Sleeping With The Enemy Series

ME

Open your bibles to the book of JUDE…if you don’t have a bible with you, the ushers will gladly hand you one.

[Ushers hand out bibles to any who need them]

We’re going to be looking at verses 12-16 today…

WE

We are picking up right where we left off last Sunday. AND let me tell you that – just as last week’s sermon was a hard one for me to preach and a hard one for some of you to hear – this week’s sermon is going to be just as difficult…maybe more so.

Here’s why…

This is tough sermon to preach because we aren’t a very big church.

Here’s the deal…

Some of you are going to misinterpret what is said today. You’re going to think that, because we are a small church and because we need more people to be serving in ministry that that’s what I’m talking about and you are going to either make excuses for why you can’t get involved OR you’re already doing more than you can handle and you’re going to feel guilty and want to take on more stuff to do…

STOP IT! This is not a sermon about DOING MORE STUFF…some of you need to DO MORE STUFF…but that’s not the point today so don’t go there…

This is also difficult to preach in a small church because…in a big church, when I tackle some of these issues, it’s easy to just speak to the big crowd and let God sort it out…but with a smaller group like ours…I already know some of the people this applies to and I DON’T EVER WANT TO BE GUILTY OF PREACHING AT SOMEONE OR SOME GROUP IN PARTICULAR…it will also be easy to look at this message and identify some people who this should nail between the eyes and you’ll be tempted to sit there and think I HOPE SO-AND-SO IS LISTENING…

STOP IT! This truth applies to all of us and we ALL need to do something about it.

How’s that for an introduction?

Let me get right to business and lay out for you the point. Here’s the ONE THING I want all of us to walk out of here with… As followers of Jesus Christ…we must PUT UP OR SHUT UP…

Now I know that sounds a bit crass…maybe a little harsh and certainly very direct. It’s meant to be…

I believe that one of the greatest problems with the church in America today is that it is filled with people who are Christian in name only. They love Jesus with their mouths and not with their hearts or their lives…

Not only that…but most of us know it and we just let it slide because it’s easier than dealing with it…and in that sense, we are SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY!

AND THAT IS EXACTLY what Jude says to the church in this little letter that he wrote. In fact…he makes some VERY STRONG statements about those who are a part of the church and only take…never serving, never growing…not really loving Jesus or others.

That’s what we have today…let’s jump in and pull back they layers on this passage of scripture and see what we can learn and apply to our lives…

GOD

12These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

14Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

Jude 12-16 (NIV)

Basic outline of Jude 12-16…

1. They don’t produce OR the produce BAD FRUIT (12-13)

2. They will be judged (14-15)

3. Here’s what they look like (16)

Vv. 12-13…

Jude gives a list of six graphic pictures to describe what these men are like…

These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm

Explain LOVE FEAST…(agape meal)

Was a part of worship

It involved communion AND

It was a meal where everyone shared

Rich & poor sat together

` Slave and free sat together

Jew & Greek sat together

Differences were put aside and everyone shared in the meal as a family…they honored Jesus with communion and with the way they shared…