Pray Like Jesus #5 - Pray for Yourself, Christians, and Non-Christians

[Music] [Music] uh good to see you super excited this is the final sermon in the pray like jesus sermon series you can get a free copy of the book i had the honor of writing with our oldest daughter on the way out this sermon is the last three chapters in the book that should indicate to you that this will be a particularly lengthy sermon uh we'll be in john chapter 17 an entire chapter again we'll clue you this will be a very lengthy sermon all of which i would just simply say you are very welcome so open your bible to john chapter 17 and we're going to look at jesus high priestly prayer this is the longest recorded prayer that we have of jesus christ we pray for himself for us who are christians and for those who are not yet but going to be christians and jesus is praying this prayer with his disciples and let me just submit this to you the best way to get close to someone to get to know someone is to pray for them and pray with them that's why jesus in this context of john 17 he's praying with his disciples if you want to deepen your marriage pray and bring god into the middle of that relationship if you want to improve your relationship with your children pray for them pray with them bring god into the middle of that relationship same with family and friends and jesus here is allowing us to eavesdrop on his prayer so that we can grow in relationship with god in him some will call this the high priestly prayer in the old testament the high priest would go into the holy of holies and would pray and intercede on behalf of the people jesus here is operating in that function as our great high priest and this prayer is so significant in history let me give you just a little bit of its impact there was a scottish reformer named john knox he's one of our favorites we went to his house and his church and his burial place with the kids some years ago as he was approaching death every single day he would have john 17 the prayer of jesus read to him to prepare him to go see jesus in addition there was an irish preacher named marcus rainsford he actually wrote a 500 page book just on this prayer matthew henry the puritan bible commentator called it quotes the most remarkable prayer followed the most full and consoling discourse ever uttered on earth there was a christian bishop named ryle he said the chapter is the most remarkable in the bible it stands alone and there's nothing like it and then martin luther one of my favorites he was a german bible teacher and pastor he says this is truly beyond measure a warm and hearty prayer he opens the depths of his heart both in reference to us and to his father he pours them all out it sounds so honest so simple it is so deep so rich so wide no one can fathom it this prayer is only recorded here in john 17 and what we're going to do today we're going to pray like jesus and we're going to learn to pray like jesus by listening to jesus pray and we're going to start with jesus praying for himself in john chapter 17 verses 1 through 5. when jesus had spoken these words he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the big idea for the whole series is getting to know god as father prayer is how we talk to and listen to god as father it's not so much about focusing on prayer but focusing on the father and just like kids talk to their dad once you know that god is your father you're going to have conversations with them father the hour has come he knows he's about to die on the cross for our sins glorify your son that the son may glorify you since you have given him authority big statement here over all flesh all people to give eternal life to all whom you have given him and this is eternal life that they know you the only true god and jesus christ whom you have sent i glorified you on earth having accomplished the work you gave me to do and now father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that i had with you before the world existed and so let me just set the context here for you what jesus is saying is the hour has come we tend to measure our life in terms of time and really it's more about moments and opportunities and jesus knows that his life has been marching toward this culmination of his crucifixion the difference between foolishness and wisdom is knowing when the special occasions are upon you and the sacred moments are open before you the day that you're getting married big day the day that you're gonna decide to start your family big day there are certain days that are incredibly important major decisions need to be made we always need to be praying but our prayers need to deepen and strengthen in those moments where a particularly important opportunity or obstacle has presented itself so he says here the hour has come he's going to pray the longest recorded prayer in the bible and the point is this the bigger the opportunity or obstacle the longer the prayer the more intense the moment the deeper the prayer the bigger the decision the more you need to give your burdens to god and get directives from god and so sometimes we just need to set everything aside and say this is a big deal this is a strategic time and i need to get with the father to get ready for the future and then what jesus does here he prays and then so praying because we are over hearing he knows who he is but he needs us to know who he is so he tells us eight things about himself in this brief section of prayer number one that he is the son of god he calls himself the son this is in direct opposition to other religions including islam which has its founding tenant that god doesn't have a son and that jesus is not the son of god jesus is the son of god and he declares himself here to be the son and he echoes and intimates that with referring to god as father he is the son god is the father he also number two refers to himself as a perfect worshiper he says may the sun glorify you may the sun glorify you glorifying is literally reflecting okay so when we got up this morning we all looked in the mirror for some of us it was a sad moment for some of us it was terrifying every day i miss my bangs my resurrected body is going to have bangs i can't wait to get my bangs back my bangs have gone home to be with the lord and i i recently told my barber i don't have a hair growth problem i have a hair distribution problem i can braid my feet right now i have dreads on my feet i have dreads on my feet but i don't have bangs and so what happens when you look at it i'm just sharing because we usually don't put this one on the internet so i said what i want so uh which i would either way but anyways what happens when we look in the mirror is the mirror reflects us accurately and the question is well god is invisible and immaterial how do we see god how do we know god jesus we're told in colossians 1 he is the image of the invisible god so jesus comes to the earth and he mirrors or reflects or to use this theological language he glorifies the father so if you look at jesus you say he's very loving that's the father's love well he's very patient that's the father's patience well he's very kind that's the father's kindness he's very generous that's the father's generosity and what worship is worship is reflecting the character of the father on the earth that's what it is saying what he would say doing what he would do treating others as he has treated us in christ so jesus says number one he's the son of god number two that he is the perfect worshiper that he glorifies the father number three that he is sovereign and this statement is significant he says that he has authority over all we tend to think of authority being limited to spheres right you have national authority local authority whether you're a police officer or military or first responder or political leader principal in a school pastor in a church wherever the case may be there's limited jurisdiction that being said jesus has authority over all all peoples all times all places he calls it all flesh that means everyone who has ever walked on planet earth is under the ultimate authority of jesus christ and all who have authority have derivative authority from his ultimate authority this is a massive statement for a poor guy who is in his early 30s and homeless to make this is a big statement you have given god the