Fight for confidence in crisis (Acts 27)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon January 18, 2009

An article’s headline by Eric McClam from Associated Press reads, “Pilot’s life had prepared him for ‘miracle’ flight.” The article begins, “Chesley Sullenberger spent practically his whole life preparing for the five-minute crucible that was US Airway Flight 1549. He got his pilot’s license at 14, was named best aviator in his class at the Air Force Academy, flew fighter jets, investigated air disasters, mastered glider flying and even studied the psychology of how cockpit crews behave in a crisis.” His sister would describe him as “always professional and never cut corners.” She said, “I think Burnett is a very duty-oriented person… He is always looking to get better. He would be the one person who could land a plane in the water without any engines.” [1] 

I am talking about the US Airway pilot who crash landed Flight 1549 after being crippled by the engine failure because of bird strikes. He steered the airplane over the George Washington Bridge and down the Hudson River on Thursday, Jan. 15. Just few seconds before the plane hit water, Sullenberger told the passengers, “Brace for impact.” Mark Hood flying home after a work trip remembered this moment. “He said it in a calm, cool, controlled voice. It was a testament to leadership. Had he let any tension leak into his voice… it would have been magnified in the passengers.” It is reported that Sullenberger climbed out of the jet only after all 150 passengers and his four other crew exited safely and orderly.[2] The Major Bloomberg reported how the pilot walked the plane twice after everybody was off to verify no body else was on board and to be the last to get off the airplane.[3]

How would you be if you were the pilot trying to steer the seriously crippled jet on to water? Would you have fought for confidence in the crisis, in the most stressful situation to land that airplane safely? Or, would you have panicked and become incapacitated, unable to think with clear judgment and courage? Perhaps, if you and I were as prepared as this pilot was, we could have mustered confidence and courage to deal with crisis.

When I meditated on Paul’s voyage through the storms and finally the shipwreck that nearly killed everyone and the way he responded during this life-threatening crisis, I can’t help but notice how prepared Paul was in dealing the crisis confidently. And, in turn I consider my own responses to crises or it doesn’t even have to be crises, but simply stressful situations in my life.

And, I realize how easily I loose calm confidence and give into panic; lack of confidence and panic clouds my judgment and the ability to act courageously. So, I am determined this year to fight for confidence in crises rather than giving into clouded judgment, fear and debilitation. And, I want you to join me on this.

1. Observation about the details.

After the plane crashed into the Hudson River, if you watched news coverage, you would have come across a lot of eye witness accounts from the high rise buildings nearby. And, there were actual passengers aboard this airplane who gave their eye witness accounts.

The book of Acts is eye witness accounts of what took place in the first century as the church grew. In Acts 27, you notice the pronounce changes to we, first person plural. What this tells us is that Luke the writer himself was aboard this doomed ship. When people with knowledge about sailing especially around the region read Luke’s account of what happened they are amazed by the accurate details captured by Luke. What we read is not a made up story, but a real eye witness account by Luke in this doomed sailing along with Paul.

2. Fight for confidence through people who love you.

During my study and meditation, it was pointed out to me by John MacArthur the first ingredient in fighting for confidence in crises in life. MacArthur frames his point from a leadership perspective. He said,

“A godly leader has people who not only follow him but also love him. The difference between spiritual leadership and all other kinds of leadership is the element of love.”[4]

When Paul sailed to Italy he was not traveling as a tourist who wanted to fulfill his life time dream of traveling to Rome on a luxury cruise. He was sailing as a prisoner awaiting a trial before Caesar. And, what we find in Acts 27:1-3 is that he was not traveling alone as a prisoner. Along with him were his two dearest friends, Luke the writer of the book of Acts and Aristarchus a Macedonian from Thessalonica.

They subjected themselves to association with Paul, an accused prisoner. They also subjected themselves to a long and dangerous sailing. Why did they journey with Paul? It speaks to deep affection for Paul. When you read through Paul’s letters you cannot escape how much he cared for the people to whom he ministered. He was compelled by the love of Jesus Christ to care for people. He said in 2 Corinthians 5:14, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

As Paul carried out the ministry of reconciliation, to call people to God who reconcile the world to himself in Christ no counting men’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19), he was surrounded by the likeminded people who too were compelled by Jesus’ love.

Because he was loved by people he loved, he was able to fight for confidence in the midst of storms and shipwreck. By loving people Paul gained people who deeply loved him. By willing to lay down his life for the gospel, he gained believers who would lay down their lives along with him to advance the gospel. When you are fighting, you don’t ever want to be caught in the line of fire alone. To fight for the confidence in life’s crises, you need be surrounded by people who love you. Paul was surrounded by his dearest friends, brothers. Can you count two who will take on a dangerous journey with you because they love you and they love the gospel?

There is this scene in the movie called Fire Proof where Caleb Holt tells a rookie fireman the old firefighter’s saying, “Never leave your partner behind.” We are in the business of plucking the burning sticks out of fire (Amos 4:11), snatching others from the fire and save them (Jude 23). It is a dangerous business that requires confidence on people you can count on. Do you have people you can count on? Can others count on you to never leave them behind in the line of fire?

3. Fight for confidence through integrity

Another source of Paul’s confidence came from the way he was respected for his integrity by non-believers. In Acts 26:32, we see what the officials Agrippa and Festus thought of Paul, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” They knew Paul was innocent and all the accusations were false. He was a man of integrity.

Acts 27:3, we see Julius, the centurion who was assigned to bring Paul to Rome, treating Paul with kindness. The kindness was that Julius allowed Paul to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. In the Roman world, if a guard allowed his prisoner to escape, he was to serve the remaining prison term of the escapee or even face worse consequence. Julius had one of his soldiers accompanied Paul. But still, Julius wouldn’t have taken this kind act unless he was convinced that Paul was trustworthy, a man of integrity.

We see it even later how Paul a prisoner took on a role of encouraging others to eat before the shipwreck and how Julius listened to Paul to prevent sailors from abandoning the battered ship and he stopped his soldiers from killing the prisoners in order to prevent Paul from death.

