A Theology of Hardship

We live in a pivotal moment of our culture. Societal upheaval, corruption, and fear create the potential for another major shift in our society, either toward ruin or renewal. And while the world around us gives in to panic and distraction, the call for the church remains the same: endure hardship. In 2 Timothy 4, this is the command Paul gives to Timothy and his church as they wrestle with the same issues we wrestle with today. Like soldiers, farmers, and athletes, the church’s job is to stay committed to our task, be aware of the season we’re in, and commit to finishing the race God has called us to. Here at Passion Creek, our aim is to become the 4th soil by enduring hardship through the practice of prayer.

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 All month long, our minds and hearts are anchored in Mark chapter four. And just to remind us of that context, we’re going to begin with that again. Mark chapter four, it’s on the screen starting in verse 14.

The sower sows the word. Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. These next two verses will be our focus for today. And others are like seeds sown on rocky ground. When they hear the Word, immediately they receive it with joy, but they have no root.

They are short lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the Word, they immediately fall away. Others are like seeds sown among thorns. These are the ones who hear the Word, but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.

And those like seeds sown on good ground hear the Word. Welcome it and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown. Father, we submit our minds, our bodies, our hearts, and our souls to you today. Continue to use this passage and parable the same way you’ve used it for the last 2, 000 years.

That’s drawing people to yourself, creating within us humble hearts so that we can produce fruit that is well beyond our own ability. In Jesus name, everybody says, amen. You may now be seated. In 1493, the Nuremberg Chronicle was published to describe the major events of history leading up to their present day moment.

It was quite a depressing read for the present day. The author said, all of Europe is. They were a society living in the wake of the Black Death Plague. Their governmental systems were collapsing before their eyes, and the hypocrisy and corruption of the Catholic Church was at an all time high. They were demanding indulgences to pay for their lavish lifestyles and cathedrals.

And this chronicle, interestingly enough, left a few pages blank at the very end to signify, symbolically, that the world was soon going to close. And they believed it was the fourth quarter, but many did not see the need, or even more importantly the ability, to become the fourth soil, to become the type of people who endure hardship by sinking roots into the gospel, to refuse to be choked out by the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things.

Instead, in the 1493, the spirit of the moment was one of defeat, deceit, and distraction. But thankfully, in 1493, Martin Luther was just 10 years old. He was a boy who would grow up to change the world forever. In 1517, Martin Luther challenged the Roman Catholic Church by nailing the 95 theses on the wall and saying, the sale of indulgences is leading to the corruption of the church.

You’ve misunderstood the gospel and what repentance means. In his meditations as a professor on Psalms and Romans, Luther would contend that salvation is not earned by those who behave or pay for the church. No, instead, it’s freely given to those who believe in Christ alone, through faith alone, to God’s glory alone.

And in Martin Luther’s effort, he recovered the biblical doctrines of the gospel, but he was also condemned by the Pope. He was excommunicated from the church. In fact, if you read your history, he was declared an outlaw under the edict of Worms. You don’t say Worms, that’s English, Worms. And that meant as an outlaw, anyone could kill Martin Luther on the spot without any fear of punishment.

And if you read his story, he also struggled with physical and mental ailments throughout his life. It was his faith and endurance, along with many other faithful men and women of Christ, that paved the way for reformation and what we would call the revival of that time. As a pastor of Passion Creek, I’ve been asking myself all week, how many other Martin Luthers are in this room?

Many of us likely won’t be in the history books, but who is God calling among us in this fourth quarter moment to be a fourth soil? In our little corner of the universe. Much like 1493, our world is weighed down by corruption, fear, and distraction. Sociologists are actually referring to our moment as the fourth turning.

Anybody heard of this phrase before? We almost used it instead of fourth quarter. It’s every 60 or 80 years, sociologists argue, especially in American history, a major overhaul occurs in the culture. The last one, the last major one that sociologists agree happened was World War II, and so we are right on track for another turning.

The question is, will it be a good one or a bad one? These climactic moments throughout history hold the potential of ruin or renewal. Will it be ruin, like the Nuremberg Chronicle suggested? Or will it be the start of a harvest that is 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown? And I would say it all depends on how we treat this fourth quarter moment.

