Faithful to the End

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 
2 Timothy 4:7

Do you desire to finish well? 
One of my favorite authors, Jerry Bridges, gives four essentials to finishing well:

• a daily time of focused communion with God,
• a daily appropriation of the gospel,
• a daily presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, and
• a continual firm belief in the sovereignty and the goodness of God.

Bridges died on March 6, 2016. He finished well! I would encourage you to listen or read this sermon he delivered in 2007. If you are going to fight sin in the grace and power of the gospel, you must be saturated in God's love, worshiping him daily, and correctly appropriating the gospel.

Fighting sin is hard. Habitual sin often causes men and women to struggle with their assurance of salvation. Failures bring frustration, lack of joy, discouragement, feelings of hypocrisy, and thoughts that maybe you have disqualified yourself from ministering to others. Growing up, I watched my dad battle against anger. He read Christian books on anger, daily spent time in the Scriptures, and openly admitted to his struggle. He served as the chairman of the deacons in our church (the Baptist equivalent to an elder). There was never a hint of discussion that he had disqualified himself from ministry.

A recent survey indicates that 52% of Christian men and 10% of Christian women view porn at least several times a month. Many of these individuals live in great fear of others finding out about their failures and sins. Unbiblically, we place periodic failure in this area on a different level than other sins. And when this topic comes up in accountability groups, everyone shuts down. The church (in general) has failed when trying to help sexually broken people. Pastor James Reeves writes that we do not make the church a safe place, or we do not create a safe process.

We need to help Christians fight the good fight in this area. My goal is to help those in Fight Club dismantle the shame of this sin. One way we can do this is through training people in Biblical accountability, where they learn to embody wisdom and grace. If you would like to be part of this training, email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If we are going to finish well, we need one another!

It's all about Jesus,
John