- This evening, and the last couple of weeks,
we were going through 1 Timothy.
If you remember from 1 Timothy,
one of the main things that we see is that Paul the apostle
is instructing his son of the faith Timothy
in how to behave himself in the house of God.
And of course, we essentially see that Timothy
is left in charge of the church at Ephesus.
And he gets some very practical instructions
on how to pastor and oversee that congregation,
explicitly showing them that,
hey, you need to make sure you have sound doctrine
that you teach the people who are there,
the men who are there,
not to teach anything aside from what the Bible
actually says.
He gives the qualifications of a pastor,
gives the qualifications of a deacon.
He explains the importance of giving attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
He talks about the danger of getting into false doctrine.
And then in chapter five and six,
he gets into a lot of the practicality
of the Christian life.
Now here in second Timothy,
the second letter that the apostle Paul writes to Timothy,
it seems to have an undertone of persecution.
And what we're looking at here,
when you actually read through the whole book,
you see that it's already possible
that Timothy has already seen some persecution.
He's feeling the pressure, he's getting persecuted,
and he's somewhat on the brink of just
not necessarily quitting, but being fearful,
trembling, not necessarily sure what to do.
And the apostle Paul is encouraging him.
He's exhorting him here in this epistle
to continue in the faith despite the persecution.
Now, why is Second Timothy important for you and I
to familiarize ourself with?
Well, the reason for that would be because of the fact
that we also are going to experience persecution.
And you know, a lot of times Christian churches
do a disservice to their congregation
by refusing to explain to people in their congregation
that they will suffer tribulation.
They're gonna go through affliction.
They will get pushback from their family and friends
and from the public at large for their beliefs, right?
And unfortunately, if Christians are not prepared
for tribulation, they're not prepared for persecution,
they're gonna fold, right?
They'll end up quitting on the Lord.
They'll deny some of the things they believe,
or they'll just outright compromise
and become tolerant towards false doctrine,
towards positions that are contrary to the word of God.
And that is very dishonoring to God.
The Bible says that we should not be ashamed
of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And as we're gonna see here in 2 Timothy,
the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy,
"Hey, you need to make sure you endure hardness
as a good soldier."
And this is also showing us that the ministry is great
because we get people saved,
we turn people to righteousness,
our lives improve drastically because of it.
But it comes with a price a lot of the times.
And the price is, you're gonna be hated by the world.
Price is, there's gonna be some relationships in your life
that are gonna be severed.
And there's gonna be a lot of division in your life
because of your position as a Christian
believing the Bible.
You are gonna feel some pushback,
you're gonna feel some affliction.
There's gonna be some definite hardships in your life.
And then the relationships that you have.
Now, quite frankly, you know, a lot of Christians,
they're just like, you know,
if I get persecuted by the world,
if some liberal out there doesn't agree with what I believe,
you know, that kind of just, that kind of aids me
and kind of pushes me further into the Bible, right?
It pushes me further into the right direction.
It doesn't really discourage me.
But on the same token, you may think to yourself,
however, when I get pushed back from my family though,
that's when it really becomes hard, right?
It's often easy to receive persecution from the world
because it comes from people who we don't really know
or care about necessarily as regarding their opinions.
But it's when it's your husband, it's when it's your wife,
it's when it's your children, those who are closest to you.
That's when it really hits hard, right?
And that's why it's important for us
to recognize the importance of expecting tribulation,
expecting persecution, and being ready to endure it,
being ready to grow in our patience
of those afflictions and tribulation.
So this is the exhortation
that the apostle Paul is giving Timothy here.
Let's start with verse number one.
It says Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus.
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son,
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father,
and Christ Jesus our Lord.
So very similar to what we see in 1st Timothy,
the apostle Paul calls Timothy his son.
And in 1st Timothy, he calls him his son of the faith.
And what this is referring to is not necessarily
that he is his biological son.
It's referring to the fact that the apostle Paul
adopted him as a spiritual son.
He's discipling him in the things of God.
So Timothy is somewhat of a spiritual son
to the apostle Paul.
And I believe that it's possible
that Timothy actually got saved through his mom, okay,
who got saved through her mom.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, skip down to verse number five.
Actually, let's look at verse four.
It says, "Greatly desiring to see thee,
being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy,
when I call to remembrance the unfamed faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois
and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also."
So this kind of shows us that Timothy was already
exposed to Christianity.
He was exposed to the Bible, to Bible truths,
prior to his encounter with Paul.
Now, if you actually read through the book of Acts,
you actually see this.
In the book of Acts, in Paul's first missionary journey,
if you remember this, he goes with Barnabas.
And he travels through Asia Minor.
He goes to Lystra and Derby.
And of course, in his missionary journeys,
the Apostle Paul would typically go first into a synagogue.
Why?
Because in the synagogue, they're reading the scriptures.
They're reading about Moses.
And these synagogues do have believers.
Because obviously, if the Bible's being preached,
the Bible's being read, there are
safe people there who know about the Old Testament prophecies.
And so they go there.
They preach the gospel.
They tell people that Jesus is the Christ,
whom the Old Testament scriptures foretell of.
And then they begin to start churches
through these synagogues.
So they're sheep stealing, so to speak, right?
Not necessary, because you can't steal sheep.
They're basically helping people to transition
from this unbiblical institution of synagogues
to the legitimate new institution of churches.
And so they start these congregations.
And they start getting congregants
from these synagogues.
And in Leicester and Derby is actually
where you find Timothy from.
So Timothy and his mother attended some of these synagogues
that were in that particular region.
And then, of course, through the preaching of Paul
and Barnabas, they end up joining themselves
to the churches there.
So we see this in the Book of Acts.
And of course, Leicester and Derby
is that region where the Apostle Paul is stoned.
He's dragged out.
And then he gets up, and he goes back, and he preaches again.
