In this eight-part companion series to his book Never Give Up, Dr. Dr. Michael Youssef encourages us to embody Paul’s unwavering confidence in the Gospel. Digging deep into the apostle’s letter known as 2 Timothy, Dr. Youssef exhorts believers everywhere to do all we can to remain true to Christ.

Hello my friends. I’m bringing you today a new series of messages that you do not want to miss one of them, They’re eight and number, I had the privilege with my wife to go and find that prison supposedly prison from which paul wrote this episode. And I want to show you some pictures because it moved me deeply almost to tears. It wasn’t a prison, it’s a dungeon Hole in the Wall. four walls. When you listen to the messages and you realize where this man was when he was writing this message, you will be absolutely moved like I was stay tuned. Mm hmm. Never give up. Never give up on biblical truth. Never give up on the infallibility of the word of God. Never give up on the faith that once delivered. Never give up on the biblical orthodoxy. And when you understand the backdrop to this epistle, second epistle of timothy. And when you understand that this the importance of this message for our generation. Where the Apostle paul, the aged imprisoned apostle realize that his days are numbered and that the day of his meeting, jesus face to face is approaching. He decides to leave this official as his legacy for future generation of church leaders and church members. But in reality this is an exaltation to this and future generation of church leaders. Church members in any generation. In every generation, there is falsehoods and compromise and those falsehoods and compromises always start on a very minuscule component. They are so imperceptible. Most people sitting in the pews, they don’t even realize it. They don’t even understand it from the Book of Acts and from historical documents, we know that the apostle paul was imprisoned twice. He was imprisoned twice. You remember when we had the shipwreck going from Jerusalem to Rome there that his first imprisonment was more like a house arrest. He was in a rented accommodation sure he was under guard, but he was rented accommodation and he was able to receive visitors, but then he was freed because of lack of evidence against him. Then there is a strong indication that he went from there to spain. You remember when he wrote to the romans and he said, I have longing to come to you so that you might send me on my way to Spain with all of his life. The desire of his love, the longing of his life was to go to Spain and preach the gospel there too. That way he would have covered the empire from side to side and that after he preached in spain and came back that he was arrested in traumas. This was during the time of the great persecution, you remember Nero burned Rome and blamed it on the christian and the severe persecution began back then and it was so severe that paul himself was arrested and he was placed in a dungeon. This asian physically weak, Apostle of God was languishing in a dungeon. Now my wife and I have been to Rome on several occasions and every time I wanted to know where that dungeon was, but nobody knew the last time I was adamant. I said I’m going to find out where it is and my wife wouldn’t give up and we found it. I am not a photographer. I’m not taking. I don’t take pictures very often, but when I got into this place I become so deeply moved. I couldn’t help but take the phone and begin to take pictures. This is that dungeon. And my wife was able to read latin. I couldn’t, I can’t even read english. Mhm. These were four walls and a whole in the ceiling in the middle of the room where they can throw down the food and water. There’s a great apostle four walls, no windows whatsoever to look out in the outside world. And I’m told that in winter is so damp and it’s so cold. You talk about plants in a hothouse far from it. We don’t know exactly how long the Apostle paul was in that dungeon in that miserable place. But we know that from there he was taken to the place of execution on the argentine way there he laid his gray head on a great stone and in a moment the executioner’s ax decapitated him and paul experience absence from the body and presence with the Lord instantly, sometimes immediately before that horrible violent act. The apostle took pen to paper and he wrote for the future generation. I am so grateful to the sovereign Lord for preserving such documents. But also I believe that the Apostle paul wrote this epistle so that every person who’s defeated may experience victory and triumph that each one make no joy in the midst of their despair, that every one of us can experience encouragement in the midst of discouragement. The one thing that comes through again and again and again is that the Apostle paul knew his spiritual son timothy. He knew him only too well. He knew his strength and he knew his weaknesses. He knew how prone timothy was to discouragement and how he’s prone to self pity and how he’s prone to the temptation of throwing in the