The Glory Prayer of Jesus, Part 3: Cross and Kingdom

A lot of people have more of a relationship and a familiarity with their ability to obey, however inconsistent it is, than they actually do with Jesus.

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God, that's our uh that's our understanding, and therefore it's our confession.

Yet not I.

If we try to do this in our own power, we are going to fail.

The Bible refers to our our own power as our flesh.

We sing hymns that say the arm of flesh will fail you.

You dare not trust your own.

So we've not come today, Lord, to get more determined, more religious, or more religiously determined.

We've come to grow in our understanding of cross and kingdom.

Because both of those fuel each other.

And so we want to be fueled, nourished, strengthened.

We didn't come today to get a religious whipping to feel more guilty when we walk out than we felt when we walked in.

That's religion.

Relationship scrapes all the guilt off of us in Jesus' name and says what God said in the beginning.

You are free.

So, God, we've come to get understanding that sets us free.

Let everything else be thwarted.

Let every other purpose be thwarted.

Let every other spirit be thwarted.

Except the Holy Spirit of God.

Have your way with us today, Holy Spirit.

Lead us into the truth.

That's what Jesus said you would do, and that's the aching need of our soul.

We pray this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a see if you've got a Bible.

I want you to open up to John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it.

It'll come up on the screen up there.

Uh, we are, if you're our guest today, we're going to the Gospel of John.

We started in John chapter 1, verse 1, about nine years ago, and we've gotten up to chapter 17.

John 1:1

Amen.

There you go.

Babies.

Anyway, uh, and so I want to talk to you.

John 17 is the last prayer that Jesus prays with his disciples before he gets arrested in the next chapter and goes to the cross.

We refer to it, I refer to it as the glory prayer of Jesus.

And so this is part three in a sermon series where it's just calling the glory prayer of Jesus.

If I had to give it a subtitle, I would call it Cross and Kingdom.

Cross and Kingdom.

You'll understand that more in just a minute.

I just let me just jump in today.

I'll start reading verse six.

I'll read down about verse 19.

And then just two things I want to point out and say, hey, let's think about these today.

Uh John 17, Jesus continues this prayer in verse 6.

He says, I've manifested your name to the people whom you let me stop right here for a second.

Now let me say this.

Look at me.

This is one of those parts of the Bible that when you read it at first past, it'll be like, okay, I didn't get a word of that.

Just keep going.

I mentioned this in the email yesterday.

It's kind of like eating beef jerky.

Uh you first, when you first start chewing on it, you're kind of like, hey, there's a lot of work.

Uh but the more you chew on it, it begins to break down and soften up, and you get that meaty saltiness.

You're like, I thank God I'm a man right now.

Uh reading the Bibles that way, sometimes you gotta just you you you you gotta keep chewing on it.

You gotta keep thinking about it.

This is one of those passages.

Anyway, verse 6 Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.

Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

For I've given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

I am praying for them.

I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.

While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you had given me.

I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

There's two things that the Bible says to us this morning that I want you to train your eye to see and not miss.

The first one is simply this is that Jesus plays the long game.

Jesus plays the long game.

If you've got kids, you understand this.

Uh, when they were little, you didn't think about this, but when they got older and they started making autonomous decisions, you you're kind of like, oh.

And so with parenting comes this measure of patience, and and we get that because we see that in the heart of God.

And you say, Where do you get that?

Verse 6.

Now, hear this again.

Jesus says, I've manifested your name to the people you gave me out of the world.

Yours they were, and you gave them to me.

Here's the part I want you to see.

And they have kept your word.

And they have kept your word.

Now, Jesus is not a man that he would lie.

That's what the Bible says.

And so he's not lying.

But up to this point, the disciples, the people, the men that are right around him, uh uh, as D.A.

Carson says, they have yet to demonstrate a mature conformity to the details of Jesus' teaching.

But they follow Jesus.

Now that ought to sound familiar to many of us in this room.

Let me say it again.

They have yet to demonstrate a mature conformity to the detailed teachings of Jesus, and yet they follow Jesus.

Now, we would never say it that way, but let me ask you a simple question since we so we don't think, oh, I kind of got it all together.

Because sometimes you can come to church and you can sit here and kind of think, man, these people got it all together, and I don't.

I don't want them to know that I don't have it all together.

I don't even know the words to these stinking songs we just sang.

So we just kind of go, banana, banana, yeah, and it's great, and it's great.

And let me tell you something.

