Aloha everybody. My name is Billy Meinke and I'm an educational technologist with the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I'd like to acknowledge Creative Commons New Zealand for bringing me out to this wonderful place. Being able to visit Auckland Christchurch and now beautiful Wellington has been a real treat. It didn't take long for me to see why so many of you call this place home. It's a gem and I can say that with some authority because I live in Hawaii. For several years I worked on the education team at Creative Commons headquarters based the United States which was an incredible experience, a crazy period in my life, a period of exploration and discovery. As stewards of the Commons we walked the bleeding edge of innovation helping guide individuals and groups and agencies the world around that wanted to be a part of a thriving and robust Commons by sharing content with the world. I want to read a quote from Larry Lawrence-Lestig, one of the founders of Creative Commons. It's kind of why he formed Creative Commons to begin with. He said, what's needed is a way to say something in the middle. Neither all rights reserved nor no rights reserved but some rights reserved and thus a way to respect copy rights but enable creators to free content as they see fit. In other words we need a way to restore a set of freedoms that we could just take for granted before. So from music and creative works to heritage works and cultural history and science and education and everything that lies between them I witnessed the power of a simple technology to change the world but the licenses are only tools and when you look more closely you see that people are at the heart of the Commons and these people are connected by the notion that we can and we should nurture the Commons together and if we do so we all win. Now this idea isn't unique to content as I'm sure you've heard twice or three times or more over the last few days. Leaders in the free software movement emerged in the 80s. One of the more notable individuals was Richard Stalman. Richard Stalman said, I could have made money this way and perhaps amuse myself writing code but I knew that at the end of my career I would look back on the years of building walls to divide people and I feel I had spent my life making the world a worse place. Now Stalman's a bit of a radical not everybody can agree with everything he says but it's important to have him in the space and he's someone to turn to when we think about freedoms and being open. He's dedicated his life to keeping software free and promoting the idea that when we as citizens should have freedoms to do what we wish with software to make our own lives better and to contribute back to communities we work for the greater good. Now as the name of this conference suggests the idea of free software has been around for some time it's not worth getting into the nitty gritty details of which terminology is more accurate or misleading or fully descriptive or whatever. A key point of the free software movement is that users are guaranteed certain freedoms. They're granted freedoms to do things with software that they couldn't have otherwise. The code is set free and that's a magnificent thing. Now this is important in an increasingly digital age where the cost of copying and distributing content carries a marginal cost of zero. We're literally talking about fractions of a penny. You see digital content is what they call non-rivalrous meaning that I can take something I have and give it to you without taking away from what I still have.  It's collective creativity on a massive scale but the law hasn't adapted to suit the affordances of the digital world. Every increasingly restrictive copyright laws have been introduced over the last few decades extending the default length of time it takes for works to enter the public domain automatically. When you create a work in the United States as in many countries we'll be waiting 70 years or more after your death until we can freely reuse your work. Does that sound reasonable in a digital age? An age where the marginal cost is near nothing? I think not. Copyright and patents were originally designed to last a period of time long enough to incentivize the creation of new works but several times during the 20th century default copyright term was extended after big media firms won cases to further lock away the likes of Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, and the Happy Birthday song. Good news is we're making headway. While there are real threats to this such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership we're actually sitting at the most on the most robust Commons we've ever had. Countless free and open-source software projects provide technical infrastructure that we rely on every day. Content and code and data are being put into the Commons at a rate that should make every single one of us smile. This is from Creative Commons 2014 State of the Commons report. As you can see more than 880 million works have been dedicated to the Commons via CC licenses and we're approaching one billion works that's estimated to hit in 2016. It's really incredible. So let's talk about the potential we have at hand. Let's talk about a Commons-based future. For the next couple of minutes I'd ask you to close your eyes. Yes, close them. Take a long deep breath, put your phone down, tilt your laptop down, check the backs of your eyelids for holes. You won't need to look at any slides, I won't put anything cool up here, don't worry. Just imagine this. In a Commons-based future educational opportunity is ubiquitous. Think anybody who wants to learn can learn. The only barrier to education is the willingness to try and when you try you have a pool of shared knowledge at your fingertips that we could only have imagined a few years ago. You don't think in terms of a textbook because the web is your learning platform and you own your educational future and when you want to know more you're connected to citizens who share your thirst for knowledge. You begin to string together digital artifacts along your journey and you can see how others navigated the seas of open educational resources before you. You create your own pathways so that others can follow in your footsteps. You participate in the Commons. You have the world's cultural heritage available to you. You search the archives of thousands of museums in hundreds of countries and help curate collections of millions of images and sounds and videos that tell the story of our world before now. You can see streams of artifacts flowing into the Commons as new discoveries are unearthed. You can walk the halls of the Louvre or the Smithsonian or any number of places anywhere on earth that you've always wished to see. When you find something truly compelling you can take a 3D scan of it, walk down to your local library and print it. You can place your hands on history, work with it, play with it, understand it. You make new things from things of the past. You breathe life into history. You're participating in the Commons. You stand on the shoulders of giants and tap into a distributed body of research that spans all domains of science. You have access to the latest studies and reports and to the underlying data and code that produce them. You can ask questions of the data that no one thought to or was able to before. You make visualizations from it to help others find meaning in it. You thumb through scientific studies being done all over the world in real time. You can become part of a community of enthusiasts who push the limits of what it means to be a citizen scientist. Science for you is a living, breathing thing and you're participating in the Commons. Government operates openly, bringing a heightened level of transparency and efficiency. Civic data is a few key strokes away and the government invites you to make the data more useful and consumable. Legislation is codified and publicly versioned and you're notified when a change is proposed or made to the laws you care most about. Citizens are more informed and involved in the way their tax dollars are spent and they support government leaders who work to ensure this transparency continues in perpetuity. You have knowledge about your community and your world in the palm of your hand. You're participating in the Commons. You can all open your eyes now. I might show something cool in a sec. This Commons-based future isn't a reality, as you may have begun to think. Every one of the advantages and capabilities and freedoms I mentioned a minute ago are based on the technology we have today and each of them is happening somewhere in the world but none of them are happening everywhere. By participating in the Commons we can work towards a future where more people have a life that involves the Commons. The Commons can grow. By participating in the Commons we're opening up education. We're making education a reality for everyone everywhere. We're opening up culture. We're breathing new life into history. We're opening up science and inviting new discovery like never before and we're opening up government and collectively building a better government together. So one final thought from the inventor of the World Wide Web which turned 25 years old just last year. Tim Berners-Lee said, in software, open refers to free or open source software standards, data, platforms, access and scope. These push control to the edge. These push control to the edge where innovation thrives. Open platforms let users choose which software to install. The open data movement seeks to boost government economic efficiency, knowledge and public trust by liberating people's data. Like decentralization, openness empowers people contributing to the innovation that produces economic and social gains. So please join us in nurturing the Commons. Thank you.


