2010s | The Marks of a Fighter

I can only imagine what my eyes will see when your face is before me. I can only imagine I find myself in the middle of the road. I can only imagine the number one worship song, not just in the United States, but in the world in the 2010s. Number one. Came right out of a kid's heart.

And if you've not seen the movie, give yourself a gift and watch the movie. It is real. It is raw. It is full-on, full-tilt worship of the heart and the mind and the soul. I can only imagine.

And that's really what our Christian life is about. We can only imagine. So let me just say I'm humbled to be here today. I'm doing the 2010s and maybe a little encroachment on the decade that we're in. But this has been a wonderful series.

Pastor Leon's done a great job. He's going to wrap it all up next week. And each decade presents questions. Each decade presents opportunities for truth to prevail. And so go with me now into this decade of the 2010s.

And I still wrote a book on the late Sunday because of the 2000s. sometime about In the middle of the decade, we had this phrase, hit us hard, and it's still around. You see it all the time. Make America great again. It just keeps going and going and going and going.

It was part of the 2010s. In Great Britain, they had another phrase that was big in the 2010s. It was called Brexit. Brexit. And they wanted to exit the European Union.

So Britain, exit. They wanted to get out of there. They had controversies going on. There's always controversies in every decade. Brexit.

And then you had, of course, Harry and Meghan. And then you had Megxit. Megxit. Megxit said, we are out of here. And that was a big theme of the 2010s.

In the 2010s, Steve Jobs passed away. made a huge contribution to our lives. What a lot of us don't realize about Steve is he grew up in a small Lutheran church in the Midwest. And he, so he grew up in Sunday school. He grew up singing, Jesus loves me.

This I know for the Bible tells me so. And here's a little story. It's probably for another date, another time in a fuller way. But as a 12 or 13-year-old, he went to his pastor with a question. A question that was in his mind.

In his 12 or 13-year-old, I'm almost an adolescent mind. And when he asked this question, his pastor couldn't really answer the question. And so it started his journey. He still was on a spiritual journey, but he walked away from the church. We have to be willing to answer questions.

We have to be able to walk with people through the questions that they bring. In the 2010s, Instagram hit us. And there it was. And I did Instagram for a while. Also, the iPad came in.

And I had an iPad for a while. But the Instagram thing, I stopped doing it after a while. Because I just kept getting picture and picture and picture and picture of babies. I love babies. I was just with a baby up here about the third or fourth row.

Cute little baby. I love seeing babies. I love hugging babies, holding babies, kissing babies. But I don't want to see dozens of pictures of babies every day. Because tomorrow they look the same as they did today.

You know, if you want to send me their birthday picture, good. Like, oh, he looks different. He got bigger. He got hair now. And was bald.

And now he's got hair. You know, and got food all over his face. And now he looks cleaned up. And he's got a beard now. That's good.

But, you know, but the other pictures that I used to get were surfing. Like, here I am surfing. Here I am catching a wave. Here I am getting dumped by a wave. Here I am coming up on a beach.

Here I am paddling out. So, and so I used to have this one friend and everything. The day that he went surfing, he had somebody taking his picture. Then I get all these pictures of surfing. I had to get off.

I didn't want to see the pictures anymore. I didn't want to see surfing anymore. You want to go. I love people who surf. I love surfing.

I love surf shops. I don't look like I love surf shops, but I love surf shops. And I love that Pastor Leon goes surfing. Do not send me pictures of you. Do not do that.

Enjoy it for all it's worth. Go surfing. So we had Instagram and then like Oklahoma City, like Oklahoma City stopped us in our tracks in the 90s. Boston stopped us in our tracks with the Boston Marathon bombing. And once again, we wept for the brokenness of our country.

The Supreme Court came down with a decision that said it's the law, same-sex marriage, is okay. We have legalized same-sex marriage. Big moral shift. In sports, the Cubs, after 108 years, after that whole crazy thing where the couple years back, the fan interfered with the ball and that was a big hoo-ha out there in Chicago. They 108 years won the World Series.

They were down three games to one to Cleveland. Cleveland just has to win one game to bring the championship to bring the championship home. And the Cubs won three straight. And the last one was a 10-inning drama. Seventh game, you know, went down to the wire.

