Message summary: By God's grace let us hold fast to the truths of the Bible today, even if we are called "old-fashioned", "unenlightened" or "out of step with the times"!

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"Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 1:3).

One Sunday in the 1990's when I served a church in New England we had a special day we called "Old-Fashioned Day". Many of our people dressed in an old-fashioned manner, our choir sang a musical titled "Sweet Memories", I preached a message titled "I'm unapologetically old-fashioned!", and we enjoyed eating "dinner on the grounds" as potlucks used to be referred to.  The church was at that time over 70 years old and Hope, a dear lady in her 80's, still attended the church since its founding. In fact one of her ancestors came over in the Mayflower back in 1620. It was only natural that Brooksyne would select her to narrate the musical. 

The "Old-Fashioned Revival Hour" was a radio program out of Pasadena, California that aired from 1937-1968. Of course now when we hear that type of music we consider it really "old-fashioned". However that was the name of the program when it was contemporary and many of the songs were relatively new at that time.

These days you probably wouldn't want to title a program "old-fashioned" unless all you hoped to reach were older people! For many "old-fashioned" is a dreaded term. So many want to be contemporary, trendy, and cool. To be described as "old-fashioned" would be the ultimate put-down to those who strive to be contemporary!

We want our ministry, both these daily encouragement messages and our chaplaincy to appeal to all ages. We're very pleased when we hear from the younger generation who either read or listen to our podcasts. The young can benefit from their elders and the elders can benefit from the younger. The younger offer fresh insight, energy and zeal, while the older offer perspective based on experience, timeless principles and applied wisdom.

But when we were young "old-fashioned" was a term we tried to stay clear of, at least in regard to style of music. Following our training for ministry we planted a church using contemporary music even though that music would seem old-fashioned now. In fact you would find much of that music inaccessible, except for an intense internet search that will often give you a glimpse of the past. Get prepared for not only a different style of song, but also different hair and clothing styles, and instrumentation. Consider that the very latest, cutting edge, contemporary worship styles used now will seem old-fashioned only a few years from now, as most of us will attest.

Years ago I read an interesting perspective by Warren Wiersbe pointing out the fallacy of the term "contemporary". After all, the music we consider old now was new at one time and thus contemporary. Since songs have been written in each generation there has always been contemporary music. It's kind of hard for us to imagine when "Victory In Jesus" first became popular and was a new "contemporary" song but it most certainly was!

There are many ways in which being old-fashioned is very desirable. Today let us consider two:

Call me "old-fashioned", that's OK with me. I take seriously the call of Jude in the daily text to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints". The word translated "contend" means to "struggle for". We thank God for ministers and lay people alike who are unswerving in their commitment to uphold these truths and increasingly that can be a struggle.

"Once for all" is also very significant. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Kittel) states that this "refers to the definitive nature of Christian teaching (the faith) by which we know all that is needed for salvation and which we are thus to hold fast". This has been handed down or entrusted to us.

By God's grace let us indeed hold fast to the truths of the Bible today, even if we are called "old-fashioned"!

Be encouraged today!  Hebrews 3:13