How to Build Yourself Up

Well, good morning.

We're going to do that again.

I want to make sure you're awake because you have no idea who I am, but I'm going to introduce myself in a second.

Good morning.

My name is Chip.

I am blessed to be here this morning.

I'm the pastor at River Hills Church in Winder, Georgia.

And I have the opportunity of preaching for my good buddy Russ this morning.

And I want to come to you this morning in a couple ways.

First of all, take your Bible, turn to the book of Jude.

If you're not sure where that is, go to Revelation.

A lot of you have been reading that lately in the light of yesterday.

That's a joke.

Go backward.

One book, and it's about a 500-word book that we're going to be dealing with three verses this morning.

Church of the Grove means a lot to me.

Let me tell you a couple of reasons why.

Russ and I have known each other for 25 years or more.

And when we started River Hills Church in Winder, you guys were about a year old.

I think, or in fact, our birthdays are almost, as far as the church goes, a year apart.

You were the one of the first churches to jump on board and say, we want to support that mission in Winder, Georgia, because Lord knows the people in Winder need Jesus.

All right.

And um, and so uh Russ uh led this church to do that, and I'm so grateful for him and Jill.

And like I said, I've known him for 25 years.

Let me give you a couple other reasons.

I jotted several things down here about why I love you and you don't know me.

We've done mission trips together in the Dominican Republic and other places.

We planted churches together and are currently partnering to do that.

We networked together as churches in your back room back here in your children's ministry, a group of pastors.

We would get together once a month to encourage each other.

You hosted stuff like that.

Um, and I'm so grateful.

One of the things I love about your church is your children's minister, Katie Landers.

Isn't she amazing?

Yeah.

I'm her younger brother.

What are you laughing about?

I mean, come on.

I'm her older brother.

Uh I taught her everything she knows, and from my heart to you, you're welcome.

All right.

Uh I I love the fact that she works here and serves here.

But let me talk about your pastor for a moment.

Uh I've known him for 25 years.

A couple things I love about you, Russ.

Number one, you have impeccable taste in shoes.

I've never, I didn't know this about Russ, but he'll have meetups and back alleys and change like Nikes for Air Jordans and New Balances for Hokas, and that's all I know about shoes.

Uh and and and uh also he has a keen mind, a strong wit, and he's a great leader, is he not?

And uh he and Jill have been an encouragement to me and uh my wife over the years, and um and and I had the opportunity, I was off this Sunday, uh, and had the opportunity, I was gonna be worshiping with you guys at 11 because I sleep in when I'm not uh preaching.

Um but uh I want to just take a few moments to pray for Russ and Jill.

Uh and uh he doesn't know I want to talk about this, but I think of three things that we need to pray for Russ and Jill about.

Uh, number one, an exorbitant amount of wisdom.

Um, you guys are going into a building project, right?

Uh every pastor loves building projects.

They don't.

But it's necessary for growth, it's necessary to reach his community.

And as a person who is native to Walton County, uh, been here for generations, I went to Monroe High School.

Uh I think I may know some of you from those days.

I'm different.

Um it takes a lot of wisdom to do those things and to lead a church and not only one church, two campuses, right?

It takes a lot of wisdom to lead a staff, it takes a lot of wisdom to navigate things.

So we're gonna pray for that.

We're also gonna pray for stamina for him and Jill.

They've been running a hard race for the last 17 years planting church at the grove, right?

And so, guys, it takes a lot out of you to do that.

I mean, look at him.

He's only 28.

I mean, come on.

You know, I'm the youngest guy in our group of pastors to get together, and I've always referred to Russ as the grandfather I never knew I needed.

But we want to pray for stamina.

Also, and this is getting a little bit more personal, and I have permission to do this, Russ, I'm sorry.

Um his shoulder is terrible pain for him and causes blood pressure to go up, and we want to pray for God's healing, opportunity to get into and under the knife, right?

Uh, I asked him to go fishing last week.

He said he couldn't throw, so we got to get him healthy for that kind of stuff.

So, can we just pray as a church for him?

And if you're around him, if you want to put your hand on him and not his shoulder, um and we just want to pray for Russ and Jill.

Are y'all with me on that as a church?

He's my buddy.

I love him.

I'm thankful to be here, and we want to ask God's favor on him and his wife and his ministry and your church as you continue to be a light for the gospel here in this community.

Let's pray together.

Father in heaven, you are good.

