The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: How to Build Up Your Faith

Episode Date: November 27, 2022

God gives us faith and we bring Him trust. That is how we grow.

Amen. Amen. We serve a God who loves us. Amen, church. Amen. A God who saves. A God who is near. I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving.

If you have a Bible, grab it, open it up. We're going to be in the New Testament book of Jude. We're going to be finishing up a two-week study through Jude. We went verses 1 to 19 last week. We're going to pick up in verse 20 this week. Just as a reminder, or if you missed it, Jude is Jesus' brother. He was in the family of Jesus, a brother of James, and he, wrote the New Testament letter of Jude to the church that he was, uh, belonged to that he

was a part of. He was the church of Jesus followers in Jerusalem in the first century. And while Jude's away starting the church and helping the Jesus movement of the local church get, take root all over the world, he writes a letter back to his church because some false teachers had snuck into this local congregation and they had begun to distort and twist the truth in the teachings of Jesus because they wanted the scriptures to line up with their behaviors and verses being obedient and trusting what God said as first, they started to change things and to manipulate things. And Jude was like, this is no good. You can't listen to these people. Don't give your ear. Don't settle for the cheap wine or lower God's standard, but give yourself holy and totally to the teachings of Jesus.

And in that, that is where life is found. And so that was verses 1 through 19. We pick up in verse 20 today where Jude makes a shift. He goes from warning about false teachers and warning about going astray from the faith. And he talks about how do we build our faith? How does our faith grow in the life of the believer? And so we're going to pick up in verse 20 and it says this, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life, and have mercy on those who doubt, save others by snatching them out of the fire, to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment, stained by the flesh. And then he gives

a doxology in verses 24 and 25, and it's beautiful. Some of my favorite words in all of the scripture, Jude writes this in verse 24 and 25, and he says this, 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, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Amen. But you, beloved, there's that word again. Last week we talked about this, we did a deep dive into the word beloved, and ultimately, your highest call, my highest call in life is to be loved by God, is to receive and believe the love of God that he has for us, He proved through the life, death, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that God loves us.

When Jesus was asked, what's the most important thing in the world? What's the most important thing God has ever said? Jesus says, he quotes the Shama from Deuteronomy chapter 6, and he says that you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. And then he says, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Isn't it fascinating that Jesus doesn't say you should love your neighbor more than yourself? Or that Jesus doesn't say you should love your neighbor instead of yourself? He said, you should love your neighbor as yourself. The imperative here is this, that in order to love God, we have to receive his love.

In order to give love, we have to first receive that we are loved. And this is an identity statement. We are God's beloved. God's love is not just something he throws at it. It is something he puts on us. And once we are sealed in God's love, we are sealed in it forever. And it is now who we are. We are God's beloved.

And Jude's saying, but you, beloved, your highest call in life is to be loved by God. All of spiritual growth is the journey of letting Jesus love us into loving him with all we got. And so Jude is beginning to teach believers how their faith. grows and how to build up your faith. And so I want you to re-teach you a word you once knew in school. And the word today is polemic. I want you to look at your neighbor and say, you're so polemic. Ready?

One, two, three, go. You're so polemic. That's absolutely not the right way to use the word. But I thought it would be fun. And so I want to teach you a polemic. A polemic is a counter argument. And so some days you wake up and you are going to be a problem. grumpy, not you, but me. Some days I wake up, I'm grumpy. Some days I'm in a bad mood. Some days,

my head's not in the right spot. Some days I don't feel like I'm God's beloved. Some days, my mind is filled with shame, if I'm honest. Some days, my mind, I hear the voices of condemnation. Some days I'm filled with anxiety and worry, and many, many thoughts that are unhealthy and lead to unhealthy places are running around in my mind, and it is important for me to have a polemic, a counter argument against that that actually is true when the lies are trying to take hold. And here's the polemic that I want to offer you today

that's been fruitful in my life for the last few years. And the polemic is this, that God gets glory from us by giving grace to us. God gets glory from us by giving grace to us. I'm going to spend the rest of the time today unpacking all that that means.

