If you have your Bibles, we're going to open back up to John 12. Before we get into the message, let me make a correction from this morning. I said that we would have Wednesday night service and that Reed would speak for us. We're actually not going to have Wednesday night service this week. We knew we were going to have to call off one of the services in the next few weeks because Brother Reggie has started painting the building and he's going to start in the sanctuary. this week which means the pews are going to go out and they're going to go in the fellowship hall and he's going to have ladders and scaffolds and that kind of thing in here so we can't meet in here we can't meet in the fellowship hall and so this Wednesday we will not have service and then things will be put back together and normal for Sunday. So I'll send out a message on that on the Remind app, just to make sure everybody knows. But for those of you who are here this coming Wednesday, there will be no Wednesday night service. All right, so back in John chapter 12. Just read our text again from this morning, verses 20 through 26. says, there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came, therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honor." So this morning we looked at two different headings. We'll get our third one this afternoon. We looked at seeing Jesus, seeing Jesus in His glory by seeing the death and the atoning work of Christ. Serving Jesus, that is, if we would see His glory and we would enjoy His glory, we must walk the same path that He walked. And then in verse 26, there's an exhortation here really for us to believe Jesus, to believe Jesus. He makes two statements here, two blessings, two promises, two rewards that are laid out for those who would serve Him by following Him. Number one, Jesus says, where I am, there shall He be. If any man serve Me, verse 26, let him follow Me, and where I am, there shall also My servant be." This is the blessing of fellowship with Jesus, not only in this life, but in the next. And this phrase really does allude to both. Really, it's the kind of thing that Brother Davis just mentioned whenever he gave thanks for the fact that 48 years ago the Lord put him on solid ground and has been with him ever since. If you've come to know the Lord, you know that. You have that testimony. The fact that God shows up in times in unexpected ways, with unexpected comforts and unexpected blessings, The fact that Christ shows up in some of the most difficult times, bringing the most unexplainable types of peace and comfort that you would have never guessed. Jesus says, those who follow Me, where I am, there shall He be. That is, Christ will be with us as we are walking with Him. Two different aspects of that. The first one is just Christ's presence with us now in this life as we seek to serve Him. go to several different places, reaching back into the Old Testament where God promises to be with His people. The promise is, I will be with you. We could go back to the most explicit statement there in Joshua, where Joshua was told not to fear because God would go with him and be with him as he went into the land to take possession of the land that the Lord had given him and given Israel. time and time again throughout the Old Testament, you find this promise that the Lord is making that I will be with you. I'm going to be with you. Moses in Psalm 90 says that the Lord has been my portion. Okay, this just means the Lord has been my inheritance or my reward. He has given Himself to me all the days of my life. There were many blessings that Moses received throughout his life, many hardships, but many blessings as well. But the one thing that was constant, that as Moses seems to in Psalm 90, as he gets to the end of his life and reflects back, the one thing that Moses remembers was always the case, is that God was always with me. He never forsook me. When we were in troubled times, God was with us. When we were in impossible circumstances, God was with us. When I was in frustrating moments in life, God was still with us. He was my portion. He was my inheritance. It's not necessarily about lots of different blessings that God is showering on you. It's the fact that God has given you Himself, the greatest blessing, the fountain of all blessings that we could ever receive. So we might say, well, OK, this is a. This is a hard saying that Jesus lays out first about himself, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. He stays alone, but if he dies, he bears much fruit and then speaking to us saying if you love your life, you will lose it. But he who hates his life. Will gain it. Well, that's a hard saying. It's difficult, what? What is there to? motivate or prompt or press me into being motivated to give up my life for an invisible inheritance as far as we can tell. And God says we're going to get to some more here, but God says I'm going to give you the very best I have. Myself. You will know Me. You will dwell with Me. You will feel the comfort and the power and the strength of My presence. Even if you don't realize I was there until you look back, I'm going to be with you. Jesus makes this promise to His church and the Great Commission in Matthew 28. when He tells them to