Keeping Your Attention on Jesus Christ

Second Timothy chapter 2, that's toward the back of your Bible.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

If you find any book that starts with a T, you close because they're all right there

together.

Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 8.

2 Timothy 2:8

This is Paul's last known letter that we have that he had wrote to Timothy.

Timothy was continuing on much in the same way that Paul did in the work of sharing the

gospel.

Paul has given Timothy some instruction, some encouragement, but what he's really been talking

about in Second Timothy so far, we've kind of seen a theme, and that is the theme of

suffering for the gospel, that Paul talks about the suffering that he is doing for the

gospel and acknowledging even for Timothy that it's going to be difficult for Timothy.

That it's not always easy to live for Jesus.

It's not always easy to carry out the work of God.

It's not always popular to preach and teach the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That was true in Timothy's day, and 2,000 years later, that has not changed.

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is still not very popular among many people

in the world.

Sadly, it's becoming less and less popular even in these United States.

Nonetheless, however, Paul is encouraging Timothy to be like a soldier.

We saw that in the verses before.

Don't get tangled up with things of the world, but be like a soldier who is trained, who

is ready to carry out his instructions, whatever God calls us to.

We want to be those who are faithful to do the will of God.

We want to be like the athlete that Paul reverends.

Those who are trained and ready for the work that is before us.

He's really giving Timothy some encouragement, and it's good encouragement for us.

Even if we are not preachers or missionaries or in ministry in that way, we still all live

for Jesus.

We still all, in some way, as believers, we are sharing the gospel with people through

the way that we live.

Sometimes we may have opportunity to really dig into scripture.

Other times it may just simply be our acts of love that people see, but those are the

opportunities that God gives us to carry out his will and to show other people the love

of Christ.

When we show people the love of Christ, that gives us that opportunity many times to tell

them about who Jesus is.

Sometimes we have opportunities to share the love of Christ with people, and they don't

want to hear it.

Sometimes it may be difficult for us.

It may be scary.

Nonetheless, if God places some opportunity in our life or calls us to serve in some way,

we don't want to shy away from that suffering.

We want to be faithful as Paul has encouraged Timothy to be those who suffer for the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

With that in mind, that's a little refresher of what got us to this point, so we'll kind

of continue along that same line of thinking tonight.

Let's pray, and we'll get started.

Father God, we come to you.

We thank you for your good word, and I pray, dear Lord, that you would encourage us, because

God, sometimes it's hard.

It's hard for us to work up the courage to share your word with others, or maybe to pray

with others, dear Lord, or to really step out, God, and ask somebody about Jesus, or

to tell them about Jesus.

It shouldn't be hard for us, dear Lord, but the fact of the matter is, it is kind of scary.

We don't always know what to say.

People don't always react in a good way.

God, I pray that you would help us not to be afraid, but that your Holy Spirit would

protect us and guide us, and help us in our opportunities to serve, that we would be those

who are willing to suffer for you, if that's what it takes, dear Lord.

I suspect that there are, sometimes in our life, that we do have to suffer.

I pray, God, that we would be faithful to remember why we are suffering, and we're doing

it for you, dear Lord.

I pray that you bless the reading of your word.

I pray that you'd be glorified tonight, and I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 8.

2 Timothy 2:8

Keep your attention on Jesus Christ as risen from the dead and descended from David.

This is according to my gospel.

Okay, so this is real, simple instruction.

What do we do when life is before us, and life is difficult, and serving God is difficult,

and sometimes it involves suffering?

What do we do?

Well, Paul gives us good instruction.

Keep your attention on Jesus Christ, okay?

Life is not always going to be easy.

It's not always going to be easy to live for the Lord.

Sometimes we really have to fight temptations for things of the world.

Sometimes it's really hard for us to do the right thing, the thing that God calls us to.

Nonetheless, God tells us what the right thing to do is.

He gives us His instructions.

