We'll turn with me and your Bibles to John 17 verse 24. John 17 verse 24. This is one of those texts that So glorious as a fallen creature. I feel so wrong to preach because it is so glorious. John 17 verse 24. To give you the brief context, this is the night of Christ's betrayal before Judas, the soldiers, and the leaders come. In that situation, Jesus Christ prayed this, verse 24, Heavenly Father, we ask that you will show us in great splendor and glory the person of your son in this particular section of your word. We ask that you would do it in such a way that we will truly recognize the infinite depth of Christ's love for us, not just in the past, but in the present and in the future. And we ask that you would help us to reciprocate his love for us, that we would return that love, not perfectly, but with zeal, with true humility, and asking before your throne to love him better and better. May you use this word as a spark in our hearts, that for those of us who feel stagnant, out of rhythm, that you would use this as a spark to stimulate us to write excitement about the presence and the glory of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask this in His name. Amen. In this day and age where the internet is all around us, I trust that we have seen those viral videos where a United States soldier comes back home and surprises their family and reunites with them. I guess I'm nodding heads that we know what we're talking about when at a public place, usually what I've seen is at a basketball game, it's halftime, and the soldier is waiting in the hallway, the family has no clue that their father or husband is back from deployment and is about to surprise them at halftime. Just imagine that going on and he just can't wait to finally embrace his family. Maybe he's on the brink of tears, he's jumping up and down. But imagine that this takes place next. Imagine that he goes to the doors, he runs into the gym, can't wait to embrace his family. But his family, his wife and kids, they just look up and they just look down. They don't return his excitement. And they casually walk towards him eventually, and his wife just gives him a brief kiss, and that's it. And his kids are on their phones playing video games, and they can't care less that their dad is back. We would say there's something wrong with that picture, right? That's tragic. There's something wrong there. I want us to be really honest with ourselves. Ask yourself, can we be like that with Jesus Christ? Where He desires to finally be with His people, in glory, in heaven. But on the other side, where we are, we return the favor not so much. We feel apathetic and lethargic when it comes to being with Jesus finally. He prays and prays for his church, desiring, looking forward to that wonderful day when faith will become sight. When he can embrace us, welcome his people into the heavenly places and reveal his glory to us. Meanwhile, here on earth, we are distracted. We're lukewarm. in our affections, in our desire to finally be with them. Now friends, that, right, is truly tragic and wrong. There's something wrong with that picture. There's something wrong in that relationship. So when was the last time you sincerely prayed from the bottom of your heart, just by yourself, in your prayer closet, and you're just desiring to finally be with Christ? You've had a powerful experience in listening to His Word, and a sermon, and your study. You've experienced something where you've seen His faithfulness and His love, and you've gotten a taste of His glory, and all you can really pray is, I want to just be with You, with You, my Savior. When was the last time that you were able to organically and just naturally pray out of affection and love? When was the last time that occurred? If your answer is, it's been a while. It's been weeks, months, maybe even years. The good news is that the Lord Jesus Christ is still willing to pray today, I desire that they may be with me and that they may behold my glory. That's good news. And how do I know that? Well, because Jesus, in this context of John 17, He's praying for somebody who's going to betray Him three times. He's praying for folks who will fall asleep at his most vulnerable hour in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's praying for disciples, we see this in Luke 24, for disciples who are slow of heart to recognize that there was even a need for a suffering servant, according to the Old Testament. Those are the folks that he's praying for in John 17, in his immediate context. He's not praying for people who are ultra-faithful to Him as He does this. His disciples are confused, unprepared, even prideful right as we hear their discussion right around the Lord's Supper, His final supper. Right when He's about to be taken away to be crucified, that's where they're at. And nonetheless, He prays what He prays for them and in extension for us. That is truly good news. And that's really my intention, that we would see from this text, there is great news in the fact that Jesus is willing to still pray for his people, even when they are straying or struggling, stagnant, apathetic. You could have had the worst spiritual week, my friends. You could have had a spiritual train wreck this past week, the last seven days. But, if you belong to Christ, this prayer is ongoing in the heavenly places as we speak. If Jesus was willing to get down on His knees for these folks, Surely He will be willing to pray for us here today. With that being his immediate context, he prays for a couple main things throughout this chapter, John 17, which is considered the high priestly prayer. Number one, he prays that the Father will preserve his