It's possible to know, listen carefully so you don't mishear me.

It's possible to know and love Jesus and to be like the disciples and yet to demonstrate this mature conformity to the details of Jesus' teaching.

So let me ask you this: if you're in this room and you say, you know what, I follow Jesus, but there have been periods in my life, if you looked at me, I did not demonstrate a mature conformity to the details of what Jesus taught.

If that's you, could you just raise your hand right now?

Hold it up real high.

I love the way y'all raise your hands like this.

No, I didn't say put it down.

Simon says, Leave it up.

Come on, people.

Can't be that hard.

Hold it up real high.

Some of you like somebody over here is like, oh, it's so heavy.

Yeah.

Yeah, put your hands down.

Now look around.

You're kind of like, oh man.

Now, I'm not trying to lower the standard of Christianity.

I loved in the last service, one guy raised his hand kind of like this.

His wife looked at him, and I think what she said was, I think that's the period when I met you.

You might have your hand a little bit higher.

Yeah.

And so what do I mean when I say Jesus plays the long game?

Here's what I mean.

Why do I say this?

Why do I point this out in the Bible?

It's simple, because Jesus sees where you are, but he also sees where you're going to be.

And he relates to where you are, you and where you are, out of where he knows you're going to be.

Now here's the problem.

We see, and more importantly, we feel where we are, and we relate to God out of where we are because we don't think we'll ever get there.

And it's one of the reasons that your prayers are what they are.

And it's one of the things that God's patience is what it is.

Let me show you this in the Bible when I say that God sees where we are, but he relates to where we're going to be.

Let me show you in the Bible.

Luke chapter 22, verse 31 says this.

Luke 22:31

He's talking to a guy named Peter.

His name is it's kind of like when your mom's mad at you, I want you to know she used your full name.

He says, Simon Simon.

Behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.

But I told him to shut up and get out of here because I'm Jesus and no one messes with my people.

No.

No, look at me.

He sees where he is, but he also sees where he's going to be.

Look what Jesus says.

He said, But I prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, because your faith is going to fail.

You're going to fail in your faith.

Your faith doesn't fail you, Simon.

He says, Hey, and I pray that your faith may not fail.

And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

Peter said to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death.

And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you've denied me.

You've denied three times that you know me.

See what Jesus does?

He sees where Peter is, he knows where he's going to be.

So he's not put off by his religious determination.

Oh, not me.

I mean, I'll go to death with you.

Jesus says, Hey, I prayed that your faith wouldn't fail, and when you've turned again.

See, only God has the capacity to see when you've turned again.

When you get off the reservation, and when you turn and come back.

You may be sitting in this room right now thinking, dude, that is me.

Listen to me.

This is the sermon for you.

You should find a way to sneak out so no one sees you leave here in just a few minutes.

Pinch the baby and go, oh, gotta go.

Here's the thing.

If that's you, does God see where you are?

Absolutely, he does.

But he also sees where you're going to be.

And he's relating to where you are from this place that he sees you're going to be.

That's why I mean when I say God plays the long game.

Here's why this is important.

I point this out because it's kind of a four-step process.

A lot of people have more of a relationship with their bill, their ability to obey than they do with Jesus.

Let me say that again.

A lot of people have more of a relationship and a familiarity with their ability to obey, however inconsistent it is, than they actually do with Jesus.

And so, secondly, what happens is they continually come to the cross.

Let's pretend this podium right here is the cross.

These people live over on this side and they continually come to the cross.

And they just come back to the cross and back to the cross.

They come to the cross, they say, Oh my God, I'm forgiven.

Thank you, God, that I'm forgiven.

They go back over here and they're fueled by two things: determination and their depravity.

Depravity means their sinful nature, our capacity to know right and to do wrong anyway, okay?

And so they just go ping back and forth, and they come back and they, God, you know, when I was in sixth grade, I went on a bridge retreat, and then our youth pastor had us write our sins down on a piece of paper.

And I wrote this sin down, I threw it in a fire, and they go back with more religious determination.

Then they come back to the high school retreat and they write that same sin down, they nail it to the cross.

I burned that thing.

Let me nail it up here this time, and they go back with more determination, more depravity.

And then as adult, they go to Trestias and they nail it back to the cross again, and they're just like, and here's what happens: you have an incredibly well-developed theology of your sin, but you have a very underdeveloped theology of the kingdom.

