Fighting the Good Fight: Nurturing Faith and Discipleship
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "It's a war for the souls of men and women. It is a war for truth. It is a war that is fought with very different weapons. The weapons that we fight with are not of this world. And yet in its own way the war is every bit as deadly as the wars in Israel and Ukraine. Jesus gave us our mission. It is to make disciples. But we don't do that on a neutral playing field. Our mission to make disciples is carried out in a spiritual war zone." [31:29](
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2. "The mission that we have is essential. It's essential because we've been given the truth. It is essential because it's the difference between heaven and hell, this mission of communicating the truth. That's why Paul calls it, a good fight. It's good, this struggle is good because it gives us life and forgiveness and it truly sets us free. But it is a war and we should take it seriously." [32:42](
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3. "If you haven't yet come to faith, open up your heart. Take hold of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We're going to share the elements of communion. These elements take us right to the message and really right to the heart of the message, right to the Gospel. Jesus Christ offering up His life, through His death and then His resurrection. Again, there's full forgiveness, giving us salvation." [56:25](
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4. "We live in a spiritual war zone. Our mission to make disciples, again, is carried out in a spiritual war zone. Every believer, though, in this room has been equipped, spiritually, to do this. This doesn't require some great intellect or unusual speaking skills or anything like that. This is a place arguments or some clever argument, compelling argument. We just pray. Again, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. We pray and we share the truth. We open up our homes. Again, we have conversations. We tell our own stories. God takes that. He will take that and He uses that to draw people to Himself." [55:40](
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5. "Command those who are rich in this present world. When we see this language, rich is a relative word. We already think of the people who have more money than we do. They're the ones who are rich. And there are certainly exceptions, but the reality is that the vast majority of people in this room are rich by any real standard of the world. We're to command those who are rich not to be arrogant. Riches, wealth will give us a false sense of importance. And we're not to put our hope in wealth, which is so uncertain it will give us a false sense of security. We're to put our hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." [46:04](
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### Quotes for Members
1. "The New Testament warns us that we're up against a truly dangerous enemy. This is Paul from a similar passage, parallel passage. He said, we're up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. And so behind the various spokesmen and spokeswomen who would reject this truth, and they may be very winsome and attractive in the way they present their message, and they may not even realize it, but we need to realize that behind these voices that would oppose the truth, we finally have the one Satan, demonic forces that would energize them. But we're involved in a very serious war." [33:21](
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2. "If we forget who we are in the heat of battle, we're very likely to walk away from the truth, from the faith. In verse 13, we have military language. It says Paul is issuing Timothy an order. And he begins by reminding him, I'm doing this in front of the one, Timothy, that you're accountable to, in the sight of God who gives life to everything. And not only the Father, but the Son. And in front of Jesus Christ. Who, while testifying before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession. And he's going back to that time when Jesus is being questioned by Pilate. And Pilate asks him if he's a king. And Jesus says, yes, I am a king. Again, he knows who he is. He's open about who he is at that point." [42:16](
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3. "And so we come up, just maybe in our own lives, we're struggling with some clear message that the Bible teaches. What am I going to do with this? Can I accept this? What is this going to mean for my family? And again, as we wrestle with that issue, we can find ourselves drifting away from the truth. It could be a personal battle against despair. Our minds can be a battlefield for lustful thoughts. For both married men and women, it may be a battle against an affair that is even now inching towards you. But Satan will use these various moral issues to, again, pull us away from the truth, to cause us to doubt this very clear message that has been communicated to us, again, in the Word." [35:46](
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)
4. "And so we open our homes, and we tell our stories about coming to faith, and we speak the truth in love. We're fighting the good fight, and we're taking hold of eternal life, who I am. I have this new identity, and I have this very different future. And so I think of my neighbor who lives across the street, who hasn't yet come to faith in Jesus Christ. And what will that mean if he dies outside of Christ? What will that mean for him? And I take hold again of what eternal life means, and I make the hard decisions and the hard steps. I want to share with him. I want him to have an opportunity, a clear opportunity to hear this message." [45:33](
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5. "And then the Christian writer said, years later, as he looked back on that conversation, as far as he knew, as far as he could tell, there had never been any sense of repentance on the part of the man who had asked him that. There was never any desire, as far as he knew, for forgiveness. These moral issues, again, we're involved in a spiritual war. These moral issues, Satan will use those to take us away from the truth. You had that language, again, at the end of verse 10. Some people eager for money, there it's materialism, have wandered from the faith. They have pierced themselves with many griefs." [39:17](