people, preserve the disciples' faith in a sinful and satanic world. If you look down at verse 11 and verse 15, you'll see key words like, keep them, Father, in your name. Keep them, preserve them from this world and all its temptations and from the attacks of Satan. And number two, he prays in this chapter, he asks that the Father will give them unity. We see this in verse 11 and verse 21 primarily. Key words there are, that they, Father, may be one, even as we are one. Then Jesus clarifies the goal, the end goal of this preservation and this unity. The goal is this, to finally be with Him and to behold His glory. Preservation and unity are means to an end, according to Christ. And that end is to have perfect fellowship with Him for eternity. And once again, it's so remarkable that He continues almost 2,000 years. since John 17 happened in human history. He continues to pray this prayer for his church today. Ever since he ascended into heaven, he has, he is, and he will pray this prayer for the church. If you're looking for evidence, it's actually already indicated in John 17 itself, in verse 20. If you look down at verse 20, he says there, I do not pray for these, these disciples alone, the eleven, excluding Judas, obviously, these disciples alone, but also for those who will in the future, after his death and resurrection, who will believe in me through their, the apostles' word. So in this high priestly prayer, he is wrapping up all the church of all time. into this prayer. But more clearly, if you look at the rest of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul shows how these high priestly prayers for the church continued after Jesus' ascension back into heaven. Listen to Romans 8, verse 34. There Paul writes, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us at the present time. And it's noteworthy that this is the thought. Christ making intercession for his church. That thought leads into Paul's incredible crescendo right after verse 34. Who shall separate us? from the love of Christ. I am persuaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." As Paul considers not only the amazing work of Christ in the past, that he was the sacrificial lamb of God, but also in the present, him operating as the great high priest. As he considers those truths, he launches into this mighty rhetorical question. regarding the saving, preserving power of Christ's love. Who shall separate us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ if this is reality? If this is ongoing in the heavenly places, Christ praying unceasingly for his church. Pastor John MacArthur said this recently in reference to Christ's high priestly ministry. He said this, people say if you want to get in touch with the wonder of your salvation, think about the cross, think about the cross. I say this, if you want to think about the wonder of your salvation, think about this. Christ right now at this split second is holding onto you eternally in his everlasting arms and will never let you go. Why did you not go back into the world this past year? Why were you able to do any good for God this past week? Answer, because you have a faithful high priest who loves you and powerfully prays for you with an everlasting love. And he so loves us that he continues to pray today, Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me. For you love me before the foundation of the world. Does it not humble us and maybe even embarrass us that as we sometimes pray self-centered, earthbound prayers, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings is praying that we be with him and behold his glory for eternity. Before I go on, I recognize just from reading my script here that I'm using the New King James, and that's because I preached at our church last week. So my apologies, I did not change it to the ESV, but I believe the translation is pretty similar. Moving on, as we walk through the two desires of Christ here in John 17, 24, I urge you to simultaneously be asking yourself a few questions. A few questions. Are our hearts aligned with our Lord and Savior? As He desires to be with you, do you desire to be with Him? Do you reciprocate His desire to be with you in glory? Just as He prays about that day, do your prayers revolve around a desire to be in His presence? Continue to just ask yourself those questions as we dig in deeper into this verse. My goal this evening is to ensure that everyone, everyone here is either convicted about their lack of desire and or wooed and drawn in by the love of Christ. If necessary, may we be convicted. If necessary, may we be convicted of what we even desire alternatively to Christ. May we also, however, be wooed by the love of our Savior. May we be wooed by His passionate cry for us to finally experience His presence and glory. May we be wooed by the fact that this has been, indeed, His prayer for the Church for almost 2,000 years. And therefore, as a result, may we find the spark that we need to have inflamed hearts that desire eternity with Christ in a brand new, fresh kind of way. As a result, may our desires conform to His desires. So let's begin digging into the text itself. Look to the first half of John 17, 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am. Here's the first desire we will examine today. Christ desires us to be in His presence. In His presence. The first thing we notice is Jesus is speaking about God's elect. Those whom you gave me. The people from every tribe and nation and tongue whom God chose before the foundation of the world. So this is not an open-ended prayer request. It's not generic. He has a specific group of people in mind as he does this. And it's made even more clear in John 