In every sport there are those marquee matchups that everyone gets excited to see and in MMA it’s no different. This Saturday night we have the opportunity to watch Randy Couture defend his belt against Brock Lesnar who is quite possibly the most physically intimidating man on the planet! For those of you that have been following my blog, you know that we are currently talking about controlling where the fight is fought and this is probably the most important element of Randy’s game plan. A few months ago I spent a couple of hours hanging out with Randy in Atlanta and we talked at length about this fight and the one thing he said he did not want to do was “end up on the ground underneath Brock”.

While this is not a shock to anyone, it is a bold undertaking given that Brock is one of the most athletic, strongest, and best pedigreed wrestlers to enter the sport and he will absolutely be looking to put Randy on his back! So I suggest you go back and read my blog about controlling where you fight, and then watch this Saturday and remind yourself that you have an enemy who wants to take the fight to certain places where you are weak. If he succeeds, you will be much worse off than just waking up with a bad headache and not getting your hand raised.

To break this fight down even more for you, I asked one of the other great wrestlers in MMA to talk to us about how he sees this fight playing out.

On Wednesday November 5th, there will be fight between Paulo Filho and Chael Sonnen.

In this video, Matt Lindland interviews Chael Sonnen. Matt is the cofounder of Fighting with God Ministries. Here on the Resurgence we get the privilege of seeing how God is using Christian fighters to be missional in the MMA community.

In my last blog, I left you with a warning to keep your chin down, and your hands up against attacks from the enemy, since you are most likely to be attacked when you first move forward to engage. I also said that, according to Paul, these attacks would come in one of two broad categories: your faith or your conscience. Today, I want to start with attacks against your conscience. In many ways, attacks against your conscience can be compared to the enemy going for the quick knockout, since the devastation can be very quick and very dramatic. This is the stuff highlight reels are made of!

One Person's Victory Another's defeat

Any of us who follow fighting have our favorite finishes, and my list includes Dan Henderson's brutal knockout of Vanderlei Silva, Gabe Gonzaga's high kick to the cranium of CroCop, and my all time favorite: Ryo Chonan's flying scissor-heel hook to finish Anderson Sylva! Another brutal knockout that is definitely NOT on my list of favorites is that of David Terrell's quick KO of Matt Lindland. The reason it is not on my list is that Matt is a great friend and co-founder of Agon Ministries with me, so it kills me to see that video clip (by the way, Lindland would destroy Terrell 99 times out of 100!). The point here is that one person's highlight reel is another person's embarrassment, depending on whose side you are on, and it is the same with the spiritual battle.

Satan's Highlight Reel

If Satan and his fight team were to show their highlight reel, it would include many of his victories that we are well aware of. Most recently, we remember the Ted Haggard scandal, but history is littered with men who are remembered for their moral failure, while their life accomplishments are all but forgotten. These would be the most likely candidates for the enemy's highlights.

Satan Delights in Your Crash

It is a lot like the life of Vinko Bogataj from Yugoslavia. While you probably don't recognize the name, if you're a bit older, like myself, you will remember him from the opening segment of the 70's show "Wide World of Sports." The show opened with a line about the agony of defeat while showing his now-infamous ski crash, which has become synonymous with that phrase. However, hours earlier, Vinko had jumped over 400 feet, but no one remembers that, or his name--only the crash. Satan delights in the crash of personal moral failure involving God's children and the fact that this failure is often remembered more than anything else we do before or after. He loves the quick knockout, and he is swinging at you! Probably not him personally, but he is definitely working against you through this world system that he has so much influence over. I probably don't need to go into a list of all the ways this world tempts us and pressures us to violate our conscience. You just have to look around and you will see it. Part of the problem is that too many of us are not looking around and seeing it.

"It's okay to look" - LIE!

If I had a dollar for every time a man has told me it's ok to look, I could run Agon Ministries without any outside donations! The truth is that it is not ok to look at anything and everything you have a desire to look at. But before we turn this into some legalistic list of things you can't look at, or things you can't do, let me explain why it's not ok, and why if you really think this through you won't want to look. You see (pun intended), it all starts with the eyes. In Genesis 3 we read that when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes she took of its fruit and ate This is much like the start of King David's sin with Bathsheba, when he rose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house," and he "saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. Not only did they see the fruit and the woman, they noticed them. They were a delight and beautiful.

