[Rick Beam] In the 1920s and the 1930s, boxing was the top sport in America. And personally, I think Mr. Ross must have been a former boxer because he does this, you know, and he's really good at it. The heavyweight championship events were the super bowls of their time. The heavyweight boxing champion set the top of the sports world. He reigned supreme in both popularity and financially amongst sports figures. He was the king of sports.

In heavyweight boxing history, James J. Braddock's life story is unique. A famous sports writer of that time, Damon Runyon said, "In all the history of the boxing game you find no human interest story to compare with the life narrative of James J. Braddock." It was this same sports writer, Damon Runyon, who dubbed him "The Cinderella Man." In 2005, Braddock's life story was chronicled in a movie by the same name, Cinderella Man. It starred Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger. I've seen the movie as I'm sure that many of you in here have and I've also read the book titled, Cinderella Man. It's a biographical account by Jeremy Schaap.

The movie did a very good job of accurately presenting the account and on the front of the book it says this, "James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History. At odds of ten to one, Braddock was the biggest underdog in heavyweight history." Max Baer was the world heavyweight champion. He was a knockout artist. I've seen some of the film. He was one of the hardest punchers that have ever been in the game, in the sport of boxing. Baer and Braddock were the same height, they were six foot two. But Baer was bigger, stronger, faster, more naturally gifted. Their historic bout took place on June 13, 1935, at Madison Square Garden Bowl in New York. They don't use that anymore but at that time, that was a very supreme place to be with certain sports.

But first, first we have to back up before their historic meeting. We have to look at what led up to it and what made their meeting possible. On the front of the Cinderella Man movie D.V.D. that was released is this statement on the front of that D.V.D., "One man's extraordinary fight to save the family he loved." In that statement, there are four words that go to the heart of the matter, "the family he loved."

In the 1920s, everything was going great. Remember what they were called? They were called the roaring 20s. Prosperity was out the wazoo. I mean, everything was just wonderful. And Braddock was a young light heavyweight. The light heavyweight limit was 175 pounds. I remember, he was 6'2" and most of the time, he weighed 170. So he fought in that division at that time.

He was a hard puncher and had great accuracy. He was known as the Bulldog of North Bergen. North Bergen, New Jersey. And like a bulldog, he was tenacious and there was no quit in him. That carried him to the top in the light heavyweight division. And so, on July 18, 1929, this was just a few months before the stock market crash. July 18, 1929, he found himself fighting for the light heavyweight division championship of the world. Now, he went all 15 rounds with the champ but he lost. The champ was a boxer. Braddock was a puncher. For those of you who don't know anything about the sport, know there is a difference. The champ simply up pointed him, won the most rounds and retained the championship.

Now at that time, Braddock was 24 years old and he didn't know it at that time but he had feat, he had feat as a light heavyweight and it was downhill from there in more ways than one. Over the next few years, he would lose more fights than he won. And to make matters worse, the stock market would crash that fall in October 1929 and plunged the entire nation into the great depression. Life became a struggle, a struggle for survival, a struggle just to keep a roof over their head, just to keep food on their table, to meet the most basic needs. His manager, Joe Gould, got him whatever fights he could but the few that he was able to get him during those times was barely enough to the wolf that stood at the door, to keep the wolf at bay.

And then on September 25, 1933… 1933 in a fight in the heavyweight division, because he had now exceeded the limit and he was fighting at about 180, he broke his right hand in three places. He broke it in the second round and from that point on, he could not use it in the fight. And he had never developed the strength and the skill with his left hand to be able to do much with it. He was known as a puncher. He wasn't a boxer per se, he was a puncher.

And so, at that point, he was pretty well dead in the water. There was no wind in his sails. But he wouldn't quit. He wouldn't quit, he still stayed in the fight. And in the sixth round, the referee stopped the fight ruling it a no contest. In those years with boxing being the supreme sport, no contest was bad news. It just put a bad mark on your record. And if you got two or three of those, the boxing commission many times would pull your license and you couldn't box at all.