Will we, Passion Creek, commit to become the fourth soil? To make it more personal for you and me, I think we are in a moment that can burn us out or burn us clean. To set us apart for the glory of God or to squander our lives with reckless living. So again, if you’re new here, all month and thus all year we are declaring we want to be a church who is willing and able to be burned clean.

We, Passion Creek, want to consecrate ourselves so that we can produce fruit 30, 60, and 100 times what was sown, well beyond our own capacity and ability. Now it’s one thing for us to desire the harvest. Today I want to talk about how it’s a whole other thing to endure the seasons that lead up to the harvest.

And losing endurance is a key feature of the second soil and one of the key temptations for you and me today. Let’s read again Mark chapter 4 verse 16 again. It says, and others are like seeds sown on rocky. Ground and when they hear the word, which again is the gospel or the person of work of Jesus Immediately, they receive it with joy.

It’s this picture. They even came forward to the altar They got baptized and were celebrating with friends and family that they are now followers of Jesus But then look at verse 17, but they have no Root, meaning they never allowed it to sink into their hearts. We often use the paradigm of Jesus in Matthew 7 or James in James 1.

No roots means they hear the word, but they Don’t do the word. It’s one thing to resonate with the gospel, but it’s another to actually repent and do what the gospel says. And so this soil has no root, and thus they are short lived. And then it says when distress comes. Distress actually here means the oppressive state of physical, mental, social, or economic adversity.

In other words, the enemy. will attack you wherever you are most susceptible. We read the book of Acts as a faith family this last year. We even learned that some people left the faith, not because of the mental pressure or the emotional pressure, but the economic pressure that many Christians face throughout history.

There are many ways you and I could begin to say it’s not worth it. We are going to fall away. And then it says, if it’s not just distress. It could be persecution. This is to be hunted down for the sake of Christ and its most dramatic terms is to be forced to recant or is to be left out of parties to lose friendships because of your stance and what you believe.

And all of this is not just because distress comes. Distress comes to everybody, if you’re a human being. But it’s the particular stress that comes, look, quote, because of the Word. There is a, it’s really hard because coming to the Gospel, it’s true, you get forgiven, there is a lightness, there’s a freedom.

But at the same time, Jesus was always quick to warn, there is a cross to bear. And many of us realize, if I carry this cross, it will actually invite more pain in my life. So some, Again, maybe even in this room, respond to it with the last line. They immediately fall away. We mentioned this in week one, but I think it’s worth repeating.

This word, fall away, has many connotations. It’s a very rich word. That’s what’s hard about English. Sometimes we don’t have one phrase that encapsulates the Greek phrase that’s being used here. It doesn’t just mean you fall away. It’s not this idea that accidentally you fell off. No, you were disgusted.

Other translations say you were offended by the gospel. Because of your offense, you decided to reject the gospel and all of its demands. This is what we have to face if we are truly considering becoming fourth soil. The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4, another anchor passage for us. If you could churn there, we’re going to spend a lot of our time in 2 Timothy today.

He gives a similar warning to his protégé Timothy. Again, we read this last week, but I’ll read it again. Chapter 4, starting in verse 3, When people will not tolerate sound doctrine, look at that, will not tolerate, it means they also fell away, they were offended by the truth, sound doctrine, the truths of the gospel, but according to their own desires, we mentioned desires a lot last week, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they Want to hear not what they need to hear.

Verse four, they will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. But as for you, I want you to read Second Timothy. Paul is an older gentleman. He has a fatherly tone towards Timothy. He’s, it’s one of grace, but also one of urgency. But as for you, I don’t care what anybody else does, but as for you, exercise self control and everything.

Endure hardship. That’s our focus for today. Do the work of an evangelist and fulfill. Here in chapter 4, Paul is recapping much of what he’s already written in this letter. Throughout his letter to Timothy, the call is to endure. It’s all over the place if you were to read 2 Timothy. And let me just show you, in 2 Timothy alone, how much Paul had to endure.

