We're going to look at another set of threes in verse number 7. 2 Timothy 4, verse number 7. It says, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. There's the threes. Fight, faith, and finish. Another set of threes that we hit in this chapter. The Christian life is no doubtedly described as a spiritual conflict. It is warfare, and it is called the good fight. And 2 Timothy 4, It's really this picture of if you want to be the greatest fighter of all time, this is how you do it. You gotta fight a good fight. And by way of starting this sermon off or this message, let's say this. Our biggest fight is going to be fighting our flesh that wants to stop us from fighting the good fight. So, you're going to have to fight your flesh, and you and I are going to have to fight our sin nature in order to stay in the good fight. Now, that's something to really chew on. Number two, a lot of people fight the wrong fight, and they think they're in the good fight, but they're really in the wrong fight. I don't want to die on the hill of Republicans versus Democrats. I don't want to die on the hill of living an agrarian lifestyle versus an urban lifestyle. I don't want to die on the hill of fighting liquor traffic and the public school system and all of those things that we all have convictions about, and if someone is fighting that fight, and look, I'll step in there and try to help out any way I can, and I believe we should do that. but not at the expense of getting us so derailed that we end up dying on the wrong hill. We're never going to straighten all that stuff out. We never will. The way it gets straightened out is by staying in the good fight. Because people, when they have their soul regenerated, they are going to now start receiving the Word of God and start living differently because they're saved. And that's the fight that we ultimately all want to make sure we stay on. You've got to pick your fight. Just make sure you're running the right race preaching the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's one to think about. You can fight the good fight for the wrong reason. Some people aren't in the wrong fight. Some people are in the right fight, the good fight, but it's the wrong reason. Their motive's wrong. We have to check our motives. Back in 2 Timothy 2, it talks about how we strive for masteries and we're not crowned except we strive how? Lawfully. We follow the rules. So the good fight, You do it correctly. You do it right. You stick to the book. You don't fight a dirty fight. Nobody likes a dirty fighter. So strive lawfully when you're fighting the good fight. Don't break the rules. Don't be a dirty fighter. All right, now the other thing that we see in verse number seven, I have fought a good fight, and then it says, I have finished my course. So there is a course to be followed. Where in time past you walked according to what? The course of this world. We were following a course before we got saved. Every single one of us now, we're on the course of this world. after we got saved, and the only reason we're together now is because of the saving gospel. That's the only reason. Because every single one of us here tonight had a different course. It was the world's course, but we're on our own paths. So there is a specific course that we're on. And when a ship sets sail, it's on a course. When a plane is in the air, it follows a course. When a runner is running a race, there's a track, there's a course that they have to stay on. And so spiritually speaking, the question for all of us tonight is, are we staying on course? You don't have to turn there. 2 Thessalonians 3, I jotted it down. It says, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course. Does the Word of the Lord have free course in your life? If you read something in the Bible, or you come across something, or you get convicted about something, do you just close the book and go back to what you're doing to get your mind off of it? Or does the Word really have free course in your life? In other words, Are you allowing it to direct your path, to direct your course? Or are we ultimately the ones that are going to direct the course? We're just going to use the Bible as far as we can use it, and then we go our own way. Now tell me that's not a struggle with the flesh. It's like, Lord, I'm hearing this. Lord, I'm reading this. Lord, I'm seeing this. But the flesh has a way of just getting it out of our mind. so that we don't have to deal with what God is putting in front of us to deal with. Stay on course. The other thing is, it says in verse number seven, Paul says, I have finished my course. Well, you can't finish your course if you're running my course. I can't finish my course if I'm running your course. Now, it's the same saving gospel, but if the Lord has a course for you within the local church that's different than my course, if I try to run what the Lord put in front of you to run and you try to run what the Lord put in front of me to run, we're just going to mess it up. Instead of me trying to run the race that the Lord put in front of this brother, I should be running the race that the Lord put in front of me. I've got to run my course. You've got to run your course. Same local church, same savior, same gospel, same doctrine, but there's differing courses. And that's based on our spiritual gifts. That's based on the talents that the Lord gave us. That's based on our past experience and our history with things where we can step in and do something. That's the way it ought to be, by the way. It's the way it ought to be. Find your course and finish