He earned Julius’ respect and trust because Paul was a man of integrity and sincerity. This winsome character of trustworthiness allowed non-Christians to have confidence in Paul.

Paul isn’t alone in this regard. Joseph from Genesis also earned the respect and trust of Potiphar, Pharaoh’s cub bearer and later Pharaoh himself. Nehemiah was also a man who earned the respect as cupbearer to the king Artaxerxes. And, Daniel and his three friends also earned the respect of the king as well.

When you fight for integrity, you can fight for confidence in crises because you will have people, non-believers, showing you kindness and favor to you as Paul experienced.

4. Fight for confidence through sound judgment

2 Corinthians 11:25 speaks of Paul’s experience in shipwrecks three times and in spending a night and a day in the open sea. Speaking from his experience and common sense, Paul knew that it would be a bad idea to travel out into the opened sea into the opened sea. So, he spoke up, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also” (Acts 27:10). Apparently from mid September 14 through mid November according to Bible scholar F.F. Bruce was a treacherous season for voyage.[5] Paul knew this as well as the pilot and the owner of the ship.

As with the pilot of the crippled airplane struck by birds, his common sense and experience told him that he couldn’t steer the airplane to the nearby landing strip within six mile distance. If he ignored his own common sense and took the reckless risk, the outcome would have been disastrous.

Back in Acts 23:1, Jesus stood near Paul and told him, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” But this didn’t give Paul a license to be reckless and senseless. Paul was not out to prove himself to the world that he was a man of great faith by taking reckless risks and chances.

If he did, it would have been all about Paul, the hero, not about Jesus Christ, his gospel. God never calls us to purposeless and reckless adventures to prove ourselves to the world that we are great Christians. Following hard after God requires us to be shrewd and smart rather than reckless stupid.

Myron Augsburger has a great insight into this:

There is doubtless much that God would prefer to do for us and for society, but He limits His action to function where and when its results are recognized to be of God and not by our own achievements. To say that God moves where it brings glory to Him is to recognize the integrity of His grace.[6]

Reckless and senseless actions without sound judgment seek to make much about ourselves, but what God wants us is to move with him to where it brings glory to him, where much is made about him.

5. Fight for confidence through humble response to God’s promise

Acts 27:20 captured the gloom that shadowed the people on board. There are times when things get so hard no hope seems possible. “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.”

Now, this would have undoubtedly included Paul as well. Even the greatest spiritual giant like Paul experienced depression in life when confidence seemed to have evaporated. For fourteen days, they had been helpless tossed by the raging storms. I’ve had only one experience of riding a small boat on choppy water of Lake Michigan. It was no fun as you all know who’ve experienced motion sickness. Last thing you want to do while riding out storms is to have a full stomach especially you’ve given up.

In this darkest moment, when people have given up for any hope, God comes through. We may give up because things get so hard, but God never gives up on his promise because he is faithful to keep his promises.

Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” And, Isaiah 55:11-11, “my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Even the spiritual giant Paul along his faithful spiritual friends Luke and Aristarchus were subjected to dark time when gave up all hope of being saved. No doubts we will be subjected to the dark times. The dark time in this case was brought upon them because the centurion, the pilot and the owner of the ship didn’t listen to Paul’s sound judgment, his common sense. At times we will be subjected to dark times because of our own or others’ stupidity or because of the reasons that are beyond our understanding.

Yet, in the darkest moments when all hopes seemed to have evaporated, confidence came not from soul-searching quest to draw out courage from within them, but from outside of them, from God. God broke into their darkest moment and revealed his will through an angel. “Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.” This revived the battered Paul. God’s revelation gave him courage, confidence he didn’t have. And, from this confidence, he spoke with authority, “So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.”

Hopeless person would say it is no avail to eat now. We are going to die anyway. But, for Paul it was now completely different game. He was no longer a hopeless person, but a person of hope in God’s promise. So, he told everyone who had given up, “Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” And, he demonstrates his trust in the faithful God who keeps his promise; “he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.” When the people saw him eat, “They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves… 276 on board… they had eaten as much as they wanted” (Acts 27:34-38).

Don’t you love this guys? Paul was a man who was gripped by God’s promise, God’s faithfulness to his own will. When he acted on God’s promise the result was all on board was affected and encouraged. Don’t you want to be like Paul? Instead of being a person who brings others down, but a person who encourages others out of despair because you yourself are touched by God’s faithful and sovereign promise?

6. Conclusion

My heart is that today you go through rigorous training, to be schooled by Jesus Christ to trust in God’s faithfulness to carry out his good will in your life. God makes no such promise to you that you won’t be caught in storms of life, or that you will have easy life. Rather, if you sincerely love and follow God, and carry out his will faithfully, diligently and courageously, chances are you will face many harsh storms of hurricane force; some brought upon you by others’ mistakes and sins, some by your own misjudgments and sins, some simply because you live in the fallen world.

What is important is not that you avoid storms in life, but rather how you will fight for confidence!

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[1] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h7pYcNngvuSNrWnBpIicznPetcbwD95OGSR08

[2] http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h7pYcNngvuSNrWnBpIicznPetcbwD95OGSR08

[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vJHlrxj-RE

[4] http://www.biblebb.com/files/mac/sg1799.htm

[5] F.F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975, p. 50.

[6] Wilkins, Michael J. “Bridging Contexts” In NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Matthew. By Michael J. Wilkins, 522. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2004.

Fight for the good conscience (Acts 23-26)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon January 11, 2009

Throughout last year, we’ve journeyed through the book of Acts and have spent a lot of time learning about the life of apostle Paul. I am going to spend few more weeks and learn from his life about fighting for the faith.

Today, we are going to cover the period of time when Paul was first accused in Jerusalem by the Jews, and when he was on the trials before Sanhedrin in chapter 23, before Felix the governor of Caesarea in chapter 24, before Festus the successor to Felix and later before Agrippa in chapter 26. What I am most interested in exploring this morning with you is what Paul said before Sanhedrin and before Felix the governor of Caesarea. Acts 23:1, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” And, Acts 24:16, “So, I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.”

