John 17, this morning, 12 through 16, John 17, we continue Jesus's prayer to the Father. And I'd like to read this morning from verse six down through verse 16. So let's all rise together as we read God's word. John 17 and verse six. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you, for I have given to them the words which you have given me. And they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours, and all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father. Keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me, I kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joys fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. And everybody said amen. Please be seated. Brothers and sisters, here again we come back to touch the heart of God. We come into close contact with the heart of God. Praise be to God, he reveals himself to us through his son Jesus. If I was to speak of my wife to you, and you've never seen her in your life, but I spoke of her for 28 years to this congregation. But one day, Renda was to appear before you. You would probably say, that wasn't exactly what I expected. How can I express who my wife is or any person to you, unless you come to meet this person and come to know this person, to come into close proximity to this person. Same thing with Jesus. The final and the perfect manifestation of God because he is God. So the Old Testament explains about God. There are revelations about God through dreams and visions, theophanies, and the revelation of God to us through prophecies. So we get a sense of who God is. But when God stands in front of us, when God is present with us, when God is four feet away from us, when John is able to lay down upon the breast of Jesus. Now we're beginning to understand and to know God in Jesus. Again, who is Jesus? Casts out the demons. Shows up on the scene. Finds people putting band-aids on people who have been sick for 28 years. Jesus throws their crutches away. Jesus heals the blind. Jesus raises the dead. This is who God is. This is what it would be like to be in the presence of God. Jesus. the great manifestation of God on earth. It's beautiful. Man saying, oh, we just got to live with death. Reincarnation, there you go. We'll reincarnate. We'll die a million times. Jesus says, no way. I'm raising the dead. That's God. Amen? That's God in our presence. God reveals Himself to us through Jesus. And here in this prayer, He gives us this insight into the heart of God. What are His desires? What does He desire? What should be our desires? What is the highest desire of a human heart? What is the highest desire of God's heart? But to glorify Himself, to glorify the Father, glorify the Son. This is His passion. This is what He wants to see. And then He also desires that we be one. This will be the theme later on as well. We touched on it last week, but he so desires that we be one. In fact, I'm at the point where I'm reaching out to other churches more often. We need to draw each other together. We need to do concrete things to represent the passion and the vision of Jesus. Are you contributing to the unity of the body? What did you do last week to contribute to the unity of the body? Or did you fragment it? Or did you undermine it? Do you participate in this vision? This is what Jesus wants. This is what God wants. He prays for this in his prayer here in John chapter 17, that now he's leaving his people, and this has been a concern throughout the entire Upper Room discourse all along the way. Jesus is concerned. How would you feel, guys, if you were leaving your bride in a war zone? How would you feel if you were a Syrian husband, you knew that ISIS was all over the place, and you said, okay, I'm leaving now. How would you feel if you were leaving your bride in a war zone? That's, I believe, how Jesus feels here as he prays for his loved ones, for his body, for his church, for his bride. He loved us on the cross. You all agree with that? Jesus loved us on the cross, but does he love us here now? I know there are some of you who may be wondering, at times at which you may be saying, I know He loved me at the cross, but I don't know that He knows what I'm going through right now. I don't know that He loves me here and now. I know that He loved me from all eternity. I know He went to the cross for me. I know He overcame the devil and death for me at the cross. But the question I keep coming back to is, does He love me here, now, in what I'm dealing with right here, right now? And the answer this morning is, yes, He does. Absolutely he does, but let's take a look at our position in the world, verses 14 through 16 first, then we'll back up and take a look at 12 through 13 in just a moment. But here's our position in the world. He says, I've given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Okay, so here's our position, we are in the world, but not of the world. We are in the world. What is the world? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. So which is it? Should we love the world if we not love the world? God so loved the world, but then he turns to us and says, love not the world. So which is it? Well, the answer is there are two worlds. There's some intersection. This is somewhat complicated. I believe, but there's the world of God's creation. There's a world of beagles. Does God say, don't you love beagles? Don't enjoy beagles. Don't have a pet for a beagle. Is that what he's saying? No, no, there's the world of beagles and dirt and institutions and civil magistrates, which God, by the way, instituted. People, there is the world of God's creation, the cosmos, and then there is the world of Satan, the world that Satan dominates. It's a place that is described in 1 John 2 as whatever that's in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That is the world. That is what marks the other world. There are beagles. Okay, huskies as well, and a few other dogs, and cats, okay? And then there are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Two different things here. We are not to love this world, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, which are the values of the world, the thing that the world considers to be the greatest thing. It's Vanity Fair. It's effectively 98% of politics. I didn't say 100%, did I? Did I say 100%? No, about 98% of politics is pride. 