Fan Into Flame The Gift Of God

2 Timothy as Paul’s Final Canonical Letter

2nd Timothy chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy.

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested to the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Praise the Lord. Let all that has breath praise the Lord.

Let's begin with a word of prayer. Lord, we rejoice in your kindness and benevolence to us. We thank you that we are able to gather and worship and singing songs of praise, that we have the liberty to gather and to hear your word.

We do not live by bread alone, O Lord. We live by every word that proceeded from your mouth. Thank you for the liberty and luxuries that many of us take for granted. Lord, please help us to recognize how blessed we are, and not to waste our time in this life.

Help us to use our strength, our resources, everything we are in service to you. And bless our assembly today according to your tender mercies, O Lord. Give us illumination from your spirit as the word is taught.

In your name I pray. Amen. 2nd. Timothy is the last canonical epistle written by the Apostle Paul. What that means is, it's the last letter that Paul would write before, according to church history, he would lose his head for his faith.

Paul wrote this from prison, like most of the letters he wrote. Timothy was, as we see, Paul's affectionate son, not his biological son. We learn from Acts chapter 16, verse 1, that Timothy's father was an unbeliever.

I'll read that for you, for biographical context of Timothy. Acts 16, verse 1 says, Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. So we see that Timothy was a spiritual orphan, as it were, a fatherless child. In Hebrew, the word orphan is fatherless. Timothy did not have a spiritual father, though he had a physical father.

Timothy only had a believing mother. The word Timothy means one who honors God or fears God. Apparently, Timothy's mother and grandmother took the Shema with the utmost sincerity. The Shema is the command in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 7, that the words that, you shall love the Lord your God, right?

Hear, O Israel. So the word here is Shema. Hear, O Israel. You shall love the Lord your God, is how the commandment starts. And then he says, these words you shall teach diligently. In shall teach these words diligently.

In verse 7, Deuteronomy 6, verse 7, you shall teach them, again the operative word is diligently, to your children. And you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Apparently, Timothy's mother and grandmother took that seriously.

They diligently taught Timothy the Scriptures. How do we know this? 2nd Timothy 3 15 says that Timothy, from a child, knew the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise into salvation. So today, what we're discussing is fanning into flame the gift of God.

I want you to meditate upon this truth. I would suggest the thesis of this sermon is from 2nd Timothy 1 verse 6. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hand.

So Paul encourages Timothy, fan into flame the gift of God. First, fan into flame the gift of God of family worship. Timothy's faith, again, Timothy had legitimate, sincere faith. In 2nd Timothy 1 5, he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith.

Again, what is the origin of that faith? How did Timothy come to be such a stout disciple of the Lord? Well, we know, again, that only his mother was a believer. But according to this verse, his grandmother was also a believer, Jewish believers, who took Deuteronomy 6 verse 7 very seriously.

And I want to challenge you, my dear brothers and sisters, to likewise take this challenge seriously. Fan into flame family worship. Don't neglect your children. What does it profit if you gain the whole world and lose your children?

What does it profit if you lose the fruit of your body to the lust of this world, to the foolishness of this world, and our children end up in the hell of fire? So fan into flame the gift of God, my brothers and sisters, of family worship.

Timothy, from a child, knew the Holy Scriptures. It's interesting because the Greek term in 2nd Timothy 1 6, fan into flame. The old King James says, I was raised on the old King James, so pardon the King James English that might come out of my mouth sometimes.

I memorized most of my scripture in the King James when I was 12, the Lord saved me. And so, brothers, fan into flame. The Greek term there literally means to fan into flame. The ESV renders it accurately.

The King James obscures the meaning of the Greek. It's a compound hapax legomenon, which means it's a term that only appears once in the entire corpus of the New Testament text. The Greek word underlying this is fascinating.

If you're like me, if you're a Greek geek, please go and study this verse in the original language, okay? Fan into flame has the idea, when I lived in India, sometimes we would go get corn. There'd be a gentleman or a lady on the side of the road, and they would be using a, something like a piece of cardboard or something, to aerate the fire, to oxidize the flame, right?

To fan into flame those embers, those charcoal embers. And this is kind of a hotter climate. I'm originally from New York. Growing up in New York, you know, sometimes I would go to a camp, and they had fires, campfires, right?