it. But sometimes Have you ever said this to your kids? Hey, you're getting off course. You're getting off track. You got to reel them back in. The Holy Spirit's trying to tell us something through His Word. Hey, let's get reeled in. Let's get back on course. New year 2025. Let's have the resolution that have some spiritual resolutions. And We get to 25 and we're like, you know what, Lord, I'm going to exercise more. I'm going to eat less. I'm going to eat right. I'm not going to do the wrong foods. I'm going to stay away from the sweets. I'm going to eat more whole grains. I'm going to do all that stuff. I'm going to buy the Ezekiel bread. I'm going to do all that. I'm going to do all that stuff. I'm not saying I'm against it. I'm not saying I don't do it. What I'm saying is, How many of those things have to do with, Lord, spiritually, help me get on course with my prayer life. Lord, spiritually, help me get my heart right with my children. Lord, spiritually, help me get my heart right with my spouse. Lord, spiritually, help me get right with... Let me do more at my local church. I'm talking about spiritual courses. Another thing is this. Do you know that the first course that you're on may not be the right course for you? That's okay. Get on a course and allow the Lord, allow the Holy Spirit, allow your brothers and sisters in Christ to help confirm whether or not that course is where you should be or if the Lord would have you run another course. It's okay to be on a course and find out, you know what, the Lord's really directing me to run a different course. Somebody that can make a great teacher of the Word of God probably shouldn't spend all of his time figuring out all the finances. Someone that has a numbers mind and can work that stuff out probably shouldn't be trying to do all of the evangelistic activities as much as he should be on making sure the church business is in order. Does that make sense? There's so many courses to run. Find the course or the courses where the Lord would have you be. And run it. Run it. Number three, about your course, about my course, be careful of saying, well, I'm the only one on the course. Good. Good. That means someone who shouldn't be on that course isn't on that course. It's sometimes it's okay to be the only one. And young people look, you have to be willing to stand alone for what's right. You have to be willing to run a course young people where you're the only one on the track. and it'll be a lonely race, but you are on the course that the Lord puts you. So stay the course. And don't get bogged down in complaining, well, how come no one else is running it? Maybe the Lord just wants you to run it for a while by yourself. Maybe he just wants to see if you're committed enough to just keep running when it seems like it's a lonely dark road. Just run. Run! Your course. And don't worry about anybody else being on there. I have fought a good fight. Now, us guys like fighting. We're men. We like a good scuffle. We like a good... We like to mix it up, you know, some wrestling in the backyard and some fighting, and it's good for men to do that. Young boys especially should learn how to rough and tumble. So you'll like this passage. The ladies, I guess you could say for ladies too, there's some ladies nowadays, they like a good fight too. I mean, they're ready to go fist to cuffs. But go to 2 Samuel. I'm wanting to show you something here. that would be a real blessing. 2 Samuel chapter 23 2 Samuel Joshua judges Ruth and then you'll come to 1 Samuel and then 2 Samuel 23 2 Samuel chapter 23 look at verse number 9 2nd Samuel 23 verse number 9 now David had a bunch of mighty men they fought in his military and in verse number 9 it says and after him was Eleazar and Eleazar in the Bible he was the son of Dodo now I figured you kids like that because man If you're fishing for some names, that's a cool name. Yo, Dodo, come on over here. But Dodo the Oahite was one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines that were gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away. Well, Dodo had a son, and his name was Eleazar. And he was a great fighter. He was a great warrior. And it says in verse number 10 that he arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clave unto the sword. And the Lord wrought a great victory that day, and the people returned after Him, only to spoil. His hand was claved to the sword. In other words, it was just form-fitted to it. They had to, I mean, you'd had to come and peel His hand off that sword. He was not letting go. He was not giving up that sword. And you know what our problem is? Our hand is enclaved to the sword. And so we have a little bit of temptation from the world, and our grip loosens. And we have a little bit of appeal here, and something at the world kind of winks at us, and something over, you know, is tempting our carnal flesh. And we have the Word, we have our sword, but our hand is enclaved to it. We loosen our grip a little bit. You are not going to be able to fight a battle unless you get a hold of your sword. Don't let that thing go. And you know what? You hold on to something that you have confidence in. And I've got confidence in the sword. I've got confidence in my sword and a real warrior. would rather die than lose his sword. Come and take it. Come and take it. That's Eliezer, the son of Dodo. You want my sword? Come and take it. You'd have to peel his hand off of that sword even when the fight's over. He was not letting go. These modern guys are running seminars now on how to move your church off of the King James Bible. You