Yeah, YouTube team keep it clean what's going on it's engraving here with another video and I hope that everybody who's watching this I hope that everything is going really really good for you I hope that everything is good with your family your friends and definitely obviously yourselves um I appreciate everybody who has ever taken the time and who continues to take the time to watch any single second of any video that we ever put out now with that there are some people who spend time watching the videos and they are not really supportive of the videos and hey that's fine like we always talk about not everything is for everybody that has been the case and that will always continue to be the case you can't please everybody and I in my opinion I don't think you should try to because if you do you will drive yourself all kinds of crazy but now um hate hate uh is something that I guess sort of comes with the territory um it's something that we're used to uh is it's not a big deal it's gonna happen uh especially even though the channel is still small uh with growth uh with growth there will continue to be people that speak negatively about you um but my thing is I know not everybody's gonna like our style the way we do the videos that's fine not everybody's gonna agree with all of our opinions on stuff and that's fine but a lot of times when you find that someone or some people or whatever are hating on you a lot of times it when you break it down a lot of it doesn't even make sense and this was this something that happened a couple days ago I know there were a lot of people on Twitter and stuff who wonder hey what's going on da da da da um but somebody had brought to my attention something that was going on and I was like okay I said what's new it's that's regular stuff people just they they decided to hate for whatever reason um but what happened the other day somebody made a picture of me they edited a picture of me um and in that picture they they put a hat on my head I think I think it was a Raven's hat they they edited a picture of a blunt in my mouth they had a weed in the background and stuff y'all obviously know that's not me this team keep it clean it was kind of a poor edit anyway but nonetheless that was the edit um and on that picture it was like oh uh it said Lamar and I'm not gonna name anybody's names who were part of this but they know who they are I know who they are uh and I've had conversations with all of them um but anyway um the person put the picture up and and the caption was like oh if Lamar leaving and some some some y'all gonna stress my god something like that something like that um so then under that picture and this is on Facebook and I always say and y'all know like Facebook is yeah Facebook is yeah y'all know how Facebook is like Twitter like YouTube it could be a little bad sometimes Twitter ooh it could be toxic but nothing nothing nothing nothing compares to Facebook and it's not even close but anyway um so they they put that picture and somebody had commented on there a couple people one guy was like oh man in Raven he's so corny he's he's he's he's so corny I don't watch his videos no more because he's so corny I'm thinking like hold up now I do love my dad jokes now so I was like I was thinking like hold on he might have a point out y'all know me I love me some good dad jokes because dad jokes be the best man but then at the same time hey if somebody views me as being corny okay like and then one guy too he was like oh man in Graven he'd be he'd be in his videos like making like goofy sound effects and stuff like that and I'm thinking like okay and the would you like me to just talk like this would you like me to say every single video like this like I am a robot like I just it's like people if people want to complain they will find something to complain about even if it doesn't make sense because if I talk just like this you would complain that I was boring you see what I'm saying so even if because again we have fun on the channel we have a lot of fun on here as y'all know we don't take anything too seriously we don't take anybody too seriously we don't take ourselves too seriously we have a whole lot of fun on here because I think that's what it should be it should be fun it is work and we do put in a lot of work but it is fun work we have a lot of fun in the process and that's what I explained to the gentleman who said that he was like oh man he engraving so corny and this and that he said some other stuff too and I replied to him I said hey it's I said it's really not that serious because he said some stuff that just he it just was not that serious I told him that I replied to him directly I said hey it's not that serious it's never that serious I said on on our channel we have a lot of fun we have a lot of fun in the process we enjoy what we do and I said hey I thank you for any video that you've ever watched but if it's not for you that's fine too I appreciate any time that you spent watching the channel that was it that's what I told him um so then he sent me a message like apologizing say oh I was just joking around and stuff I'm like okay I say I ain't no worries it's all good um but then there was somebody else uh who was like oh I used to watch engraving back some time ago um and he used to uh he used to present he used to give information he used to give information that like the average Ravens fan might not have been privy to but he changed over the years he changed over the years and and his channel switched to it became so it became opinionated so now he just says his opinions and so many times he's wrong his opinions end up being dead wrong so I looked at that and I was like nothing there's nothing that has changed well I feel like the quality has gotten a little bit over the years but besides that um because I feel like like even that it said that in itself think about this if like everything that you watch everything that you listen to is based off of opinion everything especially in sports so I hope the guy that put that I hope he never watches ESPN not one time I hope he never watches NFL Network I hope he never watches FS1 I hope he never watches any sports talk show at all I hope he never watches anybody's YouTube channel or YouTube video at all because all of it is opinion based this I feel like with again like I said if somebody if they want to complain about something then they're gonna find something to complain about if I were to or anybody not even just me if I was to just strictly drop the information like all right the other day Tyree Phillips got cut we came on we press record the Ravens released Tyree Phillips though they released left guard Tyree Phillips uh he was a well third round pick in 2020 but he was released by the Baltimore Ravens done what does anybody get out of that what what does anybody get out of that because that that would be me just dropping information and that's it should I have listed his his weight his height all that stuff because it's like again people if people want to complain they're gonna find something to complain about even if stuff doesn't make sense so him saying that oh my channel is it's opinionated or is it's opinion based now it's always been that way and if if you don't like it or you don't agree with a oh and that that was nothing he said that I'd be wrong on a lot of stuff that is true I'm wrong on a whole lot and he kept talking about he brought up the or the JK Dobbins engraving said that JK Dobbins was probably gonna get put on in your reserve and nothing happened he was wrong about that okay I never once said that I was perfect I never once said that everything that I say is spot on everything that I say is accurate everything that I say comes to fruition I never said that I don't I know I'm not perfect and I don't try to act like I'm perfect I know I don't know everything and I don't try to act like I know everything I like y'all y'all know way more than I do but I expressed that to him I said hey some stuff we're gonna get right some stuff we're gonna get wrong and that's fine that's life that's life but I told him as well I said hey not everything is for everybody with our channel yes it is it is our opinion because it's our channel like I don't understand how people would complain about somebody stating their opinion on their youtube channel think about that like always tell people including myself sometimes instead of writing something down you gotta say it out loud to realize how foolish it sounds