Don't Take the Bait

You can't always control what you see, but you can control what you take note of, because once you linger and notice the beauty and attraction you have taken the bait. You will find that the object of your attraction has been planted in your heart to be looked at any time you choose to think about it. This is a very dangerous position to be in when there is so much at stake. By noticing things that have not been given to you by God to enjoy, you have allowed the enemy to move the fight into your heart and thoughts. Whether it is in the area of sexual lust, lying to get something, or any number of other ways this could play out, you risk suffering the quick knockout. You risk becoming known to your children, spouse, church, co-workers, and many more as someone who cannot be trusted and who violated their conscience. This is not what God intends for you.

In Ephesians 1:17-18, Paul prays this about the eyes of our heart: ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."

This is what God wants for you: wisdom, revelation, knowledge, enlightenment, hope, riches of his glorious inheritance.

Sounds really good doesn't it?

But this is exactly the opposite of what the enemy wants for you, and therefore he attempts to get the eyes of your head to place images on the eyes of your heart that draw you away from God and force you to fight in his arena. He wants the fight to take place where you are struggling with images of his design instead of being enlightened as God intended. In the spiritual battle, just as in the physical fight, we absolutely have to control where the fight is fought.

In the fight world, there are few fights that have illustrated this more than when Chael Sonnen fought the number two-ranked middleweight in the world, Paulo Filho, for the WEC title last year. Paulo is a remarkable ground fighter, and Chael knew that he did not want to stay on the ground, where Paulo is so dangerous. For almost two full rounds, Chael completely dominated the Brazilian by utilizing his wrestling background to avoid takedowns and keep the fight where he wanted it. It was one of the most impressive performances I have ever seen, until the final seconds of round two, when Chael decided to sit in Filho's guard to ride out the round. Finally provided with an opportunity to work his ground game, Paulo locked in a very tight arm bar. Chael, knowing only seconds remained, refused to tap but screamed in pain which caused the referee to step in and stop the fight. In just under 5 seconds, Chael went from one of the most devastating performances in MMA, to just one more guy on Paulo Filho's highlight reel.

On November 5th, Chael gets a second chance (a lot like you do in the spiritual fight when you're on God's team) when he fights in a rematch for the WEC World Middleweight Title. In my next blog we will talk with Chael about the importance of dictating where the fight is fought and how he intends to do that for a full five rounds on November 5th.

The first fight principle that I want to cover is one that will be relevant to many of you in the near future. The principle itself says that the very moment you move forward to attack your opponent is the exact point at which you are prone to being attacked yourself.

Let’s look first at the physical fight in order to better understand what this means in the spiritual battle. Every fight starts with the two combatants separated and on their feet. In order to engage one another, each fighter must move toward the other until they are within attack range. In most fights, this constitutes that “feeling out” phase where they are both standing just outside the other’s striking range trying to “find their distance”. However, as soon as one fighter decides to attack he must close the distance to bring the other fighter into range. In doing so he places himself within range of his enemy.

From a physical fight perspective, this is a well documented part of the sport. It is a whole section on Randy Couture’s video series titled “Learn to Fight and Win”, and is also featured on the same series by Dan Henderson (and probably others…). It is played out in almost every fight on every pay per view. This is where fighters like Chuck Liddell and Pedro Rizzo make a living as “counter strikers”. They notoriously wait for their opponent to move into range with an attack and then strike. I believe this is what Paul is warning Timothy about in the following passage:

"This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." 1 Timothy 1:18-19

Paul not only commands Timothy to fight, but immediately follows with “keeping the faith and a good conscience” which is the spiritual fight version of the “hands up, chin down” advice taught to every fighter. Likewise, when we choose to close the distance on our opponent in a spiritual sense we are putting ourselves at risk of attack in the same way as a physical fighter. Therefore, in the same way that a physical fighter would not rush toward the opponent in a careless manner, we too must prepare for the enemy’s attack against us.This attack will come in one of two areas (or both!). He will either attack our faith or he’ll try to get us to do something that will violate our conscience. If we do not intentionally guard ourselves then we foolishly open ourselves up to “shipwreck”, Paul’s spiritually equivalent phrase for being knocked out in a fight.

In the coming weeks we will examine these two areas, faith and conscience with the goal of understanding how the enemy attacks us! Guard your faith and your conscience. If you have chosen to fight, you will be attacked.

Keep your hands up and your chin down

One of the most “un-churched" groups in the United States is the 18 -34 year old male. This guy is typically not attracted to the traditional view of the church and by most accounts, he does not see much relevance in the Jesus we are preaching about.

Books such as “Why Men Hate Church” have been written and studies have been documented, but the bottom line is that this group of men is largely missing from the church today. An interesting point is that this demographic has been missing from more than just the church, traditional marketing techniques and methods have failed to capture the attention of the young male and this has caused marketing firms to rethink their effectiveness in this category.