Anyway, here he was, he had a broken hand. He had a wife with two boys to feed and take care of and it was at this time that Mae, his wife, gave birth to their daughter, Rosemarie. As soon as the hand had healed enough, he walked three miles every morning to the docks to see if there is any work. Because of even the great depression, there were ships that were always coming in. But the crowd needing work always outnumbered the jobs. Sometimes he would be picked for the day, sometimes he wouldn't.

When he wasn't picked, he walked another two miles to another set of docks. He was a very familiar figure trudging along in his worn out clothes and shoes. He also took any work he could get. He'd shovel snow. He'd clean out basements. He would stock firewood. He would work in the coal yard. Nothing was beneath him. On the docks, he often put in 18 hours a day when he got the work. Because in those years, you simply work until the job was done. There was no overtime. And that was for $4. And he didn't always get to keep the 4… I mean, all of that.

One of the main and regular jobs that was involved was unloading crossties from ships coming in from the South. And they had to offload them off the ships and put them on railroad cars. Now, I don't know how many of you men in here have ever picked up a crosstie, railroad crosstie. Just the average man cannot generally pick up a crosstie, they're quite heavy. And think about standing on a dock maybe for 18 hours unloading one right after another and it took two of them.

One would be at one end and they worked as a team, one at the other. And they would each take a crosstie, transport it over to the railroad car and then go back get another. And the way they did it, each had a hook and you've seen them. You've got a handle, you grip the handle and, of course, it comes out and it curves, you got this big hook that looks like Captain Hook's hook. And so, what you would do is you take the hook and with a real quick strong uppercut type motion, you would just slam it up under the crosstie and hook it. Each of you to each end and you would carry it.

Well, Braddock found he couldn't do it with his right hand because the hand still wasn't strong enough there was too much pain when he tried to do that. So he was forced to have to use his left hand. And in the process, he became ambidextrous. Hour after hour taking his left hand and with a really strong powerful move, he had to do that constantly. And so, he became ambidextrous, he developed a strength and a skill with his left hand that he had never had before. And with all the walking and the dock work that he did, he was becoming more nimble and more graceful on his feet. The hard work was paying off. He was growing quicker and stronger all the way around. But financially, things still got worse.

Finally, Jim had to do something he just desperately did not want to have to do but he had no choice. He had to go to the emergency relief administration of New Jersey for help and it was a very humbling thing for Jim. And later on, when things changed and things were better, he paid it all back. But he humbled himself to do whatever it took to care for his family. His love for them drove him. His love for them humbled him to take care of them, to provide for them.

And then he got an unexpected break. He was offered the opportunity to fight the number two contender in the heavyweight division. He hadn't fought for quite some time. And the number two contender had been a sparring partner for the current champion Primo Carnera and had given Primo feats. And the man that was supposed to fight him got injured so they had to find somebody to fill the spot. He trained for these fights. He had no time to train. He was offered, he said yes. He went into the ring with no current training for it. They offered to him mainly just to fill the spot. Nobody expected him to win whatsoever. And it would be on the undercard just before the main event.

The main event would be Max Baer challenging the current heavyweight champion of the world, Primo Carnera who is somewhere around 6'6'' to 6'8", 260 whatever, big man. Max Baer would win the championship that night. And Braddock would win the undercard against the number two contender in the third round by technical knockout. That was on June 14, 1934. Braddock was 29 years old, 29 which is getting old for the heavyweight boxing world. But he wasn't the same boxer. He wasn't the same boxer.

Those who had seen him box previously they were astounded at the change. He could box. He could move. His left was almost as deadly as his right and his right hand had thoroughly healed. And so, before he knew it, he found himself in the elimination lineup heading toward the heavyweight championship bout with the new champion, Max Baer.

And so, on the night of June 13, 1935, at Madison Square Garden Bowl in New York, he stepped into the ring with Max Baer. He was 30 years old. And after 15 rounds, a full 15 rounds with Baer, he had out-boxed him. He had won more rounds and he hadn't been knocked out and he was the new World Heavyweight Champion.

Remember the statement I mentioned on the front of the D.V.D. and the phrase that goes to the heart of the matter, "To save the family he loved." There's a scene in the movie where a reporter asked him, "What's changed, Jimmy? Jimmy, what's changed? Explain your comeback." And Braddock says, "This time, I know what I'm fighting for." And the reporter says, "Oh, yeah? What's that?" And Braddock says, "Milk." Milk? Milk says it all. Braddock was fighting for family. He was fighting to provide for them.

