1. Stand with Jesus
II Timothy 4:9-22

2. If you stand with Jesus, You can overcome persecution.
Paul’s life is an unbelievable example of that.
II Corinthians 11:23-27
Soon he would be beheaded for his belief in Jesus Christ.
The early Christians lived in an empire that viewed them as a threat to the state!
Quickly in our nation we are being portrayed and seen as a threat to equal rights, freedom of choice, and democracy.

3. If you stand with Jesus,
You can overcome those who hurt and disappoint us.
There are 3 types of people hurt or disappoint us.
Those that abandon us
Those that seek to do us harm
And those who won’t stand behind us in trials

4. Hebrews 13:5-6, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?””

5. If you stand with Jesus,
You can overcome those who hurt and disappoint us.
We can’t keep looking back to those who have abandoned us, but recognize with grief that there are some things you cannot change. Satan is real and he is trying to drag as many as he can away.
We must focus on those who are still with us and those we can still bring to Christ.

6. If you stand with Jesus,
You can overcome those who hurt and disappoint us.
Relationships can be reconciled.
We must let the Lord handle those who we may be tempted to take revenge upon. As Paul said, “The Lord will repay him for what he has done.”
We are not all of the same maturity as others and able to face trials in the same way.
We need to pray for forgiveness.

7. If you stand with Jesus, You can overcome mistakes.
Look at Paul. Before he spent 34 years as a Christian, going on 4 missionary journeys and starting over 40 churches and bringing countless people to Christ he was a persecutor of the church.
If we stand with Christ forgiven and set free we can overcome the mistakes that we have made in our lives.

8. Ephesians 1:7, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace”
Psalm 130:4, But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”

9. If we stand with Jesus,
II Timothy 4:17-18, “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
We can face and overcome persecution, those who hurt us and disappoint us, our mistakes, sickness, and even death.