Sermon Central
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Don't Stop Fighting
Contributed by Bo Lane on Dec 8, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: Today’s young people have to fight hard for their faith. It’s a battle that many can’t handle but God has hope and alternatives. This sermon gives a way out for people who just want to give up.
Don’t Stop Fighting
I’m 11 and I don’t want to live anymore.
- Hi. I am very young but I want to die already! I hate my life! I am 11 years old. I know I cannot live more! I just want to know what is the less painful and easiest way to die; I don’t want my life anymore! I have to die; I just can’t look into my future... I love my parents but, I cant carry on with this life!! My life is pure s***!!!! I hate my life, all my cousins are Goths and well I thought of kind of like joining in with them... I don’t know if I should believe in god or not. My life is a pure misunderstanding.
I’m 14, depressed and see no reason to live.
- Hi. Look I am 14 almost 15 and well I am depressed. Majorly depressed. I have no life. I mean come on, I have no friends, I am picked because my appearance is different, soccer practices are really crappy (I get made fun of, tripped, soccer balls are kicked at me, and the rest of it.), my parents are constantly yelling at me, I lock my self in my room and think of ways of suicide. I have tried suicide once but I couldn’t go through with it. Basically I tried cutting my throat. I am supposedly catholic, but I don’t understand anything. I have researched other religions and they seem "fake" too. There is like only one thing that I understand and it is more of a culture not a religion and it is Goth. i mean i love arts, music, i live my life in the dark, and so on. I don’t know what to do. I am lost in this world. And I know that I wont understand it. All I think about now is suicide. My school grades are low, I don’t do any work, and all the teachers hate me. I know that a 14-year-old person should be having the time of their life and stuff but I’m not. I try to live my life as long as I can but my efforts will fall short soon. I know it.
Sometimes we may feel like our life isn’t worth fighting for.
People give up everyday
- They give up everyday on life
o For every two murders in the U.S. there are three suicides
o Every hour and forty-five minutes another young person commits suicide
- They give up everyday on school
o In 2000, approx. 31% of students dropped out of High School
- They give up everyday on purity
o Eight hundred-twenty thousand (820,000) teen girls get pregnant each year. Thirty-four percent of young women get pregnant at least once before they turn 20.
- They give up everyday on families
o 50% of first marriages ended in divorce in 1997
- People give up everyday on God
o 71% of the teenagers who go to church will stop going by the age of 20.
There are many reasons why young people give up.
- Death of a loved one
- Divorced Parents
- Wasn’t pretty enough
- Wasn’t skinny enough
- Can’t make any friends
- Boyfriend/girlfriend broke up with them
- Family moved and lost all old friends
People give up everyday. People stop fighting everyday.
1 Timothy 6:12 says, “Fight the good fight for what we believe.”
It also says, “Hold tightly to the eternal life that God has given you…”
We know that fights are bad, so what is this “good fight?”
- It’s a fight to stay faithful to God
- Sounds simple enough…but there is a catch.
- Here’s the catch…you will fail.
- You, as a human, will fail to remain faithful to God.
- There will be times in your life where you may abandon God, but He will never abandon you.
- A lot of times people will sugar coat the truth.
- They’ll say things like, “It’s easy to be a Christian. It’s not hard to remain faithful to God.
- But for some it is. For many it’s really hard.
It’s hard for because of all the obstacles we have
- Our best friends, no matter how great they are, they will fail you
- Your parents, no matter how good they are, they will fail
- Your church, no matter how good it is, will fail to meet all of your needs
- Because our friends, family, church and close ones fail us, we begin to think that God will fail us too.
Fight the good fight for what you believe.
What really does this life offer?
- This world offers nothing
- Your favorite television show offers no help to you
- Your favorite Brittany Spears song or Ashlee Simpson song or Black Eyed Peas song offers you nothing. No matter how good it sounds or how cool it is. It offers you nothing in this fight.
