Well, good morning, everyone. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving break. As we get started here this morning, would you pray with me? Lord, we're thankful for the reading of your holy word, the word which brings life, which challenges, changes, convicts, encourages. Lord, your word alone has power. What we do here, can only bring about change in our lives as you move through the power of your Holy Spirit in our hearts. So I pray that you would move here this morning, help us to remain humble before your word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, the Navy, the Navy SEALs, if you could go to the next slide, Could you guys go to the next slide? This clicker's not working. There we go. The Navy SEALs are renowned for having one of the hardest, toughest training programs in the entire world. And the respect, admiration, and awe that most people have As a result of this program, it's amazing, right, that people that come out of this program are sought after as motivational speakers, as consultants, as experts in exercise and nutrition. They're called upon to to speak on podcasts and they star in TV shows and movies. These are the men that most men want to be. But now imagine with me an alternate universe, a parallel universe where sailors go through the exact same kind of grueling training program, except in this alternate reality, when they come out the other side, all they get is disapproval, disrespect, disdain. They are mocked, ridiculed, made fun of. People don't want to be seen with them or associated with them in any way, shape, or form. That would make an incredibly tough program even tougher, right? Well, we may not be Navy SEALs, but that alternate reality is essentially, is more or less what Paul is talking about here and seems to promise in our passage today. If you have your Bibles and you look at 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, it says, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Not only do you have the challenge of taking up your cross daily to follow Christ, but on top of that, your reward in this life will be trouble, suffering, persecution, even death. The world won't applaud you or celebrate you for dying to sin and living for Christ. Instead, it will often hate you So how are we to respond? That's the question before us today. And what I want you to see is that where evil abounds, God's grace abounds even more. When the odds seem stacked against you, that's everything Pastor Michael preached about last week. People will be lovers of self in these last days of the world. When the odds seem stacked against you, do not fear. Paul says, remember your training, stand firm in your faith. That's our passage for today. When the odds seem sacked against you, do not fear, remember your training and stand firm in your faith. Paul comforts and encourages Timothy, not with empty Christian platitudes, but by focusing his attention backwards on everything he's already heard and learned and experienced and remembered and learned. What an encouraging word this passage then is for us today in our own times of suffering and struggle. Because suffering makes us forgetful, it gives us temporary amnesia, right? If in our pain and struggle we can barely see past the immediate circumstances in front of us, the test that's in front of me, the assignment that's due, the project that I have to present at work, the sick child I have to stay up all night caring for. This is impossible. How can I possibly hope to get through this next step? Where is God? How will he help me? How will I know? In those moments, in these moments, because some of you may be in that moment right now, your security cannot rest in how you're feeling because your feelings are going to be all over your map. Your feelings will let you down. The best place to root your confidence, your security is in your past experiences of God working in your life and in the lives of those around you. We look back in order to find the strength that we need to move forward. So my first encouragement to you today is this, prepare for persecution. So if you have your Bibles, we're looking at 2 Timothy chapter three, starting in verse 11 here. Actually, he's talking about, you followed my teaching and my conduct and so on, and he says, you followed also my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Paul's talking here about his first missionary journey to the region of Galatia in modern day Turkey. So as you can see here on the map, first of all, he traveled up here to Antioch. I mean, all these other places, but they landed in Antioch. And in Antioch, what happens? They preach the gospel and a riot breaks out against them. So they're like, fine. And they go over to Iconium. And at Iconium, they get so upset with Paul's message that they try to stone him. escapes and then they head down to Lystra and in Lystra they successfully stone him to the point of death. They assume he's dead. They drag him out of the city and they leave him lying there on the ground. As we just heard, in a miracle of God, he's not dead and he continues his ministry journey. Now, why would Paul bring up all of this in his letter to Timothy on his first missionary journey? Because that whole region, this is Timothy's home, Lystra Derby, somewhere in this region. And everything that Paul and Barnabas experienced on that first missionary journey, the riots, the stonings, the harassment, the persecutions would have been very well known by Timothy and his family and the other small groups of Christians in that area. And what does Luke say that they did on the last leg of that trip, if we turn to Acts 14? He says, when they preached the gospel to that city, Derbe, where, like I said, that's the region where Timothy's from, and they had made many disciples. They returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, which is incredible, the places that they were