Man it's great to be here tonight and also I'd encourage you if it's possible
for you to make it out next Thursday night as well because brother Raymond
Cooper does a real good job and he is going to be fresh off of a missions
trip so I'm sure he'll have a lot of good stuff to talk about next
Thursday night it's great to see everybody down here and the great
work you guys are doing the the soul winning map getting colored in and I
know you guys have been faithfully out there knocking doors in this area
appreciate the great job that brother Corbin wrestles doing here just week
in week out preaching Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday night and I know
he's doing an excellent job down here and so tonight I want to preach on the
subject of the good fight of faith the good fight of faith we need to think
of the Christian life as a fight because that's what it is and over and
over again especially in the pastoral epistles first and second Timothy and
Titus Paul is telling these men you've got to fight and there there's a fight
going on it's warfare and you know he told the same thing the Corinthians in
first Corinthians chapter 9 and Hebrews chapter 10 talks about our Christian
life being a fight there's a fight that's going on it's a constant battle
there's a war that's going on and so the Bible says in verse 1 where we
are there in chapter 2 thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is
in Christ Jesus we as Christians need to be strong what's the opposite of being
strong weak don't be weak what does it mean to be weak you know somebody
who just backs down they have no courage they have no energy to do
anything they're they're they're they're just lame you know in the
Bible saying no no be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus if we're
gonna fight a good fight if we're gonna war good warfare we need to
have the strength to do battle the endurance part of strength is endurance
and the Bible says in verse number two and the things that thou has heard of
me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be
able to teach others also thou therefore endure hardness as a good
soldier of Jesus Christ so part of the good fight part of being a good
soldier of Jesus Christ is that we're gonna have to endure hardness and a lot
of people today they want to live a Christian life of no sacrifice they
don't want any trade-offs it's like they want to have their cake
and eat it too they want to have everything that this world has to offer
they want the popularity they want the pleasures and things of this world
but then they also want to be a servant of Jesus Christ but we have
to understand is that life is about trade-offs you can't have it all you
have to decide what's really important to you and the Bible says here
that if we're gonna be a good soldier of Jesus Christ we're gonna have to
endure some hardness we're gonna have to go through some difficult things
if you want to live an easy life you're in the wrong place now here's
the thing if you went out and lived a super sinful life that's not gonna
be easy either because the way of transgressors is hard but you know
when you live the sold-out zealous Christian life that's not gonna be
easy either because God expects you to endure hardness as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ if you're looking for the easy way you need to just get in some
watered-down liberal church where you just kind of check the box that you
went there and they don't make any waves and it's just good God good sin
good devil cold hell type of a preaching and if you go to those type
of churches and live that kind of a Christian life you know you might be
able to just kind of cruise through life and be a do-nothing fight nothing
say nothing kind of a Christian but you know what that's not what God has
called us to do and so at our church we don't gear it toward that
we don't gear it toward being lukewarm God doesn't like lukewarm he
said if you're lukewarm I'll spew you out of my mouth and so God wants
us to be red-hot zealous and he wants us in the fight enduring hardness as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ I don't know about you I want to be in the
front lines that's why we go to faithful word Baptist Church amen because we're
serious about serving God we don't want to just kind of technically be in the
battle but we're you know we've never really seen any action you know we
want to be on the front lines want to be where the action is we want to be a
good soldier of Jesus Christ not just barely a soldier of Jesus Christ the
Bible says in verse 4 no man that warth entangle it himself with the
affairs of this life that he may please him who had chosen him to be a
soldier he's saying if you were you can't really get too distracted with
the things of this life to where you lose focus on the battle and what's
important and the fight that we're fighting it's easy just to kind of get
caught up in the things of this world and just get busy about those things
and forget the important thing which is getting people saved standing up for the
truth preaching the Word of God fighting against the forces of evil in
this world and so we don't want to get entangled with the affairs of this
life because we want to please him Jesus Christ who had chosen us to be a
soldier and if a man also strive for masteries yet is he not crowned
except he strived lawfully here he uses an athletic illustration you know
striving for the mastery here it's talking about competing in something
like the Olympics or some kind of a sporting championship and he says
you're not going to be crowned unless you strive lawfully so don't get
distracted by the things of this world don't get into sin because sin
can disqualify you and and take you out of the fight you know God wants
you on the front lines fighting for him serving him and you can get
sidelined if you get involved in sin so don't break the rules strive
lawfully so you can get the crown he says in verse 6 the husband men that
laborerth must be first partaker of the fruits consider what I say and the Lord
give the understanding in all things remember that Jesus Christ of the seed
of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel wherein watch
this wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer even under bonds but the
Word of God is not bound so continuing the theme of you know
striving struggling being a spiritual athlete being a good soldier warring a
good warfare not getting entangled with the affairs of this life thinking
about pleasing him who had chosen us to be a soldier he says in the
process of this fight we suffer we suffer trouble as an evil doer even
under bonds even at the point of possibly getting arrested but he said
even if I'm bound though he said the Word of God is not bound there's so
much great stuff in this verse here verse 9 he says I suffer trouble as an
evil doer it's amazing that we live in a day where men call good evil and
evil good so that when you serve the Lord and do what's right you end up
suffering trouble as an evil doer and it's amazing to listen to how
people talk about myself and my other preacher friends how they talk
about us like we're just the worst people ever because we have the
audacity to preach the Bible or to stay fundamental and stay old
fashioned in our Christianity you know I think of Pastor Shelley because he's been
going through a lot lately with that and you know we were talking about on the
way down here we were driving down the road and there was a billboard
saying hey advertise here and and we were joking about that billboard and I
told my son I said you know it's interesting Pastor Shelley he had
billboards for his film the sodomite deception so he put up these
billboards in Dallas Texas that said sodomitedeception.com that that's pretty
much all they said was just advertising that website they didn't
say anything crazy on him or anything you know I mean even if they did that
would just been even better billboard but basically you know he's trying to
just be cool so he puts up these billboards sodomitedeception.com
and they just within a really short amount of time they're taking down all his
billboards giving him his money back and and and just telling him how wicked
he is and how bad he is you know lately he had a lawyer that he was
working with and the lawyer canceled him and said you're wicked I can't
worry you know he's a Christian preacher standing up for being straight
