Hey Jude - Pt. 2 - Distraction
I. Introduction
The Beatles released the single "Hey Jude" in August of 1968. The song is more than seven minutes long and spent nine weeks at number one in the United States. This song is frequently included on professional critics' lists of the best songs of all time. The chorus remains locked in our subconscious. This Jude is famous.
Last week we began an examination of another single. This one is the single, self-titled chapter book in the Bible that seems to fall almost unnoticed before the much sexier, mysterious, attention grabbing book of Revelation! This Jude can be read more quickly than the song can be sung. It is a short, concise poignant book, written by Jude the brother of James.
In this short book Jude takes examines and exposes the 4 specific attacks that our enemy used against the church of Jude's day and is still using in our day: Deception, Distraction, Divisions, Discouragement.
So last week we dealt with deception. According to Jude the enemy will try to deceive us into license. Jude calls it "The Way of Cain." The enemy tries to get us to let license override any standard, any absolutes so that anything that feels good must be God. He tries to convince us to establish our own measure of what is right. We become like a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah. The 2nd deception attaches to the first and it is tolerance and inclusion so that we begin to call evil good and good evil. We are challenged to accept everything in the name of tolerance and we become forbidden to apply any godly standard to our lives.
Then Jude says there is a second attack. If the enemy is unsuccessful with deception (and there are still many folks around our country and the world that refuse to buy into license, tolerance, and inclusion) then he uses distraction. Many of us who are on guard against deception fall prey to the second attack.
II. Text
Jude 5-13
I’m laying this out as clearly as I can, even though you once knew all this well enough and shouldn’t need reminding. Here it is in brief: The Master saved a people out of the land of Egypt. Later he destroyed those who defected. And you know the story of the angels who didn’t stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning. This is exactly the same program of these latest infiltrators: dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud. The Archangel Michael, who went to the mat with the Devil as they fought over the body of Moses, wouldn’t have dared level him with a blasphemous curse, but said simply, “No you don’t. God will take care of you!” But these people sneer at anything they can’t understand, and by doing whatever they feel like doing—living by animal instinct only—they participate in their own destruction. I’m fed up with them! They’ve gone down Cain’s road; they’ve been sucked into Balaam’s error by greed; they’re canceled out in Korah’s rebellion. These people are warts on your love feasts as you worship and eat together. They’re giving you a black eye—carousing shamelessly, grabbing anything that isn’t nailed down. They’re—Puffs of smoke pushed by gusts of wind; late autumn trees stripped clean of leaf and fruit, Doubly dead, pulled up by the roots; wild ocean waves leaving nothing on the beach but the foam of their shame; lost stars in outer space on their way to the black hole.
III. Distractions
Jude addresses the attack of distraction by referencing two Old Testament accounts. He mentions angels who didn't stick to their post. They become distracted in their assignment and become deceived to the point that they fall. They were so full of pride and lust that they are distracted into destruction. The 2nd account is that of Baalam. Let me remind you about Baalam. You can find his story in Numbers 22-25. Moab under the reign of King Balak seeks to hire Balaam to prophesy against Israel as they travel to possess their inheritance Canaan. Five times Balaam is offered gold and he wants to sell out to greed (preach for profit instead of preach as a prophet). He sincerely tries to design a prophecy to curse Israel and God rebukes him through the donkey and even though he wants to curse Israel he ends up blessing Israel instead. (Just a reminder that if God wants you blessed it doesn't matter who wants to curse you!) However, since he can't curse Israel he finds another way to bring about destruction. He counsels Balak on how to defeat Israel. He tells the king that since the Israelites are pilgrims, own no land and since they are seeking a land/inheritance the best way to defeat them is to distract them which will divert them. The scheme he presents to Balak is to get them to intermarry with your sons and daughters and they will lose their pilgrim nature and settle short of possession. When they intermarry they will learn to worship your idols which will in turn cause them to get involved in sexual immorality and they will be so distracted they will never make it to Canaan. The distraction worked! In Numbers 25 Israel abode/dwelt/settled in Shittim and committed whoredoms with the daughters of Moab. They sacrificed to their gods and joined themselves unto Baalpeor. As a result 24,000 Israelites died in judgment of God.
The ploy or strategy of the devil was to get the chosen people to settle for less than best. Stop short of spiritual fullness and inheritance. To lose their pilgrim nature. May I remind you that we too are aliens, strangers, pilgrims! If the enemy recognized that distractions could divert and defeat angels and then the chosen ones in the days of Balaam, then Jude wants us to be aware of this ploy today! He knows that we have been promised life more abundant and if the enemy can distract us, then we like the angels will leave our posts and like the chosen ones we will stop short of reaching that level of living!
