This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

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. Welcome back to Daily Drive Time Devotions, 2
Timothy chapter 2, day 3, verses 8 to 13. Today we began to look at enduring and
how God through the pictures of a soldier and an athlete and a farmer shows us
how you and I can endure some practical things.

But God also wants to encourage us. And in these verses we're going to look at
today, God gives some encouragement to keep you going through tough times. Maybe
you need this right now.

You're going through a tough time right now. Maybe you're going to need it soon.
Maybe you're not going through a tough time right now.

Well, just wait a while because we go through tough times in this life. Or
maybe, maybe you know someone else who needs what we're going to talk about
today. First day of this week we talked about passing along what you're learning
to somebody else.

Maybe you need to pass this along, what we're going to talk about today. Just
ask them to listen to it or jot it down and share it with them. Maybe at a lunch
or maybe at dinner tonight.

Share with them that God's at work. God encourages us even through difficult
times. Three encouragements from God to keep you going through tough times.

First you remember Jesus Christ. Second you remember why you're here. Third you
remember that God will never fail you.

First remember Jesus Christ. If you're going through hard times, remember that
Paul, as he wrote these verses, was going through hard times as well. He doesn't
write this philosophically.

He writes this right in the middle of it. He's in prison and he is facing his
execution. And in the midst of that, he remembers Jesus Christ, verses 8 and 9.

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my
gospel, for which I am suffering, even to the point of being chained like a
criminal. But God's word is not chained.

So where do you start? You remember Jesus Christ. You remember the resurrection.

And when Paul talks about descended from David here, he's talking about the fact
that God had been planning to send Jesus Christ into this world from the
beginning of time. And you see it all the way through the Old Testament. Jesus
Christ has come into this world to give you good news.

This is my gospel, he says. And Paul says, I'm suffering for this gospel because
I'm sharing it and it's so powerful. People are afraid of it and they're trying
to chain it up by chaining me up.

But he says, how can they chain up the gospel? God's word is not chained.
They're trying to chain up the good news by chaining up a man who's experienced
the good news, Paul is saying.

But they don't get it. They don't get it that it's God's word that shares the
good news. You remember Jesus Christ.

You remember the good news. And whatever bad news you might be facing right now,
or your friend might be facing right now, there's no bad news that can wipe out,
that can erase this good news. This is good news of eternal life.

This is good news of God's hope. This is good news of God setting the captives
free. This is good news that will last all the way into eternity.

So you hang on to that. That's an encouragement to keep you going through tough
times. You remember Jesus Christ.

The second thing you remember is you remember why you're here. Why are you here
in this world? Paul says in verse 10, "Therefore, I endure everything for the
sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory.

" Paul says, I'm not on this planet just for myself. If you are on this planet
just for yourself, why wouldn't Jesus Christ, the moment you began a
relationship with him, why wouldn't he just take you straight to heaven? He
should.

He would. If it was just for you. But no, God has the message, the good news
that he wants you to share with other people.

And so Paul says, I'm willing to endure things for the sake of the elect. He's
talking about those whom God has chosen, has called. Now, I don't know who
exactly God has called.

No one knows. So that's why you share the good news with everybody. And God will
get the message through.

The Bible tells us that Jesus died for everyone. And I want to share the good
news with everyone. And so don't get caught up in who should I share with, who
should I not share with.

You share with everyone. And those who respond to God, those are the elect. I
endure everything for their sake, Paul says.

Not for my sake. If you're living life just for your sake, you're not going to
be able to endure very much. But when you begin to live for other's sake,
parents, you know you can endure a lot for your kids.

Husbands, wives, you can endure for your spouse. And as a believer in Jesus
Christ, you can endure for the sake of other people getting to know the good
news that's going to last all the way into eternity. Yes, what I'm going through
now is difficult.

But if someone can see my faith, even in what I'm going through now, and that's
when they're going to see it. They're not going to see your faith when
everything's going great for you. They're going to think, oh, everything's going
great for you.

Of course you're hopeful. But when you're going through tough times and you
trust in Jesus Christ, they're going to see something genuine. They're going to
see Jesus Christ in you.

You remember why you're here. It's not just for you. It's to let others know the
good news.

I don't know about you. I've got to remind myself of that all the time. It's so
easy to focus on the fact that I'm here for me and my relationship with God.

