 And so without further ado, I want to go into the word and just share with you a couple of thoughts that that been on my mind the last couple of days and that will come from 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 7 and Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy and he said I have fought the good fight I have finished the race and I have kept the faith I Want to talk to you today on the title on the subject that I titled don't run from the fight and Apostle Paul is already Towards the end of his life. He's writing these Epistles to different churches and he's writing this a pistol to his spiritual son Timothy and he's saying that I Fought a good fight. I have finished a race. I have ran the race and I kept the faith from this writings of Apostle Paul we can We can see one thing is that life is a battlefield that life is a fight life is a struggle and We need to prepare or we need to embrace it and not run away from it Apostle Paul probably was the first one to say that The struggle is real. You know how we have the saying the saying that struggle is real. Well, probably Apostle Paul was the original Author of that saying what Apostle Paul is saying in this in this in this verse that the struggle is real life is a battlefield and It's only for those that are serious-minded only those that are serious-minded are the ones that have a chance at victory our chance of achieving and accomplishing something in life you know in this In our society now we've been That the idea has been going around and a society has been embracing that idea of all participation trophies I don't know who came up with that idea, but That pretty much what those are is that you get a trophy just for Participating, but I want to tell you that the reality of life is not such you don't get a trophy for participating You get a trophy for winning the reality of life is there is winners and there is losers and In life, we will experience Winning and we will experience losing. This is what life is really what about and We must learn to embrace The fight in our life. We must learn to embrace the struggle. We must learn to embrace fighting spirit and and fight for what we believe in We have to understand that everything or anything that's worth fighting for costs Anything that's worth having must be fought for Somebody said that the only the only thing that is free is a cheese in a mousetrap In our lives if we want to have a great life if we want to have a successful life If we want to achieve something great in our life if we want to achieve our destiny What God has called us to do we will have to struggle we will have to fight and Apostles say Apostle Paul is saying to Timothy is that I fought the good fight Anything that we don't fight in life for is We don't treasure. I remember a I remember a time where my wife finally got me to go shopping And she said you don't have any jeans We have to go we have to go shopping. We need to buy you a couple jeans that you can wear every day And we need to buy at least one pair one one jeans So some nice jeans that you can wear, you know like today and so So we went to a couple different stores when I saw the prices I was like heck no we're not buying any jeans My jeans are just good enough, but she convinced me to buy at least one pair a nice pair. And so She took the tag so I won't see how much it cost and I tried it on and it was nice. It was comfortable I liked it. I was like, let's go buy it when we went to the counter and she gave the tag and how much it cost I was like, oh wow Let's just let's go check out something else But anyway, so I ended up buying it and so I only wore those jeans On special occasions like once a month or something and so one time I came to my parents house And my mom said hey a friend of mine just gave me a bunch of clothes and she gave me a bunch of jeans I want to check it out. I think they're about your size Why don't you take a look at them and see if you if any of them fit if you like it You can take them for free and so I saw looking through them and I see exactly same kind of jeans that I just bought at the store Like same size and everything and they see it looks like they were barely worn from buckle and I was like the first idea I thought let me go return them this and keep these but unfortunately was 30 days past and or whatever the return policy So I decided to keep them and so I remember one time. I Knew that I'm gonna have to do some work at the church And help out a pastor to install different things and so I might get dirty so Even though I had two same of two same jeans the other ones were washed Being watched so I decided to wear the free ones because they might get dirty So the point of the story is because I paid for something even though it was exactly the same thing I Treasured it more versus the ones that exactly the same same brand from the same store same size But I chose to wear the free one because I did not pay for them Anything that we don't fight for in life everything that we don't struggle for anything that we don't pay the price for we don't treasure it So fighting is essential in life struggle is struggle helps us to Appreciate things helps us to treasure things you ask any successful men are a woman You ask any successful businessman and if you ask them the struggles that they have to go through to achieve their success They will tell you that the that they had to go through a lot of struggles that they had to face face a lot of adversities that they have to solve a lot of impossible Problems like like border today. He