towel and giving up timothy apparently was a timid soul. It was not assertive, which made unscrupulous people take advantage of him. And therefore the apostle paul, as he contemplates his own departure from this side to heaven, he writes to timothy, and basically, if I can put it in a few words, saying to him, don’t ever give up. Can you say that with me, don’t at this stage in my life and ministry, that this is an urgent message To the church on the 21st century, we have lost our sense of urgency and I pray under God that he will indeed stir up that sense of urgency and everyone of our hearts and even those who are watching around the world so many in my generation, losing their grip of the truth. But I thank God every day and God only knows that, that he is now raising up a new generation of young timothy’s and I believe with all my heart, that these young timothy’s in this church, who by the power of God, are unashamed of the truth of the gospel, Those young timothy’s that we are blessed to have in this church will guard the truth until jesus comes back. And so look with me at the first seven verses of chapter one second timothy in verse one, you see the Apostle paul asserts, as he does in all the epistles, he asserts his unique calling in christ, jesus, the unique call on his life. Like all the other 12, the Apostle paul was qualified to be called an apostle because the main qualification for being called an apostle is that they have seen the resurrected jesus, and that is why the apostle paul called himself an apostle, because he not only saw the resurrected jesus on the road to Damascus, but he was commissioned by the resurrected jesus to take the gospel to the gentiles. And that is why now he’s not afraid to die in Jesus. And for Jesus, look at verse two paul addresses timothy as son, of course, he’s not his physical son is his spiritual son timothy came to the Lord through the ministry of the Apostle paul, and paul becomes his spiritual father, If you follow, leading the way you know that we have the 2025 vision that I believe God gave me after fasting and praying and the vision is that when I get to heaven I want to see one million people sons spiritual sons and spiritual daughters with me in heaven. And I thank God that this is already happening. Look with me at verses 3-6 here you find not some of the most intensely personal words that you ever hear from the apostle paul. These are the most intensely intimate words that the apostle ever expressed in all of his writings here he said to timothy, I remember you in my prayers, not just when I pray in the morning, not just on occasions, not like I said to others in remembrance of you every time I think of you, I pray for you. No, no, no, he said, I pray for you day and night. What an encouragement, what a shot in the arm to timothy to know that the great Apostle paul praying for him day and night, day and night. And he said as I pray for you day and night timothy. I recall your tears. I recall your faith, your sincere faith. I recall your Godly heritage. I recall your Godly mom and your Godly grandma who have prayed for you who have ministered to you, who has instructed you so much so that you were prepared as soon as you heard the message of the gospel. You believed it. Now beloved, I want to stop here for a minute and I want to tell you sowing seed in the minds and the hearts of your Children at home and grandchildren will bear fruit. Trust me, I say it on the authority of the Word of God. You might not see the fruit right away. You might not experience that fruit immediately, but make no mistake about it. Sooner or later the fruit will come about. In timothy’s case. Obviously his mom and his grandmother have trained him well in the old testament and have showed him the prophecies about jesus in the old testament, they prepared his heart to be expectant of the coming of the messiah. They obviously taught him to hope for the coming messiah from the pages of the old testament, they taught him the importance of living expectantly of the coming messiah. No wonder that kind of preparation compelled him that as soon as he heard from the apostle paul, that the messiah came, that he lived, that he died, that he rose again, that these ascended into heaven and that he is soon coming back as Judge Timothy put his faith in jesus christ, We don’t know. But apparently timothy’s father was a gentile and possibly a greek. He’s not mentioned here, so I’m not going to speculate, But what Paul is doing here is giving us an example of what I taught you when I preached through first Corinthians chapter seven When paul said that the Children of a believing spot, one parent doesn’t have to be both. One are sanctified in that believing parents, meaning that God has a plan for the Children. If even one parent is a believer, I I hope that you vividly remember that and hear what the Apostle paul is doing. He’s saying, here’s an exhibit, a here’s an exhibit a of what I’m teaching about. How the Children of believing parents will come to christ exhibit a is timothy