Flee, Follow, Fight, and Fasten On

Transcript

GR 1777
9/28/2014
Flee, Follow, Fight and Fasten On
I Timothy 6:11-12
Gil Rugh

We are going to I Timothy chapter 6 in your Bibles, I Timothy and the 6th chapter. We have Timothy referred to a man of God in I Timothy chapter 6, verse 11: “Flee from these things you man of God.” That is a title that is drawn from the Old Testament and the most prominent man identified as a man of God would be the man, Moses. He is called a man of God in the Old Testament on six occasions. We are not going to look at each of these. It starts in Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 1 and you could follow them along but in Joshua chapter 14, verse 6 a conversation with Caleb and Joshua. They refer to the fact that “you know the Word which the Lord spoke to Moses, the man of God” and then in the next verse, Joshua 14:7 he refers to Moses as the servant of the Lord and that gives you some sense of what we are talking about, a man of God, a man who had devoted his life to serving the Lord, to honoring Him. He was faithful to the Word that God gave him. He was faithful with the Word that God gave him and God honored him. He is known as a man of God.

Other prophetic leaders in the Old Testament are referred to and given the title, “man of God.” Let me just name some of them for you, David in II Chronicles 8:14, Samuel in I Samuel 9:6, Elijah, I Kings 17:18 and 24, Elisha, II Kings 4:1, there are other verses in that context where they are also referred to by that title. Other prophets in the Old Testament such as I Kings 13:1 where they might not be identified by name are referred to by the title, man of God, those who had the Word of God were faithful to that Word and were faithful with the Word and so were true servants of God living their lives in obedience, pleasing Him.

When you come to the New Testament there are only two references where the title, “man of God” is used and both of those are in the context of the letters to Timothy. The first passage is right here where we are in I Timothy chapter 6, verse 11. We will look at the second reference as we move a little further along in the passage.

The context is important as we look at the title given to Timothy and what God is saying in the context when he is addressed as the man of God here. Three times in this letter Paul has warned Timothy about the dangers of false teachers and false doctrine. Each time he follows that warning with a challenge to Timothy personally for him to remain strong and faithful.

Come back to I Timothy chapter 1, verses 3-7 contain instructions to Timothy about false teachers. We have looked at this a number of times. Verse 3: “As I urged you upon my departure to Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct or command certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” Then he goes on down through verse 7 to talk about some of those doctrines.

Then when you come down to verse 18 he says, “This command I entrust you Timothy in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience which some have rejected and suffered ship wreck regarding the faith.” You see how he moves from warning about false teachers and false doctrines to challenging him, “fight the good fight, keep the faith, keep a good conscience. Some have failed in this and suffered ship wreck regarding their faith.”

In chapter 4 of this letter Paul gives a second warning about false teachers and then follows up with a challenge. The first five verses beginning with verse 1: “The Spirit explicitly says in the latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” And then he goes on to elaborate on that. Then in verse 6 and following he picks up with another challenge to Timothy in pointing out these things to the brethren you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Remember the reference to Moses. He referred to Moses as the man of God, Moses the servant of the Lord and here we pick up that Timothy will be a good servant of the Lord reminding God’s people of the danger of false teachers and false doctrine. Then he challenges him at the end of verse 7: “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” and so on. And that balance, the warning about false teachers and false doctrines, the challenge to Timothy to be faithful.

When you come to chapter 6, verse 3 down through verse 10. Picks up in verse 3: “If anyone advocates a different doctrine, does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ with the doctrine conforming to godliness he is conceited and understands nothing.” Goes on down through verse 10 with this warning about false teachers, the doctrine they teach, their motivation, personal gain and then he picks up with verse 11 and in verse 11 and 12 he gives strong exhortation to Timothy, a challenge to be faithful so that balance that runs through the letter and he refers to Timothy, man of God. There are certain things you must stand for. You must stand against.

