I want to say welcome to those of you who are at Grant's Trail in Fenton, and Mid Rivers. Those of you who are joining us in other places around the city, and around the country, and around the world, we're thrilled to have you here. But let's just start off with this. Kingdom, the Kingdom of God. We just sang about it. We just talked about it. What is the Kingdom of God? I mean, we just prayed, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." We probably ought to know what the Kingdom is. Well, think of the Kingdom as being God in charge, fully in charge. That's the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is a life, it is the world with God fully in charge. And Jesus says the Kingdom is breaking into the world, like right now. Sometimes when we talk about the gospel and we talk about the story of Jesus, we immediately jump to the end of the story, and it's like, "Yes, if I trust Him, then yes, I get to spend eternity with Him." And that's all true, and it's all good. But He has come so that we would have a life right now. I mean, this is what Jesus says. So when we think about that... By the way, if you're new here, this Jesus, we talk about Him a lot, okay? And the reason we talk about Him is He makes a way for us to be with God, but He shows us what this life is like. You want the best clue of what a Kingdom life looks like? Look at Jesus. There's joy, there's courage, there's boldness, there's gentleness, there's forgiveness. It's all there. It's why we hang onto His words. Let me just be really obvious with you. There is no kingdom without a king. That's right. And so we're going to proclaim around here that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you all. That's what we believe. And so we are hanging onto His words, and it's the worst night of His life. We're wrapping up this series today. But just to give you the context, it's Thursday night of what sometimes we call Holy Week. So He's about to be betrayed. This time tomorrow, He will be dead. They're in a room, it's a guest room. It's above this flat-roofed house. There's some clues, you can kind of put it together. Maybe it's a bigger house. Maybe it's in a nicer part of Jerusalem. But it's in this upper room where Jesus has this last meal with His disciples, and after that last meal, He has this long, rich, difficult, encouraging, profound conversation. The conversation actually spills out of the room onto the streets of Jerusalem as they make their way to really the next big scene of the night, and that's going to be in the Garden of Gethsemane. But we're not there yet. You see, in this part of the story, chapter 13 of the Gospel of John, John, who was there, an eyewitness, says, "Jesus loved them," the disciples, "to the end." He loved them to the end. Now, scholars will talk about what does that mean. Some of them say it means that He loves with such an intensity. It's He loves them fully. Others will say it means He loved them to His last breath. How about both? Can't it be both? I think Jesus is loving them all the way through. He's been saying for a while now, "It's not my time. It's not time. It's not time." But now here on this night, He starts to say, "The hour has come. It's time." You see, the whole Gospel of John has led to this moment. Now, if you were with us when we first started this series, I told you that there are some of the biblical experts will divide the Gospel of John up into four sections. Let me just tell you what these are real quickly. First of all, there's the prologue, and that's in chapter one. It's where John tells us who Jesus is. In the beginning was Jesus. Jesus was with God. Jesus was God. John tells you right up front, "I know who spoke the universe into existence, and His name is Jesus." Pretty big claim. Why does he say that? Well, now go all the way to the epilogue, the very end of the Gospel of John. He says, "First of all, I couldn't even fit all the stories about Jesus into my book. There's so much more. But these things I wrote so that you might believe that He is Messiah, Son of God, and by believing in His name, you could have eternal life." So that's the goal. That's the point. And then in between, these middle sections, that's where he makes the case for Jesus. Now, the first of these is sometimes called the Book of Signs. Kind of a weird name, but John uses the word signs for miracles. There are seven miracles that he talks about, and they point to who Jesus is. The last miracle is when He raises His friend Lazarus from the dead. That caused a stir. I mean, really, the political and the religious leaders decide at that moment He's too powerful, He's too popular, He's got to go. And so now the story starts to turn. The rest of the Gospel of John is what's called the Book of Glory. You see, now it's all heading towards the cross and the resurrection. Well, let's talk about glory for a second. What is glory? It's a big weighty topic when you read the scriptures. I'll just give you this for starters. It is the external expression of the presence and magnificence of God. Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." Creation tells us of God's magnificence and greatness. And Jesus knows the closer He gets to the cross, He will declare the glory of the Father. But if you really read all of this, you'll see that both the Father and the Son are going to be glorified in the death and resurrection of Jesus. There is a lot happening here, and we're getting really close to when it all begins to happen. But just so we can feel the intensity One more time. We're on the clock. You see, Jesus has dismissed the betrayer. Judas is not at the table now. Judas is going to go find the authorities. Judas knows where Jesus hangs out. It will not be long before Jesus is arrested, and it all falls apart. You see, we're getting very close to when the nightmare begins. But first, there is this prayer that he prays. We don't know where it is. It could be in the upper room, in between the upper room. We're not to the Garden of Gethsemane yet. But he prays the longest prayer that's ever been recorded in scripture. First part of the prayer, he's praying for himself. Second part of the prayer, he's praying for those remaining 11 disciples, and then the rest of the prayer, he's praying for us. Now, if you were with us last week, we jumped to the end because we couldn't wait. We wanted to see what he prayed for us. And do you remember what he prayed for us? I mean, when time is of the essence, when he's on the clock, what does he pray? "Father, may my people be the coolest kids in school. Father, may they be just the best looking, wealthiest, most connected, most influential. Father, may they win all the theological debates from here on out." No, what does he pray? Time is of the essence, and what does he pray? "Father, may they be one as you and I are one." It's a big, rich, heavy topic, but what he is saying here is, "Father, I want them to treat each other in such a way that, like the way they love and the way they serve and they champion each other, may it give off a little bit of the love that you and I have for each other within the Trinity." It's big stuff. It was deep water. But then we got practical, remember? I gave you a dance that you could use this week heading into the holidays. Do you remember it? Yes. It was one quick and two slows. That was the step. And then we ended by everybody locking arms. You remember how freaked out some of you were? And we all did it together across all sites. But we thought that's a good image of we are going to face these challenges in this world together. Well, that was last week. So now let's go back to the other parts of the prayer. You see, in the first part of the prayer, the big thing that I think we get is that Jesus knows who he is. Sometimes people will ask the question, "Well, did Jesus really know he was God? Did he ever say he was God?" Oh, Jesus knew. Go read those first five verses. I promise you he knew. He starts talking about how he and the Father had this glory before the world began, and you can almost hear a homesickness in him. He knows what's coming. He knows that eternal life is going to come through belief in him and the Father. He knows this. But he also now is going to get to a place where he knows what he's going to do for these disciples, and he knows where he's going to send them. You see, if we're really going to kind of look at the rest of this, part of what we'll see here is that Jesus says, "I have revealed you." He's talking to his Father. "I have revealed you, Father, to those whom you gave me. I gave them the words you gave me. And you know what? They accepted those words, and they believe that you sent me." You all, Jesus is loving them to the end. And if you read the whole story of that last night, they were a bit of a handful. But he's loving them to the end because he knows where he's sending them, he knows what their assignment is. He knows it goes beyond tonight. It goes on for years. And Jesus is helping them to understand how they're going to make it through now. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." Why? Because Jesus is the king. Right. And so he sends them on a mission. Now, I want you to see how our mission is wrapped up in their... Well, we'll get to that. I'll tell you what, let's take a break, first of all. So those of you at the sites, I'm going to toss this now to one of your campus pastors, and I hear Ben's going to come up. I want us to understand our mission, a little bit of how the kingdom is working its way through our community. So come on up. We'll see you guys in just a second. Yeah, because the kingdom of God really is breaking in and at work in our midst. You probably saw a picture of it walking through our lobbies on the way into church today because this is our For the Lou Fall Collection weekend. And we do talk a lot about the love of God, his love for creation, his love for us, and then that same Jesus says, "I want you to go and love as you have been loved." And we take that seriously as a church. That's why this idea of expressing love is one of our three E's. It's a part of our mission as a church, and you all are doing it. Like the collection outside, we have coats, we have food, we have cleaning supplies that are going to leave these walls and go throughout the city of St. Louis and bless others. So thank you for being a part of it. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing because this is what the church looks like as God's kingdom begins to break in. Now, if you're here and you are thinking, "Oh, man, I forgot," don't you worry. There's still time to participate. You can drop off donations up to 1:30 today, so there's still time. Run to Target, run somewhere, bring some stuff back, and be a part of what God is doing. I know for me, as a pastor, it is so much fun to be a part of a church that is so, so generous, and you're generous with your time, with how you serve. You're generous with donating things like you did for the fall collection this weekend. You're generous with your resources. Those of you who give financially as an act of worship to the ministries of this church, thank you. Thank you for being a part of what God is doing here. If you are new, we've talked to you a couple of times already today, but if you are new, don't feel any pressure to give. Instead, come talk to us. My name's Ben. I'd love to meet you. Our pastors will be down here after the service. Come say hey. That's your job, and all of us, we have something else we want to do right now. We have a job, and that's a discussion question that we're going to be talking about. If you are new to The Crossing, we do this from time to time. It just helps us think about scripture critically and put ourselves in the story. So now, talk to the people around you. What do you think about being sent on a mission? Think about that question, talk about it. What do you think? And then Greg will be back up in just a minute. Okay. I'm quite sure there were great answers at the sites. Anybody here, when you think about a mission, anybody, what do you think about mission? Anybody got anything? Adventure. Adventure. I like that. Anybody else? You have no choice. Oh, okay. You've got no choice. You've been sent. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. Service. Service. Okay, so I'm going to serve others. Yeah. I heard another one over here. There's a purpose. There's a purpose to it all. You guys are all over. You guys think you got anything that can match up with that over here? Anybody got anything? Like anything? Okay, no, you're just going to let them carry it. All right. Okay. All right, so here's the thing. When we think of mission, like I heard one definition of mission is a cause that is bigger than you that you think is worth giving yourself to. That's a mission, right? And so mission comes up in so many different ways. For some of us, we think of the military, right? They're sent on mission. For some of us, maybe you've been in an organization or a company and it's like, "Wow, I think we're going to work on this project and it's going to make a difference. We're going to give our all to this." Or it could be something in the community that you're like, "Let's lock arms. Let's get this done." It could be any number of things. For some of you, it's an athletic thing where it's like at the beginning of the season, the team goes, "This is our mission. This is our goal." For some of you, like you're old enough to think of the Blues Brothers. Anybody? Anybody bring up the Blues Brothers in your disc- "We are on a mission, a mission from God." Anybody know that one? Some of you are like, "I don't even know that movie." You remember Avengers? Avengers assemble, right? So there are these missions that we're called to. Mom's on a mission to get the house ready for the guests over Thanksgiving. Dad's on a mission to be busy that day. So we've all got our missions, but I want you to know this. If you've ever been on a mission, like you've been in something that was, like you were working hard and you were getting stuff done, it kind of felt like you were made for that, and I'm telling you, you were. Here's where it gets tricky When I start talking to you about a mission from God, that you've been sent on mission from God, some of you at that point are going, "Hang on there, Greg. Don't you go getting all Jesus freaky on me. Please don't tell me that now we've got to go convert people because we don't do that anymore. We don't tell people about our faith anymore. We don't evangelize. Please don't tell me I've got to stand on the corner and tell people about Jesus." Now, listen to me. I understand your discomfort. For some of you, you've got bad memories banging around your head. And for some of you, there was when your Aunt Thelma just kept lecturing you about things. Or maybe it was that person at work or at school, and every day, they just kept throwing a scripture at you. Not to help you, but it was just like a dart that they were throwing at you. Or maybe there was that season where your mom and dad thought guilting you into something was actually going to be helpful. I get the discomfort, but what I want us to do is let's go back to the words of Jesus. So he's praying here now for his disciples, and some of you at this point might be thinking, "Oh, good. He's praying for them. That means we're off the hook." Not exactly. You see, our mission is wrapped up with their mission. It's so, so close. So let's just drop in now, verse 13. We'll pick verses up on both sides of it here. But Jesus, this is his prayer. "I say these things," we'll come back to those. "I say these things while I'm still in the world so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them." Now, Jesus has this sense that he's leaving the world, but right here he's saying, "Father, I want them to have the same joy that I have. That's why I'm praying these things." So the first big point, by the way, there are four points. They're going to flash on the screen. We're going to put them up there. You're going to be able to write these down. Whenever we do a message like this, it's like Christmas morning for some of you. So I just want to say you're welcome, okay? But here it is. The first one is this: There is joy in the mission. Amen. You see, part of what Jesus is praying is, "Father, I want them to know the same joy that I have because I know that I'm on mission and I'm doing what you sent me to do." That word sent is a big deal. If we go to verse 18, Jesus says, "As you..." Remember, he's praying to his Father. "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." Now, let's just do a little original language stuff here. That word sent in the Greek is the word apostelo. Let me hear you say apostelo. Apostelo. What word do you think we get from apostelo? Anybody? Apostle. Apostle. Of course, apostle. And some of you are going, "Great. I've been looking for a title I could use around here. I'm Apostle Bob." Right? That's what you want to use now. That's not really the point, but I do want you to see that they have been sent with this message. They are to proclaim, they are to live out the good news of the King. After Jesus is resurrected, when it all starts to settle in on these guys and their minds are fully blown, we're in John 20 now, and he says these exact same words. "As the Father sent me, I'm sending you." In Matthew 28, he gets even more blunt. He says, "Go. Go. Make disciples. Tell my story. Teach people how to follow me. Baptize them in the name of the Triune God. Go." Now, just to kind of underline the point, in the Latin translation of this verse 18, so this is centuries later, Jesus wasn't speaking Latin, but in the Latin translation, that word sent is the word missio. There you are. It's a mission. You think about it. I would suggest to you that the people who are living the fullest, most joyful lives are the people who are connected to something bigger than themselves. They're people who they're not just going through day to day to day to day. They know they are connected to something bigger. And if you are now connected to what God is doing in the world, there is such a level of soul satisfaction. That's what Jesus is praying. You see, we're going to start a two-week series next week called "Entrusted," where we're going to explore this glorious thought. We get to be good stewards of everything God has given us because he's inviting us to partner with him. He is still up to things in this world. So there's joy in the mission, but I need you to know there is also challenge in this mission. Now, they don't rule each other out. Sometimes you're like, "Oh, man, well, there went the joy." No. No, listen to me. The joy is how you get through the challenge. There's an extraordinary verse in the Book of Hebrews where it says that, and we really kind of sang this in the last verse. But it says, "For the joy set before him, he," Jesus, "endured the cross." That doesn't make sense, does it? For the joy that's before him, he's going to endure the cross? Are we minimizing the cross? Are we saying, "Well, it must not have been that big a deal to him. He just kind of did it." Not if you listen to his heartbreak in the garden. Not if you listen to the dread that is coming. Did you know there's a physical condition, a medical condition, it is very rare, but people under extreme duress, under extreme stress, can get to a place where the capillaries around their sweat glands burst and rupture, and now the blood begins to leak into the sweat ducts, and it comes out of your skin like, well, Luke says in chapter 22, like drops of blood. Jesus is overwhelmed in the garden. "Father, is there any other way?" Please don't minimize the cross. But as Jesus faces this God forsakenness, the scriptures tell us there was joy. Where? On the other side of it because he gets to be with the Father. He knows the love and the joy, the relief of being with the Father. This is what he is homesick for. But there's even more. He knows that he has now made a way for us to be there and for us to enjoy God that way. You see, this was the plan all along. This was the mission of our Triune God. This was the rescue of all rescues, and it had to be done. And Jesus is saying the cross is worth it. Why? Because you are worth it. Now, this is the message that these disciples are supposed to now share with the world. But Jesus knows not everybody's going to love it. In fact, he says in this prayer, "Father, they're going to hate them. Just like they hate me, I know they're going to hate them. They're not of this world any more than I am." He knows that these disciples are now going to live differently, and they're going to tell this story, and it's not always going to go well. The religious leaders of that day hated this message of God come to earth to rescue them. They had just crucified him on the cross. They hate it. The Romans hated this message. Over the next couple of centuries, they executed countless Christians because they kept saying, "Jesus is Lord, not Caesar." People don't like to have to admit their own sin, their own stuff, and we don't like to admit that we need help. I want to be real careful here for just a second and say I'm not about to compare us. I'm certainly not comparing me to what these early Christians went through. I'm not comparing me, and maybe us, to what friends around the world go through when they gather together and it endangers