Hello everyone,
I was asked to send out my message from Thursday
night in written form. You are probably
saying, WOW, that must have been a great sermon!!! I can’t wait to read it.
Only as you read it will you know for sure. Actually, I would prefer that you come on out and join us every
Thursday night at Catalyst. I cannot
figure out how to convey the great worship music, the amazing touch of God’s
Spirit, and the wonderful fellowship we have as a group in an email or a blog
post. What I can tell you is we have a
faithful group that comes every week and the good news is, they are inviting
their friends to come as well. I hope
my notes below and God’s Word blesses and encourages you as you read it now.
Jude 1, (New Living Translation)
Greetings from Jude
1 This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus
Christ and a brother of James.
I am writing to all who have been called by God the
Father, who loves you and keeps you safe in the care of Jesus Christ.[a]
2 May God give you more and more mercy, peace,
and love.
The greeting from Jude identifies to whom he writes
his letter. All of us who are called by
God are the recipients of his letter.
He is not writing in this letter to unbelievers. I am so glad God has called us, that He
loves us and keeps us. We are safe in
God, as Jesus cares for us.
Continuing
to read beginning in Jude vs. 16.
16 These people are grumblers and complainers,
living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves, and
they flatter others to get what they want.
The people Jude has written about in the preceding
scriptures that we didn’t read today are living for their own desires, vs. 10
says they operate on the level of animals, without the Spirit of God, they
operate only on the level of instinct.
Without the Spirit of God leading and directing our lives we live only
to satisfy our selves, our desires in the flesh. We complain and grumble, are self centered and manipulative to
get what we want.
A Call to Remain Faithful
17 But you, my dear friends, must remember what
the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ said. 18 They told you that in
the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy
their ungodly desires. 19 These people are the ones who are creating
divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not
have God’s Spirit in them.
This verse reminds me that divisions are caused
when even we who have the Spirit of God in our lives, follow after our desires
and place them in front of the purposes of God in our lives. Instead we need to
follow after the following:
20 But you, dear friends, must build each other
up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,[g]
21 and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you
eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.
22 And you must show mercy to[h]
those whose faith is wavering. 23 Rescue others by snatching them
from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others,[i]
but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.[j]
There are more than enough judgmental attitudes
around us. We need to build each other
up, encourage one another and pray for one another. Our group is doing such a good job of doing this. I am seeing in your lives a tremendous
growth in the spirit. We are seeing
members of our group who are studying the Bible like never before, praying and
fasting like they never have before and men and women encouraging each other in
the faith, praying and fellowshipping together. Instead of being judgmental,
when one of us wavers or stumbles, we are encouraging them to follow after God,
and seeing healing, and deliverance from the attacks of the devil in their
lives. The devil will try and isolate
us and tempt and harm us, but when we show mercy, love and compassion to our
brothers and sisters, we can help keep them in fellowship and defeat the attack
against them. It is also important to
realize that when you have had a weakness in an area of your life, to be
careful as you reach out to help someone else that you don’t put yourself in a
position of weakness. Example of this
is a recent conversation I had with Brittany.
Remember last week, Joe and Brittany celebrated their recovery from
involvement with drugs. Brittany
reminded me that she would not put herself in a situation where she would be
exposed to drugs. She is using
wisdom. Even though her experiences has
given her knowledge and she has defeated the enemy in this area of her life,
she is not going to put herself in a position where the enemy can attack her
again. If you have a problem dealing
with alcohol in your life, God has not called you to witness in bars. In fact, you don’t need to be in the bars
exposing yourself to those temptations.
The problems we have overcome in life give us understanding and
compassion that you don’t normally have when you haven’t experienced those
issues, but we have to use wisdom as we show mercy to those still caught up in
those issues.
A Prayer of Praise
24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep
you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious
presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is
God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and
authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time!
Amen.
I am so glad God is able to keep us in all areas of
our lives. He will keep us from falling
away from Him. He will bring us into
His presence without any faults or sins.
When we have experienced salvation through Jesus Christ, God sees us
through the blood of Jesus as perfect and without fault. He is entitled to all glory and praise.
My friends, if you have never experienced Jesus, I
invite you to pray today. He loves you
and wants to set you free from all the bondage of the enemy. The Bible reminds us that none of us are
righteous. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. At this time of year, Christmas, we are
reminded of the gift of Jesus birth, His life of sacrifice for us, and His
death that we will never have to die.
Accept the gift that Jesus gave us by praying for His forgiveness for
your sins. Let us know if you have
prayed this prayer and we will help you to grow in your new relationship with
Jesus.
Randy Stockett
(832) 527 3370
This is the remainder of the book of Jude that we
didn’t discuss, but would be great reading to understand the context of the
whole letter Jude wrote to us.
Ps. the
reason I wrote this out was not because it was determined to be so good, but
simply because I didn’t make it clear verbally. I hope you were encouraged and challenged by it as you read. I love each of you. May God bless you today.
The Danger of False Teachers
3 Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to
write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write
about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted
once for all time to his holy people. 4 I say this because some
ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s
marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such
people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord,
Jesus Christ.
5 So I want to remind you, though you already
know these things, that Jesus[b]
first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who
did not remain faithful. 6 And I remind you of the angels who did
not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where
they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness,
waiting for the great day of judgment. 7 And don’t forget Sodom and
Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and
every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve
as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.
8 In the same way, these people—who claim
authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at
supernatural beings.[c]
9 But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels,[d]
did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke
you!” (This took place when Michael was arguing with the devil about Moses’
body.) 10 But these people scoff at things they do not understand.
Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so
they bring about their own destruction. 11 What sorrow awaits them!
For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam,
they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion.
12 When these people eat with you in your
fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs
that can shipwreck you.[e]
They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like
clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in
autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by
the roots. 13 They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the
foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars, doomed forever to
blackest darkness.
14 Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation
after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming
with countless thousands of his holy ones 15 to execute judgment on
the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things
they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against
him.”[f]
Footnotes:
· Jude
1:1 Or keeps you for Jesus Christ.
· Jude
1:5 As in the best manuscripts; various other manuscripts read [the] Lord,
or God, or Christ; one reads God Christ.
· Jude
1:8 Greek at glorious ones, which are probably evil angels.
· Jude
1:9 Greek Michael, the archangel.
· Jude
1:12 Or they are contaminants among you; or they are stains.
· Jude
1:15 The quotation comes from intertestamental literature: Enoch 1:9.
· Jude
1:20 Greek pray in the Holy Spirit.
· Jude
1:22 Some manuscripts read must reprove.
· Jude
1:23 Some manuscripts have only two categories of people: (1) those whose
faith is wavering and therefore need to be snatched from the flames of
judgment, and (2) those who need to be shown mercy.
· Jude
1:23 Greek with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.
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