Fight of Your Life

By grace you have been saved, through faith.

A lot of us get comfortable in this war of life. Picture being in a war, like Afghanistan or Iraq, you don't have any time to get comfy.

 "our battle is not against flesh and blood but the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this.dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly wrelms." Ephesians 6:12

& The next verse tells us to put on the "full armor of God." Or in my translation, He is telling us to get prepared to MAKE WAR!

So right here Paul is telling us that it's not a war against physically seen things like the wars we see on the news and the movies. We are in spiritual warfare. Surely you can lose your life in a civil or world war, but when possession of your soul is at stake, you can lose eternity with a God that desires all of you.

Therefore, spiritual warfare is not a game, & make war is not a joke! Its a BIG deal!

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1 Timothy 6:12
"Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life"

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FACT: We fight for things and will continue to fight for the rest of our lives.
Against lust & sexual purity, idolatry, lying, pride, selfishness, etc, fill in the blank but while you fight remember this

Faith in God and the fight for holiness is the same thing.

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There are three main false claims that we need to destroy before we understand the severity of sin.

I) At times we fight as if faith gets you to heaven and holiness gets you rewards. 
So you pick and choose when and how you fight because you already have heaven.

II) At times we fight as if we are justified by faith and sanctified by works. But this is not sanctification, fighting for your faith is.  

1 Thessalonians 5:23

 the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Sanctify comes from the same Greek word as holiness, which is "hagios" meaning separation. Being sanctified is the separation from sin. So how can you win a war without fighting?

III) At times we fight as if you start the Christian life in the spirit and forgiveness and are allowed to continue living in the efforts of the flesh.

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Paul says in Romans 6:1-2, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

This is our war cry, this is our response, this is our action.
The battle of obedience is necessecary for salvation because it.is the fight of faith. The battle against (sin) is neccessary for salvation because it truly is the battle of unbelief. -John Piper

It doesnt matter how much you know either! Theologans can go straight to hell! So if we say make war but dont actually make war. Its what we do that defines us.

So i wanted to relay this tough message God has taught me to you: The faith that delivers us from Hell is the same one that delivers us from these sins, big and small.

Romans 6:1-14
     What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
    For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
    Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
   
How you wage war with sin is a big deal. It can tell a lot about you. It can tell if your serious about your faith or not. It can tell if you.are comfy where you are or not. It can tell if you treasure eternity with God ornot.

So what is this war against sin? Unbelief.
The war is on and we are constantly battling the very true fact that God is real and He is victorious by way of His son Jesus christ. We are battling belief in that fact that God is truly enough. So we resort to alternatives.

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

You are fighting for your faith. So how will you fight?

1 Timothy 6:12
"Fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life