The Fight for Your Life - Episode 53

We're more than overcomers. But we must learn to fight. 

In this powerful episode, Justin Olbrantz and Don Schaefer discuss 'The Fight For Your Life,' focusing on the need for spiritual and physical resilience. They emphasize the importance of fighting for one's faith and the continuous battle against sin and worldly temptations. The conversation highlights the necessity of spiritual discipline, perseverance, and the transformative power of belief in Jesus and His ability overcome. They underline that true strength comes from God and the importance of conditioning oneself spiritually to overcome life's challenges. The hosts also address how to build character through spiritual practices and the ongoing process of sanctification. Ultimately, they encourage listeners to embrace the fight for their faith and live a life filled with hope and purpose.

Transcript

Episode 53 – The Fight for Your Life

Justin: [00:00:00] Hi everyone, this is Justin Olbrantz and this is Don Schaefer, and you are listening to The Wise and the Wandering Podcast. For those who know the way for. And for those who are led astray, and if you feel like you fall into either of those categories, then you're in the right place. So, let's dive in.

Justin: So Don, what are we going to talk about today? 

Don: We're gonna 

Don: talk about Justin, the fight for your life. 

Justin: The 

Don: (fight for your life). Yes. So this is a fight we're in. Yes, it is. And a lot of times people live in life and they never really learn how to fight. Mm-hmm. And uh, there is a. Spiritual life that needs to be fought for too.

Don: Mm-hmm. And even the, on the physical side, it's amazing how everybody is taught to be nice, which is good. 

Both talk: Yeah. 

Don: [00:01:00] But, uh, we need to learn how to fight for certain things. Mm-hmm. And that is something that needs to be taught also and sometimes is not. So a lot of times people grow up very weak. Mm-hmm. Not fighting for the things that they really should be fighting for.

Justin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I agree with that. This is when it comes to a fight, you know, we are in a spiritual battle. This is, and I think we as believers, the moment that we really believe Yes, is the moment that we enter the fight. That's right. Because the work was already done for us. Right? So salvation is the free gift.

Justin: We don't fight. To initially obtain salvation, it was already done for us, right? That's right. Based on the work on the cross. Right. So when we believe in it, when we believe in the finished work, is when I think we start getting on the enemy's radar. Right. That that's right. 'cause now there's a fight. If we were,, , .

Justin: Let's say if we were participating in, in Wicked Things or if we were doing things in the wrong way before [00:02:00] and now we all of a sudden see the light and we're turned onto the light. Yeah. And we start believing now his job is going to be to try to get us back. Right. That's true. A lot of the times , what starts out as something that just seems like it comes, uh, so easily and so passive becomes something that now is something that is active and something that is a challenge and something that takes work, right? Yeah, 

Don: that's true. And now we have to be able to put the effort into it, and that's where I know, like what we're talking about here, Justin.

Don: Mm-hmm. Sometimes what you have to do is you have to speak a desire into people. Yeah, because people , don't realize sometimes. There are things that are worth fighting for. Mm-hmm. And, uh, as you say, as far as a spiritual battle, , it's interesting just, you know, I'm just going to throw this out there.

Don: Yeah. Because you look at movies mm-hmm. And stuff, not encouraging people get into movies too much, but Right. Who's the hero in the movie? 

both talk: Yeah. 

Don: It's usually the one, the fighter. Yeah. You know, the strong individual. You know, this is what people look up to. [00:03:00] People want to emulate. All of this, you know, and the things of God.

Don: I think it's same thing, you know, God is looking for fighters and people who are willing to stand up for what is right. And there is a day that I like to call elimination day. Mm-hmm. You know, where, uh, some people are just gonna be eliminated because they're just. Just not physically in a position to fight.

Don: I know our army right now in the natural sense. Yeah. You know, a lot of them are not in conditioned to be a fighter or a military person. And, uh, there is an army that God is working with too. And it takes a conditioning of the person, the person, uh, with a right mentality, a right thought process, a right lifestyle, and who's strong and knows what they're going after, knows how to follow directions, know who's.

