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Amen. So John chapter 17, we see Jesus now shifting a little bit here. He's not talking to the disciples anymore. He's lifting up His eyes to heaven. He's praying to God here. And the title of the sermon, I'm going to preach this whole chapter and just kind of give you the context of what Jesus is talking about. The title of the sermon this evening is Passing the Baton, because that's what Jesus is doing in this prayer is He's passing the baton. You say, what baton is He passing? Well, let's take a look at it this evening. So Jesus is not talking to the disciples as He has been for the last several chapters. He's now speaking to God the Father, and He is talking about something very specific. Look at verse number one of John chapter 17. The Bible says, these words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify the Son, that the Son also may glorify Thee. So you're going to see this word come up again and again in this chapter, this word glorify. So here Jesus is talking about how He is to glorify the Father. He's saying, glorify Me so I can glorify you to the Father. And now has given Him power over all flesh, talking about the Son, that He should give eternal life as many as thou hast given Him. And this life is, this is life eternal that they might not, they might know, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have, again, look at this, I have glorified Thee on the earth. That is a key to this chapter right here. Jesus is saying, I glorified Thee on the earth, I finished the work which thou has gave us Me to do. So Jesus here is explaining that the work that He did on the earth was glorifying to God the Father. All right, that is what He's telling God. And look at verse number five and He says, And now, O Father, glorify thou Me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. So that's an interesting statement there. Jesus was with the Father before the world was. So Jesus was not created. Jesus is God. He's one with God. Jesus is, as I've preached before, Jesus is the Creator. Jesus is the Creator as He is the Word of God and God literally spoke this universe and this earth into existence. So God, Jesus here is saying that He's one with God and that He was with God before the world was. So Jesus wasn't created when He was born of a virgin. He was just manifest in the flesh, as it says in John chapter 1. Basically He's saying, He lowered Himself for us, is basically what He is explaining here. Look at verse number six. I have, and again, He says, I have manifested thy name unto the men, which thou gavest Me out of the world. So now He shifts things. Now He's talking about, I did the work for you. The first few verses was, I came here, I lowered myself. I did all this work for you and it was to glorify you, God the Father. Now He shifts towards the disciples, the people that believed on Him in the world. So He's going to talk about the world here when He's talking about the unbelievers, the people that did not believe on Him, but He's going to talk about people that did believe on Him, talking about them, the men here, is the disciples, the people that did believe on Him. He'll mention that specifically in a couple of verses here, but look at verse, it says, and they have kept thy word. Thine they were and thou gavest them Me and they have kept thy word. They believed Jesus. They believed He was who He said He was. They believed that God the Father sent Him. Look at verse seven. Now they have known all things whatsoever thou hast given Me are of thee, saying they believed that I came from you. They believed that the words that I said came from you. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest Me and they have received them. And have known surely that I came out from thee, thee meaning God the Father, and they have believed that thou didst send Me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given Me, for they are thine. All mine are thine and thine are mine. Again, showing that Jesus is equal with God. Saying that Jesus, you know, God the Father, God the Son, are both 100% God. Whatever God the Father owns, Jesus owns and vice versa. And I am glorified in them. So, this first part, these first ten verses, is really talking about how Jesus is there, His work glorified the Father, and now we see a shift saying, okay, but there's these people, these men that believed that I came from you. And now He's going to shift in verse number 11 into these men in this prayer for the disciples. Look at verse number 11. It says, and now I am no more in the world. He's about to be crucified and buried and rise again, of course, but He's not going to be here much longer, so that's why He's been giving all this final advice to the disciples. Now He's praying for them, and He's saying, I'm no more in the world, but these are in the world. Saying, I'm going to be in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, but all the disciples are still going to be here amongst all these people that don't believe. Alright? And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are. Now He says this twice in the chapter as well, that all the disciples may be one, and I'm just going to refer to Brother Benjamin's sermon from Wednesday, last Wednesday night, which was just a great sermon on, you know, the brethren not having discord amongst the brethren. I mean, how many times in the Bible does Paul teach that, Jesus is teaching that, that there needs to be unity amongst the brethren. Why? Because there's going to be all kinds of trouble that the world causes the brethren. So, all these things that could cause discord, He's saying, just be united. See Brother Benjamin's sermon from last Wednesday night. Look at verse number 12. He says, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thine name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. So, he's talking about, he mentions Judas there, that, you know, Judas wasn't saved. There needed to be someone who would betray him so the scripture would be fulfilled. He uses this term, son of perdition, which is also a term used to describe the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. Just an interesting tidbit for you there. But look at verse 13. It says, now come I to thee that these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Still talking about the disciples. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from, he says, I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. So, Jesus knows that the disciples have to stay. He knows that they have to stay there. Look, this is the whole plan. This is the plan of Christianity right here after Jesus leaves, that the disciples, us, we have to stay in where? We have to stay in the world. We have to stay in the world that hates Jesus. We have to stay in the world that doesn't want anything to do with the Word of God. We have to be amongst the world, and the world's gonna hate us. This is what Jesus was explaining to the disciples. Now he's praying to God to keep them unified as they go through that. It says, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. He's just saying, again, as Brother Benjamin said in his sermon, you know, keep, you know, keep them unified in truth. I mean, one thing that will separate the brethren, as Brother Benjamin pointed out, is non-truth, you know, things that are not true, false doctrine, all right? And thou has sent me into the world, even so I've also sent them into the world. We are being sent into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray for I these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. So now he's saying, he's kind of like saying, like, okay, anybody in the world that believes the word after they're sent into the world, anyone that believes the world, now I pray for them too. So he's making sure that he covers people that are gonna get saved by the disciples being sent into the world. So we're sent into the world, we're not just in the world, we're sent to the world to preach the truth, to, you know, preach the gospel to the lost. People are gonna get saved, and then Jesus is saying, now they will become part of us at all. He's kind of, you know, throwing out the architecture of, you know, Christianity going forward here. Look at verse 21. He says that they may be, again, he says that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. So now he's saying that I'm praying that they go out there, they get the world saved, they get people in the world saved, and that, again, once those people get saved, they would get right and they would be what? They would be one with the believers. And now look at verse number 22, this word comes up again. It says in the glory which thou gave us me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, and that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know, that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me. Look at verse 24. And 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. So you see what he's doing here is he's saying that they're gonna have to stay here, they're gonna be sent out into the world, and they are gonna get the same, you know, they're gonna behold the glory that I had. So what is that? What is that glory? Who is that glory pointed at with Jesus? That glory was pointed at Jesus, the works that he did, he was there to glorify who? He was there to glorify God the Father. Look at verse 25, it says, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and I have known that thou hast sent me, and these have known that thou hast sent me. I can't read tonight, I don't know what's going on. And I've declared unto them thy name, and I and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. So he's saying what I did now they need to do is what he is saying in this chapter. So he's saying in the first 10 verses, he's basically saying I was here to glorify you, in all my works I glorified you. And then he's saying in the last half of the chapter, he's saying now these that are in the world, in the last verse he says I've declared unto them, I've already, I think I read that already, but he's saying now it's up to them to glorify you. So he's praying for the disciples, the Christians, the people that get saved through the word of truth to glorify the Father. He's handing the baton off to the disciples saying now it's their turn to do the same thing that I was doing, glorifying the Father. So the question is, since this baton has now been handed to the disciples or handed to us, what does that mean? What does that mean that we are here to glorify God? Jesus says I'm here to glorify the Father, now us the same. So to glorify means to, I mean you could, there's a couple different definitions, but to glorify could mean to worship, but I believe that the real definition that Jesus is getting at here is to Jesus is talking about glorifying the Father, he's talking about representing the Father. He's talking about being, you know as the Bible calls us, ambassadors for the Father. Alright, so the problem is is that we're to glorify the Father, not the world. We're to glorify the Father with our lives, and that's the baton that's been handed to us in John chapter 16, that's exactly what Jesus is praying for, that we would be able to withstand the troubles that are going to come from us having this baton handed to us. But the job of the Christian is to glorify the Father, period. That's the, if you take nothing else from this sermon, that's what you should take, that the job of your life is to glorify God the Father, period. But the problem is today is that all we see today is things being glorified that shouldn't be glorified. So to glorify means we should be representing God the Father, but the world today glorifies everything except God the Father. So that means we're going to be completely against what Jesus is talking