Jude says this in verse 20. He says, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith. So what is the most holy faith? Well, it's faith in Jesus Christ because he's the most holy one. What makes our faith holy is not that we have it. It's who our faith is in. And so Jude is reminding us that our faith is the most holy faith,

that there's no faith in the world in anyone or anything like faith in Jesus Christ, that it is the most significant decision, the most significant choice, the most significant reality or statement that one can make is that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, that that is the most significant thing that you will ever say. It's the most significant thing that will ever happen to you. It's the most holy faith.

Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. We've studied this many time, but the Greek word for faith is the word Pestuo, and it means to put the weight of your life onto. It's the idea of trusting all of your significance, all of your purpose, all of your value and worth,

putting the weight of all that you are and ever will be on the person of Jesus Christ. This is what the Bible talks about when it says the word faith. It's the weight of your life. I was taught that the faith is my soul's highest allegiance. Whatever gets my soul's highest allegiance, that is the thing that I am trusting in as the source of life. there's three things about this most holy faith that I would offer you. Number one is that faith is a gift.

Faith is a gift. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, which is a gift, and this is not your own doing. So faith is a gift. It is something that God gives us. It's not something we conjure. It's not something we manufacture.

It's not like a light switch that we just wake up and turn on. It is a process of wooing the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the reality of God into the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we put our faith in it. And Jesus tells us that the faith, the size of a mustard seed, can move a mountain. And here's part of what that means

is that a little bit of faith in Jesus moves a mountain of sin off your life and you're forgiven forever. You're forgiven forever. And so a little bit of faith, any amount of faith is a gift from God. So first is that faith, our mostly faith is a gift. Second is that faith pleases God.

Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says and without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who approaches him must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Faith is the exchange whereby we are happy in God and God is happy in us. It is what pleases God as a sweet aroma is what the Bible tells us that when we offer our faith unto the Lord when we give trust to him that he is a sweet aroma. is what the Bible tells us that when we offer our faith unto the Lord, when we give trust to him that he loves it, it makes him happy. So faith is a gift, faith pleases God, and faith grows trust. Now the words faith and trust are really interchangeable, but it just helps me think about it rightly,

that faith produces something in our life. It's not stale, it's not static, it's always growing. It is giving new life, new fruit is growing from the seed of faith that God gives us as a gift. And what faith is ultimately producing in our life is more faith. Romans chapter 1 says that there is a faith that comes from faith. And so faith grows trust. In John chapter 14, Jesus says,

let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. God loves it when his kids trust him. God loves it when his kids trust him. So much so that he has secured their trust. for himself. One of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning,

writes it like this, and the quote will be on the screens, is, The splendor of the human heart, which trust that it is loved, gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh's Sunflower,

the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight, the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it. That God is so wild about the trust of his children that he sent his son to secure it for himself. What a beautiful thing. Psalm chapter 40, verse 4 says this,

happy is the one who puts his trust in God. Jude is saying to the church and to us, God wants us to grow in our relationship with him. He wants us to unfurts us to unfurts. fold. He wants us to experience the abundant life. And so Jude goes on from here to list practices that help us grow spiritually. He says, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. Now, I don't know if you've been a believer for a long time or if you've been believer for a short time, but you don't have to walk

with Jesus very long to begin to realize and be awakened to the role of the Holy Spirit in your life. And so when Jude says, praying in the Holy Spirit, one of the things that he's saying is he's reminding us that the Holy Spirit is faithful. That the Holy Spirit is faithful. He is always with us. He is always near for anyone who's put their trust in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is faithful. And the Holy Spirit, as you study him and you become more familiar with him, you realize very quickly that the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. And he doesn't draw a lot of attention to himself, but he's always drawing attention to God the Father and God the Son. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the helper. And the way, some of the ways the Holy Spirit helps us and stays faithful to God through us

is that he convicts us of our sin. He comforts us in God's love. He gives and grows our faith. He guides us. He gives us spiritual gifts to do ministry. He gives us the desire to obey God. He enables us to pray and to understand God's word. Jesus himself actually said that it is better for him to go back to heaven so that the Holy Spirit would come and be our helper or be our guide. The Holy Spirit is faithful. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. This is not Star Wars. The Holy Spirit is a person.

