John 17 is an amazing passage. I am having the time of my life preaching
through it! Jesus in just a few words
says the same thing twice. Look at verse
14 & 16. “They are not of the world
just as I am not of the world.” So then
he says this: Sanctify them by your
truth.
Two passages come to my
mind:
·
1 John 5:16 “The Holy Spirit is truth”
·
John 14:6 “the Lord Jesus is truth”
Here in John 17 notice
the words: “Your truth”. So what do we
conclude? Simple really: God the Father
is truth, God the Son is truth and God the Holy Spirit is Truth!
Jesus is praying:
“Lord, You have given to them my joy and you have given them Your Word! Now, protect them because the evil one is
after them! May I remind you today the
evil one is always after us, always!
Here is what I have
come to know: some, not all, but some of
the storms we go through in life are planned by the evil one! God did not start it, but he did allowed it in
our lives for a purpose! Whenever we
face storms we must submit ourselves to God and He will give us a valuable
lesson. Then we can say with Joseph in
Genesis chapter 50: “Satan meant it for
evil, but God meant it for Good!”
There are a lot of
things that look evil at the onset, but then as God works we see later in our
lives that it was good that was worked into out lives.
Jesus then prays, “As God sent me into the world, I am sending
you into the world.” This is a phrase
to express an exact parallel. As I was
sent I am sending the exact same way! I
am preparing to move into a series on sharing His Story. Keep an eye out for it!
As Jesus Came on
a mission for the father, we are on the mission of the Son. Beloved you have an opportunity to really
influence people for God and for good.
When you do that, you
are only doing what you ought to be doing because you are an ambassador for
another. You have been sent by Jesus, in
order to make the truth known.
I’m not sure if you have noticed or not but in
our church, Immanuel Baptist in Magnolia, AR, God is busy raising up young men
and women to service. We have several
young people feeling called to ministry.
Some to missions, some to be pastors and youth pastors, but all to serve
him. Let us continue to pray that God
would call out from among us people to go into the harvest and work.
It is my prayer that we
be and become a “labor raiser.” And when
God calls them, let us stand beside them and pray for them, they need our prayer
protection!
God help us not to be
lazy or be lax. God help us to redeem
the day in which we live.
God burden our church
and wake us up today to the reality of why we are here. We are here and apparently from Jesus’s
prayer, we are not to come out of this world, not yet!
Let me ask you a
question? Do you desire to hear: “Well
done, thou good and faithful servant?”
Than Can I encourage you: DO
WELL! Be faithful all the days of your
life!
