authority and unstoppable zeal…” You know, that’s one of the passages about the Messiah in Isaiah 9, where it talks about him being the wonderful counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father, and him coming and ruling over all the nations. It says, then very clearly, the zeal of the Lord of host will accomplish this. That’s the statement on the prophecy about him. The zeal of the Lord of Heavens host will accomplish this. “… the unstoppable zeal of His grace, he harnessed the natural forces of the world he created and carefully controlled the events of human history to march the world to the moment when Jesus would be born. But Jesus’s life was a march too. Every day of his thirty-three years of life he purposefully and willingly marched toward the cross of his death. He lived, loved, and taught with the pain of the horrible injustice in view. He marched with joy to the cross…” Was there a joy in him for that? The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, He marched to it with joy. “…cross of shame, injustice, torture…because he knew what the result would be. He knew that his march to death was the only way to march life and hope into our lives. He knew his march would result in a company of people, more than any human could number, who would give their lives to him and would in eternity bow in a chorus of worship of him forever. The Christmas story loses its meaning and beauty when it is ripped out of the great redemptive and historical march.”

The march of God through time, the march of Jesus with the cross always in view. This morning, we have an opportunity to look on this. On this, come let us adore him march, from the cradle to the cross, and what it meant. I’m going to ask you to turn with me to John, chapter 12. And as we look at John, chapter 12, I want you to be aware it’s part of our Over The Top Promises series. This is a promise of Jesus. It’s a promise that he delivers concerning our present and our future. And what he delivers here in this promise, is more than you can imagine. That’s what the Bible says. What he delivers here, in this promise, is more than you can imagine. The Bible says it here in 1 Corth. 2:9, “But as it is written, things which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined.” It’s beyond what you could ever imagine. These things “God has prepared for those who love Him.” The Bible tells us the promise that we look in on as Jesus marches, knowingly marches, to his destiny, the promise is more than you can imagine. Now we have a hint on it, because this same passage goes on to say the Spirit has revealed them to us not in their entirety, but in part, because the spirit searches the deep things of God, that’s verse 10. This morning on this, Come Let Us Adore Him, theme, the promise of it is more than you can imagine. It is.

If you’re with me in John, chapter 12, I’m going to ask you to zero in at verse number 23, where we pick up on what Jesus had to say, in this march to the cross. And the promise. Verse 23. “And Jesus answered them”, these particular people who he’s talking to, Philip and Andrew, along with some others, who were there, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also.” Promise time, “if anyone serves me, the father will honor him”. This morning, we’re going to talk about, come let us adore him, to God’s honor. And this thing about honor is more than you imagined. Let me tell you, it is. We’re going to look at these things here in verses 17 through 26. We’re going to look at the crowd that came, actually when we see it’s going to be crowds. Because there are distinctions that are recognized in this. We’re going to see in this narrative of Jesus march, the crowd that came and how it responded to him. Come Let Us Adore Him, here’s the crowds and how they respond in this. Second, we’re going to see the Greeks, how they came and sought him, come let us adore him, how they came and what this meant, for them and for us because that’s where Jesus goes right after this thing with the Greeks. He goes to the fact that this hour came, the hour he presents to us this reality about our hour, his hour and our hour. Because what is said here is more than you can imagine, eyes not seen it, ears not heard it, man hasn’t imagined it. But God gives us a bit. So let’s take this up this morning, the crowds that came, the crowds. What is laid out here for us is the hope that is to march into our lives. This happened as unfolding events. And God’s communication to us is that way. He presents it in stories, actual events that are unfolding. At times, God even uses stories that are fictitious. They’re called parables. And he uses one of those here today. So that by a story, we see the picture of what’s real.