When I think about how I am going to live out the year 2009, I am moved by Paul’s unyielding commitment to live with good conscience. I am titling today’s sermon as “Fight for the good conscience” after meditating and studying Paul’s life. Because Paul fought for the good conscience, when he was arrested, accused falsely and put on trials before the Sanhedrin, the governors and the king and later before Caesar, he was able to stand straight without any regret or guilt; no conscience stricken heart for Paul.

Standing at the end of the year 2009 and looking back, it would be awesome if I can feel great about the way I have lived, living without any regret, guilt, or shame. Paul as a spiritual father to Timothy, he charged him to fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience (1 Timothy 1:18). And, Paul reminded Timothy how some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. I know that none of us want our faith journey to sink with utter and complete failure. I don’t want to look back and have all these regrets, unresolved guilt and shames, and deep sense of failure. I want to be able to stand straight with a good conscience like Paul did. If I were to defend myself about my life like Paul had to defend his life against those who wanted to tear his life apart, I want to be able to speak out of good conscience with no regret, nothing to hide, no shame, no guilt, but only clarity in my devotion to my King. And, this requires me to fight for the good conscience.

1. Fighting for the good conscience is not…

To talk about what fighting for the good conscience is as Paul fought, we need to begin it by defining what fighting for the good conscience is and what is not. We will first spend talking about what is not.

When you carefully study Paul’s life what you realize is that Paul was someone who lived passionately out of his conscience. Considering conscience is at its basic meaning a sense of knowing right from wrong, it is fitting to describe Paul as thoroughly a man of conscience, meaning he carried out diligently what he thought in his heart to be right. And, this was true of him both before and after he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. So, in this sense, it is not enough to be a person of conscience if your sense of right and wrong is off.

Think about Paul’s life before meeting Jesus Christ. His conscience informed him that the teaching of Christianity was a complete deviation from the rightful Judaism and therefore Christianity deserved nothing but total obliteration. As a man of conscience, he saw himself as contending for God’s honor when he opposed Jesus Christ because he saw him not as the promised Messiah, but as an imposter. And, acting on his rock solid conscience he earned the fearsome reputation as someone who relentlessly persecuted Christians.

Paul reminds me of Richard Dawkins a evolutionary biologist and Christopher Hitchens a journalist and a literary critic. Unlike Paul, these are modern day atheist who based on their rational and scientific reasoning have developed utter detest and disbelief in the existence of God. I watched them debate last night making their rational reasoning for disbelieving existence of God. They are intelligent, articulate but also downright hostile and intolerant of people like you and me who esteems Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lord. In this regard, Dawkins and Hitchens are men of deep conscience as Paul was before he met Jesus Christ.

What this tells us is that you can be a person of deep and sincere conscience, but it doesn't mean you are right about your conscience.  A question must be asked about where you base your conscience. For Paul prior to submitting his life to Jesus as his Messiah, his King, his conscience was built on the misguided zeal for Judaism. Whole teachings of Judaism from the Old Testament bear witness to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, yet unable to see Jesus as the promised Messiah, Paul’s sincerely deep conscience was horribly misguided, resulting in his vicious attacks on Christians. Of course, this horribly misguided conscience was not what Paul strived always to keep clear before God and man as he stated in Acts 24:16.

2. Paul’s fight for the good conscience…

The good conscience Paul fought to keep clear before God and man was solidly based on his relationship with Jesus Christ. It always looked back to the forever life changing moment when Jesus Christ revealed himself to Paul on the road to Damascus and the life after with Jesus Christ. The sense of doing what was right for Paul came no longer from his misguided trust in Judaism, but in his trust in Jesus Christ. So, it was Jesus Christ who formed Paul’s conscience and all his actions out of it. Before the mistreatments, the life threatening attacks, the arrest and the false accusations before the Sanhedrin, before two governors of Caesarea, and Agrippa, all his actions were informed by his conscience in Jesus Christ. Let’s consider them.

Paul came to Jerusalem mostly to bridge the gap between the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians. According to Romans 15:25-26, he was on his way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints to bring with him a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem given by the Gentile believers throughout Macedonia and Achaia. In sharing the material blessings with the Jewish Christians, the Gentile Christians were expressing their deepest gratitude for the Jerusalem church for sharing their spiritual blessings received through Jesus Christ. For Paul, who was gripped by the heart of Jesus Christ who said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35), the right thing to do was to seek unity of believers in Jesus Christ.

Paul also had a personal reason to visit Jerusalem; it was to complete a Nazirite vow he took during his stay at Corinth. He took a Nazirite vow to ask God to intervene when things were depressingly difficult for him. When he saw God in answer to his prayer working in his life and in the lives of the Corinthian Christians, Paul made his way to Jerusalem to fulfill his vow by offering his hair as a burnt offering and offering sacrifices in the temple (Acts 21:26).[1] What we see here is Paul being motivated by his good conscience to express his heartfelt gratitude to Jesus Christ.

He also knew that there were false rumors against him that he taught the Jews to turn away from Moses… and not to circumcise their children (Acts 21:21); and, how this troubled Jewish Christians who still felt compelled to uphold their cultural tradition of Judaism without undermining the gospel message of grace.

To fight for the good conscience meant to help the Jews find out what he really stood for. By fulfilling his Nazirite vow, Paul sought to put to rest these false rumors about him. Paul didn’t teach against Moses, the Laws and the Old Testament scripture; he only pointed to Jesus Christ as the One who fulfilled them all.

