In the sermon 'Suffer for Christ,' Douglas Campbell delves into 2 Timothy 1:8-18, emphasizing the call for Christians to embrace suffering for the gospel and not be ashamed of their faith in Jesus Christ. Paul, writing to Timothy from prison, encourages him to share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Paul speaks of a holy calling, not due to personal works, but because of God's purpose and grace manifested through Jesus Christ. He urges Timothy to guard the 'good deposit' of faith, handed down through his mother and grandmother, and to remain steadfast even in persecution. Paul sees his impending martyrdom as an opportunity to be with Christ and encourages Timothy to carry on his work without shame. Christians are called to a life of suffering, which contrasts with the pursuit of comfort, urging believers to prioritize their spiritual calling over worldly desires. Campbell encourages the congregation to suffer joyfully for the kingdom of God, viewing it as a glorious calling.

Good morning. If you would turn with me this morning to 2nd Timothy chapter 1. This morning I'd like to look at verses 8 through 10. So it's 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 8 through 10. The word of God says, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share in the 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 because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. I'm sorry, I'm gonna continue on. I meant to go through 18, so let's continue. For which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do, but I am not ashamed, for I know who I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day which has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me and the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

By the spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. You are aware of all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are phalegias and hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.

And you well know all the service He rendered at Ephesus." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You this morning again for your Word. Father, thank you that as we peer at your Word and as we we look into it, it's as if we are looking into a pool that has no depth or has no end to its depth. We see your work and your revelation of yourself, Your revelation of our King. Father, thank You that we can know You by Your Word, that good deposit that we can take within us.

Father, this morning as we come to Your Word, I would ask and pray that You would draw us, that You would give us understanding. For Your glory, Father, we would be conformed to your image. That we would take it seriously, that you would help us to guard our minds, that they might not wander, but that they would focus upon you. That you would change us Father for your glory we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. Well this morning I realized we've taken a little bit of a sidestep into the book of 2nd Timothy and part of that as many of you well know that I went to a preaching workshop this past week, and in that workshop, this was my assignment to go to exposit this text and to present it before people who are way smarter than I am and get their feedback. With that, this has been a deeply convicting and deeply changing in my heart and in my life, and I praise God for that, and I pray that this morning the same would be for you. But as we turn to 2nd Timothy, we have to understand normally I will preach through a book. And so as we begin, we look at the context of that book and we march through that.

And so this is one of the dangers actually of not doing that, not preaching through a book. The danger is, is we jump into the middle of something. It's as if we were at a ball game and we jump into the middle of it and we don't have any idea of what's going on or what what's happened. And So this morning, just to take a couple of minutes, I would like to look at what are we jumping into the middle of? Well, first off, we're jumping into the middle of a personal letter between Paul, Timothy's spiritual father in the faith, the one whom Paul adopted, Timothy, metaphorically, as his spiritual son.

Paul has poured his life into Timothy. Timothy is his, in modern terms you could say his young protégé, though we are pretty sure that Timothy is probably in his 30s or so, still considered young in Timothy's role as an elder of the church. Paul though finds himself imprisoned. Paul has found himself in these situations many times before, But as you read the writings of Paul, all of the times before, Paul wasn't all that concerned, and Paul expected God would deliver him. And I'm in prison now, but God will take care of that.

I still have lots of work to do. But in 2 Timothy we find a transition. Paul is in prison, but Paul somehow knows that God is about finished with using Paul in this world, and Paul doesn't expect to leave prison. Paul expects his soon martyrdom, his soon execution. But what we see in this text is, and as my tone even changed, because naturally by our flesh, when we think of this, the soon end to Paul's ministry, his soon martyrdom, his soon execution, and we start to get this solemn tone.

But that wasn't Paul. Paul wasn't solemn at all. Paul wasn't writing, woe is me. Well, we have just read here how he was completely abandoned in Asia, But Paul wasn't down. Paul is encouraging Timothy.