It's not always easy to follow those instructions, but when we're on life's journey and life

gets difficult and things are getting tough and it's hard to stand up for God and it's

hard to avoid those sins and it's hard to stay away from that temptation, we need to

remember to keep our attention on Jesus Christ, because it is through Jesus Christ that we

will have strength, especially in the context in those situations where we may be suffering

for Jesus.

Now maybe we've never experienced this before, or maybe you have, I don't know, but there

certainly are brothers and sisters in Christ in the world today who are suffering greatly

for Jesus.

And you can go back and you can read about some of these people.

You can go back and read about Jim Elliot.

That's a good one to look up when you go home tonight.

You can go home and look up Richard Wurmbrand.

That's a great person to look up and read their stories and read some of the stories

about those who are with them.

I can't think of the guy's name that was with Jim Elliot.

There was a movie about him.

I think it's called Tip of the Spear.

Fantastic movie.

And it talks about Jim Elliot and some of these other missionaries.

They go to these folks that are totally unreached and they end up killing them.

They end up killing them all.

And then eventually, I believe it's Jim Elliot's wife that goes back down and eventually is

able to share the gospel with the very people that killed her husband.

Beautiful story of people who know that there's going to be great suffering for the Lord and

yet they are willing to suffer for the Lord.

But why are they willing to suffer for the Lord?

Because their hope is in Jesus Christ.

Because they are keeping their attention on Jesus Christ.

And what does Paul say that we see when we focus our attention on Jesus Christ?

He says we keep our attention on Jesus Christ as risen from the dead.

Okay?

So there's our hope, right?

It's not like we're sitting here saying, okay, we're going to serve this Jesus and he was

nailed to a cross and that was the end of his life and that was it.

Well, what kind of Savior would that be worth serving?

Well, that wouldn't be a good Savior worth serving.

And Paul even acknowledges that.

We would be, we're here to be pitied more than anybody if we were just to serve somebody

who died, who is not risen from the dead.

But here's what Paul is saying.

Keep your attention on Jesus Christ as risen from the dead.

As the song says, we serve a risen Savior.

We don't serve a dead Savior.

So that's where our hope is.

We are reminded that Jesus Christ has arose, that he has risen from the dead.

And that is our hope, to know that even if we are in the midst of suffering for Jesus

Christ, even if it should cost us our very life, even if it's our nieces or nephews or

sons or daughters or uncles or aunts or mothers or fathers or whoever it is, people that we

may know that are doing the work of God, even should their life be taken in service to the

Lord, we still can rejoice.

Why?

Because they have been serving a risen Savior and they have died serving a risen Savior

and they themselves have been risen in Jesus Christ.

And so Paul says to Timothy, look, it is going to be difficult.

I have suffered for the gospel and you are going to suffer for the gospel if you keep

doing this work.

Therefore, when the going gets tough, keep your attention on Jesus Christ as risen from

the dead and descended from David.

Now, I'm not sure exactly why I threw that and descended from David here.

Perhaps he's simply reminding Timothy of, by the way, this is the Messiah.

There was a Messiah that was said to come.

He was to come from the line of David.

And don't forget that this is him.

Don't think that there's another one coming.

Even today, I suspect that there are still plenty of people in this world that teach,

oh, Jesus hasn't come yet.

He's coming.

Maybe that's what Paul is saying here.

No, here, I'm telling you, I'm reminding you that as you focus on Jesus, know that he is

the one.

He is the one who come from David.

Maybe he's simply saying, look, Jesus suffered and died and has risen from the dead.

He's also a descendant of David.

That is to say, he is a man just like you are and I am.

And he endured these things.

And so let that be our example and let that be our motivation that we serve a savior who

has been through the things that we are going through.

And yet he has been victorious.

He has been victorious over those who have come against him.

He has been victorious over death.

So as we serve the Lord, if we suffer for the Lord, then let us keep our attention on

Jesus to know that we are not suffering in vain, that Jesus Christ is victorious.