17, verse 9, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me. They are yours. And this is nothing new in the Gospel of John as a whole. If you're taking notes, John 6, verse 37, and John 10, verse 29, those are the texts where it explicitly states God gave a specific people to the Lord Jesus Christ. A specific people for Jesus to redeem. You can understand it this way. The Father gave a bride. Gave a bride for His Son. which actually was an ancient Near East practice where the father would prepare a bride for his earthly son. He gave the son a people who will believe, treasure, and worship him forever. So for his people, his bride, Jesus prays that they may be with me. where I am. And don't let the present tense of where I am confuse you, the present tense of that phrase. Verse 11, if you look down there, he shows that he already considers himself to no longer be in the world. Now, I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. That's what he says there in verse 11. He's already, so he's looking past the cross, and he's even looking past the resurrection to the moment when he ascends back into heaven. He considers himself to be so close to being in heaven that he uses the present tense here. Basically praying, I desire that they may be with me in heaven. Now, there's a little bit more when we look at the rest of the Gospel of John. There's a little bit more to that phrase, where I am. And here's what I mean. Take a look to John 14, verse 2 to 3. Just a couple verses there in John. Chapter 14, verse 2-3. There, and again I apologize, this is the New King James Version. In my Father's house are many mansions. Literally, that's dwellings. In my Father's house are many dwellings. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, underscore that, that where I am, there you may be also. That's the connection there, the where I am phrase, and just looking at the rest of those two verses. While we don't know the exact details, it is clear that Jesus ascended into heaven to prepare a dwelling place for us, for us to experience the glory of God forever. I consider this Jesus basically giving a personal touch to him, welcoming us into his presence. I don't understand how this works in heaven, But it does mean that before Jesus ascended, there was no real personalized, customized place ready for us, for us to dwell in. But after He ascended, there was such a place. So when we arrive in glory, there will be a sense in which Jesus, we see that Jesus thoughtfully carefully and personally prepared a specific dwelling place for each and every one of us. And what will this do? What kind of impact will this have on our experience? Well, I think it's really the difference between staying at a hotel versus staying at your family's place. It's the difference between being welcomed generically versus being welcomed personally. And I think we can all relate to that, to the difference of those two. If you visit family for the holidays, but you have to stay at a hotel, you can have a very friendly receptionist at the desk, a front desk agent, but that person, no matter how much he or she smiles, that person doesn't know you. He doesn't know your personality, doesn't know your preferences, doesn't know your past experiences, your struggles in life, your highlights in life. If you enter into your hotel room, I mean, you have every other type of equipment and material that everybody else has, right? You don't have personalized pillows, you don't have personalized blankets, your coffee machines are the same as everybody else, etc., etc. There's nothing personal about that experience when you go to a hotel. You feel like you're just a number, you know, out of all the hotel guests. But if you visit family for the holidays and you stay at their home, completely different experience, completely different. You see them right away, you got a handshake, you got a hug, maybe even a kiss on the cheek. You have an incredibly intimate experience. And you walk in and maybe you realize, oh, they've already been preparing the meal that I like, that my wife likes. They've already thought. We didn't even request this, but they've already prepared all kinds of things for my family. My kids' favorite movies are already ready to go on the TV. They got all kinds of toys ready to go. I know they don't have guests over a lot, but they prepared their guest room, they dusted it off, and they made it all nice and clean. It's obvious that they put in time and work for you as you stay at their place. There's nothing generic, right, about that experience. It's personal. You understand they thoughtfully prepared a place for you. That experience of staying at a family's home, it's a tiny shadow, a tiny shadow of what it will be like when we enter into the presence of Christ. And my wife made this comment when I preached last Sunday. I think it has some weight to it. There's also I think in this an allusion to the practice, especially back then in the ancient Near East, where a bridegroom prepares a place for his bride before they finally enter into a covenant. I think there's also some of that allusion in this as well. He will welcome us in such a way that we will feel His personal touch. I think one of our first reactions as we enter into glory, when we finally enter into the presence of Christ, is like, really? You wanted to be with me this much? Like, I understand you died for me, I understand, I understand you love me, and I understand, I've read your word, but really, to this extent, that you would go this far, and you would provide this personalized experience for me, for us, His people. To which, I think, he will say, but I am the good shepherd, and I know