Have you ever wondered why nonbelievers display such an intense hatred for Jesus and His followers? What is it about our faith in God’s infallible Word that triggers such hostility among the unsaved? The answer may be simpler than you think.

The gospel tells us that we are lost in our sin, and there is no way we can save ourselves through good works. Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works (Eph. 1:8–9). The moment we recognize the awfulness of our sin and cast ourselves upon God’s mercy and grace, He forgives, transforms and justifies us. That is the gospel message.

That message is a problem for nonbelievers because the natural human mind cannot admit the gravity and horror of sin. The natural mind says, “I admit I’m not perfect, but I’m a good person. If there is a God, He will accept me. I don’t need a Savior. So keep your ‘sin’ talk to yourself. Don’t bother me with your gospel.”

The natural mind refuses to admit to having sinned so grievously that Jesus would have to die. “You’re telling me that Jesus died to save me? Me? Are you calling me a hopeless, helpless sinner? How dare you!”

That’s why, in church after church, preachers have stopped preaching the gospel of redemption from sin, and now preach a message of human virtue. They have stopped preaching the cross and the empty tomb and instead preach positive thinking. They have stopped preaching justification by grace through faith, and instead preach social justice propaganda.

These preachers want to be liked and admired by nonbelievers. They want to have a popular ministry that rakes in big donations from people who only attend church to have their egos flattered.

What did Paul tell Timothy to do in a world that is hostile to the gospel of salvation? And what are we do to? Answer: Guard the truth!

“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us” (2 Tim. 1:13-14, NIV).

The “pattern of sound teaching” Paul writes of is God’s blueprint. The word translated “pattern” is the same word used for an architectural design. What happens if a builder decides to ignore the architectural blueprint? What if the builder decides he doesn’t want to bother putting up the pillars, crossbeams and archways that are specified by the architect? The building will collapse.

And that is why the apostle Paul, in the closing days of his life, pleads with Timothy—and with you and me—to please, please, please follow the blueprint of sound teaching. Please, please, please guard the deposit of truth that was entrusted to you. Don’t try to improve on it. Don’t deviate from it. Don’t modify it.

Above all, don’t ever grow weary of upholding God’s truth. Regardless of opposition, persecution, suffering or personal cost, follow the blueprint, guard the truth. Never be ashamed of the gospel.

False Teachers in the Church

As you read through Paul’s second and final letter to Timothy, it becomes clear that he carries a great emotional burden in the closing days of his life. What is this burden? False teachers had infiltrated the church. False teachers are widespread in the 21st-century church, and they were already widespread in the first-century church.

Some false teachers pervert the gospel for their own enrichment. They have greedy, selfish motives and their god is the almighty dollar. Other false teachers have “good intentions.” Their “gospel” is one of improving society and treating people fairly and making sure that no one’s feelings are hurt by talk of sin or judgment.

But whether their motive is greed or good intentions, they have corrupted the gospel. They are robbing the church of the priceless treasure of truth which the Lord has entrusted to his church.

Though Paul is burdened by the subversion of the church, he is able to say, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). What day? The day of the Lord’s return!

As Paul faces death, he knows that Timothy will be an instrument for preserving the truth of the gospel. At the same time, Paul is aware of Timothy’s tendency to discouragement, fear and timidity. So Paul tells Timothy he does not have to carry this burden alone. Though the church has been infiltrated by false teachers, Timothy can rely on God to guard his truth until the Lord’s return.

In the closing lines of this chapter, we see that many in the first-century church have defected from the truth. Paul names two individuals in particular: Phygelus and Hermogenes. They couldn’t stand up to persecution, so they fell away (2 Tim. 1:15).

Paul also expresses gratitude for those who stood firm for the truth, especially a faithful Christian named Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 1:16–18). The Bible tells us little about Onesiphorus (who is not to be confused with Onesimus, the slave mentioned in Paul’s letter to Philemon). Ancient tradition suggests that Onesiphorus may have been one of the 70 disciples sent out by Jesus to preach (see Luke 10). Though Phygelus and Hermogenes defected, Onesiphorus remained faithful.

Today, Christians around the world suffer persecution, torture and death for the sake of Jesus Christ. Christians in America are not persecuted to that extent—not yet. But many who call themselves Christians are abandoning the gospel out of mere embarrassment and shame. They don’t want to face ridicule from their worldly friends, so they sell out the gospel and conform to this fallen world.

Others, trying to live in peaceful coexistence with this fallen world, have “deconstructed” their faith (yes, that’s the buzzword they use). They toss out the parts of the gospel they consider offensive, and try to retain some semblance of Jesus and His teachings—though, of course, everything he said about sin, judgment, hell, His death and resurrection, and His Second Coming must go. Once they have finished “deconstructing” the Christian faith, what do they have left? {eoa}

The preceding chapter is from Michael Youssef’s Never Give Up (Charisma House, 2022). For more information on Never Give Up, check on .

From chapter 2 (“Do Not Be Ashamed”) from Michael Youssef’s new book, Never Give Up

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the Father, “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). He prayed three times for some way to escape the cross. Each time, the Father’s answer was silence—which was the same as “No.” (This is an important lesson to remember when our own prayers are met with silence. If God said “No” to the prayers of His Son, we should not feel it’s unfair when God says “No” to our petitions.)

Jesus was obedient and willing to bear the shame of a criminal’s death, the shame of bearing all the sins of the human race. Jesus was willing to undergo a depth of humiliation, suffering, and shame that you and I cannot begin to understand.