97% of Hollywood is lust. and about 99% of the corporation you work for is all about money. That's the world. But did I say 100%? No, I didn't. So you see, the world is all around, and we wander into the world, we are in the world. The world is a battleground. It is not a playground. And it's good for us to wake up to that reality from time to time. I love Jesus' analogy or parable that we are robbing the strong man's house. Actually, Jesus, the stronger man, is robbing the strong man's house, but you have to go into his house to rob him. And so I think one of the illustrations that may help you is you've heard of the Italian man who rescued more Jews than anybody else during World War II, hardly known, Giorgio Perasco. This man rescued 65,000 Jews in Budapest, Hungary from imminent demise. He's the greatest hero of World War II. Now, interestingly enough, he went into hiding and went into obscurity for about 40 years and came out of obscurity a couple years before he died. This would have been about 15 years ago. And a very powerful and a moving movie was presented on his life by the Italians. But it's a very powerful story in which this man, Giorgio Perasco, he rescued 65,000 Jews, largely by bringing Jews into the Spanish embassy in Budapest. He had friends from Spain, and he used every single connection he had to throw his life down and rescue 65,000 Jews. Amazing story, one of the most amazing stories in the last 100 years. This man, that's who we are. Brothers and sisters, that's who we are. We are in enemy territory. We are in dangerous territory. We are in the strongman's house, and we're robbing him blind, and we're moving everybody into the Spanish embassy in Budapest. Ergo, the kingdom of God. Giving them a new identity, giving them Spanish passports, No, I'm sorry, heavenly passports, and giving them identity in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are actively robbing the strongman's house. That's why you're here. And it is the coolest story in the last 100 years. No, I'm sorry, it is the coolest story in the last 2,000 years. Get it? How do you like to be part of that? That's pretty neat, huh? How many of you want to rob the Nazis? Amen! Let's rob the strong man. That's what Jesus wants us to be doing. Also, brothers and sisters, in the world we are the salt of the earth. What does this mean? This means that Christians actually preserve the world. They have a preserving effect upon the world. If we removed Christians entirely from the world, what would happen? What would happen if Christians were pulled out of this world? It would become a hell on earth almost immediately. Child slavery, you think it's bad now? Be a thousand times worse. Infanticide, you think it's bad right now? It would be a hundred times worse. Stealing, killing, raping would be out of control, just out of control, if you pulled the Christians out of this country. What happens when we leave the world to the wonderful humanitarian hypocritical humanists The nations begin redistributing the wealth, and before you know it, 77% of those receiving welfare, actually in some cities it's 90%, but average 77% of those receiving the welfare, illegitimacy rates. The killing of a billion children since the governments of the world were turned over to humanists in the 1960s. And without a reformation of Russia, what happened in the 20th century? 80 million dead people. Sadly, Russia did not receive the reformation. So what happens when the Reformation doesn't sink in to a certain part of the world? What happens to the world? What happened to Russia? Under the communists, anybody know? 80 million at least, maybe as high as 150 to 200 million people were slaughtered by the communists when there aren't the Christians. to engage when the Christians are not getting saved and getting out there into the world and being salt and light in the world. What happens to the world? It becomes a hell on earth. Why are we here, brothers and sisters? We are here to be God's ambassadors. We're here to be God's reconcilers. We're here to be God's salt in the world. We are in the world, but not of the world. What does that mean? That means our derivation is not of this world. Our citizenship is not in this world. Jesus is not of the world. Where did Jesus come from? What is his citizenship? Where is his derivation? Do you know, does anybody know where Jesus is derived from? Some will say Israel, but actually technically not Israel. Jesus derives from heaven, that's right. So as Christians, where do we come from? What is our derivation? Where is our identity? We are in Christ. That's why we're called Christians. We are in Christ. Christ is our new DNA. We have his DNA now. And when a child is born, you know what people say? He has his father's nose. He has his mother's ears. And we say, his father's nose, his mother's ears? His mother has her own ears and his father has his own ears and his own nose. What is all of this? Well, what we're saying is that the child's nose looks a lot like his father's and the mother's ears, the child's ears look a lot like his mother's and that's because a child gets a set of instructions through the DNA from both the father's cell and the mother's cell. And so the DNA, these instructions, there's actually an instruction manual in each DNA that is like two billion pages long. It's unbelievable how much is contained in that thing. And so the tiny little cell has all these instructions from the father and from the mother that instructs and tells the little cell what it's going to look like, and that little baby, what he's going to look like, what his ears, his nose, and everything else is going to look like about him, that's the DNA. Worldly people have Adam's DNA, which is really Satan's DNA, and we as Christians, we have Jesus's DNA, as we are new creatures in Christ. This makes for a fairly radical difference between us. When it says we are not of the world, but we're in the world, that means that we are aliens in the world. When people from Nepal come to live in America, They have different food, different culture, different forms of relationship and communication and habits and all the rest. But now the differences between the worldly DNA and Jesus's DNA is a thousand times, 10,000 times more different than the difference between Nepalese and Americans. It's a radical difference such that whenever we run into Nepalese Christians, we enjoy a tremendous unity from the first hour, from the first minute. I walk off that jet in the Bahamas, run into an agent from the church that happened to be there to greet me, and see the pastor immediately. We are best friends. We are one in Christ. We are from vastly different cultures, but we are the same culture in Jesus Christ. It's amazing how the church draws together vastly different cultures because the difference between Nepalese Christians and non-Christians is much, much, much different. 