Journey Through JohnSample

Scripture: John 17:24b “You loved me before the creation of the world.” Observation: Long before our universe existed, God existed. But He wasn’t just a loner with no companionship. God existed eternally as three persons who consistently loved each other and lived in perfect harmony with one another. The three members of the Trinity glorify each other, submit to each other, obey each other, lift each other up, enjoy each other, share all that they have with each other, and cooperate with each other. So love isn’t just one of God’s attributes. Instead, God actually embodies love in His very Being – the Trinity. Love is who He is. All love and community has its source in Him. Application: Loving community is more important than anything else, because it is actually who God is. We’re made in God’s image, which is why we have an inner hunger for loving relationships. But I can’t really love, without Him loving in and through me. Jesus boiled all the commandments down to love. But love isn’t something that I need to grit my teeth and conjure up for people that I really don’t like. Instead, I simply let God live in me – and because God is love, love will begin to flow out of me. The more room I give God in my soul and the more connected I stay with Jesus (the source of love); the more I will find myself responding in love to people around me. Prayer: God I want to make room for You today in my heart and soul. Fill me up with Yourself. Take control of me. Thank You for Your love for me and for the supernatural love that You enable me to have for others. Amen. Truths to notice: 17:3 Eternal life comes through knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent to earth. 17:4 Jesus completed all that God the Father wanted Him to do on earth. 17:8 Jesus’ words were given to Him by God the Father. He didn’t just come up with them on His own. 17:11 & 21 One of Jesus’ greatest concerns for His followers is that we will be unified with the same oneness and love that He has with His Father. 17:16 As followers of Christ, we are not really of this world. Our true home is with God. 17:17 God’s Word is truth, and contact with it helps us grow increasingly Godly and pure. 17:23 The unity of Christians would be one of the strongest evidences that Jesus is really God. We should seek that unity. 17:24 Jesus and His Father lived in loving community before the world was created.