successfully came home on time But he had to solve in a very complicated problem with his engine. So Every person they succeeded in life whether it's in career whether it's in marriage whether it's in family Whether it's in ministry in any area whether it's in whether it's in sports Every person that became successful had to overcome a lot of adversities and have to go through struggle and fight and so but fighting Fighting is good fighting means that you're going somewhere fighting means that you're alive You still breathing you have life in you because the only fish that goes With the current and has no ability to go against it is a dead fish Only a live fish is able to fight against the current and to get to the place that it desires to the place that it wants to get so Don't run from challenge in life. Don't run from problems in life JFK said that I don't pray for an easy life. I Pray to be a strong person So we must when we go through life when we when we encounter encounter challenges in life encounter challenges in a family encounter encounter challenges in our workplace encounter challenges in our business encounter challenges in our character encounter Challenges in our prayer life in our home groups in our ministry We must persevere and push forward and fight the good fight every character of the Bible every person every man and woman of God that was used Every person of faith that we look in a Bible other peoples that overcame great challenges and people that did great things in life somebody said that smooth seas never made a good sailor and If we want to become somebody great We must embrace challenge and we must embrace fighting and struggle in our life As a Christian when you're saved you're never saved from fighting and you never say it from struggle There is this myth That people believe Sometimes that if you if you truly are saved if you truly a Christian Or when you get saved that you are spared from problems in life that you are spared from from challenges in life, and that you are spared from struggles in life but it's actually on the contrary when you Become a Christian when you are saved You are empowered and encouraged to embrace a struggle and to overcome every obstacle that comes on your way in a story and the story of Israelites and Jews when God brought them out of The Egypt he brought them out of the captivity he brought them out of slavery He gave them a promise he was taking them to a promised land He was taken to he was taking Israelites to a great place that was flowing with milk and honey the cities that did not build the houses Did not build the vineyards that didn't plant. I mean it sounded great It it was a great place where they were about to go but In order to get there they had to fight they had to overcome many challenges in the wilderness They had to overcome hunger. They had to overcome different temptations Many times a lot of times they failed But nonetheless that in quid they continue to go and they fought and they got what was theirs And not only they possessed what God has promised them By perseverance and struggle and fighting God on purpose left certain nations In their promised land so that their children will learn how to fight and will learn how to overcome and win Sometimes certain things linger in our life. Sometimes certain problems linger in our life Sometimes certain struggles we go through and they linger in our life It and those things are not so that they will destroy us They're there so that we can learn how to fight so we can learn perseverance so we can Get a backbone so we can Train our character and learn how to get what truly God has promised to us fighting is hard and fighting is exhausting But fighting has its reward You know, there's a you guys know the famous Composer musician bit hoven Teachers regarded him as hopeless his music teachers Regardless as hopeless he he wasn't doing well in his classes and then his father took him took him on supplementary him privately and Later in his life he went death he couldn't hear and But he continued to persevere he continued you to practice the art of music He continued throughout his life and today we know of him as a great composer a great musician as a matter of fact He wrote for best of his music pieces after he was death After he couldn't hear it speaks of a person that is not willing to roll over and die That is not willing to give up but is willing to fight for what truly belongs to him and this is This is life. This is what happens when we try to achieve something in life This is what happens when we try to go and fight for what? Fight for things that are worth it when we try to go and fight for our family try to fight for our marriage When we go and try to fight for the things that we desire we will always encounter challenges But what makes great people great is not the fact they encounter challenges not the fact that they struggled not the fact that they Failed many times, but it's the fact that they choose to get up every single time and to fight and to make it count They choose to fight till the end until they received What they were looking for what they were fighting for you know Life is a struggle and the struggle began in a garden of Eden Originally God when he created earth when he created man he placed in the garden of Eden There was complete harmony that was complete peace. There was there was complete. There was no struggle. There was not fighting There was no striving it was It was Garden of Eden. It was Wonderful it was great but because of sin because Adam he gave a way for Satan