DCLM Higher Everyday 2 November 2023 — You Have A Fight To Fight
Topic: You Have A Fight To Fight
Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-8
2Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Key Verse: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).
Message
According to J. C. Ryle, “All worldly war is evil. It entails an awful amount of bloodshed and suffering. It hurries into eternity myriads who are completely unprepared for their change. It calls forth the worst passions of man. It causes enormous waste and destruction of property. It fills peaceful homes with mourning widows and orphans… In short, war is an immense and incalculable evil, and every praying man should cry day and night, ‘Give us peace in our times.’”
But there is a fight which every Christian must engage in. It is the good fight of faith. It is a spiritual warfare against spiritual enemies. A true Christian is a soldier and he will remain so from the day of his conversion to the day of his death. He is called to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil. A Christian faces a never-ending conflict against evil – false doctrines, moral decadence and contamination of the eternal gospel. He fights to spread and uphold the Christian faith in a world increasingly hostile to the claims of Christ.
Quote: A true Christian is a soldier
Challenge: You must fight and be brave.
Prayer for today: O God, strengthen my hands to fight your battles.
1. Admit that you are a sinner. "For all [humans] have sinned, and comes short of the glory of God....[and] the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 3:23)
2. Repent now. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ...[for] if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness " (Acts 3:19, 1 John 1:9)
3. Believe that God loves you and Jesus died for you. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
4. Invite Jesus into your life through prayer of faith. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20)
