One

Series: None

Message: One

Text: John 17:20-26

Date: Nov. 6, 2011

Pastor: David McBeath

PRAYER

INTRODUCTION—STEVE JOB’s VISION

Anybody here this morning own an Apple product, an Ipod, Ipad, Itouch, Iphone, or a Mac? If you don’t most of you own technology originally pioneered by Apple. With the passing of Steve Jobs—it is truly clear that his innovations have changed the world.

But things were not always rosy for the company. When apple computer fell on difficult days, Apple’s young chairman, Steve Jobs, traveled from the Silicon Valley to New York City. His purpose was to convince Pepsico’s John Sculley to move Californiat and run his struggling company.

As the two men overlooked the Manhattan skyline from Sculley’s penthouse office, the Pepsi executive started to decline Jobs’ offer. “Financially,” Schully said, “you’d have to give me a million-dollar salary, a million-dollar bonus, and a million-dollar severance.”

Flabbergasted, Jobs gulped and agreed—only if, Sculley would move to California. But Sculley would commit only to be a consultant from New York. At that, Jobs issued a challenge to Sculley. He said: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world?”

In his autobiography Odyssey, Scully admits Steve’s challenge “knocked the wind out of me.” He said he had become so caught up with his future at Pepsi, his pension, and whether his family could adapt to life in California that an opportunity to “Change the world” nearly passed him by, but because of Job’s challenge, he put his life in perspective and went to Apple.

Steve Jobs cast a vision for changing the world! And he put together a team—that would change the world. Vision is important. Vision changes the world!! This morning I am going to share, what our vision team believes God has laid on our hearts for our church. But before I do, I have another vision story for you.

BUCK’S VISION

This week I had the wonderful pleasure of visiting an older couple in our church. They have been thru a very difficult few months. I’m talking about Dottie and Buck Buckstauber. They gave me permission to share this story.

At the end of this summer, Buck had a large heart attack. The Doctors told him that he had three blocked arteries and they couldn’t do anything for him. Just a few weeks ago, Buck fell off his bed as he was getting dressed in the morning. He broke his nose and the doctors at Lockport Hospital thought he had cracked the lower portion of his spine, so they sent him to ECMC. By God’s grace his spine was only bruised and what they saw on the x-ray was just arthritic pieces that had fallen his spine of when he fell. Later, Buck was transferred him to Newfane hospital thinking because they thought he had double pneumonia, but it turned out he had had three heart-attacks from the period Friday to Tuesday.

Like I said, I visited him and Dottie at their home this past Wednesday. Buck is doing OK. We had a wonderful conversation. He shared about his life before he was before he was a Christian. Let me just say Buck was a sinner. But Buck also told me about how he came to know Christ and how God transformed him and restored him. How God turned him into a new person! It was a beautiful story, but here’s the part that really touched me.

Buck started talking about retirement, money, living longer than he expected, and money getting a little short in supply. He said, “God has been good to us, he taken care of us.” Here’s the part that touched me. As he was reflecting on the fact that this may be the last chapter of his life he said, “If I had all the money in the world, I would use it to lead people to Jesus.”

Jesus restored and transformed Buck over the course of his life and Buck wants others to experience this same thing! Looking back over his life—the Good News of Jesus that changed him has become the most important thing to him! Let me say this: BUCK has Christ’s vision for the world!

Buck’s longing to lead people to Jesus—was Christ’s vision and prayer as he contemplated the end of his life, as well. This morning my message focuses on the final portion of Christ’s last prayer before his crucifixion. It is his prayer for us! Let me read our text for this morning, John 17:20-23. Remember this is what Christ prays for us just before he is about to die!

TEXT

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.