So, Paul had no other alternative motives in coming to Jerusalem beyond wanting to encourage the Jerusalem church with the contribution from the Gentile Christians, to promote unity among Christians, to fulfill his own personal Nazirite vow to God, to put the false rumors against him to rest. Of course, Paul’s zeal to complete the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace (Acts 20:24) was the huge motivating factor that influenced Paul’s decision at every level. To sum up Paul’s motives, they all came from fighting for the good conscience, doing what was right in Jesus Christ. I think Peter explains what Paul was doing really well in 1 Peter 3:15-16 who said:

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as the Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”

3. A testimony of a teenager

How are you and I are going to fight for the good conscience this year as Paul did with his life? I want to share a testimony to answer this question for us. It comes from the podcast by Francis Chen, a pastor from Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, I listened this past week. In it, I heard a testimony from an 18 years old teenager who was told by his oncologist that he only had most three months to live; he has leukemia. Two months passed, he was standing in front of a crowd of junior and high schoolers to give his testimony. Here is the part of what he said that was so powerful to me when I thought about living my life in a good conscience before God and before man. He said:

I am dying of blessings given to me by God… I am scared for everyone else. I am scared for everyone who don’t know where they are going when they die. I am scared for those who think they know where they are going when they die, but they don’t. I am scared for all the people distracted by this world controlled by Satan. Especially you guys who are in America. I am scared for everyone who is distracted by friends, iPods, video games, movies, by having roof over your heads, by feeling secured, by feeling comfort...

I am dying so it’s not hard for me to live everyday like it is going to be my last day. Because tonight, I easily can go into coma and never wake up from it. It is not hard for me to thankful for life when I know tomorrow I might not have it. And it is not hard for me to be thankful for my friends because I know I might not be able to see them again very soon. Yes, I am dying but here is the kicker, so are you guys. We all have clock, timeline when we are going to kick the bucket. And, for me I have the luxury of knowing when I might go. I feel sorry for you guys because you don’t know when you are going to die. I do. So, everyone who is blinded by this world and is not living everyday as it could be their last which is very well could be, I feel sorry for you guys. So, these are people that I am afraid of.[2]

I see Paul who was not afraid of dying in this young teenager’s testimony. Paul said in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” To a person who is not afraid to die, there is this clarity about the way they see life. They are able to see what really matters in life. And, with this clarity about what’s really important in their lives comes this ability to think clearly about what’s right and wrong and act on what’s right. And, when a person sees with clarity about priority in life and fight for the good conscience, he or she can live life without regret, shame or guilt.

So, I ask myself these questions.

• Do I know what’s really important in life?
• Can I fight for what really matters?
• Can I live before God with this clarity about what my life is all about, what’s really important to God?
• Can I live with deep sense of “liberty and boldness”[3] to act on God-enriched conscience in most difficult circumstances like Paul faced?
• Will I look back at the end 2009 and have no regret, no shame, and no guilt over how I lived my life with good conscience?

How about you? Will you "fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience”? Or will you shipwreck your faith by rejecting these? (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

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[1] Longenecker, Richard N. “1. Paul's return to Palestine-Syria (18:18-23)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 9. 488. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1981.

[2] Francis Chen, Living a life that matters: Stop Talking (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EGWOh7-aHQ)

[3] Blum, Edwin A. “A. The Blessing of Suffering for Righteousness (3:13-17)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 12. 240. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1981.

Practical solutions to fight for the faith (Jude 17-23)

CMC 2009 Winter Retreat, January 3, 2009

1. To fight for the faith, you need to keep yourselves in God’s love by fixing your eyes on the mercy of Jesus Christ that will sustain you.

Jude says in Jude 21, “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

This is the important strategy to fight for your faith. To fight for the faith, you need to always ground yourselves in God’s love for you.

As a preacher, I am always looking for modern parables that illustrate for me the reality of God’s love for us. Well, it came to me few weeks ago when I was watching Fox network’s new reality show promo called “Secret Millionaire.” The first episode was aired on 12/3.  It is a modern-day twist on “The Prince and the Pauper.”  It takes America’s wealthiest individuals away from their luxurious lifestyles with huge mansions, private jets, spending $5,000 easily for a dinner.  It takes them away from their unbelievably rich lifestyles and places them undercover into some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in America. 

Embedded into these impoverished neighborhoods, they are to live on minimum wages.  Their goal is to befriend those in need and decide to give their own $100,000 to one of them in need.

The one I watched featured a businessman/entrepreneur Greg Haerr, who’s got a small fleet of airplanes, a helicopter, Ferrari 512 TR, two yellow Porsche Cabriolets, Rolls-Royses, lives in a mansion 7500 square feet.  And, he said in the beginning of the show, “If any body deserves to live like a king, it would be me… If you can treat yourself, uh, to the good life, you know who’s gonna do it for you?”  You get the idea.  I was quite irritated by this self absorbed snob say the least.

Well, he leaves it all behind for a short time and gets embedded into North Las Vegas where the crime rate is the double the national average with over 12,000 people living in the streets; he gets to live in the North side of Las Vegas where not only him, but most of the people who travel to Vegas never even know exists in such a poor condition.

He finds a place to stay at a cockroach infested motel; he doesn’t have enough money to stay so he works there to stay, cleaning, taking out trashes… He finds three individuals to help; a lady who runs a community center to give foods and other goods to those in need, a boy named “Wheels” with Spina Bifida who rides his wheelchairs like it is a skateboard and a lady who runs a placed called “Street Teens,” a homeless shelter for teens.  He gave $30,000, $20,000 and $100,000 to these three individuals.  The most moving parts of the whole episode were about how these three individuals responded when they were given these unexpected gifts.  I was especially moved by Lisa who runs Street Teens. The building they were renting to run the shelter was foreclosed and they were on 60 days notice to vacate the property.  As of Greg’s visit, they were dangerously close to having to shut down the program; you can see in Lisa’s face.  She was cheerfully working, yet you could see her thinking, “What if, nothing comes through…”   To hope without knowing how it is going to work out is not easy.  When Greg revealed his true identity Lisa was stunned, shocked; she was deeply grateful to receive this totally unexpected gift of money to find a new place to continue their program from this guy who she thought was doing a documentary on poverty.

