You're listening to KFI A six on demand. Fight the Good Fight one Timothy six twelve says, fight the good fight of faith. They hold on eternal life. You know, having a good focus is important, knowing what the prize is in any given situation, what your goal is, what you're shooting for. But in this verse that that phrase
fight the good fight of faith. How many times have you heard the term fight the good faith or fight the good fight when somebody is up against negativity or evil or something that is counter to the will of God. Now it maybe guised in something that looks secular, but really all fights against good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice are fights for God. And in this verse it reminds you that it's a fight of faith,
that it will be a continual fight. Remember, in scripture you are asked to be a living sacrifice, So this is a daily battle fighting this fight. Well, I want you to think about that concept and allow it to permeate who you are and find out how you are to be the best fighter you can be. Now, it's not about fighting with sticks or stones, or fighting with
swords or guns. This battle that it's talking about in scripture is a spiritual one, and you need to know what it takes to be that spiritual fighter, and what your enemies look like, sound like, feel like you See, if you were a championship boxer of a fighter, you would be fit, you'd be in shape, you'd be healthy. Right, So if you're gonna fight the good fight, you need
to be spiritually fit, spiritually in shape, spiritually healthy. This is not really any different than being physically fit, or physically in shape or physically healthy. There are similar rules in both. This can only be obtained with effort, the same way it does in the physical world. You strengthen your muscles by giving time to them, by focusing on them, by working out. In one Timothy four to seven, it says,
and I'm going to abbreviate this a little bit. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. So this discipline that you would normally use, maybe for your physical strength, now is to be used for the purpose of godliness. Honing, strengthening, guiding, and building your spiritual muscles. Goes on to say, for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for
the life to come. Working out and strengthening your body is a wonderful thing. Being healthy physically is a wonderful thing, But it means nothing if your spiritually unfit. If you're spiritually out of shape or spiritually unhealthy. So when Scripture calls you to fight the good fight of faith, and you prepare yourself like a fighter, you spend time push yourself with effort to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.
You don't want to grow weary or sluggish or weigh down at tropheed by not participating in the things of God, by not reading scripture, by not praying, by not spending time in God's house with God's people. Hebrews six eleven says, and we desire that which each one of you show the same diligence, so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those through faith and patience
inherit the promise. You know that that term imitator, in this case, imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promise. When you first start working out physically, sticking to the concept of this fighter, the first thing you do, just like when you were a child, is to imitate, to mimic. You look at what's being done, and you try and mimic it at first, and then you slowly start to understand it, consume more information and
apply it to your life. But to imitate, to look, to take guidance from those around you, who are older in the faith, are stronger to help guide you. The Bible is not just a book of bumper sticker thoughts or really nice thoughts. It's a guide. I want you to see how the disciples acted, the early apostles acted, the early Church acted. I want you to be able to mimic these things as you do the good godly people in your life. Now you're called to that this
will truly give you strength. All these things, both physically and spiritually, can only be obtained with effort. Titus three eight says this is a trustworthy statement. Goes on to say, those of you who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men to practice good things, to engage with people in a good way, in a godly way, gives you strength to spend time in scripture reading to pray.
