Discipleship: Fan The Flame

II Timothy 1: 1 - 14

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:18

Would you now stand in honor of the reading of God's Word? Our passage is 2 Timothy Chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, that's page 1054 in your Red Pew Bibles. If you didn't bring one of your own, should be one of those nearby if you want to hunt one up. We'd like for everyone to be able to see the passage as it's being preached. 2 Timothy chapter 1, beginning verse 1.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers, recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 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 I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. What you have 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. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Thank you, Christina. Would you pray with me once more as we come now to God's Word? Let's pray together. Father, we still and pause our hearts now before your word. Lord, we learn that it is by your word, the power of your word, that you have created all things, everything that we can see. It's been created by the power of your word. And yet we also learn that it is by your word that you recreate, that you save, that you make new. Lord, we pray that you would come and through the power of your spirit, you would take your word and you would use it upon our hearts. That you would bring forth new creation in our hearts, that you would set us free, that Lord, you would lift up and let us behold Jesus with our hearts, that we would be changed. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So a question to get us started for our young people. Do any of you like to build fires? Like fires in the right spot, okay? You like to build like campfires, you know, fire in a fireplace. You know, there's something about it, right? I love to build fires. I mean, this sounds crazy, like I'm a pyro or something. No. I love a good campfire. You know, it just draws you in. There's something about it, you know, the warmth of it, the light of it. You know, when there's a fire, it tends to draw people around and and you and you feel that warmth coming off of it. But it's not so easy to build a fire. If you've ever tended a campfire, if you've ever tended a fire in a fireplace, you know the fire is it's got to be tended to. You ever been really frustrated, like working on a fire forever and it's just not going and you just give up, right? Or you throw a bunch of paper in there, right? Which goes, flares up and then dies right back down. You know, building a fire takes time and it takes attention. You gotta tend it. You gotta tend to fire. Because what happens to a fire if you just get a fire started and you walk away, what will happen with the fire? It will fade away. It will smolder out, it will die. Now, why do I share this about fire? Well, it's mentioned in our passage, but we see throughout scripture, we see this metaphor is used of our faith as a fire. That it's something that has vitality, it's something that brings warmth and light and passion and heat. There's many places in scripture. And Paul says here, as he's writing this letter to 2 Timothy, his young disciple, he's saying, Timothy, fan the flame. Tend the flame. The flame meaning his faith, his faith in the Lord, his ministry, his following and love, and his relationship with Jesus. Paul says to Timothy, you got to fan the flame. And we see that throughout Scripture, that our faith, our relationship with God is something that has to be tended. It has to be fed. It's something that has to have fueled, it's something that you have to concern yourself with the conditions of it, and that you have to pour into it because when you pour into it, it's something that will grow and something that will last and something that will that will bring a continual, enduring life and energy and heat and warmth. That's what we're called to. But one of the struggles in the Christian life is that we become a follower of Jesus, and oftentimes we begin with a lot of fire and passion, right? A lot of excitement, a lot of energy. But it's very common for us to just kind of smolder out. You know, we go along in life and you you take hits in life and you face disappointments and you get hurt in life, and what tends to happen along the way is that that fire just begins to just kind of die down. It's very easy as we go along in the Christian life to get into a place where we're we're no longer feeding the fire, we're no longer tending it, we're no longer doing all of the things necessary in order for it to continue to grow and bring life. Sometimes we're living the Christian life just on the fumes of a past fire. We might remember a time