standing up for the Bible standing up for the most basic teachings about you
know men and women and he's just literally made out to be this horrible
person while the sodomites and perverts of this world are praised as
being so wonderful and they're so kind and loving it's the exact opposite
because we live in a world where they're called good evil and evil good
they put light for darkness and dark for light they put sweet for
bitter and bitter for sweet I mean we live in a backwards world where you
literally serve God and you suffer trouble as an evildoer and let me
tell you so I'm not ashamed you see the the tendency is that when you
start suffering trouble as an evildoer when you do what's right is that you
could get ashamed you get embarrassed and say you know oh man you
know people are calling me out how bad I am and then you start getting
embarrassed you start hiding what you believe and you know think about how
many times this happened about look at Peter you know oh you were with
Jesus of Nazareth no no no I don't know that guy I know not the man no
no you were with him no no no I don't know him I don't know what I know
not what thou sayest I don't even know what you're saying man what did you
just say I don't know him why was he doing that you know he got ashamed
okay think about how Paul talked about onesimus he said he was not
ashamed of my chain because guess what a lot of people were ashamed of
Paul's chain people get ashamed that's why the Apostle Paul said in Romans
chapter 1 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and
also to the Greek and we see that Jesus said you know whosoever therefore
shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this evil and adulterous
generation of him so son of man be ashamed we come within his glory I mean
how could we be ashamed of Jesus Christ or of any of his words or
anything in the Bible considering the evil and adulterous generation that we
live in who should be ashamed you know who ought to be ashamed are the sinful
people of this world the adulterers the murderers the perverts you know
that's why I'd be embarrassed it's pretty sad when Christians are
embarrassed about being a Christian and they're a little bit ashamed about
being a fundamental Baptist or you know well yeah wait you go to that
church you got a faithful word Baptist Church you know and it's like well
you know I mean you know yeah I you know I got a lot of friends there I
mean you know it's a soul winning you know I mean yeah I don't agree with
everything you know it's just it's sad that people would get embarrassed or
ashamed because of the fact that they suffer trouble as an evildoer just for
doing what's right you know and then I said to my son I said think about all
the weird stuff that you've seen on billboards in your life I mean think
about it's like sodomitedeception.com Christian documentary very well
documented by the way with historical references biblical references it's
filled with facts okay but but it's like no way to that but think about the
worst billboards that you've seen in your life because I've seen some pretty
wicked billboards for all kinds of triple X stuff and adult stuff and and
it's stuff that I wouldn't even mention but they put it on a giant
billboard with no shame but that's okay but I don't see those companies
saying you think I'm gonna advertise this smut huh you think I'm gonna
advertise this adult store get some morals buddy no no but it's like you
darn Baptist you know they think you can do this hate speech I mean it's
it's bizarre the stuff that they would allow and then what they will not
allow it's crazy and so you will sometimes suffer trouble as an
evildoer even into bonds where you know Jesus even said in the book of John
chapter 16 he said the time will come with when he that kill if you will
think that he do with God service you know there are people out there
that are so backwards they will call good evil and evil good and you can
end up suffering trouble as an evildoer just for doing the right thing but
you know what that's all part of the battle it's all part of the fight
because if you think about warfare because you know he said what be a good
soldier war good warfare if you think about warfare what's a big part of
warfare propaganda every war has it you know it's kind of funny looking
back historically at the propaganda even that our country has used okay we're
not immune from this everybody uses it I remember I was driving through New
Mexico and they had this this little museum there's some kind of a World War
II museum you know brother Martinez probably you probably been to some of
those type of museums and things on the rez they're a little it's in like a gas
station or something but they have these really cool little museums in
different places on the Navajo reservation and they have this World
War II museum and had all these propaganda posters of World War II these
things wild like you know it showed like a Soviet Union soldier with like
there you know the red and the you know the hammer and sickle the
communist and it says this man is your friend he fights for freedom
I mean this guy from the Soviet Union this man is your friend he fights for
you know of course a couple of years later it's like nope he's the bad guy
again but you know during World War II we teamed up with the Soviet Union so
it's like hey everybody this is the good guy he's fighting for freedom
when in reality he's living in like the most repressive communist socialist
worst regime in the history of mankind probably like second only to like what
the People's Republic of China or something or North Korea I mean the
Soviet Union under Stalin was bad it's really bad okay but it's like
this man is your friend fights for freedom and then other ones showed
Japanese people looking like they weren't even human and they're climbing
into a kitchen window with a knife attacking a housewife who's cooking and
it said like we're gonna fight him over there so that this guy doesn't
come to your house and do this you know it didn't say it like that but it
said something like you know we gotta fight him there so that they don't
come here and it just shows this this demonic looking Japanese guy coming
through the window attacking a housewife with a butcher knife he's like ah and
then they had this other poster that was telling you to work hard you know
you got to work hard to support the war effort and it showed one of the
other like kind of ghoulish cartoon Japanese guys and he said like you loaf
I like very much please like loafing on the job you loaf I like very much
please like he's basically telling you to slack off you know so that he can
win and so yes it was hilarious and you can actually you could probably just
go on Google nowadays and just type in you know World War 2 propaganda posters
and and see some of these wild posts but for me this was you know this is
like 10 years ago or so this is the first time I'd ever seen them and I
was just blown away by some of these posters but my friend this is a
big part of warfare propaganda on all sides throughout history I don't care
what war we're talking about I don't care what part of the world what era
I don't care if you go back thousands of years there's always the
propaganda campaign and we're in a war and let me tell you something the other
side they've got a serious propaganda campaign going on to demonite we're the
ghoulish looking Japanese guy with the butcher knife coming in the window
it's like a Baptist pastor okay I'm telling you the world has got their
propaganda machine running on the television they've got to run it on the
radio they've got to run it in the school system even the churches are
churning out the propaganda for the devil's crowd and so we've got to
understand that serving God there's gonna be some friction there's gonna be
some battle there's gonna be some heat and we gotta understand there's gonna
be some propaganda from the other side trying to demonize our side the
Lord's side where they're gonna call good evil and evil good and put sweet
for bitter and bitter for sweet and everything's backwards and so we've
got to understand that you're gonna as a soldier of Jesus Christ you're
gonna suffer trouble as an evildoer possibly even under bonds but I like
what he says here the Word of God's not bound when I look at that verse the
way I take this is that you know what it's not about me it's about the
