Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How To Follow Jesus in a World That Doesn't | The Gospels | John 17:6-19

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Are you more shaped by Scripture or by your surroundings? How can Christians avoid isolating from the world or becoming just like it? Where does Jesus tell us to find our identity? In today's episode, Keith unpacks John 17:6-19 and explains how Jesus prays for his followers to live faithfully in the world without being defined by it. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 17:6-19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. We're in John 17 together, and I want to start our time by reading a quote from a pastor who lived in the mid-1800s. His name was D.L. Moody, you might be familiar with him. He was a pastor in Chicago, but this is really, really good, and it's one of the points that Jesus makes in John 17. Moody said, Christians live in the world, but should not be filled with. with it. A ship lives in the water, but if the water gets into the ship, she sinks to the bottom.

So Christians may live in the world, but if the world gets into them, they sink. So Moody compares Christian to a boat. The boat is designed to be in the water, but if the water gets in the boat, there's a major problem. Left alone, water in the boat sinks the boat. Similarly, Christian should be in the world, but if the world gets in us, then our faith starts to sink. Christian should be in the world, but not of the world. While that exact sentence isn't in the Bible, it's what the Bible teaches. Jesus wants his followers to be in the world. That's where we belong. That's where he has us living. That's where we fulfill our God-given mission. But he doesn't want the world in us, like the world's values, the world's way of thinking. The moment the values, the fears, the appetites

of the world get inside of us and start filling us up, well, at that moment we start to sink. On the last night before Jesus is crucified, he prays for his disciples and all, all those who believe through their preaching. I just want to read a portion of it and then we'll unpack it. Jesus prays this. He says, I'm coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them,

for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. sanctify them by the truth your word is truth as you sent me into the world i have sent them into the world for them i sanctify myself that they too may be truly sanctified now whenever we talk about living as a christian in a culture that is going a different direction that has different values than us there are two mistakes that christians tend to make the first mistake is that some christians isolate

themselves from the world. This is the instinct to retreat, to live in a bubble or a holy huddle, to have only Christian friends and only Christian music and only Christian everything, to have as little contact with the outside world as we can manage. That makes us feel holy. It makes us feel safe. But listen again to what Jesus said. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world. See, Jesus could have prayed that God would evacuate us from this world, but he didn't. Now, the other mistake Christians make is to assimilate in the world. This is the opposite. of isolating. When you assimilate, you blend in so completely that there's no difference between you and the world. You have the same values and the same priorities and the same anxieties as everyone else,

and of course with a little faith sprinkled on top. But Jesus says twice in verse 14 and in verse 16 that his people are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. See, you and I, we belong to another kingdom. We belong to God's kingdom. And that's supposed to show up in how we live our life. So the Christian lives in this tension. We don't isolate because we were sent into the world, but we don't assimilate because we belong to another world. We have a different king. Since we don't isolate or assimilate, instead of what we do is navigate.

We navigate this life by following Jesus, by being in the world but not of it. Let me walk you through five things that Jesus says here about how that works, and it all starts with joy, because Jesus started that prayer by praying that you and I would be full of his joy. Before he says one word about hostility by the world or being sent into the world, he anchors the whole thing in joy. And that matters because when we hear be different from the world, we often imagine a grim, joyless, arms crossed kind of Christianity, a frowning Christian, standing apart from everyone else, judging them for having fun. But that's not the picture Jesus paint. Being set apart isn't about missing out. It's about being so full of his joy that we're

not desperate for the world to fill us. Our distinctiveness, flows out of fullness, not fear. The second thing we see is that we need to have right expectations, because expectations are powerful. They determine whether you enjoy your vacation or your dinner out or your job or anything else, because if you have the wrong expectations, you set yourself up to be disappointed. And the same is true for what you expect from the culture at large and how you expect that culture to respond to your Christian faith.