So obviously, these congregations are being started.
And Timothy was among some of those converts
who the Apostle Paul found in that region.
Point that I'm making here is that the disciples
did a lot of work.
The Apostle Paul for sure did a lot of work.
But you've got to keep in mind that the gospel was already
being spread before that.
You have people going into different regions,
even prior to the Great Commission,
going into these other regions preaching the Word of God,
preaching the gospel, as noted by the fact
that there were synagogues in those regions.
Now, again, synagogues are not legitimate institutions
sanctioned by God.
If I were to categorize them, I would say
that they kind of operate like chapels.
Chapels, those aren't biblical institutions either,
but they're kind of an alternative, so to speak, right?
It's an area where people can congregate together,
they can sing the hymns, they can pray together,
and hear the word of God being preached
if they don't have a pastor or they're geographically too far
from a local New Testament church.
Now, nowadays, you should just make the drive, amen?
There's enough churches out there
that you should make the drive to find a church,
but you take this into account,
they can't make it all the way to Jerusalem
to go to the temple.
So the alternative is, well, let's create a gathering,
which is exactly what a synagogue means.
A synagogue is a gathering.
That's literally is what it translates as.
A gathering where people who esteem the law of Moses
can gather together, they can pray together,
they can sing hymns,
and they can hear the reading of the scriptures.
So through this process, through this, you know,
these establishments of congregations, these gatherings,
you're gonna have converts, okay?
As noted by the fact that Timothy was a convert,
and it seems to indicate here that Eunice, his mother,
is the one who got him saved.
Potentially his mother or his grandmother.
We know that his grandmother and mother
were both saved people.
Now what's the principle we can learn there?
You know, it's important for us to recognize
how influential you are as a mother and as a grandmother.
As a father and as a grandfather, right?
You know, it's important for you to be doctrinally sound.
It's important for you to be able to communicate
the word of God and to be in this thing
for the long run, for the long haul.
Why?
Because when you begin, when you start a family,
you have kids, you may never know the potential
and the opportunities you may have
to preach the gospel to your descendants, right?
You know, your Timothes are gonna come into this church.
Children are gonna be born.
Grandchildren are gonna be born.
And you know what, you as a grandmother
or you as a mother may be able to lead them to Christ.
You will be the most influential person in that child's life.
And I don't know about you, but I try to do my best.
My wife and I try to do our best
to not only pray for our children to be saved.
I pray for my children to be saved every single day.
Those who are not saved as it be yet.
But we also try to put in a considerable effort
to preach the gospel to our children at any given time.
And I'm not saying that we just walk them
through the Roman's road every single day.
We just talk about the things of God to them
as regularly as we possibly can.
We talk about the doctrine of hell.
We talk about the doctrine of justification.
We're constantly planting seeds in their mind
and showing them what the Bible says.
Because of the fact that we have faith
that that seed will germinate and one of our children
will eventually understand and ask
the question pertaining to the gospel and they'll get saved.
Now, three of our children, three of our six,
have gotten saved, one of which got saved as of recent.
And I'm still praying for the last three to be saved.
They're still very young.
And Lord willing, we'll have more children.
The point being is that I'm not gonna push
that responsibility upon you to get my children saved.
This is a church that preaches the gospel.
We're thankful for that.
And I have no issue with anybody in here
winning my children to Christ, right?
But you know what?
I'm not gonna depend on the people in my church
to win my children to Christ either, though.
I'm not gonna say, well, they'll get saved in church.
I'm sure someone will get them saved in church.
No, that's my job.
It's my wife's job, right?
And we have a major burden for our children.
We want our children to be saved.
I pray for my children every single day
to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And I think that's a biblical thing.
And you may think to yourself, well, I'm not a parent yet.
Well, I prayed for my children
before they weren't even born.
I prayed for my children before they were born.
Before I got married, I prayed for my children.
I mean, they were in my loins.
I prayed for them, amen.
And so, Lois and Eunice did a fantastic job
because they raised the Timothy.
And obviously, we don't know all the details
as far as where the father was.
We know that his father was a Greek.
His mother was a Jewish.
And it seems to kind of imply
that maybe his father wasn't in the picture.
But, you know, Timothy still turned out for the Lord, though.
And this kind of shows us that, you know,
if you grew up in a home that was a broken home,
so to speak, it doesn't mean that you can't turn out for God.
And in fact, in some instances,
you end up turning out for God even more
than those who were given, you know, a great hand in life.
Timothy maybe didn't have his father.
Maybe his father passed away.
Maybe his father wasn't in the picture for whatever reason.
But you know what?
Now he's in the Bible.
He has two letters being directed towards him, right?
He's zealous for the things of God.
And we see that God placed a very special person
in his life to disciple him, to lead him,
to direct him, which is Paul.
Now go to 2 Timothy chapter three, if you would,
2 Timothy chapter three.
On the subject of salvation here,
look what it says in verse number,
2 Timothy chapter three and verse number 14.
It says, but continue thou in the things which thou has learned
and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou has learned him.
So this is referring to the fact that Timothy has obviously
learned some Bible doctrine.
He's learned some biblical principles.
And then he has others assuring him of these things.
And this is kind of showing us that when we learn Bible
doctrine, it's important to learn it.
But it's also important to gain a repetition of that doctrine,
to be assured of that doctrine.
Throughout our Christian lives, we're
just going to reinforce constantly what the Bible says.
He goes on to say in verse 15, "and that from a child
thou hast known the holy scriptures."
Why is that?
Because of Eunice, because of Lois.
So obviously, Eunice and Lois were
putting in some effort to expose Timothy to the word of God.
Whether that is because they took him to the synagogue,
they're hearing the reading of the scriptures,
maybe they're memorizing scripture at home,
they're exposing young Timothy to the Bible.
