Brave - Jude 1

and others today. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

All right. So, big idea for this new

series is that we need to be brave. Any

cowards in the house? All right. You're

not going to like this if you are. Um,

and if you're a coward, you're not going

to put your hand up in public. I get it.

Um, so anyway, we're going to learn to

be brave when it comes to defending our

faith because faith is worth defending.

Let's go to Jude chapter 1 verse 1.

Jude 1:1

God's word says, "Jude, a servant of

Jesus Christ and a brother of James. To

those who are called, loved by God the

Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. May

mercy,

peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Dear friends, although I was eager to

write you about the salvation that we

share, I found it necessary to write

appealing to you to contend for the

faith.

The faith that was delivered to the

saints once and for all. For some people

who were designated for this judgment

have come in by stealth. They're

ungodly, turning the grace of our God

into sensuality and denying Jesus

Christ, our only master and lord.

So,

you got to learn to choose your battles.

Uh, I don't know if you've ever had a a

school group project uh and you got that

one person in your group that just

refuses to do the work. The The person

that drives you absolutely insane. And

by the way, if you've never been in a

group project and had someone drive you

insane, that means that you were the

person that was driving everyone else

insane. So, you need to call and repent

of your sin.

You know, people that use like Comic

Sans in a report or or that one person

that eats the tuna fish sandwich from

Subway before they sit down at the table

with you to have the the group project

discussion. Or you got that person that

waits till the night before the project

is due to actually do their part of the

assignment. And so, you, if you're like

me, you start planning which swamp you

want to bury this person in. But,

common sense usually prevails and at

some point you probably realize that if

you spend all of your energy fighting

each other, then you will fail the

assignment.

And that's where the whole idea of

choosing your battles come from.

You you choose which hill that you're

going to die on because there's a

difference between someone or something

that is annoying and someone or

something that is actually threatening

your mission.

That's true in relationships. That's

true in marriages. That's true in the

church. See, not every

disagreement

deserves a division. Not every

irritation deserves a fight. There are

some things that you can just simply

laugh about. There are other things that

you can let go of.

There are some things that you can

disagree on without destroying a

relationship. But, there are moments

There are moments where things matter so

much that you do have to be brave. There

are moments that matter so much that you

need to stand up for what you believe

in. There are moments that do matter so

much that you have to defend your

position. And that's what this book of

Jude is all about. It's telling us that

your faith, the essentials of your

faith, are one of those things. You have

to stand up, be brave, and defend your

faith. So, not every battle is worth

fighting, but God's truth is worth

protecting.

The great communicator Rich Wilkerson

Jr. said, "Not every hill is worth dying

on, but some hills have a cross on them.

Amen?

So, grads, if if your faith is valuable

to you, if it is actually something that

you hold as valuable, then it is worth

defending. If your faith is something

that is priceless to you, then it is

worth protecting. So, summarizing Jude,

Jude is saying, "Faith is a hill worth

dying on because it is a battle

for truth that impacts all of eternity."

So, so who is Jude? Well, he tells us

right up front.

Verse one,

he says, "Jude, a servant of Jesus

Christ and a brother of James." So,

who's James? Well, James is the

half-brother of Jesus. So, what's that

mean for Jude? It means Jude is the

half-brother of Jesus. He played Little

League baseball with Jesus, yet he never

believed that his brother was actually

the son of God. How do we know that?

Well, in John chapter 7 verse verse 5,

John 7 · chapter mention

it says, "For even his own brothers did

not believe him." It It wasn't until

Jesus died on a cross and was buried in

a tomb and rose from the dead and then

appeared to his brothers that they

actually believed that he is who he says

he is.

>> [snorts]

>> Jude the doubter became Jude the

defender of the faith.

And notice, he doesn't announce himself

as the brother of Jesus. I would have.

That'd be in my profile, man, right at

the top. Brother of Jesus. He doesn't do

that. He says, "No, I'm a servant of

Jesus." Now, look, I don't have a

brother, but I know a lot of you do. And

I don't know any of you that would ever

introduce yourself as a servant of your

brother, okay? So, this is a really big

deal that he's introducing himself as a

servant of his brother, as a servant of

Jesus. Jude is like, "Look, I watched my

brother die on a cross. I watched him be

buried in a tomb, and I watched him come

back from the dead, and I met him on the

other side of that, and now I can give

myself the greatest title that I could

ever give myself, which is a servant of

Jesus.