about here as he says, the world. You think about the world today and the things that are glorified, what do I mean? But things that are represented as a good thing, that's what it means to glorify. If you're glorifying God the Father, that means you are representing in your life that God is a good thing. You are being a good representative of God the Father. The problem is the world is glorifying everything that is against God the Father. That's what we're up against today, and we're in the world. We're here. I mean, you think about, you know, just movies that glorify, what do movies glorify? Movies glorify what? They glorify violence. What does that mean? It means that they take something that's bad and they represent it as something that's good or funny or harmless. I mean, movies and media of all types do this with all kinds of sin, with, you know, fornication and drugs and alcohol. All these things are glorified in our society today. They're glorified in the world today. What does that mean? It means they're represented as good things. They're represented as things, look, they're horrible, evil, bad things, but they're represented as things that are harmless and, you know, light and funny and, you know, just things that are not good. Turn to Matthew chapter 6. Turn to Matthew chapter 6. The world also teaches, the world today also teaches, you know, not just glorification of sin and, you know, all sorts of, you know, perversion and all kinds of different unnaturalness that's being glorified today. But the world actually teaches that you should glorify yourself today. That's a common teaching today. Look at Matthew chapter 6 and look at verse number 1. And look, people like hearing that. That is a message that people in the world, maybe even some Christians, like to hear, that you should glorify yourself. Look at Matthew 6 and verse number 1. The Bible says, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. It's saying don't go and give, you know, charity and give money and do good things just to be seen of men. You know, this is like the person that, you know, that, you know, it won't do a good deed unless everybody can see it. They won't help somebody out unless other people know that they did it. Or every time they do a good thing, every time they do something good at work, they have to let everybody know what they did. But the Bible is saying just, you know, don't, you know, don't look for the glory of men is what the Bible is saying here. Look at verse 2. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have the glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. So I mean, look at, I mean, that's a powerful doctrine right there, first of all, for a Christian. I mean, if you want to get rewards in heaven, don't demand rewards on the earth is what God is saying. God is literally saying here, if you're the type of, say you're saved and you go do a good deed, and then you just like have to announce it and blow a trumpet and look at me how great I am, that you have your reward. You just lost your reward in heaven is what the Bible is teaching. Don't look for the glory of men. Don't look to glorify yourself. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. All you need to understand look it for somebody that feels like they have to pat themselves on the back and announce every good thing. Look, I get it. Everybody has this feeling. You do something great. You have some great success. Whatever it is, you help somebody out. You do a wonderful good thing. You just want people to know. It's natural to want people to know it's a natural desire of the flesh to want to have the glory of men. But the Bible is just saying God seeing it should be enough for you. God can reward you more. Look, it's kind of like do you want the reward from God or do you want the reward from men? Because God promotes. God rewards you in heaven. God can bless you on earth. God can do way more than any man can do. So the Bible is just saying do what you're supposed to do and just shut up about it. Do what the right thing is. I mean, look, this is just that's everything in your life. What should I do in every situation that I find myself in? I got twisted up and tangled up here. Just do the right thing and just let the cards fall where they may. Yeah, well, what about this? What about this? I think I need to, you know, you know, just do what's right. God sees it and and He'll take care of it. God sees everything that happens, folks. But the thing is people want the glory of men. That's it's a really powerful, you know, desire of our flesh is that we just want men to to we want to glorify ourselves. We want people to think highly of us. Look at Ecclesiastes, Chapter six. Look at verse number three. Ecclesiastes, Chapter six. Look at verse number three. We can read through the whole book of Ecclesiastes on this. But look, people want all kinds of glory. People want people to think that they're richer than everybody else. People want people to think that they have more that they're, you know, successful. The look at Ecclesiastes, Chapter six and verse number three. The Bible says this. It says, if a man beget in hundred children and live many years so that the days of his years be many and his soul be not filled with good. This kind of backs up Sunday morning sermon, where it's kind of like, if you don't have charity, it's all worthless. If you don't have, you know, kindness, it's all worthless so that the days of the years be many and his soul be not filled with good. And also that he have no burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than he. For he cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness. I mean, this is talking about a man who's up in verse number two, a man who's been given riches. It's saying this is a man who's rich and he has everything that he wants. But you know, he's not good. He's just all out to glorify himself. He's like, it'd be better that he