Don: The commander is and is obedient to everything that they're told. They are true fighters, true warriors. 

Justin: Yeah. And fighters don't quit. Fighters never give up. You know, if somebody is a fighter, they'll truly give it all that they [00:04:00] have and they'll keep going. Right. So that is the idea with the faith. You know, when Paul talks about, I fought the good fight, I've finished the race right.

Justin: Pushing off that baton because he did what he needed to do in that leg race. Right. He , he did what he could, all that he could with that faith. Yeah, and this is the same thing that we are called to do. So as a believer, when you believe. Like I was saying, the enemy is going to start throwing things at you to try to get you off track, to get you to not believe anymore.

Justin: Right. Or to water down your belief a little bit. 

both talk: Yeah. To 

Justin: to tinker with things that are in the word right. In the Bible and things that you've read. And he's gonna try to choke, he's gonna try to choke that word out. Yeah. So that . It cannot bring life. That seed cannot bring life from it, right?

Justin: It cannot grow. He wants to choke it out. So a lot of the times, the fight, right, refers to the ongoing. A spiritual struggle [00:05:00] against sin or doing things the old way and the temptations that we used to have. And the worldly pressures that we have. Yeah. 'cause we're called to be set apart. We're called to be away from the world, not conform to the world.

Justin: Right. Thats right. To be transformed. To be transformed, not conformed. Mm-hmm. So a lot of the times what the uh, enemy does is he tries to pull you back in to those worldly pressures, to those worldly ways. He doesn't want you to be in the word, he wants you to be into the world.

Justin: You know, you can either live in the world or the word, and when you get saved, you start to realize where the truth is, right? That's right. And, and the truth is in the word. So. So. This is a call to actively live out your faith with purpose, perseverance, and spiritual discipline. That's what the fight is about.

Don: That's true. That is so true. And when you talk about choking, yeah, a lot of times, you know, the situations in the world will choke the fight right out of a [00:06:00] person. And it doesn't matter how long you've been in a church, you know, you can be in a church. I find that, um, a person needs to continue to try to.

Don: Improve and grow and become stronger, uh, as life goes on, you know, as, as age comes on to people and stuff too. A lot of times they become weaker because they've allowed themselves to become weaker. Yeah. So when the fights before them, they're not capable of handling it. Right. You talk about temptations and things that would war against the mind and everything that might be Christian in life.

Don: Mm-hmm. You know, a lot of these things we can't fight because, 'cause people get so beat up. That they just don't fight anymore. But I love, you know, action pack stuff where the guy's down on a mat, you know, and the, and the numbers are being called and he gets back up again and, you know, he gets right back into the fight.

Don: And that's the attitude I think we need to have, we need to realize that it is a growing process when we get into mm-hmm. The word, as you were mentioning, and studying and, and allowing the things of God to get [00:07:00] inside of us. We've become stronger. 

Both: Yeah. 

Don: And I know, , we have a tremendous example in Jesus Christ himself.

Don: That was a warrior. Right. You know, he came into this world. He was a warrior. He wasn't gonna put up with anything that was unrighteous before him. And he's telling us that we need to become like him. And as you mentioned too, uh, about coming out from the things of the world. The world is trying to tame us down.

Don: The world is trying to put us in a spot where we're not effective. Where we don't know how to fight and can't fight. Yeah. Where we give up, , , we're constantly, you know, Christians raise their hands onto the Lord, but a lot of times it's a give up sign. And, and a lot of times as a Christians, we give up on the fight.

Don: We have to realize and be stirred. Something needs to keep us stirred in the things and realize that the fight doesn't go away. And, 

Justin: and like you were saying, the, the growing, the, the maturing, the, , we need to be maturing. We have to be spiritually maturing, you know, the mm-hmm. We are saved by grace through having faith in [00:08:00] Jesus. Right. Amen. Amen. But this lifelong process, however, of growing spiritually up in him right. Is referred to as sanctification. Right. Being sanctified. Yeah. And this is a process that, that happens. , over a lifetime.

