 Rating at church, good to be with you. My name's John, campus pastor here in Richland. Hello, Portage, people online. I don't know what's happening in Portage, but like five minutes to 11, it started like the hailing raining here in Richland. So triple bonus points to all of you for coming to church in the rain and it's probably sunny in Portage, whatever. You have a Chick-fil-A, we know, God loves you, fine, whatever. It's closed today, so anyway, we are glad that you're here. Thanks for braving the rain and I do wanna say, Pastor Lee, I didn't fire him or anything. He is still here and he's gonna be back next week and I just wanna let you know, obviously I'm super humbled, honored anytime that I get to share the pulpit and to be a teaching pastor here is an unbelievable honor. But Pastor Lee, in addition to being a prolific pastor, communicator, writer, all of those things is also really a leader of leaders. There's an apostolic call on Pastor Lee and so we have a radiant network of about 50 plus churches that all are kind of under the umbrella of radiant church where Pastor Lee pours into them. They get access to our resources and really an opportunity to grow from what Pastor Lee has 22 years of experience doing. And so many times he goes to those churches, preaches there, then spends time with the staff, answers questions and so I just wanna remind you, every time that he's not here, it doesn't mean that he's by a pool in Mexico drinking Diet Cokes, Diet Cokes. I'm just kidding. But we are grateful, he's gonna come back. We're gonna have a series called The Battle. It's gonna be amazing in September. We have so many cool things and please, both campuses, check out the kids changes that are happening next week. Bring your kids to the family fun night. We are really excited about the kids ministry changes we have as well. So I'm in a series called Heroes. I did speak last week on Priscilla and Aquila and at the time I was like, wow, this is like such an obscure piece of scripture. They're only mentioned a few times and everyone else, Caleb, they all get easy people like Timothy and Paul and Pastor Lee hates me. But this week is even worse. I have even maybe a more obscure hero that we're talking about today but I am excited to share this with you. And so if you brought a Bible, turn to the book of Jude and you're probably like, I don't know where that is and that's okay, go all the way to Revelation, the last book of the Bible and then take a short left, one book. And you'll be there. And so if you follow me on Facebook, first of all, I'm sorry, sometimes I'm a little crazy but what I have been doing is sharing, hey, this is kind of the homework. So read these chapters or read this scripture to help prepare you for the message. And so on purpose for Jude, I said, hey, read all three chapters of Jude but Jude is only one chapter. And so I was waiting to see like who would recognize that and Karen, she was here yesterday, she was like, are you sure it's three chapters? And so my plan was to show up now and to say to the congregation, hey, raise your hand. If you read all three chapters of Jude and undoubtedly there would be some overachiever who would be like, I did. And then I would say ushers, get that liar out of our church. But I decided not to do that. But Jude is only one chapter. It's a short, short book. And I'm gonna start by reading the first three verses. Starts out, hey Jude, don't make it bad. I'm just kidding. It's the wrong translation, I'm sorry. It starts out, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. To those who are called, beloved and God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ may mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. Berserie, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing you to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. Let's pray and just ask the Lord to bless this time. Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would illuminate your word right now, God. You promised in Isaiah that the word of God would not return void when it's sent out, but it would accomplish what you have for it, God, that there would be change and transformation. Second Timothy says all scripture is God breathe and it's profitable for teaching and for correcting and for edification, God, so that we as your people can be equipped as people of God. And that's our prayer, Lord. We want to be equipped. We want to know you and know the plans and purposes you have. So open your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, Jude. So who's Jude? Jude is the half-brother of Jesus. So Jesus had four half-brothers, obviously half-brothers because the Holy Spirit was really the one that was Jesus' father, but Mary and Joseph then had more children. And so James, you can read his book in the New Testament as well, was a half-brother of Jesus as was Jude. And so he writes this very short book, but he was a traveling sort of teacher and missionary in the first century church. So he was very connected to the Messianic Jews. So Jude is very similar in its reading as 2nd Peter, but 2nd Peter was more for the Gentile church at the time. Jude was written almost specifically to Jews. And so if you've read Jude before, you might be like, wow, there's some things that are hard to understand. There's a, they talk about like the archangel Michael and Satan arguing about where Moses' body should be buried. And there's mention of Enoch and these things that you might not be familiar with. That's because that was part of the Jewish tradition and literature of the day. So those people that Jude's talking to would have been super familiar with it, even if you're not. So that's a little background. And he starts out by saying a servant of Jesus Christ, but the brother of James, which is interesting because it might have been tempting to say, hey, you know, kind of name drop and be like, I'm the brother of