You are powerful.

You are beyond anything we can ever imagine, understand, and know.

Your words are eternal.

Your kindness leads us to repentance.

Your power is beyond the scope of humanity and anything we can ever dream of.

You are good.

You are personal.

You are holy, but yet you bring us close through Jesus.

And so together as a body, we lift up Russ and Jill.

We pray God for an exorbitant amount of wisdom.

As he navigates, as leader as a pastor of his home.

I pray God that you would anoint him in these areas.

That you would bless him, that you would strengthen him, that you would move in him, give him clarity of thought and mind.

We pray, Father, for stamina to continue to run the race hard.

That you would give him the strength to know when to run fast and when to smell the roses.

That you'd overwhelm him with leaders that surround him and hold him up.

And that you would bless him with the endurance to express the holy gospel to this community.

And God, we pray for healing.

We pray, Father, that you get him into surgery as quickly as possible and that that would be repaired.

We pray for his blood pressure to go down.

And we pray, God, for rest.

That you would be with him and Jill and unite them together closer than they've ever been.

And that you would move in a very profound and powerful way.

Thank you for this godly leader.

And I pray, God, that you would move in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, what happened to you yesterday?

Were you glued to the TV like everybody else was after 6 o'clock?

It's been kind of a crazy 24 hours, not even 24 hours, 13, 14 hours.

And as I woke up this morning, I have no idea what I had no idea this was happening.

We were preparing, but it goes right along, and that's how God's providence works, right?

Um, I woke up this morning and found out the person who uh was the suspect in the attempted assassination, actually murder of the one person that we forget who was behind the podium, was 20 years old and it hit home to me because I have a 20-year-old son.

And so the grief from both sides have really impacted me in some ways because as a citizen of the United States, you grieve to see what's happening in our nation right now, right?

And the worst thing we can do as Christians is take sides.

Here's the thing.

On the way to church this morning, and I was praying through what to say about this because it has nothing to do in some ways, but a lot of what we're gonna be talking about.

There was an old uh Christian worship song that came on as I was listening and preparing, just praying through the message.

Russ, you'll know what it's talking about.

It's called the Ancient of Days.

Have you all ever heard that song?

And here's what here's the thing that we have to remind ourselves as believers here.

Political parties will fade.

But the ancient of days stays the same.

Our hope does not rest on anything other than Jesus' blood, and let's finish that hymn.

And what?

His what?

Righteousness.

And so the answer is always Jesus for a Christian.

And the response is that we're not building the kingdom of God.

You realize you have no power to do that, right?

You can't build the kingdom of God.

What you do is build for the kingdom of God.

There's a big difference there.

Remember that word for.

Because if we believe the God of the Bible is all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign, good, saves you, has the world in his hands, all that stuff.

If we believe that, then there's our confidence right there.

Hebrews talks about this in chapter 13, is that in the midst of these trials, we have this promise, this hope, this security in knowing that Jesus will never leave us or what?

Forsake us.

That's a good thing.

So here's my encouragement to you: pray like crazy, be at peace, and be the light of the gospel, the only hope that we can ever have.

Y'all with me on that?

Let's do that as a church.

Let's do that as a body.

So, that being said, we're gonna talk about how to contend for the faith in the context of living in a world that's very counterfeit at times.

And so the book of Jude is, I think it's the fifth shortest book in the Bible, about 560 words, something like that.

And here's what's so interesting.

Let's go to verse 1.

Notice what happens.

I'm gonna set up the context for you, and then we're gonna leap down to verse 17.

There's only one chapter in the whole thing.

But notice how Jude starts his book here.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James.

Now understand this.

Jude is not simply a Beatles song, all right?

Jude is actually the half-brother of Jesus Christ.

Now, some of you are gonna think, how does Jesus have a half-brother?

Think through this with me, folks.

Jesus' dad is who?

God.

Joseph and Mary went on to have other kids.

One of them was Jude, and another one was a guy named James.

He wrote the book of James.

Now, what's so fascinating to me about Jude is that he had the wherewithal and the understanding to say, I need to submit my life to my brother.

Now, my sister's in this room.

There ain't no way in this world she and I are going to submit to each other.

All right?

And you would never do that with your sibling, would you?

But Jude understood something here.

In order for him to experience righteousness, redemption, forgiveness in heaven, he had to go to his brother and say, Forgive me, you're God.

Isn't that good?