10,000 times more different than the difference between Nepalese Christians and American Christians. Jesus's culture is 10,000 times different from that of the world. The worldly religions, as we said last week, are external. They're really, really shallow. They don't penetrate the heart. You go down to a Mormon lecture or a Muslim lecture for a half an hour, and the superficiality of it will sicken you. The powerlessness of the man-focused, externalistic, ritualistic messages will just sicken you. We see a sign somewhere, my wife just told me about this this morning. Come as you are into our church, we aren't perfect either. Two problems with that sign. You and we. What we're looking for is a church where God is raising the dead. Okay, drag your dead carcass in here and let's see what God does with it. Amen? Now there's a faith. There is a real faith. This is the kind of faith we're looking for. And the worldly religions with all their little externalisms and humanistic ways of thinking and powerlessness, where there isn't an infinite God who sovereignly made the galaxies and is raising the dead in the presence of his people. Friends, that's the faith we're after. The world's focus is on money. And this is so universal, it's amazing, you go anywhere. You go to the most impoverished nation in Africa, you go to the richest nation, you go into the richest corporations, up into the boardroom where there's guys who just make tens of millions for a living. It doesn't matter where you go, Africans, Hindus, Buddhists, it's all about money. It is. They're about man and materialism. No, some are down here, some are up here, but they're worshiping the same God. Remember standing, or sitting and listening to my first class in the world. Okay, I've been raised in the mission field in Japan, now stateside at a junior college in Santa Maria, California. I show up for my Business 101 class. I have no idea why I signed up for it, I just did. So I sat there, The instructor stood out in front of us, and I'll never forget the first words I heard. As I was educated in the world, here's what the guy said. Money. Money. Money. It's all about money. Still remember it to this day. Guy was intense. And there were no doubts about it. The world is about money. And man, that's what drives them more than anything else. It doesn't matter where you go. The world's about the glory of man. Even the religious gurus, their Dalai Lamas, it's all about the Dalai Lama receiving glory. It is. He's supposed to be some kind of wise, prophetic guru sitting on a mountaintop somewhere. Guys, it's all about man's glory. Just admit it. He's got all His little castles. I've seen some of them where He comes to stay for a couple of hours where people can adore Him and glory in Him. The world is all about man's glory. The world's about money. The world is about externalistic religions. The world is fighting God. The world is running away from God. So the world hates us as they hated Christ. That's what we get here. Jesus says, they will hate you. They are hating my disciples even as they hated me. But why would they hate Christ? Well, several reasons. One is because they are not of the world. They're aliens. Imagine that there's a group of people around the world with a third ear, right smack in the center of their foreheads. Do you think that everybody with two ears would hate the people with three ears? I even joke about this. The innies would hate the outies. You know, belly buttons? If we could see the innies and outies, you know there would be competition between innies and outies. Well, there's a vast difference between the Christians and the worldly people, especially their values. And so, you know, they pick up on this right away. You go to work on a Monday morning, people talking about money, people talking about entertainment, people talking about giving man the glory, giving themselves the glory, giving other men the glory, right? That's what they're doing. If they're hanging out like cows watering at the water tank, the little, you know, distilled water tank, they're all hanging around the water tank, and they're talking about this or that, and what do Christians do? I just want to give God the glory. Had a great time in church yesterday, just praising Jesus, and then what do everybody do? You know they're just gonna walk away from that, right? Because they're just not into it. They're not into the thing that we're most into. They're not into that. They're disinterested in what you're talking about. But here's another thing. There's a disposition in the heart of man that's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. There's a disposition towards evil in the hearts of men, and this disposition towards evil includes a malice to all that is good. Let me ask you this. Why did Cain hate Abel? Abel was a remarkable young man, wasn't he? Because his deeds were evil and Abel's were good. That's why Cain hated Abel. Why did Joseph's brothers hate Joseph? He was a remarkable young man. Why did the Jews hate Jesus? He was the best. Can't get a more compassionate, can't find a more righteous, can't find a more wonderful representation of all goodness anywhere? Well, of course, it's the heart of man that's the problem. And so, of course, of course, once you come into the kingdom of God, you're gonna find that the kingdom of men, the kingdom of Satan, is not going to like you very much. So therefore, brothers and sisters, there's always going to be a war. Now, amongst the Western Christians, there's been this attempt to create a detente. But the detente never lasts. Because here's what happens. The Christians say, okay, we're gonna learn to live with each other, and we're not gonna resist you, we're just gonna kind of accept everything you do, and we're not going to bring up the issues of religion and politics, and we're not gonna press back on your lack of morals, And so we're gonna live in detente with you, but the world comes back and says, now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. We're gonna introduce evolution to the public schools. We're gonna introduce a humanistic way of looking at man in the public schools, a child-centered form of learning. We are going to take away prayer and the Ten Commandments, and the Christians go, okay, well, okay, well. And