2 TIMOTHY 2:11-26 ONLY FIGHT FOR WHAT MATTERS TO GOD2025 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Timothy 2:11-26 Only Fight For What Matters To God

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This morning, I want to talk with you a little bit about fighting.

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And I don't think you came to church on a Sunday morning to hear about fighting and talk about fighting or think about fighting, but that is indeed what we're going to do today. So first, I'd like to just take a couple volunteers. Is there anybody who thinks they could beat me up in a fistfight? Who could win me? I'm just kidding. We're not going to do that. No. This verse, verse 14 here of 2 Timothy 2, caught my attention.

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And it caused me to stop as I was reading through the passage a few weeks ago and really began to develop the thoughts and the things that the Lord has for us this morning. Verse 14, Paul says, "'Remind them of these things,' powerful things he just spoke before that, "'charging them before the Lord not to strive, "'not to fight about words to no profit.'"

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Not just words to no profit, but he says words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers. Did you know, would you consider, have you been thinking about that there are some things that just listening to them can lead to ruin? There are some things that are...

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ruinous, that are destructive, just listening to them. But that doesn't mean that they're unpleasant to listen to. In fact, it might be quite enjoyable to listen to those things. It might be entertaining and maybe even very exciting, but also maybe those things could lead to ruin.

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And Paul is encouraging Timothy here. Timothy is a young pastor in Ephesus, and Paul is encouraging him with the church that is in Ephesus and helping him to deal with some of the issues that are going on and strengthening Timothy in those things. And there is some issues there where there is some striving that is going on that is causing destruction to people who are hearing the battle, who are hearing the arguments and the fights.

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And this is an important thing for us to consider because, well, it can happen so easily where religious people feel like they're honoring God by fighting. It's very easy to get caught up and to have the mindset, to have the mentality that fighting in this way, that standing our ground on this thing is honoring to God. It's pleasing to God. It's what God wants. And yet,

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There are those times where we take a stand, where we engage in a fight, where we enter into battle. And although we have hearts that are hoping to honor God and to please God, although we have hearts and desires, our motives are not to be destructive in our battles. We can be destructive to those who are listening. And what's interesting to me about this verse and what kind of caught my attention is Paul's addressing this

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in the context of the church. He's not so much talking about outside Timothy, outside in Ephesus, on the streets, you know, you're going to find false religions and things that will terribly destroy. And of course, there's things outside the church that will lead to destruction as well. But inside the church is the context here. And he's saying, look, some of the battles that are going on, some of the fights that are happening and the striving that is going on is actually destructive

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to the church, to the people of God, to those who are listening. I want to point out just a couple other verses that we'll get to as we work through the passage together. Jump to verse 16 here, where Paul tells Timothy, shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

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It's kind of the theme that runs through this passage. The striving about words to no profit. Now Paul says it a different way. Timothy, stay away from profane and idle babblings. Profane and idle. There's these fights. There's these conversations. There's these arguments and discussions that could be described as profane and idle babblings. And it leads to more ungodliness, Paul says.

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He gives a couple examples, and then in verse 18, he says that they've strayed concerning the faith, saying that the resurrection has already passed, and they overthrow the faith of some. Some people have had their faith messed up, overthrown, hijacked, because of the conversations and discussions and strivings of these examples that Paul gives there in the church. And then finally, verse 23 says,

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but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. There's foolish and ignorant disputes, and they generate, they stir up, they bring strife where there previously was none. And so as we look at 2 Timothy 2 this morning, I've titled the message, Only Fight for What Matters to God. By no means am I suggesting that there's nothing to take a stand on, that there are no times to fight,

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But what we need to evaluate as we walk through this passage is, what am I fighting for? What am I fighting about? What is it that gets me worked up? And what am I striving with other people about? And I need to maybe filter out some of those things and only fight for the things that truly matter, for the things that matter to God. As I was thinking about this idea of fighting, I began to wonder, who is it that we are most likely to fight with?

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Who are we most likely to fight with? And I would like you to kind of, in your own mind, call together the witnesses in your life. Because the people that you're most likely to fight with regularly is your family. You probably fight with siblings if you're younger. You probably fight with spouses if you're older. You fight with parents and aunts and uncles and cousins. And yeah, the family. We probably fight most with the family, right? Right?

