PowerPoint

Jack Graham: You want to live in the love of God? Then exercise your faith by building it up. Energize your prayers, embrace your future by looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can experience the light of God's love every day. Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, Living in the Love of God.

Jack Graham: Take your Bibles, turn with me to Jude and verse 17 of the little letter of Jude. It is such a powerful letter because it deals with so many contemporary issues, namely false teachers, apostasy, which means to depart from the faith. So many are departing from genuine faith today, and in a world of eclectic religion, blended ideologies, we need the clear word of Jude. As a matter of fact, when Jude began this letter, it's really a little postcard, he said, "I wanted to write to you concerning our common salvation."

In other words, he wanted to talk about our salvation in Christ, but he was compelled to deal with deception in the church. And so he dealt with it very forthrightly, forcefully, and it is a very strong appeal to deal with false teaching and apostasy and life apart from the genuine faith. But he concludes this powerful little letter with words of admonition. I said verse 17, I actually want us to begin at verse 20.

"But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. 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, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen."

There is a key phrase in the passage we just read. It is the key that unlocks the meaning of these words. It is "keep yourselves in the love of God." Keep yourself in the love of God. In other words, keep yourself in the atmosphere, in the center of God's love. Allow God to love you. I like the way the New Living renders this: "Live in such a way that God's love can bless you."

Now, we know God loves us. He loves us perfectly and eternally. "I have loved you with an everlasting love." There's no question about the love of God. He demonstrated it at the cross, and He demonstrates it every day in our lives when we look to Him. And yet, in this passage, we're told that we are to keep ourselves in this love. In other words, we are to allow God to love us, to experience His love, to live in the surroundings of His love, in His favor, in His blessing.

We are to keep ourselves in the love of God. This does not mean that we are to keep ourselves in the family of God, that we are to keep ourselves saved. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves or to keep ourselves in salvation. But this is in concert with what Jesus said in John chapter 15 and verse 9, when He said, "Continue in my love," or "Abide in my love."

In other words, the sun is shining all the time, but we're not always living in the sunshine. We may not always enjoy or experience the sunshine. And in the same way, many of us do not experience the sunshine of His love because we don't keep ourselves in the atmosphere, in the glory, in the blessing of His love. How do you keep yourself under the love of God, in the love of God every day?

How do you let God love you? Well, there are some participles, some -ing words in this passage that tell us exactly how we're to do this. We don't have to wonder about this or worry about this. We know exactly how we are to keep ourselves in His love. And this is done by doing some building and doing some praying and doing some looking and doing some reaching and doing some praising.

We live in the love of God, first of all, by exercising faith. Exercise your faith. That's why verse 20 says, "But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith." The word "holy" means unique and separate. Our faith is a one-of-a-kind faith. It is not faith among many faiths. This faith is a holy faith. We have been given God's holy word. And when He says build yourself up in your most holy faith, He is telling us to exercise our faith.

Faith grows when we exercise it, and particularly when we discipline ourselves in the word of God. Why? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so it's clear to everyone who reads this passage that if we're going to get strong in faith and be able to deal with all of the false teaching, all the apostates, all the disappointments, all the problems, all the doubts, all the fears in our lives, if we're going to stay under His love, then we must constantly build ourselves up by committing ourselves to spiritual growth.

Don't remain on the foundation, but build up your life in maturity. Make your faith the foundation of your life and then build upon it. You know, as a little child grows up, that little child knows more and more the love of the parents as the child begins to experience that love and live in that love every day. The child begins to respond to that love.

In the same way, we, as we live in the atmosphere of His love, as we experience God's love every day, as we are growing in our faith and growing up in our faith, getting stronger every day, we realize and recognize so much more the great love of God. Building up in holy faith. It's all about the word of God and getting the word of God into our lives. Exercise yourself in spiritual discipline.

Just as we are to exercise ourselves and eat properly, we are to exercise ourselves in faith and to eat the word of God so that we can grow and get strong. So how do you keep yourself in the love of God? How do you live in the love of God? How do you let God love you? By opening His word and allowing God to speak to you.

I can't tell you how many times in my life when I needed to know the love of God in a personal way that God spoke to me through His word, one of His promises. And so often we turn to the word of God just in times of emergency. But may God help us every day to get strong in faith by building ourselves up in this most holy faith. But not only are we to live in the love of God by exercising our faith, but by energizing our prayers.

This is why the scripture says that we are to pray in the Holy Spirit. Now, what does that mean to pray in the Holy Spirit? When you became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God came to live within you. The Spirit of Jesus is in you. And one of the ministries, one of the most important ministries of the Holy Spirit in our lives is the ministry of prayer.