their businesses, their churches, their families, and their very lives. Now, if you don't join us very often, or maybe you weren't here, you didn't hear this before, we are connected around the world to a lot of people who join us online. And I just got to say this before I talk to our church. I know what you're facing is real. And I know many of you, your very lives are endangered, and you get to kind of quietly join us. And I know many of you by name, and I need you to know we love you. You're not alone. We do offline ways of trying to let you know, but if you need help in any way, you got to let us know. We are with you. You are not crazy for proclaiming the good name of Jesus. But for the rest of us, let me just say this. We pay a price, too. It's not that, okay? So we had to start there. But when you and I say that there really is such a thing as right and wrong, that there is such a thing as truth, when young people, because of your commitment to biblical standards, you have a different approach to sexual ethics, or you treat people outside your friendship circle differently than everybody else does. Or maybe your neighbors roll their eyes when you invite them to Christmas services. Or maybe- Somebody in your family has ghosted you, or somebody on the team or at work makes fun of you because you believe in Jesus. I'm telling you, these things happen. You see, there are people who don't want to admit that there is such a thing as sin. There are people who don't want to admit that there is such a thing as a consequence to that sin. We don't want to admit that there's someone bigger than us. And then there are some of us who are just downright offended when we suggest that you can't make things right, that your good isn't good enough. Y'all, let me just explain the gospel to you in my language in one sentence. Standing before you is a sinful, broken man, but by the grace of God, he says, "I'm not beyond repair." That's right. I don't get it, but I never want to get over it. Amen? Amen. And so that's the message. That's what we do, and there is a challenge. But then Jesus rushes right in and says that there is protection in this mission. "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one." Here we go. Are you really saying, Greg, that you believe there is an evil one? I am. We've taught entire messages on this. I believe in the presence of evil. I believe in the one who is not God's equal, but he is God's adversary. And what we see in the scriptures is that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus spells the ultimate defeat of the devil. It is the beginning of the end of things for him. But for his own good reason, God is allowing the story to continue so more people can come to him, and in this in-between time, evil can still inflict damage. But notice that Jesus doesn't pray, "Father, will you just take my people out of the trouble?" Why? Because we got a mission. Right. And so this is one of those verses that I'd never really let this one sink in before. Jesus is praying for our protection, but in the middle of this prayer, he says, "While I was with them, I protected them, and I kept them safe by the name you gave me." Jesus is saying, "Father, you know this, but I protected them from all sorts of stuff. You know that." You ever protected somebody or been protected and you really had no clue, maybe until later? This happens on athletic fields and on the ice and in places like that all the time where somebody's got your back, somebody protects you, and you don't even know it until later when you watch the replay and you're like, "Wow, I had no idea. You had me covered." But we don't have instant replay in real life, do we? So let me just say this to you. When you snatch a three-year-old out of the disaster that almost happens, and they never had a clue. When you get in between that issue, like something bad is coming towards somebody at work or at school. When you're the one who stops gossip in its tracks because you want that other person's name to be safe in your mouth. You are protecting them, or maybe they're protecting you. And Jesus does this all the time. We don't even know how often he protects them. We got a couple of ideas. They have a couple of ideas. We all know in the Gospel of Mark, where he stops the storm with words. They're freaking out, thinking they're going to drown, and Jesus stops the storm in its tracks. I'll tell you another one that I'm absolutely convinced I never forgot was in that chapter of Mark. I think it's the fifth chapter, the next chapter. There's the demon-possessed guy, and it says the people in the community kept trying to chain him. So I want you to picture this now. It says, "Nothing held him," like he's breaking the chain. So I want you to picture now a guy who's got broken chains, demon-possessed, lives among the tombs, so he's coming out of the graveyard at Jesus and the disciples. I guarantee you, the disciples got right behind Jesus. Jesus is always protecting them. But watch this. There's so many ways that he had to have been protecting them throughout their time together, and they never even noticed it. Do we? You see, I think sometimes we think we're in more control than we really are. We like to think that we're in charge of a lot of things. Peter. God bless Peter for his stumbling, bumbling ways because they look so familiar to