go and to teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you, and this is the promise, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." He says go, obey. Essentially what He's telling the disciples here is go and lose your life. They would all die martyrs' deaths except for John who would be exiled on Patmos and live a lonely old life as an accused criminal anyway. He's saying, lose your life for me and I will be with you even unto the end of the world or even unto the end of the age. As you read about some of those martyrs, some of the way that the apostles died, it's evident that Christ was with them even to the end. You remember Peter and his death. They were going to take him and crucify him. And he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified the way that Christ was. Crucify me upside down. That's what tradition tells us. Historic tradition tells us. How in the world does somebody do that? Christ says, I will be with you. If you lose your life, you'll find it. You see, you don't just all of a sudden get a jolt at the end of your life to make a decision like that. Peter had tasted that the Lord was good, and faithful and true to His promises all the way up until the end. And He had no reason to believe that He was going to stop being faithful then. He says, those who follow Me where I am, there shall He be. I'll be with them. They'll be with Me. That's in this life. But that's also in the life to come. You see this phrase more frequently speaking about the life to come. Look in John 14. In verse 3, Jesus says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also. Those who follow Christ, those who lose their lives, or those who hate their lives or give up their life of selfish ambition and pride, they will find life eternal. That is, at the end of this life, Christ will take us to be with Him where He is. That is, there's an eternal reward for a temporary sacrifice. So that as we seek to follow the Lord, and obviously the temporary sacrifice is on our part, as we seek to follow the Lord and give up the pleasures and the treasures of this world, we find something far greater that lasts far longer. Jesus would also pray this prayer in John 17, verse 24. In John 17, verse 24, this will be familiar for most of you, where Jesus says, Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am. that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world." Now, just think about this prayer. Here's a question. What is it that Jesus wants in this prayer? What is He asking the Father for in this prayer? You know what He's saying? I want to be with My people. That's where I want to be. That's who I want to be with. Now, we might think if we were to try to put ourselves in those shoes that Jesus realizes in John chapter 17, he's getting ready to endure the suffering and the ridicule and the rejection and the torture and the death of the cross and absorb the wrath of God on behalf of His people. And we might think the last person Jesus wanted to see at that point was the people He was getting ready to suffer for. And yet, look at the heart of Christ in John 17. He could have asked the Father for anything. And what does He say? I will. That is, I want. This is what I want right now. I want that those whom You have given Me would be with Me where I am. Why? So that they might behold My glory which You've given Me." What a prayer. What a prayer. Did you know that Christ is more committed to showing you His glory than you could ever be? at going after it. Did you know that? So what does that mean? Well, it means if we look at ourselves and we're honest with ourselves about some of the things we were talking about this morning, we're not always motivated to go and put self to death in order to enjoy and behold the glory of God in the death of Christ. But as Christ prays to the Father, His prayer is, Lord, bless them to be with me where I am so I can show them my glory. So the blessing of fellowship with Christ in this life and in the next. Secondly, back in John 12, verse 26, If any man serve Me, let him follow Me. And where I am, there shall also My servant be." Here's number two. If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. First blessing for us to believe. is that those who serve Christ will enjoy the blessing of fellowship with Christ in this life and in the next. The second blessing, second promise even for us to believe, is that those who serve Jesus will be honored by the Father. Isn't that something? I mean, that would be blasphemous if Jesus didn't say it. In the sense that we would never come up with that. Why would God honor us? What is there about you for God to honor? Jesus says, those who serve Me will be honored by the Father. Look in 1 Samuel 2. Look at this principle and make a few applications. 1 Samuel 2. in verse 30. 