That's a wealth of humility that we need to draw into this.

And then he goes on to recognize his brother James.

He is the leader of the New Testament church there in Jerusalem.

Now keep reading with me.

He goes on to say this Judah, servant of Jesus Christ, and his brother, and the brother of James, to those, and here's your description as a Christian.

If you know Jesus, this is you.

You ready for this?

He says, you are called.

That means God's got you.

You have been called into a salvation by acknowledging Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

He is God, you're a sinner, he forgives, he captures you.

He says, You are called, you are beloved in God, meaning he's got you, he loves you.

You are nurtured, you are nurtured and you're cherished.

And he goes on to say, and this is my favorite part, you are kept.

Do you see that right there?

Now, here's what I want you to get because sometimes in our backwoods understanding of what the gospel is, we have this merit system of favor.

Meaning, if I do these things, God will love me more.

Wrong.

The gospel is the totality of who you are, your perseverance in who Jesus is, your forgiveness in what he has done, and your destination and where you're going.

You are kept not by your works, but by Jesus.

Isn't that great?

That is a good place to be here.

And a great reminder for us today.

Now read on a little further.

He goes on to say this.

In verse 3, we're going to skip down one verse.

He goes on to say, and he gives the reason for writing this little letter.

He says, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, he goes on, he said, I was very eager to encourage you that through Christ, regardless of your socioeconomic background, regardless of whether you're Democrat or Republican, regardless of any of that stuff, we have a common salvation that we are unified in Christ.

You with me?

That's a common thing.

About our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you, and here's the word, to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.

Now, we're going to define this a little more, define this a little more.

But see that word contend there?

That means to fight for.

But don't misunderstand this.

This does not mean you get to go throat punch somebody in the name of Jesus, okay?

What that means is you got to put that as your core value and hold it strong, hold it dear.

And even when the shots are fired at your faith, you persevere, you contend for it with Scripture by holding on to Jesus.

You with me?

Then he goes on to say one other thing.

He goes on to say in verse 4, for certain people have crept, you see that word, snuck in, unnoticed, who long, who long ago were designated for the this condemnation.

And he gives a description.

Ungodly people, meaning morality is out the window.

They pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, meaning they take what the gospel says and says you got to add to it.

And then he says they pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ, meaning is that they don't bow down to Jesus.

So I like the fact that Jesus is God and I can be saved, but I don't like the fact that He gets to tell me what to do now.

You follow that?

So he gives a description.

He says, instead of writing and celebrating, I'm telling you, things have crept in.

Years ago, I was preaching in my church, and I think you'll appreciate the story.

You guys started at uh at youth middle school, youth middle school, right?

And then went to Waller Grove High School, and then you built this building, and now you're built another about to build another building.

Isn't that cool?

The process, I mean I want to encourage you as you drive by those schools, not only pray for those schools, but celebrate how far God has brought you.

It's good to do that.

We started at the Winder YMCA, and then we moved into a feed store and renovated this feed store.

And so early on, as we're in this feed store, and what happens in a feed store?

Mice.

That's what happens in a feed store.

And for generations, these mice have packed seed into the walls.

We didn't know that.

We just wanted a place to do church.

First service, 9:30 in the morning.

I'm preaching.

There's a lady on the front row, she's pregnant, and all of a sudden she went, woo! And I'm thinking two things.

She's either about to have this baby, which is not good, or she done got the spirit, which is kind of weird at that moment because it was a bad sermon.

You with me?

A mouse had run underneath her foot.

Yeah, yeah, you'd have done the same thing, right?

Woo! It's just like a wave, it just goes across the things creep in sometimes, right?

And when things creep in unchecked, it causes chaos.

Agreed?

And what happens in the faith, especially in the church, is that counterfeits disguising themselves as believers, even professing Christ, creep into our churches, to our psyche, into our feeds on our social media platforms, and we buy into it, hook, line, and sinker.

So, how do we respond?

Well, I think there's three or four ways we respond to that.

One, we respond in anger.

You see that a lot, right?

Those are the Christians online and on TV that get the most oppressed.

They get angry.

They want to fight somebody.

Or we respond in apathy.

It's no big deal.

Or they respond, and this is probably the worst response, in compromise.

Well, I'll just be okay with that and maybe participate with it.

How do we respond when these counterfeits sneak in?

And thankfully, Jude give us an understanding.