And he is very involved in all the intricate details of the believer's life. Now, Jude writes this verse in 20 in direct counterbalance to what he wrote in verse 19. When he was talking about the false teachers, he says that they are devoid. of the spirit in verse 19. So he's saying, they don't have the spirit of God in them. They don't have a true north, which is the kingdom of God and the glory of God and the person of Jesus Christ. Their true north is their feelings.

He says they actually pervert God's grace into sensuality that they're driven by their own thoughts, their own opinions and their own desires. But that is not true of you, Jesus follower. What you're driven by, your true north is the voice of the Holy Spirit of God and the scriptures that the Holy Spirit reveals to you. And so you, when you pray, pray in the Holy Spirit, which means pray faithfully in accordance with the Scriptures.

Praying in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's primary role is to teach us what it means when Jesus taught us to pray. When Jesus teaches us how to pray, he says, when you pray, do it like this. Our Father, who are in heaven, hallow would be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What the Holy Spirit is currently at work doing right now through the Church of Jesus Christ is bringing his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That's what he's doing. His primary role is to continue to establish the kingdom of God on the earth.

And he does this through the prayers and through the ministry of the local church. And so when Jude says praying in the Holy Spirit, he's saying pray faithfully. Pray faithfully. The Holy Spirit helps us stay in a place where we're reminded and aware of how much God loves us. and he teaches us to use all the gifts that come with him in our lives. He keeps us locked in. He keeps us focused. He keeps us on point.

That's the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. A few years ago, my family and I, we had the opportunity to go visit some friends in Montana. And it was really awesome. And our friends lived about an hour from Glacier National Park, which is just unbelievable. I don't know how you roll into places like that and see. the mountains and the lakes and the rivers and the sun and don't have, your mind doesn't immediately go to a divine creator. But we're standing there and we're in Glacier National Park.

In one of our visits, we saw that there's a river that runs right through the middle of the park and we thought, how cool would it be? Let's just go whitewater rafting through it on the river. This will be awesome. And so we did. And so we load up early one morning and we go whitewater rafting in Glacier National Park. And we're surrounded by beauty. I mean, it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen and ever done.

And when you go whitewater raft and you go early in the morning, you show up at the outfitter, and they give you your helmet, and they give you your paddle and your life jacket, and they give you some instructions. And then right when you get to the water's edge, you set the raft down on dry land, and they make you get in the raft and get out of the raft, and they teach you how to hold the paddle so you don't knock anybody's teeth out,

and you're doing the thing, right? And one of the things that they say 50 times if they say it once, So they say, when we come to rough water, keep your feet locked in. And so press your feet against the raft somehow to stay locked in so that you don't fall out when the waters get rough. And they say, do you understand? I understand. Don't unbuckle your helmet.

Keep your feet locked in. Do you get it? Yes, I get it. And all my family, we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. Keep your feet locked in. It's great. So here we go. We're cruising down the river.

And everything's going great. We're laughing, having a good time. And we get to the top of the roughest water. the highest class rapid on the river. And so I brought some pictures just so that you could enjoy, mostly because I like showing my family off. But I brought some pictures. And so the one with the arrow above her head, that's my oldest.

Just look at her face. Look how much fun she's having. She's just laughing. Everything's going good. She's feeling good about life. The water's a little cold. We had just dropped into the rapid. Look at that man with those cannons in the front.

just kidding. So here we go. We drop into the most significant swell, and I just want you to see what's happening here. The daughter who was full of joy, all of a sudden she's like, retro, that our guide is in the midst of being thrust into the air. She didn't jump.

She's being thrown. It was like getting in a car crash. She goes up into the air, and she lands face down in the front of the rapid, up near where I am down the bottom. Right after this happens, I begin to look around. I stand up, we gather ourselves, I'd lost my paddle it was laying in, my wife's laying in the middle of the raft,

my daughter Abigail's underneath my raft, and I turn around and I begin to look, and I can't see my oldest daughter. She had fallen off backward and been sucked underneath the raft, and her head was bouncing against the bottom of the raft. Now, this all happens in about 10, seconds. I look around and I'm like, where's Anna Catherine? And we think maybe she had fallen in. And then my wife goes, where's Anna Catherine? And immediately I go to jump in the water. Because that's the only thing I can think is my baby girl's in the water. And I go to jump in the water. And as soon as I go to take

off, the man sitting across from me grabs my life jacket and he pulls me back into the raft. And he says, she's here. She's here. She had been pushed under the raft and come up the other side. and she was hanging on to the rope in the front of the raft, and she was just saying, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. And so I reached down and I grab her and I pick her up and I hug her. And I look at him like, do you have all your fingers? Do you have all your toes? Can you breathe?