I have to admit though that I felt very cynical about this multi-millionaire who at the end of the show riding on a limo and saying, “This experience has changed me forever.”  I keep thinking what is $150,000 to a guy who has about fifty million dollars?  Later I calculated and it is about 0.003% of his wealth.  How does giving away 0.003% of your wealth really change your life? If you earned $40,000 last year, it would be equivalent to giving away precisely $120. Can anyone of us having earned $40,000 and giving away 0.003% last year in the amount of $120 make this millionaire’s claim, “This experience has changed me forever.” None of us in the right frame of mind would make this claim. $150,000 sounds a lot, but as giving away $120 from your $40,000 doesn’t hurt you at all, it makes virtually no difference to a millionaire. It is no sacrifice at all!

Now, consider Jesus Christ Sovereign and Lord. Jesus wouldn’t make silly statement like this millionaire, “This experience has changed me forever,” after giving away his 0.003 5 of his wealth. But, the statement Jesus would make is “My giving will change you forever.” He gave it all. He gave his blood, he gave his body, he gave it all for you and me. Now, that’s sacrificial love to brag about.

2. To fight for the faith you need to do life together

Jude 20 gives us another command, “But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith…”

This command is really subordinated to Jude 21 of keeping yourselves in God’s love. The logic would be to keep yourselves in God’s love you work on building yourselves up in your most holy faith.

It is important to notice that Jude doesn’t call us individually to build our faith. Instead, Jude’s emphasized the corporate nature of building together. The idea here is that we cannot build faith apart from the body of Christ. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “you… like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” When you build, you build it together.

In a corporate setting like this, as we have fellowship with each other, talking about how God is moving you and me, listen to the word of God and express our appreciation, our passion, our love to God in songs, we can grow together.

Just to verify if this rings truth for us, would you raise your right hand high if you feel built up this weekend?

And, as you feel built up, do you also feel closer to God? And, as you feel built up and feel closer to God, do you feel like you can run harder, faster?

This is why doing life together is so important. You do life together in Christ! That is how you are going build yourselves upon in your most holy faith.

3. To fight for the faith you got to pray in the Holy Spirit

This is a call to pray according to the Spirit’s will to accomplish God’s work by God’s power.

How do you know the Spirit’s will? 1) by the word of God prompted for specific situation, 2) by the situation prompting by the Holy Spirit.  Obedience to the word of God makes it possible for us to obey the Holy Spirit when he prompts us in situations.

4. To fight for the faith, practice mercy for those who doubt

Fight for the faith won’t happen unless we are captivated by God’s mercy and express God’s mercy. 

When I visited House of Prayer, a church serving homeless people and homeless people serving in Chicago, I witnessed how people who have so little expressed their joy in Jesus Christ in their worship, in their testimonies and in their prayers.  They have been deeply touched by God of mercy and it showed! 

To possess the guts to fight for the faith, Jude calls us to show mercy to those who doubt.  In order to show mercy, we must have the firsthand experience of God's mercy. 

5. To fight for the faith is to look for those who need to be snatched from the fire and be saved.

Jude's call for us to snatch others from the fire and save them reminds me of Zechariah 3:1-10.  In this passage, you find a high priest named Joshua who was snatched from the fire.  Before the angel of the Lord, stood Joshua, the high priest, but standing at his right side was Satan who heaped accusations against Joshua.  And, the Lord said to Satan, "LORD rebuke you, Satan!  The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!  Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"  And, along with the Lord's defense against Satan's accusations and his rescue, he also ordered Joshua's filthy clothes be taken off, to take away his sin and to put rich garments on him.  This is a beautiful picture of how God delivers people out of the power of Satan and establishes their righteousness in him. 

To fight for the faith means we as Christians look for opportunities to be used by God to deliver those who are being tormented by Satan's accusations and his power. 

6. To fight for the faith, you got to learn to hate sin.

Hating even the clothing stained (filthy with excrement) by corrupted flesh (sinful flesh)... how we need this holy hatred against sin.  To fight for the faith, we need to be brutally honest before God who searches us and knows everything about us, even better than we know ourselves.  Sin of unbelief, sin of lust, sin of laziness, sin of all shapes and sizes must be dealt with brutal honest before God.

And, to genuinely hate sin, our love for Jesus Christ needs to be real and grow deeper. 

Fight for the faith against spiritual forgery (Jude 4-16)

CMC 2009 Retreat, January 3, 2009

I remember watching Catch Me If You Can directed by Steve Spielberg that tells the true story of Frank Abagnale played by Leonardo Dicaprio. In 1960s Abagnale was so successful at his con work that he was able to forged and altered checks to nearly $4 million in five years. I guess he was the youngest man ever placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Not only was Frank a master in forging check, but he was incredibly good at forging lives as well. He impersonated an airline pilot, an FBI agent, a doctor, a lawyer, and a sociology professor. Good money, living a fantasy life eventually showed its limits as he felt lonely and unfulfilled. He even called the FBI agent Carl Hanratty every Christmas because he had no one else to talk with. His criminality destroys his romance. Carl Hanratty called the con game “living the lie” and told Frank repeatedly that “the house always wins,” which meant Frank would eventually have to pay for his sins. Well, in the end he got caught and later turned his life around by becoming an expert on beefing up security measures to prevent check forgery.

Today’s message is about spiritual disasters of the past brought on by the fakes, who distorted the grace of God into license to sin more and denied Jesus Christ Sovereign and Lord.

With Christian confidence comes Christian responsibility to live out the faith; this is godly life responding to God’s grace that covers us from the past, now to the future with deep thankfulness and our love for God. When this Christian confidence falls into the hands of the godless people mentioned in Jude 3-4, instead of thankful and joyful obedience reaping spiritual fruits, they only produce disasters. The destructive impact was so great that although Jude wanted to write about the salvation we share, he felt he had to write and urge the readers to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints (Jude 3).

