03-13-16 – Be Faithful to the Fight

Turning Point Wesleyan Church

Pastor Dan

Devotion is rooted deeply into the very fabric of God.

God calls us to be nothing short of being totally loyal to Him.

And in doing just that, being loyal to God, we will find security of our salvation.

Paul wrote about this in 2 Timothy 4:7-8. (NLT)

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.”

Within these words, we find Paul being very personal and open with us.

Believing that he was now coming close to the end of his life, he bares his heart to us.

§  He says he has fought a good fight.

§  He had finished the race.

§  And he had remained faithful.

And he rests:

·        In knowing of his reward.

·        There is No guessing here.

·        Nothing is left to the undecided.

·        He knows!

·        How does your knowledge of your salvation rest within you?

·        Is it secure and without doubt?

·        Can your security in this be shaken or broken?

There are around 300 leaders recorded within the Bible and if we pull the most prominent 100 of them and look at their lives, there is only around 1 in 4 who finished well.

What is true for these leaders in the bible can also be true of today’s churches and of our denominations as well.

·        I tell you today that I want to finish well.

·        I want this church to finish well.

·        I want the Wesleyan faith to finish well.

·        But in this, I feel I have to be very open with you.

I used to think that the greatest danger for the church was for it to become too free-thinking or adapting to become broad minded and free thinking.

Although we must never let our theological guard down, I don’t believe this is the greatest danger facing our church today.

We face a very worldly belief system which is becoming increasingly forceful and aggressive in its

·        Anti-Christian,

·        Anti-Truth,

·        Anti-God mentality

·        And I fear the danger is that we are facing this with a very relaxed spiritual heart. 

·        Today, we face a world whose heart is becoming increasingly cold.

·        A heart which is separating itself from reality as if an attempt so it doesn’t feel anything anymore. And when it protects itself so it feels no pain, it in turn also feels no love.

·        We face a world’s heart that needs / requires the feeling of hot fiery embers of evangelism!

·        And I fear of the danger that is awaiting for us.

·        Although we see all of this.

·        And we know all of this.

·        But we are not prepared nor are we preparing ourselves for this battle because our own hearts are full of uninspired passion for God.

·        Because we ourselves are burned out, we are lost, we are like a ship - rocking back and forth in the wind and we are without any sails.

·        Every day, we Face a Devil who is alive and well.

·        A Devil who has saved his biggest guns and his heaviest artillery for these last days.

·        These Days which are filled with him doing all he can to make us just throw up our hands and quit!

·        And with the Devil doing all of his best work, we face him with just lukewarm hearts. 

·        I desire to be able to say this personally.

·        I desire for my church to be able to say this congregationally.

·        I desire for our denomination to be able to say this corporately.

·        To say exactly what the Apostle Paul said in perhaps the most famous last words from anyone short of Jesus Christ Himself:

o   “I have fought the good fight,

o   I have finished the race,

o   And I have kept the faith.”

You know our last words before we past are very powerful and important.

There is a story of a lawyer visiting with a widow about her husband’s passing and the fact that he did not have a signed will.

The lawyer said, “Did your husband have any last words?”

The widow said, “You mean right before he died?”

The lawyer said, “Of course. You see, they might be very helpful if it’s not too painful for you to recall.”

She gathered her thoughts some and then said, “Well, the last words he said just right before he died were, ‘Woman - You don’t scare me with that gun. You can’t hit the wide-side of a barn.’”

Paul wrote in his words,

o   “I have fought the good fight,

o   I have finished the race,

o   And I have kept the faith.”

 He wrote this when he truly felt that it was at the end of his life, with either Paul going to see Jesus or Jesus coming down to see him.

When Paul wrote that he had fought the good fight, both the words “fought” and “fight” comes for the Greek word, ‘agon’ which presents our English word ‘agony’.

It literally means “Conflict” or “Contest”.

I believe we would all agree that Paul was most certainly a spiritual soldier in the army of God.

If you don’t know of this or if you have forgotten, I want to remind you today that every true believer is a soldier of the cross.

God does not have a volunteer army; the draft is still in effect and everybody has been drafted.

In 2 Timothy, 2:3, we find Paul’s writing to Timothy when he said to Timothy as well as to everyone. "Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus."

Christianity is not for the faint of heart.

Then you come to Jesus, He does not invite you to a picnic.

He calls you to a fight.

Remember when He tells us of the Armor of God? Ephesians 6:10-18

C. S. Lewis once said, "There is no neutral ground in the universe:

·        Every square inch,

·        Every split second is claimed by God,

·        And then it is all counterclaimed by Satan."

Every child of God faces three enemies.

·        And these enemies don't fight fair.

·        They don't fight clean.

·        They don't accept ‘cease-fires’ agreements.

·        There are no hands off areas of our lives.

·        And they don't sign peace treaties.

These enemies which we all face are:

·        The World,

·        The Flesh,

·        And the Devil.

And if you feel that I am mistaken,

·        That it really isn’t that bad after all,

·        That the world hasn’t changed that much.

·        If you don't believe that there really is a war going on right now, just pick up your newspaper, turn on your television, or even just listen to your radio.

We must be faithful to the fight because there is a war going on. A war which is out:

·        To change our culture

·        To change our belief system

·        And to change the world’s morality.

Dartmouth English professor, Jeffrey Hart, in a recent speech reported by the Wall Street Journal, said:
‘A great many things happened all of sudden in this country in the very recent past. Without going into the right and wrong of every case I list them objectively.

Within living memory, abortion was a felony in virtually every state in the nation. Today, abortion is commonplace in America; demands that it be federally funded are alleged to be rooted in the Constitution.

Within living memory, hard-core pornography was largely kept out of sight, usually by a rough agreement between sellers and authorities. Now the hard-core stuff is available on your newsstand.

And I would have to add to his list by saying that it is also on the internet, billboards along the road side, TV shows, the commercials and even in the kid cartoons.

Within living memory, school children recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and in many schools simple prayers. At Christmas time, they sang Christmas carols. Suddenly all of that fell under proscription (which means the banding of).

Within living memory, homosexuals were, for the most part, discreet. Suddenly we find that they demand public legitimization of their uniqueness, stage parades and demand representation in governing bodies as a legitimate minority.

Is there any question that a revolution has in fact been imposed upon an unsuspecting nation?

We are in a war and we must be faithful to the fight.

Now I warn you that other than a few films produced such as ‘War Room’, we will not get any help from Hollywood or from the media.

Within the book “Media Elite”, the authors interviewed the people who bring us the big nightly news shows, and found that:

·        90% of them are pro-choice.

·        75% believe homosexuality is morally acceptable.

·        And only 8% attend some type of religious services regularly.

The authors went on to say that in a survey of 104 of the top Hollywood elite movie stars, to better understand their opinions on religion and morality, they found that:

·        93% never go to church.

·        95% believe homosexuality is perfectly acceptable.

·        97% were pro-abortion

·        And 84% believe there is nothing wrong with adultery.

More and more we are being told to:

·        Sit down,

·        Shut up,

·        Go along and get along with;

·        Be inclusive,

·        Be tolerant,

·        Be nice,

·        And be quiet.

More and more, we see pastors, churches, and even denominations crumbling before this on slaughter of humanistic and political correctness.

But we must stand firm!

I, like many of you, have sometimes been reluctant to participate in political events but the time is now to be visible, to pray, to make educated, biblically informed decisions in the voting booth.

On Thursday, April 28^th, the Franklin Graham’s, Billy Graham’s son’s ministry is organizing stops in each of the state’s capitals prior to the election in an effort to ask God’s people to come together to pray and to commit to vote.

The “Decision America Tour” stops in Topeka on April 28^th for a rally at the state capitol between noon and 1PM.

(2 Chronicles 7:14) “If My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Well friends, the difference may be small but the result is great.

This is why Paul called it a ‘Good’ fight.

It’s a “good fight because it is God’s fight.”

I know we are told we ought to keep politics out of the pulpit but I believe whenever the political world impacts the spiritual and the moral world, we have the biblical responsibility to address the political.

We all know we face the fact that there are certain groups who protest us every year and at every corner.

And they always say that they are not going to go away.

Well, I have news for them –

·        To the pornographer,

·        To the adulterer,

·        To the homosexual,

·        To the pedophile,

·        And to the abortionist,

WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY EITHER.

Let us say with love in our hearts,

·        but resolve in our souls,

·        we are not going to march under the white flag of compromise;

·        But rather we are going to march under the bloodstained banner of the cross of Jesus Christ.

We will:

·        Never give out,

·        Never give up,

·        And never give in when it comes to standing up for the truth of the Word of God.

·        We will speak the Truth in love but we will speak the Truth.

We may be like a David standing against a world full of Goliaths but we have the slingshot of Truth in one hand and the Rock of Ages in the other and we are guaranteed to have victory in Jesus Christ.

So, my friends, until He comes, be faithful to the fight.