 Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We are blessed to be in the house of God There is no better place to be there in the presence of God regardless of there is many of us regardless If there is only few of us where there's two or three of us gather together Bible says there is a presence of God and what else more can you ask than God in the midst of his own creation? Guiding leading us speaking to us and guiding us and that's exactly what he will do tonight if you believe it say amen Amen amen Why don't you go ahead and open to first Samuel chapter 30 and I will Hold off on that for now You just go there and open it and I will I will give a little intro then we go right into the word of God um, I want to talk about This very interesting subject and it's something that's been on mohawk for some time and I've been I've been kind of Studying it in a bible for for many years and just kind of looking at the men and women of faith in the bible And just observing his principal work in my life and in the lives of others and so I named today's topic Quit quitting. So if you have a title Uh, if you if you write what you should be writing no takers or history makers they say, uh, write that down And I'll begin by saying is that many things We start in our lives Many people start the race many people start uh, many things in their life, but Not all and not every person completes what they finish As a matter of fact, we are living such a generation in such a Uh, such a world that uh quitting is actually very common and many times it's justifiable and um Many people start to They start a new year's resolution Two three weeks into it to month into it. They quit many people start their businesses They quit many people decide to start living a lifestyle healthy lifestyle They quit many people start relationships and they quit and so quitting is all around us quitting is something We are very familiar uh in our lives we witnessed it in uh in our own lives in of lives of others we witnessed it in it just in life in general and so the reason why people quit Is because it's hard Because it's inconvenient The reason why many people quit is because Uh, it's sacrificial it requires discipline and it requires many times to stay through to persevere It causes pain and discomfort and so therefore many people choose to quit many times we quit and many times we give up and so we don't see We quit because of a temporary pain and we don't see lasting gains in our life I'm just gonna read you a couple of statistics before we dive into it And um, we'll start with marriage Statistics says that marriage divorce right now uh in marriages are about 50 percent. So people 50 percent of um All the people that get married 50 percent get divorced second marriage when people get married again Their divorce rate goes up to 60 percent third time people get married Divorce rate goes up to 73 percent and it goes up higher as people get married And the funny thing is that some people Go through the very same thing that others do Some people quit some choose to persevere statistics also says that People that stay through marriage even they go they go through the same problems as others do that quit Those that stay through at the eventually they do not regret it And um statistics says that most people don't regret it and they are more happier afterwards and more satisfied And they're happier even if at the end it doesn't work out They're happier that they're more satisfied and they feel better about themselves that they give it a try Versus the people that quit they have one regret is that they should have tried harder They should have gave it another chance that should have gone on longer Statistics also says that a high school dropout rate is about seven percent And best uh in some in some parts of the countries it gets as far as 25 percent Also, this statistic says that 70 percent of american study go to study at seven four year university and two Two-thirds of them drop out 30 percent of college students and university students drop out after first year High school graduate earns 84 less than a typical graduate graduate student from a four-year college These those without degrees are twice as likely to be unemployed or continue or quit They're just continue to quitting and jobs having having the same pattern 50 of businesses fail first three years Of their business and one of the major just one of the major factors why people why those businesses fail Is because people uh do not persevere do not pass through that three-year mark Do not persevere through the problems and hardships that they face in life Facing business. I mean Statistics also says that uh in the first week of new year's resolution 15 15 percent people quit on the second week 19 percent quit after four weeks 46 percent quit on their new year's resolutions And after six months 64 percent quit their new year's resolution When they did a study they went to the retirement homes and they went to the older the elderly people And they asked them one of the things that what they would change and the some of the things they regret One of the major things was That they gave up too early. They give up too early in their marriage They give up too early in the business. They give up too early on their family They give up too early on their friends. They give up to her. They should have tried harder They should have pushed longer. They should have fought for what they believed So today, I just want to take some time and I want to talk about Perseverance, I want to talk about not giving up I want to talk about not quitting and pushing through the situation you're facing in or even if you give up On certain things in your life uncertain someone in your life I want to encourage you today and want to give you uh inspiration to continue to fight and to continue to stand for What