Timothy - Faithful Servant #1

Timothy - Faithful Servant #1

(Philippians 2:19-24)

By Sean Kelly

I made an executive decision what we're going to read. I want to read the whole. Not the whole chapter, but verses one through 24, which I don't have in your notes.

So I've asked Nathan to read. So if you read verses one through 24 of the chapter. Yes.

Therefore, if there is any constellation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not into my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure, do all things without complaining and disputing. That you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

Yes. And if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like minded who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.

But you know his proven character, that as a son of his father, he served with me in the gospel. Therefore, I hope to send him at once as soon as I see how it goes with me. But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.

Okay, so here I read the whole chapter because I think there's a point here that Paul is making. We're focusing on Timothy this morning. I call this Timothy faithful servant number one, actually.

And we'll get to the second. He's not number one, we'll see in the passage. But we have some commands in the first part of the chapter, in verse two, to let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

Let each esteem others better themselves. Verse four, or actually, that's verse three. Sorry.

Verse four is let each of you look out only for his own interests, but also the interests of others. Verse five, let this mind be in your so awesome Christ Jesus. So, yeah, verses three through five, we have these commands that were given, and we discussed these already.

So I'm not going to go into detail about what our mindset is supposed to be like, what we're supposed to think like. And then verse twelve, it talks about our sanctification that we work out our own salvation with trembling and fear. Verse 13 talks about that God will do his work in us as we're doing that.

And then we get some commands like do all things without complaining and disputing. Hold fast the word of life in verse 16. And we see that this section goes from our mindset to the practical application of that.

And so when we come to this, I think we were tempted as we read this to say, okay, Paul's changing subjects here. He's going to, okay, now let me talk about Timothy a little bit. Let me change the subject.

But I think Paul is continuing on in his thought process here. And I think he's giving us examples of what this looks like, this whole process of having the right mindset and then acting the right way. And he gives us several examples here in verse five through eleven.

I can't even write this morning. We have Jesus Christ as our first example. Let this mind be new, which is also in Christ Jesus, and then describes what his mindset was and then what that looked like practically, that he came to earth, he became in the form of man.

He humbled himself to the point of death. And then it talks about how he was rewarded by God for that. And then we see in verses 16 and 17, Paul actually gives himself as a little bit of an example here how he's sacrificing his self being poured out as a drink offering.

He's sacrificing himself even to the point of death to serve and minister to the church. And so I think what's happening here in verse 18, verse 1819. Thank you.

I don't think I changed that on the notes, did I? That's bad. Okay, 19 through 23. Here we see an example of Timothy.

And Paul says, I'm going to send Timothy. But then he describes Timothy's character. And if you look at the way he describes some of this, you see some of the same things he's been teaching throughout this chapter as part of Timothy's character.

So I think he's an example. And then in verses 25 to the end of the chapter is Epaphroditis, which we're going to talk about probably in January at this point. I'm not going to spell it right, so you know who it is.

Anyway. So I think that while this looks like, and another reason why I think this, that this isn't just, oh, let's just change subjects and bring up Timothy. Why this fits the flow of, this is where in the Paul's letters, when he starts bringing up people, where does he bring them up? Normally at the end of the book, right.

It's always so and so greets you. I hope to send this person, greet this person. That always happens at the end of the closing of the book.

This is right in the middle. Why would he do this differently in this book? I think it's because he's trying to say, hey, here's what I've commanded you to do. Here's what you need to be doing as a christian.

Your mindset needs to be this way. Your actions need to be this know, you need to be like, Jesus Christ is the first example. Look at me, I'm sacrificing myself for the ministry.

Here's Timothy. Here's another guy. I'm saying him to you, but look at his character.

Look at how he acts. He is doing what I've just told you to do. So I think he's giving us another example here.

So that's why I'm treating it a little bit this way that we're going to look at, not the point that Paul sending Timothy, but Paul saying, look at Timothy and his character. Here's an example for you. Here's the way you should be.

Again, we're going to go very quickly through this today, partially because I knew we wouldn't have as much time. Partially there's no actual command to the church here. This is describing Timothy.

So this is the word of God. This is important. I'm not going to say that this isn't important, but we're looking at his character, and I think we can do that a little bit quicker without the command.

So first of all, I want to look at who Timothy was. Act 16 gives our first introduction to Timothy, kind of where Paul met Timothy. So let's read verses one through three of acts 16.

Go ahead. Nativity, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed but his father was well spoken of by Paul, wanted to have to go on to him and sympathize him. So we see here, when Paul first meets meets Timothy, that Timothy's already saved.