You know, I cannot help to think of 1 Timothy 5:8 with this account, 1 Timothy 5:8. It says this, "But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." And who wants to be considered by God an infidel? "But if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." We like titles. We like to hang things on a title. “Fighting for Family,” that's what this is about, fighting for family.

Think about the Braddock story, the motivation to provide for them. See in those years, there were men who walked away from their families. There were men who said, "I'm out of here.” And they hit the road or whatever. The motivation to provide for them and the course of action that that motivation put him on, the docks, in particular, caused him to be in the kind of shape that he could go back into the ring with the strength and the power and the skill needed to win. And win he did, fighting for family, for his mate, and for his kids, fighting to take care of them.

With the money that he got all for that fight, he and Mae bought a house in North Bergen New Jersey. They raised their children Jay, Howard, and Rosemarie there and they lived there the rest of their lives. Jim and Mae had 44 years of marriage together. Jim served honorably in World War II and he later owned and operated heavy equipment on the same docks that he had labored on during the great depression. And then on November 29, 1974, a month before my wife and I started our marriage, at the age of 69, Jim Braddock died peacefully in his sleep.

In the New York Times, Red Smith wrote this, "If death came easily, it was the only thing in his life that did." A pretty good statement about him, he fought for his family surrounded by the hard times of a collapsed economy. And his wife stood with him, they were in it together. His wife and his family motivated him. They motivated him. It always came back to their love for each other and their love for their kids.

Fighting for family, when has there ever been a day or time in these 6,000 years of man's age when there hasn't been a need to fight for family? And especially so in our day and age now when the family unit is under major assault. And it's only going to get worse. The breakup of the family in our society is an epidemic. It's an epidemic. And divorce is running rampant. And the Church is not untouched by it. Never in our lifetime has marriage and the family unit been under attack like it is now, the breakage is having a heyday.

Let me clarify and be clear about something. This is not meant to put a guilt trip on anybody. It's not meant to make anybody feel bad or lacking. No one is in control of all the factors that affect them. Marriage requires both to say “I do.” I guess we could say, "We do." It requires both to say “I do” and make a marriage but it does not require both to break it. Sometimes no matter what one mate does, no matter what one mate does, that mate cannot stop the other mate from breaking the marriage. I'm a realist, I understand that. I understand human nature and I understand, at least like to think I understand spirituality and carnality.

And sometimes no matter what one mate does, that mate cannot stop the other from breaking the marriage or doing that which breaks the marriage. Divorce can sometimes be solely the doings of one mate. No matter how much one mate want to keep the marriage if the other one is dead set on getting out, dead set on breaking it, you can't stop them. I've seen that. You can't stop them. Your power and your influence over your mate is limited. But a great tragedy and shame that I have seen is where one or the other or both will not fight for the marriage, will not fight for the family, will not fight to keep to things together.

Some of you here are not married. Some of you are young and not married and you look forward to the day with anticipation to when you will be married. And that's natural and good and God-given and that's wonderful. And when you do marry, you don't want to lose it. Some here are in their first marriage, you don't want to lose it. Some here are on their second marriage, you don't want to lose it.

Some here are on their thirds or more marriage, you don't want to lose it. And if you're on your second or third or more, apply yourself as fully as you can to make it work. The others are history, they’re past. What is gone is gone. What is now is now. Do what's within your power to make this one work. Maximize this opportunity and whatever measure of family you have, fight for it. Fight for its welfare. Fight for its well-being.

Okay, how does a husband and a wife fight for their marriage? How does a husband and wife fight for their family? Let's pause a minute. Picture a wedding ceremony in progress. There stands the bride, there stands the groom before the minister. Suddenly, there is a pause and everything just freezes stops in motion, just freezes and a voice is heard, "We interrupt these proceedings to bring you the following special announcement. Right now this young blissful couple feel they can't live without each other. Five years from now, they will feel they can't live with each other. Right now, they think they'll die if they can't be together. Five years from now, they'll think they'll die if they can't get away from each other. Right now, they stand as friends forever before the minister. Five years from now, they'll stand as adversaries before a judge."

