Would turn to first Timothy chapter six. We're going to look at just two verses this evening from first Timothy six. So you should be out of here in just a few minutes. Right? Now I get a good three point sermon out of these two verses.

Alright. First Timothy six verse eleven and twelve. But thou, o man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Laid hold lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Paul continues his instruction to Timothy. He has given him and given him instructions concerning different officers of the church. We found earlier instructions concerning the preaching and teaching of the word from the pulpit. Instructions on how to deal with different groups and issues within the church. And now once again, he turns directly to Timothy and he says, but thou, o man of God, flee these things, follow after righteousness, fight the good fight of faith.

So there are our three points this evening. Flee, follow after, and fight. Flee, follow after, and fight. He refers to Timothy here as, oh man of God. This phrase used often in the Old Testament of those called upon to speak for God emphasizes not only the character of Timothy, but more importantly, God's calling on his life to the ministry of proclaiming the word of God.

Doesn't mean Timothy is superior in his relationship with the Lord or superior, in his conduct than others. It speaks directly to God's calling upon his life to the ministry of the word of God. And some things that are very important as you lead your home, as you lead a church, as you lead your Sunday school class, as you follow in the ministry that whatever it may be that God has called you to, It is there are some important things that we need to consider. Just for example, first Kings thirteen one, and behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar, to burn incense.

A man of God. We don't even know the name of this man of God. But what we know is God called on someone to go to a specific place, to a specific person with a specific message. Okay? We have that message here.

Here it is. We have that message in our hands. But we are also called to take that message to others, particularly myself as a pastor, as a Sunday school teacher to your Sunday school class, as a mother and father to your children. We are called to take the message. In first second Peter one twenty one, it says, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

That's referring to the actual recording of the word of God, the scripture. When it says holy men, does it mean that they were more holy than everybody else? No. Not necessarily. What it means that they were called out.

They were set apart. The word holy, we usually often, think of cleansing or purity, or without sin. But the word holy, comes from a Greek word that means to set apart. A saint is from the same Greek word. It means to one who has been set apart.

If you've been set apart from sin, then it carries the idea of being cleansed of what? Cleansed of sin. We have been sanctified. There's another Greek word that that another word that comes from the same root for holy, which means we have been set apart unto Jesus Christ from the world around us. We have been in Christ, and we should be also not only justified by his grace, but we should also be sanctified in our what?

In our actions and in our behavior. Be ye holy for I am what? Holy. Okay. So there are three things that Paul writes to Timothy, this young man who he calls a man of God here, who most definitely had an important calling upon his life.

Three things. Number one, flee. Okay? So he says to flee these things. Okay?

Now, here's where context is important. If you just start in verse 11 where it says, flee these things, then you do not know what Paul is talking about. Flee what things? These things. Okay?

Well, let me pick. This is what I want to flee. Okay? No, we don't get to choose what to flee. We are, if we look in context, we find out what Paul is talking about to Timothy.

He speaks of perverse disputings in verse five. Doting about questions in verse four, strife of words, these things, he wants Timothy to flee, okay? And then he speaks of the love of what? The love of money. Verse 10, for the love of money is the root of all all evil And if you go back further, he talks about a few other things.

What are these things that Timothy is to flee? Well, the love of money. K? One of the qualifications for both deacons and pastors is they're not fond of filthy lucre. Okay?

What does that mean? That means is they're not their purpose in life is not just to make money. That's that's not the purpose for the ministry is to make money. Purpose of the ministry is to please God and to share the good news and to see God use that to change people's lives. Are there a lot of preachers out there that are in it for money?

Sure, there are. They shouldn't be. Paul remind he Paul tells Timothy, you need to flee this attitude, something that I guess maybe was already being seen by those who were preachers, so to speak, in that day. There's a lot of those today. A, the love of money b, vain babblings, distracting arguments arguments about the law.

He spoke of in one passage. There were always those who wanted to argue about things of which they knew nothing about and things sometimes that were not even referred to in scripture. There are many of those still around today. People like to argue about things to which, in particular, there is no clear answer. Because then, if you argue about things to which there is no clear answer, then you can't be proved what?