But Peter, the most bold and outspoken of the twelve disciples of Jesus, was unwilling to taste of the cup that Jesus drank. While Jesus was on trial, Peter warmed himself by the fire in the courtyard of Caiaphas’ house. A servant girl confronted Peter and said, “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus.” Peter was ashamed to be identified with Christ. “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about,” he said (Mark 14:67-68).

The servant girl wouldn’t let up. She continued to accuse him of being a follower of Jesus. Three times Peter denied knowing him.

On the night before the crucifixion, Peter was ashamed to acknowledge that he was a follower of Jesus Christ. After the resurrection, Peter would become the boldest and bravest of all the apostles. Tradition tells us that Peter died on a cross, crucified upside down because he declared himself unworthy to die in the same manner as the Lord.

No matter what the world does to us, we must never be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we suffer for the gospel, we are not alone. As Peter and Paul would tell us, the worst they can do is kill us—and once that’s over, we’ll be in the presence of our Lord.

That’s why Paul, in verses 9 and 10, says to Timothy, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” In other words, do not be afraid of death. Why? Because God saved us, called us, and has brought us from death to life. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has abolished death for all believers.

Three Kinds of Death

The Bible speaks of death in three different ways. First, there is physical death, in which the soul is separated from the body. Second, there is spiritual death, in which the soul of the nonbeliever is separated from God. Third, there is eternal death, the separation of both body and soul of nonbelievers from God forever and ever.

All three forms of death are the result of sin. All three forms of death are sin’s reward. But are you ready for the wonderful news? Are you ready to jump up and shout?

For those who believe in him, Jesus has abolished eternal death!

He has not abolished physical death—even believers die physically. But physical death is a very different experience for the believer than for the nonbeliever. We who have placed our trust in Christ will live forever with him. Though we all physically die, the believer has the authority to taunt and mock death, as Paul himself wrote: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

The grim specter of death, which has haunted humanity since Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden, holds no terror for those who belong to Jesus. After Lazarus died and was laid in the tomb, Jesus said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). Jesus is saying that those who put their trust in Him:

Shall never die.

Shall never be separated from him.

Shall never experience the second death.

Shall live forever in the presence of the Lord.

Because of this truth, Paul could say to Timothy, “My spiritual son, what are you afraid of? The worst they can do is kill you. And that is not the end of life. That is not the end of the world. That is the beginning!” Paul, writing from a Roman dungeon, is telling Timothy, “The reason I have victory in this prison, the reason I have victory in the final days before my execution, the reason I am not afraid of what they can do to me, the reason I am not ashamed of the gospel, no matter how much opposition or persecution I face is because I know I have already passed from death to life. I know that, whether my physical body is dead or alive, I am already seated in the heavenly realms with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (See Ephesians 2:6.)

Many people, including many Christians, do not understand what the Bible teaches about our eternal life with Him. Many have been fooled by ridiculous images in movies and cartoons, which depict heaven as a place where we sit on clouds, strumming harps and wearing halos and angel wings. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The moment we die, we go immediately into the presence of the Lord and receive our glorified bodies. As Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). And as Paul wrote, “For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:53).

“But our citizenship is in heaven,” writes Paul. “And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21). When this body gives up on me, I have a superior physical and supernatural body ready for me.

For the believer, the only consequence of death is that you move from the basement to the penthouse. It will be a day of rejoicing and blessing.

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From chapter 2 (“Do Not Be Ashamed”) of Michael Youssef’s new book, Never Give Up

Paul continues his message of encouragement to Timothy—a message that still speaks to young and old alike in the twenty-first century:

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

—2 Timothy 1:8-18

Paul tells Timothy, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.” The word “shame” has been turned upside down in our time. Things we used to be ashamed of we now speak of with pride. And things we used to take pride in are now considered shameful.

Our culture has rejected biblical definitions of shame, replacing them with worldly definitions. This change began in the 1990s. In the February 1992 edition of The Atlantic, psychologist/psychoanalyst Robert Karen observed, “Thirty, fifty, a hundred years ago, shame was a part of our common conversation. The literature of the nineteenth century, from Austen to Tolstoy, was full of it. Parents warned their children about anything that might incur it—adultery or illegitimate pregnancy, cowardice or failure, bad manners, laziness, dirty underwear. When shame struck, it was typically a feeling akin to being caught out in the open and desperately wanting to hide.”

By the 1990s, Dr. Karen noted, the subject of shame was everywhere in psychological literature and was seen as “the master emotion,” the invisible regulator of our emotions. He explained, “Current research identifies shame as an important element in aggression (including the violence of wife-beaters), in addictions, obsessions, narcissism, depression, and numerous other psychiatric psychologists now believe that shame is the preeminent cause of emotional distress in our time.”

How did the psychology and psychoanalysis community respond to this new view of shame as “the master emotion”? They claimed that if we could just remove shame from people, we could cure violence, addiction, and other psychiatric and social ills. So the psychological community focused on eradicating shame. Accordingly, many people no longer feel shame while committing shameful acts. Instead, they take pride in what the Bible condemns as shameful.

Believing a Lie About Ourselves

How does the Bible define shame? Biblically, shame is a healthy response to sin. When we sin, a healthy conscience listens to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit provokes a healthy sense of shame in us. That feeling of shame drives us to repentance—a sincere change of heart that leads us away from sin and back toward God.