Why? What will go wrong? What will be the failure? How will it go from this picture of joy and ecstasy to a picture of misery and agony? Where does the fighting for family begin? I'll tell you where it begins, it starts up front with commitment. It starts up front… up front with commitment. See, that's where a lot of marriages are automatically setup of for failure from the beginning. Too many are set up for failure from the beginning because the level of commitment from the beginning that should be there, isn't. The attitude with too many in today's society is this, "Well, if it works, it works, and if it doesn't it doesn't, I’ll just move on. If I'm not as happy as I deserve to be then I'm out of here." It's a very cavalier attitude towards marriage.

I overheard a conversation at Waffle House one time a number of years ago and I have been known to frequent Waffle House but those who know me, I don't frequent it like I once did. And I do realize it is grease incorporated. But I overheard a conversation between a young 21 or so, young 20s, a young waitress and a customer. And the customer said to this young 20 something-year-old waitress, he says, "I heard you got married?" And she responded, “Yeah, but it's no big deal, it's just a piece of paper." Her exact words, she was totally nonchalant about it and I thought, "Wow, that speaks volumes with too many in today's society." Marriage is not taken seriously enough to have the corresponding commitment that's needed.

A friend of mine has two tickets to the 2017 Super Bowl this coming next February. Box seats plus air fares, hotel accommodations, but he didn't realize when he bought them that this was going to be on the same day as his wedding. So he can't go. If you're interested and you want to go instead of him, it's at Saint Peter's Church in New York City at 5 p.m. Her name is Brenda. She will be the one in the white dress. Let me know. Now, obviously, that's a joke but the sad thing is it's a joke that's not very far the truth. There is too much truth hanging too close to that.

Let me read you the basic marriage vows. And we go through this in the marriage ceremony when we perform a wedding. Do you, you fill in the name, faithfully promise in covenant with God in the presence of these witnesses to take, you fill in the blank, to be your lawful wedded, you fill in the blank, in sickness, and in health, in good times and difficult times for as long as you both shall live. Could we alter that just a little bit... Could we go back and scratch through in sickness? Could we go back and scratch through in difficult times? I mean, I get it in health and good times, that's wonderful. But I would like to kind of put a clarifying clause there somehow with sickness and difficult times.

See the vows are… and you're young and you get married, for instance, just to pick the time that most have started out. You don't know what you're going to deal with in terms of your health, your mate's health or the times that you're going to go through. But if you're much of a realist at all you realize there are going to be times where there are some difficulties. Fighting for the family requires keeping your commitment and that's not always easy. It can be and often is hard work.

Jimmy Braddock was committed to his family. And it was the work on the docks that put him in the kind of shape and skill that he was actually able to go back into the ring with good success. And when he found himself lined up for the championship fight with Max Baer, he knew he was outclassed. He knew that he had to somehow manage to keep Baer from being able to get in on him with the heavy punching. He could take a punch, Braddock could take a punch. He was never knocked out.

During his rise, he had 80 something fights. He had one T.K.O. against him but it wasn't, actually, he wasn't counted out previously. But one thing about Braddock, he was never intimidated. No one ever intimidated him in the ring. When he stepped in the ring... the night of the championship bout, he got there early to the dressing room. And you know what he did? He went over to an area and he stretched out and he took a nap before the fight. He was not intimidated. But he was also a realist and he knew that he had to do his best.

I said that sometimes keeping your commitment requires very hard work. You know what Braddock did to train for six weeks before the fight? He and his manager picked four of the toughest, strongest, heavyweight boxers they could get. They brought them to the training camp. In an afternoon when it came time to do the boxing part in training, Braddock would go in the ring, one of those men would step in with him and that man... they all knew this is not sparring. You don't hold back. You give it everything you've got.

And he would fight one of them for one round then that one would step out of the ring and the second would come in and he would fight a fresh one then he would step out then third one until he went through all four. And he did that every day because he knew he had to work hard as he could to have all in his favor that he when he got in the ring with Baer.
Hard work, you know, too many marry before they have reached a level of maturity that's needed to handle the responsibility of marriage. Marriage and family is not all fun and games. It does involve some hard work, doesn't it?