in our life that, man, I was on fire. And so sometimes we think, hey, I'm okay because I used to be on fire, right? And what we need to see is Paul here calling Timothy and us to fan the flame of our faith and our relationship with God. Now we're starting this morning a new series. We always have a fall vision series that carries us through the month of August where we're looking ahead and we're being reminded as a church: what are we to be about? What is true north for us? What is our vision as a church? In our session, the the elders of the church that guide and direct the direction of the church, each year we get away with the Lord and we seek God's direction for us as a church. And we we look back on the previous year, but we look ahead to the new year and we seek God and say, God, what would you have us focus on this year? And coming out of that time at the beginning of the summer, we felt like as the leadership of the church that God was calling us this year to focus on discipleship. That that would be our initiative for this year, that we would focus as a church on what does it mean for us to be a church that is filled with disciples of Jesus who are making disciples of Jesus. That a disciple is, and we will talk about what that means as we go throughout our series, but a disciple is someone who is in relationship with Jesus and through him and by his spirit is learning to become more and more like Jesus. We're walking with him, we're looking like him, we're experiencing transformation into his image. That's what it means to be a disciple. And that is what, in essence, the church is called to be a group of disciples sent out into the world to make disciples. So here's what we're going to see as we look in our passage this morning. Both gospel doctrine and gospel relationships are essential to fan the flame of our faith. So we ask the question what is it, how do we grow as disciples? What is really at the heart of this is growing as disciples. And what we see in our passage is that it's essential to both be rooted in gospel doctrine and yet to be in gospel relationship, that both of those together are essential for growing as disciples of Jesus. So we're jumping into our passage. We're looking at chapter one here, and what's happening here, this is a letter that was written from the Apostle Paul to a disciple of his, Timothy. Now, this is a young man that Paul had likely led to Christ and he had discipled and poured his life into, and Timothy had demonstrated certain gifts for leadership and teaching and preaching, and so Paul had established him as a pastor in Ephesus. Now, Ephesus was a city that was a tough place to pastor. And we know that the church there experienced many challenges from false teachers. And so Paul here is writing to his disciple Timothy. Paul is imprisoned, and Timothy is in Ephesus ministering at this time, and Paul knows this is likely the very last letter that was written by the Apostle Paul. He knows that very soon he is going to be martyred. And so here he is here writing from his heart to his young disciple Timothy. And what he stresses here, what he brings Timothy back to, as we will see, is both rooting him in gospel doctrine and in gospel relationship. So first, let's look at how the Apostle Paul calls Timothy to the gospel. Now, just notice how interesting this is for a minute. Timothy is a pastor. Timothy is preaching and teaching. Timothy has been taught by Paul what the gospel is. And so you would imagine, why would Paul waste any ink on this? Timothy knows what the gospel is. Why is he going back over it with him? Because it's very common in the Christian life to think of the gospel. That is the news about Jesus' coming, stepping into our place, bearing our judgment on the cross, rising from the dead. It's easy to think that that's kind of the ABCs of the Christian life. It's just the basics. That's the stuff you got to know to get in the Christian life. But then, you know, once you're in, you know, you can move on to other things because we got that down, right? But that's not how the Apostle Paul ministers. For the Apostle Paul, the gospel is not just how you begin the Christian life, it is the power by which we grow. It's how we're changed. That the gospel is something that we never graduate from, but something that he calls us to continually be renewed in day by day. Now just notice as Paul is going here in this passage, Paul is saying many things, and I want you to notice what he does here in verse 9 and 10. And he does this over and over and over throughout all of his writings, that he will be giving instruction, he will be talking, he will be uh calling someone to something. And then right in the middle of it, he will connect it back to the gospel. Every command that the apostle Paul gives in his writing is always rooted in and connected to the truth of the gospel. Notice how he does this here in verses 9 and 10. And just notice how, in this little summary of the gospel he gives in these two verses, there's so many different angles on the truth of the gospel just in these verses here. So jump, uh second part of verse 8, Paul says this rather join with me in suffering for the gospel of the power of God. That's that's his call to Timothy. Timothy, join with me. Follow my example, suffer with me by suffering with the gospel. And then, right in the very next verse, he just summarizes the gospel. He goes right back to it. 