Jesus is brutally honest with his followers. He said in verse 14, I have given them your word and the word, world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. See, if you follow Jesus, there's going to be friction between you and the world. Hopefully that friction isn't because you're being obnoxious about your faith, but simply because faithfully following Jesus quietly questions the way everyone else is living. Here's the other side, kind of the sobering side. If our lives look like everyone else's, in other words, we have the same values, the same fears, we spend money the same way, we talk the same way, well, then this verse isn't going to really

make any sense to us. We'll never really feel the friction that Jesus describes because there's nothing different about us for the world to push against. So a little friction is actually evidence that something is genuinely different about the way you're living. The absence of any friction might be something to worry about. But of course there's nuance here because this doesn't give us permission to be jerks and then claim we're being persecuted by the world. And yet even if you were able to do everything just right, like imagine that you always said the right thing at the right time and the right tone. Well, the world, the culture, it's still not going to like it. See, think about Jesus. Jesus was sinless. I mean, he did everything perfectly. And yet he was crucified. So you might do

everything the right way and still get punished for it. Third, you can't escape the world. Jesus prayed, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but you protect them from the evil one. Jesus doesn't say get them out of here. He prays guard them while they're here. See, God's plan for you is not to escape, God's plan for you is to be present, but with his protection. You're not evacuated from the world, no, you're deployed into it, sent into it, but you're kept safe by him while you're on his assignment. So stop waiting to be rescued out of the hard place. The difficult workplace, the strained family, the neighborhood, the school, whatever it is that you're in that you hope God will rescue you from, it's probably not going to happen.

Because the place you're in isn't in the accident. It's not a delay in your spiritual life. It's right where you've been sent. The prayer isn't. get me out. It's God keep me faithful where you've put me. Fourth, it's all about your identity. I mean, in verse 16, he repeats what he said in verse 14, almost word for word. In both verses, it says they are not of the world, even as I am not of it. When the Bible says something twice in five verses, it's emphasizing it. It's saying, look, don't miss this. And notice the order of what Jesus said, you are not of the world. I mean, that's present tense. It's already true. Before he ever tells you how you should behave. Your identity is secure. It's settled. Your behavior flows from who you are.

But we usually get it backwards. We think if we can just behave differently enough, then we'll earn our belonging in God's kingdom. But Jesus flips that on its head. He says, you already belong to me. Now live like it. How does a citizen of God's kingdom act in this meeting, in this conversation in this relationship. How does a citizen of God's kingdom spend their time, spend their money, make decisions? So fourth is all about identity, who God has made you. Fifth, how do I live this way? See, Jesus gets practical. He says, if you want to remain distinct, then listen to verse 17, where he says, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. Now sanctify literally means just set apart or to make holy. So Jesus tells us that the truth of God's word,

is what will change us and make us more like Christ. In other words, we're not kept different by willpower or by hiding from the world. No, we're shaped by steady exposure to what God says is true. But is scripture shaping you? I mean, let's just compare for a moment, scripture versus scrolling. Most of us spend a few moments a day, maybe listening to 10-minute Bible talks or maybe a few other things in your life. So here's the question.

Are we shaped by scripture? Or, for example, are we shaped more by scrolling? Let's just compare those. Just for a second, most of us spend a few minutes a day, maybe it's listening to 10-minute Bible talks, or maybe it is something else in our life that puts us in God's word. But we spent a lot longer than a few minutes being shaped by our feeds, right? Maybe hours being formed by them. And then we're surprised when our fears and our desires and our opinions look identical to the cultures. Whatever you soak your heart in, that's what you're going to be shaped by. And then finally there's the why. Jesus says,

as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. This is the point that Jesus is driving toward. We're not different for the sake of just being different. There's a point to it. We're set apart for a mission. Holiness in our life has a purpose, and that purpose is to be a light in this world. When Christians follow Jesus, we become a living testimony to the gospel. So let's just go back and think about the words that Jesus has said here. We are kept. Jesus prayed that the Father would guard you, that he would keep you, he would protect you in this world. You are sanctified. You are set apart by God's truth. God's word changes you from the inside out, and then you are sent. Sent with a purpose. Sent on God's mission can be a light in this dark world.

Now let's go back to where we started in the boat. A boat in the water is doing exactly what it was made to do. Water in the boat sinks it. Jesus is not asking the Father, to pull you out of the water. He's asking him to keep the water out of you so that you can stay right where you've been sent on his mission, building his kingdom. Amen.