Drifting

We have been for a long time here, a number of months, talking about the last hour or two before the betrayal of the Lord and His meeting with His disciples and His communication with them from the time they left the upper room where they had the Lord's Passover down through the Kidron Valley on up to the Mount of Olives. There is a conversation in John 14, 15, 16. And then in John 17, after teaching them about the Comforter and all that's coming after the Lord's departure, He begins to pray.

So we've been looking from John 17 here, verse 1, it says, These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said... So this is a prayer. And so we have looked at two messages here. We'll look at four messages for this prayer.

Next week we'll talk about the unity that He closes with and His desire for the body of Christ. And I just don't think and believe that the Lord says, I just want you people here in this local church to be unified. Unity in the Bible is unity all over the place.

All of God's children. And I know we have a struggle just getting unified inside the local church, let alone in the body. But the Lord's heart is that they all may be one, even as we are one.

So we'll talk about some of those things next week. But I want to look at John 17 and look at verse 14 down through verse number 19. And for someone who teaches the Bible, this passage lends for an easy sermon outline.

And so you'll see that here in just a minute. But there are three phrases that are mentioned here. And I'm going to spend our time this morning talking about those phrases.

Very important message. And the heart of God is He's... The Lord is He's praying for the disciples. Here's some of the things that are really on His heart that His disciples could accomplish and be led and empowered to do.

He talks about these phrases. And I want you, as I read down through the passage, to see them. The first phrase is the phrase that He talks about out of the world.

He does not want to take His people out of the world. The second phrase is of the world. He says, My sheep are not of this world.

And then the third phrase He uses is He's going to send them into the world. So you have out of the world, of the world, and into the world. And these are the three that I'd like to talk about here this morning.

So let's stretch here. We'll stand. Let's read.

I'll read down through these verses. Starting in verse 14, down through verse 19. You can see these phrases.

I think they're mentioned seven or eight times in these five or six verses that I'm going to read, starting in verse 14. I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil.

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth.

As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. So here the Lord is praying for His disciples as they're in the world and how He wants them to function in the world with His prayer for them.

So let's look at these things. Let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll jump into this. Brother Cleat, could you have a word of prayer for us this morning before we start? Amen.

Amen. You can be seated. So these three phrases, out of the world, of the world, and into the world, are what we're going to build the message around today, and so hopefully you can remember that.

But I just want to remember this is not some theology that we can pick and choose. This is the prayer of the Lord as He thinks about His disciples, as He intercedes for them. And I believe He still intercedes for us on the same thing.

The same thing, that He's interceding at the right hand of God that we would accomplish these very things. And so let's start off here with this first one. In verse number 15, Jesus says this, I pray not that thou shouldst take them, He's talking about His disciples here, out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.

Now it's not God's heart, and it's certainly not here the heart of the Lord Jesus as He prays for God the Father to take His sheep out of the world or to remove us from the world. And so Jesus says, I pray, Father, that you would not take them out of the world. Now wouldn't it have been something, I just imagine today, wouldn't it have been something for us if we get converted, that we go down into the baptismal waters and we baptize a convert, and that convert comes up out of the water and then they just ascend up like Jesus and they go to heaven and we never see them again.

Wouldn't that be something? That when you're converted, you're taken out of the world. And I thought, well, no, that wouldn't work because if the guy who was baptizing them was converted, he wouldn't even be there. There'd be nobody to baptize if everybody was taken out of the world in that way.

And so it is not the will of God, nor the desire of the Lord Jesus here for us to not be in the world. I know that many of our hearts are longing to get out of this world. Paul's heart was longing to get out of this world, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, which is far better, he said, but it is the will of God for us to be here in this world.

Now there's going to come a time when we're going to be taken out of this world and 1 Thessalonians 4 talks about the Lord descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ rising first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet them in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And so that day is coming when all of God's children are going to be taken out of the world. But in the meantime, it is the heart of God for us to be in this world.

