Alright, how’s everyone doing tonight? Hey, Hey, let’s give it up for the band one time for leading us in worship. Let’s give it up for Sam for bringing that word, thank you Sam. And let’s give it up for that concert, KB at nine o’clock!
Hey, Hey. There was one group of people that I felt really bad for earlier. Allyson was given out t-shirts and she said, the leader’s got to sit down though. Remember that? So I thought, let me go get some t-shirts and hookup the leaders, all right. So here’s what we’re gonna do. Here’s what we’re gonna do. I need to know who has the best leaders in their group.
Hey, give it up for the leaders in here. Hey, this is why this is an incredibly important, seriously. Many of your leaders are here. Hopefully all of them are here tonight because they want to be here. Nobody twisted their arms. I’m serious. Nobody twisted their arms. Nobody’s paying them to be here. They want to be here. Let me tell you why. Because everything Sam preached about, about the father’s love and understanding, that kind of love and how it’s infinite and how it chases you down. That’s a transformative kind of love and your leaders in this room, their devotion to you. Hear me clearly when you mess up, I promise you, I don’t even know your leaders, but I promise you they will not run from you, when you mess up, they will embrace you. They will love you. They will walk with you. My wife’s here tonight, she got saved and she was in eighth grade. Say, hi to my wife, I married way out of my league, say hi to my wife, her youth pastor and youth pastor’s wife took her under their wing and then he did our wedding. They’ve been in our lives for about 15-20 years. Many of your leaders today, you’ll see them tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and let me tell you why this is. They want to not only be a living proof of the word of God that they’re trying to impress in your heart, but I promise you they want so desperately for you to believe this transformative power that’s in scripture. They want you so desperately to understand what Jesus could do with your life. They want you to know that, and I’m sure they’re desperate for you to know that, and let me tell you why. They have lived long enough to see this- culture is always changing and shifting, and if you are not careful, your identity will shift and change with culture.
In today’s world, culture wants to define who you are. And you’re like, “I don’t know if that’s true.” This generation that I’m speaking to, you, you are considered generation Z. If you study about generation Z , one of the big things they are concerned about is identity. So part of generation Z goes like this, “be whoever you want to be. It’s not wrong to be whoever you feel like being. Let’s just all love and get along.” However, that’s counter cultural from scripture. And if we are not careful, we begin to believe those lies. You then begin to substitute the truth of God for the lies of the enemy. This is incredibly important that you know the truth of scripture and it becomes your foundation. Listen, I wasn’t raised in the church. I didn’t have the privilege that you have now, being in eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade, and having somebody pour into you.
So here’s the way my life went because I didn’t have foundational truth. Dad was a drug dealer. Mom was an alcoholic. I began to really empty. I had no identity. I wasn’t raised in the church, so I was searching for identity. I was kind of like a feather out in the wind. I went with the shifts of the wind, with culture. So in eighth grade, I remember listening to one of my favorite groups. You will not have a clue who they are. Some of you leaders might, you ever heard of Kris Kross? Leaders, raise your hand if you’ve heard of Kris Kross. Kris Kross’ll make ya.
“Jump Jump,”
All right, I believe y’all now. And here’s what I did, this group, Kris Kross, they would wear their clothes backwards. Now some of y’all youth like, “what? That’s crazy.” I’ve seen what you’ve been wearing here today too. And I like it. No, you let me finish. I like it. I like what you got going on. But I remember the first time I put my overalls on backwards and came out. My mom was like, what are you doing? I was like, Kris Kross is doing it and they’re cool. And I, and I walked into the school and then like everyone
thought I was the coolest thing. You don’t believe it, but they did back then, and this was an eighth grade, everybody else was doing it. I wanted to be part of the cool kids. Nobody doesn’t want to be part of the cool group. So I did it. No father in the house, right? No foundational truth. Just cultural shifting going on. Just me and MTV. That’s it. I was born and raised on beans and rice, not Jesus Christ. You know what I’m saying?
That not funny in this group, aight. I’m from Houston, aight. So, so there goes eighth grade, “Kris Kross will make ya jump, jump,” backwards clothes. And then I got to ninth grade and I started playing sports and I wanted to do what everybody else was doing, what culture was doing, and really music became what molded my identity. Whoever I was listening to was kind of who I wanted to be like. So then came the earrings, and back in the day like you had to be 16 get your ears pierced or your parent’s permission. So me and my friends discovered, if you numb your ear with ice long enough, don’t do it by the way don’t do it. I don’t want you leave from the Ready Conference, look what I learned, mom. No, but don’t. So we pierced our own ears. So I show up at school with, with ear piercings now.