Maturity is required. And, of course, where there is a commitment, you can grow on the job, we say. You know, you're going to have a learning curve, we all do in all areas. You take on marriage and then later take on family and there's a learning curve, and there's no avoiding that. But the commitment and hard work and being willing to stay with it and to mature and to grow. But maturity is required. And happy, fulfilling, satisfying, successful marriage and family requires a lot of maturities and hard work.

Responsibly keeping your commitment requires hard work but it makes a winner out of you. Because of Braddock's willingness to work hard for his family's sake, he did grow. He grew in strength, he grew in agility and most significantly, he developed what he had to have to become a winner. He developed his left hand and with the development of that skillful strong left hand, without that, he can never have gotten back in the lineup, he could never have gone into the championship. And one of the things…

I've seen some of the films and I would see Max load up with right and I mean, he was a puncher. He would load up to come in with his right and all of a sudden, he's got a left hand on his face. And it holds him off, he's held at bay. And Braddock was smart enough to keep circling to the right away from the power, not into it. But he had developed a strong left hook and upper cut and he was able to keep out of the way plus block that powerhouse right of Max. And again, Braddock was a hard puncher too. But again, without that developed left, you never would have heard of Braddock.

The hard work gave a stimulus to growth and growth comes through hard work. And that's something that sometimes we tend to overlook. Hard work and no quit. There's a Proverbs, just reference and I’ll tell you what it says and you'll recognize it, Proverbs 24:16. Proverbs 24:16 says this, "For a just man falls seven times and rises up again." He falls seven times and rises up again, no quit, no quit, keep going. There was no quit in James Braddock.

Two years after he became the heavyweight champion and he held it for two years. Two years later at age 32 when his championship was on the line with Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber, Joe was beating him badly. He knocked Joe down in the first round but after that, it was all Joe. He was being beat up badly. He was old for the heavyweight boxing division. He was being beaten up badly enough that Braddock's manager wanted to throw in the towel. But the Bulldog of North Bergen told him, he said, "Joe, if you do, I'll never speak to you again in this life.” Because Braddock intended to lose the fight the way he considered honorable, being beat but not quitting.

And in the eighth round, he was knocked semi-unconscious for a full ten minutes. Joe Louis won the championship from him and Joe Louis said, "He is the most courageous man that I ever faced in the ring." For the rest of his life whenever Joe would run into him, he called him champ. And of all the man that Joe Louis ever fought, he didn't call anybody else that but Braddock, always called him champ. Braddock never took the easy way out whether it was in the ring or out.

When you marry, when you start having children, when you establish a family, you have stepped into the heavyweight division. It's big time. It's not light heavyweight. That's the building block of society. That's foundational and there is big time responsibility that goes with it. Again, I want to read that scripture that I read a while ago, 1 Timothy 5:8, big time responsibility that goes with it. 1 Timothy 5:8, "But if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." Again, that quote, "To save the family that he loved."

You could call the account a love story, but what kind of love story or in other words, what kind of love? You know what kind of love? Two words express it, "sacrificial love,” sacrificial love. And sacrificial love’s bosom companion is humility. Sacrificial love's bosom companion is humility. That's the kind of love Braddock had for his family. And humility allowed him to truly exercise it. They were the beneficiaries of it.

Sacrificial love and humility — if you understand sacrificial love and humility, they can't be separated. You cannot truly have one without having the other. And here's a proportion that is very direct, the depth of love that you have for your mate and for your children is measured by the sacrifice that you are willing to make for them. That is in direct proportion. You will not sacrifice beyond the level of love you have. Sacrificial love and humility will cause you to contribute what's within your power. You can't contribute what's outside your power. But it will cause you to contribute what's within your power to the overall good and welfare of your marriage and family. You will put yourself out for them.

Christ has a wife in the making. The Father has a family in the making. Christ has sacrificed to have a wife. The Father has sacrificed to have a family. A family is being engendered. In order to carry out such, they have and they are exercising sacrificial love and humility. It's their sacrificial love and humility that makes it all possible. Let's read the scripture in Ephesians 5:25.

