Prayers That Jesus Prayed

Well, good afternoon again, brethren. It's always good to be able to be here with you, and certainly a gorgeous day outside. I guess we'd like to order this for the rest of the summer, wouldn't we? I'd love to have it. I'd hate for it to get a whole lot warmer, but I'm sure it will. But this has been really, really nice, so we can be very thankful for that. During the sermon that I gave last week, and there on Pentecost, I talked a little bit about the prayers that Jesus prayed, and how it is that He views us, how it is that He relates to the Father. And it's clear that He is concerned about us. He's concerned about our growing, and learning, and actually taking on some of the attributes that we see that Christ represented, the attributes that we find described in different pages here of the Bible regarding the divine nature. And I thought I would go ahead and cover additional things, because it's really a little bit bigger topic than I could cover last weekend, just regarding the prayers that Jesus prayed. Clearly, Jesus Christ, as He came to this earth, as He was, we could say He was the Son of God. That's clearly a description that we find. We find a name given that He was Emmanuel, God with us. Of course, that was Him coming to the earth in human flesh. But here in Mark 8, verse 31, you see Him describing Himself in even another term.

In Mark 8, verse 31, it says, He began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. Now, of course, He was telling them something that they were having a hard time grasping. He told them numerous times and seemingly went in one ear and out the other. I guess that's what happens with people sometimes. And certainly, maybe they could hear, maybe they could understand, but they still couldn't grasp. The significance was what He was saying. But what I want to refer to is simply that He called Himself the Son of Man. He came to this earth in a human form. He came to this earth in a way to share in our human experience. And in a sense, He came to experience something that God, up to that point, had not experienced. God the Father had not become a human. The One who was the Word, the One who became Jesus Christ, the One who had been with the Father in the very beginning, as we read in John 1, verse 1, talks about Jesus having been with the Father prior to His human existence here on earth. But it says in John 1, verse 14, that this Word that had been with the Father became flesh and dwelled among us. Here in John 1, I think this is a verse that you would be very familiar with. Verse 14, the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. And we have seen His glory and the glory as of a Father's only Son full of grace and truth. Part of that that I'm focusing on now is the fact that Jesus came to this earth. And in many ways, we probably think, well, yeah, He came to the earth, and yes, He was a human, but He was different than us.

And yeah, you'd have to say He was different than us. Clearly, He had a beginning long before ours. But He came to the earth, He became flesh for a reason. And I want us to think about that. In Hebrews, you see several different statements about Jesus coming to the earth, and it explains why it was that He came and became a human being. He came and became one of us. Here in Hebrews 2, this entire section actually is talking about how Jesus is so much more powerful, so much more wonderful, so much more great than any angel. Now, this is the discussion that's going on in chapter 1 and even throughout chapter 2. But I want to begin in Hebrews 2. In verse 16, it says, it is clear that He did not come to help. This is talking about Jesus. He did not come to help angels. He didn't come to rescue angels. He didn't come to overrule angels. He was the Creator of all the angels. But it says in verse 16 that it is clear that He did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. See, He came to help human beings. He came to help you and me.

And it goes on in verse 17, therefore, since He came to help human beings, He had to become like His brothers and sisters in everything or every respect, so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God.

So here you see just a pretty direct statement about Jesus came. He came in order to help mankind. And in order to help mankind, He's going to be a faithful High Priest, which is in fact where He is today. He's at the right hand of the Father. He is viewed as our intercessor, our mediator, and our High Priest. He even talks more so here in chapter 4 about Him being the High Priest in verse 14, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession. Our Christianity is based on Jesus Christ. It's based on that He came to the earth to provide a sacrifice for our sins.

It's based on our appreciation and gratitude to Him for the redemption that He provides. And yet it says that we have this great High Priest, and in verse 15 He says, We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize. We don't have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested or tempted as we are, yet He was without sin. Now, if we want to talk about differences, that's the difference. We are involved in sin.

We are polluted or corrupted by sin as far as mankind, but Jesus never was. What it says here in verse 15 is that He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, because He was experiencing from the standpoint of having been a member in the Godhead, having been the Word with the Father, He was experiencing what it's like as He did, live 33 and a half years in human form.

Going down a few verses here in chapter 5, He continues to talk about Jesus being our High Priest, and in verse 7, it says, In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence and submission.