Jude responded to God’s amazing grace that covers eternity past, now and future of eternity by humbling himself, entrusting his life in God’s hands by serving God’s son. Jude was a servant of Jesus Christ. He loved Jesus Christ. As in John Piper’s latest email describing his love for Jesus, Jude admired Jesus Christ more than any other human or angelic being, enjoyed his ways and his words more than he enjoyed the ways and words of anyone else, wanted his approval more than he wanted the approval of anyone else, felt more grateful to him for what he had done for him than he did to anyone else…

trusted his words more fully than he trusted what anyone else said, and more glad in his exaltation than in the exaltation of anyone else.[1]

Unlike Jude, these godless men responded to God and his Son not with gratitude and humility, but by distorting God’s grace as license to sin more and by denying Jesus Christ. Jude calls you and me to fight for the faith against this distortion of God’s grace and denial of Jesus Christ. As we learned from Jude how to respond to God as servants of Jesus Christ last night, we can learn something this morning, as we take tour of the disaster sites caused by the fakers. Jude hopes that by exposing the con men that forged God’s grace into a license for immorality and denied Jesus Christ Sovereign and Lord, we will get to avoid being fakers and cause spiritual disasters.

1. Historical disaster caused by spiritual fakers

Three specific events of spiritual disasters are mentioned in Jude 5-8.

· The first from Jude 5 involves the time of Exodus. The Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. God patiently struck down the presumed gods of Egypt one by one through ten plagues and ultimately delivered all Israelites out of Egypt from the slavery. But, none of them except just the handful including Moses, Joshua and Caleb and their families got even close to the Promised Land because they did not believe. They saw God flexed his muscles in major ways. They not only saw but walked on the dry ground under Red Sea when God separated the water for them to pass through. They witnessed the Lord’s fire at nights and his cloud during days to lead them. Yet, when some men came back from exploring Canaan and saw the people living there, they reported, “the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large (Numbers 13:28)… We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33). Although God brought down Egypt to its knees to release the Israelites, the Israelites couldn’t believe that God could deal with the giants in Canaan.

Only Joshua and Caleb out of all the spies who scoped out Canaan were convinced that they could take the land. Caleb silenced the people before Moses and told them, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

Joshua and Caleb sought to convince the Israelites they could successfully fight to capture the Promised Land. They urged the Israelites not to rebel against God in unbelief. Eventually, the whole assembly turned against them and they tried to stone Caleb and Joshua (Numbers 14:8-9).

The consequence was that what could have been taken few weeks before they could move into the Promised Land, none of them were allowed into the Promised Land wondering in the desert for years. So, the whole generation that rebelled against God in disbelief died out in desert. This was the spiritual disaster brought on by their unbelief and rebellion.

· Jude’s second example from Jude 6 is about the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home. The detail is sketch as to what Jude is referring to. What is certain is these angels instead of being faithful to where God had placed them, they decided to take matters into their own hands; like the Israelites, they too rebelled in disbelief thinking that they had better things to do than where God positioned them.

They too were judged as God kept them in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day (Jude 6).

· Then there was the infamous story of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns. The people living in these cities gave themselves into the sexual immorality and perversion so completely that when the angels came to visit them, instead of being struck with fear and awe, they tried to sexually violate them. You know how the story ends, right? The Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24) and by the time when he was done all that Abraham could see was dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace (Genesis 19:28).

Jude 11 mentions another three figures from the Old Testament who also are like those who distort God’s grace and deny Jesus.

· Cain worked the soil while his brother Abel kept flocks. Both of them brought offering to the Lord. But, it says Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord, while Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock (Genesis 4:2-4). Abel thoughtfully and carefully chosen the best from some of the firstborn of his flock to offer to God; it shows that Abel loved God. But, Cain just brought some fruits he could get his hands on instead of carefully picking the best firstfruits to offer God. God who searches and knows our hearts and our motives only accepted Abel’s offering with favor, while rejecting Cain’s offering.

This made Cain very angry. He could have acknowledged and confessed his sloppiness and lack of care in the way he offered to God; he could have confessed his unthankful heart to God. Instead of dealing with his sin, he decided to direct and unleash his anger to Abel. Cain was really angry at God. And, since he couldn’t do anything to God, he went after Abel and coldheartedly murdered him. This is what happens when we ignore sin in our lives. It gives birth to greater sins. God told Cain, “if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7). Obviously, Cain didn’t care what God told him since he allowed his sin to dominate him and be slaved by it.

· Balaam… is a man from Numbers 22-24. He was a prophet who was hired by Balak to curse Israel, but God wouldn’t allow him to curse Israel, only to speak blessing over Israel. Throughout the narrative from Numbers, it appears as though Balaam was submitting to God’s rule over him.

But, later accounts show that he was nothing but a con man who only appeared to be a follower of God. Balaam later became a principle instigator who seduced Israel into sexual immorality by promoting the Canaanite practices of Baal full of sexual immorality.[2] Later he too was killed by God (Numbers 31:8, 16).

· Korah… from Number 16 was a potentially great leader but never got there because he was overcome by passion for power. God led Israel through Moses and Aaron as a high priest. Yet, hungered for power, Korah cut Moses and Aaron down and challenged their leadership. He didn’t oppose Moses and Aaron on his own. He led other 250 Israelites men with him to oppose God’s chosen leaders. And, he led them all to destruction along himself when God judged them. God’s judgment showed who true followers of God were. Moses and Aaron were, but Korah and his 250 other fakers weren’t.

2. The anatomy of the spiritual fakers

What are the common threads that connect these historical disasters? They involve men and angels who loved themselves in self engrossed way, they were selfish, they certainly didn’t love God or people; they were manipulative with very high opinions of themselves who only to answer to their own instincts.

They are known according to Jude 1:8 as dreamers who claimed to have special visions from their dreams and embraced them as truth even though dreams contradicted the way of God. In following their dreams, they became their own authority while denying Jesus Christ Sovereign and Lord.

Even the chief angel Michael in dealing with the devil would not rebuke the devil with his own authority; instead Michael rebuked the devil by saying, “the Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9). He positioned himself under the authority of God in order to fight the devil. But, the godless the fakers foolishly assume authority even over the angels.

They were also known for the way they were driven by their instinct, like unreasoning animals rather than subjecting themselves to God’s truth as their guide (Jude 10).

