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Fight The Good Fight (2 Timothy 1 - Part 1)
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We're shifting focus at Lakepointe Church. Over the last four weeks, we reached wide with the gospel—and God did something extraordinary. 4,318 people made first-time decisions to follow Jesus. That's the starting line, not the finish line.
But now, for the next nine weeks, we're going deep. We're not in the crowd business; we're in the disciple business. Jesus didn't command us to draw big crowds—He commanded us to make disciples. Disciples of God love the Word of God. They're full of the Spirit of God so they can walk in the purposes of God.
We're diving into the book of Second Timothy, verse by verse. Here's the central question for this entire series: What ONE STEP is God asking you to take as a disciple of Jesus Christ?
Why steps? Because disciples follow, and you cannot follow somebody while standing still. It's impossible.
Second Timothy is written by Paul, and his story is extraordinary. When we first meet him in Scripture, his name is Saul. He's a religious terrorist—literally persecuting Christians, men, women, and children. The Bible says he was putting some of them to death. Think of him as the Osama bin Laden of his day.
But here's the miracle: Jesus appears to him in a flash of light, knocks him off his horse, converts him, and for the rest of his life, Paul walks around planting churches. God didn't just save Paul—He redeemed him and turned him into the greatest disciple of the New Testament.
Listen: You may have turned your back on Jesus. Jesus ain't never turned his back on you. God can use anybody.
Now, Timothy enters the story. On Paul's first missionary journey, Paul goes into a city called Lystra and gets stoned—literally, with rocks—and they leave him for dead. A young boy named Timothy, probably around 15 years old, witnesses this. He watches the Apostle Paul nearly killed.
But when Paul returns on his second missionary journey, Timothy sees something remarkable: Paul comes back. Fearless. Chin down. Ready to serve again. And Timothy decides right then: I want to follow that man. He joins Paul on his missionary journeys.
About 15 years later, Paul has been discipling Timothy. Eventually, Paul calls Timothy to be the pastor of the church at Ephesus—a city drowning in darkness. Ephesus is morally degraded, filled with a pagan temple to Artemis with thousands of cult prostitutes. This is where Paul leaves Timothy to lead.
And then something miraculous happens. So many people get saved that it disrupts the entire economy of the city. The silversmiths who made idols of Artemis come to Paul threatening his life: You're ruining our business. The outpouring of God's Spirit is so massive that we don't even have a category for it.
At the end of Paul's life, he sits in a Roman prison cell—the Mamertine Prison, where you can still see the holes from the chains on his wrists today. This is where he writes Second Timothy. He tells Timothy: "The word of God is not bound," even though he himself is in chains.
As Paul faces death, he writes: "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."
The purpose of First and Second Timothy is this: Paul is telling the man who became like his son to become a man (or woman) of God and to fight the good fight.
I want to help you do three things:
So that at the end of your life, you can say: "I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."
Let's look at verse 1: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear son."
Notice the language: "my dear son." Paul doesn't use a generic word for children here—he's speaking to an adult man as if he were his own son.
Why does Paul start with all his credentials? "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus..." Why the big introduction if he's just talking to one of his spiritual sons?
Paul is establishing his authority so that the affirmation he's about to give carries weight.
Here's Timothy's situation: His mother was Jewish, his father was a Greek gentile. They were nominally religious—hit a service on Easter and Christmas. Timothy had a fatherless home. His dad abandoned him. His name is never even mentioned in Scripture—only his ethnicity is noted.
But Paul does something beautiful. Paul says: "Hey, bud. Your earthly dad abandoned you. I'm going to be your spiritual dad. Let me be that place in your life."
They become incredibly close. They travel together on missionary journeys. The affection is real: "I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did with a clear conscience as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears."
I believe those tears refer to a moment in Acts 20 when Paul knows he's going to die. He lays his hands on this spiritual son—now probably in his early 30s after 15 years together—and says something like: "Hey, bud. You have not been given a spirit of fear. You've been given a spirit of power and of love and of a right mind. You go get it."