To hear it, it reveals and talks about how He became human. He became in the form of a servant. He came into a human existence. And it says when He was in this human existence, He needed to pray. He needed to pray to His Father. It says He prayed what would appear to be a description of fervently. Fervently did He pray. It says He offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save Him from death.

He did that in reverence, and in reverence and submission to the Father who He had been with throughout eternity in the past. And yet He was now here experiencing what human beings go through. He goes on here in verse 8, although He was His Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who would obey Him.

He is the source of our redemption. The source of our eternal life is through Him that we can have that. But the descriptions that we have, you have these few, perhaps there are several others that would allude to Jesus coming in. In Philippians 2, there is a description there of Him taking on a form of a servant.

And that's our form. That's the form that we are all to be growing in as we learn to be servants. But whenever I read here in verse 7 that Jesus saw the need to pray. He saw the need to cry out to His Father. He was displaying an example. He was displaying a model of how a human being can function successfully. That's what He was displaying in His example and by His life. And so as I mentioned some last week, what is it that Jesus prayed about? How is it that He approached the Father? What was the relationship between Jesus and the Father while He was here on earth?

We know He came from God. He was here on the earth. He died. He was resurrected. And He returned to the Father. But I'm talking about the years in His flesh as it's described here. In the days of His flesh, how is it that Jesus prayed to His Father? You actually have a number of examples, and it might be good if you looked up a number of the examples of prayers of Jesus.

That's something I don't see easily. It isn't written in the back of my Bible like the parables and the miracles are. You usually have lists of those that you can look up pretty easily. You can look up on your computer just a list of the prayers of Jesus. There are people who have compiled scriptural lists of the prayers of Jesus. And it's a good study. It's a very important thing, I think, to think about or consider.

Well, what is it that we find? Here in Luke 11, I want to point out a few things as far as just the pattern that Jesus had, but then even more so, what it was that He prayed about.

See, does it reflect the same thing that we pray about? Well, in some cases it probably does, and in some places it might not. And so we certainly can learn from the example of Jesus. But in Luke 11, the first few verses there, you find Jesus giving His disciples an example or a model prayer. You go over there, Luke 11.

The latter part of verse 1, the disciples come to Him and say, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught His disciples. And so He gave them a model prayer. He gave them a prayer that involved a number of different categories of things to pray about. He didn't give them that just to repeat it and say, okay, that's enough. He said, you can elaborate on this. Praying Thy kingdom come. That's a very short version. There are a lot of things we can think about to pray about as far as Christ's kingdom to come. But what I want to point out is in verse 1, it says He was praying in a certain place. And after He finished, one of His disciples came and said, Lord, teach us to pray. It was pretty clear that He knew something about praying. He knew something about the need for prayer as a human being that the disciples were missing out on. They realized. We see John kind of taught His disciples something about prayer, the Pharisees thought they knew everything about prayer. You obviously go and pray, and we're sitting here wondering, where are we going to fish next? That's the thing that the disciples were not in tune with the type of connection with the Father that Jesus had. And yet, perhaps it's very understandable. He was here to set an example. He was here to set a pattern. And certainly, He was going to provide a model for them in every way. In Mark 1, verse 35, you find a verse that points out that early in the morning, Jesus went to a solitary place and talked with His Father. He said, He talks about a great while before day or before daylight. So that would appear to be an indication. This is a good idea to pray in the morning. A good idea to start your day with prayer. And yet, in the example of that, Mark 1, verse 35, it's apparent that the disciples knew He did this. It says, in the morning, while it was still very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place, where He prayed. And His disciples were looking for Him. They were trying to hunt Him down. They were trying to find out where He is.

And it appears He didn't go to the same place all the time, or they'd know exactly where He was. But it's an example of Him realizing that as a human, I am the Son of Man. I have a divine purpose. I'm on a divine mission. And as a human being, I see the limitations.