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 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. See that little summary of the gospel that he calls him to? Now, there's a number of things that you see just in his little summary here, and I mean in every in every chapter of 2 Timothy, he's just going to do that over and over and over. And all the summaries are different, but they're just taking different angles on the truth and the glory and the wonder of the gospel. And the apostle Paul doesn't share this as like, hey, just remember this information, Timothy. He's sharing it because it is his own passion, it is his fuel. The gospel is something Paul just cannot get over. Notice what he says here and what he stresses. And essentially, as he describes the gospel, the heart of it is grace. Now, grace is a word, you know, it's a churchy word. We hear that all the time. What does grace mean? I think oftentimes we hear the word grace and we think essentially it means God grades on the curve. Y'all know how that works in school, right? You know, the teacher gives a test and everybody flunks the test. And there's almost like a little, you know, there's a little encouragement in that because you're like, well, they can't fail everybody, right? Some of my kids are like, oh, there's some teachers, yes, they will. I'm looking at some teachers here. They're like, try me, try me, right? But there's this idea that, like, well, you can't flunk everybody, right? You know, so you gotta you gotta curve this thing, right? The the requirement's too high, nobody can meet it, so grace is this kind of God lowering the bar and saying, hey, just just do the best you can, don't worry about it. That's not what grace is. Grace is the standard is beyond what you can imagine, and it does not change. It is perfection, it is God's own holiness that we are called to. And yet we have all fallen short of that. And and and the grace is that God doesn't lower the bar, but that he sends Jesus to fulfill it in our place, and in fulfilling it in our place and taking our judgment, he, as Paul describes here, has destroyed death. Death is the wages that our sin pays. And Jesus has destroyed it through the gospel, through the cross, through his resurrection. Verse 9, he has saved us and called us to a holy life. He has saved us. The gospel is a message of rescue. We are utterly helpless to save ourselves or to make ourselves acceptable before God. If we are to be saved, if we are to be uh brought into relationship with God, it must be rescue. That's what Paul emphasizes here. He saved us and called us to a holy life. Get that order. He doesn't save us because we start learning to live a holy life. That's not how it works. No, the life that we're called to is always to flow from the reality of his saving work in our life. The life that we're called to always flows from the truth of the gospel. He saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. See, Paul emphasizes here God's saving of us and rescue of uh rescuing of us and bringing us to himself has no basis in anything we have done. The basis of our salvation and rescue is entirely in God's grace and in his purposes. So when do we get this grace? Look what he says. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. It's called the doctrine of election. What absolutely stuns Paul about the gospel is that he wasn't just saved when he believed. That he was saved as we sing, we'll close with that hymn today, long before creation. That God has given us grace in Christ before he made the world. I mean, you talk about grace, you talk about it having no basis in us whatsoever. When was this grace given to us? Well, before God even made the world. He had determined in that moment that he would lavish grace upon us in Jesus. That he has chosen us in love. Now, the doctrine of election can it can set us off, especially because our hearts are so independent. At the deepest places of our hearts, we want to feel like I did something, I had some part in this. Right? But scripture tells us