What is Glory, Jesus' Prayer for his Present and Future Disciples, and Remembering Charlie Kirk

Glory extends far beyond the halos we see in medieval paintings of saints. After being repeatedly drawn to John 17, where "glory" appears eight times in Jesus's prayer for his disciples and future believers, I discovered deeper meanings that transform our understanding of God's presence.

• Exploration of what "glory" truly means beyond simple visual representations
• Detailed reading of John 17, Jesus's prayer before his betrayal and arrest
• Reflection on Charlie Kirk's bold faith and commitment to biblical truth
• Discussion of the challenge of being confrontational when necessary versus being "nice"
• Three dimensions of glory: God sending His Holy Spirit, believers uniting with Jesus as one, and God's presence revealed
• Understanding that only those who are children of God will ever experience this glory

May we go out and live boldly for Christ and for country, leading as many people as we can to experience God's glory.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Music.
Hi, it is with heavy heart thatI welcome you today.
Something that struck me onSunday that I want to talk to
you about is the word glory.
Glory is something that I'vejust been wanting to know what

(00:45):
it looks like.
You know, we see these medievalpictures of the saints and
they're all painted with thesehalos of light.
Or, you know, when you hearabout Christ coming into His
glory, you know we picture light, but it just feels like there's
so much more to it than that.

(01:09):
God led me to Sunday evening toread John 17.
It was a prayer of Jesusconcerning the spiritual safety
for not only his disciples butalso his future disciples, just
before he's betrayed andarrested.
This prayer took place Eighttimes.

(01:33):
Glory is mentioned in theLiving Bible Translation in John
17.
I mean, that's what I counted,so you know you can look back
and check and make sure I'mright.
But I counted it.
You know you can look back andcheck and make sure I'm right,
but I counted it twice to makesure and I read it Sunday and
then I thought about it Mondayand I went back and I read it,

(01:55):
and then Tuesday, like I wantedto move on, and I thought you
know, am I just being lazy?
But it's like I could not getthat off of mind.
So I went and Tuesday I rereadthat chapter and I kept
wondering why am I being sentback to this?
And then last night, wednesdaynight, when I reread it, it

(02:20):
became perfectly clear.
While reading this passageagain, there was one person's
name that was repeated in mythoughts again and again
concerning the future disciples,and that was Charlie Kirk.
I'm going to pick up my Biblenow and I'm going to read to you
the chapter of John 17.

(02:44):
When Jesus had finished sayingall these things, he looked up
to heaven and said Father, thetime has come.
Glorify your son so he can giveglory back to you, for you have
given him authority overeveryone in all the earth.
He gives eternal life to eachone you have given him and this

(03:06):
is the way to eternal life toknow you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, the one you sentto earth.
I brought glory to you here onearth by doing everything you
told me to do, and now, father,bring me into the glory we
shared before the world began.
I have told these men about you.

(03:28):
They were in the world, butthen you gave them to me.
Actually, they were alwaysyours and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything Ihave is a gift from you, for I
have passed on to them the wordsyou gave me and they accepted

(03:48):
them and know that I came fromyou, and they believe you sent
me.
My prayer is not for the world,but for those you have given me,
because they belong to you andall of them, since they are mine
, belong to you and you havegiven them back to me, so they
are my glory.
Now I am departing the world, Iam leaving them behind and

(04:12):
coming to you.
Holy Father, keep them and carefor them, all those you have
given me, so that they will beunited just as we are.
During my time here, I havekept them safe.
I guarded them so that not onewas lost, except the one headed
for destruction, as thescriptures foretold.

(04:33):
And now I am coming to you.
I have told them many thingswhile I was with them, so they
would be filled with my joy.
I have given them your word,and the world hates them because
they do not belong to the world, just as I do not.
I'm not asking you to take themout of the world, but to keep

(04:54):
them safe from the evil one.
They are not part of this worldany more than I am.
Make them pure and holy byteaching them your words of
truth.
As you send me into the world,I'm sending them into the world
and I give myself entirely toyou, so they also might be
entirely yours and guys.

