A Timely Tip - Part 2

        (From the Book of Jude)

By Iverna Tompkins
Transcribed by Jane Vaughn

Not only do I see a word of consolation in this marvelous, tiny but powerful, Book of Jude, I also see a word of concern.  Jude cries out to his readers, “I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation” (vs.3).  What he says is, “I am so concerned for you I have written to explain some basic things.”  This surely prompts my question: How concerned are you?  To those of you who travel in ministry I ask – how concerned are you about the Body of Christ at large?  Pastors and leaders in the local church – how concerned are you about your own congregations?  Brothers and sisters in Christ – how concerned are you about your church family?

“Oh, I’m very concerned about them.  I lift them before God regularly.”  Look at this: Jude explains, “I am so concerned that I exhort – I expose, I explain and I exercise.  This whole letter is full of exhortations.  The word “exhort” in the Bible means “to advise.” Jude offers sound, Godly advice.  

The letter also shows how Jude was involved in exposing sin and apostasy in the early church, as well as the behaviors that follow such error.  He explains what people were doing if they were away from God and why they did that.  Finally, this is a book of training – to exercise (/askeo/) means “to train” (see Ac.24:16 – “I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God”).  Jude’s letter tells us exactly what to do to keep from falling.  He was concerned about the Body of Christ – then and now.

I know my reputation (concerning those under my training) is that I seem a little harsh in correction.   :-)    My critics consider me to be unique in this and that amazes me.  I care so deeply for my “kids.”  As a mentor, I risk confronting touchy, personal issues with them that if left unchecked could lead them into serious error.  Loving correction, even confrontation, ought NOT to be unique in leaders.  How much do you care?  Do you care enough to label sin “sin?”  To expose error?  To take the time necessary to train those under your influence?  How do you define “exhortation?”

Here is a vital key when you find yourself in a position of exposing error.  What enables me, or gives me the right, to gather my staff together and lay it on the line with them is, first, I have laid on my face before God in tears for them.  That is the key foundation.  I don’t confront something in someone else that I have not carefully taken in prayer before our Father.  Timing is so important for God must be allowed to prepare people not only to hear the truth but to receive it – and so they will hear Him and not the human speaker. 

Secondly, I don’t just pray – “God, I see this problem; now You talk to them, and You tell them to get their homes in order, and You tell them this… and You tell them that….”  That’s not ministry; that’s prayer.  I offer myself to be used by Him for bringing revelation and enlightenment where it is needed.  I’m a part of the solution.  We must not verbally flay or figuratively fillet someone open in exposure and walk away feeling we have performed the responsibility to correct.  As we shall see in a moment, Jude confronts and exposes serious issues, but also offers the counsel of God in bringing about restoration.

I believe I’m speaking to those who declare they have a call of God upon their lives to be a tool in His hands.  I’m also talking to those that God has entrusted sufficiently to place before a group of people.  The truth is, all believers are to be ministers in the name of Jesus, so I’m talking to all believers – all “ministers.” 

Churches are comprised of all sorts of people.  Many pastors think their churches have an over-abundance of down-and-outers, complainers, or church hoppers.  If that is true, it’s because God trusts you with them!  From time to time, I have heard a brother or sister say, “I just figured we have this motley congregation until we learn a lesson, whatever we’re supposed to learn, and then the Lord will give us the doctors, lawyers, and corporate execs.”  He never did that with Jesus!  In fact, the only trouble Jesus really had was with the doctors and lawyers, merchants and political chiefs!  The “motley crew” believed in Him.  Oh Church, we’ve lost sight of the privilege of ministry!  And we’ve lost sight of His goal! 

Ministry is not sermonizing.  Or, is it?  Dear Pastors, I’m going to ask you, as of this day, to never again preach a “sermon.”  Start ministering to lives!  I’m not against good homiletics and iteration and all the other things that enable us to be better at what we do – communicate.  But my Friends, that is not my goal – to stand behind a pulpit and impress an audience with any kind of homiletic outline.  That designation only fits a professional speech writer or speaker!  If indeed you sincerely sense the cry that was on the heart of Jude, looking at the contemporary scene and situations of life in his time and say along with him, “I’ve got to warn them!  I’ve got to teach them!  I’ve got to train them!” then these are days of frustration for you. 