So, Jude is the half-brother of Jesus,

the servant of Jesus, and he says that

we need to be brave when we're defending

our faith. Look at verse three.

He says, "Dear friends, although I was

eager to write you about the salvation

that we share,

I found it necessary to write though,

appealing to you to contend for the

faith that was delivered to the saints

once and for all."

So, Jude originally wanted to write a

celebratory message to his friends, to

his people. He wanted to write an

encouraging letter that talked about

salvation and grace and all these shared

experiences that they had with Jesus. It

would have been an awesome letter to

read, but during that process, before he

hit send on the message, the Holy Spirit

spoke to him and said, "Hey, we got to

change the letter. We got to change the

message because there's some stuff going

on in the church right now, and it is

tearing it apart. The the gospel that

you want to celebrate with these people

is actually being distorted." So, Jude

goes from a celebration to a warning.

Grads and others, sometimes

the moment demands that you send a

different message.

Here's the hard truth. Love requires you

to address some things that you might

want to ignore.

But when the Holy Spirit says, "This is

the message I need you to send," then

you have to hit send. You got to be

brave, and you have to do it. Jude

wanted to write about enjoying the

faith, but instead he had to write about

contending for it. So, I'm going to show

you the the Greek word for contend.

Normally, I This is the part of the

sermon where I would say the Greek word,

and then I would explain what it means,

but I can't say this one. It's my West

Virginia upbringing, I guess, but I

can't say it. Can you pull it up on the

screen for people to see? All right,

anybody? You want to try?

All right, don't judge me.

>> [laughter]

>> That's a toughy right there.

So, we're just going to say contend,

okay? That's the Greek word. If you want

to look it up, I promise it means this.

It means to wrestle or to agonize over.

To wrestle or to agonize over. You can

say it. No one's going to know if it's

right or not. I mean, go ahead.

It means to wrestle or agonize over.

Contending for the faith means that you

need to wrestle. You need to agonize

over this. It requires bravery. It

requires you to get in the ring and face

off against your giants. So, how do we

do this?

Do we just go to go to social media and

start posting scripture verses and

telling everybody how wrong they are?

Well, no, that that doesn't work and

that's actually not God's plan, either.

We got to learn to disagree without

disrespect.

So, graduates, when you go off to

college or if you go off to the

workplace, your your faith will be

challenged. You have to learn to

disagree with people without

disrespecting them. 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 8:1

chapter 8 verse 1, "Knowledge puffs up,

but love builds up." So, knowledge puffs

up, makes me feel good about me,

but it's love that's actually going to

build that person up.

I know people that are more concerned

about winning an argument than

preserving a relationship.

And his name was Kevin and he lived that

way for a lot of his 20s.

Um

thank God I've matured.

What are you laughing about?

>> [laughter]

>> Who was that?

Wow, I don't like them up here. We're

going to

Y'all, can we take a love offering and

build a balcony, please, so we can put

them up there?

So I can see them. Anyway.

In this context,

in the spiritual context, in the

biblical context, we are standing up for

people, not against them, okay?

Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, "For our

Ephesians 6:12

struggle is not against flesh and blood.

It is against the rulers, the

authorities, the cosmic powers of this

darkness,

against evil,

against spiritual forces in the heavens.

We're standing up to principalities like

the world that you live in, like the

culture that you live in, like the

influencers that are trying to tell you

a different way than Jesus' way. Jesus

tells you about an upside-down culture,

a way of looking at life

fit in the paradigm of the world around

you. We are contending against those

authorities, those principalities. We

are contending against the devil and his

minions. We are contending against them,

not people. So, how do we do that? Well,

we need a we need a model, don't we? We

need some way of kind of sorting what's

worth fighting for and what's not worth

fighting for. And so, thank goodness,

Augustine gives us a very clear

three-part way of categorizing our

arguments.