that we chose God because he first chose us. The only reason we would ever choose him is because he has first chosen us and opened our eyes and brought us to himself. So for the apostle Paul, this is not some stale doctrine, this is his own personal experience. I mean, think about the Apostle Paul's conversion. In the book of Acts, we're told of his conversion. Paul never prayed to receive Jesus. Paul, it's glorious. Paul never prayed, God, would you save me? But Paul never chose God. Well, how did how did Paul come to Jesus? How was he brought into this salvation? He chose me before the beginning of time. You know, the story goes, Paul is going around and he's murdering Christians and persecuting Christians, and what does God do? God knocks him off his horse, he blinds him, says, You're mine. And now you will see how much you will suffer from my glory. So for the apostle Paul, this realization that it has nothing to do with me, Paul was struck to the very core of his being, of the depth of his sin, that I opposed Jesus, I persecuted his people, I was my self-righteousness was such a barrier to God, I never would have chosen him. But yet, God, before you ever made the world, you chose me. That you would lavish your unsearchable grace upon me and Jesus. See, for the apostle Paul, he never gets over that. It's what drives his ministry, it's what drives his willingness to embrace suffering for the gospel. He lives for the gospel. Why? Because he never gets over grace, it transforms his life. And so here the apostle Paul says, Timothy, you got to stay rooted in the gospel. Look what he says in verse 13. What you have heard from me. Now, what is he talking about here? He's talking about the gospel, what he's just described in the previous verses. What you heard from me, the gospel. Keep as the pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Verse 14, guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Here he refers to the gospel as the good deposit. It's like a treasure that God has planted in your heart. And so my calling to you, Timothy, is to guard the gospel. Guard it in your own heart. Guard it in your own ministry. Now, why would you say guard it? Unless there's a great tendency for it to be forgotten, for it to fall through our hands. That is the nature of our hearts is that we begin with the grace of the gospel and we move on to basing our acceptance in something in us. And listen, we're creative. It can be all kinds of different things. It can be our own goodness and our own righteousness, it can be our own passion for God or our own emotion. You know, we are so prone to base our acceptance with God on something in us. You know, my goodness, my works, my effort. You know, some of us fill our lives with things, and what's driving all of the things that we're striving for is this deep-seated hope that somehow I will be acceptable to God. You see, the radical nature of the gospel, it says none of that can work ever. We come to him by grace alone, or we never come to him. The Apostle Paul says staying rooted in the gospel is how you grow. It is God's power to change you. That the way that we grow as disciples is by a continual and daily rediscovery of the truth and the wonder of the grace of the gospel. It's what drove the Apostle Paul, and it's what's to drive us as disciples. So Paul here emphasizes gospel doctrine, but there's something else to see here, and this probably is the easier one to miss, especially for those of us who are Presbyterian types. Discipleship, yes, requires that we be rooted in the gospel, but it also requires that we are rooted in gospel relationship. Discipleship happens in the context of gospel relationship. Now, this this is easy to miss, but it is throughout the passage here. As we look at the passage, we get a window into Paul and Timothy's relationship, and it is stunning. It's a stunning picture that we see the affection that they had in their relationship. We see the commitment that was in this relationship. We see the connection. We see the encouragement. All of those are elements of what it means to disciple someone. Look first at the affection. Look just at verse 2 to Timothy, my dear son. Now, this is his greeting. It's often how he would begin his letters. But as he as he addresses Timothy here, he calls him my dear son. Paul didn't have any children, at least that we know. He's not his biological son. But for Paul, this relationship with Timothy was more than just information, download, and transfer. It was a deeply affectionate relationship. Paul loved Timothy as if he were his own son. And to be certain he is his spiritual son in the faith. He writes to him and he wants him to know, I love you, Timothy. You're like my dear son. Then