And there is purpose in that. And you'll see that just a little bit later on, but there is purpose for us to be here. I want to read to you Matthew chapter 5, a very familiar passage.

In verse 14 Jesus says this, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. So there is purpose, and that purpose is just for the church to be the light of the world. I've said this before, but it may be dividing up real small things, but I don't believe we're to be the light of the church.

We're to be the light of the world. Many people have this concept, maybe not knowingly, that I'm a light amongst us. I'm going to be a great example amongst us, and that's a good thing.

I don't think we ought to be darkness amongst the church, but in truth, our purpose for being here was not to be a light in the church, but we are to be a light in the world. And there's two different things there. To be a light in the world.

And so in order to be a light in the world, we need to be in the world. We cannot be gone from the world. We need to be in the world.

And if you notice here in this passage, and you're not turned there, but listen as I read Matthew 5 verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. This city is up high.

People can see this city. It's not in some valley surrounded by a bunch of trees where you can't see it, but this city is to be set on a hill, and then it cannot be hid. There is no desire in God's heart to hide His church.

There's no desire for God's heart to us to barricade ourselves behind, you know, trees and buildings. We are supposed to be out in the world. We are supposed to be seen and visible in the world.

He goes on to say, now do men light a candle and put it under a bushel? That would be foolish, wouldn't it? Put it under a bushel, that little song that children sing, but on a candlestick. You set it up high. And in another place he talks about lighting a candle and putting it under a bed.

How many of you would ever do that? Well, that would be pretty dangerous. Put it under a bed, especially our kind of beds that we have. But you don't put a light in a place that's low or covered or hidden.

A light is to be something that's seen, that is out in the open. Let your light so shine before men, not before church people, but let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And so you have this idea of God left us here to be a light to a fallen world.

Jesus himself said, I am the light of the world. And if you look at the ministry of Jesus, you'll find him out and about. You'll find him not hiding himself.

You'll find him not barricading himself, but he is out and about. He is in the cities. He is going from place to place.

Matthew 9.35 says this, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus was a very visible person in his day. And he was a light.

And he didn't set his light under a bushel. He didn't set his light under a bed. He wasn't trying to hide light.

He was out in every city and every village. Wow, that's pretty visible. That's pretty public.

He is out front and that people might see his light. He was not hiding light. And I don't think we ought to hide light.

Lesson number one, let your light so shine before men. And so God left us in this world for a reason, that we would be a light to this world. So, Jesus did not have a monastic ministry closed up in some monastery.

You know, I've noticed this throughout my lifetime, that cults, cultic people generally are very secretive. They are hiding. You talk about Jim Jones and David Koresh, the Waco group.

We were just down in Texas, right near Waco. And those groups tend to be secretive. They tend to hide themselves.

They tend to go off like in Waco and build a compound way out in nowhere. They tend to like to be secretive. They are cultic.

Some of you are studying in the prophecy on Saturday morning. Listen to this in Matthew 24 verse 26, talking about false Christ. False Christ, wherefore if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert.

Who is in the desert? Behold, he is in the what? Secret chambers. Go not after them. Believe it not.

And so, the ministry of Jesus Christ, whom we are called to follow, his ministry was a public ministry. And so, we ought to let our light so shine. Turn to John chapter 18, just another page over here.

And Jesus has a testimony about this. In John 18, starting in verse 19, he is standing before the high priest here. He has been delivered up.

And in verse 19 it says, the high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I speak openly to the world. I ever taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whether the Jews always resort, and in secret have I said nothing.

Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me what I have said unto them. Behold, they know what I have said. And so, I was out in the public.

I taught publicly. I was in the temple and the synagogues. I've been all over the place.

And I've not done anything in secret. And so, his ministry was a ministry of let your light shine before men. Well, I've met many people throughout the years who want to leave America, you know, and move and go off to some place where nobody is.

And they think that that's the Christian thing to do. I talked to you about a year or so ago, some of us went up to Alberta. You know, in Alberta there's been groups move up to Alberta.