He says,

this is how as Christians, as brothers

and sisters in Christ, this is how we

handle ourselves. He says, in

essentials,

unity.

In non-essentials,

liberty, and in all things, charity.

Man, this is helpful in social media.

This is helpful in college. This is

helpful in the workplace. So, let's talk

about some essentials. The Apostle Paul

was all about the essentials in 1

1 Corinthians 15:3

Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3.

He says, I passed on to you as most

important. There's some essentials here

he believes in. As most important, what

I also received,

that Christ died for our sins according

to the scriptures, that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day

according to the scriptures, and he

continues.

So, in your bulletin, I've listed out

the essentials of the faith. If you want

to kind of take those notes and and put

them somewhere, this is one you can come

back to. These are the things that are

the essentials, the building blocks, the

foundation of your faith. Number one,

there is one God. He exists in three

parts, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. I'm not

going to go any deeper into that right

now cuz it would take another 30 minutes

to explain that, but just know this,

there's one God, he exists in three

forms. It's called the Trinity. Jesus is

fully God, 100% God, and 100% man.

And he came to earth in the flesh. Jesus

died for our sins, and his death on the

cross paid the penalty for our sins.

Jesus physically rose from the dead. The

resurrection is central to Christianity.

It's why Easter is the biggest day of

the year for the church, when we

celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

Salvation is by grace through faith, not

of works. You can't earn salvation. You

can't buy salvation. If anyone tells you

if you just do more good than bad, you

get to go to heaven, that is incorrect.

That is false.

The essential of the faith, you are

saved by grace, which is nothing you've

earned, through faith, believing Jesus

is who he says he is, and it is not

earned by works.

The Bible

is God's authoritative word. It is the

foundation for every single thing we do.

Grads, if you wind up in another place,

and you wind up in another church, and

that person that is presenting on Sunday

never brings

the scripture to the stage with them,

then you need to find another church

because the Bible is the foundation of

our faith. Jesus is the only way to

salvation. We'll talk more about that in

a minute.

We also believe that Jesus will return

again. He will receive Christians. They

will go to heaven, and then one day they

will live on a new new earth under his

new kingdom.

These are the essentials of the faith.

And and graduates, if you compromise on

any of these, it could lead to

catastrophic

moments in your spiritual life. These

are things that you walk into every

context with, and you say, "These are

the things that I believe." But on the

other side of that, if a person is

willing to accept these essential faith

these essentials of the faith then you

are unified with them. That's what

Augustine was saying.

You're unified with them. If they

believe these things then they are your

brothers and your sisters in Christ and

even if they're like your crazy uncle

even if they're like that brother-in-law

that drives you nuts they're still a

part of your family and you have to seek

unity with them cuz I guess get this

you're going to live with them forever.

Yeah, that's what Christianity's all

about. We get to live together forever.

So you might as well learn to get along

with each other while you're here on

Earth.

>> [laughter]

>> I've learned to get along with that guy

so anything's possible.

All right.

So then he talks about non-essentials.

That's Liberty. And so I asked my

research assistant chat GPT to tell me

the top five things that people fight

about on social media in the United

States referring to the Christian faith.

Number one and I could have guessed this

one in times and rapture. Like timelines

of when Jesus is coming back. Do we go

first? Do we go in the middle? Do we go

at the end?

Churches have divided over this for

centuries. It's still an argument that

goes on. Number two was God's

sovereignty versus human free will. Do

we actually have agency? Can we make

choices? Does God already know our

choices?

Does he know who's going to be saved and

who's not going to be saved? There's an

argument there. Spiritual gifts,

speaking in tongues, healings, that kind

of stuff. We argue about that. Church

style, worship style, old versus new,

liturgical versus spontaneous, dress

codes, service structures, instruments.

Look, a lot of church conflict is

actually preference disguised as

doctrine, okay? So this is something

that you know, it's worth a discussion

but it's not worth dividing over. And

then of course number five was baptism.

The who, what, when, where, and why.

What does baptism do? What does it

represent? Who should be baptized? How

should they be baptized? Can infants be

baptized? There's believers baptism,

sprinkling versus immersion. These are

things that we talk about. And as one

commentator said, get this,

"Non-essentials are important enough to

discuss." So, these are conversations

that should be had amongst the church

family.

