"The Love of Jesus That Touched My Lips"

John 17:15-19

Rev. Min J. Chung

(Sunday Lords Day Service, November 3, 2002)

"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified." John 17:15-19, NIV.

Introduction

  • How do you discern your calling? How do you discern your mission in life? How do you make decisions in your life? How do you know what is right or wrong? What helped me most was Romans 12:1-2,"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."Therefore, knowing your calling starts with giving yourselves to the Lord and then being transformed. If we are transformed in our minds on the inside, cleansed and changed to attain wisdom, then you will be able to test and approve the will of God.
  • In English, "test and approve" is two words, but in Greek its one word. We cantestwith ourmindandapprovewith ourheart. Objectively, it means thinking about what the will of God is, as you consider all the options; and then subjectively, you pray and see what your desires are focusing on. Thinking both objectively and subjectively, you should ask, "What does God want me to do? Who am I? What gifts do I have?" You should carefully think through the decision process, asking wise people who know Scriptures and who know you.
  • Many times, when the topic of calling comes up, we only think about ouroccupationalcalling. We think messages like this will help us decide our majors or career choices. But our calling is really about who we are and what we change into in order to honor, praise, and worship God. Occupational calling is only a part of your greater calling. Youre also called to a family, a church, and the world. So remember, your occupational calling is not the whole area of your calling.
  • Many people ask me, "Pastor Min, how were you called?" So that you would never ask me that question again, I will say it now.. I was in the Alpha Omega gospel band, and we traveled all over the country leading worship at many youth retreats. When we were doing that, the Lord gave me so much heart for youth in a way which I had never experienced before in my life. When I saw the youth, I just wanted to go and hug and kiss and love and speak to them. Was there objective confirmation? When I think about it, there was. I said to other brothers at the time, "Im thinking about going to seminary." They would reply, "You mean, you werent going in the first place?" It was obvious to them that there was nothing else for me to do.But the strongest thing for me was my subjective confirmation. I so much wanted to serve God. Not only was it true that I couldnt do anything else, but rather, my desire was that Id rather die than do anything else in my life. I had to sing because the love of Jesus touched my lips.
  • In this passage, you can see that. v. 17,"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."If you renew your mind, like Romans 12:2, then what happens is that you will be called. V. 18,"As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."As our minds are changed, we will desire what God wants in our lives.
  • The occupational call is overrated. But as you are sanctified and changed, wherever you go and whoever youre with, you will minister to them, love them, honor Christ as you are with them, so they will see Christ through you. Your call isnot what you do, butwho you are. The call is to glorify Christ, spread His name, and add to His family. But you do need to pray. Dont think you can now just close your eyes, open the curriculum book and pick any major. No, you should decide and pray about your occupation, but the point is that the more important thing is that you become a fantastic Christian for the glory of God.
  • Three things Ill talk about from this passage concerning our call: 1) theEnemyof the Call, 2) thePowerof the Call, 3) theLordof the Call.
  1. THE ENEMY OF THE CALL
    Three enemies:Satan, theworld, and ourhearts.
  2. Satan
  3. Satan is the chief architect of the enemy kingdom. Hes the original rebel. He was an archangel, but rebelled against the King of the universe, God. He rebelled and led a third of the angels away from heaven. These angels became fallen angels who are now demons. Demons are the followers of Satan.
  4. One clarification: there are no dead spirits flying around on this earth. When you die, you go to either heaven or hell. The movieSixth Senseis not true. Demons are, however, working in this world.
  5. Satan is not God, but only an angel. So hesnot omniscient. He knows a lot, but not omniscient. Hesnot omnipotent. Hes very strong and powerful, but not omnipotent. Hesnot omnipresent. Because of that, hes probably not around you. Hes probably with somebody very important and dangerous to him like Billy Graham perhaps. Theres a high probability that hes not around you. Youre not that dangerous to him. We know that Satan was with Judas in the Bible. Was Judas that important and dangerous in Satans eyes? Yes, because hes with Jesus. Satan is always around to hinder someone to bring maximum hindrance to the kingdom of God.
  6. Satan builds a system in the world to tempt people. But be assured that Satan is headed to hell. Hes not the ruler of hell. Revelations says that Satan knows his end his near. Hes fuming, like a wild angry boar. He wants more people to go to hell with him. Thats what hes doing.
  7. World