I'm upset at somebody I hate this person I don't like this person's videos or whatever because they I don't like their video listen to this I don't like their videos that they put on their channel because they share their opinion that that doesn't make sense but again if somebody's gonna find some reason to be mad about whatever then they're gonna find it and I know I also expressed to him that I understand that what we do it is on a public platform so people literally from all across the world they have an opportunity to view it they have an opportunity to watch it and it's gonna come with some criticism and that is fine nobody nobody is above criticism nobody but also nobody is uh nobody is underneath hate nobody's underneath hate and if if if you are going to hate on somebody hey it's it's gonna happen it's gonna happen but again you'll find so many times when people are hating on something it doesn't make sense somebody else in the same comment section of the same picture there was like man if if he's so corny why are y'all watching because that's something that I always I always say that if you don't like something why would you sit there and subject yourself to it I don't get that if you don't like something why would you sit there you know you know what I'm still gonna watch this I'm going to punish myself I'm I'm going to torture myself by sitting here and watching something that I don't like again when you say stuff out loud it helps it shows how much it just does not make sense man I hate this guy I hate his videos but I'm gonna watch his videos and I'm gonna complain about his videos and I'm gonna complain that he does this and that and that and that but I still watch him why why would you do that because again who wants to walk around upset who wants to walk around and then I then I thought it was just I thought it was just so weird too I'm like man these are like these are grown-ups somebody made like grown people adults and again when you say stuff out loud it sounds crazy these are grown-ups that edited a picture of another grown-up to make fun of that grown-up and his grown-ups under that picture that somebody edited of another grown-up and his grown-ups under that picture complaining about that grown-up and the way that that grown-up conducts his business when you say out loud it sounds goofy it really does and then the another thing too is that the guy that made the picture he was like oh hey I watched the videos and which I appreciate so thank you but then he was like oh uh if you want me to take the picture down uh let me know if you think this picture was uh let me know if you think the picture was in bad taste and I was thinking like really you want me to let you know if the picture was in bad taste first of all if you got to ask somebody that question then you already know the answer to that question but then I replied to him I said hey I said if you want to take it down cool if you don't want to cool either way it's fine either way it's fine I said you don't want to put the picture up you know what you were doing so hey that that's so that's up to you I said I am used to this it is nothing new I'm used to people doing stuff like that it's unfortunate but it is what it is that's that's life and again for what we do especially with it being a public platform again people are gonna have the way that they feel about it and that's fine so that I'm used to that stuff um but I just thought like he really he really like oh do you think it was done in bad taste was it in bad taste if you want I could take it that like really it's team keep it clean y'all know how we do on here and what team keep it clean is is it's a lifestyle it's it's not just for the channel it's a lifestyle but it's it's a a family friendly environment it's supposed to be welcoming to everybody everybody old young boy girl mother father brother sister aunt uncle grandparents whatever everybody friends family everybody is welcome and we always say yeah we do predominantly talk Ravens but it's for every everybody can come through everybody because we talk about some other teams and stuff too we have again we have fun it's about having fun a nice clean fun it's a good time so for somebody to put to edit to sit to sit there and somebody who says they watch the videos we mentioned team keep it clean literally every single video so somebody who says they watch the videos and we mentioned team keep it clean every single video for somebody to sit there and edit a picture again with me with a blood in my mouth and weed in the background and you're really gonna ask oh was this done in poor taste if you think it's done in poor taste i can take it really come on now again when you say stuff out loud it can help make it make so much more sense now me i don't have a problem with any of the the three gentlemen who this is about i don't have a problem with any one of the three i remember all of their names i have zero problem with them i don't have a problem with anybody um and i hope that if anything was bothering them whether it be about me whether it be about the channel i would just hope that they would anything that's bothering you you want to remove yourself from that situation because we're not going to change how we do videos so if somebody's if my sound effects that i make in videos if that's bothering somebody don't watch if my opinion that i'm sharing on my channel if that bothers somebody don't watch i just don't want people to feel like they have to watch the videos because they don't they don't and with hate again it comes with the territory it is something that's going to happen and it's something that people are going to do it's unfortunate but again it is exactly uh what it is and there's gonna be more people that come along the way and and that's no matter what you do i ain't even just talking about me people just they they are going to have to deal with hate and life in general so it is what it is um but again i would just hope that there would be logical hate but then at the same time if it's logical hate then i don't really think it would be hate at all if it's logical think about it say for instance me i um i i used i love little wing anybody ask me hey who's your favorite rapper of all time i always say little wing every single time without fail because i remember from i used to listen to him like way back way back when he was uh the block is hot little wing that's where i started listening to him from um so if me i'm not a fan of um trying to think of a random rapper oh okay like young jock that i don't know why he was the first person i thought of but i'm not a fan of young jock i did like it's going down i did like that but that i'm not a fan of overall the way he raps his style whatever i'm not gonna sit especially if i have a choice because we all have choices if i have a choice if i'm getting ready to throw on some music why would i sit there and be like all right you know what i don't like young jock so i'm gonna and i don't mean to make young jock be catching a stray or anything like that but just using him as an example if i don't if my preference is not young jock then i'm not gonna sit up there and go on spotify or title or apple music or whatever or even youtube and put it on shuffle on a young jock playlist why would i do that why would i choose to watch something that i've said myself and i've convinced myself that i don't like why that would not make any sense i'm gonna choose something that i do like so i would go to the wane i would go to the drake i would go to whoever just had to throw a little drake in there just a little bonus but anyway you get what i'm saying you see when you put it in other scenarios it just it helps make it make more sense even though it already makes sense if we're just talking about like youtube stuff but don't don't subject yourself i don't want anybody to subject themselves to anything that they don't like i really don't and we said this before in past times when we talk about this kind of stuff and i feel like like again we're not here like what we're trying to do with this um just to i really do appreciate y'all because um my guy war ready he had brought it up on twitter and that's when i first heard about this whole thing but then um he brought it up and uh then just so many people um they just show so much love and that's all i said about team keeping clean man i i appreciate y'all a whole lot man i really really do like then thinking about like how much love people show um it's like make my eyes water a little bit right now man because people and and it was crazy about it too is that so many people didn't even know what happened they didn't even know what happened they didn't even know this little backstory whatever even though it's not even serious but they didn't even know what happened but they still show so much love and they were like ready i'm like okay y'all y'all calm down now hold up now calm down just relax we were good and it's a lot of team keeping clean i've met before in person so i'm not having but people show love man and the fact that people show the love that people show um and the positivity that people show it outweighs