you believe and continue to fight for the dream that god has given you amen Something that britney already mentioned and we have to understand One principle one fact. I want you to write this down actions repeated become becomes a habit A habit becomes a character And the character forms your destiny. So again actions repeated becomes a habit A habit becomes a character and character Forms your destiny We have to we have to make sure that in our lives We develop a spirit that perseveres We have to make sure that we as people we develop right kind of actions and right kind of minds and attitudes in our lives We have to make sure that we do not repeat negative We do not reinforce negative thinking and negative habits in our life of quitting Many people start one project and they quit other people start They start this one job. They somebody Employer tells them Employer tells them to do something that they don't like They quit they get a a bad attitude from their employees I get treated bad and they quit and they go on from one job to another job to another job to another job And it's always other people's faults and they never Persevered in something long enough. They never Continued in something long enough to see the fruit and the results of their Of the fruit of of their perseverance We the statistics says that people in the age of 20s that set That set new years resolutions or set some sort of goals 39 of them succeed in making those goals happen And I thought as I was reading it I was thinking it would be interesting to see what what older people statistics says and firstly first thing that came to my mind Is that the older people are more mature people that are more disciplined people the statistic will be that if People in their fifties if people in their 25 39 only make it the rest quit then people in their 50s 60s 40s The statistic would be like 50 60 70 But to my surprise I found out that people in their fifties only 15 Only 14 i'm sorry 14 of them actually stick to their goals Sticked in your resolutions and to my surprise I was I was taking back Why is that the older person seems like more mature person a person seems like should have more discipline Why an older person would have Would have a less chances Of accomplishing a goal in their life. I think partly because people as they as we grow older as we We set on certain projects we set on To accomplish certain things we set up to accomplish certain dreams and over the period of times We come we face hardships. We pay we face obstacles and we don't persevere through so over the years We collect this habit of quitting We collect we develop this habit of dropping things we start working on this project And we get it 50% done 60% done We run um, uh, we run out of money We run out of ideas and we quit instead of finding a way to make it work instead of finding a budget to make it work we come We we we started we got married We've got five four years into a marriage and a problem arises something got We hit the rock bottom and we decide to quit instead of finding a solution persevere and move through And I was surprised but at the same time Understanding that our actions repeated action develop habits and our habits form our character and then character forms a destiny I begin to understand that the reason why the older you get the more prone you are to quit Makes complete sense and I know We have a lot of young people here most of us are young people and if you're old and age you're still young and hard We want to be people that do not quit We want to be people that we said yes to something we're gonna commit to it and we're gonna do it Bible said let your yes be yes. Let you know be know don't be in between and if you commit to something fulfill your vow Bible challenges us as Christians and as men and women of God to be people of commitment and to be people of perseverance and to Commit and to work through the things that we've committed to to do There was a man named Derek Redman And he was a runner 400 meter runner and he was favored to win that race He was he was really fast. He was really strong and he was favored to live in 99 in 1992 olympics He was favored to win that race He was faster than anybody everybody and so everybody knew that he's gonna Thought that he was gonna win about 150 meters into the race He heard a pop and he's he tore his hamstring and he fell and collapsed on the ground in just In shattering pain and he couldn't help himself to even get up But surprising thing is uh, what happened was He tried to pull himself up and continued to run his coaches ran up to him his father ran up to him and said listen Don't let let us carry you away Let us carry you. Uh, let let let us take you to the sidelines You don't have to keep going. He said no, I have to keep going my country Sent me to run this race and finish it not just to win a medal And so this man in all in all that pain He continued and persevered even though it was hard. It was painful. He kept falling Then eventually his father ran up to him picked him up and together They came to the cross to the finish line and his father Let him go and allow them to cross the finish line and the stadium of 62 000 people Get up on their feet and started clapping and started, uh, it started cheering for that man Why did he want a gold medal? No, he came Minutes and minutes later than everybody else, but they honored his commitment and his perseverance I want to tell you the history remembers people not those that quit but those that persevere today. We know Such a man as Steve Jobs and we use all all of his products You know, he was a man that Got fired from his very own company that he built up to that at that point was worth Two billion dollars and he got fired from the company and he could have easily given up He could have easily fell into depression. How could you you know? Imagine