And they brought it home, finally, the World Series. Game of the century, it said. Right there. Simone Biles, in 2016, won four gold medals at Rio. She is awesome.

She is tremendous. What an incredible athlete. And she doesn't have a bad first name either. But here's the thing. She also had to reveal to us the toll that the intensity of athletic competition can take upon a person mentally.

And so the whole mental health thing came out of her life and broke into the mainstream. And I think we're still trying to figure that out. But at least, you know, it's out in the open. And we're trying to understand how mental health and sports, how mental health and life, how mental health and work have to be understood. You know, we just, you know, we're not machines.

And we need rest. And we need prayer. And we need faith. And we need community. And so all those questions, you know, come out of that experience with Simone Biles.

And then finally, we said farewell to a guy that made us laugh a lot. Remember Mrs. Doubtfire? You know, just a hilarious, funny guy, Alf. I used to watch Alf religiously.

Just thought it was a quirky, odd, strange thing. And, but, you know, he just, he finally was not able to live. And it's very, very sad. He just brought so much joy to so. Many people.

Robin Williams. In the late 2010s, we started to see that on the horizon were masks. On the horizon was COVID. On the horizon was something that was going to change the entire world. Remember when the evening news was just giving us all those numbers all the time and you had to stay home.

And so all that was right on the horizon. And then in the 2010s, you had the rise of two superstars. You had Taylor and Beyonce. And they just flew high with their music careers. And they are still flying high today in an amazing way.

They are billion-dollar musical industries, billion-dollar artists. And they have given so much phenomenal music to the world. For me, this decade was all about water. It was about water in West Africa. We did our first well in 2010.

And we brought water to one village, one village. And then we embarked on what a pastor talked to me about. He said, We need big wata. And I said, what is big wata? And so we learned that we had to drill deep and go down 100 yards straight down and hit big aquifers.

And then we were giving not just one location for water, but we were giving dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens. And this year, and probably flipping over a little bit into next year, we will hit our 100th water location. Four water towers in Togo, West Africa, changing people's lives, normal, everyday life. And I want to thank Salt Church for being a part of that mission. You are a part of it.

You are owners of the mission. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for embracing what God is doing there in West Africa. As we look back at the decades, each decade presents us with a chance to follow our own. It's a choice to follow our own wisdom or to follow God's wisdom in creating a society or a nation the way he would have us have our society and nation. There's always a choice.

Each decade has within it moments that force us to decide who we really are. Are we helpless and hopeless, reacting to the winds of change? Or are we prudent and visionary, riding on the wings of God's purposes? Each decade contains a myriad of voices crying out for attention. Hearing the right voices.

Hearing the right voices at the right time and responding in justice and fairness is the art of leadership. The art of leadership is either directed by the Holy Spirit. It's either directed by the Holy Spirit or by interest groups that seek to protect their constituencies without regard to their agenda's impact on society. And that's what happened when you saw that January 6th thing. It was about, we're just going to do this.

We don't care how it affects anybody. This is what we're going to do. But unless our leadership is guided by the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, we just don't have anything. Each decade is a passage of time in which the church is called to be the biblical conscience of society. The church is called to be the cutting edge for each new generation, illuminating where we need to grow and develop and caring for and nurturing one another.

And then finally, without Christ, each decade is a time capsule filled with the heartaches and longings of an aimless nation, a nation accelerating its search for meaning while strengthening its grip on meaninglessness, investing in the next great distraction, and trusting the boondoggle that we will all go to heaven because we have God's name on our money. And of course, that just ain't true at all. There are some themes of the 2010s. Morality in flux. Power struggles faster and faster and faster and faster and faster.

And those themes are with us right down to where we are today. There are always two great themes of any generation of any decade. One is desperation or desperate longings for something that can can help us or something that that must be done and has to be done, but we don't know how or transformation and transformation is only done by God. And we're going to get to that at the end of our time together this morning. Let me take you back to the 60s.

Not American graffiti, but the first 60s that took place in the first century, 2,000 years ago. Paul was in the 60s. He was on missionary journeys. He was wearing bell bottoms. He was going around with little granny glasses.