Word of God you know when you're a soldier you ought to be thinking about
your the team you know you ought to be thinking about your company or your
squadron or your battalion or or your country or your army right what the
whole point of being a soldier you're not just out there for yourself it's
not like you join the military and you're put into battle it's like let's
see how many medals I can earn today like I don't really care if my
side wins I don't care if my buddies are killed you know I just want to see
how many medals I can earn that'd be pretty weird wouldn't it but it's out
there if you've if you've ever read you know the Iliad and the Odyssey you know
Homer's Iliad that's what the whole books about the the main character
Achilles is just like I want everybody to die cuz I'm not getting enough glory
I'm not getting enough credit and he just only cares about himself he's
only in it for himself and that's what is that what it means to be a
good soldier just hey let me go get personal glory personal accolades let
me see if I can just earn medals no no in reality a soldier is supposed to
be part of a team he's part of a unit and he's watching out for other people
and it's not about personal glory it's about winning it's about the cause
it's about country you know God and country and your fellow soldiers I've
never been in the military but I get it you know it's it's for others okay
being a good soldier of Jesus Christ is no different and so when he says I
suffer trouble as an evildoer even under bonds but the word of God's not
bound he's saying look if I end up getting arrested or put in prison or
slandered or physically beaten or assaulted if God's Word goes forward if
the cause moves forward if more people end up getting saved if churches
are established if the truth is preached if people learn the Word of
God I love what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians he said yay and if I be
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I joy and rejoice with
y'all he's saying you know he's willing to be sacrificed so that the church can
succeed so that the church can thrive so that God's Word can go forth
so that Christ can be glorified he's willing to be sacrificed and so even if
we're bound the Word of God's not bound so it's possible even to be
defeated personally but yet for your side to win right I mean people go to
war and maybe a guy dies but through his sacrifice you know his country
wins the army wins and so Paul is saying I'm bound but the Word of God's
not bound you can bind me you can tie me up you can put me in prison you
can put a jailer on each side of me and I can sit between two jailers but
yet the Word of God will keep going because the word that we've preached
it's not going to return void and once we've preached God's Word and once we've
won souls to Christ the devil can't really undo the damage that we've done
to his kingdom when we pulled somebody out of the fire because they're saved
eternally and so he can't undo that he said therefore you know because the
Word of God's not bound I endure all things for the elect's sake he said
look I'm willing to go through stuff because I know that it furthers the
Word of God I endure all things for the elect's sake meaning the people that
are going to get saved I do it for them I do it for the people who are
gonna get saved because it's worth it for me to suffer for them to get saved
and that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus
with eternal glory look at verse 11 is a faithful saying for if we be dead
with them we shall also live with them if we suffer we shall also reign
with him if we deny him he also will deny us if we believe not yet he abideth
faithful he cannot deny himself of these things put them in remembrance
charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no
profit but to the subverting of the hearers so he says in verse 12 if we
suffer we shall also reign with him you know if we suffer if we're bound if
we endure hardness if we're troubled as if we're some kind of an evildoer just
for doing what's right he says you know what it's gonna be rewarded
someday you know if we suffer we shall also reign with him we're gonna
be rewarded and it says if we deny him he also will deny us you know this
is similar to what Jesus said when he said that if you're ashamed of me in
this evil and adulterous generation then I'll be ashamed of you in the
presence of the Father you know and so when he says if we deny him he also
will deny us it's not saying you're gonna lose your salvation but it's
saying that basically he'll deny you meaning that basically you're not gonna
have the same benefits he's not gonna do things for you that he would have
done for you you might ask something and your request is denied and
basically like you know if you think about it as saved Christians our
relationship to the Lord is like the relationship between a child and their
parent it's like a father-son relationship between us and God and so
here's the thing what if I had a son that basically said like oh I'm not
I'm not pastor Anderson's son you know he like he maybe he like changed
his name and somebody said aren't you pastor Anderson's son no no that's not
me I I know not the man right what if that got back to me you know that I
have a child that's that's denying that they know me denying being my child
because they're ashamed of me and then what if that what if you know
obviously I'd be talking about an adult child okay you know what about an
adult child that said like I don't know him and then what if that adult
child then came to me is like hey dad I need to borrow 500 bucks then
you know he's gonna get denied am I right I mean you think I'm just gonna be
like oh sure son here you go anything you need it's like wait I thought I
thought you don't know me you know I thought I you denied me I deny you
you know you it's it's why you want God to have your back and and to
take care of you and to answer your requests and and supply your needs and
you know you want him going to bat for you but then it's like you're gonna say
that you don't even know him you're gonna say that you're not even a
Christian you're gonna pretend not to even be a Christian or so hey you're
not a Christian are you oh no no not me I mean it makes sense that God
would then deny you now obviously you're not gonna lose your salvation just
like if my son did that he wouldn't stop being my son but he's just not
gonna get the same benefits as the son that would actually be proud to be my
son or the daughter that would be proud to be my daughter rather than the one
who's just you know oh well you know you know my dad and you know what
here's the thing that would even make more sense because at least I'm a
human being at least I'm not perfect Jesus Christ if you're ashamed of him
and of his words you've got a problem because he does everything
perfectly he does everything right and so it says of these things put them in
remembrance charging them before the Lord verse 14 that they strive not
about words to no profit but to the subverting of the years so there's been
a lot of talk in this chapter about fighting and being a soldier and warring
and enduring and suffering trouble and and and going through all this but
then he says make sure they know not to strive about words to no profit so
what's he saying here it's not that just fighting in general is good there's
a good fight the good fight of faith is what we ought to be fighting but
then there's also some wrong fights that this chapter brings up one of them
is this idea of striving about words to no profit but to the subverting of
the hearers you know this reminds me of something that Paul said in 1st
Timothy if you just flip back one page in your Bible go to 1st Timothy
chapter 6 and it says in verse number 3 it says if any man teach otherwise
and consent not the wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing
nothing but doting now what is doting mean doting would be showing undue
attention to something right and so doting about questions and stripes of
words so basically harping or doting on little nitpicky things like
semantics is what we would say because you know stripes of words we would
probably just call that like semantics where people get in these arguments
where they're splitting hairs and they're harping or doting on things
that just don't matter you know the Bible also talks about vain jangling