He's saying, Timothy, it's time for me to go be with my king. And if you remember in the past, Paul had said, it's actually better for me to be with God and absent from this body. Yet Paul wanted to glorify God and remaining on earth to do what God had called him to do. And Paul knows the time is soon where He will depart from this body and He will be present with the Lord. If anything, Paul is excited.

But Paul, because God uses him, loves the church, loves deeply the church. And he's encouraging Timothy. Timothy, it's your turn. You're taking over. So let's look at, and I realize we're still somewhat jumping into the middle of this, but let's look at what this text before us tells us.

It starts off with Paul encouraging Timothy to not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. And so we find this, again, let's look at 2 Timothy 1, 8 through 10. 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 because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. He's saying, Timothy, don't be ashamed of our Lord. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.

What is the testimony of our Lord? That Jesus Christ came, He lived, He lived the perfect life, He didn't sin, yet He was crucified and punished, And the wrath of God was poured out upon him. But the testimony also includes, but he was risen. Just as just a few weeks ago we celebrated Resurrection Sunday, The testimony of Christ is that He was risen. He didn't stay dead in a tomb, but He raised Himself, and God raised Him.

And the Holy Spirit raised Him to life, proving that He is the Son of God, that He is the way, truth, and the life, proving that no man comes to the Father but through Him. Don't be ashamed of this, Timothy. Don't be ashamed of this, friend. Don't be ashamed of this, brother and sister. Paul reminds Timothy of this because we still come back to the stigma of the time that they're fighting through, and no doubt still is a stigma that is in many people's heads.

That if Jesus Christ is the King, if He is the Son of God, why is He on a cross? Why is He being punished? Why isn't He conquering Rome? After all, isn't that what he's here for? No, that's not what he's here for.

He had a great, a much bigger foe to defeat. I praise God that Jesus didn't just come and defeat Rome. Because if that's all He did, you and I are going to get what we deserve, eternal damnation in hell, because we will pay for our own sins. We will pay for it by death and eternal death. But Jesus Christ, I can't remember, I probably should try to even share it, but there's a depiction somewhere, I think in Rome, somewhere around there, of the Jesus Christ who was crucified.

And it shows the world or the people of that time made this drawing, I think it's an engraving into a stone. And it's this man who is on the cross, but his head isn't the head of a man, his head is the head of a donkey. And that's what they thought of Christ. He called Himself the Son of God, but He's a donkey. He's up there on the cross.

Transitioning forward, we look at Timothy. And what Paul says, don't be ashamed of our Lord. But also, don't be ashamed of me. Timothy can take this still very prominent view of the times, and he can now look at Paul. Paul, the apostle, the one who was called by Christ.

But Paul isn't conquering. He's helpless in prison. Conquering. He's helpless in prison. It's man trying to apply man-sense.

Paul's saying, don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed, Timothy. This is the work of God. Now we continue on. How is Timothy not to be ashamed?

And it says here, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Don't be ashamed of what's happened, Timothy, but share in it. This is your calling. And how do you do that? By the power of God.

He saved us. Brother and sister, He saved us. Brother and sister, He called us to a holy calling. He didn't just call you to be an American family, sharing an American lifestyle. He called you to a holy calling.

Not just the elders and not just the deacons, but brother and sister. He called you to a holy calling. It's more than what common sense tells you is the normal life calling. God has called you to this. Why did He do that?

Or how does He empower you? Because it's for His own purpose and His own grace. He abolished death. He brought life. And if you're in Christ, you have found life.

Paul continues and says that Paul was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. Timothy was appointed as an elder. Elders in here, you're appointed as an elder. It's not just because you were voted in. Deacons, you are called to a calling.

Not because you were voted in, but God has called you to this calling. And finally, brother and sister, children of God, you are called to a holy calling. It's way deeper than what the world can even comprehend. How can you not be ashamed? Claim to your calling.

He's called you to more. He's called you to more. And look what he reminds Timothy also. Follow the pattern of sound words. Guard the deposit.

Why is Paul in prison? Because Paul believes the Word of God. And he tells Timothy, don't depart from the Word of God. He says to guard the good deposit entrusted to you. And as he speaks to Timothy, what is this good deposit?