And so maybe tonight we need to refocus our attention, whether we're suffering for the

Lord in the same way that maybe Timothy was, or maybe there's just some struggles in our

life that just kind of lead to some general suffering.

This is good advice for that too, that we need to refocus our eyes on Jesus to say,

you know what?

Jesus has been victorious.

Jesus has got this.

Jesus is in control here.

And so we need to refocus on our one who has the strength that we need in our times of

suffering.

This is according to my gospel, he says at the end of verse eight.

Now what in the world does that mean?

My gospel?

Wait a minute.

We thought this was the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the Lord.

What does he mean when he says my gospel?

Well, this is something that he says on a few occasions.

I think at least three times Paul says this in the New Testament.

He refers to my gospel.

Now as Paul somehow setting himself up as someone special that he's preaching some unique

and special gospel that's not that of Jesus Christ, well, no, not at all.

Paul is certainly one who is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Maybe when he says my gospel, he's simply saying, this is the gospel that I have accepted

and lived by.

It is mine because I have become a follower of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps that's what he's saying.

Perhaps he's acknowledging that, look, Jesus has revealed himself to me.

God has called me to a special task to go to the Gentiles, which was a unique task at

the time.

You remember, for those of you who come to Sunday school, we've been studying Acts and

we've almost made that transition to Paul.

It started out mainly about Peter.

We were introduced to Paul.

It goes back to Peter for a brief time and Peter has a similar experience where God reveals

to him.

He says, my word is going to everybody, the Jew and the Gentile, and then pretty soon

the focus is going to go back on Paul.

But Paul's focus, his mission was very unique and that Paul was called to the Gentiles.

Now, certainly he was not the only one, but maybe when he says my gospel here, maybe he's

saying, look, what my calling is, what God has called me to do.

I'm doing this work according to what God called me to do and this work according to

what God called me to do has caused me to suffer.

But nonetheless, I'm keeping my attention on Jesus who has been raised from the dead,

who is the descendant of David.

This, he says, is according to my gospel.

Verse nine, I suffer for it to the point of being bound like a criminal, but God's message

is not bound.

Now, that is a good verse right there.

Now, if you read through scripture, it does not take you long in the New Testament to

see that God's people did not want to hear from Jesus.

Now, some of them did.

I'm not saying, I'm not throwing everybody under the bus.

Some of them did, but some of them wanted to shut him up.

You may remember when we talked about rediscovering God's word a couple of Sundays ago, we talked

about Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, what he didn't want to hear God's word, right?

The Jeremiah, the prophet, had sent the scroll to him and he began to read this, or it was

read to him.

He began to cut it off and throw it into the fire.

So this idea that God wants to send people to tell those who were going to hear about

his goodness, about his mercy, about his grace, to call them to repentance, the idea that

people don't want to hear that message is not new.

That's in the Old Testament.

We see it in the New Testament.

Jesus comes, people do not want to hear that message.

Eventually, a bunch of them ended up nailing Jesus to the cross.

And so here, the apostles follow in Jesus' footsteps.

And while we don't know exactly what happened to all of them, history tells us that most

of them died doing the work that God called them to.

Here we have this example of Paul, who was continuing to do the work of the Lord and

who was suffering in the work of the Lord.

And so the fact that people do not want to hear the gospel is nothing new, and it's not

new today.

It has not changed.

There are certainly plenty of people in our world today, even some, believe it or not,

right here in Liberty, Mississippi.

There are some people here that do not want to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, praise the Lord, we're still in a good spot where we don't get thrown in jail for

preaching sermons like this tonight or telling people we see about Jesus.

There are plenty of places in the world where that's not the case.

But what does Paul say?

He says, I suffer for it.

What?

For the gospel of Jesus to the point of being bound like a criminal.

So Paul, he's saying, look, I know what it means to suffer.

I've been imprisoned.

I've been bound.

I've been treated like a criminal.

