"Charlie Sanger, I'm just here to support my friend here" he says back to me and gives Karen a wink.
"Yeah Karen’s great." I say.
"I think she is the best up there" Charlie says.
"Oh stop it guys pay attention" Karen says. I laugh and then turn away. I look out of the corner of my eye and I see Charlie grab hold of her hand and kiss her cheek.
"Hey guys. Wow, is God awesome or what?" The speaker says. I look up to pay attention to him. Yeses and amens go around the room. We have a small group, about 45 people, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to praise God.
"Well my name is Mark Schilling. And tonight when I speak to you I need you all to speak to me. You can say whatever you want just let me know I'm getting to you, say like amen, preach it, yes, come on, stuff like that.
"Haha alright well let’s get started. I titled my sermon tonight: Got Faith? Who has there bibles tonight? Well open it up to 2 Timothy 4:7. ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing’ Well tonight I want to talk about the testimony I want to have, the faith I want to have and the testimony and faith I want you to have. When Paul wrote to Timothy towards the end of his life, he gives, what is to me, the ultimate preemptive epitaph for himself. He said "I did it! I finished what I started in this thing called faith". You know it’s always easy to start something but super hard to finish it. For me it is running. I love to run. It’s always so easy to put my spandex on and my running shoes on; but it takes a lot to finish. Some races, man, it’s something to accomplish just to finish. And I’ll tell you the hardest race that I think to finish is the race of faith. It’s living your life the way God designed and finishing across the finish line saying I have finished my race. How do you do that? How do you finish this race? How can you keep on going with all of these troubles? The bible says that we will have troubles, if you haven’t yet, don’t worry its coming. And how you weather that storm will determine where you stand in your faith. Some people when the storm comes they just blow away and crumble into nothing. How do we make it though? Here is where I want to start. Number 1: fight the good fight. Not the bad fight but the good fight. What is worth fighting for? When you get older you realize that not every fight is worth fighting.
"Yeah Karen’s great." I say.
"I think she is the best up there" Charlie says.
"Oh stop it guys pay attention" Karen says. I laugh and then turn away. I look out of the corner of my eye and I see Charlie grab hold of her hand and kiss her cheek.
"Hey guys. Wow, is God awesome or what?" The speaker says. I look up to pay attention to him. Yeses and amens go around the room. We have a small group, about 45 people, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to praise God.
"Well my name is Mark Schilling. And tonight when I speak to you I need you all to speak to me. You can say whatever you want just let me know I'm getting to you, say like amen, preach it, yes, come on, stuff like that.
"Haha alright well let’s get started. I titled my sermon tonight: Got Faith? Who has there bibles tonight? Well open it up to 2 Timothy 4:7. ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing’ Well tonight I want to talk about the testimony I want to have, the faith I want to have and the testimony and faith I want you to have. When Paul wrote to Timothy towards the end of his life, he gives, what is to me, the ultimate preemptive epitaph for himself. He said "I did it! I finished what I started in this thing called faith". You know it’s always easy to start something but super hard to finish it. For me it is running. I love to run. It’s always so easy to put my spandex on and my running shoes on; but it takes a lot to finish. Some races, man, it’s something to accomplish just to finish. And I’ll tell you the hardest race that I think to finish is the race of faith. It’s living your life the way God designed and finishing across the finish line saying I have finished my race. How do you do that? How do you finish this race? How can you keep on going with all of these troubles? The bible says that we will have troubles, if you haven’t yet, don’t worry its coming. And how you weather that storm will determine where you stand in your faith. Some people when the storm comes they just blow away and crumble into nothing. How do we make it though? Here is where I want to start. Number 1: fight the good fight. Not the bad fight but the good fight. What is worth fighting for? When you get older you realize that not every fight is worth fighting.
