03: The Joy It Takes

Today's scripture is from the book of John, chapter 17, verses 11 through 19.

John 17:11–19

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 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 do that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one, that 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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

All right, would you pray with me?

Holy Father, we thank you for your provision and your care through this season.

Lord, I pray that you would attend to our hearts as we go through this holiday season, which can be feel like life is just filled to the brim and uh stressful and challenging.

And Lord, I pray that you would give us your peace uh for this evening as we come together around your word, that you might apply it to our hearts uh individually and as a body, so that we might really hear from you what you have for us as a church here today.

Lord, I pray that the prayer that you pray might echo in our hearts and that we might hear it as reality.

Uh, Lord, I lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So uh during this Advent season, we're moving through a short series on the uh Jesus' high priestly prayer, it's called.

It's Jesus' prayer recorded in John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

And we chose this for the Advent season and for this particular season of our church because Advent is about looking forward in hope, and it's about Jesus going on mission when we look forward when we remember that he came to the earth at Christmas.

And uh this prayer has been described by one of my favorite theologians, his name is Leslie Nubigan, uh, and he describes this prayer as a prayer before the journey.

This is the prayer that Jesus prays with his disciples before he goes on the journey to the cross.

So while he's praying this, uh Judas is not present.

He's already gone to recruit the high priests and the Pharisees and some Roman soldiers to come and arrest Jesus.

And while Judas is away, Jesus is with the rest of the disciples and he's praying these things for them.

Over the course of the prayer, Jesus prays initially for his own glory, and then he intercedes on behalf of the disciples, and then he prays for the ones who would know Jesus through the testimony of the disciples.

And that's us.

You know, there's few sources of comfort uh that are better than having a friend really pray for you.

And so our uh for us in our hearts to hear Jesus' prayer for us, I think is a deep source of encouragement, empowerment, and uh comfort during this holiday season.

So just as Jesus is praying just before his journey, we want his prayer to become our prayer before our church's journey.

Uh, as we've said each week, look, uh uh going to Berkeley is not at all like the road to Calvary.

Those are very different things.

But this is uh still so important for us as a church to remember that we go on mission together because Jesus, our God, went on mission to save us.

That's why we do this.

That's why a church would think let's go somewhere where his name isn't being proclaimed as well as it could be.

We do that because that's the way Jesus sought us.

So uh today we are going to see Jesus describe how the disciples will stay in the fight.

That's what Jesus is praying for.

He's giving them what they would need to be able to resist the attacks that they're immediately going to face and those that they will f that they will face over the whole course of their ministry.

In becoming identified with Jesus, they receive Jesus' enemies.

And Jesus has some very wicked enemies.

And so, in order to identify with him, you must take on those enemies, and Jesus prays for the exact things that they will need to be able to sustain through the attacks of those enemies.

So Jesus will pray for the disciples' protection.

The Father would protect the disciples.

He will pray that Jesus' own joy would be fulfilled in the hearts of the disciples, and then we'll see him cast this vision for a holy mission.

And when they see these three things, what Jesus is giving them is the very tools that they'll need to continue when they're being sabotaged.

So we're gonna go ahead and jump in.

And first we're going to look at how Jesus prays for the Father's protection and see just what that looks like.

In John 17, second half of verse 11 through 12, Jesus prays, 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 have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the Son of Destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

So we see Jesus praise that the disciples would be kept in the Father's name.

And we talked a lot about the Father's name last week, how the this name of God that God told first to Moses, where he says, I am the I am, this phrase Yahweh, this phrase that was the uh this name of God that was so holy it wasn't even uttered.

It's like the opposite of Voldemort, like how Voldemort's so bad, but it's how God is so good.

You don't even say the name because it's that level of holiness.

And so uh this transcendent name becomes identified with humanity in Jesus.

And we see that even in the way that Jesus describes, that Jesus starts his prayer to the Father here.

He says, Holy Father.

You see, there's both of those components just in that name.

This is a rare designation, but it's one of my favorite things to say.

It's kind of the habit I have in praying to God.

It's that holy father, because he is holy, utterly transcendent, so beyond us, complete in his perfection, and yet we can call him father.

Completely transcendent and immediate, like a father.

So Jesus captures both parts of that in the name.

And so, what does it mean that Jesus is praying for the disciples to be kept in the Holy Father's name?

It means in the name of God we see the very character of God, the one who comes and saves us, the one who is love and utter holiness, who is perfect justice and perfect mercy together in the same thing.