How many of us have stopped short and still claim that we are living the blessed life? How many of us who were once on a journey to fulfill all that God has for us have become distracted along the way by bills, status, materialistic things, the cares of life, the "love of our life" and we can't seem to find the strength to push forward to fullness?
James must have seen the same tactic because he weighs in and says "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." A double minded - a 2 souled man, a man with 2 minds. Distracted and pulled in a multitude of ways. Can't focus. Can't commit. Loyal to none but believe they are loyal to all. A constant internal struggle to walk in one direction. Stability is foreign. Running to and fro. Meet themselves coming and going.
Jesus addressed the same concept. In Luke, He warned this would tactic would be used. He says that we must remain on guard or our heart will become overcharged with surfeiting, drunkenness and cares of life until that day (His coming) comes on you unawares. It is literally a warning that if we are not careful we will become so over concerned and over occupied with the problems of life like the rest of the world that our heart becomes weighted with the giddiness, nausea of being habitually intoxicated by the cares and distractions of life and our spiritual senses will become impaired. We become light headed so we can't think straight, speak clearly (slurred words) or walk straight (stagger) and we will stagger away from our relationship with God. (Some of you can't even focus right now on what we are talking about because you are so overwhelmed by what you will face when you walk out these doors that the to-do lists are distracting you!)
On another occasion when Jesus is asked about the signs of the last days His response addresses this tactic of the enemy. He says we will know we are in the last day when we see days like they were in the times of Noah and Lot. Notice he didn't address sin as signs. He could have said, "You will know the last days are here when you see homosexuality, drug abuse, child abuse, abortion running rampant." No! Instead he listed the 8 things they lived for: eating, drinking, marry, given in marriage, buying, selling, building, and planting. In other words, in the days of Noah and Lot the people weren't consumed by sin . . . they were consumed by life! Not wrong, but so distracted by life, they missed out on the spiritual and so they are overtaken by a flood of judgment.
What is distracting you? What is it that the devil uses to wrap up your mind? What is it or who is it that he uses to wrap up your heart? What does he distract you with to cloud your focus and to steal your energy? Could it be that good things are getting in the way of God things? Here are few things that the enemy uses to distract God's people from reaching their promised life:
Desires - possession begin to possess, lusts (That is the story of David, Solomon, Samson)
Dreams (fulfilled and unfulfilled)
Detours/Delays
Decisions
One man said this, “If the enemy can't deceive you he will try to dilute you by challenging you to attack in all directions at once! God led Israel to conquer Canaan 1 city at a time. Breakthrough comes when we narrow focus to singular objectives!”
We are simply distracted into defeat! How? Why is distraction so deadly and dangerous?
1. Distraction affects our memory!
When we are distracted we forget! We forget our spiritual identity! We forget that we are not of this world. We forget that this is not our destination. We forget that we don't live for this world but for another. We forget that we are the sons and daughters of God, salt, light, and leaven. We forget that His approval is what matters! We are so forgetful that when someone tries to remind us of our rightful place, our promised place and promised power that we just pass it off as pipe dreams, preacher jargon and wishful thinking!
2. Distraction affects our mission!
Since we are distracted and forget who we are then we fail to pursue a fresh and active relationship with Jesus. If you forget you are a soldier you forget to fight. If you forget you are a prince you forget to reign. If you forget you are join heir you forget to take possession of what is yours! We settle for yesterday's experience, yesterday's miracle, and yesterday's manna. We like Samson, go through motions and “shake ourselves”. We sing the same songs, say the same prayers, repeat the same testimonies, but we go no deeper. There is desire. There is no pursuit. We want to be spoon fed. We blame a preacher or a church if we don't find any more of God. We are so distracted that we fail to do anything for our own spiritual condition. And since we are not growing spiritual we then become like the disciples who moved their boats out of deep and anchored them in shallows. They are washing nets going through motions of fishing but with no heart or hope for catch. We forget that we are on mission. We forget that lives are at stake. We forget that eternity is at stake. Our distraction steals our urgency! We begin to worry more about maintaining than obtaining. We perfect the nets but fail to use them. We have forgotten our mandate because we are distracted! We think carpet color is our mandate. We think politics is our mandate. We think our personal opinion is our mandate. What is our mission? To know Him and to make Him known . . . PERIOD!
Hey Jude . . . what are you saying? Don't let the enemy distract you or you will find yourself settling in enemy territory and your distraction will bring you defeat! Let us answer the call of Hebrews 12 and "fix" our eyes on Jesus. Riveted attention. Riveted focus. Unwavering in our stare. Undeterred. Some of us just need to get fixed!