in this world from that moment on This world start having challenges problems and struggles We have to understand that Satan is the author of struggles. He is the author of fighting and strife He is the fighting. He is the author of challenges in our lives And so when we encounter problems in a life when we encounter challenges alive, we must be aware Who the source of trouble is that we don't start pointing finger at God We don't start blaming God for the problems and challenges in our lives that we know that the author The one who begins and starts all the problems is Satan and the reason why we have struggles and problems in our lives is because Satan hates God But he is no challenge to God. He can't do nothing. He's he's no match with God So he goes after something that's after that that's close to God's heart and its humanity It's me and you and this is the reason why we encounter struggles This is the reason why today we encounter problems and this is the reason why we must fight in our life Satan attacks humanity because we are due to his heart and so We must understand these things so that we might have proper perspective in our life and so that we might direct our fight To the right direction so that instead of fighting with each other instead of it in marriage fighting with your spouse Instead of fighting with your siblings with their parents instead of fighting against your boss instead of fighting Against against people that you fight against the person Against the against the against Satan and his demons you you direct your fight against the right source That you don't start blaming God you don't stop fighting God and say God Why is this why is that but you know who the author of problems and challenges in life and that you direct your fight against the right person? Apostle Paul in Ephesians says chapter 6 that our fight is not against flesh and blood but it's against Evil rulers authorities and unseen world against mighty mighty powers in this dark So we must understand that sometimes in this world Our life is a collateral damage in this war in this struggle Satan against God and so that's why we can't just Take a position We can't just be a people that just don't fight. We can't just be a people that Roll over and just watch our life go by Or think for for a moment that if we just stop fighting Everything will be okay, or if we just stop striving if we just stop pushing ourselves forward that somehow everything will be okay It would not be okay because devil He is a thief he came to steal kill and destroy and he will do everything in his strength to rob our life to steal from our life To destroy our life and if possible to kill us But the good news is that there is coming a day There is coming a time We read in Revelation where God will put an end to everything Where Satan will be bound when hedimus will be thrown into Lake of fire and but God says that he will wipe away Every tear and there will be no more struggles. There will be no more fighting There will be no more struggling in our lives that day is coming But the day is not here yet. And so we must Embrace fight and struggle in our life and we must learn how to overcome in our life Fighting is good in our life because it develops a character It helps us to persevere It develops our patience and it matures us and it helps us Exposes these things in us That otherwise we don't see it for example When you pick up a teabag and especially if there is no label on the teabag You don't know what kind of teabag it is what it contains or what it's capable of but when you put it in the hot water It begins to reveal its true color and it begins to Reveal its taste and what it really made of Same thing struggle and fighting in our lives When we begin to fight when we get into a struggle in our life It begins to reveal things about us that we did not know previously that allows us to Change us and allows us to improve ourselves and really brings the good and the bad out of us And so we improve on the things that we need to improve with things that we need to work on Fighting also challenges and teaches us to rely on God Every time when I break struggle every time we we we come into challenge in our lives It helps us to rely on God It shows us that we are weak on our own and that we need God in our life and Struggle determines helps us to determine what we really want in life sometimes We we think we want many things sometimes we have we we think we want this or this or that But when we get into a struggle when we get into a fight and we begin to fight for it then we truly determine Would you truly find out what we really want? I? Want to share three things That we must fight for first We must fight for what belongs to us In the Bible there's 7,000 promises or what God has prepared in store for you what he wants to give you what really true truly rightfully is yours But all those promises all those great things that God has in store for us that great destiny Those great talents and gifts that God placed in you in your life Will only come through if you're willing to fight for it If you willing to struggle for it if you're willing to go for it If you're willing to stand on the promises of God if you're willing to fight what truly belongs to you Like I already mentioned that God has given a promise land To Israelites when he brought them out of the Egypt, but under path They had to encounter many challenges They had to encounter many and many enemies that they had to overcome and they had to fight for what truly belong to them Even though God promised 400 