Because you just ping back and forth from your depravity, just come to the cross for forgiveness and back.

The Bible says we come to the cross as it is for salvation, for forgiveness of sins, and then this is the doorway to the kingdom.

And here's the problem: if all you do is stay over here on this side of the cross and just kind of just muddle around in your depravity and your determination, and you never get over here on this side of the cross and enjoy the kingdom.

You you you don't even have a frame of reference for what you were created for.

Let me demonstrate.

It's why the Bible, Jesus shows up first on the scene.

One of the first things he says to people, Matthew chapter 4, he says, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

You should start parenting your kids with that statement right there.

You should say to your kids, I don't care how old they are, three, twenty, whatever, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

What does that mean?

Jesus said, Hey, rethink how you're thinking about things because a whole new reality that's bigger and better than what you're doing right now is available to you.

So when Jesus would say, repent, for the kingdom of God's at hand, he wasn't saying that Jesus is gonna come back tomorrow on Monday.

The kingdom of God's not imminent.

He was saying the kingdom of God is available.

So you see people talking to people in the Bible like tax collectors and prostitutes, and he didn't say to them, You immoral skanks, I'll tell you what, you better get your act together because I'm gonna come back and you're gonna be caught off guard and it's gonna be too late.

I didn't grow up in church, but the few times they used to have this bad idea in student ministry called a fifth quarter.

A fifth quarter was like an after-football game fellowship.

Let me just tell you something.

When I was 16, I didn't want to come to your fellowship hall, eat free pizza, and see that movie where they tried to scare the hell right out of you about Jesus coming back.

That's what y'all always did.

The price of free pizza was fear.

And so I remember when I was a little kid, I was like 12, they showed a movie called Distant Thunder.

Whoo! Jesus coming back, and all the pot smokers were gonna get left.

And so I thought, me and my brothers are all going to hell.

Uh and so when I was 14, just another movie.

When I was 16, another movie.

After that, I was just like, man, why do they got why is the price of free pizza always fear?

By the way, no one ever said to me, hey, repent.

For the kingdom of God's at hand.

A realm and reality of life that's bigger and better than anything you've done or could ever do is available, and big old sinners like you can be a part of that right now, today, son.

Never heard that my whole life.

And so when I say that this kind of process, here's the fourth step in the process that ought to make us sad.

The kingdom of God is where the will of God is realized and the glory of God is manifested.

If you're not careful, if you just get stuck over here on this side of the cross, just pinging back and forth between your determination and your depravity and coming back to the cross for forgiveness.

If you read the Bible, you'll realize you've got forgiveness.

You're forgiven for everything past, present, and future.

And so the cross becomes, hey, you can now get over here.

Because if you're not careful over here, you don't know what the will of God is.

You're like, well, I guess, you know, I should marry him, or I guess we've been together a long time.

I mean, you know, I guess I I don't know.

This constant uncertainty about what the will of God is.

Where when you get over here and you start living in the kingdom, it's this sense of, whoa, now wait a minute.

This is the will of God.

I get to experience the will of God and the glory of God.

God is glorified by the life I live, not out of effort, but out of intimacy.

Big difference.

I get asked some form of this question all the time, and it's this hey, what made the difference in your Christian life?

And I tell them all the same thing.

Some people get it, and some people kind of go, uh, that's not really helpful, but thank you for your goofy answer.

And the answer is simply this when I stopped apologizing for the life I had always lived over here, and I started cross, and I started lit learning to enjoy the life I was created to live.

Kingdom.

And I'm not I'm not minimizing sin, I'm not winking at sin.

I'm sure not minimizing the cross.

I am saying this, look at me, okay?

That God did not create you to get stuck on this side of the cross and live between determination, religious determination, uh, and your depravity, and think, I better learn to make the most of this because this is it's never gonna get better than this.

That's not true.

That's not gospel.

When we when I say that's not gospel, that's not good news.

I mean, think of it this way: uh when Jesus says to his followers in Luke 12, he says, be of good cheer, oh little flock.

It's your father's good pleasure to give you what the kingdom.

He didn't say it's the father's pleasure to give you the cross, you wretched damnable sinners, and you ought to be glad to have it.

You will never, look at me, you will never in this life find this joyful satisfaction in any religious system that's based on this side of the cross.

Because you were created for the kingdom.

It's not cross or kingdom, it's just cross and kingdom.

And in the kingdom, you always look back to the cross with this deep, deep sense of gratitude that you never get over.