Justin: This is a process that needs to be continuously practiced. This is something like we're talking about building character, transforming. These are things that happen over time. That's right. This is why it is a fight, because you have to stay in it. Yeah.

Justin: You can't just let yourself quit. You can't just let yourself. Just give up. You can't just let yourself say, you know what? Well, I just don't think God really cares about me. You can't just let yourself say, you know what? I just don't think God hears me or cares about my prayers anymore. You can't just let yourself say, you know what?

Justin: I'm just not gonna pray anymore. You can't just let yourself say, you know what? I'm just not gonna read my Bible anymore because then the enemy wins because the free gift of salvation is there. For you, but you have [00:09:00] to build it inside of you. You have to keep it inside of you. You have to, like you were saying, uh, before Don, you have to build your believer.

Justin: You gotta build it up. Amen. And this is going to be a fight. It happens with every Christian. It happens with anybody who believes because the enemy doesn't want somebody who believes they don't want somebody who knows Jesus and understands him and walks with him, but believes in him. You know, 

Justin: I can promise you that's the last thing the enemy wants. He doesn't want somebody who is willing to withstand the fight like Jesus was. So what you talked about before in, in terms of, , providing strength and it, and it just giving you power.

Justin: I think that's so true because in this fight, you know, the power power that comes from God is built up through grace. Yeah. So we believe in the grace that we receive. Right. And by having faith in that, we receive the grace. Right? Yeah. And it gives us the power we need.

Justin: There is [00:10:00] power that is coming gradually. Ed.. As it is practiced through our lives and as it is stored up, we are becoming powerful in that. Mm-hmm. Right. It's built up within, this is why greater is he that's in me, right? Than he that is in the world. Right? Yeah, because it is him that is within me, right. I am in Christ.

Justin: I am in Him. Yeah. There's a new nature inside of me, right. It's no longer somebody who just exists in a temple or something. He's with me everywhere I go. Right? So there's a, a real power there, and that's built up by grace. And there's a different power that comes from the world, which is based on. False hope.

Justin: And false fear. Yeah. And a lot of things that try to bring us down, and if you think about it, your everyday struggle, your everyday fight, your everyday challenge of dying to self daily and going through these things that we do as Christians, it is a power struggle. Yeah. And it's really a spiritual thing, [00:11:00] Don, but it's, it's a power struggle.

Justin: Yeah. Because you're letting those. False hopes. And those false fears. And you're letting those lies come in. Yeah. And they're taking away that power that actually is trying to come out of you. That, that that is within. Right. Right. The, the Holy Spirit is powerful. And when I say that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the grave on the third day, yeah.

Justin: That is the same power that is within you. Amen. So we, we have to believe in this. That's right. And by doing this, we have to get rid of the things that are false hope. We need to get, stop believing in the. Things that are just false fears trying to. We need to get rid of the things that are just false fears trying to drain the power out of us.

Justin: That's true. That's 

Don: true. Well said there Justin. , it is so true that, , you know, we do need to get ourselves in condition in a certain way, and you talk about a lot of the battle and the situations spiritually that's going on. And it needs to be a reality check sometimes because a lot of times in our world we just don't realize.[00:12:00]

Don: You know, we get caught up in things. We don't realize that there is a battle out there. Yeah. I mean, we can see it in the natural, you can see countries fighting each other and stuff of that nature. Mm-hmm. And, , and there's oppression and everything involved in that, but there is a spiritual battle that's trying to get each and every one of us.

Don: And that's where we need to develop a might inside of us in a strength. And we have to be able, you know, people either they press on or they pull back. Mm-hmm. And, uh, we need to be strong enough to press on and realize what we need. That it's valuable enough. I know the urgency of the things. 'cause when you're talking about stuff, Justin, which is good because it creates a thought process.

Don: Yeah. You're giving people something to think about because a lot of times, you know, people will watch a good football game and stuff like of that nature. They never. Think about stuff like this. Yeah. But this here is the reality of true life. You know, if we don't sit there and realize that there is a spiritual side to life, that there are things that are working against us, various types of temptations.