father has given me the son authority over all flesh jesus here is declaring himself to be the highest authority in all of history and all of the cosmos that's a massive statement that's a massive statement and one of the reasons that they're going to kill jesus is because of the things that he says they don't kill jesus for the things that he does he heals people he raises dead people he feeds hungry people nobody gets upset about what he does everyone gets upset about what he says and he says i am the son of god and i have all authority them is fighting words unless you believe in jesus and you need to know this about jesus he is the only founder of any major world religion to declare himself to be god he is without pure and precedent he is in a category unto himself jesus says that he is the son of god jesus says that he is the perfect worshiper jesus says that he is the sovereign lord number four he says that he is the savior he says that he quote can give eternal life eternal life is what happens not just when you die eternal life begins the day you meet jesus christ a lot of people are like i can't wait to start my eternal life i started my eternal life at age 19. okay so i'm living my eternal life my eternity is already sealed and set and one day to live is christ to die is gained to depart and be with the lord is far better so i'm just looking for 2.0 but right now i'm living 1.0 of my eternal life i'm not alone i'm with jesus and jesus is with me and he's for me and he's taken away all of my fears of death and he's secured my eternal life and future through his conquering of death i no longer have any fear of death the whole world's freaking out like we're going to die yeah we've known this for a while so you need to get ready for it and the good news is your eternal life begins the day you meet jesus so your last day can be the best day okay and let me say this jesus gives eternal life no religion gives eternal life no spiritual leader gives eternal life no good work gives eternal life no sacrament gives eternal life no spirituality no ideology gives eternal life i'm telling you that no religion saves jesus saves no ideology saves jesus saves that jesus alone gives eternal life it's the it's the waste management open so we do a little golf claps once in a while here in scottsdale that's good you guys i appreciate that man i love you um and also he also tells us that he is a missionary says jesus christ whom you have sent some years ago i preached the whole book of john uh here at the trinity church and if memory serves me correct about 40 times it uses the language of sin this is the language like we would think of a missionary and so jesus is a missionary sent from heaven to earth right to save us and ultimately he's going to tell us that as the father has sent me so i'm sending you so jesus is sent and then he sends us we tend to think of a missionary as someone who has a special calling they move to another place to bring the good news of jesus to very eccentric different cultures of unusual people okay and that's a great thing to do and we support that and we praise god for that but let me say you can do that here have you met any eccentric unusual subcultures of people if you've not go to tempe and if you don't find him there go to jerome and if that's not eccentric enough take a ride and go to sedona they're there okay and the big idea is this that wherever you go is the place that you were sent if you belong to jesus christ okay so when you go to the grocery store when you go to work when you go home when you go to your kids sports activities you are sent there by god just as jesus was sent you were sent to represent your king and so you're looking for opportunities to minister how can i love how can i serve how can i be a good friend what burdens can i lift how can i have the jesus conversation with you and let me submit to you that sometimes the easiest way to have the conversation about jesus is to begin by doing exactly what he's doing and that's praying praying for opportunities that god would open them praying for you that god would open your eyes and praying for them that god would open their understanding and sometimes some of you you're a little afraid to have the conversation with people about jesus sometimes the easiest way is to just ask is there anything i could be praying for because i'll tell you what as christians we get asked that non-christians no one ever asks that and honestly it opens the heart and it opens their life i recently had a conversation with a local business person i won't disclose too many details but i i just felt inclined to ask them like i'm preaching a series on prayer got the co-author book on prayer i'll ask her if i could pray i mean just see what happens what the heck you know might get an illustration out of it and i did so what happened was i asked them i i walked in this business owner and i was like hey is there anything i pray for you about they're like why i was like well i'm pastor down street and you know we love people is there anything i'd be praying about they start crying they're like man it's really hard in business right now i'm barely making it i'm super stressed and i was like oh okay you're a local small business owner you're you're carrying the weight they they're looking they said could i could i talk to you i was like yeah so we go off to the side and they just told me everything they're like could you pray for that i said yeah i said can i pray right now they literally here's what they said they're like can you do that yep i got to take out this lucky rabbit's foot you got to rub it but then i can and i can't not till then we got rules i said no i i told us absolutely i said you know what god is over everyone and everything he's like a father who loves his kids and when we cry out to him he listens and responds i could do that right now i prayed for them in their business and i prayed for their business the point is this everywhere you go there are people that god loves and he sent you to bring his love to them that's that's what we're looking for is opportunity number six he says that he is god jesus does in his prayer he says the only true god now what this indicates is that there are false gods so mormonism is a false scout jehovah's witnessism is a false god hinduism is a false god confucianism is a false god buddhism is a false god islam is a false god you're like but they have a god named allah that's the name of a demon see my job is to be very clear your job is to be very offended so we're doing good and what people tend to say is well no they have their god we have our god they have their demon we have the true god and what happens in other religions spiritualities and ideologies they will pray to a counterfeit demonic spirit that could actually heal their body to damn their soul could answer their prayer to wreck their eternal life see their religions are real and they are really powerful because behind them are real spiritual forces that are really dark damnable and demonic that other religion so here's the big idea there's only one true god there's tons of false gods okay there's tons of false gods have you ever had id theft nobody's had their id hacked as much as god every demon and counterfeit spiritual leader is trying to pretend that they're god but there's only one true god and that's what jesus says in addition he says that he is heaven he says that they would know you god the father and jesus christ we tend to think of heaven as a place heaven is a place but what makes heaven heavenly is not just the place but the person who rules that place and the point is this heaven is knowing god the father and the lord jesus christ and being with them so think of it in this regard um let me just we'll do this we have nothing else to do and we got a few hours to kill so we'll just have this conversation let's say that so if you're young i'll tell you something crazy we used to go places it was awesome it was awesome we would get we would go to other countries i mean you can google it i'm not lying this is not fake news we did this back in the day okay so right now let's say we were back in the day where we could go places and do things you guys just named for me some of the places that you would really want to go to where would you want to go romania how many of you we