I see the weaknesses that people have. He said, I can see this real clearly. That's why I need to be in connection with my Father. That's why I need to be in connection with my Father to begin every day. Now, of course, this doesn't say every day, but at least on this day. And it appears that the disciples knew the pattern. They knew what He would do, because He was that close to His Father. You find Jesus praying over meals, and you find Jesus praying over little children that were brought to Him, that were children brought to Him to bless them and to pray for them. And so, those are examples we try to follow. You also find Him praying in the evening in Matthew 14. Matthew 14, an example where Jesus has been preaching to the crowd, where He's been feeding the 5,000. And starting here in verse 22, it says immediately after He'd gotten done with the discourse, He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side. So He sent them down into the boat and into the lake, into the sea. He says while He dismissed the crowds, in verse 23, after He dismissed the crowds, He went up the mountain by Himself to pray. So here He had been working with the people throughout the afternoon. He finished that job. He finished that discussion with them. He told the disciples, go ahead and get in the boat, go on out into the sea, which I think He probably knew was going to happen. I'm pretty sure He was aware that He was going to need to come rescue them, which He did, walking on the water. But it says that He went up on the mountain, and I believe other of the Gospels show that He was able to see them from there. He could tell where they were. He could tell what kind of storm was going on. He could tell probably from there they were afraid. And yet, He's up on the mountain praying. And it says, when evening came, He was there alone. Verse 23, see, this was in the evening. Now, we saw Him praying in the morning. Here we see Him praying in the evening. Here we see Him. What was He praying about? Was He praying about His disciples? He may have been. But, as He doesn't say, I think you're going to find from other illustrations that He certainly did pray about these disciples. He appreciated the fact that these individuals were willing to start following Him, and yet, they were not fully developed. They were learning. That's what a disciple meant. That was a learner. And so, these disciples, He may well have been praying about them. He later was going to come, and He was going to rescue them from the storm. He was going to calm the sea. He was going to actually even get Peter to take a couple of steps on the water. But then, of course, He sank. He was too human. He was too physical. He was too focused on the physical that He couldn't maintain.

And, of course, Jesus could, because again, He was close to His Father. Here in Luke 5, you have what I think is a revealing verse. Because here in Luke 5, you see in verse 12, a man who had leprosy came to Jesus, bowed down his face to the ground, and said, Lord, if You choose, You can make me clean. And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched Him. Which I don't know everybody who had leprosy. People didn't want to touch them. They didn't want to touch them, because that could be contagious, I guess, or it could be a problem. Certainly, it was disfiguring. Certainly, it was a skin condition, or beyond even the skin condition. But evidence on the skin. Jesus reached out and touched Him and said, I choose, or I do choose, be made clean immediately. The leprosy was gone. He was able to heal the sick. He was able to perform that kind of miracle. He was able, in this case, to clear this man's skin. And He said, Go and show yourself to the priest. So He told Him what to do. But because He was able to do those things. Because He was a human being, or in a human form, and was close to His Heavenly Father. He was very close to His Heavenly Father. It says in verse 15, now, more than ever, the word about Jesus spread abroad, and many crowds would gather to hear Him and be cured of their diseases. So He attracted a crowd in that He could heal many of the people who were brought to Him. But that could also become a little bit of a problem. That could become somewhat of a distraction if people are always going to be running up to you, wanting this and wanting that. And of course, He showed them He could actually feed them. He could heal them. And He could care for other people. And He did care. But it says in verse 16, even though the crowds would gather around Him, and they would be asking or wanting things, it says in verse 16, He would withdraw to a deserted place or a solitary place and pray. He would be recharged. He would be re-energized. He would be uplifted and inspired by the rapport and by the connection that He had with His Father. And so, you have those examples, and there are numerous other examples of the prayer life or the way in which Jesus was connected to His Father in prayer. And of course, that stands out as an example to us, that the type of prayer that we pray, you know, it should be something we look forward to. It should be something that we are delighted in. It should be something we enjoy. And yet, sometimes we have to learn. We have to learn how to do that. I want to go to several things here that point out what it was that Jesus prayed about.

It's not just that He prayed and He did that consistently and He did that with fervency. But what is it that He prayed about? Here in John 11, a familiar passage where He's actually going to raise Lazarus from the dead. This is a very clear example of something that we can learn from.

