Faith, that’s the way it goes! - Jude part 3
Thesis: Faith is built up in our lives as we learn to pray in the Holy Spirit, Keep ourselves in the love of God, learn to wait, reach out with the Gospel to the lost and by having a hatred of evil’s corruptions.
Scripture Text:
Jude 1:20-25 NIV
20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
24To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
The Message Jude 1:20-25:
But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.
And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.
Introduction:
We have been exploring the book of Jude. Jude reminds us how important - urgent it is to contend for the faith and fight against the attacks of evil on us personally, on our family, on our friends, on our local community and on our nation. Two weeks ago we learned the following from Jude:
• Contend for the Faith – Fight for it, hold on to the truth in spite of what others do!
• Stay away from Evil – Don’t play with it! It will bite you.
• Learn to recognize what sin looks like and acts like so you can stay away from it.
• Never allow sin to influence your choices in life.
Jude last week progressed on in his letter exhorting the Christians to build up their faith. He then lists a series of things we can all do to build up and strengthen our faith. Last week we talked about 2 things we should do to strengthen our faith:
• Pray in the Holy Spirit
• Keep ourselves in the Love of God
This week we will continue to look at 3 other things we should do to build up – strengthen - mature our faith.
1. Wait for the mercy of the Lord - in other words be patient!
2. Show mercy to those in doubt and snatch them from the fire – in other words be evangelistic.
3. Fear and hate any thing that is evil – in other words be holy.
1. Jude tells that we will build up our faith if we learn to “Wait for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ to bring us to eternal life.” In other words be patient!
a. 21Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
b. The Message states: But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life!
i. Key here is to keep in close contact with God. Don’t give up! Don’t quit! Don’t become impatient with God and His promises.
1. He will keep them, He is coming again, your patience will be greatly rewarded.
ii. Remember God is love were God is His love is.
1. We need to stay saturated in God because as we do we will stay saturated in His love.
2. When you stay under the umbrella of God’s love it builds up your faith in him. The same is true in any love relationship the longer you are attached to a person and stay connected in love the more your trust is placed in that person.
a. The truth is the more you love someone the more patient you are with them.
i. Share story of when two young people are in love, they have tremendous patience with them.
ii. Ortberg notes this about the inability to love:
1. The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to love. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don’t have (87).
2. The truth is look around at our society hurried people cannot love because they are always in a hurry!
3. Ortberg adds this thought about the hurry sickness (lack of patience syndrome): It is because it kills love that hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life. Hurry lies behind much of the anger and frustration of modern life. Hurry prevents us from receiving love from the Father or giving it to His children. That’s why Jesus never hurried. If we are to follow Jesus, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives-because, by definition, we can’t move faster than the one we are following (88).
iii. Barna notes the main reason why people do not currently attend church in a survey he did in 2000 and in 1990:
Main reason for not attending church 2000 1990
1. No time; schedule conflicts; working 26% 24%
2. Not interested; nothing to offer; no reason 16% 16%
3. My beliefs are different than the church’s 14% 9%
4. Don’t believed in organized religion/
don’t need to worship at a church 12% 8%
1. Our survey shows that the number one reason for not attending church and having a love relationship with Jesus is hurry up sickness- to bust-lack of patience in the things of the Lord.
c. 2 Timothy 3:1-5:1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
i. The problem in our society today is people have become lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
1. They are in a rush to make more money to buy more stuff and to live the life of pleasure.
2. Result love gets tossed out in the home with each other and with God.
ii. When this happens there is a crisis of faith and people no longer believe and place their trust in God for purpose instead they place their faith and trust in pleasure as the meaning of life.
