Fight The Good Fight

What does it mean to walk down our salvation and fight the good fight of faith? Open with us to First Timothy, chapter 6. Let's see together. Would you mind being seated for just a moment?

As everyone is seated, do we have any moms in the house? Moms, would you please stand? We want to bless you today and say Happy Mother's Day. Thank you for all that you do.

A few years ago, a study found that eighty-five percent of moms would rather receive a heartfelt thank you than a dozen roses. So, we want to say thank you to all of you this morning. Again, thank you for all that you do. You are a great blessing to each of us and to our church, and we are very grateful for you.

Every year on Mother's Day, we want to show our gratitude to you and pray a blessing over you. One of the things we have done for many years is provide a rose for each of you at the end of the service. However, this year, we have heard some murmuring about the candy we give to fathers on Father's Day. So, for the moms today, we have some candy for you instead of a rose. As you leave today, we have these wonderful little pink containers filled with candy.

I actually have three of them because my mom and my wife are here in the front row. We want to pray a blessing for you, but at the same time, you'll notice we have some vases up here with white roses. These are to acknowledge the sorrows of the day. We recognize that on Mother's Day, there are some women who do not come to church because it is a difficult day for them.

It can be a difficult day because we know there are many women who desired to be moms but were never able to be. We recognize that there are many emotions tied to this day.

There are moms who have had miscarriages, moms who have had children that died of cancer, and moms who have experienced stillborn births. There are also some of you today who are celebrating Mother's Day for the first time without your mom in your life. We wanted to acknowledge the sorrows of the day. If that’s you today, at the end of our service, we invite you to come and take one of these white roses. If you see a lady walking with one, maybe just say a silent prayer for them.

You’ll also notice that we have our photo booth set up as you go out today. If you came with your family and would like a family picture, you can take some silly pictures or some good pictures.

With that, would you pray with me as we pray for our moms? Father, we thank You so much for the blessing that these moms are to each of us individually and to our church as a whole. We acknowledge and recognize that being a mom is a difficult job. Some kids make it more difficult for moms than others, like I did for my mom. We just thank You for the moms that put up with difficult children.

Lord, the training that happens from a mom, the love, the compassion, and the grace that comes from a mother— we pray that You would pour out the same upon these moms today and bless them. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen."

All right, don’t sit down. Everybody else, stand up and let’s open our Bibles to the book of 1st Timothy. If you don’t have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We’re going to be in 1st Timothy chapter 6. This is where we have been for the last few weeks.

1st Timothy is near the end of your Bible, so open to the very last book, the book of Revelation, and turn to the left. You will find 1st and 2nd Timothy. We are going to begin reading today at verse 11. There, the Apostle Paul writes, "But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you are also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time. He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords."

Alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

Father, as we look to the Scriptures today, I pray that you would open our eyes, ears, and hearts, and our understanding, that we would receive from you what it is that you desire to teach and speak to us. May we be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and may we be able to display in our lives what is your good and perfect will this week. So, God, work in us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You could be seated.

I'm sure you noticed it's been an interesting couple of years. Though it used to seem like these things would go in cycles, it now seems that it is kind of like a steady state for our country. We're getting right back into the season. I know this because this last week, in the mail, I received an official primary ballot. Has anyone else received their absentee ballot this week? So, we're back into the political season.

As I said, it used to seem like it would go in cycles; now it feels like a steady state where it's just always politics all the time. But it's going to ramp up even more over the next several weeks and months. We'll see political signs, we'll receive political mailers, and we'll hear political commercials. It will just be this constant drone of politics, politics, politics.

There is a sense in which I feel very much tired of the political wrangling in our culture, but it's the reality that we live in. I'm sure you've noticed that it has been a steady state, especially since November of 2016. This is due in large part to the fact that things didn't go the way a significant portion of our populace expected in 2016. There was a swing in 2016 that took some people by surprise, and as a result, we have seen this movement in our nation of resistance.

Now we have this new phenomenon referred to by those in the political sphere as virtue signaling. Maybe you've heard of this. Virtue signaling is when people feel the need to be publicly outspoken about every opinion and sentiment they have. Have you noticed this? It causes a bit of a tense climate. Maybe you've experienced this.