It's just kind of like, oh, oh, thank you.

Oh, man.

But it doesn't remind you what a sinner you are, it reminds you, and by the way, when you the more you learn to live over here, sin loses its interest to you.

Things that were once a struggle aren't a struggle anymore.

Why?

Because of intimacy, not effort.

Here's the second thing the text says to us today.

Jesus plays the long game.

He sees, he says to these guys in verse 6, hey, and excuse me, and and and they've kept your word.

Not so much.

To some degree, but not not.

I mean, these are the guys that they just follow Jesus and they're they're still kind of like, okay, we're kind of getting it.

It's not until after he's crucified, resurrected, that they're like, yes, now the puzzle has become a picture.

We see it.

Second thing the Bible says says that Jesus prays for his followers.

He prays for his followers.

I just want to point out four things that Jesus prays, starting in verse 11.

Look at what he says.

He says in verse 11, and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father.

Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one.

While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me.

I've guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction.

By the way, that's a reference to Judas.

And he goes on to say, so that the scripture may be fulfilled.

That's a reference to Psalm 41, 9, where he says, Hey, someone that's eaten my own bread has lifted up his heel against me.

In other words, a good friend of mine, a close follower of mine, has betrayed me.

None of that caught God off guard.

But he prays for his followers, first of all, that we would be kept.

He says, Keep them in your name.

This is more than an appeal to a title.

This is a request that God manifest the fullness of his character and his might to protect his people.

Let me say that again.

This is more than an appeal to a title.

Keep them in your name.

Because in the Bible, when it talks about God's name or references to God's name, it's not just his name, God or Jesus or Jehovah.

It's the fullness of his character and his might.

And he's not saying, hey, I'm gonna call down this big name on you.

He says, no.

Keep them in your name means I want you, God, to manifest the fullness of your character and your might to protect your people, to keep them, okay?

And you say, what do you mean?

Uh not an appeal to a title.

It's this manifesting of this character and this might.

Uh let me just say it like this.

Uh, I was not always the preacher.

And a long time ago, uh, before I was even a Christian, I used to ride around with some of my friends, and we would do a little throat therapy and practice some aromatic habits.

And one day we're riding around.

Have you ever saw a Cheech and Chong movie?

Uh there's certain things you do in a car and it fills up with smoke, and the cops see that because the windows are up and they're kind of like, and so one night we're out doing what lost people in my age did back then, and we got pulled over.

You know you're in trouble when a cop car pulls you over, and then another one swoops around and pulls in front of you.

And the guy got out, he walked up there, and he just tap, tap, tap on the window.

And we rolled the windows up, and we were just like, we're in trouble, let's just enjoy this.

And so we said, Hey, don't roll the windows down, lock the doors.

And so the guy tapped and he said, Son, can you roll the window down?

It's like a blue haze in there.

And we're like, What's up, officer?

He said, Son, you'd roll the window down.

He had a title.

He said, I am with the sheriff's department, and I think I recognize you, McClendon.

You better get out of there, boy.

And I was like, What's up?

And the guy in front, he was with the Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

He didn't just have a title.

That man walked back and changed our life.

He walked back there, and the guy's leaned against the window and come on, boys, you've had enough fun.

Roll the window down.

This other guy comes walking back, he squares up, he looks in the window and he backs up.

Did you know that a cop does not refer to his gun as a gun?

Write that down.

I can see you're amazed.

That man, I learned this that night.

That man looked at me, he's looked in that driver's side window and he said, Hey boys, I got a sidearm, that's a gun.

They don't call it a gun.

It's a sidearm.

I got a sidearm and I got a baton.

Which one of these do you want me to use to yank you out of that car?

That car had power locks on it, by the way.

We hit that button, boom, open the door, smoke come billowing out.

When they arrest you on the side of the road and they search your vehicle, the first thing they do is they make you interlace your fingers behind your head and they make you get on your knees, and then they make you cross your legs.

Now, I don't know that personally, what a collier told me from personal experience.

So there's four teenagers on the side of the road, fingers interlaced, on our knees with your legs crossed, and we're like, Why do we?

It's kind of hard to balance when you've been doing some throat therapy.

You know what I'm saying?

And so you're kind of like there, boy, you fall over, you fall over, and I'm gonna yank you downtown right now.

And we're like, no, no, no.

See, one of those guys had a title, one of them had might.

