I still remember a
sermon from when I was seventeen years old.
It was one of those that seemed to be preached
just for me. I was at the verge of deciding
my vocation. At the time I wasn’t open
to input from God on the matter—and for
good reasons. The only person that I knew who
let God show her what her vocation should be
became a single missionary nurse in Africa.
At seventeen years old I could not think of
anything worse than being a single missionary
nurse in Africa.
God had been working on
my heart the week before when I heard the sermon
which was preached on a Friday night at a Missions
Conference by Stuart Briscoe. His text was Ecclesiastes
12:1:
“Remember your
Creator in the days of your youth, before
the days of trouble come and the years approach
when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.”
I took that message to heart
and trusted God completely with my vocation
which, as it turned out, had nothing to do with
singleness, missionary work, or living in Africa.
Recently, I had the chance
to meet Stuart Briscoe when he was in Dallas
and tell him about my spiritual experience.
He too remembered the sermon. I told him that
I did remember God in the days of my youth,
but now those days are gone and I needed a new
message.
His message was from John
17, and I thought I would share it with you
too. It is a message for any generation. Youth
is not a requirement. John 17 is the sweet prayer
that Jesus prayed for Himself, His disciples
and each of us who would believe. Stuart said
that this page of our Bibles ought to be well
worn simply from the notion that these were
Jesus’ written words of His heart’s
prayer over us and expresses His longing for
us. The prayer is all about the world and how
God wants us to live in it. Even though I have
remembered my Creator in the days of my youth,
I am not done yet. The next step is the world!
Jesus prayed for us to recognize
that by knowing Him personally we have been
given to Him out of the world. We, who have
believed in Jesus, now belong to God. God has
given us to Jesus to complete His work in the
world. Just as Jesus brought glory to God through
His work in the world, so do we bring glory
to Jesus through our work in the world. Jesus
did His work in the world, and He continues
that work through those who believe in His name.
Though our faith in Jesus
has separated us from the world, we remain in
the world to give God glory. We live in the
world, but we are not of the world. Jesus was
not of the world. That is easy to grasp. Because
we have been united with Jesus through the Holy
Spirit, we are not of the world either. We are
now like Jesus and are of the Kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was sent into the world,
and now He is sending us into the world. The
world is God’s focus. He loves the world
so much He sent Jesus to die for our sins so
everyone who believes in Him can have eternal
life in heaven. Jesus’ hope for me is
that I will embrace that I have been given out
of the world and take hold of the fact that
I am in the world for a limited number of days
(youth is gone, but there is plenty of time
ahead). I am not to be of the world but to be
sent into the world to finish Jesus’ work
that He desires to do through my life. Now that’s
a lifelong message!