Those things that we thought could never be together hold as one in the Lord.

And so for the disciples to be kept in the name of the Father is to be kept in the perfect character of God, to be drawn close to the character of God.

That's what Jesus is saying when he says to be kept in the Father's name.

Jesus also says that he has been given the name of the Father.

The name of the Father, this name of God, this I am, was given by the Father to Jesus, such that Jesus is God.

Jesus could say, I am God.

I am the I am.

That is true of Jesus in exactly the same way as it is true of the Father.

Jesus is God.

He is that radical transcendence in this humanity that we can come close to and that drew close to us.

But the disciples are not kept in the Father's name just to be kept in the Father's name.

It's described here for a particular end.

He says that they may be one even as we are one.

This unity of the disciples is driven to its absolute maxim, where Jesus prays, they will be kept in your name, and in being kept in the perfect character of God, they will have this unity that transcends everything else about them.

There are so many differences in this room.

And yet, by being kept in the Father's name, there is a unity here that transcends all of those.

Being kept in the Father's name, there is a unity in the church that is only comparable to the Trinity, the unity of God Himself.

This is a high prayer that God is praying.

And so in Jesus' prayer, he starts to he goes on to say, I uh I've kept them in your name, which you have given me, you've given me your name, and he says, I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction.

Now, I referenced this earlier, but when we are kept in the Father's name, that means we are now identified with God.

We are identified with Jesus.

We're united to him.

And that unity with him means a separation from the world.

Now, John uses the phrase world very technically throughout his uh uh gospel, throughout the gospel according to John.

And he uses the term world to refer to all of the corruption and all of the sin and all that is ruled by Satan in creation.

He says that all of creation has been corrupted by sin.

So when we fell into sin at the temptation of Satan, what we did is we transferred our allegiance from an allegiance to God, the source of all goodness, and we then couched our allegiance with Satan himself.

That's what the fall in the garden means.

And so now Satan is the functional ruler of all creation.

And that means when we become united to God, we gain some real enemies.

To be united to God is not to just enter, to be united to God is to pick a side in a battle that's happening.

It might have felt like you were living as Switzerland, you know, you were removed from the situation.

And then to pick God means you're throwing your hat in the ring.

So that means you're on the Allied forces now.

And to be a part of that, to be declared that, means you are gaining real enemies that are looking to sabotage the mission of God in the world.

So that's why when Jesus starts to talk about our unity together and our unity with the Father, he goes into this language of how he has guarded us.

Because to gain Christ's enemies means to gain his protection.

So what exactly does it mean to gain Jesus' protection?

What does Jesus mean?

Like, look, Father, while I've been with these disciples, I haven't lost one of them except for Judas.

And remember, that was the plan all along.

What does it mean?

What does it look like to be guarded by Jesus?

Well, if we keep reading the Gospel of John, we see this perfect example that actually references this very prayer.

In John chapter 18, uh, the uh in John chapter 18, Judas shows up and he has uh Roman soldiers with him, and he has the chief priests with him, and they have lanterns and torches and weapons.

John 18 · chapter mention John 18 · chapter mention

And they are on the scene to arrest Jesus.

It's like a mob going after Frankenstein.

That's the image.

And they're coming to Jesus at night.

Jesus knows this is happening, and so when they show up, they don't recognize him, but he steps forward and he says, Whom do you seek?

Jesus initiates the conversation.

Whom do you seek?

And this is the response in John 18, verses 5 through 7.

John 18:5–7

It says, They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus said to them, I am he.

Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.

And when Jesus said to them, I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground.

So he asked them again, Whom do you seek?

And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus steps out in front of his disciples when this band of soldiers is coming to arrest him and take him to his death.

And when Jesus steps out, he provokes the question, Are you Jesus of Nazareth?

And then he responds, and we miss it because we just miss this translation in English, because we translate it as I am he because that would be a natural response.

But what he says is, I am.

There's no he.

Like if you're reading in ASB, that means it would be in italics, the he, which means it isn't in the original language.

It doesn't mean it's extra special.

It's just a Bible reading tip.

And when Jesus claims his name, the name that the Father has given him, when the soldiers are coming up to arrest him, they say, Are you Jesus of Nazareth?

And Jesus says, I am.

Look what happens.

He says they drew back and fell to the ground.

This is a band of Roman soldiers.