He was ready to tell everybody about the hope that was within him in Jesus Christ. He had this friend, this friend, and this person he mentored. His name was Timothy. So we're going to be in two letters that Paul wrote to Timothy 2,000 years ago in the 60s. 2nd Timothy chapter 4.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing in his kingdom, I give you this charge. So Paul always lays down truth. He always lays down a foundation and truth. He says, God, Christ Jesus, there's going to be a judgment. I give you this charge.

Preach. And that word preach is from the same word that we see in Matthew 16 where Jesus said, I will build my church. I'll build my church. It's a movement out. It's a calling out.

Preach. Call out. Preach the word. Be prepared. Season and out of season.

Correct, rebuke, and encourage. Those are three great things. Sometimes we really like correction. Sometimes we really like rebuking. You also have to like encouragement.

It's all part of the community. It's part of the Christian community. It's part of the body of Christ. So, if there needs to be correction, receive correction with humility. If there needs to be a rebuke, receive a rebuke with humility and integrity.

And then remember to be encouraging. Because out of encouragement, God can do great things. With great patience and careful instruction. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Great patience and careful instruction.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. That's a funny idiom, isn't it? Itching ears. They want to hear what their itching ears want to hear.

Tell it to me my way. Tell it to me my way. Make me feel good. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, you, Timothy, keep your head in all situations.

Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Discharge all the duties of your ministry. And then he kind of sums up his life. Because he knows he's at the end.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight. And that's a word that we get our word agonized from. I have agonized. I have agonized with you.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. 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.

There's going to be a judgment. There's going to be an award. The righteous judge will award to me. Yesterday I went to the state finals for girls field hockey. And my niece was on a team.

Actually, my niece's daughter, I guess she's my great-niece. She was on the team that won the state championship. And so after it was all over, I took some pictures. I was out on the field. I took pictures with the team and with the trophy.

I got in the picture with the team and the trophy so I could get some of that, you know, on my side. I put on my resume and all that kind of good stuff. But awards. It says that the Lord, the righteous judge, is going to give you an award because you have, why? You have longed for his appearing.

You long for him to come back. You long for him to be revealed in your life and through your life. A great prayer every single day is, Lord, show up in my life today. Show up in my heart today. Show me what I need to do.

For your kingdom today, every decade is a fight for something. Paul agonized. He fought for something. Let me teach you this morning the four marks of a fighter. Number one, the first mark of a fighter is always communicate the story of Jesus Christ with patience and relevant teaching.

Meet people where they are, not where you want them to be. Preach. For the same word again as Matthew 16, I will build my church. Preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. Whether you're here, you're going to work every day, you're on vacation, and you're enjoying the day, in season, out of season.

Correct, rebuke, encourage. There's a time for correction. There's a time for rebuking, saying, we can't do this anymore. We've got to stop doing these things. There's a time for encouragement.

You are doing great. You're doing great with this big turkey drive next week. It's going to be amazing and great. I'm so encouraged to see Salt Church doing something like that. And then with great patience and careful instruction.

So here's where the action is. When you're trying to preach with that sense of being the church in season, out of season, there's two things that you have to have that you have to lead with all the time. The first is great patience. The second is careful instruction. So that brings me to two questions that I have to ask you today.

First question, how patient are you? How patient are you with people who do not know the truth and have their own ideas about what the truth should be, what God should be, what the Bible says, what it doesn't say. People say to me all the time, well, I think, and I usually know the next thing they're going to say is crazy, weird, odd, strange, means a lie. It's like, it doesn't make any sense. But, but I always lean in.

I always lean in. Well, I think, and I listen to them and I have patience to hear what they're saying because I can't lead them where I, to where I am as a, as a follower of Jesus Christ until I know where they are. I can't give them the, the touchstones and the stepping stones to get over here if they're over there. And I've got to let them know I am with them. We need more patience now than ever before to listen to people.

Don't judge people when they say, well, I think just listen, lean in, try to figure out, okay, if they're there, what are the steps that I need to lead them into to get over here? Or what might be a really good question that I could ask that might cause them to think a little bit in a different way. Second, are you learning to know the Bible better and better and better every single week? We have more tools today to know and understand the Bible than ever before. You know, more tools.

I started seminary in 1989. There are more tools today than were ever available in 1989. There are things on your phone. There are books. I was in Barnes & Noble the other day.

