Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Now we're going to go to our sermon this morning, and we're going to turn to the gospel of John. We're in chapter 17. And, you know, I really had every intention of finishing this sermon that I started last week, but guess what? I only got two done. So this is going to be another interesting morning.
[00:00:19] Nicholas Zinzendorf grew up in a very devout pistol Lutheran home in Germany in the 17 hundreds. He came to know Jesus as a little boy, six years old, and as a young man, because he grew up very wealthy. His family owned an estate. He was a count. Just as a young man, he traveled in western Europe, and one day he went to an art museum where he viewed a portrait of Christ entitled behold a man you could see. I looked up this picture. There was Jesus, and he had the crown of thorns and the Zinzendorf later wrote, he said, the spirit of God came on me, and I was convicted. He said, I have loved him for a long time, ever since I was a child, but I have never actually done anything for him. From now on, I will do whatever he leads me to do. And I believe at that moment, Nicholas made an act of consecration. He surrendered himself. Even though he was a believer. He made a freshen surrender of his life to Jesus. Well, eventually he opened up his own estate to many persecuted christians that were fleeing from eastern Europe, and they were named Moravians. And he set aside a plot of ground on his estate, and they called this community that was arriving there, Hermhut. Many of them had moravian backgrounds, but there were other people from other areas fleeing with different christian backgrounds. But how many know, when you get a variety of christians with different ideas, sometimes there's a little friction, and there was dissension and difficulty that arose in Hermhut. And, you know, Zinzendorf was concerned about it. So he talked to these people. He said, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna break you up into groups of two or three, and you're gonna spend time with each other, talking, sharing, praying with each other. And as they began to get to know each other, even though they had differences, he tried to pick people he thought could somehow get along, and they began to talk and pray, until one day they had a service.
[00:02:28] And on this particular day, it was August 13, 1727, they were now breaking bread. They were celebrating communion. And the spirit of God came upon this congregation in such a profound way that there grew a deep conviction of sin. People began weeping. They began confessing. They began to ask each other for forgiveness. There was such a spirit of reconciliation and unity in their midst that it transformed their whole community. People stopped bickering, fighting, disagreeing. They began to really deeply care for each other. And out of that came one of the most profound expressions of the spirit of God. They began to pray around the clock. And so they began taking turns praying. They'd pray an hour at a time, different. One would pray, another one would pray. Finally, they'd pray through the night. And this continued in a shocking way for 100 years. That was so amazing. And out of that experience grew the first, what we would consider the first protestant movement of missionaries. And so Hermhut began to realize we have a responsibility to bring the good news of Jesus to people around the world. And so by the time Nicholas Zimzendorf died 33 years later, they had sent out from that little group of people 226 missionary families. Is that amazing? One in every six communicants in their family of faith became missionaries, bringing the good news of Jesus to various parts of the world. How many know that when you and I experience God's presence, it's going to have a profound effect on our relationships, and we need to understand that amazing things begin to happen. And I believe that this incredible account that I shared with you was actually a direct answer to something Jesus had prayed the first century, because you and I need to understand something. Prayers never die. You see, the prayers that you and I prayed many years ago, you and I can forget them, but they're always before God. He never fails to hear the cry of our hearts. And so Jesus, now praying in the first century, is receiving an answer to his prayers. I'm going to show you that this hermit experience was really an answer to what Jesus was praying in the garden, what we call his high priestly prayer. This was a direct answer. 1700 years later, how many know? That's a really amazing thing. And so I'm going to share with you this morning that some of the praying that Jesus did that day is still affecting people, even to you and me sitting in this auditorium, and you're going to see it. What he prayed for you and me, Jesus prayed for us, and this was part of his prayer for us. Last week, I began a message on how to experience God's design for healthy relationships. And I looked at and got excited about point number one, having a right relationship with God the father. I really thought I was going to finish the sermon, but I only spoke on point number two this morning, the first service. So I have a very realistic picture that we might have a third sermon on this high priestly prayer. We'll see how this goes right now. But I just want to say that when you and I have a right relationship with our heavenly Father, it begins to affect the relationships we have with one another. It's the key, I believe, the foundation of having healthy, meaningful relationships with one another. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to continue that message, and we're going to continue to examine Jesus prayer as it relates to his disciples and to those who would believe because of their message, which includes you and me. So this is a timeless message. It's transcending time. That's what you need to understand. And as I said, when we get our relationship right with God, we can have the kind of experiences they had there at Hermhut that can literally not only change, you know, individual relationship, but it can literally transform and move way beyond us into the lives of many, many other people. So let's take a look at the second insight here for experiencing healthy relationships. The first one is having a right relationship to the Father, to God the Father. Now, the second one is, how do we embrace our mission to others? Notice I use the word mission there very intentionally. You're going to see that because Jesus prayed not only for us in what we would think is our own ideas or what we need, but Jesus prayed that what he's asking of us, we would be successful at. That's the important thing, that when God saved us, called us out of darkness, when God called us to himself, he had something in mind. And that's what we want to discover today. What is it that God has in mind? What is the purpose in bringing us into his kingdom? What is our lives really all about? You know, I think we live in an age, and I said this last week, maybe not to the second service, but the first. We live in an age of right and privileges. Isn't that true? We talk about our rights. We talk about our privileges, but the reality is that you and I need to lay aside our rights and privileges at times in our lives for the sake of others. And that's what Jesus did. Jesus left heaven. He had every right to be equal with the father, but he laid aside that right so that he could limit himself and become a servant and ultimately become actually a sacrifice, so he could deal with our sin. And so Jesus laid down his rights. And when you and I literally lay aside our rights, and we lay them aside for the sake of other people, we at that moment are behaving just like Jesus. That's a very christian behavior to be doing at that moment. Gary Thomas says missions includes not just what we do, but what we become. How many think that's amazing? So it's not just the things that we're doing. It's God is interested in transforming us. God is interested, as we're going to see, in making us more like himself. That's the goal. And Christianity, as Gary Thompson writes, Thomas says, is one of those rare religions that marries internal reality with outward obedience. So God starts to change us from the inside out. You know, Larry Crabb talks about that this transformation that God wants to bring in our lives is really internalized. It's coming from within us. It's a change of thinking, it's a change of heart. It's a change of direction that you and I begin to embrace what God really wants of our lives, what he really expects from us, what he wants to see happen in our lives, and then what happens through our lives and how that brings about real transformation. See, one of the characteristics of a disciple is that we actually believe Christ to the point where we act on it. And the acting on it is obedience to God's word. Here we'll pick up in John 17 and verse six, I have revealed you. Jesus is now talking to the father. I have revealed you, Father, to those whom you gave me out of this world. So the father is the one that's giving the son the bride, the people of God. It's the father that's calling. He's giving Jesus this bride. And Jesus is saying, I know who they are because I've been revealing you to people. And the ones who are responding to me are the ones that you're giving me.
[00:10:14] They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word. This is the, remember I talked about identity markers of a true believer? This is one of them. That when you and I become a believer, something changes on our inside. Before, we had no desire for God. We have no desire to please God. We're doing our own thing. But all of a sudden, when we experience God's amazing forgiveness and grace in our lives, our desires begin to change. And now we want to do what God wants us to do. There's a heart to obey God. I want to please my father in heaven. I want to do what God wants me to do. And so we begin to obey God's word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. So what is he saying? He's saying, they now realize that I came from you. He goes on to say that in verse eight. For I gave them the word you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. Now, did everybody believe that Jesus was sent from God? Well, of course not. We saw what happened. Some of them believed in Jesus. Some of them saw the miracles. Others saw the same miracles and didn't believe. Think about some of the amazing miracles. John even mentions the one about the man who was born blind. Why was that such an amazing miracle? When I preached on John chapter nine, I talked about that you'll never find in the Old Testament one instant of someone being healed from blindness. And yet the most numerous miracles that jesus performed was he healed people from blindness. And that's why the man in John chapter nine says, have you ever heard of anybody being born blind? Now beginning to see. Isn't that amazing? He says that to these religious people who are interrogating him and trying to diminish what Jesus had did. He says, I don't know anything about Jesus. He says, I do know, can a man that does this be a bad person? In other words, he's testifying as to the validity of the miracle and what Jesus did. The disciples, they saw amazing miracles. I mean, they're riding in a boat, there's a huge storm, and they're terrified. These guys had lived.
