Text: Luke 8:43-48 , “(43) And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, (44) Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. (45) And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? (46) And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. (47) And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. (48) And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
12 long years – Have you ever gone through a long trial?
Are You Ready?
In 1910, a young boxer named Jim Jeffries came out of retirement to fight the heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.
Once an undefeated legend in the ring, Jeffries had been years away from competition, and he was out of shape, unconditioned, and unprepared for the intensity of the fight ahead.
He trained harder for that comeback fight than he ever had in his life. He ran many miles every day. He lifted weights. He sparred until he could barely stand.
Why? Because he knew that stepping into the ring without preparation meant certain defeat, but when the bell rang, it became clear:
He had not conditioned himself enough for the fight.
Round after round, Johnson’s blows landed. Jeffries staggered. He fell. He got back up. He fell again. He got back up again. But eventually, he could no longer continue. The fight was stopped.
Afterward, Jeffries said, “I couldn’t have beaten him even if I had been at my best.”
Why? Because the fight demanded more than he had prepared for.
Jeffries was not ready. Are You Ready? GET READY.[1]
1 Timothy 6:11-12, “(11) But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (12) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
- Paul is instructing Timothy on how to be ready…conditioned for the good fight of faith.
- There are some things you need to flee
- The “love of money” and all that comes with it – temptations, snares, traps, harmful desires – leading to ruin and destruction
- There are things you need to follow
- “…righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”
- There are things you need to fight
- The Good Fight of Faith
- Reward – Eternal Life!
Jude 1:3, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Contend upon, for, or about[2] — Struggle for it!
If you are going to “fight the good fight,” you cannot be spiritually out of shape. You must be ready.
If you are going to “earnestly contend for the faith,” you must be conditioned for the struggle. You must prepare yourself to be ready.
This is not a casual contest. This is not a hobby.
This is a fight that requires discipline, training, and endurance.
The Good Fight of faith is not a spectator sport. It is a fight. A struggle. A contest for an incorruptible crown.[3]
Are You Ready?
The audience watch as two contestants at Olympia wrestle and box in their pursuit of an earthly crown. Only one will stand with the olive crown on his head.
Hear the roar of the crowd as the runner crosses the finish line in victory. Only one will wear the wreath of apple at Delphi.
A pine crown awaits the victor at the Isthmian games,
And at the Nemean games, all you get for your struggle to contend with others is a garland of parsley…and bragging rights.
No lasting achievement, because in 2 or 3 or 4 years we will do it again and someone else will be faster, stronger, quicker, more perseverant.
It’s just an earthly corruptible crown and only one receiveth the prize.
Our Preparation is for The Good Fight of Faith, and our reward is for an incorruptible crown, which is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
(26) I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: (27) But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.[4]
The ESV: “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
Have you ever watched an Olympian be disqualified? The look of shock, disbelief, and instant regret.
Questions in the mind: “What will I do now?” – “I just wasted four years of my life training, sacrificing, giving and now this?”
Paul was making sure that he was ready – he did not want to be Disqualified, castaway, rejected.
If you are going to “earnestly contend for the faith” then you better be conditioned for the struggle, and it is a struggle.
To obtain the incorruptible crown:
You must deny yourself – You strive for temperance and moderation You need to actually be guilty of being a Christian.
You could lose this crown at any moment.
There are threats, hazards, opposition on every hand
John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Your enemy, the devil, would gladly have you trade an incorruptible crown for eternal hell and torment.
Billy Graham was famous for never having had one mark against his character, and he prayed this prayer often: “Lord, let me not today ruin in anything what You have taken all these years to do in my heart and provide for my life.”
This fight of faith requires you to be conditioned. What is “Faith?”[5]
- “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:1-3).
- The source of “Faith” is God’s Word.
- Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
- God’s Word conditions and prepares us:
- “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”[6]
- THE FAITH ARE THE COLLECTIVE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST, INCLUDING HIS PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES WHICH HE “MODELED” FOR US, AND “ALL THINGS” THAT HE COMMANDEDHISAPOSTLES TO TEACH US.
- There are Four Practices that prepare us in this fight of faith:
- “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
- There are Four Practices that prepare us in this fight of faith:
- THE FAITH is NOT just somethingwe“know”; it is also something “we do.”
- James 2:17-18, “(17) Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (18) Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”
- James 2:22 (NLT), “You see, his [Abraham’s] faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.”
- FAITH IS ACTIVE —IT ISSOMETHING TO BE OBEYED. It is not passive —notjust something to know or “mentally acknowledge!”
- Romans 1:5, “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.”
- Acts 6:7, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
- Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
- The Conditioning Point of Contact for Faith is Prayer:
- “Pray without ceasing.”[7]
- I have come with a call from the Holy One:
- “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,” (Jude 1:20).
Paul said, “I have kept the faith.”
He didn’t mean he was storing it away, or hanging it on the wall like some type of trophy.
It was an active pursuit of his life: “I have kept the faith.”
He conditioned himself.
You and I are engaged in a great contest.
- “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:2-4).
- “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:1-5).
When we say someone is a man or woman of faith what we really mean is that they have done something with that faith.
They were conditioned for the trying of their faith.
James said, “Show me your faith without your work, and I’ll show you mine with it. Because faith without works is dead being alone.
The Woman with the Issue of Blood
She had been fighting this battle for 12 long years.
She had evidently been a wealthy woman at one time, but now the money was gone, the doctors’ options exhausted and her only hope now lay in this man named Jesus.
Faith doesn’t always look like what you think it looks like.
She was conditioned and prepared by her struggle for this moment. She was finally ready!
Your current struggle is conditioning you, preparing you and getting you ready.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Tanzanian runner John Stephen Akhwari cemented his legacy not by winning, but by finishing last.
Despite falling, injuring his knee and shoulder, and suffering from altitude cramps, he kept contending.
By the time he entered the stadium, the sun had set, the medal ceremony was over, and only a small crowd remained.
He was the 57th and final competitor to finish the marathon, out of 75 who started.
Battered, bruised, injured and bandaged he was asked why he didn’t just quit. He replied,
“My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 5,000 miles to finish it.”[8]
He was ready. Are You Ready?
(1) I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; (2) Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. (3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; (4) And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (5) But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (6) For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. (7) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (8) Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.[9]
Are Your Ready? Keep contending. Continue struggling.
Don’t let up – Don’t Quit! Fight The Good Fight of Faith.
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_vs._James_J._Jeffries
[2] Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible.
[3] SOURCE: Italicized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_vs._James_J._Jeffries
[4] 1 Corinthians 9:26-27
[5] Chester Wright. (2022). Contending for the Faith (Part 1-The Call to Contend). Self-Published.
[6] 2 Timothy 3:16-17
[7] 1 Thess. 5:17
[8] Source: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/marathon-man-akhwari-demonstrates-superhuman-spirit
[9] 2 Timothy 4:1-8