Jesus. So you should listen to me, but you may or may not know that none of Jesus' brothers believed he was the Christ at the time of them being together. So none of them came to revelation of who Jesus was until after he died and was resurrected. So scholars think this is probably an act of humility saying, look, I'm not gonna put myself on par with Jesus. I'm not gonna play the I'm his brother card. I'm a bond servant. I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. This is a level playing field. And so he says, I'm a servant of Jesus, but I'm the brother of James. And then he starts this introduction and it's a admission that he wanted to write about something else. He says, I was eager to write to you about our common salvation. And so he was gonna write this church and he was gonna talk about, not common in the sense that it's not a big deal, but common in the sense that it's the same for all of us. So he was gonna say, in Jesus Christ, who is dead, buried, but also resurrected, who you are, who Jesus is, has made us all of one blood. So whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, whether you're slave or free, whether you're woman or man, whether you're rich or poor, this common salvation that Jesus provides is for all of us. So he was wanting to write about that, but then he says, but instead I switched gears and I found it necessary to write instead to exhort or encourage you to contend for the faith. So something happened that made Jude reevaluate the letter he was writing to the church. And if you read it, what you find is that almost all of Jude is a warning. A warning against false teaching, a warning against false doctrine, a warning against perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so it's kind of a heavy book, which is another reason why a lot of us don't read it. It's short, it's kind of stuck in the back of the Bible. And if you read it, you're like, wow, this is heavy stuff. But how many of you know, sometimes we need, the milk of the word is awesome. It soothes, it brings revelation to us of who we are. And I love reading the Psalms and memorizing scripture and all the encouragement that's found in scripture. But there's also times that the meat of the word is gonna bring confrontation into our lives, is going to bring correction into our lives. And warnings, you have a negative connotation, at least sometimes when you hear that word, but really warnings are meant to help people. That's why they are given so that you can prepare, so that you can be aware of what's going on. For instance, we have weather warnings. Like I said, it was raining here in Richland. They warn you, like, I don't know if you know this, but I don't know how long ago it was because I'm scarred by fear. But there was a tornado on a Saturday night when I was preaching and everybody made fun of me because I was like, there's a tornado. But there was warnings. And so people said, hey, look, watch the weather. We look at the weather, so we're aware. I thought about a baseball field. There's a warning track. Why do they have that? Because they got an outfielder who's gonna catch a fly ball and then all of a sudden he feels, oh wait, I went from grass to dirt. That means I'm closing in on a wall. So there's a warning track. We live in Michigan where there's all kinds of road signs for warnings. I brought a few of them. Danger, bridge out, ahead. I mean, that's a good warning to know about. You can say, I don't like warnings. Well, it's a lot worse to drive not knowing the bridge is out. Another one we see in Michigan Cross traffic does not stop. That's good because sometimes we assume, oh, I'm sure this is a four-way and people drive crazy. And so that's a warning that's meant to help. There are some warnings, though, that aren't as helpful. For instance, if you have to be warned that coffee is hot, I'm sorry for you. I love this company. They just kept going over the top. Loose-fitting lids, coffee stains, can be permanent, two cups, like went over. But how many of you know, once upon a time we had to say, hey, be careful, coffee's hot. And for me, it's like, dude, that's on you if you're not aware that coffee's hot. Now McDonald's serves like lukewarm coffee. You know, the Bible says God spits lukewarm coffee out of his mouth. But somebody sued and now we have to be warned that, hey, coffee's hot. And it's like another warning. These are touching wires, causes instant death, and there's a $200 fine. So the Newcastle Tramway Authority wants you to know. They're warning you. You will die instantly and we will charge you $200. If you touch these wires, not as helpful. Here's a zoo sign, please be safe. Don't stand sick, climb or lean on the fences. If you fall, animals could eat you and that might make them sick. Thank you. I love that. You've been warned, don't make the animal sick. So some are not as helpful as others, but in scripture warnings are meant to edify the people of God. And there is nothing in scripture, nothing that is called out as consistently or with as much weight of consequence as false teaching, as false teachers. Second Peter in this book are very heavy in the sense that there is no room for false teaching, for false doctrine and for people who believe that. So that's what the book of Jude is about. That's what we're gonna look at today. Again, this isn't on every pastor's bucket list to have to preach, but I do feel like there is an important truth that needs to be communicated. So let's look at the book of Jude. First, he talks about, again, wanting to write about something else, but needing to warn us. So I want to read a warning from William Booth. If you don't know who he is, he was a general. He founded the Salvation Army. He died in 1912 and this was a warning. So we have Jude's warning, but listen to what William Booth said about the coming 20th century, the 1900s. He was a bit of a theologian. He said