Their self engrossed ugliness is revealed for they are shepherds who feed only themselves. Shepherds’ job is to look out for the flock, to feed them, to take care of them. But, these cons, fakers only look out for themselves. They are shepherds who let the flock go hungry and become emaciated and left to perish.

More graphical illustrations are given in Jude 12 -13. They are like “clouds without rain blown along by the wind” and “autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted-twice dead.” Jude is pressing the point; these are fakers. They have the appearance of Christianity, but has no substance when it comes to knowing and living in the kingdom of God, for the King of Kings and Lord of lords. As though they may appear to genuinely following God, like wild waves of the sea their shame foam up and giving away their true identity. They are like wandering stars that are no good for giving accurate directions.

Jude 16 sums it up. “These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own devil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.” The single thread that runs through Jude 16’s description of spiritual faker is love for themselves that trumps everything else. Why do they grumble and finds faults in others? It is because the people irritate them; they get in their ways. They are overly gracious to their own faults and but get enraged by others’ faults. They love themselves and they pride in themselves. When they appear to speak good words to others, you find out they are only doing it to fatten themselves.

As it wasn’t clear Jude presses on to make his case, spiritual fakers, cons will have to respond to the house, for “the house always wins.” Looking forward on the dreadful day of the Lord’s coming, he will come and judge everyone. He will judge the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all that harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Conclusion

Why did Jude go through all this trouble to talk about the spiritual forgery by these fakers? One purpose is for us to know how to spot spiritual forgery. The Carl Hanratty was single-mindedly devoted to exposing Frank Abagnale.

The call to fight for the faith against disasters must include self examination to root out spiritual forgery. The thing about spiritual forgery is that it is built on hearts that are deceptive. Being a Christian means witnessing the transformation of our deceptive hearts that are engrossed with ourselves into the new hearts that are most passionate for God, most in love with Jesus Christ, most in sensitive and obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual forgery thrives because Jesus Christ Sovereign and Lord is not taken seriously. Spiritual forgery manifests in sensuality. Sensuality of all forms and shapes that loves self more than loving God and loving people.

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[1] http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2008/3476_I_Love_Jesus_Christ/

[2] Allen, Ronald B. “(1) The involvement of Israel in the worship of Baal Peor (25:1-3)” In The Expositor's Bible Commentary: Volume 2. 915. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, © 1990.

Fight for the faith in the secure knowledge of God at work (Jude 1-5, 24)

CMC 2009 Winter Retreat Sermon #1

Some of you guys remember about a year and half ago or so how God was really moving among us. If I trace back, I can pint point to a moment after watching the movie Facing the Giants. It is a movie about Coach Grant Taylor trying to survive through another impending defeated 7^th season for Shiloh Christian Academy after loosing a star running back to a rival team. Things only seem to get worse for him. Those who used to support him now have serious doubts; they want him out and replaced. The poor coach’s car won’t start! His house literally stinks. And, he learns that he and his wife Brooke may never have any children. And, his team will be matched up against the undefeated Giants.

In the midst of the struggle, a man who’s been praying for the students and the coach tells him a parable about two farmers. They are both praying really hard for rain. One waits for it hopefully. And, the other waits for it while “preparing his fields.” And the man asks the coach which farmer is truly trusting God? The core message was this: genuine faith in God’s provision gives our very best. Faith is against earning. You cannot earn God’s provision. But, faith doesn’t oppose earnest effort, our very best instead it requires it.

So, many of us took this message to our hearts, and we tried to give our best. But, along the journey, our initial enthusiasm met slow progresses, defeats, fall backs, boredom and apathy.

Looking back, what I realize is that it is not merely enough to try to give my best when things don’t look promising, discouragement sets in. Down under the trench while bombshells rain on you, the call to give your best doesn’t evoke the kind of courage needed to get through the drawn out, distracting, disheartening times. It is easy to walk when all things are hunky-dory smooth, when things seem to be falling into place. But, when simple ordinary moments become crucible testing grounds, I need something more than the cheerful call from the side, “Hey, do your best!” What I need is to fight! The devil constantly prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8) and try to turn our perfectly normal ordinary days into complete boredom, discouragement, or chaos, what do you need? What we need is to dig our heels into the ground into all out fighting stance to stand firm and resist (1 Peter 5:9).

I don’t know about you, but I know I am a creature that wants things to be easy. I wish following Jesus is easy, effortless, somehow it comes to me and flows; inspiration, motivation, perspiration just comes naturally and I don’t have to work at it. I wish I could run this spiritual marathon on my bicycle. But, Jesus says, “You are invited to run this race. But, Steve, you cannot bring your bicycle here. You cannot expect someone else to run it for you either. You got to run it. But, if you would trust me, I will be your coach. I will train you. I promise you that it is not going to be easy road ahead. You are going to feel some pain. You are going to feel like quitting. But, I am going to help you fight to stay the course.”

Jesus calls me, Jesus calls you to come after him and he tells us that we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily and follow him (Luke 9:23). To follow Jesus, I need to get this idea that I can run the race without having to fight, without having to experience any pain. Runners out there know that pain is expected in training to push your limit.

God wants to define our year 2009 as the year when we will fight to stay on the course.

Christine who will be departing to Texas this Sunday will be going through her basic boot camp for the Army. I asked her since she is enlisted as an officer doing dentistry, why she would need to go through boot camp. Foot soldiers I understand, but dentist? Apparently, the Army requires that everyone enlisted to meet a certain level of fitness and combat skills. She said to me that she’s been working out and she is able to do 20 pushups. And, I asked her if that’s with her knees on the ground. She said, “No! No, knees!” I was impressed!

I want you to envision 2008 to be a training ground when you and I are going to learn to dig our heels and stand firm to resist, to fight off the devil that prowls around to devour us. That is what’s going to take to grow. Men and women of warriors in making!

Some of you are wondering if I am going to talk about Jude at all. Well, here it goes.

1. Jude’s call to fight

The call to fight comes from Jude 3 where he urges you and me to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. The word, contend means to exert intense effort on behalf of something, to struggle for something.[1] Eugene Peterson paraphrases in Message this way, “you fight with everything you have in you for the faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.”

