April 21, 2024 – CountUp

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday April 21ST 2024, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

I’ve finally returned home from my recent retirement road-trip. You can read all about that on #TravelThursday. It was good to reconnect with a small group of my Highlands Community Church family this past Friday night at Bible Study. This morning I get to corporately worship with my full church family for the first time since Easter Sunday.

For the next several months – I’m presenting the full transcription of my recent Jude message series consisting of two sermons – “Jude & Judgment” (Verses 1-11), and “Jude & Jury” (Verses 12-25). I preached them to my Homestead Florida church family on November 26TH 2023 and December 03RD 2023 respectively. Here’s Part 3:

[CONTINUE SERMON]

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. (Jude 4)

So you say that you can do whatever you feel like doing because your God has already forgiven you for it. No ! That’s not the way it works. Sadly – a lot of Christians live that way. You’ve seen it. I’ve seen it over the course of my nearly 17 years as part of a church family. They come to church, but they live immoral lives. They hide much of it from their church family, but they can’t hide all of it. And they can’t hide any of it from our God.

You see – God’s grace is power – power that He has given to each of us believers as a gift, and that power – that power allows us to overcome every sin. It allows us to overcome every sin – should we choose to accept His gift. He (or she) who intentionally sins is not living in God’s grace. Now – none of us is perfect. None of us is close to perfect. We are all sinners. We are all probably going to sin somehow someway today. We’ll probably do so unintentionally. (That’s the enemy at work.)

And if we have God’s grace – which we do – we should instantly realize that we’ve sinned, and regret it, and repent it. We can tell God that – “I know what I did right there during that weak moment was wrong. That was a barrier that was placed between You and I. Thank You Lord for forgiving me for what I’ve done. I ask that You give me the strength and the wisdom and the guidance and the direction – so that I don’t do it again. Thank You God for Your grace and mercy. In Your powerful name I pray to You. Amen.

Sin must not have dominion over us. We can’t use God’s grace to justify our sin.

So I want to remind you – though you already know these things – that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later He destroyed those who did not remain faithful. 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 (what’s that word ?) judgment. (Jude 5-6)

[TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK]

My testimony is featured each week here on #SundayScripture – whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.