There is healthy shame and unhealthy shame. Healthy shame comes from the realization that we have violated our conscience and we have sinned against God. Healthy shame can be instantly cleansed through a prayer of confession and repentance.

Unhealthy shame is a result of a person’s inability to accept the grace and forgiveness of God. A person experiencing unhealthy shame doesn’t merely say “I failed,” but says “I am a failure and I don’t deserve forgiveness.”

Ultimately, unhealthy shame is the result of believing a lie about ourselves. People with unhealthy shame reject themselves and respond with self-hate and self-reproach. Unhealthy shame leads to self-destruction. It drives us to alcoholism, food addiction, drug addiction, pornography addiction, and other addictive behaviors that we use to silence the voice of shame within us.

A person with healthy shame rejects sin and responds with repentance. Healthy shame leads to repentance, forgiveness, joy, and fulfillment. Healthy shame brings life and healing.

But it’s unhealthy to be ashamed of the gospel. As Paul would tell you, “Please do not be ashamed of biblical truth. Please do not be ashamed of biblical morality. Please do not be ashamed when the godless people of this world persecute you and call you names. Please do not let this fallen world shame you for believing in what is good and godly and true.”

As we look at this passage, it’s important to understand that shame, fear, and timidity are cousins. They are part of the same family. We saw in the previous chapter that Paul is writing his last legacy from a lowly Roman dungeon. He is telling Timothy and us to never give up on biblical truth, never be afraid to stand up for God’s truth, and never forsake the gospel to win favor with other people.

Paul tells Timothy in verse 8, “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.”

Embarrassed “Christians”

There are many self-described “Christians” today who are ashamed of God’s truth, so they have substituted human wisdom for God’s truth. They are embarrassed by the Lord’s teachings about judgment and hell, so they have invented a lot of new teachings that have eliminated judgment and eternal punishment. They think they have invented a new form of Christianity that will be more palatable to worldly thinking. But all they have done is pollute the gospel, leaving nothing worth believing in.

Some are embarrassed by the miracles in the Bible. They are ashamed of the claim that Jesus was crucified for our sins and rose from the dead. They say, “This is the twenty-first century! No one believes in miracles anymore. Let’s just focus on the good things Jesus said and try to live by his teachings.”

The problem is that Jesus taught primarily about Himself, about sacrificing Himself for our sins, about his death and resurrection, about coming again to judge the human race. If you are ashamed of the miracles of Jesus, then you must be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus—and you are left with nothing to believe in.

As we will see later in this letter, Paul speaks of people who have “a form of godliness but denying its power.” He adds, “Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Tim. 3:5). These are people who say to the world, “Are you ashamed of the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Paul? Are you ashamed of the miracles in the Bible? Well, so am I! Let’s just cut all of those embarrassing parts out of the Bible and only focus on the parts of the Bible that are relevant today, the parts that are consistent with a secular political, and social agenda. It won’t really be Christianity, but we can still call it Christianity and pretend it’s the real thing.”

These false Christians use many different labels for themselves and their false teachings: progressive Christians, postmodern Christians, emerging church, generous orthodoxy, red letter Christians, post-evangelical Christians, and on and on. They think that by watering down Christianity to make it more palatable to worldly thinking, they are doing the gospel of favor. But the apostle Paul begs to differ.

Paul appeals directly to Timothy, you, and me when he writes, “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord.” He is telling us, in effect, “Do not sell out! Do not compromise biblical truth! Do not be embarrassed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do not be ashamed of the Word of God. Do not repackage the gospel to make it more acceptable to ungodly people. Do not back away from the gospel truth regardless of all the persecution, ridicule, and hostility this world throws at you.”

The Bible does not waste words. If Timothy had not been tempted to compromise the gospel, Paul would not have given him this word of exhortation. I believe Paul even had to deal with the temptation to compromise in his own heart. That’s why he felt it necessary to boldly proclaim in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (emphasis added). I believe Paul made such a strong point of not being ashamed of the gospel precisely because he had wrestled with this temptation, faced it, and conquered it.

Jesus fully understood that his followers would be tempted by feelings of embarrassment and shame regarding the gospel of salvation. That’s why he warned us in Mark 8:38, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

The Christian gospel calls us to transcend our fear and embarrassment and to boldly confess before men and women that Jesus Christ is Lord. It may mean we will be ridiculed. It may mean we will be persecuted. It may mean we will lose our jobs. But what did the gospel cost our Lord?

For more information about Never Give Up, check out . {eoa}

From Chapter 1 (“Encouraging Words for Discouraging Times”) of Michael Youssef’s new book, Never Give Up

We know Timothy’s father was a Gentile (that is, a non-Jew, possibly a Greek). So Timothy’s father was not a Jewish believer like his mother. But here’s an encouraging word I want you to notice. Timothy’s mother is a living example of a principle Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 7:14: In a family with a believing spouse and a nonbelieving spouse, the believer sanctifies both the nonbelieving spouse and the children.

This doesn’t mean the nonbeliever and the children are saved by the believing spouse. Sanctify means “to set apart for a sacred purpose.” Every human being, in order to be saved, must make a personal decision to accept Jesus as Lord. But the faith of a believing parent does sanctify and set apart the children as holy and consecrated to the Lord.

And there’s more: Paul vividly remembers the day that he and other elders prayed for Timothy by the laying on of hands. At that time, Timothy received the Holy Spirit, was gifted by the Holy Spirit, and went on to exercise his gifts through the Holy Spirit. So Paul, the great encourager, tells Timothy, in effect, “I remember all of that, Timothy, and I thank God for you.” Timothy, who was prone to discouragement, must have been greatly encouraged and strengthened by those words. Paul’s encouragement empowered young Timothy to stand firm against the onslaught of Satan.