one more thing, we're gonna teach your children transgenderism and homosexuality, but we'll exempt the charter schools. Oh, one more thing. We're not going to exempt the charter schools, including the home schools that are paid for by charter schools in the state of Colorado. And Christians keep going, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. And so as the ungodly turn up the heat, They press the antithesis on Christians, but it's not just that. It's not just HB 1032 and whatever the world is doing, God is testing Christian parents in the United States and the United Kingdom that is now facing its 2020 sexual education regulations that were just released about three weeks ago. It's not just that the wicked are doing this. Yes, the wicked won't tolerate a detente. while Christians will. But God isn't going to do it either. God is going to increase the heat on Christians to test whether there is any Christian faith left in America or the UK. He's going to press the question. Will you get your children out of these schools, or would it be better for you that a millstone be hanged around your neck and you be drowned at the bottom of the sea? Because you're stumbling, one of these little ones that believes in me. That's from Matthew chapter 18. Which is it going to be? He's pushing Christians. He's pressing against them as a test of their faith. Does this make sense? Other Christians are tested in other places around the world. Should we be tested? Christians in Pakistan, Christians in China are tested. What about us? Does it make any sense that we should be tested? We must not dedicate our lives to avoiding tribulations and persecutions. We must resist the world. And you know the Isaac Watts hymn that I've carried with me since I was 18 years old. Remember this? I saw this to be my marching orders as my parents prepared to go back to the mission field and I was heading off to the university on my own. We sang this in family worship. We sat in my living room, my parents out in Santa Maria, California some 30 years ago. Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas? Sure, I must fight if I would reign. Increase my courage, Lord, I'll bear the toil and endure the pain supported by thy word. So brothers and sisters, the real church needs to challenge its members to sign up for persecution. The church in China, do you know it's being persecuted because of its Christian school? Do you know that? It's why it's persecuted. The churches in Hungary, In Romania, back in the 1950s, were being persecuted, but you know why? Because they were attempting to disciple the children. The law forbade the baptism of a child or a young person, and the discipleship of the young people. That's what the communists have always been after, always. You say, well, why Brother Andrew? Because the communists did not want the older generation to teach the younger generation. Why the communist persecution in China? Because again, Christian schools. Why the persecution in America? Why the persecution in Canada? Because of this pressing in of statism and the indoctrination into certain forms of sexual sin in the schools. Our resistance is gonna take on different forms. And I think we have to be careful. If there are Christians who are taking this on a little different way than we are, that's okay. But again, the question is, are they resisting the world and always doing so in obedience to Christ? That's the question. Let's move on to verses 12 to 13. All right, we've talked about how the world presses in on us, the world doesn't like us, we are in the world but not of the world. We're here for a reason, but then 12 to 13 speaks of the preservation of the saints. Let me read. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me, I've kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Jesus said, I've come to keep them. I've come to guard them. I've come to be sure that those you've given me will be preserved to the very end. But then he says in verse 12, but one man is lost, except for one, and that was Judas. One man out of the 12 was lost. Jesus didn't preserve him, but why? Because he was the son of perdition. The word perdition means destruction. He was the son of destruction. He was intended towards destruction. He had been prophesied to be destroyed. Judas was an exception because God had prophesied it and predestined that Judas would not be kept. That Judas would be lost. That was fully intended by God while all the others were to be preserved. And so, brothers and sisters, we have to realize this is a reality in the church. This just is a reality in the church. There's a category of people described in 1 John 2.19. Now listen, this is the way John describes them, 1 John 2.19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Again, this of deal speaks of the derivation, speaks of this rooting, this belonging in Jesus. They were not truly rooted in us, they were not truly of Jesus, because if they had been truly of Jesus, they would not have left. And yet, they were with us for a while. So there's this category of people that we say are with us. They make up something of the visible church. There's some connection of them with Christ in this visible body, and yet they do not continue with us. 1 John 15, some consider this to be a bit of a conundrum, that any branch in me, Jesus said, that doesn't bear fruit is cast into the fire. People say, how can there be a dead branch on a live tree? How can there be a dead branch on a live tree? Has anybody ever walked into the woods? How many of you have ever been in the woods, ever? Quite a few of you have. So when somebody says, John 15 doesn't make any sense at all, how can there be a dead branch on a live tree? What do you say? Go into the woods. Haven't you ever walked into the woods? Again, the lack of an organic sense of theology is destructive to the modern rationalistic mind. The way we think tends to be more enlightenment, rationalism, instead of the organic approach that the word of God brings into soteriology. No, no, no, you go into the forest, you go into my forest, you'll find 80 trees with dead branches on them. And these trees are very much alive, thank you very much. So this kind of thing is a reality. There are people in the church that turn against the church. They criticize the church, they grow bitter against the church, they might blog against the church, and then they finally turn the church into the government. This kind of thing happens. It just does. It's not Judas as