But, he says, "Not important enough to

break fellowship." Okay?

So, we discuss them, but we don't

excommunicate people because of them.

And then, after all of that, he says,

"In all things, charity." So, we unite

over the essentials. We give liberty

over the non-essentials.

And then, for the people that disagree

with the essentials, how do we treat

them? Do we throw stones at them? Do we

punch them? Do we What do we do? Well,

according to the Bible, we speak truth

in love to them.

Speak truth.

Don't put our head in the sand. We We

have to talk about this. We speak truth

bravely, but we do so with love.

And that's exactly what Jesus did. Read

the Gospels. Every time Jesus had an

encounter with someone that disagreed

with the doctrine, he spoke truth, but

he did so

in love, because he knew that his battle

was not against them, flesh and blood,

but against the principalities and

authorities that had influenced them.

So, how does this false teaching

actually get into your life? How does it

get into the church? Well,

uh Jude tells us in verse 4.

It says, "For some people who were

designated for this judgment long ago."

So, Jesus knew it was coming.

"They have come in by what?"

Stealth.

They've come in by stealth. So,

the the the argument that he's having

with folks in this specific instance is

that there are people that came into

church and said, "Grace is a license to

sin. You have been forgiven of all of

your sins, so feel free to do whatever

you want, whenever you want." It's kind

of like this. The people in January,

they get the gym membership, and you

know who you are.

Um

You go to Planet Fitness, you get the

gym membership, right? You get You take

the selfie, you get the water bottle and

the towel and the little scan thing on

your phone, and then you just like never

go to the gym.

But But imagine if you were like, "Well,

it's okay that I'm unhealthy.

I have a gym membership."

All right. It's It's okay that I'm

unhealthy because I pay for this gym

membership. I don't use it, but I have

it.

See, the membership gives you access to

strength, but you still have to go to

the gym to access it. And that's how

some people in this church were were

treating treating grace. And so Jude had

to write a note about it. He had to put

a letter out there about this.

Cuz these people were saying, "I can

keep living living however I want

because I am forgiven." But grace is not

a permission to stay weak, it is an

empowerment to grow stronger.

Grace is all about, "Hey, you can resist

temptation.

You can actually be holy, set apart,

forgiven. You can become more like Jesus

because of the power of the Holy Spirit

in you."

And it's because Jesus loves you so much

that you want to do these things.

It's not willpower, it's the fact that

when you recognize that Jesus loved a

sinner like you enough to go to the

cross and die for you, and then gives

you this free gift of salvation. Once

you receive that free gift, you're like,

"Hey, I This is awesome. He loves me at

my worst. Why would I then not want to

be like him? Why would I then not want

to follow him?" And then he gives us

that beautiful helper called the Holy

Spirit that actually helps us execute on

those desires.

It's kind of like

this whole this whole stealth thing.

It's It's kind of like Well, I'll just

use myself as an example. You don't

obsessively start watching flea market

videos on YouTube.

Um

It's not something you actually seek

out. It starts small. It's kind of like

In my case, I clicked on a video where a

guy went to a swap meet and he found a

number one Batman that was in good

condition and then he sold that Batman

comic book for $4 million.

And I watched the whole video. I thought

it was awesome, but then

I I I went places I didn't really intend

to go. Like years later, I'm I'm

watching YouTube videos and it's on flea

markets and yard sales, but now it's

kind of drifted into this thing where it

pulls up these videos of men and

physically assaulting each other in

Costco over Pokémon cards. Like it just

drifted into this weird world that I

never wanted to be in and it's called

the algorithm. And it decides what you

want to see for you. And that is what

Jude is warning us about. He's not

talking about other religions that have

tried to come into the church from the

outside because those are pretty easy to

see. He's talking about false teaching

that disguises itself as doctrine and

slowly infiltrates stealthily into the

church. And it usually comes through a

small, slow algorithm of compromise. You

didn't intend to start there, but that's

where you ended up. And these false

beliefs fracture the church. It's what

Jude said in verse 19.

These people create divisions

and are worldly,

not having the spirit.