did this last night how many of you were romanian okay we have we we had a romanian invasion at the trinity church it's just real i i say romanians are like a groupon you get one you get a thousand for free they all came together and they're all related they're all like they're all he's my cousin's uncles brothers friends neighbors sisters wife i'm like i i don't know what the org chart but that's awesome we have a lot of romanians and and here's what i found out about romanians they hate communism but they love middle-aged men who hate communism okay so welcome this is now your safe place i'm glad to have you okay so if you could go if you could go somewhere else where would you go you would go to holland hall new zealand they shot lord of the rings there the trees talk you gotta go there holland i'm not so sure about there's a lot of naughtiness in holland but they do have nice flowers okay so it all depends on where you go where else would you want to go where italy costa rica my daughter went to bible college there for months beautiful place it's so nice and peaceful they don't even have a military wouldn't that be nice oh we and we love the military because we need them if we didn't need them that would be okay if we got rid of the tanks and traded them for hammocks i'd be fine all right so costa rica would be nice italy would be nice what if you went to your favorite place but you went there with your enemy what was that you've done that i feel like we're treading into marriage territory and i don't want to go there still want to go there it's too dangerous it's too dangerous okay if you go to a place that is wonderful but you're there with a person that's awful it feels like hell even if it's heaven this is why some people say i hate jesus but i want to go to heaven you're not going to like it because who's going to be there jesus and everybody that loves jesus i hate it here but yeah because this these this is jesus and all the people who love jesus he says eternal life is knowing me and knowing the father in this way it's similar um i'll let you guys in a little secret i really love my wife grace i adore my girl i adore my girl okay i adore my girl every day i wake up i'm glad i'm glad i get to do life with grace she's my favorite person she's the most incredible person i've ever met i adore my girl so my kids um as they're launching they're going to college getting married starting their life i keep telling them i love you i love being your dad i've enjoyed every season i'm so proud of you i'm so excited and when you go don't worry about me i'm good because i got your mom and i've been waiting decades to get her full time again so i want to go back to where we started when we were dating now we got more money we're going to go on better dates i got plans and what i've learned with this it doesn't matter where i am it matters more who i'm with i can be anywhere with grace i can go to detroit with grace and possibly enjoy it okay that's the worst i can think of right now kid rakistan i don't you know it's just terrible so um so so in that when we moved some years ago because we used to live up in the people's republic of seattle we moved down here to america a couple years ago and if you're from california welcome don't vote uh nonetheless um when we when we we're full and i gotta thin it out and so this will do it all right we're full next week it parked right in the front it was incredible so we moved here some years ago and we were processing with the five kids they're all like i miss home and i kept telling them home is wherever the family is because if you go there and we're not there it's not home home is wherever the family is i want you to think in those terms home is wherever the family is that jesus is your big brother god is your father we are the family and wherever the family is together it is it is ultimately home and then he says in addition that he is the eternal creator he says before the world existed so this is the time before time this is the uncaused cause that everyone and everything proceeds from god the creator and is created everyone and everything therefore is dependent he alone is independent these are big statements that jesus is saying but he's revealing to us who he is because in that moment when you look at a humble marginalized homeless poor virgin galilean peasant you would not assume that this is his resume but it is but this is him in humility he was in glory he came down in humility to be with us to be like us to die for us to rise for us to save us this is his love for us a couple of lessons from jesus example of prayer when you have obstacles in front of you that could cause you some grave concern the counselors will tell you that you basically have three options fight flight or fright okay how many of you when you see something on the horizon that is concerning you're the fight people you're gonna run at it and punch it in the mouth how many of you that's you okay okay that's me all right that's me how many of you are the flight people like i'm out i'm running i'm i'm out i'm gone they won't even raise their hand they're like that could be perceived as a hostile act i'm not raising my hand i'm not doing that okay and you you're out you just disappear how many of you are fright you don't know what to do so you just kind of get frozen and stuck i don't know what to do so i just freeze for the christian and the christian alone there's a fourth option it's not fight go forward it's not flight go backward it's not frozen stay put it's father go up jesus knows that he's about to atone for the sin of the world by dying on the cross in our place for our sins and what he does is he goes up father and he's inviting the father's love and his wisdom his guidance his provision is protection to direct his steps when you're in the most difficult darkest concerning moments of life you need to go up and you need to get with the father who can direct your steps through the future that lies before you number two there's a little statement here that i really appreciate and it says that jesus lifted his eyes up to heaven it's fine to pray with your eyes closed sometimes it's good just to pray up right thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as in heaven that my problems are down here but my hope is up there my help is up there my healing is up there and let me say this we spend a lot of time in our world looking down on others okay judging especially those of you that have a religious disposition you like to look down on others and judge them okay the the key to preventing looking down on others is looking up to him if you're looking up to him you really can't be looking down on them if you're looking down on them you're saying i'm here to judge and i see some problems you look up you're like he's there to judge i see some problems when you look up you're far more aware of your shortcomings and your need for god and his grace when you look down on others you see their shortcomings and their need for god's grace but you're conveniently unaware of your own need for god's grace and jesus looks up and he encourages us to look up and prayer is how we look up and then number three if jesus needed to pray who needs to pray everybody needs to pray jesus isn't praying because he's sinful he's sinless and perfect he's praying because he's human this is jesus christ the son of god though fully god in his full humanity let me say this you need to pray not because there's something wrong with you because you're a created dependent being and you're human and human beings need to pray that's what we need your body needs air your soul needs prayer that's just the way it works and then lastly jesus wants you to know the will of god and walk in the will of god he says one of the most incredible statements he says i have accomplished the work that you have given me to do how many of you at the end of your life couldn't say that oh god i knew exactly what to do and that's all i did you're welcome how many of us we don't even know what we're supposed to be doing so what we exchange is fruitfulness for busyness and some of you are tired you're exhausted you're like god i can't do it anymore i can't sleep i'm so stressed i'm so freaked out and i was like i didn't tell you to do any of that but god i'm doing it all for you he's like i no i