the only one. There have been others throughout the years where this has happened. So this is a reality. God intends there to be Judases. It's not a surprise to Him. The prophecies of Scripture must be fulfilled. And so Jesus is telling us not to be surprised. The response to those who turn, turn on the church. The response to this, what should it be? Well, it's don't get depressed about it. Don't get upset about it, don't get angry about it, don't sit around thinking about it. Listen to what Peter says in Acts 1. This is responding to the Judas scenario that had occurred, what, 40 or 50 days earlier. Peter stands before, you know, the 120 up in the upper room, and he quotes from the Psalms. He was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry, but let his dwelling place be desolate and let another take his office. So what is this? Move on. Move on. The church is gonna have bumps along the way. The church is gonna run into its Judases and Alexanders, coppersmiths. You say, yeah, all churches except for us. Well, brothers and sisters, we can't be an exception to the rule. This kind of thing has occurred from the beginning. So get over it and move on. This is precisely what they're doing in Acts 1. Let's find somebody who will be willing to lay down his life for Christ instead of betraying him. We need somebody to replace him. We need somebody to get out there and be another witness for the resurrection of Jesus, Paul says. We need somebody to get out there and shout to the world, Jesus already won this war and Judas was a miserable failure. So let's close the message with this. What is Jesus praying for his disciples here is two prayers that show up in verses 13 and 15. The first is that, look at verse 13, now I come to you, Father, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. So the first thing Jesus says is I want my disciples to be joyful in the world. And he does this by his prayer and by his words, by his teaching and prayer. I think you can interpret it both ways. He follows up the next verse and refers to his words. And I believe his words are very encouraging and joy-inspiring in his people, but his prayer is as well. So I think it's both. He keeps us by his prayer, he keeps us by his word, and he enables us to joy by his word. You know, living in the world can be depressing. We see this all the time. You ever heard the conversation? HB 1032. Abortion. Obergefell, the trilateral commission. This world is bad. Powerful bad. Big and bad. Yep, real bad. Real bad. 57% illegitimacy rights. Teacher just fired in Missouri for using the wrong pronouns. Bad. Drag queen story hour in Houston. Yep, that's bad. That's real bad. Did I mention HB 1032? Bad, bad stuff. Real bad. Satan has got control of that thing. Yep. Have you heard these conversations before? Have you participated in these conversations before? Anybody wanna admit it? But let me ask you this. Is that the truth? Is that the whole truth? You see what I'm saying? It ain't the whole truth. And that's the point, that's it right there. Get to the point. Get to the truth, the whole truth about what's happening What is the truth? Here's the truth. Let me just read the words of Jesus. Jesus said, I give them the words, in order they might have joy in the world, listen to this. See if this picks you up a little bit. Somebody says, HB 1032, what do you say? You know, Jesus said, in this world you shall have persecution, but be of good cheer, I have already overcome the world. And the world has been nailed to that cross, and it doesn't have that power over you anymore. The Prince of this world is coming. He has nothing on me. Nothing. Because I obey the will of my Father. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you. You say, that's just for the 12. No, that was for the 70. No, I'm sorry, that's for the 700 million. Amen? I saw Satan fall from heaven. And behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. All the power. How much power in the enemy do we have authority over? How much, roughly? All. Isn't that beautiful? How many of you are encouraged? HB 1032. I hear about that teacher out in Missouri, lost his job, used the wrong pronouns. What do you say? Jesus has already overcome this. Get your perspective of reality straightened out. Dial it in, baby. Jesus has already straightened it out, and not only does he have the power, we have the authority to trample on the serpents and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Brothers and sisters, that's what's really going on. The Syrian army, hey guys, guys, Guys, the Syrian army, they're gone. A couple of lepers out there. They're having a good time. Guys, stop eating your kids. Let's go out here and take advantage of the victory in Jesus. See, there needs to be a certain excitement and a certain thrill and a certain joy that comes with the real understanding of the real truth of what's really going on. Jesus interprets reality for us. And therefore, in the battle, pick up your face. Look a little more cheerful. There needs to be a little more joy in the battle. It looks to me like John Wayne or Rambo, they're having a good time when they've met the ambush and there's 600 people firing at them and they're just doing this. They're having a good time! I know that's a movie, but friends, in real life, that's us! We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We are. There's a certain thrill, there's a certain joy, there's a certain Amazing encouragement and faith to know that even as we are severely outnumbered, more so than Rambo, we still have victory. We still have the victory. Is there still joylessness amongst us? Are there joyless faces still about us? How long will you hold out and not participate in the joy of Jesus's words? How long will you refuse to join in the shouts of victory in the congregation of the saints? How long will you say, I'm just not gonna celebrate with Jesus? How long are you gonna hold out on this? Come on out. Express some joy. Good things are happening. Can you come to the point at which you're convicted by this and you're saying it's just not right for Christ to have the victory and for the rest of us not to acknowledge it? Would we give Satan the glory? Would we ascribe to Satan the power, the kingdom, and the glory forever? Will we ascribe Satan this? See how foolish that sounds in your mind? Do you all get this? It's foolish to think of it this way. As Christians, we have a great deal of joy in the battle. Now, let me say this. There seems to be sometimes a