Friday 12 June 2020

John 17:18-20

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.”

According to Jesus’ prayer, your role in the world can be summed up in one word: Sent!

Who are you sent by? Jesus. He was sent into the world by God the Father—sent as a man who would depend on the Holy Spirit and on God the Father for guidance, anointing and power. This Jesus, who obeyed the Father’s leading and saw the Spirit working through him in amazing ways that could not be explained by his humanity, is sending you out in that same way. He wants you to obey his leading and rely on the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t want you to rely on what you can—or can’t—do.

Why is he sending you? To live in his name and continue his mission in this world—to seek and to save the lost.

Where is he sending you? Into the world! This is the thing you must keep coming back to until it is part of the way you think, part of you. The best part of the Christian life is not when you escape from the world and come back into your Christian subculture and sing worship songs together. That is a great part of the Christian life, which God uses powerfully to strengthen and prepare you. But the best part is the part where you live for Jesus in the world, where you go deeper with your secular friends in the world, where you talk about Jesus in the world. As Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Write your name into this statement of truth from Jesus:

As you [God] sent me into the world, so I have sent

[your name here] ___________________________ into the world.

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