timothy because of his faith, of his mother and his grandmother and the preparation and the seeds that they have planted in his heart and his life. Now he became the successor of the great Apostle paul and paul. Remember he says, I remember how you received the Holy Spirit when we laid hands on you. Remember how you got the gift of the Holy Spirit. Like we all have the gifts of the different gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I remember how you exercise that gift of the Holy Spirit. And here he says, the great encourager, the apostle paul is saying, I remember all of that timothy and I thank God for you. Those are truly magnificent word to a discouraged timothy, beloved, probably the same devil who was working on timothy to discourage him. The same devil who was trying to tempt him to give up is the same devil was working on some of you today, no doubt is the same devil, it’s the center, probably the same devil who was tempting timothy, timothy to throw in the towel and give up and slow down and give up the fight. Is that same devil who is tempting you today? I would do whatever it takes to encourage you to get up, get out of the family album, get out the word of God and start remembering. Start remembering God’s past blessings. Start remembering God’s past protection. Start remembering God’s past. Watching over you. Start remembering how he rescued you Sometimes he did not even know it. Start remembering how God used you in the past, how God worked in you in the past and today. That same God wants to bless you, encourage you and use you again. Which brings me to the very heart of what paul is saying. two Timothy in this particular passage, here’s what he’s saying. Sir timothy. Shake off your timidity. Shake off your fear! Shake off your discouragement. Shake off your weariness. Shake off the temptation to give up and take it easy. Look at verse seven with me, for God did not give us the spirit of fear or timidity. It’s really the same word, but the spirit of power and of love and of self control. I need to do a whole series of messages just from this verse and it would take that much. But so let me summarize the best. I know how I understand from this, that there is a specific spirit. Evil spirit not from God has nothing to do with gods and evil spirit and he specializes in fear. Can I get an amen? He specializes, you know, you’ve got to understand if you read Ephesians, you you understand that there’s a hierarchy. If you read my book, conquer, I’ll show you the hierarchy in the spiritual realm among satan and his and his demons, there’s powers and authority and they all have a hierarchy. And this evil spirit who’s not from the Lord as acid specializes in fear. Now I don’t know how many demons could be billions or trillions. We don’t know, we have no idea how many demons he would have deployed this particular evil spirit. He would deploy to work on God’s believers. We don’t know, we don’t know how many of those demons are doing the bidding of that evil spirit. It doesn’t matter what matters. Is that we recognize a that is not from the Lord, it’s an evil spirit. The bible says he who is in us, that’s the holy spirit is greater than he is in the world. That’s the evil spirits. All of them put together. He who is in us is greater than he, who is in the the world. Can you say that with me? He is in us is greater than he was in the world. The evil spirit of fear has won over arching task. Oh yes they’re focused. I don’t think the demons have a. D. D. And I do and I have to work harder on concentrating. They are laser focused. What is it? What do they want to do? They want to paralyze your effectiveness. They want to neutralize your impact. They want to numb your spiritual senses. They want to terrify you into a prison cell of your own making. I hope the irony is not wasted on any of us. Paul is in a dungeon of a roman prison. But he knew that if we live in fear we are in a prison worse than his. If we live in fear were behind bars more powerful than steel. If we live in fear we are in a prison more inescapable than Alcatraz. Fear can destroy your abilities. Fear can hamper your drive fear, can paralyze your commitment. Fear can stunt your spiritual growth. Fear can destroy your marriage, your family and your relationships. Fear can destroy your health and even can kill you which is the desire of the devil anyway and that is why paul wants timothy and every one of us to know that because the devil controls the spirit of fear and because the devil is a liar, he will masquerade. He will not come and say I am fear and I’m here to terrorize you. No no no no no he will come to you. Something like being super cautious. You know what I’m talking about? Just being careful. I’m just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing. That’s not take risk. Let’s not do crazy things. Let’s not trust God with things that we’re not sure he’s going to do or not as being incapable and feeling inadequate or insecure or lacking in confidence, false humility. Others can do better. Of course they