know what I say? My hand's so tight to this sword, come and take it. Hold on to your sword. I'm not trying to be arrogant when I say this, but winning is the only thing that matters. Winning isn't everything. Winning is the only thing. He says, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Though I count all things but loss, he says, Paul says, I count them but dung that I may win Christ. Winning Christ isn't everything. Winning Christ is the only thing. Winning Christ is everything. That's Paul as a saved man. And he says the only thing that matters, you're saved, you already have the indwelled Holy Spirit. He says the only thing that matters is everything else I count but dung. All the material wealth, pile of dung. All the worldly trinkets, pile of dung. And he says, I count it all but loss to win Christ. You know what he's saying? Winning is the only thing. Winning Christ is the only thing. Give me more of Him. Can you say that this evening? Give me more of Christ. That's the idea. Go back to 2 Timothy 4. Next time you kids get a toy or a doll or something, Dodo is up for grabs. No one uses that name. Name your doll Dodo. Alright, 2 Timothy 4. Look at verse number 7. So we have to fight. That's the first set of three. Finish the course. That's the second of the threes. And then it says, I have kept the faith. That's the third. That's the third one. If you're going to keep the faith, I want to back up a little bit and tie this into finishing our course. If you plan on finishing as a winner, You have to stay in the fight. You have to keep the faith. And there's doctrine to that. Not quitting is Bible doctrine. Stay in there. Hang in there. Don't quit. You're running to win. You're running to break the tape. You see that long race and those guys and that ribbon's across and they run and they break through that ribbon. Run to break the ribbon. Run to win. Go to Philippians 3. Keep your finger in 2 Timothy 4. Philippians 3, we'll go down to verse number 13. It says, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, You gotta forget what's in your past. You gotta just give it to God and quit it with, well, my past this, my past that. How are you gonna run a race if you keep looking behind you? It's under the blood, just quit. Quit looking back. You can't do nothing about it except give the devil more fuel to accuse you. You're not worthy, you can't do this, you're only, Quit looking backwards, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. You are to press forward. You're looking at that finish line. You're running to that finish line. And that's how you press, verse 14, toward the mark. for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Run to win. Run for the prize. Press toward the mark. Alright, 2 Timothy 4, we'll go back there. Verse number 7, keep the faith. And finishing has to do with keeping the faith. And I'm just saying this, you and I have to guard the truth that we have. And sometimes we have to stop worrying about the truth that we don't have, or we haven't been taught yet, or we don't understand. The truth that you do have, keep that. Don't lose it. Hold on to it. We need faithful stewards, not unjust ones. That's what the church needs. We need faithful shepherds, not idle shepherds. The church needs that too. Keep the faith, man. Look at verse 8, big powerful word shows up. Henceforth, it means from this time forward, once you've finished your faith, once you've finished your race, That isn't the end. Because when you finish your course, when you've kept your faith, when you fault your fault, and when you die, that is not the end. That's the rejoicing time. You see these guys that win the Stanley Cup, or they win the World Series, or they win the Super Bowl, or they win the Kentucky Derby, or somebody wins the World Series, the game ends. But that wasn't the end. What does everybody do? They run out, and they celebrate, and they cheer, and it's just this big, big celebration. When you and I take our last breath, That's not the end. It's the start of the rejoicing. Never ever lose sight of that. That is the good fight. And you run so that we run so that we can celebrate. We fight so we can celebrate. Do you understand? Paul is getting ready to be martyrs for his faith. He's getting ready to die. And he's excited because he gets to rejoice. How in the world does that happen? That's how the Christian life is fought and run. And Paul's a perfect picture. Perfect example of that. And then it says in verse number eight, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown. Now, most of us want our crowns now. And we like our earthly trophies that can be laid up on earth. And they're just collecting dust in your garage. They're just collecting dust in your shelf. And you can only take them as far as the grave. I'm telling you, the Lord says, there is laid up for me, Paul says, a crown. You get rid of all your world ribbons and your world trophies and all that, because they don't matter when you think about this. You know what the Lord's got? He's got a trophy. He's got a crown set aside in a trophy case somewhere for Paul and for any of his saints, this crown here. And for those that are gonna receive this crown, it's like on layaway. You remember the layaway stuff? That used to be a thing back in the 80s. My parents buy stuff on layaway. They didn't have the money for it, so they'd go to the store, they'd go to JCPenney or Kmart, and they'd put some money down, and then next week they'd go and give a little more money, and then by the time they paid it, you know, on layaway. You know what the Lord, He