also in verse 3, we see his commitment to him. I thank God, whom I serve as my ancestors did with a clear conscience, is night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. You see the commitment there. Timothy, I'm committed to you. Every day I'm praying for you. I know what's happening in your life. I'm bringing you before the Father. I'm here for you. That is essential in a gospel relationship of discipleship. Also, we see he knows his story. Verse 5. I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded now lives in you also. He knows his story. I mean, one of the things about Timothy, and this kind of comes out in the letter here, is that Timothy struggled with timidity. He struggled with passivity. He likely never had a father figure in his life. But what Paul knows and reaffirms in him is the incredible faith of his mother and his grandmother. That their pouring into his life was huge for the man that Timothy had become. Paul knows his story. He reminds him of it. He encourages him with it. Then also we see that Paul, beginning at verse 6, is just calling things out of Timothy. It's what it means to encourage, to give courage to someone, is that I see something in you you cannot see yourself. And in discipleship, it's a relationship in which someone has weight, their voice has weight in your life, and they see something in you that you can't see in yourself, and they call it out of you, and they call you to something more. It's exactly what Paul does here. Verse 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit of God that God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed about the testimony about our Lord or of me as prisoner. Paul's saying to Timothy, his disciple, Timothy, I see what's in you through the power of the Holy Spirit. You don't have to give way to your timidity. You can depend upon the Lord to give you strength and power in your ministry. And you can do this, and I'm here for you, and follow me and join me with suffering. It's Paul speaking powerfully into his life. That is essential in discipleship. You know, discipleship is not just getting information. It's both. It's both gospel doctrine and gospel relationships. You know, some of us often err to one of those or the other. For some of us, we're like, hey, give me a study. Right? I want to study. Let's get in the Bible. Give me some information. Give me the workbook. All good stuff. But we're like, but just, I just don't want to do the relation thing. I don't want to talk about my heart. I don't want them to really know me. I want to hold you at arm's length, right? Let's just do the study. But that won't work. Because God is designed that we would grow in the context of relationship, that we would be known, that we would be opening our heart, that we would be sharing our struggles. There's power in gospel relationships. But you know, others of us are like, hey, I like the fellowship thing. I like to be together. I like to be with other believers. I enjoy the hanging out. Just don't break the Bible out on me. I'm not that into that. Don't really know how that works or whatever. I just like to be around believers. I like to talk about what I'm feeling. I like all of this stuff. Let's just don't get into the content of the gospel, right? There's not power in that either. You see, what Paul wants to show us in Timothy, he repeats it throughout the book, is that it is both gospel doctrine, the truth of the gospel penetrating our heart deeper and deeper and deeper. We're returning to it, we're enjoying it, we're applying it to every area of our life. And in the context of gospel relationships. So let's do a little application here. First question, I think, just an overall question as we look at the passage, is how is your flame? How's your flame? How's your faith, your relationship with God? Is it smoldering? Is it dying down? Or is it growing and being fed? I think just as Paul is speaking here to Timothy, he's speaking to us, and he's saying, listen, you've got to fan the flame. You've got to invest in your relationship with God. You've got to engage in discipleship. You got to seek to grow. You've got to make use of the means of grace. You've got to be in relationship with other believers. You've got to be intentional if you're going to grow in your faith. Because if you don't, it's going to fade and smolder out. And that's very much Paul's call to us. And then, secondly, with that, I would just ask, are you guarding the gospel in your life? Are you guarding the gospel? I mean, there is a great tendency for us when we hear the gospel to think, yeah, I got it. Right? Parents know that response in your kids. Right? You're trying to explain something you know it's very vital and say, yeah, I