Fighter

•             We choose everyday to be courageous or to be cowards.  

•    We all face insecurities, disappointments, financial loads but we have to make right choices because the fear is the same.

•             Fighters are found right in the middle of adversity, trial, battle and fear.

"Learn to control my fear and I feed his fear by taunting other boxers." Muhammad Ali

Joshua 8:1-8 NLT "[1] Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land. [2] You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town." [3] So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night [4] with these orders: "Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action. [5] When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them. [6] We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, 'The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.' Then, while we are running from them, [7] you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the Lord your God will give it to you. [8] Set the town on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You have your orders."

•    Don't be afraid, don't be discouraged, get your fight together.

•             Joshua chose a fighting crew.

•    I have run from some enemies before.

•             Ran away because of fear, ran away because of insecurity, ran away and refused to stand up and fight.

•    Joshua says we're returning to fight and this time we're not running away, we're not gonna be chased away, we're gonna glove up and get it on.

•             If we will stand up to our sin, stand up to our enemies, stand in unity of our mission, we will defeat the Devil every time!

Joshua 8:18-22, 26 "Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Point the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you." Joshua did as he was commanded. [19] As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire. [20] When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. [21] When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai. [22] Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped. [26] For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed."

•    Joshua never stopped till the work was done.

•             When you stretch out your hands against your spiritual enemies, you must never draw them back.

1. Training will determine outcome.

•    Train well for in your training are the foundational principles, rules, or code of conduct you will live by, be guided by, and treat others by.

•             Training is the most important tool to a fighter, and to a Christian.

•    If you cheat your only cheating yourself.

"Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can't."

•             You have to have a fight about you.

•    Success isn't given. It's earned. On the track, on the field, in the gym, in relationships, in your career, or in your ministry calling. With blood, sweat and the occasional tear.

2. Choices will determine outcome.

•    When doubt arises in you, you have two roads you can take.

•             They’ll tell you failure is not an option.

•             That is most ridiculous lie I've ever heard.

•    Failure is always an option.

•    Failure is the most readily available option at all times, but it’s a choice.

•    You can speak encouragement and belief and get down the road to success, or speak self-doubt and negativity, and that is the road to failure.

•             Beat failure every time.

•    Joshua 24:15 Choose today whom you will serve but as for me and my house we will serve God.

3. Heart will determine outcome.

“When someone is fearless, when pain isn’t a factor, it’s impossible to break his spirit. And a fighter with heart will almost always win out against a fighter with skill but no will.”

Chuck Liddell

•             Heart separates those that want it from those who will pay the price to get it.

•    Heart is regarded as the center of your thoughts, emotions, love, compassion, courage and enthusiasm.

•             Say it from your heart, settle it from your heart, operate from your heart.

•    Fight has nothing to do with size but has everything to do with heart.

Proverbs 3:1 NLT "[1] My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart."

4. Fight will determine outcome.

•    To me, living is fighting.

•             It’s about persevering, it’s about testing yourself, it’s about refusing complacency.

•             It’s about embracing the moment, because when your adrenaline gets running you’re thinking about that present moment and nothing else.

•             Your connected to that situation, that circumstance and everything deep inside comes carbonating to the surface to explode and reminds me of my reason for the fight.

•    We're in a fight for our soul, our destiny, our purpose, our families, but Jesus Christ has defeated all enemies.

•             Fight for it.

•             Don't lay down, don't give in, don't give up, don't sit around dreaming for the beat down.

•    Fight for it.

5. God will determine outcome.

Psalm 57:3 NLT "[3] He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness."

•             Fight for your faith.

•             Fight for your calling.

•             Fight for your marriage.

•             Fight for your children.

•             Fight for your grandchildren.

•             Fight for your future.

•             Fight for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

•    Be a Fighter.

•             Quit making excuses, putting it off, complaining about it, dreaming about it, whining about it, crying about it, believing you can't, worrying if you can, waiting until you are older, skinnier, richer, braver, or all around better.

•    Suck it up, hold on tight, say a prayer, make a plan and fight.

•             How do you respond to fear, taunting, the fight?

Illustrate here: white boxing tape up my hands and glove up. Give every graduate a pair of boxing gloves and then sharpie pen a couple of scriptures on them to commemorate the night.

•             How I respond to fear will determine the outcome of my life as a man or woman of God.

•    There will be no victories without battles.

•             Body, mind, spirit.

Romans 8:14 (NLT) "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God."

•             If we allow our bodies to control us we go on feeling.

•             If we allow our minds to control us we go on reason.

•             If we allow our spirits to control us we go on faith.

1 Chronicles 19:13 NLT "[13] Be courageous! Let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. May the Lord's will be done."

•             Your feelings are a quick trip to depression.

•             Reasoning is a quick trip to confusion.

•             Spirit is a trip to the plan, purpose, and propulsion of God.  

•    Determine that God has greater purpose for us, in us, and would like to live it out through us.

1 John 5:5 NLT "[5] And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God."

•             Feelings you'll quit.

•             Reasoning, you never figure out.

•             The Spirit repeats, "greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."

Joshua 2:11 NLT "[11] No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below."

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt

•             Battles are won in the mental cage.

•    Your body will continue to do what your mind and your spirit tell it to do.