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.

there are a variety of people, variety of pastors and preachers and teachers who prepare for in variety of ways. Self preparation is just as important to me personally as a preparation of the words that I will be speaking. I think self examination is just as important as making sure that you are expanding the word of God correctly and that you’re preaching the word of God with diligence. That is a great joy is that in his mercy and in his grace and in his wonderful love brought me to do this, which is the greatest privilege of my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, conformity is a big issue today. It’s a huge issue. In fact, if you don’t conform, they attack you, they call you names sadly conformity is rampant in our culture. No wonder the apostle paul repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly warns us against conformity, Not just conform to any old one not to any old pastor and an old preacher, any old person. And that is why the second half of chapter three of second timothy, Chapter three, the second half of it, he continues to focus on timothy’s service as a defender of the faith, as a man to stand up and to stand out and not to count the cost and not be afraid and never, never, never give up. And He starts with mentioning three things that help. These are the three things that paul said are really very helpful for anyone who seeks not to be conforming to the world. First of all, having an example, having a role model, having a spiritual mentor and that’s why we emphasize mentorship here among the men among the women among the students, mentorship is vitally important. And the second thing is to have a strong connection built on spiritual foundation. And thirdly, is an absolute belief, unshakable belief in the authenticity and the authority and infallibility of the word of God. We saw in the last message that there was a conjunction, and I explained to you the conjunction, the word, but that if paul uses it means he’s going to make a sharp turn, is going to make a contrast. And he does the same thing here in chapter three verse 10, a contrast when he says, But as for you, he’s he’s contrasting does ungodly characters of the false teachers and preachers on the one hand and timothy on the other, but you or as for you follow not only my teaching here comes not just my teaching, but also my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, and experience and persecution and perseverance and suffering in all these places that he mentioned everywhere he went. He faces oppositions like timothy, we all attempted we attempted to weakness. We are attempted to vacillate, we’re all tempted in many other struggles in life and that is why listen careful. That’s why it’s the very reason why paul was writing this last letter before he went to be with the Lord in heaven. He is so deeply concerned about what’s going to happen, that he’s going to heaven and that no, he will not be around to personally encouraged Timothy one on one to be there in person to uphold him. and so in chapter three verses 10-15 Paul, twice, twice in those five verses. As for you, as for you, as for you, as for you. Don’t let them squeeze you into their mold. Don’t let them pressure you to wobble on biblical truth. Don’t let them cause you to sell out for personal popularity and acceptance. Don’t let them blindside you into watering down the message of the cross. This is a consistent message of the apostle paul. You see it literally in every episode why? Because he knows he knows how easily we all are tempted. He knows how tempting it is to take it easy and to take the easy way out and not to stand up and be controversial. Ah he knows how enticing acceptance and popularity is. He knows that. And that is why in romans 12 verse two, he said, do not let the world system pressure you into conformity and mold you into its mold. I can tell you as God is my witness. I know experientially this is not a theory for me. I know experientially this colossal pressure. I know especially when they call you names. You don’t want to be called those names if you do not conform to their world view. If you do not use politically correct language, they will call you unloving. Imagine they call us unloving, What they’re doing is they’re projecting what they have the hatred they have in their hearts on us. This pervasive and insidious atmosphere is deadly and the apostle paul knew that and I thank God for that. Sometimes you go, they asked Vance Havner, they said to him, they said you know the world is becoming so churchy and he said that’s because the church has become so worldly. Instead of invading the world for christ the world lies has been invading the church. I can tell you that there is no church on the face of the earth that can totally meet your needs. I’m telling you trust me. God forbid that there is a church that can meet all your needs. God forbid that anyone can meet your needs accept the Lord jesus christ. The church is called the pastors called the elders called the deacons called whatever church you go to the call of the body of believers is to take people by the hand and place their hand in the hand of the Lord jesus christ and he will meet all of your needs. He alone can meet all of your needs according to the riches of his glory. And that is why the great apostle is telling timothy to stern firm, stand firm and what you have learned from me, stand firm in doctrinal purity, stand firm in finding and following God’s purpose for your life, Stand firm in patients in love in endurance in the face of pressure and prosecution stand firm and refuse to be squeezed and become a people pleaser verse 12 No this, no what? No, this that Godly living. Listen carefully. Godly living will always, always, always, always arouse antagonism from the ungodly, always will that can come from a home. It can come from work place. It comes from neighbors that can come from some churches. Please listen. This was a fact when jesus walked the earth and it’s a fact today. Listen to what he said in John Chapter 15. If the world hates you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world will love its own. But because you are not of the world, therefore the world hate you beloved. There are only two types of people who can avoid pressure persecution, alienation, rejection. two tops of two kinds of people. The first group escapes