So in the story of Jesus’s march, there were these crowds that came and responded to him. Verse 17, we pick it up there, “the crowd that was with him”. There’s a crowd here that had been with him. We’re gonna call this crowd 1 because there’s actually 3 crowds that kind of amalgamate, all come together here, and they’re all kind of mixed up, but they’re distinguished, as the story unfolds about Jesus’s march, the crowds are distinguished. Crowd number 1 is distinguished this way, verse 17. “This is the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him out of the dead.” That was the crowd in the story that Dr. Stewart presented from John, chapter 11, last week, where Jesus says, in that context, bringing home by demonstration, that “I am the resurrection, and the life”. The way he brought it home by demonstration, is that he brought a man four days dead, who was starting to stink back to life. I remember Dr. Stewart’s description from a physiological, medical application of what happens in death, the blood pools, the joint stiffen up. I wrote those notes down, I thought, That is amazing. And not only that, but Lazarus was wrapped real tight, like a mummy. And when he called him out, Lazarus came out. And then Jesus said, unwrap him. Can you imagine what that was? As they rolled away the stone from the mouth of that tomb. And they see that dark opening, and he calls, Lazarus, come forth. And suddenly you see this picture of a guy rapped like that. How’s he walking? He’s got to be something like…hop, hop, hop…as he comes to the light, and people see it, demonstrating, “I’m the resurrection and the life” in reality, visible, brought it home, brought it home. And there was a crowd there that saw that, at Bethany, where Lazarus was raised from the dead. They saw that and this crowd is with him, now, that crowd has traveled with him. And they’re here now and this is their response.

Well, by the way, I wanted you to see this. I was reading this week about cryonics. How important is life to you? How important is life to you about the people you love? How important is life? Pretty important. Jesus said, What is it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his own soul? See, when we’re talking about life, we’re talking about life of the soul. Life that’s eternal, or not. How important is your life here, your life is forever. The life’s of the one you love. This man, presented here by this picture, it was very important. His name is Robert C. W. Ettinger. He and his mother and two wives have seen life as so important that they are in an area of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in a cryogenic stasis. In other words, he is frozen, in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. And he expects to be defrosted and brought back to life and made healthy. And you can go to Kalamazoo, Michigan, in Clinton Township and there’s the building. And he’s not alone. He’s got his mother and his two wives are there. And there are 92 other people, at least at the time of this report, in the New Yorker. How important is life? What is it? What is it if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Jesus is talking here about life. And these people who saw it, talked about it, that was their response. And they talked about it. And they talked about it. And they talked about it so much that the crowd in John 12:17 continued to talk about to, bear witness. And as a result of their talking about it, we come to crowd number 3. Crowd number 3 is in verse 18, the reason why this crowd went to meet him and he’s talking about the crowd going out to meet him, at this time, is back up in verse number 12, of the same chapter, “the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.” This crowd, number 3, is the crowd at the feast that had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. Now, there were three Jewish holidays that require the Jews to travel, to make a pilgrimage. Passover is the biggest one. There are also two others, Pentecost and the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. Passover is the big one. What was Passover about, by the way? Oh, by the way, just to let you know that this is Passover, that’s being talked about here, slide up to verse 1 of chapter 12. Verse 1 of chapter 12, says this, “six days before the Passover”, Jesus, in route as verse 12 tells us to the Passover, “comes to Bethany. Bethany was the place where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” So Jesus, six days before that Passover, coming from Galilee goes to Bethany. And they have a dinner for him. verse two, and it says, “they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, Lazarus was the one reclining at the table, and Mary” does an expression of adoration to him. So this crowd number 3 is the crowd that’s at the feast. And verse 18 tells us, they came to this place where Jesus was. They came to him, it says this, the reason why the crowd came to him was that they had heard what he had done with Lazarus, they heard. So they went to see. They heard of this miracle. And they went to see. Now there is another crowd here. I want to talk about crowd 2, it is in verse 9 of John 12. It is a large crowd also. It’s a large crowd that mixes with the crowd, for the most part, that large crowd mixes with a larger crowd that’s in Jerusalem for the feast. But there is a large crowd here. There was a large crowd of Jews that learned that Jesus was there in Bethany, there was a large crowd of Jews that had heard that Jesus was in Bethany. So that crowd came to Jesus, verse 9, “they came not only on account of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead”. They wanted to see this. They wanted to see this. They heard about this because of the people who were there talking about it. And that large crowd, when they found out he was in Bethany, went to see this. And then the larger crowd in Jerusalem hears that he’s coming to Jerusalem, and they go out, but this group here, that was a large crowd before the Passover crowd, went up to see Jesus at Bethany. And they went to see him, not only for him, but for Lazarus. They wanted to find out about this. You know that same kind of thing exists today concerning Jesus. It still goes on. Jesus does that to people, the idea about him, brings to them things that they would like to have in their experience, especially at this time of the year.