this, the chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell. That's the warning that William Booth had for over 100 years ago. And I would say confidently that that warning rings true still for us today in 2019. So Jude goes on and he says, look, I found it necessary to write to you to contend. The new King James says earnestly for the faith. That word contend is a Greek word. I'm going to crush this. Listen, epa ganazezomai, oh, I kind of killed it. I was trying to be Rick Renner. Okay, listen. It's a Greek word, but here's what it means to exert an intense or strenuous effort on behalf of something or to fight or contend. Literally it's a military term. And so Jude is telling the church in the first century, I need you to contend for something. I need you to fight. I need you to realize you're in a struggle and in a battle. And so right off the bat, he's saying Christianity isn't always going to be easy. Isn't always going to be comfortable. It isn't always going to be just, I only want to come to church and try to be a good person. Those are two things, but they're not contending things. There's no struggle there. There's no fight there. And so he's saying, listen to me. You're gonna have to be ready to be in a battle. The Christian life isn't like a battle, it is a battle. And our enemy are not people, our weapons are not worldly, but there is a fight that I need you, the church, to be aware of. So he says, what are we fighting for? We're contending for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. This is what the entire book of Jude is about. Warning against false teachers who have come in and taken the gospel, the faith, and corrupted it, changed it, used it to advance their own personal gain, to advance their own position, and they've perverted the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so what Jude says is, no, no, no, listen, the gospel, the faith has been delivered once and for all to the saints. The gospel of 2,000 years ago that Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again and all who would surrender their lives to him and call him Lord can be forgiven, can have eternal life and can experience the goodness of God on earth, that's the gospel. And it's not to ever be changed or reworked or revamped. And Jude was warning the church 2,000 years ago, William Booth was warning the church 100 years ago, and today I'm taking 25 minutes to warn the church that we do not have the right to change the faith, the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, 21 says, as the truth is in Jesus. Truth is not a concept, truth is not something you come up with through mental ascent. Truth is a person and his name is Jesus. And you have the right because you have free will to reject Jesus as truth or to accept Jesus as truth, but we do not have the right to change Jesus into what's more comfortable or more palatable or more accepting in the year 2019. Jesus Christ is not a builder bear, basically. That's what Jude was saying. It's once and for all delivered to the saints. And so again, we have this idea now that no, we're so advanced and we're so much smarter and we've come so far. So let's just take the God, maybe this will be a little more vocal now, will be a little more progressive, will be a little more inclusive, and let's kind of take the gospel and we have to be more relevant. Raise your hand if you've ever heard that church needs to be more relevant, Christians do. Okay, it's a buzzword that really says we need to basically take the gospel and make it more appealing to the masses, make it a little more palatable for people. And what I want to remind you as a follower of Jesus is that you're not relevant when we mirror the world around us. We're relevant when we model what the world ultimately wants to be. That's when we're relevant. I'm telling you, Jesus is the desire of the nations. There is an innate desire in every single person because they've been created by God to know God. And we don't do society any favors when we water it down and make it easier and it's okay and God's love. No, we model. We don't mirror, we model. And so what does that mean? That means as Christians we should have marriages that are strong. We should have families that are strong. We should forgive people who offend us. We should have peace in the midst of storms. And everyone else has anxiety. We're walking in supernatural peace. That's when the world looks at us and that's when we can, according to Isaiah 60, say arise and shine. Why? Because the glory of the Lord is upon you and Gentiles, people will be drawn to your light. That's what it means once and for all delivered to the saints. And so we have false teaching permeating the church 2,000 years ago and we have false teaching permeating the church today. I'm gonna give you a couple examples of what those might be. Anti-minonism is a big word basically for hyper grace. So it's one of the ways that the church is being corrupted is this hyper grace message that God doesn't really care and it's okay and you can do whatever you want because God accepts us and that's hyper grace. There's another side to it that's legalism where people fall into the trap of performance. If I do enough good things, I have to follow all of the laws and that's how I'm going to earn my place in God's favor and that's a false doctrine. We have universalism. If you don't know what that is it basically means that it doesn't matter what you believe, doesn't matter how you live. Ultimately at the end of the day we're all going to be reconciled to God. We're all going to heaven. If you're a Muslim as long as you're sincere we're all basically serving the same God. If you're a Buddhist as long as you're sincere we're all paths basically lead to the same God and that's not true. There's a prosperity gospel that says look you should have wealth and if you don't have a Rolex you don't have faith and if