Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

There are things in life that are not all that important, and then there are those things that are worth fighting for.

Our health is one of those things, it is worth the fight.

But many Americans are losing the battle.

Not only do we overeat, but we eat a lot of bad foods.

A recent report I read also suggested that the American diet includes too much salt.

“Ninety percent of children and 89 percent of adults consume more than the recommended 2,300 milligrams (or about a teaspoon) of sodium a day.”

CBS news reports.

All that salt we are consuming puts us at risk for a number of health issues — high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and others.

If we are going to fight for our health, we have to reduce our daily intake of salt.

To accomplish this, experts not only suggest you leave the salt shaker on the table, but that you cut your intake of salty foods.

While that might seem obvious, it is difficult for us to do because these are foods that many of us love.

Some of the foods that made the “too much salt list” were bacon, hot dogs, steaks, and hamburgers.

All the things that we love to eat.

But if we are going to fight for our health, and I think most of us would agree that our health is worth fighting for, we have to cut back on these foods.

For some of you, that might be a new revelation.

Maybe you didn’t know those foods were bad for you.

For others, you knew they weren’t good, but you just needed a reminder, some motivation to contend for your health.

It is easy for us to grow apathetic and allow foods to creep into our diet that aren’t healthy for us.

That is especially true when we get busy with the daily grind of life.

The last thing we are thinking about when we are trying to get to a meeting, accomplish a deadline, or get our kids to their third practice that week is how much salt is in our food.

But we can’t let our guard down if we are going to contend for our health.

Transition: That is not only true of our physical health but of our own spiritual health and the spiritual health of the church.

We have to constantly be on guard or the health of the church will slip.

FCF: Honestly, that’s what the world desires — for the health of the church to slip.

One way the world is trying to help that along is through false teaching.

The danger of false teaching is that it is subtle.

Sure, there are forms of false teaching that aren’t subtle.

I have the prosperity gospel is one.

It is easier to detect the misuse of Scripture, when a prosperity message is being shared.

That doesn’t mean people aren’t deceived, but it can be easier to detect this form of false teaching.

While the prosperity gospel is not so subtle, there is a lot of false teaching that is subtle.

A slight twisting of the text, or a subtle diminishing of the authority of Scripture.

An appeal to the natural man.

These are the methods of false teachers.

Methods they use to try to diminish the health of the church.

To drive a wedge between us and God’s Word, us and the true gospel.

BOND TO THE TEXT: It seems that is what is happening in the church to which Jude writes.

In verse 4 we learn that

“certain people have crept in unnoticed”.

We are going to talk more about what that means later, but what I want you to see right now is that the folks who crept into the church weren’t good for the church.

They weren’t promoting spiritual health and vitality.Instead they were slowing killing the church one conversation, one message, one act at a time, just like salty food is killing us one bite, one meal at a time.

This is a serious matter.

So series that Jude actually breaks from what he had planned to write in order to address this issue (vs 3).

In verse 3 Jude says,

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”

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Jude’s concern, his letter, then, is not accidental.

It’s not like Jude picked up his iPhone to respond to an email, and the next thing he knew he was carefully crafting his next Facebook story or Instagram message that he was going to tag this church in.

Don’t look at me like that has never happened to you, because I know it has.

I know that because it has happened to me.

But that is not the case for Jude.

He didn’t get distracted.

He had a real concern that drove him to write an urgent letter to the church concerning their spiritual health.

While there are a number of things that come up in Jude’s letter, a number of rabbit holes one can follow, at it core, his letter is concerned with the church’s need to contend for the faith.

As we begin the letter this week, we are going to look at why we should do that.

Why we should contend for the faith.

So why?

Why should we contend for the faith?

Transition: In order for us to contend for the faith, we need to know what it means to contend.

So:

I. What does it mean to contend?

ILLUSTRATION: A few weeks ago Laura Mazur and Jessica Robertson — two women who had never met before — reached the 14 mile marker of the Dick’s Sporting Good’s marathon in Pittsburg at the same time.

While there were plenty of people who reached that mark in tandem with others, this pair was unique because they were in dead last.

While Laura was a seasoned marathoner, Jessica wasn’t.

This was actually her first marathon.

She was in last place and exhausted.

Knowing that she still had 12 miles to go, she felt completely defeated.

The two began chatting.

Once Laura found out how Jessica felt, she told her,

“If you stay with me, I’ll stay with you and we will finish this race together.”

That is exactly what they did.

A while later they crossed the finish line together, holding hands.

As they struggled to the end, hands clutched, a spectator took a picture of them, posted it on social media, and it has since gone viral.

APPLICATION: The struggle they felt and the energy they expended to finish that marathon is the idea that Jude is communicating through this word “contend”.

Contending for the faith, then, is not an easy thing.

It is not something you do casually or occasionally.

It’s a daily fight.

A daily struggle.

It involves us daily putting forth effort and energy as we engage in a conflict for the faith.

Transition: Hearing that, you might be thinking, “All this contending is going to require a lot of effort on my part.

So why do it?

Why put forth the effort?”

Why do I need to contend for the faith?

Transition: Before I answer that question, let me encourage you by saying,

II.

You don’t have to, nor should you, contend for the faith on your own.

In the middle of verse 3, when Jude says,

“I found it necessary to write to appeal to you to contend for the faith” (Jud 3b)

When Jude wrote that, he didn’t have one person in mind.

The “you” in this verse is plural.

So instead of reading it as saying, “you, by yourself, alone, contend for the faith”, you should read it as, “you guys together contend for the faith” or as we might say down in Georgia “ya’ll contend for the faith”.

Contending for the faith, then, is not something you do by yourself, just like Jessica didn’t finish that race by herself.

She needed help.

She needed Laura to finish that race because she wouldn’t have struggled on by herself.

In the same way, we need others beside us so that we might continue to contend for the faith.

So, yes, contending for the faith is going to take a lot work, but you should be encouraged to expend the energy knowing you don’t have to do it on your own.And we shouldn’t, we should be running beside one another, encouraging one another to contend for the faith.

A single soldier doesn’t fight a war, and single Christian doesn’t contend for the faith.

We do it together.

Transition: But again, why contend in the first place?

It seems like something that is difficult, it seems like something that I am going to have to work at, even if I have others working with me.