years before that they will possess the land that floated milk and honey The word of God and the promises of God that we read in a Bible They belong to us. Yes, there are ours But we must fight for them in order for them to be realized in our life. Amen number two We must fight against sin because sin Has it because sin has a power to destroy life and to destroy our future Apostle Paul writes to Timothy. He says resist the devil and he will free from you. That means we must Resist sin. We must resist temptation and we must resist We must fight against sin in our lives Because sin in itself has a destructive force and if we allow sin in our life if we don't fight against it If we don't if we don't fight against those those habits in our lives if we don't fight against that that habitual sin that We have in our life linger in our life Eventually that sin will destroy us and destroy our life and so we must We must fight against sin number three is that we must fight for people The most honorable best thing you can do is to fight for someone's soul to fight for a person And I love what Andre today shared during prayer is that somebody was fighting for him And that's why today he's fighting for his friends and those that are close to him Somebody took a stand in prayer for him. Somebody was crying out to God for his life So the life his life will be forever changed Somebody was in prayer Somebody was fasting somebody was it was his parents. It was the church and today his life is completely Different. He's not using drugs anymore. He's not drinking anymore. He's not partying anymore He's serving God and he's helping other people to get out of that lifestyle And so the best thing what the best thing that we can do The best fight that we can fight is not against people But for people I remember a story from Gideon from the Bible a story of Gideon Gideon God came to him and said you are mighty man of valor your fighter. I like your spirit I want you to go and free my nation from from the enemies that's been oppressing your nation and Gideon first he he started making up a bunch excuses at God, you know, I'm not qualified. I am I'm a nobody. I am from the Very small family. I'm the youngest in the family. God you picked the wrong kind of a person I'm not able to fight. Who am I? Nobody's gonna listen to me But God told him go and fight and I will be with you and Gideon answers the call and he begins to fight for his nation And he brings a great victory to his nation He defeats the enemy and Israel triumphs once again and because He took the stand because he fought for his nation His life was blessed by God. He was arranged. She was made a leader of the nation and he his life was God arranges life much better than he could have arranged himself He if Gideon would not answer the call to fight for people to path to to fight for his nation Gideon would still have been hiding in the cave From the enemies and living on barely anything But because Gideon decided to answer the call and fight for people God had done a great miracle in his life He he saved the whole nation through him got rid of the enemies his personal enemies and The enemies of his nation and blessed his life, and he was he was living in a bonded life I also remember a story of of David from the Bible David was a Same way. He was a nobody the youngest in the family He was he was even when when prophet Samuel called for all the brothers to come into the house to to dine with him He wasn't even called to the table. He wasn't even regarded as a family for some reason or the other But David answered the call To fight against Goliath when we when he came to deliver food to his brothers on the battlefield He saw that his people he saw that his nation that his God was being mocked and and it's been It's been a tramp on by Goliath and he decided he was enraged inside He couldn't see that that that scene that he was looking at and he decided to go and fight for the nation of Israel He went to fight For the name of God and we see that When he took a stand when he began when he took a stand and he fought against Goliath God first of all gave him victory And second of all David became famous Everybody was chanting Putting him higher than Saul king himself saying that he killed tens of thousands and Saul only killed a thousands. Yes We see the devil David struggled through life For some time but eventually he became a king of the nation Every time we choose to fight for somebody every time we step out and we choose to we We go meet with people. We have a home group. We pray for people. We intercede for people Every time we choose to live for not just for ourselves, but we choose to live for others What happens is God begins to give you victory. God begins to give you those people that you fight for But not only that God begins to arrange your life and he begins to put things together in your life And God can do so much more for you that you could ever done for yourself Every person that puts other people before them Every person that fights for other people will never be in dishonor will never be in shame Every person that fights for others That prays for others that cares for others will always be in honor and it will always Be under the blessing of God Apostle Paul says that I fought a good fight. What fight is he talking about? What fight did apostle Paul fought in his life? Apostle Paul had only one mission. He only had one vision for his life Is to reach as many souls for Jesus as possible? Apostle Paul his life is only about one thing Is to spread the good news of the