He’s going to give him four commands in these two verses. You may have them marked in your Bible from other times we have been here. We will just note them and then we will be picking them up as we move along. The first is the verb, flee in verse 11. Then further on in the middle of verse 11, pursue. In verse 12, fight and then a little further along, take hold of and these four commands remind Timothy of what is required of him as a man of God, one who would be a good servant of Christ Jesus as we referred to back in chapter 4, verse 6 in pointing these things out to the brethren, you be a good servant which is tied to being a man of God. A man of God is one who is a good servant of his master.

First command in verse 11 of chapter 6: “But flee from these things you man of God.” And there is a contrast here. Verse 10 talked about “for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it” and that word, “some” have wandered away from the faith but the contrast in verse 11 is “but you.” He is drawing a contrast between these false teachers that he has just warned Timothy about. They advocate a different doctrine. A doctrine that is not consistent with the teaching that we have from Christ. It is not the doctrine that conforms to godliness. It is driven by a desire for personal gain. “Some by longing for this kind of materialistic gain” in verse 10 “have wandered away from the faith, pierced themselves with many griefs.” “But you, man of God” further emphasizes the contrast between Timothy and these false teachers. They are not faithful servants of God. They are not men of God. You stand in contrast to them, Timothy and opposition to them. He is in the line of those who have been the recipients of the Word of God and he received it through Paul. He’s receiving it in this letter. He will be instructed in the second letter of Paul. In chapter 2, verse 2: “The things you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

Turn over to II Timothy chapter 3 and this is the second use of the title, man of God in the New Testament. The first one is in I Timothy chapter 6, verse 11 and here in II Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16. “All Scripture is inspired by God (God breathed) and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction for training in righteousness so that (and here is our title) the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.” Obviously referring to Timothy but also referring to everyone who would be faithful to God’s Word, faithful with God’s Word, be a faithful servant of God. This is God’s provision that the man of God be adequate and equipped for every good work. God’s Word and as those who have had the Word of God passed on to them our desire is what? To be faithful to this Word in our personal lives, to be faithful with it as we pass it on to others. What a privilege to be in the line of those who are known with the title, man of God that we can be faithful servants of God. It is connected to our faithfulness to the Word.

The command given to Timothy back in I Timothy chapter 6, verse 11: “Flee from these things,” the things talked about in verses 3-10. Starting with verse 3, the different doctrine, not the healthy words, the health producing words, those that have been given; they are God breathed, they come from God, God the Father, God the Son. It is a doctrine that produces godliness in the life. But there are those promoting within the church at Ephesus contrary doctrine.
“Timothy, you flee from these things.” That desire for material gain and getting turned aside to the love of money in verse 10; the desire to get rich in verse 9, “you flee from these things.”

We get the word fugitive from this Greek word. A fugitive is one who is on the run fleeing from something, trying to avoid something, getting away from something. The man of God must be fleeing, getting away from certain things that would be damaging. He doesn’t want anything to do with false teaching and false doctrine. He doesn’t want anything to do with the corruption that gets associated with that, materially, morally.

There are several times in the New Testament that believers are instructed to flee things. “You must flee immorality” in I Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18. “You must flee from idolatry” in I Corinthians 10:14. “You must flee from youthful lusts” in II Timothy chapter 2, verse 22.

Being a faithful servant of God involves doing all we can to put distance between ourselves and false teachers and their doctrines. This is not something you dabble in. It is not something you hang around the fringes. You flee. You want to get away from it. You don’t want to have anything to do with it.

Reading a book this week that I had read before but I am re-reading it. It is talking about the history of the evangelical church in the 50 years from 1950 to 2000 and talking about how evangelical Christians began to try to tie the things of the world, scholarship, social action to be more accepted in the world and so on to the Word of God. And there was a movement that taught that believers ought to infiltrate in among unbelieving scholars and unbelieving denominations and then their testimony would win them over. But you know the evaluation after that period of time? You know what happened. The corruption went the other way and they found out these schools, these individuals, these churches had adjusted their theology to fit the corrupted theology that supposedly they were going to win over. This is not a game. It is not something you dabble with and think well I can handle it, I know.

