It’s donation not duration. What are you investing?

1. It’s donation not duration. What are you investing?

2. Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London.  It was sometime in the mid 1800s and as they planned their day they decided to go and hear the famed Charles H. Spurgeon preach.

3. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?"

4.  They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young people were taken down a stairway…a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, • "This is our • heating • plant."

5. Surprised, the students saw 700 people in prayer…asking the Lord’s blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above.

6. Softly closing the door, the gentleman introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon. • William Cowper once said, “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees.” • Samuel Chadwick once said, • “The one concern of the devil is • to keep Christians from praying.  • He fears nothing from prayerless • studies, prayerless work and • prayerlessreligion. He • laughs at our toil, mocks • at our wisdom…but he • trembleswhen we pray.”

7. In John Chapter 17, we hear the wholehearted prayer of the Son to the Father.  • As we read, we will see the • innermost being of Jesus— • His purpose, power and • mission…and most clearly, • His love for us. • He begins by praying for • himself, then his disciples, • and next for those who later • follow in the faith.

8. Here He is at the very door of His death and His heart’s focus is others! • Even at the cross, as they lifted the cross up and planted it into the ground…the very first thing He said…maybe even as the nails began to bear the weight of His flesh... pinned there in horrible, unimaginable pain…”Father, forgive them, for • they know not • what they are • doing!”  Even in • His most pain • filled moment • he was thinking • of others!  Is that • our heart?

9. There was a man by the name of John Harper who was born into a Christian family on May 29, 1872. He became a Christian 13 years later and had already started preaching by age 17. He received training at the Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, and in 1896 he • founded a church, now • known as Harper Memorial • Church, which began with • 25 worshipers but had • grown to 500 members • by the time he left it 13 • years later.

10. Along Harper’s pilgrimage of faith, he married and became a father, a church pastor and, sadly, a young widower.  Invited to preside over a series of revival services in Chicago, he boarded Titanic • with his beloved 6-year-old • daughter, Nan, and her Aunt • Jessie.  Before they sailed, a • parishioner warned Rev. • Harper the voyage would end • badly, but he replied his destiny • was to sail Titanic.  Whatever • happened would be God’s will.

11. At about midnight Tuesday, April 14, 1912, Titanic struck an iceberg.  Rev. Harper’s faith was about to be tested as never before.  When it appeared the ship was sinking, Rev. Harper reportedly rushed Nan and Jessie to the lifeboats.  He tearfully knelt down to kiss his daughter, knowing she soon might be an orphan. • As flares lit • the dark sky, Rev. • Harper turned to the • panicking crowd and • shouted, “Women, • children and unsaved • people into the • lifeboats!”

12. More than 1,500 people sank below the frigid waters that night, Reverend Harper among them, but not before giving his lifebelt to a non-believer.  “I won’t need this,” he said, “because I’m not going down, I’m going up!”

13. In the water he swam to a young man who was nearing shock.  Between breaths, he asked, “Are you saved?”  The lad shook his head and drifted off.  When the current pulled him back, the reverend asked, “Are you saved yet?”  The young man said he couldn’t say.  Rev. • Harper pleaded, • “Believe in the Lord • Jesus Christ and • thou shalt be saved,” • then slipped into his • watery grave.

14. Of the six survivors pulled from the water that night, one was the lad whom Rev. Harper directed his last words.  With two miles of water beneath him, the young man had decided to become a believer.

15. John Harper died that night…but even when he knew death was near, it was others who were on his heart, mind, lips and the object of his actions. I wonder, where we are today…as we claim the Lord Jesus as our God…as we claim to know Him and the power of His resurrection…are others our focus?  Just like John Harper, on this night as Jesus lifts His eyes to heaven…on His heart and lips…are others…

16. 17 1After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you. • The Greek word for “glorify” is doxazo, and it only means glorify when applied to God. It literally means “show them!”  Show them Father, Jesus said!  Show them how much they mean to You!SHOW THEM FATHER!  Use ME! 