Friend in Christ, the same Satan who opposed Timothy and provoked feelings of discouragement in him is still active in the world today. Right now, Satan may be tempting you to throw in the towel, to give up, to surrender. And candidly, there is a lot in this world to be discouraged about. We face health fears, career worries, problems raising our kids, plus mounting bills and debts. All around us, we see political squabbling, racial strife, soaring national debt, rising crime, threats of wars and terrorism, inflation and unemployment, and global instability.

It would be so easy to give in to discouragement and say, “Lord, don’t ask me to be a witness for you. Don’t ask me to share you with my neighbors and coworkers. I’m just going to lock my door, mind my own business, and let the world go by.”

That’s Satan talking. It’s Satan who wants to instill in us a spirit of fear, timidity, and discouragement. Don’t listen to the voice of Satan, the voice of discouragement.

Instead, listen to the Spirit of God. Take out your Bible and read words of encouragement. Remember how God has blessed you before. Remember how He has protected you and watched over you and rescued you.

Can you remember a time when you fell into a pit of circumstances from which there seemed no escape? How did God rescue you? Meditate on that experience, thank God for his protection in your life, and tell him you look forward to seeing how he will redeem you from your present situation.

The same God who rescued Joseph from an Egyptian prison—the same God who rescued Daniel from the lion’s den—the same God who rescued you from your circumstances in the past—this same God wants to bless you and encourage you and use you again.

The Heart of Paul’s Message

This brings us to the very heart of Paul’s encouragement to Timothy in the opening verses of this letter. He tells Timothy, in effect, “Shake off your timidity, shake off your fear, shake off your discouragement!” Why? Paul explains in verse 7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” In some translations, the term “self-discipline” is translated “a sound mind.”

I could write an entire book on this verse alone—and someday, perhaps, I will. But for now, I’ll do my best to summarize Paul’s profound insight.

Paul is saying, first, that God will never sends us an evil spirit to make us afraid. I don’t know how many demons there are in the spiritual realm, carrying out the bidding of Satan. And it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we recognize that feelings of fear, anxiety, and timidity are not from the Spirit of God. Such feelings may arise from our unstable human emotions or from Satan and his demons.

The Bible tells us, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, emphasis added). Who is “the one who is in you”? The Holy Spirit. Who is “he who is in the world”? Satan wants to crush your effectiveness, neutralize your impact, paralyze your spiritual life, and terrify you, trapping you in a prison of fear.

But the Spirit of God within you is greater than the spirit of fear. The Holy Spirit dwells within you to encourage and empower you to say “No!” to fear, to say “Go away!” to Satan.

We can’t help but notice the irony of Paul’s message of encouragement to Timothy. There is Paul, awaiting death in the most miserable dungeon in Rome—and his message to Timothy, and to us, is, Don’t lock yourself up in a prison of fear.

Paul is saying, in effect, “If you live in fear, your prison is much worse than mine. If you live in fear, you live in a cage colder and more unbreakable than steel. If you live in fear, you are trapped in a prison more escape-proof than Alcatraz or Devil’s Island.”

If you let fear rule your life, it will waste your God-given abilities, inhibit your desire to serve God, paralyze your commitment to God, and impede your spiritual growth. Fear can damage and ruin your friendships, family relationships, and marriage relationship. Fear can undermine your health, disturb your sleep, raise your blood pressure, ruin your digestion, and shorten your life.

That’s why Paul tells Timothy—and us—that God’s Spirit is the Spirit of comfort, encouragement, and boldness. The devil is a liar. God’s Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

We often don’t like to admit that we are afraid, so we may excuse our fear and call it by different names. “I’m careful.” “I’m cautious.” “I’m shy.” “I lack confidence.” “God didn’t give me an outgoing personality.” “I’m just not an adventuresome person.” “I can’t share the gospel with my neighbors because God didn’t give me the gift of evangelism.” “Other people are so much better at serving others, I would just make a mess of things.”

We can try to give our fearfulness another name, but we can’t escape the truth. We don’t have to live in fear. Paul has shown us the way to conquer our fear and timidity.

The Antidote to Fear

Please understand, there is nothing sinful about experiencing fear when you face real danger. If you see a truck rushing at you while you’re in the crosswalk, a surge of fear and adrenaline will put power in your muscles as you leap out of harm’s way. That instantaneous impulse of self-preservation we call fear is intended to keep us safe.

Believe me, I know that impulse well. I have experienced raw fear in dangerous situations, and that’s a normal emotion in the face of an immediate threat. But in those moments, I have also experienced the Spirit of God breathing within me, saying, “Fear not!”

Again and again throughout the Gospels, in various ways and at various times, Jesus tells his followers, “Fear not!”

• “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26).

• “So do not be afraid of them” (Matthew 10:26).

• “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27).

• “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40).

• “Don’t be afraid; just believe” (Mark 5:36).

• “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people” (Luke 5:10).

• “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed” (Luke 8:50).

• “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

• “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

We don’t have to be afraid of life. Why? Because Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). He is the Author of life, and every detail and aspect of our lives is under His control.

We don’t have to be afraid of death. Why? Because Jesus said, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev. 1:18).

We don’t have to fear the unknown. Why? Because Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 22:13). He is the Creator of time and space, the future and the past, and there is nothing in life unknown to him.