Maybe you're at a family gathering, in a work setting, or just in the neighborhood community. Perhaps you're at your kid's baseball game. Whatever the situation may be, there are people talking loudly about their opinions and sentiments. You observe the nods and "aha" moments from those around you, but you find that you're not entirely sure you agree with what's being said. However, you would never let on that you disagree for fear that it might not go well for you. This creates a tense climate, almost like a political cold war between the left and the right in our nation, which seems to be ongoing.

It certainly can be tense, and it appears that certain voices in our culture would love for this cold war tension to escalate into an open fight. Obviously, that's not what we want, but that sense caters to some of the weaker parts of our nature. Then we come to a passage like this one in First Timothy, chapter 6, verse 11: "But you, a man of God, flee these things." If you're a follower of Jesus today, if you are a Christian, then you would be classified as a man or a woman of God; that's what the Scriptures call you. This passage has a word for you.

Now, if you're not yet a follower of Jesus and wouldn't call yourself a Christian, we're really glad that you're here. We're blessed that you would come and engage with the Scriptures with us today. I believe that God wants to speak something to you as well. However, if you are someone who is classified as a man or a woman of God, a follower of Jesus, then God has a very simple word for you.

Here, Paul's exhortation is that we should flee something. The word "flee" simply means to seek safety by flight; it implies that something dangerous is in pursuit, and you need to escape from it. This begs the question: What exactly are the things that Paul is saying we should flee from? The things are identified in the previous section of this passage, specifically in First Timothy, chapter 6, verses 1 through 10. We looked at that last week, and if you weren't here, you can find the message online at lifeinconnection.com.

I don't have a lot of time to revisit each of those verses, but there are about ten things that Paul identifies in those verses that I believe he wants us to flee. They include pride, ignorance, disputes, arguments, envy, strife, and reviling.

Evil suspicions, useless wranglings—he calls it greed and the love of money. I have been doing a moderate amount of self-examination and introspection this last week, pondering this passage and meditating on the things that Paul speaks of here. Although I know it theologically, it is a struggle to acknowledge in reality that in my nature, I find every single one of these things in spades: pride, ignorance, disputes, arguments, envy, and strife. All of these things that Paul says we need to flee are present within us.

As I was thinking about pride, I realized I am a very proud person. We live in a culture that seems to fan the flames of pride in a big way. I can remember, as a junior higher, being taught to memorize the definition of pride: a justifiable reflection of one's worst abilities and high ideals. I still remember it all these years later. At my high school, there were 15-foot high letters on the side of the gymnasium spelling out the word "PRIDE." I am part of the first graduating class that would be called Millennials, so I am all in on this whole movement of self-esteem. That is what I was taught throughout my schooling.

Then there were participation awards. My generation saw those really start in a big way. There is this constant push towards pride, and there is a way in which it can become very wrong and carnal. While there are certain forms of being proud about something that might be okay, there are many ways in which we can drift into something quite carnal. I find that in myself; it is there in my nature.

Regarding ignorance, I am quite fine being ignorant about all kinds of different things until it becomes clear to others that I am ignorant about something. Then, because of my pride, I have to save face and show that I really do think I know what I am talking about on that topic or issue. This has led to disputes and arguments.

Do we have any married couples here this morning? Come on, have you ever had one of those?

Situations arise where, in our pride, we may be ignorant of something, yet it becomes clear that our spouse realizes our ignorance. Because of our pride, we feel the need to save face, which can lead to disputes or arguments. Have you ever experienced a moment during a dispute where you found yourself wondering what you were arguing about or why? Despite this uncertainty, pride prevents you from giving in. We have all experienced this, and I see some heads nodding, so I don't feel completely alone in this.

Pride, ignorance, disputes, arguments, envy, and strife are certainly common issues we face. When this text discusses disputes and arguments, it refers to those who are obsessed with them. The original language describes someone with an unhealthy craving for controversy. I like to think that I have matured beyond such cravings, but I have been known to stir things up. There are those close to me who have even labeled me a "grenade thrower." There is something twisted in my nature that enjoys disputes and arguments. Are there any other antagonists here? Come on, help me out. Thank you! Yes, Joel, absolutely! You and I are kindred spirits in this regard.

