======================================================================== THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH by Gbile Akanni ======================================================================== Summary: Gbile Akanni emphasizes the urgent call for believers to diligently contend for the pure faith once delivered to the saints, warning against ministerial arrogance and the erosion of gospel truth. Duration: 1:11:04 Topics: "Ministerial Responsibility" Scripture References: Jude 1:1-4, 2 Peter 1:12-14, Matthew 5:39, Acts 1:14 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In 'The Good Fight Of Faith,' Gbile Akanni explores the vital responsibility of believers to defend and preserve the purity of the Christian faith. Drawing from the epistle of Jude and the example of Peter, he highlights the importance of humility, diligence, and a deep sense of divine commission among church leaders. Akanni challenges contemporary Christians to examine their personal commitment and to actively labor to ensure the gospel remains uncorrupted for future generations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Living Seed Media brings to you God's Word, which is his comprehensive equipment for changing lives. May the Lord impact your heart as you encounter his Word. For further enquiry or counsel, contact Peace House, PO Box 971, Boko, Benue State, Nigeria. Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59 0703 76811 98 Email address lsmediaatlivingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. I just wish to share with you the body that God has asked us to gather to consider contending for the faith. Contending for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. In our own generation, how the faith must not be eroded and wasted away. The book of Jude chapter 1, I'll read verse 1 to verse 4 in this moment. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you. And I exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. As I look at the text and the introduction that Jude made of himself in writing this particular one chapter epistle, which was addressed to the people of God that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. As I look at that brief introduction, several issues were coming to my heart, which is the basis of this welcome charge I intend to share with you. I wanted to quickly, let me just set what is said quickly before I begin to draw the issues for us. First, I saw Jude introducing himself, he said, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. If you did not study very closely, you may not know that Jude was actually one of the brothers of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of those brothers that were born by Mary after Jesus Christ. And I thought that it would have been something exciting for Jude to introduce himself and say, I, Jude, the blood brother of Jesus. The one that shared the same breast with Jesus. The one that dwelt in the same womb that brought our Lord Jesus out. The only surviving brother of our Lord. I thought that he would have made that kind of introduction and he would have drawn attention to himself and maybe people would have drawn closer to him and said, Kai, the man that sucked the same breast with the Lord, he must have something peculiar. Like many, many men of our time, we divert the attention of the audience from the Lord Jesus who graciously called us into ministry to themselves. So I noted that these brothers who preserved the faith, who labelled to make sure that the faith was not contaminated when they are handing it over to us. First, they were diligent with their own lives. They were diligent with their own personal consecration. They were diligent to first of all maintain the purity of the faith for their own lives. They did not allow themselves to be idolized. They did not allow themselves to become a distraction to the counsel and the purpose of the gospel for which God has called them. Maybe the first contention for the faith that we need to deal with is not yet the contention for doctrine. Maybe the first contention that we need to engage is contending with our own individual lives. It looks to me as if, if we lose the battle over our own individual lives, if we lose the focus of why God called us into the ministry, if we lose the sense of our indebtedness to God for allowing us to ever come near the altar, if we suddenly became too conscious of our position, of our status, of our titles, and of our authority in the ministry, we might become so obsessed with all of that and obscure the Lord Jesus Christ who called us. And it could be that the greatest challenge to the faith that is now being trampled upon here and there by wicked men could have been because those of us who are custodians of the truth, those of us that have been called to undo the message of the word of God, those of us that have been given the privilege of sounding the alarm and appointing men to the man of Calvary, could it be that we have torn the grace of God upon our own lives onto ordinary ceremonies and such that the power of God that ought to pervade and permeate everything that the body of Christ represents has now been eroded because the men who are supposed to carry the message, they have become the focus of themselves and they would rather speak about themselves and defend themselves and pursue things of their own self-pleasure? So when I saw Jude, he said, the servant of Jesus Christ. Actually the word servant there, if you go to other versions to catch the root, the word servant is actually talking about the slave, the slave of Jesus Christ. Even though he shared the same womb with the master, he never saw himself qualified as to arrogantly say the brother of Jesus. He would not say that. He saw himself as the slave of Jesus. He saw himself as one that has only been allowed by grace to be part of the gospel and to be part of his ministry. I noted that. If there is anything we need to contend for in order to maintain the purity of our faith, we need to contend with ministerial arrogance, we need to contend with the present desire to make a big name for ourselves and only to speak about what is convenient for ourselves rather than the passion of him who called us into ministry. I noted that very quickly in the introduction that Jude was bringing. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. It was very touching to me that now when he was going to introduce his natural descent, he now found a James to say I'm the brother of James. I hope you remember that this James was not the James that was beheaded by Herod. The James is not the James of Zebedee. Is that okay? This is the James that were the junior brothers. By the time the Lord Jesus Christ was here, these brothers have not yet repented. They were the ones taunting him and asking him and saying, do you know that you have been doing something and you have proven to be something? Go and show yourself to the world. And he said, no, my own time is not here. So even when Jesus was here, they had not met Christ. Even though they ate and drank together, but they never met him. They didn't know him. It was after his resurrection that they came to the knowledge of the truth. But I want you to look at that personality. Now, go with me very quickly. I'm not going to be talking about the people he has addressed this letter to. I'm sure we'll be talking about that in the course of our meeting. But still looking at Jude as the first church I want to bring to you tonight. He said, 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 you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. And I was looking at those words. He said, Beloved, when I gave all diligence, all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me. And I was looking at a man who took responsibility, who will not give himself rest, who will engage all diligence. And when he used the word all diligence, as if he has engaged any and everything that will make him to do this, that will make him to put this matter down, he said, to write unto you. It's like, it wasn't as easy. It was not like in these days that you can just even be dictating to your computer and it will write it out for you. It is not like this time that all materials, whatever amount of Bible commentaries you want, they are all unsolved copies. And you can just click like this and this one will come out and you can do word search and that one will come out. All the scriptures that we had to cram in those days, somehow now the digital technology is saying you don't need to cram anything. Put all your memory in the computer. And you can even come with empty head. You will get whatever you need now. But I found that this man that labored to preserve the faith, to keep the faith, and to bring us into it, they gave all diligence. All diligence. All that it takes to bring the truth and to speak of it and to write of it, he said, I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. It was needful for me to write unto you. It was needful for me. You know when you use the word needful, it was compulsive for me. It was not something I could do at my leisure. It was mandatory for me. There's a necessity laid upon me. When you say it was needful, that means necessity was laid upon me. And I was wondering, what kind of sense of responsibility these brothers caught that they labored both in the ministry and in doctrine. Not only that, they did all they could to write so that this common salvation that was delivered unto the saints does not get eroded. So that this faith does not get lost and mixed up in the midst of all that was happening in their time. They were diligent men. They were diligent laborers. They were people that they saw the necessity laid upon them. They almost would say, just like Paul also said, Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel because what necessity is laid upon me. The dispensation of the gospel has been laid upon me. I cannot find rest until I have done this. This one man that said, if I preach Christ willingly, fine. Even if I was not willing to preach, it is still compulsive for me to do so. I cannot exonerate myself from declaring the gospel. They had a sense of responsibility. The commission that came on their lives was such that made them jealous for the word of God. Made them jealous for the gospel. It made them to go extra mile. They made great sacrifices to make sure that the truth was preached and undistorted. Like I said that we are not dealing with the text in terms of going to the details of the issues that we need to contend with. But I saw the attitude, the personal responsibility, and the sense of divine commission that these leaders of old undertook that made the faith possible for some of us to catch it now. As I was looking at Jude, I could quickly look at Peter. Peter also, let me draw your attention to what Peter also said in his own epistle as he was also about to conclude his life. Please turn with me to 2 Peter. He was also writing 2 Peter 1 and verse 12 and verse 13 and verse 14. Whereof, wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things. Though you know them and you are established in the present truth, yes, I think it meets as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me. Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my disease to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. I wish I could just be reading their letter. But again, what is it that is torturing me? And I'm driving at one matter with which I want to ask you to pray with me tonight. Now, I saw men of old that labored to preserve the truth. That labored to keep the word of God in shape and in content. Men who labored with a sense of great, great, great indebtedness to God to make sure that the faith is brought to us undistorted. To make sure that the word of God is brought to us unsoiled, uncontaminated. What manner of men they were. Number one, I saw that they were men who gave all diligence. Who will not allow any time to pass without engaging it to ensure that the truth of our faith was not lost. Now, I'm seeing another man here, Peter. Say, wherefore, I will not be negligent. I saw that he was saying, it will have been negligence on my part to keep quiet. God will not allow me, God will not pardon me for being negligent. Looking away when there is trouble. Talking other things when there is an urgency threatening our faith. Going on leave when the lives that God has made us shepherds over are in terrible danger. No, he said, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things. Even though you know them, even though you are established in the present truth. I was wondering that he said, even though you know this truth, even though you seem to be established in the present truth, I still feel it to be negligence on my part not to put you in remembrance. Not to bring back what are the core values of our faith. Not to speak about it as if for you never to forget it and never to let it slip out of your hands. I was looking at men who contended for the faith and I'm asking, we are now apex leaders of our churches. We are now the interpreters of the doctrine. We are now the custodians of the truth that formed and formulated our church structure. And I'm going to be asking you, how diligent are we? How many of us are laboring to make sure that this truth, this faith is not eroded and swept away? How many of us are awake to check whether what we are preaching and what our pastors, our junior clergy, what they are talking about, is this still in line with the word of God? Is this still congruent with what we believed? Are they still standing along the correct line that the Holy Spirit had taught and the word of God that our fathers have said? Are we diligent? Or we say, well, let everybody do what they like once my own salary is coming in. Are we diligent to fight the good fight of faith? As to make sure that the truth that was handed over to us, we also hand it over to men that are coming behind us intact. The Bible said, this man said, I want to always put you in remembrance of these things. Do you know them? Are you established in the present truth? Yes, I think it meets. You know the word meets means I think it's necessary. I think it's worthy. As long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. That was their labor. Knowing that shortly. I must put off this tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ has already shown me. I'm about to die. But I still feel that I must not be negligent. I must do all that lies within me to always put you in remembrance. And I was wondering, how would this man be always putting them in remembrance when he knows he was going to die? I saw one more thing that had been a personal challenge to me. He said, moreover, I will endure that you may be able after my disease to have these things always in remembrance. Excuse me, how was he going to do that? That even after he has died, they will always have these things always in remembrance. How was he going to do that? Which meant that even when he was about to die, he was still laboring to write. He was still laboring to put the truth in writing. To set the word of God in order. To get to make sure that even if I'm dead, let this thing be speaking. Let it be a point of remembrance to all of you that are coming behind. As you are sitting before me now, some of you are president of your synod. By the grace of God, some of you are archbishops. And there are several other dioceses and bishops under your hand. And I'm wondering, are you writing anything that after you are gone, it will stand as a remembrance? If the church fathers of old, if they didn't write anything, what would have become the liturgy of our churches today? If they were just complacent, and said the people will never forget, they know what we are talking about, can you imagine where we would have been today? But now my question is, if you now look behind you, if you look at the pastors and clergy behind you, if you look at the churches, if you look at the young people, and if you are sincere, are you sure that after 10 years, after you are gone, something will not have finished? So we are here in the course of this meeting, as men and women that God has brought to the top leadership of our denominations and churches, as men and women that God has made, you know, even if there is any doctrinal argument in your denomination, it's likely to end on your table. They are likely to gather everything and say, okay, let the bishop interpret this to us. Let the president of our seminary speak into it. Let the provost, let the professor, so and so, let them speak, and let us know what we are supposed to be doing. Even now