You aerate with billows, for example, right? Use billows to oxidize that fire, aerate that flame. That's the idea in the Greek here. The word is anozoepurine. The point is, our God is a consuming fire.

The world is a cold place. It's very cold. It's a very cruel place, a very dark place. You are the light of the world, my brothers and sisters, right? Jesus said in John 8 12, I am the light of this world.

But then he said in Matthew 5 14, ye are the light of this world. So his light is in you, my brothers and sisters. His spirit is in you. His fire is in you. What was the law of the burnt offering? Look at Leviticus chapter 6, if you will.

Turn to Leviticus chapter 6. This is the law of the burnt offering that was given to the Levitical priests who were to serve the Lord in the tent of meeting. In Leviticus chapter 6 verse 12, the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it.

It shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it, and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually.

It shall not go out. Notice the tautology. Notice the repetition. Notice. Your job as a priest, he says, is to make sure the fire doesn't die. You keep the fire hot. You keep it bright. That's your duty.

Martin Luther championed the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. There is no clergy, laity, sharp division, as we see among the false Roman Catholic Church. Brothers and sisters, we all are a holy priesthood.

We are all a kingly priesthood. Every one of us in here, regardless of our economic background or our stratification in society, every one of us equally is a priest unto God. So that means it's not just a privilege, it's a responsibility.

You burn that holy fire, that holy flame in your house every day. Rome thought they had an eternal flame, but the flame of Rome has gone out, my brothers and sisters. Only the kingdom of God endures. Only the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ endures forever.

The kingdoms of this world, they come and go, but the kingdom of God endures forever. Brothers and sisters, fan into flame worship of the King in your home every single day, as I've been so encouraged by Pastor Owen's family, spending just a couple nights in their home, the warm hospitality, and watching them corporately gather, religiously gather, right?

Discipline. We have to have discipline. We have to be consistent. We must not let the fire die. Watching the Owens family worship corporately, sing praise, and pray together, and train their children in godliness.

What an example. What an example. Brothers and sisters, likewise, you do not neglect this fire that is in you. Stir up the gift of God. Fan into flame the gift of God. The second point I want to encourage you.

Courage and Unashamed Gospel Witness

Fan into flame the gift of God. Encourage. Encourage for the gospel. Be courageous. Be courageous. Notice what he says here in 2nd Timothy chapter 1, verse 7. If you don't have it memorized, please memorize it.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control. Brothers and sisters, the world is filled with cowardice now. We live in an age of mass cowardice. It's not so much mass insanity, I would suggest, that the LGBTQ garbage is all over our society.

The abortion holocaust, that the sodomite pride events are staining our fair streets and our fair cities with their foolishness and their evil. It's not so much that people are massly insane. I don't think that America and the world, because by the way, the LGBTQ agenda, the sodomite agenda, is all over the planet.

There's pride events in Jerusalem, Israel. Okay, I've been to Israel nine times. I preached at the pride event in Tel Aviv. The point is, it's all over the planet. Okay, the Antichrist agenda has permeated the globe.

We should not fear. We should take courage. We should take courage, brothers and sisters, because God does not give us a spirit of fear. Most churches these days won't address these issues. You won't hear these issues confronted head-on.

Why? Fear of loss of face, loss of 501c3 status, or loss of influence in the culture, loss of opportunities. Brothers and sisters, God does not give us this spirit of fear. Fear is faith in the devil.

Don't believe in the devil. Believe in the Lord. Don't for the gospel. You are the light of the world. You, my brother, my sister, are the light of the world. Don't be ashamed. Jesus wasn't ashamed when he hung on that cross.

He wasn't ashamed of you. He wasn't ashamed of me. He gladly hung on that cross and received those five wounds that we sang about. He gladly opened his hands. He did not resist arrest. He did not fight the Roman soldiers.

I think the Roman soldiers were surprised. I think they were used to having to fight with the condemned. I think they were accustomed to having to use all of their strength and all of their body weight to pin the arms and the legs of those criminals.

But Jesus said that he's a good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. He offered his hands and he offered his feet to receive the death blows. He gave his face, his cheek to those who pull out the beard.