Wrong. Okay? So we're just arguing arguing over things. And it's just a what? It can be just a distraction.

And there's plenty of those distractions. Particularly, the Jews evidently liked to argue about things. A matter of fact, I think that was kind of part and parcel of their manner of teaching of the rabbis in Jesus' day. One would say, I think it means this. Another said, I think it means this.

Another said, I think in men, then they just stand there and argue about it. And that's why when Christ came and he spoke with authority, every all of a sudden, everybody's ears perked up and he listened and said, nobody speaks this way. Why? Because he didn't argue with people. He wasn't there to debate.

He was just there to speak the what? Just there to speak the truth. He wrote the Bible. He he he he is God. He is the truth.

The way the life he is. And so people listened because they thought, wow, this is different. And it was different. And so Paul wanted Timothy to not get off on tangents arguing about the things that were not most important and letting the most important things go. What did he say to the Pharisees?

You you swallow a camel and strain out a what? Strain out a gnat. Okay? So you got your your whatever it is there, porridge or whatever, and and you're straining out the gnats, but you're swallowing some big huge thing. And you're all concerned about getting that little gnat out.

You gotta get that gnat out. It's gonna kill you. But swallowing a camel and straining out a gnat. And then c, unrighteous behavior and the like particularly of the false teachers. Flee the love of money, flee the vain babblings, flee the unrighteous behavior that was common among the false teachers, Paul said.

In Ephesians, he put it this way, put off the old man and the unfruitful works of darkness and put on the new man which is made after the similitude of Christ. He's not talking not telling you you need to get saved. He's talking to people that are already saved that they need to change their ways to fit with the person that they have been declared to be in Jesus Christ. To put off the old ways and to put on the new ways. And so he tells Timothy to flee.

That's the put off. And then he tells Timothy to what? Follow after. And that is the what? That is the put on.

Put off, put on. Okay? Sometimes Christians get all excited about the things they don't do. And and there are things that we should not do. To be holy, there are things that we must separate ourselves from, particularly just blatant sin.

He says to cast off the weights and the sin which doth so easily beset us. Yes. There's things we should not do, but the Christian life is not just about the things you don't do. The Christian life is about doing things to be salt and light and to bring honor to Jesus Christ and to make a difference in the world that God has put us in. You cannot do anything and still do very little for the glory of God and have very little show in heaven someday.

But, you know, I didn't drink and I didn't smoke and I I didn't say any cuss words. Well, that's good. You shouldn't have. But what did you do for me? Did you tell anybody about me?

Did did you help your neighbor? Did you show the love of Christ? Did you help your brother and sister? Did you minister to the children in your church? What did you do?

Not just what you didn't do. So flee these things, put off these things, and put on these things. Okay? And you'll notice the things that Paul is telling Timothy to do in particular are not specifically good works, not things that we think of, okay, well, you need to do this and you need to do that. No.

They're more attitudes or attributes that are like whose that are like Christ. Because if we get the attributes and the attitudes right, then that'll take care of the the actions part. So Paul says to Timothy, you flee these things and you follow after what? And he gives a list. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, things that are in some way a little bit connected with this passage in Galatians chapter five.

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The fruit of the spirit is what God does in your life and heart to change you to be more like Christ in how you think, how you approach things in life, the decisions you make, the attitudes you have towards other people. To give you the mind of who? The mind of Christ to conform you to the image of of his son. And so we see some parallels between this list and a few of the things in this list here in first Timothy.

Righteousness. Righteousness begins with being right but ends with doing right. There are some very highfalutin theological definitions of righteousness, but being righteous is just doing what? It's just doing right. How do you how do you become right?

Well, you can only become right through who? Through the righteousness of Christ, through receiving the righteousness of Christ. You can't be right with God without receiving the righteousness of Jesus Christ because our righteousness is as we talked about this morning, filthy rags. But God wants us to go further. He wants us not only to be right, he wants us to live right.

He wants us to do right. He wants us to be just and fair in our dealings with others. He wants us to be honest. He wants us to be kind. He wants us to be forgiving.

