Characteristics You Do Want

Jude 17-23

Characteristics You Do Want

Introduction

A. I have gotten to talk to a bunch of you this week

B. It seems like the passage last week really hit home to you

C. Seems like it applied to just about everybody

D. One of the most common comments I heard was it worked on Monday but as the week went on…

E. Hmm, I thought about it and came up with the idea that I would just preach it again and maybe it would last the whole week (Plus and easy week for me J)

F. However, that would have not been a good idea

G. So I started this week and realized once again, that God is amazing.

H. If we know how we are not suppose to be we need to know the Characteristics we do want

I. Sure enough in this passage today they are mentioned

J. We are going to look at 4 Characteristics You do Want

a. People of Prayer

b. People of Mercy

c. People of Love

d. People of Outreach

I. People of Prayer 20

A. Explanation

1. First thing that we notice is we should build ourselves up in the most holy faith

2. When you are building you need a strong foundation

3. The foundation that we have is our faith

4. Our faith came from Jesus, then the apostles, then the Church, then to us… with the Holy Spirit Guiding the way

5. This is not my opinion, thank goodness, this not a tradition, this is God

6. The root of the word holy is “different”

7. Therefore, our holy faith has to be different then the worlds

8. Our faith is not in the government

9. Our faith is certainly not in the stock market

10. Our faith, being different, is from God

11. …And pray in the Holy Spirit

12. It has been said that “Real religion means dependence”

13. Prayer is admission of dependence on God

14. Prayer is realizing you can not do it yourself you need a higher power

B. Application

1. Ok so lets take these ideas and apply them to our lives

2. We need to build on the foundation of Holy faith.

3. We need to build up our payer in the Holy Spirit

4. The key word here is build

5. Build, that is what we need to be doing

6. We need to make sure that we are building

7. Guess what? I did not forget about last weeks sermon

8. If you remember the first point we talked about was, grumblers

9. Well guess what, if you are spending all your time grumbling how can you build?

10. It is impossible

11. Grumbling tears down. We need to be building

12. People of Prayer Build

C. Illustration

1. ED Whiteside. Does any one of you know who that was? Well ED Whiteside was a man of prayer everything that He did was centered on prayer. There would be conventions and different events and they would call him in to pray, not to speak but to pray. He had a ministry of training up young men. Before they were allowed to do anything he made sure they had prayed. Because of his leadership we are in this Church today he sent one of his “Boys” here. I am sure that we he sent them he prayed for them. That is building with prayer

II. People of Mercy 22

A. Explanation

1. First we have to remember what exactly was happening in this time that this was written

2. WE have talk about it before, false teacher were every were

3. Obviously some people fell into believing those false teacher

4. They are the people who doubt

5. Now lets work on the merciful aspect

6. To show mercy is to show kindness

7. If you are being merciful you still will talk to them

8. You still will be willing to extend your hand of friendship

9. Meaning you don’t just write them off

B. Application

1. So how does this apply to our lives today?

2. There will be people who are not on the correct path

3. For one reason or another they will have gone astray

4. We need to be merciful to them

5. Show compassion and love

6. Sure we could find fault in them but… as we learn last week we are not to be fault finders

7. Showing mercy will allow a person to see his or her errors

8. Being a faultfinders will cause the person to become alienated from us

9. Being people of Mercy

C. Illustration

1. I have my spies strategically located throughout the area to spy on our congregation. I received a report about someone from our congregation who has been showing mercy. Well volunteering for the riding with the handicap, there is a horse there that is a bit stubborn to say that least. The owner has threatened to take it to the glue factory. The horse name is custard. Therefore just about every week the joke is made that is it custard last stand. However, Brittany has been working with this horse and showing in mercy and the horse has responded.