didn't have anything. He'd be better that it was just completely worthless. So people want the glory of men, but we should not want the glory of men. We should not be in this thing to glory, you know, to glory glorify ourselves. That's what the Bible is saying. It shouldn't, you know, it shouldn't be about being faster and stronger and better and smarter and richer and all these things. It should be about the glory should all go to God, your glory of your life. That's what Jesus is praying for, that we would glorify God with our lives. The Bible says in Proverbs 27, let another man praise thee. You know, don't even maybe if no man and no man praises you, God sees it, but let another man praise thee. Don't be praising yourself. I mean, look, you have sometimes you have a strong desire to just make known something good that you did, but let another man do it. The Bible is saying, don't go out praising yourself. Look at 1st Corinthians chapter six and verse number 20, 1st Corinthians chapter six and look at verse number 20. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians six verse 20, the Bible says, for you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's. So again, Jesus glorified the father, your turn. That is the point of John chapter 17. And look, to who? Glorify the father. Think about this for a second. Who are the people that Jesus is talking about? He's talking about two groups of people in John chapter 17. Turn back and go back to John chapter 17. Go back to John chapter 17. Look at verse number 22 one more time. So we're supposed to represent God, the father as a good thing, but to who? Look at verse number 22. It says, and the glory which thou gave us me, I have given them. Look at verse 23. I am them and thou and me, and that they may be made perfect in one and that what? Who may know? What's the point of glorifying the God, the father of us glorifying God, the father with our bodies, with our lives? It says that the world may know that thou has sent me. So he's talking in John 17 about how there's this group of people he's calling the world that are the people that didn't believe him or the people that are unsaved. And he's saying the point of you glorifying God, the father is so those people in the world may know. Those people in the world may become believers. That's the whole point of this Christian life. That's the whole point of glorifying God, the father that we would represent God in a good way. So there would be a chance that the world or part of the world would come to believe on Jesus Christ. I mean, he's talking about, you know, I mean, look, we've, I've talked about this extreme, there's these extreme, the spectrum of people in the world, right? There's us, this tiny little spectrum of believers on this end. And then there's this small spectrum on the other end, you know, the people that just love Satan, the people that hate God, all these people that are against the Lord Jesus Christ today. I mean, yeah, that number is growing, but it's still a huge minority. What Jesus is talking about here is talking about who we're after, which is who? The people in the middle. All the people in the middle, which is the vast majority of people on the planet. Just people who are just not saved. They don't hate the Lord. They don't, you know, they're not wicked, you know, in their heart against God. They just, they just don't believe. And that is why it is important that we glorify God in our bodies. I mean, look at verse number seven, you know, verse number 17. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. First Timothy chapter three, it even talks about this with a pastor. You know, there's a qualification of a pastor that speaks to this as well, where it says that he must have a good report of them that are without. Who are them that are without? It's the people in the middle. It's the same people that Jesus is talking about here in the world. Not talking about, you know, a pastor should have a good report of people that hate the Lord. He's talking about the people in the middle. So look, we go out, we go out soul winning and, you know, part of our lives as Christians, a minority of our lives as Christians. And I know there's some people here that go soul winning multiple times a week. But a minority of our time that we spend on this earth is actually out soul winning. We're out, we're out doing, what do we call it? We call it confrontational soul winning. We're out just like knocking doors and what are we doing? We're confront, I mean, we're not being like, but we're, we're, we're bringing the gospel to people. We're confronting people with the gospel. We're confronting them with that decision. Would you like to see the gospel? Would you like to know how you can be saved? We're bringing it to them. But look, that's not the vast majority of your life. The vast majority of your life, Jesus is saying, should be used to glorify God though. Not just when you're out soul winning. Your entire life should be glorifying God. I mean, turn to Matthew chapter seven. You know, look, in your, this is talking about a Christian living his or her everyday life in a way that glorifies God. That, I mean, that's a tall order, is it not? But you know what this is really talking about? This is really talking about who you are as a person. Because look, you go out soul winning, you know, maybe that's one, two, three hours a week, whatever that is, but I mean, there's hundreds of hours that you're not out soul winning, that you're just living your life. You're out there living your life day in and day out, and are you living that life that is glorifying to God? That is representing God the Father in a good way. Look at verse number 12 of Matthew seven. I mean, this is like the golden rule right here. Matthew chapter seven, look at verse number 12. I got to turn there. Matthew chapter seven, look at verse number 12. I mean, do you live your life in a way, your everyday life that is glorifying to God? Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. I mean, that's the golden rule right there. He's saying, go out and just treat people the way you would like to be treated. You should be a good example of God the Father to the world, to the people in the middle. They should see something in you that is good, is what Jesus is saying. Look, people get saved this way. Somebody in this church just got somebody saved this way recently by just living a life that was glorifying to God the Father, that was a good representation of God the Father to someone that they had known for years and finally that person got saved. But that would have never been possible if it was just, you know, we go out soloing and then we just confront people and we're just jerks to people because they're not correct on doctrine. That never would have happened if there wasn't a good representation of God being lived day in and day out. Because honestly, people that you work with, people that you know, maybe even extended family members, they're not going to want to have anything to do with what you believe if they don't want to have anything to do with who you are. If they look at your family life, they look at your marriage, they look at your kids, and they're just like, I would never want that. They're not going to have anything to do with what you believe because you're not living a life that is representing God the Father well. So that is super important. Look, people should notice something different about you. They should notice something different about your attitude. They should notice something different about your speech, about your countenance, the way you deal with people in the world. People should notice something different about you. And look, let me tell you something. If you do this right, people will notice something different about you very quickly because the world is so different today. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number five. 2 Corinthians chapter number five. 2 Corinthians chapter number five. In 2 Corinthians chapter number five, the Bible puts it this way. It says, To wit, verse 19, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. But look, I get that, that when we go out soul winning, we are ambassadors for the gospel, and that's the main application that I use for this verse. But every single day, you're an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. Every single day, you're a representative to glorify the Father or not. But that's what you're supposed to be doing. So look, turn to James chapter four. Let me just give you two more, two last thoughts here on this. This isn't a complicated, you know, this isn't a complicated topic that Jesus is talking about tonight, that we should be glorifying God the Father as He did. But let me just say this, first of all, that in James chapter four, look at verse number four. Let me give you two final thoughts here on this doctrine that Jesus is teaching here, what He's praying for the disciples, what He wants for the disciples. Look at verse number four. He says, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. So it's like, oh man, which is it? Am I supposed to be a friend of the world or am I supposed to be, you know, an ambassador to the world? What's going on here? The point is this. There's balance here. This doesn't mean by being an ambassador to glorify God the Father to the world, that doesn't mean that you become conformed to the world. That doesn't mean that, oh, you know, there's this group of guys at work and I think that, look, a lot of, I've seen Christians make this mistake. They're like, if I could just kind of show them that I'm kind of cool, like them, and I could kind of get in their little circle at lunch or maybe I could go out with them after work and, you know, maybe kind of hang out with them. Show them that Christians, you know, aren't just these prudes. No, that's entering into sin. That's being conformed to them. That's not what you're supposed to do. The Bible is saying you're not supposed to just become friendly with the world, meaning what they do, meaning get into sin with them. The Bible is saying you're supposed to glorify God. You're supposed to represent God the Father, meaning look, be nice, be kind. You see a bunch of people sitting around at work talking about going out drinking the night before. You know, don't go up to them and be like, you shouldn't be drinking because the Bible says this and just start blasting them with proverbs. You know, don't do that, but you know, don't listen to it either. Just politely excuse yourself. Pretty soon people are going to figure out like, hey, that guy, he doesn't drink and he doesn't like those types of conversations and you know what, people are going to change the way they speak around you. People are, look, you want to conform people to you. And then when people end up in a mess in their life and they realize that, oh, you know, you're not in that mess and you know, they see that your family life and your marriage and your, you know, church life and all these things, you know, you seem to be joyful in your life and you know, they're not having that same experience. Sometimes over years, maybe they're going to start asking you some questions and that's what happens. And that's when you can be that ambassador to that person. But look, if you just come off as this, this, you're not supposed to go and join the sin and you're not supposed to be some, you know, jerk or whatever, you know, and look, you get yourself in a situation, a conversation that's going on that you shouldn't be in, politely excuse yourself and then kind of think about like, hey, how did I end up in that situation? How can I not end up in a situation like that again? And you can start to act, you know, wisely as, as a Christian. So, the point is, there's balance with being in the world. There's balance. You're not to go