bought us with a price, and He's got something on layaway for us. I really don't care about any of the stuff down here. It's all but dung. It's all counted but lost, like Paul said. But it's waiting. It's waiting. That crown of righteousness are waiting for some of the saints. Now let me just tell you this. Believe it or not, probably none of you can relate to this, but I'm going to tell the story anyway. I think I'm the only guy in jujitsu that earned three blue belts. And I got one from, my first one I got from, from Hoist Gracie. My second one, Hickson Gracie is the top fighter of the entire family. Well, he was doing a testing at one of the academies that I was doing some training with the school owner. And I said, hey, can I take the test? He said, sure. I said, well, what do I do? I already have a blue, because it was a blue belt test. He said, well, you're going to just have to ask Hickson when he gets here. So I had the instructor walks me in where Hickson was in his office. And I said, sir, I know it's a blue belt test. I don't know if you want me to test for a stripe or if you want me to retest for blue under your system. He said, well, who'd you get your blue from? I said, well, I got my blue from your brother Hoyce. He said, you take my test. I said, yes, sir. So I took my blue belt on, I put a white belt on. And so I take the test. Now it's a six hour test. You get a break in the middle, but you take a six hour test. But at the end of that test, Hickson didn't even, didn't just give out the belts. He would give out additional awards. And so I ended up getting most technical blue belt award right from Hickson. Now, if you were to say, man, you're a pretty good fighter, I really wouldn't need much to me. But if a world champion fighter says, hey, you're doing all right, here's something for you. Buddy, that means something. That means something. If I go to Will's work tomorrow and I say, hey, good job on that patient. He's like, yeah, well, yeah, thanks. You don't know what you're talking about. But if the top surgeon in the whole medical system pulls him aside and says, hey, phenomenal job, and he gets an award for something, buddy, that means something. That means something. You know what's going to happen? I can understand the Lord wearing a crown. He's the Lord. You know what's going to happen one day? The Lord of glory is going to say, you know what? Good job. Here's a crown. Can you imagine that? I can't imagine that. I can imagine Him with the crown. I can imagine Him with all the glory. But for Him to look at His children and say, here's a little something for you. You did a good job. That means more than anything you can ever expect to get from anybody. The Lord of glory has a crown laid up for those and it's called the crown, look at verse 8, it's called the crown of righteousness. Now, the context of this passage, this is not dealing with God's imputed righteousness. You and I get saved, we receive God's imputed righteousness. This isn't the context here. This is in the context of a crown of righteousness, it's called. And this crown of righteousness isn't... Look, our crowd, our flavor of Christianity, we're not at the bars drinking. We're not, you know, smoking and doing drugs and alcohol and all. We're not running around town and, you know, vandalizing and doing. That's not our crown. That's not what we do. So this isn't a crown. The context isn't the crown of us doing right or living a good life. You know what the context of this crown is? Two things, not quitting. Are you on your course? Because if all you're going to say is, well, I've never done any really, really bad things and I've trusted the Lord's my savior. Great. You're saved. But this crown of righteousness, you're not going to get. Did you stay in the fight when times were tough? Did you stay in the fight when you got attacked? Did you stay in the fight when all of this mess came your way and you said, Lord, I'm not quitting. I'm staying my course. I'm going to keep the faith. I'm going to fight the good fight. I'm going to finish. I'm going to finish. Lord says, I've got a crown laid up for you. That's the context. Finishing your fight. Don't quit. Problem is, a lot of people, they don't even step on the track. to get on course. Verse number 8 continues to say, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. Now the Lord, as a righteous judge, is also a giver of rewards. Parents, there's some good teaching right there. Dads, are you the heads of your home? Are you the judge? Don't forget, our Lord is also a giver of rewards. He's both, and He does both for His children. He's a righteous judge, but He's a giver of rewards. And we do a lot of right things, but do we do all of those right things with the right motive? Our problem, a lot of times, may just be our motive. Something's off. I'm going to tell you something else about sinful man. You probably can relate because I can relate. Young people pay attention. You remember this. People. Sinful man. We perform for an audience. take the audience away. What are you left with? When we run these tournaments, a lot of people get stuffed in the gym. There's an audience. So the hothead The person that wants to complain, you know what he's got? You know what he's got? An audience. To be a big shot. To be the center of attention. To get the crowd having all their eyes on him. So you know what we do? We take the audience away. So if the staff sees a problem that's about to erupt, we get them in a private area. Away in an area or something like this where it's away from people, why? Because when you