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Co-workers in the workplace, there's some striving going on. There's some battles that take place in the church. Again, that's just the context here of Paul's writing to Timothy. There's church members that we perhaps kind of grit our teeth against and have some issues with and struggle that they're attending the same church that we're attending. Our neighbors, perhaps. They had a big love party last night, and there's some striving going on perhaps within

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Maybe it's random strangers online, you know, all of your Facebook so-called friends that you might be fighting with. These are your witnesses this morning. And I would invite you in your mind just to kind of call them to witness. And as you evaluate your heart before the Lord, imagine what would they say about these things that Paul will challenge us with. It's typically who we fight for, our family, our co-worker, or fight with, our family, our co-workers, church members, neighbors, random strangers online.

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But Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 6 that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. And so we need to understand that if the cases that we are fighting, that we are striving, that there is these heated arguments and disputes between us and other people, that we've been distracted and confused and we're fighting the wrong battle. Striving and arguing distracts us

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from the important battles. And throughout this passage, Paul will basically encourage Timothy to replace striving amongst people with something else. A lot of times that's the case. When the Bible wants to encourage us away from something,

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There is a, if you look at Ephesians or Colossians, the put off and put on, put off lying and speak the truth, right? In a similar way, Paul's telling Timothy, put off this striving that is destructive and to put on something else in its place. I would like to suggest to you this morning that striving with other people is easy. Now, when you're in the midst of it and you're all worked up over somebody and you're fighting against them in your heart, even if it's not out loud, you're

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It doesn't feel like it's easy, and you would fight with me about whether or not striving with other people is easy or not. Let me tell you, striving with people is the easy way out. You need to fight, but there's a different kind of fight. Fighting is required because godly progress is unnatural for us. It goes against our sinful nature. It is way easier to immerse ourselves and entertain ourselves in arguing over pet peeves than it is to focus on what really matters.

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It is easier for us, and sometimes much more enjoyable for us, to ruffle feathers and see the sparks fly as we get some people going. It's easier to live in a sinful lifestyle and not deal with it than to really go to battle for what matters. It's easier to respond to somebody with roughness or mocking or making them feel stupid than it is to address them in a way that honors the Lord and demonstrates His gentleness.

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It's easier to twist the scripture to fit our preference than it is to submit our lives to the authority of the word of God. It's easier to read and apply scripture for other people's lives than it is for our own lives. So we do need to fight, but we need to fight for the things that matter to God. And so I'm going to walk you through four points this morning. Point number one is going to be here in verses 11 through 14. Here's point number one if you're writing things down.

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Fight to rest in the hands of God. Fight to rest in the hands of God. Let's read those verses again. It says, This is a faithful saying. For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself.

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Again, Paul says, Timothy, remind them of these things. These are not things that are brand new. This is the basic gospel message. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. This is basics. Christianity 101. That's what baptism is.

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representing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Romans chapter 6 says,

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walks us through. When we are baptized, we are identifying with Christ, meaning that we were included with him in that death, burial, and resurrection. That's why our sins were forgiven, because he took the penalty for our sin upon the cross. And as we resurrect with him, we walk in newness of life, in this grace and forgiveness that he offers to us. The old man is dead. If we died with Christ, we shall live with him. Romans chapter 6, Paul says we're

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Coming up from the baptism so that we might walk in newness of life. Jesus talked about the abundant life that would be for his followers. And of course, the eternal life that is promised to those who walk with him. So this is basics. Death with him means that we have life with him.

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And if we endure, Paul says, we will reign with him, that there is a future kingdom where he will rule and reign. He rules and reigns now, but it's not yet fully been administered to this earth. But we're going to see him rule and reign for a thousand years here upon the earth, but then for all eternity on the throne. We shall reign with him as his faithful children. But also the warning, if we deny him, he will also deny us.

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Now, there's a lot of little avenues we could go down as we wrestle with these words a little bit. But the general idea is this. If you live in a rejection of Jesus, he will reject you.

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If you deny him, he will deny you. Jesus taught this in Matthew chapter 10. But don't take this too far and think about, okay, now we're talking about once saved, always saved. We're talking about Calvinism versus Arminianism. We're talking about, you know, I know there's a lot of doctrine you could like read into this, right? But the same word deny is the word that's used of Peter when he denied the Lord. Remember he denied the Lord three times? Jesus warned him he would.

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He said, no, I won't. I'll die for you. And then the little girl asked him, hey, aren't you with Jesus? He said, no way. I promised to heaven I'm not with Jesus. He denied the Lord, just as the Lord promised. Now, Peter denied the Lord, but that didn't mean his soul was lost for eternity, right? No, it wasn't a lifestyle of denial. It wasn't a permanent rejection of the Lord. It was a moment of weakness, a moment of rejection. It fits better.