Huge Bible section. Huge Christian living section. All kinds of devotionals and instructionals and everything you can imagine and more. Bibles that are color-coded. Bibles that are theologically organized.

Any question that you have, you just have to go to Barnes & Noble and look at it and go, I can buy that book. I ordered a book the other day online. 350 pages for $8 on Amazon. And I'm going to get at least one good thing out of that. And if I get one good thing, it's well worth eight bucks.

Where are we with learning and growing and reading and studying? And a lot of it you can just do on your phone. So don't let being here allow you the luxury to sort of kick back and say, I'm in a good place. I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian for a year, five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.

Always keep pushing the edge of growth in your understanding of the Bible. And God will show you things that you've never seen before. Every time I get ready, I'm getting ready now for a Christmas Eve service on December 22nd. It's sort of Christmas Eve, Eve, Eve. But I'm going to the Bible, to the story that I've seen a hundred times.

And I'm asking God, show me something new that I've never seen before. Great patience, careful instruction. The second mark, the second mark of a Christian who is fighting in his or her decade of Christianity. Know the culture you live in. Be a student of what's going on around you.

Be conversant. Be conversant. Don't believe the myths. But be conversant with the myths of society so you can challenge those myths. Now tell me if this isn't the age in which we live.

Tell me if this isn't. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what they want them to say. To say what they want to hear. To say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. And there's all different ways that's coming at you through online stuff, through TV stuff, through radio stuff, through whatever, you know, social media stuff. It's just coming at you all the time. That's 2 Timothy 4, chapter 3, verse 3. It's as if society is saying, and I actually saw...

I saw this on a t-shirt the other day. It's like society is saying this. I have selective hearing. I'm sorry, you were not selected, Simone. Hey, Simone, you were not selected.

The biggest myths we have today are that, you know, we have the power. We can solve our own problems without God's wisdom. Biggest myth. When I heard Leon pray earlier today about the real power, it just touches my heart. Because that's the only power that there is.

It's the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And you have this power in jars of clay that the all-surpassing power may be of God and not of us. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Grab it. Read it.

Put it in your heart. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. On March 4th, 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave his inaugural speech. And it's eight generations ago. It was another time of the 60s.

1. It was the 1860s. March 4th, 1865. He was the newly re-elected President of the United States. It was his second inaugural address.

And in that speech, in that address, he referenced both the Old and the New Testament three times. Genesis 3, Matthew 18, Psalm 19. Inaugural. Didn't have TV, but people read it in the newspaper the next day. If they weren't there to hear it, they read it in the newspaper.

The majority of listeners and the millions who read his speech in the newspapers would have instantly recognized these references. There was only one English translation of the Bible, the King James, and it was the only book some people had ever read. Again, 150 years ago, the Bible was a moral framework of truth for the entire English-speaking world. George Barna, his organization does a lot of research to help find out what people are thinking and what people are doing in their lives, in their faith, and outside of the faith. He, in 2016, put out a report that he called the New Moral Code, and he detailed the new morality versus biblical morality.

The new morality, he said, was this. To find yourself, look within yourself. People should not criticize someone else's life choices. Well, I think, don't criticize me. This is what I think.

To be fulfilled in life, pursue the things you desire most. You want it, go after it. You want to go out and get it. Enjoying yourself is the highest goal of life. And people can believe whatever they want as long as those beliefs don't affect society.

But that's a lie. That's a myth. So here's what biblical morality has been, has always been, will always be. To find yourself, discover the truth outside yourself in the Bible and in a relationship. With Jesus Christ.

And that's what I found when I asked Him into my life. Loving others does not always mean staying silent. Sometimes there's a time to speak. There's a time to say the truth in a way that is clear. But you have to understand the other side before you can speak the truth into it with clarity.

Joy is found not in pursuing our own desires, but in giving ourselves to others. And that's what Jesus said. It is more blessed to give than to receive. The highest goal of life. The highest goal of life is giving glory to God.

And then finally, biblical morality. God gives people the freedom to believe whatever they want. But those beliefs always affect society. And it's a lie to think otherwise. But then in 1st Timothy chapter 6, Paul gives the kid, I say kid, young man, that he's mentoring two commands.

And these commands are just as valuable for us today. He says this. Command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. So it's a shifting of perspective. It's a shifting of vision.