If there is one thing the apostle Paul learned in more than three decades of walking with the Lord, serving the Lord, and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is this—there is only one antidote to fear: faith in the Almighty God who alone can banish fear from our lives.

God is in control. He never makes a mistake. And His love never fails.

For more information on Never Give Up, check out . {eoa}

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From chapter 1 (“Encouraging Words for Discouraging Times”) from Michael Youssef’s new book, Never Give Up

George Müller was a nineteenth-century Christian evangelist and the administrator of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He provided a home for more than ten thousand orphans over his lifetime and founded more than a hundred Christian schools. He was known as a man of prayer who always expected God to answer his prayers.

In November 1844 Müller made a commitment to pray for five friends, asking God to bring them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. He prayed every day, whether he was at home or traveling, whether he was well or sick, no matter how busy his schedule. After a year and a half of daily prayer for these five friends, one of them gave his life to Christ. Müller thanked God for answering his prayer, and he continued praying daily for the remaining four.

After five more years of praying, a second man came to Christ. Müller thanked God for the second answer to prayer and continued praying for the remaining three.

Six more years passed—and a third man came to Christ. By this time, Müller had been praying more than a dozen years without missing a single day—and two of the five men he had prayed for remained unconverted. In 1880, he wrote in his diary, “But I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.”

Müller died on March 10, 1898, at the age of ninety-two. He had been praying for the salvation of these men for fifty-four years. At the time of his death, the last two holdouts—two sons of one of Mueller’s friends—remained unsaved. Even so, Müller’s prayers were answered, because they both committed their lives to Christ after his death.

George Müller patterned his prayer life after Jesus the Master, who taught His disciples to “always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1). Müller never gave up—and neither should we.

Never give up on prayer.

Never give up on biblical truth.

Never give up on the infallibility of the Word of God.

Never give up on the faith that was once delivered.

Never give up on sound doctrine.

Press on, persevere, and don’t ever give up.

One of the great examples of spiritual perseverance is the apostle Paul. Imprisoned in a cold Roman dungeon, Paul knew he was nearing the end of his life. Eager to leave a legacy, he wrote his final letter, addressing it to Timothy, a young church leader he had mentored in the faith. We know this letter today as 2 Timothy.

Paul was not writing to Timothy alone. He knew that these inspired words would endure and be read by future generations. So this letter is truly an exhortation not only to Timothy, but to church leaders and church members today, including you and me.

The central theme of 2 Timothy is never give up. In every generation, there are temptations to compromise God’s truth. Falsehood and error creep into the church, tainting the purity of the Lord’s gospel. The tendency to stray from God’s truth was a major problem in the first century church—and it has reached a crisis level in the twenty-first century church.

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From Chapter 1 (“Encouraging Words for Discouraging Times”) of Michael Youssef’s new book, Never Give Up.

McLean Bible Church was founded in an elementary school by five families in northern Virginia on Easter Sunday 1961. The founders declared the new church to be a Bible-believing evangelical congregation. It has grown into a multisite megachurch with locations all around the Washington, D.C., metro area. From 1980 to 2017, the church was led by a theologically conservative preacher, Lon Solomon. In September 2017, Solomon stepped down to become pastor emeritus. His associate, David Platt, was promoted to lead pastor.

Soon after taking his new leadership position, Platt’s teachings began to change. Platt and others in leadership at McLean Bible Church openly embraced secular-left social justice rhetoric. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the church was under lockdown, a number of staffers joined a Washington, DC, Black Lives Matter protest. Photos of the staffers holding BLM signs were posted to the church’s Facebook page. (The photos were later removed.)

While genuine Christians acknowledge that Black lives absolutely matter to Jesus and his church, the organization known as Black Lives Matter is totally incompatible with the Christian church. It is an anti-Christian, Marxist organization that has openly declared its commitment to disrupt “the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.”

David Platt’s “woke” social justice sermons provoked an exodus of Bible-believing members from the church, including many who had faithfully supported the church for decades. In May 2020 McLean Bible Church reported an average attendance of 12,154. One year later, average attendance had declined to seventy-three hundred, a drop of nearly 40 percent. The sudden drop in attendance led to steep budget cuts in missions, outreach, and church facilities.

Both James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries (an evangelical apologetics organization) and conservative theologian Voddie Baucham, who is African-American, describe Platt’s teaching as an attempt to merge the Bible with critical race theory—a Marxist, race-conscious concept that attacks all institutions of society as inherently racist, rejects evidence and reason as “White” ways of knowing, and ranks people as either privileged or disadvantaged according to their race, gender, economic class, and so forth.

When preachers decide that the pure, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ is not enough, they invite falsehood and error into the church. When preachers mix worldly political dogmas with the gospel, they lead the church down the road to hell.

The polluting of the gospel with secular politics is not only tragic, but it undermines the very social justice that “progressive Christians” wish to accomplish. If you want a morally righteous society, in which all people are treated with justice, compassion, and respect, then preach the uncompromised gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

As C. S. Lewis noted, it was the early apostles who began the conversion of the Roman Empire, and it was the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade. They didn’t transform society by polluting the gospel with political and social theories. No, Lewis wrote—they “left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”

As Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples” (John 8:31).