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In verse 13, what Peter did. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. The idea of faith, faithless, it means to be unbelieving, to have a failure, to have a shortfall. When we fall short, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself because his promises to us are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. And so there is this great security that we have in the arms of the Lord.

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And yes, if we rebel against him and live out a life of rejection against him, he will reject us. But if we're drawing near to him and we fall short, he remains faithful. He can't deny himself. Yeah, you blew it. Yes, you mess up. Yes, you strive perhaps when you ought not to be striving. Yes, perhaps you've caused destruction and ruin in people's lives. But God in his grace is able to overcome our faults, our failures, our faithlessness.

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So Paul tells Timothy in verse 14, remind them of these things. Remember how big God is, the promises that he's been given to us, the life that we have in store for us, the eternity that he's laid before us. And we have that privilege of walking with him in this life and the life that is to come. And yes, as we walk in this life, we will fall short. He will remain faithful and his promises will be fulfilled and his will will be accomplished. Remind them of these things.

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And then he says, charging them before the Lord. He becomes very serious now. This isn't just like, hey guys, I just want you to remember the gospel, remember the good news, remember the grace of God. Now he says, charging. This is a solemn charge. Hey, I'm serious now, guys. Look at what we have in Christ. Look at all that God's given to us. And now you better not mess it up. No, no, not quite like that. But a solemn charge. Hey,

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Because of the privilege that we have, because of the promises that have been given, because of all that God has done for us, you need to take this seriously. Charge them before the Lord, Timothy. Do not strive about words to no profit. There's a lot of words that you can fight over, that you can be worked up about, that you can be all torn up inside and be exchanging heated arguments about, but it is to no profit and to the ruin of the hearer.

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Again, some things, just listening to them, can ruin. You might feel justified. You might feel entertained. You might enjoy a good scuffle. You might enjoy the back and forth and the debate. But you need to factor in the hearers and also consider the impact and the effect that it has upon them. Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words.

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There's a lot of things that are worth discussion, but not all of those things are worth obsession. Now, I'm hesitant to give too many examples here because I don't want you to feel like Pastor Ian called me and said, hey, Jerry, can you come teach for me on Sunday? There's this girl here, and she just, man, she will not let this thing go. And that didn't happen. I tried. I tried. I said, Pastor Ian, can you fill me in? Like, what's the cheese make?

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Spill the tea, Pastor Ryan. Like, what can I address that will really? And he's like, nope, nope, nope. Not going to do that. I don't know anything about you. I don't know anything about really the church or what's been happening or the conversations you've been having. So if I do throw out an example that kind of strikes close to home, just count it as, hey, the Lord wants to minister to your heart this morning, okay? A couple weeks ago on a Sunday morning, very early, the first day of the week, we celebrated the miracle of the stone being rolled away.

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What do we call that day? Resurrection Day? Everybody's a little bit scared now. I don't want to start a fight. If this is going to start a fight, please forgive me. Sometimes you say Happy Easter and you get a stern correction. No, no, it's Resurrection Day. Sometimes you say Resurrection Day and people say, what is that? Easter? Resurrection Day? What's the right way to talk about this day? You know, it's worth a discussion. We could talk about it. It's not worth an obsession. Trying to convince everybody else to say it your way?

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That's not the most important thing. Can I suggest, gently a little bit, that that might be a striving about words to no profit, if that's something that indeed you are striving about. In Christian circles, we can strive about what to call a certain day, what not to call a certain day. We can strive about diet or dietary laws. We can strive about the role of women in the church. We can strive about

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pre-tribulation rapture versus pre-wrath rapture versus post-trib rapture versus is there a rapture at all? We can strive about doctrines to various degrees. We can strive about Bible version. We all use the New King James version of the Bible, right? Because that's the one Jesus used, right? It took you a while, but thank you for laughing. I appreciate that. It builds me up a little bit. He used the red letter version so he would know what to say, right? That's how it works. We can strive about political perspectives.

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We can strive so much strife. There's so much strife in the world around us. And it's so easy for that to creep in. We can strive about which one's better, Star Wars or Star Trek, Mac versus PC, iPhone versus Android, dress up on Sunday or don't dress up on Sunday. We could strive about so much. And some of it is perhaps worth discussion. And it's not that we can't discuss those things, but it's not worth it.

