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(upbeat music) - Drive Time Devotions is a Saddleback Church podcast. We want to
invite you to one of our weekend services. Visit us online at saddleback.

com for locations and service times in your area. Please visit us this weekend.
- I'm glad you're here for the second day of our look together through Second
Timothy chapter two.

We're going to focus on verses three to seven today. Yesterday we began this look
at these last instructions of Paul about how to last in life, how to last in
faith. Yesterday we talked about the need to be strong in grace, the need to
entrust what you and I are learning to other people.

The third thing that I need to do if I'm going to be a person who lasts is I'm
going to have to learn to endure hardship. Because life has difficulties, life has
problems, life has hardships, and unless I know how to endure, I am not going to
last. I can't last by hoping I never have a difficulty in life.

That's a false hope. In this world we are going to have problems, Jesus told us. In
heaven we won't, in this world we will.

So how do I endure hardship? Amazing verses, let me read for you verses three to
seven. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs. He wants to
please his commanding officer. Similarly, if someone competes as an athlete, he
does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.

The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.
Reflect on what I'm saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all of this.
And that last verse we just read, verse seven, that's exactly what I'm praying
will happen as we talk about this today, that we will reflect on what God is
saying and that his spirit will give us insight into his word.

I realize that it's not my word, none of our words can change hearts, change
lives, it's God's word. That's why we focus on God's word and drive time
devotions because that's what changes my life. And these words are all about how
to endure hardship.

What can I do to stay faithful when times get tough as a believer? Paul gives us
three pictures, three examples here. He talks about a soldier, he talks about an
athlete, and he talks about a farmer.

And in talking about them all, he's talking about how to make it through
difficult times. One of the main things that causes us to give up on good habits
or a good life or good choices or a good faith or good relationships, one of the
main things that causes us to give up is hard times. And sometimes they surprise
us.

And we abandon our faith in Jesus Christ at the very moment when we need him the
most because we feel like, why should this happen to me? How could God let this
happen to me? We somehow forget, we forget that all the great saints down
through the thousands of years have faced hardships.

We forget that Jesus Christ himself suffered and gave his life for us. And even
before he died, suffered many, many hardships, many persecutions in his life.
And yet we think somehow it should never happen to me.

And don't let it surprise you. Don't be surprised. Don't think that somehow God
is punishing you.

Just realize hardships are a part of life in this world while we look forward to
heaven. Now, how do I make it through? How do I endure?

Well, the soldier has something to teach us, the athlete has something to teach
us, and the farmer has something to teach us. How do I make it through? The
soldier teaches us, I need to say no, if I'm going to endure.

If I'm going to endure through the tough times, there are some things that I have
to say no to. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs.
There are some things that the soldier says no to in order that the soldier can
be a soldier.

The soldier doesn't get all caught up in things that aren't focused on their
job, on what they have to do. Now, suppose you look at your life and you think,
you know, there's some things I'd like to get involved in, but the Bible won't
let me. God says I can't do that.

And you begin to think, like this soldier, you begin to think with a spirit of
bitterness. Ah, the reason God won't let me do that is 'cause he doesn't want me
to have any fun. The reason God won't let me do that is because he doesn't want
to give me that freedom.

Not realizing all the time that the reason God says no to that thing is because
he knows it will steal your freedom. It'll steal your hope. The way to endure is
to recognize that I want to live a life that pleases God.

And the reason I say no to certain things in life, certain habits that are going to
hurt me, the reason I say no to certain relationships in life, the kind that God
says stay away from those kinds of friends and moral friends that tear you down.
Stay away from those kinds of relationships that become lustful rather than
loving. Stay away from those things that will hurt you in life.

Why does God do that? Because he loves us. And why do I do that?

Why do I say no to those things? Because I love him. That's why I do it.

These verses say that the soldier does this because he wants to please his
commanding officer. He doesn't do it out of bitterness. He does it because he
wants to do the right thing.

Because he knows he wants to be ready for the battle. You and I, we say no to
certain things in our life, certain burdens in our life, obviously certain sins
in our lives. We say no because we want to please God.

We want to live a life before him. And if Satan's been tempting you to be bitter
about the things you've had to say no to in your life lately, just reject that
right now. And recognize you didn't do it because God is a demanding God who was
trying to take things away from you.

You said no because God's a loving God who wants to give you the life that's
going to make a difference, the life that lasts. The soldier teaches us the
attitude even behind why we say no in order to endure. The athlete teaches us
the opposite thing in these verses.