Now, throughout the rest of this letter until we get to verse 17, that describes what these counterfeits look like.

But I want us to respond biblically.

I think scripture calls us to do that.

My wife and I, I got a few minutes.

My wife and I uh moved to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Now, understand, I am a resident of Walton County for for for like all my life, all of 30 years.

And uh why are you laughing?

So, a resident of Walton County, grew up on a small farm, you know, in the country has changed completely now.

Um but uh moved to New Orleans, and it is you you know, you ever you remember uh Wizard of Oz, we're not in Kansas anymore?

I was not in Georgia anymore, all right?

Um but I began to appreciate the people, appreciate the culture.

One night my wife, who's also in the seminary at the time, uh, had to go to class or to work or something.

So, what does a guy in his 20s do when he doesn't have money and his wife's working?

You go to McDonald's because there's nothing like that last French fry left over in the bag, right, people?

So I go to McDonald's, I'm standing there, and it was right off the interstate there in inner city, New Orleans, and it was like a block away from my apartment.

And this couple and this family from Mississippi, Mississippi, Deepwoods, Mississippi, pull off of the interstate, they go to McDonald's, we're all standing there, and they're huddled together in the corner like somebody's gonna bite them, okay?

And I'm just sitting there, I talk to everybody, say, Hey, how you doing?

And the woman looks at me and she goes, How can you stand it?

My response to her, and I think this was the right response, is you have to learn to love them.

How can you stand counterfeits?

Notice what 22 and 23 say in Jude.

Here's how you stand it, people.

He goes on to say very clearly, and have mercy.

You see that there?

Have mercy on those who doubt.

Save others by snatching them out of the fire.

And to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh.

You love them.

You show them Jesus.

You're shocked that they don't act like Christians?

It's because they're not.

You with me on that?

So as you contend for the faith in your home, in your church, wherever you may be, even in your own brain, there's several things and descriptors that Jude gives us here.

So let's deal with them.

Starting in verse 17.

He says, But you must remember, beloved, that predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They said to you, get this, in the last times there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

Now, I'm not saying this is the end times, okay?

People in the body of Christ throughout church history have been saying these are the end times.

The reality is, if we believe Scripture, we don't know.

And that's okay.

That's okay.

It's about not what you know, it's what?

Who you know.

Now, interestingly enough, Jude points this out.

And basically what he's saying here is in the midst of all these counterfeits, why are you surprised?

And if we're called, and here's the point, to build up our faith, that's how we deal with counterfeits.

Sub point number one on that whole idea of building up our faith means we have to learn how to practice awareness.

Now, what do we mean by practicing awareness here?

We have to have an awareness that people are going to do sinful things, that counterfeits are going to try to divert our attention away from Jesus, and that people who profess Christ aren't Christians at all.

You with me on that?

Don't be surprised by this.

In fact, it's so interesting as we think through this, Jesus made it very clear in Matthew chapter 7, verse 15 through 20.

Matthew 7:15–20

He makes it very clear.

Notice what happens here.

He says, beware of the false prophets who come to you in what?

Sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will recognize them by their fruits.

Are the grapes gathered from form fishes or from figs or thistles?

What he's saying here is that be aware that there are people who are going to pretend to be sheep, but underneath are absolutely wolves.

Be aware.

They're going to be eloquent, they're going to say things about Jesus.

They're going to use hashtag blessed, all that stuff.

But be aware.

Be aware.

Their hope is not in Christ.

Jude does a great job of identifying these.

If you go back one verse in verse 16, he says, These folks who are counterfeits, these are the grumblers, the malcontents, following their own sinful desires.

They are loudmouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage.

You follow me on this?

Be aware.

Be aware that this isn't our home.

Be aware.

The counterfeits are going to speak loud.

But here's the deal.

You know how they deal with counterfeit currency in the United States?

They have people study the real thing so they can identify the wrong thing.

Make sense?

Be aware that they're there.

Don't be fooled.

Now, specifically after yesterday, you're going to see a lot of stuff, and you probably already have, haven't you?

Don't be fooled.

Don't be fooled.

Jesus is still on his throne.

He is not surprised.

Stuff like this is, you know, I'm old enough now.

I can remember when Ronald Agan had the assassination attempt.

Y'all remember?

Some of you guys remember that.

Some of you are in here remember when JFK was killed.

You ain't laughing at me when you laugh like that.

This is not new.

In fact, Scripture says there's nothing new, what?