me. But Peter gets himself in trouble when he thinks he has to protect Jesus. Now, he's done it at other times, but he did it this night, earlier in the meal. He says, "Jesus, I'll lay down my life for you." And Jesus goes, "No, you're going to deny even knowing me before daybreak." You'd think he'd learn, right? But he gets out in front of himself again, a couple, three hours later. Now we're at the Garden of Gethsemane. The authorities are coming to arrest Jesus. Now remember, Jesus has said, "This is going to happen, Peter." He says, "Peter, this has to happen." Peter sees it all happening, and he goes, "Yeah, still doesn't seem right." He grabs a sword and lops the ear off of one of the guys who came to get Jesus. It's in the very next chapter of John. Here's the thing. Malchus wasn't even one of the soldiers. He was like the servant to the high priest. He's got to be thinking, "What are you coming at me for?" Lops his ear off. Jesus now, this is the worst night of his life, and he's cleaning up another one of Peter's messes. Go read it. He heals the guy. He reattaches the ear. If you got close, could you even imagine what that conversation was like? "Listen, I'm really sorry about this guy. I've been working with him for years." "He's going to be something someday, but he's not there yet." Peter thought he was protecting, but Peter needed protection. Peter thought he was in charge, but he needed to trust the one who is sovereign. Now, I'm not telling you this to stir up fear. I'm just telling you the truth. Jesus says right here, "I'm not going to be in physical form. I'm not going to be with these guys. I've been feeding them, guiding them, negotiating their squabbles. I've been doing all of this, Lord. But Father, you've got to help them. You've got to be with them." Well, he is, and he does. It won't be in physical form. His word is one way he protects us. We don't just get to go through this life going, "My gut says I should just do this. Feels right to me." No, he's given us guidelines of how to live. He's given us this sense of what the priorities are, what the values are. We arrange our life that way, and when we do, well, we're protected because now we're on mission. But I need you to know there is a supernatural protection that is happening here. Again, I'm not trying to make this too much, but it's supernatural. It's the only way that we're going to be protected. Jesus says, "Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me." This isn't some incantation. We're not being superstitious here. But I'm telling you, the name of God is about his character and his goodness, and it's about his power. Psalm 54:1 says, "Save me by your name, O God." Proverbs 18 says, "Your name is a strong tower." Jesus says, "I'm not going to be here. You got to protect them by your name." Woo. It's really interesting. What else does he say there, though? "So that they may be one as we are one." Well, there it is again. Here's a newsflash for a church that is trying to live out John 17. When the evil one can't stop us from making progress this way, do you know where he's going to attack? Our unity. Amen. "Holy Father, by the power of your name, protect us and help us to be one." You see, that's really what this is coming down to. So he doesn't ask for them to be removed from the world. He tells them they're being sent. He says there's going to be threats, there's going to be persecution, but the kingdom of God advances. Evil will not win. In one of John's letters, 1 John 4:4, he says, "Greater is he that is in you, that is in me, than he that's in the world." Never forget that. This is the adversary of God, but he is not his equal. And when you turn to Jesus, he's got you. He's got you. But he's also going to call you to a different life. You're going to be sent on this mission. So the next thing is there's going to be some tension in the mission You ever heard the phrase, "Be in the world, but not of the world?" Yes. What does that even mean? Well, I'm so glad you asked. I want you to just explain that to each other, will you? What does it mean to be in the world, not of the world? Because it's kind of a tricky thing. I want us to wrestle with this before we leave. What do you think that means to be in the world and not of the world as a follower of Jesus? If you're not a follower of Jesus, you get to just listen in. Go ahead, talk to each other. All right. I'm sure your answers were great. Let's see if I'm getting close to your answers. I want to just dial this in a little bit before we leave here. First of all, let's not forget that we've been sent into this world. So that word sent, we just talked about this in verse 18, and we go back to that word in the Latin, missio, mission, all of that. By the way, thank you to Tim Keller on his work for that. It helped a lot. But our life, we're not of this world. We've been sent into this world. So we got to have a countercultural vibe to it, right? But I want you to now, and we're not going to get into the grammar of it, but there's a difference between in and into. Like in is just, "Man, I'm in the world." Into means there's a location. You were sent into. So Jesus sent you into the world. The world, by the way, means all of those people who still need to be reconciled to God. So now here comes the tension. We are to love the non-Christian family, friends, coworkers, neighbors. We