you're experiencing hardships you don't have faith and we have prosperity teachers who fleece congregations and use their finances for opulent living and that's not the gospel. Craig Groeschel talks about the Christian atheists which is those who profess to be Christians but live like God doesn't exist. So we'll say what we need to say but we don't live like God is the Lord of our lives. All of those are examples of what the church is facing in 2019 and so I want to talk through some of these that Jude mentions and so that we can be aware so that we can be warned so that we can be strong as a church in the midst of it. So the first thing and you can write these down that is a sign that someone is a false teaching or false teacher it's a false teaching is that there's always going to be heresy mixed with truth. Look what it says in verse four. It says for certain people have crept in unnoticed that the false teaching isn't from outside coming in it's from inside permeating through the church permeating through the congregation and in order to deceive anyone there has to be at least a semblance of truth. So you're not going to start a church and say yes welcome to the first heretical church of false doctrine. Come on in please open your Bibles to second hesitations and we'll start there. People are gonna be like what are you talking about? But when we take truth and we twist it to mean something else well then it becomes more palatable it becomes more attractive and that's been the enemy's plan since the very beginning. You go back to the Garden of Eden what did the serpent say to Eve? He said you can't you mean you can't eat from any of these trees? And he said no no no we can eat from all of them except that one tree God told us not to eat from that or we'll die. And Satan says you're not gonna die. God knows if you eat from that tree your eyes will be opened and you'll be like him. Now is it true that their eyes were opened? It's true for the first time she realized she was naked and so did Adam for the first time they realized what fear was what shame was their eyes were open to something they'd never seen before so Satan used the truth saying God's keeping something from you your eyes will be opened in order to counterfeit the truth that God had explained to them through his spoken word and that's exactly what the enemy does today. Satan is not a creator he can only corrupt he cannot create so anytime that there's a truth to be defended listen there's going to be a counterfeit truth that enemy tries to seep in to creep in unnoticed and so you look at our world you look at things like sex God created sex but Satan comes in and he perverts it he corrupts it God wants to create in music the some scholars believe Lucifer Satan before he fell may have actually been in charge of the choir in heaven and but what does Satan do he corrupts it perverts it things like food subsidence God says yes you need to eat but what does Satan do he brings in anorexia brings in gluttony he can only counterfeit what God creates and so what you see in false doctrine in false teachings is truth sprinkled into heresy so you'll hear things like people who want to live any way they live well Bible says judge not lest you be judged and so they stand on that verse they twist scripture when that's not what God meant when you take it in context but false teaching will say no no no you can do what you want you can't be judged people aren't allowed to judge you you'll hear false teaching like we're all God's children so we can do what we want because we're all God we're not all God's children John chapter one says as many as have received him have been given the right to be called children of God and John chapter eight Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and he says you're of your father the devil does God love everyone though yes so there's the truth but the misconception or the deception part is that oh it doesn't matter we're all his children God is love and so now what we've said is love looks like this love is love love is love is love is love and so what we've taken is our definition in 2019 of love and said this is who God is because God is love but God says no no no I decide what love is and we don't change the gospel to fit our definition of love the gospel changes us to see God as he truly is and to experience the love that he has that's what the deception does though and I'm telling you it's not easy to hear but there are judgments in the kingdom of God there are things that God does not approve of there is not this blanket of mercy and grace that we're all just under no matter what and so when you've decided to be a Christian you didn't join a country club where we all just come in and kind of pay our dues and then get our self esteem massaged and told how great we are no Jesus said do you wanna follow me? then deny yourself take up your cross and then you can follow me that's what Jesus said there's a price to be paid and 2000 years ago people died for the truth of the gospel that's how important it was to them because that's how important it was to God and in 2019 we don't have the right to say no, no, no we've come so far this is what God is like now this is what love is now this is what truth is now false teaching always begins with some sort of truth and listen I'm not talking about essentials versus non-essentials like I'm not talking about oh you sprinkle baptized you're a false teacher or you don't speak in tongues or you do, no I'm talking about the essentials there's some things that are not worth dividing the church over but there are other things where we need to contend we need to stand and we need to fight for the gospel the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints, amen, amen alright I gotta move on I'm sorry second thing that we see in verse four is it says they crept in on notice people who pervert the grace of God they pervert