my own. I know each and every one of you by name. I am the good shepherd. I know my own. Of course, I would do this for you. Just like a family member would prepare a place for your visit, he so much more prepares a place for your permanent stay in heaven. He desires you to experience His love in that unique way. He desires that His people will finally dwell in the places He has prepared for them in heaven. Father, I desire that they may be with me where I am. And once we get there, we will be with a real person, Christ. It's worth emphasizing that as straightforward as that sounds. Of course we'll be with them. But notice he says that they may be with me. With me. We will be with the God-man, the Son of God, and have perfect, everlasting, satisfying fellowship with Him, a real person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven is not heaven if He isn't there, right? Ask yourself, would you be satisfied if you got there? You see everybody you want to see. You're saved friends. You're saved relatives. You're saved spouses who've already passed away. You see the heavenly courts. You see the glory of the angels. You see things that you never could have imagined. It's beautiful. And then, add in the fact that there's no more sin, no more temptation, no more suffering, no more pain, no more cancer, no more illness. Go down the list, but there's no Jesus. Would you be okay with that? Would you be satisfied with that? I hope we can all say, absolutely not. Absolutely not. That would not do. And frankly, we should consider that to might as well just be hell. The point of heaven is to be with Him, with the Savior. The entire point of eternal life is to have perfect fellowship with the real person, Jesus Christ. The impact of the Gospel doesn't just end with conversion, some sanctification, and that's it. It's so much more to that. God will call, justify, sanctify, and one day glorify. Right? If that last piece is missing in our appreciation of what God does through the gospel, we have cut down on the impact of the gospel on our souls. All the potential impact that it can have on us today, we have cut that out of our lives. If we're not thinking about, if we're not appreciating the fact that that is the end goal of the gospel, is that you will one day be in glory and experience the glory of God in Jesus Christ, Perfectly. According to Philippians 3.21, this is just a cross-reference to talk about the glorification aspect. According to Philippians 3.21, when Christ comes in His second coming, He will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body. With our glorified bodies, we will no longer have remaining sin and we'll be able to have perfect, satisfying, sinless fellowship with Christ. The impact of the gospel goes all the way to that extent. It doesn't just end with a conversion experience and you get a little sanctified. No, the impact of the gospel goes all the way into the future. All the way to your glorified body in heaven. when you are in the presence of Christ. In His infinite love, the Lord Jesus Christ prays out of His desire to finally have perfect, satisfying fellowship with us. This way, it wasn't enough for Christ to have legitimate fellowship But nonetheless, it was not good enough for him to have fellowship with his disciples in ancient Israel for three plus years. It wasn't enough for him. He wanted to experience perfect, sinless fellowship with them for eternity. And likewise, it isn't enough for Christ to have fellowship with us here in Michigan and for our church in Louisville through the Spirit and the Word. As great as that is, He ultimately wants us to experience in-person fellowship with Him for eternity. Jesus desires us to be in His presence. And secondly, He desires us to witness His glory. This is His second desire from John 17, 24. This is the purpose of Him being, of us being with Him where He is. This is the purpose of being with Him where He is. Back to the verse, original verse, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that, so that they may behold my glory which you, Father, have given me. Why? For you, Father, loved me before the foundation of the world. This glory was to be bestowed upon Christ by the Father. Just as the Father honored the Son by giving Him a people, the Father honors the Son by giving Jesus glory after His ascension. To provide a definition for glory, in this context especially, glory is the powerful, visible beauty that flows out of the attributes of Christ. Now this glory was veiled, right? It was covered for about 30 years as Jesus walked this earth. But he knows, as he prays this in John 17, that there's a major change that's about to take place. He anticipates that. Look down at verse 5 of this chapter, John 17, and now, O Father, glorify me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was, before the foundation of the world. He looks back at the majesty that He used to have, and He asks the Father to bring it back. and actually turn there to John 12, John chapter 12, verse 39 to 41, these three verses, and we get an idea here in this text of what Jesus has in mind about his glory. John, the writer of this gospel, to give you context for John 12 here, the writer of this gospel, the apostle John, comments here on the unbelief of the Jewish people And he writes this, and harden their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts in turn, so that I should heal them." That is a quote from Isaiah 6, verse 10. Now verse 41 here. These things Isaiah said, when That's Isaiah 6. These things Isaiah said when he saw His Christ's glory and spoke of Him. So you don't have to turn to Isaiah 6, but what took place in Isaiah 6? A lot of us