A Kept Life - SERMON NOTES

Below are Pastor Ben's sermon notes from this past Sunday, in case they may be helpful for further study. To listen to the sermon, click the link above.

Intro: natural beekeeping

Who
1. The ones who keep (1-5):
(1) “glory” → God’s goodness displayed, celebrated (cf. Ps. 19, Heb. 1) (2) v.2-3 → “eternal life” = personal knowledge/experience with Father/Son (5) v.4-5 → Jesus’ keeping connected to his accomplishing (cf. Mephibosheth)

2. The ones who are kept (6-10):
(1) v.6,9 → those who have been given to the Son by the Father (2) to be given means you belong (cf. intramural guy) (3) v.7-8 → those who have trusted the words of Jesus (cf. John 6:66-69) (4) app to scripture → college doctrine night

How
1. Unity (11-12):
(1) v.11 → we are kept through unity with God and each other (2) as we experience more of Christ, we grow more closely together (cf. Tozer’s pianos, rowing, marriage triangle) (3) unity is NOT uniformity, similarity (cf. shep groups) (4) v.12 → unity not guaranteed

2. Protection (14-15):
(1) we are kept through God’s protection (2) v.14 → protected from those in the world who hate us (3) v.15 → protected from Satan (4) we are not to live in “holy huddles” (cf. Stott quote) (5) we are not to be naive about having an enemy (cf. Carson quote)

3. Commitment (17-19):
(1) “sanctify” → set apart for holy use (cf. OT background) (2) not isolation or inoculation but insulation (cf. Jeremiah 29:7) (3) living as one set apart is living on mission, while staying grounded in truth → we are sent like Jesus was sent (4) kept not the same as safe

Conclusion: Psalm 121 → kneeling

“Do not be the kind of Christian who leaves his Christian roommate in the morning and scurries to class to find a Christian to sit by. When dinner comes, he sits with the Christians in his dorm, and from there he goes to his all-Christian Bible study. He then goes to a prayer meeting to pray for the non-believers on his floor, but, as luck would have it, all the people on his floor are already Christians. At night he scurries back to his Christian roommate. He is safe! He made it through the day and his only contacts with the world were those brave dashes to and from Christian activities.”

“We tend to spend much more time praying about our health, our projects, our decisions, our finances, our family, and even our games than we do praying about the danger of the evil one.”