Righteousness is conforming to God's will in thoughts and in actions. Doing what is right. Doing whose will? Doing God's will. That's being righteous.

Okay? Sometimes that means that what I feel like doing and what I should do are not the same thing. So I have to choose. Do I wanna do like I feel like doing or do I wanna do what God wants me to do? Being righteous is choosing which?

Doing what God wants me to do. That's being righteous. So, Timothy, you need to choose righteousness in every aspect of your life, in your home, at church, in your business dealings, you should be righteous and others should see that. Godliness. Follow after godliness.

Godliness is can also be translated piety, showing proper reverence for and obedience to God. Godliness, simply put, means being like God and honoring God in our worship and in our our service. Be righteous. Do right. Be godly.

Follow the Lord. Give him the honor he is due, the worship he is due, the love that he is due that we talked about this morning. Follow after righteousness, Timothy, just doing the right thing. Follow after godliness, piety, allegiance to the Lord. And then what's next?

Faith. Yeah. I'm just seeing if you're following along now. I have my list on the paper right here. Righteousness, godliness, what?

Faith. Both of faith in God. Follow after a faith in God which grows, what? Stronger. You know, faith can grow.

You know? Yes. It takes just faith as a mustard seed to do in the Lord to accomplish great and mighty things. That faith can grow and it needs to grow. The babe in Christ is just a babe.

It's the new convert in Christ. They they just came to know Christ as savior. Now their trust and faith and knowledge of God needs to what? Needs to grow. Because as we get to know God better and as we learn to trust in the Lord more, then we are going we're gonna make the right decisions.

We're gonna follow more after him. We're going to avoid sin more because we have learned to trust in God and that what he says truly is is best. And he's not going to let me down. He is faithful. And so, Timothy, you need to follow after faith.

Learn to trust God a step at a time. It's a growing process. You don't become a great hero of the faith overnight. It takes time. You can see that progression in the lives of some in the scripture.

They start out pretty weak in the faith. But as they go along, their faith their faith grows. From Abraham to to his grandson Jacob. He had a rough start with his faith. To others in scripture, we see and we watch them.

Peter, watch read through the gospels and into the letters in Peter and see how his faith grew. Our faith needs to grow too and so he says to Timothy, follow after faith that it might grow stronger accompanied by faithfulness in service and heart to God. What follows faith is what? Faithfulness. Matter of fact, in Greek, the two words, one is spelled p I s t I s and one is spelled p I s t o s.

Okay? One is faith and one is faithful because the two are what? Tied together. As your faith grows, then you become more what? Faithful.

That's right. So faith, growing faith results in growing faithfulness. And if Timothy will fall after follow after a growing faith in the Lord, spending time in his word, spending time on his knees, trusting the Lord day by day and making wise decisions, he will be also become more what? More faithful and so will we. Okay?

But it is a growing process. It doesn't happen overnight. We like things to happen overnight. We really do. We live in an instant gratification world.

I see it. I want it now. I go get it. I put it on a credit card, and I'll worry about paying for it later. That isn't the best way to live, and instant gratification is just not the way life works.

The things that are of value take time, take work, and that is true in the Christian life as well. They still take time. So follow after righteousness, follow after godliness, follow after faith, follow after what? Love. Agape, sometimes translated charity.

Why translated char why is it sometimes translated charity? Because when we think of charity, we think of a love that is not focused on me, it's focused on what? Doing something good for somebody else. That's what charity is, doing something good for somebody else. Love, of course, is exemplified by our savior.

But God commendeth his love toward us. For God so loved the world, he what? He gave. Yeah. That's right.

So, Timothy, you need to grow in your love. Sincere love, others centered love, compassion, and care. As God has compassion and care for others, our compassion and care for others also should what? Should grow. We should nurture that love.

We should practice that love. Exercise it in our lives. Find ways each day to show other people the love of Christ and most importantly, show our God, our savior how much we love him. The Bible says, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that knoweth not love, knoweth not God for God is love.

