Introduction - We don’t like pain. We’d rather go an extra 100 miles to avoid pain than to go 2 miles and endure. We are pain averse. And we definitely don’t want to be picked on, talked about, or ridiculed. We want to be liked by everyone.
Explanation - Read II Timothy 3:10-12 - "But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra--what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." (NKJV) If we are genuine Christians trying to live right, we are going to be disliked. People are going to hate us for no reason. It all comes with living a godly life.
Application - “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” (Romans 8:35,37)
Conclusion - God has a reward for those who endure persecution in the present. "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18, NKJV)