you spend 20 years of your life building the company bringing to a tube To be for it to be worth two million two billion dollars and then board of director fires you But he did not give up. He went to start another company because Because called next It's a animation cartoon. He took it to a very successful company and then in 1999 I believe already eight Apple almost went bankrupt and they invited him back to be aboard A ceo and he came back to that company He made it greater than ever and now everybody uses their phones. Everybody knows who Steve Jobs is Everybody you has iphone's ipads Max and things of that sort and we enjoying his product today and he said the best thing that happened to me was firing from apple And he didn't quit he didn't he didn't he didn't give up. He didn't throw a self pity party even though he wanted to But he continued to persevere and today he's one of the best. He was one of the he's like Thomas Edison over time. He's the inventor of so many things And it's because he chose Not to quit not that he was perfect, but he chose to persevere We know a person that I just mentioned Thomas Edison. We know him today because he chose not to quit You know the teachers told him he was unteachable He they told him that he's stupid. He's no good. He's not going to amount to anything He was just really bad at school But one thing Thomas Edison knew and one thing and everybody one thing they told about one quality about thomas Edison He was a persistent man Over his lifetime His achievements are are great. He patent a thousand over a thousand patents Which one of the patents which led to uh ford to develop the assembly and develop the team model ford which led to revolution in our industry He also as you know developed the light bulb the usable light bulb that that we used today Imagine if tom Edison didn't discover that we probably could have been sitting With candles lit up all around here I bet my wife would like that but um I think got for the light and for the switch and I think got for uh for the light bulb so Why am I sharing these examples? I want to I want to I want to inspire you and want to challenge you is that You have to develop an attitude of a fighter You have to develop an attitude of perseverance in your life. You have to set your mind on something and get it to finish you know um thomas Edison Patent a an almost been bankrupt uh to patent this Certain patent. I already forgot what it what it's called. Uh, which ford Which ford used to develop the team model. He almost uh when broke Trying to work on that patent trying to work on that invention and it never worked for him Even though even though then he invented other things and he recovered financially But the thing is that because he didn't quit and he gave up on it that led When he died that led another man To invent something great that we all use today an automobile sometimes Persevering does not is not going to yield immediate results Sometimes persevering is not going to yield even results in your lifetime we know that uh Abraham he persevered in his lifetime to see the inheritance to see the to see his inheritance like the stars Like the senate I see but Abraham never saw what he what he saw. He barely managed to see one Son being born out of it. That was in his old age Some things that we're gonna fight in our life Some battles that we're gonna face and fight in life certain things that we're gonna persevere through certain things That we're gonna push through it's not going to be comfortable for us And we ourselves might not even be able to see the results of it, but our generation afterwards Will reap the benefits Maybe today you're struggling with certain things in your life. Maybe some kind of addiction some kind of sin in your life Maybe some kind of a habit some that you've developed and you fighting against it you you try and you break it I want to tell you is that not only You need to continue to persevere and fight it for yourself But so that you win that battle so you you you fight and you win that battle in your life So that your generation that your legacy will not have to struggle with the very same things that you struggle with But they can live in a victory that you have achieved some some of our parents some more appearance they they um Quit schools quit college quit this and that some of us some of them had to had to quit because they had to support the family Or this or that but But some of us some of them they had to uh, they just didn't persevere They just didn't push through and today we carry the responsibility We carry the consequences of Of them giving up of them quitting statistics says that The person that grows up in a family that does not have high school High school diploma or college diploma is three times less likely to go to college And that's a result of somebody quitting their life So study also says that if a person grows up in a family there is divorcing as a part There's a higher chance of them facing And going through divorce in their life. So today when we're talking about perseverance when we're talking about fighting We're not only talking about for the sake of ourselves when we think of giving up We're not talking about when you think of giving up don't have don't just think about yourself Think about your legacy. Think about your generation. Think about the examples that you're setting For the future generations there's sometimes Even study says in the marriages that that that family that parents they stay together, but the marriage is still not good even that's still even better for kids the example that they see then parents being apart Because what they see is even though it's hard I can persevere and I can make it work What makes most people successful is that? Where most people gave up they persevered If you look at all the successful people in this world