What is Paul doing? He's encouraging the believers he's writing to. He's saying, beloved, you know, if your faith is genuine, if you're a child of God, then you really should be growing in your what? In your love for others. That that really should you really need to follow after what?

Love. As he tells Timothy, love is important in the ministry. People that know you love them will listen to you a lot more than people that think you don't care. If they think this is just about money, if they think it's just your job, if they think that you just want a pat on the back, then your Sunday school class, your friend, your child, your church member isn't as likely to listen if they don't know that you what, if they don't know that you care. People don't what's the word?

What's that phrase? People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So, Timothy, if you want a good be a good minister, if you want to be a a a solid, effective man of God, you need to follow after righteousness, just doing the right thing. You need to follow after godliness.

You need to follow after faith, a faith that's growing, and a love that is demonstrated in your life and growing for others. And then patience. You need to follow after patience. The word patience here means endurance, a continuance in his faith and service despite hardship. Now does Paul have any anything?

Has he had to deal with any of that? Has he experienced any of those things, hardship in the ministry? Yeah. Over and over. Read the book of Acts.

Every time Paul went to a city, here he is. He comes to a new city. He finds somewhere where there's a group of people that he can talk to about the Lord. He'll either go to the synagogue where he has a open mic, so to speak, or he goes to the marketplace where there's people milling around and he can find people to talk to. And he begins to tell people about Christ and some are interested and some want to hear more.

And so they come back the next day and they hear more. And he begins to see the spirit move in the lives of people, maybe even some souls get saved and then here it comes. Here it comes because the devil is not happy and he wants it to stop. And so his minions start to attack Paul. They call him a liar.

They call him a troublemaker. They drag him before the the the judge that's in the forum. They say these men have now come who've turned the world upside down. They've now come to our city, and they're just causing all kinds of trouble. They're they're trying they've they've been speaking about against the great goddess Diana.

And the real problem there was people weren't buying their statues of Diana because too many people were getting saved. And so what do they do? Well, they throw him in jail. They beat him. They whip him.

They stone him and leave him for dead. What does Paul do? He he he shakes off, cleans himself off. He gets up, and he just goes to the next city until the people cast him out. When they do, he just goes on to the next what?

He just goes on to the next city. Saint Timothy, I he's telling Timothy here, I I know what I'm talking about, Timothy. If you're gonna be an effective man of God in your ministry, then you gotta have some endurance because the false teachers are going to contradict you. The enemies are going to persecute you. And don't be like those false teachers who run to the hills at the first sign of persecution because they're all concerned about who?

Themselves. You're going to have to endure. Expect it. Jesus said that. He said, don't be surprised.

The world hates you. It hated me before it it hated you. If it loved me, it'd love you, but it doesn't love me. So it's prob they're probably not gonna what? Probably not gonna love you.

So you're gonna have to endure. That that passage in Philippians chapter four that we like to quote all the time. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Look at the context. What is Paul writing about?

He's talking about enduring enduring in the ministry, enduring hunger, enduring persecution, and that despite the hunger and the persecution and the rejection and all those things, that he could be content and he could get up the next day and he could do it again. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And if we're going to be of any use for the Lord, we also need to learn to follow after some endurance. Because if we do what's right, we're going to get some pushback, and that's okay. Keep pushing forward for Jesus.

Keep keep going against the flow if you are doing the will of God. Too many people, even preachers, when things don't go the way they want them to go you know how long last I heard the average stay of a pastor at a church was? Eighteen months. Eighteen months. Why is that?

Well, because you come and you got all these ideas and and you're going to just change the world and change it to church. It's just going to grow by leaps and bounds and everybody's gonna be happy with you and so excited. And that that that honeymoon lasts for a few months and then, you know, then you gotta start working. And guess what? Everybody doesn't run from everywhere within a mile of the church to see you because you're so special.

And you even got some people in the church that aren't exactly completely happy with you and they don't agree with everything you do. You know? And so what do so many do? Well, they give up because they think the grass is greener on what? On the other side.

Well, guess what? They get there and they find out, well, that's just like the other place was. So they move again and they move again and they move again. Follow after patience, Timmy, and follow after meekness. Meekness is gentleness and self control exhibited towards others.