know that text pretty well. You don't have to turn there. I saw, I'm reading this, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up. And the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood Seraphim. Each one had six wings, and with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. According to John, in John chapter 12, the Lord who was revealed in Isaiah 6, what I just read there, Isaiah 6 verses 1-3, was the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity. This is the kind of glory Jesus has in mind as he prays in John 17. He seeks to have that type of glory back once he ascends into heaven. And Jesus is certain that the Father will glorify him in this way. Notice, back in John 17, verse 24, that have given is what he says. It's in the perfect tense, that's the point. He considers that to be a completed act. He considers this to be done, it's a done deal. The glory which you have given me you love me before the foundation of the world. The Father gives glory to the Son out of his love for the Son. Jesus has full certainty in the Father to accomplish his request for glorification because he understands the Father's great love for him. So when we arrive in heaven in our glorified bodies we will witness the infinite glory of Jesus and in that we will simultaneously also witness the infinite love that the Father has for the Son. Just as the Father said in Matthew 17, this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. And that happened in a very similar way and it's a very similar situation in Matthew 17. It's when Jesus has transfigured and for a brief while the glory of Christ just breaks through right before those three disciples. We will, in like manner, we will hear and see just how satisfied God the Father was by His Son's perfect obedience unto the point of death. I believe this is the idea of Philippians 2, right? We will, because God the Father was so satisfied with the perfect obedience of His Son, He exalted Christ. He exalted Christ. He brought Him up into heaven. He brought Him up in the ascension as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. Giving Him the title of Lord over the universe. Now, will there be anything else? Will there be anything else? So we covered, so far, the glory of Christ, in the Father's love for the Son? We've covered what the definition of glory is, just the radiance of the attributes of Christ. Will there be anything else besides those two things? And those two things are wonderful. It's an amazing sight, right? To get, frankly, a much better sight of the glory of Christ than those disciples in Matthew 17. It's an amazing thing to witness just how much the Father loves the Son. But I do think the rest of Scripture suggests that there will be something else as we experience Christ's glory. You don't have to turn to these texts yet. There's one that I do want you to turn to. But just think about what happened when Moses, in Exodus chapter 33, experienced, as he requested to see the glory of God, he ended up only getting the back of God. Right? He only got a fraction. Because God said to him, no man shall see my face and live. Now God did something really interesting as he did reveal a fraction of his glory in Exodus 34. Exodus 34 verse 6 says that as God passed before Moses to show the back of His glory, not His face, but the back of His glory, God did this. He proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. You can clearly see here that God revealing his glory, it cannot be separated It cannot be separated from God proclaiming His name. Who He is. Him talking about Himself and His attributes. Now turn with me to Revelation 21, the very end of the Bible. Revelation 21, verse 22 to 23. Just a couple verses here. We are in the New Jerusalem, in this context, where the saints will dwell forever. It says there, Revelation 21 verse 22, But I saw no temple in it, the New Jerusalem, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. And this is what I want you guys to see. The Lamb is its light. The glory of God, according to this text, the glory of God shines in and through Christ, the Lamb of God. Now look down just a little bit to Revelation 22, verses 3-4. Revelation 22, verse 3, And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it. And His, the Lamb's servants, shall serve Him, and they shall see His face. We will do what Moses was not allowed to do. We will look into the face of God and not die. We will look into the face of God and survive. We will not be destroyed by the radiant light of His glory because, one, we will be in the glorified bodies Jesus gave us. And I'm confident that the following, what I'm about to say, will be included in our experience of Christ's glory. I believe we're going to experience this. We will hear the name of Christ proclaimed. we will hear the name of Christ proclaimed. Seeing His glory will be joined with hearing His name being proclaimed. Moses only saw a fraction, right? And he got a pretty heavy proclamation about the glory of God in his name. We will see the face of God. So how much more glorious and wonderful will be the proclamation that we hear for eternity. How much more will we hear God thunder His name in the Son of God? Therefore, I think it's safe to say that when we finally see Jesus face to face, we will hear something like this. The Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and full of grace and truth. The Word of God, humble God in the flesh, mighty prophet, good shepherd, the bread of life, the greater I am, the light of the world, the way, the truth, and the life, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the King of kings and Lord of lords. To that, I think