are to love those people. We don't condone their rebellious ways. We don't join in those rebellious ways. We don't get affected by those rebellious ways. But we have to love them. And get this, for us to share the good news, you're going to have to move onto their turf. Never forget that we are a sent people. So really what this means is we're sent, but we can't be confused with the world. If we were to do a little fill-in-the-blank thing and say, if we are just as blank as the rest of the world, then they're not going to listen to us. We can fill in that word with a bunch of stuff, right? If we are just as cranky as the rest of the world, if we are just as immoral as the rest of the world, if we are just as-- We could just go through everything, right? So we are to be different, but watch this. We love extremes, and so it's going to be a continuum, and you will, for the rest of your days as a follower of Jesus, be adjusting to this thing. Let me see if I can help you here. We can't be seduced by the world, but we can't hate it either. I mean, we can't hate the people in the world because Jesus loves them. We don't let our habits morph into the habits of the world, but we don't pull so far away that we've given up on the world because God hasn't given up on the world. Sometimes people say, "It's so ugly out there. Man, I'm just going to retreat to my castle, pull up the drawbridge, and wait for Jesus to return." But the very minute you do that, the fortress walls get thicker and thicker and thicker. And I'm telling you, according to Jesus, you're not on mission. But you also don't go into the world and just blend in. That's not what he's saying. That leads to a kind of what I call a camouflaged Christianity. Like you're a mere ghost of yourself. You're present, but not really. Now, I understand the landmine there because there's just fear that you're going to be rejected, that you're going to be blown up. But we have to live in this tension of being not of the world, but knowing that we've been sent into the world. And so what does that look like? Well, it looks like a lot of things. It means we ask a lot of questions. We let people ask questions. We don't act like we've got it all figured out, but we do know who Jesus is, and we trust Him with everything. We keep our eyes on Him, and we love, and we serve, and we forgive, and we champion, and we speak truth courageously and lovingly. By the way, if you love and serve and champion people, you got a much better chance of them listening to you speak truth to them. Right. It's like, well, how do we do that? Well, we can't. It's a cheerful thought, isn't it? We can't. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit in us do we even get to a place where we can do this. Oh, by the way, those of us who are believers as we're living this constantly adjusting life where we want to listen to the Spirit, and we want to be sent into this world, but we're not going to be of the world. We're supposed to keep loving each other, which means we ruthlessly push away from gossip and from holding grudges and from blowing each other up as Christians, because if we do that, the world's going to stop paying attention to us. And the only way we can get there is the power, the presence, and the healing of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But why do we do that, Greg? Because everything you're saying, my honest answer is it seems like it'd be easier to bail. It would be easier to play it safe. So why do we do this? Because the King of Glory broke into the world for us. Because His sacrifice bought us freedom on the cross. Because I've never gotten over that grace. Because His resurrection punches a hole in the back of the grave, and now there is hope. I know that sounds like a lot, but because of Jesus, and it's always Jesus, it's true. You see, Jesus is the only answer for me, for you, for us, for our friends, our neighborhood, and our world. The hope of the world is not a mountain of money. It's not a political moment. It's not some technological wonder or scientific achievement. It's Jesus, always Jesus. He is the King. Amen? Amen. You see, as we give our lives away now, and we start loving and listening and serving and telling people about Jesus, some of them are going to come to Him, and there's going to be great joy, but there will also be tragedies where we weep, and we grieve with each other, but still there's hope. But if we proclaim the truth, there will also be moments of persecution and rejection when we've been carved out of a conversation. But even then, there is hope because the Kingdom of God is still advancing. Your last point is this: There is victory in the mission. Hebrews 12 says that we are a part of a kingdom that will not be shaken. And I was writing earlier this week because we talked about, oh, this is a big election, and all of those things. And I was thinking, however this thing goes, there are going to be some people who are shaken on one side or the other of this thing, depending on how it goes. But the more I thought about it, I was like, "I think we're all shaken." Doesn't really matter which side of what issue you're on. Most of the people I talk to these days are looking at me and saying, "Greg, is the world ever going to get any better?" Now, I'm just going to tell you here at the end, this isn't going to be a kumbaya