didn't in fact seven of those things i told sally to do and you ruined it for her so actually you're not helping him sally's supposed to be doing it she keeps sleeping in because you're doing all the work what happens is that sometimes we get caught in the trap of chasing our potential and not his calling there's a big difference between your potential and his calling i don't want you to be all you can be i want you to be who he calls you to be okay think of it this way for the first 30 years of his life what did jesus do what did he do as a little boy his chores you know here's eight-year-old jesus his mother mary hey do the dishes this is the good works that you prepared in advance for me to do ephesians 2 10. father i'm doing what you're telling me to do the dishes how many moms say that's that's really good advice right there pastor mark tell my kid that doing the dishes is the will of god because somebody's got to do the dishes okay and when you do the dishes to the glory of god you're doing so in the will of god so then jesus uh went to work with his dad what was his job carpenter here he is he just told us who he is okay son of god worshiper sovereign savior missionary the only true god heaven on earth and the eternal creator what's he doing today making a table the question is well doesn't he have more important things to do i don't know but that's what he's supposed to do see jesus was content building tables out of wood jesus was content dying for our sin on wood he was content in the will of god whether that was driving nails into wood or having nails driven through his hands and feet in the wood the point is this as long as god calls you to do it do what god calls you to do and be content in that i i failed at this i'm aggressive right so for me i i like to chase needs and opportunities i ran hard 18 years of ministry as a senior pastor my family and i took a break resigned met with a christian counselor and i would get up every morning lord what do you want me to do he'd be like be a good son love grace love the kids that was it next day all right lord what do you want me to do he's like be a good son love grace love the kids 18 months that's all i heard like what do you want me to do he's like that i was like yeah i do need to be a good son and the truth is grace is my first responsibility and these kids are our first responsibility and there's a lot of things that i can do but nobody else can be her husband or their father so that has to be first priority and i met with a christian counselor he's a pastor that we know and love and he said he said what do you think god has next first i don't know he hasn't told me just told me to be a good son love grace loves kids i'm waiting and he said don't do anything out of need or opportunity but only that which is the will of god it's just like the holy spirit highlighted that phrase and i thought how many things in my life have i done because there was a need i'll do it all right i'll do it i'll do it you get overextended over committed overburden and there was a need but god wasn't calling you to meet the need some of you love to serve some of you need to serve others by not serving and allowing them to learn to serve okay how many of you are like me i chased opportunity i like opportunity my favorite three things are results results results those are my favorite three things so if there's an opportunity i'm in but is that the opportunity that god has called me to because sometimes satan will provide an opportunity to get us off of the things that god actually wants us to be doing and what jesus says is this two extraordinary truths are contained here and number one i know what i'm supposed to be doing you know what that means he prayed about it all the time he's okay father what do you want me to do and what do you want me to not do because we look we said he healed people there's people he didn't heal look at the people he ministered to and met with there's people he didn't minister to and didn't meet with well look at the miracles that he did look at the miracles he didn't do he didn't do everything he did the things that he was called to do it means number one he knew what to do number two that's what he did and let me just say this sometimes you need to say no so you can say yes if you say yes to everything you're going to say no to what god is asking if you say no to some things then you could say yes to what god is asking okay sometimes people come up can you do this i can but i won't because god didn't ask me to do that and i'm saying no to you so i can say yes to him i'm saying no to this so i could say yes to that i want to pray and only walk in the will of god you've got to pray for yourself jesus prayed for himself and then jesus proceeds to pray for christians both those who are present in that day those who have proceeded billions of us in church history since all the way up to the present this is the longest section of jesus prayer because we are a mess and we need a lot of prayer okay okay here he goes i'll read it to you john 17 6-19 i've manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world he's going to talk a lot about the world will impact that yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word christians are people who belong to jesus and believe the word of god now they know that everything you have given me is from you for i have given them the words that you gave me he's going to talk a lot about the scriptures and his and the words and the word of god and they have received them a christian is one who receives the word of god and have come to know in truth that i came from you and they have believed that you sent me i'm praying for them jesus prayed for us i'm not praying for the world we'll talk about that but for those you have given me for they are yours all mine is yours and all yours are mine and i'm glorified in them i am no longer in the world he's going back into heaven the unseen realm but they are in the world and i am coming to you holy father personal and respectful this is the key to referencing god is holy very respectful father very personal keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one he's talking here a lot about unity even as we are one there's the father son and spirit are one god and three persons that's why we're called the trinity church and here he's saying is there are three persons who are unified as one so god's people though many need to strive toward unity well 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 and who comes to mind judas except the son of destruction the scriptures might be fulfilled zechariah in the old testament prophesied that he would judas would betray jesus for 30 pieces of silver that was fulfilled in judas's betrayal in the psalms it says that one who was a friend of jesus would raise their heel up and oppose him and that was fulfilled in the betrayal of judas iscariot but now i am coming to you and these things i speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves let me just pause there and then we'll hit the last portion of this section of jesus prayer jesus is praying that we would be joyful let me say this cheerless christianity is not biblical christianity a joyless christianity is not a faithful christianity heaven is a joyful place nobody right now that's there is bummed and wishing they could come back to be with us like there's nobody that died yesterday like i miss masks and elections they're not saying that okay they're doing good they're having a good day in addition the message of jesus is called good what news well good news should be communicated in a spirit of joy so what jesus is saying here he's going to say elsewhere that in the world we have trouble but in him we have joy that we have a peace that surpasses understanding the joy the lord is our strength the fruit of the spirit is joy and joy is not denying reality but accepting that god is the greater reality beyond the reality and that he does a work in me and he's got an eternity for me that makes everything around me perceived differently here's what i am telling you that we are now in this wonderful opportunity we're in a cheerless joyless world amen we just are and if we as the people of god have a supernatural joyfulness about us it is compelling how many of you even coming to church this is the most