[00:12:28] The majority of them were fishermen, and they thought they were going to drown. And so Jesus was sleeping in the boat. They woke him up, and immediately Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves. And he told the wind and waves, be still. And the disciples said, what manner of man is this? For even the wind and the waves obey him. In other words, what they were saying is, listen, this is not normal. Human beings don't speak to the weather like this, and the weather changes. I mean, this has got to be someone more than just mere mortal. And they recognized something of the uniqueness of Jesus because he was God who had become man. But some of them saw the same things. They saw the resurrection of Lazarus, and they did not believe that Jesus was from the father. Very fascinating. So that's a very powerful thing. If you and I can hear the words of Jesus and respond to the words of Jesus and believe in Jesus, it brings about a transformation in our lives. Otherwise we become persecutors of Jesus and we become part of the group that actually helped to be crucified. Even though they were religious, they thought they knew God, but they really didn't. So I think one of the expressions of our obedience to Christ is seeing how we treat people. Jesus, in this parable on this area, he talks about relationships, how we treat strangers or the sick or the needy or the prisoner. And Jesus, in that parable, he said this, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. How many get a theme here? These are all people in need. They all need help. And he said, when you treated people like these, he said, something powerful is happening. As a matter of fact, he goes on to say, truly, I tell you, whenever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.
[00:14:29] We need to understand the way we treat people.
[00:14:32] We need to get a new vision of who people are. Now, I think he's speaking primarily of believers, but I think he also showing us that when we treat people this way, the needy, the hurting, the hungry, the helpless in prison, those in bondage, what we're really doing is ministering to Christ. And when you have that attitude, when you look at people and see that this is Jesus I'm ministering to, not this person that's in need, and we're showing them grace, that's a very powerful expression of what God is talking about here, what Jesus is pointing out to us here.
[00:15:06] Now, Jesus defines that our mission is directed towards those who are in need of grace.
[00:15:12] And when they accept the message of grace, they come to God in a very personal way. And yet, Jesus realizes that as we are in this society, this world, we also will need grace to fulfill what he's asked us to do. The mission, you and I can't do this in our own strength. We need God's enabling help to do these things. This is not easy to do. There's a lot of difficulty in doing these things. And then we see the content that Jesus prayer is one of protection. I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
[00:15:50] Now think about that prayer for a minute. So who is Jesus really praying for?
[00:15:56] He's praying for believers. He's praying for us. That's a very powerful thing. I don't know about you, but it's nice to think that Jesus is praying for us.
[00:16:05] As a matter of fact, the book of Hebrews says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. Do you know Jesus is praying for you every day. How many think that's amazing? You know, let's be encouraged. He's praying for you right now. I love that. He says, all I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. So how does God. How is Christ being glorified through them? Who's the them?
[00:16:36] That's the disciples, he says, and glory has come to me. Jesus is saying, through my disciples, you and I are the ones that bring glory to God. Is that an amazing thing? You and I are the ones that are revealing the glory of God, how we live, how we talk, how we relate to people. We're the ones that are revealing the glory of God to people. That's a pretty powerful mission, don't you think, that we're living for this purpose? He says, I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I'm coming to you. Who is he speaking to? The Father. He says, I'm coming back home. I'm coming to heaven. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
[00:17:28] So he's praying for protection through the name, the name of Jesus, the name of God, so that they may be in union, that we might be united with God, that we might have a communion with God, that we might have unity with God. But what are we to be protected from? That's a great question.
[00:17:48] You see, Jesus knows that he's leaving this world, but he knows that he's leaving us in this world, and we need to be protected from this world. What do you mean by that? Well, the world, that's an interesting term.
[00:18:04] And the idea here is that our society, with its values that are generally, I'll say generally because sometimes they are aligned with God, but generally they're in conflict with God's will. How many know that's true? So we have a culture today that's generally in rebellion against God and is not aligned to God's purposes, not aligned to God's will. This is the world. So the world is not necessarily just people. The world is more of a systemic, philosophical state of rebellion against almighty God. It's out there. There's a spirit that's at work. We're going to see in a minute in the children of those who are disobedient.
[00:18:49] So we need to anticipate rejection as we embrace God's will in ways, because we're going to find ourselves out of step with the people in society. Anybody experienced that you just feel like, hey, I'm just not even. I don't fit in, you know?
[00:19:04] How many of you here, you can honestly say, you know, I go to work, I'm the only believer there. I don't fit in. Anybody have that experience? You're just out of step, you know, I remember when I was cooking in this one restaurant, I was the only believer there. A lot of times people come to me, pastor, can you pray for me? I want a new job. I'm the only christian there, and I want a different job. I'm going, yeah, but you're the light there.
[00:19:29] That's important that you're there. Yeah, but I don't have anybody there. I feel alone. I feel out of step. I'm going, yeah, that's the way it works.
