Fight the Good Fight – Part 2

Learning What’s Worth Fighting For!

1Corinthians 6:12

 

DATE: 13 July, 2008 AM                                                                                                                                                     

PLACE: BBC Ballincollig

 

I.       Introduction (1Tim 6:11-12)

 

A.    The theme this month is Bow the Knee Defiantly – The need for Resistance in our Worship! Not against GOD, but against things that interfere between us and God!

B.     What do I mean by that? That in order to worship the Lord Jesus, I must not allow anything, not ANYTHING to come between me and doing His will. In order to yield to God, I must stand firm against sin – amen!

C.     Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but it sure matters to God how easily things become more important to us that He is in our lives. Doesn’t it amaze you how quickly we just go back to our “old routines” right after church?

D.    At some point, a Christian must not only bend the knee towards the Lord Jesus Christ, but also make a stand against enslaving sin that seeks to control their lives!

E.     This morning, I want to start a fight! Start a fight against the things that creep into our hearts and minds, and defile us! And by the way, I want to win!

 

II.    Background (Ephesians 6:13)

 

A.    The Meaning of Defiance

 

1.      A willingness to fight

2.      A casting aside what used to control you

3.      Getting angry enough to win against your sworn enemy

4.      A bravery towards your enemy

5.      A resistance to being conquered

 

B.     There are some things are worth fighting for because the consequences of not doing so are terrible. And so we fight.

 

III. Review

 

A.    Fight For Control (Luke 6:46; Gen 32:24-28) Who’s going to be in Control

 

1.      Instead of fighting to BE in control… (oh THAT is the norm today)…

2.      The fight is for you to YIELD control!

3.      Hey! Jesus earned that right, but rarely do believers yield total control over to Him (Philp 2:9-11)!!!

 

B.     Fight for a Good Conscience (1Tim 1:19)

 

1.      Oh the blessing of a clean and good conscience! We call it INNOCENCE in children! When they can run around in a nappy and have no thought of it falling off! When they can look straight at you and stare and stare and have no guilt of shame at all coming to their minds!

2.      What is your conscience?

 

a.       All the things you think about, are in your conscience

b.      All the things you worry about are in your conscience

c.       What you allow or decide is from your conscience

d.      Your conscience is what God moves and pulls upon. The more sensitive, the easier to hear God’s still small voice. The more defiled, means it is harder to get anything from your Bible reading, or even from church (that’s why so many churches have LOUD drums, and Rock Music, and a heavy emphasis on entertainment… burned out consciences)!

e.       And oh how important that our conscience be working well! Not clogged up, and malfunctioning!

 

3.      What affects, and ruins our conscience:

 

a.       Our Past does – the hurts we have felt, and the hurts we have done.

b.      Our Looseness - When someone just lives for video games and entertainment… it burns out their conscience.

c.       Our Bitterness (Heb 12:15) – unresolved revenge

 

4.      What’s it like to have a defiled conscience?

 

a.       Unable to sleep, or rest

b.      In bondage to fear

c.       Overwhelming guilt and shame

d.      Unable to serve and bless and live – just want to die!

 

5.      Oh to fight to retain a clean conscience, or to fight to get it back!

 

a.       Through the cleansing power of just reading and meditating on Scripture (John 15:3)

b.      Through humbling yourself and being honest, totally, and completely honest (Luke 15:21)

c.       Through believing in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb 9:13,14)

 

6.      A good conscience is worth fighting for! Would you agree!?

 

C.     Fight for a Soft Heart (Exodus 8:19; Pr 29:1) I think this is more important than 99% of you will admit

 

1.      Oh how hard the heart can get

2.      It takes a fighter to keep his/her heart soft – it is easy to let it grow hard!

3.      Let’s listen to God’s concern about hard hearts: Luke 13:34  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”

4.      We need constant reminding about this (Heb 3:13, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin”)

5.      Keep your heart soft, and sensitive to the gentle breeze of God’s holy Spirit, and the simple push of God’s commands

6.      Stay able to feel, and able to love, and able to respond to simple things

 

IV. Message Continued

 

A.    Fight for a Clean Life (1Cor 6:15-20; 3:16-18)

 

1.      Fight either to GET Clean, or to STAY clean! Don’t give in to the downward spiral of sin in your life

2.      Romans 6:23 is true no matter what you think!

3.      Gentlemen…

 

a.       Flee fornication and pornography

b.      Realize that God judges all whoremongers and adulterers (Heb 13:4)

c.       Keep thyself pure (1Tim 5:22, “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.”)

d.      Realize also that your future wife would like to marry a clean man who has everything to give her, not just the left-overs!

e.       Fight off the urge to try to “prove” something – you have NOTHING to prove except that your future wife is WORTH WAITING FOR!

f.       Stay away from the cigarettes, the bottles of Teacher and Paddys, Jameson and Hennessy, and from the packets of hash and cannabis. Stay away from the ecstasy pills, and the stimulants. That includes Red Bull. Hate ANYTHING that hinders your ability to live clean, and right!

g.      Do you know what drug addicts say when they are free from drugs? “I am CLEAN” 8 months… etc!” AMEN! Comes from 1Cor 6:11

 

4.      Ladies…

 

a.       Don’t you believe the other girls – they are ALL liars!

b.      Don’t for a minute think the girls who play around are happy – they are only USED! And it is from that bunch that we get feminists today who have nothing but hatred for “men” – it’s because they thought they wouldn’t get burned, but they do!

c.       Keep your purity young ladies! The Bible word for it is virginity – what a great word!

d.      Fight off the urge to throw away your greatest gift to your future husband, and to your future daughters!

e.       Every used-up girl WISHES she had fought the pressure to get a boyfriend

f.       They ALL wish they had fought the pressure to be used one night

 

5.      Fight to keep your life clean! It doesn’t happen by accident! And it is not ever an easy fight!

6.      But every methadone addict will tell you they wish, they so WISH they had fought against heroin and against the drug dealer and against the buddies behind the bushes!