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Ask a question about this sermon
1. "It's a war for the souls of men and women. It is a war for truth. It is a war that is fought with very different weapons. The weapons that we fight with are not of this world. And yet in its own way the war is every bit as deadly as the wars in Israel and Ukraine. Jesus gave us our mission. It is to make disciples. But we don't do that on a neutral playing field. Our mission to make disciples is carried out in a spiritual war zone." [31:29](
| | )2. "The mission that we have is essential. It's essential because we've been given the truth. It is essential because it's the difference between heaven and hell, this mission of communicating the truth. That's why Paul calls it, a good fight. It's good, this struggle is good because it gives us life and forgiveness and it truly sets us free. But it is a war and we should take it seriously." [32:42](
| | )3. "If you haven't yet come to faith, open up your heart. Take hold of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We're going to share the elements of communion. These elements take us right to the message and really right to the heart of the message, right to the Gospel. Jesus Christ offering up His life, through His death and then His resurrection. Again, there's full forgiveness, giving us salvation." [56:25](
| | )4. "We live in a spiritual war zone. Our mission to make disciples, again, is carried out in a spiritual war zone. Every believer, though, in this room has been equipped, spiritually, to do this. This doesn't require some great intellect or unusual speaking skills or anything like that. This is a place arguments or some clever argument, compelling argument. We just pray. Again, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. We pray and we share the truth. We open up our homes. Again, we have conversations. We tell our own stories. God takes that. He will take that and He uses that to draw people to Himself." [55:40](
| | )5. "Command those who are rich in this present world. When we see this language, rich is a relative word. We already think of the people who have more money than we do. They're the ones who are rich. And there are certainly exceptions, but the reality is that the vast majority of people in this room are rich by any real standard of the world. We're to command those who are rich not to be arrogant. Riches, wealth will give us a false sense of importance. And we're not to put our hope in wealth, which is so uncertain it will give us a false sense of security. We're to put our hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." [46:04](
| | )### Quotes for Members
1. "The New Testament warns us that we're up against a truly dangerous enemy. This is Paul from a similar passage, parallel passage. He said, we're up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil. And so behind the various spokesmen and spokeswomen who would reject this truth, and they may be very winsome and attractive in the way they present their message, and they may not even realize it, but we need to realize that behind these voices that would oppose the truth, we finally have the one Satan, demonic forces that would energize them. But we're involved in a very serious war." [33:21](
| | )2. "If we forget who we are in the heat of battle, we're very likely to walk away from the truth, from the faith. In verse 13, we have military language. It says Paul is issuing Timothy an order. And he begins by reminding him, I'm doing this in front of the one, Timothy, that you're accountable to, in the sight of God who gives life to everything. And not only the Father, but the Son. And in front of Jesus Christ. Who, while testifying before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession. And he's going back to that time when Jesus is being questioned by Pilate. And Pilate asks him if he's a king. And Jesus says, yes, I am a king. Again, he knows who he is. He's open about who he is at that point." [42:16](
| | )3. "And so we come up, just maybe in our own lives, we're struggling with some clear message that the Bible teaches. What am I going to do with this? Can I accept this? What is this going to mean for my family? And again, as we wrestle with that issue, we can find ourselves drifting away from the truth. It could be a personal battle against despair. Our minds can be a battlefield for lustful thoughts. For both married men and women, it may be a battle against an affair that is even now inching towards you. But Satan will use these various moral issues to, again, pull us away from the truth, to cause us to doubt this very clear message that has been communicated to us, again, in the Word." [35:46](
| | )4. "And so we open our homes, and we tell our stories about coming to faith, and we speak the truth in love. We're fighting the good fight, and we're taking hold of eternal life, who I am. I have this new identity, and I have this very different future. And so I think of my neighbor who lives across the street, who hasn't yet come to faith in Jesus Christ. And what will that mean if he dies outside of Christ? What will that mean for him? And I take hold again of what eternal life means, and I make the hard decisions and the hard steps. I want to share with him. I want him to have an opportunity, a clear opportunity to hear this message." [45:33](
| | )5. "And then the Christian writer said, years later, as he looked back on that conversation, as far as he knew, as far as he could tell, there had never been any sense of repentance on the part of the man who had asked him that. There was never any desire, as far as he knew, for forgiveness. These moral issues, again, we're involved in a spiritual war. These moral issues, Satan will use those to take us away from the truth. You had that language, again, at the end of verse 10. Some people eager for money, there it's materialism, have wandered from the faith. They have pierced themselves with many griefs." [39:17](
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