JUDE

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt;  save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh

Jude 1:20-22

 Prayer in the Spirit
keep yourselves in the Love of God
waiting the second coming
show mercy toward doubters
snatch others form the fire
hate sin
rely on God’s power

Please let me share a few words base on this outline:

Prayer in the Spirit is God’s call to take our prayer to another level. I believe that prayer in the Spirit, is the highest level of prayer you can ever reach. It is the Spirit of the Lord praying through you with “groans that word cannot express.” Those times when we know not what to pray for, the Spirit of God intercedes on our behalf.

We are also told by Jude to “keep ourselves in the love of God. We need to live in a daily revelation of the love of God. We must never lose sight of his love. It is his love that brought us thus far and only that love will lead you on.

I love the passage in 1 Cor. 15:19 that says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Friend, this world is not our home, we just passing through, we must stop living our lives as if we have no hope of living with God in eternity. We can not continue to live our lives as if we are enemies of the cross.

I knew a preacher in the 80’s, a man used mightily by God. But he was very critical of others. He would call out his fellow christian brothers and shame them on his television programs. He was not very merciful toward anyone. So when he fell from grace, no one showed him mercy. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.

Friends, this world is in for a brutal and tragic end without Jesus. People are going to die and go to hell if we don’t do something about it.  Hell is not a place for anyone to go. It is a dreadful place made for the devil and his minions (sorry if you love Despicable Me – I happen to as well). Human beings were created to enjoy eternity with God. Look around, people need the Lord, we have to do something about it.

John Owen once said, “be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Friends we must hate sin. I understand that there is pleasure in sin, but what we fail to understand is that it is a double edge sword. It is deceptive and can come back to harm you. Hate sin because it is your worst enemy.

Finally, Jude calls upon us to rely on God’s power. In this life, in this thing call faith, we cannot rely on our own strength. If we do, we are going to fail. We need the power of God. Paul says, it is “like his mighty power working in us to will and to do according to his good pleasure.” Tap into that kind of power – that’s how you build up your faith.