Are you okay? And she sits there and she sits in my lap and I warm her up. The water's freezing. This is called Glacier National Park for a reason. She's freezing. I'm just hugging her. and I'm loving her, and I draw her in close. Do you know what I didn't do in that moment?

I didn't sit her down in the front of the boat and be like, why can't you listen? How many times do they have to tell you to keep your feet locked in? You can't hear what they say? Did you have your feet locked in? No, can you not follow instructions? No, I didn't do that. No way, man.

My little girl was in the water, and I picked her up, and I loved her. And I loved her because I love her. I would jump in that water, and I would die for that. little girl without a second thought I love her what I've learned as a pastor over the last 20 years is that one of the reasons that people don't grow spiritually is because they have an inaccurate view of what God is like they think that he's some old grumpy codger in heaven just waiting to lecture them that he's just wanting to rant and rail and point to us all the bad things that we've done and give us all these corrective instructions and that he's he wants to

to berate us like some jacked up image of a father that we may have. But that is not what God is like. That's not what he's like. He is a good dad. And he wants good things for his kids. And the Holy Spirit is the one in our life all day, every day reminding us that God loves us. And what God has done to save us. What He has pulled us out of. The Holy Spirit is telling us and teaching us what it means to be locked in by faith to God's love. He is the one reminding us of who we are. He pulls us up when we get knocked off course. He is the one that ensures that we are kept for Jesus Christ. He is the seal of our deliverance. He is patient. He is kind. He is powerful. And he has a purpose, which is to keep God's beloved focused on who they are as loved children of God.

The Holy Spirit is faithful. So Jude is saying, pray faithful. faithfully. Second, he says, wait faithfully. He says, but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, wait on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Who loves waiting? Anybody love waiting? You know, I've kind of, in my life, I've categorized waiting in two different categories. There's like temporary waiting. There's like waiting on your next meal. There's waiting on your, in my case, my oldest daughter to get ready after changing for the ninth time so that we can leave. There's that kind of way. There's waiting on your husband to finally finish the project at home, right? There's that

kind of waiting. Currently, we are in a temporary waiting as a culture. We're waiting on Christmas, of which I'm pumped about. I love Christmas. I start negotiating terms with my family about putting the tree up around Labor Day. I'm into it. Right? I start playing Christmas music on Halloween. I love Christmas, which, you're welcome. This is for free. David Crowder just put a new Christmas album out called Milk and Cookies. You should hit that up. You don't love it. All right. Christmas is coming. But here's the thing, if you love Christmas like I do, as Christmas gets closer and closer and closer, the closer it gets, there's actually like a little bit of sadness that sets in. Because you're like, pretty soon it's going to be over. There's like temporary waiting. And sometimes that can be,

frustrating, but even in that, the Spirit of God gives us patience and grows that in us. But then there's permanent waiting. There's waiting on something that's going to be permanent, like when you find out that you're having a child. And you find out you're pregnant, and then for nine months you spend that time waiting to see your baby face to face. And you know that your life has been permanently changed forever. It's a different kind of waiting. when I got married to my wife and I'm standing down front at the altar and those doors open up and my wife walks down

and we're going to make a covenant, a permanent covenant before God and my wife is coming down the aisle. All I can think about as I am flooded with emotions and anticipation and expectation, I can just think that there she comes the answer to 10,000 prayers. There she comes what I've been waiting on, what my parents and my grandparents and their parents prayed for me. She is right there in front of me walking down the aisle. It's a different kind of

waiting. It comes with an expectancy with an anticipation. That's the kind of waiting that Jude is talking about. He's saying, waiting on the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Specifically, he's talking about the second coming of Jesus. The return of Jesus Christ for his church, the second Advent. The return of Jesus Christ, when it happens, will be the most significant event in human history. Jesus coming again is not an if, it is a win. The return of Christ, when handled faithfully,