We can turn to 2 Timothy 1 verse 5. And Paul, again, this same letter to Timothy, He says, 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. As we read this and we understand that Timothy's mother and his grandmother, both who had a sincere faith, which was actually quite not ordinary for the time, those two who shared a sincere faith in God, were those who discipled their child and their grandchild in the Word of God. This deposit that was entrusted to Timothy was the deposit of motherly and grandmotherly discipleship, the Word of God being deposited into his account. And Paul tells Timothy that You can remain faithful, but you must cling to this deposit.

You must cling to the Word of God. Paul finds himself in prison because of the Word of God. And Paul tells Timothy, cling to the Word of God. This is Paul directly speaking to his protege, but to every elder in the Church of God, cling to the Word of God. And if it means going to prison, and if it means having your head chopped off, and if it means anything, losing your life savings, losing your 401k, losing your job, losing whatever it is, cling to the Word of God.

Cling to it. Guard it. It was entrusted to you. So moving on for this, and I've already hit on it quite a bit. Paul's command to Timothy is this, is to don't be ashamed of Christ.

Don't be ashamed of His word. What does shame do? Why are we ashamed, before I go on to this? Why are we ashamed when you go to your school or go to your workplace or go to be surrounded by your friends at the disc golf course? What does it mean to be ashamed?

It means that we stay quiet. Remember Peter, he didn't want anybody to know he was with that guy. He didn't want anybody to know that he was with the Son of God. These people don't like Him. I'm gonna keep my mouth shut.

As you and I go into the world, whether it be workplaces or or recreation or wherever it may be, the marketplaces. So oftentimes we know we should open our mouth for Jesus Christ. We know we should proclaim Him. We know that we should go into the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Yet our mouth stays shut.

Why? Because we are ashamed. We're ashamed. Now you would say, well I'm not really ashamed of them. I just don't want to, I don't want to be embarrassed or I don't want to...

I have the same... I have the same stuff between my ears that you do. I know all the excuses I've used. I'm quite good at using them. But in reality, we're ashamed.

That shame keeps our mouth shut, and in so doing, keeping our mouth shut, our self is made completely happy, our selfishness is fed. The selfishness that says in all of American culture, I shall not suffer. I don't want to suffer. I don't want to lose my job. I don't want to eat macaroni and cheese for the rest of my life.

I don't want to live in a box. I don't want to lose my friends. But look what he says. 2 Timothy 1, 8, the first verse again. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering." Share in suffering.

Share in suffering. Paul is telling Timothy this. Timothy looks at Paul. Again, not to beat this really hard. Timothy looks at Paul, and Paul is the man who is not ashamed.

Paul is the man who is suffering. Paul is the man who's about to get his head chopped off. And that is what happened. If I'm not ashamed, if I do what Paul's telling me to do, what's Timothy think? I'm gonna get my head chopped off.

Timothy's not even worried about losing his job in this 401k. He's not worried about losing his friends. He's worried about getting his head chopped off. Brothers and sisters, what is wrong with us? All of these things, and I preach to myself, I've preached myself for days now.

All these things are a hill of beans. You share the gospel at your workplace and you've worked there for 20 years and you've got great 401k and great pay and great vacation and you share the gospel of somebody and It goes bad and all of a sudden you're fired. Guess what? You lost a hill of beans. It's nothing.

It's nothing. And it goes further because Timothy, and some of this is reading in maybe a little bit with this, Timothy considers his head being chopped off, and Paul tells Timothy, do it. Suffer, Timothy. You're called to suffer. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

Now this doesn't just apply to elders, it applies to every child of God. Every brother and sister has a holy calling. And look what it says in Romans 8, 16, and 17, it says, The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. So there we've established children of God are who? It's anyone who has put their trust in Jesus Christ and who is born again.

If you're a member of the church, at the minimum level, you should be a child of God. If you're here this morning, and you have put your trust in Jesus Christ, you are a child of God." So look what it says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Now look at the condition, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Contrary to American ideology, suffering is synonymous with Christianity. Suffering is synonymous with being born again.