1 Samuel 2, verse 30. It says, Wherefore, the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that my house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, Be it far from me, for them that honor me I will honor. They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." Now, here's the principle really that I want to get. We get it out of John 12, but this is the way God has always worked. Those who honor me, I will honor. Those who honor me, I will honor. Think about this as it relates to what we said this morning about those who lose their life will find it. Do you know God will honor your obedience? I'll give you a few specifics on that. When you sacrifice the temporary pleasures of sin in order to follow Christ, God will honor that. In other words, He'll add His blessings to that. You won't be sorry you did it. When you make financial sacrifices in order to follow Christ and honor Christ, The Lord honors that. You will be blessed in that. When you make career sacrifices in order to follow Christ, God will honor that. When you make relationship sacrifices in order to honor Christ and follow Him, God will honor that. There's a few other things I'm going to say here, but you're hopefully catching on. We're talking about big sacrifices here. The kind that hurt. The kind that you shed tears over. The kind that it almost feels like the Lord has to tear out of your hands. And when you give those things up in honor of Christ or in order to follow Christ, the Lord will bless you in that. When you sacrifice your time in order to follow Christ, God will honor that. And when you sacrifice life as you know it in order to follow and honor the Lord, God will honor that. You know, the Christian life is full of sacrifices. No one has walked the straight and narrow road without making sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. The truth is, if you're going to follow the Lord, there are plenty of things you just cannot do. If you're going to follow the Lord, there are plenty of commitments you cannot make. There are lots of relationships you cannot be involved in if you're going to follow the Lord. If you're going to follow the Lord, at some point, it's probably going to require, I say probably, just in the day-to-day church life, it is going to require some financial sacrifices. But I'm not just thinking about tithing at this point. I'm thinking about times where you have opportunities to love your brothers and sisters and it costs you something to do it. If you're going to follow Christ, this is again just the norm of anybody who walks the straight and narrow way. You're going to have to sacrifice your time. You're going to have to do some things you wouldn't otherwise have done. Which means you're going to have to cut out some things that you wanted to do. But if you do that, God will honor that. The text doesn't even say God will honor your service. It says God will honor you. Isn't that something? He's going to bless you. Just as Christ, after He submitted Himself and was obedient even unto death, was then exalted and given a name which is above every other name, well, you're not going to get that. But God exalts the humble. God blesses the obedient. Let's go to one other place to kind of encapsulate this. We're going to Mark 10. Number one, believing Jesus when He says, those who serve Me, those who follow Me, where I am, there shall he or she be. And then number two, those who serve Him, the Father will honor. In Mark 10, In verse 28, it says, Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake, and the Gospels. But he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and land with persecution, and in the world to come, eternal life." You see, Jesus tells Peter the same thing. Peter says, Lord, we've left everything for you. And Jesus says, In reality, Peter, you've left nothing. Because what you've gained by following Me is that whatever it was that you left is going to be restored to you a hundredfold. But notice how he says it, with persecutions. This is not a name-it-and-claim-it health, wealth, and prosperity statement by Jesus. Whatever you left is going to be restored to you in the kingdom. The family members that you have to part ways with in this context in a Jewish world, you're going to find those in the church of God as you are brought together with God's children. You're going to receive blessings, but you're going to receive persecutions along with those. But at the end of that, you will also receive eternal life. believing Jesus. Unless the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But when it dies, it brings forth fruit. If we would save our lives, we must lose them. And if we would serve Christ, then we will be where He is and He will be where we are. And the Father will honor us. So may God bless us to believe that. And may that motivate us to follow Him. Let's pray. Father, we again just pray that You would apply this Word to our hearts. I pray that You would bless us, Lord, to not only believe, but even to taste and see and to be aware and encouraged by Your presence in our lives. And also to be aware, not in a selfish way, but in a way that would lead to our praise and thanksgivings of the way that You have honored us in our sacrifices for You. Father, we thank You for that. We thank You for Your faithfulness, and I pray that this would be a principle that would come to mind as we're tempted to compromise, as we're tempted to be slothful, as we're tempted even at times to turn back. Lord, I pray that we would serve You by following You. that we might be with you and might receive the blessing of the Father's honor. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.