When a man of God who loves you, whom you love and respect, lays his hands on you and speaks blessing into your life, you're going to be in tears. That's what's happening here.
Let me ask you: Do you have a relationship in the church like this? A person older than you—whose age starts with a five or a six—investing in you, whose age starts with a two or a three, speaking blessing into your life?
I've been incredibly blessed to have spiritual fathers. One of them changed my life more than almost any other man. His name is Jeff Carlile. He got out of the military, loved Jesus, loved the Bible, loved to fight. When I was 16, he walked up to me and said, "Hey, man. I see something in you. Can I disciple you?"
I would get off the bus two miles from church, and for two or three years, Jeff Carlile discipled me. His strategy was simple: Go through the Bible, ask questions, and do life together. He'd say, "Hey, Josh, I'm going on hospital visits. Come with me." Or, "I'm mowing my lawn. Come help." Or, "You're giving the youth group devotional this morning." He just did life with me.
Here's what happened because one guy took me under his wing:
I got saved, discipled, called to ministry, asked to preach, and I got a wife out of the deal.
Where do you find somebody like that? Life groups. Rooted. This is why we don't just stick 20-year-olds in a group together. The concentration of ignorance in one room is more dangerous than a nuclear bomb. The two worst things about a 20-year-old are: (1) they don't know anything, and (2) they think they know everything.
We try to get groups led by people whose ages start with four, five, six, and seven. You don't need another cool 20-year-old investing in you. You need a spiritual father or mother who can show you what it looks like to follow Jesus for a few decades.
If you don't have a relationship like this in your life, this is the ONE STEP Jesus is asking you to take. Text the word "rooted" to 20411. Sign up for that ten-week discipleship experience so you can get around people following Jesus.
Paul continues: "I am reminded, Timothy, of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am now persuaded that it lives in you as well."
Listen: The greatest disciple in the post-New Testament era came from a single mom.
To every single mother here: you need help, blessing, and encouragement from all of us. What you're doing matters eternally.
Here's what probably happened: On Paul's first missionary trip to Lystra, Timothy's mom Eunice and grandma Lois got saved. But Timothy's dad didn't. First Corinthians 7 tells us that abandonment by an unbelieving spouse is a biblically legitimate reason for divorce. Most scholars believe Timothy's father abandoned the family because his wife chose to follow Jesus.
But here's the beautiful truth: The story of Timothy's life is not determined by the faithlessness of his dad, but by the faith of his mom and his grandma.
God has an ideal for families—that's why I preach about husbands and leadership so often. But where the ideal is absent, God's grace abounds. And that's exactly what happened for Timothy.
Eunice and Lois understood something crucial: This life for children is not a playground. It's a battleground.
When God established the first family in Genesis 2, Satan showed up in Genesis 3. When you start a family, Satan starts a fight.
Revelation 12:17 says: "He wages war against the woman and her children." Satan throughout history specifically targets children. This world is lorded over by Satan, the father of lies, and he is targeting your children.
You cannot just roll your kids into this world like it's a playground and expect they'll figure it out. No. This is a battleground, and they're going to need you.
Here's one of the good fights you need to fight: Step in between the serpent and your children and say, "Not on my watch. I'm fighting for my family."
First: Prioritize the right things. The chance your kid becomes a professional athlete is 0.02%. The chance they stand before Jesus Christ is 100%. Prioritize what matters for eternity.
Second: Steward your children's influences. This world is lorded over by the father of lies. He's trying to get your kids with his lies. You have to learn to be wise about what and who gets into your kids' heads, in front of their eyes, and into their ears.
It takes a village—but it takes a redeemed village. The Bible calls that a church. You need a church community helping raise your kids with the right influences.
Your job is to be gatekeepers—standing between your kids and Satan, keeping the serpent out. Some of us are accidentally being door holders, allowing the enemy in when we hand our children unrestricted access at ages 13, 11, or 9.
Let me be direct: The ten, thirteen, or sixteen-year-old girl who can pump a decade's worth of worldly influences into her ears and grow into godliness does not exist. Children cannot idolize worldliness and grow into godliness.