Under the sun.

So practice awareness in the fact that God still got this, the gospel is still real, and we're going to be okay, and counterfeits are going to sneak in.

So let the voice of truth be louder than the lie.

You with me?

That's number one.

Number two, notice what happens.

Keep reading with me in verse 20.

But you beloved, there's that word again.

We've already read that in verse 2, right?

But you beloved, build yourself.

Up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Now we're going to divide this into two points.

The first one is this.

When it says build yourself up in the faith, he's saying, build yourself up in Scripture.

Know what the Bible says.

We're the least discipled group of American Christians in the history of the Church of the United States of America.

You realize that?

We have so much access to the Bible, but so little absorption of what it says.

We take text out of context to bend it to what we want.

Let's take this, for instance.

I'll never forget as a kid.

My sister doesn't know this story.

I'd read that passage of scripture, you know, you can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me strength.

Y'all know that path.

Philippians 4.

It had a great verse.

It had a great verse.

Here's the thing.

I remember the verse of, you know, when Jesus and Peter were standing next on the lake and Christ is walking on the water, and Peter says, Jesus, if you say come to me, I'll come and walk on water with you.

And I thought, how cool would it be to walk on water?

Y'all with me on lake?

I like to fish.

That would be an awesome technique.

So I stood on the edge of the pool.

Jesus, your word says, I can do all things through Christ.

It gives me strength.

And I read about Peter, and I believe you.

And guess what happened?

I stepped in that pool, it was a miracle.

I went straight to the bottom.

Here's the point.

We will take scripture out of context to prove ourselves right when we're absolutely wrong all the time.

So the point that we have to make in our own lives is make scripture such a priority, such a part of our routine.

Your first 15 minutes, your last five minutes of the day.

Awareness is it, and guys, you got it on your phone.

You can set an alert where it pops up all the time, right?

There are like 15,000 Bible studies on the Bible app.

You can go to RightNow Media and have access to 12,000 videos.

Guys, for real?

We have to make sure that we are built up and rooted in Scripture.

Now, how do you get that, Chip?

Notice what happens here.

Go back to verse 20.

But you, beloved, build yourself up in the most holy faith.

Now let's draw a line and connect that back to verse 3.

Go back to verse 3.

That's our key verse in this entire text as we're reading the book of Jude.

It says this, beloved, though I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you to appeal to you to contend.

You see that word again, contend, hold as core values, make sure you protect it, make it all part of your life.

Contend for what?

For the faith.

What is the faith?

And he defines it a little more.

He says, the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Well, what was delivered to the saints?

Let's go back in your Bible history here.

Jesus Christ comes.

He proclaims the good news, he gives the gospel, he teaches his disciples, who then transition from being a disciple to being a what, church?

An apostle.

There's 11 of them.

Then you add Paul, you got 12, 13, but we kicked out Judas and replaced him with Matthias.

You got it with me so far?

There's only those apostles who ever lived.

Why?

Because to be an apostle means you speak on behalf of the authority of the one you sent you, and they knew Jesus, and therefore they spoke, and they gave us the words of Scripture.

Acts 2, 42 through 47.

You with me?

Follow this.

They give us the words of Scripture.

The church writes it down.

They compile it about, you know, right around 200 A.D., and now we got our New Testament.

And what he's talking about here is this is that we contend for the faith that was given to the saints, which is the gospel, which is the good news, which was written down, which is preserved, which you got in 2024.

So build yourself up in Scripture.

You follow that?

It is a miracle you have this book.

Absorb it.

Know it.

1 John chapter 2, verse 14.

1 John 2:14

John, the apostle, the disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, he wrote this: I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong.

And what does that say?

And the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

You want to overcome the evil one in your life?

Get in the word.

Make scripture a priority.

But then he says something else here about dealing with these counterfeits and building yourself up.

He says, but you belove, go back to verse 20, but you beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith, and he says, and praying in the Holy Spirit.

Do you see that right there?

Now that's a phrase you may have heard before if you've been in a church context, but let's deal with this idea of praying in the Holy Spirit because our point here, our application step, is to pray in the Spirit.

But what does that mean?

Now, some of you are going to say some things, some of you are just going to say other, but let's deal with it from a biblical perspective because over the years that phrase has been twisted in church culture.

Some people would say praying in the spirit means you speak in an audible language and you have tongues and you have a relationship with God and nobody understands except the Lord what you say.