He offered his back to those who flayed it open. His stripes were healed. He wasn't ashamed of you and me. He wasn't ashamed of our filthy fantasies and our sinful lusts. He wasn't ashamed to that is to die for them.

He wasn't ashamed to suffer for them. He wasn't ashamed. How dare, how dare. I sound like Greta Thunberg. How dare, how dare we be ashamed. How dare we be ashamed. How dare we be afraid to let our light shine.

How dare we hide our light under a basket and not put it on a stand that it might give light to all who are in the house. God does not give us a spirit of fear, brothers and sisters. Don't listen to that voice of mediocrity.

Don't listen to that voice of lukewarmness. Don't listen to that voice of weakness. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. The scripture commands us. Use the means of grace. Don't neglect family worship. Don't neglect opportunities to distribute gospel tracts, to speak the word of Christ to your neighbors, to your family members at family gatherings.

To your friends, to your business colleagues. Don't be a coward. In Revelation 21 verse 8, Revelation 21 verse 8, the cowards are the first on the list that will be thrown into the lake of fire. Cowards.

Don't be a coward, brothers and sisters. Don't shrink back, but declare the counsel of God, the whole counsel of God. That is the gospel. Preach the word of God in season and out of season. God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power.

Why was Paul not ashamed of the gospel? Romans 1 16, for it is, he says, the power of God unto salvation. To everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In 2 Corinthians 1 21, the preaching of the cross is to those that perish foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is what?

The power of God. The gospel is the power of God. Unleash it. As Charles Spurgeon wisely said, the gospel, the word of God is like a lion. You don't need to defend it. Just unleash it. It'll defend itself.

Unleash the gospel from your mouth. Open the word of God. Open your mouth to speak the word of God, that is. Brothers and sisters, don't be ashamed of Jesus Christ. How dare we? Please, the darkness grows thick in our world.

Don't fear. The light is the most appreciable in the darkest of times. In the darkest of places, the light shines the most brilliantly, the most gloriously, the most resplendently. God gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power.

Power to be unashamed of the gospel. Power, thirdly, to have strength in the face of suffering. Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you, brothers and sisters, of fortitude in the face of suffering, of suffering.

See, our Lord Jesus Christ suffered for our sins. How dare we be ashamed to suffer for his holiness? He suffered for our shame. Let us suffer for his honor. He suffered for our salvation. Brothers and sisters, please, don't be ashamed to endure suffering.

Notice what he says in 2 Timothy 1 verse 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me as prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

Notice that he says there in verse 8, share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. So that's the secret then. How do we endure persecution? You say, well, persecution? We're in California. What persecution?

This is California, right? If you are bold for Jesus, you will be targeted. You will be hated. If you speak the truth, just like Charlie Kirk did, you may literally be targeted. Should we be ashamed? No.

Fear is for others, not God's sons and daughters. You're children of the King, my brother, sister. You are children of the King. Fear is unbecoming of you. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

Put on the armor of God. How do we endure suffering? By the power of God. Jesus endured the passion, right? The word passion is interesting in English because it has two meanings. The passion of Christ refers to his suffering.

Passion means suffering. It also means zeal. We also use it, oh, he's a very passionate preacher, a very passionate football player, a very passionate, you know, gamer. However you want to use the noun, the adjective passionate, right?

Or passion means someone who has an intense fervency to do something. It also means suffering. Because if you love something greatly, you're going to suffer as you do it. The Lord Jesus willingly laid down his hands and his feet on that cruel cross.

He willingly suffered for our sins. Brothers and sisters, don't be ashamed. Of suffering, you know, when I was in India as a missionary, not long after I arrived in India, every morning in the church where I lived, it was in a small village, four hours from the nearest international airport.

But they had never seen a foreigner, these people. They looked at my strange skin and they're just fascinated to see a foreigner. Every morning at 5 a .m., you hear three things in an Indian village. You hear the Hindu mantras being blasted over the PA system on top of the temple.

And then you hear the Muslim Shahada. You hear the called prayer. And then you hear the Christians singing praise and honoring the Lord at 5 a .m. So every morning I was tasked with the duty of preaching.

Every morning at 5 a .m., I would preach through the Psalms. Fascinating being in India. Talk about cacophony. First, there's nothing like cacophony in your cup first thing in the morning. I mean, hearing Hindus and Muslims and Christians all literally competing for the sound waves over the village.