lack of joy or a sporadic joy amongst those that are not matured. Those that are up and down, those that are cast around by every wind of doctrine, those that seem to be in the ebb and flow on a constant basis. And I think that affects some of us, including me, from time to time. What do we say about these Christians? I think it's because oftentimes Christians are encouraged by their experiences, their dreams, their answers to prayer, and such things like this. But when the focus is on this, we get a Christian moodiness. and immaturity, the huge ups and downs in the Christian life, no steadiness, no abiding joy. See, here's what we need to do. We need to interpret our experiences by the Word of God. And the Word of God needs to be the framework by which we understand our experiences, our wins that we're getting along the way, our answers to prayer that we're receiving along the way. But if it's taking delight in the experience without interpreting the experience by the truth, the everlasting and eternal truth of God's word that defines the reality of what really happened on the cross and where Jesus really is right now. We're gonna be up and down, up and down, up and down. So brothers and sisters, what we need is God's word. This is what gives us the joy. The experience must be interpreted by God's Word, a verification of the relevance of God's Word in a particular time, in a particular experience. But it's the words of Jesus that fills us with a more permanent and lasting joy. All right, finally, Jesus says, I want them to have joy through my words and by His prayer. I desire the joy. in the world, in the battle, but secondly, last petition, here it is, but please, Father, I don't ask you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one, that you guard them from the evil one. The devil is a reality, but don't stop there. Many Christians are afraid to acknowledge the devil's real presence. I think that's almost a bigger problem. They don't want to acknowledge the supernatural. They're very nervous when people say, I think the devil is getting a foothold here. Or I think there's a satanic influence going on right now. I smell sulfur. And here's what the devil does, here's his strategies, and do you think that maybe his strategies are happening like right now, right here? And sometimes Christians are a little nervous about that, but you know he's a roaring lion. We see his carnage that he leaves behind, broken relationships, diversions, bondage, broken people, addictions, suicides, depressions, oppressions. Get a phone call from a local pastor. They're dealing with two murders in connection with their church just in the last few months. And he's crying out to us for prayer because they sense they are in massive spiritual battle right now. And there's some circumstances that I could share with you later that seem to indicate that somewhere in Elizabeth, right here in our town, apparently the devil's awake. He's prodding around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, and he found a few. Murders, suicides, these things are happening in our county. Yes, the devil is real, the devil's powerful, he's got Uzis, but we got a one trillion megaton nuclear warhead, okay? So see, keep that in mind. And when you begin to talk about the devil, I don't want to hear some quivering voice. I want to go to the next statement. Yeah, there's some Uzis. Where's our one trillion megaton nuclear warhead? Oh, here it is, I found it. So, brothers and sisters, we need to get into the battle. We need to realize the battle. But the hand of Jesus is on us and the demonic attacks. We should be amazed at the staying power, the keeping power of Jesus along the way. We have, as I said, authority over the demonic realm. Jesus said, I saw Satan fell like lightning, and I give you authority to trample on scorpions and serpents, but that's because, he says, you're mine. You belong to me. Take the authority you have as the son of the living God. as a participant in Jesus Christ, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and use His name freely. Use it reverently, but use it freely. It is amazing as you use the name of Jesus how quickly the devils flee. I'm amazed at how quickly things clear up. We start to invoke the name of Jesus. It is tremendous. Try it! Have any of you tried it? Somebody in the congregation was saying they're dealing with some kind of demonic Appearance or whatever, have you tried appealing to Jesus? Acknowledging Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords in the presence of these demons? Do so. Take authority as a son and a daughter of the living God. Also 1 John 5 18 reminds us, he that is born of God guards himself and the wicked one cannot touch him. In other words, not only can Jesus guard you, but he has given you the wherewithal to guard yourself. And sometimes I don't think we realize this. We don't realize, you know what? We can walk right into a bunch of hell's angels, or we can walk right into ISIS, or we can walk right into the prisons, and we are untouchable. The devil cannot touch us. We can witness God's truth in front of abortion clinics. We can witness God's truth in front of some witch's parlor somewhere. and call upon Jesus to cast out the demons from our neighborhoods. In fact, we've done it two times in this county, and twice, the witches have gone away. It's incredible what has happened, as we have just stood up and prayed. In one case, we prayed for the seances, the shops to leave, and within a week, it was done, and the website was down. Praise Jesus for this. He's in control. It's for us to take authority. It's for us to pray these prayers and to acknowledge the power that Jesus has over all of these principalities. So are you in the spiritual battle or are you on the sidelines? This is a battle of faith. We look up, we pray, we use the shield of faith. We use scripture. We spend maybe two to three hours on our knees if necessary. No big deal. Some people say, well, it might take an extra hour of prayer this morning. Why not? Pray these things down. You say, well, six or seven enemies today. Okay, it might take an extra six or seven minutes. Pray. While we breathe, we pray. Now, some of you are weary, and you're weary in the battle. I know this is something that happens, especially when you're attacked relentlessly over a period of maybe months or maybe a few years. Some of you are so weary, and I understand that. I can relate to that. Brothers and sisters, some of you have seen me over 25 years of ministry. I have been crushed. I have been humbled, I have been humiliated, I've been stepped on, I've been smashed, I've been overwhelmed, I've been dizzy and confused, I've been depressed, I've been discouraged, I've felt like there was a 600 pound wet blanket over me that I couldn't get out from under for weeks at a time. I understand it, I can give you the analogies, we can go on the side and do some group therapy together. But the point is, I'm still here. Praise God. Some of you are amazed I'm here. Wow, you again. You showed up again on a Sunday. I think we're amazed about each other sometimes. I know what you're going through, sister. I know what you're going through, brother. You've been going through this for two and a half, three, four, five, six years, but man, you're still standing. You're still here by the grace of God. Jesus's prayers are working. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We've taken our hits as a church. But still, I'm amazed at the level of unity and spiritual growth and the level of perseverance marked by this church. It is amazing, it's gotta be a miracle. That's all I can say. It's got to be a miracle. Every church gets bombed. Every church gets bombed. When this pastor called me, kinda had this crying out voice, and I prayed with him over the phone. I felt pretty strong, but I can remember days when I was like him. I knew what it was like to be Him when He called me. His voice was cracking. He was overwhelmed by the satanic attacks going on in this city. And I prayed with Him. And I just felt the Holy Spirit of God just coming in us and raising me up and raising Him up. And I said, we need to get a multi-church prayer meeting going on. Hallelujah. Amen, somebody? Amen. You put on the uniform, you start running down the football field with a ball, what's going to happen? You're going to hear the rumbling noise. What is the rumbling noise? It's the other team coming after you! This is what happens. It's a good war. It's a good battle. But I call you brothers and sisters to persevere because Jesus is on your team. Jesus is praying for you. Jesus is preserving you. Keep it up. Keep on going. Don't you dare think about giving up. Jesus is praying for you. He offers his name and his power to you right now so you can access more power and fight a bigger fight in the weeks and the months ahead. You've got the weaponry. You've got Jesus on your side. He's praying for you. What more do you need? You say, well, why do I have to stay in this battle? Why did Jesus put me here? Jesus loves this kind of stuff. Huge enemies attacking His people. Huge faith from His people facing off these enemies. and huge deliverances coming from a huger God. There's nothing more beautiful than that. Do you agree? Doesn't that make for a pretty amazing story? Somebody's been writing these stories into eternity. I know some of you young ladies are learning how to write stories. Get ready, you're gonna have some stories to write. Because we have faced off some of the most amazing enemies by the power of the living Christ, and we're gonna be telling these stories into eternity. We are lambs to the slaughter more than conquerors through whom He loved us. It's a cosmic spiritual scenario before us that gives God all the glory. This maximizes the glory of God. That's why we're here. That's why we're doing it. That's why you're sometimes so beaten down because, man, this is how God is glorified. It is more impressive, it is more glorious, it is more exhilarating, and it is a greater demonstration of real victory in our lives, that He has us here, and we cannot sail to heavens on flowery beds of ease while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. On the other hand, I give you examples of the Association of Christian Colleges who went for the Utah Compromise, and the evangelical colleges that are, multiple evangelical colleges that are saying no way to pro-life speakers. Some of the best pro-life speakers in the nation. They speak at UCLA, Harvard, Yale, other schools, but the evangelical schools will not bring the pro-life speakers in because they are too, quote, controversial. There is nothing more sick than that. There is nothing more unimpressive than that, than fear, cowardice, a lack of courage. In fact, those who maintain the cowardice will be among those who are cast into the lake of fire at the end. The cowards as well as the fornicators and the liars and all the others will have their place in the lake of fire. Why? Because it's unimpressive. because there isn't faith, because there's this lack of courage amongst those who run away from the battle. But on the other hand, when a Jack Phillips stands and stands and stands, when a Philip Zodiatis is put into prison for, what, five or six years, for his righteous actions that he took, and suffering in a prison in, what is it, Tennessee right now, day by day. It's, what, day 110 right now. Philip Zodiotes, Jack Phillips, Pastor Wong out in China, they're staying in the battle for years and years, still standing, still looking to Jesus. And in the case of Philip Zodiatis, organizing a prison ministry as he serves his time, and already two converts to Jesus Christ. He's still robbing the strongman's house. Praise God. Amen. That's what Jesus wants. That's what Jesus loves. This is what gives God the glory. This is Jesus holding on to his saints. as they continue to persevere and fight the good fight. Hallelujah. May we be among their ilk. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we praise you and thank you for the opportunity that we have to stay in this world. Father, yes, it is a test of our faith, but Father, without faith, it's impossible to please you. So we ask Lord for more faith. We ask Lord that you would have mercy on those who are so given to cowardice. Oh, Father, it's an age of faithlessness and cowardiceness. It's something, Father, we just ask you to have mercy on us, deliver us from this. And God, we pray that you would raise us up in persevering faith. We pray we would be a testimony to your grace every day as we stand in your grace, and we see that by your grace you have sustained us over the years, and perhaps 30 years of it, or 40 years, or 60, or 70 years of these demonic attacks, or these attacks from the world, Father, we pray that we will be trophies of your grace, preserved by your grace into all eternity. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As we come to the Lord's table this morning, we ask the visitors to take a look at the back of the bulletin here. We have a short synopsis on how we practice the Lord's table here at the church. And by the way, we are rewriting this to make it just a little bit more understandable, but I would ask that you take a look at that this morning before you partake with us. I'd like to draw from Psalm 23 because the psalm has been so much a part of my life for the last five years, and certainly we've been singing it for almost 20 years. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Do you catch the attitude here? Do you catch the, this is a faith song, this is what I believe, this is what God is doing in my life, and I am experiencing the victory in the battle right now in my life. That's what I'm getting here, brothers and sisters. Well, is this a safe place? I've answered that question before. Is the church a safe place? The answer is no. Of course it's not. Yes, of course it is. Are you with me? Okay. The answer is yes and no. An emphatic yes, an emphatic no. Indeed, we are surrounded. There have been times when I just sense far more demonic pressing in as I've walked into this building on a Sunday morning than any other experience I've had throughout the rest of my week. Why do you think that is? Is there something we're doing in this church building that Satan doesn't like very much? There is a thousand enemies that crowd in upon us. And even now, even now, I don't doubt that there might be a thousand demons pressing in upon us. But hallelujah, we're having a meal. Hallelujah, we're relaxing and we're not gonna have digestion issues. Amen? Because He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He does, and it's so cool. It's the coolest thing in the world. Amen? To be surrounded by a thousand enemies and saying, whoa, everything stop, we're gonna have a meal together. Almost sounds like what they did during the short armistice on Christmas Day in World War I. Same kind of thing. Okay, everybody stop, we're gonna have a good time. Like right now. By the power of the living Christ. Well, so many forces, you know their names. Every church deals with these things. The devil of unforgiveness. The devil that takes easy offense with brothers and sisters. The devil of doubt about your brothers. The accuser of the brother. You all know the names of these devils, don't you? Have you ever heard of these devils? They're a dime a dozen. the devil of gossip and slander, judgmentalism, jumping to conclusions, untruthfulness, the devil of worldly allurement, the worldly devil of self-reliance, the devil of absent-minded thinking in the middle of this exhortation. I just threw that one in just in case. Didn't know if there was one of those in here, but just in case there is one, I threw that one out. the devil of self-reliance, the devil of man's glory, the devil of the fear of the world, of the devil of evil, etc., the devil of scandal, sexual forms of leaven, the devil of confusion and distraction, wanting to drown out all the truth, the devil of enchantment, putting us to sleep and making us dull to the truth, and the devil of depression and oppression. We all know their names. You've seen them so many times try to destroy the church, been there, done that, seen all their t-shirts. It's just the same old, same old. And to be honest with you, brothers and sisters, I'm actually getting a little bored. I've seen so many of these same devils in this church over the last 19 to 20 years, it's like, you again? Man, that is so old. Does anybody relate to this? These devils, they're just like coming back again and again and again. The same old tiresome temptations, breathing their sulfur all over us, and here's what they want to do. Here's what they want to do. They want to take away our joy, our unity. They want to take away our love for each other, our focus on God, and our thanksgiving for what God did for us. Right? They just want to take all the air out of our gas balloon. And so when we come into the worship service, we're like, oh man, I'm just so depressed I can hardly lift my face. Isn't that what they do? That's the strategy. But I'm here to tell you, He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. That's what He's doing. He prepares a table in the presence of our enemies. And if He loved us enough to die for us, He will love us now. He will love us in this battle. Brothers and sisters, we have to believe this. He is with us to the end. Hebrews 13, I will never, never, never, never, never, five negatives, I will never, never, never, never, never forsake you in your battle. I am with you till the end of the age. He is there, He is with us, He loves us. If He loved us enough to shed His blood for us, He will love us when we shed our blood for Him. Does that make any sense? If He loved us enough to shed His blood for us, He loves us enough to share His blood with us. And we overcome by the word of our testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. And He shares His blood with you in a spiritual way. I don't know how it happens. But He shares Himself with us at this table. He comes to us. This is the best table in the world. He spreads this table before us in the presence of our enemies this morning. It's the best table possible because this is where we are closest to His presence and His power. Right here. He's in communion with us. Now, who is this? The living Christ. And it's by His blood we overcome the temptations and the attacks of the evil one. Amen. Father in heaven, O God, we praise You and thank You, God, that You sent Your Son, that He loved us and gave Himself for us, and that You loved us as well. And Father, You have so much bound up in this. If you have given us your Son, how shall you not with Him also give us all things? The logic is impeccable. And this morning, Father, we trust you. We receive your love. We thank you and bless you for your love. Father, we thank you that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins, but also is used to overcome the devil as we are the church in battle. Today, Father, we pray you'd encourage the hearts of those who are here. Set a table before us in the presence of our enemies. If those who have come in had a hard time with joy, and Father, they were struggling with unity here, whatever it is, Father, we pray that you would just relieve all of that right now. Just pull the devils back. Father, enable the joy. Enable the love for one another and the unity to blossom now, especially as we come into communion with your Son, Jesus. Amen.