No Room for Disagreement

In December 2019, the Church of England appointed Stephen Cottrell as Archbishop of York, the second highest position in the Anglican church. Many in the so-called “progressive” wing of the church celebrated this appointment because Cottrell has been an outspoken supporter of “gay rights” within the church. But those who are committed to remaining faithful to biblical truth took a different view. For example, Andrea Williams, an Anglican and the chief executive of Christian Concern, the United Kingdom’s most prominent evangelical organization, responded, “This is not a bishop who respects biblical truth when it comes to human sexuality or marriage.”

Of course, every person deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. We are all sinners and God loves the homosexual sinner as much as he loves the heterosexual sinner. So, as Christians, we are to love everyone with the same unconditional love that Christ has shown to us. But we don’t do sinners any favors by normalizing or celebrating sin, or by denying the teaching of Scripture.

The Scriptures make clear—in such passages as Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, and 1 Timothy 1:8–11—that homosexual behavior is a sin. We must treat homosexual people with Christlike love and respect, just as Jesus treated the woman caught in adultery with love and respect. But we remember that he also told her, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).

That is not how Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, treats the issue of homosexuality. He takes the position that human wisdom supersedes the wisdom of God. He supports what Anglican “progressives” call a “radical new Christian inclusion.” He claims that the church damages itself by rejecting the secular view of human sexuality. The world now views the church as “immoral,” he says, because of biblical teaching on homosexuality. The biblical view of same-sex relationships, he says, is “homophobic”—a buzzword intended to prejudice the argument and frame Bible-believing Christians as “phobic” (afraid of homosexual people).

Archbishop Cottrell claims that Bible passages that condemn homosexual behavior are merely “part of our story and our inheritance.” He says that “what we know now about human development and human sexuality requires us to look again at those texts to see what they are actually saying to our situation, for what we know now is not what was known then.” In other words, we in the twenty-first century know so much more about human sexuality than God did when he inspired the writing of his Word.

Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that Archbishop Cottrell believes God’s Word is not inspired at all, but is merely a collection of ancient stories and opinions that we can safely ignore. Either way, the Archbishop of York has explicitly departed from the traditional teachings of the church and a commonsense understanding of the Scriptures.

Worst of all, he has made it clear that there is no room for disagreement with his position on homosexuality. Anglican clergy have said that on more than one occasion Archbishop Cottrell stood before a meeting of clergy and declared that anyone who disagreed with the progressive view of human sexuality should leave the church. Clergy who hold the biblical view of human sexuality are not welcome in today’s Church of England.

We have come a long way since the time of the English reformers, who willingly went to the stake to be burned to death rather than betray the holy Scriptures.

For more information on Never Give Up, check out . {eoa}

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Praise activates God’s power in our lives, and nowhere is that more evident than in the realm of spiritual battle. The authentic praise of God empowers us to defeat the devil.

Before we use the truth of God against the attacks of Satan, we first need to answer the two most important questions in the Bible. The first is the one Jesus asked His disciples: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” (Matt. 22:42). A person’s destiny in eternity hinges on his or her answer. Jesus made it clear that “if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).

Who Is Man?

The second most important question we need to answer is found in Psalm 8:4: “What is man?” We need to answer this one with God’s truth, not man’s theory. Is man only a highly developed animal, as Darwin taught? Is man an undeveloped child, as Freud believed? Is man a mere economic factor, as Karl Marx taught?

King David reflects God’s truth in the Psalms:

“You made him [mankind] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet” (Ps. 8:5-6).

Man cast away his crown of glory and honor when he sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. The God-Man Jesus Christ has returned that honor, dignity and authority to all men and women who come under the cover of His saving power. Our position today as believers in Christ is once again a position of being crowned with glory and honor.

Authority to Defeat Satan

Why is this important in our ongoing battle with Satan? We find the answer in Psalm 8, which most scholars believe David wrote after he defeated Goliath. This is the testimony of a short, slightly built shepherd who took on a 10-foot heavyweight jousting champion and won. But the battle between David and Goliath has a far deeper meaning than simply a Hebrew shepherd boy conquering the most famous warrior in the Philistine army. The story of David and Goliath is a foreshadowing of the ultimate spiritual battle that was waged a thousand years later between Jesus Christ and Satan. In fact, David’s defeat of Goliath is a model for all spiritual warfare in the church today.

Goliath was Satan’s champion; David, like Jesus after him, was God’s champion. Goliath lost, permanently, due to the mortal wound he suffered. Satan also lost, ultimately, in his showdown with Jesus at the cross. Satan continues to lose as believers take authority over the territory he controls on this earth—including his control of human hearts and minds.

Your proclamation of truth through praise—and especially your answers to the questions “Who is the Christ?” and “What is man in Christ?”—will make the difference between winning or losing the spiritual battles you face. It is our praise of God that reveals what we believe about the Christ, whose Son He is, and what we believe about man and his relationship to God.

God, the Victor

Our proclamation of God’s truth in praise calls upon the power of the victor who has already won the battle against Satan. God alone has the power to silence our foe, the avenger (see Ps. 8:2). It is no accident that Psalm 8 begins with a proclamation of praise: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (v. 1).

David then goes on to describe the “position” of the Lord:

“You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger” (Ps. 8:1-2).

If you chart the course of conflict in the Middle East, a great deal of it has to do with “vengeance” battles—the old eye-for-an-eye mindset that is still at work between enemies. Goliath did not seek the death of all Israelites. No, he wanted to put all of Israel in subjection. The winner of this battle would have the right to force into slavery all the people of the losing nation. Enslavement would grant power and authority to the victor and would bring pain and suffering, a tearing apart of families, and a loss of worship traditions to the losing side.