So when the Bible says, when Jesus says to his father, hey, keep them in your name, he's not just appealing to this title of his name, he's saying, God, manifest the fullness of your character and your might to protect your people.

And by the way, we didn't go home in our own car that night.

They gave us a little ride down to the striped sunshine.

Now, I'm speaking of this in as much code as I can for the little ears in the room.

Because I don't want them to think, oh, well, he did that.

Look, he turned out to be a preacher.

I'm gonna be okay.

No, no, no.

Here's the point.

I know how you think, students.

You're kind of like, I'm taking notes now.

Uh, well, that guy that talked up there, he said all this, Dad.

No, no, no.

What I said was there's a difference in appealing to a title and the demonstration of might.

And so Jesus says, keep them.

He prays that we'd be kept.

This is what he's saying.

The Bible says it like this in Psalm 25: those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.

Now stop right there.

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever.

You should ask yourself, because this is true, you should ask yourself today, who or what do I trust in?

As the mountain surrounds Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore.

For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous stretch out their hands to do wrong.

Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts, but those who turn aside to the crooked ways, the Lord will lead away with evildoers.

Peace be upon Israel.

Or Psalm 91, 1 to 6.

This is God demonstrating his might to protect his people, who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge.

His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.

You will not fear the terror of the Night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

And so when Jesus says, Hey, keep them in your name, he is appealing to something that God has a lot of and he is predisposed to use for the goodness and the protection of his people.

For example, my oldest, 21, uh, and when you're 21, you don't think like a 55-year-old, her one of her best girlfriends had a birthday in Fort Worth.

And so she left yesterday, drove up to Waco, dropped some of her stuff at her stuff off at her apartment, went to a birthday party in Fort Worth.

I'm like, can you like send a card?

No, Dad, I want to be there.

Drives up for the birthday party and then drives home last night so she could come to church.

She goes, I just miss going to my home church.

I want to come to church.

I told her, spend the night in your apartment at Waco, stay with your friends in Fort Worth.

Now I'm going to drive home.

Got home at 1.43 this morning.

And she walked in, and the old man was sitting at the kitchen table sipping coffee.

And she said, Dad, what are you doing?

I said, You're my firstborn.

She goes, Dad, I'm 21 years old.

So I had to display my mic to her.

Not what you think.

I said, babe, I know how old you are.

And I said, I also know this.

Your mom doesn't really sleep until you're home.

So go in there and hug your mom.

Wake her up.

She's not in REM sleep.

She's about two inches below the water with one eye half open.

She got a police scanner on the nightstand.

She's listening.

Go in there and hug your mom.

She came back out and she said, Well, Dad, are you up just waiting for me?

Yeah, I've always got stuff to do.

I got stuff I'm curious about.

I want to read about, I want to study.

We're going to be in John.

There's only like four more chapters.

We're going to be in John for six more years.

So there's a lot of stuff to do.

And she's like, Dad, you waited up.

I didn't wait up for you because I don't trust you.

I waited up for you because I love you and your well-being is my concern.

Oh, Dad, I said, babe, you understand that.

I trust you.

You're a righteous young one.

I trust you.

I didn't walk up there and go, let me smell your breath.

Where'd you go?

What kind of party was this?

I didn't do any of that.

I said, but get some sleep.

She goes, my plan is to hit up that third service.

Saw her mom in the hall after last service.

I said, You might want to buzz the tower and check on your kid.

I don't know that she's going to hit up the third service.

It's the heart of a father.

Look at me.

It's the heart of the father to always have the best interest in the well-being of his children.

It's central to his being.

Another thing Jesus prays, he says, I pray that they would know divine joy.

What I call divine joy, he says in verse 13, but now I'm coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, but they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Hear that?

They may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Not some joy or a joy, but my joy.

Why does he say my joy?

Because this joy comes only from obedience to the commands of God.

And so for us to have this joy, this joy that comes from doing what the Father sent him to do in order to share in my joy, you got to do the same thing.

Because here's the way to think about it.

If you can have this joy, you can't.

But if you can have this joy by living in disobedience, why ever obey?

There are things that only belong to the obedient.

That's just, you're like, well, that's not fair.

This isn't socialism.

There's no such thing as spiritual socialism.

So whine all you want.

This isn't fair.

It's God.

You don't want fair when it comes to God.

That's the last thing you want.

We'd all be in hell right now.

Stop whining about fair.

No, no, no.

Hey, this joy.

This joy cannot be had.