Don: Mm-hmm. Things that [00:13:00] PE people get caught up into people. Allow themselves to be, you know, Jesus came to set the captive free, 

Both: right? They 

Don: allow themselves to be in bondage, you know, and sometimes they deal with depression, all kinds of different attitudes, whatever it might be. This is all a battle. But Jesus is saying that there is an area that we can develop ourselves.

Don: And I know , the Bible says that many are called and. Few are chosen. Mm-hmm. My dad used to say many are cold, but few are frozen. I used to tell dad that's not right, but, uh, but, but it's not quite. No, but it is true. You know, God is calling all of us. Mm-hmm. You know, and is wanting to call all of us, but few are gonna be chosen 'cause few are gonna realize.

Don: What the, what's involved here? Mm-hmm. And developing themselves. 'cause you talked about coming out. What's the first thing they do in the military? They take 'em away from the world. 

Both: Yeah. You know? And they cut off 

Don: all their hair, put 'em all in the same clothing and all that stuff. And they teach 'em a manner of life.

Don: Mm-hmm. You know, and we have to get ourselves separated onto the things of Jesus Christ. Yeah. And be [00:14:00] taught a manner. A way of living, how to strengthen ourselves. I don't if we're, don't know if we're gonna be crawling underneath barbed wire and climbing walls and whatever, physically, but spiritually, we need to be able to handle life.

Don: And so many times people are just getting knocked over very easily because nobody knows how to fight. And even if I can mention more on this, even, you know, , uh. I talked to my daughter about this this weekend. I said, not many kids are taught how to fight. I said, if somebody was to come into a room and start pounding the, the tar out of people Yeah.

Don: Who would be able to stand up against somebody like that? Right. You know, years ago they used to teach your children how to fight. 'cause that's the only way they would survive. 

Both talk: Yeah. 

Don: You know, nowadays we have a lot of soft people. They don't even know how to fight. 

Both talk: Yeah. We do. 

Don: We just hope that there isn't a fight.

Don: But a lot of times it's the same thing on a spiritual side too. Yeah. You know, we need to be teaching our children that there is a spiritual side. They need to become strong. That's true. We need to become strong and we become the example. Mm-hmm. 

Justin: You know, 

Don: Christ in us, the hope of glory. We need to be the [00:15:00] example of what our children and what people around us need to be.

Justin: Yeah, because we know when you think about a fight, Don, it, it really implies something that takes an intense effort, right? A fight is not easy. No. So a fight for your life. The reason I kind of named this a fight, the fight for your life, is because Jesus said, I've come to give you life, but life more abundantly.

Justin: That's right. So more abundant life and this is the type of life we want. This is real life. Yeah. He said, I am the way, the truth in the life. John 14. John 14. Six. So he said, he's the life. So only true life comes from him. He is life. Yes. And he says he is the truth. Right. So a lot of this fight, , is about not giving in and, and , , not believing in the lies.

Justin: Yeah. Right, , , because when you believe in the lies, you start to feel empty because you are letting go of your power that you have. Kind of going back to what I was saying before. Yeah. [00:16:00] You. You are, you are losing a belief. There's a, , an unbelief that's happening in you, which is making you not more powerful.

Justin: It's making you powerless, right? Because there's unbelief where there needs to be belief. So believing in lies is. Going to be a counter to doing the will of God and doing what you're called to do when you're believing in lies. Yes, because he is the truth. You're not following him, you're following lies.

Justin: So I'm just trying to put this in a plain, logical way because if you're doing things , like condemning others, right, you are believing in lies because. What God has said about people and what God's truth and , what God's word is, is He doesn't, his word is not to condemn people. Yeah. His word is not to tear people down.

Justin: It says in Romans eight, chapter eight verse one, it says that , there is no longer any condemnation for those [00:17:00] who are in Christ Jesus, right? That's right. So what that's saying is that for those who are in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation. So if there's no condemnation for you. When you're in Christ, then where does condemnation come from?

