We are continuing this morning in our series STAND with a message entitled “Stay in the Fight,” reminding us that God has called us to stand firm, to hold our ground, and to refuse to back down when the battle presses in. The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians that,

“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Ephesians 6:12-13).

Today, as we come to 2 Timothy, chapter 4, we find Paul at the end of his life still living out what he taught. In other words, the armor is still on, his stance is still firm, he is still standing in the Spirit, and he says to his young protégé, Pastor Timothy,

“But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5).

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure” (2 Timothy 4:6).

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

“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” (2 Timothy 4:8).

These powerful words are not words of a defeated man but the words of a warrior who fought his entire life with the armor of God strapped on. This is Paul’s last letter, written from a Roman prison, not a place of comfort, not a place of honor, but a cold, damp place where he knows he may never walk out alive. And yet there is no fear in his voice, no bitterness, no regret, but he is strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. He is finishing the race the same way he ran it, standing firm.

He is writing to his spiritual son, the one who will carry the work of the gospel forward, but Timothy is facing pressure. Rome is tightening its grip on the church, culture is turning against the gospel, and many are walking away from the truth. Paul writes to encourage him and remind him that this is not the moment to give up.

And Paul knows what he’s talking about; he is a veteran, he testified:

“I am out of my mind to talk like this. I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again” (2 Corinthians 11:23).

In other words, he has lived through storms most believers will never face. He has been shipwrecked at sea, beaten with rods, whipped, stoned, rejected, imprisoned, betrayed, and hunted down like a fugitive. He has been slandered by enemies and abandoned by friends, and yet through every season, every attack, every disappointment, he kept the armor on and stood his ground.

Paul stayed in the fight, and he reminded Timothy that endurance is part of the calling. He knew that you would walk through things that drain you drop by drop. Every betrayal, disappointment, funeral, and battle drains you. And so, the question is not whether life will take something out of you, the question is whether you will keep standing when it does. You may lose some things along the way, but by the grace of God, you will stand. You may walk through seasons that should have broken you, but you are still standing. You have carried burdens that should have crushed you, but you are still standing.

Paul says, “I am already being poured out like a drink offering...” (2 Timothy 4:6).

And the context comes from the old covenant, the drink offering was poured out slowly, drop by drop, until nothing remained. Paul says, “That’s how I feel, life has been pouring me out, ministry has been pouring me out, years of spiritual warfare have been pouring me out.” But even as the last drops of his life fall to the ground, he lifts his head and says,

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

However, I want you to notice that he is not boasting in his strength; he is simply acknowledging the grace of God that held him together. He says,

“But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength” (2 Timothy 4:17).

He has poured out his life into cities, planted churches, healed the sick, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. He has traveled thousands of miles to bring the gospel into regions that have never heard it. And yet, when he stood before the judge, Paul says,

“At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me…” (2 Timothy 4:16).

Not one person came to defend him, no one stood with him, and everyone deserted him.

There may be some of you here who know what that feels like. When you needed support, it wasn’t there. When you needed encouragement, it didn’t come. When you needed someone to stand with you, they were nowhere to be found.

Paul understands that pain, but he refused to let a bitter root grow up to cause trouble and defile him (Hebrews 12:15).

He didn’t say, “I’ll never trust again.” He doesn’t say, “I’ll never pour myself out again.” He says,

“May it not be held against them” (2 Timothy 4:16).

And that is what it means to stand firm with the breastplate of righteousness in place. Because when you walk in righteousness, you guard your heart from the poison of bitterness.

It’s not a denial of the facts, Paul says, “everyone deserted me,” but he says, “the Lord stood with me.” In other words, when people failed him, God didn’t. When support deserted him, strength appeared. When friends walked away, the presence of God moved even closer. The Bible says,

“There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

That is the foundation, the ground floor of this series: you can stand when God stands with you. You can face trials when God stands with you. You can endure pressure when God stands with you. The reason you are still in the fight today is that the Lord stood at your side and gave you strength.

Paul testifies in verse seventeen that God brought him out of situations that were designed to devour him. But he says,

“I was delivered from the lion’s mouth” (2 Timothy 4:17).

I believe there are many of you here who know what he’s talking about because anyone who has served the Lord has a lion’s mouth testimony. Times when fear tried to devour your mind, grief tried to swallow your heart, and betrayal tried to destroy your confidence. Times when the enemy whispered that you wouldn’t make it through the night, but God delivered you. His truth protected your mind. His righteousness guarded your heart. His salvation covered your life. His word pushed back the darkness, and you survived because the armor did its work.

Paul testified in verse eighteen,

“The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

That is what the shield of faith looks like in action. Paul was confident because God had delivered him before and knew God would do it again. He said,

“He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10).

In other words, faith remembers what God has done, and it stands firm, remembering if God delivered me then, he will deliver me now. If he brought me out before, he will bring me out again. If he stood with me in the last battle, he will stand with me in this one.

That’s why David was so confident to stand before Goliath. He declared,

“The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:37).

That’s how you stay in the fight: you take up the shield of faith, and you stand on what God has already done. You stand on the faithfulness of God. You stand on the grace that brought you through every storm. You stand with the armor of God in place, resisting every evil attack.

Paul then shifts to something deeply personal when he says,

“I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7).

He understood that you can’t stand firm if you are constantly comparing your race to someone else’s. You can’t stand in the armor of God while you are wishing for a different assignment. Part of having the endurance to stand is accepting the race God has given you.

In other words, Paul wasn’t trying to be Steve or Andrew. He wasn’t trying to run someone else’s race. He said, “I have finished the race.”