got it. We do that with the gospel. Because we think, because of when something becomes familiar, it fails to bring wonder. It fails to stun us, right? But what Paul's saying here is that you got to be committed to the gospel stunning you daily. And the gospel is not going to stun you unless you are deepening in your understanding of your own brokenness. Unless you see the depths of your brokenness and sin. The grace of the gospel is never going to electrify your life. You know, oftentimes we begin the Christian life and we're like, oh my gosh, you saved me from all this. It's powerful, right? It sets our life on fire. But as we go along in the Christian life, maybe, maybe we're growing a little bit. Maybe our life looks less chaotic. Maybe it looks a little bit more righteous, right? And one of the byproducts of that that can easily happen is that we begin to think we don't need grace as much. Right? It's a lie. We daily need the rescuing grace of Jesus. Every day, every one of us. Me more than you. Right? Are you guarding the gospel in your life, making use of it, enjoying it, applying it to your life, savoring it? Because for the Apostle Paul, he can't get over it. It's the fuel for his ministry. And as he's writing to Timothy and to us, he's saying, This is the only fuel that there is. But then thirdly, are you engaging in intentional gospel relationships in your life? We all need a Paul and we all need a Timothy in our life. We need someone in our life who's a little bit further down the road, who's investing the gospel in us. It's vital. We need that. And we we also, this is what disciples do. Disciples don't just collect, they don't just feed, they feed others. So we need a Timothy in our life. Someone that you are intentionally pouring into. Now, I think one of the things that hangs us up on this, as I'm saying this, you're probably thinking, oh my gosh, how do I find all of this? Where do I find this? Right? And I think the problem is we start too formal in our mind. We're like, okay, what we're talking about here is we got to have a curriculum. We're gonna sit down and we're gonna have a particular time where they're speaking into me, and then I leave and I sit down with the other person, and we we think too formally and too big to begin with. I would rather just ask you, who is already in your life that God has put there? Who has God put in your life that's a little bit further down the road that might already be trying to speak into your life? So I see one of the things that's gotta happen for us is that we've got to humble ourselves and let someone speak the gospel into our life. But then also there's probably someone that God's brought into our life that we're not even seeing that God is calling for us to pour into in our life. Now, I I think as I was thinking about this application, I'm I'm thinking about those of us who are moms here, and and I think you're you're the stage of life you're in is like the demands never end. And you might hear something like this, and you might say, What are you putting on me here? Like I'm barely surviving, right? I got to church, dadgum it, right? I how am I supposed to go and and disciple somebody? But what here's what I would say, and this is a good example for all of us. What would it look like to intentionally invite someone into your chaos? Maybe it's a younger believer, someone who's a little bit further behind you, and you just say, Hey, why don't you come over and jump in in the chaos? Do you know that's discipleship? Discipleship is essentially intentionality with the gospel. When I'm with another person, it's like I'm I'm loving you, I'm interested in your life, I'm asking you questions. Tell me how you're doing. Tell me what you're learning. That's discipleship. And then it's also receiving that from somebody else. And this they, I mean, it's I started with moms, but kids, this you got people on your football team. You you got people in your classroom. You know, it's being intentional about looking who has God put in my life? Who can I let them speak into my life, and who can I begin to speak into their life? So, simple question, we can discuss this for a minute. Am I experiencing the gospel and am I sharing that with others, investing it in others? So let's take a few moments to discuss that. If you're new here or visiting, we we often do this as a way to apply God's word to our lives, is that we have an opportunity to share here. Um so what's happening in you as you think about this idea of discipleship, we think about gospel doctrine and gospel relationships and how the gospel works in our life. What's happening in you? What's stirring in you? Let's hear from each other.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