Do you know that this past week what I was watching? I’ve been coming home in the evenings, and my girls will have on a Christmas movie. Because it’s that wonderful time of the year. And we have Christmas music that goes on around our house, has been for a while. I eventually get to the place…can we…can we just…turn it down? And so there was this movie when I came home that was about Fred Claus. Have you ever heard of Fred Claus? Fred Claus saves Santa and Christmas and the whole thing. Yeah. Whoo. You know, it’s very interesting, as this thing gets to a climax, there’s Fred doing this. You know, he was kind of a jerk guy. But he became so nice, he was still afterwards kind of a jerk, but he wasn’t in this moment. And, you know, right when he was having this moment. And they were showing all the wonderful scenes and this broke out…Silent night, Holy night… And they played that, with the words in the background going on, as Fred Claus does all these things. Very interesting. Because there is a whole sentiment around the idea of Jesus and what he will do, but you know, it’s very interesting when they got to the point of saying…Jesus, Lord at thy birth…that was removed. And they went to…sleep in Heavenly peace. Interesting. Interesting. Sometimes people, because of the idea of Jesus and His miraculous, have an interest in what they might see.

Do you know, this is six days from Passover. Jesus, in less than a week is going to be arrested. And people from this crowd are going to be saying, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify him! on this march. Interesting, interesting. This, come let us adore Him, is more than you can imagine. And the out come, more. So, let me add one other thing. There is another group here. I’m just going to mention them. You already know them. It’s the Pharisee group. And they’re opposed to him, verse 16. They’ve been plotting his death for a while. They don’t want to do it around Passover, because of the intensity of the crowd. They don’t want to do it. But Jesus intentionally comes at Passover and he forces their hand and he forces their hand this way. Look at John chapter 12, verse 19. “So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing? Look, the world has gone after him.” The world, and he’s talking about the world of people in part their right? Because it was the Jews in colossal mass, tremendous numbers that were coming out to see him and to hear him and look at this miracle that was walking around after being four days dead. They were part right because it wasn’t just the Jews. It’s the Greeks too, verse 20, “Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.” And what it talks about Greeks here, it’s not talking about Greek speaking Jews, it’s talking about Gentiles at the Passover. And Gentiles at the Passover was not a really unusual or unexpected thing. Let me bring in this model of the temple. So I can demonstrate this to you. You see this model of the temple? This whole area here and it goes around this too right in front of that building, but before that wall, there’s an area right in there. This whole area is called the Court of the Gentiles. And it was there for the Gentiles who took an interest in this God of Israel and the way he was and what he had said, without becoming full blown participants in Judaism. They took an interest in this God of Israel, and what he had said and what he had done, and when they heard about this, you see, they expected this because they had the Court of the Gentiles built right into the temple. They came and the Greeks sought him with curiosity and consideration. Notice with me, verse 20. “Now among those who went up to worship at the feast”, to worship the God of Israel, at the Passover. By the way, what was the Passover? What was that feast, that holiday about? The death angel? Yes, it was when Israel was in bondage in Egypt. And Moses told Pharaoh, the king, several times to let his people go. There were several plagues that went on. And this one was the last plague, the death angel was going to come and kill the firstborn of every family. And I don’t think it was just human families, the firstborn in every family. And unless the lamb had been slain and his blood put on the door post, you would have death. But when the death angel came, if the blood of the lamb was on your door, the death angel passed over your house, your family being visited by death. Jesus forced the issue. He knew that they were plotting to kill him, not only him but Lazarus too. Because of the impact he had on taking the people away, away from them. And Jesus forced their hand at Passover, to act