Why do they move clear up there? Because there's nobody up there. They can form a little community and get away from the world. Many people are trying to find a place where nobody is to get away from the world.

That's not the heart of God. The heart of God is to let your light so shine before men. It's not a good mindset to try to barricade yourself or hide your light from this present world.

And you're going to see that as we go on here. But look down to verse 18. The Lord is going to say, As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

It's hard to hide. It's hard to live a secretive life when you're being commanded to go into the world. So, first of all, we need to, when the Lord prays, don't take them out of the world.

There's a reason, because he wants us to be a light in the world. Jesus said it this way, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Now, some people say, well, that doesn't sound like a very good thing.

And I agree with you. That world out there is a bunch of wolves. But the Lord says, I'm going to send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Now, if you're a sheep, the tendency in all of our hearts is to go find some barn that's barricaded pretty good when the wolves are all over the place and hide out in the barn. But actually, our call is to go out where the wolves are. I send you forth, and here's the blessing, and I've shared this with you before.

If I was just a lone sheep, and all of us were just lone sheep, and we didn't have a very strong and powerful shepherd, it would be an awful thing to think about being sent out in the midst of wolves. But we're going out in the midst of wolves following the greatest shepherd there ever was. The most powerful shepherd there ever was.

And the wolves are very much afraid of our shepherds. Because he sits at the right hand of God, he is the authority over everything. And so we ought not to be afraid to go out into this world and to be a light in the world.

And so the Lord says, I will send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. We are not to be on the retreat from the world. And something I know that many of you struggle with.

We're not going to be in this movement to try to be closed off, and form closed communities where we're over here, and the world is over there, and we kind of stay in our little bubble here, and we never go out to the world. Maybe once a year we take a trip somewhere and go out to the world, and pass out tracks or something. But that's not Christianity.

I remember joining some of these groups at the very beginning back in the early 1990s, and this idea of finding you some property out in the country, and everybody gathering together, and building a little community, and in a sense letting the world go to hell. I don't think that's a biblical concept. So the idea of getting together with a few families, and we agree together, and we'll close ourselves off from the world, and we'll let the world go to hell, and we'll train our children, and we'll marry within our little group here, and we won't be a light out there in the world.

It's not the Spirit of the Lord. And I've watched these things, and it hasn't worked over the years. So you have this picture, you know, a little circle here.

We have our little group over here, and here's the world. And maybe every once in a while we'll venture over here and run back. And I think the church is a place for us to find refuge, and encouragement, and strength, but I do believe that it's the heart of God for us to be out there in the world, that the world would see us, the world would hear us.

It's oftentimes fear that drives us to close ourselves off from the world. Now, the Bible does say come out from among them and be separate, but it's not talking about location. It's talking about fellowship.

It's talking about joining together in agreements, in covenants, in having marriages together. Don't yoke yourself up with those that are in the world, the unbelievers. But certainly you and I need to be out amongst those who are in the world and let our light so shine before them.

And so that's the heart of the Lord as he prays. His first prayer is that they would not be taken out of the world. I want them here as a light in the world.

And we're going to see here in just a little bit that he's going to send us into the world. Now, the second thing he mentions here is that we are not of the world. Let's look at verse 14 and verse 16.

He says, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Verse 16, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So, here the Lord says, they are not of the world.

My sheep are not of the world. Even though we are in the world, we are not to be of the world. Amen? Do you understand what that means? Even though I'm walking amongst unbelieving people, even though I am having to minister in a fallen and a wicked place, I am not to be of the world.

A good example of this, let me give you a couple, is standing in a river. The river is rushing, the river is moving. I am standing in the river, however the current is going this way, maybe I'm standing still.

I am in the river, but I am not of the river. If I just let myself go and let the current just take me down the river, now I become of the river. And so I'm in the river, standing there, and maybe I'm going, hopefully you are, going contrary to the river.

You've heard this illustration before, a ship in the ocean. The church is like a ship in the ocean. We're in the ocean, we're in the world, but the ocean is not in us.