John 11, in verse 41, it says, So they took away the stone. So He was at the grave site where Lazarus was. He was going to raise him from the dead. He was going to speak the words and Lazarus would arise. But He said in verse 41, He looked up to heaven and He said, Father, I thank You for having heard Me. He started out with a great deal of gratitude to His Father. He started out with appreciation and with gratitude for the fact that the Father always heard Him. He was close to the Father. He was always close to the Father. Again, in the human form, Jesus was displaying the need that all of us have as human beings to be close to our Father. But He was close enough to His Father where He could clearly just state, I thank You, Father, that You've heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, or I know that You always hear Me. But I'm saying this for the sake of the crowd standing here so that they may believe that You sent Me. He said, I'm praying to You. I'm going to ask You for a miracle here shortly. But I thank You. Brethren, that probably is an indication of what a good part of our prayers ought to involve. A gratitude and appreciation, a thankfulness for the fact that God the Father has drawn us to Jesus Christ. And that He has given us a closeness or a connection to our Father that is extremely important. And we want to be thankful for that. He said, I know that You always hear Me, but I've said this for the sake of the crowd standing here that they may believe that You sent Me. He says, I want these others to understand that You have sent Me to this earth and that the message that I have, the message that I have is a message of hope. The message that I have is a message of healing. The message that I have is a message of answers to the problems of humanity.

The message that I'm giving is preaching the gospel to the poor. That's what He revealed in Luke 4. And He wanted people to understand who He was, that He had been sent by the Father, and He uses that phrase numerous times here in the book of John. And so what we find is not only that He was expressive of His appreciation to His Father, but He also expressed a confidence in His close and intimate communion with His Father, where He had such a close rapport that He always knew that the support from the Father was available. He was always aware of that. He was always appreciative of that. Over in Luke 6, you find an example of Jesus actually selecting the twelve apostles. Luke 6 says in verse 12, Now during those days He went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. So here it appears He prayed a lot longer than most of us. He prayed all night for regarding a decision He was going to make when they came, He called His disciples, He chose twelve of them that He named apostles. And so that would give, again, an indication that He was praying and asking for guidance, asking for direction. Now clearly He was going to name twelve. One of them was going to be defective. But see, that was also going to fulfill prophecy that Judas would turn on Him, betray Him, and then Matthias would have to take Judas's place. But see, the example is one of bringing things to His Father, perhaps discussing. Maybe He was a little more familiar, having been with these disciples for a period of time. He was a little more familiar with the group that were following Him at that point. And He discussed that with His Father and came to the decision about who it was that He should select to be an apostle. In Matthew 26, you see, of course, a very well-known prayer. The one that Jesus is praying in the garden prior to being betrayed, prior to being taken and then crucified. But in Matthew 26, you see that in verse 36, Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, I will go over there and pray. So here He actually was teaching and training, but He was also preparing for what He knew was going to happen. Preparing for what He knew was going to take place here very shortly.

And so He says, sit here while I go over and pray. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, and they began to be grieved. And He said, I'm deeply grieved, even to death. Remain here and stay awake with Me. Why did He want them to stay awake with Him? Why did He want them out there praying? They were sleepy, they were tired, they couldn't stay up any longer. But it almost seems like a sense of Jesus, even though He had a very intimate relationship with His Father, and He was going to be praying, He was going to be connected to His Father as He went into the biggest trial of His life. The enduring of the betrayal and the disrespect and ultimately the beating and the crucifixion that He was to endure, He said, in order to do that, I have got to be close to My Father. He'd like the disciples to respond in a somewhat positive way, and they simply went to sleep. He said in verse 39, going a little further, He threw Himself on the ground, and He prayed, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me. In this case, He even asked, Father, is there any other way that this could be worked out? And of course, I think He knew the answer to that, but He pointed it out. And I think in some ways, as we approach God, whenever we are in distress, we'd like for God to provide some other alternatives. But if there are none, then we may suffer some. And He goes ahead to say, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me, yet not what I want, but what you want. Not My will, but Yours be done. So He recognized that I am going to be subject to the will of My Father. I am going to be yielded to the will of My Father, and since this is what I have come here to do. This is a part of the plan of God, and yet, here He's communing with His Father. He's talking to Him about Him. He's relating to His Father very intimately, very closely.

And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and He said, Peter, couldn't you stay awake with Me an hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of temptation or trial. He said, you don't understand the catastrophic spiritual battle that is going on right now. That was what He understood and what He was thoroughly familiar with.

Why He wanted to be close to His Father. Why He wanted to enjoy that relationship with His Father at that time. He said, stay awake and pray. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And again He went and said the second time, goes through this two or three times, and finally He came back and the disciples were sleeping.