The chief priests, the highest authority.

They're coming to arrest Jesus.

He says, I am, and they fall to the ground.

They draw back, they're the ones with the sword.

Jesus is just some dude.

They draw back and fall to the ground when Jesus says, I am, when he claims his name.

This is what it means to be protected in the name of God.

So why is it that they draw back?

Why is it that when he says I am, they draw back and they fall flat on their faces?

It's because Jesus is God.

And when we encounter God, that's what happens to us.

We are always flat on our face.

We are as though we are dead before him, because in his transcendence and his glory and his holiness, he exposes all that is evil about us, and we know certainly that we ought to be dead before him.

And if we don't cower, we almost certainly will be killed.

And so we see this throughout scripture when God first speaks to the Israelites when they're gathered at Mount Sinai.

They're not like, wow, that was so cool.

He rescued us, and then we heard from God from this mountain.

Woo-hoo, high five.

That's not at all what they were like.

They come to Moses and they're like, never do that again.

That whole God thundering forth from the mountain, we can't communicate with him like that.

It was horrifying.

He's too big, he's too grand, he's too holy.

Isaiah, when he's called up to the heavens in Isaiah 6, and uh and you see that the lightning is shining forth from God's throne, and God's robe fills the whole temple.

And Isaiah, whose job is to be a prophet, whose job is to be the mouthpiece of the Lord, the one who literally says, Thus saith the Lord, for a living, that's his job, is to say, these words that I'm saying, these are the same as God's words.

When he's in the throne room of God, he falls flat on his face before the Lord, and he says, Behold, I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips.

The mouthpiece of the Lord says, the very thing I use to serve the Lord is so unclean.

I should be dead before his holy presence.

That's what it's like to respond to the radical transcendence of God.

That's what it is to come in contact with the I am of God.

And so when Jesus is standing there and he's about to go to his death at the hands of these people, and he says, Who are you looking for?

They say, Jesus of Nazareth.

He says, I am, and they fall flat on their faces.

Why?

Because they are in the presence of God.

John 18, verse 8 through 9.

John 18:8–9

Well, actually, if we continue the last verse of this verse, he says, so he asked them again.

Jesus just keeps asking them questions.

I bet they thought they would be the ones asking the questions.

And he asked them again, whom do you seek?

They're on the floor, right?

So maybe they pick themselves up.

Whom do you seek?

And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.

And then if we go to uh 18 verses 8 through 9, Jesus answered, I told you that I am He.

So if you seek me, look.

Look at how He guards.

If you seek me, let these men go.

This was to fulfill the word that He had spoken.

Of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one.

How does Jesus guard us in His name?

He puts Himself in our place.

The I am says, I will take the death at the hands of these people so that you'll let them go.

You know how the night unfolds for them?

Peter sitting by a fire, looking in.

Do you know that guy?

Do you know Jesus?

No, no, I don't know him.

Jesus looks out and is like, great.

My most faithful disciple denying me.

Jesus stood before, knowing that would be the case, knowing who he is putting himself forward to and who he's putting himself in front of.

He's putting himself forward to people who will certainly kill him, and in front of people who will certainly let him down.

That's what it means to be guarded in the name of Jesus.

To be guarded in the name of the Father.

That he takes our punishment for us.

You know, you see both sides of it here.

You see that to be identified with Jesus is to gain his enemies, but to be identified with Jesus is also to gain his protection.

We often think that the type of peace that Jesus offers is the removal of hostility in our life.

And that it's almost precisely the opposite.

The type of peace that Jesus offers means inviting us to join one side of the war.

And when you join one side of the war, that means you're going to get real enemies.

But when you have those real enemies, you have the only real protection.

You see that our safety is not found in the elimination of having enemies.

Our safety is not found in the elimination of living in a world that's hostile towards the good news, the proclamation of Jesus, that's hostile towards the type of ethic that Christ calls us to.

It doesn't mean removing ourselves from that, it means taking on that hostility, but in taking on that hostility by our identification with Christ, we receive his complete and perfect protection.

It's always both.

No hostility might feel like safety, but it actually means.

No protection.

Safety equals having enemies.

Next, Jesus talks about his joy.

In John 17, verse 13 and 14.

John 17:13

I love these two verses together because it's so strange.

He says, 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.

So look at these two verses.

Jesus is praying, he does this elsewhere, where like in a prayer to the Father, he'll say, like, look, I don't need to tell you this, because we're, you know, on the same page.