If Jude had his way, this wasn’t something that he was eager to talk about it at all. He was very eager to write… about the salvation; to discuss doctrinal foundation. But, he said, in Jude 3, “I felt I had to write and urge you to content for the faith.” And, in Jude 4, he explained why he felt so strongly to urge the reader to contend for the faith.

It is because as stated in Jude 4 certain men who were godless men slipped in among the readers, whose condemnation was written about long ago. Two things were wrong about them. One, they were redefining what grace is by saying grace gives them a license for immorality. Two, they denied Jesus Christ, Sovereign and Lord. I will talk about them in greater detail tomorrow when we cover Jude 5-16. But, for tonight it is suffice to say that Jude made his urgent call for Christians to contend, to fight for the faith entrusted to them because he saw some reinventing the gospel to justify their sinful lifestyle. And, the spiritual truth is that you cannot promote sinful lifestyle while counting on God to cover it with his grace. The reason they were degrading God’s grace into a license to sin more was because they deny Jesus Christ only Sovereign and Lord.

This is why Jude felt utterly compelled to call Christians to contend for the faith entrusted to them, to fight for the faith that was gifted to them.

2. Fight for the faith as a servant of Jesus Christ

Take notice in Jude 1 where Jude describes himself as “a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James.” James whom Jude refers to is one of the half brothers of Jesus mentioned in Matthew 13:55. He is half brother because Joseph although was wedded to Mary, Jesus was born without Joseph’s physical involvement. Jude a brother to James would make Jude also a half brother to Jesus. Yet, what you don’t see here is Jude making any mention of this relationship to Jesus. But only other thing he mentions is, “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ.” For Jude, his physical connection to Jesus through his Mary was not important. What was important to Jude was that he was a servant of Jesus Christ. Jude was simply a servant, a bond-slave who did the will of God in Christ. Jesus said that his true brother, sister and mother was, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother (Mark 3:35).” For Jude, this was all that matter to him that he was someone who served Jesus Christ to advance God’s will.

What we see is humility of James for purposely not writing about his connection to Jesus through Mary. And, this humility of seeking no other recognition than being a servant of Jesus Christ enabled his call to contend, to fight for the faith in Jesus Christ whom he called Sovereign and Lord (Jude 4).

It is a difference between either Jude authentically contending for the cause of Jesus Christ or for the cause of Jude, himself. Jude’s object of contending was fighting for the causes that mattered to Jesus and to the Father. That is what servants do; they serve the interest of their master, their king.

Can you and I make this genuine claim? “Jesus is my King, my Sovereign, my Lord. And, I am his royal servant.” If you are not clear on this, you are not going to be able to fight for the faith because the faith is faith in Jesus Christ as King, Sovereign and Lord.

The Christian faith is trust in Jesus Christ as God’s Son who came to dwell in our world as God-human person, who took our sin upon himself, went to the cross, took the blows of our punishments, nailed and pierced on the cross, died, buried, and in three days resurrected from the dead, defeating the power of death, the power of Satan.

And, he now sits at the right hand of God as Sovereign and Lord and when he comes back second time around, we are going to see his name written on his robe and on the side of his thigh, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:16).

It is not enough to know Jesus as one who forgives our sins when we ask him for forgiveness as though we can now do whatever we would like to do; we accumulate enough sins then we come back and he is ready to forgive us more. And, we go back and sin more comfortably knowing he will forgive us. This would be reducing Jesus Christ to superpower soap that can remove the guilt of our sins from us whenever we need him for.

What Jude understood was that Jesus Christ forgives us in order that we can freely serve him without shame and guilt, to fight for Jesus’ cause to advance God’s will in our own lives and around us.

To fight for the faith, you must be a servant of Jesus Christ because you know Jesus as your Sovereign and Lord.

3. Fight for the faith on the knowledge that you are called, loved and kept by the Triune God

Notice with me how Jude as a humble servant of Jesus Christ addresses the reader. “To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1)

Without being secured in the knowledge that Triune God has been working since the eternal past, is working now and will be working in the eternal future, you may serve God thinking this will help you earn a good standing before God.

But, you don’t serve the King hoping that he will accept you as a servant. This will be like by serving you are hoping to earn a place of a servant in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. No, you serve Jesus Christ, Sovereign and Lord, because he has made you his servant, his own.

The same idea applies to God the Father. To do the things the Father wants you to do, hoping that you will become his child doesn’t make any sense. You do the things God the Father wants you to do because you are his son through Jesus Christ.

God has called you means he has chosen you in the past to reveal himself to you through his Son Jesus Christ. The fact that God has called you and you’ve responded to his choice of you, you are now loved by him as your Father and you are kept by Jesus Christ. Do you have this certainty of being called by the Father, loved by God the Father through Jesus Christ and how you will be kept by Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit?

Do you know that your past, your present and your future are all secured by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? My prayer is that you do know this. And, if you don’t have the conviction of being called and loved by God and preserved by Jesus, my prayer is that you do know this tonight. I pray that you experience God’s touch.

When you know that you are called, loved and will be preserved, your fight for the faith takes a different shape. You don’t fight for the faith out of doubts about your standing before God. You fight for the faith because you love God who loves you in Christ. Contending for your faith becomes simply an expression of your committed love for God who is in charge of your past for he called you, who is in charge of your present for he loves you, who is in charge of your future for his Son will keep you.

Look down with me to Jude 24. “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore.”

Although the great theme of Jude is about you and I contending, fighting for the faith, ever greater overarching theme of Christian life that is vividly expressed in these two verses is that God is contending to keep you; he is fighting to keep you from falling; he is fighting to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

The call to contend, to fight for the faith is only possible because it is God who first called us, loves us and will keep us and present us to his presence as righteous sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. This is what it means to fight for the faith, to simply respond to God in your love for him who fights for you, who loves you, who is committed to you.

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[1] Louw & Nida, epagwnizomai (39.30).