It is connected to something called humility. A humble person is a meek person because they're willing to swallow their pride and they're willing to put others before themself. They don't think that they know it all, do it all, that they are all because they know Jesus Christ is all and because others are just as worthy and just as needy as they are. And that keeping yourself under control and watching your tongue and being careful what you say matters. Because if you lose your temper and you're an arrogant braggart, you're not going to draw people to Christ, you're going to what?

You're going to push them from Christ. Yeah. Meekness is important. That's why in the book of James, James writes and says, you know, don't well, as you're choosing leaders, don't choose the arrogant, the braggart, the know it all. Choose the person who shows humility.

That's the person you want, not the person who's gonna set the world on fire and make a big name for themselves because they're gonna burn, they're gonna burn out, and they might burn down something with them as they go. So, Timothy, flee the love of money. Flee the vain babblings and acting like you know it all about things of which you know little. Flee the unrighteous behavior of the false teachers and follow after righteousness and godliness, faith and love and patience and meekness. That love of money is a big one for so many people, especially in The United States.

We have money. It seems we think that's the answer to all our problems, so we think just a little more and it'll fix everything. Well, money doesn't fix everything. Money fixes very little. Oftentimes, more money just makes more headaches.

Therewith, he says earlier in Timothy, godliness with contentment is great, what, is great gain. So don't follow after that those big dollar signs. Don't follow after the fame and the power. Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, meekness, patience. And then number three, fight.

Flee, follow, fight. But did, you know, a pastor sound like you were saying earlier that fighting wasn't a good thing, you know, losing your temper. This is a different kind of fight fighting. It means to strive for. It it comes from the Greek word agonizomai.

You you all know how to spell agonizomai in Greek letters? What does agonizomai sound like? Agonize. Actually, it's it's it's spelled much like the word agonize with the o my on the end. Okay?

Agonize. Oh my. Okay. Agonizomai. And so he tells Timothy here in verse 12, fight the good fight of faith.

Lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. Fight the good fight of faith means to means to acquire and exercise some self discipline. Self discipline necessary to make to take on the challenges that Timothy will face in faithful service to the Lord. It's not gonna go easy. You're not just gonna slide.

The Olympics right now, they're sliding on ice. You know, it's just down you go. Slide. It's easy. But life is not like that.

You gotta work at it. Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Do you notice the word there do? It means Paul still has to what? Do.

And so do we. Okay? Acquire some self discipline. Exercise some self discipline. Because if we're gonna be any use as soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ, we're gonna have to fight.

We're gonna have to fight with the flesh. We're gonna have to strive with it because it does not want to do what we want it to do sometimes, oftentimes. And so you gotta strive with it. You might have to strive. Strive with the world around us.

It's going one way and we're paddling what? Upstream, you're gonna have to strive with it. Don't let go and say, oh, man. It's just so fun, you know, floating down the river. What are you doing for Christ floating down the river when you need to be what?

You need to be paddling upstream. And being a Christian is paddling upstream. Serving the Lord is paddling upstream. So get ready and start paddling. Strive with the world.

Strive with the flesh. Sometimes, Jesus said, you may even have to strive with your own your own family. They may not understand. You keep serving the Lord. You keep serving the Lord.

Second Tim turn to second Timothy, probably on the next page or you may already see second Timothy. Second Timothy two verses three through five. Paul likes to make metaphors for the Christian life either about sports or war. We have both. Sports and fighting.

Run the what? Race. Put on the armor of God. Paul likes those illustrations in particular. Here is one of them.

Second Timothy two three through five. Thou, therefore, Timothy, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Just just those two. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

We're in a fight. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this lie. If you get too tangled up with the distractions of this life, then are you gonna make any progress in this world for Christ? And the answer is no. That's why the other metaphor, Paul says in Hebrews 12, to cast off the weights and the sins which doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us.

Patience. Why? Well, because the race doesn't end tomorrow. It's it's a long race. Now one day when we get to heaven, it's gonna seem kinda short.