The man of God flees from these things. We are commanded to do it. You must flee from these things, man of God and that’s the desire that each one of us want to be, a faithful servant of God, honored as one who belongs to Him, who faithfully serves Him, who has nothing to do with false teaching and the pursuit of those things which are desirable to false teachers, that characterize them.

“You flee from these things you man of God.” That is the negative side. The positive side, you are running away from something but you are running after something; there is a pursuit, a desire of your heart and mind and life. So that command, pursue. Again it is a command. It is to be the practice of the man of God to be going after these things.
Turn over to chapter 2, verse 22 of II Timothy. You will see a similarity and then we will work through what we have before us. Verse 22 of II Timothy 2: “Now flee, (there we go, the same kind of thing. He is reminding Timothy of the same thing in the letter under the direction of the Spirit, “flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord form a pure heart.” That is the fellowship of believers. We are joined together, bound together in the family of God which is the pillar and support of the truth. We carry the Gospel to the lost but we are not bound together in teaching and in life with the lost.

“Refuse,” another command in verse 23 while you are there, “foolish and ignorant speculations.” Come back to I Timothy chapter 6. Pursue, and he has a series of things that we are to pursue and consistent, this word pursue used a number of times in the New Testament to indicate that believers are to have their focus. This is what we are going after, devoting our energy to, desirous of having as part of our life and those things that characterize us. We have a zealous pursuit of the things that are pleasing to God, honoring to Him.

He mentions six virtues or qualities here in verse 11. The first is righteousness. Pursue righteousness. This is righteous conduct. We are pursuing what we call forensic righteousness that we have by faith in God and in the finished work of Christ where we are declared righteous but this is what we might call the practical outworking of that righteousness, behavior that is consistent with God’s revealed will for us in Scripture and is pleasing to Him. It’s what I John is talking about in I John 3:7: “Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous.” So we become partakers of the divine nature as Peter puts it and so the character of God is produced in His children and that desire of the heart of the child of God is to have more of the character of God produces in us, His righteousness, characterizing our lives.

Turn back to Philippians just a little bit before Timothy. You will hit the book of Colossians there and then Philippians, chapter 1. Look at verse 11: “Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” That is the pursuit of our lives. We are not hanging around the fringes of those who are contrary to God’s plan of righteousness for His children, the production of righteousness in our lives. We are in the pursuit of righteousness.

Come back to Timothy. The second word there is godliness. Pursue righteousness, godliness, that which is in agreement with God’s character and you can see the overlap in this. It is the righteousness that is consistent with God’s character, godliness. First of all, it’s an attitude of reverence and respect for God. You know He is to be honored. Even in some of our songs I have to say as an aside. I think we ought to be more careful and I realize we don’t write the songs, they have good words but sometimes we are using words that are slang kind of words. If I had told my Dad when he was talking to me and he tells me to do something and I would say, “yeah,” that wouldn’t have gone too well. I realize this is a different day but I think we need to be careful of our attitude of respect and awe of God. Godliness, an attitude of reverence, respect, a desire to manifest the fullness of His character in our lives.

Look back in chapter 4 of I Timothy, verse 7: “Have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Bodily discipline is only of little profit. Godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise not only for the present life but also for the life to come.” And it is for this we labor and strive. We have fixed our hope on the living God. That’s the desire of our heart, godliness and the production of God’s character in our lives.

Come back to chapter 6, verse 11. We pursue faith. Again this is not saving faith in its initial aspect. We are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus but this is the life that flows out. As we often put it, we begin a life of faith when we place our faith in Christ as our Savior but now that is the beginning of a life of faith so we pursue faith, trusting God in all areas of our lives. All we do, all of our conduct is shaped by our confidence and faith in Him. We believe what he has said. We believe He will do what He said He will do.

Come over to Hebrews that we have studied recently so I am sure you all have these things fresh in your mind. Hebrews 11, verse 6: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him (to please God) for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him.” What Paul means in II Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7 when he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight” in talking about their faith, again what we believe regarding to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and so on.