You have to care about what's getting into their hearts. Make sure the people of God are getting into their heads. This is what you're pumping into their hearts.
Dads: God has primarily placed the spiritual leadership and protection of your family on you. That's your job. You will fail forward in God's grace, but what you cannot do is stand idly by and let the serpent devour your family like Adam did in Genesis 2 and 3.
Stand up and fight the good fight for your family.
A study came out two years ago that examined Christian dads. The number one determiner of whether a child embodied the faith of their parents as an adult was not church attendance, not youth group, not the school they attended.
It was the warmth of the dad. When the child thinks about their father, do they think: My dad had warmth and affection toward me, and he loved Jesus.
We're living in the first generation in our nation's history where almost as many kids grow up without a father as with one. And we wonder why things are so broken.
Here's how to change the world: Every man at Lakepointe, bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus. Stand up and act like a man. Go fight for the hearts of your kids. That will change everything.
Now Paul writes: "Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."
Three powerful words. Let me explain each one.
Mercy: You not getting the bad things you deserve. The wages of sin is death. Every person deserves hell—that's the only fair place. But mercy means you don't get what you deserve. God is quote rich in mercy—meaning more than enough. There is more mercy in God than sin in you. His mercies are new every morning.
If you're a Christian, every sunrise you see is a new guarantee: there's mercy for you that day.
Grace: Getting the good things you don't deserve. Let me ask you honestly: Do you ever feel like God's love for you is dependent on your obedience? You're not alone—we all struggle with this.
When Paul says "God has grace for you," he's saying He is lavishing His love on you, and it is not dependent on your obedience. It's dependent on Jesus's perfect sacrifice on the cross.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You're not getting what you deserve—you're getting what Jesus deserved. Your heavenly Father cannot be displeased with you. He looks at you and says: "This is my beloved child. With you I am well pleased."
Peace: The only way to know peace is to know a person—the Prince of Peace. Most of us try to get circumstances just right: If I get everything the way I want it, I'll finally have peace. But that never works. You'll never get everything exactly as you want. If you do, take a picture—it lasts two seconds.
The only way to have peace is to know Jesus, who will usher peace into your life regardless of your circumstances.
Here's something beautiful: There are only two New Testament books where Paul uses this exact phrase—and both are to Timothy, his beloved son whose father abandoned him.
Only to that one guy does Paul say: "Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father."
I think what Paul is doing is saying: "Hey Timothy, everything you didn't get from your earthly dad, your heavenly father has in store for you."
This is what gives Timothy security to walk forward as a disciple.
Listen: Some of you have spent your entire life pretending and performing, thinking the only way into God's good graces is to work your way in. But that's not how it works.
There is therefore now no condemnation. We are saved by grace through faith, apart from our works. You've never in your entire life trusted in your jacked-up works. You've never trusted the finished work of Jesus Christ and said: "He died for me. Somehow, in some way, the cross counted for me. That's all I need."
If you don't have the eternally secure love of the Father, you can't be secure in Him.
If you're realizing right now that you need to cross that line and step into the love of the Father maybe for the first time, I want to give you that chance.
Bow your heads and close your eyes. Pray this silently:
God, I know I'm a sinner. I know I have lived for other things besides You first. But I believe You died for my sin. I believe that somehow, in some way, the cross counted for me. I believe You rose from the dead and that You live to give life to anybody that would call on Your name. From this day forward, as best as I know how, I will live for You first. Today I receive the free gift of adoption as a son or a daughter and the forgiveness of my sin—apart from anything I've ever done—just as a gift. Thank You, God, for adopting me as a son or a daughter.
If that was you today—if you're crossing a line of faith for the first time to come to Jesus Christ—I want you to respond physically. When I count to three, slip your hand in the air. Something solidifies in you spiritually when you respond physically.
No fear. No shame. Don't ever let anybody make you ashamed of what God's doing in your life at church.
One, two, three—hands in the air right now.