17. “Show honor” or “reveal the wonderful character of something or someone (God).” • Glorify God. Is it our life’s work? Or are we too self-focused and self-seeking?

18. Our human tendency is to exclaim, “What goes around comes around. If you mess with me; I’m going to mess with you.” If someone takes something or someone away from us, we feel the irresistible urge to take matters into our own hands. After all, we need to avenge and vindicate ourselves. • The underlying motive behind • this type of thinking is a quest • for our own glory.

19. This is in direct contrast to Jesus Christ, who was driven by a desire to turn the other cheek, forgive wicked sinners, and glorify God. Instead of giving in to His own desires, Jesus lived for God’s glory alone.

20. Father, show them…Even though it will cost all of Me, show them.  Even though I will be hated and destroyed…Father show them …show them You! 

21. The phrase “the hour has come” shows Jesus is not overtaken by unknown circumstances. Jesus’ request is that He may be given the strength to continue to be faithful as He goes to the cross. Jesus is praying that He might die well. He wants • to be faithful in • the face of • suffering and • death.

22. Have you ever thought about the importance of glorifying God in death? While it is important to live well; it is also important to die well. • Philosopher William James said that the value of life is computed not by its duration but by its donation. Jesus Christ lived a relatively short life, • yet He died for • sinners, which • provided our • salvation. The • Work that He • completed is still • bearing fruit by • His Spirit.

23. One’s harvest is not always reaped in this life. God’s work through our lives will continue bearing fruit long after we’re gone. This means it’s not how long you live, but how you live and how you die that matters.

24. Rachel early on showed a desire to give back. At age 5, she learned at school about an organization called Locks of Love, which uses hair donations to make wigs for children who have lost their own hair because of cancer or other diseases. Rachel then asked to have her long hair shorn off and sent to Locks of Love. • Rachel was devastated when she learned that other children had no clean water, so she asked to skip having a ninth birthday party. In lieu of presents, she asked her friends to donate $9 each to charity: water for water projects in Africa. She hoped to raise $300. • Then, on July 20, as Rachel was riding with her family on the highway, two trucks collided and created a 13-car pileup. Rachel’s car was hit by one of the trucks, and although the rest of her family was unhurt, Rachel was left critically injured.

25. Rachel died on July 23. After her death her charity raised $1.3 million and provided clean drinking water for 37,7700 people. It’s not duration but donation.

26. 2-3You put him in charge of everything human, so he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, the one and only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.

27. Five times in His prayer Jesus refers to believers as those whom the Father has given Him. The Father gives believers to Jesus, and the Son gives these believers eternal life. • The real and eternal life is knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him, not merely comprehending factual information about Him. • Are you continuing to develop • your personal relationship with God?

28. 4I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do. And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor. The very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world. • Jesus now looks back on the entirety of His earthy ministry and declares that He has glorified God by completing the work that God entrusted to Him. Jesus’ work was to reveal the Father, live a perfect life as a man, and redeem humankind.

29. Jesus says here, “I have glorified You on the earth.” This is the only true measurement of success in life.  You see those signs on the back of commercial trucks, “How am I driving?” or you get those surveys when you’ve stayed in a hotel asking, “How are we doing?” Well just • like that, we • should be asking, • “How am I doing, • Father?  Who is • receiving the glory?” 

30. The reason that Jesus glorified God throughout His life and finished well is because He made prior commitments. Decisions in life must be made in advance. If you are making decisions based upon your emotions, you are not setting a course for your life that will result in the accomplishment of the Father’s will.

31. If you want to preserve your virginity until marriage, you have to make this decision in an advance before temptation strikes. If you want to remain married for the rest of your life, you need to make that determination before you even think about getting married. If you want to honor your parents, you have to make this a core conviction. If you want to stand strong and witness for Christ, you need to come to this conclusion before the world’s hatred hits.

32. It’s very difficult to live for Christ when you’re hoping that things are just going to work themselves out. The Christian who perseveres and overcomes is the one who makes up his or her mind before trials and temptations come. We are all weak and susceptible. We can all potentially give God a black eye and fail to glorify Him. This is why it is so important to make God’s glory our all-consuming passion.