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Is it your life's mission to convince others to hold the same position as you? Is that the most important thing, that others call it the same way or see it the same way? Romans chapter 14, Paul talks about the liberties that we have and the differences in our consciences. And he says, who are you to judge another servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Listen, it's not your job to make everybody else see everything your way. There are things worth fighting for, the essentials of the faith.

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The gospel message that Jesus Christ was crucified upon the cross for our sins. He died, he was buried, he rose again on the third day. Paul outlines this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He talks about it earlier in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 8. These things are worth dying for, they're worth fighting for. The essentials of the gospel, every time, 100%, we stand our ground on those things. There's also things that are not worth fighting for.

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And if you want an interesting case study, I would encourage you to check out Acts chapter 15 later on, where Paul is with Barnabas in Antioch, and they're rejoicing over the work that God is doing, and so many people getting saved. And people come in and say, these people must be circumcised in order to be saved. They must apply the law of Moses. And there was a strong contention. It says, no small dissension and dispute.

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And so they resolved to go to Jerusalem to meet with the council and to settle the matter once and for all. Worth fighting for. You're changing the requirements. You're requiring something different for the gospel, for salvation. We fight for that. But then later on in Acts chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas want to go on a missionary journey again. And Barnabas wants to take one guy and Paul wants to take a different guy. And they disagree about which guy to take and they go their separate ways. But it talks about it as an intense struggle.

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The contention became so sharp, it says in Acts chapter 15. I'm not suggesting that they were wrong in that the contention became sharp. I'm suggesting they were right in that they didn't fight to the death there. They said, okay, you go that way and I'll go this way. And the Lord be with you and the Lord be with you. And the church blessed them. They didn't force everybody to take sides and have to win their debate. They had, okay, it's clear. We have different opinions. We see this from different angles. Okay, let's fight to rest in the hands of God. You go this way.

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And the Lord be with you on your missionary journey, and I'll go, and the Lord be with me on my missionary journey. Some things are worth fighting for, some things are not. The essentials of the gospel, worth fighting for. How can we tell, though, if it's worth fighting for? I would encourage you to think about it this way, and I'll support that a little bit later as we get into the final verse, if I get there in time this morning. Strife should be evaluated and measured within you.

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Not so much how fierce and ferocious the outside is happening, but how's the strife within you happening? You find yourself being worked up about that person, developing contempt for some people. Worked up and all bent out of shape. And maybe later on you're thinking about all the ways that you should have responded to that. And you have all those things, right? That internal strife, I would suggest, is an indication you're striving about words to no profit. Writing about things...

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that are probably not the things that matter. Not in every case that way, but just let that be a little red flag for you. When I get all worked up on the inside, it probably means my heart needs some work before the Lord. Instead of strife, Paul says, remind them of these things. A faithful saying. You belong to the Lord. You died with him. You're going to live with him. He's got eternity promised for you. You're going to reign with him. And even when you fall short, he remains faithful.

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Replace strife and fighting with others with a fight for yourself to rest in the hands of God. It's so easy to get sucked out of that and to get involved in work and stress and fighting. And you can leave so much in the hands of God that you are trying to take into your own hands. God is always working for your good, even when you don't deserve it, even when you haven't earned it, and even when you don't believe it. Fight to rest in

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Whatever time you spend fighting over useless things, it's time you won't be able to spend resting in God's amazing grace. So call your witnesses together in your mind, your family. What would they say about this? Do you fight about words to no profit? Are you striving with them or others? Are they observing that, your co-workers?

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Do they see you in this way? How do they perceive? What's the outlook from their perspective? Your fellow church members? I mean, hey, if you're bold enough, just go ahead and ask them. Not right this second, after service, so we don't start any fights right now in the middle. But your neighbors, perhaps this is the question you ask. You know, as you're looking at my life, is it obvious to you that I am resting in the hands of God? Or do you see me more striving with the people around me?

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All right, let's move on. Verses 15 through 19 give us point number two. Obviously, I'm not going to cover all the rest of these points in the same way, to the same extent, but we're going to work through this and still receive what the Lord has for us. So point number two, fight to present yourself approved to God. Fight to present yourself approved to God. Verse 15.

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Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Verse 17, and their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already passed, and they overthrow the faith of some.

