He Wants You There

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Yes, this is your friend Bob Cook, and I am glad to be back with you. I look forward to these times when we can share from God’s Word. My, it’s like a vacation with pay, to sit down and just soak up the riches of God’s Word, pass them along to you, my precious friend. I appreciate the opportunity. I thank God for the chance just to share His Word.

Look at John 17:21 again with me, 22, 23, those verses in there. We wanna wrap that up and go on. This is the great high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus. He’s praying for you, actually, beloved. He says, “I don’t pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.” He had you in mind when He prayed. He knoweth the way that I take. God has plans for you, individually that is. He knows what He wants you to do, He knows your name, and Jesus, our blessed Lord, had you in mind when He prayed His high priestly prayer. “I pray for them,” he said “which shall believe on Me through their word.”

Now he says, “that they all may be one in Us.” First of all, “That the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” The credibility of the Gospel is based upon the shining of the individual believer. How do I know? Verse 22, “The glory which Thou has gavest Me I’ve given them. ‘They looked at Stephen’s face as though it were a face of an angel’, you read in the closing of the 6th chapter of Acts. “The glory which Thou gavest Me.”

What’s his glory? John 1, “We beheld His glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Grace, God’s grace, the embodiment of God’s grace, is in the Lord Jesus. God’s truth is in the Lord Jesus. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And He said, “I have given that glory to them.” The grace of God in your life and the truth of God in your character and in what you say and do is proof that the Gospel is true. That the world may believe.

Then He says, “I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know.” See, it goes a step further, go a step further, “That the world may know that Thou has sent Me.”

Now, perfect. It comes from the Greek word “teleo,” from which we get the theological term, the teleological argument. The argument, in other words, for design. This universe didn’t just happen, it was designed. And so that proves that there has to be a Designer. Right? So that they might be made perfect means matured according to design, perfect in us. It doesn’t mean the kind of perfection that is sinless perfection. Only God is sinless and perfect. It means the development of God’s master plan, God’s master design in your life and in mine. Now he says, “that the world may know.” When people see that God is doing something in your life, it is irrefutable proof that He’s real.

The reason many folk are unconvinced of the truth of the Gospel is that nothing is going on around them in Christians’ lives- nothing going on, as we say, but the rent. No change in character. The worry wart is still worrying, and the person who is careless with the truth is still trimming the truth, and the person who has problems in his inner life and desires is still failing at that level, and the person who’s greedy is still greedy, and the person who is proud is still proud. And the unbeliever looks then at those who profess to be the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and when they see the unsaved, see that there’s nothing much going on, they say, “Well then, that’s just religion.” You follow me? Jesus said, “That they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know.” Now what convinces the unbelieving heart that Jesus is real? It is to see the change that Christ makes in the believing heart and life and conduct and character.

Can you take that in today? Let me ask you beloved, what has God done in your life lately? I know that’s a piercing question and it may disturb you. And you may say, “Well brother, I’ve been on the way for many years, and I’m a grown up Christian, and I don’t get emotionally excited anymore and so on.” All right, you say what you will, but just let me ask you this honest, though probing, question: What has God done in your life lately? Has there been anything happening in you that would convince a skeptic outside of you that Jesus is real? Anymore patience under pressure? Any more commitment to the plan and will of God? Any more sacrifice for the doing of God’s will? Any more love and compassion for the lost? Any more commitment to the challenge of world evangelization, we call it missions? What has God been doing in your life?

Alright. You have to answer that. I can’t. I can only answer for me. Now I tell you, when that question hits me, it drives me right to my knees. Because we tend to routinize our religion, don’t we? Even our devotions, even our praying becomes routine. And of course, that’s because we’re human beings, we fall into different patterns of thought and conduct. I know that. And you can’t always be brilliant and scintillating and innovative. I know that. You don’t have to be, just be yourself. But be yourself full of the Spirit of God. He’s the One.

God says, “Behold, I will do a new thing.” God is the God of innovation. And He will make some blessed improvements in your life if you wait before Him. “They that wait on the Lord shall renew,” it says, “their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint.” You spend some time with your Lord, and you’ll find that something’s going on in your life, and as a result, without you saying a word about it in defense of your faith, people will be convinced that Jesus is real. That the world may know.

There are two things that the world may believe the legitimacy of the Gospel message, that the world may know the proof of God’s Presence in your life, is the development of God’s will in your character and conduct, made perfect in one. Oh, that’s a big order, isn’t it? Well, I pray that it may be real in my life and beloved friend, also in yours.

Now he says in Verse 24, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou has given Me, be with me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” The profound implication of this prayer is that Jesus wants to be with me. Can you understand that? Here is the Person, the glorious second Person of the God Head, Who was the activator of all creation. The Bible says, “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. He is before all things and by Him all things hold together.” Our Lord Jesus holds the force of the atom in His hand. All that keeps the entire universe from blowing up is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and that same Person looks down the centuries and looks at you. John Q. Americans, Vaughn Shoemaker used to call ’em- the ordinary, garden variety, citizen who has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior looked down the corridors of the centuries and saw you, beloved, and said, “I want him or her to be with Me.”

He chose some disciples and said, to be with Him. Has it ever occurred to you that when you pray, it’s not just to bring a laundry list of things you want, but that you come into the presence of God because He invites you, and He wants just to be with you, and you with Him?

A minister friend of mine had a little three-year-old daughter. And he had his study in his home. He had the door closed and was trying somehow to concentrate upon his next Sunday’s sermon. And he said, “There was this knocking at the door and the call of the little baby voice, ‘Daddy, daddy.'” And he said, “Daddy’s busy now, don’t bother me now dearie.” But there was the insistent knocking and calling, “Daddy,” knock knock, “Daddy.” Finally, he gave up, he went to the door. Opened it, and he said, “Now what do you want dear?” She said, “I don’t want anything, I just wanna be with you.” There is a sense in which the sweetest and most profound communion that you and I can ever experience is that where we don’t ask God for something, but we just wanna be with Him.

“Wait on the LORD,” says the psalmist. “Be of good courage, He shall strengthen thine heart.” “Wait on the LORD.” “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him.” “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength.” “Take time”, says the old hymn writer, “to be holy, speak off with thy Lord; Abide in Him only and trust in His Word.” Yes, it takes time. There isn’t any hurry up way to holiness. I don’t know of any instant pill that you can take that will make you holy, and give you the shine of God’s glory in your life. But if, beloved, you’re willing to spend some extra time with your Lord, I have this guarantee: He wants you to be there. He wants you to come into His Presence.

“Let us come boldly,” says the writer to the Hebrews. “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” “We have a high Priest Who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, so let’s hold fast,” says the writer, “the confession of our faith with full assurance of hope unto the end.” He wants you. He invites you. He gets lonesome for you. He wants you to be with Him. Don’t neglect this most glorious of all opportunities, the chance to change your life and to give you the shine of God upon you spent in His Presence. It’s great truth, isn’t it?

Precious Father, today, make Jesus real in our lives. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!