just horrendously persecuted, they go back to. And he says, strengthening the souls of their disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Paul's suffering in those cities became part of his gospel message, a model he set for the other Christians to follow. Persecution was not something to be avoided, not something to fear, but something to be embraced as part of the normal Christian life in the kingdom of God. But when I say normal Christian life, right, I need to explain that a little bit further. All Christians, just by virtue of naming themselves as a follower of Jesus, will experience persecution. But there is a correlation between the amount of effort and energy that we expend in trying to follow Jesus and the amount of pressure and pushback and persecution that we will get as a result. It's like when I try to take the dog to the vet, right? The harder I start pulling at that leash, the harder the dog starts pulling in the opposite direction. And the harder you pull in the direction of Jesus, the more the world, the flesh, and the devil are gonna try and yank you back in the opposite direction. Paul wasn't harassed, mocked, ridiculed, belittled, and persecuted simply because he was named a Christian, right? reason they tried to kill him was because he was preaching the gospel. He was straining for the goal. He was giving his life to follow Jesus. Now there is some degree of pressure that will afflict anyone who has put their faith in Jesus, right? Even the tiniest little baby steps of faith will be met frequently by opposition and resistance and difficulty, but the stronger that desire grows to chase after Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind, and strengths, the fiercer that opposition will become. But now, if you look at the text, that kind of raises a question because you may be thinking, look, if I'm doing this, if I'm living a godly life, if I'm really striving after Jesus, then why am I not experiencing the same kind of intense persecution and suffering that Paul seems to be implying will happen here. Well, if your benchmark for experiencing persecution is the kind of treatment that Christians go through in Nigeria or Iran or any one of the other countries in the world where Christians are horrendously persecuted, then yes, you're not being persecuted in that same manner, right? We don't experience that kind of persecution here in America. So if you read this verse and think, well, maybe I'm not being godly enough because I'm not being persecuted enough for my faith. Just praise the Lord that you live in a country where, for the most part, we have incredible freedom to worship Jesus. But of course, that's that we do experience the often more challenging pressure of a culture that wants to conform us to its values and morals and ideals. A culture that wants us to say up is down and down is up. A culture that wants us to look and sound just like everyone else. That's the persecution that many American Christians feel today, the societal pressure to affirm values and principles we completely disagree with. This is the bulk of Pastor Michael's message last week. But there's another kind of persecution that I want to talk about this morning and I was surprised because I read eight different commentaries on this passage and none of them mentioned this. But I think it's perhaps the most common form of persecution that you and I will experience as we strive to live godly lives for Jesus. And that's spiritual attack, spiritual warfare. The police may never come to your door. Your boss may never actually fire you. But everyone who strives to live a godly life pursuing Jesus with everything they have will be persecuted spiritually. That is guaranteed. It starts with the little things. You've experienced this, right? The more you try to devote yourself to prayer and personal devotion to God, the more difficult it gets. The more effort you try to invest in family worship, the more problems seem to pop up. The more involved you try to get at church, the more opposition seems to come at you spiritually. The more you try to serve others, the more harassed you become. Look, spiritual persecution is every bit as real and often more intense than the kind of physical persecution that we think of. When we read this passage, Satan attacks us while we sleep, while we eat, while we work, when we study, even right here at church when we're trying to worship God on a Sunday morning. Harassment, constant. I don't want to bring up a sore topic here, but I was thinking about this as I was watching the Bears play on Thanksgiving Day. It's too soon, right? But they're playing in Detroit, and the stadium is filled with Lions fans, all rooting for Detroit, right? And all rooting against the Bears, making as much noise as possible, trying to will the Bears to lose. Something we're quite capable of doing without any help from the opposing team. But setting the coach aside for the moment, or maybe just permanently, that scenario is kind of a good analogy for our spiritual lives, right? We are slogging away for every hard-fought yard while surrounded by a crowd of spiritual enemies trying actively to drown out our master's voice, right? Trying to distract us, trying to lead us astray, trying to throw us off our game, hoping that we make a mistake, willing us to make a mistake, laughing at our every misstep and failure, mocking us every time we try and get up. and start going again. And as long as you remain on that field as a faithful follower of Jesus, fighting for that next down, that spiritual attack, it is never going to stop. Those demons will never give up. They are fully invested in your defeat. That's what they want. That's your new normal as a follower of Jesus. Just plan on that. Prepare for it. Because physical and spiritual persecution, as Paul says here, it is inevitable. It's going to happen for anyone who's seeking to live a godly