Fighting the good fight in the New Year

As we celebrate the beginning of a New Year, let us let go of the hurdles that 2010 brought and focus instead on starting our lives on a fresh new page. In these sermon notes, Mark Beker shares the best approach in forging ahead with faith minus the fear.

1st Timothy 6:12 reads; fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

God’s word tells us to fight the good fight of faith. We are called to be spiritual warriors in God’s kingdom and in his kingdom we are soldiers in the Army of God.

The purpose of an army is to ensure freedom and liberty. Without these things, we would live under another’s domination. In the spiritual world, the battle over world domination has already been fought and won by our Lord Jesus Christ despite the devils advances.

As Christians, sometimes we get tired of the constant battle that comes with our faith. However, we have been equipped to do battle and walk in victory. Even the way we feel becomes irrelevant, as Jesus, promised us that He would never leave us or forsake us.

He is always there whether we feel like it or not. Always.

We have been called into this army for God’s purpose. His purpose is for us to walk as children of the light, and declare the good news of the Gospel wherever we go.
We have been called to fulfil the great commission as ambassadors for Christ.

We can’t do this without a fight. The enemy will try to stop us any way he can. He doesn’t have the authority to stop us, although he will sometimes hinder us through various means, but he cannot stop us.

We cannot go through this kind of spiritual battle without experiencing what it is like to stand when all seems lost. This is when we must not get weary in your good fight of faith.

This is why the Apostle Paul admonished Timothy. Fight the good fight of faith. A good fight is a fight that you win. That is why we must never give up. The stakes are too high.

Quitting is not an option. To quit is to admit defeat.

We are not defeated regardless of what the circumstances may look like.

The Apostle Paul said my God always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus.

We also must understand that soldiers must go into battle with the proper training and equipment. God will equip us to do what he has called us to do. We are not to be sent into battle as unprepared soldiers.

All soldiers have to go through a course of training before they receive an assignment. During this time they go through a very rigorous physical and mental time of training.

The sole purpose of this training is to get them ready and prepared to do their job, and be properly equipped to do whatever it takes to get the job done even under the harshest environments. Their very lives and the lives of their fellow soldiers can and will depend on them doing their jobs and doing them well. When you are in the service you don’t get to sleep whenever you want to, for you belong to the military.

You exercise when you are told and you sleep when you are told. Should not we as Christians take our Christian service just as serious? A serious attitude that we are in a fight to the finish and to win.

The Apostle Paul compared us to soldiers for a reason. We must be prepared to learn to do battle as a fully trained and equipped soldier of our Lord Jesus Christ if we are to prosper in this coming year.