the grace of God and what does that mean that means these teachers come in and they say things like it's okay you don't have to change you don't have to do anything different God's love and God's for you and it doesn't matter and I'm telling you it does matter to God we're not allowed again to change the gospel to accommodate our lives or our culture or the year that we live in the word of God changes us we're not conformed to this world we're transformed how by changing the way that we think by changing the way that the world says is right and the world says this is okay to line up with what God says not the other way around and it's tough I get it it's like cotton candy you eat cotton candy and what happens it just melts immediately right and it's sweet and it goes down easy but once it's inside there's not a whole lot of nutritional information right whereas vegetables they don't maybe taste as good but once they get inside they do more for you I don't know if that's true I've never had a vegetable but people say do you understand what I'm saying though it might not taste as good it might it our itching ears want to hear no no it's okay I don't it's okay and this is okay and God doesn't really matter but it does matter to God the truth of the gospel says that no God doesn't just look away God says repent change the way that you think it's a big deal to God the way that we live how do I know that because Jesus said in Matthew chapter five if your eye causes you to sin gouge it out if your hand causes you to sin cut it off it's better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven maimed than to experience separation from God or what we call hell with all of your limbs and all of your eyes it matters and maybe that's hyperbole and maybe it's just extreme talk but it's extreme talk because God is extremely passionate about his people walking in truth walking in freedom walking in liberty and intentional sin is not a part of that plan that's what Jesus is talking about it's not a part of it we don't get to the side I can be this way and it doesn't matter and God's okay with this and things like divorce and things like abortion and things like sexual immorality and homosexual we don't get to say that to God we conform to his will not the other way around and so we can say God wants me happy no, God wants you holy and when you walk in holiness you'll find that happiness and joy and fulfillment are a part of that but happiness is conditional on circumstances joy is conditional on the promise that God says I love you I'll never leave you I'll never forsake you we surrender to God we have a whole generation that says no, no, no, no that's too extreme and you're pushing people away and that's not how God is and I was born this way maybe you were born this way but in the kingdom of God you get to be born again and that's the beauty of the gospel it doesn't matter how we came in it matters that God wants to do a renewing work in our lives we're born again the grace of God is not the freedom to do whatever we want it's the power, the supernatural power to do what is right that's the grace of God it's not a license to do anything it's a supernatural empowerment to follow hard after God and to know his ways grace is not a cover up last, next thing is they deny Jesus is Lord that's what it says in verse four again they deny our only master in Lord Jesus Christ so what does that mean? with their lifestyle false teachers say no, I'm above that we can do that it's okay they deny Jesus is Lord everybody loves the idea of Jesus as savior right, like I want my sins forgiven but do you know that 476 times in the New Testament Jesus is referred to as Lord 60 times he's referred to as savior Lord, do you wanna know what the Greek word for Lord means? Master, owner, controller where we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ where we lay our lives down and say God, not my will but yours be done and false teachers will never do that and false teaching will never make you do that you can live according to your own will to your own wants, to what culture says to where the world is at, no we don't get to deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ next thing they do is they reject authority verse eight it says yeah, in like manner these people false teachers, relying on their dreams you see that in your Bible you know how somebody's a false teacher when they elevate their dreams or their interpretations or what God has said to them with scripture that's what was happening when you know God told me and it's not in the Bible it's not according to the word they're dreamers and they reject authority and here's what that means you look at almost any false teacher and they don't have accountability in their lives they don't answer to anyone they reject authority so you can't tell me the Bible can't tell me what to do and other people can't tell me what to do and Pastor Lee Cummings is not a perfect leader but I'm gonna tell you something there's no one I know who loves God more and loves God's bride, the church more and wants with all of his heart to honor God and the plans that God has in his own life the right way and so he has created accountability we have overseers we have elders and they're not just sort of pie in the sky theories they speak into his life they ask him tough questions he has conversations with Jimmy Evans and other men of God because he knows that in my own flesh in my own ability I'm gonna fall short the temptation is to serve myself and so he's put safeguards in and false teachers will never do that they reject authority next thing is they show favoritism to gain advantage verse 16 it says these speaking of false teachers are grumblers, complainers I love how God, I love how if I was gonna make a list of sins like really bad ones I wouldn't have grumblers and complainers at the top would you? I'd be like mass murderers