Because it's not a joy or some joy, some random.

He says, My joy.

What do you mean?

My joy.

The thing that brought Jesus joy was obedience to his father.

And you see this in John.

If you're looking and not just going, I got me in Yan.

If you're training your eye, you see that it's only been mentioned one time in the whole gospel back in chapter three.

He gets in the upper room discourse in chapter 14, 15, 16, and 17, and seven times Jesus mentions joy.

Here's the point: the closer he gets to obeying the Father and going to the cross, the more joy it brings him, the more joy spills out of him.

This is why he says that my joy will be fulfilled in themselves.

Think about it this way.

R.

H.

Straken said this.

He said, The joy of Jesus is the joy that arises from the sense of a finished work.

It is creative joy, like the joy of the artist.

It produces a sense of unexhausted power for fresh creation.

Unexhausted power for fresh creation.

This is the way I want you to think about it today.

Third thing he praises, they'd be protected.

They'd be protected, he says in verse 14.

And he picks it up and he says, I've given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I'm not of the world.

Have you noticed how much hatred there is in the culture nowadays simply because you don't agree with somebody?

That's not new.

Jesus says right here, way back in the Gospel of John, I've given your word your word, and the world has hated them because they're not of the world.

Just as I'm not of the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world.

Jesus doesn't say, Oh, it's really hard.

So let me get all my little chicks under my wings and so.

No, no, no, no, no.

He says, Don't take them out of the world.

The world never gets to see and smell the gospel if we all escape culture and move out in the country on our 20 acres where we feel safe.

That's that how are they gonna know?

He says, Don't take them out of the world.

I don't ask you, take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Now, by the way, it's very important you understand when I say Jesus prays they be kept, that we be protected.

He doesn't say that we'd be protected from the consequences of living in a world that is by nature evil, sinful, and fallen, but that we'd be protected from the evil one.

That refers to a spiritual entity or being, the devil, Satan, however, you respond to him.

Because the Bible says rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

I had to take my daughter's car to the body shop and get it fixed again for the third time.

Uh, we're not keeping score.

Uh I'm like, you know, those mirrors on that thing that kind of tell you spatially where everything is.

Uh and I'm dropping it off, and my wife's van got caught in a hailstorm, a hell storm that came through a month or so ago.

And my body shop guy was a great guy.

If you need a body shop guy, I got a great guy.

He got down, he goes, Man, this thing's got pings all in it because there's a big spot of paint coming off.

And I said, Yeah, that was a little scratch from hell, and then it just got bigger, and he goes, Yeah, it's got dings all in it.

I'm gonna need to repaint that.

And I said, just kind of ballpark it.

He got down, he said, Man, it's gonna be in the neighborhood of this or this number.

I just kind of limped out of there.

I see you in November.

I think my leg, I think my I think my I think I tightened, I pulled a hamstring.

Uh he goes, What?

I said, I ain't going home, pick money off a money tree, and come back.

And he said, Why'd I tell you that?

The rain falls, he said, You've kind of consistently been in here.

I said, Yeah.

The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.

And sometimes I think I work for God, I shouldn't have problems.

I know you never think that.

You never put a$5 bill in the box on your way out the door and think that ought to keep me until next week.

And he's just like, one of the guys that works there is like, I said, hey, y'all got like a frequent flyer plan?

He said, dude, what's happening to your vehicles?

I said, they got targets on them.

No.

Jesus says, hey, here's what I'm saying.

When he says, I'll protect you from the evil one, he says, protect them from the evil one.

He's not saying, hey, don't let hardship befall your people.

Because he told them at the end of chapter 16, in the world, you'll have tribulation.

Stuff will break.

Your air conditioner will go out.

People back into your kid's car.

Hail falls on your wife's van.

Stuff just happens.

You can't have this unrealistic, no, stuff's never supposed to happen to me.

No, you will be protected, is what he says.

Then he says, uh, last thing he says is they'd be sanctified.

Verse 17.

Look at it.

You still with me?

He says in verse 17, don't miss this.

Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

As you sent me into the world, I've sent them into the world.

And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Now, draw your attention to verse 19, where Jesus says, And for their sake, I consecrate myself.

I I it's it's it's a different use, different word to mean the same thing than sanctify.

Sanctify means set apart.

Jesus says this right here.

He says, first of all, he says, uh, hey, sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth.

You cannot be sanctified by the truth, you're sanctified in the truth.

You're set apart.