And yet, Jesus, in this case, He asked, can we remove this trial? Can you do that? Will you do that? Is it a part of the plan? And of course it wasn't. And if not, then I am subject to Your will, but I need strength to endure what I'm going to go through.

In essence, that's what He was saying. I would like for you to remove this, but if you don't, I need strength with you at my side, with you, always with me, as I go through this. And of course, you see that He had a close relationship with His Father, and the disciples were limited in their ability to understand. In Mark 15, I also want to point out that this was right as He was being crucified. You see that Jesus mentions something that in some ways we may not fully understand, but here in Mark 15, it says in verse 33, It was noon, darkness came on the whole land until 3. And at 3 o'clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And even that short statement, in a sense, it was an appeal to God. In a sense, it was a prayer to God. This was clearly right very close to the time when He would die. He's going to die here very, very shortly. And we see that conclusion here, just a few verses down. And of course, as we understand what that statement is, and it's a statement that comes from Psalm 22, it was one that David had penned long ago. One that had described David running into problems and feeling forsaken, and then being rescued by the Father. That's what Psalm 22 talks about. And yet, Jesus made this statement, Father, why have You forsaken Me? Because He was bearing the burden of the sins of humanity. He was, in a sense, going to bear that alone right before He died. And so, to a degree, you could see or say that Jesus was expressing, even though it was something He knew He was to do, He was expressing a certain amount of disappointment. That's almost an appeal. Why? Why? You have been with Me throughout the entirety of my life. Certainly, throughout the entirety of my human life, you have been picking Me up. You have been with Me in everything. Why are you turning on Me? And so, it was almost an expression of disappointment or distress. And I think sometimes we experience that, too. Not certainly in that degree, but we can feel discouraged. We can feel distress. Even the other day, I felt disappointed. And yet, see, I don't know how God is going to work things out with this new baby. I don't know how God is going to work things out. I don't know what He's going to do, but I certainly want to reach out to Him and request His intervention and help.

And I think it's interesting to just see that, even though Jesus knew what the plan was, He knew that He was going to bear this sin of humanity, and that the Father would turn away, at least momentarily. And yet, He was really never going to be revived. He was going to be, as He had been in the grave then and would be resurrected.

It was also reflected a very close relationship that He had with the Father, where He really yearned for that closeness. He yearned for that. That was such a foreign experience for Him to go through.

I think I mentioned last week, maybe we can turn as well to Luke 22, because in talking about His disciples, and specific in talking about Peter, He continued to train them and teach them and to show them that His prayers were not just solely about Himself. I think even from what we've already seen, you see His prayers are often focused on others. They're focused on gratitude. They're focused on appreciation of the Father always being there. They're focused on helping others. And yet, here in Luke 22, verse 31, He says, Simon, listen, Satan has demanded to lift sift all of you like wheat. But in verse 32, He says, I have prayed for you, Peter. I prayed for you that your own faith may not fail. What was it that Jesus wanted to get across to Peter? Well, He wanted Peter to realize that, you know, I'm going to pray that your faith will not fail, that your faith will be lifted up. You're going to run into some obstacles that humanly you cannot handle. That's what He was telling Peter. And even though Peter came back and said, oh, I'll never deny you. I will always be here. I am ready to go. I am superm... No, you're not, Peter. You don't know how limited you are. This is what He says in verse 33 and verse 34. He says, I'll tell you, you're going to turn on me. Actually, everyone here is going to turn on me. And, you know, once you turn back, once you see what you've done, you are going to be crushed. And certainly, that was the case. When Peter realized what he had done, he turned around and just cried. Because he knew how much he didn't want to do that, but humanly, he just couldn't help it. He just couldn't do what... He couldn't back up what he said. And so, clearly, he pointed out that you were very limited in your ability, in your power as a human. And he said, Peter, in verse 32, I've prayed for you that your own faith would not fail. But he said, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brethren. He says, you're going to turn away. I can tell you, you're going to do that, but you're going to turn back. Which he did. He repented of the misstatements and the arrogance and the completeness of understanding that he was going to find himself in a situation that Jesus predicted and he just blew it right then. But once he saw that, he turned back and Jesus said, I want you to strengthen your brethren. I want you to serve other people. And of course, more fully, he explained that he wanted him to feed his sheep. In the very last part of the book of John, he told him what he was going to expect of him. He told him, you're going to have a pretty rugged death. He gave him that information. And yet, Peter, I know, was strengthened by what Christ had to say. Sometimes he didn't know exactly what to do. You read in the first part of John 21, he says, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do. Of course, this was before the day of Pentecost. This was before the coming of the Holy Spirit. This was before Peter was going to preach an inspired sermon on Acts 2 and Acts 3. He was going to be walking the streets and his shadow would heal people. This was going to be quite different in the very near future.