The next is the third point that will help you minister as God desires.  It’s one thing to console people.  It’s another thing to show concern, and yet quite another to counsel.  All true ministry should involve Godly counsel.  I’m not talking about an hour-long appointment in the office.  I’m talking about analyzing your own messages.  What is the content?  And why?  Is there the counsel of God?

Jude goes on writing to the people:  “I’m bringing these things to your attention so that first of all, you may learn to “contend for the faith” (vs.3).  That is Jude’s first piece of counsel.  If I have one last cry on my lips as I go to my reward and the Lord says, “Name it, Iverna,” I believe I’d breathe this into the life of every minister: “Teach them to ‘contend for the faith.’”  The Faith.  It does not say, “Teach them to contend for faith.”  It’s the faith of the Gospel of Salvation through Jesus Christ.  A holy life is the obvious and expected result of one having received Jesus’ provision in Salvation.  How did we get so far removed from that?  Oh, I can tell you what has interfered: success patterns – church growth – peer-pressure – just to name a few.  Unfortunately, leaders are always comparing: “How many do you have in your congregation?”  “What’s your budget?”  “What programs have been working for you?”  Church growth has precluded personal, individual spiritual growth in too many places.

“Teach them to ‘contend for the faith.’”  What’s important to God is that men and women come to recognize that salvation is by divine grace alone, and it is through faith we can reach out for His grace – then our lives change as a result of embracing what He has to offer.  We should be able to see a difference developing or growing in the lives of our people.  They ought to be growing in their own understanding of the Word.  They ought to be growing in their outreach to others.  They ought to be growing in the ministry of worship unto the Lord.  What are we teaching them to reach for?  What are they contending for?

My question, in all honesty, is: Would you be able to measure growth if it happened?  Do you know what’s going on in the homes of your people?  What kinds of relationships do your husbands and wives have with each other?  And how do parents relate to, teach and train their children?  Would you be shocked if the IRS confiscated the home of someone in your church because they have not reported or paid their taxes in years?  It happens, and too often, the pastor or church leadership is the last to know, and they’d go to the mat defending such a person (scoundrel?) simply because they were part of the “church family.”  Too many leaders figure that all is well in a person’s private life if that person is sitting in the pew.  Moreover, we have been tricked into thinking it is none of our business to inquire or to demand Godly character be developed in supposed-believers’ lives.

It is my belief that one pastor alone is not capable of pastoring thousands of people.  There is no way he can know what he needs to know in order to rightly relate to individuals in his flock.  It doesn’t matter who he or she is or the greatness of the anointing.  It’s time for us to look at people and discover them – to know where they truly are with the Lord.  We must train lay-leaders to help care for one another and come to the place of trusting them in their delegated positions.  We need to put people (who already have their lives in order) in charge of people who are in charge of other people. 

This is Discipleship Training.  It is all about teaching people to rely on Jesus.  It’s about teaching them how to turn to God for themselves and how not to rely or be so dependent on another person.  Discipling our people involves teaching them the content of the God’s Word and how that applies to their daily lives.  It’s teaching them to “contend for the faith!”

The second thing that Jude counseled is – consider some of the ungodly leaders.  The phrase in verse 4 we address here is: “certain men that crept in unawares.”  Please hear what I’m NOT suggesting.  I am not saying, “Get up in your pulpit and expose difficult people by name.”  Please understand – Jude doesn’t do that here.  What he does say is that “some crept in unawares” and what they have done is taken the grace of God and made it a covering for their crimes.  “How do they do that?” 

When we first read this, we tend to scan through the text and think, “Oh, boy, this is big!  It’s about the angels and Sodom and Gomorrah and all of those things, and God destroyed them – because they ‘turned the grace of God into lasciviousness’” (vss.4-7).  Then we wonder, “What was their problem?  How did they do that, ‘turn the grace of God…’?”  The same way we do it!   :-)    The end of verse 4 tells you.  The moment we “deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ” in our lives, we turn His grace into whatever it is we want it to be.  We rationalize our behaviors.  In fact, we are so brazen today in unholiness that we go so far as to ask God to bless it! 