The way you think is set apart and transformed because you are in the truth.

You don't show up on Christmas or Easter or you go to certain religious services.

You're never gonna get in the truth.

And look at me, I'm not beating the drum for church attendance, okay?

You're adults.

Somebody shouldn't have to tell you to prioritize things that you love.

And this is free.

Stop hiding behind your schedules, by the way.

I hear this a lot this summer.

Our schedule, on my schedule, on my schedule.

And so I just had to say myself just a few times to people because I was like, my schedule, and one guy said, You're always talking about your schedule.

And it convicted me.

The preacher got convicted.

Can you believe that?

And so I had to start saying to people, you only have to say this two or three times, or you just feel like an uppity jerk, and you change things.

I had to say to people that I love, you know what?

My priorities will not allow me to make you a priority right now.

And then it's awkward.

And they don't know whether to hug you and thank you or hit you.

Like, what do you mean, dude?

We're friends.

Because what they used to say was, hey man, it's really crazy.

My schedule's just kind of full.

Your schedule, some inanimate object magnetized to the front of your refrigerator.

Stop blaming it and making it the excuse for your life.

You don't prioritize the right things.

And what changes you and your priorities is just to out yourself and say, you know what?

I can't prioritize you right now because I've got other priorities.

It's really awkward.

And people don't know how to respond to you.

When you say that to them, they kind of go, What'd you just say?

I know it sounds terrible, doesn't it?

I call you my friend, but I don't prioritize you.

Otherwise, I would have room for you in my life.

Or you could just keep saying, Oh, my schedule's so crazy, girlfriend.

You know how it is.

Your schedule is not that powerful.

Do this, use the right language.

It's awkward.

It is creepy awkward.

Somebody this summer said to me, hey man, I called you four days ago.

Yeah, ma'am.

And he said, Oh, did you get my voice, man?

I did.

And I and I failed to prioritize you and our relationship, and for that I need your forgiveness.

Well, dude, it's not like you killed my puppy or anything.

No, I'm I I wanted to tell you about my schedule and how busy I am.

But that's this disposed sense of self-importance.

I wish y'all could see y'all's faces.

Y'all are like, dude, just go back to the cross.

That was more enjoyable than what you're saying right now.

Uh back to the cross and we'll be done.

You still with me?

Jesus says in verse 19, okay, he says, and for their sake I consecrate myself.

What does he mean?

He consecrates himself by setting himself aside to do the Father's will, by dying on the cross.

And it's only because of what he has done for them that this prayer for their sanctification can be answered.

Because now there is a truth that is so compelling and so consequential that people can be set apart by it, and he sets himself apart for it.

What do you mean?

It's the cross.

The cross.

The cross displays in no uncertain terms that God sees all of humanity as sinful and separated from God.

The cross says that Jesus' death is necessary payment for our sin.

Religious habits and rituals will never pay the price for sin.

The cross, he consecrates himself because it and it alone has a sanctifying power in our life.

And thirdly, because of this, because of the cross, it tells us that Jesus is the only way to a relationship with God.

This is why Jesus consecrates himself.

And despite this fact that a couple chapters he'll be in the Garden of Gethsemane, poured his heart out, and he'll say to his father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

It's not this whole happy giddy, oh well, whatever.

It's agonizing.

And because he consecrates himself, sets himself aside.

This prayer for our sanctification, that we'd be sanctified in the truth.

By dying on the cross, Jesus gives us a truth that has the power to transform our lives.

Let's think about that together.

Let me pray.

If you're our guest, we like to teach the Bible and then just give you some soul space to think about it.

And so I'm gonna pray a brief prayer.

Clyde may play, may sing something over you.

But just think about this.

Just two simple things.

Jesus plays the long game.

So if you're here today and you're not where you need to be, he didn't hear, he's not here to bust you up.

He's not here to make you feel guilty.

He sees where you can be, and he's inviting you to that place today.

He's saying, Come on.

He's like the third bass coach.

He's waving his big windmill arms of grace, saying, Come on home, come on.

That's the God of the Bible.

And secondly, he's praying for you.

That you'd be kept, that you'd be sanctified, that you'd know this divine joy that only Jesus makes available.

You'd be protected.

Let's think about these things for just a moment.

Stromini.

Father, this is our prayer.

Let it be our experience.

Uh we're tired of determination, religious determination, and our depravity.

We thank you for the cross and we we long for life in the kingdom.

And uh you said that's available.