That’s important because there are people who spend years wishing they had someone else’s calling, someone else’s gifting, someone else’s opportunities. But you cannot stay in the fight while you are looking over into someone else’s lane. You must come to the place where you say, I am who God made me to be, and I have what God wants me to have.

Paul said it this way to the Philippians:

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11).

In other words, he recognized that he had been gifted for the purpose God designed for him. And so, he knew that where he was not gifted, God never intended for him to carry it alone.

You see, standing in the armor of God means that you are standing secure in your identity in Christ. When you make peace with who you are, you can stand without wavering. When you make peace with the season you are in, you can stand without jealousy or frustration. When you make peace with your assignment, you can stand without comparing or competing. And that’s why Paul said to the Romans:

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3).

Staying in the fight requires a settled heart, one that says, “Lord, I accept your plan for my life. I will run my race with faithfulness.”

Paul also teaches us that staying in the fight requires a relationship that goes both ways. In every healthy relationship, whether spiritual, personal, or practical, there must be give and take. Paul points to his own experience, how he poured into others, but when his moment came,

“At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me…” (2 Timothy 4:16).

There must be a mutual exchange because nothing God created survives in a one-way relationship. The heavens and the earth operate through cycles. The rain falls to the ground, the ground releases the moisture back into the air, and the cycle continues. The soil feeds the tree, the tree feeds the soil, because everything God made thrives when there is both giving and receiving.

That means, if we are going to stay in the fight, we must learn to give back. Jesus taught us this in the gospel,

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).

In other words, you need to feed what feeds you. Strengthen what strengthens you. Support what supports you. Encourage what encourages you. Because you can’t expect your relationships to remain healthy if you only receive.

In the same way, you can’t expect your church to stay strong if you only attend but never serve. You can’t expect your home to remain stable if you only take but never contribute. A life of shared giving keeps believers grounded, it keeps hearts humble, it keeps us standing and connected.

But even when others fail to give back, the Bible teaches that God himself makes up the difference. Paul says that even though people did not return what he poured out,

“The Lord will repay him for what he has done” (2 Timothy 4:14).

You see, what you do for God is never wasted. What you give in faith is never lost, because God sees every sacrifice. He remembers every seed sown and restores what others forgot. When you stand, when you stay in the fight, finishing the race, keeping the faith, God says,

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…” (Joel 2:25).

As Paul brings his letter to a close, he expresses a sense of urgency. He asked Timothy, “Do your best to come to me quickly,” because he is cold in that prison (2 Timothy 4:9).

He says, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments,” because God is still speaking to him (2 Timothy 4:13).

And so, he says, “Do your best to get here before winter” because he knows his time is short (2 Timothy 4:21). He knows that he is near the end of his race, and if Timothy is going to stand with him, it must happen before the season changes.

I believe there is a word in that for each one of us. If you are going to become who God called you to be, you need to do it now. If you are going to strengthen that relationship, do it now. If you want to bear fruit in your life, you need to plant a seed now. If you’re going to live with the armor of God fully in place, do it now. Don’t wait until winter, don’t wait for another season, because that door or opportunity won't stay open forever. There is a time to stand, and that time is now.

Paul urges Timothy to come before winter because winter represents changing conditions, missed opportunities, and closed doors. When winter comes, travel becomes dangerous, visits become impossible, and Paul says, “Timothy, if you are going to come, you must come now. Stand with me while you can. Strengthen me while there is time.”

We must recognize the season that we are in and the urgency of the moment because too many people have been stuck in the same emotional season for too long. In other words, they are carrying wounds, disappointments, fears, insecurities, memories, offenses, and regrets. But you can’t stand in the armor while you’re dragging all of that baggage behind you. That’s why the author of Hebrews says,

“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy” (Hebrews 12:14).

In other words, there are some of you listening who need to make peace with your past, peace with what happened, peace with who wasn’t there, peace with the season that didn’t go the way you expected. If you’re going to stay in the fight, you’ve got to lay down what crippled you yesterday.

Staying in the fight means standing with God, standing with your armor on, standing with strength, and standing with others. It means showing up for the people who have stood by you. It means giving back where God has planted you. It means walking out your purpose in this season God has given you.

At the end of his life, Paul shows us what finishing well looks like. He is not bitter about who left him. He is not resentful about who failed him. He is not shaken by the battles he lost. He is not discouraged by the sacrifices people didn’t appreciate. He has made peace with his past and is standing firm in the armor of God until the very end.

That’s how you stay in the fight. You refuse to let the past hold you back. You refuse to let disappointment define you. You refuse to let comparison weaken you. You refuse to let offense derail you. You refuse to let fear intimidate you. And you refuse to let what people didn’t do stop you from what God called you to do.

Paul says, “I have fought the good fight” (2 Timothy 4:7).

And that is not the testimony of someone who had an easy life. That is the testimony of someone who finished the race with the armor still in place. Someone who stood their ground when everything inside of them wanted to quit. Someone who kept swinging when they didn’t have any strength. Someone who held on when everything in them said let go. That is the testimony of someone who stayed in the fight.

As we close this morning, God is calling you to stay in the fight. To stand in the strength of the Lord. To stand in his armor. To stand in his word. To stand in his presence. To stand in his faithfulness. And like Paul said, to stand in the promise that:

“The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

This is not the time to step back or to lose heart. This is not the time to be distracted or discouraged. This is the time for the church to stand firm, stay ready, stay faithful, and stay in the fight. Standing in the hope of the crown of righteousness that is waiting for you, and after you have done everything, to stand (Ephesians 6:13).

Graphics, notes, and commentary from LifeChurch, Ministry Pass, PC Study Bible, Preaching Library, and Sermon Central. Scripture from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.