iii. Orberg notes: The messages come at us in a continual stream: “We’ll help you move faster…Act now, don’t delay!...You can buy it now if you’ll just stretch-no money down, easy monthly payments…You can earn it if you run a little faster, stay a little longer, work a little harder…It’s okay to get old as long as you don’t get wrinkled or gray or liver spots or bald-as long as you don’t look old…It’s okay to be frantic and stressed and empty and exhausted-that’s the way everybody is…We’ll help you move faster.” “The press of busyness is like a charm,’ Kierkegaard wrote. ”Its power swells…it reaches out seeking always to lay hold of ever-younger victims so that childhood or youth are scarcely allowed the quiet and the retirement in which the Eternal may unfold a divine growth.” The truth is, as much as we complain about it, we are drawn to hurry. It makes us feel important. It keeps the adrenaline pumping. It means we don’t have to look too closely at the heart of life. It keeps us from feeling our loneliness (91).
d. I John 5:1-5: 1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
i. The truth is our love for Jesus should drives us to be patient for the Lord and for his people.
ii. This means we have to throw off the hurry up mindset of today.
iii. We have to learn to be patient, to endure and to still stay focused and wrapped up in God’s love through his waiting period for our lives.
1. Hebrews 11:1 “1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
e. Video Illustration: From The Empire Strikes Back
i. Illustration from Groups Block Buster Movie Illustrations (page 31, Belknapp)
ii. Start time 54 minutes
iii. Overview: Luke pleads with Yoda to introduce him to the great Jedi master. Luke becomes frustrated with waiting and finally blows up. Then he realizes that Yoda is the Jedi Master he was seeking . Yoda believes Luke is too impatient, angry, and discontent to be trained. Luke had been looking to the future and better times instead of dealing with where he was at the time.
iv. Illustration: Few people are content. (How often do you hear, “I can’t wait until summer?’) people live with their focus on the future-going to college, getting their own apartment, or having more money-instead of living in the here and now. God desires faithfulness with the duties he gives us. This scene will jump-start a discussion about how contentment and diligence in the present brings greater responsibilities in the future.
v. Colossians 1:10-12: 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
f. Patience is defined:
1. Is the ability to sit back and wait for an expected outcome without experiencing anxiety, tension, or frustration.
2. Is the ability let go of your need for immediate gratification and be willing to wait.
3. It is the trait that displays tolerance, compassion, understanding, and acceptance toward those who are slower than you in developing maturity, emotional freedom, and coping abilities.
4. It is the ability to remain calm in the midst of turmoil because you know God is in control.
g. There are three dimensions to waiting in the Lord and building up your faith!
i. Patience is a key to building up your faith.
1. Patience builds our godly character and teaches us to trust the Lord more.
ii. Learning to endure is a key to building up your faith.
1. When we learn to endure – stand in there when things get tough our faith is actually matured and built up.
2. Share about what happens to people who always want to run away from the tough times.
iii. Perseverance is a key to building up your faith.
1. Ortberg notes: the start of a race is enjoyable. It is easy. Finishing is hard work. To finish well-that’s glory. Finishing well is what counts. How will we run the race of life? Will we finish well. The capacity to finish well is what the New Testament writers called endurance, or perseverance. It is the virtue by which we become increasingly able to honor commitments that ought to last a lifetime. It is especially the ability to honor commitments when honoring them becomes difficult (206).
2. James 1:2-4: 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
T.S. – We need to grow our faith by learning the art of patience and then also we can grow our faith by learning to reach out to the lost and the doubting.
2. Jude tells us that being “Be merciful to those in doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them.” In other words be evangelistic.
a. The Message states, 22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them;
b. The power of allowing mercy to take root in our heart energizes our faith in the Lord and His ability to pour out mercy on others through our surrendered lives.
i. Faith is built in our lives when we find God using us to change people’s lives.
1. Share letter from one person.
ii. There is no better faith booster than when God uses you to lead a person to Jesus Christ.
1. Like Jude says, “Snatch others from the fire and save them.”
a. This sounds exciting doesn’t it?
b. It even sounds dangerous doesn’t it?
c. It sounds like you are being a hero if you snatch someone from the fire doesn’t it?
d. Do you want to be a super hero?
e. Then snatch people from the fire!
2. The Bible tells us when we snatch someone from the fire there is rejoicing in Heaven. I also rejoice and often say to myself, “It doesn’t get any better than this on the earth.”