[00:19:39] How many here, you can say, you know, maybe you have family members, and, you know, when you have family that are believers, that's nice, but what happens when you have family members that are not believers?
[00:19:50] What's that like? How many have had that experience? And when you go to the family meeting, you just feel like, I don't fit into this group. I'm kind of alienated. They know they don't. I'm not quite meshing with what the rest of them are thinking, talking about, and doing. I don't fit in, you know? So poor Patty, she's got. Most of her family are non believers. Can you imagine? When I go to a family meeting, I'm a minister.
[00:20:19] That's the most intimidating person they could possibly. They're scared of me. I'm serious. You guys might think that's funny, but they are terrified.
[00:20:28] You know, it's almost like I'm carrying transmittable disease.
[00:20:35] They are terrified.
[00:20:38] So Patty knows that, you know, so the last time we got together with them, I said, patty, I have a strategy with them this time she goes, what are you going to do? I said, we're going to all be in the same house. I'm going to cook for them.
[00:20:50] You know, if I serve them, they're going to, you know, especially when you're fixing food for people, they tend to tolerate you.
[00:21:00] But no, I got along with them. I do get along with them. It's just that I know they're nervous around me. Does that make sense? Anybody feel that little experience that they're a little scared of you? Or maybe they're like, don't, you know, if you want to try this out to see what it's like, just talk to people about God, you're okay. Just bring up Jesus just bring his name into the conversation and see the response you get from people. That's when you know you're not in step. You're on a different frequency. They get excited. I'll tell you that right now.
[00:21:32] So not only does he pray that the unity that the father, son, and holy spirit shares with each other will be experienced by us will have that experience. And that's, I think, one of the reasons why the enemy works so hard to get believers to be in conflict with each other, because it flies in the face of this prayer of unity. How many know that's true? So when you and I are in disagreement, there's no unity, there's no love. The world looks at this and they go, you've just negated the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is one of reconciliation. Message of the gospel is one of love. So you and I, you know, should be expressing and demonstrating love for one another and that we're getting along with each other. There's a unity. We don't always agree on every point. We don't need to, but we already have, you know, we have forbearance, and we're able to be patient with each other. Those are all important elements of what the spirit of God wants to work. So the enemy works hard at creating divisiveness and just, you know, that kind of difficulty in relationships.
[00:22:39] Now I just put down here, when we're in step with God, we generally find ourselves in step with other believers. I think there's moments where maybe it's not and there's maybe a reason for it. I'll get into it later. Jesus also prays that we will experience joy despite opposition. He says, I'm coming to you now. Remember, he's praying to the father. But I say these things while I'm still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. So what does God want us to have?
[00:23:08] Joyous. Now, how many know joy is an important commodity in life? See, the result of God's spirit inside of us is joy. And the joy of the Lord, the book of Nehemiah says, is our strength. So here's what we need to have an understanding of. Maybe we're going through a very difficult time, and maybe we feel emotionally distressed, discouraged. Maybe we feel despair. Okay, are we following this? And yet the spirit of God says, I want. Jesus is praying that you and I will have joyous. It is possible to have sorrow and joy at the same time. Did you know that? Paul says, having sorrow, but always having joy.
[00:23:48] How do you have joy and sorrow at the same time? Pastor, let me explain how this works. So let's say your emotions are right now at a low ebb. Let's say you feel overwhelmed by your current circumstances.
[00:24:02] How do you think joy is going to come?
[00:24:05] I think Joy comes by being in the presence of God, right? In the presence of the Lord. There's what? Fullness of joy. So what we need to do is to make sure that God is with us at all times. But sometimes we lose a sense of God's presence because we are allowing the pressure and the difficulty in our lives to keep us from experience this fullness of joy. So what we need to do is take a little time out of, you know, you ever had this when you're a parent, you know, kid has the wrong attitude. You say, you know, you need a time out. You want to go in that room and get your attitude straightened out, right? You know, start thinking about your behavior for a minute. Well, you know, I want to just say this to all of us as believers. Sometimes we need to send ourselves into the timeout room and have a little chat with ourselves and say, you know, I'm not thinking about this, right? I've got the wrong perspective on what's going on. I'm going to spend a little time with Jesus, and I'm going to start worshiping him because the scripture says, I will bless the Lord at all times. And as you and I begin to worship God and sing praise to God and maybe even sing, you say I don't have a great voice. Doesn't really matter. God loves a joyful noise. We just start singing and praising God. You know, pretty soon something starts happening to your innermost being. Your inner man starts to get excited and it wells up in the spirit of God. You're now connecting with the spirit of God. And pretty soon you're starting to fill up with joy, even though nothing has changed in your life. But your attitude and your spirit has changed because you've moved now from the pressure and the despair and the wrong focus that we all get into at times, right? And the anxiety and all the things we can talk about. And now you're locked into God. And pretty soon tears are coming down your cheeks and you're going, my goodness, God, you're so good. And at that moment, you know, you just feel like there could be a hundred goliaths standing in front of you and they're all coming back. You know, that's what God wants us to understand. He goes, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. That's pretty strong, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. So I'm going to make a little point. This idea of running off to some northern community or some self, you know, going off grid and all the rest of it people get into, they're totally missing the point. Jesus said, I'm not delivering you from the problems and the pressures of this life. I'm leaving you in the midst of them. But I want you to have fullness of joy in there, and I want your little light to shine. And I want the Father in heaven to protect you so that you will not be overrun with the attitudes and the values of the society, that you won't be squeezed into its mold, you won't conform to this way of thinking, but you will be transformed. And who's it going to be protected from? It says, protect from the evil one. Well, I just wrote this. So often in our lives we run from difficulties, but Jesus is praying that we'll face them.
[00:27:14] So if you're a track star and every time a problem comes up and you're gone, you're not growing, so I'm going to challenge you. And a couple of weeks ago, I shared this idea of how to transform grief into joy. And I said it, the very thing that causes us pain is often the vehicle that brings growth and maturity as believers. And Jesus used the illustration of a woman giving birth to a child, and he said, there's such sorrow and pain in that. But then the child is born and there's great joy. The very child that brought the sorrow and the pain is the very child that's going to bring the joy. So let's not shoot the vehicle that God is using to help us to experience this great joy and grow and mature in the process. And so we move past a state of immaturity into a state of more maturity. We grow and develop, and that's what God's interested in. Jesus is not going to take us out of the world.
[00:28:09] He's praying to for our protection from the enemy who's the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work, and those who are disobedient. That's what ephesians tells us. So the most effective way for the enemy of our soul to defeat us is to tempt you and me to defeat God. You know why? Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So Satan knows he can't defeat you. He can only tempt you to do the wrong thing. So you're actually literally defeating yourself.
[00:28:39] And how many know? There's a lot of people. We have a whole bunch of self defeating things that are going on in our lives. We're defeating ourselves. Guys.
[00:28:47] Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. The spirit of the living God is dwelling within your life as a believer. And the only way Satan can take you down is to cause you to sin against God, so you defeat yourself.
[00:29:03] It's not an interesting strategy. So what does the Bible say? We need to resist the devil. How do you resist the devil, pastor? Submit yourself to God. When the moment I submit to God, the moment I do what God wants me to do, I'm resisting the devil, and he flees from us. You know, if he comes along and gives you nasty thoughts or all kinds of temptations, you know what you need to do? You need to start quoting scripture. You need to understand who you are in Christ. You need to understand you're fighting a battle, and every time he comes to tempt you, you're just standing. How do you stand? This is how you stand. You take thought, captive every thought, and you make it obedient to Christ. How do you do that? You find the scripture that is appropriate to that thing, and you start quoting it, and the devil starts to say, listen, every time we send someone to tempt that person, all we get is God showing up.
[00:29:56] It's not working. So he leaves. Wrong strategy. But, you know, a lot of times he defeats us because we don't think that way. And we allow those temptations and thoughts to defeat us. God wants us to defeat those things.
[00:30:10] So the Bible talks and describes about the seduction of our souls through worldliness.
[00:30:17] William Chapman once wrote, it's not the ship in the water, but the water in the ship that sinks it. How many know that's true?
[00:30:28] So it's not the Christian and the world, but the world and the Christian that constitutes the danger.
[00:30:34] So Jesus is saying, I'm not praying that you're gonna leave this world. I'm praying that you'll rise above this world. You're gonna come at it differently.
[00:30:42] There's a reason why you're here. You're on assignment. Everyone in this room that's a follower of Christ, you're on an assignment. Isn't that interesting? Ronald Tasker says, he says it this way. It's raison d'etrante. The church's reason for existence. The reason you're here. Some of you have ever wondered, what's the reason? Why am I here? This is it. You're to convey to the world the revelation implanted by Jesus and to reflect the self sacrificing love manifested by Jesus on the cross.