that we are having challenges, and our members are being distrust, and they are under serious pressure, people are coming to slaughter them, they are looking on to us and say, now, pastor, what should we do? Should we not also buy arms? They want to open the Bible and say, now that Jesus said, if they slap you on one side, turn the second, they have slapped us on this side, they have slapped us on the other second side, which other side should we turn? They are saying, can you give us a clear interpretation of the word of God so that we know whether we are not just? And that has now provoked some of us to delve into the study of God's word and say, Lord, you put me here. How will this faith that you have handed over to me, how will it become so scattered before I leave the stage? I saw a Peter endeavoring. He said, moreover, I will endeavor. You see, when I read such words, they were only pointing to hard work, they were only pointing to diligence, they were only pointing to commitment, they were pointing to a deliberate desire to make sure that the truth of God's word did not fail. As I look at Jude, as I look at Peter, let me ask you to look at Paul, and then I would like to now look at you. Would you like to follow me to look at Paul? Eh? Let's look at Paul. Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3 and verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, it is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concession, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, as I look at that, I say, this is another man who contended for the faith. And I see him say, look, brethren, to write the same things to you, to me, indeed, it is not grievous, but for you it is safe. So I noted that in contending for the faith, these brothers who took responsibility to make sure that the truth gets to us and is not distorted, they were people who did not only speak once. They did not even write only once. He said to write again to you what I have been writing. To me, it is not grievous, for you it is safe because of the times in which we found ourselves. And by the time he was ending his own life, look at what he said, look at what he said. 2 Timothy 4, look at what this man said. In verse 6, verse 7, verse 8. You would just love to read their stories, but let's just stop there. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought. What? A good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Look at those three things. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. As I was looking at their own lives, I found that the battle for contending for the faith was a war. It was a fight. And so suddenly, I am asking, if there were men like the men of our own time, if there were people like people of our own caliber, would there be anything that our men would meet when we are gone? I have fought a good fight. And you know, earlier he had been charging Timothy, he had been talking about him, to war a good warfare, to fight a good fight of faith. Now he said, I have fought a good fight. I don't know what you are fighting for. Some of you fought to become a bishop. It was a deadly battle. And when you won it, you declared a party. I wonder whether that was a good fight. You fought to maintain your position and say, yes! Nobody can cheat me out of this place. Some people even left the denomination. Just so that you can have space and you are happy. Would you call that a good fight? Some fought to get their remuneration. When they said, what will you remember? He said, look, I fought to make sure that salary, my salary, is settled. Would that be a good fight of faith? Some of us, we fought to get all the benefits, such that church members as of today, they are crying under the heavy yoke. Some of us are too costly for the church to maintain us. Almost three quarters of the offering that the church is gathering is for our maintenance. Not for the gospel. We have become too costly. Our appetite has grown so large. We compare ourselves with the professors in the university. We think ourselves as ministers at par with the ministers in government. We seem to be fighting, but I wonder whether we are fighting the good fight of faith. We seem to be contending, but I don't know whether we are contending for the faith or for something else. This man said, I have fought a good fight. And if God were to signal me and you today and say, now brother, it's enough, come on. Would you have fought a good fight? Would you have also contributed onto the purity, the preservation of the faith? Or it would be on record that during the tenure of this bishop, during the tenure of this senior president, these were the kind of things that they established, and we are still struggling to recover from it. I know there may be reasons why we are taking all such precautions. Some of you say, well, the church nowadays, they don't appreciate if you don't tell them. You don't know what to do if you don't make things clear. We need to tell them. They need to tell them things. But this man, this man, even when some of them were dying, there was nowhere to lay their heads. But to them, there was this common salvation, this faith that God, the faith of our fathers, they fought for it. They held onto it. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. As I stop here tonight, I said, I'm looking at Jude, I'm looking at contenders for the faith in their own days, and I'm asking, and maybe before this time you are saying, it's because I was not the president of our denomination, it's because I was not the executive secretary, it was because I was not in charge. If I became a bishop, I know what I would do. You become a bishop now for five years. What have you done? When the other man was there, he said, well, he was not serious enough. He did not know how to interpret the Bible. You have been there now for a few years. What have you been doing now? What will you be remembered for? What are you contending for? This night, as we welcome you, I decided that we will wait on God together, but I sense that God must begin with me and you. The Holy Spirit has to do something for us. Some of us are in the theological education. I wonder whether you are contending for the faith or you are already so absorbed with your personal promotion because you want to be at par with some person somewhere in the university there. And so the matter of what was the primary calling of God on your life to label in the doctrine is no more a priority. If people that contended for the faith until we could have it, if they were like us, would there be any faith that would have come down to us? And I was just asking myself, if the fathers who wrote hymns, if they did not write hymns, is there anything we could have remembered? And I'm asking. Several of them sat down and wrote hymns. Have you added one to it? Have you sat down to add just one hymn that actually explains the theology that we believe? The men that contended for the faith that has been handed over to us, there were men that said, taking all diligence, they said, I will not be negligent. I will endeavor to write the same thing to you. To me, it's not grievous. I don't feel tired. I have fought the good fight. I want to ask, and this is supposed to be an honest time before God. I wanted to ask God, Lord, in the position where you have placed me thus far, in the place of authority where I occupy, and the privilege of leadership that you have given me, is the faith being preserved under my hand, or is it getting more and more porous, more and more contaminated, more and more dissipated? I was looking at how they labored, as you bishop or archbishop, or DCC chairman, or the president of conference. I wonder when you visit the churches, what you are doing. Are you contending for the faith? Are you gathering all the clergy and say, I'm there for the next three days, and I'm going to have doctrinal conference with all pastors. Let's consider what we are preaching, or you are just happy that they loaded your boots with yam and lamb. So when the man of God is coming back, there was noise in the boots. And when you return, say, yes, that church, they are very nice. They understand how to behave. Your visit was always ceremonial, not ministerial. As we gather this week, we have to speak one to another in this manner, because the faith is at stake. When you see the way our young men have gone, and when you hear what they are speaking about, when you turn your radio, your television, and you see the kind of thing that men are talking about, how they twist the word of God and take it out of its context, and make it to say what it did not intend to say, how they have employed psychology and motivational speaking, marketing strategies, as if the word of God is like Akara, that you are selling. How they come up and they speak as if, yes, I've come to say something. And they speak so wonderfully that the gullible members of our congregation who don't know their left or their right, who have not been taught the biblical doctrine as to be able to discern whether this man is speaking right or not, they are following. I'm asking, if the men of old were like me and you, would there be a faith to be transferred or to be left behind? Before we begin to talk about contending for the faith and all the challenges, can I first ask whether God is not contending with your own life? Is God not contending with your secret life? Could it be the reason why your voice is no more loud and sharp is because something is holding your throat? Could it be the reason why you look away from standing straight and say, no, over my dead body will this happen? I better die than see the word of God dissipated this way. Could it not be because you are also a victim, not a victor, and there are secret issues that nobody could help you address because you are already on top? But this thing will not let you go. It will not let you do what God has called you to do. As we welcome you here, I thought it was God that was welcoming us and said, welcome to my presence. I have a matter to settle with you. I place you in top leadership. You are the apex now. Beyond you, there may be only one or two on top. That's where you are now. Some of us, by the way our church is organized, once you are a bishop, you are a bishop for life until retirement. And maybe that makes you feel nobody transfers me here. I am the one who caught the shot here. Is that why that God is contending with you as we bow before God tonight? We won't be able to contend for this faith if we ourselves are in contention with God. We won't be able to contend for the faith if we ourselves haven't had to contend with our lies. Heaven has to contend with something secret about us. God has to contend with our inner character that is not congruent with the word of God. And we don't have the audacity to help the junior clergy under us. When we ourselves, each time we want to talk, something says, but how can you say that? Were you also not in that situation some time ago? Is it because you were not caught? Suddenly, the truth became blunt. You can't cut anything again. You just do like that and