Justin: It doesn't come from him. Mm-hmm. So it's in the word here that the truth of the word is that there's no condemnation. So if you're going around condemning other people, you are falling into lies because that is not God's word. That's not his truth. Yeah. That's not his plan for others, that's not his plan for you.

Justin: Right, right. To go. Condemning people. So a lot of the times we become more powerless. For instance, when we start condemning people thinking that we might be speaking truth to people, but we're not speaking truth because it says right in Romans eight that there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Justin: Yep. So don't be an agent. Of lies, don't be an agent of the enemy by going and falsely accusing or condemning people. Right. Right. [00:18:00] Because that's what he does. That's not what Jesus does. So a lot of the times, in order for us to understand our true power in order, , in order for us to understand a fight well, there's always a way to win a fight.

Justin: Right. There's a winner and there's a loser. Yeah. And we already know who has the victory. True. That's the plot twist here. And the one who has the victory is now in us. So it is now up to us to fully allow that to come out of us. Yes. To be revealed in us. Like you said, the hope of glory, which is in us, right?

Justin: To walk in it to be the light as he was the light. Right. That's right. 'cause we are all called to do the same thing, whether. , whether your ministry is somewhere here or somewhere there, or whether you're called to live somewhere or go somewhere else, or to be in this profession or to start this, uh, business, it doesn't matter.

Justin: We're all called to the very core to be believers. That's right. And as believers, we need to walk in the same authority as the one that we [00:19:00] believe in. Yep. That's 

Don: very well said. Very well said. Yeah. You know, and that's true. And that's how you win the fight. Yeah. You gotta win the fight, that's for sure. No, it's interesting in lovers.

Don: Mm-hmm. You know, like you were talking about the condemning before. Mm-hmm. You know, , true fighters, true warriors. Don't have to condemn, they know who they are. Mm-hmm. And there's a certain confidence you develop in yourself. Yeah. It's like conditioning yourself. You know? I myself, when I get conditioned exercise, maybe, you know, I have a certain confidence that I can do things.

Don: Yeah. Confidence that things are gonna go my way, or whatever it might be. You know, you develop a faith inside you because you are a fighter. See that in people sometimes because just the way they carry themselves. And I remember, , I spoke a message on this once. Mm-hmm. Uh, Kenny Rogers had a line in a song.

Don: He says, I just popped in to see what condition my condition was in. Okay. And I was, the whole message was, have you taken time to see what type of condition you are in? Sometimes you need to test yourself, you know, and you, you need to get up [00:20:00] against, I think that's where, you know, God allows temptation.

Don: Mm-hmm. Allows things. Because these are the things we have to fight through. Yeah. You know, and , he's there right with us. Yeah. But we have to call on him. Like you talk about getting into the word, all this sort of thing. This is stuff we need to develop inside of us. 

Both talk: Oh yeah, definitely. 'cause 

Don: this makes warriors out of us.

Don: Mm-hmm. This makes us, and then we walk with the confidence and people will see that in you, Justin. Mm-hmm. Just as you walk down the street. 

Justin: Yeah. They see the fight in you. Because, you know, there's something about overcoming challenges is that this whole thing comes from this whole. Christianity, this whole thing is based on the one who overcame.

Justin: The ultimate , the ultimate punishment, which was death. Right. Which came because of the sin, but he overcame and it says that we are overcomers in that Bible. And it says that we are more than conquerors in his word. Right? Yeah, that's true. So when we talk about overcoming challenges, we can do it because we believe in the one that did, and we believe in the one that.

Justin: [00:21:00] Does. Yes. The one that's still alive. Yes. The one that's still present. The one that's here right now. Right. Amen. Amen. The one, the one that's able to be anywhere. And I do believe you're exactly right that there are things that happen in , in our lives, that there are things that we are kind of, , put up against and things are allowed because we need to be tested out.