And it says here, "which are able to make
thee wise unto salvation through faith, which
is in Christ Jesus."
This is showing us that when you expose children to the Bible,
it'll prepare their hearts to be saved, right?
And let me just encourage you.
At home, you should be exposing your children to the Bible.
Whether that's because you are putting Alexander Scorby
in the background, right?
Every morning, my wife diligently tries to put Alexander Scorby
or some sort of Bible-- they're going through the Bible
as they're listening to the Word of God,
and she questions them on what they heard.
We just want them to be exposed to the Bible.
And there's instances-- we have once a week
where we do family devotions, where, like we talked about,
teaching kids how to behave in the house of God,
they sit on the couch, and we say,
you need to sit straight and pay attention.
And then I'm going through the book of Proverbs,
and I'm sharing some principles with them.
I'm not preaching for an hour and 20, like I did this morning.
But I'm giving them some Bible lessons.
We're singing songs.
We are giving blessings.
What am I doing?
I'm trying to expose my children to the Bible.
Instead of exposing your children to the iPad,
VeggieTales or whatever, if that's your persuasion,
whatever, the Bible should be the centerpiece of your home,
is what I'm saying.
The salvation of your child kind of depends on it, right?
Every single day, you're sowing those seeds
in that child's life.
And here's another way.
So aside from maybe even putting the Bible on audio,
reading the Bible to your children,
how about you and your spouse talk about the Bible, right?
That'd be a good idea.
Or you and your spouse just on a regular basis
talk about the things that you read in the word of God
or things that you're meditating upon,
which by the way, requires for you
to have something to talk about, amen?
I mean, you should be reading the Bible, right?
And here's good motivation.
If you don't have the discipline to read the Bible,
do it for your children's sake, at least.
So that you can put up a front, you know what I mean?
When you're talking in front of-- no, I'm just kidding.
You can talk to your spouse, and you
have something of substance to talk about.
That makes a difference in your children's life, OK?
Here's another thing.
Children are very inquisitive.
My children will ask me questions
about the Bible all the time.
And on a Sunday night, for example,
we'll be having dinner at home.
And one of my children will ask me questions about the Bible.
I'm just like, man, didn't you get enough at church, man?
I've been preaching for like two hours.
You want more?
And they're just like, what about this or what about that?
It's important that we don't shun our children
when they do things like that, when they're asking questions
about the Bible.
Be patient with them.
Answer their questions.
Be sincere in your communication with your children
about the Word of God.
Don't be super Christian here and then apathetic Christian,
worldly Christian at home.
Make sure you're the same here as you are over there.
The appetite do you have here for the Word of God
should be the same appetite that you have at home.
You understand?
Why?
Because of the fact that the Word of God
is able to make your children wise unto salvation.
And thank God, you know, Eunice isn't mentioned much.
She's mentioned as having this faith
that she imparted unto Timothy, but it made
a huge difference in his life.
And it's possible that verse 5 of chapter 1
is referring to the context of salvation,
but it could also be referring to the fact
that Eunice had faith in God, in the promises of God,
meaning that she was a woman of faith,
meaning that she had faith that things would turn out,
things would be okay.
You know, she had faith in the promises of God.
And you know what?
That's equally as important for you
to give that to your children as well,
to be a person of faith,
not be a person of worry and constantly fearful
and expressing fear to your children constantly
and constantly worried.
We need to express verbally
the fact that we have faith in God.
You know, if we're going through a tough time,
it's gonna be okay though
'cause God's gonna take care of us.
God's gonna protect us.
God will provide for us.
Why?
You know, it's important for us to add security
to the hearts of our children
by expressing faith and believe in his word, right?
And it could be that this is what,
and I would say that this is probably
what this verse is referring to
because what is the context of the book?
He's trying to admonish Timothy
to have faith that God will deliver him
in the time of persecution, okay?
And so look at verse four again.
This is greatly desiring to see the being mindful
of thy tears.
And we don't know why Timothy is crying,
but it's very possible that the reason he has tears,
the reason he's expressed sorrow
is because he's suffering some persecution, okay?
He's going through a hard time.
And somehow the apostle Paul is getting wind of this.
He's hearing about it.
And the apostle Paul is probably thinking like,
I don't want this guy to quit.
I don't want this guy to throw in the towel,
to get out of church and stop preaching the word of God.
He needs to stick it out.
And he's saying, I'm praying for you.
OK?
Now what's one thing that we can learn from this?
Well, I mentioned this last week or sometime this week.
We need to pray for one another that people don't quit.
There's people in our church that sometimes they
just want to quit.
And don't think any less of them because of that,
because everyone at a certain given time
wants to throw in the towel.
Guess what?
Yours truly sometimes wants to throw in the towel as well.
I don't think I'll ever quit.
I think I believe I'm going to serve God to the very end.
But that's not to say that I don't have thoughts
of quitting sometimes.
Pressure is hard.
It gets difficult. And Monday comes around,
and got to hit the gym, and got to read the Bible,
and got to get my protein in, and not be emotional,
and just push through it.
And then the emotions go.
But sometimes people, they struggle.
It's important for us to pray for the brethren
that they faint not.
And this is what the apostle Paul is doing.
He's like, "I'm praying for you.
I'm being mindful of your tears.
I know you're going through a hard time."
And of course, he's praying for him
that his faith fail not.
Look at verse number six.
He says, "Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance
that thou stir up the gift of God,
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands."
Now, what is he talking about here?
When he talks about the gift of God
that was given to him by the putting on of his hands.
When you see this phrase, the putting on of the hands,
it's another way of saying the fact
that the apostle Paul ordained Timothy, okay?
The laying on of hands, as we see in 1 Timothy,
is referring to ordaining an individual
for the work of the ministry.
And I do believe that Timothy,
though he's kind of fulfilling the position of a pastor,
the position that he actually is ordained for
is to be an evangelist,
which is another way of saying like a church planner, okay?