And we're gonna be glad that we ran the race and we just didn't sit on the sideline going, yeah, there's another one going by. There's no yeah. I feel good. They're doing good. What about you?

What about you? Fight the good fight. Be careful of the entanglements. Then we talked about the money and the fame and the sometimes those entanglements can be relationships. That's why Paul says, be not unequally, what, yoked together with unbelievers.

Don't don't get yourself entangled in in these ways with the things of the world that you might be a good soldier for Christ. And then lay hold on eternal life. Fight the good fight. Lay hold on eternal life. That does not mean to acquire it or desperately try to keep it through works?

Because you can't. You can't acquire it by works. How do I know that? Well, there's, you know, there's this very clear passage in Ephesians two that says, for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not of what?

Works, lest any man should boast. Paul goes on in Galatians and says, by the works of the law shall no flesh be, what? Justified in his sight. Well, you can't acquire salvation by good works. And he's not saying to desperately try to keep a hold of it by good works either.

Jesus is keeping ahold of you. He says that I will let no man pluck you out of my what? Out of my He says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. He says that he will not cast us out. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He says in Peter that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto eternal life. If in order to make it to heaven, you gotta keep climbing that rope and holding on for dear life, then you're missing some of the joy of the Christian life because while you're trying to hold on, Jesus has a hold of you and he's not what? He's not letting go. So he's not saying that you need to desperately work or do something to acquire it. What you need to do to acquire it is accept Jesus Christ and his work on Calvary's Cross.

He's not saying that you desperately gotta cling to that to that rope he's pulling you along with. No. Because he's got a hold of you. So what is he saying? When he says here in verse 12, fight the good fight, lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

A good profession of what? Of faith in Jesus Christ. Paul Timothy had professed faith in Jesus Christ. It's his it was his faith that brought him into that covenant relationship with Christ. It was by faith that he saved, not by his works.

Timothy didn't need to be saved. He already was saved. He was secure in Christ Jesus as savior. So this, I think, is what Paul means here. He does not mean to acquire it or desperately try to keep it through works, but to grasp tightly a hold of the promise of eternal life to which Timothy had been called by God's grace and made profession of by faith, living each day in the in the light of that eternal reward, its power, and its purpose.

You're not clinging to something trying to keep yourself saved. What he's saying is grab a hold. Embrace that promise that God has made to you by his grace. And in light of that promise, that hope of eternal life, get out there and serve the Lord. In light of its purpose, in light of its power, in light of its eternal reward, get busy laying up treasure where?

In heaven. Why? Why should I be so why should I be spending all my time laying up treasure in heaven? You know why? Because one day I'm gonna be in heaven.

Now how was that? Well, Jesus made me a promise. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whoso believeth in him should not, what? Perish but have everlasting life. Paul said that thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be, what?

Saved, rescued from sin and hell. He that cometh to me, I will no wise cast out and ye shall never perish. So God made me those promises. I have a home in heaven. And since I have a home in heaven and since this life ends with me in heaven and standing before the Bema seat of Jesus Christ to receive the crowns that I can lay at his, what, feet.

I need to get busy. Timothy, you need to be busy. You need to lay hold of eternal life. That promise that you're going to heaven, that you're going to be there, and you need to start living for that and not living for what? And living for this.

Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, on things that matter. Lay up treasures in heaven and not just on earth. Lay hold of eternal life. Invest in it by doing the will of God today.

Following after, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Whether you are in the ministry or not, you are a child of God and you do have a ministry in this place. So let's let's live like we're citizens of heaven and follow after those things that will bring us eternal reward, crowns that we will have to lay at his feet. Let's pray. Dearly father, thank you, Lord, for what you have done for us, for the place you have prepared for us, the judgment of God that has passed over those who have trusted in Christ.

And we have a new judgment to look forward to. Not the one where we could be cast into the lake of fire forever to be lost, but the one where we can gain crowns to lay at your feet. Lord, help us to flee those things that hold us back, those entanglements, and to fight the good fight as we follow after the attributes of Christ that you are working to change in our life to make us more like you, to bring glory to your name. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.