Justin: We need to be conditioned, we need to be better warriors, right? We need to be taught. We need to be trained. This is very true. We need to be. Disciplined, right? We need to be transformed because we cannot be the one we were. This is the gospel, right? It's putting off the old, putting on the new. That's right.

Justin: And this is what we need to do. This is the only way we can be effective because in order to get to where we need to be. We need to be ready to fight because God doesn't want somebody that's not ready to fight. Yeah. He cannot take somebody who's weak and bring them into the purposes and the plan that he has for them.

Justin: [00:22:00] Because he needs you to be strong because obviously he needs you to get out of the way so that you can be put as so you can step aside so that he can fight for you. Right. That's right. And a lot of the times before we even come to the understanding of God, we want to do the. Fight ourselves. Amen.

Justin: Because that's all we know. That's all we're used to. We're always used to getting through everything by ourself, and we give ourselves credit and it gives us an ego and it makes us prop ourselves up. And we want to tell everybody how good we are at fighting. Yeah. And it is. , and and that's kinda where the enemy wants us.

Justin: He wants us to just believe that we're on our own and that we don't have a partner in this whole thing. Yeah. And it isn't until we get saved. Right. And the work was already done for salvation, but it isn't until we believe and we receive that and we know that we're saved and we know that because like I said, he is the overcomer and he's in us now that there is no fight that we cannot overcome.

Don: Yeah. 

Justin: So fear will not overcome me. [00:23:00] Right. Nothing that gets in the way that will try to bring me down or pull power out of me, right. Is going to overcome me. No, the devil cannot overcome anyone. There's always gonna be a way out of the battle. There's always gonna be a way out of the temptation. This is all scriptural, right?

Justin: There's always going to be a way out of every kind of plan or attack he has. Yeah. We have to choose that way. We have to choose wisely. We have to know who's within us. We have to get our weapons ready. We have to get our, the armor of God, right? Mm-hmm. Talk about in Ephesians six. Yeah. We have to put on that full armor of God and withstand that fight.

Justin: That is so true. 

Don: . And this here is hopefully a, a good message for people sometimes because a lot of times it's so easy to fall back into old ways and, uh, yeah. You're, when you're talking about the strength and the power and everything, Justin, you know, Paul says that , when he was weak, he was strong.

Don: Mm-hmm. You know, because he realized where his strength came from and it wasn't in him, it was in the [00:24:00] source behind it. Yeah. And, , a lot of times what happens in life is, , . We miss feeding time, you know, I mean, if you're gonna be working out or exercise, whatever you need a feeding time and a rest period and all that sort.

Don: See, in the spiritual side, we listen too. That's, we need the time of prayer. We need the time of getting into the word of God. We need the time and listening to message. This to stir us up in certain ways because we have to become strong and we have to be wise enough to realize that. And sometimes, you know, we get symptoms, you know, our body shows symptoms, you know, I myself, uh, I sometimes I, I call 'em idiot lights in a car.

Don: You know, they tell you when your oil's low, whatever. Years ago they used to have those. Yeah. But, uh, you know, but sometimes our, our life, you know, my attitude, you know, when I start to think things I shouldn't, when I start to say things I shouldn't. Say, yeah, the wrong words come out and I get a just a grouchy way about me.

Don: I get it happens. Yeah, and I get down, I get depressed, I get bored, all this [00:25:00] sort of thing, and I say to myself, you know, this here is not where I need to be and I'm not. Warrior ready? Mm-hmm. I should be warrior ready. I should be ready for whatever is thrown at me, because as you said, Justin, it's he that's in us that's doing the battle.

Don: Mm-hmm. And I need to step aside, you know, there's a time of stepping aside because Don has been around long enough. Yeah. You know, Jesus has gotta get. To be in charge and working inside, and I think that's what he's looking for. He's looking for willing vessels who are desirable, who realize who they are in him, and are willing to allow him to take control of their life and develop them into the warrior, into the fighter that they need to be.

Don: Amen.

Justin: Well, I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, Justin. I think so too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way here today, and we hope you can join us [00:26:00] again next week for another good word. Until then, stay blessed by the best. See you guys.