We are not a part of the ocean. By the way, if your ship is a part of the ocean, that probably means you're about 100, 200, 300 feet down, and you've made shipwreck of things. Amen? And so we're supposed to be in this world, but we're not supposed to be of this world.

We're supposed to be a boat in the world, but not let the world come into us and inundate us. You understand what I'm saying there? We're of the world. Excuse me, we're in the world, but we're not of the world.

So we're supposed to be in this world, and we're going to be left here until the Lord comes and takes us back, or until we die. But while we're here, there's a current, there's a stream in this world, and you and I are not to succumb to it and let it take us downstream and be a part of the world. Amen? Now the world's on a course.

I want to talk about that course as a river flows, the world's on a course too. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to ask you just to turn to a couple places today. Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse number 1. Ephesians 2 verse 1, it says, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world.

Listen, the world is on a course. And I'll show you the course here in just a minute. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

And so here in Ephesians 2 we're seeing here that the world is on a course. The unconverted are on a course. It's like the flow of a river.

Their course is because they have a nature. That nature is a fallen nature. They are lost.

And they're all heading in the same direction. Because their nature is sinful, they follow a certain course. It's just their nature.

Ducks quack. Did you know that? Dogs bark. Do you know what's the nature of a dog to bark? I've never done this, but if you take a dog and you take him right out of the womb, out of the dog mother's womb, and put him with a bunch of cats to where he never hears a dog bark, sit him with a bunch of cats, you know that dog will still bark.

Isn't that learned? I mean, all dogs, they listen to Papa and Mama, woof, woof, and then they learn to go, woof, woof. No, it's the nature of a duck to quack. It's the nature of a dog to bark.

It's the nature of a cat to meow. And it's the nature of a fallen human being to live after the course of this world. And then there's the God of this world controlling that whole thing too.

So regardless of your culture, regardless of your nationality, lost people are on a course. And you say, what is that course? I'm going to tell you what it is. 1 John 2 talks about it.

For all that is in the world. There you go. All that is in the world.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's the course of this world. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.

There's the course of the world right there. It's all put into three simple things. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

And I believe it's broken up evenly. 33 and a third percent, lust of the flesh. 33 and a third percent, lust of the eyes.

And 33 and a third percent, the pride of life. By the way, in every lost soul, that's their nature right there. It's the course of this world.

And though we as Christians who have supposedly a new nature, we've been born again, though we are in this world, we are not to be of this world. We are not to allow this world to move us along the way with their fallen nature. That new nature that the Lord has given us ought to propel us upstream.

Amen? Or at least hold us in the midst of the downstream current to where we stand and we're not swept downstream. So if you take a look at those, the lust of the flesh, what does the Bible say for a child of God is to mortify his members, right? How about the lust of the eyes? That's covetousness. The Bible says to be content with the things that you have, not to covet.

How about the pride of life? The Scripture encourages us to humble ourselves. But when you talk about the world, you talk about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And the Lord says, listen, I'm going to let you in this world and I'm going to pray for you that this world doesn't take you downstream with it.

That you don't become of this world. That as a Christian, the lust of your flesh, the lust of your eyes, and the pride of life would not overtake you and consume you. And so I just want to briefly talk about these three because there's a lot of talk about worldliness and what is worldliness, but I'd like to bring it out for you here just briefly.

The first thing is the lust of the flesh. And I don't know, you guys probably have already learned this, but this body has got a lot of lust in it. Amen? There's a lot of lust.

And the word lust there means just overreaching desires, inordinate desires, desires that are beyond the boundaries that God has designed. And so when the Lord thinks about this course that the world is on, the first thing that He mentions here is the lust of the flesh. These are the appetites of our bodies.

You know, the body wants tickled. The body wants touched. The body wants scratched.

The body wants pleased. The body wants to feel good. You know, young people, if you leave your body to just let it do whatever it wants, you're heading for a shipwreck.

Because your body is, as Paul said, this vile body. Your body is your enemy. Because in it, there are some vile things.