So, what are the top three things that

our graduates are going to face as they

go out into the Christendom and as they

look at churches and and and listen to

influencers, the top three things that

have infiltrated the church uh

are the the belief number one that all

roads lead to heaven.

And they say just be good and you'll get

there. It doesn't matter what your

belief system is. God is good. He'll

invite you up into heaven. No, the

gospel says that I'm not good and I

never will be, but Jesus is and that's

why he went to the cross for me and paid

the price for my sin for me, something I

could never do for myself. And so it's

my faith in him that allows me access to

heaven. All roads is actually the worst

theology. It's hateful theology because

it leads people into eternal

destruction. So it should be rejected.

Number two is the whole idea of

subscription Christianity. The whole

idea of just cancel anytime. Just stop

your membership, stop your your payment.

If you don't get exactly what you want

when you want it, it means that Jesus

does not love you and that he is not

enough.

That's that's wrong.

Jesus does love you. It's just that he's

a father not a vending machine. And so

sometimes as a good father, he will give

you what you need when you need it and

we have to learn to trust that God knows

best. And sometimes that means waiting

on an answer. Sometimes that means that

the answer comes disguised as a problem

and sometimes God leaves the problem in

your life because the problem is

actually the solution to the problem.

And so we don't know what he's doing up

there. His ways are greater than ours

and so we just have to learn to trust.

Trust that you're loved and trust that

God is enough. And then number three of

course is the prosperity gospel. The

name it, claim it, visualize it,

manifest it. Yes, words have power. Yes,

thoughts have power but don't spend your

life trying to get God to agree with you

because you make a lousy God.

I make a lousy God. I got a fourth

degree burn on my lip from biting into a

Pop-Tart too soon when it came out of

the toaster.

Should I be God? No, no.

If I can't do that, I shouldn't be God.

So what do we do? We do visualize. We do

name, we do claim, we do all that.

But what we visualize is God's word, not

ours. We visualize God's will, not ours.

And then the blessings will be manifest

in our life because we are aligning our

will with God's. So, we have lives, we

need to defend the faith, we're not

brave. What do we do? Three things real

quick. Number one, faith is received,

not achieved.

Faith is received, not achieved.

Verse three,

right at the very end, it says, "Faith

that was delivered to the saints once

and for all." Delivered to the saints.

For something to be delivered, it must

be

Hey, good job. It must be received. It's

like when you get the text on your phone

and it tells you that your package has

been arrived on your front porch. Even

shows you a picture of it. And and the

package is paid for,

your name is on the package, it is

sitting at your house, but instead of

opening it, you leave it on the porch

for weeks. And so, it's out there in the

sun, it's out there in the rain, and

then eventually a porch pirate comes

along and takes your package off of your

front porch. Whose fault is it that you

did not receive the blessing that was in

the package?

Is it the sender's fault?

No, it's our fault because we did not

receive it. And so, in John 3:16, it

John 3:16

says that God sent his only son, Jesus,

to Earth for us. The package has been

delivered, but have we received it? The

gift is provided, Jesus paid for it,

grace has been extended, salvation has

been offered.

But the only gift that you can't receive

is the one that you refuse to receive.

So, how do we receive it? Like I said

earlier, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8

Ephesians 2:8

and 9. For you are saved by grace

through faith that is This is from not

from yourselves, it is God's gift, not

from works, so that no one can boast.

So, once faith is received,

and hopefully that's where you're at.

Hopefully you've received that gift.

Once it's received though, we don't hide

it under a bushel. We we let our light

shine, you know, like the song says. We

we got to protect the essentials. And

the way we do that is we identify the

the

Jude said there are religious people who

are going to try to confuse you with

false teachings. And he lists them out

in verse 12.

These people are dangerous reefs

at your love feasts

as they eat with you without reverence.

They are shepherds who only look after

themselves.

So they they look safe, but they're

willing to throw you to the wolves at a

moment's notice.

Then he says they are waterless clouds

carried along by the winds. They look

promising,

but they deliver nothing.

He says they're trees in late autumn,

fruitless, twice dead, and uprooted.

They look alive, but they produce

nothing.

