Message by Larry Thacker Jr. for April 29: What? In the World?
We are in the world but not of the world. If you’ve been in church, you’ve probably heard that said many times. It comes from the things Jesus said in the prayer that is the subject of this week’s message. Sometimes when we get weary of all the bad things happening here, we comfort ourselves with this understanding. We often hear it used to urge us to live a life befitting a child of God. This too is reasonable, but it falls short of conveying the true meaning in Jesus’ words. We are not of the world because we have His word in our hearts. We are in the world because He placed us here and gave us a mission! We rightly yearn for the time when we will be with Him and all will be made new, but while we are here we have a purpose. When we embrace it, we will find the joy that He meant for us to have. I suggest reading the whole chapter so that you will have the context, but we will focus on John 17:13-21.