These things build spiritual strength Philippians four eight. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things, and the God of Peace will be with you here. What's being said here, it's this list is that the
nutrients of a healthy spiritual life. These are the guidelines to understanding how to build your spiritual muscles to fight that good fight of faith, as it says in One Timothy six twelve. And how wonderful it is as you look through this list to help guide you through everyday life practicing these things, those things that are pure, that are right, that are lovely, that are of good repute, that are excellent, that are worthy of praise. Dwell on
these things. This is where you should live. This is what you should consume, participate in, exude every day. And interestingly enough, it goes back to that concept of watching and learning, because it says the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the God of Peace will be with you. So once again to mimic to look, to imitate at the beginning, at the beginning, to act as the other people that you trust, that you love, that you know,
love God, and seek God's will. Act And in the process of doing that you learn, you build your spiritual muscles, and you become that person that God wants you to be. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life,
says on Timothy six twelve. We've learned that if you were to be like a championship boxer, but in the spiritual realm, that you have to give effort, you have to participate, You have to read scripture and be in the house of God and spend time with God's people, have time of prayer, to do good things, like in Philippians four eight. To focus on the things that are godly, whatever's right, pure, lovely, of good repute, if it's excellent, it's if it's worthy of praise, then these are the
things that you should be focusing on. They will build your strength. But also, if you were a championship boxer, you would protect where you were most vulnerable, and as a believer, you need to know where those places lie, where you're vulnerable, where the enemy will want to poke at you. And for a believer, vulnerability lies in temptation, false teachings, persecution, and you need to remind yourself of
that temptation. For instance, James one to two says, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance more athletic type terms in scripture endurance and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The key of dealing with temptation and those trials that fall upon you is that endurance, going
back continually to your faith to build strength. False teachings Matthew seven fifteen says, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. We tell you over and over on this program to test all things, hold fast to that which is true. Yes,
this show included always always. Test. Doesn't mean that your pastors, that the ministers, that people won't make mistakes, But there's a difference between mistakes and outright rebelliousness, or the passing on of heresy or false doctrine persecution. Hebrews twelve three says, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, capital h there so that you will not
grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against me or against sin. So in this it reminds you that God sent me so that I can endure things in a way that you never will, and to use that as your standard. And finally, as Romans one sixteen says, never be ashamed of your faith, hy rone. Welcome to the Jesus Christ.
Show how you doing?
I'm well?
How are you pretty good?
How can I help you?
Well? I'm a believer, you know, I believe in the most High God. But I sometimes talking to Christians, I get a different interpretation. You know what I mean of what I've been reading. Now, I believe, you know, the first I believe in the commandments, and I do all that, but the first, the first commandment, you know, as far as worshiping God, I wanted. All I do is I pray to God in Him. Only now the Christians that I talk to, Some of them say they pray to Jesus,
some say the Holy Spirit. Now what I want to know is is that idolatry or is that wrong? Or am I wrong? Or is it okay? Because I get into some heated conversations about that.
Well, scripturally, you can't even talk to the Father without going through Christ. The way it works is the Holy Spirit brings you to Christ. Christ brings you to the Father. So so really it says it's scripture there is one mediator between man and God, and that is Jesus Christ. So scripture is very clear that when you pray, and I'll give you some verses that you can look up Matthew seven through eleven, John sixteen, twenty three and twenty four,
John fifteen and seven. Look through these because really these say it are always referring to and follow up within my name. So to the Christian they're supposed to pray in the name of Christ. Okay. So that's really I mean, I know it seems semantical, but look at it this way.
You have to get through your front door to get into any bedroom door in the house, and so you can't just jump into a bedroom door until you go through that first door in the front of the house, and there's a system, but it's not it's a system dealing with the go Godhead or the Trinity, but it's it's not like the Father doesn't hear you if you're a Christian, but that Christianity only comes through the Blood
on the Cross and through going through Christ to begin with. Okay, So I'm not sure why you only pray to the Father. What what does that mean?
Well, I pray to God. Like I said, I read, I read my Bible and when I read it, do you.
Believe the Holy Spirit's God?
Well, I believe the Holy Spirit is in me. I believe. That's what makes mean okay.
But do you believe? But do you believe the Holy Spirit is God?
I don't believe Jesus was God or the Holy Spirit.
Okay, then you're not a Christian. So that's that's why. Okay, So that's why you're you're arguing. You're you're arguing different things, but you're saying, as a Christian, yes, they're the Trinity exists and they're all the God had. But if you're not a Christian, then no, why would you worry about Why would you worry about what a Christian has to say.
Well, because, for one, my my wife considers her says she's a Christian. And I was raised in the Church Baptist Church of God in Christ, and I believe the same way everybody else did, and so I actually picked it up and read it myself. Personally, I believe Jesus was a Jew. I believe he came back to reform Judaea. Christianity didn't start until the New Testiment. It didn't start into Antioch. The Antiochs were considered the first Christians.