In it, there are lusts that are not good. So the lust of the flesh. One of the first things that's mentioned in the Bible is food.

I know people in America don't like to hear this one, but when Adam and Eve were tempted with the lust of the flesh, Satan said, look at that tree over there. Look at the fruit. It's good to the taste.

And then when Jesus was tempted with the lust of the flesh, the devil said, see that rock there? Why don't you turn it into something you can eat? There you go. The lust of the flesh. Food.

You know 65% of America is obese? That's the course of this world. That's the course of this world. Sexuality.

You know the flesh, it ought to have boundaries, but we let our sexuality just go wherever it wants to. And so you have adultery, fornication, uncleanness, all kinds of perverted sexual desires. And listen, if you let your body do whatever it wants, you're heading toward perversion.

It's all the world. And then we can talk about just the laziness of our body. You know, the body likes to lay around.

Sleep. Be lazy. It's out of control.

So you have food, you have immorality, you have laziness. And I tell you what, some people just let their body do whatever it wants. You'll find them going down to obesity.

You'll find them going down to immorality. You'll find them going down to just laziness. And that's a life of ruin.

Amen? But that's what the lust of the flesh is. Now let me tell you something. You've heard me tell this illustration, but young people, it's very important.

God has boundaries for each of these. In other words, God wants us to eat, but He doesn't want us to go beyond the boundaries that He has set. He wants us to have sexuality, but He doesn't want us to go past the boundaries.

He wants us to be diligent. He doesn't want us to be lazy. And you know what happens out in the world with those people who are on the course of this world is this.

I tell you about this volleyball thing, but some of you young people like to play volleyball, and you play volleyball with someone who doesn't care about the rules, and you'll not play very long. You know, somebody gets up to serve, and he bangs the ball this way instead of going over the net. You're laughing.

Instead of pushing the ball over the net, some of them want to push it under the net. No rules. Do whatever you want.

You know what most people will do after a short time? They'll say, I don't want to play this. This is purposeless. This is a waste of time.

This is no fun. There's no boundaries. There's no rules.

Why even do this? You know what people do in life? Food, sexuality, laziness, no boundaries. I'll let my flesh do whatever it wants. Forget God's boundaries.

And you know, after a few years of that, people start saying, what's the use? And they go, pow! They commit suicide. Because life loses its purpose. It's like trying to play volleyball without any rules.

There's just no fun. There's no meaning. It's all, do whatever you want.

You can't play that way. You have to play by the rules. But you know, it's fun to play volleyball by the rules.

And there are lines, and you keep the ball on the line. You push the ball over the net, and you serve into certain sections, and you can have a lot of fun playing volleyball by the rules. God does have rules.

How to eat. He does have rules how to have sexuality. He does have rules.

You stay within those parameters, you can have an enjoyable life. A blessed life. But if you just say, I'm just going to let my body do whatever it wants, well, you're going to end up, it's like, what's life about? This is a waste.

And you know what happens to those who get to that place is they start trying to find drugs, and alcohol, and some meaning, and some purpose to try to, or some way to get rid of the depression and the discouragement. So don't go down that road. That's the lust of the flesh.

The next thing is the lust of the eyes. This is the course of this world. This is what the Lord doesn't want us to get involved in.

The lust of the eyes. That is covetousness. Proverbs 27.20 says, the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Have you noticed that about those eyes of yours? They're never satisfied. By the way, I watch my little boys, you watch your children do this. Little Zach, he's there with Tommy, they've got toys.

And you watch, Tommy will pick up a toy, and Zach will look over there and see Tommy have that toy? You can just see it in his eyes. He goes over there, and gets that toy. And he only wants that for a short time until Tommy picks up another toy.

And his eye catches that, and he picks it up. You know why that is? Because in the nature of man, the eye is never satisfied. Covetousness.

The eye is always wanting more. We see something, we want it. We see something, we want it.

