We’re living in a world filled with noise—podcasts, YouTube, TikTok—and not all of it points us to the truth. In a time of spiritual confusion, The Struggle is a wake-up call for the Church. This three-week series walks through the book of Jude, a short letter with a sharp message: passivity never produces perseverance.
Jude urges believers to contend for the faith—to struggle, strive, and fight for the truth that was once for all delivered to the saints. He reminds us that our lives are shaped by both the natural and supernatural, and false teaching is a serious threat that must be actively resisted. Jude draws from history, tradition, and Scripture to connect what is seen and unseen, calling us to vigilance and perseverance.
If we want to grow in faith and guard those we love, we must care deeply about this struggle. We’ve all seen faith derailed by false teaching, and that’s why we’re diving in.
Week One: God’s Judgment (Jude 1–7)
Big Idea: False teaching leads to God’s judgment.
Jude begins his letter with urgency. Though he wanted to write about the joy of our shared salvation, something more pressing demanded attention: a call to contend for the faith. The term “contend” means to actively fight for something. It’s the opposite of coasting. Tim Keller once said that life is like a down escalator. If you aren’t contending, you’re not just staying where you are—you’re going backward. In other words, if we’re passive, we’re sliding.
Just like we put in the effort to grow in areas like health or finances, we must also exert ourselves spiritually. Why? Because, as Jude explains, false teachers have crept in unnoticed. They don’t burst through the doors—they slip in,sowing distortion and division. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. They look right. They sound right. But they twist the grace of God into permission for sin. As John Piper says, they pit God’s grace against His commands.
But real grace doesn’t lower the standard—it draws us toward God’s good design. Jude shows us what happens when people reject that design. He points to three examples of judgment: the Israelites rescued from Egypt who later rebelled, angels who abandoned their place of authority, and the utter moral collapse of Sodom and Gomorrah. Each example serves as a warning. Jude is waking us up to the judgment of God that comes from perverting His grace.
Contending for the Faith
Jude urges us to contend for “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” That phrase reminds us that:
- The Christian faith is known and defined.
- The Christian faith is not up for discovery or reinvention—it’s a truth to be received and guarded.
- The Christian faith is finished. It was handed down by Jesus through the apostles, and it’s been preserved for us.
To contend for the faith means knowing it and speaking up about it. It means being so saturated in Scripture that we recognize when someone is drifting. False teachers might say, “Because there’s grace, you can live however you want.” But contending means saying, “Let’s talk about that.” It means protecting our groups, our families, and our own hearts from deception.
One of the most powerful pictures of this kind of struggle comes from the movie Facing the Giants. In a now-viral scene, a high school football player crawls across the field blindfolded, pushing past pain and exhaustion while his coach calls him to more. That’s how we fight for truth—with everything we’ve got.
A Warning Worth Heeding
Jude’s warnings are serious. They’re like fireworks safety videos that come with real-life scars. I took my son on a trip to mark his 13th birthday—a rite of passage. We went alligator hunting in Florida. Our guide? A man with half a hand. Naturally, I assumed the gator got him. Turns out, it was fireworks. A bad decision, a lasting wound, and the same is true with false teaching. It doesn’t just mislead—it maims. These warnings from Scripture are God’s mercy to us. They’re saying, don’t play with fire. Don’t get close to what will destroy you.
Application: Deny False Teaching, and Contend for the True Faith
So—how are you contending for the faith? Are you grounded in the Word? Are you guarding what you listen to and what you let shape your beliefs? We must know the faith to contend for it. That means hearing sound preaching, walking in community, and letting Scripture saturate our lives. Maybe this is a moment for you to recommit. And maybe—for some—this is your moment to receive the faith for the first time. You can’t contend for a faith you haven’t received. As the comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said about Pop-Tarts: “They can’t go stale because they were never fresh.” If your faith feels stale, maybe it was never fresh to begin with.
The True Gospel Message
The good news is simple and life-changing: We’ve all sinned and resisted God’s commands. But Jesus lived a sinless life, died in our place, and rose again to bring us into a new family of faith. He paid for our rebellion and offers us a new identity—not one shaped by sin, but one secured by grace. Today is the day to trust the true Gospel message.
Let’s be a church that contends. That fights for truth. That guards what’s been entrusted to us. Passivity never produces perseverance. But grace, rightly understood, fuels the fight.
Andrew Hopper, Lead Pastor
Watch the full sermon from week one of our sermon series in Jude called “The Struggle” below:
In this week’s message, and as I referenced above, we used a scene from Facing the Giants to illustrate the kind of struggle and perseverance that Jude calls us to. That scene became even more powerful when I got to sit down with Jason McLeod—the actor who played “Brock” and is now a pastor near Mercy Hill. Watch this short interview to hear how God used that moment to capture his heart and call him into ministry:
