Mark Batterson - Good Fight

TOPICS: The Good Life, Spiritual warfare

You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey Pokey, and you turn yourself around, and that’s what it’s all about. One of my favorite comics is a climber on a quest to discover the meaning of life. What is the purpose of life? What is the good life? He climbs to the top of a mountain where he encounters a wise old sage who reveals the answer, and the poor guy looks a little disillusioned. The Hokey Pokey, that’s what it’s all about. Yes, now turn yourself around. If it’s funny to me, you’re going to get it. Welcome to National Community Church, in person and online, DC Nova.

What is the good life? That’s the question we’ve been asking for 10 weeks. The answer is the Hokey Pokey. God bless; we’ll see you next week. Methinks there is more to it than that. By the way, it does remind me of a Jack Handy quote: to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself. It’s basically made up of two words: man and end. What do these words mean? It’s a mystery, and so is mankind. Come on, Church. You’ve got to warm up a little bit. Totally random: I went down one of those social media wormholes this week. Once you understand why pizza is round, packed in a square box, and eaten in a triangle, that is when you will understand women. By the way, I once went into my father-in-law’s library and found a book with a curious title: What Men Know About Women. A thin book about an eighth of an inch thick. I opened it up; I am not kidding: blank pages! I’m like, who wrote this book? Because you’re brilliant!

Listen, I don’t want to pretend that life, love, and the good life are not without mystery, but I want to drill down one more week and see if we can’t come to a conclusion. In the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, an American sharpshooter named Matthew Emmons had a commanding lead going into the final shot in the final round of the 50-meter rifle competition. The gold medal was all but his. He took aim, pulled the trigger, hit the bull’s-eye, and lost the gold medal—and some of you know why: he hit the wrong target in the wrong lane. The technical term is crossfire. You train for four years; you’re this close to a gold medal, and you lose gold because you aimed at the wrong target.

Now imagine doing that with your whole life. The question is, is your life aimed at the right target? Now there is a silver lining to the Matthew Emmons story: a fellow shooter named Katarina felt so bad for Matthew Emmons that she gave him a four-leaf clover gold chain. Love at first sight! They’re now married and have four kids. So he lost gold, but he won some. I think at the game of love, okay? So there’s that. What target is your life aimed at?

Now, I’m mixing metaphors a little bit, but some people are so busy climbing the ladder of success that they fail to realize it’s leaning against the wrong wall. Now here’s the hard thing about preaching: I don’t know what’s happening in your head right now, but what I’m aiming at is kind of a metacognitive moment where we reflect on the meaning of life, the purpose of life, and am I, is my life, is my time, talent, and treasure—I mean, am I really aiming? Do I know what I’m aiming at? I would suggest that the target, the bull’s-eye, is Matthew 25:23. Let me put it on the screen so you can see it. The master said, «Well said, good and faithful servant.» Oh no, that’s not well-planned, good and faithful, well-posted, well-intentioned—no, no, no. Well done! Well done, good and faithful servant! By the way, those who can do, those who can’t criticize. Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Is that not totally freeing? You don’t have to do big things for God; do little things like they’re big things. God will do big things like they’re little things.

I mean, the context of this is Matthew 25, where you’re given a cup of water to someone who’s thirsty. That’s not over our heads; that’s not past our ability. Right? This is the bull’s-eye. The good life is good stewardship. It’s leveraging our time, talent, treasure, blood, sweat, and tears for the glory of God. In the words of Oswald Chambers, «It’s my utmost for His highest.» I want you to meet me in a prison cell in ancient Rome. I’ve actually been there. Pretty dark, pretty dank. It would be the last place on Earth that you would associate with the good life. Is that fair? I mean, imagine Paul sitting, hands chained, feet chained, about to be beheaded, just like John the Baptist. This is not a good ending; this is a bad ending. Or is it? This is the bad life, or is it the good life?

I want to raise some questions that maybe call into question how we think about the good life. Let’s jump in. Paul is in this prison cell, and he dictates these words: 2 Timothy 4:6-8: «The time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight.» Would you say it? Good fight. «I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for His appearing.» I love the juxtaposition of these two words: good fight. It reminds me of John Lewis’s «good trouble, ” and it begs the question: what is a good fight?

Now, I think the good life is multifactorial. It’s good friends and good food. Where are my foodies? My foodies! Good food with hospitality! Come on! It’s good movies and good music. The Beach Boys called it „Good Vibrations.“ The good life is good health. I mean, let’s be honest, if you have a newborn—and there are a lot of them around NCC—what are you doing? The good life might be just good sleep—just one night of good sleep! I think the good life is a good laugh. Laughter doeth good like a medicine. I think the good life is all of these things, but I think it’s more than these things.

I think it’s all the things that we’ve talked about during this series. I think the good life is a good eye. We don’t see the world as it is; we see the world as we are. Right? I think the good life is a good God who is a good Father who gives good gifts to His children. „No good thing will I withhold from those who walk uprightly before me.“ I think the good life is good news called the Gospel. And don’t miss this: the good life begins on Good Friday, and Sunday’s coming! Woo! See, I live on the other side of the cross where my sin is forgiven and forgotten. I am in good standing with God; I am in right relationship with the God I mean—the cross to Christ, evidently. And not only that, the tomb is still empty! So all things are possible. I live in this alternate reality that’s more real than the reality we can perceive with our five senses. Woo! That’s the good life. I am in Christ; Christ is in me; that is the hope of glory.

The good life is one more thing; don’t miss it. I think the good life is a good fight. Years ago, I was on a panel at the National Prayer Breakfast with Bob Goff—he’s since become a friend, but it was my first time meeting him. He said something that I won’t forget: „Pick a fight.“ I was like, that’s interesting; that sounds kind of combative—like, what do you mean by that? He said, „Pick a fight, ” and what he meant was with pretty much anything that’s wrong in the world. How many of you know there are a lot of fights to pick these days? It’s fighting the good fight for righteousness, for justice, for love, for peace, for joy. It’s fighting these battles and picking a fight. News flash: we were born on a battlefield between good and evil. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. We struggle not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. We are engaged in spiritual warfare, each and every one of us. No one gets a free pass here. If you don’t believe me, watch the news for five minutes.

You know, from the days of John the Baptist until now, said the gospel writer Matthew, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. I don’t know; that just sounds to me like a dogfight—like we’re in a dogfight. Speaking of dogfights, I don’t think it’s the size of the dog in the fight; I think it’s the size of the fight in the dog. And I tell you what, Paul was a dog, right? Daw! That’s what all the athletes are saying these days, right? I’m in preseason football mode: like, he’s a dog! Okay, can I tell you what the good fight is? The macro aspect of the good fight is the fight against human trafficking. I think about our friends at IMM—so many who are part of this church. I think about the fight against hunger and partners that we have, like World Vision or Convoy of Hope. I think about my friend Bob and Bread for the World. I think about Mark Moore, who started an organization called Mana. By the way, got the dream at Ebenezer—one of our dream factories. Speaking of Ebenezer, coffee with a cause—every penny of profit goes toward the kingdom cause.

So you may say, „Well, I’m not in the fight against this or that or the other thing.“ Maybe you are, because you can do business as mission. You can do it! And I would argue that every penny you invest in this church, we’re going to make sure we leverage it for kingdom causes. I think it’s restorative justice, and I think about prison fellowship. I think it’s the fight for religious freedom these days, and it’s a fight that’s right in our backyard. Listen, we asked the question many years ago: how do we change some of the statistics in our city that we just aren’t satisfied with? And I think we came to the conclusion that miracles always happen 16 miles upstream. By the way, that’s an allusion: God didn’t part the Jordan at Jericho; He parted it at Adam—16 miles upstream. If you want to go upstream, do things for the next generation. So we thought, why don’t we invest $5 million into the DC Dream Center in Ward 7, where we have impacted thousands of kids through dozens of programs? We’re about to celebrate our seventh anniversary, and that maybe deserves a little bit of praise!

I think what I’m getting at is: no, not on our watch. We’re not going to take it sitting down. We’re going to fight the good fight as a church. We’re going to fight for the third and fourth generation. And by the way, so many of you— I don’t know if you think about it this way, but listen, if you’re a therapist, if you’re a social worker, if you’re a first responder, if you’re a teacher, a doctor—these nonprofit entrepreneurs I’m talking about—I would argue that you’re fighting a good fight, and you make a difference one person at a time.

So the good life is not the path of least resistance. It’s not filtered pictures in exotic locations. The good life is not zero gravity; it’s not no problems, no mistakes, no opposition. I think it’s investing your life in something that’s more important than you. It’s investing your life in something that will outlast you. I love Margaret Thatcher; she said, „Look at a day when you were supremely satisfied at the end of it. It’s not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it’s a day when you had everything to do, and you did it.“

Now extrapolate that to your life. The reward in the parable of the talents was not for good work; it was not less work. It was not an early retirement or more vacation time. The reward for good work was more work! What I’m saying is we are not thinking about the good life when we think about just sailing into the sunset, and it’s all about our personal comfort. No, no, no! This is about fighting a fight for other people the way that God fights for us. Like Graham Greene said, „In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had 500 years of peace and democracy. And what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!“ My apologies if you’re from Switzerland; I love Swiss Miss hot chocolate, and the Swiss army knife is awesome, y’all! Like, yeah! This is a reframe. It’s a paradigm shift. Are you picking up what I’m throwing down? The good life is a good fight. It’s a good race.

Lord, help us!

Now according to legend, I came across this many years ago: if the Knights of the Round Table came back from their battles or adventures and they were unscathed, according to legend, King Arthur would send them back out and say to them, „Go get your scars.“

A few years ago, I received an honorary doctorate, and they asked me to give the commencement speech after I received this honorary doctorate. So I got up and said, „Suckers, you paid for yours!“ No, I did not! I did. I do have an earned doctorate as well. Okay, the title of my message to those graduates was „Go Get Your Scars.“ You got an education? Now go get some scars! Make some mistakes; put some blood, sweat, and tears out on the field. Do something!

And by the way, if you are not experiencing any kind of opposition in your life, my hunch is you’re not really making much of a difference. Opposition is not a negative thing or a warning sign; it’s a sign that the enemy might be taking notice—that you might be making a difference! You gotta go out and get your scars!

Speaking of Paul, he’s not writing in a vacuum when he says, „I have fought the good fight.“ Here’s context; here’s kind of his LinkedIn profile, his resume: 2 Corinthians 11:23–28: „I have worked much harder, been imprisoned more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I’ve been beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked—but who’s counting, right? I have constantly been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from the Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, in danger from false believers.“

The will of God is not an insurance plan; the will of God is a dangerous plan! It could get you beheaded! I have labored and toiled and have gone without sleep. I’ve known hunger and thirst and have gone without food. I’ve been cold and naked. Anything else? Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. You can read that and say that’s the bad life—no, no, no! That is the good life! Come on! This is the way that this church is wired! We’re not going to step back or sit down; we’re going to step up and step in! We’re not just trying to build a church; we’re trying to bless the city for the third and fourth generation, and that’s going to take all of us fighting the good fight!

Okay, how many of you watch the Olympics? Olympics! And, by the way, just an observation. I’m not on a production team, by the way. On that note, sound, lights, camera, action! Can we just say thank you to our production team? They do what they do week in and week out!

So, it made me think of this: like anybody else, when you watch the Olympics and the ones where it’s the gold medal winner, and they’re playing the anthem—and, like, those shots were too close up—did anybody think, I was like, I don’t need to get that close to my face? I always tell our team, can you do that wide shot a little bit more? I’ve got all of these age spots and everything else! But you watch them on the medal stand, and they’re tearing up, because in that moment, four years is worth it. I’ve never seen anybody win the gold medal and say, „Yeah, I don’t know; the sacrifices—I don’t know if it was really worth it.“

Listen, you are not going to regret any sacrifice you make for the kingdom of God!

What is the good life? I think the good life is a good fight. I want to come at it from a little different angle. I want to talk about regret, which sounds like Debbie Downer, but regrets are critical when it comes to the good life. They are cues and clues that help us make course corrections.