We're all trying to take over the village, you know. It's fascinating. So I was a marked man because every morning, 5 a .m. in the morning, there's this foreigner. You know, there's this pathogen. There's this foreign agent, this foreign pathogen has entered our society.

And he's preaching. And he's challenging our gods, challenging our religious ideologies. And so I was on my bicycle one day and I was rammed with an SUV. I was a guy, well, four men rammed into me while I was on my bicycle and knocked me down.

And they jumped out of the vehicle. And the verse came to my mind, the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. So I was in the army. I was a U .S. soldier. I'm a disabled veteran.

I was trained to kill by any means necessary. But I didn't want to kill anybody. The Lord has changed us. The Lord has redeemed us. The last resort in defense of our family is that. But I didn't yield to the impulse to defend my life.

I let them. They beat me with a metal rod to the face, left a scar on my head. I was left unconscious on the road for 20 minutes. I came close to death. A man in white woke me up, an old man, poured water on my face.

And then I came to. And when I came to, copious blood is coming out of my mouth. And they beat my leg. And they beat all over my body with this tire iron or an iron bar. But the Lord raised me. That was 15 years ago.

15 years ago. And then I kept preaching Jesus, just for preaching Jesus. Again and again, seven times in India. God is my witness. Seven times in India. I was nearly killed just for preaching Jesus. They put a rope around my neck and beat me with a wooden, like a, it was like a two by two or two by four.

I don't remember exactly. But they beat the back of my head with a wooden beam for preaching Jesus in the villages, in these remote places where no farmers have been. I learned the Telugu language by God's grace, my wife's language, how to read and write it, how to preach it.

And the Lord saved me by His grace over and over and over and over and over again. I shouldn't be here. I'm not a particularly strong man. It's only by the grace of God I am what I am. Yet His grace that was bestowed upon me, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 .10, was not in vain for I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me.

I'm not here. We're not here. We don't preach ourselves. We preach Jesus Christ as Lord. So what does that mean? You shouldn't be ashamed. The Lord saved me from death over and over and over again. I had typhoid fever.

I was reduced to about half the body weight I am now. I was reduced to less than 120 pounds, to less weight than I was after I graduated basic combat training. In the army, you lose a lot of weight in basic training.

But when I got sick with typhoid, I was reduced to less body weight than I was after basic training. I could count my ribs in the mirror. I felt the shadow of death over me constantly. But the Lord delivered me, right?

Because He's my shepherd, and He's your shepherd. You will not want. He is our good shepherd. He laid down His life for you, my brother, for you, my sister. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed. Preach the gospel without fear.

Take back the public square. You know, about, what, 20 years ago, the perverts came out of the closet, and the Christians took their place. Generally speaking, many Christians took their place. Are you in the closet, Christian?

Come out of the closet. Go into the town square and parade Christ, parade Jesus, parade the gospel. Don't let the perverts take over your square. Don't let the perverts take over the downtown. Don't be a coward.

Endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, 2 Timothy 2 verse 3. Paul uses this phrase repeatedly through his letters. Share in suffering. Share in suffering. Do you share in suffering, brothers and sisters?

I guarantee you, if you preach Jesus in America, you will be persecuted. How do you know that? I know it. I had the FBI arrest me. The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested me for preaching outside an abortion clinic, okay?

So don't think for one moment that persecution is not in America. That's a lie. Persecution's always been here. Anywhere on this earth, if you are bold for Jesus, again, Charlie Kirk should dramatically, eloquently demonstrate that.

Anywhere on this earth that you stand for Jesus boldly, boldly, and you confront the idols of the land head-on, you will be persecuted. You will. All who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

There's no wiggle room there, brothers and sisters. Got persecution? If not, why not? Examine yourself, brothers and sisters. The lukewarm are spewed out. Brothers and sisters, notice what he says. Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me as prisoner.

I was just in prison two weeks ago, three weeks ago. I was in a prison cell in Nepal for two weeks or 13 days, right? Don't exaggerate. Give God all glory. Thirteen days, my friends, I was in jail. Why?

For preaching Jesus on the streets of Nepal. For preaching and seeing countless lives changed. No, that's to be expected. That's to be expected. And the Lord released me from that jail cell, and I was deported the next day after almost eight years in Nepal.