I have never seen God. I have never seen the resurrected Christ. I have never seen the Holy Spirit but I believe that God is. He is the living God. I believe His promises are true. I have never seen a resurrected body. I realize the disciples saw the resurrected Christ but I didn’t. In my 71 years of life I have never seen a resurrected person. Can you believe that? But all my hope is in what? God promises He will raise this body from the grave or He will transform it in an instant of time to rapture of the church. We walk by faith, not by sight.

I have never seen heaven. I have loved ones who were believers who have died and I believe they are in the presence of God. I believe it because God said it. We have these silly ideas of a child who supposedly died and went to heaven and came back. That has nothing to do with Scripture. That is an attack on Scripture. We take it by faith. This is why I believe my loved ones I will see again in the presence of the glory of God. Oh, how do you know that is true? God said it. I believe it. That’s what we have, right?

We are to pursue faith. I want my faith to grow deeper, stronger so there is no wavering. There is no doubting. That ought to come with maturity, with growing in our faith. Things come into our lives. They are not going to unsettle you, why? I am in the pursuit of faith as I am growing in my faith I am learning to trust God more. I am learning to put my hope in His promises, not in the changing circumstances around me. My faith is unshakeable. I know God loves me even when there is trial and difficulty, when tragedies come I believe God is in control. We are to pursue faith, grow in that faith.

Pursue love, back in Timothy, pursue love. This is that self-sacrificing agape love; that sacrificing love that does the best for someone else. I will pursue love. I want to grow in my love for God and my love for fellow believers.
Turn over to I John chapter 4, verse 7: “Beloved let us love one another. Love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God for God is love.” You see it is the character of God and His love that is produced in us. That is what is driving this. “By this the love of God was manifested in us (or to us.) God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we loved God but He loved us, sent His son to be the propitiation (the satisfaction) for our sins.” I love Him because He first loved me and I understand the depths of His love for me and then that will be a growing love in my life for you. That is what we are talking about. We pursue love.

In verse 16: “We have come to know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love.” This is part of His Character. “And the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.” True, self-sacrificing love; that love that is produced in our hearts, the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is it starts out with love. We want to pursue that. We want to grow.

He puts us together in a family. Some of us are more loveable than others. I am glad that we are growing, right? And if you have been a believer very long you have probably learned to love people that you didn’t like very much when you started. Sometimes you will say, “Well you know, since I have gotten to know them I have come to appreciate them more, appreciate what God has done in their lives, appreciate how God uses them.” It is a growing thing. We are to pursue love. It is not a recommendation, it is a command.

Come back to Timothy. We are to pursue perseverance. This is not one of the more fun ones. Perseverance is a command word and it refers to living under pressure, that ability to endure, to stay with it. One of the marks of a believer is he remains faithful to God under pressure, under trials, through difficulties. Why? That ties to my faith that I am growing in. These things are all interwoven. As I believe that God is sovereign, He is at work, He causes all things to work together for my good as one that He has called to Himself. So I will persevere and we are to pursue perseverance because we are not done. We have to be constantly growing.

Come back to Hebrews again, Hebrews chapter 10. Remember he is encouraging these Jewish believers to stay the course under the heat of trials and persecution and suffering and great personal lose, stay the course. And he says to them in verse 36 of chapter 10: “You have need of endurance.” You had it in the past, back in verse 32, “The early days you endured a great conflict of suffering,” but that is not enough. My testimony about yesterday is not enough. I must endure today. That is the challenge. So he is telling them, “That was great. You endured and you suffered greatly and you lost much but you have need of endurance.” We are still pursuing it. I can’t take anymore. I can’t do it. No, you have need of endurance. Why? “So that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised.”

Verse 38: “But my righteous one shall live by faith.” You see the connection. These things are interwoven. When I begin to faint in my endurance you know what happens? I begin to fail in my trust in God. Somehow I am not sure He is really at work anymore. This can’t be His will. It can’t be what God would want. Verse 38: “My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. We are not of those who shrink back to destruction but those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” Endurance, endurance and you know the Bible has much to say about endurance.