Uh, but I'm praying this now so that the people around me will hear it, because they need to hear this.

And Jesus is doing that same sort of thing here.

He's saying, Look, while I was with them, I protected them.

But now I'm coming to you, and I'm praying these things now in front of them so that they'll hear it and that their that, excuse me, that my joy might be fulfilled in them.

The joy of Jesus might be fulfilled in look around the room.

Look at look at the people around you.

They're nice, not that special.

The joy of Jesus will be fulfilled in the likes of us.

His joy will be fulfilled.

So Jesus prays in front of them so that that might happen.

Like I talked about earlier, how the prayer of a friend is so important for us to hear.

When you hear Jesus praying for you, you are having his joy in you.

You are relocating your joy from somewhere in the world to a joy that's in Jesus.

And then there's this next verse, which does that same sort of thing.

It says, 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.

See, these two verses are perfectly together.

Just as having enemies is the same as being in Jesus' safety, so is being in the world and even being hated by it is an evidence of having Jesus' joy.

Our joy has to be located in something outside of the world if we are going to be able to have any steadfastness in the mission that Jesus is calling us to.

If the world that we live in is it's if it's true that it is radically corrupted by sin and that it is under the domain of Satan, then for it every step that we move closer to Jesus is a step more into hostility with the world.

And so if we are going to have any steadfastness in this, if our joy is located in something in the world, then we're constantly going to be feeling it uh beaten and as though we've lost with every step that we make to Jesus, because the thing that our joy is located in will always be uh taking from us.

But if our joy is located in something outside the world, then we can keep moving amongst incredible enemies.

We can keep moving, even when we find the sin corrupting our own souls, we won't give up because our joy is in Jesus.

When it seems too frightening to identify with Christ, we'll be able to because our joy is in him.

Archimedes, who I don't really know who that is, but I recognize the name.

I think from uh uh wasn't that the name of the owl in uh Sword and the Stone?

Yeah.

And the name of the name of the ship in uh Watchmen.

We're getting smaller and smaller.

Uh in terms of these references working.

But uh I think he was all I think he was also like a mathematician or something.

He was a famous great mathematician who invented so many different things that he's invention.

Brandon.

Uh he's currently a DU, if any of you would like to uh any other information for him.

Archimedes said, uh Archimedes said, give me a point outside the world for a fulcrum, and I will move the world with a lever.

Love that image.

We have to have our joy located outside of the world if we are truly going to have the ability to go on a world-changing mission.

So I want you to do a survey of your joy.

How many times have you heard this?

Is your joy located in Christ?

How often have you heard that?

A lot, right?

Just be naive with me for a second.

Is your joy located in Jesus?

Do you take joy in having the I am of the world identify with you for your salvation?

Is that a ballast stone of your soul?

Have you considered, have you considered, just let yourself be naive just for a second?

Have you considered, what if this really happened?

What if God really became a man and took on my sin so that I could be with him?

That would make me feel in a good mood.

Our joy must be located outside the world.

I think so often uh we uh face this, uh, and I think our culture just particularly faces this, where we we won't actually locate our joy in Jesus because to do so really brings to light how distant we are from the world.

How distant we are from the world's financial ethic, from the world's sex ethic, from the things that we're taught to normally value, we're taught to normally value independence rather than cultivating dependence on God.

And so all of a sudden we're come in complete opposition to those things, and because we'd be brought in such clear opposition, what we do is we try and do some dance so that nobody gets offended and no real decisions get made.

And so we'll come and we'll do things like we'll attend here, and but we'll keep a real distance so that we can say, you know, I'm gonna step back and just kind of observe what happens here rather than make a real participation.

And in doing so, we become the types of people that just never make a real decision.

We never experience the safety of Christ because we're unwilling to experience his enemies.

Uh in the Divine Comedy by Dante, who is Dante, Brandon?

I'm just kidding.

Uh he uh it's the name of the dog in Coco.

Uh in the Divine Comedy, the first part, The Inferno, um, it's a tour through hell led by Virgil, um, one of the less popular rides at Disney.

And they uh it but just before they enter hell and you go across the river Akron, uh is it's called the Third Canto.

And uh there there's people that are uh being punished there as well, but it's not officially in hell yet.

And what they're doing is they're running around naked, chasing a banner that's flying in the wind.

And the banner has nothing written on it.