Question: what are your greatest regrets? Even more importantly, what have you learned from them? I think you actually need to audit your regrets in a way that helps reroute the rest of your life. Otherwise, you’re going to keep making the same mistakes, and then you’re going to have bigger regrets at the end of the game. Daniel Pink, in his book, The Power of Regret, said, „By making us feel worse today, regret helps us do better tomorrow.“

Can I make it personal? When I wrote my first book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, something happened. When you write a book, you discover that people think you know more than you actually do, but you don’t know any more after writing the book than you did before it. You start getting invitations, and so I started traveling, and it was a little bit intoxicating; it just was! You know our standing joke is that I would say to Laura, „But this one’s an amazing opportunity!“ But when you say that about every one of them, there’s not a whole lot of discerning in the process. So there were a couple of years in there, and I just—I feel it. I feel it; I feel a tear well up, and I just feel this sense of regret that I spread myself too thin.

There was a season there where my family got the leftovers; where my family didn’t get what they deserved. There was a moment—it was a hard moment—where my wife, Laura, said, „This isn’t what I signed up for.“ She said it with grace, but she said it in a way that you better do something about this in a hurry! And you know what? That regret was leveraged, because we started establishing priorities and started establishing boundaries. And that’s where I decided I’m not going to do more than 12 speaking trips; and then that was still too much.

So to this day, I won’t do more than seven overnight speaking trips. Why? Because saying yes to one thing is saying no to something else. I’ve got to make sure that I’m saying yes to the most important things in my life, and the most important things are my wife and my kids—and I would add this church.

So, are you learning from your regrets? Are you leveraging your regrets? I just feel like I should share one more, and I don’t know any way to come at this than to just kind of put it out on the table, but if it helps you, it’s worth it. Laura and I have been happily married for 30 years. She’s laughing, because we just celebrated our 32nd anniversary—you can do the math. The first two years were really hard years! I mean, when you’re 22 and 20, you’re kids, and you don’t even know yourself! I mean, the prefrontal cortex wasn’t fully developed until years later, right?

And I would say to you—and this is a word for someone—one of our great regrets is that we didn’t get counseling sooner, because we perceived it as a sign of weakness, like 30 years ago. But the reality is it’s courageous people who get help; it’s courageous people who say I might need a third party. It’s courageous people who say I have an issue; I have a problem, and I’m going to hit it head-on.

And so I just put that out there. I mean, we could go all day talking about regrets, but what are your greatest regrets, and what are you doing about them? So here’s the thing: what does that have to do with Paul? Okay, when I open my Bible and I read these verses, and I begin to read between the lines, it could read so differently than it reads, but what I don’t read in these verses is a single ounce of regret.

You’re in prison about to be beheaded. I don’t sense any regret at all. What I sense is the feeling of, well, if this is how it ends, this is how it ends, but I have fought the good fight; I have run the race; I have kept the faith! You know what a guy named C.T. Studd, a missionary who was a professional cricketer, I think back in the day, C.T. Studd said, „Only one life will soon be passed; only what’s done for Christ will last.“ I think it’s true.

Many years ago, I came across a fascinating study by a couple of social psychologists named Vicki Medvec and Tom Gilovich, and they studied Olympic athletes—medalists—and what they discovered, okay? This is fascinating. If you’ve been a part of this church, you’ve heard this like a time or two or three, but what they found is that bronze medalists are quantitatively happier than silver medalists—which makes no sense at all, because the silver medalist beat the bronze medalist!

But just jot this down: your focus determines your reality. What they discovered is that silver medalists were disappointed because they focused on how close they came to winning gold, and that’s called an upward counterfactual. But bronze medalists tended to focus on how close they came to not winning a medal at all. Who made the stand? Made the stand!

I think I love that idea. And it’s kind of a—listen, your focus determines your reality. But it’s the second study that I find fascinating. I think it was Gilovich that made a distinction between two kinds of regret: an action regret—regretting something you’ve done, something you’ve said: „Wish I hadn’t done it; wish I hadn’t said it.“

Inaction regret is regretting the „woulda, coulda, shoulda”—it’s regretting the opportunities that you miss. And when you factor time into the equation, that’s where it gets interesting. In the short term, we tend to regret actions 53% to 47%, which is a toss-up. But at the end of our lives, looking over the whole thing, we regret inaction—are you ready for this? —84% to 16%.

In other words, at the end of your life, I think the regret is going to be not going all in with God. I think the regret is not fighting the fight—not running the race—playing it safe. Listen, playing it safe is risky, especially in the Kingdom!