First of all, the things Paul had to endure is persecution and imprisonment. We see that he’s actually been in chains many times. He’s been under house arrest. We read that at the end of Acts 28. And this is, many believe, the last imprisonment that leads to his beheading. Emperor Nero is about to kill him, thinking he will kill the church, but instead, it makes the movement go even faster.

But here’s what’s interesting about this hardship. It is hard to endure, but there’s something comforting from the fact that this is pressure from outside the church. I know for me, when a non believer is a little bit angry at me, I grieve, but I’m able to sleep that night. It’s the second category of endurance that I find really hard, abandonment by others.

Paul says here in chapter 1 that everyone in the province of Asia deserted him and left the gospel. He mentions also in chapter 4, Demas fell in love with the world and thus abandoned Paul. And then what’s so sad, he was at his last trial defense, trying to get free to share the gospel again. And he notes in chapter 4, everyone left him and deserted him.

Nobody was there to have his back. I would argue this pain feels much worse when it’s from inside the church. Church hurt is one of the hardest things and it’s one of the enemy what the enemy loves to use But then number three is physical and emotional pain. We see in this letter Paul even mentions Hey, bring me a cloak which many assume he was suffering physically He was nervous about winter and then you also see this phrase Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm and many people believe it’s not just physical

So here in chapter 1 of 2 Timothy, Paul is writing about those who have fallen away. Turns out the whole province of Asia, in Jesus language, was the second soil. He had a group of people saying, we’ll follow the gospel. But then he’s writing to update Timothy, you know, that whole province of Asia, how we started this gospel roots, persecution came, and they’re all gone.

They were offended by what Jesus was asking. But now in a fatherly tone, he’s looking towards Timothy thinking, Tim. Don’t do this too. Fight the good fight. And it’s in that context we start in chapter 2, starting in verse 1. This, what we will see, to help Timothy endure, Paul’s going to give him three images to meditate on, and I hope that we can meditate on it today as well.

Verse 1, chapter 2. You, therefore, my son, be strong. In the grace that is in Christ Jesus, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. He’s talking about multiplying the gospel efforts. Verse three, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, no one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of civilian life.

He seeks to please the commanding officer. That’s the first image. The second one. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Now the last image. The hard working farmer ought to be the first to get a share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding.

Lord will give you understanding and everything if we meditate on this. See, these are images, these are metaphors, and those are very important for us to choose wisely because the story you live in is the story you will live out. That’s why for us at Passion Creek, one predominant paradigm, one image or metaphor we like to share every single week, if you haven’t noticed, is we’re not here to make Attenders, right?

Attenders has an image. There’s a metaphor. There’s all sorts of assumptions made. If we were to say, Hey, we’re here strictly for attendance. It has things like entertainment as the key metric. It has things like making sure it doesn’t matter. Our character. We’re just hoping we get bigger and bigger. And so we don’t want those to be our values.

So we name that out loud and Say, look, vanity metrics make the vision go septic. We are not here to make a tender. So although obviously you have to attend what we are here at a deeper level level, the hope, uh, the image we’re trying to paint here at church is not that we’re here to make a tenders, but we’re here to make.

Disciples, when I pause, even for a half second, that means you talk, right? So you’re doing a good job. You’re like, when do I talk for him? All right, make disciples. When we talk about discipleship, that reshapes our conversations around maturity. It’s training to become like Jesus, not trying to behave like Jesus.

It’s learning Christ like humility. All of that is very important. So Paul here gives us three images, three metaphors, three job descriptions to think about and how that will help us lean into what God has called us to do. I find verse seven really fascinating because essentially he’s saying, if you consider, or Hebrew phrase would be Haga, which means to meditate on this over and over.

If you really think about what I just told you, it has the power to bring you understanding and that understanding will give you the endurance that you need. So what do each of these. pictures have in common? Well, they are constantly consecrated and concentrated. A quick word on each. First, they’re constantly Consecrated the soldier he set apart for a specific task this image.