And they're destined for eternity, and they're weeping because they're in such pain and suffering from running for eternity naked.

Uh and they're chasing this banner, and it has nothing written on it.

And um, so Dante's like, Who's this?

Virgil's like, these are the people who never picked a side.

These are the people who were neither sided with Satan nor were they sided with God.

These are the people who never made a decision.

And so they're destined for all eternity to chase a banner around that says nothing.

Also, uh, they were repeatedly stung by bees.

I don't know what the symbolism is of that.

I think Dante just wanted to make it worse.

I think that if our if the church in our culture would have a tendency, it would be to be the types of people who run around and chase a banner that says nothing.

That way we wouldn't have to experience the enemies of Jesus.

But no enemies, no protection.

So it's easy, I think, in our heads to start to picture, okay, then what type of people do we need to be?

What's, you know, James calling us to be?

And it's like we get this image of like, yeah, we just need to be that stalwart, like stubborn person who's unable to learn from anyone because they already know all of the answers, and then they shout the answers at everyone that they come in contact with until those until the people just are beaten into submission by the truth.

And that's not the picture that we see, because when we're being brought in line with the truth, we're being brought in line with Jesus, and Jesus is the savior who is being mocked and ridiculed and being killed by the very people he's seeking to love.

And so the question is: when we're being brought in line with that truth, are you going to be stalwart enough?

Are you going to be stubborn enough to continue loving people that are saying, look, you're just being bigoted, you're just being narrow-minded, you're just making these truth claims to have power over me, you're just being manipulative with this whole faith talk, or are you just gonna stand back and just, you know, it's better to not have that conversation?

You know, I've not said a lot of things that I should have said, just because it's like, ah, I don't want the email.

What if instead we were like, you know, my joy is actually outside the world?

And I've been shown a type of joy that can give me this levity, this love, even amidst the attack.

That's the type of person that we want to see.

Uh that that life, when I thought, okay, what does that life look like?

A life full of tons of uh danger and turmoil and conflict and uh arguments with people and um you know exposure and feeling vulnerable and uh uh lonely at times, um, and yet being joyful in the midst of it, like a lot of inconvenience, but still being very joyful.

We have a word for that.

It's called adventure.

Uh G.K.

Chesterton, um, the original G, he has a uh uh this great phrase regarding adventure.

He says, an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.

An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

You know, the type of people who have this joy in Christ that's located outside the world, I think that's an adventurous type of person.

It's the type of person who sees all these inconveniences that they're surrounded by, and they say, you know, these are precisely the things that God brings his redemption through.

All of this wrong that's built up into the world, this seems to be precisely the way that Jesus accomplishes his redemption.

This becomes the medium that he loves to work in.

All this chaos, insecurity, and this anxiety that we just take on from our age, all of the fad diagnoses and the fad fixes that we go through and buy into because we just want BuzzFeed to tell us how to live.

You know, all of those things that we so easily get caught up in, and we could just say, forget that, those become the medium Jesus loves to work in.

Next thing Jesus describes is the holy mission that he's sending us on, saying you'll be protected, you'll have this joy in you that's able to put you right up against the this villainous type of world where you expect sabotage when you're moving.

Then he describes this mission, John 17, 15 through 19, the last verses we'll look at today.

He says, 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.

So you've heard the phrase, we are called to be in the world and not of the world.

You know, when we hear, oh, you know, the world, it's just full of enemies and expect sabotage and expect chaos, expect danger, but you're going to have a peace that's outside the world, that's in Jesus.

Uh, we think, you know, uh, I think I can kind of have my cake and eat it too.

What we'll do is we'll be not of the world, and we'll create our own club, and we don't have to deal with anybody who's out there, and we can all make sure that we just think all the same thoughts at all the same times.

It'll be great.

And that's precisely what Jesus says you can't do.

He's like, look, I'm not, you're not of the world, which means you're not going to have the same values, but you're gonna be in it.

You're going to be in a world that's just covered in lies, and you're gonna speak the truth.

It's not gonna be fun to speak the truth in a world covered in lies, but that's where you need to be.

You're sent in the same way that Jesus is sent.

So much of us are chasing a banner that says nothing because our real joy is in not disappointing anyone.

It's not a joy that's not located outside the world in Jesus, it's in not disappointing anyone.

You know what was really helpful for me to realize is Jesus was perfect.

You know, you've heard that.

And he was disappointing people all the time.

It was like a little pet hobby of his.