7.      Let me tell you, there is no one in this room who has not lost a fight against sin, and against the devil!

8.      But there are plenty in this room who have recovered themselves out of the snare of the devil, out of the grip of Satan’s jaws – just by God’s grace and truth!

9.      Methamphetamine, also known as “meth,” “speed,” “crank,” or “ice,” is a powerful and highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Meth is a synthetic drug produced or sold as pills, capsules, or powder that can be smoked, snorted, injected, or swallowed.

10.  Methamphetamine is neurotoxic, meaning it damages the nervous system. Meth use can cause dependence and addiction psychosis, stroke, dangerously high body temperature, and cardiac arrhythmia. Withdrawal often results in severe depression and paranoia.

11.  Did you know, that Methadone kills more people than heroin?

 

B.     Fight for a Godly Home (Nehemiah 4:14)

 

1.      Godly homes are rare!

 

a.       Recent announcement that homosexual couples can "marry" in California. Spreading like wildfire across the western world – it is not a good thing!

 

1)      Netherlands. The first country to grant gay marriage in 2001.

2)      Belgium. The second nation to legalize same-sex marriage in 2003.

3)      South Africa. South Africa became the fifth nation to recognize gay marriage in 2005.

4)      Canada. In June of 2005, the Canadian Parliament enacted a law allowing legal marriage for same-sex couples.

5)      Spain. Spain became the fourth nation to allow gay marriage on June 29, 2005.

6)      Norway. Became the sixth country to legalize same-sex marriage on May 11, 2008.

 

b.      It seems judges have lost all moorings. Governments don’t care about their societies, only about pressure groups!

 

2.      Folks, Nehemiah lived in a day when the home was being attacked on every side. He was attempting to rebuild the city walls that had been torn down because of the sins of his great grandparents

 

a.       Listen to His resolve: "Be ye not afraid of them: remember the LORD... and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses." (Nehemiah 4:14)

b.      Do you ever wish you could run away from all the ungodliness and humanism which is prevalent in the world?

c.       But God has put us where He has us for a reason. He has called us as parents to a great work. I cannot shirk this responsibility He has given me to glorify Him as a child of God!

d.      This verse commands us to stand firm in our Biblical beliefs even when it seems the world is crumbling around us

 

3.      You and I may not be able to change the world, but we can have an impact in our homes by training and raising up our children, our wife, our husband to be valiant warriors for the Cross of Christ.

4.      I read of a Christian author who described the immense efforts it takes to raise our children, and referred to it as raising up "intercontinental ballistic missiles" in the battle for the home!

5.      The world may laugh, the world may scoff, the world may persecute.

6.      But I have determined that I must persevere. I must press on. I must be faithful to the Biblical pattern for the home. Not the Homer Simpson pattern!

7.      How do you fight for your home?

 

a.       Bring the Lord into your home – don’t leave Him “at Church.” Honour Him all day long!

b.      Obey the Lord yourself first!

c.       Teach – don’t just expect people to do right

d.      Make some decisions for your home as leaders (Josh 24:15). Quit wimping out! “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; ... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

e.       Pray for your parents, your husband to yield to God’s authority instead of Satan’s!

f.       Become a great follower – crucify the rebel in you

g.      Take back control of your TV, and your radio, and your kid’s rooms and their computers! Amen!

h.      That is, if you want your home to survive!!!

 

8.      My home, and my wife, and my children, and my grandchildren someday, are all worth fighting for! The world is not getting my kids without me putting up a serious fight!

 

C.     Fight for a Lost Soul (2Tim 2:4; 23-26; Isaiah 1:18)

 

1.      We must be more than just people who live differently than the world around us

 

a.       Yes, a believer is a “light” in a very dark world – even when Christians say nothing, they shine!

b.      But a light can only illuminate, and can only warn of dangers like a lighthouse can

 

2.      We must engage the enemy where the real battle is – in the heart

3.      How to Win a Soul

 

a.       Pray specifically for that person

 

1)      Pray passionately for God’s help to open their eyes to the truth

2)      Pray against the confusion and grip of the devil over their hearts

 

b.      Present the crucifixion (gal 3:1)

c.       Place yourself at the cross – as deserving it

d.      Plead with them from the Scriptures of their need. Take time to teach people, answering their questions

e.       Press them to make a decision – not to put it off

 

4.      Why all the effort? Because the consequences are eternal!

5.      Folks, there still is a hell. And good people end up there simply because they don’t know any better, or they have never met anyone who cared for their soul!

6.      Psa 142:4  I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.”

7.      But if I have anything to do about it, I am going to make it very hard to go to hell in Ballincollig!

 

V.    Conclusion/Application

 

A.    This morning, I hope I got you into a fighting mood! I wanted to start a fight… a fight against the things that creep into our hearts and minds, and ruin us! And, I want to win!

B.     I believe that there are some things are worth fighting for, because the consequences of not doing so are terrible and so wrong. And so we fight.

C.     Please, start a fight…

 

1.      For Who’s going to be in Control

2.      For a Good Conscience

3.      For a Soft Heart

4.      For a Clean Life

5.      For a Godly Home

6.      For a Lost Soul – isn’t there ANYBODY that you care about? That you will fight for in prayer, in preaching, in pleading?

 

D.    Maybe it is YOU whom someone has been burdened with

 

 

Craig Ledbetter |  Pastor  |  Bible Baptist Church  |  021-4871234  +353-21-4871234  |  biblebc@gmail.com  www.biblebc.com