1. Introduction

a. My Way

i. We’re at the end of Paul’s life

ii. He’s speaking about his immanent death2 Timothy is one of the prison epistles

1. Paul’s prospects weren’t good

2. Around AD 68, Paul was beheaded

b. First an overview of all the chapters

i. He’s going to skip around highlighting

ii. Spending more time on chapter 1 than the other chapters

2. Paul’s writing to Timothy (and how it’s helpful to us)

a. Timothy needed some support

i. Timothy was in Ephesus

ii. Paul is in prison ready to die and Timothy might feel he’s in a bad place

b. We don’t have Paul, Timothy or Titus—they’re all gone

i. W don’t have even the great workers from the previous generation

1. God’s church goes on

2. God buries the workers but the work carries on.

c. The truth must be passed on faithfully as a deposit.

i. Paul was an apostle by the will of the sovereign God

ii. The message was faithfully preached to Timothy

d. Timothy’s flame is dying out

i. Camp Fire

1. Very hard to start a fire from scratch

2. Much easier to continue a fire that has long started and may be currently dying

a. This is the sense of stirred up

3. Endure Suffering in the Gospel

a. Avoiding Genealogies and Stupid Discussions

i. The danger of looking up genealogies

1. Imagine discovering that your descendant is a criminal

b. The shame of Prison

i. Prison is society’s label of unfit for society

c. How are we able to suffer for the Gospel

i. How can someone put up with the threat of persecution for Christ’s sake.

ii. It’s according to the Power of God

1. Paul wasn’t a superman

2. Paul was imprisoned, beat, castigated, shipwrecked

a. Lesser people would be broken

b. Naturally speaking; so would Paul

c. But Paul had the power of God sustaining him.

d. Why is this Gospel worth suffering for?