pressure to conform by withdrawing from the world by withdrawing from the secular world. The second group escapes pressure by giving in and they conform to the world’s standards. But as for you, as for you, as for you, as for you, as for you, as for you, this is very important. Listen carefully. You who are Godly you who upholds Godly living, you who have standing firm on biblical authority, you who never give up at any cost. As for you young man, please listen to me, listen to me, young man, I don’t care how cute she looks, if she pressures you to sin, walk away. Young women listen to me. I don’t care how curly his hair is, or how big his biceps are. If he pressures you to sin, walk out, they may intimidate you, criticize you, hate you, but take heart, jesus knows how you feel and he will honor you and he will bless you sooner or later. Amen. Give God glory. Give God glory. Give God glory. But as for you, as for you, as for you, as for you, stand firm. Why? Because God loves you so deeply. And even in the persecution, the Godly will grow upward. The Godly will go forward. The Godly will consistently advance. The Godly will eternally be invincible. By contrast, the evil people, verse 13 look at it. The evil people, they’re going to go from bad to worse. They on the road to destruction. They will be intellectually and spiritually ruined. I am so grateful that I lived long enough to see this. I really am. Because there are times back in the past. And I said, well, how could they get away with this? Why would God let them get away with this? And I just wait a little bit. Wait for your years. And I said, oh God, you are a marvelous God. And that is why paul said, avoid them, avoid them if you’re listening to false preachers and false teachers, you have one choice run, don’t listen to their teaching, reject their falsehood. Refute the reception. I remember back in the seventies. You see, that’s when you see he, he lived long enough. You’ll see things back back in the early seventies. I remember there was a segment of what he called the church growth movement. The church growth movement is fine and many good people and godly people in that movement. But there was a segment in that church growth movement. They said, if you avoid preaching on difficult subjects like hell, not like help subject like hell, you grow a church, all of these people are gone, they’re gone. And the word of God stand supreme, then they followed by a group of people who said, well, you know, um you need to say that we don’t know exactly what Jesus meant when he said these things, so be ambivalent about it. We don’t know everything about it in the bible, so don’t preach it. These are gone too. And the word of God stay supreme. Then there followed by another group of theologians, they said, since the Gospel is being written by men about jesus, we’re not really sure we don’t know if jesus really says these things, therefore we declared that there is no hell in heaven is what you make of it. Now, of course the result of this because this is a, the closest to our time is that we have so many churches spiritually bankrupt. I often mesmerized myself and I asked those people who said there is no hell. I tell him, he said, pray tell me, why did jesus come from heaven? Why did he die on a cross? Why did he shut his blood? Why did he rose again? Why? And the Apostle Paul knew that there will be those who will bring doubt upon the word of God. He knew that just like satan did in the garden. And you know what, Satan is not really very clever. He just keeps repeating, he keeps repeating the same thing. Did God really say, I mean, you boiled it down to that. And so paul affirms the truthfulness of all the word of God. How many of it, all of the word of God? He affirms the integrity of all the bible. He affirms that the verbal inspiration of the whole scripture, he, by the power of the Holy Spirit affirms that all of the holy scripture is God breathed Verse 15. He tells Timothy, the very scripture that his mom and grandma taught him growing up, all that prepared him for the preaching of the gospel by paul is because the old testament is telling that jesus is coming. So when he heard that the messiah had come, he put his faith in, jesus, he was prepared to receive the messiah christian parents, Please listen to me. You will never find more sympathetic faster than I am. I know the challenges of bringing up Children, I always say my Children taught me sanctification and if you have teenagers, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. This is a code between us parents. Okay, with every ounce of my energy, I want to encourage you, prepare your Children to stand up in the battlefield, prepare your Children to stand upon the Word of God, prepare your Children to have confidence in the word of God. The greatest legacy to leave our Children and grandchildren is not a great education, good and important. This maybe or leave them a trust fund good. And and if you can afford it wonderful, but the greatest legacy, the best legacy. The most enduring legacy is to teach them to appreciate, revere and obey the word of God. The way to protect our Children from deception is to teach them how to no and how to love the word of God. Let them see you apply the word of God in your life. Let them watch you practice the word of God in your life. Let them see how you bring the word of God to bear upon a problem or a crisis in the family. And when they see you not only reading the bible, but leaving it, applying it in every circumstance in your life, they too will grow to trust in the word of God. Question why was the apostle paul so burden to affirm the authenticity and the authority of the word of God? Why is he? Look at verse 16, he gives us a reason. And when he says what he says in verse 16, he does not mean as some people teach and preach today, that it means that we feel inspired. That’s what they think. The word inspiration, that we feel inspired when we read the word of God, just like you inspired when you have you listen to poetry or Shakespeare or some some good literature. No, and a million. Now it means that God is the one who brought the bible into existence by the breathing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit invaded the minds and the hands of the writers as they were writing. God spared and prepared these writers for this purpose. So much so that Jeremiah says, before I was born, you