That's why you told people to repent.

Because it was available, not as a threat, but as an invitation.

We're grateful for that.

Let us hear the invitation today.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said sanctification is a big religious sounding word, but it basically is the process by which we become more and more Christ-like.

Uh, we have some opportunities here at our church for you to get involved and things to get involved in that help you in that process.

And I want to show them to you now.

So give your attention to the screen if you would.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

You may have noticed that our 10 a.m.

service has filled up as the summer wraps up and school is starting back.

If you normally attend the 10 a.m.

service, we ask that you would attend either the 8:30 or 11:30 a.m.

service to make room for those who are new.

This is a great way to serve your church and to serve those who are new.

New devotionals are available in the lobby.

These books are a simple tool you can use each day to spend time in God's Word and in prayer.

Preschool Play and Connect is headed back to the River Park Splash Pad this Saturday at 9.30 a.m.

for some more fun in the sun.

Popsicles will be provided, and older siblings are welcome too.

Midweek studies provide the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of God's Word and the faith we confess and seek to live out.

Studies meet on Tuesday mornings for women from 9.30 to 11.30 a.m.

and Wednesday nights for all ages from 6.45 to 8 p.m.

Registration is now available at grandparkway.org slash connect.

Community groups begin tonight in homes around our city.

Here is one story of how one community group in our church has made an impact.

The first time I went to our community group, um, my husband was offshore.

He works um for five weeks offshore out of the country, and then he's home for five weeks.

So the first time I went, um, I brought my three kids and we went, and myself obviously went by myself.

And so at the end of the community group, Brandon Frelick asked um if anybody needed prayer.

I didn't really want to say anything just because it was my first time, but he kept pausing, and I felt like it was a little moment of my heart being starred to speak up.

And so I did speak up and I said, you know, when my husband left, my um son was less than a month old, and it was just a really overwhelming time for our family.

The adjustment of him being gone and being home with three little ones um definitely felt like honestly the weight of the world.

Um so I spoke up and I asked for prayer.

And, you know, that day, um, after we kind of were around visiting after the group was over, um, I had a one of the guys come up and ask me, um, does anyone mow your yard?

Can I come do that for you?

You know, while Matthew is gone.

And later that week we had a couple in the community group who I again just met, not Sunday, um, text me and say, Hey, we're bringing dinner to you and your kiddos.

Um, you know, what time can I drop it off?

Not can I bring it, but we're coming.

And uh what time can we be there?

And I think those little things seem like small things, but to me they were huge.

Um and those things kind of keep happening since we've joined a community group.

But because you're building these real and intimate relationships with people, I think you get to know not their highlight reel, but their real true lives.

So seeing that people are all going through struggles and their marriages and they're raising their kids and their walk and their faith, and I realize that everybody has those struggles, and everybody is doing those.

And until you do real life with people in a different way, I think it's really easy on a Sunday morning to think everybody has it together but you.

You know, seeing how other couples are navigating, you know, their lives, um, raising young families, and um I think that's just been a huge blessing to us to see.

And so really seeing them and their family life like that has helped me in my family life and my spiritual life as well.

My name is Travis Dunham and I'm the Connections pastor here at Graham Parkway Baptist Church.

And what that means is I help people move from large group environments like a worship service to smaller and more relational environments like a community group or a discipleship group.

If you're ready to take that next step moving into a more relational environment, contact me at Travis at GrahamParkway.org.

If you would like someone to pray with you, or you have a question about anything you have seen or heard today, some of our pastors and elders will be available at the front of the stage after our service.

If you've been here very long, you've heard me say this over and over.

The best part of this church is the people.

Because that's what the church is.

It's people, it's not a building.

So put yourself in a smaller environment where you can be cared for.

If you have any questions about that, Travis, our connections pastor, will be available down front in just a minute when you're dismissed.

Uh if you're a guest, hopefully you've had time to fill out uh the guest card that's in the seat back pocket in your row.

If you would, just drop it in one of those wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.

For the rest of you, if today's the day you worship God uh with giving, with obedience or generosity, that's where you take care of that as well.

Uh, thanks for your attention.

It was a full service.

Uh, and we don't apologize for that.

Uh we think you shave your legs for a reason, and we want to make it worth the drive.

That's make it creepy.

Just checking.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Be of good cheer, old little flock.

It is your father's pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Depart now.

Live and eat and drink like you actually believe that, and you're experiencing it.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.