What the marketing groups discovered during the first season of Ultimate Fighter reality show was that the 18-34 year old male would watch fighting. The resulting revenue from paid advertising is in large part responsible for the rapid growth of the sport. On October 10th, 2006 more 18-34 year old males watched Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock (1.6 million) than watched the baseball playoff game between the A’s and the Tigers (1.1 million) and the sport had officially hit the radar of the corporate marketing budgets.

God has already been working in the fight culture.

As the church, we need to embrace what these numbers bear out. The sport of fighting, along with its culture and icons have captured the attention of a large demographic in a way that nothing else has been able to accomplish in recent years. However, unlike other "un-churched" groups and cultures we do not need to spend years training people to send as missionaries so that they know the language, history, etc… God has raised up for His purposes some of the very men who have created this fight culture and are now the people defining it! God has went ahead of us and paved the way for His church to reach these young men. Therefore, each of us need to become familiar with the sport of fighting so that we can more effectively present the gospel to this culture and be faithful with this opportunity we have been given. And in the same way I will be using this blog to train you in fighting, I will help you to understand this culture by bringing you videos and interviews with many of the Christian fighters.

Your first assignment

So here is your first assignment—if you choose to follow God into this fight, start to familiarize yourself with this sport, it's culture, and the believing fighters that participate in it. To that end, you have an exciting option coming up in the next month. On October 4th, Ken Shamrock is fighting live on CBS television at 9 EST in an event that could potentially be the most watched fight in MMA history. So grab some buddies and watch a brother in Christ mix it up in the ring on national television!

And then come back here as I bring you specific training from real fighters, and the Apostle Paul, on how to fight "good"!

"In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful." 2 Samuel 11:1-2

Neglected Responsibility

In this passage we see that David has neglected his responsibility to go out to battle, has sent others to fight, stays home, sleeps until evening, finally gets up, and starts looking at a naked woman that is not his wife! Most of us know where the story goes from here, the plot and the resulting pain to himself and others is all too familiar to us as we look around at our families, churches and the broader culture in which we live.

The only real difference between David and too many of us in our modern age is that we do not have to stand at a distance on a rooftop, squinting to try and get a better view of the naked woman’s body. It gets streamed directly into our offices, bedrooms, and laptops in high definition. Thanks to advances in recent technology, it is even available on our cell phones to be seen on demand at any moment or location. So thousands of years later, we men are still suffering from the same progression of events as David did in 2nd Samuel.

The problem starts earlier in the story

While it would be easy to blame our situation on the ubiquity of pornography in this age of technology, I believe the problem starts earlier in the story. Long before David stares at Bathsheeba, long before he has Uriah killed, long before all the terrible consequences have played out in David’s life and that of his family, something much more sinister had taken place. Somewhere along the way he lost sight of the mission that he had been given by God himself. He was the king of Israel and he was supposed to be at war fighting the forces of evil and expanding the kingdom! Yet he chose to stay home.

The lie: you're not here to fight

Unfortunately, most men in the church today have made the same decision. Even worse, many churches today actually tell men that they are not here to fight. And so we stay home and our stories become eerily similar to that of David. But the truth is that just like David, we have a mission from God to fight! We have a mission from God to continue the work of rescuing his people from captivity, we have an enemy who opposes us that is described as “a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’, and at stake are the very souls of people for eternity! There is no greater struggle that we could be involved in.

We are here to fight!

When Paul tells Timothy to “fight the good fight”, he does not say “live like you are in a fight”. It is not a metaphor that Paul is using; he is telling Timothy something very real and very specific. We are here to fight, and we are to fight “good”!

God will win.

Our lives share another very important element with the story of David's failure, God was winning even though David chose to stay home! It says that Israel “destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah”. With or without David, God was winning. It is the same today; with or without us, God is winning. So where is God active and winning battles today?

One area that stands out is Mixed Martial Arts (Ultimate Fighting). I do not believe it is coincidental that while the church is struggling to attract young men, God is raising up men who are committed to him in the one area that everyone agrees young men (actually men of all ages) are drawn to. Fighting. Fighters such as Matt Lindland, Trevor Prangley, Ken Shamrock, Matt Horwich, Matt and Mark Hughes, Pat Miletich, and many more of the most popular people in the sport are all committed Christian men who have chosen to speak openly about their faith in Jesus Christ.

What I will be doing with this blog.

This means that most men in the church today need to get off their blessed assurance and follow God into battle! To that end, I will be using this blog in the future to help train men in the biblical fight principles that Paul outlines in his epistles and we will be using real fighters and real fighting to help illustrate these. But first, I want to talk about the young men in this country who are conspicuously absent from our churches and how we can follow God into the battle for these men's souls.