you look at all the businessmen you look at successful marriages You will look at a healthy people. You will look people that live a healthy lifestyle You will look at people that went to college where you look at people that accomplish something in their life It's not that they were special It's not that they were Something was different about them. It's not that they had a higher IQ. It's not that they um Uh Had some special abilities or superpowers. It was simply because they persevered with others gave up I wanted to challenge you today and I want to show you from a scripture give you a couple pointers and encourage you What to do when it's hard and how to persevere and how to have a spirit of endurance in your life Let's read scripture right now from first seminal chapter 30 Uh from verse one Three days later when david and his men arrived home in their town of ziklek They found that amelokites had made a raid into the neck naive And ziklek bear with my english They had crushed ziklek and burned it to the ground They had they had carried off the women and children and everyone else but without killing them When david and his men saw the ruins and realized what had happened to their families They wept until they could not weep no more david's two wives uh in hymenoma from Jezreel and abigale the widow of nabal From carmel were among those captured david was now in great danger because all of his men were very bitter About losing their sons and daughters and they began to talk of stoning him But david david found strength in the lord his god Then he said to abid dar the priest bring me the effort And abid dar brought it Then david asked the lord should i chase After his disband of raiders will i catch them and the lord told them Yes Go after them you will surely recover Everything that they Have taken from you Say quit quitting Say be a fighter david is one of my favorite characters in the bible And bible calls him a man after god's own heart and I wonder why a lot of times, you know, I I when I read about david and I read through the Samuel and kings when I read Psalms I try to find those characteristics What exactly that god liked about david That he You know called him the man of god of his own heart and there's many things But I think one of those one of the things that that marx david's life Is that he was a fighter. He was not a quitter Let me give you a background to this story At age of 17 david well history says Those theologies that they calculate all these stuff the smart people they say That david was about david was about age of 17 Where a prophet samuel came and anointed him to be the next king and he said you will have the throne After the age of 17 Shortly after david goes and kills the goliath Everybody starts liking david more than the king sol himself the king sol was the king at that moment sol gets jealous and for the next 10 To 13 years of his life David is running away from sol. He's hiding in the mountains He many times he's starved many times. He he doesn't have anything to drink Uh, he he and his men run away from sol because they don't want to fight sol. They don't want to kill him Even though david has many chances. He doesn't want to touch the king that was anointed by god david holds his integrity and for many many years up to this point Over a decade david keeps running in his life. He keeps fighting battles He keeps facing setbacks at one point He gets encircled by the by sol and he was surely gonna die He he has to act like a like a madman starts forming out of his mouth some staying weird words Pretty much just starts acting like a crazy man. So they throw him out And that's how she survives and so that was david's life constantly fighting constantly trying to survive constantly battling a position Constantly, you know, he he's anointed to be as a king. He has this promise from god He has a he he he was promised a throne He has all this potential that he could be he's a great leader everybody recognizing him yet He's keep facing disappointment after disappointment in his life and it seems like the further his life goes The further from the crown and the throne he becomes So this is a like a breaking point. This story is like a breaking point here david is already Begins to establish himself in this in a city. He has his wives. He has his kids He has all his possession in the city. He's already established himself with the philistines with the enemies and he Makes a mistake. He goes with the enemies to fight against israel And because of that mistake The amelokites come and they raid his the raiders City the raid they they take away every all the possession they take everything from him Everything he worked for 13 years up to this point david is reduced to zero. He's reduced to nothing He is worse than he began and david as at a breaking point not only he is In depression anxiety He's crying that he's doesn't even have tears anymore to cry even his own faithful man begins to turn against him What do you do in this kind of situation? what How the how do you survive? Do you keep pressing on you have the promise of god? You're supposed to be on a throne. You're supposed to have the crown But now you are in ashes. You came to zero. You came to nothing What do you do then? You know many people in this case they come at suicide Many people in this case they give up on life Many in this and in this case people go on depression pills and so forth so on Many just give up on life And if they don't give up their life physically they give up on life emotionally and they just cope through life They become bitter they become hateful And they don't have enough strength to persevere What do you do in a moment when you find yourself? I want to give you just quick four things that I discovered for myself from the story that will give you maybe help you To to to overcome that