So he's leading this church, and in order for him to be sanctioned to do so,
the apostle Paul had to lay hands on him.
He had to ordain him.
And what the apostle Paul is saying here is that, hey, you need to stir that gift up again.
Like, you have the authority to preach the Bible.
You have the authority to be bold.
You have the authority to take a stand.
Stir up that gift of God that is in you, OK?
Like, you know, I know you're afraid.
I know you're scared.
I know you're going through a hard time, but it's time for you to stir up that gift and
get on the ball, get right in your mind, and be bold in the Lord against persecution.
And obviously, I'm not talking to a congregation that is ordained, right?
But to a certain degree, you know, you are sent forth of the Lord to not just preach
the gospel, but to also proclaim the word of God, take a stand.
And you know, every once in a while, we need to make sure that we're stirring up that gift
that is in us to be encouraged, right, not to fall back, not to draw back, not to compromise,
not to just, well, you know, maybe I won't say this certain thing.
So that's the not to offend or whatever may be.
And obviously we don't, we're not necessarily experiencing hardcore persecution right now,
but who knows?
It might come next week or something.
Right.
You just never know, you know, and, and, but you should expect that though, cause it could
happen at any moment.
I don't schedule persecutions, I'm not calling George Soros telling them, Hey, we, where's
that bus at?
You know, you guys bringing bricks or what, you know, when's the next one or whatever,
you know?
When's the next rally, but it could happen.
Not that I could call them.
I'm saying it could happen that we're going to get persecuted.
And this is important.
You know, five years ago or so we're about to celebrate the, is it the five year anniversary?
Someone tell me five years.
Yeah.
We're in 2026.
Five years ago.
Our church was persecuted.
It was, it was a, it was protested by a bunch of sodomites, a bunch of filthy perverts,
transvestites, just disgusting animals.
And they end up bombing our church.
They put an IED explosive device in our church.
They bombed our church and that was a major persecution and the persecution was extended
beyond that.
It went to my home.
They stole my vehicle.
They harassed me and my family while we're out evangelizing.
I mean, this is major persecution and quite frankly, you know, there could be people
that are afraid during that particular time, right?
I mean, you know, during that during that protest, there are people who were a little
afraid.
They're a little scared.
You know, they're like, we don't know what's going to happen.
What are these people capable of?
We don't really know.
And you know what we have to do is stir up the gift of God that is in us and have boldness
in the Lord and recognize that God can deliver us from all evil and from all persecution.
You know, I think of my mom, you know, during that particular time, my mom just turned 80
this year and during that time, I remember, if you guys remember, we're all in the building
and they're waiting for us outside.
You guys remember those, who's pre-9/11 here, pre, you know, okay, obviously I'm referring
to our 9/11, right?
And we're all in the building and then they're, you know, they're yelling out there, bring
Bruce out and they're saying all kinds of crazy stuff.
And then I remember my mom, she's like 75 at the time, 76, 75, and she came up to me
and she's like, I got this idea.
She's like, if they come at you, I'll just throw myself on them.
I've lived a long life already, I'm ready to go.
And I'm like, you don't have to do that.
She's like, don't worry, if they come at you, I'll just kind of give myself to them.
I'm already old, and I'm just like, no, it's a good idea, mom, but no, we're not going
to do that.
And before that, before that, she was trying to give me some advice.
And it was bad advice, but it was based advice, though, because she was just like, hey, they're
going to pursue-- they're bringing the protesters and all this.
And these are good conversations that I'm having with my mom.
And then she's just like, hey, if they come at you, this is what you do.
You shoot them.
I'm just like, all right, mom, thank you for the advice.
She's like, just shoot them if they come at you.
I'm like, I'm not going to shoot anybody.
She's like-- she gave me one of those looks, like, all right, you don't want to listen
to me.
But then afterwards, she said, all right, you're not going to shoot, then I'll just
throw myself on and let them do whatever they want, you know?
But you know, I'm thinking to myself, if my 75-year-old mother can act that way, we can
be bold in the Lord, right?
And you know, it was a crazy time for us, but I believe it was a time that our church
stirred itself up.
Let me just say this.
You know, it's important for you to stir up the gift of God that is in you because of
the fact that it is a testimony against the wicked.
And let me say this.
You know, if we would have compromised in any which way, they would have kept coming
after us.
They would have not stand down.
You know, they tried to get me to apologize and do all this stuff or whatever.
And we didn't back down.
We specifically told them if you remove me from this city, which is exactly what they
wanted us to do.
They got like 15,000 signatures from, you know, to try to push to the mayor to get me
kicked out of the city.
I said, if you kick me out, I'm still going to preach against you.
I'm not going to stop using the word faggot.
You know what I mean?
Like, you're not going to stop me from preaching.
I'm still going to say these things.
And you know what?
Thank God we kept pushing forward.
God bless because of it.
And they thought like a bombing would do something to deter the message.
It did nothing.
It just snowballed us into greater accomplishments, greater achievements.
It got us more exposure from the news outlets.
It got us more exposure to people.
People loved hearing what was taking place and they backed us up for it.
And you know what?
But while we're in the midst of it, it can be a little crazy, you know?
Like as a church, we were like, yeah, but you know, I go home though.
You know what I mean?
And I'm the one getting the death threats.
I'm the one that they're seeking, they're putting the green light on me.
They're saying they're doxing my, you know, where I'm living and I'm there, you know,
I'm with my wife, I got my kids, my wife is pregnant.
I'm just thinking like, what the heck am I doing?
And you know, there's instances where I probably felt like Timothy, where I'm just like, man,
am I really going to put myself and my family in danger for this?
But then I'm thinking to myself, oh, like, this is what I signed up for.
This is the gift of God that is in me.
And you know what?
