Keep Yourself in God's Love: Build, Pray, Wait

Do you know there's a lot of things I can do in my Christian life that don't require faith if I'm being honest? If I prepare enough and have enough notes, I could get up here and preach without faith. I could go home and be really disciplined and and love and lead and serve my wife without faith. I could even if I really like the music and and y'all have a great worship team. I could sing because I like the song and I can sing without faith. But you wanna know one thing that is impossible to do without faith? Pray. Because if you remove the faith element, you're not praying. You're just either talking to yourself or talking to the ceiling. [01:09:15] (37 seconds)  #PrayerNeedsFaith

It is good news. It's not good advice. Right? Good advice is something you follow but good news is something that you just gotta believe. So you could say that building yourself up in the most holy faith is building yourselves. Notice, he uses the plural. You can't do this alone. You need community. Building yourselves up in the gospel. Every morning that I wake up, I know there's one person that I know god has put me put in my life that every day, I need to share the gospel with them. And do you know who it is? It's me. [01:05:47] (36 seconds)  #SelfEvangelizeDaily

No. His discipline is the very proof that god is treating you as his child, as his adopted son, and adopted daughter. He disciplines because he loves us, And it is impossible for god to love you any more than he does right now. It is impossible for god to love you any more than he does right now. Keep yourselves in the love of god. Read John three sixteen until it actually resonates and hits you that for god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. [01:03:47] (43 seconds)  #KeptInGodsLove

I wanna remind you, this isn't a, to do list for you and following Jesus isn't as simple as checking off three boxes. Did I build myself up in the faith? Did I pray in the holy spirit, and am I waiting? There's something better than that, and the news I have for you is that you are kept by god. So understand that first. It's only gonna be for your benefit and your joy and your sense of purpose in this life to build yourselves up in the faith, to pray in the holy spirit, and wait for the mercy of the lord, but it's not gonna make you more accepted by god. [01:16:42] (37 seconds)  #KeptByGodNotChecklist

And guess what? As god's people, there is joy in your waiting because what does Jude say you're waiting for? He says, waiting for the mercy of our lord Jesus Christ. Waiting for the mercy of our lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. On our own, let me tell you what we'd be waiting for. Judgment, wrath, separation, punishment, but god, we're waiting for something beautiful. We're waiting to fully experience the mercy of god. And remember, mercy is not the same as grace. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. That is the beauty of waiting for mercy. [01:15:50] (46 seconds)  #WaitingForMercy

Notice god's word doesn't say, do something to earn his love, perform well to maintain his good graces. Jude simply says, keep yourselves in the love of god. On one hand, it is true that it's god who keeps us, but on the other hand, it's it's equally true that it's our job to keep ourselves in the love of god. God works in us and with us not against us and without us. So, if you don't sense the love of god this morning, you need to ask yourself, have you been keeping yourself in the love of god? [00:58:06] (41 seconds)  #StayInGodsLove

And if I had time to talk to each of you this morning, I bet I would find some of you who would tell me, Dylan, I don't feel as close to god as as I have in my past or maybe you would tell me, if I'm being honest, my heart just seems dull during worship and my heart just seems unresponsive when I hear god's word being preached. And if we had time, I would take you aside and I would open up to the book of Jude and I would ask yourself, I would ask you a question that comes from this book. Are you keeping yourself in the love of god? [00:56:27] (41 seconds)  #ReclaimGodsLove

Don't overthink prayer. Maybe you don't know what to say, but when you understand that it's only by the spirit we can pray, that it's only by faith, then we believe like Romans eight teaches us that the spirit intercedes and and to intercede is to step in on someone else's behalf, to make a request for another. In Romans eight twenty six through 27 gives another description of praying in the spirit. Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness. Guess what? The Bible assumes and knows that you're weak in your prayer. [01:10:33] (36 seconds)  #PrayByTheSpirit