and you'll hear people kind of arguing about things that don't really matter
and they fight over things that don't really matter and and they they'll
just kind of like split hairs and and cut things so specifically that
it's almost like why does that matter what's the point well why
are you being so strict about that like just you know you're
making a mountain out of a molehill here okay so we don't want to
fight over every little thing you know little tiny picky words here
and there and and just really trying to just nail everybody as
being wrong we want to fight fights that actually matter want to
fight for what's right but we don't want to get into this kind of nitpicky
vain jangling striving about words to no profit
but to the subverting of the heroes and in verse 14 there if you're back in
2nd Timothy chapter 2 i think the key word there is where he
says profit right there where he says uh that they strive not about words to
no profit meaning that it really doesn't matter you know
there's no benefit it's just getting down to really
straight things and you know one of these things is is for example
the really detailed aspects of end times bible prophecy for example you
know bible prophecy is a complicated
subject and especially when you get into specifics
there are going to be some things that nobody really knows for sure the answer
to them and everybody's going to have a
different opinion you know like like i think about my
close pastor friends and and and guys that i consider good friends of ours and
churches that we would line up with on on
most things and you know all of our friends are you know they're
not pre-trib you know i mean they're they're
post-trib pre-wrath but i guarantee you that we all
probably disagree on a bunch of little things about bible prophecy you know
we're not all going to see everything the same way but even
when it comes to people that believe in a pre-trib rapture or something
you know i wouldn't break fellowship with them over that i
wouldn't i wouldn't fight them over that and get in some
big warfare over that and everything you know if i had a pastor friend
that were pre-trib i would have no issue with that that would not be a
problem for me just be like you're wrong but
whatever it wouldn't really matter i'm not going to go to war over that
it's a big error but if i'm not going to go to war over that even though
it's a bigger error i'm definitely not going to go to war over every little
nuance of of doctrine okay but you know there are some
big things that are worth standing for and
worth fighting for you know big things like salvation
like the king james bible like the fact that salvation is eternal
like the trinity you know these are big things
that we need to fight for and you know what when it comes to trinity i
will die on that hill you know when it comes to eternal
security the believer i'll die on that hill
when it comes to the king james bible i will die on that hill
you know the esv is trash the niv is trash i will die on that hill
now i'm not going to die on every hill though because we don't want
to just get into this mode where we just fight about everything you know
yeah i want to war good warfare be a good soldier
take you know stand up for the fact that the bible's against the homos and
and the bible's against adultery the bible's against abortion you know
stand up for the big things and fight tooth and nail for those things
but we don't necessarily want to go to war over every little
nitpicky thing okay because and especially
things that don't really have any profit anyway like
they don't really affect our lives you know if
you know somebody says hey who are the two witnesses in revelation
you know no matter what opinion you have about who the two witnesses are
in revelation is not going to affect your christian
life at all it's like man my christian life wasn't
really going that well but then once i figured out the two witnesses it's like
you know i'm reading my bible i'm praying i'm going to church i'm
winning souls seems like my preaching is just
taking on a whole you see what i mean so you know you
can get all caught up in these dumb issues these side issues
and they don't really have any profit it's really just about
uh sometimes for people just drawing away disciples after themselves like
they've got some unique doctrine and you have to believe it and it's
some radical thing or something you know and like i said you know i'm
for i'm for preaching the whole bible and you know i've preached everything
that i know about end times i've preached everything i believe about end
times and and if i learn something new i'll preach
that also but it doesn't mean that i'm 100 percent right about everything and
it doesn't mean i'm going to go to war
over little different nuances in end times doctrine
you know because we don't want to fight over every little thing
we don't want to strive about words to no profit little nitpicky things if
somebody worded something a little off or something
you don't want to make sure that we identify our true enemy
and don't fight against good people and don't fight against good preachers
and good churches just because they're a little different on something
want to make sure that we actually pick the right battles
and not strive about words to no profit but it's the burning of the
years he says in verse 15 study to show
thyself approved unto god a workman that needed not to be ashamed
rightly dividing the word of truth here's what's important about that is
that you know by studying the word of god and knowing what we're talking
about that helps us to determine really what
is important and what's not important what is worth fighting over and what is
not worth fighting over you know we we actually know
the bible we know what's important we know what's worth fighting for
so he says you know rightly divide the word of truth but shun profane and
vain babblings for they will increase unto more
ungodliness he's saying learn how to rightly divide
the word of truth and stay away from
just stupid teachings vain and profane babblings okay
now you know what does he mean by profane profane means common
and the way i read that when he says profane and vain babblings
it's basically just just bozos who don't really know what they're talking about
they're just kind of average joes as far as not really knowing
the bible or anything they don't have a serious level of knowledge and
then they have these vain babblings but they
just kind of run their mouths a bunch of stupid doctrines and they
don't really know what they're talking about
you know he's saying stay away from bad teaching of the bible
and he and he gives some examples of of some bad teaching he says
their word will eat as does the canker these these uh
vain babblers these profane babblers and he's like let me name a few names
here of whom is hymenaeus and philitus
who concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection is passed
already and overthrow the faith of some
now the apostle paul here is bringing up an example of something that he does
believe is worth fighting over he says you know we some people are
just kind of doting about questions and stripes of words and
and they're kind of just striving about words no profit
don't get involved in those dumb fights you know study to show yourself
approved and he says but shun profane and vain
babblings and and he brings up some false teachers
if he's calling these guys out by name then their error must be
serious otherwise he wouldn't be calling
these guys out and and fighting them openly so i don't think you should ever
you know call out other preachers by name because we don't want to
show any division in christianity is there anybody on this planet who
thinks that christianity is united
is there really a single non-believer out there
how can we fight in front of the unbelievers is there really an
unbeliever out there who thinks that christianity is united don't
i think they all know that there's a bazillion denominations
i think they all know that there's catholics and protestants and
baptists and a bunch of cults and whatever it's no secret it's like oh
no don't let them catch us fighting
but that's what they say right they say like oh you know we got to be
united don't call out other preachers by name
but yet the apostle paul is calling out some preachers by name he's
fighting he's going to war over this issue