right? bank robbers people who say there's three chapters in Jude you know like and then complainers and stuff would be down here I'm telling you I believe this if we had a better revelation of the power of our words we'd have a better understanding why God hates complaining and grumbling do you wanna separate yourself from the presence of God start complaining about your life start grumbling the Israelites when they were taken out of Egypt do you remember they were like you brought us out here to die we missed the leeks and onions they started and what did God say to Moses? he didn't say hey their people are complaining he said my people have rejected me every time you complain you reject the goodness of God in your life but that's a different free sermon okay he goes and and he says that they in verse 16 that they show favoritism to gain advantage so false teachers will only maybe associate with affluent people or people that they can control or they show favoritism to this group and not that group why? because ultimately they wanna keep control that's so they'll show favoritism or they'll flatter one translation says in verse 16 you know that flattery is the counterfeit of honor when you flatter someone you'll say nice things you'll encourage them why because you want to have something for yourself you wanna be able to control them you have some sort of ulterior motive when you honor someone you say edifying things about them with no desire for something in return and the words can be exactly the same it's a hard issue these people will flatter false teachers oh you know what I see this in you and God told me this about you and they do it to control people stay away stay away from them the last thing is they cause division verse 19 says it is these who cause division worldly people devoid of the spirit so I talked about that last week false teachers are gonna always say no they're wrong we don't do it like that that's why we do it this way that's why we're better, we're holier they want to cause division so that they can elevate themselves and their own plan we need unity in our churches we need unity in our city it's not a competition it's not a market share we want every single church that proclaims the truth of Jesus Christ to be full, to be making disciples and to be impacting our city but false teachers there's an insecurity they're like oh no no no no they're not like us we're better they cause division but then he changes gears and we better end with this since it's quieter than a Presbyterian church in here but that's my fault I told you it was heavy so he says all these things but then look at verse 20 but you, so what do we do? but you, beloved building yourself up in your most holy faith so how do we guard against false teaching? how do we guard against false doctrine? we build ourselves up in our own faith Romans 10 17 says this faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God I cannot overstate how important this book is and your development and maturity in Christ you will not grow apart from God's word you will not Hosea 4 6 says my people perish why for lack of knowledge not for lack of zeal not for lack of wanting to do right they don't know and that's what false teachers do they pray on young believers immature believers because they can get them no no no you believe this believe this and so we build ourselves up in our faith we don't rely on other people do to explain truth to us we get it we receive it from the Holy Spirit we grow in godliness God doesn't want you to stay the same 2 Peter 3 18 says grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ not head knowledge not cerebral growth but relationship you know the truth God's revealing himself to you you're praying in the Holy Spirit when Paul talks about praying in the Spirit he's talking about tongues I'm not saying that's the only way you can pray in the Spirit but I'm telling you I do it every single day because the Bible says you're praying mysteries you're releasing something you don't even know what it is but you're trusting God and so when I pray for my family and I pray for my teenage daughters I'm like God I don't even know how to pray for them please Lord save me no but I do I pray in the Spirit and sometimes praying in the Spirit isn't necessarily just speaking in tongues but when you're praying for someone or I've had these times when all of a sudden you're praying and you know the Spirit of God is on what you're praying you just sense it and I've had that what I've prayed for people and I'm like I don't know what they're ultimately going through but I know God is healing them right now God is saving them right and you can almost sense the Holy Spirit on that and I never want to stop because I don't want to mess it up and be like but that happens you pray in the Holy Spirit you develop a relationship with God spiritual boldness is only a byproduct of relationship if you feel like I'm not very bold I can't pray it's because you don't know God at the level he wants you to and that's not a condemnation statement and no one's mad at you start where you are and grow build yourself up in your faith we can't be deceived in this age and then he says keep yourself in the love of God in verse 21 how do you do that again through relationship keep yourself in God's love don't believe the lies of the enemy when you mess up when you blow it go right before God and pray this prayer say God show me right now the love you have for me it's not conditional it's not based on your performance keep yourself in the love don't let the enemy move you off of the truth that God loves you this message isn't about failing and getting back up and asking God to forgive you in a spirit of humility God's always gonna do that this message in Jude is about people who decide no I can do it this way and God doesn't care and it's my life no that's always gonna lead to judgment but keeping