[00:31:17] What are you saying? What's he saying? He's saying simply this. The same way Jesus revealed the father and then was willing to lay down his life for others is the same way you and I reveal Christ to the world and we lay down our lives for others. We're manifesting the spirit of Christ.
[00:31:37] He does not pray that they escape from the world, for that would be to frustrate the divine purpose, nor that they might be immune from the world's hatred, for it is inevitable that that hatred should continue to be directed against both Jesus and his friends precisely because they cannot conform to this world's standards.
[00:31:58] Do you know why people don't like you? Because you're not going to go along with them. That's what we're being told here. The fact that you think differently, the fact that you want to please God. The fact that you were light in a dark world, the fact that you're not going to conform to their way of thinking. How many of you ever wondered? I always have people going. I get tired of these people trying to make us think like them. They're going to constantly do. That's the nature of this world. You and I are resisting it because we're saying it's wrong and that's what annoys them and that's what makes them so mad.
[00:32:30] Can you follow all that?
[00:32:34] The word not only imparts the joy of the Lord, as Warren Worsby says, but also assures us of his love. The world hates us, but we are able to confront this hatred with God's own love, a love imparted to us by the spirit through the word. The world hates us because we do not belong to its system and will not conform to its practices and standards. The word reveals to us what the world is really like and exposes the world's deceptions and dangerous devices.
[00:33:04] What's he saying? He's saying the word of God is going to reveal to us what's, what pleases God and what doesn't. Okay, let me ask you a question. How many here had breakfast this morning? Just raise your hand. You had breakfast. I had breakfast. How many here plan to have lunch? Anybody here plan to have dinner? What happens if you guys stop eating? You're gonna be in trouble.
[00:33:24] How many say that's true? You gotta keep eating. Why do you keep eating? Do you have the energy to live life? Why don't we feed our souls the word of God?
[00:33:34] Why is it that so many people don't spend time just reading the scriptures every day so that they're prepared to handle what that day is going to bring towards them? Don't you understand that when you're reading the word of God? Sometimes. I know this stuff. Yeah, well, I've been reading it for a long time now. You know what I notice every day? I see things I never saw before. And I find sometimes the very day I'm reading a certain text of scripture is the very text I need for that day.
[00:33:58] And I would have went without that. I wouldn't have had that to handle that day. I'm at a disadvantage.
[00:34:05] Well, then Jesus prays that we'll experience one of God's primary agency in bringing about our transformation. And you already know where I'm going with this. It's the word of God. It's the primary agent. It changes my perspective, my attitudes, and ultimately my actions. It's a change. I've already said from the inside out. Jesus said, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. But when we hear the word sanctify, it's a theological term, we go, what does that really mean? Can I just bring three words together? We're going to group them together. Holy, sanctify, consecrate. I want to close with these three words because this is going to bring out a very interesting idea.
[00:34:44] You see, to be holy or to be sanctified means that we've been set apart for a sacred purpose, for God's purpose, really. Da Carson explains the impact of this text by bringing out the idea what that actually means in practice. He says it this way.
[00:35:03] It is, at most basic level of meaning, holy is almost an adjective for God.
[00:35:10] In other words, this is probably the best way to describe God. He's transcendent, which means he's beyond, he's other, he's distinct, he's separate from his creation.
[00:35:20] God is unlike us. That's why the angels are constantly singing, holy, holy, holy.
[00:35:29] Okay, so what is God doing? He's created us in his image, and he's trying to help us to become like him, holy, other than what we were, other than what this world is like, so that we become more like him.
[00:35:46] So he goes on to say derivatively, in other words, as a result of this, people and things are reserved for him that belong to him are set apart from him are called holy, whether it be a censer on the altar in the Old Testament, or it could be a man set apart to be a high priest. He's considered holy or like a prophet. Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a holy mandeh because he was set apart by God from his birth to speak God's word, or he was, you know, they were all sanctified or set apart for a sacred duty reserved for God. The moral overtones in our english word, holy and sanctification emerge at that point. Ideally, it's someone who's set apart for God and God's purposes alone, and that person will only do what God wants and hate all that. God hates the. I would argue that most of us probably don't hate what God hates.
[00:36:43] That's a strong term, hate. You know, we hear the messaging over and over, love, love, love. But what about hate?