He’s sharing here. Think about a soldier usually leaves his home He’s not even with his family anymore, and he’s got one job. He’s not going to Europe to check out Europe He’s going to Europe to defend us right and all their task is to constantly We remember there’s an enemy there is a fight. There is a Battle in his whole job.

The whole time he’s there is to police his commander. That is a consecration. All right, the athlete. He doesn’t have a nine to five. He doesn’t work. And then on the side, he trains for the Olympics. This is his or her entire job. And everything’s about getting 1 percent better. The farmer. He designs his whole life around the seasons, certain seasons.

There’s no hanging out and there’s no going on vacation. You need to understand the moment and stay concentrated to the hour. Consecration is another way to describe our theme. Fourth quarter fourth soil in 2025 a fruitful life isn’t a frantic one. It’s a focused one. It’s one that’s set apart. Paul uses kind of this imagery even further.

Second Timothy two verse 21. Says, so if anyone purifies himself from anything dishonorable, he will be a special instrument set apart, useful to the master prepared for every good work. That might be another way to summarize what we’re seeking to do in 2025. Jordan saying, he says, I wrote this great book on miracle work.

Uh, he describes consecration this way I thought was really helpful. Consecration refers to the way we dedicate ourselves to the things of God through specific sacrificial acts. The more of ourselves we set apart exclusively for God’s use, the larger our capacity to flow in God’s supernatural power.

Fasting. Like we mentioned last week is a prime example of consecration. So encouraged. I don’t know if he wants me to call him out, but even today it before service started, a gentleman brought me over and mentioned how he’s already begun this fasting practice. He is feeling like God is calling him to consecrate his Wednesdays unto the Lord.

And even in just one week, he has seen. God move. That’s the heart of we’re seeking to do in 2025. Not only are they constantly consecrated, they are also constantly concentrated. The farmer is attentive to the times and the seasons. You don’t plant. During winter, right? I don’t know. I’m not a farmer, but I’m a son of a farmer.

I’ll go ask him. There’s certain things you do at certain times. Working at the right pace, at the right time, in the right season. You’re concentrated. Studying the stars, figuring out when is when. The athlete, he has to concentrate on the rules. Paul is saying there, you can have all the effort, you can do all this, but if you’re not following the rules, if you’re not following the way of the Lord that he’s put out, you’re not gonna get the crown.

Focus on doing the right thing in the right way. And the soldier can’t get entangled with civilian life. The enemy will capitalize. Stay concentrated. Focus on the enemy. Recognize your surroundings. And so this week, because of verse 7, it says, again, Paul says, Think, consider, haggah, these things. And as you think through these three images, it will bring understanding to your life.

So I’ve been, again, running lately. And so on my run and on my walks, I’ve been Processing. Okay. Let me think through those three images. And so I thought I was being so smart and creative. It was, uh, towards the end of my run, I was like, okay, Lord, I’m really going to focus on the soldier. There’s something about the soldier there that gives me a lot of just, uh, you know, understanding and clarity.

And so I was processing this and a couple, two weeks ago, exactly from the day, it was the craziest gift. My wife came up to me and said, Hey, we have a present for you in the car. I was like, what is it? She goes, guess. I guess like 100 things. I never got close to what we actually got. So again, someone in our church gave me a PS five, which I didn’t know they made five of them.

I thought there was only like two. So I was kind of pumped. The last gaming system I had was a Nintendo 64. Anybody else with me in 64 unite? Let’s bring it back anyway. So I thought, how fun. Let’s try it. So in college, everybody made fun of me. I was the guy who went to bed at 9 p. m. every single night, even freshman year of college, and apparently that’s when they started to play Xbox and PlayStation.

And I remember, as I got this PS5, I thought, it’s free, I can justify paying for one game. I remember, 15 years ago at least, Call of Duty was a really big deal. Anybody know about that? Call of Duty? Yeah, so. I’m a little bit late, 15 years late, but again, I was, been playing it, uh, these last couple weeks, and so I was like, you know what, Lord, I know what it’s like to be a soldier now, you know, and, and like, as I’m thinking about it, like, you gotta notice when they throw the grenade at you, you gotta throw it back or run somewhere fast.

