Keith Battle - Life's Greatest Battles: The Battle of Sexual Purity

Life’s Greatest Battles

Life’s greatest battles. Hmm. The reality is, we’re all fighting something. It could be something medical, it could be something financial, or maybe something spiritual. We’re all in a battle, and some of us are winning, while others are not. Some of us are not only losing but feel defeated. It’s one thing to take a loss and know you’re going to come back; it’s another thing to feel defeated. A feeling of defeat is hard to overcome, and when you’re in a battle that makes you feel defeated, I want you to know and understand from this series that people who are winning do things that those who are not winning can do. Winning in life’s battles is not exclusive to a select group of people. Even those who aren’t winning can start winning if they do the things that winners do.

Over the course of this series, I’m going to discuss living with disabilities, which may include health challenges or disabilities you have. Sometimes, we find ourselves battling disabilities that feel outside of our control. Most people have some sort of disability, often not because of their own actions but rather due to the hand they were dealt. Some people believe, «This is just the hand I was dealt.» I want to compare this to playing cards: when you don’t like the hand you get, you throw a card on the floor and say, «Deal over! I want a better hand than this!» However, I want to emphasize that everyone living with some type of limitation or disability should know that God is the dealer. He is omniscient and has a plan for your hand, no matter how it looks.

I also want to address fighting life’s battles as they relate to substance abuse and addiction, as well as issues of injustice, whether they pertain to gender, race, or social discrimination in every sense of the word. But the one challenge I want to present today, which is particularly difficult, is the battle for sexual purity. Whisper to someone next to you and say, «It’s going to be quieter here today.» Don’t be quiet, though, because it might seem like I’m talking about you! Just tell them, «Pastor, tell them they need to know this.» This is a tough topic, but let me start with what winners do.

Let’s discuss what winning people do. I’m going to share five things. There’s a man named Ryan Snow who talks about the five G’s of goals, and I’ll be referencing these throughout this series. One of the things that winners do is have grand visions, which is my first point. A grand vision involves looking at your life five years from now and then again in ten years. Ask yourself: Where do I want to be in five years? Where do I want to be relationally in five years? Financially? Spiritually? Physically? Where do I want to be in ten years? That’s a grand vision—a big picture, and that dream should be limitless.

The reason you want to envision five or ten years is that it takes off the natural human limitations we place on ourselves when considering shorter time frames. For example, if you say you want to achieve something in ten years, that might seem possible. However, if you talk about what you want to do next week, you might think, «There’s no way I can do that right now. I don’t have the time, the resources, the training, or the connections.» But when you set your sights on ten or five years, those limits dissipate.

Understand: people who win have a grand vision. The second thing they have is goals. Your goals represent shorter bursts of steps toward that grand vision. A goal should generally span 30 to 60 to 90 days; they must be measurable and time-sensitive, yet aligned with the grand vision. My goals are steps toward that ultimate dream.

The third thing that winning people have is a game plan. The game plan details the specifics of what you are going to do today—not in 30 days, not in 60 days, not in 90 days, not in five years, or ten years—but what is going to happen today. What do you need to do each day that connects to your goals, which in turn connects to the grand vision? If you’re in business, remember: most people are in business, but they don’t want to sell. However, there is no business without selling! You have to sell, and in order to do that, you need to have conversations with people. Most of the people you talk to will not buy from you, so you have to adopt the mentality that you’ve got to keep pressing forward.