“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
Strengthening Our Faith in These Days
1To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for[a] Jesus Christ: 2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Jude 1:1
We, who are called by God to believe in Him and to live our lives according to our faith, often are under attack from the devil and his minions. Just who are these minions? Any person who boasts of the flesh and does not follow the way of the LORD. These are the people who promote the killing of innocent babies through abortion; who applaud sexual immorality in all its forms, i.e. adultery; living together and not married; homosexuality; gender neutral or those who parade themselves around as different from how God created them, either as a male or a female. People who steal, who murder and this includes anger; people who lie; people who deny God; those who use the LORD’s Name in vain; those who do not love the LORD with all of their being; those who dishonor their parents; those who covet (want) what others have; those that promote hate and violence. Anyone who does not follow GOD is following the devil. There is no middle ground.
I know that some people think that this is a harsh ideal. They are so concerned about how other people look at them instead of being concerned about how they are seen in GOD’s eyes. Far too many people want to walk in the middle between the devil and GOD and they fail to see that if they are not 100% in faith in GOD then they are not walking in the way of the LORD.
As Christians, we are to live our lives learning to walk in all of God’s way and to show others our faith and His love. Having faith means that we are waiting for Jesus to return and we are to live our lives as if He is returning at any moment because we do not know the day or the hour. Our lives are to be the hope of His coming, to claim His Kingdom and to be ready for His return. We are not called to live our lives walking with one foot with the devil and one foot with the LORD. That is not faith. Faith only needs to be a small as a mustard seed. We come to GOD and ask Him to forgive us of our sins and then we surrender our lives to Him. We give our whole selves and give our ways up and receive His Holy Spirit and allow God to change our whole self and learn from His Word. Faith is not saying some words or going to a church. Faith is alive and just as a mustard seed it grows and grows, feeding others and becoming perfect as the Father is perfect.
We are called to wait upon the LORD. We are called to live out our faith in every area of our lives. We are called to live in the way of the LORD. That means that everything, everything is to be for and according to GOD’s way. We are to live a redeemed life. Our whole life. The way we live in private and the way we live in public. We are to be showing the whole world our whole faith. Faith is GOD is not a religion, it is Spirit and truth. It is walking and talking of GOD’s love and goodness. It is walking in faith that we serve something greater than ourselves. It is being God’s in everything that we put our hands to. It is living a godly life at home and at work. We are to live as loved by God and to walk in His peace and have His mercy be our way and to show His amazing love to all.
But it is hard in this day and age, but it has always been hard because the devil prowls around looking to cause us to fail. We have become timid in our faith and have let the devil have his way for far too long. We do not want to do anything for GOD but we want GOD to do it all for us. We do not want to work on our relationship with God. We want all the benefits of what God gives but want to do nothing in return. We want our sins washed away but do not want to change. We are so concerned about how the world looks at us and not how GOD looks at us.
3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:3-4)
Jude talks to us about the salvation we share and how we are to contend for the faith. Contend is a verb, an action that we are to make movement in. Contend means we put ourselves forward as Christians, living our faith of God’s Spirit living in us and living in God’s truth. We are to become complete in our faith, fully asserting God’s way, His truth and His life. We are to insert our faith in every area of our lives, to maintain God’s ways, to run our lives for the prize of overcoming the devil and when we have learned all that we are to, when we are ready, we leave this world and will rise with a new body, a complete resurrected body. No more sorrow, no more pain.
There are so many who come against us as Christians. And we have become weak believers. We allow the devil to spread his lies by what he tells the world to say. We are not of this world, we may live in it, but we are to declare that we are Christians and we must run our race to receive the prize. We cannot allow the lies that the devil is spreading to control our lives. We need to be on fire, with God’s Holy Spirit teaching us and living in us so that we will become what we were made for.
The people that the devil uses are weak. They have no desire to do what is right, because living a godly life means that we have to challenge ourselves each moment to live in the way of the LORD. My brothers and sisters let us stand up and be counted as a follower of the only way to the Father. Let us live our lives fully devoted to God and walking in all of His ways. His Word is for us our guide book to teach us. With His Holy Spirit living in us, He convicts us of our sins and shows us that the world is wrong in what it says. God created each and every one of us. He created us male and female. He created us to learn to walk in His way. He created us to walk in His truth. He created us to learn about His life when He came to earth to take our punishment and to die for our sins; we are to walk in the way that Jesus walked while He lived here on earth. Jesus always pointed to the Father. Jesus prayed and talked with the Father all the time because the Father and He are one. And Jesus promised us that if we walk in faith, that we would live in Him and that the Father and He would live in us. He gives each one of us who accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior, His Holy Spirit. God knows every part of our lives. He does not control us but He wants us to surrender and allow Him to mold us into His perfect plan.