The very next day, get this, the very next day, the government of Nepal was violently overthrown. When I say violently overthrown, I mean the parliamentary building, like our, you know, congress building, was burned to the ground.

The prime minister's residence, the prime minister, the highest head of state in the country, his own house was burned down. The home minister, who personally signed off on my deportation, resigned the next day.

Why did he resign? He was running for his life as a coward, because he knew the Gen Z people were coming for him. In case you didn't follow the news, the Nepali government shut down Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp.

All of the big apps were canceled by the government because of greed and hatred for free speech. And so the Gen Z uprising happened. Praise God it wasn't extremely bloody, but the army had to take over the country.

The government collapsed in a blaze. That's how God fights for his people. Even the U .S. federal government doesn't destroy a whole another country for one citizen. But our God, he loves his sons and his daughters.

He vindicates his people. So don't be ashamed, my brothers and sisters, about the testimony about our Lord. Praise the Lord. How long am I, when should I wrap it up, brother? Only God is good, brother.

Sorry, that's the street evangelist coming out. Thank you, brother. Listen, my friends, do not be ashamed about the testament of our Lord. You know, the word for shame or ashamed in the original language has the idea of a downcast face.

Like if your little boy or your little girl put their finger in the birthday cake and you said, don't touch the birthday cake until after we sing happy birthday. But you know, little Timmy over here has to put his finger in the chocolate cake, right?

And then you rebuke him. And what does he do? He puts his face down. He's ashamed. He's ashamed, right? He knows he got caught doing wrong. Don't be ashamed. That's the meaning of the Greek word for ashamed in this particular verse.

2 Timothy 1 .8 has the idea of a downcast face. Like you got caught doing something wrong. There's nothing more right to do than to preach the gospel, brothers and sisters. Don't be ashamed for being socially awkward or whatever.

Don't be ashamed of being weird, because guess what? Congratulations. We are now the alternative people. The alternative lifestyle is not alternative. They're mainstream. Do you want to be rebellious?

Do you want to be alternative? Have a big family. Raise them in the fear of the Lord. Preach the gospel. Support cisgender heteronormative families. That's rebellious. That's rebellious. Don't be ashamed.

They're going to think I'm a Neanderthal if I have a godly family, if I try to raise a family in the fear of God, if I try to pursue holiness and I try to live a God-honoring life. People will not want to be my friend anymore.

People will look at me weird. Brothers and sisters, don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, he says. But share in suffering. Share in suffering.

Paul, he said, I want to share in his suffering. He's right in Philippians chapter 3. Let's turn there real fast. Philippians chapter 3. Paul was happy to suffer for Jesus. Philippians chapter 3. Look at verse 10.

That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that Paul is suggesting that he was meriting the resurrection of the dead.

He was earning salvation. That is not what he is saying. What he is saying, brothers and sisters, is the bitter comes before the sweet, which makes the sweet all the sweeter. In Romans 8 17, Paul says, if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him.

We shall reign with him. Everybody loves the cross of Jesus. Everybody celebrates the cross of Jesus, right? Santa Cruz means holy cross. I just discovered yesterday. You know, everybody wants to celebrate Christ's cross.

Christ's cross. But nobody, it seems very few, want to take up their own cross. Do you take up your cross daily and follow Jesus? Do you take up the cross of reproach and contempt from the world because you're unashamed of the truth of God?

Brothers and sisters, in 2 Timothy 4 verses 12 through 14, Peter says, Beloved, do not count it a strange thing concerning the fiery trial that is to come upon you as if some strange thing were happening to you.

Notice what he says in verse 14. But if you are insulted for the name of Christ, rejoice, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Notice what he says in 2 Peter, excuse me, 1 Peter 4 14. Notice that he says, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, he says the spirit of God, the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

He doesn't say if you're beaten, right? He doesn't say if you're beaten in the head. He doesn't say if you're martyred. He doesn't say if you're jailed. He simply says in 1 Peter 4 14, if you are insulted, if you are merely insulted for the name of Christ, that you should rejoice.

Why? Because he says you are blessed. You're blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. How do we know the spirit of God is on someone? Is it they roll on the ground and start saying, I want to buy a Honda?