joyful place you come every week amen you know and this summer everything he hit i'm like we're doing water slides you know why because we believe in jesus and joy and i want kids to know that god is a loving faithful father he's a generous father and again guess what man that that joy is a gift that the father gives to his family and so i i'm i'm asking you guys we're gonna we're gonna be hitting you up for money so this is this is the this is this is where i prophesy your generosity so thank you in advance what i what i see in the backyard is an improvement to kids ministry a dry well a water slide park and a full splash pad for kids so that all summer they can come and have fun for free that's what i see and here's here's what i want you to know that we want this to be a place of jesus centered joy my goal is bible teaching in a joyful fun environment okay joyful fun environment okay so i had somebody recently come up there like how much do we spend on bouncy houses and water slides they were new uh i said not enough you know why we we need bigger bouncy houses and water slides paul talks about the third heaven we're trying to figure out where that is we want to get up there and so let me say if you come on campus and you're cheerless you need to go get in the bouncy house and be filled with a spirit and usually around the seventh jump that's when he shows up so you just give it some time brother okay and part of it is this we have good news and right now the world has nothing but bad news we have hope and the world has nothing but hopelessness and the world right now is not doing so well but those who are in christ we know that to live is christ to die is gain so worst case scenario is best case scenario for us okay then he goes on let me give you the end of his prayer i have given them your word he keeps talking about the bible so i'm going to talk about that i'm pretty fired up about the word of god and the world is what hey to them have you if you have you have you seen this because they are not of this world anybody anybody feel like this world isn't working yeah you know why it's not working yeah it's broken it's flawed just as i am not of the world i asked i do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil and that's satan behind the world is demonic unseen spiritual forces behind the world we see is the world we don't see and it didn't affects and affects the world we do see they are not of the world just as i'm not in the world sanctify them set them apart in the truth your word is truth i love that as you sent me into the world so i've sent them into the world and for their sake i consecrate myself that they may be sanctified in truth okay what he's doing here he's juxtaposing two things and the first thing that jesus says is i pray for some things i don't pray for other things i pray for some things i pray against other things you need to know that to be for jesus is to be against some other things you need to know that you're like i'm for everything then you're a heretic congratulations you started a cult you can't be for jesus and everything else and so what jesus is saying is i'm not praying for the world now the original greek word there is cosmos it has seven senses i'm not going to get into all the details if you sign up for daily devotions at realfaith.com so i've got the church and then the ministry i'll send five days a week daily devotions to your inbox for free and it includes explanation of all of this it's into more the fine print but that word for world or cosmos it has different senses sometimes it means people groups or nations or languages or cultures or everybody on planet earth in this sense it means sinful people people working with satan that's what it means sinful people working with the evil one that's what he calls the world let me tell you this in 26 verses here jesus refers to the world 18 times if my memory is correct and the world runs the media the world runs the universities the world runs the social media platforms okay i mean i can go from three million to one million a month on facebook by just saying something i wasn't supposed to say but god said it so i'm just echoing it i expect to get banned i expect to get throttled i'm shocked i'm not kicked off of youtube if i'm still on at the end of the day add it to the list of jesus miracles because i'll tell you what i think and what what they'll talk about is we violated our community standards i've seen your community you don't have any standards [Music] so at the end of the day if you're going to be for the word you're going to be in conflict with the world that's what jesus is saying and and you need to just accept and acknowledge and be aware of this because if you have to be liked you're not going to be a good christian if you need to be needed you can't be a good christian if you avoid conflict you can't be a good christian if you want everyone to speak well of you jesus says woe to you when everyone speaks well of you okay and so what he's talking about here is the kingdom versus the world and let me tell you a few things about the world number one the world is not normal when god got done with creation everything was good and very good as we look at the world it's very different everything is bad and very bad so for us we're born into the world this is all we know we call it culture god calls it world every culture has elements and aspects of the world human sinfulness working with divine demonic empowerment it's not normal this is not how the world was when god was done number two this world is not home that's why some of you are restless and frustrated we feel like we were made for a better place in a different place and the truth is we were and we've made a mess of the place that god has given us it's not home if you're a non-christian you need to know that this is as close to heaven as you will ever be and the hell awaits you this is why you need jesus my friend if you're a christian you need to know that this world is as close to hell as you will ever be and that heaven awaits you it's not our home it doesn't feel like home it doesn't work like home in addition it's not normal it's not home and it's not forever one day the lord jesus christ is going to return and everything that is demonic sinful and of the world will be utterly and ultimately eternally destroyed and eviscerated you're not going to have porno in heaven you're not going to have adultery in heaven you're not going to have dudes sleeping with their girlfriends in heaven you're not going to have corrupt politicians in heaven you're not going to have drug cartels in heaven you're not going to have sex trafficking in heaven you're not going to have drugs and alcohol addiction in heaven you're not going to have lying and conflict in heaven that ultimately it's all going to come to an end so what you and i need to think of in terms of investing our life energy and money is are we investing in the kingdom of god or the world and the reason that so many of us invest in the world is that it's very profitable you can make more money if you join the world but jesus says what does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul because that's the price of the world the price of the world is to lie to you that you can have heaven now and the truth is it's not heaven now and it's not heaven then he's talking here about the juxtaposition and the conflict between the kingdom and the world and what he says is you'll be loved by god but you'll be hated by the world he says the world is hated them now what i find really curious is that this is altogether true and what i'm telling you is not only is the stock market going up and the price of housing going up so is the spiritual market of being a faithful follower of jesus christ okay it's just going up it's going up i i come from the future i tell you guys where all of this goes and the good news is this two things happen when the world hates you number one the fake christians no longer pretend to be on team jesus okay because there's no benefit you're like i'm just here for the potluck we can't even have pollux anymore i mean the cdc forbids them so if you're here for the podlux i'm sorry we're done the other thing that happens is everybody tries everything and it doesn't work so the only option left is to try jesus christ as lord god save