Um, Hutch, I think uh one thing that I have struggled with and still struggle with sometimes is a real imposter syndrome uh when it comes to uh I I've been blessed with a lot of people who have walked with me and discipled me, I think. Um most of those very organically, some a little more formally, but I think because I look at my life and I'm like, I am a mess, and like I know what's happening inside me, and my mess, like I don't really want to show that. I like want to be honored and respected. Like that's a big idol in my life. And so it feels like it feels more vulnerable to me to think about having a Timothy than having a Paul. Yeah. Um, and so I really I think I've struggled, but also like really heard the Lord be like, it's not like when I actually stop and think about the people who have who have discipled me in my life, it was not the people who had it together. It was people, like you said, he brought me into the chaos.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:45

Um even and you know, their yeah, even of their, you know, their faith. Um and anyway, so I think it's just worth saying, like, I think we'll all probably sometimes feel like impostors, but knowing that it is our like we sin and we receive the gospel. And we sin again and we receive the gospel.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

And we know Jesus more and more, and that's where we disciple from, not from being wise and mature. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:18

Carrie, that is so good. Thank you for sharing that. I think what you just shared is very, very helpful for us. I think another hang-up whenever we think about investing in and discipling somebody else is like, I'm I gotta have it together and I gotta be an expert. I gotta know all the answers, I gotta know my stuff if I'm gonna disciple someone else. And and that hangs us up because we never, most of us never feel like we get there. We never feel adequate enough. How can I pour into somebody else? But you see, here is the beauty and the power of the gospel. What we are offering is not our expertise, we're offering our brokenness. We're offering the fact that in my brokenness, I am running to Jesus and I'm experiencing his grace. And let me show you, share how that's playing on in my life. And the tough thing is we have to be vulnerable to do that, and there's a great resistance to be vulnerable, and we want to we want everybody to think we're you know up here on a pedestal. And what the pedestal does not display the gospel, the pedestal displays me, right? And so we don't want to disciple people in me, we want to disciple people in Jesus, which is all about our brokenness and his greatness, right? And so that's what we're calling people into. And I feel this keenly as a pastor, because there can be this thing of like, oh, I'm supposed to be the expert, I'm supposed to have it all together, and I know that I don't. But I'm reminded by the gospel what I have to offer is my brokenness and the life of Jesus flowing in and through that. And that's what that's how you invest the gospel in someone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

Well, I'm gonna put a plug-in for the pray for me campaign. That's a great place to start to pray for a young person. And there aren't enough names on that list I felt before.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:23

So if you haven't, this is a great place to start.

SPEAKER_05 41:26

That's an application of the sermon today, right? I don't have anybody disciple in my life. Pray for me. There's a sheet you can sign up on.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

So we all have people that we've shared the gospel with multiple times, and we've prayed for those people to accept the gospel. Yeah. Do you think our prayers can affect God's choices? Boy, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_05 41:57

Yes and no. It does not change what God has determined that he's going to do. But here's the power in the prayer: the prayer is how he does it. That our prayers are how he brings about his will to bring people to himself. So our prayers matter. It's the same reason that it matters that we share the gospel, because it is the means through which God brings people to himself, the means through which he accomplishes his will. And our prayers are a part of that. So we don't change God's mind in the in the sense that like he's gonna do this and he does this. Our prayer, but at the same, here's, you know, the the Bible is a lot more complex than just our human reason, right? Because we tend to think, wait a minute, you know, is God in control or are we in control? Right? Are we responsible or is God in control? And the Bible says, well, both are true. Well, how does that make sense? Well, it doesn't to us, right? It's God. This is a little bit beyond our understanding here. But we do know that our prayers are a real interaction with God, that he is affected by our prayers, that he is moved by our prayers, that that that in one sense, at the human level, our prayers do have the power to move God to action. But what we realize is that in reality, they too were a part of his plan to to work out his purposes in the world. And that's a mystery. I cannot explain. But they matter greatly. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

Hey, so I was just thinking, like, when I was in high school and especially when I was in college, I really Really longed for somebody to disciple me. And I knew it was something I needed. But I I really didn't know, like, and it's something I deeply desired. And I I think still now, like I am so drawn to discipleship in both directions. Like it's something that I just am really passionate about. And I think that the Lord has given me a lot of affection for. But when I was younger, I really didn't know how to like who to go to or how to be like, hey, like I want this. And and I tried in some ways, but I just always felt like really awkward, like kind of like I was like pressuring somebody into it, and maybe they were too busy. And um so I I was just thinking that if anybody else, like I feel like the Pray For Me campaign is a great way for people who are willing to be a Paul, yeah, to like make themselves available. Um, and obviously, like the people in the room who are like in the youth and stuff, like they're like automatically on offer, I guess, to be prayed for in that way. But I guess I'm just thinking about that like middling age. Um, like the people that are just going off to college who are like, man, it would be nice to have somebody back home, or like people that are already away, or people that are at Covenant and they're not with the original community um who are looking for that. I just wanted to say, like, if anybody is longing for that, um, please come talk to me. I can't be that for everybody, like, I'm not the fit, but I feel like I just want to offer a point person if one does not exist already and there may be one, so that's great too. Um, a point person that you could come to and be like, hey, I want that. Yeah. And then prayerfully with the church staff, like I would love to bring those requests to you guys and have you guys like think about connections and yeah, and and really speak into that relationship. Yes. Um, but I guess I'm just saying, like, I I will be the liaison.