the negativity by tons by far and it's not even close it's not remotely close the two are in two different stratosphere's because there's there's gonna be negative people and there's gonna be more there's gonna continue to be some of the same ones some old and some new ones whatever and that's fine but the positive positivity that people show and love that people be showing boy is it ain't the the the the negative people and the negative all that stuff again it's it ain't even close man it's not even close not close at all and i appreciate y'all for that um support is uh something that you ain't gotta do you ain't gotta show support to nobody you ain't gotta show love to people but when love is shown to you um you appreciate it even more because it's not a necessity people i mean people should but people don't have to people got free will they got their own choice so people don't have to show you love people don't have to show you respect people don't have to care about you know they should it's better but they don't have to they're not obligated to do that so that's why when they do you appreciate it so much more you appreciate it so much more because it's people taking the time out of their day their schedule their lives their family did this did that to come show love for about 15 minutes a day sometimes 20 sometimes sometimes a couple hours depending on how busy stuff is y'all y'all know stuff can get crazy quick but it's appreciated it's appreciated y'all know we don't really um we don't really focus on stuff like this too often um but i felt like it was a good opportunity to just because again team keeping clean is family man it is family and i just always appreciate how we can be very honest on here very straightforward on here with stuff that's going on and um i just felt like like not necessarily that everybody deserved an explanation on what happened but i just felt like this was a good opportunity um to to show you how much your positivity has an impact on me because it does i felt like this was a good opportunity uh to to show y'all just again another level of my appreciation for y'all it just continues to go up um because again none of this stuff happens without y'all straight up man nothing none of this stuff if people didn't support no none of this stuff would happen nothing but y'all support so i appreciate it but i just really wanted to um turn their negative the negative that that was the other day i just really wanted to take that and turn it into a positive because that's that's what happened that's really and then another thing too see this is this is something that's i guess haters or whatever they may not understand it but this is reality say for instance you're hating on somebody you're hating on their work their job whatever you're hating on the way that they do things a lot of time well really every time the haters misery loves company so a lot of times what people that hate on what you do what they'll do that they'll they'll put it in the public form or whatever and they'll try to get other people to be like hey they'll they'll be like hey this is why i hate for the channel example this is why i hate his videos this is the reason they'll come they'll convince themselves or why they hate your videos if you gotta convince yourself or why you hate somebody videos do you really need to make it public think about it if you really don't like the videos again don't watch but anyway see again say stuff out loud it helps it make or show how much it doesn't make sense but anyway people will convince themselves first on how much they hate your videos but then they'll try to convince other people too because again misery loves company so what does this do so they're going to be some people that agree they're going to be some people that don't agree but that's fine but for the people that agree like oh man hey yeah i agree with you i hate his videos too i hate the way he does this hate the way he does that so they're going to be other people they're going to speak some people that agree that won't press that like button because they're like oh i don't want to get involved and they're going to be some people that disagree that won't press that like button or dislike button because hey i don't want to get involved i'm just watching from afar seeing what they say but either way the people that see those haters comments they're gonna look at those comments like huh and they're gonna think to themselves like man is that is that really true about his videos the does he do that oh does he do this oh man was he wrong about that oh man he oh wow okay is he so they're gonna be thinking about all that stuff he's gonna go be processing in their minds and then what are they gonna do they're gonna watch and analyze for themselves but guess what guess what all that hating did it brings more people to the thing that you're hating on so if you hated that much you don't realize that your hate it can help the other person's success that you're hating on when you make your hate public people can be like oh whoa well you know what let me check out check it out for myself to see what this guy is talking about and then they go see what you're talking about and they sometimes they may still agree and other times they may not agree they may be like oh what was that person talking about I actually like this stuff it can go either way but my point is when you hate especially publicly you generate even more traffic to the person or thing that you're hating on so that your negative it turns it into a positive because you helped them out so again when you say stuff out loud it helps you see just how foolish hating is


Rating at church, good to be with you. My name's John, campus pastor here in Richland. Hello, Portage, people online. I don't know what's happening in Portage, but like five minutes to 11, it started like the hailing raining here in Richland. So triple bonus points to all of you for coming to church in the rain and it's probably sunny in Portage, whatever.  It's closed today, so anyway, we are glad that you're here. Thanks for braving the rain and I do wanna say, Pastor Lee, I didn't fire him or anything.  But Pastor Lee, in addition to being a prolific pastor, communicator, writer, all of those things is also really a leader of leaders. There's an apostolic call on Pastor Lee and so we have a radiant network of about 50 plus churches that all are kind of under the umbrella of radiant church where Pastor Lee pours into them. They get access to our resources and really an opportunity to grow from what Pastor Lee has 22 years of experience doing. And so many times he goes to those churches, preaches there, then spends time with the staff, answers questions and so I just wanna remind you, every time that he's not here, it doesn't mean that he's by a pool in Mexico drinking Diet Cokes, Diet Cokes. I'm just kidding. But we are grateful, he's gonna come back. We're gonna have a series called The Battle. It's gonna be amazing in September. We have so many cool things and please, both campuses, check out the kids changes that are happening next week. Bring your kids to the family fun night. We are really excited about the kids ministry changes we have as well. So I'm in a series called Heroes.  They're only mentioned a few times and everyone else, Caleb, they all get easy people like Timothy and Paul and Pastor Lee hates me. But this week is even worse. I have even maybe a more obscure hero that we're talking about today but I am excited to share this with you. And so if you brought a Bible, turn to the book of Jude and you're probably like, I don't know where that is and that's okay, go all the way to Revelation, the last book of the Bible and then take a short left, one book. And you'll be there. And so if you follow me on Facebook, first of all, I'm sorry, sometimes I'm a little crazy but what I have been doing is sharing, hey, this is kind of the homework. So read these chapters or read this scripture to help prepare you for the message. And so on purpose for Jude, I said, hey, read all three chapters of Jude but Jude is only one chapter. And so I was waiting to see like who would recognize that and Karen, she was here yesterday, she was like, are you sure it's three chapters?  If you read all three chapters of Jude and undoubtedly there would be some overachiever who would be like, I did. And then I would say ushers, get that liar out of our church. But I decided not to do that. But Jude is only one chapter. It's a short, short book. And I'm gonna start by reading the first three verses. Starts out, hey Jude, don't make it bad. I'm just kidding. It's the wrong translation, I'm sorry. It starts out, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James. To those who are called, beloved and God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ may mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. Berserie, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing you to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. Let's pray and just ask the Lord to bless this time. Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would illuminate your word right now, God. You promised in Isaiah that the word of God would not return void when it's sent out, but it would accomplish what you have for it, God, that there would be change and transformation. Second Timothy says all scripture is God breathe and it's profitable for teaching and for correcting and for edification, God, so that we as your people can be equipped as people of God. And that's our prayer, Lord. We want to be equipped. We want to know you and know the plans and purposes you have. So open your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, Jude. So who's Jude? Jude is the half-brother of Jesus. So Jesus had four half-brothers, obviously half-brothers because the Holy Spirit was really the one that was Jesus' father, but Mary and Joseph then had more children. And so James, you can read his book in the New Testament as well, was a half-brother of Jesus as was Jude. And so he writes this very short book, but he was a traveling sort of teacher and missionary in the first century church. So he was very connected to the Messianic Jews. So Jude is very similar in its reading as 2nd Peter, but 2nd Peter was more for the Gentile church at the time. Jude was written almost specifically to Jews. And so if you've read Jude before, you might be like, wow, there's some things that are hard to understand. There's a, they talk about like the archangel Michael and Satan arguing about where Moses' body should be buried. And there's mention of Enoch and these things that you might not be familiar with. That's because that was part of the Jewish tradition and literature of the day. So those people that Jude's talking to would have been super familiar with it, even if you're not. So that's a little background. And he starts out by saying a servant of Jesus Christ, but the brother of James, which is interesting because it might have been tempting to say, hey, you know, kind of name drop and be like, I'm the brother of Jesus. So you should listen to me, but you may or may not know that none of Jesus' brothers believed he was the Christ at the time of them being together. So none of them came to revelation of who Jesus was until after he died and was resurrected. So scholars think this is probably an act of humility saying, look, I'm not gonna put myself on par with Jesus. I'm not gonna play the I'm his brother card. I'm a bond servant. I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. This is a level playing field. And so he says, I'm a servant of Jesus, but I'm the brother of James. And then he starts this introduction and it's a admission that he wanted to write about something else. He says, I was eager to write to you about our common salvation. And so he was gonna write this church and he was gonna talk about, not common in the sense that it's not a big deal, but common in the sense that it's the same for all of us. So he was gonna say, in Jesus Christ, who is dead, buried, but also resurrected, who you are, who Jesus is, has made us all of one blood.  So he was wanting to write about that, but then he says, but instead I switched gears and I found it necessary to write instead to exhort or encourage you to contend for the faith. So something happened that made Jude reevaluate the letter he was writing to the church. And if you read it, what you find is that almost all of Jude is a warning. A warning against false teaching, a warning against false doctrine, a warning against perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so it's kind of a heavy book, which is another reason why a lot of us don't read it. It's short, it's kind of stuck in the back of the Bible. And if you read it, you're like, wow, this is heavy stuff. But how many of you know, sometimes we need, the milk of the word is awesome. It soothes, it brings revelation to us of who we are. And I love reading the Psalms and memorizing scripture and all the encouragement that's found in scripture. But there's also times that the meat of the word is gonna bring confrontation into our lives, is going to bring correction into our lives. And warnings, you have a negative connotation, at least sometimes when you hear that word, but really warnings are meant to help people. That's why they are given so that you can prepare, so that you can be aware of what's going on. For instance, we have weather warnings. Like I said, it was raining here in Richland. They warn you, like, I don't know if you know this, but I don't know how long ago it was because I'm scarred by fear. But there was a tornado on a Saturday night when I was preaching and everybody made fun of me because I was like, there's a tornado. But there was warnings. And so people said, hey, look, watch the weather. We look at the weather, so we're aware. I thought about a baseball field. There's a warning track. Why do they have that? Because they got an outfielder who's gonna catch a fly ball and then all of a sudden he feels, oh wait, I went from grass to dirt. That means I'm closing in on a wall. So there's a warning track. We live in Michigan where there's all kinds of road signs for warnings. I brought a few of them. Danger, bridge out, ahead. I mean, that's a good warning to know about. You can say, I don't like warnings. Well, it's a lot worse to drive not knowing the bridge is out. Another one we see in Michigan Cross traffic does not stop. That's good because sometimes we assume, oh, I'm sure this is a four-way and people drive crazy. And so that's a warning that's meant to help. There are some warnings, though, that aren't as helpful. For instance, if you have to be warned that coffee is hot, I'm sorry for you. I love this company. They just kept going over the top. Loose-fitting lids, coffee stains, can be permanent, two cups, like went over. But how many of you know, once upon a time we had to say, hey, be careful, coffee's hot. And for me, it's like, dude, that's on you if you're not aware that coffee's hot. Now McDonald's serves like lukewarm coffee.  But somebody sued and now we have to be warned that, hey, coffee's hot. And it's like another warning. These are touching wires, causes instant death, and there's a $200 fine. So the Newcastle Tramway Authority wants you to know. They're warning you.  If you touch these wires, not as helpful. Here's a zoo sign, please be safe. Don't stand sick, climb or lean on the fences. If you fall, animals could eat you and that might make them sick. Thank you. I love that. You've been warned, don't make the animal sick. So some are not as helpful as others, but in scripture warnings are meant to edify the people of God. And there is nothing in scripture, nothing that is called out as consistently or with as much weight of consequence as false teaching, as false teachers. Second Peter in this book are very heavy in the sense that there is no room for false teaching, for false doctrine and for people who believe that. So that's what the book of Jude is about. That's what we're gonna look at today. Again, this isn't on every pastor's bucket list to have to preach, but I do feel like there is an important truth that needs to be communicated. So let's look at the book of Jude. First, he talks about, again, wanting to write about something else, but needing to warn us. So I want to read a warning from William Booth. If you don't know who he is, he was a general. He founded the Salvation Army. He died in 1912 and this was a warning. So we have Jude's warning, but listen to what William Booth said about the coming 20th century, the 1900s. He was a bit of a theologian. He said this, the chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell. That's the warning that William Booth had for over 100 years ago. And I would say confidently that that warning rings true still for us today in 2019. So Jude goes on and he says, look, I found it necessary to write to you to contend. The new King James says earnestly for the faith. That word contend is a Greek word. I'm going to crush this. Listen, epa ganazezomai, oh, I kind of killed it. I was trying to be Rick Renner. Okay, listen. It's a Greek word, but here's what it means to exert an intense or strenuous effort on behalf of something or to fight or contend. Literally it's a military term. And so Jude is telling the church in the first century, I need you to contend for something. I need you to fight. I need you to realize you're in a struggle and in a battle. And so right off the bat, he's saying Christianity isn't always going to be easy. Isn't always going to be comfortable. It isn't always going to be just, I only want to come to church and try to be a good person. Those are two things, but they're not contending things. There's no struggle there. There's no fight there. And so he's saying, listen to me.  