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Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and that everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So let me just point out a couple things here. First of all, notice the trade. Verse 15, be diligent to present yourself approved to God. But, verse 16, shun profane and idle babblings. Timothy, whatever time you would spend in idle babbling,

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It's time you won't be spending preparing yourself to stand before God. So shun. That means to talk to the hand. Turn away. No, I'm not going to. I want to. Those idle babblings, they're quite fun. I really enjoyed those conversations. Boy, we could really go around and around the table a bit. That would be quite exciting. But no, I'm going to shun idle babblings so that I can be diligent to present myself approved unto God. Again, it's so easy for us.

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Become religious. Religious people feel like they are honoring God by fighting, by going around and around and around and around, by striving over things that do not necessarily have eternal value. Some things are worth discussion. It doesn't mean that they're worth obsession. And he gives a couple examples here. Hymenaeus and Philetus, they had a pet doctrine that they had come up with. The resurrection has already passed. Why did they teach this? Why was this fascinating to them? We don't know. But that happens.

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Sometimes we just get captivated by a doctrine, and it's like, hey, here's an idea, here's a thought, let's test it against the scriptures, and then everybody you talk to, every conversation you have is about this same topic over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It becomes idle babblings. We are all capable of becoming captivated by a particular subject and obsessing over it to the ruin of ourselves and our hearers. That's what happened to Hymenaeus and Philetus. It was bad doctrine,

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They probably grabbed it from a scripture somewhere. They probably had some type of idea and it seemed really convincing in their mind. It seemed right to them. I had a teacher in Bible college who would remind us, of course you think you're right. Otherwise you would change your mind, right? We can be so convinced, I'm right though. But of course you think you're right. That doesn't mean you're actually right because you think you're right. Did you know that? If you didn't think you were right, then you would change your mind and then you would think you were right about something else.

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Just because we feel that it's right, because we are convinced that we're right, doesn't actually make us right. And we can be captivated by something that we thought was right and make it the subject, make it the focus, make it the fight, and be wrong in more ways. Timothy, don't do that. Be diligent instead to present yourself approved to God. Here I am, Lord, your servant, ready for inspection. That's the idea of a worker who does not need to be ashamed.

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You know, when you do a job and then you present it to the boss and you say, okay, inspect my work. And you don't need to be ashamed. I did it right. I didn't cut any corners. I did what was expected of me. I did what was asked of me. I did it well. I executed it in the way it was supposed to be executed. A worker who does not need... Here I am, Lord. I didn't cut any corners. I didn't ruin any hearers. I didn't, you know...

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develop any pet doctrines that caused disruption and messed up people's lives? No, I rightly divided the word of truth. Rightly divided has the idea of cutting it straight. Paul is a tent maker. You could think about cutting the pattern of a tent, you know, and if you cut it wavy, it's a messed up tent.

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But if you cut it straight according to the pattern, then everything comes together. But the idea of cutting it straight would be used of a road maker, a farmer plowing straight furrows. You're a farmer and you plow zigzags, you got some issues, you got some problems there. The idea here is Paul say, look, it's easy to make the Bible say what you want.

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and you have, you know, some favorite subject, some favorite topic, or something that you really, really, really want the Bible to say, you can find ways to make the Bible say it, but not by cutting it straight. Classic example is Genesis chapter 31, Mizpah. You maybe have heard that. Sometimes there's Christian jewelry with Mizpah on it from Genesis chapter 31. The Lord watch over you and me as we're apart from each other. It sounds such like a beautiful sentiment, but the reality is it's

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Two guys saying, look, I don't trust you for one second. And it's frustrating me that I'm not going to be able to keep my eye on you. And so when we're apart from each other, man, the Lord better be watching over you. He better strike you down if you do something shady. Genesis 31. But we wear on necklaces and say, oh, isn't it sweet? You know, I just want the Lord to watch over you. So precious. Oh, that's so great. We can take scriptures. Psalm 91 was a very popular one during COVID. This plague will not come near you.

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And listen, the Lord could individually speak that verse to you, but that is not a universal promise to all people that they will never get COVID. That's just not what the verse is talking about. In 2 Chronicles 16, I was reading it this week in my devotional time.

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It talks about Asa, and he became diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe, but even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. And some people will take this and say, see, you should never go to the doctor. You should only pray about it. Listen, that's not what the Lord is saying here. Rightly divide the word of truth. We need to work through the passage accurately, correctly, and take it into the context of the whole of scriptures.