That's the course of this world. That's what course the fallen nature is on. So the Bible says, having food and raiment let us therewith be content.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. You know, you're in a great place when you don't need anything more in your life. Young people, can you say, God, I have You, and I don't need anything more.

I mean, if we never get a bigger house, if we never get a better car, if I never get married, if I never get rich, I don't care. I'm content where I'm at. That's a great place to be.

Just being content so that when your eye sees something, I don't need it. But out in this world, or the stream, or the current of this world is to not be content. Not be content with your social status in life.

Not be content. Are you ready? Not be content with your wife. Not be content with your husband.

Not have contentment about your wages. Not have contentment about the size of your houses, or the vehicles that you drive, or the clothes that you wear. Not being content how God made you in your appearance.

Not being content with your home decorations. Always having to have more and more and more. The eye of man is never satisfied.

When you go out in the world, you find people, that's the way they live. This is the course of the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and then number three, the pride of life.

Now you rarely hear this one spoken of in our settings, but it's one third of what the world is. If you ask someone, what is worldliness? Most of them will come up with lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes. But you very rarely hear the other 33 and a third percent, the pride of life.

Pride of life. Exalting myself. That was what the devil did at the very beginning.

He exalted himself up above the throne of God. He wanted to be like the Most High. This idea of exalting yourself above others.

How many of you know that's out there in the world? Are politicians exalting themselves above each other? Wow. How about sports teams? Businesses? How about movie stars? Everyone has to be better, bigger, greater, higher. It's called the pride of life.

And you hear it in the church. Our church is better than yours. My family is holier than yours.

I am holier than you. Oh wow. You're pretty worldly.

What? It's the world. It's the pride of life. You know these words, better, holier, and greater, they are words that make comparisons between two individuals or two groups.

And in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, the Bible says, they who compare themselves among themselves are not what? Wise. You're not wise. First of all, you don't know everything about other people.

Only God can make that because He knows what everybody's doing. And so for us to elevate ourselves above others, compare ourselves to others, is very worldly. Proverbs 13.10 says, only by pride cometh contention.

And you'll find contention all over the world because of pride. Wherever you see pride, you'll see strife. Wherever you see pride, you'll see contention.

I think of those disciples, you know, at the Last Supper, they're there and they're arguing about who's the greatest or who's going to be the highest. You know what caused it? Strife. There's strife amongst them.

All that is in the world. The lust of the flesh. Listen, do you have your flesh under control? Your eating? Your sexuality? Your diligence? Or is your flesh in control of you? Are you content? You see, we're standing in a stream and everyone in the world is heading down this way.

It's like lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, and that course is pretty strong in the world, but we as a church are to stand there and not move with it. Amen. We're to have our appetites under control and our pride under control.

Well, let's keep reading here in John 17. Go back to John 17 here. Here the Lord prays in verse 16.

He says, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

Now here's how it works. The world is over here and the sheep are over here. And there's something that keeps us... By the way, the word sanctify is the word to separate.

There is something that keeps you and I separated from the world. So the Lord prays, Keep them sanctified or separated from the world by using this, the truth. So this is the means by which you and I keep separated from the world.

And the truth separates us from the world in two ways. Let me give you the first way. It keeps our minds on the right course.

Romans 12 says, Be not conformed to this world. Don't let this world push you downstream, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And so once you leave this Bible, once you let this Bible go, and you fill your mind with the things and cares of this world, guess where you're heading? You're heading down the stream.

You're going to be conformed to this world. Because this is what keeps you separated from the world. Sanctify them through the truth.

Thy word is truth. I've given you this illustration before. Some of you are new, you haven't heard it.

When I was a little boy, probably 8, 9 years old, one of the memories I had was my parents took us, my brothers and sister, to Virginia Beach, Virginia. And first time we had ever gone to the ocean. So I was all excited.

We got a hotel next morning, early in the morning. My brother and I went out and we rented one of these little raft things that they were renting there in Virginia Beach. And we went out into the ocean.

You know, just little kids. And we would ride these little waves. And my mother and father were there.