And if you're in Christ, you will suffer. If you're in Jesus Christ, you should expect suffering. And if you expect it, it's way easier to deal with. One of the comments I made towards the other pastors is I said, you know, I wish that in the beginning of my ministry that either I would have saw this more clearly or another pastor or someone would have came to me and said hey you're you're going into ministry I want you to understand this rightly, you should expect suffering. Because that way when it came, and when it comes, I'm not like a stabbed lamb bleeding all over the place and mourning and reverting to my selfishness and doing all sorts of weird things trying to justify to God why I shouldn't suffer.

People shouldn't be mean to me. I'm not saying you guys were all mean to me or nothing like that, but I've had people leave this church whom I have wept bitterly over. I have pleaded with them to repent, and I still hurt, but that's ministry. That's what we're called to. I should expect it.

Paul finds himself even abandoned by his closest friends. In Asia he's abandoned by everyone. Everyone's like, yep, that's too much Paul. We're out. We like what these other guys are saying better.

This time period again heavily influenced by Gnosticism. Gnosticism directly appeals to the flesh. It does promise you everything you want. Gnosticism promises you health, wealth, and prosperity, and no accountability. Live however you want.

But Paul stands for the Word of God, and that's not what the Word of God promises. And as a result, and Paul even says so, I suffer because of the Word of God, because of Jesus Christ. It is Him for why I suffer. And brother and sister, you also should be suffering. The world doesn't like the Word of God.

In Philippians 1, 29 it says, For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for his sake. Are you hearing me this morning? I have so examined my selfishness in the past week. Selfishness is almost the complete opposite of suffering. It avoids it.

It justifies it. It can cause you to do things to avoid it that are completely not right. Even talking to my brother yesterday, I said, you know, a lot of my battle with my flesh, my battle with my sin, its sin, is my size. And I justify it in this way. I justify it.

It's more than this. It has all to do with suffering. Because when I suffer, when I've worked a long day, when everything was not fun that day, the only thing that I... One of the main things I think about is, at some point today, I'm going to go home, and my wife is an amazing cook and I deserve to overeat a little bit because it's been a bad day. Do you know what I'm really saying?

And I'm pointing my finger at me and I'm hoping that you examine yourself. Do You know what I'm really saying? I don't deserve to suffer all day long. Yet the Word of God says, Christ is glorified in my suffering. When I add it all up, I say, well, I don't need to glorify Christ, I need to not suffer.

We're called to suffer. Lastly, or the third point, is Paul gives us an example to follow, and I've hit on this quite a bit already, and so we won't spend much time here, but again, verses 10 through 12. And which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I have appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. This 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 which has been entrusted to me." Now again, I pointed this out in Sunday School and I pointed it out because I've seen this all through Paul's writings, but he refers to that he is convinced he's able to guard this until that day. What is that day?

It's the day that he will be with his Lord. What Paul says is, Paul is not ashamed, and Paul will continue to suffer, because on that day, it'll be glorious. Paul is living not for today. He's living for His Savior. He's living for the kingdom that's to come.

He's living for the time when we stand before Christ. And it's that fuel, the fuel of understanding what is the Gospel, what has God done for you, what has Christ done for you, Paired with, I will be with Christ again. That this is but temporary, and my Lord and my Savior and my King, there will be a day very soon approaching that I will be with Him. And because I will be with him and I will be rewarded to simply be with him, I will never be ashamed. I will suffer.

You remember other accounts in the New Testament? I think it was Paul and Silas. They're beaten and put into prison. And what do they do while they're in prison? They write sad, sad notes to the church to send them stuff and to figure out how to break them out of jail, right?

Everybody should be saying no. What do they do after they've been beaten? Has anybody ever been beaten? A good beating? How about you just, those of you who were young and played football, and you played your heart out, and even as a young man, the next day when you'd woke up and you would hurt.