we will respond with what we hear earlier in the book of Revelation. Worthy, worthy is the land who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. seeing His glory will come together with hearing His name being proclaimed. And friends, that's our ultimate desire, right? That's why you guys come to hear Pastor Cook. It's not to hear Pastor Cook, it's to hear the name of Christ proclaimed. Amen? That's why you keep coming here. That's why you're a part of this church. That's our heart's ultimate desire, is to see and hear Jesus magnify. We want to hear the name of Christ, exalted, and there will come a day when there will be a proclamation in heaven that will dwarf, sorry Pastor Cook, even your preaching, that will dwarf the preaching of a T4G or a G3 conference, a Shepherd's conference, Ligonier conference. There will be a proclamation that will dwarf all of that preaching. There will come a day when the perfect proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ will ring through our ears and it'll be the most beautiful sound imaginable. There will come a day when we look into the face of Christ and marvel at His name. We will look into his face and marvel at his creative power. We will look into his face and marvel at the width and the length and the depth and the height of his love. We will look into his face and marvel at his condescension from glory to being born and even a teenage pregnancy. We will look into his face and marvel that he bore the eternal wrath of God that we deserve. We will look into his face and marvel that he overcame the grave and ascended to heaven. We will look into his face and marvel even at his righteous wrath upon sinners in the everlasting lake of fire. And we will declare with the angels that his judgments are true and righteous. We will say, worthy are you, Jesus, to receive such glory from the Father. And all that, what I just recited, that's what Jesus can't wait for you to experience and hear, to experience His glory. In His perfect, infinite love, the Lord Jesus Christ petitions the Father that His people may see His full glory and worship Him in complete satisfaction. He desires that we make it to heaven, be in His presence, and witness His glory. There is no greater love than this. There is no greater love than this. Well, that's how Jesus feels about us. How do you feel about Him? That's the question that I began with. How should we feel about him today? What is the proper reciprocation of Christ's desire for us? I'll close with a text that provides us with the attitude that we need to strive for. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1.21. In other words, this is me putting Paul's words into my own words. If I do anything on this earth, let it be for the preeminence and the glory of Christ. And if I die, I get everything I ever wanted. I get everything I ever wanted. I gain Him. I gain His presence. I gain seeing His glory. I gain hearing His name preached and proclaimed. I gain perfect, satisfying fellowship with my Lord and Savior. If we look forward to the presence of Jesus, just a fraction of a fraction of how much Jesus desires to be with us, I don't think we would be intimidated by the reality of death. In a sense, in a sense, we would even look forward to it. This Pauline kind of ambitious desire is what's demanded in light of just how much Christ desires to have us in his presence and to witness his glory. of all the things that we look forward to in this life, to finally be with Christ ought to eclipse all of them. Now, don't let that just be a sentiment. Put that in its proper context. More than a marriage, more than a newborn, more than a new house, more than a new job, Those things, frankly, I would say this should be fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh place. And first, second, third should be taken up by this infatuation to finally be with Christ. I want to qualify that those things that I just listed, those are legitimate gifts from God. I don't want to confuse anybody to think those are not gifts from God. They definitely are, and God gladly gives them to us. But this is what I'm trying to say. It would be inappropriate to place equal or more desire on those things than the eternal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we close, May you be convicted, if necessary, of your lack of desire. But also may you be wooed and drawn in as you meditate upon the reality of Christ's high priestly prayer. I encourage you, if you're trying to recapture the wonder of your salvation, look to the cross. Obviously, look to the cross. But also look to His interceding work as your faithful high priest. Let there be no doubt that we don't preserve ourselves, but that he, Jesus, preserves us. And one of the ways in which he does this is that he prays us into glory. He prays us into glory, even at this split second. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, may you show us more of Christ not just one aspect or another, two aspects, but may you give us more of all of him, all of his attributes. May we accurately understand his name. May we marvel at his glory. And may we do so with an anticipation for that perfect, satisfying fellowship with him in the New Jerusalem. We ask, Lord, that you will convict and stimulate those who are so trapped with earthly cares and earthly desires. We ask Lord God that you will encourage those who are already zealous but still need more fuel. Lord God, may you do your good work among us and through the Revelation of your Son, Jesus Christ, may you humble sinners, those who are still your enemies, and make them, Father, your children, brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.