I confess that on two occasions before his death, I had to have personal, private conversations with Pastor Chuck Smith because I stirred up some strife and needed to apologize. I realize that this tendency is part of my nature. Then we enter the area of greed and the love of money. Apart from the work of Jesus, I am convinced that this is exactly what my nature would be. I believe it is part of God's wonderful grace and calling that He led me into the nonprofit sector, knowing my nature in this area.

From a young age, I have seen this tendency in myself. I wasn't much into baseball; I only played one season as a seven-year-old. The one thing I enjoyed about baseball was selling candy bars. Do you remember when you had to do that?

What I liked about that time in my life was when I was eight years old and had a paper route. One thing that really sticks out to me from grade school is selling cookie dough, gift wrap, and magazine subscriptions. There was something about that endeavor that really fit with my carnal nature, specifically greed and the love of money. When we take time to consider it, we find these things in ourselves. Paul says here to flee these things, but here's the very simple reality: point number one on your outline is that you will not flee what you do not see in yourself.

I say that because when we hear a preacher speaking against pride, envy, strife, and greed, we instantly start to think things like, "My cousin should hear this message." It's really easy for us to identify these sorts of things in other people. It takes no special gift or ability to recognize these issues in someone else. However, it does take a little bit of the move of God's grace, humility, and some introspection and self-examination for us to acknowledge these things by confession and then to repent of them as we recognize them in ourselves.

But, of course, why should we flee these things? For one, to not do so is contrary to Christ's likeness. When you think of pride, ignorance, disputes, arguments, envy, strife, evil suspicions, useless wrangling, greed, and the love of money, these things do not align with the nature of Christ. They certainly align with our nature; they describe us to a tee. However, they do not correspond with the nature of Christ. Those who promote these things or do not speak against them, as Paul is doing in this area, are not in line with what Christ teaches.

In 1 Timothy 6:3, we saw this in our time together last week: "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he says to withdraw from such a person." But you, O man of God, woman of God, flee these things. Depart from them; do not allow them to reside in you. Why should we do it? To not do so would be contrary to Christ's likeness, and I believe it would also be destructive.

Because speaking about these very things, Paul says this in verse nine of First Timothy six: "Those who desire to be rich"—this is the area of greed and the love of money—"fall into a temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." In verse ten, he continues, "Some have pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

So, why should we flee these things? Because these things are destructive; they do not accord with godliness. Fleeing these things also acknowledges the authority of God and the eternality of His promise. There is something greater than the life we are living for—greater than just life in this world that we are looking towards. To do so is a blessing; to set these things aside is essential. As stated in First Timothy 6:6, "Godliness with contentment is great gain."

Point number two on your outline is that you will not forsake what you do not regard as sinful. Paul instructs us to flee these things, to forsake them, and to renounce them. We are called to reckon them dead, as we see constantly in the New Testament. However, we will not forsake these things until we acknowledge and regard them as unhelpful, as a hindrance, and as sinful in our lives. Once we recognize that these things are unhelpful, it becomes easier to say, "I don't want that in my life." Though we may struggle with it, because it is our nature that we are grappling with, there is a further problem when we recognize the inherent hindrance of sin.

When we flee from something, we need to flee to something. Look at what Paul says in this passage. In verse eleven of First Timothy six, he writes, "But you, O man of God, flee these things." This end is important; it is essential. We must pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

Point number three is that every flight must become a new pursuit. As we flee from envy, strife, pride, and greed in our own nature, as we renounce those things, we need to turn in the other direction and turn towards the virtues mentioned. We must be turning away from the negative and turning to the positive concepts of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

Away and turning to, or putting off and putting on, is seen all throughout the New Testament. One of the other places where we see this is in Ephesians chapter 4, at verse 22. Paul says to put off the old man and put on the new man. He then goes on to describe exactly what that means. He says to put off lying and speak the truth. He says to put off theft, get a job, and give to those who are in need. He instructs us to put away corrupt communication and not to speak corrupt, useless, derogatory language, but to speak that which is edifying and builds people up.