Like, so I’m like literally just talking to God about Call of Duty for like 15 minutes. And then I get lost and think, what was I, why am I talking to you about, oh, the soldier metaphor? So, I felt like in that moment the Lord nudged me and was like, Trey? This is literally the anti example. You are getting caught up, entangled in civilian affairs.

Pray to me more than you play PS5. Now, I, I feel like the Lord told me not to give it to any of you. So don’t come after service and say, Hey, this was free, give it to me. I just have to be more strict. I think the Lord’s gonna be okay with that, with the time when I do that. I need strict boundaries. Pray for me, maybe I need to repent before we take communion again next service.

But that’s currently where I’m at. But this is Paul’s exhortation here to focus and to actually move away distractions and to set your mind on one thing to consecrate and to concentrate. And this will give you the ability to endure times of hardship. And I have learned the only way to experience fruit is to endure the hard seasons that God inevitably brings.

See, Paul, he’s now at the end of his life. He knows this to be true. Your threshold for pain can withhold your purpose. The second soil Received the gospel with joy. Invited everybody to their baptism service. So excited, look at God, but the pains of following Christ eventually crept in and they decided it wasn’t worth it.

Their threshold for pain was so low, they missed out on a fruitful life for the kingdom. What is that as a warning for you and for me? Theologian Christopher West, he says there’s actually three ways you and I are tempted or try to alleviate pain when it comes. He says the first one is to become the addict.

We are an addicted society. I think we all know someone, and let’s say, let’s just be honest, this is a room filled with grace. Many of us are this in the room. The addict is the person, he says, who simply tries to feed their desires on the world. This is very much what we mentioned last Sunday, forever giving in to every impulse and perpetually unsatisfied.

Think Esau accepting the bowl of stew and forfeiting his future. Just one more drink, just one more high, just one more relationship and I will feel good. Now imagine if Martin Luther was an addict. PS5. Would he have been too addicted to civilian concerns to write the 95 Theses? Could he have summoned the courage to confront the Pope and say, Here I stand, if he was addicted to watching Gilmore Girls every single night?

I don’t know. Still not done with it, by the way. Number two. Some become the Stoic. The Stoic numbs him or herself from emotion. They’ve been hurt by people or experiences, and so they find refuge in logic and self reliance. Anytime they have an emotion, they suppress it and push it down. Stoicism, by the way, is really gaining, uh, some traction among young men.

I’ve been very, uh, kind of tuned into that impulse and trying to figure out what men are trying to tap into there. These are people who deny their need for desire, and in that hope, if they deny my desires, I will protect myself from pain. And in a world without Jesus, these are our only two options. But some, Christopher West says, endure to become the mystic.

Now mysticism, a lot of us tie it to Eastern religion, which by the way, Christianity started in the East, but anyways, Eastern mysticism, that’s not what I’m saying, emptying yourself just to empty yourself, but there is something about being a person who is praying to God and actually expecting his presence to come near.

The mystic is the one who knows that God is in control and knows the goal of life is more about who we become than what we have done. So he or she holds on to Christ Jesus. Christopher West describes the mystic this way. The mystic is the one who allows himself to feel the deepest depths of human desire and chooses to stay with the pain of wanting more than this life has to offer.

See, many of us, we say we trust in Jesus. We hope he gives us comfort and purpose, but we don’t wait on him long enough to actually give it. The key is endurance. But here’s the really good news. Paul certainly knows this to be true. Your threshold for pain can withhold your purpose, or it can tenfold your purpose.

Or Jesus maybe would say it can 100 fold your purpose as it says in Mark 4 verse 20. See if you read the scriptures and understand church history you quickly see pain is a testing ground to refine your character and to actually give you hope. I think of Paul when he says in Romans 5 that, that eventually leads to perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

And it gives us joy in the midst of any pain. The beautiful thing is if you endure hardship long enough, when the harvest actually comes, you don’t say, of course, I deserve this. You just respond with humility, God, you are so good and I am so undeserving. Pain is a wonderful counselor if we position it towards Christ.