While you are in Hebrews, just turn over a few pages and you will be in James. Chapter 1, verse 2: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials;” various times of testing. Count it joy. Why? “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” You see again our faith and our endurance go together. It is testing my faith. Will I really trust God? I have trusted Him in the past. I have trusted Him in many things but now will I trust Him again? “Let endurance have its perfect result so you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” That is what trials do. They give us the opportunity to endure so that we can be brought to more maturity, more completion and more perfection. That doesn’t mean we like trials in and of themselves but we are able to endure them and can take it joyfully. Lord, you are maturing me, thank You for this opportunity to trust You, to see Your hand at work my life. And that doesn’t mean it is going to come out the way I want it but I have full confidence it will come out the way that God planned it for me and that is maturing me, learning to trust God in the most difficult of circumstances. That produces maturity. That produces endurance which produces maturity.

Down in verse 12: “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial for once he has been approved (passed the test) he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” You know we have the song we sing, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus” and indeed it will. We think we will look back and say, “You know, I wish I hadn’t put up with those trials. I wish I had bailed out and enjoyed life like some of the unbelieving friends.” I don’t think anybody is going to say that when we get to the presence of the Lord. We want to say, “Boy, what a privilege it was to suffer for the Lord, to trust the Lord in those trials and grow in Him to be prepared for this, the glory of His presence.”

Come back to Timothy. Gentleness is the last one here he has on his list, gentleness, gentle, kind in our conduct. This particular word is only used here but the synonym for it is used in other places. It is the characteristic of Christ in Matthew 11:29 He’s gentle, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden,” I am gentle. It is the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23. Over in II Timothy 2:25 we are to use gentleness in correcting those who are in opposition dealing with unbelievers because maybe God in His grace will bring them salvation, gentleness. That is not the same as wimpiness because you will note the next command. Interesting the way the Spirit directs these. Gentleness is to characterize us, that kindness, that thoughtfulness but the next command is fight. You flee, you pursue, you must fight. “Fight the good fight of faith.” Fight the good fight. Being a man of God means you must be involved in the ongoing battle, ongoing struggle for the truth. We are familiar with this word. We get the word agony from it, agonia. You can hear it there. We just carry it over into English and we could translate this, agonize the good agony. Fight the good fight. It denotes the intensity of the conflict. We are ready to stand against and oppose everyone in this struggle for the truth; any false teachers who oppose the truth, anything that would be contrary to the truth. You fight the good fight.

Jude, you remember, in his little one chapter book in verse 3 he said, “He called upon his readers, he wrote that they might earnestly contend for the faith.” And that is just an intensified form of this word we have here, agony, fight. You must earnestly contend for the faith. Why? False teachers have infiltrated among believers. You know if we will not stand for the truth and fight for the truth, be faithful to the truth, every word of the truth, what will we stand for as God’s people? We cannot be faithful servants of God if we are not faithful to His Word. “Fight the good fight of faith.”

Turn over to II Timothy, the end of Paul’s life and we are well familiar with this section. Now what does he say in verse 7 of II Timothy 4? “I have fought the good fight.” Again we might say, “I have agonized the good agony.” It is the basic kind of words that we have; same words, a little different form. “I have fought the good fight, I finished the course.” What does that mean? “I have kept the faith.” There has been no veering off, no giving up the truth for personal peace or personal gain or to keep the peace in that sense. There are certain things we cannot do. We cannot sacrifice the truth. We cannot add anything to it, we cannot take anything away from it. We must be faithful in handling the truth.

Come back to I Timothy. Turn back to chapter 4, verse 10: “For it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God.” Labor and strive. Our hope is fixed on Him. It is a conflict, it is a battle. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers; the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.” This is what Paul wrote to the Ephesians in the letter he wrote to them in chapter 6. We are dealing with doctrines that come from demons according to chapter 4, verse 1 of I Timothy. We must fight the good fight.