your king in christ that's where you see massive evangelism but how many of you you you know if you talk about jesus on social media you're going to get pushed back you tell your family you've met jesus you're going to get blow back i'm not saying that we should be offensive but i'm saying that the message is in and of itself offensive that's why the world hates us because ultimately this is still an offensive message people are like i'm hurting i'm sick i'm poor everything's wrong it's a mess things have happened to me what's the problem you are oh my gosh you're so privileged and judgy [Music] and accurate because the bible says that you are your biggest problem and that you are not your solution that ultimately jesus is your solution that you are your problem that's still offensive true still very offensive i've never seen anybody run for office and say i figured it out you guys are all messed up need to change never seen anybody run on that platform you're good they're bad you're victims their fault vote for me and i'll make them create heaven for you it's all counterfeit everything that god creates satan counterfeits and the the high value in the world is tolerance the high value and the kingdom is repentance jesus says they are not of the world and what he's saying is this in the world the answer is tolerance in the kingdom of god the answer is repentance repentance is this i'm wrong and i need to change tolerance is i'm not wrong and nothing needs to change and what happens in our culture it's like whatever you want to do whatever you want to say whatever you want to think whatever you want to believe however you want to behave you do you it's like it has nothing to do with god it's actually godless there's no it's not what does god say it's what do i say and the result is you can't be a christian unless you preach and practice repentance repentance is i'm wrong i need to change i'm the problem jesus is the solution and some people will say that's just not loving sure it is there's nothing more loving than for people to meet jesus because god is love they don't even have love until they meet jesus what are we talking about love is not just a concept or a feeling it's a person who died and rose and pours his love into our hearts through the spirit whom he's given us and here's the big idea with tolerance people like i just accept you as you are that's not loving see god loves us so much that he takes us as we are but god loves us so much he does not allow us to remain as we are what love does is it seeks the best of the beloved i want the best for my wife i want the best for my kids because i love them and the best for you and i is to become like jesus christ therefore god takes us as we are and he makes us like his son and so repentance is far more loving than tolerance because tolerance has no hope for you to be better and love of god through repentance of sin makes you like jesus the beloved see this whole world is just absolutely broken and screwed up and flawed and self-righteous and very judgmental and intolerant and it's because again the world system runs politics the world system runs social media platforms the world system runs education the world system it sets up laws and it and it raises up leaders and it gives cultural messaging and the world is a powerful force like gravity that exists whether you realize it or not and it affects every moment of every day and jesus here is praying that our eyes would be opened 18 times in 26 verses he says don't overlook the world so we can't just say well that's the way that we do it and what jesus is saying he's saying i don't pray for the world so let me say this friends there are things that we cannot pray for okay somebody comes to me says pastor mark we're trying to raise money for the planned parenthood abortion clinic can you pray that we meet our fundraising goal answer no no see somebody immediately be like but that's very offensive let me say this if the world hates me and i love him the question is not will i fan the question is who will i offend am i going to offend you or him the question is not will someone be offended the question is will it be him or will it be you if somebody comes to me says pastor mark i'm sleeping with my girlfriend pray she doesn't get pregnant answer no i'm afraid he gets struck by lightning that's what i'm going to pray in your nether regions i want it to strike specifically okay we'll edit that out uh what if somebody came comes to me and says pastor mark i'm cheating on my wife pray she doesn't find out no i'm going to call her and make sure your prayer is not answered okay we can't pray for certain and some of you you're like i don't know why god doesn't answer my prayer are you praying against his will god doesn't bless your will god blesses his word if you will submit to his word he says sanctify them by the truth your word is true they said i given them your word they have received your word if you are under the word you can pray according to the word of god which is the will of god but if you're not praying according to the word of god you're not praying according to the will of god why would god bless something that he's already told you that he is against okay and it's weird in our day there are even people who claim to be spiritual leaders and the things that they're praying for godless and demonic they're asking god to do things that are anti-god and that's what the world does it wants to counterfeit it wants to deceive it wants the false gods to supplant the real one true god now hearing all of this how many of you just want to leave this planet are you ready to go how many of you are like all right i agree with all of this and jesus is going to take me to heaven now's a good time jesus we're ready biden one i'm in line for a vaccine you can't miss me i'm wearing a mask i'm i'm let's go amen anybody feeling that right is it just me if jesus came back right now would you be like oh no just hang out on a cloud for a while we're having so much fun we're not quite ready we want to do another election [Music] we really love the election thing many of you want to go right now right right now amen so this is what happens once you know how great jesus is and how great his plan for you is you're like that's it i'm out and this is where christians start reading rapture books this is exactly what happens they're like all right when do we go when do we go when do we go when do we go it's true right i mean i'll tell you what's going to happen right now rapture books are going to start selling and some of you guys right now you're like do you have a chart i love those charts mark show me the chart and just give me the chart i don't care if it's on the back of an ammo box with a crayon i just want to see the chart when do we go prepper so what happens is we ask ourselves okay jesus if you love me and if you got an awesome thing for me why am i here you're not here because he doesn't love you but because he also loves them you're here not because god wants to harm you but god wants to have you help to heal them okay god not only reached you he wants to reach through you to reach somebody else okay so christian let me say this we're not going to get off track in all kinds of culture and politics and nonsense and shenanigans and and isms we're going to stay really focused on jesus and people meeting jesus that's what we're going to do okay because everybody else can talk about all the other stuff nobody's talking about him you know what i'd rather just talk about him because at the end of the day the only hope help and healing that we have for planet earth is not in who we vote for not in what we commit ourselves to it's whether or not jesus christ fixes the mess we've all made that's really the only hope that we have and so what jesus is saying is i'm not he said i'm not praying that you take them out of the world but do you protect them from the evil one and you sanctify them by the truth you're like how am i gonna make it through this messed up world sanctify them by the truth your word is truth you know what that means as the world gets darker god's people gotta go deeper the more you're in the world the more you need to be in the word that's the truth how many of you are feeling that your own soul lately you're like i used to kind of be a greeting card christian