SPEAKER_05 46:16

Yeah. Thank you. I I'm really glad that you shared both your experience and your willingness to help people because I think oftentimes that is people's experience. They've said, hey, I've wanted this, but you know, I've I've not found anybody to do this. And I I think the reality is that it's something we need to grow in as a church that I think in the church and not just our church, but I think in the church and our culture, it can be very consumeristic. And so we don't come to church to say, who can I serve? We come to church to say, How can I be served? And we gotta shift that more and more and more, where as a church we see, hey, I'm called to disciple people, and I need to see what that looks like. But it it's I think it's a mark of how we need to grow into that, that everyone would start to see, wait, I have something to offer to someone else, and I and I'm actually responsible to offer that. And I'd love to see that mindset really grow in our church where everybody is like, I gotta be pouring into people, you know, and uh who can I be intentional with? And in great ways to get that connection that Trinity's talking about, in addition to letting Trinity know, which she will help us, is getting in a community group. When you're getting in a community group, all of a sudden, okay, there's relationships that are forming, and there's somebody in there that, like, I'd really like for them to be in my life more. And that begins to happen in in those contexts. That's a great opportunity in there. Um so yeah, I I just don't give up. If you're sitting there saying, you know, I've wanted this, but it's never happened. I would just say, don't give up. Share your desire with other people and ask them to pray and see what God does. Because I think He will bring someone to speak into your life.

SPEAKER_03 48:21

Hi, Hutch.

SPEAKER_05 48:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 48:23

So I have a question. Okay. Um, even though I'm still young and people disciple me still, sometimes I like to try to disciple people that like are my age or people younger than me. Uh-huh. But like, what if like you're trying to like pour into them and they don't necessarily like they're not like necessarily like listening? Do you like keep trying to pour into them, or do you just like are you like, are you like using up your time with someone who is not willing to listen, or do you keep talking to them, or do you move on to someone who actually will listen?

SPEAKER_05 48:56

Yeah, man, what a great question. I bet a lot of people in here are wondering that same question and and just didn't ask it. So I'm glad that you did. Um I think you know when you are intentional with other people, you're gonna find that different people are at different levels of receptivity to it. And I think you you don't force that, uh, you offer. And I do think that you want to look for those places where somebody's hungry. You know, I think we could I I've heard somebody said before say before, you know, feed the hungry. You know, that that when you're looking to disciple others, that you want to look for those people that actually are are open and desiring, and that that's where you really want to invest your time. So I think we we want to be intentional with as many people as we can, but you'll start to determine, oh, wait a minute, this person tends to really respond to me being intentional with them. They they're responsive. They uh when I speak into their life, it seems to really have impact. Those are often things that give us clues and wisdom of like, hey, I'm gonna put more of my time here because I feel like here's the opportunity that God's bringing into my life.

SPEAKER_03 50:11

Like you actually like want to use your time to talk to someone who actually is willing to listen.

SPEAKER_05 50:18

Yes. Yes. Otherwise, you know, we're just it's it's not gonna be effective, you know. And that's that's uh you often find that in ministry. That and always remember this though someone that you might invest in and is not receptive today, they might be tomorrow, or they might be down the road. So we don't write people off quickly, but I think in general, we want to move towards investing in those who are hungry, that God has opened their eyes, their their desiring to be poured into. Yeah, that's a great question. Okay, let me close this in prayer. Father, we we thank you that we get to be involved in this work that you're doing of making disciples of all nations. And Lord, it's easy to lose sight of it. It's it's easy to think we have nothing to offer. Uh Lord, it's easy to just become focused upon our own our own life. And Lord, we just pray that you would help us to develop a culture of discipleship as a church, that we would, in all of our relationships, become intentional with the gospel, that we would be personally rooted in the truth of the gospel, and that we would be investing that in one another. Would you come and work that in us? In Christ's name we pray. Amen.