And he says, command those. Challenge. And then he says this. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

1st Timothy 6, 17 to 19. Paul is saying clearly to Timothy, Timothy, you know, and I know, there are two economies. There's the economy that people look at all the time. They look at the numbers. They look at the markets.

They look at, you know, how the profits are coming in. It's the economic system that seems to drive so much. And that's an economy. But Timothy challenged people to invest in the real economy that brings real life, to give it away, to give it away without knowing what your left hand is doing or your right hand, your right hand or your left hand, to give it out of a generous heart, to give it knowing that you're taking hold of life that is truly life. Always two economies.

Always. The third mark of a fighter is be prepared to be discouraged. I could have said discouraged. Be prepared to be discounted and disregarded. Be ready to face hard times.

And there are always hard times in the church and in ministry. When you hit the wall, remember why you started in the first place. I could... I could... Tell you story after story of wall hitting times in my life.

Paul is saying when you hit the wall remember why you started in the first place. Don't do what you're not gifted to do but lean into your gifts and develop them fully. 2nd Timothy 4 5. But you keep your head in all situations. This is Paul to Timothy.

Timothy, Timothy keep your head in all situations. Endure hardship. While I'm in the ministry. Endure hardship. While I'm working with people.

Endure hardship. Well there's challenges coming up. Well endure hardship. Discharge all the duties of your ministry. I got a text from somebody in ministry just the other day.

Ministry is hard. The text actually says as you know ministry is hard. It just is. It just it's not going to change. Because life is hard and life is challenging.

So if you have a season where everything's sort of going smooth get ready for the season where it's not going to go smooth. Be thankful for a time when you can rest and recover. But be ready for a time when you have to be up and ready to take on the giants. Okay. Discharge all the duties of your ministry.

In other words don't do what you're not gifted to do. Because that will always wear you out. Because that will always wear you out. And lead you down a road of failure. If I tried to do music ministry.

I would always be depressed. I would always be down in the dumps. I would say why do people don't like my singing? Because it's awful. Why don't people want to worship when I lead worship?

Because you can't do it. Don't do what you're not gifted to do. It'll wear you out. But what you're gifted to do will breathe life into your soul. And you'll get everything done that you're supposed to get done.

When you hit the wall remember why you started. The fourth mark of a fighter is love him and serve him only. As your only response to how he loved you and served you. You want to check that out. Read Philippians chapter 2.

And you'll hear that loud and clear. 2 Timothy 4, 7 and 8. In every decade there's going to be a hunger for reality. People they try to like get out of it. But there's this hunger for what is real.

It's kind of like that that velveteen rabbit. What is real? He asked the skin horse in the nursery. What is real? A hunger for a man.

A hunger for spirituality. How do I know God? I want to know about God. I want to know the things of God. There's a hunger for security.

Everybody wants security. And there's a hunger to look for something big to live for. Something bigger than anything that you can do. This summer I went to a memorial service and it was a really, really big service. It was for a 40 year old wife, a mother of three, who died of cancer.

And her husband is on the pastoral staff. He's a pastor at a very, very big church in Virginia Beach. Very, very sad time. But at the end of the service, her husband got up. He stood there in front of well over a thousand people.

He said this, and I wrote it down because I never wanted to forget it. He said, I will never exchange the things I know about God for the things I don't understand. In other words, I know God. I know He is doing something all the time that is leading toward a kingdom purpose. And so, because I know Him, because I know He's faithful, because I know He's ultimately good.

In a moment of great darkness, in a moment of great pain, I'm not going to trade what I know about Him for things that I can't understand. And that's one of those things that steadies us. It's one of those foundation stones in our lives. Don't ever exchange the things you know about God for the things that you don't understand. You see, when God comes into your life, it changes the entire reality of your life, no matter what decade you are in.

And we have a special guest today to end our service. Let me introduce you to Darrell Waltrip so you can hear his story. There's probably not a lot of guys that need the Lord any worse than a race car driver does. The car is like a beast. It wants to go one way, and you're trying to will it around a high bank turn.

You come out of a 3,500 pound stock car going around a racetrack at over 200 miles an hour. I mean, it gets tight. It gets intense. As long as everybody minds their manners, it all works. I mean, you can have 43 cars in a lot going around a racetrack inches apart.