  8. The world is the system built on rebellion against God. John later writes in his epistle of 1 John, chapter 2:15-17, about three components of the world that become the foundation of this worldly kingdom. 1) cravings of sinful man, 2) lust of his eyes, and 3) boasting of what he has and does. Thats what the whole world is based upon. If you think about the whole world without God, these three things are underneath it all.
  9. For example, in the corporate world, these three things operate so clearly. Money and status that people so often try to achieve all reflect the cravings of sinful man, the lust of mens eyes, and the desire to boast. If a Christian goes into the corporate world, he can transform it, but the whole corporate world system is based on that.
  10. You grad students and academia people are not exempt from this. In the academic world, its the same thing. That name on that paper reflects the cravings of sinful man and the lust of the eyes. You can long for how people treat you when you have "PhD." after your name or "Dr." in front of your name. Even in academia, there is boasting of ones achievements.
  11. How about in the church? In CFC? In your small groups? On class nights, etc.? When somebody is always selected to do things, others ask, "Why is that person selected?" People think this way because of the craving of sinful man, the boasting of what he has and does, and the lust of his eyes.
  12. How about Mini-Olympics? Did you have a godly desire when you were screaming out for your area to win? Or was it because you were associated with your area? Why werent you craving for other areas to win? Why are you a Bears fan? Because your name and your city is associated with it. Its because of the cravings of sinful man, the boasting of what he has and does, and the lust of his eyes.
  13. How about in the same small group when two girls like the same guy? Its the craving of sinful woman. Or the desire to boastif that guy walks around with me, Ill look so good. You see, Satan builds the world system and breeds worldliness in the church, to hinder the glory of God.
  14. The opposite of the cravings of sinful man should be that we lust after the glory of God, boast about Christ, and live for the glory of God, not ourselves. The pleasures of God should be the pleasure of ourselves.
  15. Hearts
  16. When these systems in the world are there, we are attracted to it. What areyouattracted to? To the opposite gender or to worldly things? Why are you attracted to them? Because there is an in-built system in your heart that desires these things. If you are not attracted to it, then you would not be tempted by these things. Some people blame Satan, their parents, their friends, and many other things. But if you did not have any selfish desire in you, you would not be tempted by these things. On judgment day, you are judged for yourown choices. James 1:14 says,"but each one is tempted when,by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.""By your own desires" is why you are tempted and sin. Your addiction is your problem and you chose that! You are not a helpless victim! You are someone with your own choice. Wechooseto sin. Thats why even though Adam blames Eve, and Even blames the serpent, God judges each of them for their own choice.
  17. John 17:15,"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that youprotectthem from the evil one."How does He protect them?"Sanctify them by the truth."The Truth of Gods Word is how God protects us. When the word enters our hearts, our hearts are changed and cleansed, and then we can desire the will of God rather than worldly things. We would desire Gods will and live for His glory. We would be purified to honor and love Him in our lives. Thats our protection.
  18. A good example of worldliness is written in this very verse in v. 12 when it talks about Judas."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."That sounds like Judas was a victim of the will of God. But that is not true. Never. Satan tempted Judas, and Judas had his own evil desire. We know through Scripture that he lusted after money as keeper of the money purse. To Judas, Jesus was only worth 30 pieces of silver when he found out that Jesus was not going to be the political king he desired him to be. Because he had his own evil desires, Judas made a choice to sell him. What will God do now? His will will never be thwarted by mens choices. It seems like Christ is defeated, but what seems like thegreatest defeatbecomes thegreatest victory. God can use us, and even use sinful human beings, and even Satan to fulfill His sovereign will - no matter what or who the enemy is.
  19. THE POWER OF THE CALL
  20. You may feel scared after hearing about these demons who can tempt us. Yes, Im trying to scare you. We ought to be scared, and have a correct vision of whats going on in this world. You should be scared, but theres also another reality. We must pray and cry out to the Lord. We have power from above, the One in us, being greater than the one in the world.
  21. Some of you might pray, "Take me out of the word. Id rather be a hermit or be in heaven." Moses said the same thing. So did Jonah. Elijah also said the same thing. He stood in front of 850 false prophets, but when a woman named Jezebel came, he ran, and wanted to die, saying "I'm the only one left." But Jesus prayed differently. V. 15,"My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one."Jesus prays not that we would be taken out of the world, and not becomepartof the world, but to gothroughthe world. Thats the very reason for our existence. We dont go away from the world, but we face the world. We dont love worldly things, but go through the world and pray for the world.