They put their blanket down or their towel down, and they were sunbathing a little bit there. And we were out in front of them and riding our other waves in. And 15, 20 minutes of just doing that, I specifically remember looking up, you know, to get the attention.

Hey, Mom! Hey, Dad! You know, look at this! And I noticed that Mom and Dad had moved from there over to here. And my little mind thought maybe they didn't like that place where they were. So I kept going for a while longer and rode the waves in.

And then I looked up for Mom and Dad and looked over there. Oh, now they moved down here. And so I kept doing this, and it seemed like they kept moving further and further down the shore.

And I didn't realize it, but what was happening is slowly but surely those waves were coming in at a little bit of an angle. And each time I would ride that wave in, it would push me just a little bit further down the shore. We call it drift, by the way, in the church.

And so my parents weren't moving. They found a spot. They had stayed there the whole time.

It was me that was moving. Slowly but surely I was being slowly pushed down the shore. And if I didn't look up every once in a while, I could have been way down the shore.

But I'd come to find out that the secret was this. Every time I would come in, I would look at something, like my parents, and readjust myself to where I'm in front of them again. And then I'd be pushed a little bit farther down, and then I'd come back and readjust myself again.

And so that's what the Bible does to you. You get into the Scriptures, you hear all this garbage coming from the world, and it wants to push you in this direction. But then you get into the Bible.

Whoa! I've got to reevaluate and get back to where my thinking is proper. My thinking is right. But I'll tell you what.

If you're not in the Bible, and you get pushed a little bit, and six months and a year, and one day you wake up and where's my parents? And boy, they're way down. You say, boy, I've gone a long way the wrong way. And that often happens to Christians.

You know, they're not in the Scriptures. And you know, people who supposedly love God and are Christians are starting to embrace things that are unbelievable. It's all right for a man to marry a man, a woman to marry a woman.

How do you get there? I'll tell you how you got there. You put this down for years, and you just drifted way downstream. And now you can hardly even see where your parents are anymore.

They're so far back. And so it's important to keep looking here just like I as a little boy would look to where my parents was and keep readjusting. Keep readjusting, or else the course of this world is going to drift you down the shore.

People are drifting today. Would you agree with me on that? My, they're drifting. And maybe there are some here who are drifting.

And they're not drifting because we don't have enough rules or doctrines and commandments of men. They're drifting because they're leaving off their love for the Word of God. That's why they're drifting.

And some of them are drifting because truly they're not His sheep. And they're drifting because they're hearing the voice of another shepherd. And they're following another shepherd.

I thought about this. You know, the church at Ephesus, they started to drift. It says they left their first love.

That means they're drifting away. You know, for years I thought about what is the first love? The Bible says to do the first works. What does that mean? The first works.

And what is the first love? Let me ask you this. When a baby is born into the world, a newborn babe, what's his first or her first love? Some of you mothers, what's the first thing they want? What's the first thing they desire and crave? Mama's milk. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, maybe Jesus is alluding to the fact that you've left your first love.

You've left your love, that sincere milk of the Word, and you are drifting away from Me. Go back and do the first works. Go back and love My Word.

And so, the Word of God keeps us from the world. So I can guarantee you this. If you're not in the Bible, if you're not loving God's Word, and you're studying and meditating, memorizing, in five, ten years, you will have drifted.

And I can be up here and yell and holler and scream and carry on. If you still feel like, well, I'm going to fill my heart and mind with the things of this world, the course of this world, then that world is going to push you right down with it. But there's something else here that's forgotten.

And Jesus mentions it here, how the Word of God keeps us separate from the world. Look up to verse 14. He says, I have given them Thy Word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

This Bible not only keeps us separated from the world as we meditate on it and as our mind is renewed, but it also causes the world to want to separate from us. I go to campus and if I'm quiet and they don't know why I'm there and I can sit down amongst them and have lunch and talk to them and they'll sit right around me, it's fine. But as soon as I start speaking the Word of God to them and communicating the Word, all of a sudden, they go.

