One Body

Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 1 Peter 5:8.

We are the church!

We Pray. We Praise. We Proclaim. We proceed in Christ’s name. 

Question: do you feel like you are fighting an unseen combatant? Do you think that there is an enemy seeking to do you harm?

Jesus prays.

Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. John 17:1–2.

This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ. John 17:3

Jesus Proclaims

 I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed. John 17:4–5.

“I pray for them. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they are yours. John 17:9.

Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine, and I am glorified in them. John 17:10.

Jesus Praises
I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by your name that you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. John 17:11. 

Now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in them. I have given them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. John 17:13-14. 
Praising God from our hearts changes us from the inside out!
 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth. John 17:17–19.

Jesus prayed for us to proceed.

“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. John 17:20-21

I made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them and I may be in them.” John 17:26.

Question: How do you feel about Jesus’ prayer? Knowing that Jesus prayed for the church, does this help you to feel empowered to proceed?

One Body On the Move
We Pray
We seek God’s presence
We Praise
Let God have all your gratitude when life is good or difficult.
We proclaim
God Word spoken out loud has power!
We proceed into the world in Christ’s name.
We are to be the evidence of God! 
We are to have and exude the love of Christ.

We are the church!

We Pray. We Praise. We Proclaim. We proceed in Christ’s name. 

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope, at your calling— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4–6.