The Christian life isn't like a battle, it is a battle. And our enemy are not people, our weapons are not worldly, but there is a fight that I need you, the church, to be aware of. So he says, what are we fighting for? We're contending for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. This is what the entire book of Jude is about. Warning against false teachers who have come in and taken the gospel, the faith, and corrupted it, changed it, used it to advance their own personal gain, to advance their own position, and they've perverted the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so what Jude says is, no, no, no, listen, the gospel, the faith has been delivered once and for all to the saints. The gospel of 2,000 years ago that Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again and all who would surrender their lives to him and call him Lord can be forgiven, can have eternal life and can experience the goodness of God on earth, that's the gospel. And it's not to ever be changed or reworked or revamped. And Jude was warning the church 2,000 years ago, William Booth was warning the church 100 years ago, and today I'm taking 25 minutes to warn the church that we do not have the right to change the faith, the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4, 21 says, as the truth is in Jesus. Truth is not a concept, truth is not something you come up with through mental ascent. Truth is a person and his name is Jesus. And you have the right because you have free will to reject Jesus as truth or to accept Jesus as truth, but we do not have the right to change Jesus into what's more comfortable or more palatable or more accepting in the year 2019. Jesus Christ is not a builder bear, basically. That's what Jude was saying. It's once and for all delivered to the saints. And so again, we have this idea now that no, we're so advanced and we're so much smarter and we've come so far. So let's just take the God, maybe this will be a little more vocal now, will be a little more progressive, will be a little more inclusive, and let's kind of take the gospel and we have to be more relevant.  Okay, it's a buzzword that really says we need to basically take the gospel and make it more appealing to the masses, make it a little more palatable for people. And what I want to remind you as a follower of Jesus is that you're not relevant when we mirror the world around us. We're relevant when we model what the world ultimately wants to be. That's when we're relevant. I'm telling you, Jesus is the desire of the nations. There is an innate desire in every single person because they've been created by God to know God. And we don't do society any favors when we water it down and make it easier and it's okay and God's love. No, we model. We don't mirror, we model. And so what does that mean? That means as Christians we should have marriages that are strong. We should have families that are strong. We should forgive people who offend us. We should have peace in the midst of storms. And everyone else has anxiety. We're walking in supernatural peace. That's when the world looks at us and that's when we can, according to Isaiah 60, say arise and shine. Why? Because the glory of the Lord is upon you and Gentiles, people will be drawn to your light. That's what it means once and for all delivered to the saints. And so we have false teaching permeating the church 2,000 years ago and we have false teaching permeating the church today. I'm gonna give you a couple examples of what those might be. Anti-minonism is a big word basically for hyper grace. So it's one of the ways that the church is being corrupted is this hyper grace message that God doesn't really care and it's okay and you can do whatever you want because God accepts us and that's hyper grace. There's another side to it that's legalism where people fall into the trap of performance. If I do enough good things, I have to follow all of the laws and that's how I'm going to earn my place in God's favor and that's a false doctrine. We have universalism. If you don't know what that is it basically means that it doesn't matter what you believe, doesn't matter how you live. Ultimately at the end of the day we're all going to be reconciled to God. We're all going to heaven. If you're a Muslim as long as you're sincere we're all basically serving the same God. If you're a Buddhist as long as you're sincere we're all paths basically lead to the same God and that's not true. There's a prosperity gospel that says look you should have wealth and if you don't have a Rolex you don't have faith and if you're experiencing hardships you don't have faith and we have prosperity teachers who fleece congregations and use their finances for opulent living and that's not the gospel. Craig Groeschel talks about the Christian atheists which is those who profess to be Christians but live like God doesn't exist. So we'll say what we need to say but we don't live like God is the Lord of our lives. All of those are examples of what the church is facing in 2019 and so I want to talk through some of these that Jude mentions and so that we can be aware so that we can be warned so that we can be strong as a church in the midst of it. So the first thing and you can write these down that is a sign that someone is a false teaching or false teacher it's a false teaching is that there's always going to be heresy mixed with truth. Look what it says in verse four. It says for certain people have crept in unnoticed that the false teaching isn't from outside coming in it's from inside permeating through the church permeating through the congregation and in order to deceive anyone there has to be at least a semblance of truth. So you're not going to start a church and say yes welcome to the first heretical church of false doctrine. Come on in please open your Bibles to second hesitations and we'll start there. People are gonna be like what are you talking about? But when we take truth and we twist it to mean something else well then it becomes more palatable it becomes more attractive and that's been the enemy's plan since the very beginning. You go back to the Garden of Eden what did the serpent say to Eve? He said you can't you mean you can't eat from any of these trees?   God knows if you eat from that tree your eyes will be opened and you'll be like him. Now is it true that their eyes were opened? It's true for the first time she realized she was naked and so did Adam for the first time they realized what fear was what shame was their eyes were open to something they'd never seen before so Satan used the truth saying God's keeping something from you your eyes will be opened in order to counterfeit the truth that God had explained to them through his spoken word and that's exactly what the enemy does today. Satan is not a creator he can only corrupt he cannot create so anytime that there's a truth to be defended listen there's going to be a counterfeit truth that enemy tries to seep in to creep in unnoticed and so you look at our world you look at things like sex God created sex but Satan comes in and he perverts it he corrupts it God wants to create in music the some scholars believe Lucifer Satan before he fell may have actually been in charge of the choir in heaven and but what does Satan do he corrupts it perverts it things like food subsidence God says yes you need to eat but what does Satan do he brings in anorexia brings in gluttony he can only counterfeit what God creates and so what you see in false doctrine in false teachings is truth sprinkled into heresy so you'll hear things like people who want to live any way they live well Bible says judge not lest you be judged and so they stand on that verse they twist scripture when that's not what God meant when you take it in context but false teaching will say no no no you can do what you want you can't be judged people aren't allowed to judge you you'll hear false teaching like we're all God's children so we can do what we want because we're all God we're not all God's children John chapter one says as many as have received him have been given the right to be called children of God and John chapter eight Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and he says you're of your father the devil does God love everyone though yes so there's the truth but the misconception or the deception part is that oh it doesn't matter we're all his children God is love and so now what we've said is love looks like this love is love love is love is love is love and so what we've taken is our definition in 2019 of love and said this is who God is because God is love but God says no no no I decide what love is and we don't change the gospel to fit our definition of love the gospel changes us to see God as he truly is and to experience the love that he has that's what the deception does though and I'm telling you it's not easy to hear but there are judgments in the kingdom of God there are things that God does not approve of there is not this blanket of mercy and grace that we're all just under no matter what and so when you've decided to be a Christian you didn't join a country club where we all just come in and kind of pay our dues and then get our self esteem massaged and told how great we are no Jesus said do you wanna follow me? then deny yourself take up your cross and then you can follow me that's what Jesus said there's a price to be paid and 2000 years ago people died for the truth of the gospel that's how important it was to them because that's how important it was to God and in 2019 we don't have the right to say no, no, no we've come so far this is what God is like now this is what love is now this is what truth is