And then as I played more sports, I began to play basketball and I went and played college basketball and you couldn’t be a good college basketball player without tattoos. So then I went and got a whole bunch of tattoos. Everybody else was doing it. So I thought I’d do it. Then came the phase where- I wasn’t saved- I used to listen to a guy whose name was Cisco. Me and you just know buddy, we’re the only sinners in this room right now; we’ll have a time of repentance at the end for you. He dyed his hair blonde and I thought, man, that’s so cool. So here’s what I did, I went to Walmart.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I bought highlighting kit for my hair. And I had, when I had hair, if you can imagine, it was like jet black hair. It was super black hair, which means I had to leave the ingredients in my hair longer than what the box actually said. So I remember thinking if I want it really white frost in my hair, I had to leave it for 10 hours. So I started about five o’clock after practice, cause it was on a Thursday and I had a game on a Friday for basketball. The problem was- what had happened was I fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I took it off and looked like a cheetah. But, the worst part was that it dripped in my sleep and it highlighted my eyebrows.
[laughter]
So, it’s eight o’clock in the morning, and I’ve got a basketball game, and I’m starting point guard and I’m going to go play college ball and I have Scouts there and I’m like, I can’t look like an idiot. So I got a Sharpie-
[laughter]
-and I got in the mirror, and I started painting my eyebrows. And I was like, you can’t even tell. And you really, nobody knew until after the first quarter of the, of the game.
I didn’t think about the sweat. And it looked like mascara was coming down and I was crying. And here was the thing like, like it was good, like it was good. Like basketball was good and I was popular and I knew how to go with the culture, I knew what to do, I was, I was a Shooty, not a foodie or Shooty. I was a shoe sneaker head, shoe collector and everybody was doing, I collected Jordans. Everybody was doing, I had friends. I was homecoming King. I was going to go play college basketball and I went. I was a popular kid. But the problem was, I look just like the culture. I look nothing that was biblical about me and from the outside everyone thought, man, this dude has it all. He’s happy, he’s popular, he looks cool sometimes, but he has it all. And what nobody knew was deep inside, my soul was unbelievably empty. I had no father in my life. I wanted so desperately to be cool and liked by everybody that I would do whatever I needed to do to be liked by people.
And what nobody knew, let me be a little more transparent, inside I was so broken from coming from the household that I came from. I felt like there was no hope for me. Like I couldn’t be anybody in life,
that God could never love me, because I made too many mistakes. And so therefore I just conformed to the culture. And what happened even worse is I became so depressed because I didn’t know that God was my creator and I was created by him for him, and that nothing else in this world could ever fulfill me. And trying to be fulfilled by this world is like chasing the wind. You never ever catch it. And I was chasing it. I was chasing it and I thought I had it. And I was so depressed that I tried to attempt suicide cause I thought it’s not worth living.
And I was broken and I had no fight in me. I remember hearing a message very similar to what Sam preached and I remember thinking, well, could God, this creator, really me? I’ve messed up. I have tattoos. I’ve said so many cuss words. I’ve done ugly things. Would you really want me God? And to hear about this unbelievable God who sent his son to die on the cross for me. Why would you want me? And I’m 36 and I still can’t tell you, but his unbelievable unlavished love for me is still transforming me. And here’s the difference. I had no fight before against the culture. 18 years old tried to attempt suicide, didn’t work, so then I begin to go to the salvation army. Somebody preached the message and said, “Hey, if you want Jesus, if you need Jesus as your Lord and savior and savior, say this prayer, nothing is going to poof happen. Nothing magical about the prayer, but if you want Jesus,” and I came down the aisles, I want Jesus. Do you want me?
Then the fight started. See, up until then, I never fought against culture, against the urges that I wanted. When I turned 18 and gave my life to Christ, it’s like, it’s like God said, Son, put the helmet on. Now you’re in the game. Now you’re about to be ready. If you’ve ever played football and you’ve ever been in the game and you walk in and if you’re passive during a play, you just kind of standing there. You ever seen what happens to those people? They just get laid out.
What Jude is saying in verse three, I love what he’s saying here. Listen to verse three and four. He’s about to tell the believers, believers, I want you to fight. I want you to be anti-culture and not to go with the shifts, and I want you to fight for something that’s incredible, incredibly valuable. Listen to what he says in verse three, “beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I’ve found it necessary to write, appealing to you, to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.” So here is what he’s telling- beloved, church, the one Jesus died for.
