Untitled Sermon (7)

Christ the Center

Jude 24-25

Sunday, January 4th, 2026

Intro-

Hey good morning church! So good to be with you this morning! Happy New Year! How many in this room show of hands are going to miss 2025? How many of you are released? Now how many of you made a resolution for 2026 and it’s already broken? It’s been 4 freaking days, let’s get it together people!

Before we get into the message today, I got one quick announcement for you. This Wednesday January 4thfrom 6:30-8p we’re having a youth worship night at the 508 coffee and youth lounge in Lynden! So, if you’re a middle or high school student, this is going to be awesome! Encourage you to invite everyone you know as we kick off the year in worship together! And if you have any questions or want more info, we’ll have some youth leaders in the back who would love to chat with you after the service! Good?

Alright guys making a pivot to the scriptures here, we’re looking at Jude 24-25 which is the last 2 verses of this book which means we’re closing off this series today and you all are still here! If you got your bibles go ahead and turn with me there, I know we just read it but let’s read it again and then we’ll dive into the message today.

Jude 24-25 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,  to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen

So the sermon title for today is “Taking Jesus Seriously” And I know this is the New Year so you all are probably like okay we’re going to get a typical first Sunday of the year sermon where the pastor says this year, we need to take Jesus more seriously and read our bibles more and pray more. That’s exactly what I’m going to do today!

But it goes in theme because throughout Jude’s letter his focus has been warnings. Warnings against Christian cults who deny the deity of Jesus and the trinity, LGBTQ, Hell, Spiritual Warfare, and apostacy.

And we’ve realized that Jude’s goal with all of that is that we wouldn’t stumble and that we’d have a right view of God or in other words proper orthodoxy. And that we’d take Jesus a lot more seriously than what the world does.

And throughout this entire series we have realized that bad doctrine, a bad view of God, or not taking Him seriously will produce some sketchy bad behavior which may feel right to the culture but will actually cut against the truth. We saw this with the Christian cults. Mormons and JW’s saying not that you’d become like God rather you can become gods yourself and do the same things God can do. False teachers preaching a prosperity gospel that claims God will make you richer beyond your dream. (can’t imagine how many of those are saying today “This is the year God makes you a millionaire”) LGBTQ which says be who you want and Spiritual Warfare has Satan tempting you to do things that maybe feel good for a moment but rather pull you away from God.

All of those things sound good according to culture, right? But instead, what this has done is it has lead millions of people into more and more sin, pulling them further and further away from the true Jesus of the bible. And created a bunch of lukewarm apathetic Christians. And it’s not that these people don’t believe in Jesus rather it’s they don’t take the true Jesus of the scriptures as seriously as they shouldn’t.

This is what the church of America is looking like right now according to the Pew Religious Landscape Study & Gallup Religious Attendance Trends:

· Americans who identify as Christian – 62-65%

· Attend church weekly – 20%

· Attend monthly or more – 40%

What this makes me realize church is we have a lot of people who claim Jesus but don’t actually follow Him with their lives. And that’s not what Jesus has called His church to be. Jesus isn’t looking for a following, He’s looking for disciples. He’s not looking for people who just know who He is. He’s looking for genuine disciples who take Him seriously by actually being with Him, becoming like Him, and doing as He does.

It’s like the people who follow you on Instagram. You may have 1000 followers but how many of them do you actually hang out with a know on a deep personal level? You have all of these followers who know you through the lens of a screen but only 3 of them know you on a personal level and take your relationship seriously.

Jesus isn’t looking for a following who just knows him through the lens of what a preacher says on a stage (including this one) or the inspirational bible verses you get from the bible app. He desires a relationship with you church!! He wants to know you and for you to know Him! We can say America is a Christian nation since 65% claim Him but how many actually KNOW HIM! You can claim someone you don’t know. You can claim Christianity and for Jesus to say I never knew you.

Jesus says in Matthew 16v24-25

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’”

This is the call of a true disciple of Jesus. Culture preaches prosperity, to follow your passions, that you can become a god. Jesus says deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me.

This goes against everything culture preaches at you! People are redefining Jesus to fit their preferences and comfort to make an excuse for their sin and compromise. This whole YOLO mentality is leading millions astray church.

And the problem can always come back to a low view of Jesus. Let me tell you church is you actually viewed Jesus the way the bible says He is. We’d probably be changing some stuff in our lives, right?

If we took Jesus more seriously, we’d probably take our sin more seriously. You want to know what a low view of Jesus results in? Sin not feeling as serious as it is, repentance not feeling very necessary cause you’re just going to sin again or “God will just forgive me anyways” or “God would want me to be happy” or “I need to do this and this and this and I should be free from it and then God will be happy” Church do you know how dangerous that is?

So many of us are struggling with sin that you know is wrong but you don’t even know how to fight it. You think the solution is to try harder, do better, or get more disciplined by finding some accountability partners, some phone blockers, or some therapy. Those are helpful (some of you really need therapy, don’t stop going) but church those are not the solution that will heal the deep seeded issues inside of you that can only be healed by the one who Jude says can keep us from stumbling.

John Piper says “Sin is not defeated by self-confidence, but by satisfaction in Christ.”

Church if sin is deeper than just behavior and if only satisfaction in Jesus can break the grip then the way we respond to sin cannot be try harder do better casual Christianity. If it was all about us trying harder and us doing better than why would Jesus have to die? He came, lived, and died because there is nothing we can do! Church you add NOTHING to your salvation other than the sin that hung Jesus on the cross!

You don’t overcome sin by effort and strategies, those may be helpful but it’s taking Jesus more seriously.

If sin was a behavior problem, rules would fix it. If it was a discipline problem, routines would fix it. If sin was just a knowledge problem, sermons and self help books would fix it.

But the bible says sin is a heart problem. That it’s not something we do it’s something that has power over us. Jesus says in John 8v34 – “Jesus answered them, Truly truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”  

To many of us are saying “I don’t want to keep doing this” “I hate that I keep going back to this” “I promised myself I wouldn’t watch that again” “I promised myself I wouldn’t drink that again or smoke that again”

And you’re saying that because sin doesn’t just need better strategies rather it needs a savior.  

Church, sin is not defeated by white knuckling your way out of it. It’s defeated when Jesus becomes more satisfying than the sin you keep running to. (PAUSE)

That’s why Jude doesn’t end the letter with “Now to you who finally got it all together” It’s “Now to HIM who is able to keep you from stumbling.”

Some of you are exhausted because you’re trying to be your own savior. Jude says the answer is not more confidence in yourself it’s in Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just forgive sin He keeps you from stumbling. The gospel isn’t stop sinning and then Jesus will accept you it’s Jesus has accepted you, let Him save you.

If we truly took Jesus seriously, we would stop trying to manage out sin and start bringing it before Him. Because the same Jesus who saves you is the same Jesus who keeps you.

But now the question is how? How do we take our relationship with Jesus seriously? How do we live a life that allows Jesus to keep us from stumbling?

It’s a life that knows God, Trusts God, Loves God, Obeys God, and Worships God. These aren’t steps to get God to love you more. Church this is an overflow of what happens because God first loved you!

So what does this look like? Knowing God: