II Timothy 4:9-11--Persevering When Life Gets Tough

I want you to think with me this morning, think of some things that are both difficult, both taxing, but also rewarding. Things that are hard, but if you persevere and push through, you'll end up reaping the benefit of your labor. Can you think of anything like that, both taxing and rewarding? ‌‌ I thought of some things that came to my mind. For the kids here, school, school, school's difficult, maybe if you're like me, maybe not like me, and you love school, but it's not really your favorite thing in the world. It can be a little difficult, but if you push through it, you graduate, maybe go off in the workplace, maybe go to college, it's rewarding. ‌Sports, some of you played sports when you were younger, some of you play sports right now. Sports, something that's kind of taxing, have to put some effort into, but if you put in the practice, you're going to reap the benefit. ‌Marriage, marriage can be difficult, it can be hard to live with another person and try to navigate your different personalities and your different preferences, but it can be rewarding if you push through and enjoy that life together. ‌Parenting, parenting can be taxing, can be difficult, you worry about your kids, you pray over them that they'll turn out right, but if you train them, the way God wants us to train them, it can lead to some great reward. ‌How about relationships in general? Relationships can be taxing, they can be difficult, but if you push through and work through, they can be rewarding as well. ‌‌There are all these things in our life and our world today that are both difficult and rewarding. They're hard to work, effort, but if we push through, keep going, we're going to reap the benefit. One thing we didn't mention is ministry, serving God. Can following God be difficult yet rewarding? It can be, can it? Doing what God wants, following His will, obeying His word, that can be sometimes very, very difficult, but if we're able to do it, we're able to endure and push through when life gets hard, we will find that service to God is incredibly rewarding. And as we come to our texts this morning, this was the discovery that Apostle Paul made at the very end of his life.‌‌ Most of us here are familiar with the story of the Apostle Paul. We understand all the things he went through, all the suffering that he had experienced in his life. Here he is, sitting at the end of his life, in a deep, dark prison, contemplating his last few months before death. And it would have been so easy for the Apostle Paul to give up, to throw in his towel, to say I’ve completed enough ministry, I’ve done everything I need to do for the Lord! And by our standards, perhaps, we would agree. Paul had done more in his short few years as a believer in Jesus than many of us have done in our entire lifetime! But that didn’t cause him to give up. That didn’t cause him to quit. And in our text today, as he is sitting in prison contemplating death we find him still continuing faithfully in ministry. What caused him to keep going, amidst everything going on in his life? What caused him not to quit when things get tough? Many times we are tempted to quit when life gets tough. How do we keep that from happening? How do we model the example of the Apostle Paul and not quit when life is increasingly difficult? ‌I think from our text today Paul gives us the answer. He shares with us his mentality even during his last days while sitting in prison, for how he continued on and persevered in the faith even when life is tough. And from his example we learn one key truth that we can remember today:‌‌ Big Idea: our spiritual life is worth the effort. Because our spiritual life is worth the effort, we must persevere when life gets tough.