to do this, in his march, in his march from his birth, to the cross. The Greeks came to worship that God of Israel at the Passover and they were very considerate, look at what they did, verse 21, “so they came to Phillip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.” Now Phillip is a Greek name. There was a Philip the Great, who was a ruler in Greece and Philip had this name. And actually, Bethsaida is up in the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee and so that was kind of close and they may have even lived in proximity there. So they came to Phillip thinking there was some connection here. And they asked Philip, this verse 21, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Very considerate, giving a great deal of respect to them. They’d like to see Jesus. So the Greeks sought him. The whole world’s going after him. Philip, and Andrew then consulted. And they went to Jesus, verse 22, “Philip went and told Andrew and Andrew went and told Jesus and Jesus answers.” As a matter of fact, does he answer? What is he doing here? Is this a straight out answer? Or is this an evasive thing? And they went with questioning, because you remember, before the Gentiles had wanted to talk, but Jesus said to them, “I was sent to the lost house of Israel”. So they consult with each other. And how does he respond here? Is this an answer? Does he answer? Let’s go on to the next one, because we see what Jesus answers. He talks about his hour here, and he presented to us this, this is where we come in. My hour, he said to them, has come for the Son of man to be glorified. What hour is he’s talking about? That’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? It’s the hour that he’s been marching to. If you look at verse 27, He said, it’s the hour, the purpose why I came here. It’s the purpose. “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose. I have come, I have come for this hour”. I have been marching, from my birth, to this hour. It’s the reason I was born. It’s why I’m here. It’s what I’m doing. It’s my purpose. That’s the hour.

It’s the hour that he was glorified, how glorified? How is he glorified in this hour? He tells us here in verse 23, when he answers them, he says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you” This is a market it down fact. “Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth and dies.” This is the story by the way. It’s the parable, something we see on Earth, comparable to what we see in heaven. “Unless it falls into the earth and dies. It remains alone”. You know, this year, I’m having a great time teaching science to my grandkids. We have to do it online right now. Because, you know the story, with the chemo treatments that are still going on and the exposure and the high Covid rates. So I’m having to do it online with them. And we have been talking about seeds for one thing. This is just like basic. If you have a seed, you have to not eat that seed. You can’t make corn chips or Wheat Thins with it. You have to take the seed and you have to put it in the ground. And that seed has to stop existing for itself, it has to die. Because in that seed is the germ of life. It’s the germination, they call it when that seed starts to sprout.

And we do that in science, we put it in water there and put it in a slide and you put the water in there. And suddenly you see this seed has a root.

Now if that’s in ground, that thing has what it needs. And I’m not going to go through our science lesson on this right now, aren’t you glad, but it takes root. And it starts to sprout. And as that thing grows and matures, through the issues of pollination, and all that kind of stuff, it actually brings forth a wheat head.

And this head has several grains from that one seed. Now it has a lot of these at the top. And if it’s corn, corn is like, really productive. It’ll bring out a big ear and it has all kinds of kernels on that. I mean, multiplied many, many, many fold. That’s what Jesus refers to here. It’s not deep botany. It’s basic, he says, unless this kernel falls into the ground and dies, it’s alone, it stays by itself, if it dies, it bears much fruit. That’s the parable. That’s the story. It’s the story he used about the son of man’s hour, when the opinion of him is going to go through the roof, the son of man’s hour, when the recognition of who he is and his place, is going to go through the charts. It’s the time when he’s glorified. And this isn’t like a new thing with Jesus. If you look back at Isaiah, chapter 52, verses 13 through 15, even in the description of the death of the Messiah that he’s been marching to, it says that, he behaves wisely, and he is exalted, and the nations and the people are astonished. They’re amazed by him, even kings. This is him being glorified in this march. This is him going there. And I want you to see now where Jesus goes with this because this is where we come into play. He says this, in John chapter 12, verse 25, “whoever, whoever loves his life loses it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keeps it.” I just talked a little bit ago about how important life is to you.

And now Jesus is saying, hate it, love it. Don’t we love it? Yeah, we kind of do.

But he says something else here. He says, “in this world, in this world.” You know, the other day, I was shown a clip of John Piper. And John Piper was up in the pulpit of his church and he was telling them this. “John Piper is bad, bad, bad. Do you see that clip?