can. But God is calling you and you and you and you. I know what I’m talking about. I have experienced raw fear within inches of my face of facing death, but the holy Spirit of God breathed in me and said Fear, not. In fact, that is why those two words are repeated by Lord, jesus again and again and again. Fear, not Fear, not safe with me. Fear not fear, not life. Why? Because Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life not a life. The life fear not death. Why? Because Jesus said, I am the one who lives was dead and behold, I’m living forevermore fear not the unknown. Why? Because jesus Saddam, the Alpha and the omega the beginning and the end and everything in between. The one thing the great apostle has learned In over 30 years of walking with the Lord serving the Lord preaching the gospel of the Lord. The one thing he understood that there’s only one antidote to fear, beloved, listen to me. There’s only one antidote to fear. What is it? What is it? What is it? The God who is in total control of your life can banish fear out of your life. It might not happen in an incident, but it’s a daily thing. Ask yourself the question, What is stopping your effectiveness? What excuse do you have for not serving and giving and doing? Is it fear of failure? I know all about failure. I’ve experienced in my life many times, but I would rather try to do something and fail than succeed at nothing. Listen to me. You cannot be defeated unless you accept defeat in your heart. Let me repeat this. You cannot be defeated unless you accept defeat in your heart. Please hear me right. I’m about to finish Falling down. Does not make you a failure. Staying down those Did you get that falling down? Does not make you a failure. But staying down does. It’s never a dead end street when you are in jesus. It’s only a detour. Sometimes I hear people say, well, Michael, my past sins are just haunting me. Not If you place them under the blood of jesus. Amen. God buried your sins in the deepest sea and there he put a sign. Fishing is not allowed, is it The fear of the unknown? The bible said. No weapons formed against you will prosper. It might look like succeeding, but it will not prosper. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? And so the Word of God to us today, All of us, regardless of where we are. The word of God. Has he spoken to timothy? It’s spoken to every one of us. We need to know that God is in control of every aspect of our lives. No matter how much the devil might bark, we already have received the victory. Anything else? Because he has given us the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives us power, gives us courage, gives us strength, give us power, give us the ability to love. The unlovable gives us all that we need to be faithful soldiers of jesus christ. Hello, my friends, you know, the Apostle Paul wrote his last letter, The 2nd Timothy Epistle and that was his legacy. I’m expounding on this and it is my legacy. I am pleading with every bible believing christians to read this book. Never give up. We’re seeing in our culture today. People giving up for all sorts of reasons. Never give up order it now, no matter how hard these days, maybe, no matter how trying those times may become. No matter how challenging the situation is, don’t ever give up on the gospel truth. Learn the keys to spiritual endurance, overcome spiritual burnout and train up the next generation to stand firm on biblical truth with Dr Yousef’s new book. Never give up at the end of his life imprisoned in a roman dungeon. The apostle paul urged his young disciple timothy. Never give up on prayer. Never give up on Biblical truth. Never give up on the faith that was once for all, entrusted to the Saints In his brand new book. Never give up, Dr. Michael Yousef unpacks Paul’s rich words of encouragement found in 2nd Timothy words that will help you endure flourish and thrive in the midst of doubt. Danger and despair. Don’t be ashamed of the word of God, don’t die. Alluded to the point of unrecognized Ishan in this encouraging book, Dr Yousef unveils four unique aspects of what it means to never give up Biblical truth. A timely message as christians around the world face mounting pressure to compromise their faith and abandoned their biblical values. Dr yusef also shares personal examples from his life and ministry, of how he found the strength to stand for christ amid the pressure to compromise. Pre order your copy today for your gift of any amount and received two bonus resources exclusively from leading the way. Be empowered to live for christ in difficult times and learn how to leave a lasting legacy of faith for the next generation, whatever the future may bring. Don’t surrender, don’t be intimidated. Never give up on biblical truth. Pre order your copy of Dr Yousef’s newest book. Never give up by giving a gift of any amount. Contact us today. Mhm passionately proclaiming, uncompromising truth. Leading the way with Dr, Michael Yousef, Thanks you for your faithful support through your continued prayers and gifts.