against hymenaeus and philitus and here's the weird doctrine that
they're teaching who concerning the truth of erd saying that the
resurrection is passed already and overthrow the faith of some
so these guys are claiming that the resurrection already happened
now you say i don't you know who would teach that that's dumb
there are people that are teaching that even today okay
or or things that are just as dumb because for example
if you talk to a lot of these ruckmanite type dispensationalists
you know they teach that all of the old testament saints
were resurrected when christ was resurrected
i don't know if you know that but they teach that
all the old testament saints already got resurrected
the resurrection already happened and that they all got resurrected around the
time of christ now i can easily prove that that's false
because uh peter gets up on the day of pentecost
in act chapter two and he says let me freely speak to you of the of the
patriarch david that he's both dead and buried
and his sepulcher is with us unto this day and he is not ascended into the
heavens so on the day of pentecost he flat
out said david sepulcher is with us to this
day and he is not ascended to the heavens
but yet you've got the ruck tards out there and the dispensational is
teaching what oh yeah they all all the old
testament saints resurrected uh when christ resurrected
but is that what the bible says no because peter said david still i mean
if david didn't go nobody went okay
and here we have paul saying no the resurrection is not passed already it
didn't already happen then you have another you have
another doctrine that is not i mean i don't know if i
want to say it's not quite as weird but it's
it's still ridiculous the doctrine of preterism
that basically says that the second coming of christ already happened
come on folks you know what what are we what are we like the jehovah's witnesses
or something like jesus came back six times and you didn't even notice
that's what the joe's witnesses believe they believe that jesus returned
already six times but he just returned to brooklyn only
to one building in brooklyn and hung out with you know
the watchtower and then took off again i mean we they're waiting on i
guess the eighth coming of christ they falsely predicted the second
coming of christ six times well he just came to us
you know it was a private it was a private showing it was it was a real
elite red carpet kind of event but hold on a
second my friend the second coming of christ already
happened i mean you know what a what a
anticlimactic event was that that's funny it was it was such an
awesome event that it's not in any history book
it's not i mean think about that like nobody even noticed it's stupid my
friend it's a dumb doctrine now i'm not saying all preterists
believe that because there are different various
shades of preterism they're all false but there are different brands of
predators but to sit there and say oh yeah christ already came in the clouds
the trumpet already sounded he already gathered the elect the second coming
happened it's like what none of that stuff happened
so what did he already turn the water into blood and and kill
millions of people too it hasn't happened yet
okay that's kind of an absurd doctrine isn't it
and so there's nothing new under the sun you had bozos teaching that back
then too in second timothy chapter two people
are saying oh the resurrection that already happened
it's already passed already and and you know paul
is saying this is overthrowing the faith of some people this is messing up
their faith this is actually affecting their belief and it's it's not good
nevertheless the foundation of god standeth sure having this sealed the
lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that name it the name
of christ depart from iniquity but in a great house there are not
only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth
some to honor and some to dishonor if a man therefore purge himself from
these he shall be a vessel unto honor
sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work
you know there's some people that we that we need to separate from we can't
unite and hold hands with everybody we got to break fellowship with
certain people that are heretics that are preaching
false doctrine if they're using a totally different bible than us
preaching a different salvation than us we've got to purge ourselves
from some of these people that are not
the right kind of people for us to be yoked up with and he says flee
also youthful lust but follow righteousness faith charity
peace with them that call on the lord out of a pure heart but foolish and
unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strives and
the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt
to teach patient now stop and think about this we
started out the chapter
saying fight war strive if a man also strive for
masteries war good warfare fight the good fight
be a good soldier of jesus christ then we get to the end and it says
well the servant of the lord must not strive
but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient
now people love to take these last verses from second
timothy chapter 2 and throw them in the face of a
preacher like myself or a brother corbin wrestle or you know
guys who are actually fighting the fight and preaching hard and
and rebuking sin and then they'll say no no you you know
servant of the lord must not strive but must be gentle unto all men and
they'll pull this out of context but hold on isn't this the same
chapter that told us to war good warfare fight a good fight isn't this
the same chapter where he's calling out preachers by name
and rebuking them sharply so what we have to understand is that the bible
is giving us a balanced view because there is a time
of war and a time of peace the bible says in ecclesiastes chapter 3
to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven
and we have to understand that in certain situations
fighting is appropriate warfare is appropriate and in other situations
it's not appropriate okay that's why in one part of the
chapter he's saying fight war battle and then another part
he said be gentle don't strive meek etc we have to
understand who our true enemy is and here's what we need to understand
just because someone is unsaved that doesn't make them the enemy
you know if somebody walks through those doors into this church and
they're not saved and you walk up and question them and they they give
all the wrong answers on salvation and maybe you witness to them and they
don't get saved the first time they hear it
it's not like they're reprobate get them out of here you know
they're not the enemy we're trying to reach them sometimes people need to
hear the gospel a bunch of times and and and so when we go out door to door
and we knock on the doors of unsaved people those aren't our enemies
they're not the enemy we're not out to fight them that's not the enemy
unsaved people are not the enemy because what you have to understand
is that there are saved people and unsaved people that's one way we
could split people up in this world right we could say hey
some people are saved some people are not saved
but then we can divide things further and we could say among saved
people there are people that are serving god
and people that are not serving god you know there are a lot of saved
people but they're not really doing anything for god
but then we could even further divide that and we could say you know there
are saved people that are serving god and then there are saved people that
are not serving god but it's just because they're kind of
backslidden or a slacker and then there are saved people that
are so sinful that we shouldn't even be around them because they're just
like such a bad influence on us or maybe they're really bitter and
backslidden and maybe they're even just
negative about church or maybe they're a drunkard or fornicator you know the
bible says if somebody's a brother and they do those things with such one
know not to eat so you know there's different there's
different types of people out there you know there
there are saved christians and then there are
saved christians that are you know backslidden and then the ones that are
just so toxic we don't want to be around them even though they're saved
and the bible even tells us that but then amongst unsaved people all
unsaved people aren't the same either you know you got the vast majority of