3. This is what makes Christianity different from any other Religion in the world!
c. Story: At a comparative religions conference, the wise and the scholarly were in a spirited debate about what is unique about Christianity.
Someone suggested what set Christianity apart from other religions was the concept of incarnation, the idea that God took human form in Jesus. But someone quickly said, “Well, actually, other faiths believe that God appears in human form.”
Another suggestion was offered: what about resurrection? The belief that death is not the final word. That the tomb was found empty. Someone slowly shook his head. Other religions have accounts of people returning from the dead.
Then, as the story is told, C.S. Lewis walked into the room, tweed jacket, pipe, arm full of papers, a little early for his presentation. He sat down and took in the conversation, which had by now evolved into a fierce debate. Finally during a lull, he spoke saying, “what’s all this rumpus about?”
Everyone turned in his direction. Trying to explain themselves they said, “We’re debating what’s unique about Christianity.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Lewis. “It’s grace.”
The room fell silent.
Lewis continued that Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge, no strings attached. No other religion makes that claim.
After a moment someone commented that Lewis had a point, Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. It’s not a free ride.
Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions.
Someone else observed the Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to him and in Islam God is a God of Judgment not a God of love. You live to appease him
At the end of the discussion everyone concluded Lewis had a point.
Only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love is unconditional. An unconditional love that we call grace.
Christians boldly proclaim that grace really has precious little to do with us, our inner resolve, or our lack of inner resolve.
Rather, grace is all about God and God freely giving to us the gifts of forgiveness, mercy, and love. Contributed to Sermon Central by: Martin Dale
i. A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death. "But I don’t ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy." "But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied. "Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." "Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman’s son. (Luis Palau, "Experiencing God’s Forgiveness", Multnomah Press, 1984 )
d. The truth is evangelism is an action on behalf of the other person. It is not just words but words backed up with action.
i. There is a Peanuts cartoon that shows Snoopy sitting outside in the middle of a snowstorm. He is shivering from the cold. Linus and Charlie Brown happen by and see Snoopy and his condition. They say, “There is Snoopy, let’s go cheer him up.” They go up to Snoopy and say, “Be of good cheer, Snoopy!” The next panel shows them walking off, leaving Snoopy in the same condition they found him, satisfied that they have “cheered” him up.
Somehow, we have gotten the idea that evangelism is only about teaching and preaching. But Jesus shows us that evangelism is much more than that. By healing people, Jesus reached out and demonstrated his compassion by actual works. He had actions that backed up His words. Contributed to Sermon Central by: J. Richard Lord, Jr.
e. Come on don’t you want to life on the edge – do something exciting with your week. Go run into a burning life and snatch someone form the fire. And come out of the fire a hero!
f. Here are some exciting ways to share your faith with someone in the fire:
i. Share your life experiences in God.
ii. Share your personal testimony of how you were snatched from the fire.
iii. Share Biblical teachings about deliverance from the fire with those in the fire.
iv. Share about His love for those in the fire.
v. Share about the greatest Super Hero of all time Jesus- fire snatcher!
vi. Share about his grace and mercy.
T.S. – When we have snatched someone from the fire we will see our faith grow and mature because this action builds hero’s of the faith and rescues people lives. Not only will snatching people from the fires of life build our faith but so will living a holy life here on earth.
3. Jude also tells us our faith will be strengthened if we learn to “show mercy, mixed with fear-hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” In other words be holy.
a. The Message states: “Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.”
b. We are encouraged by Jude to build our faith by hating that which is evil.
i. In other words love people but hate the destruction that sin does to people’s lives.
ii. Ortberg notes this about our society: The deeper truth is that we live in a lethal environment. American society is filled with ideas and values and pressures and temptations about success and security and comfort and happiness that we will not even notice unless we withdraw on occasion (90).
1. We need to make sure we hang on to our holiness in this life and the best way to grow our faith in Christ is by staying away from sin. It stinks it stinks of rotting decaying death.