The athlete teaches us that I have to say yes to endure. If anyone competes as
an athlete, he doesn't receive the victor's crown unless he competes according
to the rules. There's some rules that the athlete has to say yes to if they're
going to endure, if they're going to win the victor's crown.

And there's some commands of God in my life and in your life that I have to say
yes to. I don't start thinking those don't apply to me. If I do, I've
disqualified myself for the race.

No, I say yes to God's directions for life and for character. I say yes to God's
directions for life and character because when I say yes to that, I'm saying yes
to hope. I'm saying yes to endurance.

I'm saying yes to God. I'm looking forward to the victor's crown. Now, the
victor's crown is not a prideful crown.

The victor's crown is the crown of living the kind of life that God made me to
live and all the glory goes back to him. An athlete, even an athlete realizes
there are certain rules that I have to follow if I'm going to run this race well.
And you and I in our faith in Jesus Christ, God's laid it out in his word, here
are the ways to live life.

And there's some things you need to say yes to, relationships with other
believers. There's some things you need to say yes to, time with God's word.
There's some things you need to say yes to if you're going to live out the kind of
life that God wants you to live, if you're going to endure.

The soldier teaches us we have to say no to some things to endure. The athlete
teaches us that I have to say yes to some things to endure. And then the farmer
has something to teach us.

The farmer teaches us I need to work hard and I need to reap a crop to endure.
That's what a farmer does. If you're going to endure as a farmer, you gotta work
hard and you gotta plant a crop.

But if you're going to endure as a farmer, you also have to reap the crop. You have
to enjoy the benefits of what you've planted. You can't make it as a farmer just
by planting, that's not enough.

But you can't make it just by hoping to reap without planting, it takes both.
That really has to do with what grace is all about in your life and in my life.
Grace does not mean that you don't work hard as a believer.

God has some things for you to do. Grace means that you work hard doing God's
work. But your motivation for the hard work is not that you can get yourself to
heaven by working hard.

It's not even that you can make God love you more by working hard. You just work
hard based on your love for God and your love for others by giving yourself back
to him. You want to plant a crop because you realize it can endure for all of
eternity.

It's not motivated by my personal self gain or selfishness, it's motivated by my
love for God. I work hard, I give myself to him. But then the scripture says,
"Then the farmer reaps the crop.

" And when you reap a crop, you celebrate, you have some joy in that moment. If
you're going to endure, even through this life, if you're going to endure, you need to
have moments of joy. You need to have moments of celebration.

You need to enjoy the successes that God sends into your life. You can celebrate
without being selfish, you can realize God did it and I got to be a part of it
and I am so grateful. I like to grow tomatoes and peppers.

And when they're growing well, when the plant looks good and there's big
tomatoes and big peppers on those plants, I just go out and look at them
sometimes. I just enjoy what God's doing. Now I don't feel like I made that
tomato, I know God made it, but I got to be a part of it.

Are you taking time to enjoy the crop that God's bringing in? If you're going to
endure, you have to celebrate. If you're going to endure, you have to not only work
hard like the farmer, you have to celebrate the crop like the farmer.

If you're going to endure hardship, the soldier teaches us to say no, the athlete
teaches us to say yes, the farmer teaches us to work hard and to celebrate. What
do you need to learn? What do I need to learn today from these three pictures
that God gives us?

Let's ask him for wisdom. Jesus, we reflect on what you're saying in these
words. And we pray even as Paul asked us to in these verses that you would give
us insight into all this.

Give us insight into our life where we need your encouragement. Your
encouragement to say no, your encouragement to say yes, your encouragement to
work hard and to celebrate. Lord, if there's a place where we've grown bitter in
our lives, help us to see it right now and to give it back to you and to sense a
fresh new grace in our lives.

If there's a place where we've grown lazy in our lives, help us to see that and
to ask you for new strength to do the work you've given us to do. If there's a
place where we've stopped celebrating in our lives, help us to see that and to
celebrate a fresh and a new, the great, the good things that you are doing, not
only in our lives, but through our lives. Thank you, God, that even in hardship,
you are at work.

Even in hardship, you are growing us and you're even growing others for the
difficulties that we face. Jesus, thank you that your faithfulness, your
faithfulness is something we can hold on to through any circumstance. And I pray
particularly for those who are going through a very difficult time right now.

I pray, God, that these words would be encouraging, refreshing, help us to see
how we can make it through as we trust in you. In your name, we pray. Amen.

And join us tomorrow. We're going to continue to look at how to endure hardship.
We're going to look at some pointed encouragement from God that'll help you to
endure.