No, that's not the mark of the Holy Spirit. We know someone is filled with the Holy Spirit when they are insulted, when they are opposed, when they are criticized, when they are canceled, when they are doxxed, when they are opposed for Jesus' sake.

That's how you know someone has the spirit of God upon them. It's very simple. You don't have to do antics and hysterics. That's often strange fire. Notice in Luke chapter 6, furthermore, if you will, look at Luke chapter 6 in verse 20.

There's Luke 6. Verse 25. Verse 25. But woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Does everyone speak well of you? Do you have many friends? Are you afraid to lose those friends? Friendship with the world is enmity with God, brothers and sisters. Notice back in verse 22. Luke 6 .22.

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, he says, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets.

Notice he says, leap for joy. Leap for joy. Have you ever been so happy that you jumped for joy? Have you ever been that happy? The Lord Jesus says, if you are merely hated, if people just don't want to hang out with you, they don't want to invite you to their get-togethers for your testimony for Jesus, you should leap for joy, brothers and sisters.

Leap for joy. You should be full of the glory of God, my friends. Praising him, honoring him. Leap for joy when you are hated. Why? Because you're following in the great tradition of the prophets who have before us.

Consider the prophets. Consider the outcome of their faith. Imitate their way of life. Consider your leaders, right? Consider Job. Remember the patience of Job. Don't lose your faith. Don't lose your soul.

Maybe our country has lost its soul. I'm not a prophet. But don't lose your soul, brothers and sisters. Don't lose your faith. Don't lose your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and don't lose your faithfulness to him.

Please be faithful unto death. Prove the legitimacy of your confession. Be faithful unto death, and you will receive a crown of life. So be faithful to train your children in the way of the Lord. Whoever has the children has the future.

The cultural Marxists know this, right? The enemies of the gospel know this. That's why they have their public indoctrination camps called public schools. Don't send your children there. It's child abuse.

Okay? It's child abuse to send your children to a public school. Brothers and sisters, please train your children in the way of God. Train them in the gospel. Teach them the oracles of God every day. Pray with and for your children, and teach them Christ, brothers and sisters.

Please, my brothers and sisters, the time grows short. I don't know when the end of the world is, but the end of your world may be 80 years, you know, if you're strong, 80 years of life. I don't know.

That might be the end of your world. We're all going to die. Live for that day. Live for the day of judgment. Don't live for today. Live for tomorrow. Live so that when you die, you die a good death, and you're happy to meet your Savior, and that your children and your beloved family, that they know the words of life.

Put down the phone. Put down the selfish interests, and open the scriptures with your family. Open the hymn book. Open the catechism. Train your children for war. Train them for spiritual combat. Don't be ashamed.

Don't lose your family. Don't lose your family. Don't lose your future. Be disciplined. Fan into flame the gift of God. Fan into flame the gift of God, of family worship, of courage, and gospel proclamation, and persecution.

Perseverance, I should say, through persecution. Expect to be persecuted. Don't you want to be like Jesus? Every disciple, when he's fully trained, is as his master. So let us be faithful unto death. Let us not be ashamed, but let us endure suffering as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, 2 Timothy 2 .3.

Endure suffering, brothers and sisters. We are all soldiers. We are all active duty, wartime soldiers right now. Unless you're a casualty, unless you don't know Jesus, please, today is the day of salvation, the Bible says.

Now is the acceptable time. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. You could be hit by a drunk driver, God forbid, on your way home. Please make your peace with God today. The Lord says, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly at heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Please look to Christ, sinner.

Look to him, O sinner, and be saved. Look to him who was pierced, who was ran through with a spear in his side, whose brow was flayed open with a crown of thorns, taking the curse. For thorns and thistles came forth from the ground because of sin.

The Lord put that crown of thorns, signifying that he took the curse upon his own body. He hung on a tree. He didn't die a comfortable death or an honorable death. He died like a common criminal. He died like trash.

He died like refuse, willingly, willingly. But that's not the end, right? He rose again. He rose again, and you too will rise again. No matter what happens to you in your journey of faith, you will rise again.

If you really believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you truly believe the gospel, you cannot die. Do you understand this? You cannot die. You're truly immortal. Those in God's glory, those in the blissful state, they are more alive than you or I.