In fact, He's called the Spirit of supplication. And therefore, the Holy Spirit is our prayer partner so that we can have constant contact and communion with God. And so when we pray, we pray to the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit means that we are to pray continually and constantly as the Spirit of God directs us. Our prayers are governed and guided by the Spirit of God.

If you will turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, I can show you exactly what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit ministers as a prayer partner in our lives. Beginning at verse 26, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

As we lift our hearts, our thoughts, our desires, our words, our non-words to the Father, the Holy Spirit intercedes and interjects and influences our lives. Prayer is such a vital, essential element if we are going to live in the love of God. I know this: that spiritual history is the record of God working in the lives of men and women who know how to pray. And we are dependent upon prayer and the power of God in answering prayer.

God's history is being written by people who pray. And there is no barrier to prayer but sin. Anywhere, any time, any conditions, we can pray in the Spirit, and God will hear our prayers and answer our prayers according to His will and crown our lives with blessing. This is living in the love of God.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Living in the Love of God. How would you like to receive a digital daily devotional from Dr. Graham? It's a simple way to build a new habit, rekindle your passion for God, and remind yourself of His promises. When you sign up, you will receive a devotion each day that will help you on your journey of renewal and spiritual growth in 2026.

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Jack Graham: But not only exercising our faith and energizing our prayers, but we live in the love of God by embracing our future. You live in the love of God by embracing your future. Back in Jude 21, it says "keep yourself in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life." Waiting for the mercy is a description of our expectation, our anticipation of the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Waiting for His mercy. Now remember, these early believers were facing persecutions and trials and troubles and all kinds of difficulties. And so when the scripture speaks of the mercy of Jesus, His arrival is a revelation, but it is also a mercy. So many things in life we can't comprehend, we can't understand. But when Jesus comes again, His mercy, His grace, will meet our every need.

And therefore, we are to live in that constant expectancy. You want to live in the love of God every day? Then love His appearing, long for His appearing. Get up every day recognizing that this could be the day when Jesus comes for us. Many authors today talk about ordering your days and ordering your life by living with the end in mind. Living with the final conclusion in mind, and that's how we're to live by embracing our future because we know we win.

We know when Christ comes, everything that is unresolved will be resolved. We know that Christ will set everything right because He comes in love and mercy and grace. We live in this life as though sometimes I think that we expect everything to be easy and nothing to be difficult. We think we're going to sail right on through life without problems, without pressures, without diseases, without sicknesses and so on. And yet we live in a fallen world.

We live in bodies that are groaning until the day in which we are immortalized in His presence. Therefore, we look forward to that day when Christ comes and makes everything right, physically, eternally, anyway you want to slice it, He will make everything right when He comes again. Therefore, we live with a new perspective in life. We're not wringing our hands worrying about every day because we know this could be the day when we are in His presence, that we are enjoying His love every step of the way.

That changes everything. No wonder 1 John 3:3 says he who has this hope in him purifies himself. It changes the way we live, our character, when we live in the love of Jesus Christ. He is coming for us. I know that that is a truth that most of you have heard many, many times. But I want you just to let God love you right now with that truth. My child, I'm coming for you. My mercy is with me.

And when I come for you, you will reign and rule with me forever and ever and ever. Embrace your future and you will live in the love of God. Don't fear the future, but embrace your future and seize this day every day as the day to love Christ and to live for Him with all your heart. And then, not only are we to exercise our faith and energize our prayers and embrace our future, but we are to extend our reach.

Extend our reach. And I'm talking about sharing our faith, witnessing, because that's what he tells us to do in verse 22. That we are to have mercy on those who doubt and to save others by snatching them out of the fire, to show others mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained with the flesh. If you want to live in the love of God, you want to experience the love of God, if you want to stay under the umbrella of His favor and His faithfulness in your life, then here's what you should do: don't keep your faith, give it away.

Because there are people all around us, some who doubt. Those who doubt even in the church, who are struggling with situations in their life that undermine their faith. And how are we to respond to people who doubt? With mercy. That is, to those who doubt, we are to be compassionate and caring. And then there are those who are desperate. He talks about those who we are to snatch out of the fire.

And to those who are desperate, what are we to do? We are to be courageous like firefighters, rescuing lives from a burning building. People without Jesus Christ are lost and headed for fire, for judgment. Our God is a consuming fire, and there is a judgment upon sin. And so as our loved ones and friends are perishing, we need to be willing to be courageous enough and to do whatever it takes to reach in to snatch them from the fire.