I need to stir myself up.
And quite frankly, I came to the conclusion, if I die doing this, then so be it.
At least my children and my wife have the privilege of having a father and a husband
who is a martyr for Christ.
That's what I thought.
And of course, nothing ended up happening.
We ended up being blessed exceedingly because of it.
And it was great.
It was a lot of fun, too, a lot of fun stuff.
Let me share this one story, and everyone probably knows about this, but maybe some
of you new people don't.
You know, I remember that they were going to do a drive-by protest.
Let me remember that, you know, because it was like COVID, and they were like, oh, we
don't want to catch it.
It was like, bro, you guys are gay, you guys are, you guys already got AIDS and stuff.
You're afraid of them.
But like, you know, they're going to do a drive-by protest, and you know, they're going
to, they were going to honk to like, you know, disrupt our services.
And we had this great idea.
We're like, I'm going to put up signs in front of the church that said honk if you love first
words to have this church.
So they're driving by, they're like, and then they end up crashing, they end up like rear
ending each other.
It was hilarious.
We trolled them hardcore.
There's a lot of stories.
We can get into those after the service.
Point being is that, you know what, persecution does come and you know, my face was all over
the city of Omani.
They put flyers of me.
We were on the news.
You know, everyone got involved and they all try to get me to apologize, but you know,
the gift of God that was in me prevented me from apologizing, from stepping down.
I doubled down even more.
And in fact, when we finally got here, because we couldn't go back to the other building,
I preached the sermon and called things that make you vomit.
And I preached against the sodomites again.
The chief of police called me and they're saying that you're still preaching.
Is that true?
I'm like, yeah, I am still preaching.
Told you I would point being here is that as Christians, we need to serve the gift
of God.
This isn't just for major persecution like that.
This is just in general.
You know, you need to be filled with the spirit because this is actually what it means, right?
You need to be filled with the spirit in all cases of life.
When you're going through a trial, a tribulation, you're experiencing pushback from your family,
your spouse, your children, whatever it is, stir up the gift of God that is in you.
Take a stand.
Look, take a stand and get your own flesh.
How about that?
Oh, I don't really feel like reading the Bible.
Stir up the gift of God that is in you and read the Bible.
Oh, man.
I just don't feel like going soul hunting.
Stir up the gift of God that is in you and go preach the gospel.
What does it mean to stir up the gift?
It's just saying fill me with the Holy Spirit to have the boldness to accomplish what God
wants me to do.
Don't quench the spirit.
Right?
Be filled with the spirit.
Don't grieve the spirit.
He goes on to say in verse seven, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of
power and of love and of a sound mind.
So what is he saying?
We should not be fearful people.
Fear is a sin according to the Bible.
It's a sin according to the Bible, and it's an indicator that we're lacking faith.
When we are afraid that something might happen, when we are afraid because we're questioning
the promises of God, that is a sin, my friends.
We need to exercise faith and recognize the spirit that dwells within me is not a spirit
of fear.
It's a power, meaning authority.
It's of love, and it says there of a sound mind.
And look, a sound mind is a major luxury.
You know what a sound mind is?
It means you're not crazy.
And obviously, I'm not talking about people if you're going through a hard time or whatever.
Some of you ladies, if you're going through a hormonal issue in your life or whatever
and you feel like you're going crazy, most moms feel like they're going crazy every once
in a while.
You got little ones, you at least feel like you're going crazy a couple times a week.
We're talking about just like you're just so filled with fear and anxiety over the future
that your mind isn't sound, it isn't grave, it isn't necessarily, it's not being reasonable.
And this is important.
A sound mind is a mind that does not lose control up here when things don't go your
way.
You need to learn how to have some self-control.
To be filled with the Spirit is to have a sound mind to not just make hasty decisions,
to just get overly emotional.
A sound mind is a mind that is able to control the body, to keep under your body, to make
sure that you're just not losing your temper, losing your cool, just acting outside of the
parameters of God's Word.
A sound mind recognizes, "I know everything's going to be okay.
We have perfect peace through God."
How's the verse go?
"That will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth
in thee."
So what is the sound mind a product of?
It's a product of trusting God.
And I get it.
Listen to me.
It's hard to trust God when all the variables are just against your situation.
I get it.
That's hard.
When it's just like, "How can I trust God that God's going to get me out of this situation
when A, B, C, D, and E are just completely against me?"
The situation is not working out at all.
At that point, you still got to trust God, because God makes up the difference.
God is a God of miracles.
He can supernaturally intervene and change the situation overnight.
That's a fact.
For example, when we got bombed, when we got bombed, it was just like, "Man, I got to move
the church."
We weren't as big as we are now, but it was still a fairly big church.
I mean, moving 100 people was still a lot.
We met in Brother Chevy's house in his backyard for a while, a couple times or whatever, rented
some tents.
We were doing the Tabernacle thing for a little bit, going Old Testament.
But during that time, we were trying to look for an actual building to meet in, and nobody
wanted us.
You know why?
Because any time they would look us up, they're like, "No, thank you.
You're on the news."
Right?
They're like, "Oh, yeah.
We'll sign the lease.
Let me just talk it over," and they're just like, "Oh, never mind.
Not interested."
Because we were on the news, we were on Google, they were just like, "Oh, heck no.
This guy's going to get our building bombed or something."
And it was just one of those things where I was like, "Man, what are we going to do?"
And then we had that thing where we had to literally split the church.
You guys remember that?
We split it into three or four different groups.
I think we had the Long Beach Satellite, the Orange County Satellite, the IE Satellite.
How many of you remember that?
It was three of them, right?
We met with the Careys, I think that was the IE one.
And then Long Beach was for the Hikes House, right?
And Orange County was Dr. Rita Ellithorpe's house.
I think that's what it was.
And it was just trying to figure something out.