Dallas Willard. Gotta mention Dallas. Dallas Willard actually calls it the golden triangle of character formation. He argues, if we are truly to become formed by Jesus together for others, it always requires three things. Number one, at the top, it requires the Holy Spirit. None of this, remember the mystery.

None of this happens without his grace, without the triune God doing what only he can do. But secondly is the spiritual disciplines are what you and I would call the practices of Jesus, such as fasting, which we’re about to do in February. But the third thing he mentions, it’s not just the Holy Spirit, it’s not just spiritual disciplines.

The third and very important factor to this golden triangle is suffering it’s pain, it’s being hurt by others and still pressing forward. Paul. I knew this to be true as well. Galatians chapter 6 verse 9 has become my life verse. Two years in a planting, Passion Creek, I recognize I cannot make it without this verse.

Galatians 6 9 says, Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Now, the context here, by the way, is not about some project or career choice or decision. God often calls us to new seasons. In fact, he often calls us to give up the very thing we love. But what it is saying is we, we can quit a lot of things, but what we don’t give up on is our own journey of being formed by Jesus and our own journey of contributing to the kingdom.

Maybe that looks like Passion Creek for you, maybe not. That’s okay to give up on those things, but the major thing here, though, is are you surrendering to the personal work of Jesus? And this verse has helped me endure the hardest of seasons because I have been telling God, you can ask my wife, God, you are not a liar.

And so if we don’t give up, we are going to reap a harvest. Funny enough, James Clear, he wrote the book Atomic Habits. Anybody read that book? It’s great for January. Seriously, raise your hand. My wife. Thank you. Y’all need to read it. Although it’s not Christian. So whatever. Talk to me after and then I’ll tell you to read it.

I feel like I shouldn’t reference not non Christian books from the pulpit. So I never said that, but he wrote this book, Atomic Habits, and he has this quote, and I think it’s Galatians 6, 9 in business parlance. He says, your work isn’t being wasted. It’s just being stored. This sounds so inspiring. It could be on a Hallmark card.

But the key that we can’t miss, and maybe James Clear does, because it’s, I don’t know if he’s a Christian. You talk to him. If you know him, let us, whatever, but we can’t miss is that it takes immense strength that cannot come from us. That’s why chapter two, verse one, again, it says, you, Timothy, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

It’s from him. And we’re able to walk in it. So my question is simple for today. As we look at 2025, is there a practice from the way of Jesus that can make us quote strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus? Is there a habit or a rhythm that can help soften our hearts but still give strength to our spines?

Is it possible to endure hardship? I would say yes, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can endure hardship through the practice of prayer. This is a key idea in 2 Timothy 2, is this word grace. Notice that. Be strong in the grace. Now, if you’re like me, growing up in church, I’ve always assumed grace is about Pardoning your sin, which is true.

Yes. And amen. So when we say grace, it’s God’s unmerited favor. It means he forgives you of everything you’ve done in your past. He, in fact, grace forgives you for what you’ve done in the present. And the incredible thing is grace has already forgiven you of what you’ve done in the future. If you surrender to King Jesus.

So yes. And amen. Grace is a pardon, but it has changed my life. Most recently, theologically grace is not just a pardon. It is also a power. Grace brings strength to our bones, it gives resolve to our spirit, and it gives hope in times of despair, which is entirely dependent on Jesus Christ, our Lord. To put simply, grace is a pardon, but it’s also a power that is accessed through prayer.

Just read the Psalms, you’ll see David wrestle time and time again, mentioning how he doesn’t have strength. He can’t persevere, but I will not rely on the horses or my own strength. I will rely on God who is provider. Jesus says in John 15, apart from me, you can do nothing. You and I have no power outside of Christ.

And so I would say as we approach, we are in 2025, but as we approach what this whole year looks like, my desire, is that we become a praying church. We have been praying. Every first Saturday of the month we pray, I want to do it more. And I would say to become a praying people, we must understand that prayer is a combination of mastery and mystery.