life in Jesus Christ. The question then is how are we going to respond? What are we going to do? Which leads to my next point this morning. Paul says we're to persevere through the power of Christ. Look at the second half of verse 11. Paul says, you know all about my persecutions and my sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and at Lystra. Which persecutions, this is the part I want you to see here this morning, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. These are the twin poles, right, of Paul's life. I endured and the Lord is the one who rescued me. His response to suffering and persecution was twofold, both personal grit and determination and perseverance, and also a committed and total reliance on God's power to be at work in his life to help him to persevere. So first, Paul emphasizes the importance of perseverance and endurance in times of suffering, of not quitting, of not giving up, not giving in. There's this certain resolve that he possessed that led him to keep preaching the gospel even when he encountered opposition. The resolve to go back to the cities where he had been so brutally attacked. Right? The willingness to keep doing what God had called him to do despite the physical harassment and persecution he faced so frequently as a result of his ministry. Paul had this no retreat, no surrender mentality to everything that he did, even when everything and everyone was opposed to him. Now to be clear, this is not the same as being stubborn, obstinate, belligerent. Right, Christians should be humble, kind, patient, generous, understanding, willing to learn, quick to forgive, but nevertheless, there should be this kind of steadfast commitment to Christ and his kingdom, a willingness to live self-sacrificially for his kingdom, for his glory, no matter what. A commitment to taking your faith seriously, soberly, I'm paraphrasing the Christian devotional writer Oswald Chambers here. But I think we like to imagine that when the moment of testing comes, we'll stand up for Jesus Christ no matter what. Right, we'll go to the stake, we'll fight the lions, we'll face into death, we'll remain steadfast to the end. We won't bend the knee or deny his name. We'll sort of bang our fist on the table and say, you know, here I stand, I can do no other. Or it's like, we'll have our brave heart moment where we'll be like, freedom! And the spotlight will zoom in and everyone's gonna witness our mighty, majestic, heroic act of self-sacrifice in the face of terrible persecution. That's a Hollywood version of how we imagine we will face persecution. But will it actually play out that way? Did Peter not imagine that is how he would respond in that moment of testing and trial? And yet we all know he ended up denying Christ three times and collapsed under the weight of that moment. Now you may be thinking, well, that'll be different for me. I'm not Peter. Maybe, but on what basis do you make that statement? What preparation are you making today in order to be ready for that moment in the future? Are you saying no today to all the selfish impulses and desires of your heart that you know are displeasing to God? Are you repenting of sin or are you immediately feeling bad about it? Are you genuinely seeking and granting forgiveness with others or just trying to avoid it? Are you dying to self in the tiny little boring humdrum moments of each and every day when nobody is looking, nobody is listening, Nobody is there to give you praise, to clap their hands at your act of self-sacrifice. Are you a martyr for Christ even when there is no audience to witness your acts of service? When in fact all you do is get scorn and disdain and disapproval and nobody bats an eye and the rest of the world goes walking on as if nothing happened, as if you didn't even exist. Are you following Jesus in even those moments today? Because if you don't or you won't confess Christ in the mundane surroundings of your office cubicle or your classroom or your kitchen, then what hope will you have of confessing him under the intense pressure of persecution? In any other context in life, it would be ridiculous to think otherwise. And yet when it comes to our faith, to our spiritual battles, to the war against our great enemies of the world, the flesh, and the devil, we imagine we will prevail with no practice, no preparation, no power. It'll just magically happen. But if we are to endure suffering and persecution well in the future, we must start practicing the quiet work of humble, patient, quiet, hidden obedience to Jesus today. So Paul's first point is, look, I endured and so we too must endure. But secondly, he says, from them all the Lord rescued me. We must lean on Christ. We must endure but the real power to persevere, the real hope we have of making it through such persecution to the other side comes from a deep, settled confidence in God's ability to act. And Paul is clear, although he endured significant suffering, although he carried that weight on his own shoulders, his rescue ultimately came from the Lord. But in what sense did rescue really come for Paul? I mean, it sounds like all he got was endless suffering and persecution and harassment and beatings and whippings and stonings. And now as he writes his letter to Timothy, where is he? He's in a jail cell, in chains awaiting death. That doesn't feel much like rescue to me. It feels like a lot of suffering and a lot of persecution with no real let up. And it often feels that way for us also today, especially when we're in the middle of a season of suffering. It feels as if God's promised rescue is too far off, too distant, too late, not enough. The comfort only seems to happen after the death. The calm seems only to happen after the storm. But all that pain in the middle, we still had to endure for ourselves. But Paul's focus was never on his immediate circumstances. God may never take away the sickness or this