prepared me for this. Each writer had his own distinctive style and vocabulary. Each book of the bible grew out of a special set of circumstances. And yet throughout all of this, God’s hand was breathing. God’s hand was training. The writers were like sailors. They were just hoisting the sale. But the wind, the Holy Spirit Ruah Ruah has means wind and spirit. Both the wind of the Holy Spirit blew and took the ship where he wants it to go. Both all the new testament are of other most importance. Why? Because they revealed to us the mind of God, They reveal to us the heart of God. They revealed to us the character of God. Where else would we know about God And because it is God breathed, therefore it is profitable in instruction regarding salvation. There’s something here I need to tell you and I want you to listen very carefully because you can easily misunderstand me. Okay, about the bible. The Missus. The bible’s primary purpose is not to teach us about. Science is not to teach us about history. The primary purpose of the bible is not to teach us about the nature of the stars and the Galaxies. No, the bible primary purpose. The bible over arching purpose is to tell us how to be saved. Ah but after we are saved, we learned that God created it all from nothing that God created us from dust, That God is in total control of the Galaxies and the stars, that God is in control of the heavens and the planets, That God is the one who made the stars to dance in their orbits. But the bible primarily concerned with how to be saved eternally had to be saved. The bible is salvation handbook and it tells us salvation is only possible through jesus. The christ, the old testament foretold of his coming. The new testament says he’s here. The old testament for shadow, jesus, The new testament announces his life, death and resurrection and salvation. And that is why those who want to undermine Biblical morality. Biblical ethics. If they ever want to get into this, they don’t start there. They start by undermining our confidence in the Word of God. That’s how they start. First of all, you undermine the confidence and that’s why they say we need to be unhitched from certain parts of the bible. We need to be unhitched from those parts that we don’t like. We need to be unhitched. And once you got unhitched, it’s free for all. The Word of God is our road map to salvation. The Word of God is light that leads us to salvation. The Word of God transform lives all across the world. The Word of God radically alters our character. And so let me ask you this. As I conclude, are you broken? The Word of God is more than able to mend your broken heart. Are you lonely on hurting the Word of God will comfort and soothe your wounds. Are you carrying a load of guilt? The Word of God can take that load off you and off your shoulders and set you free. Are you bitter and unable to forgive The Word of God will show you how to get rid of that bitterness. Are you defeated and you feel hopeless? The Word of God will give you hope and victory and lift you above your circumstances. Are you discouraged and despondent? The Word of God will make you victorious. Are you sad? The Word of God will give you joy unspeakable in the midst of your sadness. Are you lost? Well, the word of God is a lamp at our feet and will guide you to salvation. Mhm. My name is victor Castillo and the pastor of Rio grande, the bible church in Mcallen texas At the age of 13 in a home group, the pastor came and shared the Gospel and that’s where I came to Christ. Now as a pastor, I am also leading the men’s group that are being trained to be leaders in church. I mentioned about never give up the new book by dr Michael joseph. Never give up, focuses our eyes back to the truth and that is huge. I mean I just that blew my mind. So this book tells us never give up in these discouraging times. There are so many movements out there that are leading people away from the truth of the word. One of the first sections that I really loved about this book. The bible tells us that when we’re rooted and established in the word of God, um that’s when we’re gonna bloom. But you must proclaim God’s truth, you must remain and abide in the truth and the and the true vine, which is jesus. So this book never give up, basically encourages to to never give up on faith, to never give up on our calling to fulfill God’s calling. And what I love about the book is that everything is just around jesus. Thank you dr joseph for what you do. Thank you for the books. Thank you for letting God use you in this encouraging book. Dr Yusuf unveils four unique aspects of what it means to never give up Biblical truth, request 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. What are your copy of Dr Yousef’s newest book? Never give up by giving a gift of any amount. Contact us today. I’m here in London preparing for a big celebration, The 20th anniversary of serving and ministering to the UK. I’m standing right here behind me is the admiralty and that’s where Churchill had an office. You know, Churchill is the man who emphasized the fact never, never, never give up and believe it or not, that is the title of my new book. Never give up. You know, we’re seeing people all over the map who are giving up on the truth. Giving up on biblical orthodoxy, giving up on the inspiration of the scripture. And so I wrote this book in order to show from the last words of the Apostle paul, uttered, actually wrote down in prison the last words before he was beheaded two timothy, his disciple and he says to him basically the bottom line is don’t ever give up on Biblical truth. There are a lot of illustrations and stories and examples in that book and I hope that you’re going to order that book because Churchill is a great reminder of never, never surrender. Never give up stand faithful for the truth. Because that’s the truth that will set us free here and now, but also will assure us of eternity in heaven with jesus, God bless in this encouraging book. Dr Yousef unveils four unique aspects of what it means to never give up Biblical truth. Request 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 order your copy of Dr Yousef’s newest book, Never give Up today by giving a gift of any amount. Contact us today passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth. Leading the way with Dr Michael Yousef, thanks you for your faithful support through your continued prayers and gifts.