say, well, brother, just be careful. There's nobody who does not fall. Just go on. And don't forget to send your quarterly returns. That's what matters. We're going to call on God tonight. I believe God brought you and me to this place. We have traveled this long to be here because God wants to do something in our time. The church is in distress. We are being killed left and right. And we could easily blame those men and say they are wicked. But the question that has been reverberating in our heart, is this not our own omission? Is this not because something went wrong with our message? Could it not be that the faith which we claim to carry has become sifted of its power? Is God having need to contend with me and you? If you will please rise in prayer. I will request that we call on God together for these few minutes. And just to say, Lord, I am here. Savior, I have come. Whatever you will deal with, deal with me. I'm at your feet. You have brought me to leadership at this height. We try to make sure that only those at this height can be here so that we can speak together and cry to God. If you will join me in prayer, can I ask you to arise and say, Lord, We have seen Jude. We have seen Peter. We have seen Paul. We could have gone to keep enumerating several others. Time will not allow. But I suppose that God is saying, as for Paul, he's dead, buried, and is resting. As for Peter, he has been offered. He has been part. He has been poured out as a libation on the altar. They are all waiting. As for Jude, he did all he could, and he's now resting, waiting to see how you were so wrong. The chapters of all these men we are reading as closed is the only chapter that is open now. What are we writing in it? What will men say when you are gone? What are you leaving behind so that this faith will not have become bastardized in our own hand? Please pray with me. Talk to God. Tell him, Lord, I am here. This week, I am here. These next few days, I have come. It took me so long to be here, but I'm here. Lord, while you are touching others, while you are helping others, while you are putting others in their positions of responsibility, Lord, do not pass me by. Lord, I am here. This clergy retreat, show me what to do. Show me where to stand. Show me, Lord, how to stand. Help me, Father. Please pray. Call on God for yourself. I said, look at Jude. He has something he could have been boasting about, could have been introducing himself as the direct blood relation of my master, Jesus. That would have given him maybe a kind of credential. But he would not. They were just slaves of Jesus Christ, ready to labor and die for the truth. Are you engrossed with your title? Are you engrossed with your position? What will you say you are fighting for? This man said, I have fought the good fight. What is your own fight? What are you fighting for, sir? What is it that you have labored for? Some are fighting to change the constitution of their church, just to perpetrate themselves. Is that your fight? We are not fighting to make sure our doctrine are maintained. Please call on God tonight. I am here for you. Jesus, I am here. Jesus, I am here. Savior, I am here. I am here for you. Holy Ghost, I am here. Father, Jesus, I am here. I am here for you. And pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me, Savior. Savior, Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, Jesus, do not pass me by, Savior. Savior, Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. My humble cry while on others thou art calling, Jesus, do not pass me by. While we pray, even tonight, Is there any matter that you know you are contending with the Lord? This is a matter that no one else could address on your behalf. It was only something you have to keep inside like a cancer. But God is bringing you here tonight. All such contention must come to an end. The Holy Spirit is standing and saying, I want to help. While we are praying, you feel like saying, Lord, I have arrived in this altar. Do something new with me. Don't let me go the way I came. Lord, you don't need to contend with me beyond here. Rather than contend for the faith, I find myself contending. Contending with the truth, contending with the reality of your demand on my heart. Lord, please help me tonight. If we need to pray and cry to God on this altar this night, and if as soon as God brought you here, he just said, look now, I put you in position. You asked me to lift you up, I lifted you. What are you fighting for now? I said, Lord, please give me another chance. Don't let me go back the way I struggled to behave before now. Lord, help me. The Lord is standing amidst tonight. And he wants to stretch forth his hand of mercy to help, to raise you up, to deal with that issue. Others have made shipwreck. Other colleagues are not where they should stand. But God in mercy has preserved you because he still has a need of you. Why we take that song again? Jesus, I am here. If you sense in your heart that even this night, let me just throw my life before the Lord. Let me just make this right. Let me just tell him, Lord, this contention with my life is enough. This contention with your will for my life is enough. I have come to this meeting. It must be buried here. I don't want to go back struggling again. Why we take that song? Jesus, I am here. I would just request that in humility before the almighty God, you would just step out and just walk to this altar and just present ourselves again and say, Jesus, I am here. I am here. You brought me into this leadership because there is a great expectation. But now