You're touching the other guy, and he's touching you. Somebody's bumping you in the back end, slamming into your door. And you say, whoa, whoa, don't do that. That's what happened to me in 1983. I was coming off the fourth turn of Daytona in a tight pack.

And I got nerfed. I got hit from behind. Car spun, went into the inside wall, wham! You always talk about timing when you're an athlete and being in the right place at the right time, on the right team. And all those things came together for me in 1981.

81 and 82 in NASCAR, those two years back to back, I won 24 races and two championships. I don't think anybody's had two years with that kind of success ever. I was on the top of my game. We were unbeatable. We'd roll into town and we'd check in a hotel and they'd say, Oh, are you here for the show?

And I'd say, No ma'am, I am the show. Athletes in general are selfish. It's part of the culture. People call it cocky, arrogance, all those adjectives that describe a successful athlete. But you have to be that way to stay on top.

At least, at least in that moment, that's what you think. Richard Petty used to say about me, he said, That boy might win a lot of races and he may make a lot of money. But he'll never be NASCAR's most popular driver. And I totally agreed at the time. Fans hated me.

They booed me. People wore shirts that said anybody but Waltrip. They threw beer cans and chicken bones at me. I'd say, Yeah, bring it on. It's not bothering me.

But it bothered me a lot because I didn't want people to feel that way about me. And I felt like they didn't know me that well. It was that time in my life when I met a minister, Dr. Cortez Cooper. He's questioning my faith.

He's asking me, Do you believe that Jesus Christ your Lord and your Savior? And I said, Well, I just don't know if I'm ready for that or not. I'd always told my wife that you can't get hurt in one of these things. People do something stupid. They're not as smart as I am.

They're not as good a driver as I am. Coming off turn four. I got nerfed, spun back, went into the inside wall. Wham! And it knocked me out.

You always talk about timing when you're an athlete. Dr. Cooper, the accident, the success I'd had in the prior two years, things just started kind of snowballing in my mind. I said, You know, I've had all this success. I've done all these things.

I'm on the top of my game. But you know what? I could have been dead. I raced at Richmond. I had no recollection of being there.

I raced at Rockingham the next week, had no recollection of being there. I said, Honey, where have I been for the last couple of weeks? It wasn't until the third week after the wreck at Daytona that I finally woke up. When I finally came to and I realized what had happened to me, it scared the hell out of me. I started searching for the Lord.

On a July night, hot, no air conditioning. I was sweating, crying in the hallway and on my knees, Dr. Cooper, Stevie and I, and he prayed that the Lord would come into my life, and he did. In 1983, it was an incredible year. It wasn't so great on the racetrack, but personally, in my relationships with my wife and with everybody else, my life took a huge turn.

And that's something I learned. If you don't own success, you wouldn't have success if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. He owns success. The difference in Him and you is He wants to share it. You want to keep it.

You want to keep it for yourself. It's all about me, what I can do, what I've done. With Jesus, it's all about what He has done. You can do all things through Him. Not with Him.

Not when you get finished, maybe recognize Him. You can do all things through Him. You know what my reward was? It wasn't another championship. It was finally that people said, we like D.

W. He's a great guy. He's had a great career. And I was voted most popular driver in 1989 and 1990. In my mind and in my life, it was almost like a reward for all those things that I'd left behind and where I was headed.

When you learn to put Him first in everything you do and give Him the glory and the praise, your life's going to be a whole lot better off. I'm Darryl Waltrip and I am second. It's good that we can bring in guest speakers like that. Darryl Waltrip has lived the marks of a fighter. Paul lived the marks of a fighter.

He taught Timothy the marks of a fighter. So go out of here today and live the marks of a fighter. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the challenges on the horizon of this decade that we're living in right now. The challenges are big. The stakes are even bigger.

Father, you need us to be salt and light in the world. So give us the power that we need. A power not of ourselves, but a power from you. Let us be salt and light. We give you our lives again today.

And someone today needs what Darryl Waltrip needed, Father. Dr. Cooper had patience with him. And he finally gave his heart to Jesus. If you need to give your heart to Jesus today, just do that in the quietness of your heart.

Talk to Pastor Leon afterwards. Talk to me afterwards. He'll change everything. And you can have the marks of a fighter in your life too. We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.