I know what it means to suffer for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the people who are coming against me are trying to keep this message suppressed.

They don't want the message to get out.

Sounds familiar?

It should.

We see it in our world today.

People in our world today do not want the gospel of Jesus Christ to get out.

They do not want God's word to be read.

They do not want Christians to have a say.

They do not want the name of Jesus spoken.

This is what's going on in our world today.

We are up against it more and more.

We hear more and more against it.

Our world does not want to hear about Jesus.

Now, I'll give you one praise report to the opposite of that.

I had a good experience this past Tuesday.

The school asked me to come and speak to the elementary students and I say, praise the

Lord for that.

Now, I don't know how often they do that.

Maybe every week, if I'm not mistaken, but they teach these kids the word of God.

They let them hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Praise the Lord.

That is the most important foundation, way more important than the math and the science

and the English and all those things.

All those things are important if they are not being taught the word of God, then they

are off to a bad start.

Praise the Lord.

There are still places in our world and schools in our world where people have the opportunity

to hear the word of the Lord, but the world does not want the gospel of Jesus Christ and

the word of God spoken.

What does Paul say?

But God's message is not bound.

They can bound the messengers.

They can kill God's people.

They can kill the ones bringing the message.

They can imprison the ones bringing the message and they have for 2,000 years.

Here tonight in 2024, I am standing here preaching to you the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Should Jesus Christ not return in 2,000 more years, guess what's going to happen?

There's going to be somebody standing behind pulpits all around the world and living rooms

all around the world and school campuses all around the world and they are going to be

preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It will not be bound.

We need to remember that.

We need not lose hope.

Sometimes it may look like, oh, we're losing the battle.

I can promise you as I'm standing here that God's word will continue to reign true, but

God uses us, you and me, to carry out His work and to teach people His word.

So it's important that we listen to instructions like this.

Okay, it's tough.

Okay, God wants us to keep on doing the work.

It's not always easy to do the work.

It's not well received in the Old Testament.

It's not well received in the New Testament.

It's not well received in 2024, but nonetheless, what does God call us to?

He calls us to do the work and we need to remember to be faithful to do that.

Verse 10, this is why I endure all things for the elect so they may also obtain salvation,

which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

All right, this is a good verse.

So Paul says, I've suffered.

I've been in prison.

I'm bound.

The message is not bound.

And why do I keep doing this?

Why do I put myself through all of this imprisonment, all of these things that I put myself through,

all of this suffering?

He says because people need to hear the word.

There are those that God wants to save.

There are souls that God wants to bring to salvation through Jesus Christ.

And how can they be saved if somebody does not tell them the word?

Here's a good scripture for us to look at tonight.

Romans chapter 10 verse 14, Romans chapter 10 verse 14 says this, but how can they call

Romans 10:14 Romans 10:14

on him they have not believed in and how can they believe without hearing about him and

how can they hear without a preacher?

What is Paul saying?

He says, look, there are people who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am the

one who's going to tell them that.

Because if we don't tell them those who are in Christ Jesus, if we are not willing to

tell people about Jesus, then who else is going to tell them?

Well, it's God's people that he calls to tell them.

Now, certainly God can work in miraculous ways to the Holy Spirit.

People can stumble upon the word of God, but it's God's people who are going to have the

biggest impact and the biggest opportunity to reach other people for the gospel of Jesus

Christ.

And Paul says, look, I have a mission.

I've been sent because there are some who are going to accept Jesus Christ and they

need to be told about who Jesus is.

Verse 11, this saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him, we will also live with

him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him.

If we deny him, he will also deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful or he cannot deny himself.

All right, just going to take a little unpacking here for us to kind of try to figure out what

this is saying.

For the most part, it's pretty simple apart from that last verse.

So it gives Timothy this instruction.

He gives him this call.

He says, look, you're going to suffer.

And he gives him what I would call here both a word of encouragement and a word of warning.

Now these are good things if you do the right thing, but they are bad things if you do the

wrong thing.