  22. Jesus prays that we be protected while we are in this world. How are we protected? The key word is concerning thename: V. 11,"Holy Father, protect them by the power of yourname--thenameyou gave me--so that they may be one as we are one."What does it mean that Jesus prays for our protection by the name of the Father? Our power is in His name. Jesus name. Ive seen demon-possessed people in other countries and when I say "In Jesus name.." those demons cant come near me. Its so cool.Its really fascinating, but anyway. What does this mean? Six times it says, "Father." It means three things:
  23. The Fathers internal protection through new nature.
  24. When God gave his name, "Father", thats who He is going to be to us. When He is our Father, and we are His children, then we have His nature and spiritual DNA. What does that mean? He gives us a new heart and new nature, and we become like Him. Before that, we only had an evil nature and evil desires, so we sinned and were tempted by evil things. But now He invades our hearts and plants His spirit in us. We now desire to love others rather than hate our enemies. Thats what Christ did. We are His children, not just by external name, but really internally becoming more like Christ.
  25. 2 Peter 1:3-4,"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."The world is tempting us, and our evil desires are tempted, but Hes changing us with power to have new nature. We now have a rival desire also to be like Christ. We now have a divine nature with spiritual DNA that reflects God through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit in us. He makes us desire good things. We want to do good and hate evil. Thats why you feel guilty when you sin, which then leads you to repent.
  26. Fathers tender protection through prayer.
  27. We can pray "Abba father." We can pray, "Daddy." This is Daddy Language. Romans 8:15,"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father.""Can you imagine that the KING OF THE UNIVERSE IS OUR FATHER!!?? What do you have to worry about?!! Of course, the Spirit helps us to pray to God the Father, because thats the promise Hes given us.
  28. When I observe my youngest daughter Sarah, who is a little over one year old, I realize she cant really do much. She walks around, and because my wife is impeccably clean, every toy is put away in its own container. Sarah cant possibly open the container to play with the toy, so she says, "Daddy play," and points to the toy. I help her take the toy out of the container. Shell then go to another toy and ask the same thing. After a while, when she simply says, "Daddy," I know what she wants. Sometimes she doesnt even have to say it. I just go and open the container for her. What am I saying?Its done when she says, "Daddy."My heart is so overwhelmed with love for her, that Ill do it for her. Thats what God promises us. He is so overwhelmed with love for us when we cry "Daddy." Abba Father.
  29. Because God loves us, sometimes He wont give us what we ask for. When Sarah points to the scissors, I dont answer her. I say "Uh uh!" I remember a preacher when he was younger, was told by an older woman in the church, "Im praying that you would be my future son-in-law." He said to me, "Arent you glad that God does not answer some peoples prayers?"When we say, "Abba father" he would come and protect us just like He would with His Son Jesus. His name is the promise given to us. "Father" is who He is actually to us.
  30. Fathers training protection through the word.
  31. He teaches us. In v. 17,"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."Whos supposed to sanctify them and train them? Jesus is praying to the Father. The Father is the one who trains, using the Word. The Spirit is the teacher, but the Father is the one who sent the Son and His Word.
  32. The job of a parent is not to hold their children and keep them by their side forever. Some parents seem to hold on to their children even after graduate school. They check everything they do. When they go home, they still have a 7pm curfew.But what I realize through the Scriptures is that the job of a parent is to slowly let the children go. Its not to get them closer to you, but to slowly get them away from you. Think about it. A child starts inside the womb, then at the breast, then held by the hand, then go to school, then off to high school (theyre rarely around now), off to college (theyre now gone), and finally marriage (its good-bye). Slowly, our kids are going away. I think about that and Im already mushy in my heart. My kids are gonna go away one day. Oh my, looking at all of you, theyre gonna be like you college students one day. So whats the job of a parent? Its to train them to prepare to be productive members of society and godly Christians who can impact the kingdom of God. Theyre gonna go away, so good or bad, whatever theyre gonna do, Im gonna train them, instruct them and talk to them.

Thats what it means when Jesus says,"Sanctify them by the truth."The Name isinternal protection through nature, tender protection through prayer,andtraining protection through the word.We are being made to be something great for the glory of God.We are not great people, but being made to be great so we can exalt Him. Its not to boast, or raise our self-esteem, but to raise the name of Christ.When we over-emphasize our importance, we lose our importance. We are being made to be something great by the power of God, so we will be the message of Jesus.