should never lead to hopeless speculation about the future. Rather, it fuels hopeful anticipation in the hearts of the church. All but four New Testament books contain teachings on the second coming. The basis, the core doctrines of our most holy faith is this, is that we believe that Jesus is God because he said he was. He stepped out of the glory of heaven and into this world. He lived a perfect

and sinless life, something we all failed to do. He took on the sins of humanity by becoming our substitute, dying on the cross for our sins. He didn't stay dead. Three days later, he rose again just like he said he would, and by faith alone and Christ alone, we are forgiven, we are saved, and we are made right with God. And we believe that Jesus is true to his promises when he says, he will return again. Jesus promised so many times that he was returning that there is simply no way to vindicate his divine nature if he does not come again.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus says, for as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. And Jude is reminding the church to wake up. He's saying, wake up to what is real instead of being occupied all the time with what is superficial. He is calling us to have a heart that beats with and for eternity and with eternal values.

If you want to grow spiritually, let Jesus' promises be what set your perspective. If you want to grow spiritually, let Jesus' promises specifically his promises about his return, be what sets your perspective in life. And so Jesus says, pray faithfully. He says, wait faithfully. And then finally, he says, share faithfully. It gives us three practices. He says, share faithfully.

He says, while you're waiting, have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garments stained by the flesh. Now, I think Jude is specifically talking about the people who he spent the first part of the book warning against. He is saying simultaneously, we don't tolerate false teaching, and we desire that all come into repentance no matter how egregious the sin. He's talking about how to handle the people that have been doing the false teachings,

but he's saying we want them to, even though they're in the wrong and they're trying to lead people astray, we want them too to repent and come into the love of God. What Jude is saying ultimately is that all means all. All means all. We say here all the time at the Church of 11.23,

that we are a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ and all means all. No matter how deep the sin runs, I promise you the grace of God runs deeper. No matter how severe or how strong one drop of Jesus's blood can forgive it forever. Where sin runs deep, grace runs deeper.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For God so loved, the world. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. for anyone who would believe, all means all. One of the things we see throughout church history is that often the greatest menace to the church can become the greatest missionary of the church.

When grace grabs a heart, it changes things, man. When grace grabs a heart, it changes things. Often the people who can be the greatest menaces to the church can become the greatest missionaries of the church. Just look at the Apostle Paul. one of the clear marks of the believer is that they want others to know Christ. People who follow Jesus want others to follow Jesus. That's what Jude is talking about.

They want others to know and to live the abundant life. And he gives us some effective tools for evangelism. He says these are some practices, there's some postures that you have when sharing faithfully the gospel of Jesus Christ and witnessing or being evangelistic with your friends and your neighbors. He's saying, one, have God. mercy. Have mercy, meaning have compassion on those who are weak. We don't expect people to know what they don't know. We show mercy in kindness. He says, have mercy. And then he uses this really strong language

where he says, snatch them out of the fire is what Jude says. And what he's pointing at is a spiritual intensity. And so I would ask you today, brother, I would ask you today, sister, how's your spiritual intensity these days? Like, how's it going in your guts when you think, you're going? You know, about your walk with the Lord. Like you can bring a ton of intensity into life without being an overly intense person. How's your spiritual intensity? When you think about how serious you are

about your relationship with God and how seriously you take the statement, God loves you and the depths at which that has gone to work on you, the ways that it's opened up your mind, it has began to unfold your life, the pieces of you that was all over the map that God has gently and kindly by the power of the Holy Spirit began to put back together. When you think about you in your spiritual walk, how's it going?

Are you focused on the things that God would have you focused on? Are you thinking about the things that God would have you thinking about? Does your heart burn for lost people? Do you pray that other people would come to be saved? That they would step into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jude is saying, have mercy on those and snatch them out of the fire. What he's saying, one of my favorite lines that I've ever heard any preacher ever say, he says that I want to be willing to do anything short of sin to see one more person come to Christ. I want to be willing to do anything short of sin to see one more person come to Christ. Now around here, we say all the time, Pastor Jobi has taught us well that,

And praise God for all the different hundreds and thousands of people who are being disciples as a part of the Church of 1122. More than 10,000 at our campuses in Jacksonville every weekend, tens of thousands online. All these numbers are great because every name has a story and every story matters to God and every person has a heart and God wants to grab their heart with their grace and wants them wake them up to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every single person matters. And all these numbers are worth celebrating.

