The church in every age faces the threat of drifting into idolatry and compromise. Our age is no different. Jude writes about “contending for the faith” to help us understand what it means to remain faithful to the gospel in today’s culture.

We need a joy that does not come from circumstances. We need to dig deeper into the reality of suffering, to realize how each one of us struggles with difficulty and pain in different ways, and to discover God’s purposes and what biblical perseverance looks like.

Awe of God and his blessings in the gospel bring about a sense of gratitude, and gratitude results in a response of generosity. We become generous because God is generous!

What is fruitfulness? It is everything that is the product of effective prayer in Jesus’ name, for God’s glory, secure in the love of Christ.

Our goal this morning is to learn to think theologically by sitting under the authority of Scripture and letting our increasing understanding of God shape every aspect of our lives as the Holy Spirit does his sanctifying work.

Trust in God’s Word because by these words you can know the Living Word himself: Jesus Christ. Be strong! Proclaim the Scriptures because these are the very words of God. No matter what, hold fast to God’s Word.

The cross of Christ is the ultimate revealer of God and is the source of good news for us: That we can be made right with our Creator, forgiven, redeemed from sin, and given new life…and it only requires trust, to place your faith in Jesus.

This text reveals a radical and transformational truth: God has spoken. He has revealed himself and his purposes as the unfolding of the sovereign plan of an Almighty and Gracious God who has redeemed us for relationship with him, for his glory, forevermore.

We have a precious gift: the very Son of God, in his incarnation in human flesh, walked the path of the Suffering Servant all the way to the cross, conquering sin and all its evil effects.

The humble anointing of Jesus and triumphal procession into Jerusalem reveal the very heart of God. We see the goodness of Jesus that welcomes us to come to him.

Jesus shows through the raising of Lazarus that he is not merely in a battle against the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he is in a battle against death itself!

The most important question you will ever be confronted with is this: How will you respond to the words and works of Jesus Christ? This passage goes deeper into the conflict over Jesus’ claims and reveals the importance of trusting in Jesus’ words and his miraculous works that prove he is the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.

Through the proclamation of the gospel, through our bearing with one another in love, through our training in righteousness, through our compassionate care for those who are lost and hurting, we are demonstrating in living reality the deeper longings of the human heart that are only met in Jesus Christ.

Here’s the most prominent way this affects our moment in our culture: We must assert that there is objective truth. Not only is there objective truth, but what we are going to see in our passage is that truth is from God and is revealed by the Spirit of God!

Disciple-by-Doing is a way of making the Word of God come alive as His truth, His beauty, and His goodness are seen and known as we get our hands dirty and experience life together through the eyes of faith, through the lens of the Kingdom of God.

Can you be neutral toward Jesus? Can you be apathetic toward him? Can you pretend like he doesn’t matter or doesn’t exist? If Jesus is truly God himself in the flesh, then there is no neutral. How you respond to him reveals whether you know God at all.

We are going to immerse ourselves into a story about Jesus going to an annual festival in Jerusalem, about 6 months after the feeding of the 5000, in order to hear directly from Jesus’ own words about who he is.

We are challenged with this question: What is the one thing you can’t live without? What is the one thing that provides your daily sustenance and the one thing that is a matter of life and death? The answer: Jesus.

When the darkness closes in and the chaos seems to reign and we feel afraid, we can’t row our way out of it. We need a Savior to reach into this mess and deliver us!

We want to be a “contrast community” where we live differently in light of the gospel. One of the ways we can do that is through how we spend our time. We can chart a path marked by life-giving restfulness in God’s presence and purposeful activity for God’s glory.