And that's part of why I'm here. That's what I'm developing. But the reason
God's leaving you on this planet, leaving me on this planet, is for the sake of
others.

Remember why you're here. That keeps you going through tough times. Remember
Jesus Christ.

That keeps you going through tough times, the good news. And then a third thing
you remember is you remember God will never fail you. Verses 11 to 13 are some
amazing verses.

Some people think, many people think they were a hymn of the early church that
they sang. Paul writes, "Here is a trustworthy saying. If we died with him, we
will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown
us. If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

" Paul just goes through the different choices I can make in life here. And one
of them he talks about is I disown Jesus Christ. I say I want nothing to do with
him in my life.

And if I say I want nothing to do with him, God will, he's a gentleman, he will
honor that choice. If I disown him, if I say I want nothing to do with him, then
God will not force me into a relationship with him. And I will not be in
relationship with him on this earth, and I will be separate from him for all of
eternity.

That's a place called hell. Of course it's hell. To be apart from God's light,
God's love, God's grace, hell is separate from God.

If we disown him, he will disown us. But that's just one of the pictures here.
If I die with him, I will live with him, Paul says.

He's talking about what happened at the cross. If I recognize that Jesus gave
his life for me and realized that the death that he died on the cross was for
me, then I recognize also that the resurrection is also for me. If I ask him to
forgive my sins, he will forgive, but it also will resurrect in me a new life.

That's his grace, that's his love. We will also live with him. And then he says
if we endure, we will also reign with him.

That's what we look forward to, reigning with Christ forever. That's the joy of
the life that he's given us. That's what we look forward to.

You remember that God will never fail you. How deeply is God committed to us?
The last part of this hymn says if we are faithless, he will remain faithful.

He cannot disown himself. Now if I disown him, if I say I want nothing to do
with him, he's going to have nothing to do with me. But what if I'm faithless?

What if I say I want to love him, but I'm struggling in loving him, making
choices against loving him? I want to do this, but I didn't have faith in this
circumstance. I didn't have faith in this relationship.

What does God do in that case? He remains faithful. And then verse 13 ends by
saying because he cannot disown himself.

What does that mean? When you became a believer in Jesus Christ, he put his
spirit into your life, himself into your life. And so for God to reject you
would be to reject his own self.

So if I am faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself. Now I've
talked to some people who think, well, wait a minute. If I think that way, maybe
that would be an excuse for sin that if God didn't reject me if I happen to sin
or be faithless, that's going to invite me to sin more and more.

Not me and not people that I've met. When I truly recognize God's faithfulness
to me, it does not invite sin in my life. It invites faith in my life.

It invites joy into my life. It invites me to trust in him in a deeper and
deeper way. Jesus Christ is faithful to me even when I am not faithful to him.

Parents, when your children are unfaithful to you, when they do things that
you've told them not to do, do you disown them? No, of course not. Discipline
them, yes, but they're still your children.

Could you imagine God being any less committed to us as believers than we are to
our children? He cannot disown himself because he has put his spirit into you.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, but if we died with him, we will also
live with him.

And if we endure, that's the center of this verse, we will also reign with him.
This verse is not about being faithless. This verse is about enduring in him.

And you can choose to endure in him, not by your strength, but by his strength,
not by your power, but by the power of his spirit. You're facing a tough time
right now. Three encouragements to help you to make it through.

Remember the good news in Jesus Christ. Remember why you're here. It's not just
for you.

That's why you're going through tough times sometimes, or even through the tough
times you're going through, that's how God can use you for the sake of others.
And remember that God will never fail you. Jesus Christ, thank you.

Thank you for your faithfulness to us. Thank you for your sacrifice for us. And
thank you that you reign forever.

Lord, it's almost beyond our comprehension that in some sense, we will reign
with you. We don't feel worthy of that. I don't feel worthy of that, but it's
not about our worthiness.

It's about your worthiness and reigning with you doesn't lift us up. It lifts
you up. It shows your glory.

The fact that we mere human beings could reign with you forever shows the
greatness of the Cross, the greatness of your resurrection from that tomb and
the greatness of your throne. And we thank you for your greatness. We pray that
your greatness, who you are, your good news, who you are, would help us to face
the tough times that we're facing right now.

And we ask this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to talk
together about the wrong words and the right words.