now false teaching always begins with some sort of truth and listen I'm not talking about essentials versus non-essentials like I'm not talking about oh you sprinkle baptized you're a false teacher or you don't speak in tongues or you do, no I'm talking about the essentials there's some things that are not worth dividing the church over but there are other things where we need to contend we need to stand and we need to fight for the gospel the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints, amen, amen alright I gotta move on I'm sorry second thing that we see in verse four is it says they crept in on notice people who pervert the grace of God they pervert the grace of God and what does that mean that means these teachers come in and they say things like it's okay you don't have to change you don't have to do anything different God's love and God's for you and it doesn't matter and I'm telling you it does matter to God we're not allowed again to change the gospel to accommodate our lives or our culture or the year that we live in the word of God changes us we're not conformed to this world we're transformed how by changing the way that we think by changing the way that the world says is right and the world says this is okay to line up with what God says not the other way around and it's tough I get it it's like cotton candy you eat cotton candy and what happens it just melts immediately right and it's sweet and it goes down easy but once it's inside there's not a whole lot of nutritional information right whereas vegetables they don't maybe taste as good but once they get inside they do more for you I don't know if that's true I've never had a vegetable but people say do you understand what I'm saying though it might not taste as good it might it our itching ears want to hear no no it's okay I don't it's okay and this is okay and God doesn't really matter but it does matter to God the truth of the gospel says that no God doesn't just look away God says repent change the way that you think it's a big deal to God the way that we live how do I know that because Jesus said in Matthew chapter five if your eye causes you to sin gouge it out if your hand causes you to sin cut it off it's better for you to enter the kingdom of heaven maimed than to experience separation from God or what we call hell with all of your limbs and all of your eyes it matters and maybe that's hyperbole and maybe it's just extreme talk but it's extreme talk because God is extremely passionate about his people walking in truth walking in freedom walking in liberty and intentional sin is not a part of that plan that's what Jesus is talking about it's not a part of it we don't get to the side I can be this way and it doesn't matter and God's okay with this and things like divorce and things like abortion and things like sexual immorality and homosexual we don't get to say that to God we conform to his will not the other way around and so we can say God wants me happy no, God wants you holy and when you walk in holiness you'll find that happiness and joy and fulfillment are a part of that but happiness is conditional on circumstances joy is conditional on the promise that God says I love you I'll never leave you I'll never forsake you we surrender to God we have a whole generation that says no, no, no, no that's too extreme and you're pushing people away and that's not how God is and I was born this way maybe you were born this way but in the kingdom of God you get to be born again and that's the beauty of the gospel it doesn't matter how we came in it matters that God wants to do a renewing work in our lives we're born again the grace of God is not the freedom to do whatever we want it's the power, the supernatural power to do what is right that's the grace of God it's not a license to do anything it's a supernatural empowerment to follow hard after God and to know his ways grace is not a cover up last, next thing is they deny Jesus is Lord that's what it says in verse four again they deny our only master in Lord Jesus Christ so what does that mean? with their lifestyle false teachers say no, I'm above that we can do that it's okay they deny Jesus is Lord everybody loves the idea of Jesus as savior right, like I want my sins forgiven but do you know that 476 times in the New Testament Jesus is referred to as Lord 60 times he's referred to as savior Lord, do you wanna know what the Greek word for Lord means? Master, owner, controller where we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ where we lay our lives down and say God, not my will but yours be done and false teachers will never do that and false teaching will never make you do that you can live according to your own will to your own wants, to what culture says to where the world is at, no we don't get to deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ next thing they do is they reject authority verse eight it says yeah, in like manner these people false teachers, relying on their dreams you see that in your Bible you know how somebody's a false teacher when they elevate their dreams or their interpretations or what God has said to them with scripture that's what was happening when you know God told me and it's not in the Bible it's not according to the word they're dreamers and they reject authority and here's what that means you look at almost any false teacher and they don't have accountability in their lives they don't answer to anyone they reject authority so you can't tell me the Bible can't tell me what to do and other people can't tell me what to do and Pastor Lee Cummings is not a perfect leader but I'm gonna tell you something there's no one I know who loves God more and loves God's bride, the church more and wants with all of his heart to honor God and the plans that God has in his own life the right way and so he has created accountability we have overseers we have elders and they're not just sort of pie in the sky theories they speak into his life they ask him tough questions he has conversations with Jimmy Evans and other men of God because he knows that in my own flesh in my own ability I'm gonna fall short the temptation is to serve myself and so he's put safeguards in and false teachers will never do that they reject authority next thing is they show favoritism to gain advantage verse 16 it says these speaking of false teachers are grumblers, complainers I love how God, I love how if I was gonna make a list of sins like really bad ones I wouldn't have grumblers and complainers at the top would you? I'd be like mass murderers right? bank robbers people who say there's three chapters in Jude you know like and then complainers and stuff would be down here I'm telling you I believe this if we had a better revelation of the power of our words we'd have a better understanding why God hates complaining and grumbling do you wanna separate yourself from the presence of God start complaining about your life start grumbling the Israelites when they were taken out of Egypt do you remember they were like you brought us out here to die we missed the leeks and onions they started and what did God say to Moses? he didn't say hey their people are complaining he said my people have rejected me every time you complain you reject the goodness of God in your life but that's a different free sermon okay he goes and and he says that they in verse 16 that they show favoritism to gain advantage so false teachers will only maybe associate with affluent people or people that they can control or they show favoritism to this group and not that group why? because ultimately they wanna keep control that's so they'll show favoritism or they'll flatter one translation says in verse 16 you know that flattery is the counterfeit of honor when you flatter someone you'll say nice things you'll encourage them why because you want to have something for yourself you wanna be able to control them you have some sort of ulterior motive when you honor someone you say edifying things about them with no desire for something in return and the words can be exactly the same it's a hard issue these people will flatter false teachers oh you know what I see this in you and God told me this about you and they do it to control people stay away stay away from them the last thing is they cause division verse 19 says it is these who cause division worldly people devoid of the spirit so I talked about that last week false teachers are gonna always say no they're wrong we don't do it like that that's why we do it this way that's why we're better, we're holier they want to cause division so that they can elevate themselves and their own plan we need unity in our churches we need unity in our city it's not a competition it's not a market share we want every single church that proclaims the truth of Jesus Christ to be full, to be making disciples and to be impacting our city but false teachers there's an insecurity they're like oh no no no no they're not like us we're better they cause division but then he changes gears and we better end with this since it's quieter than a Presbyterian church in here but that's my fault I told you it was heavy so he says all these things but then look