Let Him into your heart

Jude 1:20-23

Let Him into your heart

We are Antioch Baptist Church in Timberlake, NC. However, have you ever wondered why we are Antioch Baptist Church? Why that particular name. I know plenty of churches that have changed their names over the years but we have not. How did we come upon this name to begin with? Why aren’t we Ephesus Baptist Church? We could be AI Baptist Church. Well the name comes from our founders and from Acts 11:26 “And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

Yet, even the label “Christian” has changed over the years. As long as there is a group there are always people that will claim to belong to that group, that in reality, have nothing to do with that group. So we clarify and categorize ourselves so people can know we are different from those things. Lots of terms have been used to categorize Christians to distinguish the sheep from the goats in just my 21 years of Christianity. “Baptist” “Fundamental Baptist” “Conservative Baptist” “Protestant” “Evangelical” “Born Again” “Calvinist” “Monergist” I could keep going but I think you get the point.

The reason for this is that there are always going to be people that are in churches, that don’t know the Lord. That is one of the main reasons for the church is so that the lost might be saved! Yet, it’s only the clear teaching of the Word of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit that brings about this change. We see about that in tonight’s message “Let him into your heart”.

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 

21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 

22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 

23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

After a lengthy period of time. We have now come to the next to last message in the book of Jude. It was a long and widing road this last month but a good one! We started in talking about who Jude said that he was. He did not say he was the half brother of Christ like he could have. Instead, he viewed himself as a bond servant of Jesus Christ. Someone whose focus is only on pleasing their master to the detriment of everything else. Next Jude encourages us with a simple message, to not be afraid. God is for us who can be against us? For as long as there are people willing to proclaim the gospel there will be people who are opposed to the gospel. Last time we looked at the various sin categories false doctrine tends to fall into “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.”

Tonight, we have some good news! It’s one thing to tell someone “Don’t be afraid” it’s another to tell them things they can do to conquer that fear. He’s done that in part in the previous message in breaking down the various false doctrines and helping people understand what they are really looking at. To know what is coming is only partly helpful. You have to do know what to do when it gets there.

Now that the temperature drop is hear to stay as long as temperature drops stay in NC that is, we know that as we approach the winter months we know that snow is a possibility. We usually first hear about 10 days out. We have plenty of time to make proper preparations for the event. Milk & Bread, rock salt, gas up the generator if you have one, get some extra wood for the fire place. Fill the bath tub with water in case the power goes out. Make sure we have our winter gear & clothing out and readily available.

Jude here is forecasting a storm of persecution and false doctrine. Now he is telling us how to prepare for it and how to survive it. He tells us we need to build ourselves up in our faith! Faith, not merely our own personal belief system but the faith he just mentioned at the start of the letter but the essential truths of the gospel. 

What’s the first thing he tells us to do? What is the first faith builder? Prayer! Oh we love prayer! I mean we are some prayer loving people. Yet, we also have a really hard time actually praying.

First, at times It just seems so passive. We want to go out and do! We want to make stuff happen! We want it to happen right now! Secondly, a good majority of us spend our workday being ignored. Our co-workers sympathize with us but are powerless to make any change. The big boss who has the power to make change has bigger better things to work on than our problem. When we pray and don’t get our answer our way we tend to assume God is one or the other.

There’s nothing new about any of this. This is why Jude says “Praying in the Holy Spirit” what does that mean? Many of our prayers are directed by our own needs, by our own intellects, or by our own wishes and desires. Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us “

Prayer is not just a cosmic wish list. It’s communication, communion, conversation with our loving Father. If you’re interested in stretching your prayer legs talk with Ty Johnston or Dave Daniels after service.

Next, he tells us “keep yourselves in the love of God”. That sounds lovely! How exactly does one do that? Well it’s quite simple really. There are two main ways that God loves on us and reminds us of his love. First, we have God’s Word, a love letter from Him to us. Depending on your version of the Bible the word love appears 500+ times. A lot of those are directed at you!  How else do we keep ourselves in the love of God? We go to church! Do you know the main comment we here about Antioch from visitors? “It just felt so warm and loving.” Now, I know we all have multiple examples of times at church, even Antioch, where did not feel loved. That’s what happens when you put hundreds of sinners under one roof.

Yet, for every 1 story of someone having a bad experience at a church I can provide you 10 stories of someone feeling loved.

Heb 10:25 “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Also, Jude knows the church isn’t perfect and isn’t going to be perfect until the Lord returns so what do we do with that 1 out of 10 bad experience? We seek God’s mercy!

looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 

Why do we show others mercy? Because God first showed us mercy!

Col 3:12-14 “12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”


Then he shows that love and mercy in action. Sometimes that involves compassion, sometimes that involves fear. We have a hard time wrapping our minds around that. There’s not a one size fits all approach to accountability. I’m going to give an example of both.

Sam’s in second grade over at South Elementary. They have his app called Class Dojo. It’s how I can communicate directly with his teachers and how I can see how he’s doing during the day. Specifically, you can gain or lose points during the day based on your behavior. Those points lead to a party once a month. On average Sams loses about 1 point a week. He usually gets about 10-15. However, one day last week he lost 5 points. What makes that worse is he was only there for half a day. When I picked him up he had that look where he knew he was in trouble. He knew he had a bad day. I told him we would discuss when we got home. When we go home we talked, I gave him a big hug and told him that I loved him. Why? 


That morning he had to go to the orthodontist and get expanders in both his top and bottom teeth. It hurt. The glue tasted funny. He kept drooling and now he talks a little different. Had he not missed 3 days of school the previous week with fever I would have kept him home. I knew he didn’t feel good, so I showed him compassion.  


We have limits on screen time at the house. There is no screen time after school during the week. Saturday mornings are usually chill so they have screens until I get back from Men’s Breakfast between 9-10AM. A few months ago I got back and Sam was supposed to have done a chore for his mom. Instead of doing said Chore, which he was asked to do repeatedly, he ignored his mom and kept playing Nintendo. I look at him and say “SAMUEL JAMES NEWSOME” I know have his attention. “PUT THAT GAME DOWN AND DO WHAT YOUR MOM SAID RIGHT NOW SON” He put the game down and did that chore like he was the flash. He knew what happened next if he didn’t. 

Yet, while this was unpleasant it was actually an act of mercy. What he didn’t realize was how upset his mom was getting with him.  I know what happens next after that. Boy do I ever!  I saved him from the fire! 

We live in a world of counterfeits. It’s only when we have Jesus in our hearts can we truly know the truth.