I was going to write to you about this common salvation, not that this common salvation in the sense that it’s plain and it’s common and it’s ordinary. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying a common salvation. The one salvation, the one true Gospel, the only Gospel that has saved those is who is speaking about that one salvation. The one thing we all have in common. If you’re a Christian in this room today, there’s about over a thousand of us in this room, all of us have different walks, different struggles, different thoughts. If you are a believer in this room, the one thing we have in common is that. This is what he’s speaking about. That’s the one thing we have in common. I was going to digest this. I was going to give you more, but now there’s even more of an important issue. Do you know what’s amazing? The thing he’s about to speak to is the very thing that you have to deal with today in your life.
Here’s what he says. I found it necessary. You could almost feel this sense of urgency as he was pinning this. Like he is desperate for them to understand the importance that if they distort grace, if they distort truth, if they fall into this trap, that there’s going to be great, great consequences and here is what he’s saying. I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith. At the church I pastor, we like to talk a lot. So why don’t you look at your neighbor cause I want you to remember this phrase. Look at your neighbor like their soul life depends on it and say, “contend for the faith.”
Perfect. Now if you have your Bibles open, I want you to circle contend for the faith, write next to it, and write the what. What is he telling them to do? You know this, this word in this phrase, really, it’s, it’s a really interesting phrase here. You, as you look at the Greek, it would say contend earnestly. And here’s what this phrase would mean. It would mean to struggle for, to earnestly content for, that there is a fight. In fact, this word contend- how many athletes do we have in the room? Okay, so if you’re an athlete, if you’re not, how many gamers do we have in the room? Yeah, got way more hype about gamers. Either way, here’s what he’s saying. Listen, listen, listen. This word contend, it’s really a competitive athletic word. You know what it refers to? It refers to this, this wrestle that would happen on a mat.
Do we have any wrestlers? So, so think about this. Think of about, here’s what it refers to. Think about this. Listen, here’s what he is saying, Christian, I want you to contend for the faith. I want you to wrestle. I want you to fight for the faith. When he says this word, faith, it’s not belief in God. It’s the essential truths of scripture. I want you to protect this. I want you to, for the rest of your life, wrestle when it’s being distorted. I want, there’s going to be continual wrestle for this. As long as you live here on earth, you will wrestle for this. And let me tell you, students, you will find, if you haven’t found already, that it’s even hard to live for Christ amongst other Christians.
And it’s pretty sad. But that’s the truth. And that’s the hard reality. And what he is telling them here is Christians, those who are in love with Christ. I want you to contend- and here’s what, here’s what I love even about this, that that really, this is in the grammar of the ancient Greek. It is the present infinitive. Here’s what this means. It’s showing that the Christian struggle is continuous. There are no days off. Do you understand that you are in a battle, and the enemy loves when you take days off? He is looking for those that he can devour. He loves when we don’t protect and guard the truth. He loves when we don’t walk in the truth. The enemy of this verse is passivity, and let me just tell you, a passive Christian will be a devoured Christian. There is no room for passivity in the Christian life.
Will you be perfect? No. Will you not ever sin again? You’ll sin after this, I promise. But there must be this fight. There must be this continual wrestle. There must be this over and over and over in the Christian life. We are not called to tap out as Christians. Then he goes on to say this, “to contend for the faith,” the essential truth of scripture, “that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Then he gets into verse four, the why. If you can circle verse four, he told you the what, what are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to contend for the faith. You’re supposed to be a Christian wrestler who’s constantly fighting to protect truth. And he says, verse four, here’s the why. Why, why is he urging them? Why is he telling them? Here’s why. Verse four, “for certain people have crept in unnoticed.” So now he’s saying in the body of Christ, there are some that have come in. They’re not wearing tee shirts that say, Hey, I’m a false teacher. I’m a false prophet. I am here to kill, steal, and destroy. You won’t notice them. That’s why he says they’re creepers. They’ve crept in, and they’re so smooth that you won’t even notice them. Do you know how to spot a fake?
My buddy is a private investigator, or he was, and then he worked for the bank. And he says, here’s what they would do. In order to spot fake hundred dollar bills, they would study the real a hundred dollar bills. So when they had the look, the design, the every twist and turn of the writing down to a “T” on the real a hundred dollar bill, it was easy to a fake hundred dollar bill. Christian, when you know, and been digging in the word of God and know what’s real and focus on what’s real and what’s true, it would be easy to spot what’s fake. And so what he is telling them here, listen, this false teaching began to creep into the church unnoticed, “who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.”