5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[c] at one time delivered His people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
The Bible serves us as a history of God and His creation. We are becoming Sodom and Gomorrah, living our lives in the midst of evil as Lot did. We have not reached the level yet as Sodom and Gomorrah did, but we are well on our way. We are giving into sexual immorality, allowing the devil to take away our authority of faith and are falling into the pit of eternal destruction if we do not contend for the faith we have. We have to stand up and say, “NO,” to the people who try to shut us up. They are controlling us instead of us overcoming evil. Sexual immorality includes: living together and not being married; having an affair, adultery; having sex outside of marriage; having sex with more than one person; having sex with someone of the same sex; orgies; abortion, yes, abortion, as pregnancy comes from having sex; even looking at another person with lust, is the same as adultery. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah paraded these sins. They were prideful in their ungodly behavior. The towns we nothing but a trap for sin.
We must not fall into the trap of the sin of pride. There is nothing to be proud about the sins people commit. Sin is anything that takes us away from GOD’s truth; Sin is living in any way that is not GOD”s way. Sin is living a life that does not follow the way of the LORD. Marriage in GOD’s eyes is only between a mad and a woman. Anything beyond that is a sin.
We must stand in faith and walk in faith. If we do not want to live in hell we need to stand in GOD’s truth and be overcomers to the evil in the world.
8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[d] 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.(Jude 1:8-10)
My sisters and brothers, just because the ungodly say we are wrong, does not make them right. They reject GOD and slander we who walk according to GOD’s way. We have to rebuke them, to show them what God’s way is. We have to stand up and call upon GOD in every situation that we are confronted with evil and ask GOD to come into the situation. Those who walk with the evil one do not understand because they have allowed themselves to be controlled by the devil and they do not see what they are doing as sin. They are prideful and they will suffer in hell of eternity. They claim that if God was so loving, that He would allow them to do whatever they wanted. When they claim that God allows evil to happen, we must respond in love, God’s love. Evil happens because people make a choice to listen to the devil. Evil is never God’s choice. And when evil happens to we who walk in God’s way, we have to trust that God is with us and hates evil and that those who do evil will be judged by GOD and suffer for eternity with their choices. God is a just God. He will fight our battles and equip us to fight the good fight of faith. Faith is a fight against evil. We cannot sit passively and allow evil to control our lives. We must stand firm in our faith in every area of our lives.
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”[e] 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. (Jude 1:14-16)
The LORD is going to return and claim His right as King. He will judge the living and the dead. He will convict us of how we have led our lives. He wants us to be on fire in our faith, to have faith that will move mountains, to live a life that is according to the way of the LORD. There is going to be a judgment. GOD will convict those who follow the devil and they will live in the hell they live for. They will be living in the darkness of sin; they will be surrounded with all those who walked with the devil in their life on earth. They will be surrounded eternally with their godless, sinful desires. They boast now, but it is their downfall.
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. (Jude 1:1719)
Just look around you and you will see that the devil is fighting hard with those who follow him. They are trying to divide us, to make us think that we are wrong for believing. But we are not. They are following the devil straight to hell and they want to bring us with them. But my brothers and sisters, let us fight the good fight of faith. Let us contend with the scoffers who say we are wrong. We cannot follow them in their ungodly desires. We have to stand together. Our backs are against the wall. We have to stand together because united in GOD we will overcome evil. Respond to evil with love; in every situation call upon GOD. Every time we are confronted with evil say, “The LORD rebuke you.”
20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.(Jude 1:20-21)
Let us build our lives in our faith and pray without ceasing. Let us keep ourselves in GOD’s love and show His love to the world, no matter what the devil throws at us. GOD’s love will prevail. GOD will fight for us. Ask GOD to teach you and His Spirit will guide us. Learn from GOD and do good. Do not be overcome by evil.
22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.[f] (Jude 1:22-23)
Let us show GOD’s mercy in the way that we live our lives. Let us show others by how we walk in faith and hope. Let us not be afraid to say something is evil. If we do nothing to confront evil, evil will prevail. We have to be on fire in our faith. We have to show others by the way we live, what we believe. We have to live our lives as redeemed. Let us be like Moses and stand. Let us hold each other up in faith. Let us be like Peter—when we have failed, let us return and be pillars of faith. Let us be like Jeremiah and speak against evil. Let us be like Ester, and be brave and stand in our faith. Let us be like Job-- that no matter what happens to us, we thank GOD for the good and the bad, even as others tell us differently.
My sisters and brothers, we need to strengthen what faith we have. We cannot live lukewarm faith, but faith that shows that GOD is on the throne and His will is our will. We are His children, one and all. Love each other as GOD loves you. Love each other deeply, purposefully, and in the hope of the promises of GOD. GOD wants us on fire with His Spirit, being lights of His love. In doing so, we may snatch someone out of the fire of hell. And let us overcome the evil that is being done. When they come at us and yell and do violence against us, stand up and say, “The LORD rebuke you!” Bring GOD into every situation and let Him fight for us. Allow GOD to be in every area of our lives. He’s got this.
24 To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious Presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