But see, right now, he was limited. And actually, what you see is Jesus was praying for him. He was praying to help him. He was praying to lift him up. He wanted him. And I think that's an indication to us that many times we pray for people to be healed. We want people to be healed. We want God's direct intervention. I think we can also pray that God would strengthen their faith. That he would uplift that faith in him. Because that's what Jesus prayed for Peter. Let's go to one other verse here that we can cover here before we conclude in John 16.

John 16, of course, is a part of what Jesus was telling his disciples after the conclusion of their Passover service, after the conclusion of the foot-washing service, where he had shown them the type of servant that he was and that he wanted them to become. Here in John 16, he says in verse 26, on that day, and let's back up to verse 25, he said, I've said these things to you in a figure of speech, but the hour is coming when I'll no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father.

So he said, some of the things that I've explained I know are very difficult to understand, but I will speak more plainly. On that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father Himself loves you. He says, it's not just, the Father is with me, the Father is helping me, the Father will help you if you reach out in the same way I am displaying, in the same type of rapport that I have with the Father.

You want to cultivate that, you want to develop that, you want to nurture that. He said, because you have loved me, and you, he says, the Father loves you because you have loved me. This is in verse 27. The Father loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I have come from God.

I did come from the Father, I've come into the world, and I'm leaving the world and I'm going to the Father. So, he tried to be even more clear about what has happened here, what has and will and is going to happen. And so, his disciples said, oh, well, it's a little clearer. I'm glad you explained that so that we now know what it is. But it's amazing to see the rapport that Jesus had with His Father.

He said in verse 32, the hour is coming, and you will be scattered, each one, to His home, and you will leave me alone. See, actually, he was in a sense predicting this because this was yet to be fully complete. But even beyond this, he was wanting the disciples to be there. He was wanting them to react in a positive way, draw close to the Father, pray with me.

And yet here, he says the hour is coming when you're all going to be scattered, each one to His home, and you will leave me alone. And yet, he says in the last part of verse 32, I am not alone because the Father is with me. See, that was the type of a close relationship, but a confident peace that he had with his disciples as far as what he was teaching them, and yet the relationship he had was with his Father.

He says, even though all of you turn your back on me, which you will, I am never alone because the Father is with me. And of course, that's not only the example that Jesus set, but it's an example that we want to follow, an example that we want to emulate, we want to strive to have the type of relationship that is that well nurtured, that well developed, that close, as we, again, follow the examples of Christ, but as we try to take on the mind of Christ, which is what we're told that the Holy Spirit is able to grow in us.

The Holy Spirit can help us grow in the mind of Christ. So I hope that perhaps in covering some of this, it can be helpful to us as we pray for one another, as we learn to praise. In many ways, we find our prayers are about us. Our prayers are more centered on me, my prayers are, and I want them more centered on others. I want them centered, as Jesus was, on His concern for others, His desire for others.

But He also displayed a very close relationship with His Father. He had a consistency, He had a permanency that we clearly want to seek. So as we seek that, then we continue to share in the love that the Father extends to us, and as we do, and as we pray for one another, as we learn to nurture our relationship with the Father, well, then we're going to draw close together in unity and in harmony, but we're going to draw close together in service to one another, and in actually praying that our faith can be expanded.

It can be increased. And I think that truly is what we want to seek. So as we see here with Jesus, the Father empowered Him to bear the burdens of all flesh, and He did that. He became human. He became like us in order to be the high priest who is at the right hand of God today, who is very connected and certainly very concerned about us.

So, brethren, let's seek to learn from the pattern that Jesus set, and let us appreciate the fact that we have a high priest who knows what it's like to be human, who knows what it's like to have the weaknesses and limitations that we all have, and yet who is willing to help us when we cry out to Him in our time of need.