No, no, no, no, no, You're you're getting You're getting things kind of mixed up. The fact that Christianity is an outreach of Judaism and the fact that I was a Jew doesn't change Christianity at all. The first Christians had to have been Jews. First, all of them were the Disciples, and then, as it says in scripture, first to the Jews, second to the Gentiles, meaning that it was passed along through the Gentiles. And you had Romans Roman Guards in
scripture that became Christians. You had the Pagans that became Christians as well, and those were the non Jews or what is referred to as the Gentiles, which is just of another tribe. But I don't know how you're picking it up or what you're reading, but you're kind of confusing the situation unnecessarily.
Okay, now, and see that's actually I do get that from a lot of people. And I don't understand exactly how I can read you know, how you can read another book and then you read this when and people tell you're getting a wrong interpretation, you know what I mean? Well, no, I don't believe. I mean, I believe.
Jesus was here.
I believe he did everything that you said.
So who So for argument, then who would you say that I am?
Who?
Who was Jesus? Then Jesus.
When Jesus talked to ask Peter, he said, Peter, who do they say that I am? He said, you're the son of God. And Jesus were like, no, who do you say that I am? He said, you're the son of the Living God. And then he was like, he said, blessed are you?
Peter?
You know what I mean because nobody told you this but my father in Heaven. And that's exactly who I think Jesus is. I think he's the son of God.
But I claimed to be God. As a matter of fact, Thomas, when he put his fingers in my hand and in my side, he said in the Greek Ethusmu, Theeusmu, he said, the God of me, the Lord of me. And I did not correct him. As a matter of fact, it would have been blasphem blasphemy for him to refer to me as that, unless it were true. Also, when they when they tried to stone me, I said, for which when I said that I am the I am? When
I said before Abraham, was I am? That is the name for God to the Jewish people they went to stone me, I said, which, for which good work do you stone me? And what was their response? Tyrone? It was not for a good work, but for you, a mere man claiming to be God. Yes, over and over again. So I could not have been the son of God in that sense if I was not God. What I was saying was that I am the same as God. I said before Abraham, was I am? Not I was I am?
Well, period, I can understand that because God knew you and I were going to be here before we were in here, So I can understand.
That that's not the term. It's saying before Abraham was I am God. That is what's being said. The problem is that people don't read it in the context in which it stated, I am claiming to be God. Over and over, it says that I created the world. It says the Holy Spirit created the world. It says the Father created the world. It also says that I am I and the Father are one. There is no way
to separate. All I had to do the whole time was renounced that I was really God, and I wouldn't have gone to the to the cross, and I didn't because it was true. There's no there's no way around that. Really, it can't make me a guru, a good guy, a nice teacher, a manifestation of someone else. You can't because I claim to be God. That would make me nuts.
And people in the Bible did think he was crazy.
Yep, why because I claimed to be God.
Well, you know what, To be honest with you, people tell me the same thing.
You know what I mean, that you're nuts.
Yeah, I don't understand because I've changed the way that I do things now, I've changed, you know what I mean. I used to be a curse or you know what I mean. Drinker and all that once I picked up the Bible and started reading, I changed all of that. So all the people that were around me before that used to see the old tyrone see a different one.
Good. But what are you missing? Why are you missing this one thing? Why do you wrestle with the concept of me being God or the Trinity?
Because if you start from in your Bible and you read it from the Old Testament, it's almost it makes you seem like, in the Old Testament, I can talk to God, I can go straight to him. Now in the New Testament, I have to go through somebody.
No, no, no. In the Old Testament it was much different. You couldn't approach the Holy of Holies. On the contrary, you couldn't look in the face of God. Moses couldn't. They had the issues, probably right, was always under certain context, and the burning of bush and the holies of holies and these types of things. There was barriers. On the contrary, it has become a personal belief system. Through the birth of my flesh, I've always been alf in the Mega,
the beginning of the end. There has been no There was no beginning of who I am. There was only the beginning of my flesh. And people get confused with those things. But there's specifics you talk about the beginning of scripture, Tyrone. You go to the beginning of scripture and you hear God saying, let us go down there and make man in our image. Who's he talking to.
He's talking about the host, everybody that he's already made. He's talking to the angels and everybody else that was up there.
So you're made in the in the image of an.