Today in my 40s, I walked up and down hills, and I woke up this morning and I hurt. That is but a very minor beating. They took way more than that, And they didn't sit there and lick their wounds. Do you know what they did? They sang hymns.

They counted it a joy that they might suffer for their king. Our culture has taught us that we're not to suffer. Brothers and sisters, you must break this. You must break it. You must break it in your flesh.

We are to suffer for the kingdom of God. Paul reminds us that he suffers because of the gospel. Now it's interesting in this, Look at 2nd Timothy 1, 8 again. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. Now this seems to be, actually it's the Word of God coming to life.

But here Paul is in prison, right? But whose prisoner is he? He's not theirs. He's a prisoner of Christ. He's a prisoner to His Lord.

He is only there because His Lord directed him to be in prison. He is Christ's prisoner. Christ is His Lord. That though He sits in a civil or an earthly prison, he is not a prisoner of theirs, he is a prisoner of God. Paul's not confused, and he's illustrated this in the past.

He wasn't concerned about being in prison. Now, I'll be completely transparent with you. During COVID, I started to consider I might be going to prison. And to be honest, there were things about that that terrified me. I've actually, just like David, I've actually been in some prisons.

David likes to tell people that he was in, How many years were you in prison? 25 years spent 25 years in prison. They're like, oh that's that's interesting, but he was the cook. They paid him to be there. I've been in prisons.

I know what prisons are like. I don't necessarily want to go there. But do you know who that's coming from? It's coming from my flesh. Do you know?

He's still alive, so I don't try to reference people who were still alive, but I was so proud of John MacArthur. When they threatened him with prison, they said, well I've never had a prison ministry, so bring it. Paul knows who's prisoner he is. He doesn't care about these circumstances. He's not ashamed of his Lord.

Paul says, bring on the suffering. Paul also looks forward again hitting this just briefly, 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. Paul looks forward to the day that he will be with his king in his blood a short time away. Paul also is reminded that he suffers alone and wants Timothy to come. But look at Luke 14, 27-28, coming back to, and I'm swirling for the conclusion.

Jesus says, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. And he goes further on and gives other examples. But look what Jesus says, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. What does it mean to be a follower, a disciple of Christ?

It means that we have turned from our sin and put our trust in Him. But as we do this, He tells us to count the cost. Because what He's saying is, if you are My disciple, You will bear a cross. The cross isn't the place of entertainment and comfort. The cross is the place of great suffering.

So, brothers and sisters, have you counted the cost? True biblical Christianity includes suffering. And you will suffer. And you should expect to suffer. Have you counted the cost?

Are you willing to suffer? Do you counted a joy to suffer? As our King did? Are you willing to suffer? As I asked myself this question, there are all kinds of things in my life that I see that I spend my money foolishly.

Why do I spend it foolishly? Because I spend it on Lots of comfort, lots of things I want, lots of stuff, lots of entertainment, lots of this, lots of that. We order our time in the way that provides us comfort. We make decisions based off of our comfort. One of the hardest things, and I was like this for many years, one of the hardest things for me to watch is for people to make major decisions in their life and assume they shouldn't go to their Bible first.

Brothers and sisters, we believe the Bible is sufficient. And what that means is it has the answers to everything that we need. And if that means I need to move to a different state, where do I move to? The first thing shouldn't come to my mind, let's evaluate the schools, let's evaluate the jobs, let's evaluate the pay scale, let's evaluate where our favorite restaurant is, let's evaluate all these things, even let's evaluate where our family is. But the first thing we should say is we must go to the Word of God.

You know what the first thing that I would evaluate if I was moving? I would evaluate the churches. And that would probably be my biggest evaluation. And if I had to take half of my pay to go to a church that I'm going to be discipled and my family is going to be brought, discipled to Christ in, it's It's worth it. Do you hear me?