gospel to as many people as possible And apostle Paul says that I fought a good fight He says I fought a good fight and I have finished the race I have kept the faith now that is in store for me a crown of righteousness and in store for me There is a there is a reward And now we see Apostle Paul's life He spent his life on others. He spent his life fighting for people. He spent his life extending the kingdom of God and today Temples are built in his name today We look at him as a hero as a man of faith every time we choose To follow the vision of God every time we choose to fight for others Every time we choose to live for something bigger than ourselves We will always be in honor. We will always Live a life that is blessed in Jesus name amen the story of good Samaritan shows us that a man Was walking on the road And the thieves thieves came upon him and they beat him They robbed everything they stole everything from him and left him half dead on the side of the road Today this story repeats over and over again in many lives today Satan and his agents demons they're roaming around and then destroying people's lives And they're leaving people wounded and on the side of the road And I believe that we are such a church. We are such a people that will take a stand That will fight for people that will fight off those robbers and thieves those those people those Entities those demons that destroy people's lives And the people will not have to encounter what this man encountered being left half for dead You might say that you know, I Why do I have to fight in life? Why can't I just take it easy? Why do I have to you know, come and pray in Every morning Why do I have to pray on Friday night prayers and pray for people and pray for the vision and And in constantly being struggling out trying to meet with people pray for them You know, why can I just be a normal person live a normal life? I don't like struggle I just want to be I just want to be a normal person. I just be an ever I want to be an average person. I just want to live a life of struggle But that life that isn't does not exist It's either you're a soldier in a bellow field that are fighting Or you're a prisoner in a prison That's Locked up. That's that's useless I remember a story from david's life, you know, david is a fighter And that's why one of the reasons why I like his character in the bible so much He he was a fighter and he always fought but they came up a season in his life What david has been fighting for very long david was getting old and david Chose not to go fight when it was a season when kings fought amongst each other And as his army went to fight david stayed back home And when david chose not to fight temptation was really close And we see that david made some of the Better mistakes some the worst mistakes in his life Simply because he stopped fighting in his life. He stopped struggling in his life He stopped pursuing those things that god called them to pursue Every time we stop fighting temptation will always be near it will always will find us Another person that comes in mind from the bible is samson samson was called by god Specifically to fight for his nation to free his nation from nation of philistines But samson he abandoned his call and he abandoned his fight And he was flirting with delilah. He was sleeping on the lap of delilah And we know the story that how unfolded with samson is that eventually He lost his power He lost his life And he lost his eyes and he lost he lost his life Every time we choose not to fight Satan will always be near Temptation will always be near to get us down and to lock us up as prisoners. We either soldiers that That we fight or we're prisoners We have to understand that Our final resting place is in heaven We will rest there. There will be no more fight But while we're on this earth, we're gonna struggle and we're gonna fight and we're gonna persevere david david says in his psalm is that he will prepare a table before my enemies Because when you fight with god god is always on your side And you will have victories and even if you're gonna be in the midst of the struggle Even if you're gonna be in the midst of fight in the midst of war you will still be at rest You'll still be at peace and god will prepare a table in front of your enemies So i want to challenge you and want to encourage you To not give up in your life if you abandon certain dreams a calling of god in life If you abandon certain things in your life, I challenge you to pick it back up and to fight a good fight Fight till the end so that you will be able to say with apostle paul What apostle paul said that i fought a good fight i ran the race i kept the faith And i am awaiting my reward in heaven you have to understand at the end of the days Life is short and it's all gonna come to an end when we're gonna be buried six feet under We will be able to take nothing with us But only the things that we fought for and the treasures that we stored up in heaven So i encourage us That we would fight for what god has for us that we will not settle for mediocre life That we would fight sin in our life and that we would fight for people in our lives that we fight for those That are lost for those that are hurting that we will come against those powers and principalities That seek to destroy people and harm people and that will be those people that god can rely on On and there will be those that will answer the call of god and that will wage war against Satan and his agents and that we will extend the kingdom of god in jesus mighty name amen church