What's the first one he says there?

For if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

Now we can presume there that the opposite is also true.

If we have died with Christ, that is we have died to ourself, we have come to faith in

Jesus Christ, we have said, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner and I come before you because

the wages of sin is death and in my sin, I will die.

So I die to myself.

I die with you.

I lay aside my old self.

And therefore, if we have died with Jesus, we will also live with him.

Praise the Lord.

That's good instruction.

But what if we have not died with Jesus?

What if we have not given Jesus our sins?

What if we have not repented?

What if we have not made him our Lord and Savior?

What if we have not died to our sins, to our self?

Well, then we're not going to live with him.

The only way we receive eternal life is through Jesus Christ.

And if we have not come to Jesus Christ, then we are not going to receive eternal life.

So if we have died with Christ, we will live with him.

Praise the Lord.

Why?

Because we look at Christ as one who has been raised from the dead.

Okay, this is good encouragement if we have put our faith in Jesus Christ.

That's good news for us today, brothers and sisters in Christ.

We've trusted in Jesus.

We have eternal life.

If you have not trusted in Jesus, you do not have eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death.

And one day, we'll stand before God in judgment.

And what a scary day that's going to be.

We'll either be with God for all of eternity or we'll be separated from God for all of

eternity.

We'll go to heaven or we'll go to hell.

Those are the two options.

If we have died with Christ, we will live with Christ.

If we have not died with Christ, we will be separated from Christ.

All right, verse 12.

For if we endure, we will also reign with him.

Okay, well, that's pretty easy to understand.

If we endure what?

Well, in the context, what is he talking about?

Enduring the suffering for doing the work of Jesus.

It's not easy to live for Jesus.

We have to fight through it.

It's tough to do the right thing sometimes.

It's tough to follow the commands of God because the temptations of the world are pulling at

us and the temptation of sin is pulling at us.

And it's not always easy to live for the Lord.

It's not always easy to take a stand for the Lord.

Sometimes it leads to suffering and we have to endure.

That's what the Bible calls us to.

It calls us to endure.

What does Paul say?

He says, if we endure, we will also reign with him.

Praise the Lord.

Jesus is victorious.

If we continue to trust in him and endure through the suffering and not turn back, then

we will be victorious.

We will be with Jesus for all of eternity.

We will reign with him.

We won't have to worry about our sin anymore.

Pretty self-explanatory.

Well, what if we don't endure?

Well, it stands to reason that if we endure, we will reign with him.

That is to say, if we do not endure, that we will not reign with him.

Now we're seeing this played out for us in the book of Hebrews.

What we see is a group of Jewish Christians who are not enduring.

They are being tempted to stop enduring.

They are those who are suffering and the author of Hebrews is essentially doing the same thing

that Paul is doing here by telling them, keep your attention on Jesus Christ.

That's what the author of Hebrews is saying.

Why?

Because in their suffering, they are not enduring and they're wanting to give up.

So if they do not endure, then they're not going to reign with Jesus Christ.

But if we do endure, praise the Lord.

This is a good encouraging word.

This is what we need to be encouraged by when we're suffering and our struggle with sin

and suffering with people who are coming against us, that we want to be those who endure so

that we can be those who reign with him.

All right, the next part of verse 12 here, if we deny him, he will also deny us.

Okay.

Well, it stands to reason there.

If we don't deny Jesus, then he will not deny us.

If we say, no, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, I'm not going to deny him under any circumstances,

then he's not going to deny us.

But what if we do deny Jesus?

Well, that's a scary thing.

What does Paul say?

If we deny Jesus, he will also deny us.

And so he's given Timothy both some encouragement and some warning that as long as we are faithful

to Jesus Christ and obedient to Jesus Christ and trust in Jesus Christ and have died with

Jesus, we will live with him.

And if we endure, we will reign with him.

And if we don't deny him, he won't deny us.