Come back to chapter 6. There are certain things we are going to be fleeing, we want to stay away from, get away from. We don’t want to have anything to do with. We are intent on pursuing certain things that ought to characterize us as God’s people that must characterize us and we are ready to be involved in the intensity in the struggle for truth. We will battle against those teachers who corrupt the truth. We will battle and fight to proclaim the truth. Fight the good fight of faith and that last command “Take hold,” take hold. Another command, “take hold of eternal life, the eternal life to which you were called.” One commentator translated this in a paraphrased way. He said, “Get a grip on.” Timothy had eternal life through faith in Christ back in chapter 1, verse 16. Paul referred to his own testimony and God using him as an example of those who would believe in Him for eternal life but Timothy must have a grip back in chapter 6, verse 12: “Take hold of (have a grip on, be fastened onto) eternal life.” You live with a hold on the promise of God, eternal life.

You know we read earlier in our study today, Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2: “If you have then been raised up with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth.” We have our hope fixed on what God has promised. We are looking for the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, that time when we will transform these bodies into conformity with the body of His glory. We are not taken up with the transitory passing things of this life. They are not what occupy us, what consumes us, would take the focus and energy of our lives to be sure we live in this physical world and we work to provide shelter and food and clothing. We must be careful that we don’t get caught up; that this becomes the pursuit of our lives and there is that relentless pressure to conform us because that is where the world is but we must have a firm grip, a firm hold on the eternal life to which you were called. That is what God had called us to in Christ. He’s called us to Himself. He is the saving God. He’s called us to be His children. We were called to eternal life. Think of that. All these things that we see will be consumed with fire, burned up someday, Peter wrote in his second letter. “What manner of people ought you to be in all holy living” he says. We live for the Lord. We live for the life that we have in Him. We live for the life He has promised us in the glory of His presence for eternity. We have to have a grip on that so that we are not turned aside, moved away. We are holding on to that. That fits with what I do. That keeps me stable. “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” He testified to his faith.

We heard a testimony in baptism tonight. What was he declaring? I have become a follower of Jesus Christ. I belong to Him. Remember that time when Timothy gave that testimony, perhaps at the time of his conversion under the Apostle Paul’s ministry. Whenever, he had confessed before men his faith in Christ. Don’t waiver Timothy. You are a man of God. It means you are the servant of God. You must remain true. You know that is just as true for us today 2000 years after Timothy as it was then. We have the Word of God. It’s been passed on to us. It’s the same Word. This is the eternal Word of God. We must flee as God’s people, those things which would be detrimental to us, false teachers, worldly pursuits. We must pursue after those things consistent with God’s character. We must be willing to fight the good fight, not a popular thing today. We want to emphasize our tolerance, our get-along-ness. We do it under the guise of love. “Then by this all men will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”

I was reading something of the history of the church and how that expression was used to corrupt the church, misused. We exercise love in the context of truth, faithfulness to truth. That is where genuine love takes place.

We must fight the good fight. We must maintain a firm hold on the eternal life. Not that you could lose your eternal life but that becomes the center of our lives. That’s what we are holding onto. So the things of this world don’t slay us because I have a hold on eternal life, what God has promised me as His child.

Isn’t it amazing that we can be known as a man of God even as woman in that context because we are servants of God? We belong to Him. We are faithful to Him, that title, that position of honor on men like Moses, Elijah, and Elisha and so on. We are called to such faithfulness. What a privilege, what an honor. Go through this miserable, wretched world consumed in its sin and lostness and rebellion against God and we can be here representing the living God. We must demonstrate that, flee, follow, fight, fasten on to eternal life.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for calling us to Yourself. We are Your people. We belong to You because You have placed Your love on us. You have called us to Yourself, to life in Christ. How honored we are, how unworthy we are but we are trophies of Your grace, a testimony to the grace shown to undeserving sinners who have been promised the riches of glory in the salvation that we have in Christ. Lord may we take these commands to our hearts individually and as a church to be faithful to You, honor You and be a testimony of Your grace. May that be true of us as we serve You in the days of the week ahead of us we pray in Christ’s name amen.