For every "put off," there's a corresponding "put on." Here we have this principle presented: we need to flee from these things that are part of our own nature, and in that place, we need to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and integrity.

Now, this word "pursue" is interesting because the idea of the word is not just to casually follow after, but it conveys the idea of a predator seeking after its prey. We see these things in our own nature—greed, envy, strife, and pride—that we are to flee from, as they are like a predator coming after us. However, we also need to turn and pursue so as to acquire and lay hold of righteousness.

If you've ever tried to live perfectly righteous in and of your own strength, you know that it's pretty futile and very difficult. You cannot do it in your own strength, but by God's grace and by His power, through the work of His Spirit in us, we can pursue righteousness in our lives.

What exactly is righteousness? If you look at this word in the original language, it speaks of integrity, virtue, and purity of life. It speaks of rightness before God. In my own heart, as God has transformed me by His grace and salvation, there is a desire to be right before God. By His Spirit, as we flee those things that are useless in our lives, we can experience God's grace enabling us to walk in a way that is filled with integrity and virtue.

By His ability and power, He calls us to godliness, which is reverence and piety before God and before men. He calls us to faith, and this faith is both in the area of having a steadfast, strong confidence in God, but it also speaks of fidelity and faithfulness to God that we need to pursue in our lives.

God then calls us to pursue love, and the word "love" there is the Greek word "agape." There are many different words in the Greek language for love, but this one is beautifully described in First Corinthians chapter 13, which is commonly referred to as the love chapter. When we read about this love, we see that it is the kind of love that you and I are to pursue. It should be evident in our lives and given towards other people self-sacrificially.

Agape love is kind, patient, not envious, not proud, not boastful, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily provoked, and not resentful. This probably perfectly describes every single one of us—not really at all. However, it describes Christ. If you are a Christian today, you have Christ in you, and you have His Spirit enabling you to pursue this kind of love. You are called to lay aside pride and self-seeking, along with all those things that are not this agape love.

Paul also says that we should pursue patience because that is what we all tend to do. We live in a culture that does not highly value patience, or at least it doesn't seem like it does. Yet, here Paul emphasizes that we need to pursue it in our lives. It is a perseverance, a steadfast dependability that should be evident in us. While it may not describe us by nature, it does describe the new nature that God has given us and desires for us to walk into as we flee pride, envy, strife, and self-seeking.

Finally, he encourages us to pursue gentleness, meekness, and mildness. I wonder how our lives, our homes, our church, and our workplaces might be different if we were a people who, by God's grace, sought to flee the carnality of our fallen nature—pride, envy, strife, and greed—and instead pursued the work of God in the new nature He has given us.

Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness—what might our world look like if the church sought to live by God's grace and by His Spirit to do these things? I'm not saying that we do these things in and of our own strength; we cannot. But if it is true that Christ dwells in us by His Holy Spirit, then we have the enabling power to do so. I don't want to make light of this; it is a difficult struggle to walk in these things, as we're going to see as we continue in the text. This describes our very nature: greed, self-seeking, and all these sorts of things.

However, God has given us a new nature. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ," which is how he commonly refers to Christians, "they are a new creation. All the old things have passed away; behold, everything has become new." When Paul talks about putting off the old man and putting on the new man in Ephesians chapter 4, he says in verse 23, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness."

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 36:26, said, "Behold, God is going to take from you your old stony heart and give you a new heart of flesh. Upon it, He is going to write His word, His law, and He is going to make you a new creation." This was prophesied five hundred years before Jesus came by Ezekiel. Now, the Christian is a new creation; they have a new nature that God has given to them by His grace, created in righteousness and true holiness. That is why Paul says to flee the old nature and pursue the new. It is something that we, by God's grace, can do, but again, as I said, it is not something that is simple.

