I Corinthians 9:25  And every man that STRIVETH for the mastery is temperate in all things.  Now  they do it to obtain a corruptible  crown; but  we  an incorruptible.  

I Timothy 6:12  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.

II Timothy 4:7  I HAVE FOUGHT a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 

In these verses there is one Greek word translated as “striveth”, “fight”, “I have fought”. We have captilized the words to help you to see them. That Greek word means: “to endeavour with strenuous zeal, strive: to obtain something”. The context of these verses has to do with the Christian life.
No true child of God is content with mediocrity. The love of God dwells within the true child of God and that love motivates the true child of God to desire to be more like his Master and Saviour. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within the true child of God.
We have just begun a new year. It is a year already marred by terrorist attacks. The devil is the designer behind the evil that is becoming increasingly common. Politicians like to stand before the mikes at times like this and speak boldly of what needs to happen. One talked of his plan “if he makes it to heaven” is to ask God why these things are happening Yet this same politician in the same speech used terminology that does not belong in the sentences he used it in.
The problem of increased violence is quite simply to identify. It is much more difficult to solve because it involved the freewill of man. The problem is a lack of knowledge of the true God. The corrupted message coming from most pulpits is turning people off. When a person walks into a church with several hundred people, they might assume they are entering a place that is having a huge impact in their area. It is true they are having an impact. In most of those places the impact is one of delusion. The Bible warns that God will send strong delusion upon this earth in the not too distant future. The Bible also tells us why the God of love would do such a thing. God tells us that this is what the people of that time have earned.

II Thessalonians 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

The problems we are facing are not complicated at all. When people choose to reject the truth, there is nothing left but the lie. When people choose their own standard of righteousness, they are bound to choose wrong. When religious organizations, run by men and women who have chosen their own standard of righteousness, they will cater to the gullible. There is a reason why seminaries exist. There is a reason why “pastors” need to go on a sabbatical. They need some “fresh” ideas to help them to continue to lead their followers down the garden path. They know in their own hearts that what they have is defective. They pedal it anyway because the option is to repent and be saved, and they are too proud to do that.
In order for true saints to be able to have an impact upon this 8 billion+ population, is to be saved and to be temperate in all things. The word translated as “temperate” has to do with being under the control of someone greater than self. That Someone must be God.
I know it is seen as a bad word to state that the true child of God must understand that Jesus Christ must be their “Saviour and Lord”, in that order. First the person gets saved. Then that person needs to understand they must surrender to God as their Master. Every saved person automatically comes under the authority of the true God at the moment of salvation.

I Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

This is another reason why “easy believism” does not work. The idea of “just repeat after me”, is not a Biblical pattern for salvation. It is the subtle attempt of a deceiver to get someone to say something they do not believe. There might be tears involved but the words are not their own. They are just repeating what someone else is telling them.
In I Corinthians 9:25, Paul tells us that the world understands the importance of temperance. At least it used to. In today’s world, they have to do drug testing to make sure that athletes are not cheating. It is hard to find anything that the world does that is not corrupt. After the game, there is usually a drunken party somewhere. That is not temperance. That is indulgence.
The saved person learns of the blessings of the Lord. He/she wants to know those blessings in a greater way. His spirit desires that. His flesh is trying to resist that. As the true child of God grows, the Holy Spirit gains a greater impact in his life. Paul talks of that in Ephesians 5:18:

Ephesians 5:18  And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

If you look at the context of that verse, you find that it is talking of the same thing as the verses we have as our text. God’s message is not complicated and it is not different for different saints. Every true child of God is commanded to “fight the good fight of faith”. Every true child of God desires mastery over sin and self. That is again why the true local church is so important. True saints need a steady diet of godly influence in their lives. Self-study and internet surfing will not do that for you. Faithfulness to a good internet sight can help, but it is not the same as attendance in a true local church. God designed us to be social beings. He designed us to learn from others and to be taught by others. He designed us to follow after someone. Ultimately the true child of God needs to follow after Christ, but the Bible tells us that the way we do that is by being taught to follow Christ by godly men and then being able to teach other godly men to follow after Christ.
There will be a consistency in this process when the true saint is ‘striving for mastery’.
As we begin this new year, let us, those who are saved, take these words to heart. Let us strive for mastery in our walk with God. Let us yield more genuinely to His Mastery in our lives, so that we can know His blessings in a greater way. As we do that we will have a greater impact in our society. No, that does not necessarily mean we will see scores of people getting saved. It means we will have a similar impact upon our society as Jesus had and as the apostles had. Study that and you will see a much different picture than that which is painted by the false teachers.
Pastor Bartel