How to Win the Battle

To win the battle against Satan’s vengeance, you must praise God for sending Jesus to win the eternal war for your soul. Praise God for resurrecting Jesus on the third day so that you have the hope of eternal life. Praise Him that you heard the gospel, and He convicted you of your sinful nature by the power of His Holy Spirit so that you desired to receive Jesus as your Savior. Then praise God for securing once and for all the redemption of all who believe in Jesus Christ. Praise God that He loves you enough to lead you daily so you might be conformed to the image of Christ.

This has been excerpted from Chapter 11 of Empowered by Praise: Experiencing God’s Presence and Power When You Give Him Glory (Charisma House).{eoa}

Michael Youssef, Ph.D., founded The Church of The Apostles, which was the launching pad for Leading The Way’s international ministry. He has written more than 40 books, including Saving Christianity? and When the Crosses Are Gone.

The more we praise God for who He is, the more awesome He becomes in our understanding. Then we must ask the question: “Why should this holy, perfect, all-powerful, all-wise God care about me? Why should He care about any human being?”

David asked the question about man’s relationship to God this way: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps. 8:4). If you don’t answer that question in light of God’s Word, the devil will ask you a question along these lines: “Who do you think you are? Why on earth would God want to save you? Just look at you! Why would God want anything to do with you?”

David doesn’t offer an explanation for God’s love. He simply offers the truth of our God-created position:

“You made him [mankind] a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas” (Ps. 8:5-8).

My friend, there is no explanation for why God desires to be in relationship with you other than His unconditional love for you. There isn’t anything you have done to warrant His love. It truly is a free and undeserved gift from God.

Love Given, Not Earned

So many people engage in countless good works to try to earn enough points to win God’s love. They strive to earn His affection, His attention and His salvation. And all the while, they don’t realize that they already have His love and His attention. They have the promise of His salvation held out to them with the open arms of Jesus on the cross.

As long as we live on this earth, none of us will ever know why God loves us. But the truth stands nonetheless. God loves us. And out of His great love for us, He crowned us with glory and honor (see Ps. 8:5). He made us ruler over all the works of our hands, and He put all the other creatures of the earth under our authority.

What motivated Jesus to come to earth to die an agonizing death so that you might be saved? Love. What motivated Jesus to die in your place so that you might be spared the eternal consequences of your unforgiven sin? Love. What motivated Jesus to send the Holy Spirit to seal your belief in Him? There is only one answer: love.

Everything that Jesus was, and all that He did, is a reflection of God’s love in terms that we can understand. Jesus hugged little children, tenderly dealt with those who confessed their sins, healed the sick, gave hope to the downtrodden, delivered those oppressed and possessed by demons and set free those who were trapped by shame and guilt. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The disciples who followed Jesus knew He was motivated by love.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:7- 10).

There is no explanation for God’s unconditional love. Neither is there any satisfactory explanation for the mercy, forgiveness and grace that flows from that love. Nevertheless, God loves us without limit.

Praise God for His infinite, unconditional, everlasting love! Praise God for the mercy and forgiveness that flow to all sinners who accept the sacrifice of His Son. Praise God for the grace that flows to you to enable you to live a godly life in an ungodly world. But don’t stop there. Praise God that His love for you will never falter and will never cease! {eoa}

This has been excerpted from Chapter 11 of Empowered by Praise: Experiencing God’s Presence and Power When You Give Him Glory (Charisma House).

Michael Youssef, Ph.D., founded The Church of The Apostles, which was the launching pad for Leading The Way’s international ministry. He has written more than 40 books, including Saving Christianity? and When the Crosses Are Gone.

One of the great cries heard in heaven is a cry of praise to God in His roles of Judge and Rewarder. The elders who worship God around His throne in heaven proclaim these words:

The time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great—and for destroying those who destroy the earth. (See Rev. 11:18.)

In Revelation 15:3-4a, we read that God’s judgment is just and true:

“Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?”

God Alone Has the Power to Judge

God is the only one with absolute wisdom, absolute righteousness and absolute power. These are the three things necessary for a judgment to be eternal. A judge who executes judgments for all eternity must be without sin or fault, must have a total understanding of any situation—truly seeing the motivations of a person’s heart as well as the actions of the hand and the words of his mouth—and must have the ability not only to bring a person to the bar of justice, but to execute the sentence that is meted out. Only God qualifies to be the Judge of all He has created and all that occurs in time and space throughout the ages.

God’s Judgment Is Never Capricious

There is no arbitrary enforcement of the rules in God’s judgment. When we stand before Him, we will be judged based on what we have done in response to God’s commandments. Judgment is based on our obedience, including our obedience in receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior. Take a look at Revelation 16:6: “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!”

God’s Wrath Is Coming Against All Who Have Opposed Him

God reserves judgment for those who have sought to push Him off the throne so they can reign in His place.

Who is it that seeks the destruction of the earth and God’s people? Satan. Jesus said very clearly, “The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Who are the people who set themselves up to be the enemies of God? There are two main groups. The first consists of people who are in rebellion against God. They know what the Scriptures say, and they know the commandments of God. But they have decided that they are going to live their way rather than God’s way. In a second group are those referred to in the letters of Paul as being “apostate.” An apostate is a person who knew the gospel and accepted it intellectually or as a social formality but then turned his back on the truth of the gospel. An apostate is a person who denies the Virgin Birth, denies the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, denies the Lord’s bodily resurrection, denies that Jesus is the only way to heaven and denies the coming judgment of the Lord.