33. Is your life driven by a yearning for His glory? • Every area of our life is meant to exude God’s glory. This is why Paul says in 1 Cor 10:31: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

34. And I love what He says next here…”I have finished the work.”Salvation is by faith through grace and not of works because the works are finished.   Because Jesus completed the task! • What about you?  If you • today were to come face • to face with God the • Father could you say, • “Father, I finished the • work you gave me…”

35. Jesus’ third prayer for us is a prayer for unity. In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demands that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus. “These five fingers,” says Lucy, “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon • that is terrible to • behold.” “Which • channel do you • want?” asks Linus. • Turning away, he • looks at his fingers • and says, “Why can’t • you guys get • organized like that?”

36. 20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

37. 22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!

38. 25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

39. Along the coast of northern California are great forests of redwoods—the giant sequoias. Redwoods are noted for age, beauty, and fine wood. But one unusual characteristic of redwoods is their tendency toward unity. Two redwoods may grow up together several feet apart, and then after fifty or one hundred years the trees begin to touch. Quite often the bark begins to overlap and fill out so that the two trees ultimately become one.

40. After several centuries these trees have grown together so that outwardly they appear as a single giant tree! In keeping with Christ’s prayer, the goal of the body of Christ should be to grow into such unity that the world will recognize us as one.

41. Jesus knew that the church could never make the impact on the world that He wished it to make unless spiritually the world saw in that church a oneness, a unity.

42. J. Gordon Melton is a Methodist minister with an unusual hobby. His hobby is denomination hunting. He literally scours the country trying to count the number of major denominations in the United States. As of a few years ago he had counted over 1,200 denominations in this • country. • Some interesting ones • include:

43. "The Church of the Kennedy Worshippers." It is a church which actually believes that it can pray to the late President John F. Kennedy, and can be cured both of congenital defects as well as of terminal diseases. • "The Church of the Ministry of Universal Wisdom." They look for flying saucers to come.

44. “The Church of What’s Happening Now.” • Steven Greenebaum yearned for decades to find a religion that embraced all religions, and secular ethical teachings as well, he finally decided that to get what you want you have to “D.I.Y.--do it yourself.” His clothes are adorned with the symbols of nearly • a dozen religions. His sanctuary contains a bookshelf with the Koran • beside the Hebrew • Bible, with both of • them near two • volumes of the • “Humanist Manifesto” • and the Sioux wisdom • of “Black Elk Speaks.” • Candles, stones, bells • and flowers adorn • the altar. • Could this be the unity • Christ prayed for?

45. But of more interest to us is the fact that in that list of over 1,200 denominations he found more than 70 different denominations calling themselves Baptist: • Seventh-Day Baptist, Two Seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptist, General Baptist, Regular Baptist, and the list goes on and on.

46. With all of these different denominations and schools of thought how can the body of Christ become united?

47. The Sunflower is an amazing flower created by God. They literally follow the sun. Watching one follow the sun through is cute, but watching hundreds in absolute unison follow the sun is actually quite incredible. Sunflowers continue • tracking the suns direction long after • sun set. Through 360 • degree’s they ensure • that they are always • oriented in the • direction of the sun. • Their unity is • totally dependant on • one thing. Their • relationship • to the sun.

48. Our unity as believers is also totally dependant on one thing. Our relationship • to the Son. • The Bible is God’s • Word, Jesus Christ • is God, salvation is • by faith through • Christ alone, and • Jesus will return. • These beliefs are • worth dying for, • but many others are not.

49. E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), missionary to India, once said, “Talk about what you believe and you have disunity. • Talk about Who you believe • in and you have unity.”

50. “We can agree to disagree—until the Lord shows you that I’m right!” It is acceptable to disagree on issues such as baptism, eternal security, election, the structure of church government, the role of women in the church, the charismatic gifts, and timing of creation and Christ’s return. • These are non-essential issues that we can discuss and disagree agreeably on until Jesus’ returns. While doctrine is important, we must recognize the distinction between membership and fellowship (unity).