Look at 1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." Point number four on your outline: the flight from the old man and the pursuit of the new is the good fight of faith. Paul says, "Listen, Christian, fight the good fight of faith." This is a good endeavor to be committed to: to flee the old man and to pursue the new man by the grace of God and His Spirit.

At work in you, this is a good thing to commit yourself to. It is the good fight of faith. Now, this is a very interesting verse. What Paul says here in verse 12 has a lot of complexity, and I think we need to try and peel back a little bit, unpack it a little bit.

If today you have confessed Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you are saved. Romans chapter 10 says that if we confess with the mouth and believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, confess Him as Lord, then you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So, if you have confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior in your life, you are saved. This means you have been promised eternal life with God—life forever in His presence. Psalm 16 says, "In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore." That sounds really good.

We don't know all the details of it, but we are given little peaks into this future eternity that we have been promised in Christ. Yet, here in this verse, Paul says to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, as if it's still something that's not yet in our grasp. How does that fit? If we have come, called, and confessed a good confession, we've confessed Christ Jesus as Lord, and we've been given the promise of eternity with Him, what does it mean to now lay hold on eternal life?

I believe what Paul is getting at here is something very important. There is an already-not-yet sort of sense that we have as Christians. If you've put your trust in Jesus and confessed Him as Lord, you already have the promise of eternity with God. It is sure, it is set, it is certain—it's an absolute expectation of coming good. Yet, still here in this life, sometimes Christians live in a defeated, deflated sort of walk where they are overcome by the old nature, with its pride, envy, strife, and greed. They don't seem to experience the peace, joy, victory, and blessing of eternity. As a result, they get into a kind of Christian mindset where they think, "If only Jesus would just come back and rescue me from all this."

This fallenness, I guess, all I have to look forward to is either His second coming or dying, and then I'll be free of all this sort of thing. Yet, Paul here says, "No, flee the old man; pursue the new man." In doing this, fighting the good fight of faith, you will lay hold on that which is yours.

What Paul is describing here is that the Christian can enjoy in this life not just something they are looking forward to in some kind of shady future that they can't quite see fully yet, but they can lay hold of right now the joy, the peace, the victory, and the blessing of eternal life. How do we do that? By fighting the good fight of faith and fleeing that which is our old nature while pursuing that which is our new nature in Christ Jesus.

Now, I do want to say this is a God-empowered work. He enables us and empowers us by His indwelling Holy Spirit to do this. This is why Paul, in Philippians chapter 2, verse 12, would say, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure."

There has been this constant debate among Christians for the last 500 years since the Protestants: the responsibility of man, called Arminianism, and those who promote the sovereignty of God, called Calvinism. But what you find when you get into the Scriptures is that both of these things—the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God—are welded together in the Scriptures. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" is your responsibility, for the sovereign God is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

As you, by His indwelling power, flee those things that Paul exhorts you to flee in this passage, which are a part of your nature, and pursue that which is a part of His nature, you can begin, in that good fight of faith, to experience the peace, the joy, the victory, and the blessing of eternal life now in this life. This is what God commands you and me to do.

Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 13. Paul says, "I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment." I urge you that you keep this command.

Without spot or blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, keep this commandment. What commandments is he exhorting us, urging us to keep? Well, there are four imperative commands given in the previous verses we just looked at: flee, pursue, fight, and lay hold of. He says, "I urge you, keep this commandment: flee the old nature, pursue the new nature, fight this good fight of faith." It takes energy and effort to do it by God's grace, and lay hold of that for which you have been saved in Christ. Lay hold of it—the very thing that you are saved for.

Point number five on your outline: this good fight of faith is our whole concern until the end. If you're a Christian today, this is the enterprise that we are about—fighting the good fight of faith to lay hold on eternal life, to flee the old man, to pursue the new man, and to lay hold of that which Christ has saved you for. This is our concern as followers of Jesus.

You see, when you study through the New Testament and read about this theological concept of salvation, sometimes you can be a little bit confused. The idea and concept of being saved is found in three different tenses in the Bible. It's found in the past tense: you have been saved. It's found in the present tense: you are being saved. And it's found in the future tense: you shall be saved. So which is it? Am I saved? Yes. Am I being saved? Yes. Will I be saved? Yes. How does that fit?