one verse clip my heels and go to work now i'm like that's not working so what we're going to do um next week i'm going to have a valentine's sermon so you know it'll be fun and then i need you to give because in nine months we're gonna need more kids space [Laughter] and then we're going to jump into the book of romans again we did first half of romans last year we're going to start in romans 8 and we're going to roll through it through the end of the year and we're going to go deep into god's word and i want you to learn to love and enjoy god's word and so ultimately he talks as well about the true truth of the word versus the lies of the world he said i have given them your word your word is truth i've done this for many years but there really only our friends two perspectives to god's word one is i'm under the authority of god's word if i disagree i'm wrong i need to change i don't criticize the word i let the word criticize me okay the other is literally this and this is what a lot of people do like you know what uh it's i have some disagreements have some problems you know there's some things in there that are primitive they're cultural i see i i see sexism i see racism i see classism i you know i just i don't feel it really represents a good lifestyle it seems very narrow seems sort of binary a bit judgy very traditional patriarchal there's guys in there some of them lead yeah there's a lot of problems in there the good news is we're highly evolved and we went to community college i took a class where i got to criticize god and find his errors so thankfully i'm here to fix his mistakes okay and let me tell you that as the world gets more intense there are people that are going to be very compromised on the word of god there are people that are going to be joining parades for things that they should be having funerals for okay let me tell you this cultures come and go isms come and go parades movements hashtags and shenanigans come and go but the word of god endures forever okay so let's just make our eternal investment and be patient to see the return on investment and jesus says we're going to need more of the word to endure this world so then he gets to real faith versus fake faith and what he says is i didn't lose anybody except for that one guy who's that one guy judas judas okay so the question is okay i love jesus jesus loves me i'm gonna be okay but what happened to judas he wasn't okay does that mean maybe i'm not okay and christians then ask this question can a christian lose their salvation wrong question the question is can god lose a christian it's not like i earned my salvation so i can honor my salvation god save me i didn't save myself if i didn't save myself i can't unsave myself the question is will god fail a christian will god lose a christian answer no but then look at judas what happened to that guy well it says here that he was the one who is the son of destruction earlier in john 6 verse 70 jesus had the disciples together and he made this statement quote one of you is a devil had to be a weird moment a weird moment right jesus told him he knew one of them was the devil john 12 6 says he was a thief he was a thief he ran the money for jesus and he was stealing the whole time i'm sure he was just a socialist who thought he was reallocating wealth jesus i'm not stealing i just i took some of yours and i gave some to me and i gave some to them it's it's reallocation see what satan does is he's good at marketing and renaming so that vices sound like virtues judas was reallocating money that was not his it's called stealing 325 write that down and john 13 27 says that satan entered him now he couldn't have had the holy spirit because the bible says greater is he who is in the believer than he who is in the world so the holy spirit is stronger than satan that means if the holy spirit is in you satan can't come and defeat the holy spirit and remove him and replace the holy spirit with a demonic spirit okay so since satan was in judas iscariot it means that judas was never a believer so the question is not did he lose his salvation but the question is did he fake his faith so you can't lose your salvation but you can fake it religious people do this all the time it's like well they were part of the church but were they part of christ but they heard the message did they believe the message but they were in our group were they in his group right my question to you is do you have a personal relationship with the lord jesus christ do you know jesus do you love jesus do you follow jesus have you received jesus have you trusted jesus because you can be this close to jesus and have no love for jesus you could be this close to jesus and have no relationship with jesus that's judas iscariot and judas has no one to blame but himself and some of you i can just see it in your face you've got people you love and you're like oh my gosh are they a judas well the difference between judas and the prodigal son is not that they left but whether or not they returned the story of the prodigal son is like judas they both walked away but the prodigal son came back and judas never did and first john he says they went out from among us but they weren't part of us because they never returned to us as long as they're alive pursue and pray that they would return and if so they're a prodigal and not a judas i feel inclined to say this too some of you are struggling because you've got church hurt or a religious leader has said or done something that has hurt you or wounded you let me say as a pastor we do we fail i work for jesus i'm not jesus and i'm sorry i'm going to make mistakes somebody be like pastor mark you've made a lot in the last hour good just illustrating my point so um but what we learned from the ministry of jesus is sometimes satan puts people on staff judas was filled with satan and on jesus staff sometimes satan hurts you through people who work for him but pretend to be on team jesus okay not everybody who is in ministry is in christ not everybody who's with jesus is for jesus wouldn't it make sense for the deceiver to deceive you by sending someone who said that they were serving jesus but was really serving satan need to be discerning now the good news here because it got a little dark here jesus is praying for you and me and us and he still is to this very moment jesus not only prayed for us in history jesus prays for us every moment of eternity hebrews 7 25 he always lives to make intercession for them in romans 8 34 christ jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of god and is interceding for us grace and i love our kids with our whole heart we talk about each of the kids every day and what they need god the father and god the son love you as a child of god and every day they're talking about you and what you need jesus prays for himself he prays for us and they pray for non-christians because the goal is not that that you would love jesus that we would love jesus but people who don't know jesus will come to know the love of jesus so he closes with us i do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word so god's gonna work through you to bring people to him if you don't understand this come back we're gonna be in predestination in romans 9 very shortly it's going to be fun that they all may be one just as you father in me and i in you talking about unity that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory you've given me i have given to them that they may be one even as we are one he's talking about unity i in them you and me that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me father i desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where i am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world o righteous father even though the world does not know you i know you and these know that you have sent me have made known to them your name and i will continue to make it known that the love it's all about the love friend the love which you have loved me may be in them god loves you like he loves jesus and i in them what he's saying is this he's saying that unity is precious and it is the vehicle for mission um united unbelievers are more powerful than divided believers in genesis uh there is this occasion in genesis 11 where god looks down and these unbelievers lined together and they're