So, what is happening here? So, first he tells them to wrestle into fight. Hear me very clearly. He is not giving them a license to be a jerk for Jesus. He’s not. I’ve never seen hate transform a life. Only the love
of Christ transforms lives. He’s not calling you to go out there and be ready to be a debater. Let me prove somebody wrong. That’s not what He is calling us to do. Here’s what he’s saying. The word of God, the truth of God, is so precious. It’s so powerful. It transforms lives, right? It saves people, it gives you hope for the future, for eternity. It exposes sin. It heals the broken. It walks with the depressed. It gives life where there is no life. It gives hope where there is no hope. This truth is so important. He’s saying protected Christian. It’s so valuable. Protect it Christian, and don’t distort it.
It’s kinda like this. Anybody love basketball in here? So, I’m a huge basketball fan. I’m from Houston, so I like the rockets. Thank you. Thank you for that. But I cheer for the Suns cause we’re from Phoenix. And, recently my wife and I were blessed to be like behind the scenes. And so what that meant is like we got to be where the players were before they ran out. And here’s what happened. Every player has their celebrity franchise player. When that player came, he had like four security guards around him. The security guards, their role and job was not to go look and pick fights. It was to protect the precious franchise player. So they surrounded him and protected him and walked with him. And they would show aggression when needed if needed. But their whole sole role here was to be a security for all was incredibly valuable.
So what he is saying here in this scripture is, “Christian, you’re a role is to be a security, a protector for this thing that’s incredibly valuable and don’t let anybody distort this thing that’s incredibly valuable.” So what they were doing here in this context is, they would take the grace of God and say, “Hey, let’s go ahead and sin. Let’s go ahead and swim in sexual immorality because he is going to forgive us anyway.” Let me just tell you this. If that is your thought process, that is bad theology that will lead to bad beliefs, that will lead to bad behaviors. And sin will always over promise and under deliver. Sin will always over promise and under deliver. It will hook you, then it will shame you. It will hook you, then it will condemn you. So, Jude is giving this strong appeal for the Christian wrestlers to step up and to protect what’s incredibly valuable, that is the word of God. I have five minutes and I’m going to close with this. Here’s what he’s saying in a nutshell.
So in this room, there’s the truth of scripture that’s unbelievably powerful. And there are Christians in this room, and there are probably non-Christians in this room. Let me speak to the Christians. He’s saying, Christian, I want you to continuously contend for the faith. I want you to continuously be a wrestler for the Gospel, be a protector. When I was a kid, I loved WWE, and I remember- I have an older brother, and I was a punk. I really, I was a punk kid and I remember my brother, we were watching wrestling and a commercial came up. And I was sitting on the couch, and he was sitting down watching TV like this. Now we were young, like 20-21 so- joking we were probably more like 8 and 10. I’m the younger brother. I’ll never forget, I just got into watching Jimmy fly, Jimmy Snuka. And so I wanted to fly off like he flew off, and so my brother wasn’t looking and so I stood on the couch.
My mom wasn’t looking either. I said superfly, did this, and I jumped, put my full body in, and I put my elbow right in the middle of his back and it took out his air and he was like, [exasperated breathing]. And like, I saw it as a good opportunity to put him in a pretzel because he was like, just, I just felt like, “Man, you’re so passive right now. Like, I’m going to devour you. This is my time.” So I did. And so boom, I put my elbow in his back, and I’m like trying to cover his mouth up so my mom didn’t hear, my dad doesn’t hear. I put them in a pretzel and I put his arm out. He’s like, “Help me.” And I’m- and he’s, and he’s like, “Dad!” I was like, “I’m your daddy,” and hit him. Listen, you can, we can put him on FaceTime. This really happened. And he was like, “dad.” And I kept like just beating him up like. “say mercy,” say- he’s like “dad!” And I’m like [aggressive screaming] and it’s like one of those things like do you- have you ever been in a place [where] you’re like, I know I’m busted, I’m going to get in trouble, so I’m going to make it really worth it? Yeah, you ever been there? “I’m going to get spanked anyway, might as well!” That’s not a good thing to do by the way. Like y’all, you’re like, yeah, I’d do it. You just don’t need to do that. But I did it because I was six. You’re older than that. You don’t need to. So, I did it and I went- I was like
started pulling hair and I just, I got all my moves out, and then here comes my dad. And my dad, he was a golden glove boxer. And he’s a man’s man. He just came and I remember he just like grabbed me one hand, probably child abuse, I don’t really know, but he grabbed me- back in the day it wouldn’t have been, but he grabbed me around my neck and just move me, tossed me. And he helped my son- my brother, and then I was over there like I started crying. I’m sorry, my brother- we’re all crying. And my dad’s like, here I am as a manly man.