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But another aspect of rightly dividing that I think is important for us to consider is fellowship and doctrine. Because what are the scriptures for? They're not just to give us a bunch of points that we could hold on to and fight over. The scriptures are provided for us for doctrine, but also for fellowship with God. And this is something the religious leaders of Jesus' day missed out on. They knew the doctrine, they knew the scriptures, but they did not know God.

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Jesus says in John chapter 5, you search the scriptures, you think you have life in them. These are they which testify of me. He goes on to tell them, you do not know the Father. You think you know the Father because you're so zealous over the scriptures, but you've missed the connection to God. And so there is a rightly dividing where we need to hold the middle and have fellowship with God in the word and have doctrine and instruction for life in the word.

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But if we only are in the word for a doctrine, we will not know God. And we will be involved in strivings to the ruin of ourselves and the here. John chapter 15, as Jesus talks about abiding in the vine, he's encouraging them to abide in my words. And there's an obedience. These things are all entwined. Fellowship with God, obedience to God, familiarity and study of his word. These are all wrapped together.

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And so bring them all together. Fight to present yourself approved to God. Know the word, know the God of the word, and spend time with. Whatever time you spend in idle babbling is time you won't be spending preparing yourself to stand before God. So call in your witnesses, family, coworkers, neighbors, church members. Do you see me working to faithfully understand and abide by the word of God?

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Listen, when I'm not diligent with the word, you'll very likely find me striving with family and co-workers and church members and neighbors. I need to be diligent to present myself approved to God. Point number three, moving on to verses 20 through 22, fight to be clean and ready to serve God. Fight to be clean and ready to serve God. Verses 20 through 22 says this, but in a great house,

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There are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Notice the trade. Flee youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.

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Whatever time you spend on youthful lust is time you won't be able to spend pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace. So stop pursuing youthful lust. Now that can, of course, conjure up in our minds sexual temptation, this idea of youthful lust. But please understand, youthful lust is not limited to that context only. A couple quotations here from a couple commentators. Here's what Paul meant. The desire to argue, that's a youthful lust. The desire

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Desire to develop a unique theology, that's a youthful lust. The desire to make a reputation for oneself, that's a youthful lust. Impatience, that's a youthful lust. Intolerance, love of argument, self-assertion, partiality. Yes, of course, all those other obvious sins you can list that are included in youthful lust, but don't just think of it in the one thing and go, okay, I don't do that, so I'm good. No, actually, there's a lot of things that we struggle with in our youth

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Paul says, flee those things. He gives the illustration of a house. There's a big house. There's lots of different kinds of vessels. Some are for honorable purposes and some are for dishonorable purposes. He says, okay, now think about that illustration. If you cleanse yourself from the dishonorable things, then you will be a vessel for honor and sanctified and useful for the master. If you cleanse yourself, how do you cleanse yourself?

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1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The idea here is not perfection. If you're perfect, then you'll be ready for the master. If you will be humble and continue to bring your faults and failures before the Lord, confess your sins, he will be faithful to cleanse you. We're not talking about perfection. We're talking about confession. Jesus told the woman who was caught in adultery, hey, I don't condemn you either. Go and sin no more. Go and sin no more. Move forward now.

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Paul says, flee youthful lusts. You're forgiven, now flee. And that's not a you broke it once and then that's it kind of thing. I would say it's a mantra you can kind of repeat to yourself. You're forgiven, now flee. You're forgiven, now flee. Oops, oh man, I messed up. You're forgiven, now flee. Oh, I messed up again. Oh, you're forgiven, now flee. It is the ongoing thing. Flee youthful lusts. Pursue righteousness.

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What kind of dishwasher are you? I'm the kind of dishwasher who washes the dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. Are you that kind of dishwasher? I know, I'm the weird one. It's okay. Don't fight me on it. It's not worth it. But I don't like the idea of being accountable for if I wash it and don't put it in the dishwasher, I don't want someone coming to me and saying, look at this glass, it's dirty. You didn't clean it very good. I don't like that idea. But I also don't trust the dishwasher to do that itself.

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So I figure I get myself off the hook. I wash the dish. Then I put it in the dishwasher. If it's still dirty after that, I say, I put it in the dishwasher. What do you want me to do? I washed it and I put it in the dishwasher. It had the best shot that it had, right? Because the worst thing is to pull out a glass and for it to be dirty. Now, I guess that's not the worst thing. The worst thing is when you pull out the glass and then pour in your drink and then find out that the glass is dirty.