Are you willing to suffer? Are you willing to suffer to disciple your children. So often, and I know that I'm trying to land, so often I've counseled pre-marital couples and I always bring up, we go through the roles of the husband and wife and and I believe that it it's good for mothers to stay home and to raise their children and and to Disciple them and and people always Tell me almost I don't I think it's every time as almost has come back to this Well, we would like to do that, but we just couldn't afford it and I have had the blessing of I'm not proud of this because by God's grace it wasn't because of my smartness. I've always wanted that and by God's grace I can say but I make half as much as you do and we can do it." And I said, well, we just couldn't do that. Well, what you're saying is we can't do without the comforts to do that.

We can't suffer. I said, yes it is, Not really. It is suffering to have a family and have one car. But we did it for years. And we made it.

We survived. Will you suffer for your children? Christ has called you to disciple your children. Will you suffer? Is it better for your children to be raised by their parents and discipled in Christ and eat ramen noodles for their entire growing up life.

Or to go to the wicked world and they can learn all kinds of wickedness about which bathroom who should be using and not. But at least you have steak so it makes it right. That is an abomination. Brothers and sisters suffer. Brothers and sisters, go to work and share the gospel.

Suffer. If you lose your job, you lose your job. It's a hill of beans. Now you say that's easy for you to say. You don't have lots of great big 401k's.

Yep, tomorrow it could be gone. I was encouraged by my brother a few weeks ago, and he said, yeah, I just keep sharing, and if they fire me, they fire me. Like, absolutely, brother! Awesome! Now, I'm not saying go to work and be a jerk.

Or go to work and you be the offense. If you're the offense, you get what you deserve. But if Christ is the offense, suffer for Christ. Don't be ashamed of Him. Why aren't we suffering?

If you lose friends, you lose friends. If you proclaim Christ and you lost friends, you didn't lose friends. Amen. Why aren't we suffering? Are you suffering?

Are you suffering for the cause of Christ? Are you suffering for His kingdom? Do you find yourself alone because you're the guy that always has to talk about Christ. Does your pocketbook suffer? Does it suffer from the kingdom of God or does it suffer from Netflix or satellite dish bills, new stuff.

John Flavel, in conclusion, says, John Flavel in conclusion says, those people can never be ruined who thrive by their losses, conquer by being conquered, and multiply by being diminished. This is a life that God has called us to. He's called us to proclaim Him, and He's called us to suffer. And it's a glorious thing. Brothers and sisters suffer for the kingdom of God.

By God's grace He gives us brothers and sisters of whom we gather together, whom I pray we are never alone. None of you are never alone. And in fact, we know through other texts that the Lord is with him. And I would leave you with that this morning. If you are living and doing, if you're living as God has called you to live, if you are doing what God has called you to do, you'll never be alone because Christ is with you.

But if we want to squander our lives away on comfort and being ashamed, you could be very alone. Suffer for the kingdom. Suffer Suffer for the kingdom. Suffer, brothers and sisters. It's a glorious calling.

Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you once again for your Word. Father, would you put within us not only the permissiveness to suffer, but the desire to suffer for our Lord?

Would you help us to count the cost? And then by your grace to bear the cross that you have given us. Would you give us by your Spirit the power to stand for your word when the world says that it's nonsense? Would you give us the the ability to stand and say, no one comes to the Father but through Christ. Even if the world would paint a donkey on our head, and poke fun at us, and treat us as if we're foolish, even if wicked men would cut off all finances and cause us to be hungry.

Father would you help us to see it as a joy to suffer for our Lord? Would you help us to stand up amidst a wicked generation and proclaim that there is only one King and He is Christ our Lord. That all men must repent, turn from their wicked ways, and trust in the work of Christ for their salvation. Father, would you help me and would you help us to reflect that one way of thinking, that holiness that you put within us that Christ is our King and our time would would represent that and how we spend our time and and our checkbook would represent that and how we use our funds. And that's serving you, Father, would be chief.

And Father, your word says that will bring on suffering. And Father, would you help all of us to come to a point in our lives where we would agree with Paul, say, I desire that my life would even be poured out as a drink offering before our Lord that we have fought a good fight we have come to the end And he is our King and on that day we will be with our Lord. Help that Father to be on our minds as we live for you. Help us to suffer and bring glory to your name we pray in Christ's name. Amen.