setback in your life. Bible says that david strengthened himself in the lord Having real intangible relationship with god will help you persevere in life The reason why david was able to overcome his setback the reason why david did not quit when it was hard the reason why david was um The reason why david kept going on and he persevered is because david had a real intangible relationship with god david many times in hip songs We see the secret of his success We see the secret of his fighting spirit is he always said lord you are my strength You are my shield and I will not be moved even if thousands rise against me I will overcome and I will defeat them because you're on my side We see the reason why david was able to overcome And the reason why david was able to pick himself up and go and pursue the enemy And recover everything that he lost is because david Had a genuine and real relationship with the holy spirit real relationship with the word of god. He spent time praising god. He spent time um Reading the word of god. He spent time in prayer. He spent time having he he Played a proper foundation in his life and that foundation was real genuine relationship with god Nothing will carry you through life like a genuine love for god Nothing will keep you straight Nothing will keep you focused in life as a real intangible relationship with the holy spirit He's the only one they can give you strength to overcome any challenge And he is the only one I can give you a finer spirit to keep fighting number two I think it's the fact that david had mentors And he had fighters around him Surround yourself with people that are fighters Surround yourself with people that are not quitters if you even if you come from a family That's they've seen divorce They've seen abuse even if you come from a bad background you've seen people quitting people um People strain on on drugs addicted to all kinds of substances alcohol And uh, you have not seen in a good example in your life Surround yourself find yourself people that are fighters find or marriages around you that survive find marriages around you um that that um That persevered and and and overcame find people that succeeded in business find people that succeeded in projects Find people that succeeded in overcoming that addiction that that that habit in their life surround yourself with mentors and fighters david calls on the priest he brings a person into his life That could help him they could strengthen them that could encourage him and gone Surround yourself with people that are have positive thinking people that are fighters number three Remember god's faithfulness Recall previous victories successes and testimonies even if it's not from your life I don't know what david was thinking at the moment But I can only imagine when david found himself in this situation in this great despair in this Impossible situation. What was going through david's mind? I think what was going through david's mind was the victory that he got over goliath I think what was going at that uh through david's mind at the moment at the moment how god Saved him many times from the hand of sol when he was surrounded when there was no way out And he was surely gonna die at the moment and god saved him I think what was going through david's mind at the moment as he was recalling how god helped him to To not starve to death and gave him bread and water for him and his men I think what gave david's strength to get up and fight Was that he recalled previous victories he recalled the goodness of god bubble cells count the blessings that you receive And you say well, maybe in my life, I don't have many many good things. Maybe I don't have many victories Maybe I don't have I don't have many successes in my life We talked about early surround yourself with people They can they can reassure you that you can have the success that they achieved. Look at other testimonies Maybe you're sick in your body and you you want to be healed. You're seeking for you seeking for health You're seeking for healing from god. Watch the testimonies Watch the testimonies of people that received healing so that it will build your faith So it will build a fighting spirit within within you Maybe you're looking to receive breakthrough in your career promotion begin to watch testimonies of people that receive promotion receive received receive breakthrough in the lives surround yourself with testimonies of people that received what you're looking for Surround yourself on the recall the victories previous victories god has put in your life And number four keep your eyes on the reward I believe in that moment david David was recalling the promise of god that you're gonna be the king That everything will be well that you're gonna rule the nation that everything will be well In those moments of despair begin to recall the promises of god in your life Begin to dig deep into the word of god begin to recall what god has what god has What god has promised you begin to recall what god has put on your heart and on your spirit What god has promised to to do for you to do for uh for your family For your life and for your business for your career whatever whatever the e might be i want to tell you that God is not looking for perfect people God's looking for those that do not quit god looks for those that will continue to fight samson We know the story of samson samson did not Did not do many things right in his life He was actually he kind of messed up a lot like a lot But yet he's still in hebrews mentioned as a man of faith and i'm wondering why was he mentioned a man of faith And i can't But to think Of that moment where samson is done when samson realizes how bad he's fallen how bad he's sin before god how he betrayed god Seven person realizes that at that moment samson is in captivity He used to be a strong man. He used to tear things