unsaved people they're not a reprobate they're unsaved
they're neutral they're not saved they're not a
reprobate they don't believe the gospel they don't
hate the gospel they're just they're just not saved they're neutral
they're not our enemy they're our mission field
so we want to love them be kind to them meet them we don't want to fight
with them we don't want to argue with them we
don't want to strive with them we don't want to go to war with them
we want to reach them we want to be a friend unto them
okay i want to reach out to them and show them the love of christ
they may not know it but we are trying to help them
you know we're trying to pull them out of the fire we're their ally
but then there are the false prophets
and the false prophets are the people who are just
actively knowingly preaching lies and there are many the bible says many
false prophets are gone out in the world
there are many antichrists many false prophets
i mean think about the people who get up
every week and they just preach lies they preach
things that are contrary to what the bible says
those people are the enemy philetus hymenaeus are the enemy but joe
unsaved isn't the enemy reprobates those who hate the lord
they don't even want to retain god and ours those are the enemy
but but most unsaved people the vast majority of unsaved people are not
false prophets and not reprobates and by the way most false prophets are
reprobates those two things are one and the same in scripture he
described when he describes false prophets he describes them as
the evil trees bringing forth evil fruit
twice dead corrupt reprobate and so forth so we have to understand who our
true enemy is you know we want to fight against the real bad guys
but we don't want to just fight against the unsaved people of this
world because we want to try to love them and reach them
so when the bible says the servant of lord must not
strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach
patient look what it says in meekness meekness is being humble
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves
so see they're not our enemy they're not opposing us who are they opposing
you know who they are an enemy of is they're their own worst enemy
if they're not saved they're they're their own enemy
they're not really our enemy and even if they even if they slam the door in our
face and say mean things to us they're still not our enemy because
they're still opposing themselves you know and and maybe they'll get saved
down the road in meekness instructing those that
oppose themselves if god per adventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are
taken captive by him and as well you know we got to keep preaching the
word of god and preaching the gospel to the lost and sometimes they might
need to hear it three four or five times
before eventually they can hopefully get
recovered out of that snare of the devil
and and he says per adventure per adventure means
maybe right that's that's not a word we use now but it just means maybe
if god per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the
truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the
devil who are taken captive by him and as well
and by the way let me just throw this in by the way
if the bible says god per adventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth you know what that means that
means there are some people he's not going to give
and you know what that means is that there are some people who can't repent
and in fact that's exactly what hebrews chapter 6 says
those people have been once enlightened it says it's impossible to
renew them unto repentance but see we don't necessarily know who
is a reprobate and who isn't now some people are wearing a sign that says i'm
a reprobate
you know what i'm saying you know exactly who i'm talking about
they go around wearing a sign saying hey look everybody i'm a reprobate
but you know a lot of times we don't know what god's doing in someone's
heart and we don't know if they've crossed
that line or they're a reprobate that's why if i'm 99 sure that somebody's a
reprobate i give them the gospel anyway just for the one percent chance
that they're not just if per adventure god will give
them repentance under the acknowledging the truth
and if god's still giving them a chance and god's still working in
their heart and god hasn't given up on them you
know just for that one percent chance i'll do it
and so we don't always know who the reprobates are we don't always know
so you know basically he's saying instruct those that oppose them
and meekness just in case they haven't gone over the line
obviously some are obvious we know they've gone over the line
but many times we don't know that and so it's a per adventure at that point
and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil
who were taken captive by him as well just flip over one page to the
right over to titus chapter one real quick titus chapter number one
so we have to understand that there's a time for fighting and warfare and
being a soldier and then there's a time
for meekness gentleness and and just you know even when people are fighting
against us to think to ourselves hey they're actually opposing themselves
father forgive them for they know not what they do
you know they they don't know but there are some people who know what
they do by the way the false prophets but forgive them
they know not what they do not everybody's our enemy but look at
titus chapter one we'll see another example where he he's not necessarily
saying to be meek or or gentle in this particular situation
he says in verse 9 holding fast the faithful word
that sounds like a name for church as he has been taught that he may be
able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers
for there are many unruly and watch who we're talking about
vain talkers and deceivers especially they have the circumcision
whose mouths must be stopped shut these people up fight these people
now that's a little different than in meekness instructing those that oppose
themselves if god per adventure will give them
repentance and the acknowledging of the truth
he's saying these people their mouths must be stopped
who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy
lucre's sake one of themselves even a prophet of
their own said the creations are always liars
evil beasts slow bellies this witness is true
wherefore watch this rebuke them sharply now is it telling you to
handle these people with kid gloves and and i'm telling you this is where
error comes from is when people want to take one side
of what the bible teaches and they don't want to take the other side
so on the one hand you got some people that would just completely ignore
the part about meekness and gentleness and and reaching people
and they're just all fight all war they just want to fight everybody
and they're all just hateful and negative and nothing's positive
they don't like they don't get along with anyone
they're just taking that one side and then you have other people
who they just grab hold of that in meekness instructing those that oppose
themselves being gentle servant of the lord must not
strive be gentle unto all men they want to grab that side of things
and then it's like they never want to fight they'll never call anybody out
they'll never go to war they'll never say anything negative
it's only sweetness and light so do you see the problem here
if we're actually going to be serious about the word of god we read
the whole chapter second timothy chapter two and we we
read the first part of the chapter about the war and the fighting and the
battling and darn that hymenaeus and philitus and we
apply that to our life we apply that part of the chapter to
our life and make it a part of our thing
then we get to the part about the meekness and the gentleness
and we also apply that to our life and we apply that to our thinking
and we do both okay but see a lot of people they'll
just ignore one side and just focus in on the other side
either they're all positive and no negative or they're all negative and no
positive okay he very clearly says here
rebuke them sharply and here's what the atheists will do
the atheists will just say oh the bible's filled with contradictions
over here he said rebuke him sharply over here he says be gentle and don't
fight with anybody but again it's context
the bible doesn't contradict itself the bible teaches balance