Angel, image of God.
Okay, But he says us, let us go down there, let us go down there and make man in our image.
I see it as he's said, let's make let's make man in our image, meaning whoever was up whoever was up there he had already created, and who was.
Up there angels. So are you saying that you're made in the image of an angel? No, I'm not, okay, So that so then that so that doesn't fit the context, Tyrone, you're saying that people are making you know, reading into scripture, there's two types of studying. There's what they call exegy, which is when you extract what's out of scripture by its very nature, and then there's icogy, when you're reading into scripture trying to make it, and for some reason
I feel that. And although there's been change in your life, I've seen people change that don't know me at all, not at all. There's people in Scripture who proclaimed my name and I said they were from the power of Satan. So I'm not worried about that type of change. Just for the sake of change what I want and more importantly than anything else. Over and over in Scripture, I asked the question, who do you say that I am? That is the important question, and Peter knew it. Peter
said that I was God, and I said of God. No, that you don't understand. In the context of which it's being stated. He is saying that I am one with the Father. I am of the same essence of the Father.
So us as being here on earth, we're not in that. We don't look like God, and we're not in his essence.
No, you're in his image. You're designed with the intellect, will and emotion. That's the same as God. God has intellect, will and emotion. You have intellect, will and emotion. God is a creator. Man desires to create. The devil desires to destruct and is destroy. So in this particular context, if you if you really are looking at scripture and you go to all the different verses that talk about the Holy Spirit creating, the Son creating, and the Father creating,
they are one in the same. I know it becomes difficult, but I want you to hear it this way. The chemical compound for liquid water is H two O. The chemical compound for solid water ice is H two O. The chemical compound for steam or water in its gaseous state is H two oh. It's all the same in three different personalities, if you will. Now, when it comes to the Godhead, you're dealing with three who's and one what.
They're all God, one what. And I know it can be confusing, But if you go back and read through scripture, Tyrone, because I know you have you you're on fire. I know you want to study. You've obviously cracked open that book. You have to see that because who you say that I am is the most important part of all of it. That's the most important part of all of it. And if you take me out of the equation, trust me, you're not talking to the Father. Jasmine. Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hello, Hi, how can I help you?
Yes, I was wondering. I have a question on the words the words from angers? Do the words from drugs? How does that work?
In what sense? Are you having struggles with drugs?
No, I am not the friend of mine lis okay?
And are they somebody of faith? Do they? Are they Christians?
Yes?
As a matter of fact, they are okay.
And is this something that's reoccurring in their life? It comes up over and over again?
Yes?
And do they act on it? Do they go into a program and detox and go through that process or do they just go through a time of cold turkey and then they jump back on in a little while.
Yes, that's what they do.
Oh, so they're not going they're not really going into a program. Or are these programs like a twelve step program ties in to being accountable? You're not only accountable to the steps, the steps they give, you're accountable to the other people around you. Now, if you're asking me, do Christian sin? Yes? Do Christians fall into repetitive sin? Yes? Is there a point where that becomes rebellion and it detracts from your relationship with God? Absolutely, there's always that possibility.
But unless your friend is willing to make the steps to go in and be accountable to others. And it may not be just a twelve step program. There's other programs as well, but the twelve step program has been one that has shown it's one of those things that if you do it the way it's asked of you, that it's going to work. And a lot of them are affiliated with churches. In churches and the like, you can bring your faith in with you as well, so
that that's a start. It doesn't It sounds like maybe there's a desire to not have drugs in her life, but there's got to be more than a desire. Again, you have to be accountable to a system, to a process, to a goal, to other people that are sitting in there as well, and through all of those things is when you will really find that way and that redemption
in that problem. Now does God love her throughout the entirety, Absolutely, But if you go down and continue to go down this path and you're really not having any true growth, and it will impede on your relationship with God because you're not sober, you're not in your right mind, and you're constantly in a state of you know, a whole different world. It's drug induced and repetitive sin can be
something that keeps you absolutely from God. So first and foremost, your friend needs to take a step, a true step, towards kicking these particular habits, and the way to do that is absolutely positively starting with accountability. Kf I am six forty on demand