Series #3 - How to Fight and What to Fight for - Part 1

Clarification #2: Christian Heathenism does not make happiness of right and wrong. Christian Heathenism makes God the measure of what is right and wrong and it is a sin to not like it.

Happiness does not make something right and wrong. What makes you most happy shows you what is your God.

Clarification #2: We must fight for joy even though happiness is spontaneous not volitional.

Why do we have to fight?

2 Corinthians 1:24: Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.

He sandwiches joy with faith on both side. In fact he almost uses them interchangeably suggesting that an essential component is joy

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

We are told to fight for Faith. if joy is part of Faith

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Matthew 24:12-13 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Love in it’s hotness - will be saved - Fight to not grow cold.

it’s real, long, and serious.

How do you put together spontinuity and gift and Fight.

God cannot be just if I cannot emediate perform. This is wrong

Romans 8:7: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Right young Ruler - Go sell everything you have. Where was his Treasure?

Fight for Joy though you cannot fight for Joy.

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Farmers want crops to grow but they can’t make it grow - but they can water and plant and weed...

1 Corinthians 3:6-8 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Acts 26:17-18 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

This should create a sertan modesty in us.

Proverbs 21:31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

Proverbs 19:21: Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

Psalm 127:1: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

This produces: people who are

keep you from falling into legalism

Helps balance life is fight and life is rest

Matthew 7:14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Matthew 11: 28-29 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

The war is to rest in the right place. not in your looks, money, insurance, cruses, … But it rest in Christ.

Also gives.