yourself in the love of God is nothing more than recognizing God's identity is marking me God's grace is a part of my life I can't earn it I can't merit the love of God but I keep myself in that love and then I wanna close with this verse this is the most beautiful part of Jude he closes in verse 24 and 25 by saying now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy hear me right now when God sees you he has great joy in his heart so he starts off by saying this whole book is about not stumbling or falling into false teaching or false doctrine and so in our own flesh we're not good at it but Jude says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling ultimately it is God who's going to keep you from falling who's going to keep you from being snared he's the one who keeps you from stumbling but he doesn't just stop there he doesn't just say okay fine I'll pull you out of the red no he launches you into the black and he says I'm gonna present you blameless before the presence of the glory of God with great joy that's the promise of God he's not just reluctantly fine I'll forgive your sins no I wanna take you and my joy and my love for you is so great I'm gonna present you as if you've never sinned faultless, blameless before the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's his blood that's gonna be the filter that I see you through and I'm never ashamed of you and I'm never mad at you and my grace is sufficient for every single one of your needs that's what the God of the ages wants to do in your life keep you from stumbling present you faultless, blameless before the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and because of that then let all glory, majesty, dominion and authority belong to him both now and forevermore you guys stand up with me I wanna pray for you for us for the church it's messages like Jude's that really cause us to take a look at eternity I'm gonna tell you something one of the greatest things parents and grandparents that you can teach your children is that someday we're gonna stand before God and give an account for our lives that this life isn't all there is that eternity is in the balance we don't get to have a gospel of heaven without addressing hell we don't get to have a gospel of blessing without addressing that we're gonna go through some persecutions we don't get to have a gospel of grace without recognizing that there's truth that's involved and all of these false teachers are gonna face a judgment that eternity is, it's real and it's the great equal it should be the true north for us as believers because even when we're going through trials and struggles and difficult circumstances when we remember eternity we can say like Paul look I have sufferings but I choose to say they're nothing compared to the glory that I'm gonna experience in Christ Jesus yeah this is difficult right now maybe even for five, 10, 20 years but I'm gonna spend eternity in the presence of God it's gonna be worth it but then on the other side when we have blessing and we have favor and we have monetary gain and things like that we recognize, I don't know I need to see through the lens of eternity I'm not taking this with me am I a blessing to others am I funding the kingdom of God and eternity is the great equalizer it's the true north of our lives I just want you to close your eyes I just wanna ask you this question church I want the Holy Spirit to speak to you right now and say have you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life Lord have you surrendered your life to him telling you one of the false doctrines that's going around in our church world is that man as long as you prayed a prayer when you were four years old in your room you're good no I don't know if you are but I know this the Bible says you're known by your fruit trees known by its fruit the things that we do matter the way that we live matters making Jesus Lord of our lives matters not just saying okay yeah acknowledge he exists listen the demons believe in God and they tremble there's a lordship issue that we surrender our lives and then we reap the rewards of eternal life then we never have to worry we never have to wonder you never have to say oh man I've had a bad week or I've made a mistake no the blood of Jesus Christ covers you as soon as you surrender your life and if you're here and you say I've never done that I've gone through the motions I've gone to church I've tried to be a good person but I've not surrendered my life or you know maybe at one time I did but I've walked away not I had a bad week but I've turned away from God and I need to come home like the prodigal the love and grace favor of God is here for you right now and I'm gonna pray for you and today's gonna be a brand new day where you're a new creation in Christ Jesus old things passed away and all things become new and if that's you and you say please John include me in that prayer I need to make Jesus Lord of my life I want you right now to just raise your hand don't be shy don't hold back raise your hand high and say include me in that prayer thank you thank you right now raise your hand don't be robbed of this you're not gonna be embarrassed this is between you and the Lord thank you awesome eternity is in the balance eternity is in the balance thank you in the back awesome thank you you can put your hands down I want every one of us to pray this prayer out loud I want you to repeat it after me I want to say dear Heavenly Father thank you for loving me thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place and to pay the price that I could never pay I choose Jesus to be Lord of my life I turn my back on my past I no longer living for myself but for the glory of God wash me cleanse me and receive me into your family in Jesus' name amen amen if you prayed that prayer and you meant it you're a new creation in Christ Jesus welcome to the kingdom of God come on