and it gives both sides and it tells you what to do in different
situations you know joe unsaved out there when
we're out knocking doors soul winning he doesn't hate the lord he's not just
some evil foaming at the mouth reprobate
and so when he tries to argue with us we don't want to argue with him we
don't want to get in a fight with him
we don't want to be rude to him even if he rejects the gospel
we want to leave him on a positive note because
someday down the road we'll knock that door again we can reach that guy
so you know even if i'm out soul winning and people reject the gospel
it's like hey have a great day god bless you because you know what
hopefully that seed can be watered and they can get saved down the road
they're not my enemy
you know i've even had i i've even had preachers you know
there's this one guy on there's a sermon on youtube preaching
against me
and and the guy was actually preaching a lot of good stuff in his sermon
and he was preaching a lot of stuff that i agreed with
in fact he was preaching so much stuff that i agreed with that he had to kind
of say like you know i'm not one of these
steven anderson guys though don't don't get me wrong i know i'm sounding
that way but you know so then he said a bunch of stuff
negative about me you know so he he preached a lot of really good stuff
but then he had to give like a disclaimer
steven anderson and he said a bunch of bad things about me
i left a comment on the guy's video i said hey i said
even though you don't like me this was a great sermon and i appreciate you
standing on this truth that you preached in this sermon because
this is an important sermon that needs to be preached and very few people are
preaching this so even though you don't like me
this is a great sermon why because he's not he's not the enemy
you know and and then the guy called me the next day on the phone
and apologized and said i'm never gonna preach against you again i'm sorry
i don't know why i said that i shouldn't have said that
he said i disagree with you on stuff but you know what i'm not gonna preach
against you you know because it's like that guy's not the enemy
okay just because he doesn't like me or something but but but but
you know we don't want to get in the wrong fights we don't want to
fight with people that aren't bad people over little disagreements and
what was my disagreement with this guy you know our disagree he's pretty
trip i don't care about that that's why i could say hey you're doing a
great job good sermon you know because i don't care about
that
when we're out soul winning you know we knock on the door of of
people that are that say i'm an atheist
they're not our enemy right because we want to pull them out of that
atheists get saved all the time catholics get saved all the time
right i mean people get saved on soul winning
every week through the efforts of faithful or baptist church
and so we're constantly taking people and bringing them over to our side
and we want to make sure that we're gentle we're meek and we're loving
and kind and you know what i'll tell you this i go out soul winning with a
lot of people from our church and i you know
and if i if i see something because i'm the pastor of the church
if i see something in their soul winning
that's wrong i'll typically you know gently give them a little correction
try to help them do a little better you want to know the number one
critique that i give out soul winning number one by
far and and nothing even comes close to this when i go out soul winning
with people the biggest critique i usually give is
hey try to be a little bit nicer be a little friendlier
smile be nice you know don't be rude that's what i'm telling people till i'm
blue in the face because when we're out there you
know these people that we're trying to reach we want to
show them the love of christ they're even if they're an atheist
even if they're part of some false religion they're not the enemy
we're trying to we're trying to be a friend under them to reach them
and bring them over to the truth we're trying to meekly
gently instruct them and not strive with them that's why whenever anyone
tries to argue with me out soul winning i walk away
now i've failed a few times but i'm saying
in theory in theory i always walk away okay
obviously we're all human and we can all get sucked in sometimes
but i try to i try not to strive with anyone i try to just go out there
and uh reach people and be nice to people
and and be friendly and smile okay but hold on but but are we just going
to completely ignore this verse that says rebuke
them sharply there must be somebody that i'm supposed to rebuke sharply
or what is this who put this verse in my bible what is this doing in my
bible it's here because god put it there
because it's relevant because it needs to be applied somehow
somewhere somebody needs to be rebuked sharply
and you know who it is it's these deceivers and vain talkers and false
teachers people teaching false doctrine need
to be rebuked sharply again i'm knocking on somebody's door
they're just some random member of one of these churches they're not
some horrible false prophet they're a victim of these deceivers and vain
talkers you know joe catholic isn't the problem because
he's a victim of the lies of catholicism
it's the pope that's the problem it's the priests and the bishops and the
people that are the architects of this doctrine the ones teaching these
lies they are the ones who are the enemy
you know you know i'd rebuke a catholic priest sharply
i would rebuke the pope sharply you know you know
brother heil said if he ever got a chance to kiss the pope's big toe he
would he would he would he said that he would be the first
pope having his toe amputated because he said he said he would bite it off
okay i didn't say that that's what he said
and so you know yeah obviously we rebuke the false prophet
so we get we get up behind the pulpit in church and we will scream and yell
and rebuke the false prophets of our day
we'll rebuke the joel osteens and the rick warrens
and the false prophets and false teachers out there the td jakes
who denies the trinity by the way you just love listening to his motivational
sermons well he denies the trinity how about
that he's he's brought up oneness pentecostal and
even many christian outlets have kicked him off
for not being trinitarian i think now he's starting to become like
a half trinitarian because he was losing too many gigs
so now he pretends to be sort of trinitarian
he's a oneness pentecostal that's the background
and he has been oneness for years and years and years
teaching that damnable heresy you know that guy needs to be rebuked
sharply he says rebuke them sharply that they
may be sound in faith now the they there
is not referring to the false prophets because
you can't fix these people he's saying
that they subvert whole houses they're leading people astray so rebuke
them sharply the false prophets so that they
the people that are led astray by them may be sound in faith
not giving heed to jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the
truth now a lot of people misunderstand this
verse because they think that the they and the them are referring to the
same group of people read it carefully and you'll see that
that's not the case because it says right here
rebuke them sharply rebuke the false teachers sharply
that they may be sound in faith the people that they're deceiving
here's how i know that not giving heed to jewish
fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth
the men that turn from the truth are commanding
false things and he's saying rebuke those false teachers so that the people
are following them don't give heed to those jewish fables taught by the
circumcision does everybody understand that so if you
read this carefully and think about this
it's pretty clear that the false prophets are to be rebuked
so that the the whole houses that they're subverting and leading captive
can be sound in faith when they hear their false teaching rebuked
and then it says under the purer all things are pure
but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even
their mind and conscience is defiled they profess that they know god
but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto
every good work reprobate reprobate right and uh you know paul
uses the word reprobate many times about false teachers just
flip back one page quickly i'm just about done
but second timothy chapter three he says