see me, I am getting trapped. I am making a wreck of what you want me to do. My ears are rolling and I can't point at what you have called me to accomplish. As we take that song, if you sense that even tonight, you just want to say, Jesus, I am here. I don't want to go back to where I came now. Please just step out before God and we shall stand shoulder to shoulder with one another and say, Lord, we are your servants. We have come. Help us. Jesus, I am here. Jesus, I am here. Savior, I am here. I am here. I am here. God bless you. Just step out. Jesus, I am here. Savior, mighty God, I am here. I am here. I am here. Father, I am here. Father, Father, I am here. I am here. I am here. Mighty God, Lord Jesus, I am here. Oh Lord, yes Lord Jesus, I am here, Lord. I am here, Lord. Lord God, Holy Ghost, I am here. Father, I am here. I am here. I am here for you, Lord. Have you procrastinated what you should have done? Have you only given excuses where you should have taken responsibility? Is God satisfied with this yes He has exposed you to leadership? Or the deficiency of your own inner man has crippled your ministry and will not allow you to do what ought to be done? Men like you, they said, give me all diligence. Peter said, I will not be negligent even when they were almost dying. Paul said, I put myself under. So that having called many others, I will not be cast aside. What is it that can cripple you as our leader? What is it that silences you inside? And you are unable to preach and teach the truth as it ought to be done. If you are still needing to come before the Lord, tonight while we say Lord I am here, let's do that song just two times. And if you need to come out, if you need to step out, if you need to say Lord, this thing must be buried in Boko. This thing has to finish here. Don't let it finish me, it must finish here. Savior, I am here. Jesus, I am here. Father, I have come. I have come. I am here for you Lord. Holy Ghost, I am here. Jesus, I am here. Oh God. You called me in the beginning. You gave me opportunity. Let's pray. Let's talk to God. Just tell the Lord I am here. Can you imagine, oh God, the number of souls, the number of men and women under my hand. And I am not able to exert your leadership. I have opportunity to draw conclusions. And yet, oh God I am here. I am here Lord. Whatever you can do to a man like me, to change my story, do it tonight. Whatever hand you must lay on my life, do it tonight. Are you losing grip over your marriage? Are you unable, unable and yet you have reached a level where nobody talks to you again. Lord help me, help me tonight. God bless you. Is there someone else who needed to come to this altar this night? Please do so. Please do so. Let's pray together. Let's say God have your way with us. Lord have your way. Thank you Father. Thank you tonight. In Jesus Christ's name, we have prayed. Our Father, we have come to you. If we have come to a man, then we can go back the way we came. We have come to you Lord who is able to bring to conclusion all contentions. You are able to bring to an end every matter. No matter how big it is, at your feet it can be dissolved. This night Lord look at our colleagues, fellow servants of ours. Lord some are wounded. Some just lost grip of what you called us to do. Laziness and indolence has ravaged what you have called us to do. Tonight oh God, we have come. We are laying our hearts and our lives on this altar. Come for us Lord. Do a new thing in the hearts of your people. Circumcise our heart again. Where we lost the fire, bring it back. Where we lost our message, oh God, restore it. In those areas, oh God, where the enemies seem to be rejoicing, say I got this one. Father, silence him in the name of Jesus Christ. Father tonight, tonight Lord, if we are back at home in our parish, nobody will help us. Nobody, they would rather laugh at us and say this man also. But we have come to where you can help us. We have come to you. Lord help us. The issues that we are crying to you about here in this night, let it be buried in Boko. Let it come to an end here. In the name of Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit have your way with us. Do what a man cannot do. Bring this issue to a stop in the name of Jesus. The woman with the shoe of blood went everywhere for 12 years. But when she touched the hem of your garment, it finished. Lord, whatever issue it is, whichever where it is coming out, no matter how threatening it has been, that issue must stop here tonight in the name of Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit, please arise on our behalf. Thank you Father. In rising Lord, your people will rise in victory. They will rise with fresh assurance. They will rise never to fall again. And where you have placed them, that place of leadership, Lord I ask, they will not be vulnerable as not to be able to serve your purpose. As we start this meeting, oh God, we ask that you will please deal with us. Prepare us for the days ahead. Don't allow us to be ridiculed out of the office. Our desire is to end well. We have read about men of old who said, I may bow to be offered. And they were saying, to finish well. Lord, help us to finish well. Thank you for hearing. Whatever help we need in the course of this meeting, please provide it. If we need to speak with someone, those who have gone ahead of us, please Lord provide for us. In Jesus Christ's name, we have prayed. Amen. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/the-good-fight-of-faith/ ========================================================================