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Maybe that's not the worst thing. Maybe the worst thing is to pour out the glass, pour in the drink, and then offer it to a guest. And then they find out that it's dirty, right? Like, no, that's, no. Don't want that to happen. How does the Lord experience when he pulls you off the cabinet shelf? Am I going to use this vessel to do the ministry that I've appointed it for? Maybe I'll grab a clean one instead. Fight to be clean and ready to serve God. Flee youthfulness and pursue righteousness.

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Finally, verses 23 through 26, point number four, fight to demonstrate gentleness to all. Verse 23 says,

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Man, so much. But notice the trade. Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes. A servant of the Lord, verse 24, must not quarrel, but instead what? Be gentle to all. Whatever time you spend in foolish disputes is time you won't be able to spend demonstrating gentleness to all. There's nothing wrong with having discussions about certain things. There's nothing wrong with us choosing a standard as a group and say, look, we're not going to have dancing in the aisles during our church service.

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But that doesn't mean we have to spend all of our time fighting against those that do. It doesn't mean we have to foster animosity and harbor some kind of striving within towards those that do. It's kind of like driving. You go to a different country, they might drive on the different side of the road. You might call it the wrong side of the road. It's not the wrong side of the road for them, right? It's just, that's the wrong side of the road.

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Now, if we're going to work together and share a border, maybe we need to come to agreement on which side of the road we should drive on so we don't crash into each other too much, right? There's things that we can discuss and have differing opinions on and have fellowship with other believers in the broad context of the church, and we should, because a servant of the Lord must not quarrel. Just read that for a second. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel. I think sometimes we would be shocked to read that verse.

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Is that what servants of the Lord have demonstrated to us? That a servant of the Lord must not quarrel? Or are servants of the Lord most known for quarreling? What should we be known for? Gentleness. Being gentle to all, able to teach, patient. The key verse, though, is verse 26. That they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his work. It's compassion that's the key. Here's the thing.

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Those who are caught up and striving, those who are worked up, those who we have different, you know, opinions about things between us, we could get worked up and we could fight with them. We could get all bent out of shape or we could stop and step back and realize, you know what? They don't even know they've been captive to the devil. They've been caught in his trap to do his will. Maybe I need to have compassion and show gentleness.

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to lead them to repent. I have a little six-pound dog. His name is Maui. Cute, full of energy. Sometimes he bites me. And you know when he bites me? Typically, it's when he's in pain. He gets a little sticker under his armpit. Can you imagine how that would feel if it was in there and it was just poking you all the time and you couldn't get it out? And then I shove my hand up there to pick him up and he's like, you know, it hurts. And I have to work gentleness.

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to get that very sensitive area, to work out that sticker that's buried itself in there. I think that's a good picture of how sometimes we need to treat the people around us. We can be so upset with them and frustrated. I can't believe they bit me! But maybe if we would understand, we've been taken captive. What they need is compassion. They need someone gentle to go and help the lead. And so, only fight for what matters to God. When we fight, James tells us, man's wrath does not accomplish the purposes of God.

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There is such a thing as righteous indignation. You can think about that later. There's things that we can get worked up about and strive over and miss out. We won't be ready for the work that God has for us. We'll destroy people, turn them away. Listen, if my neighbor never approaches me because they know who I voted for, because I so adamantly insist everybody needs to know who I voted for, and I never have the opportunity to build a relationship or evangelize, I would suggest I may have failed there.

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I may have messed up that opportunity that God might have wanted to present to me because I was striving about things that, in the eternal picture, maybe that doesn't matter so much. Maybe I don't have to be so right about that thing. If you're not fighting the right battles, I would suggest you read verse 26. You're bound up in distraction by the enemy. Fighting is required. We need to move forward. Godliness does not come naturally to us.

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Fight for the right thing, the things that matter to God. Fight to rest in the hands of God. Fight to present yourself approved to God. Fight to be clean and ready to serve God. Fight to demonstrate gentleness to all. Amen? Worship team, did I exhaust our time? You want to? Okay, let's do it. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And God, we pray that you would help us to adopt your perspective.

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on the various issues that we have upon our hearts and the things that we get worked up about, the things that we would be tempted to strive over. God, I pray that you would help us to be instructed by you. Lord, may we be clean vessels in your hands, ready for the good works that you set before us. God, I pray that you would give us your gentleness, your love and compassion for the people around us, that we might minister to them as you would. In Jesus' name we pray.

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