John 17:6-19
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. 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. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“In But Not Of The World”
Prepositions are important little words. They hold the big words together and give them direction. i.e. “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth.”
We are called to be IN the world but not OF the world. This does not mean we negate the world, have no fun, know no joy. It means we have a different perspective by which we see the world. Being sanctified in the truth that God loves me, calls me, challenges me to live so that in all I say and do something of God’s love is present.
The world tells us that money is enough; God’s word tells us that money is never enough.
Only love and intimacy is enough. God’s love for us and our love which flows out of God’s love into all our being.
“Becoming a Christian is changing our power base...from money to the cross. There are two things to work on ( in our being sanctified) prayer and money. And don’t let any of us think that we are not in trouble every second.” Anonymous
We need to spend more time along with God and God’s Word. Not to be better informed; but to be better formed by God’s Word.
“Never let the limits of your understanding become the limits of your faith.”
Howard Campbell
“People Of the Word”
The story is told of a Norwegian pastor who, during the German occupation of World War II was called into the Gestapo Headquarters for interrogation. Before the Gestapo officer began he took his Luger out and placed in on the desk. Immediately the pastor pulled out his Bible and placed in beside the Luger. “Why did you do that?” the officer asked. “You put your weapon on the table, I did too!”, replied the Pastor.
The Bible is our weapon - not for evil but for good. To be sanctified in it’s truth is to live in love and compassion, not hatred and condemnation.
We are to dare risk loving rather than hating for loving is a more difficult and profound emotion. It can do what nothing else can do!
Dr. Martin Luther King in “Strength to Love” identifies what love can do:
Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; loved illumines it.
“In The Word”
The Church lives in the Word of God.
“I prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down and strike me like lightening. but faith did not seem to come. One day i read in the 10th Chapter of Romans: ’Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God!” I had closed my Bible and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.” Dwight L Moody
God speaks to us through the Bible. It is not magic; it is an encounter with a living Word.
To be in the Word is to be sanctified by the Word. We will be changed, more then we thought possible. We will also be confronted with challenges which will cause us to struggle more then we like. It is a struggle to live as a child of God in the world of men (and women).
To be in God’s Word requires discipline; I listen and obey, trusting this is the way.
The Church lives in the Word; it is it’s meat and potatoes. We are the Church. How are we eating these days???
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