moment. Now, some of you aren't even old enough to know what kumbaya is. But it's a song that people sang around campfires. I don't know. What do you guys sing around a campfire? Riptide? I don't know. Maybe. Wagon Wheel? Anybody say, "Oh, that'd be a good one." Country Roads Take Me Home? Yeah. I'm just going to tell you, in a previous century, in a galaxy far, far away- ... people sang this old cheesy song, "Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya." No, don't sing. You'll trigger me. Kumbaya. Here's my point, here's my point, here's my point. We're not going to end singing kumbaya around the campfire. Listen to me. This world is broken, and it will not be fully healed or restored until the King returns. But I am telling you, Jesus is coming back. Yeah. Now, until that day, He has sent us into this world that He is still loving, he is still reconciling to Himself. And that means you and I get to be on mission, and we get to tell people who Jesus is, and we get to reflect who Jesus is. It's the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that changes everything. You see, let's state the obvious. Nobody here is, I hope, please Lord, nobody here is going to ever be crucified. But we might face those little deaths, as one writer puts it, those things that we face every day. Death to another helping of food or another mixed drink. Death to making eye contact with the girl across the room when your wife is across town. I would keep adding onto that and say death to the habit of always being right. Death to building coalitions of whispers and snarkiness. Death to ignoring those who are in trouble. Death to so much busyness in our souls that we just begin to wither on the inside. Death to the argument that always ends in anger. Why would we put these things to death? Because we want to live healthy lives. Because we want clear heads. Because we love our spouses, we love our kids, we love our friends. Because we love Jesus, and he knows what's best. It's Jesus, always Jesus. But the life that he has called us to isn't just saying no to some of these destructive things. Jesus brings things to life for us. You see, we get to tell his story in our own way. It won't be perfect. It'll be messy sometimes. It won't be pretty. It won't always be impressive. But it just might be real enough and close enough and filled with the Spirit enough that God changes the world again, one story, one moment, one decision, one choice at a time. So when in a previous service this weekend, a young woman comes up, a foster mom comes up and introduces me to a little four-year-old. That four-year-old's got a chance now, and she's got light and life in her eyes. I wish you could have seen her. When a 20-something or a 50-something actually dances the dance we learned last week. And some of you are like, "You keep saying the dance. What was the dance?" It was one quick and two slows. James 1:19. "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger." You all, that'll serve us well through the holidays. Yes. When somebody wakes up in the middle of the night and just starts praying for a friend. When another friend shows up just out of nowhere because somebody is in need. When you people give your resources for food and coats and cleaning supplies. Look, and for some of you, your budgets are tight. But when you do this for people whose names you don't even know, come on. When a teenager or a 30-something takes a deep breath when they're asked the question, and then they answer with gentleness and respect and profound courage. When somebody says, "Hey, how come you're so different from us? How come you don't sleep around? How come you don't party with us?" When people share their time and their talent and their treasures, I mean their financial treasures in a way to where the name of Jesus is proclaimed throughout the city. When I watch grown men gather together with a new believer and rally around him as he faces the storms of his life to remind him he is not alone and they will walk with him. I'm telling you, all of these things are the kingdom of God breaking into this world. And you all, that's our mission. We have been called to that in every way. If you're at this place in here at the end and you're going, "Man, I don't know Jesus that way," you come talk to one of the pastors here in just a second because that's when your life changes. But for the rest of us, the question is, are we going to do something with what Jesus has told us, or will we settle for far less? You see, when he sends us into the world, he gives us that promise, "I'll be with you to the end of the age." Physically, he's not walking with us, but in a supernatural, you can't even deny it way, Jesus is before us, and he is with us, and he's around us, and he's protecting, and he's providing. Jesus loves you to the end. So here we are now wrapping this thing up. I say long after today, let's hang on to the words of Jesus because he's the king. Amen? Amen. I say let's continue to remember that there's the potential for huge change when we trust him with just the next step. Amen? Amen. You see, I'm telling you, if Jesus is the king, then every choice and every decision you make is crackling with God's redemptive power. Amen? Amen. So one more time, may your kingdom come. May your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Amen? Amen. Amen.