down. He used to be a champion But now he's cuffed his hands his feet is cuffed and he's going around the mill Mill in the The grain for the enemy He the enemy keeps mocking him. His eyes are Blocked out. He is useless. He is nobody and most importantly his strength And the calling that he had upon his life he lost But at one moment You know say samson. He did not quit He asked god lord if you give me one more time one more chance I'll fight for you and i'll destroy those enemies. Just give me one more chance Even in his lowest point in his life Even when he messed up. He did not beat himself over it. He did not Mope around he did not throw a depression party. He said god give me one more chance. I'll fight give me this one more Just give me strength one more time and I'll do everything I can and I will not fail yet one time And I think this is the reason why god allowed samson to be mentioned as a hero faith I look at the lives of men and women of god in the bible and today and I look at them and I see that they're far from Perfect, but you've noticed one thing for about them is they constantly fought they never give up Despite the challenges they kept persevering, but the isn't this is what the faith is all about Faith is this is what faith is about is to continue to fight continue to press through continue to persevere Continue to stay positive continue to stay hopeful that god is on the throne god is on your side and you will prevail you will succeed Apostle Paul says I fought a good fight and I ran a race Bible says the righteous man will fall seven times and seven times he will get up righteous Why is he still righteous if he fell seven times? He's righteous because he keeps getting up You know, there are times that god will give us victories in our life Simply because of his grace we've done nothing to deserve it. We put no effort in it There are times that god's gonna have us fight for the victory and this is to strengthen our character. This is so that This is so that um We could exercise our authority as the children of god So we can learn perseverance and character and there are times When the bible says when you don't all you can you just stand You can do nothing else But don't quit Even if you can't do anything in your situation right now Don't throw a white flag. Don't give up Don't quit don't say I can do it. I can't do it anymore run to god run into this presence Surround yourself with the right people Fight until your very last breath Don't go out like a coward like a quitter if i'm gonna go out I'm gonna go out with a bane like samson. I'm gonna go out with the victory This is the attitude and this is the This is the spirit that we need to carry in our lives Not giving up means to have hope Not giving up means to have faith Not giving up it means to trust god despite of things falling apart Job, you know, you know the story of job He's mentioned as a hero of faith as well lost. He was very rich man bible says he was The wealthiest in in in the east And job lost everything in his life He lost All of his possession his gold He lost all the donkeys camels sheeps goats bowls He lost everything and as the and to make everything make worse He lost all the children that he had the house that the children was was in at that moment went to cop The roof and collapsed the roof and all his children died and if that wasn't bad enough job Got leprosy got skin disease where his skin was falling apart It was itching everywhere. The only bible says the only good skin that he had was around his mouth. That's it and you think Job Give up and die as a matter of fact his own wife came to me. Job curse god and die Give up. What else you're holding on to don't you see your own god forsaken you Don't you see your own god forgot about you? What was the point serving god? What was the point going to church? What was the point of going to all these prayer meetings? What was the point of doing the witnessing and helping others when you yourself now at the point where you can't even help yourself But i like job. He said i know my redeemer lives What he was saying at that moment is that even though i lost everything god is still able to restore me Even though i lost all of my possession. God's still able to restore me even though i lost everything in my life I'm not gonna quit if i'm gonna go out out of this world. I'm gonna go out as a victor I'm gonna go out as a champion. I'm not gonna fold. I'm not gonna give back give up I'm not gonna give out. I'm gonna go out like a victor If i'm gonna with my last breath i'm gonna say my redeemer lives and guess what? God just couldn't go by such a confession. God couldn't go by such a such a spirit a spirit of fighter We know the story ends is that job recovers everything he lost and bible says that he gained everything twice the more And bible also declares and says that his children were the most beautiful children in the land And job was even more in honor and respect and he had everything twice as much as he had before Bible is full of stories of people not quitting history is full of stories of people not quitting not giving up What did you give up on today? What did you surrender to today? Maybe it's your family. You see things are not getting better. Maybe you try live a healthier lifestyle Maybe you try starting this business you failed You know and the statistics says on average A millionaires went bankrupt five times in their life But the reason why they became millionaires and the reason why and then they are in that top 1% of the world Holding wealth is because they didn't let their first bankruptcy stop on second or third or fourth or fifth They continue to persevere Do you have the fighting spirit today? I want to tell you why you should have the fighting spirit today First first if most important is that satan does not quit if you quit If you keep