building the tower battle they're literally trying to create heaven on earth and their own heavenly home and god looks down and says they are fully unified therefore nothing will be impossible for them let me tell you that satan's team tends to be more unified than jesus team let me tell you that i very rarely see a muslim attack a muslim but i often see a christian attack a christian that there are certain even sexual orientations that they defend one another in a way that god's people quickly turn on one another that ultimately you and i need to preserve what is called the unity of the spirit the bond of peace and so let me just make this very very clear this unity is so that we would have a loving unified joyful family so that others would want to join it how many of you if somebody's like my family hates each other we talk trash about each other we've got discernment ministries to criticize one another we post on social media about one another and we yell at one another would you like to join i'm good why would you join a dysfunctional family and why would you invite people to come visit your dysfunctional family how many of you grew up in that family you're like oh dysfunctional family i know what that is for sure you wouldn't bring your friends over to the house because your family was nuts but if your family was loving and healthy you'd bring your friends over church families just like your family we need to be healthy loving unified so that we can invite other people to join the family and we don't feel weird inviting them to come meet the family and ultimately getting to know the father and so this is within our church we need to be unified let me say this we're growing very fast many of you are new average church is 36 last weekend we're 217 percent i can't we're trying to keep up i'm working on pray for a miracle real estate deal i'm trying to get more classroom space we've already filled up the six o'clock service it's only a few months old you guys are making babies so fast i can't knock out walls quick enough like oh my gosh uh i mean we're just trying to keep up wednesday night we got people driving off the property because there's nowhere for them to park we're only four years old and so yeah praise god i'm glad but when you have this many new people it's like hey guys we gotta work together here because this could just turn into another riot and our nation's had plenty of those okay so it needs to be unity within the church and let me say this i've been doing this 25 years a senior pastor sometimes the most divisive people think they're the most loving i'm not being devised i just see some problems and i talk to some other people and we agree and we love you so much that we've decided to declare war to fix it that's factious behavior i'm not being divisive are you being factious anytime it's like we have a problem with them those are factions that's factious behavior okay we don't do factions right we do family we do family no i'm saying and doing this because i really do love yeah you may be deceived you may be deceived we need unity within our family praise god we do have unity and i'm very happy to preach this during a season of unity so we can maintain it rather than a season of division where i'm rebuking it and then unity between the churches this is critical for this season of christianity in the western world there is so much pressure from the outside to cave on issues of marriage gender sexuality family spirituality but you know what satan has already decided that he's got plenty of minions to shoot god's people so we do not need to add to their fire and what jesus is doing here's praying for unity what that means is maybe if we have a problem with people we should pray for them rather than post about them maybe we should go to the one who can help rather than those who will only harm and let me say this many of you are new i love every pastor and church that loves jesus i am for every pastor in church that is for jesus our differences are not our divisions that the family of god is god's family not my family that jesus is the vine and we are the branches i am not the vine i'm just one of the branches we are just some of the branches and let me tell you how beautiful it is the way that we have been treated before my family and i moved to the valley we flew down and i met with some of the godfathers in the valley the spiritual leaders not really godfather it's not like awesome they're not like that but they're they're the guys who make the decisions they're the spiritual leaders and i wanted to honor them they've served faithfully for decades in this valley and they've served and loved well they've done an incredible job and i met with them closed door for hours i answered any question i said my family is considering a move to arizona but i'm not going to come without your blessing because i believe in spiritual authority and i believe honoring those that have been honorable and they answered they asked the questions i answered them they prayed over me and they said we welcome you and your family to the valley we were welcomed here and we were given this building on the recommendation of another church in the neighborhood it wasn't even on the market and the realtor said well aren't they going to be competition he said no they love jesus we work together we got this building because another pastor made it available for us once we declared that we were going to start this church over 40 churches around the valley the country in the world unsolicited i never asked anybody for anything they all sent money to pay for this as you walk around campus play toys chairs furnishings items there's things all over the place that were given by other churches in the valley this last week some of the largest churches in the valley their pastors called they here they said we hear trinity's exploding we're so excited how can we help what do you need they love you and you know what we love them and you know what they're for us and you know what we're for them i got a call from the largest church in the valley that baptized more people than anyone in the history of the southwest one of the senior leaders called this week mark we're so excited it's going so great how can we help what do you need can we train your staff can we come look at your site does our realtor need to help find property how do we help you succeed that's christ church of the valley that's the largest church in the southwest one of the largest in america so you know what we've been so well loved we need to be loving we've not been criticized so we should not be criticizing we've been blessed so we should be a blessing and we want every church that belongs to jesus to be open to be strong to be healthy to be growing and we want to pray for their success and we want to celebrate and cheer their forward progress we're in the largest uh fifth largest city the fastest growing city and county in america we don't have enough churches for all the people that are moving here and the churches that are here we want them doing good and we want more churches planted amen father god thanks for an opportunity to plant the trendy church here in scottsdale arizona god as the band comes up and we worship it's our way of praying corporately god we pray against a spirit of division and for a spirit of unity within our church within the churches and between the churches and father i just want to publicly pause and in in your presence with these dear people to just honor the godly pastors and churches in the valley that have loved our church loved our family so well god there is a supernatural unity here that i have not seen and there has been an incredible outpouring of grace from your people upon our church and god can we just pay it forward can we love can we bless can we serve can we help because in the end even the church will be no more but the kingdom of god will be forevermore and so we ask for the grace to continue to run the race until we see jesus face amen

Channel: Real Faith by Mark Driscoll

Views: 2,768

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Mark, Driscoll, ministry, thetrinitychurch, scottsdale, arizona, bible, teaching, gospel, theology, jesus, biblestudy, faith, bibleverse

Id: rTwu8ifEmN8

Length: 70min 24sec (4224 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2021