[00:36:50] God says, there's certain things I hate. I hate injustice, I hate sin. Now we can walk around and go, I hate this and I hate that and I hate this in life. But let's start with ourselves. Do we really hate sin in ourselves?
[00:37:06] Now we're getting personal, pastor. See, we got to address what's wrong inside of us.
[00:37:12] So this is what it means to be holy. As God is holy, then Jesus prays that we'll experience, well, let me go on. I'm going to skip this.
[00:37:25] That's just describing what worldliness is. Okay. The purpose of our lives is to fulfill God's will.
[00:37:33] Jumping over here, I want to close it. I want to end at the same place I ended the first service here.
[00:37:39] No, I can't even do that. Okay. Out of time.
[00:37:44] Let's stand.
[00:37:49] It's too bad, because I wanted to explain some other thought here, but let me just summarize it in this way.
[00:37:56] The one other word I want to talk about was consecrate. You say what's consecration?
[00:38:01] Consecration means I'm coming to God with my hands full.
[00:38:06] It means I'm giving God everything. Okay?
[00:38:10] And Jesus said, I'm going to sanctify myself.
[00:38:17] Even as I will sanctify us, he sanctifies himself. What is, you know, Jesus, what is that about? It's about willing to be an offering. It's about willing to give God his whole body, to give God the father his entire being.
[00:38:34] This is such a critical moment in our lives.
[00:38:38] And it's not just done once. It's done over and over and over again. I have to keep coming to God to surrender my life to him.
[00:38:47] I'm giving him my all.
[00:38:50] That's what it means to consecrate yourself.
[00:38:53] We become a living sacrifice. We're giving up our lives for his kingdom.
[00:38:59] And can I just encourage us when we do that? That's the most important thing we'll ever do with our lives. There's nothing greater than that.
[00:39:06] I would argue that one of our biggest problems, and one of the reasons why we're not as happy as we really could be is that we're trying to hang on to a bunch of things that have to do with that which is perishing and that which is temporal.
[00:39:20] That's why Jim Elliot, the missionary that was martyred, he said, he's no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
[00:39:27] We're going to all lose our earthly life unless Jesus comes back. Do you realize that? We're all going to lose it.
[00:39:33] But if you give your life right now, fully to Jesus, there's something that can never be taken from you, and that's the life that God gives you. It's eternal, it's a forever, but it's also a quality of life. It's beautiful.
[00:39:50] I think it's wisdom to surrender. It's wisdom to consecrate ourselves. It's wisdom to give everything we've got to God because it all belongs to him anyways. And I'm convinced that until we do that, we're never going to be fully satisfied.
[00:40:07] We just go for it. We just go for it. And when we look back in hindsight, everything that you've given to God, he's taken and he's multiplied it, he's blessed it, he's used it, he's brought meaning, he's brought purpose. He's used your life in a way that you never dreamed he would. That's what happens when you fully give yourself to God. And I want us to pray this morning. In closing, let's just open our hearts to God.
[00:40:35] Let's just lift our hands to him and say, lord, I'm going to come to you right now. I'm going to trust you. You gave me this life. I'm going to give this life back to you.
[00:40:43] I want your will to be done in me. I want your will to be done through me. Whatever you want is fine with me.
[00:40:52] I'm not sitting here setting the agenda. You're setting the agenda. I'm happy with that. Because you designed me for a purpose and a reason. You're gonna use me for your will and honor and glory. I wanna glorify you. I want people to come to know you. I wanna be a person of mission. I wanna live a missional life. I wanna live a purpose filled life.
[00:41:18] And, Lord, when you do that, it's so amazing, because when we look back, some of us are a little old. We look back and go, there's a lot of wasted years or wasted moments or wasted time. But the moments we surrendered fully to you were never wasted.
[00:41:33] They were never. You brought about transformation. You brought about change, not only in our lives, but in the lives of those around us. So we want to thank you for that, Lord. And now just look across this auditorium, Father, your children are consecrating themselves to you. We're saying, hear my lord. Hear my lord. Use me. Hear my lord. Cleanse me. Hear my, send me. Hear my, make me holy. Hear my lord. Use me for your divine purposes. Reveal Christ in the world in which I live. Help me, Lord, to make a difference. Help me, Lord, not to succumb to the pressures of the world around me. Help me not to pursue the things that are temporal. They're gonna disappear anyway, have no eternal value. Help me to be set free, Father, from even be attracted to that stuff, but to embrace you fully and your purposes. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave today.