Ephesians 5:25 and it starts in saying, "Husbands, love your wives,” but what I really want to focus on right here because it tells us the how, the way husbands how to love their wives. It gives us the standard but it also makes a point about Christ, “even as Christ also loved the church and…” Did what? “Gave Himself” that sacrificial love, “gave Himself for it.” Another scripture, John 10:15, John 10:15 says, "As the Father knows me even so know I the Father and” Christ's own words, “I lay down my life for the sheep." That's love. It's sacrificial love.

In a section that we're all very familiar with, Philippians 2 beginning in verse 5 and going through verse 8. Philippians 2 beginning in verse 5 and going through verse 8, we read this over and over, over the years in sermons and messages and Bible studies and our own personal studies, "Let this mind be in you…" This mind that's being expressed here to us as men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, mothers and fathers. “Let this mind be in you… Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.” And then it goes on to speak of that mind, of course, the verses preceding speak of it too really when you look at it.

Then verse 6, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” verse 7, "but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man,” verse 8, “He humbled Himself…” You cannot separate sacrificial love and humility. They go hand in hand. “…He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” Verse 8, reading it across in King James.

Sacrificial love and humility are a strength, it is a power. And the two most powerful beings there are, are filled with it. And because they are, they have addressed the needs. Because that's what sacrificial love and humility does, it addresses the needs. And because of that sacrificial love and humility on their part, we have a future.

We desire to live forever. We desire to have eternal life. We desire to be happy and joyous and someday be glorious in body and mind forever, and the kind of existence that we can only begin to imagine now. And really, it's built into us in one sense as a need. We need that, we want that. And because of their sacrificial love and humility, we have a future. And when we exercise, when they see us, the Father and the Son see us exercising sacrificial love and humility in our marriages, in our families, and with others, God feels a special kinship with us.

And if you read through Ephesians 5 and the middle to latter part of that chapter, you see that woven into the fabric. And we use just that section in our marriage ceremony. Now, if I were to ask, it's too big a crowd to do it, I can't do it… and if you spoke, I couldn't hear you anyway probably unless you're up on the front rows. But the marriage instruction that's given in Ephesians 5, if I were to ask you which verse does the marriage instruction begin, which verse begins the marriage instruction? Maybe some of you will say verse 22 but that's not where it starts.

That's obvious but something that might not be quite as obvious as verse 21 because verse 21 is where it starts. And verse 21 is also kind of a bridge in terms of a bridge from what has been said. It kind of forms somewhat of a conclusion of some of the verses leading up to verse 21. It kind of concludes them but it's not cut off from the marriage instruction because it's the prefix or intro to the marriage instruction. It is a bridge verse, in a sense, but it's also the intro to the marriage instruction.
Because what it says in Ephesians 5:21 is this, "Submitting yourself one to another in the fear of God.” Husbands and wives submitting to one another.

Submitting to one another. I know some men think, “Well, wait a minute, how do I do that? I'm the head of the family and I'm supposed to be the head. How do I submit to my wife?" They have a little bit of trouble comprehending this. I said some, not all by any means. But there are some that don't quite get it so I'm going to be real plain with it. Submitting yourself one to another, think about Christ, He's the head of the Church. He submitted to the needs of the Church. He gave himself for her and He didn't lose His headship, did He?

Submitting requires sacrificial love and humility because in part what it includes is submitting to the needs. That's what it's talking. When it says submitting one to another, it's talking about submitting to the needs. That's such a big part of the issue. And if you submit to the needs, if you look inside, what are the needs? And you submit to needs, that means you're putting the needs first.

Well, what does that mean then with you if you see the needs and you submit the needs, which means you put the needs first, then you're putting yourself second? You're putting yourself second. Now obviously, that starts with the marital level with the mates because that's where the family starts by way of progression over time and also includes the welfare of the kids in due time. He, the husband, the father, he has needs. He has needs and they don't go away.

And she, the mother, the wife, she has needs and they don't go away. His needs need to be addressed, her needs need to be addressed and the kids that come along have needs. And they don't go away, they have to be addressed. Braddock submitted himself to the needs and he did the best he could to fill them.