And so the Word of God not only keeps my heart in the right place and keeps me separated from the world, but it also, when I speak it out, causes the world to keep separated from me. By the way, whenever you're in a dark room and you bring in a light, guess what happens to the darkness? It disappears. It's repelled.

And so the Word of God, both internally and as I give it out externally, keeps me from getting caught up in this world. And then the last thing here that's mentioned in John 17 is in verse number 18 that we are sent into the world. Verse 18 says, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

And so here is the third part. Not only are we to stay in the world, we're also not to let the world overtake us, that we become of the world. But we have a mission here, and that is that we're to be sent into the world.

And just to make sure everybody knows this, if you look down to verse number 20, I want to clarify. Jesus says, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on Me through their word. Now many people think that only those sent into the world are those 12 apostles.

No, no, no. The Lord says, I'm not just praying for you 12, I'm praying for those who will believe on you. Has anybody here believed on Him? Okay, we've got a few.

So this prayer is for you. And so the Lord is sending you and me into the world. It's called the Great Commission.

It has become the Great Omission. But it is the Great Commission. Go ye into all the world and be a light, and let your light shine, and preach the Gospel.

Now here's a real challenge for all of us. How many of us are really in the world and preaching the Gospel and taking light out there? How many of us are really actually involved in reaching out into our world, trying to win the world, or at least warn the world? The early church had this amazing testimony in Acts 17.6. Listen to these words. These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.

Can you imagine what these meant? By the way, these are the ones who heard Jesus speak those words, heard Him pray these things. These are the ones who this individual said, these guys have turned this world upside down. Now that tells you something about what they understood when they heard Him say, I send you into the world.

It wasn't to get some little church and barricade yourself in some country corner and just stay to yourself. It certainly wasn't that idea. Would you agree? But to go into the world.

I am sending you. These are the disciples who heard Jesus speak these words and they understood them. You think they had a family? You think they had jobs? You think they had children? They had a reputation? They had some cares and troubles? Do you think they're just like us? Probably.

How can men, families, turn the world upside down? They must have heard things differently than what we hear them. Jump over a couple of chapters here to John 20 and let's look here in closing. John 20, verse 19.

Jesus makes this statement again. I've shared this with you before because this is kind of the center thrust of what He is asking the disciples to do. In John 20, verse 19.

Then the same day at evening Jesus was crucified and the disciples are hiding out. Being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side.

Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As My Father has sent Me, even so send I you.

He repeats this idea. I'm sending you out into this world. Verse 22, And when He had thus said this, He breathed on them and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

I'm going to give you what you need to accomplish this purpose. You're going to need some power because I'm going to send you out in the midst of wolves. So receive ye the Holy Ghost.

Acts 1 says you shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me. And so the Lord here is interceding that we would stay in the world.

Father, let them stay in the world. I want them to be a light to the world. But also, Father, while they're in the world, keep them from evil.

Sanctify them through the truth. Thy Word is truth. Keep them separated from this world.

Don't let them drift. And then I'm going to give them a mission. Father, send them into the world to try to win the world and minister My Word to the world.

That's Christianity in a nutshell right there, isn't it? We're in the world. We're not of the world. But we're sent into the world with a message, a warning, a message of hope.

And so that's His prayer. I believe He's even praying that today for us, for our church. We can get on the same page.

Next week He's going to talk about, oh, that we could be one. That we all could be one. I think if we all would believe these words and the church would believe these words throughout the world, that we would turn the world upside down.

I think of all these churches on these corners. If they just had one person who believed this. Every one of them.

And all these people came together just from every church one. That would do a lot. Turn our country in the right direction.

So let your light so shine. Don't drift. Young people, older people, myself, there is a strong current today to move you in a direction that's not good.

And it doesn't happen all overnight. Just like me with those waves. It's just a gentle push.

Gentle push. And in a couple of years, whoa, I've come a long way the wrong way. So let's make sure we're in the Scripture.

And we love the truth. Okay, let's have a word of prayer.