(05:16):
The next part that I'm going toread to you from starting with
verse 20, I feel like applies tous today.
I am praying not only for thesedisciples, but also for all who
will ever believe in me becauseof their testimony.
My prayer for all of them isthat they will be one, just as
you and I are one, father, thatjust as you are in me and I am

(05:40):
in you, so they will be in usand the world will believe.
You sent me.
I have given them the glory yougave me so that they may be one
as we are, I in them and you inme, all being perfect into one.
Then the world will know thatyou sent me and will understand

(06:01):
that you love them as much asyou love me, father.
I want those whom you've givenme to be with me so they can see
my glory.
You gave me the glory becauseyou loved me even before the
world began.
O righteous Father, the worlddoesn't know you, but I do, and

(06:22):
these disciples know you sent meand I have revealed you to them
and will keep on revealing you.
I will do this so that yourlove May be in them and I in
them.
You know, like I said, when Iread this Wednesday night after

(06:43):
what I'd been watching on thenews with Charlie, his, just his
name just continued to resonatebecause, just with all the
videos I've watched of him andCharlie Kirk was a constant name
in my house, we all followedhim on social media.

(07:04):
You could often hear my house,my boys or my husband ask, or
even I would ask oh man, did yousee what Charlie Kirk posted?
Or you know, like one of myboys would say, mom, watch what
he says to the college kids andthen, like one of them would

(07:26):
shove a phone in my face so thatI could watch it and I didn't
have the heart to tell that,yeah, I'd just seen that on
Instagram.
But Charlie, he was.
One thing I admired about himwas he was just so bold in his
faith and I know that you knowso much of the news portrays him

(07:47):
as negative, but he wasn't.
He was.
He was honest, he was truthfulabout the word of God and more
than that, he was just obedient.
And if people were going down awrong path you know with
different, with wrongphilosophies he wanted to steer
them back to the truth.

(08:08):
He was respectful and on hiscollege campus tours he would
give others the microphonepeople that he disagreed with.
But he practiced that sosocratic method of of just uh,
debate, you know, and he allowedpeople to speak and he would

(08:30):
shush his crowd.
If his crowd didn't agree withthe person at the microphone,
you know he would he.
He quiet them down so that hecould hear and give that person
time to get their opinion across.
He was true to himself and trueto God.
He was honest even when thetruth hurt.

(08:52):
And this is something that Istruggle with and a lot of
people struggle with, because Ihate hurting people's feelings.
I know my husband mightdisagree with that some, but

(09:12):
honestly I do.
You know it's hard beingconfrontational, but we're
called to tell the truth.
And I don't mean the truth likeoh, that outfit looks terrible
on you.
What I mean is if you seesomebody going down the wrong
path, someone you know is aChristian.
It's okay to be confrontationaland use the Bible and show them
hey, you're doing wrong.
Like I said, that is justsomething that I definitely

(09:35):
struggle with.
But going back to Charlie, heloved Jesusesus, he loved people
and he loved america, and hestated in an interview that a
preacher had mentioned or hadsaid to him charlie, you need to
be nicer to people.

(09:56):
Why can't you be a little morenicer?
Now I'm just paraphrasingCharlie said that he would
rather be obedient to Godinstead of being nice.
Another video clip there was apodcaster that asked him what he
wanted to be remembered for,and Charlie said he wanted to be

(10:17):
remembered for having couragefor his faith.
Thank you, president Trump, forawarding Charlie Kirk the
Presidential Medal of Freedom,and may we go out and live
boldly for Christ and forcountry.
Oh and as for the word glory, itgoes way beyond what our human
minds can comprehend.
In my opinion, it can't besummarized in just one phrase

(10:43):
because it's so multifaceted.
So here's three things that Icame up with.
Number one glory is God sendinghis Holy Spirit.
Number two, number two it'sbelievers uniting with Jesus as
one.
And finally, number threeanother thing about glory is

(11:04):
that it's God's presencerevealed, and unless you are a
child of God, unless you are onewith Jesus, then unfortunately
you will never see this glory.
It's my hope and prayer that wecan lead as many people as we
can to this glory.
Thank you, thank you.