at verse 20 but you, so what do we do? but you, beloved building yourself up in your most holy faith so how do we guard against false teaching? how do we guard against false doctrine? we build ourselves up in our own faith Romans 10 17 says this faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God I cannot overstate how important this book is and your development and maturity in Christ you will not grow apart from God's word you will not Hosea 4 6 says my people perish why for lack of knowledge not for lack of zeal not for lack of wanting to do right they don't know and that's what false teachers do they pray on young believers immature believers because they can get them no no no you believe this believe this and so we build ourselves up in our faith we don't rely on other people do to explain truth to us we get it we receive it from the Holy Spirit we grow in godliness God doesn't want you to stay the same 2 Peter 3 18 says grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ not head knowledge not cerebral growth but relationship you know the truth God's revealing himself to you you're praying in the Holy Spirit when Paul talks about praying in the Spirit he's talking about tongues I'm not saying that's the only way you can pray in the Spirit but I'm telling you I do it every single day because the Bible says you're praying mysteries you're releasing something you don't even know what it is but you're trusting God and so when I pray for my family and I pray for my teenage daughters I'm like God I don't even know how to pray for them please Lord save me no but I do I pray in the Spirit and sometimes praying in the Spirit isn't necessarily just speaking in tongues but when you're praying for someone or I've had these times when all of a sudden you're praying and you know the Spirit of God is on what you're praying you just sense it and I've had that what I've prayed for people and I'm like I don't know what they're ultimately going through but I know God is healing them right now God is saving them right and you can almost sense the Holy Spirit on that and I never want to stop because I don't want to mess it up and be like but that happens you pray in the Holy Spirit you develop a relationship with God spiritual boldness is only a byproduct of relationship if you feel like I'm not very bold I can't pray it's because you don't know God at the level he wants you to and that's not a condemnation statement and no one's mad at you start where you are and grow build yourself up in your faith we can't be deceived in this age and then he says keep yourself in the love of God in verse 21 how do you do that again through relationship keep yourself in God's love don't believe the lies of the enemy when you mess up when you blow it go right before God and pray this prayer say God show me right now the love you have for me it's not conditional it's not based on your performance keep yourself in the love don't let the enemy move you off of the truth that God loves you this message isn't about failing and getting back up and asking God to forgive you in a spirit of humility God's always gonna do that this message in Jude is about people who decide no I can do it this way and God doesn't care and it's my life no that's always gonna lead to judgment but keeping yourself in the love of God is nothing more than recognizing God's identity is marking me God's grace is a part of my life I can't earn it I can't merit the love of God but I keep myself in that love and then I wanna close with this verse this is the most beautiful part of Jude he closes in verse 24 and 25 by saying 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 hear me right now when God sees you he has great joy in his heart so he starts off by saying this whole book is about not stumbling or falling into false teaching or false doctrine and so in our own flesh we're not good at it but Jude says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling ultimately it is God who's going to keep you from falling who's going to keep you from being snared he's the one who keeps you from stumbling but he doesn't just stop there he doesn't just say okay fine I'll pull you out of the red no he launches you into the black and he says I'm gonna present you blameless before the presence of the glory of God with great joy that's the promise of God he's not just reluctantly fine I'll forgive your sins no I wanna take you and my joy and my love for you is so great I'm gonna present you as if you've never sinned faultless, blameless before the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's his blood that's gonna be the filter that I see you through and I'm never ashamed of you and I'm never mad at you and my grace is sufficient for every single one of your needs that's what the God of the ages wants to do in your life keep you from stumbling present you faultless, blameless before the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and because of that then let all glory, majesty, dominion and authority belong to him both now and forevermore you guys stand up with me I wanna pray for you for us for the church it's messages like Jude's that really cause us to take a look at eternity I'm gonna tell you something one of the greatest things parents and grandparents that you can teach your children is that someday we're gonna stand before God and give an account for our lives that this life isn't all there is that eternity is in the balance we don't get to have a gospel of heaven without addressing hell we don't get to have a gospel of blessing without addressing that we're gonna go through some persecutions we don't get to have a gospel of grace without recognizing that there's truth that's involved and all of these false teachers are gonna face a judgment that eternity is, it's real and it's the great equal it should be the true north for us as believers because even when we're going through trials and struggles and difficult circumstances when we remember eternity we can say like Paul look I have sufferings but I choose to say they're nothing compared to the glory that I'm gonna experience in Christ Jesus yeah this is difficult right now maybe even for five, 10, 20 years but I'm gonna spend eternity in the presence of God it's gonna be worth it but then on the other side when we have blessing and we have favor and we have monetary gain and things like that we recognize, I don't know I need to see through the lens of eternity I'm not taking this with me am I a blessing to others am I funding the kingdom of God and eternity is the great equalizer it's the true north of our lives I just want you to close your eyes I just wanna ask you this question church I want the Holy Spirit to speak to you right now and say have you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life Lord have you surrendered your life to him telling you one of the false doctrines that's going around in our church world is that man as long as you prayed a prayer when you were four years old in your room you're good no I don't know if you are but I know this the Bible says you're known by your fruit trees known by its fruit the things that we do matter the way that we live matters making Jesus Lord of our lives matters not just saying okay yeah acknowledge he exists listen the demons believe in God and they tremble there's a lordship issue that we surrender our lives and then we reap the rewards of eternal life then we never have to worry we never have to wonder you never have to say oh man I've had a bad week or I've made a mistake no the blood of Jesus Christ covers you as soon as you surrender your life and if you're here and you say I've never done that I've gone through the motions I've gone to church I've tried to be a good person but I've not surrendered my life or you know maybe at one time I did but I've walked away not I had a bad week but I've turned away from God and I need to come home like the prodigal the love and grace favor of God is here for you right now and I'm gonna pray for you and today's gonna be a brand new day where you're a new creation in Christ Jesus old things passed away and all things become new and if that's you and you say please John include me in that prayer I need to make Jesus Lord of my life I want you right now to just raise your hand don't be shy don't hold back raise your hand high and say include me in that prayer thank you thank you right now raise your hand don't be robbed of this you're not gonna be embarrassed this is between you and the Lord thank you awesome eternity is in the balance eternity is in the balance thank you in the back awesome thank you you can put your hands down I want every one of us to pray this prayer out loud I want you to repeat it after me I want to say dear Heavenly Father thank you for loving me thank you for sending Jesus to die in my place and to pay the price that I could never pay I choose Jesus to be Lord of my life I turn my back on my past I no longer living for myself but for the glory of God wash me cleanse me and receive me into your family in Jesus' name amen amen if you prayed that prayer and you meant it you're a new creation in Christ Jesus welcome to the kingdom of God come on