of this sort verse six of this sort of they would creep into houses
now what did he say in titus chapter one they subvert whole houses
you're always going to find a lot of parallels between titus and timothy
because it's the apostle paul writing to his young preacher proteges
so he's going to give him the same type of advice i mean if i had two
young guys that i'm training probably going to give them both a
lot of the same pieces of advice and
a lot of the same things so he says some of the same things he told
titus about he said remember he said to titus they subvert whole houses
so he says to timothy they creep into houses
and lead captive silly women led away with laden with sins led away with
divers lust ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth now as janice and jambres withstood
moses so do these also resist the truth men
of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith
so the the bad guys the false prophets in chapter three here
they're also called reprobate concerning the faith
they also are subverting houses creeping into houses with this stuff
and it says that they're men of corrupt minds
and then what did titus say in verse 15 of chapter 1 he said
their mind is defiled their mind is defiled
corrupt minds subverting houses creeping into houses
reprobate unto every good work concerning the faith
reprobate i mean it's not a coincidence we're talking about the
same type of people here isn't it interesting the word reprobate
comes up both times all these other things come up both times
but their folly and here's what i want to key in on their folly shall
proceed no further all right excuse me i read that
wrong backup but they shall proceed no further
we're in verse nine of second timothy three
but they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be
manifest unto all men as theirs also was now
what does it mean to be manifest open exposed
laid bare obvious to everyone how is their folly going to become
manifest or laid bare or obvious to everyone
what did he say in titus chapter one rebuke them sharply
so that other people won't give heed to their junk
so that others won't give heed to the junk they're teaching rebuke them
sharply here he's saying their folly is going to be made
manifest unto all men even as theirs also was
whose janice and jamboree's and who confronted them
moses moses exposed their folly and men of god are to expose the junk
that's being taught out there by false teachers so that
the victims of these false teachers can be recovered out of the snare of
the devil so all that to say this the
christian life is a battle it's a fight
don't be surprised if it gets a little ugly sometimes
you know and a lot of people it's like they just want everything to be a
hallmark movie or something you know and it's
just all sweetness and light and everything's so wonderful and it's
all positive and there's never anything there's no drama
they want everything to be peaceful but look i'm for peace but when i
speak they're for war life is not going to all just be
this smooth sailing on the calm seas you know they're going to be the storms
of life they're going to be battles wars fighting and you know what war
gets ugly
warfare gets ugly i mean there are casualties people get hurt
there's blood and guts gets violent you know obviously we would
love to be at peace and we should strive for peace but let
me tell you something there are certain fights that we've got to fight
we got to fight against the false prophets we got exposed the reprobates
and the devils and look if we're living in a time
where our country is literally be turned being turned into a sodom and gomorrah
before our eyes i mean shouldn't somebody stand up and
do something about it or should we just sit back and just
let it happen and just let the devil just
steamroll over us and just run us over roughshod
and we're just kind of just sit back and just say well you know
well you know christ is coming soon and just let the whole thing go to hell
in a handbasket folks know we got to get up and preach
and and stand against the evils of this world and it can get ugly sometimes
i mean you know it's not ugly for us right now
at our church things are going good at our church things are going good down
here in tucson things are going good up in tempe
but you know what about our friends pastor shelley
and pastor mahia and pastor thompson and guys like that that are going
through some ugly things let me tell you something when you show
up and there's transvestites outside the building with holding a sign that's
ugly it don't get much uglier than that
when i said it gets ugly it gets ugly
and so you know there's some ugly things there's some battles and some
fights and and you say well he brought that on himself
oh what by getting in the front lines
so somebody gets in the front lines if i say you brought it on yourself
you're on the front line well you better know i am
and so we gotta fight the good fight be willing to make some sacrifices be
willing to lose friends be willing to be made fun of at school be willing
to be made fun of at work be willing to maybe not be the coolest
kid on the block or the big man on campus or the coolest guy at the water
cooler stand up for what's right make
sacrifices you know so you know maybe sacrifice some of your partying on the
weekend so you can actually have your butt in church on sunday morning and
sunday night right sacrifice your weeknight routine
by you know coming down here on a thursday night you know make some
sacrifices right make some trade-offs and say you
know what here's something i like doing
but i'm gonna skip it because i want to be in church serving god i want to
be out soul winning i'm gonna skip some things it's a bit
there's a battle going on it's all hands on deck
i want to get entangled with the affairs of this life so much as i
forget that there's a war going on people are dying going to hell we got to
get them saved we got to pull them out of the fire
we got to stand up so that our country cannot become a complete sodom
and gomorrah right before our eyes with nobody even saying it and you say
well what can we do i believe that we've had an influence
i believe that that that pastor jimenez and myself and and other
men of god have had an influence over the last decade
you know millions of people have heard our message and many of them
have been influenced by it even if they didn't come all the way over to our
side they've been influenced by it i think
most independent baptists have been influenced
to preach a little bit harder against the sodomites even if they don't come
all the way to our side so it's you know it's worth it
because the word of god is not bound even if they all hate me or hate my
friends you know the word of god once they
hear it it's not going to return void they heard it
they got it they learned it and so there's a battle going on
but we want to always make sure that we identify the true enemy
and that we don't just fight against every
single person you know we need to understand that most people are not our
enemy and we need to realize which fights
are worth it and which people we need to just turn
the other cheek and because look the bible tells us to
turn the other cheek the bible tells to be meek and gentle and so forth
we need to know what is appropriate in what situation
and not just say well here's the part of the bible i like i'm gonna go with
that and for some people that's the negative
part i just want to crack everybody's skulls
that some people are like that and then other people go to the opposite
well i'm just going to take this meekness and gentleness part and
that's all i'm going to do well you know what i'm going to do
both i mean you know and it's maybe it maybe
it's a little bit more complex but how long you simple ones will you
love simplicity you know sometimes some things in the bible are more
complicated and a little more nuanced and and life is about having the
wisdom to discern
who is my friend who is my enemy who's neutral
who should i rebuke sharply and who should i be gentle and kind
and win over to my side okay am i perfect on this no are you going to be
perfect on this no but we need to understand there's a
fight and we need to figure out who the enemy is
who the innocent bystanders are and we need to make sure
that we fight the good fight of faith and don't shy away from it
it's a battle let's bow your heads in the word of prayer