Verse 13, they are wild waves of the sea

foaming up at their shameful deeds. They

thrash around, they look busy, they they

they serve on 15 committees, but they

actually accomplish nothing. Then he

says they're wandering stars from whom

the blackness of darkness is reserved

forever. He's talking about shooting

stars. Back then, the the they would

navigate the ships at night by the stars

in the sky. But if you tried to navigate

your ship by a shooting star that was

here one moment and gone the next, you

would wind up way far away from where

you wanted to believe. So not or you

wanted to be. So not

everything that looks the part is

qualified to speak truth. And so we have

to learn to identify the threats. And

the way you do that is you know the word

of God so well that when someone speaks

something that is false, it triggers

something in your mind to say, "Wait,

that doesn't sound right."

It's coming in kind of stealthy. Maybe I

don't notice it at first, but but

there's something off. And so I'm going

to look into this. That's how you

identify the threats.

And then finally, the most important

thing of all, your faith is meant to be

lived.

Look at verse 20 and 21.

He says, "But you, dear friends, as you

build yourselves up in your most holy

faith,

praying in the Holy Spirit, keep

yourselves in the love of God, waiting

expectantly for the mercy of our Lord

Jesus Christ for eternal life.

Faith is not a statement, faith is a

step.

So, if you go read Hebrews chapter 11,

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

it's the great hall of faith.

It's a list of all the people and the

faith that they showed and you read

about Abraham who went on a journey into

the unknown by faith. You read about

Noah who built the ark when it hadn't

rained. Why you building a boat? He did

that because he had faith. Moses left

all the luxuries of Egypt. Remember, he

was the the Pharaoh's daughter's son.

Like, he had everything and he left it

all behind to follow God by faith. And

then you have Sarah who trusted in God

in a impossible situation by faith.

Don't just read about faith, live faith.

The bottom line is, if my

if I my preaching about faith cannot be

better than my life of faith. And their

singing about faith cannot be better

than their life of faith. And teaching

about faith cannot be better than life

of faith. Bravery is shown by loving

people, number one, and being authentic

in your faith.

He says in verse 22,

what do we do about the people in the

church, our faith family, who are kind

of drifting? How do we show them love?

Well, says have mercy on those who

waver.

Save others by snatching them from the

fire. Have mercy on others, but with

fear, hating even the garment defiled by

the flesh. So, you love and you're

authentic.

It's interesting about graduation is you

spend

years of your life getting ready for

this big moment, this big event, and

then you

you get up there and it lasts like 15

seconds.

You know, they they they call your name,

you walk across the stage, shake a hand,

get a diploma,

take a picture,

maybe have a party later.

Then what?

You actually have to live out what you

learned.

Nobody gets hired because they attended

chemistry class, okay? Nobody gets hired

because they attended chemistry. Nobody

wants a surgeon that says, "Hey, I read

a textbook and I graduated. I've never

done this before, but you know,

I've done these two things, isn't that

enough?" No, at some point, knowledge

has to become real life, and that's what

Judas saying. He's saying, "Look, don't

just post about truth. Don't just quote

the scripture.

Don't just know the Christian language.

Live it. Love people. Show mercy. Stay

authentic. Protect your faith because

bravery isn't found in winning

arguments. Bravery is remaining faithful

to God in real life."

So, graduates, just a a word for you. Uh

you're going to be stepping into a world

that's going to constantly pressure you

to blend in, to compromise, to keep your

faith private, and to make Christianity

casual.

God says,

"We need to fight for, contend for,

and be all about the essentials of the

faith."

And the best news of all is, you don't

even have to be brave to do this.

You don't have to be brave.

Because in 2 Chronicles chapter 20,

2 Chronicles 20:15

verse 15,

we read a very common phrase in the

Bible. I could have pulled any of a

hundred verses that say the same thing.

The battle is not yours to fight.

It is the true God's.

So, yes, life will get complicated. Yes,

you may even have friends that disagree

with your faith decisions. Yes, you will

definitely have a culture that disagrees

with your faith decisions, but in

Christ, you can be loving, you can be

authentic, you can live out your faith,

and you can be brave because God has

already done what's necessary to win the

battle for you.

All you got to do is show up and join

the fight. Let's pray.