But if we deny Jesus, he will deny us.

And what other hope is there?

If we deny Jesus, what other hope is there?

There is no more hope.

So Paul says, look, you're going to have to suffer, but remember these things.

Now, it appears as though this is some type of saying.

I don't really know where it comes from.

It's not a scripture, but Paul appears to be quoting something that is known.

Maybe it's just some kind of a Christian creed or something of the day.

I'm not sure.

But this is something obviously that Timothy would have been aware of.

And these are good words, good instructions and good warnings for us tonight.

All right, verse 13.

This one is a little more difficult.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Okay, so what are we to make of that verse?

Well, there's a couple of ways that we could take that verse.

Maybe the most popular way that you usually will hear that verse, and maybe you use it

in this way, is to say that no matter what we do, if we are faithless, that is, even

if we lose our faith in Jesus, we have nothing to worry about.

Why?

Because if we are faithless, God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

That is to say that if we put faith in Jesus Christ and we've received the Holy Spirit,

even if we lose our faith and we are no longer faithful, that God remains faithful to us.

Now, that's probably the most popular interpretation.

However, I don't know that that's the correct interpretation.

It might be.

And if you hold that view, you could be correct in that.

That is one view, a very popular view.

We'll talk about a couple of more.

However, that doesn't really seem to even fit the context of the rest of the verses,

because just before in the verse, he says, if you deny him, he will also deny you.

So that would seem to kind of contradict.

Okay, wait a minute.

So if I deny Jesus, he'll deny me, but then the next verse, but I can lose my faith and

God will remain faithful?

Well, that doesn't really seem to make sense.

And I don't think that that fits the context.

However, that could be the correct interpretation.

Another interpretation could be that, well, sometimes even as Christians, we are faithless

in the sense that we doubt, not in the sense that we've lost faith in Jesus, not in the

sense that we say, I don't believe in Jesus.

I don't trust in Jesus.

I'm done with Jesus.

Not in that sense.

But there are times that our faith is weak.

There are times that we really don't have faith at all.

There are times where doubt and fear may get the better of us.

And maybe that's what it's talking about.

That even if Timothy is suffering, even if there are days where he fails, God is still

going to remain faithful.

That God knows that we are human, that God knows that we are going to doubt, that God

knows that we are going to fear.

And even if our faith wavers, that is not to say that if we lose our faith completely

in Jesus, but if our faith wavers for a moment, that God remains faithful even in those times

because God cannot deny himself.

That's another possible interpretation.

I think that one probably has some strength to it.

That seems to fit a little bit into the context.

There's also a third, and there may be more.

I'm just telling you these that I believe are probably the main three.

There's also a third interpretation.

That is to say that God is always going to remain faithful to his plan and to carry out

his plan.

That is to say, okay, Timothy, you've been called to do this work.

I've been called to do this work.

But even if we fail, even if those that we go speak to fail, even if people begin to

deny Jesus and forget who he is and nobody's turning to Jesus, and even those who are called

to preach and teach, stop preaching and teach, and even if everybody loses their faith,

God will remain faithful.

That is to say, God's not just going to give up.

God's not just going to say, well, I tried.

I had a plan in place, and it's falling apart, and nobody's remaining faithful to me, so

I'm just going to give up.

Nope.

God's plan is always going to come to fruition.

God always remains faithful to his plan and to the faithful remnant, no matter how unfaithful

they become.

Now, that's not to say the unfaithful are saved forever or that they're not going to

face any punishment.

We certainly see examples in the Old Testament where God brings some big judgment.

You remember those folks that God opened up the ground and swallowed them up, them and

all their families?

We see examples of people like this that rebelled against God.

We see when God lets his people be taken into captivity, where he lets enemies come in and

overtake them, or he kills them in the wilderness by snakes because of their disobedience.

Those who are disobedient and rebel, God brings judgment on them.

But even though some along the way are faithless and not all come to faith and trust in God,

God's plan has never stopped.