And here’s the truth, some of you have been so passive with your life- with your Christian walk; and, the enemy preys on passivity. And he has preyed on your passivity because you desire so much. All right, I know how this works, I know how this works. He’s told you, young lady, you’re not pretty enough, so here’s what you need to do to be really valued by the guys. And guys, you’re not cool enough. Here’s what you need to do. Here’s what everybody else is doing. And he has prayed on your passivity and you are currently spiritually on the floor, you can’t breathe, and you’re screaming mercy. And like the enemy has you in a pretzel, and you’re just there like, “I don’t know what to do. I’m drowning. Here I am.” And let me tell you what to do. If you’re a Christian in the room, and you know better, and you’re living the way you shouldn’t be living, and the thing you used to contend for you now put on the wayside, and you now seek the significance of the culture.
And so Christian, what you need to do is really what my brother did. Yell out to the father for help, because you can’t get yourself out of what you got yourself into. For those in the room, you’re here and you’re like, “I’m here because they invited me, and KB sounds cool,” and you had no clue about the Gospel and that this precious thing that transforms, and that loves you, and that this heavenly father who hung the moon and stars would send his son for you. And today you’re hearing like, man, my stories like yours, I didn’t know there was any hope for me. Let me just tell you, if you’re on the ground spiritually, and you’re out of breath, and you can’t do anything, I have unbelievably great news for you. You can call on the name of the father and he will come. He is the rescuer, he is the comforter, he is all salvation, he is all knowing, he is all powerful, and he knew you would be in here today. So, my heart for you, if you’re not contending, start being a Christian warrior. Do not believe this lie that you are too young to stand up for Christ because what the enemy will do in your life now, if you are being passive, he will plant seeds in your life now that will produce fruit later.
So stand up for Christ, and it’ll be lonely, and it will be hard. But there’s a great reward when you walk with Christ. There is great support when you walk with Christ. There is great power and confidence when you walk with Christ, he won’t leave you empty like this culture leaves you empty. He won’t leave you feeling like you are not pretty enough young lady like this culture can make you feel. He will not make you feel like you are not man enough or cool enough young man like this culture will make you feel. The only answer there is, the only answer there ever has been, and the only answer there will ever be, is Jesus. So my desire for you, Christian, step up.
My desire for you, if you don’t know Christ, call on the name of the father. Let’s pray together. Listen, here’s what I want to do, man. There’s nothing magical about this. I don’t know where you are. I don’t know if some of you just, you stopped wrestling for the Gospel and maybe you, you first encountered Jesus and you were so in love and you know that you’re living two lives, Christian. And, you know that’s not going to please God. I just want to speak to the Christians in the room today. I believe the road back to restoration. I mean Psalm 32 David said, when he suppressed everything in him, he felt like his bones were wasted away.
So for the Christians in here, man don’t, don’t even worry about who’s around you. Because the truth is every hands are probably go up. If you know you have been living passive, and you’re living part of these, these two lives here, there’s a church life and there’s a school life and they don’t look the same. Here’s all I want you to do Christian, will you just as a sign of just confession. Yes, there’s way more to
this. You’re gonna have to talk to your counselor. Will you just acknowledge that’s me? You just raised your hand. Don’t be afraid. All eyes closed and head bowed. Just, thank you, thank you. All hands up. Even adults are raising their hands, all hands up. There are hands everywhere, you’re not alone if you’re raising your hand, you’re not alone if you’re raising your hand. Listen, you can put your hand down. All eyes closed and head down, listen, if you’re here today, maybe you’re saying, listen, I don’t- I’m hearing about this love of Jesus. I’m hearing about this truth that transformed. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced it, but man, I think I want that. I think I need to talk to my leader. I think I want that. Would you just raise your hand up high. Don’t be afraid. I want, there’s hands everywhere. Keep raising them high. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t be ashamed.
Praise God. Praise God. Put your hand down. Listen, those of you both, all of you who raised your hands, you need to talk to your counselor, leader and press into what you think God is doing. Father, this is not the church of tomorrow, this is the church of today; and, we never ever believe the lie that they are too young to live for Christ. And in this day, father through this conference, would you- my goodness God, do what only you can do. Would you just raise warriors for Jesus Christ that would transform their schools, God, through your power. In some of these athletes, would you cause them to make a stand for Christ, even on their sports teams and not be ashamed, and not be afraid, God, but to contend for their faith. Would you do something special through these lives God? Would you ignite something that only you can ignite, Father. And Lord, would you do something in the lives who don’t know you God, and they sense you’re doing something. Would you just do what only you can do, Father. Do what only you can do. It’s in the powerful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