And I was at my wits end, I was just like, "What the heck are we going to do?"
And then all of a sudden when I was at my wits end, then Brother Chevy was like, "Hey,
I found something.
It just works out.
It's just in Orange County."
And quite frankly, I didn't like the idea of coming to Orange County, because I was
all about living and dying in LA.
Okay?
You guys are worldly.
And I was just like, "Oh man, I'm going to live and die in LA," because it's the place
to be, you know?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you've got to be there to know it, okay?
But you know, I was all about being, but then, you know, we moved here and I was just like,
"This is great!
There's a bunch of blank Biden signs outside, there's no like, sodomites around here, it's
just like a different atmosphere or whatever."
And you know what?
God ended up providing for us, we got something bigger, it was better, and you know, God came
through, okay?
And it just reminded me the importance of just having a sound mind.
Sometimes we worry just a little too much.
That's what it is, we just worry too much.
And we often worry about things that we just can't control, things that are out of our
hands, you know, situations that we can't change.
We worry about things that you just have absolute no power over.
And you know, worrying is a sin.
Why?
Because it's an expression that you don't trust in the promises of God, that God's going
to work it out together for good.
Because all things work together for good.
And obviously, you know, I'm preaching to you guys, but I'm preaching to myself too,
because make no mistake about it.
I've had times of doubt and questioning and lapses of faith in my mind, and I have to
just force myself to believe, like, God is going to come through, even though I'm looking
at all the variables and it doesn't seem to add up in my favor.
And at the end of the day, like, if the variables don't add up in your favor, this is the attitude
you've got to have.
Well, at least God will get glory out of this somehow, because at the end of the day, we're
not the main character.
As long as Christ gets all the glory, he gets all the glory, he gets all the praise, souls
get one, we are just pieces of the puzzle.
We're not the main character of the story.
But luckily, because we serve God, he blesses us because of it.
He wants to increase our faith.
He wants to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect with them.
And so it's important for us just as Timothy to be reminded of that, Hey, God did not give
me a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind.
If you're lacking those, it's showing you that you are a carnal fleshly Christian.
And it's time to get back on track up here and here, right?
Have a sound mind.
Don't stop.
You know, and obviously look, sometimes it's not that people aren't spirit filled.
It's because you're just listening to too many things out there that is inducing your
anxiety.
You're, you're watching too much news, too many podcasts, too many social media posts
about wars and rumors of wars and what's going to happen this, that and the other.
When it's creating in you a sense of fear and anxiety, you know, we do well on ourselves
being afraid.
We don't need anybody to help us.
Okay.
So the apostle Paul is telling them, hey, stir up the gift of God, God didn't give you
a spirit of fear.
Look at verse eight, be not doubt therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
So what's the fear that Timothy has based upon this context?
He's afraid to stand up for the word of God.
He's afraid to, you know, preach the word of God, the testimony of our Lord.
So he's saying, "Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God."
He's saying, "Hey, you need to make sure you preach the word of God and stand for the testimony
of Jesus Christ, side with me as God's man, and be partaker of the afflictions of the
gospel."
In other words, don't be some limp-wristed preacher.
Don't be some limp-wristed, soft, effeminate preacher that's not willing to speak out and
preach the Word of God and tell it like it is.
You need to make sure that you're Spirit-filled.
You know what?
We have enough pastors out there that are like that.
Sickening!
Too many pastors out there are not willing to preach the Word of God.
They don't want to offend their church members.
They don't want to offend the ladies in their church.
They don't want to offend the new people.
And so they always hold back on what's supposed to be stated.
Why?
Because they're afraid!
What they need to do is stir up the gift of God that is in them and call out what needs
to be called out.
You know, when it comes to a variety of subjects, divorce, right?
We need to preach against divorce.
We need to preach against the Jews.
We need to preach against homos.
We need to preach against, what else?
Feminism.
And I preach against that a lot.
But you know what?
There's not enough preaching out there regarding that.
Because you know what?
Because these pastors are a bunch of pussyfooters.
That's why.
A bunch of pussyfooting pastors who don't want to offend people, they don't want to
lose their congregation, they'd rather lose the favor of God than to lose their congregation.
What does Paul say?
Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
"Oh, bro, you shouldn't preach that.
Just preach Christ and Him crucified."
The testimony of our Lord is the entire Bible.
And why am I going to preach the gospel here at church when everyone's saved here?
Hey, look, folks, you know, on a Sunday morning sermon, I'll drop the gospel like in two
minutes.
Right?
You guys catch that, right?
You know, on Sunday morning, I'll just drop some doctrine on justification and, you know,
preach against repenting your sins real quick.
I'll add it in somehow, but the whole sermon's not going to be the gospel.
Why?
Because we need to preach the entire council of God.
Those minds need to be reformed.
They need to be renewed.
People need to know what the word of God says.
And you know what?
You will risk, Timothy, people leaving the service.
I mean, I was thinking about putting a chart up here because I've had so many people walk
out of my sermon when I'm preaching, and it's not because they have to use the restroom
or something.
It's just like, because they're offended.
You know, I don't know if it was like two weeks ago, I was preaching against feminism
or Jews or, you know, one of those, they're kind of one of the same.
And I'm just like ripping.
And then this lady just walks out.
She just, and she like left her, her, her spouse here.
She didn't like it.
And I've heard, I've had people tell me like, I didn't, you know, that was really offensive
or whatever, but you know, that's the price we pay, man.
And I'm just like, put another one there.
You know, most pastors would be like, oh man, maybe I need to like, you know, tone it down
a little bit.
No, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.
Be a partaker of the afflictions.
Don't be this person that's just why, you know, I would, I'm more afraid of like offending
God by being ashamed of his word.
So Timothy obviously has this issue with fear.
Okay.
And you know, I'm speaking to a congregation that obviously you're bold, but if you're
planning to be a pastor, this is directly for you too.