However, that there's one number that's more important than any. other number. And in the kingdom of God, a great number is what, church? One more. A great number in the kingdom is one more, that one more person would come to know Jesus Christ. Along the way, Pastor Jobi has given us some tools, some helpful tools in regards to sharing faithfully, how we share the gospel in our relationships. He says, sometimes we share a cup of coffee, which means that we sit down and we build a relationship with somebody. At minimum, we're going to learn how to pray for them. And who knows that the prayer of the righteous availeth much? The most powerful tool you have in the tool bag as a believer in Jesus Christ is prayer.

It changes things. It changes things. Somehow in the supernatural world, God burdens our heart to pray for something, and then we pray for that thing, and then God brings that thing about. It is this circular exchange that happens that's hard to get your head around, but it is nonetheless true. Prayer changes things. And when we sit with someone and we hear their story, And we approach it with ears of mercy and compassion and kindness and we listen to see what door the Holy Spirit might be opening up for us to step into to see them surrender their life to Jesus. So sometimes we share a cup of coffee. Sometimes you share your testimony. Do you know that you're the only you that there will ever be? Nobody else in the history of the world has your story.

You are completely unique. Like your fingerprint, you are by design completely unique. And the reason and you were designed, and there's breath in your lungs, is so that you would give glory unto the God who is worth it. And all of this breath and all of this life and all of this energy, your story is a testament of God's faithfulness. And sometimes God opens the doors as we share cups of coffee for us to share the testimony of his faithfulness in our life. So sometimes we share our testimony.

So we share a cup of coffee, we share a testimony. Other times we share the gospel. The Holy Spirit opens the door and we step in and we teach people about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how when Jesus died for them, it counted for them. And we give them the opportunity to send their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And one of the best ways to share the gospel is to share an invitation. It's to share an invitation.

And what do I mean by that? Share an invitation to church. You bring them here, where people like Pastor Jobi and other pastors will share the gospel. And one of the ways that we partner together, as a church with all of you is that we do what we call one more weekends. And what a one more weekend is when we give you a heads up. And we say, listen, this weekend coming up, this one more weekend, we are going to give a very clear gospel presentation.

It is going to make sense, and we are going to do our best ability to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ and give anyone who God would call the chance to believe and receive God's love in their life for the first time. We call those one more weekends. next weekend is a one more weekend. And so if you have somebody that you've been praying for, if you have somebody that you've been sharing cups of coffee with

and building a relationship with, next weekend is a great opportunity to invite them. And normally, people who don't come to church are a little more open to come to church around Christmastime. And so this might just be the right time. So share an invitation for them to come with you next weekend. We're starting a new series called Rescue Mission, where Pastor Jobi will be talking us

through the landed invasion of Jesus and the rescue that Jesus has done on our behalf. So next weekend, send that text message, make the invite, make the ask, invite your friend or loved one to come and hear the gospel sharing invitation. And if you've been tracking with us for the last six or seven weeks, you know that we have launched into a two-year ministry called the 10-10 life. It's a two-year discipleship journey, and thousands and thousands of people made commitments to the 10-10 life, financial commitments to the 10-10 life.

Next weekend is the first step in fulfilling our financial commitments. It's called the Big Give Weekend, where we're all stepping forward and we're beginning to give toward our commitment that we made in the 10-10 life. It's the starting line. And so if you, like my family, committed shared resources or stored resources, next weekend would be the time that we would encourage you to bring those. And so next weekend, we're inviting our one mores and we're bringing our first and best as we take our first step toward the fulfillment of. the 10-10 life. And so if you haven't started in your commitment yet, next weekend is the time to do it. You can give in all the ways that we give, the online giving boxes through the app, whatever that makes most sense to you, that's next weekend. And so we share a cup of coffee,

we share our testimony, we share the gospel, and we share an invitation. And in this, we are partnering with the Holy Spirit as he brings the kingdom come on earth and in people's lives as it is in heaven. As it is heaven. And Jude closes with this doxology. And the doxology is a formal praise to God. In verse 24 and 25, it says this. Just listen to the beauty of it all.