take an audience away, it takes away a man's desire to want to chest up and perform to be the big guy, to be the big shot. Who are we without the audience? That's our motive. That's our motive. You know how problems start to arise in churches? I've been in churches for 24 years. And you know how trouble starts to brew and church splits happen? It happens with people that are doing right things and doing things for the Lord. They're doing things. The doers are the ones that end up... Now that's some good preaching right there. Amen and amen and amen. And I say that because that will save me and you and us and our church some problems. It'll save us from some problems. If we check our motives. That'll preach all day, every day. Check your motive. Pray for me to check my motive. Because we can be doing a lot of right. And in our heart, our motive's wrong. My heart can be against you. I can be doing right with you and my heart can be against you. I'm telling you, that'll save us trouble, church family, trouble. That'll save a home trouble. Get your heart right. Get your heart right. Get your heart right. Then we'll finish out here, we'll finish out on this. And not, on verse number eight, it says, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. So the chief shepherd is gonna gather his flock, he's going to appear to his flock, he's not gonna appear to the lost world, he's gonna appear to his flock in a meeting in the air. And that's not an appearance to the lost. After that meeting in the air, there will be a judgment seat of Christ where we'll receive rewards. One of the five rewards that is mentioned in the Bible is the crown of righteousness, which we looked at tonight. That crown of righteousness will be for those who have stayed in the fight. And the reason that they stayed in the fight is because they loved His appearing. They lived with a blessed hope. and you stay in the fight, you live for God, you don't quit, you stay on course when you live with a blessed hope, when you love His appearing. Well, when he has that appearing and those, you go to the judgment seat, you receive rewards. And then after that, there's the marriage, Revelation 19, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready. And we talked about how that Jewish wedding had three parts. And we talked about that a few Sundays ago. Well, that's going to happen for us when we go to be with the Lord. But there's going to be a crown for those that love that crown of righteousness if you love his appearing. Now, do you believe he's going to appear? Okay, but that's not loving his appearance. Motive. Now, ladies, tell me you have not said this. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Oh, come, Lord Jesus." You know, the kids are fussing, the home's this, this, this is going on, that's going on, and you're just like, Lord, just take me home. Right? Right? You said that. Fellas, tell me, haven't we said that? Rough day at work, someone's wearing us out. Haven't we said that? That had nothing to do with loving the Lord and wanting to be with Jesus. It had everything to do with, get me out of this earthly trouble and trial and situation. Does that make sense? I'm telling you this crown of righteousness is for those who love his appearing. They're just wanting to be with Jesus, not have Jesus take away problems. I'm thankful that he's going to, but this is for those that love his appearing. And Paul was excited about seeing Jesus and being with Jesus. Well, bless God, I'm going to have a street of gold to walk on and a mansion to go through and pearly gates. And I'm going to have a glorified body. Hallelujah. Yeah, that's great. But do you want to be with Jesus? Do you love his appearing? If all that was taken out of the equation, would it be enough to just want to be with him? That's the idea of loving his appearance. In other words, Jesus is not a side dish folks. He's the main course. I think all of us, myself included, we need to get to the place where Paul's at. Brothers, sisters in Christ, and then those of you that have brothers and sisters that you're sitting with in church, can you get over your self-interest? Can you get over the fact that things might not go how you want to go? Can you get over your pride? Can I get over my carnal motives? You know why Paul could say, be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ? Now you think about that statement devoid of all the truth that we just talked about. Be ye followers of me is a pretty egotistical statement. You know why people could follow Paul? You know why Paul could actually make that statement, follow me, and people would follow Paul? Because he stripped himself of all pride, self-righteousness, and carnal motives. And if you want people to follow you, husbands, if we want our wives to follow us as the man of the house, you better strip yourself of some of your carnal pride and ego. And look, dare I say, I'm not trying to tell parents to not command their homes and have some strict rules and discipline with their children. I'm not going down that road. But what I'm saying is, if you want your kids to follow you, we also, as parents, are going to have to strip ourselves from some selfishness and pride and ego. I didn't say other rules than in the upbringing when they need that. But if you're going to ask somebody to follow you like Paul did, the biblical solution is, don't be ready to be a great Christian. Be ready to be a Christian who offers himself as a living sacrifice, totally stripped of anything, count everything but loss, and the only thing you want to win is more Christ.