Sunday, November 15, 2009

Trees, Clouds, and Waves

A Quick Look: Jude 17-23

Really Read It: Jude

Memorize: Jude 20-21 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

“And now for the longest race of the day. All 6400 meter runners report to the starting line right away. The race will begin in two minutes.”

Chet started for the starting line as soon as he heard the voice from the loud speaker. That was his race. He had been waiting all day. He looked at the track as he walked toward it. It didn’t look that big. Chet was sure he could run a lap around it quick and easy. He was not so sure about 16 laps.

Two minutes later the starter shot the fake gun and Chet took off with the crowd of runners. Chet stayed right in the middle of the pack for the first lap. He fell back a little on the second lap as the runners began to spread out. And on the third lap, Chet stopped running and hid behind the high jump mat. He sat in his hiding place and stared at his watch for 13 minutes. Then he snuck back to the track and ran right back into the race.

One lap to go for the race leader and Chet was just three steps behind. Chet’s rested legs carried him past the race leader and the crowd cheered as Chet crossed the finish line. Chet looked good with his gold medal, but he didn’t win anything.

I made up Chet, the fake winner. I got the idea when I read the book of Jude. If you want to read a whole book of the Bible in less time than Chet was hiding, you could try Jude. The whole book in only 25 verses long. Jude was not a fake winner, but he wrote about people who look like they love God, when they don’t. You can tell if you really know these people. You would never give Chet 1st place if you watched him for the whole race. But if you just saw the end, he would be your winner. Jude had at least five ways to describe these church people:.

  • Shepherds who only feed themselves
    • His whole job is to take care of the sheep, but instead of finding food for them, he finds food for himself while the sheep starve. Bad shepherd right?
  • Clouds without rain
    • You may like these clouds if you are playing baseball. Rain could end the game, but the clouds would be nice shade. So forget baseball and pretend you are a strawberry plant. Then you would be looking up at the sky waiting for the clouds to roll in. The clouds that come but give you no rain are much, much worse than no clouds at all.
  • Autumn trees without fruit
    • If you climb an apple tree in September, you should find some apples. A tree without any is wasting water, wasting dirt. It should be used for firewood.
  • Wild waves of the sea
  • Wandering stars

Jude explained these people better than just trees, clouds, and waves. He called them godless, but remember these are people in the church. So if you go to church you might see one of these people. Or if you go to church this might be you. Jude wrote about the people that God got out of slavery in Egypt. God saved them. He did so many great things for them, but in the end, they did not follow Him. That’s just like a kid that God saved and helped and healed, but the kid stopped following God.

In verse 11 Jude put in three bad guy names, but all three guys were guys who knew a lot about God. They knew God, but they did not follow. They did things that God hates to help themselves.

1. Bad Guy Number One is Cain. He learned about God from his dad, Adam. He knew how to worship, but his brother did a better job at worshipping God. So Cain killed his brother. Never hate someone who loves God more than you. Never hate someone who worships with more strength than you. Never hate God’s ways and God’s plan.

2. Bad Guy Number Two is Balaam. There’s a good chance that you know that Balaam’s donkey talked to him. That was not his problem. Balaam big mess up was after that. Balaam knew all about God, and he heard God speak better than maybe anyone alive today. He said some great words about God and about Jesus that you can find in the Bible. But Balaam had no heart for God. He wanted a king to like him and he wanted money. I wonder what you would pick if you had the choice that Balaam had. One choice was to be great friends with a king and get rich. The other choice was to be hated by that king, get no money, and find the favor of God. Balaam picked the wrong thing.

3. Bad Guy Number Three is Korah. He was a slave in Egypt until God sent Moses to get him out. But after that, he did not want to follow Moses. He wanted to be the boss. He wanted people to follow him.

Now you have seen more examples of church bad guys. Trees, clouds, waves, Cain, Balaam, Korah. They can all be confusing. They all knew about God and kept right on going their own way. And the ending for every one of them is worse than bad. So make sure that you are not like any of them. Forget your own way. Forget what you want. Find God’s way and find what God wants. It really is better. It’s not just better in the end. It’s better right now. It feels better. It works better. And isn’t that what you told God when you started? Didn’t you tell Jesus that you wanted Him to have His way in you? Didn’t you ask God to take over your life? Then why to you keep fighting for your way like the trees, clouds, waves, Cain, Balaam, and Korah?

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