Then he speaks of those who are defiled. He says to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by flesh. And this tells us, I believe, that we are not only to reach those folks who look like us, who act like us, who think like us, who smell like us, but we're to be willing to go to places and to people where it's tough and difficult and even dangerous. Thank God for missionaries around the world who are serving, many of these in dangerous places, difficult places.

But in our case, God has called us to reach people who are defiled, people who are stained by sin. And with that, he gives one word of warning. He says be careful, be cautious. To those who are doubting, be compassionate. To those who are desperate and dying, be courageous. And to those who are defiled, go get them, go reach them, but be careful.

There's an attitude today by some, I've read some books recently on how to reach people for Christ, and some are suggesting, you know, you have to be more like the world in order to reach them. You have to sort of hang with them and do what some of your friends do without Christ in order to reach them. That's nonsense. We never reach people by compromising our faith or our convictions or our character.

That's why this warning is given. When you go, and we ought to have circles of friends that don't know Christ. I mean, if we just hang around with church people, we'll never win anybody to Christ. But when you get out there in your community, in your school, in at the university, Jesus, you know, was a friend of sinners, but he was never stained by their sin. He was without sin.

And we are to maintain purity. And you know, I've noticed that if we will maintain our character in the midst of our friends who may live in a different way than we live, then the respect is there and the opportunity will be given at one time to share our faith. But be very cautious. Don't get so close to sin that you're sucked into that sin. So he says that we are to keep on witnessing.

So here's what we're saying so far. You want to live in the love of God? You want to live in the boundaries of His blessing for your life? Then exercise your faith by building it up. Energize your prayers by praying in the Holy Spirit. Embrace your future by looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Extend your reach by witnessing and sharing your faith with others.

One final word, and that is we are to live in the love of God by expressing our praise. That's why he closes with a doxology. Now, a doxology means good words. It is an ascription of praise to God. That's why in verse 24 it says, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before his presence with glory and great joy." One translator gave this: "to present you before God with shouts of joy."

What a moment that's going to be when we are presented to God with shouts of joy. "To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, glory and majesty, dominion and authority." There's a lot of preaching in those words, but let me just put it this way: we live in the love of God by expressing our praise. Don't let the difficult times, don't let the hard times, don't let the times of assault, whether they come from Satan himself or from some false teacher or from some situation in your life, don't let the hard times keep you from praising God, to stop you or stifle you in your praise. Don't be intimidated by the apostates. Don't be shut down by the unbelievers. You keep praising God.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Living in the Love of God. Your support of PowerPoint Ministries makes a profound impact, helping more people discover the truth and hope of Jesus Christ. And to thank you for your generous gift today, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's new book, Living Hope in a Hostile World. It's a timely resource that reminds you how to stand firm in faith, cling to God's grace, and live with courage, even in your most challenging times.

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When you sign up, you'll receive a devotion each day that will help you on your journey of renewal and spiritual growth in 2026. And it's absolutely free. All you have to do to sign up is text IGNITE to 59789. That's IGNITE to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: As followers of Christ, you and I are to keep ourselves under the umbrella of God's protection and provision every day of our lives. So how do you do that? Well, one way is to embrace your future by living for eternity. Or as Stephen Covey said, "begin with the end in mind." That's how we're to live our lives as followers of Christ, with the end in mind, with eternity as our focus.

When everything around you is crumbling, when you're facing danger and difficulty and even deception of all kinds, your outlook on life will be determined by your up-look. And if your up-look is to love Christ and His return and to long for His appearing, knowing that at any moment He could come for you, then you are living with the future in mind. You are living in His love.

In 2 Timothy 4:8, the Apostle Paul said this: "There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing." When we are daily embracing our future with Him, that keeps us in the love of God. Now, today perhaps you can't say with certainty that you will stand before God and experience His presence forever.

Maybe you'd admit that you've never really asked the Lord Jesus to save you from your sins, to come into your life and to give you a hope and a future. So if you'd like to receive Christ right now, then pray this prayer: Lord Jesus, I turn from my sins and I trust in You. Because I believe You died on the cross for me and rose again. I give You my life, my all, and ask You to forgive me, to change me, and make me Your child. And if you will pray that prayer sincerely and invite Christ into your life, I want to welcome you into the family of God.

Guest (Female): And that is today's PowerPoint. Today if you prayed that prayer with Dr. Graham, text us so we can help you start your new life with Christ. Text JESUS to 59789. That's JESUS to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about what Jesus did for the world and what He's doing in your life right now. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.