That's one.

Other people say you go to a heightened state of awareness and spirituality that no one has ever been before, and you pray in the spirit in those moments.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Let me tell you what it means.

To pray in the spirit, there's two parts to this, and they're all focused on this idea of submissiveness.

It's a submissiveness to God's will and a submissiveness to God's word.

That's what it means to pray in the Spirit.

What did Jesus teach us to pray in Matthew?

Your will be what?

Done.

Look, when you're willing to go before God and say, God, you do what you do, I'm going to submit to the fact that you are God and I trust you.

Let me tell you something.

That's praying in the spirit, right?

That Christians aren't called to do the things that are easy or called to do the things that are what?

Uncomfortable.

That's a submissiveness there.

There's a submissiveness to what the Lord's called us to do.

Romans chapter 15, verse 4.

Romans 15:4

The Apostle Paul says this for whatever was written in former days was written for what?

Our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scripture, we might have what, guys?

Hope.

And then later on, the apostle John writes this in 1 John, connecting these two together in verse 5.

Or chapter 5.

He says this.

He says, and this is the confidence that we have toward him.

That if we ask anything according to his what?

Will, he hears us.

Now, some of us are like, I like that verse.

So I've prayed this, haven't you?

Lord, if it be your will as I go and do this scratch off today.

You've done it, don't lie.

I know you have.

God, let it be your will that I have an uncle that I don't know about, who loves me from a distance.

We want to ask the things that are in his will, and we know that if he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we had ask of him.

He said we want to have alignment with what the word says and what God wants, and let that infiltrate, infiltrate how we pray.

And we can have confidence.

Notice what Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16 says.

Hebrews 4:16

I love this.

And we can have the confidence to draw near to the throne of what?

Grace.

That's gospel.

That we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

And look, guys, I think the majority of our lives is a time of need, right?

I mean, you're in a you're in you're in three places right now, one of three places.

You've either just come out of something difficult, you're in the middle of something difficult, or you're about to go into something difficult.

The Bible says it came to pass, and my mom has a has a picture on her porch, and it says, This too shall pass.

You ever heard that before?

Man, you've had a you're having a tough time right now.

Anybody?

It will pass.

You having a good time right now?

That's gonna pass too.

It will pass.

But we have the confidence, and what we want to do is we come to him and says, Lord, let your will be done.

I have myself in alignment with what you say and who you are, and I trust you.

And so as we deal with these counterfeits, there's an alignment with God's word.

They are gonna be here, and they're gonna always be here until Christ re-establishes kingdom on earth.

And we can have confidence as we grow in Scripture to diagnose what is a counterfeit and what is truth.

We pray in the Spirit, knowing that He is going to protect and empower His church.

You with me?

Now, last thing.

I think I got time.

Notice what happens here.

Verse 21.

He adds this last little caveat here, and I don't want you to miss this.

He says, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Now, I want you to really focus on that verse 21 here.

The very, very first part.

It says, keep yourselves in the love of God.

Now, let's deal with this.

What does this mean?

Because our practical application step is this is it we need to keep following Jesus no matter what.

Have obedience.

You with me on that?

Keep following Jesus.

That's your step, that's your step there.

But let's deal with it and really dig into it.

Because notice what happens here.

Go back to verse 21.

Keep yourselves in the love of God.

Now, when they use this idea of love of God, what does that mean?

Well, there's two parts to it.

Part one is you are loved by God.

If you go to verse 17, 20, and verse 1 and verse 3, it says over and over again in the book of Jude, you are beloved or you are loved.

That's good news for us, right?

You were held dear, you were valued, you're beloved.

Now, think through it this way.

We use this idea of blessing all the time.

I mean, you ever gone up to somebody before?

Maybe you've done this before.

How's your day going?

And somebody says, Well, I'm just blessed.

And I always want to go deeper with that.

What do you mean you're just blessed?

You know, talk to me about that.

Or maybe, you know, you've had a great moment.

Maybe you've celebrated your grandchild's birthday.

Maybe you've had a windfall financially, whatever it may be, and you put in your snooze feed or on your social media platform and you tell everybody what it is, and you hashtag what?

Blessed.

And maybe you put stuff on your bumper sticker on your car.

Maybe you got a shirt that says blessed.

Let's deal with what blessing is.

The apostle Paul writes this, and it's very interesting in chapter 1, verses 3 through 11.

He says this in the book of Ephesians.

He says, you're blessed.

And I want to summarize what it says for you.

You're blessed because you stand before God without blemish.

Isn't that good?

You're blessed because you're adopted into his family, and adoption cannot be cast away.

It's grace.

He says, you're blessed because you are smothered with his favor, meaning he's grace.

You don't have to earn your salvation.

You get it when you know Jesus.

You're blessed because you've been redeemed.

Christ has exchanged his life for yours.

You're blessed because everything that we've ever done wrong and everything we will do wrong in Jesus is forgiven.

That's blessed.

He says, you're blessed because you're given the mystery of his will, meaning he's showing you what to do through Jesus.

You're blessed because you have an inheritance that is in heaven.

You're blessed because you are sealed or guaranteed, meaning you'll never lose your salvation because the Holy Spirit's in you.

That's blessing.

That's the blessing.

And so when you come to someone and say, I don't know if I'm a Christian, and I have people in my church come to me all the time, the fact that you're asking that question if you're a Christian or not probably means you are.

So here's that.

That's the point.

You are loved.

But there's another side of that love.

It says there in verse 21, go back to it.

Keep yourself in the love of God.

Meaning we echo God's love for us by doing what he says.

You get me on that.

We echo this blessing by being obedient.

Is obedience difficult?

Everybody say yes.

One, two, three.

Yes, absolutely.

It's challenging.

You have sinned since you've been sitting in this room.

You realize that, right?

I mean, I've seen you look at your watch.

I've seen you yawn, okay?

But here's the point, and this is what I want you to understand here.

The blessing doesn't wear off because you're inflexible or you're disobedient.

The blessing is there because you are beloved because of Christ.

We demonstrate that love and we deal with the counterfeits in our world and in our churches and what we see on different social media platforms and podcasts and websites.

We deal with that by being obedient to what Scripture says, regardless of how hard it is.

That's a blessing.

So, as I read this, here's my problem.

Contending for the faith is challenging.

Agreed?

Have you ever been worn out just trying to do the right thing and live for Jesus?

Yes, right?

You ever been worn out to the point where I'm quit, I'm done?

I mean, every Monday morning for years after I'd have a church service, I'd get up and go, I'm out, Lord.

I mean, I'm done.

And we have these seasons in our life, whether it be tragedy, crisis, depression, anxiety, frustration, irritation, anger, apathy, divorce, whatever it may be, bad health, where we're like, Lord, I'm over this.

This contending thing.

Well, thank God Jude has this for us.

Go back to verse 21.

He says something very profound here.

He says, keep yourselves in the love of God.

And then get this last part.

Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

So we're in the waiting room of heaven.

And the phrase we use in church is we're there, but not there yet.

We're waiting for him to return and set things right.

I pray for that.

I really do.

I'm ready, aren't you?

I'm tired.

I think the more you grow in your faith, or at least the older you get, the more ready you get.

But the other part of that is this if he doesn't return, knowing Jesus means we'll meet him.

And the joy that you feel today cannot be expressed in the joy that you will feel eternally.

It's forever.

Struggle is not forever.

So as you contend, you're not going to contend forever.

You with me?

You're not going to contend forever.

I get on the treadmill a couple times a week, and I put how long I'm going.

I don't go distance, I go time.

Because what I what 19-year-old chip did in distance is a whole lot different than now.

And I mean, I watch that clock.

Because in those moments I never pray for heaven more than I do then.

Listen to me.

It's not forever.

What we're dealing with is not forever.

We can say hope in that.

So three questions you ask yourself.

Number one, do you have a healthy awareness of what's going on?

Or are we clouded and polluted by what's happening around us?

You take yesterday.

Do you have a healthy awareness that God is still sovereign, God is still good, the gospel is still real, and Jesus is the only way?

Do you have that healthy awareness?

Do you have a healthy awareness that there will be wolves in sheep's clothing?

And there are counterfeits, there are things like the prosperity gospel and different things that's creeping to the church that we buy into that we may not to.

Do we have that healthy awareness?

Number two, are you choosing to build yourself up through scripture, through prayer, and through obedience?

Are we choosing that's a choice you get to make?

That's a choice.

I got an elder in my church, and he he uh has one of those jobs.

You know, when I say one of those jobs, and I commend you for it, I mean they're out of the house like by 5:30 and they're fighting traffic and all the road raids all the way into Atlanta, and they get home sometimes before it gets before it before it's uh or after it's dark outside.