Well, it fits like this. Salvation encompasses three different things: justification, sanctification, and glorification. If you've put your trust in Jesus Christ, then His death on the cross has been appropriated to you. You are declared righteous by God. But how many of you sometimes don't feel very saved? That's because you are being saved by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

So we have justification, then we have sanctification. Those who are being saved—the gospel is the power of God—and you and I are being saved by the work of God's Spirit, sanctifying, cleansing, and transforming us more and more into the likeness of His children. But Peter talks about one day we shall be saved.

When this corruption puts on incorruption and this mortal body puts on immortality, when we see Him, we shall be like Him. We are looking forward to glorification. So, we have justification, sanctification, and glorification; all of these are part of salvation. If you're a Christian today, you have been justified, and therefore you can be certain of your future glorification.

So, what is your focus right now? It is the work of sanctification as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It takes some effort; it takes some energy as God is working in you to will and to do His good pleasure.

Now, you may say, "Well, Paul makes this reference at the end of verse 14. He says, 'Do this, keep this commandment until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing.'" There has been a lot of energy spent by Christians trying to figure out just when that is going to be. Over the last 20 years of being in pastoral ministry, I have known a lot of people who have asked me, "When is Jesus going to come?" Here is my simple answer: Jesus didn't know, so how would I know? Why do you ask me this question? Jesus says, "I don't know; it's for the Father to know."

But here, Paul says, "Do this, keep this commandment until the Lord Jesus Christ appears." You may ask, "When will that happen?" Well, Paul answers it. Look at verse 15: "which He will manifest in His own time." Circle that—He will manifest in His own time. God has a time schedule; He is working according to His schedule. He will manifest the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in His own time.

So, what is the implication there? The exhortation, by implication, is this: you and I should probably stop spending so much time trying to figure out when He is going to return and start working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. He alone, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, is the ruler—the only one. You may say, "Well, there are other rulers, other kings." Yes, but He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as the passage says, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and everlasting power.

God is on His own time schedule; He will wrap things up when He is ready to do so. But until then, if you have put your trust in Jesus, you have been saved. You are justified.

Shall be glorified, but today is the day of us working out our salvation as He works in us, too, willing to do His good pleasure. We need to take that step to renounce those things that are not in line with His nature, to reckon those things dead, to flee that fallen part of our old nature that is filled with pride, envy, strife, and greed. In its place, we need to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

I am convinced that as we do this, we will fail; we will fall. We won't do it perfectly, but we can be confident of this very thing: He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. We can be certain that when we confess our failures to Him, He is faithful and just to cleanse us and to forgive us, saying, "Come on, let's do it again." This is the call that He has given us; this is the command that He has laid before us: fight the good fight of faith by His grace at work in us.

So, would you stand with me as we ask God in prayer to help us do that today? Father, I thank You that You are gracious and that You do forgive us when we fail and bring those things to You in confession and repentance. I pray that You would continue to work in us to transform us more and more into the image of Your kids.

Lord, help us this week to take those steps. It is a step of faith to walk these things out, to fight the good fight of faith, to lay hold of that for which You saved us, that You would shine brightly in and through our lives through Your righteousness at work in us.

God, do that work. It may be that as we are standing here this morning, you recognize that you've been trying to do all of this without the help of God, without the forgiving grace of salvation. You recognize that you need His saving grace at work in your life, and you would like the forgiveness of God. I want to give you a chance this morning to receive that grace; it is a free gift given because of what Jesus did on the cross.

If you'd like to confess Him today and receive His salvation, as we're in an attitude of prayer, would you just lift up your hand? Is there anyone here this morning? God bless you; I see you over here. Is there anyone else who wants to receive that forgiving grace? I see you in the middle. Anyone else right there in the middle on the right? I see you.

If that's you, would you just pray with me? Out loud: Dear Jesus, I know I can't do it on my own. Would you come into my life, forgive me of my sin, help me to follow You by faith, and to fight this good fight? In Jesus' name, amen.