Okay.
Because as a pastor, you have to take a stand and you know what, sometimes you will be alone.
Sometimes people are not going to want to back you up and you still got to take a stand.
You got to make sure, you know, and thankfully I have pastor friends that stood with me
during that time, but no one in the immediate area stood with me.
There's no pastor in Southern California that was openly on my side.
And look, folks, if all the pastors in Southern California would have just rallied with me,
all these homos would have gone back in the closet.
They would have been like, "Forget that."
But because these pastors are so limp-wristed, weak and sissy, they're condemning me for
my preaching.
I mean, on the first day of the protest, some dude walked up and he's just like, "I'm
a Christian.
I think what you're doing is wrong."
I'm like, "You fag hag.
I can't believe you're on their side.
How embarrassing that you would be on their side and not on our side.
What are you doing?
Who's on the Lord's side?"
I got sick and tired of these Christians who are condemning me for preaching the Bible
that they claim to believe.
"Oh, you're just too harsh."
Well, you know what?
If you were as harsh as I was and as I am, maybe we wouldn't have this issue.
I'm cleaning up your mess for your lack of boldness and your lack of desiring to stir
up the gift of God that is in you.
We need to make sure that if you're going to be a pastor one day, you need to be bold.
And I'm not talking about sensational.
I'm telling you this.
When you're bold, sensationalism just comes attached with it.
Don't try to be sensational.
Just preach the word of God, be bold, and it'll just eventually happen.
We need to make sure that we're ready to be partakers of the affliction of the gospel
according to the power of God.
People are going to separate from you.
They're going to criticize you.
In fact, look at, skip down to verse number, let's see here, verse 15.
It says, "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me."
Now that's harsh.
What is he talking about?
You know, he's talking about Asia Minor.
And if you look at Asia Minor, specifically Northern Asia, that's where you have Galatia.
That's where you have Cappadocia, Bithynia, Pontius, like a lot of churches and believers
are in that area, and the Apostle Paul saying that everyone who's there turned against him.
Okay.
Like they're not supporting him.
They're against him.
That's harsh.
That is the price that the Apostle Paul paid for preaching the word of God.
He says, "This thou knowest that all day which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom
are I fight jealous and homogenies."
This is potentially referring to maybe some elders of those churches.
He's calling them out by name here, which by the way, that's important to do.
Amen.
Name the names.
"The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he ought to refresh me and was not ashamed
of my chain.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me."
So we see here that the apostle Paul suffered the consequences of preaching the word of
God.
People turned from him.
Let me just say this.
If people separate themselves from your company because of what you preach, they're not good
friends anyways.
They're a bunch of haters.
Amen.
You don't want people like that around you.
You're like, "Oh man, I have so many friends."
But how many friends are going to stick by you though when you're going through a hard
time, when you're suffering persecution?
Those are the real friends.
You don't want the superficial friends where it's just like they're just friends with you
when everything's going good or when you benefit them, but as soon as something bad happens
to you, people just separate themselves from your company because they don't want to go
down on what they think is a sinking ship or something like that.
That's not a good friend.
A good friend is just like, "I'm going down with you.
I'm your friend, and if something happens to you, till we die, right?
We're ride or die here, and I'm going to ride with you to the very end, and I don't care
what people say.
If you are a righteous person, you're preaching the word of God, you're on good terms with
me and I'm on good terms with you."
Yeah, but what if a bunch of people start turning against that?
Who cares?
They crucified Christ.
He went down.
Jesus Christ went down.
What is it that he ascended, but that he first descend into the lower parts of the
earth?
And you know what?
We're Christians, and so it doesn't really matter what the world thinks or what these
limp-wristed Christians think about Christ or some man of God.
We need to make sure that we stand with principle and be people of integrity, okay?
And to say this, you know, maybe it'll happen, I don't know, but you know what?
Maybe one day I'll get persecuted like that, like the Apostle Paul.
You should stand with the man of God, okay?
You know, and not believe some AI video or something, some railing accusation that's
being put forth out there, be people of integrity.
You know, we had something like this in the new IFB, right?
People turning against the man of God, you know, believing lies and hypocrisy, and regardless
of what your opinion is on Pastor Anderson or whatever, you know, definitely don't side
with these other freaks and weirdos.
These bunch of feminists out there, amen?
Don't side with a bunch of railers, a bunch of feminist pastors who want to enable rebellious
women to leave their husbands, divorce their husbands because they want to have it in good
with the bigger crowd or something like that.
I have no interest in winning over ex-New Eye of Beers.
I've got no interest, they're a bunch of lames, they're rejects.
And it's funny, you know, people are like, "Oh, man, you know, you've gotten such a
bigger following, why are you still hanging out with so-and-so?"
Well, that's because I'm a person of integrity, that's why.
I'm a person of integrity and my following count doesn't determine who I hang out with
or who I don't hang out with, you know, that's kind of showing what's in your heart.
And so, you know, and look, folks, you and I discussed this on multiple occasions.
We don't have to agree with everything that every pastor says.
Do I agree with everything that my pastor's friends say?
No.
I mean, I've argued with my pastor friends at length over things that we disagree about.
But does that mean I'm just going to backstab him and just turn on him or whatever just
because we disagree on a particular topic or something?
That's nonsense.
That's childish.
That's disloyal.
You know, good friends always disagree, right?
You know, if you have yes men around you 100% of the time, they're not good friends.
You just agree on every single thing.
You just never do.
That's not a real friendship.
Real friendship is just like, I think you're wrong about that, bro.
That's weird.
I think that's weird.
And you know, I've told my pastor friends that, bro, that's weird.
I think that's weird and I don't agree with it, but I'll see you next week or, you know,
so when are we going to eat, you know, because what we can't have different opinions or
something like that.