It says, 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, to the only God, our Savior. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. 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. What is Jude talking about? Well, he's talking about the great day. That's what it's called in the Bible. He's talking about the great day, the day of judgment. There will be a day coming where we all stand before what the Bible calls the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 says for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each of us may receive what is due for the things done while in the body whether good or bad

Matthew chapter 12 verse 36 Jesus talks about this day he says but I tell you that everyone will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken there is a conversation coming that leads to the glory of Christ and for people who have surrendered their life to the lordship of Jesus of Jesus. Jesus Christ, what will be revealed to us that day is the full measure of the grace that has been bestowed upon us. We will fully and finally see what it means to say that he gets glory from us by giving grace to us. And for everyone who hasn't believed in Jesus Christ, they will get what they always wanted, which is life out from under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and they'll be separated from God forever. The Bible calls this separation hell. This is why Jude uses very potent language, like, snatch them out of the fire, because it was a serious amount of intensity and urgency, he approaches eternity. He's not playing a game. He's being very serious about

very serious things for the believer when we think about the great day. We don't just stop reading in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10, which says that we will all stand before the judgment seek. We keep reading. And in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 5, it says this. And we hold fast to these promises. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And then in verse 21, Paul writes this, for our sake, he made him who knew no sin to become sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And then the anthem of the redeemed churches, Romans chapter 8, verse 1, that says there is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. I've spent a lot of time thinking about that day. I grew up in a tradition where we talked a lot. I'm not saying we talked about it rightly, but we talked about a lot about the return of Jesus Christ and the great day. And through all my Bible study and through all the different charts and graphs and pictures of flying and dragons that I've looked at in my life, God help us all. Here's what I'm sure of.

Two things I'm sure of. The day is coming and Jesus will be there. The day is coming and Jesus will be there. One of those thoughts is very sobering and the other is very sweet. I thought a lot about this and I've kind of landed in the place where a little theological speculation here. But I will give an account for every empty word that I have spoken is what Jesus said. for every thing I've done, whether good or bad. And in that moment, I don't think I'm going to be standing on two feet.

I'm just going to be honest with you all. I'm not going to be like standing up, trying to have it negotiate in terms with God Almighty. Well, do you understand this is what I was thinking like he doesn't know? No, you know what I'm going to be doing? I'm going to be laying on the ground on the Golden Streets with my face pressed into it. That's what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be laying down before him. And I'm not going to have a whole lot to say.

The only things I can conjure, if I do have to say anything, the only things I could conjure is have mercy on me, O God, for I'm a sinner, and I'm with Jesus. That's all I got. I'm with Jesus. I am with him. I am his brother. I have been bought at a price that he paid for. I have been covered in his blood.

My faith is in him alone. I trust him. His righteousness has been credited to me. It has no works of my own. He did it all. I am throwing myself on the mercy of Jesus Christ. That's all I got. That's all I got, right?

But as I've thought about this day, and again, a little theological speculation, I think it might go more like this. Where every empty word that I've spoken and everything that I've done, whether good or bad, as they come into account, I believe the full gospel tells me that some version of Jesus is going to say, paid for. Paid for. All my empty words come up paid for. all my deeds, good and bad. And he's going to be the one doing the talking. And he's going to say, he's with me. My blood covers him.

That's my younger brother. He's my kin. I give my righteousness to him. He is with me. And it is in the finished work of Jesus Christ that we stand. And only there. do we have confidence? And it is to Jesus Christ, now to him who is able. He is able to present you blameless on the great day. Can you believe that? He is able and he is willing. And Jude says he does

all of this with great joy for the joy that was set before him. He endured the shame of the cross despising its shame. What is the joy? It's his brothers and sister standing in front of God Almighty, forgive, redeemed, and accepted because of the price that he paid. It is his great joy. He gets glory from us by giving grace to us. So the doxology of Jude says, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Amen. And so, my friends, we've come to the end of our Jude journey. I just want to say thanks. I just want to say thanks. Thanks for letting me. Frankie, look what you've done. Thanks for letting me unpack the scriptures. Thanks to Pastor Jobi for sharing this with me.