Mastery. Some of us don’t pray because we don’t run our calendars, but our calendars run us. So it’s part of praying. It’s just like learning self control and learning to change your schedule. So you can say no to some things to say yes to God, but it’s also very much a mystery. We love to say all the time, we don’t pray before the work, prayer is the work, because that’s when God works.

Prayer gives us the power to press on, prayer gives us wisdom to lean on, prayer gives us peace that passes understanding, it’s through prayer that gives what we do not possess within ourselves. And so our hope this year, starting in May, is that we crank it up a whole nother notch, because we want to endure to be a fourth soil church.

We must. put on prayer. And so just like fasting, what we’re going to do for prayer is give you a theology, a template and a trial run. Theology, we’re going to do this in May. We’re going to preach on what prayer is and what it isn’t, what is God’s heart behind it. Then in May also, we’re going to give you a template.

We’re going to practice prayer together in many different ways. We’re going to hopefully set out a template for you. So it’s plug and chug. You can apply it to your stage and season of life and the trial run. We’re so excited for this summer. On our mind those next two months will be opportunities for you and I there’s so much grace I recognize in our prayer gatherings people don’t pray out loud because they’re nervous.

What if I don’t say things, right? That’s the wrong paradigm. Like no, there’s no professionals here. We can all stumble along the way We want to give spaces to pray and that’s why in the summer. We’re going to be studying The, uh, John 13 through 17, what many call the Upper Room Discourse. Jesus is in the fourth quarter with his disciples before the crucifixion, and honestly, most of John 13 through 17, which we’ll study in the summer together, is about cultivating a life that abides in Christ Jesus through the practice of prayer.

So I want you to join us. I want to invite you to stick with us as we fast in February, but then as we begin to pray in May. And don’t think, oh, I don’t have to pray till May. Pray now! Get prayed up, but get ready, because we’re going to lean in even more. But as I close, I want us to simply meditate on this last part of the exhortation Paul gives to Timothy in order to endure, and it starts in verse 8.

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and descended from David, meaning he is fully God and he’s fully man, according to my gospel for which I suffer to the point of becoming bound like a criminal. But the word of God is not bound. This is why I endure. All things for the elect so that they may also obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

And this saying is trustworthy. This was like a hymn or a song that he’s quoting here. For if we died with him, we will also live with him. When we give gospel invitations, we often say, It’s to die to self. It’s to die to your sins. Paul says we’ve been crucified with Christ to come to him as a say, Jesus, you died for me and I die with you.

I’m dying to my desires and I am looking to you alone and the beauty of the gospel is if we die with him. This is why when we get buried in baptism, we are raised to new life with him. We will live with him, but here’s the catch. You cannot live with him if you do not first die with him. Then the next phrase, if we endure.

We will also reign with him. What does this mean? We must endure, brothers and sisters. And if we endure, if we say yes to the Lord in the midst of persecution and distress and pain, and if we endure the hard seasons, as well as the good seasons, we have this incredible promise that we will reign with him for eternity.

There’s also a warning if we deny him. He will also deny us. Jesus says this himself, if you deny me before the Father, I will deny you before the Father. Verse 13, if we are faithless He remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. Many actually commentators struggle and one sense this is a comfort to a Christian because friends you and I are not perfect.

We’re not going to do this exactly right. There will be times where we are second or third soil people on a Tuesday. And so that can be, yes, even when we are faithless, God is still good. But another way to interpret this, and I actually am leaning towards this way too. If we are faithless. Meaning if we don’t follow Christ, He will still be faithful to keep His promise that only those who believe in Him will be allowed in.

He cannot deny Himself. He cannot lie. He cannot say, yes, you can come to the kingdom another way. No, if you are faithless, if you don’t put your faith and trust in Christ, you will be cast out. Because He cannot deny Himself. He will be a person of truth. So I just want to ask you a couple questions. First of all, do you know Him?

Do you trust Him?

Do you suffer for and with him? Because the beautiful promise of the gospel is that blessing comes through pain, so keep holding on. Fruit comes through toil, so keep fighting. Life comes through death, so keep dying to self. And glory comes through suffering. Let’s pray.