How do we deny the Lordship of Christ?  One way of replacing His Lordship with man’s lordship is done in the name of “church authority.”  There is a trend today for church leadership (i.e. professional clergy, home fellowship leaders, church ministry directors, etc.) to exercise a power of oversight and authority over individual parishioners.  That can be a good or bad experience.  For some of us, it would bring welcome relief to the stress of making a myriad of decisions.  I would love to have someone else be responsible for all the decisions concerning my books and tapes and itinerary.  They could decide where I go and when.  The main problem here is that I don’t find it modeled for us like that in the Book!  God’s idea is for each one of us to be responsible for hearing Him for ourselves. 

I surely hope and pray no one suddenly came to you and said “You are called to the ministry.”  I know a few people who sadly are in the ministry because someone else called them there – perhaps "mother" – or even a Prophet who picked them out of an audience and said, “The Lord has called you to the ministry.”  That may be well-intended, but I don’t believe that’s God’s way.  I don’t see that in the Word of God.  We need to be very careful because if God didn’t call you, you won’t make it through the storm down the way!

“Now, wait a minute, Iverna.  The Bible says the Holy Spirit came and said, ‘Separate unto Me…’” (Ac.13:20).  Read that again, it says, “Separate unto Me Paul and Barnabas whom I have called.”  They already had the call.  This is a confirming word for them – and the church – that comes through the prophetic voice.  It is not The Call of God.  I know this is tough counsel because it challenges a few “programs” concerning church government being espoused in various settings today.  It is vital for us to read carefully the instructions in the Book and resist the temptation to superimpose man’s contemporary understanding or interpretations on God’s words.  Remember, we are discussing here the Lordship of Christ.

We must minister in the power and model of Jude – encouraging the Body of Christ to “contend for the faith.”  By and large, we have become far too lax in our pursuit of the things of God, settling for a few counterfeits concerning the Lordship of Christ.  If we ignore the cry and need for training, the church will not be ready for the coming Revival.  And it is coming – soon.  The next great move of God is on its way!

What a travesty if we fail as we did in the last outpouring of God!  The Spirit of God will be released, drawing countless seekers from the streets into our churches to accept Jesus Christ as Savior.  This will happen on a large scale.  If we do not now train disciples to actually follow Christ, there will be thousands of newborn babies and no one mature enough to nurture them.  This period is a moment of separation, a time of judgment.  It is now, between Revivals, that we must get the church, believers, ready for the harvest (seeMt.9:37,38; Lk.10:2;Jn.4:35).

If believers (even leaders!) are still filled with prejudice, bitterness, hostility and/or resentments that is what we will pass on to the new baby Christians.  It will be the milk of our mother’s-breast.  Does that make sense to you?  When you look at your own little church today, the thought may come to you, “Oh, God, we need many more people.”  And God says, “No, you don’t need more.  I want you to make leaders out of the ones you have!”  Get their lives straightened up – teach them, train them, order them in the ways of God.  Increasing numbers in attendance is not at all difficult.  We watched churches literally explode in numbers following the Charismatic Renewal.  Unfortunately, it was more like the blind leading the blind.  We simply were not ready for what they needed for growth.

We could understand Jude to be saying, in this second point of concern, “Consider the cost of apostasy faith.  Look at Israel (vs.5).  Look at the angels (vs.6).  Look at Sodom and Gomorra (vs.7).  Look at Cain and Balaam and Korah (vs.11).”  It’s all there, Church.  And God will not have it! 

Apostasy, the turning away from God and embracing a substitute, is so subtle that it usually only evidences itself when it’s being judged. 

It is a slow, gradual process – man taking over in his own carnal wisdom – and not until God steps in on the scene, exacting judgment, do we recognize the unholiness that we have been living with, embracing, and even blessing.  God says through Jude, “I also want to counsel you about this condition.”  This is a metaphoric last step of apostasy. 

He says, “Can’t you see that what we have here are clouds without water” (vs.12a) – Yes, I can see it and I’ll tell you what that means.  Clouds are properly positioned and properly capacitated to contain and bring forth all the rain that is necessary for any place over which they hover.  Those of us who live in the desert of the Southwest perhaps appreciate this more than others.  A long season of dryness takes place there and then in the news comes a word of hope: “There is a 24% chance of rain.”  We’re a bit like Elijah, aren’t we, looking for a cloud?  A sign?  Then, sure enough, 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the sky gets dark, the clouds appear and we say, “It’s going to rain.”  Then comes the wind and – ::Poof!::  the clouds are gone and the ground remains dry.  There was no water in those clouds.

                                                                                     Go to Part 3