You with me on that?

And so every day for about 30 minutes he sits inside of his car and spends time with Jesus during his lunch hour.

You can make time.

Guy in my small group has to be at Atlanta Hartsville International Airport.

He works on airplanes.

And he says, Chip, I I'm I'm so tired when I get up at 3:30.

He's got two small children, one's a baby, one's a toddler.

I'm exhausted when I get up.

Y'all, some of y'all know exactly what I mean by that, right?

He says, I listen to scripture, I listen to worship, and uh the exit signs are my prayer prompts all the way to the airport.

There's time, that's what I'm saying.

Number three.

And this is the most important one.

Do you have a relationship with Jesus?

I'm not talking about a merit system of favor or I'm gonna do this stuff to get God to bless me.

I'm talking about do you know Jesus?

Have you recognized that you're a sinner?

Have you recognized you fall short?

Have you recognized all these things?

And then you come back to Christ and say, you've done it for me.

And so exchange my life for yours, Jesus.

I want what you have.

Have you come to that point yet?

You see, there is where the contending begins, and it's also where the contending ends.

You with me?

You have something beautiful in you.

Therefore, contend for it.

My wife has a flower garden.

And uh, you know, I can't I can't grow grass, man.

But she says she grows some of the most beautiful flowers, and she plants, she starts with seeds, she tills the ground, we put drip line in, we put weed fabric in, pH balances in the soil, all that stuff.

Some of y'all have done this before, right?

And and and so, you know, I feel like we have a problem because every time she comes to the store, she comes back with another plant.

I guess it could be a dog, but all that stuff.

We've got all the irrigation lines down, we've we we fertilize.

She goes out, and my wife grew up in a suburban area to where bugs were like, no, no, no.

And she goes out each leaf and she picks off these beetles and squishes them with her hand and takes great satisfaction with this.

She chops off the dead parts, she sprays down all this every day.

She's out there for hours pruning, killing bugs, fertilizing, watering, and guess what?

She's got something beautiful.

And in our own lives, you've been given something beautiful.

Contend for it, y'all.

You've been given the mystery of God's will through the person of Jesus Christ.

Contend for that.

You've been given the answers that every person seeks.

What is life after death?

Why am I here?

Jesus, contend for that.

You with me?

Therefore, be beautiful.

Choose beauty.

As a man comes up, I want to pray for us.

And there are next steps that you can take.

Next steps, hopefully, if you don't know Christ this morning, you come to know Jesus.

And there are ways to acknowledge that, too.

Next steps to say, you know what, after this, I need to get into scripture.

I need to make knowing the Bible an important part of my life.

I want to encourage you to make sure you have a Bible app on your phone.

Walk through the Bible is one of my favorite Bible study plans that you can pick out of that.

But there are thousands on there literally.

Maybe you need to get in a community group or a lot, you call them community groups or life groups here.

Community groups.

You need to get in a community group.

I know you're relaunching those in the near future.

Maybe you need to get engaged serving somewhere.

See, here's the thing.

I'm a guest preacher, I can say this.

They need you to serve, and you need you to serve.

Get to share the gospel on these babies back here.

Man, one of the greatest children's ministry volunteers I ever saw was at my first church, at First Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Georgia.

And this lady who couldn't stoop down to pick up anything would go in the nursery every week and hold each baby and pray over that child.

She just went to be the little Lord.

Have that type of legacy.

Contend for that type of faith to where you begin to see Christ not just working in you, but for generation and generation, be that person.

Are y'all with me, church?

Be behind your pastor.

Hold him up in prayer and encouragement.

Make him a happy pastor.

Because happy pastors pastor well.

Are you with me?

Do the thing of God's reach this community that I love so that people know the richness and the beauty of Christ.

Let's pray, Father in heaven.

You are so good.

Build into us the greatness of the gospel.

Build into us the blessing of what it means to know Jesus.

Build into us the truths of Scripture, the submissiveness to pray in the Spirit.

Build into us the strength to obey when we can't do it ourselves.

You promise you would empower us.

Lord, we we cling to that promise.

Build into us a yearning for more and more.

And so, Jesus, this morning, someone doesn't know you, I pray they find their life in your hands as they leave.

I pray steps of faith are taken, and I pray that your glory is revealed.

Thank you, Jesus, for loving us.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.