God has remained faithful from the get-go.

God's people have been rotten and been wicked, and there have been some who have trusted

him and who have turned on him and who have been faithless, and even still, God is faithful

from beginning to end.

So even if Timothy should fail, God is going to remain faithful.

God's word will always prevail.

And perhaps that's the interpretation.

That would seem to fit too in the context that if we are faithless, that is to say,

God's plan is not dependent on us.

It is dependent on Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was faithful to God and accomplished

the will of God.

So even if it looks like everybody in the world is as rotten as they can be, that's

not going to change the plan of God because God cannot deny himself.

This is said another way, and maybe another verse helps us to understand this.

Romans chapter 3 verse, or excuse me, yeah, Romans chapter 3 verse 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention Romans 3:3

What then?

If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?

Okay, that's exactly, I believe, what Paul is saying here.

If some are unfaithful, that doesn't nullify God's faithfulness.

That's not going to change who God is.

If some are unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness?

Absolutely not.

Let God be true even though everyone is a liar.

Now I think that's probably in the context of what Paul is talking about here since he

used very similar language there in Romans chapter 3 verse 3.

Romans 3:3

That is to say that God is going to be faithful to his plan until the end.

But wouldn't it be better if we were those who were faithful to God?

If we were those who endured?

If we were those who did not deny Jesus Christ but rejoiced in Jesus Christ?

Wouldn't it be better if we were those who died to our sin and who died in Jesus Christ

and are raised to be with him and to live forever?

Wouldn't it be better if we are those who do what is right and who stay strong in the

faith?

Therefore, full circle back to where we started, let us keep our attention on Jesus Christ

because Jesus Christ is the plan of God.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the plan of God.

Jesus Christ is the salvation that comes to those who would put their faith in Jesus Christ.

And Paul tells Timothy, it is Jesus who we serve.

It is Jesus who we suffer for.

And even if our suffering gets intense and ends in death, it is Jesus who will raise

us to life for all of eternity.

That is our hope today.

That we keep our attention on Jesus.

In the midst of our struggle, in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our suffering

for the gospel, we keep our eyes on Jesus to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, a gospel

that will never be thwarted, a gospel that will never be stopped, a gospel that will

always be spread.

Let us as brothers and sisters in Christ be faithful in our generation to continue to

tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.

Let's pray.

Father God, we come to you.

We thank you for your good word.

I pray that you would help us to grow in it tonight.

I pray that you would help us to focus our attention on Jesus.

Maybe some of us tonight need to refocus.

We need to kind of get things back into focus, dear Lord.

I pray that you would help us to do so.

Dear Lord, maybe there's just some struggling and some pain and some hardships in our life,

and we just need to remember that our strength comes through Jesus.

Dear Lord, maybe there are some today that you have called to share your word, to share

the love of Jesus, to serve you in some way.

And it's scary and it's difficult, and maybe they're facing some opposition.

But God, I pray that you would help them to continue to be strong, that they would continue

to suffer for you, to do your work, and to do your will.

God, help us to be those who would die to ourselves, who would give our sins to Jesus

Christ, who has died for us, dear Lord, so that we would live with him.

Let us be those, dear Lord, who endure in the midst of living for you.

Let us be those, dear Lord, who do not deny Jesus, but who stay strong in the faith, dear

Lord.

If we are some tonight that our faith is weak and we doubt and we fear, I pray that you

would strengthen that, dear Lord.

We need you, because there are some days, dear Lord, that our faith is not what it should

be.

But dear Lord, we thank you that you are in control and that your plans, dear Lord, are

not dependent on us.

Because God, we are a bunch of failures.

But dear Lord, even though your plans aren't dependent on us, you call us to be part of

your plan.

You do call us to serve.

You do call us to share your gospel with others, dear Lord.

Jesus has done everything that was needed, God.

Everything was dependent on him.

So let us, dear Lord, trust him and continue to share him with the world.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.