And I remember, not long ago, listening to John Piper and he was talking to a group about missions, young people in missions. And he said “my biggest struggle, my biggest burden, is my own sin.”

That’s what he’s talking about.

I had a professor, his name was John Whitcomb, known around the world as a Bible teacher. I remember sitting in class and him saying this. “People tell me, Oh, what a wonderful man you are”. And he said, “If you lived with my heart.” What about you?

Do you recognize that about yourself. I want you to know, that this heart of mine is desperately

wicked. And

I can’t even figure out how wicked it is. Sometimes I’m down the street on this whole thing of a wickedness in my heart before I even realize it. Is that true for you?

That’s it!

I have to detest that. When he talks about hating your life, he’s talking about, you detest that in you. I detest that, that’s what we hate. If you love this, there’s no way that you’re coming to Christ. But if you recognize this, and it detest you,

then you save it.

But if you love it, sorry, you don’t get this wonderful experience that Jesus promises. That’s where he goes with this. That’s where he goes, and who’s he talking about? Who is Jesus talking about here?

He’s talking about whoever, he’s talking about anyone. In verse 26, he says it this way, if anyone, if anyone, and he tells us something that is beyond our imagination. You know, we talk about worshipping the Lord in the singing of songs, and I hope you do that, I hope you don’t deny yourself the pleasure of going into the presence of God, and lifting up your heart to Him and blessing him. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, bless the Lord. I hope you don’t deny that. Some people tell me. I’m not much of a singer. God didn’t say, be much of a singer. He said make a joyful noise. And he said, Let it be joyful, a joyful noise to the Lord. I am flat and off key most of the time. Even when I try not to be, I still am. And you know what? Now days, they have this modern technology where you can sing into this thing and be so far off and it kind of like changes it so it’s ok. Let me tell you, that’s got nothing on the way God hears this. That’s got nothing on the way he hears this. Because God inhabits the praises of his people. He lives there! He lives there!

I hope you don’t deny yourself that. But I want you to know, that isn’t the highest expression of worship. I’m talking about the high expression of worship to God is not that singing, as important as it is to him. You know what it is? It’s this, verse 26. “If anyone serves me, he must follow me.”

“And where I am, there will my servant be also.” If anyone, he’s talking about anyone, that includes you, that includes me, “if anyone serves me, the father will honor him.” That’s the way he’s talking about anyone. Anyone.

The father will honor. Do you know what adores the Lord? Do you know what the worship of him is, in spirit and in truth? Romans, chapter 12, verse 1, “give your bodies as living sacrifice, which is your reasonable expression of service, of worship, to the Lord.” That’s it. That I serve him, that I serve him, that I serve him. You know, we have folks here who think that way, serve Him, that go over and help a brother at his house, serve Him. Just this past week in our prayer time, one of the folks that was in that, talked about concrete expressions of ministry and of service to the Lord and seeking that, during COVID time. You have opportunity tonight to rally and to pray for the community, that they may see us. And you know what the response of God will be?

God will honor that person. God will give them an evaluation, that’s what this word means, he will give them an esteem, a position that is prized with him. God will honor. That’s the promise. And who’s it to? It’s to anyone, to anyone. Can you imagine what this is? When every man prays, and honor comes to him from God? Can you imagine what that will be? When he says, well done good and faithful servant, servant, what that will be, what that will be for eternity. This which is little, he says becomes that which is much. If we’re not faithful with this little, who is going to intrust to you much.

It’s beyond what you can imagine, but there is something here. If, and if is a big word here. He says it twice. If, if. It’s about your and my decision now. Lord, I want to serve you, I want to. And I begin to pray and look for opportunities. Here’s the promise. God will prize, honor you.

Father, in heaven, we come before you because we have nowhere else to go. You have the words of eternal life and we have come to know and to believe that Jesus is the Christ. And that he gives us this standing and we can serve you today. Oh God, I pray. I pray that our hearts would resonate with this great promise because you are an amazing God. In Christ’s name I pray, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

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