trouble. That's not even really the point. My confidence is not based on my personal and immediate experiences or situation. My confidence is in God's providential control over every season, every situation, every person, every place. I can step forward in boldness regardless of whatever suffering I'm enduring because I know that God is with me and no sword, no sickness, no spiritual attack can ever separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. As we heard in Psalm 33 just a few moments ago, the king, he's not saved by a great army. A warrior, he's not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation. And by its great might, it cannot rescue you. These are all false sources of strength in time of difficulty. They give the illusion of power and control, but are ultimately useless. Now we don't have horses or armies. I'm guessing most of you don't. But we do often try to rely on our own strength, not like literal strength always, but on our own ingenuity, our own resources, our own abilities. When trouble comes, how often do we first turn? The first place we turn is Google for the answers to our problems and not to God. If I can research my way out of this situation, then things will be better. But not the psalmist. Look, he says in verse 18, behold, the high of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. This has been Paul's demeanor throughout his entire ministry. Right? His confidence has always been in the Lord's power to prevail, even in the middle of the most difficult and trying times. His hope, it's not in his own strength. It was never in his own strength or his own abilities, but in God's. God allows suffering to come into our lives for all kinds of different reasons. And according to his sovereign plans and purposes, he doesn't keep us from experiencing suffering, pain, heartache, loss. but he always finds a way to bring us out through to the other side. That's what Paul is talking about here. That's what he wants Timothy to see. We're persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but never destroyed. Our hope in life is not for a pain-free existence. We may wish for that. I wish for that frequently. But Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble. Because if the world hated Jesus, then it's going to hate his followers also. But our hearts can be glad like the psalmist when we trust in his holy name and we must continue to look to him to be our help and our shield against all enemies, both visible and invisible. Which brings me then to my final point. here today, Paul encourages Timothy to pursue the prize. Trusting and persevering are great and wonderful, noble ideals, but how are we supposed to do that in concrete terms? Well, Paul actually gives Timothy a very down-to-earth and practical answer. He says, it's simple, I want you to follow me. Look at verse 11, Paul says to Timothy, you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and sufferings and then he concludes in verse 14, but as for you continue in what you have learned, remain, abide, continue, keep heading in this direction in what you have learned and I firmly believe knowing from whom you have learned it. Now maybe some of you remember watching a movie called Fly Away Home. This is like 25 years old. Now it's a story about a young girl who rescues some baby goose eggs from a nest and she raises them in her home and they come to imprint themselves on her. And she then has to be the one to teach them how to live and eventually how to fly. And so her father helps her build this ultralight aircraft and they practice together and eventually they teach these geese how to migrate all the way down from Canada to North Carolina. It's a heartwarming tale based on a true story, actually, about the way this girl becomes a model for these geese to follow. What she does, they do. Where she goes, they go. All the way, like I said, from Canada down to North Carolina. It's a powerful image, really, of the way Paul encourages Timothy to persevere in the face of opposition. He says, look, in these last days, they are going to get really bad. Persecution will come. People will be lovers of self. Evil people will deceive and be deceived. But you, Timothy, you have always followed my model in life. And now as you face into this coming storm, I want you to stay the course. I may not be here much longer for you to follow me directly but continue in everything you have learned from me. Pursue me down that same path and one day God will bring you safely home also. But what specifically did Timothy learn from pursuing Paul and how then does that help us persevere in the face of persecution? We'll look again at verse 10, Paul gives here seven specific examples from his own life that Timothy has followed and should continue to follow if he's to stand firm in the face of persecution. Don't worry, we'll go through these fairly quickly. But first, Paul says, you followed my teaching, so continue to do so in the future. That's perhaps the most obvious way for Timothy to persevere, by clinging tightly to the truth, especially in the face of unorthodox and heretical teachers. The exact situation that was happening in Ephesus that Paul has been writing to him about. As we've said time and time again, doctrine really matters. Paul passed specific doctrines down to Timothy that he wants him to hold tightly to. So the questions for us then are whose teaching do you listen to most intently? How are you holding tightly to the teachings that have been passed down to you? And how are you passing that teaching down to others in whatever sphere of influence you may have? Hold on and follow Paul's pattern of teaching. Well secondly, Paul says to Timothy, you've also followed my conduct. Right doctrine is important, but if it's not followed up by right conduct, then you run the risk of slipping into hypocrisy. Saying one thing, doing something completely different. Faith