People think like, oh man, if you disagree that you should separate, then you should
have no friends.
Because what friend will you agree with 100% of the time?
I don't agree.
You don't agree with me 100% of the time.
You can't do anything about it, but you don't agree with me 100% of the time.
I don't agree with you 100% of the time.
Does that mean we should just not congregate together to be a church or something like
that?
It's nonsense.
You know, and there's people out there that literally make it their, you know, their agenda
to constantly attack churches, attack men of God and preachers, but obviously it's all
in vain because our churches are still growing.
They're reaching tons of people.
We're, you know, getting a ton of people saved over, what was the count, like 30,000 salvations
or something like that?
30,000 salvations, tons of baptisms.
Churches are growing.
Churches are being started.
Social media outlets are just blowing up.
God's hand is on these churches.
Yeah, but if only you can just, like I had someone message me like, "Hey, I really like
your video.
I really like it, but you just gotta let me know, do you still like associate with Pastor
Anderson?"
Because if you do, I just can't follow.
And I'm just thinking to myself, I'm thinking to myself, "162,000 followers and you think
I'm gonna care?"
Like, I stumbled upon this message on accident.
Like if bro unfollowed, it would just not affect me at all.
But you know what?
Let's say 161,000 people unfollowed today.
It would not affect me at all.
Why would it?
I'll tell you why.
Because I'm a man of integrity.
And you know what?
I'm used to getting deleted.
I got banned on YouTube at 112,000.
Didn't change me.
And this is why I told this person, "Yes, I still associate, and you need to unfollow
like immediately, like right now, as soon as you read this."
Oh man, it's messing up my algorithm.
What is that guy thinking I was going to say?
Oh no, please don't.
I need every single, every single follower I can get.
It's nonsense, my friends.
And look, followers on social media don't mean anything.
I'm thankful for the followers.
It's great that they're being exposed to the truth.
But you know, it could be gone tomorrow, and if it's gone tomorrow, it doesn't change
the work here.
All right.
Let's go.
Let's look at verse number 11.
"And I'm appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles."
So what is the apostle Paul saying here?
He's not saying that he is an apostle to the Gentile as though it's like some unique position
that was given to him.
All the apostles were supposed to be apostles to the Gentiles.
Like they're all commissioned to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the othermost parts of
the world.
There is no like apostle to the Jew and apostle to the Gentile.
It is like that with these other apostles, but that's not God's order.
That's not what he wanted.
Okay.
You know, we have the apostle Paul saying like, you know, these other apostles are like,
they gave me the right hand of fellowship and appointed me to go into the Gentiles and
they would go into the Jews.
Wrong.
That's not what Jesus Christ commanded.
He commanded for all the apostles to go out into all the world where the Gentiles are
to preach the gospel into them.
The apostle Paul is just simply saying like, I'm designated to be a preacher of the Gentiles
because that's what God designated me for like he did to all the other apostles.
He says in verse 12, "For the witch cause I also suffer these things.
Nevertheless, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and then persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day."
Great song there by the way, "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou has heard
of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in
us."
You know, just as he was commissioned to go preach unto the Gentiles, he's telling
Timothy, "Make sure you keep sound doctrine in you."
And I think that's really important, because I feel like the older a church gets, the older
a pastor gets, the less sound sometimes he becomes in his doctrine.
I feel like I've seen this over and over again, where pastors, the older they get,
they become more lenient on their doctrine, begin to compromise more on their doctrine.
What the Bible's telling us here, that we need to hold fast the form of sound words.
That good thing which is committed unto our trust, we need to keep by the Holy Ghost that
dwelleth in us.
And so I'll finish there.
What is the apostle Paul telling Timothy in this first chapter?
Well, really initially what he's saying is you need to be bold.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid of what the future holds.
And we'll see later on, one of the reasons that Timothy is afraid, aside from the person
of persecution that he's suffering, he's obviously seeing that the Apostle Paul is suffering
a lot of persecution too, right?
And so that can cause people to be afraid, it's like, "Oh man, I see what this person
has gone through.
Like, I don't know if I can handle something like that," right?
And later on we'll see that the Apostle Paul basically says, "Yeah, you know, I've gone
through this, but the Lord delivered me out of these things," right?
So yeah, like, you know, you might experience this, but you also might experience the deliverance
of the Lord.
And herein is my last point, and that is this, this is why it's important for us as Christians
to push through tribulation.
Don't quit.
Don't throw in the towel.
Don't get out of church.
You know why?
Because someone is watching you go through tribulation and trials, and if you quit, when
they go through tribulation and trials, they're going to be tempted to quit too.
Because they're going to think, "If this person couldn't go through it, like, how
am I going to go through it?"
Now it's a wrong thing to think, but it's just the nature of man.
You need to make sure you push through tribulation and trials because of the fact that you're
being an example to those who are watching you.
And who are those that are watching you?
My children, my children, younger Christians in the Lord who are watching you as a believer
go through trials, you're kind of offering an example into them.
And you're showing them that, yeah, this is what happens when you're a good Christian,
but I'm going to show you how to overcome as well, and the fact that God will deliver
me from all evil.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for Second Timothy.
Lord, help us as your people to shun fear.
Help us not to be afraid.
We know that the fear of man bringeth a snare, and a trap can often impede us from actually
preaching the word of God and standing for truth.
Lord, I know that in me, in my flesh, I can have the tendency to become fearful and worried
and anxious.
I pray that you fill me with your spirit, Lord, and remind me to stir up the gift of
God that is in me.
But in like manner, may you stir up the gift of God in the congregation as well.
Help us to be bold in our stance, Lord.
And I pray that, Lord, you'd bless us as we continue this year, Lord, and to get more
people saved and baptisms and as the church continues to grow for your glory.
May your hand be upon us, Lord.
We love you.
We thank you.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.