fighting and you think it's hard now and if I just quit and I just fold These problems will leave me satan will leave me. I want to tell you that's a life on the enemy Satan came to kill steal and destroy. He will destroy your life If you allow them and if you fold in he will He'll first steal from your life if you go in and if you fold he'll destroy your life And he's not gonna stop there after destroying your life. He's gonna try to kill your life physical or emotional Number two, the reason why I you should not quit is because you have god who supports your position God wants to develop a character within you. God wants to develop the develop a fighting spirit within you God wants to develop a backbone within you. God wants you to learn how to persevere God wants you to develop a habit of a victorious conqueror. Remember we talked about our our uh repeated behavior Creates a habit and habit Creates a character and character creates a destiny. God wants you to have a great destiny God has a great destiny for you in the store, but you can't be a quitter. You can't be a fighter say. I am a fighter Same I am victorious Say I do not quit faith cannot Faith is dead without works So we need to constantly fight the way we persevere in our lives The way we fight the the way we keep our faith as we keep fighting we keep believing We keep pressing forward. We keep we keep trusting god I remember and I'm gonna finish with this is that um In our family You know, I I'm grateful to have a father that I have he's a great example for me and and I pray and And hope that one day I'll I'll be able to be like him and reflect his character as he attributes But one thing about my my father. He's a pastor of the church Uh, you you if you know him long enough you understand one thing is that he is a fighter and he When he started something even if it's a bad idea, he'll gonna finish it That's just that's just how it is how he is um, and and I I greatly admire this this quality uh this quality about him and um In you know, I remember this point came in our life where he seems like in an year of 2007 to 2008 Everything collapsed in our in our family like literally our family started falling apart We we lost we lost a lot of money as a family all of us and as a family Especially my my dad. He had a very great successful business a lot of money and saved up a multi many three or four different houses and A lot of a lot of things that he worked for for many many years for 10 years of his life As he came to united states. He worked may worked, you know 14 15 hours under construction He was just uh, you know endured and I saw the perseverance of persistence in his life And it came a point where everything everything collapsed literally we lost everything. He lost all his homes Oh barely got to keep the home that he lived in lost all his businesses lost the cars the new cars that he had As an even to make it worse, uh, the family started falling apart. We began to quarrel and fight with each other um And then my my brother says started having problem one particular brother david and you guys some of you already know his story He got introduced to drugs as he started using drugs and from there on things went really bad and he Got started using uh harder and harder drugs and came to the place where he lost his Lost his mind pretty much. He forgot his name. He forgot how to read He forgot basic functions of life He was completely useless the only thing was left for him really if he was gonna get caught Is that he's gonna go into mental institution? He's gonna become vegetable popping, you know popping those those drugs that numb everything in his the the numb everything Pretty much person is useless. That's the only thing that was left You know and this whole thing was unfolding for many years It took two or three years all these things were not folding It seems like one thing from another thing to another thing to another thing was getting worse and worse My brother was getting worse Uh, and so then my other brother started having this severe panic attacks and fear attacks that he He wasn't going to school for some time. I mean, there was literally kind of like in a story of joke There was an attack on our house and our family the church wasn't doing good People uh people were not getting saved church were shrinking people leaving the church I guess all kinds of accusations against the church out of nowhere And so things were getting bad and you know, I watched him and I watched him all these years and and I watched these during those moments and Um And I watched the multiple times even even cry and I don't see my dad crying And so it's one of those things we know when that's that comes to that, you know That that's really bad and my heart was breaking but I couldn't couldn't help with anything I couldn't do anything and I watched him how day after day day after day. He kept fighting He kept fighting. He started he found a ministry of prophet tbj actually started looking at all the testimonies Of how people her god came through in their lives and they in day out I know remember one time mom came to me and he said, you know I'm afraid that your dad is gonna go mental with all this pressure and he's gonna just gonna have a mental breakdown He's like he's continued to pray for him come and encourage him and and he continued these things that I mentioned to you He continued to Trust in god. He continues to spend hours in prayer. He continued to look for solutions He continued to watch the testimonies that I'm going through bad things right now Going through hardships right now, but god is able to restore me My redeemer lives if he has if he has done for somebody he can do it for me He continued to surround himself then day in and day out and they came a point where things with my brother He became really really bad my dad went to My my