Let me see if I can get where this is going. What are your greatest regrets, and what are you doing about it? Here’s my advice: two thoughts, two things, two challenges. One: start with the end in mind. Two: enjoy the journey.

I want to talk about these two things, and the first one, starting with the end in mind, is sort of a—I mean, that’s a tip of the cap to Stephen Covey; I think that’s the second habit. Maybe remember Matthew Emmons aimed at the wrong target? What is your life aimed at?

Well, I’ll tell you where Paul is aiming, because he writes it in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10: „We make it our goal.“ Our goal! And by the way, the goal is not the goal; it’s who you become in the process. „We make it our goal to please Him, ” in other words, live for the applause of nail-scarred hands!

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, what’s your emotional reaction to that? Because I think for many of us, if we grew up in a fear-based church or we grew up in a legalistic atmosphere, there’s almost this twinge of, like, oh boy, here we go. But that’s not at all what it means; I’ll explain it.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each of us may receive what is due us for the good or bad done while in the earthly body. Now what’s interesting is that the word for judgment is bema, and everyone who read this would have had an immediate image. In fact, I’ll put it on the screen—this is an actual bema seat in Corinth. It is the place; it was, you know, the podium where medalists get the gold, silver, and bronze. This is where athletes who had fought the good fight and who had run the good race were then awarded for their good fight and their good race.

In other words, don’t miss this: this isn’t a threat; it’s a promise, and it’s a reminder that at the end of the day, we’re aiming at „well done, good and faithful servant.“ Start with the end in mind. But the good life is not just pie in the sky by and by.

By the way, do you want another Jack Handy? Just see if I can pull this from memory: when you die, if they give you a choice between pie heaven and regular heaven, choose pie heaven! It might be a trick, but if not, boy, I may not use that in the 11. Start with the end in mind; enjoy the journey.

And this is where I want to lean into you, because some of you, you don’t think you’re living the good life, but it might be better than you think. Listen: the good life is not circumstantial! The good life is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God, and that sometimes involves seasons of pain and suffering.

Because such is life! Bad things happen to good people! Good news: there’s a God who’s working all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But you have to enjoy the journey! I think you have it in you. Let me wide-angle lens. I want to go back to week one: Genesis 1. „And God saw that it was good.“ It’s the Hebrew word tobe. It doesn’t just mean good; it’s gooder than good! It’s as good as it gets! It’s too good to be true! Yet it is! It’s all things that are good and true and beautiful.

And so this word tobe, I would suggest, is the target. God experiences tobe at the end of each creation day, and I would argue that it’s the original emotion: that God’s reaction to creation is to take delight in it! It’s childlike wonder; it’s joy unspeakable! It’s a sense of awe for which there is no category! It’s the moments in life where the presence of God is so real and visceral that it’s undeniable!

Come on, Church! But here’s the thing: I do think that tobe, because time is measured in minutes, life is measured in moments. I think tobe is often those moments that we’re like— and I’ll ask the question: okay, what are the greatest moments of your life? What are the moments when time stood still? What are the days you would want to live all over again? When and where were you most alive? These are kind of questions to help us identify tobe moments.

You remember we did a tobe audit in a sense? Like go back and just look at your life and relive those moments, and then give God glory for them! So tobe is watching the sunset over the Grand Canyon after hiking it rim to rim—been there and done that! What a day! Oh, that was such a tobe moment! Rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon—yep, that was tobe, too! Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and then paragliding over the Sacred Valley afterwards—yeah, that was tobe!

Tobe was going on a missions trip to the Galapagos and then swimming with sea lions in the ocean—yep, that was tobe! But don’t miss this! The peace that passes understanding at the graveside service after my father-in-law passed away was tobe. Waking up after emergency surgery—two days on a respirator with my insides on the outside—waking up was tobe!

Tobe is not just good days; it’s the bad days where He will never, never leave us nor forsake us! Come on! All of us are going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death—there are tobe moments where God shows up! So what I’m getting at is tobe is not like pie in the sky by and by; it’s not these filtered pictures at exotic locations. Tobe are ups and downs—good days and bad days; when everything goes right and everything goes wrong, I will experience the goodness of God in the land of the living! And it’s not just big things; it’s little things!