It's an honor to stand in his place. I love Pastor Jobi. I love what God's doing at this church. I love serving with him. I love serving alongside of you. I hope that in some way the book of Jude has encouraged you. I hope in some way has challenged you that some freedom has set in. And I just pray that God would use these words to help us all grow spiritually. As we head toward our respond time, we talked about last week that the last five minutes of our service are the most important five minutes, that everything is leading to this. And this is the time where we think about God,

where we invite him into our thoughts and into our hearts, where we respond to him, we sing and we pray and we bring in response to who God is. It is a significant time in our service, and we're about to sing the song gratitude. And there's nobody in the world that has more to be grateful for than the follower of Jesus Christ. The gratitude overflows from our cup. And so I want to end, as we head into our spawn time, with a little bit different. I want to offer us a doxology of sorts, like in the spirit of what Jude did. I want to offer us a doxology, and it's from the devotion we're working through, and it's focused on the word majesty, which is a character definition or a character trait of Jesus, that he is majesty. And so I want to read this over you as a doxology to our journey through Jude. And then I'm going to ask us all to stand, and we're going to pray, and then we're going to respond in gratitude. Let me read this over you, offering formal praise to God.

there is no one like him there is no god but him he was and is to come he reigns on high over all things visible and invisible his ways are higher his thoughts are wier are wiser his beauty is matchless and his sovereignty is sure he is everywhere ahead of everything and behind everything there is nothing that happens that does not first pass through his hands he holds the endless galaxy in his hands and knows the stars by the names he has given each one before the beginning he set at the of the world across and made atonement for all sins of his children so they could be redeemed by his mercy and secured for his glory. Every whisper of wind and calamity of storm declares his might. Every rolling wave and soaring eagle gives way to his presence. Every child's tear and every mother's

embrace arrived by the merciful touch of God. To be near him is to be alive and to be his is to be immortal. He is unending beyond time, never changing in character nor intention, incomprehensible and mercy and more available to his children than gravity is to the earth. He did not begin when the beginning began, but he began the beginning. He did not start when start started. He started start at a word. He brought fourth day and night, land and sea, and all things that crawl, swim and fly. He leaned in and breathed the life of an eternal soul into his prize creation.

And up from the dirt came his image, staring back at him, reflecting to him his creation, just as the moon reflects the sun. He is the Lord God of Israel, the Lion of Judah, the righteous one of the remnant, the prince of peace, the king of all kings, the firstborn among the dead, the resurrected Christ, the Messiah and the lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. He is the joy that comes in the morning. He is the eternity that has been set in the hearts of man and the true north which God's us home. He has 10,000 times 10,000 angels declaring his glory and angels of fire, flying around his throne, declaring his nature, singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, Almighty, His love, never fails and his hope endures forever. It is with gladness he does all things and there is nothing that runs deeper through the veins of creation than his grace. His purpose is undeniable and his mission is unwavering. It is in him, through him, for him, by him, and to him that all things have been created that have been created were created, he can't be stopped. He won't be forgotten and he shall never be moved nor forsaken. His name is above every name on earth and in heaven

and he has set a feast for his family that will forever be their joy. He has no fear, he has no shame, he is guilty of nothing, and he will always finish what he starts. He is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving and good. He is tenacious in dispensing his grace. He is ferocious in battle, undefeated, irrevocable, and supreme in all his ways. He is majesty. Will you stand with me? Jesus, there is truly no one like you. There is none above you. And as your church, we say we love you. We're about to sing this song, gratitude. And we do it knowing that you've put faith in our lungs. You've given us faith.

You've covered us in your righteousness. Jesus, you have done for us what we could never do for ourselves. And we respond to you. We respond to your goodness, to your character, to your nature, to your worth. We stand in awe of who you are. We stand at maced at what you've done. And we stand enthralled with what you have done in us and are doing through us. We want you to be known, your glory to be known,

among the nations. And so we lift our voices to you because you're the only one worthy of praise and glory and honor and we give it to you. We pray that somehow, some way, in our attempt to bless you, that your heart would be blessed and that we would find our happiness in you knowing that as we trust you, it pleases you. This is all for you. And it's all in the wonderful, mighty, powerful name of God the Son who is Jesus Christ and all God's people said amen let's worship him together