Winning The Lost

Winning the Lost

Jude Scripture

Introduction-

Good Morning, I want to speak to you about winning the lost to Christ –

You know that is for each one of our responsibility of those who profess Christ. It is not for the elite, those chosen few, those that have no trouble speaking, those that have time. Those that attend a charismatic church…each one of us who Christ has saved from eternal death has a responsibility to be sensitive to the people Christ brings into our lives.

You are not called to do someone else’s job- just yours.

Advent starts next week and it is a time that people are sensitive to God, sensitive to the true meaning of Christmas.

Turn with me to the book of Jude- it is the second to last book in your Bible right next to the book of Revelation.

This letter is written by Jude, not to be confessed with Judas Iscariot, this Jude is the brother of James and is considered a faithful servant of Christ as compared to Judas the traitor who sold Jesus out for a few pieces of gold.

The book of Jude is unique because it was not written to any particular church, it is directed at the whole society of Christians at the time. The church in it infant state trying to get some footing on making a difference and spreading the gospel, laying down a foundation that still impacts us today.

Designed to warn us of seducers of our faith

How we are to show the love of God to people we do not know.

To have a desire for God’s truth and to live God’s truth everyday in our lives.

To be healthy in the things of God and live holiness.

The book of James and the one chapter book of Jude address the issues of life for a believer

The book of James is one of my favorite books. It is life lessons. There are clear warnings to be heard.

Stumbling in our faith

Our tongue/ heart

Hearing the Word but not doing the Word

Dead faith

Friendship with the world

Foolish living

Fighting, unity, pride, impatience

Blaming God for things we do, wrong ambitions

Desire to minister to the poor

Did I leave anything out? If we lived these truths, would we be better servants of God?

James 5:14-15

“My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this; whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover a multitude of sins.”

We should change our names to “someone”- “and someone (you and I) should bring that person back” we have a responsibility to do our best to be that someone.

This sermon is really a continuance of last week as we looked at the Grace of God working in our lives and us having a responsibility to those that God brings into our lives.

Remember last week

Sin kills innocence- it takes us away of who we are to be in Christ

Sin kills ideals- Sin kills our senses for the things of God

Sin destroys- destroys relationship with God and others

Christ wants to give back what the devil has stolen from us. Amen.

We must look at people and sin in the way that Christ does and that will change our lives by the way we live and the way that we treat others. (Repeat)

Jude was happy to be known as the brother of James. The only title he desired was that he was a “faithful servant of Jesus Christ.”

James tells us how we should live and act as Christians-

Jude tells us what we should be careful of and what we should preserve in our lives.

Do you think we can learn something from these brothers who spent time with Jesus? I would think so.

I do not want to take the time to read the whole chapter of Jude though it is a quick read, I will break it up into two parts.

The first part as he speaks to the sin and doom of those who are ungodly and choose not to follow Jesus.

The second part the call of believers to persevere and reach out to those we come into contact with.

Jude (3-4) Read from Bible

He wanted to write about salvation but was compelled (urge) (pushed) to write about contended for your faith because there are people out there trying to deceive you and move you away from your faith.

There are good things done in abundance that takes us away from the things of God.

The pure faith in Christ was being polluted by a doctrine that pushed them away from Christ instead of toward Christ.