This week, I got to grandpa-sit my grandson, who’s four months old, so I put him in a baby carrier, face out. Now he’s just old enough to kind of balance that bobblehead, and I’m walking across Capitol Hill. I feel like the Good Samaritan because I’m making everybody who encounters us smile! You cannot not smile at the cuteness of this little cherub, right?

So we go on a walk; we get home, feed him a bottle, change his diaper, put him in his PJs, and he falls asleep on me while I’m watching preseason football! And I have a moment: this is it! This is the good life! It’s not just the big things; it’s the little things. It’s about recognizing those moments when God gives them to us.

I think the challenge is this: we fall into the when-then syndrome. I want to get in your business one more time; then we’re going to land this plane. „When I get my driver’s license, life is going to be good! When I go to college—ah! When I graduate from college—ah! When I get a job, ah! When I get a promotion, ah! When I get a pay raise, ah! When I retire, then life is going to be good! When I get a girlfriend, ah! When we get married! When we have kids! When our kids are out of the house, then life will be good!“ You can play that game your entire life!

I’m just getting in your business today and saying enjoy the journey! Are you in the middle of a fight right now? I bet you’re not alone! I mean, I think about the two bouts with cancer that Laura walked through over recent years—hard times! Some of the best times of our lives! I think we don’t take things for granted the way we did before.

Do I want to go through some of the hard times again? Nope! But do you know that some of those things I wouldn’t trade? I even—every July 2nd now, I celebrate God healing my lungs after 40 years with severe asthma. But you know what I did this last time? I thanked God for 40 years with asthma. I am who I am because of the obstacles I have overcome, because of the pain I’ve experienced.

I don’t know how else to say this; it’s probably been more grief in recent years than I’ve experienced beforehand. I’ve talked about going to counseling and opening a closet of sadness, and I don’t know—you can try to live your life ignoring that those things are there, but I will say this: grief has created a greater capacity for joy. A multidimensionality and a tenuous joy— a joy that the world can’t give and the world can’t take away.

All right! Let me land this plane. On September 7, 1892—let me find it—on September 7, 1892, a no-name boxer named Gentleman Jim Corbett stepped into the ring with the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world—arguably the greatest boxer of all time, a guy named John Sullivan. He was the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing and the first champion of gloved boxing. Gentleman Jim Corbett did what no one had ever done before: he knocked him out in the 21st round, won the heavyweight championship of the world. And I kind of love this—he gave the prize money to his church!

But that’s not his most impressive fight—his most impressive fight to me was a year earlier. Do you know that in ’82, the boxing association said, „We’re going to limit it to 12 rounds! Just 12 rounds is the longest you can fight!“ In 1891, Gentleman Jim Corbett fought Peter „Black Prince“ Jackson, the Australian champion.

Check this out: the fight went 61 rounds! 61 rounds and ended in a draw! Are you kidding me? How did Corbett beat John L. Sullivan? How did he become the heavyweight champion of the world? How did he last 61 rounds? The answer is his life motto: fight one more round!

I love this so much I’m going to put it on the screen, and then we’re going to prepare to respond in worship at the altar and see what God has for us. He said, „When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round! When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you’re so tired that you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round! The man who fights one more round is never whipped!“

Is that not what Paul is saying? I fought the good fight; I’ve run the good race! I know it’s hard. I don’t know what battle you’re fighting today, but I do know everyone’s fighting a battle we know nothing about. Some of us are fighting these internal battles with self-doubt. We’re fighting battles with trauma from our past. We’re fighting battles in the workplace or on the home front. Listen, we’re fighting for a marriage; we’re fighting for a dream.

Some of you are here today, and you’re fighting for your faith. Can I say thank you that you’re here? And you have doubts? I think what I would say is don’t just doubt your faith; also doubt your doubt! Like you never arrive; you’re always deconstructing and reconstructing your faith! When I was five, I had a five -year-old faith. When I was 22, I had a 22-year- old faith. My faith is so different now than it was 10 or 20 years ago! It’s okay; keep fighting for your faith like Paul did.

Some of you are fighting for physical health, fighting for mental health. But here’s the good news: you aren’t the only one fighting, friend. The Holy Spirit is interceding for you with groans that can’t be put into words. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father advocating on your behalf. You aren’t the only one in the fight, friend! God is fighting our battles for us! In Jesus' name, amen and amen!