Growing up, I was very fortunate, blessed to have the parents that I had and to come from the family that I did. And on my mother’s side… and there is a number of us in here today that I'm related to, on my mother's side, a clan, and just about all of us in the church. I was very fortunate to have the background I did. I was very fortunate, blessed of God to have the mother and the father that I did.

Growing up, I heard my dad say, "I'd wade mud for my boys." He didn't have any daughters so he couldn't wade mud for his daughters because he didn't have any. But he had me and my twin brothers and my youngest brother who is here. There are four of us boys. "I'd wade mud for my boys." And you know, it wasn't idle talk and it wasn't a figure of speech because I worked with him. And when I got old enough to go and work him in construction, I literally saw him wade mud in order to meet the needs and take care of us.

When I married Angela, I told her father, I said, "I'll dig ditches if I have to, to take care of her.” I meant it and he knew I meant it. In submitting to the needs and addressing the needs, you have to put the needs first and yourself second. That means you will have to sacrifice self. You will have to subdue self. You will have to deny self when self gets in the way of the welfare of your marriage and family.

Sometimes, a woman marries thinking she's marrying a man only to find out she's married a beer can. She finds his covenant and commitment to the beer can is stronger than it is with her. Fighting for family entails fighting yourself, your own human nature, your own carnality, your own pride and vanity, and ego. Like a man years ago told me, he looked me in the eye in a brief moment of humility and he said, "My pride and my hard-headedness has destroyed my marriage.” And that brief moment of humility, they raised away very quickly.

Fighting our own pride, our own vanity, our own ego, fighting our own human weaknesses and flaws which we all have, myself included. These are saboteurs of our marriage and our family. Self-centeredness is the hallmark… one of the hallmarks, let's say, of our time. "Getting my way or else!” That's the mantra of the day. You will have opponents climbing to ring with you but the toughest heavyweight that will ever step into the ring with you is already there, it's self.

I want to look at the words of the apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:25. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27, "And every man that strives for the mastery…” the mastery that controls the self-control, “…is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." Verse 26, "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air." Talking about running, talking about fighting. "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." The biggest heavyweight that will ever be in the ring with you is yourself. "But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

In 2 Corinthians 10:4 which is a very encouraging verse, 2 Corinthians 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal…” weapons of our warfare of the fight, “…but mighty through God…” we can change, we can grow, we can win, “…mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." And then it gets into in one sense, one of those areas of strongholds. Verse 5, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” you know, the things of God, “and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Six thousand years have sprinkled throughout them, names that we would recognize as great conquerors whether it's Alexander the Little, I mean, Great or you know. His name may be changed in the world tomorrow. Let's put it that way.

But you want to know who the true champions are? Proverbs 16:32. Proverbs 16:32, "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that rules his spirit than he that takes a city." Those are the real champions. Romans 12:1, and again this apostle Paul who wrote these words which are so fitting and both encouraging and direct and, of course, the words there in Proverbs from David or Solomon or maybe Hezekiah. But in Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice…”

Now how about applying that statement to our marriages? How about applying that statement to our families? That we present our bodies, our being, our existence, our energies, our time, a living sacrifice in that realm because that is a realm that God has created, and it's foundational, “…holy, acceptable to God, which is reasonable service." And I want to... one final scripture. I want to take a phrase from 2 Timothy 4:7, when Paul was in a sense signing off to Timothy and telling him that he was ready to depart the scene of the living, you know, he knew that he was going to be martyred shortly.

In that verse 7 of 2 Timothy 4, you find this little phrase, very powerful though in what it contains. He's come to conclusion basically of his life and he knows it and he says, "I have fought…” what? “A good fight." Does something occur to us? That's very logical and makes sense that we pick up on a certain connection and parallel. When we fight for marriage and family, we are automatically at the same time fighting for the Kingdom of God. When we are growing in the things that are good for our marriage and family, we're automatically at the same time growing in the things that are good for the Kingdom. See, in a very true sense, you cannot separate them. Fighting for family and fighting for the Kingdom of God go hand in hand. Love your mate. Love your kids. Sacrifice for them. Yield to the needs. Fight for family and you'll come out a champion.