He did nothing wrong, he did everything according to the Father's will.

God looked at him and said, perfect, everything.

You nailed it, crushed it, great job.

And people were always disappointed.

So I just hope I just hope that's a liberating thought for you.

And when we're called to be in the world, that means we're gonna be saying things that are constantly disappointing.

I could feel a lot of light shed on that passage.

All right, so have your joy in Jesus.

Uh know that you're protected by God, and then go live adventurous, holy lives in front of the world.

Uh good luck out there.

Look, it here's the thing that that is great.

Take that with you.

I want this to be energizing and motivating.

Like, yeah, I'm gonna have a freaking adventurous life and I'm gonna say stuff, and we're gonna cause a little bit of drama and chaos in a good way.

And then we'll uh uh but none of this works.

You have to see that none of this will work if you don't get that last verse, verse 19, and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

The danger of when we get this is we start to think, oh yeah, I'm the protagonist of this truth moving forward in the world.

I am the one who brings this redemptive energy into creation.

I am the solution to all the pain and drama in the world.

No, you're not.

You are radically corrupted.

You are full of evil and lies, and those things need to be worked out in a real way.

The truth that comes into the world is Jesus.

The thing that does the consecrating, that consecrates on our behalf, so that we too might be set apart and made holy is Jesus alone.

So, how do we move out into the world?

We move out into the world only as ones who look and point to Jesus.

We move out into the world courageous only because we've seen, look, he's atoned for us.

If we don't get that, then we will either become totally arrogant, or we will become totally despondent.

Because you'll try and move forward into the world and you'll realize, oh my gosh, this truth that I was supposed to be bringing into this place, I'm just I'm I realize there's just as much corruption in me.

This terrible system that I thought I was just a victim of, turns out I was also a part of it.

That's one of the things that kind of kept the wheels turning.

So what do you do then?

You're like, I just better not touch anything.

I'll just mess it up more.

It's despondency, despair.

Or on the other side, you think, man, I'm just an agent of truth, and I'm bringing it in to whatever place I go.

And uh it's like whatever anybody describes themselves like, I'm just a straight shooter, I'm just tell it like it is.

I'm like, then I don't want to have this conversation.

I can tell that like this is not gonna be fun.

Not that fun's the main point, but it's just like, look, if uh uh if we if we aren't going through this with a little bit of self-doubt that maybe we could learn something along the way, and you might be a little you maybe you're wrong sometimes too, then I don't think we're involved in the same story here.

Like I don't think we I don't think we get that uh uh the answer is is not the ideas that are in either one of our heads.

Things are so bad that our only hope is if God becomes a human and dies for our sins and then resurrects, and then in all of that says, yep, that covers it.

That satisfies my wrath, that joins you and unites you to me.

Now we're gonna have agents that move out in truth because of what Jesus did.

And if we're gonna think that uh uh somehow there's some new idea or like I've cracked the code on how to do these things or whatever, some new strategy or some new technique that that goes beyond that fact, then we're just being naive about how bad the world really is.

And you need to make some more friends, you need to try and be honest with each other.

Because you'll realize, wow, their life is tough.

Okay, I'm that's that's called preaching.

We have to see that last verse.

We go out on strength in our mission because we're going out in the joy of Jesus, in the joy of our salvation with Jesus.

If we're a church that gets that and goes on that adventure, then there will have been five churches planted in Berkeley in the last several years, and there will still be one a couple years from now.

Because our joy is in Jesus.

In Jesus.

I don't need to say it again.

All right.

Let's pray.

Then we're gonna sing Take Communion.

We're gonna sing one song, and then we're going to be uh led in prayer together for this journey that we're going on uh by Kyle, uh one of our elders.

Uh and then uh we're gonna uh you can go get your kids if you want to bring them into worship for the last couple of songs, and we're gonna sing two more songs together, um, and uh then we'll all go face the Sunday night scaries with Netflix.

Father.

I want you to forgive us for our small-mindedness, for a survival mentality when it comes to our faith.

And I want you to, uh, Lord, I I pray that you would instill in us a courage that doesn't come from self-confidence, but a courage that comes in trust and dependence on you.

We have no reason to doubt your care.

He who gave He who did not withhold his son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Lord, may the truth of your gospel become this ballstone of joy that allows us to live life lives of adventure amidst uh the terrible chaos and disorder of a sin corrupted world in hope that you will return and set all things right.

Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.