into the sin, but you are still to be a good example so you can glorify and be a good representation of God the Father. All right? Now, look, here's some irony here. I just want to focus on this too. There's all kinds of teachings today that we really need to focus more on ourselves. This is a huge culture today. And it's a big culture with a lot of places people work, that you just need to, you know, you need really focus on yourself and all this. I remember some corporate talk I listened to, where this, this, this speaker got up, and he's just like, he's kind of given the, the crowd this scenario. And he's like, just think about this for a second. He's like, think about, something that like, if you had to choose one person you could save, or something like that. And of course, everyone in the room is thinking about their family, they're thinking about their wives, thinking of all these things. And I'm sitting there, and I'm like, well, you know, my, my, my wife and I'm, my wife and I'm pretty sure that we would collectively, you know, agree to you. How many of you thought of the person that you looked at in the mirror this morning. And like, I hope it was nobody. Because the lesson was like, it was wrong. But the lesson was, like, you need to be the most important person in your life. Right? Because there's this teaching, this culture today, it's huge today, folks, that you need to be focused on yourself. You need to just focus on yourself and what's good for you. And you know, and then, of course, they'll make a twist. Like, you need to focus on you first, and then you can, you know, help your family and all these things. The Bible literally teaches the opposite. It's the opposite. I mean, you know what self focus leads to? Self focus, I mean, it's just, it literally causes depression. If all you do is focus on yourself, you're just going to be depressed. I mean, you think about, you know, our society as it gets more and more self focused. More, I mean, you'll even see, you'll even hear people say things like this to you out soul winning. You know, I'm just trying to be true to myself. you'll hear people say things like this to you. What do you think it takes to be get to heaven? Well, I just think that if I'm true to myself, I'm going to get to heaven. Wrong. Incorrect. Look, you don't have to say it to him that way, but that is not the right answer. It's not close. I mean, look, as society, you would think people would figure out that as society gets more and more you don't have to do too much research to figure this out, but an article from Gallup in 2023, the first thing that came up when I searched it, U.S. depression rates reach new highs. You know what the percentage of U.S. adults that have been diagnosed with depression? Diagnosed with depression, meaning they're so depressed that they went to a doctor to tell them that they're depressed. That they like have they have depression. Look, I'm not down on people that suffer with depression, but it's 29 one in three almost that suffer from depression. But here's another thing. Anti-depression drugs have never been higher. So you see this this anti I think antidepressant drugs were in the mid eighties or something or maybe the late eighties they came out like you know the SSRIs they're going to stop people from being depressed. Yet the depression of people in the country if you look at the trends the drugs have just gone up and the depression has just gone up. I mean you would think that the the graphs would go like that. Where are the scientists trying to figure out what's going wrong on this? But more drugs more depression and what coral you know correlation isn't necessarily causation you know kind of like shark attacks and ice cream sales but this one kind of seems to fit more I mean the point is this we're just teaching nothing but focusing more and more on yourself and it's making people depressed. I mean the graph should be inverted folks if the drugs were actually helping. Look consider it though I mean consider the philosophy of it just be yourself just be true to celebrate yourself no matter what celebrate whatever it is that you're into and you're all about and you feel like doing and it just it's basically glorify yourself so glorifying yourself leads to depression but what is Jesus saying is going to happen when you glorify God what's that word that he says in chapter seventeen he says that they may have my joy it's when you focus on others and you focus on glorifying God rather than yourself that you're going to have joy in your life that's what Jesus is saying what joy even through persecution joy even through bad times look literally the culture today is teaching again exactly what the but exactly the opposite of what the bible is saying exactly the opposite get saved think of others be kind don't have discord have joy but you know live your life to glorify God that's what the bible is teaching and look not every life and the reason self glorification doesn't work and the reason just focusing on yourself and being true to yourself doesn't work is because not every life glorifies God I hate to break it to you but not every Christian not even every safe person is living a life that glorifies unsafe people are definitely not living a life that glorifies God but some lives literally some lives of Christians literally embarrass God some lives some things that we do in our lives we all do things in our lives that literally bring shame to God it's the opposite of glorifying God but the bible is teaching here and Jesus is praying that we would do the opposite of what the world is teaching and what the world has always been teaching that we would live a life that is glorifying to God so we can show glorifying to God to the world the people in the middle that they might also be saved and live lives that are glorifying to God to the people in the middle rinse and repeat let's bow our heads and have word of prayer.