Judas followed Jesus, but he always had his own agenda. He followed Jesus because he thought it would be profitable to do so and because he wanted to “use” Jesus to accomplish his own goals. Judas was one of the most privileged of all people in history—he had an opportunity to walk and talk with Jesus on a daily basis. He had an opportunity to hear Jesus’ life-changing message firsthand and to witness many of Jesus’ miracles. Yet Judas betrayed Jesus to those who sought to crucify Him.

Peter also betrayed Jesus by denying three times that he was associated with Jesus. He turned his back on Jesus in Jesus’ greatest hour of human need. Peter had boasted of following Jesus to the death, but then within a matter of hours he did not have the courage to admit to a few maidens and common folk that he even knew Jesus.

Like Judas, Peter was guilty of betrayal. But Peter took a very different course after his denial of the Lord. He did not try to hide, ignore, or deny what he had done. Rather, he humbly surrendered all of himself, including his failure, to Jesus. He chose brokenness and confession over arrogance and pride. He became an apostle, whereas Judas became apostate. God’s judgment is on the apostate, not the repentant.

God’s Reward Is Coming to Those Who Trust and Obey Him

We read in Hebrews that God is a rewarder of those “who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). God’s rewards are going to be given to three groups of people:

His prophets—those servants who proclaim the truth of God without hesitation, fear or compromise.

His saints—those servants who have followed Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, doing His bidding to bring the good news of salvation: a message of deliverance to the captives, the illumination of the truth to those who are spiritually blind and wholeness to those who are sick, weak or hurting.

Those servants—both great and small—who fear the Lord’s name.

This has been excerpted from Chapter 8 of Empowered by Praise: Experiencing God’s Presence and Power When You Give Him Glory (Charisma House).{eoa}

Michael Youssef, Ph.D., founded The Church of The Apostles, which was the launching pad for Leading The Way’s international ministry. He has written more than 40 books, including Saving Christianity? and When the Crosses Are Gone.

When politicians talk about our religious freedom, they often use the phrase “freedom of worship” instead of the First Amendment term, “the free exercise of religion.” Do the specific words matter? Yes, they do.

“Freedom of worship” means you are free to worship inside your church any way you choose. Many politicians, judges and secular-left activists want you to keep your religion behind church doors, where no one else can see or hear it. They don’t want you talking about your faith in the classroom, on campus or in a public park. They don’t want to see you praying or singing Christian songs in front of a government building.

That’s why the precise wording of the First Amendment is so important. It guarantees the free exercise of religion, not just freedom of worship. We are free to exercise our faith at work, on campus, in the neighborhood, on the military base and everywhere else. We do not merely have freedom of worship one day a week. We are free to exercise our religion 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Two recent Supreme Court cases illustrate the importance of the First Amendment guarantee of the free exercise of religion.

First, there’s the case of the cake—Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. In July 2012, a Lakewood, Colorado, baker declined to use his talent to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple, two men. Same-sex marriage, the baker said, violated his Christian beliefs and his conscience. The two men quickly found another baker to make the cake they wanted, but they filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The Commission ordered the Christian baker to provide cakes for same-sex marriages, provide antidiscrimination training for his staff and make quarterly reports for two years to the Commission demonstrating his compliance.

The baker refused to comply and instead chose not to make any wedding cakes at all—a decision he says cost him 40 percent of his business. Then he took the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to court, claiming that the Commission had violated his rights to free speech and free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court agreed with the baker, ruling seven to two that the Commission had violated his First Amendment rights and had done so out of bias against his religious beliefs. After that ruling, the baker returned to making wedding cakes.

The Supreme Court decision didn’t stop anti-Christian forces from persecuting the Colorado baker. A transgender attorney later filed a civil suit against the baker for refusing to create a “gender-transition birthday cake.” That case remains unresolved as I write these words—but this baker refuses to disobey his conscience or back down from the fight.

Second, there is the case of the Christian crisis pregnancy centers—National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. In California, the 2015 California Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency Act (also known as the FACT Act) required Christian crisis pregnancy centers to post notices advertising state-sponsored abortion clinics. Of course, crisis pregnancy centers exist to provide counseling and other assistance so that women can choose not to have an abortion.

Freedom of speech doesn’t merely mean the freedom to speak your mind. It’s also the freedom not to speak a message the government seeks to force on you. The free exercise clause of the First Amendment means that Christians have the freedom not just to worship as they please but also to put their beliefs into daily action.

The Christian crisis pregnancy centers lost their case in the famously far left 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. But in June 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a five-to-four decision that California’s FACT Act violated the First Amendment.

Neither of these cases involved the right to worship. Instead, they involved our right to practice our faith and obey our religious conscience in our daily lives. I applaud the example of the Christian baker and the crisis pregnancy centers. At a high cost to themselves, they defended their right to think, believe and behave as Christians in this post-Christian world.

The First Amendment was written to restrain the government from trampling on the human conscience. The government should never tell people what to think or what to believe or what to say. The government should never require people to violate their conscience for any reason. That’s why religious freedom is the first right listed in the First Amendment—and one worth fighting to uphold. {eoa}

Excerpted from Chapter 5 of Hope for This Present Crisis by Michael Youssef (Charisma House, 2021).

Dr. Michael Youssef passionately proclaims uncompromising truth through radio and television programs, the internet and books, periodicals and other resources. Programs are translated and broadcast into 20 languages, covering more than 200 countries.