dad visited that that the church of scone in Nigeria He went there he received a prophecy that everything will be okay and what's the root of the of the problem eventually my brother Goes there receives deliverance come back as a whole new man He his mind is restored. He is able to think clearly if you meet him today you would never know that he was completely mental and Years down the road god restored financial situation of our family God began to move in our church people started getting saved every single thing Restored and not only restored became even greater even better than it was before. Let's put our hands together for jesus You know During those moments, I even I'll be honest even I had those thoughts you know He helped so many people He helps he helped he concerts so many people. He was there for so many people We were missionaries for many people for many years of our life. We sacrificed everything Where is god at that moment? You know and it was easy to get angry at that moment It was easy to to to point fingers at god But this was a moment where god was standing by and he was seeing how we're gonna do it What we're gonna do is he gonna continue to persevere He's gonna continue to fight I want to tell you is that you're part of the great vision you're part of a great church You're part of a great house where the father of the house or the pastor of the house is a fighter And if you continue to come if you continue to persevere if you submit yourself under mentorship in this place You will develop the very same spirit You will develop the fighting spirit and today I want to tell you that we enjoy a great family We enjoy great blessings of god because he did not quit and today many of you here in the church Many of your lives changed and today we saw forced testimonies People afford for people that lives been changed and as direct result because this meant did not quit in those years when it was hard and difficult You know and the funny thing is was what david Was this was the last test david had And right after this moment literally next chapter Saul dies And david becomes a king I want to tell you if you persevere If you don't give up if you keep pushing through if you continue to have faith God is on your side You can be today you can be a prisoner or a joseph and tomorrow you can be a prime minister prime minister Today you can be like david being changed by the man that you did nothing wrong to And tomorrow you can wear his crown and sit on a throne god Has a promise for you god has a great destiny for you But you have to learn how not to quit you have to allow yourself and submit to the process that god has To allow yourself to go through trials and tribulations and not to give up the gold is purified through fire Gold gets gain its value the more pure it is the more expensive and more valuable it is You can't quit when it's hard. You can't quit when you face Dead end when you face the limitation you have to continue to persevere You have to continue to fight god wants to bless you god wants to give you the the desires of your heart He wants to give you a dream Have the spirit that god has he says i'm the author and the finisher I'm the beginning and the end god does not quit in the middle when humanity must stop in garden of eden God did not fold his plan and threw us in a trash and said i'm gonna create a new earth And i'm gonna make new things he said no i'm gonna go and i'm not gonna quit on human race I'm gonna send my son to die for them. I'm gonna provide a plan of salvation and i'm gonna make it all better You know jesus christ When he was going through a hard time when he was going through hard moments in his life When he was on the cross and his own father abandoned him his own father turned away from him He said father why did you forsake me at the hardest moment in his life? He could have jesus said i could call upon Legion of angels and they would deliver me But he did not give up he saw the reward he saw what he was fighting for he saw you and me He did not quit and he persevered and today we are direct result of his legacy We are direct result of him not quitting a persevering today If you persevere if you don't quit God will bless you God will provide a way for you God will prosper you God always starts small, but he finishes great. He never starts something great He doesn't give you this great dream and then brings you down to the ground If you could trust god today if you could only Spend time with him surround yourself with proper people Surround yourself with testimonies You will develop that fighting spirit within you. They will not quit. They will not give up and they will not die It's not about how you start It's how well you finish you say maybe i'm gonna stop so much I've messed around with girls. I messed around with guys. I messed around with drugs I messed around with all these things, you know, my life is messed up. I'm halfway through my life and I'm at zero If you partner up with god God can take you to the impossible David says with god I can leap over any wall. There is no limits to god And so today I want to encourage you tonight. I want to inspire you I want to tell you some of you you just have to fight just a little longer like david Overcome this challenge and the crown is on the other side Some of you you have to pick up your dreams that you abandoned Some of you have to resurrect that passion that god has put in your heart for what he created to you to do and just fight Fight fight surround yourself with people learn to be a fighter Don't go out without a fight And I believe that the holy spirit is touching our hearts today Holy spirit is bringing something our hearts and I believe that we will have a church of champions Church of fighters church that does not fold when attack comes a church that stands from on the ground in jesus mighty name