without works is dead, says James, because God has prepared us for good works and the fruit of a transformed heart should be a transformed life. Not just in our personal piety that's important, but in our service and care for other people. So the question then for us is whose conduct are you emulating? What conduct are you modeling for others around you? How do they see your face being played out in your life? A third Paul says, you followed my aim in life or my purpose. Paul, like I said, resolved to follow Jesus. God gave him a task and he was resolute in pursuing that goal. Now I know Paul's calling was like literally God speaking to him and saying, this is what I want you to do. And you may not be feeling that same kind of clarity in your vocational call in life, but God has called every single follower of Jesus to follow him and to be fishers of men, to love God and to love others, to preach the gospel in whatever context that we find ourselves. So whose aim in life are you following? And when other people look to you, what goal or aim in life would they see in you as being the most important purpose that you have in your life? Now fourth, Paul points Timothy towards his faith or trust in Jesus. Paul's faith was severely tested many, many times. He even speaks of having his thorn in his flesh, some kind of ongoing suffering that never abated or let up in his life. Something which helped teach him how to trust and rely on God even more deeply. And so the challenge for us is to think about whose faith in the midst of adversity is setting an example for you to follow? And how would other people describe your own trust in Jesus? A fifth, Paul speaks of his patience. A patience which was learned from a lifetime of following Jesus and working with people. Patience is easy to talk about but so hard for us to practice. In a quick fix, drive-through, instant delivery world, we want things to happen right now. We don't want to wait for anything. But patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. given to those who are willing to humbly submit themselves patiently and reverently to God's plans and his ways. So Timothy learned by watching Paul exhibit great patience through his ministry. Whose model of patience are you following? Or flip that around, how can you grow in this art of practicing and learning patience in your own life? Because this is how you will learn to persevere through persecution. Well sixth, Paul directs Timothy's attention towards his love. It's so clear as you read the New Testament. Paul wasn't some burned out, bitter, frustrated teacher. He was passionate about the people that he ministered to. He cared deeply for them, he loved them. As he told the Corinthians, the love of Christ controls us, compels us. That's what drives us forward. Paul wore his heart on his chest. You can hear it in just about every single one of his letters. And he cared deeply for everyone he met. Would people say the same about us? How do they see our deep care and concern and love being played out in our interactions with those around us? Whose loving heart stands out most to you as you think about the people you're following and who are influencing your life? And how can you grow in loving others in particular during this intense Christmas season? When finally Paul emphasizes his steadfastness or his endurance. This is a virtue produced by our suffering, right, as Paul says to the Romans. Endurance, as suffering produces endurance. Now you've probably heard someone say before that when you let anger settle into your heart, You end up with bitterness, right? Bitterness is anger that's just settled down deep into your bones. And in a similar but more positive way, I think when patience as a virtue has been cultivated and developed over years of practice, and it settles down deep into your bones, you end up with that steadfastness that Paul is talking about here. The settled commitment and endurance as a result of the work of Christ in your life. An unwavering, unshakable commitment to God even in the midst of suffering. So whose steadfastness is inspiring and encouraging to you? Or where are you stumbling in your own efforts to remain steadfast? Who can help you to be resolute in the face of these difficulties? Who can you in turn help to remain steadfast in the middle of some trial or persecution that they're going through right now? Look, Paul said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 11, he says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And then he tells Timothy, continue in what you have learned from following me. So who are you imitating? Whose model are you following in life? Because you are all, we are all following someone, right? Whether that's a role model or a mentor, a TV personality or a podcaster or an author or an influencer or a pastor. or parent, or friend. If you want to persevere in times of persecution, you need to be pursuing right belief, right action, and right purpose, so that you might cultivate these virtues of faith, and patience, and love, and steadfastness. In conclusion, then, Paul says to Timothy, prepare for persecution. Persevere through the power of Christ and pursue the model set forth for us in Paul's life and ministry. And may the steadfast love of the Lord be upon each and every one of us, even in our pain and suffering, even in our persecution, as we put our cope and our trust in him. Would you pray with me? Lord, we're so thankful for the models that you have given us in scripture of imperfect but godly men and women who have sought to follow you faithfully. And as Paul encouraged Timothy to follow his model, Lord, I pray that you would help us to do the same, to persevere, that you would give us the strength to persevere in the face of persecution. as we look to bring light and hope and healing and help to those around us. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.