He's already a disciple there. And Paul decides that he's going to take Timothy along, that Timothy is valuable. In acts 15, we see Paul and Barnabas split up in their ministry, and Paul and Silas go one way, and Barnabas and mark go the other way.

So here Paul is bringing on Timothy some extra help to bring along. He sees some faithfulness in Timothy. We know from Paul's letters to Timothy that Timothy was probably saved because of the faith of his mother and his grandmother, who probably influenced him and maybe even led him to Christ.

And so at this point, Paul meets him and he's saved. He's a disciple. Paul obviously sees some faithfulness in him, that he's going to take him along in his ministry.

He sees some maturity that's there. I don't think Paul would take an untrained person with him. And so Timothy already at this point, is someone who Paul can trust with the work of the ministry.

We see in one Corinthians 417, next verse we're going to read is how Paul thinks of Timothy. So let's have another reader. One Corinthians 417.

Go ahead, Ted. For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved, faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ. I teach everywhere.

And we see that Paul has a certain affection for Timothy, a certain closeness here. He calls him his beloved son, obviously not real son, for two reasons. One, we just read that his father was a Greek, so it wasn't Paul, but also, he says in the Lord here.

So Paul sees him as a son in the fact that he's bringing him up in the training of the Lord. He's teaching him the ministry. He's like a father figure to him, and we'll see that again.

So Paul has a certain closeness with Timothy already. In fact, in Philippians one, this letter is from Paul and from Timothy. So Timothy is with Paul and we'll see that in the passage here that that's true.

One more passage that talks about the relationship. One Timothy, one, two. Another reader, please.

Go ahead, Abigail. So here, a true son in the faith. So I think it's more than just someone who, he's just saying he's saved by saying he's a son in the faith, but I think he's saying a true son of faith, someone who's faithful, someone who's serving.

Obviously, again, when Paul meets Timothy in acts, he's already saved. So he's not even saying that I led him to Christ. So he's my son in that respect, in the faith, but that he, I think, is talking about his faithfulness, his willingness to serve, his desire to do what God wants him to do.

So we see this about Timothy, and this is just a short introduction. There's a lot more. The books of first and second Timothy give us a lot more insight.

Timothy had his struggles. He had things that Paul was know, you need to do this. You need to be bold in the faith.

You need to make sure you're preaching right. There's a lot of things that Timothy was instructed to do. So we know that he wasn't a perfect guy, but he was one who was willing to serve, who was mature enough that Paul desired to take him along in his missionary journeys.

So that's Timothy. And then we get an introduction, him in Philippians 219, where Paul says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly. They also may be encouraged when I know your state.

And so we see Timothy's availability. Wow. And that is a terrible marker.

Let's try this one. Think that's right? I probably spelled you wrong. Yep, I did.

So, his availability. And here we see that Paul is going to send Timothy in his place. He had.

Timothy was with him. He was available to serve. And Paul says, I'm going to send Timothy to you in place of mean.

Now, Paul couldn't leave because he was under house arrest in Rome, and his comings and goings weren't determined by what he wanted to do. He had to wait for the roman government to either decide to free him or further imprison him or execute him. And he wasn't sure how that would turn out.

But he's able to send Timothy in his place. And so Timothy is going to go. He's available.

This is not something that is unusual. We've just read first Corinthians 4:17. For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you.

So Paul trusts Timothy to send him he's available to serve, and he has sent him in the past. Another passage we see that is first, Thessalonians three, one and two. Who would like to read? Go ahead, Lynn.

Therefore, Timothy, her brother and minister of God, our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you. So here Paul wants to send somebody to Thessalonian church, and he pulls out Timothy and says, I'm going to send Timothy. And he described him as his brother, his minister in the gospel, a fellow labor in the gospel.

You can see the faithfulness of Timothy. He's working. He's doing the work of the ministry, and Paul trusts him to do that.

And even that, he trusts Timothy to be able to do what God wants him to do, which is to encourage them concerning their faith, that Timothy has the skills and the training necessary to do that. And so Timothy's available. He's willing to go.

Paul sends him. In this case, he's going to send him to the Philippians. What's the purpose? The purpose is that Paul may be encouraged.

He wants to know what's going on. You didn't have email. You couldn't make a phone call.

The only way you could find out what's going on in a faraway place is by sending somebody. And he's going to send Timothy to be encouraged. And he wants to know their state.

He wants to know how they're doing. And here their state is the idea of how are they spiritually? Are they walking with God? Are they doing what's right? Philippians were in a place where they were going through trials. Are people in prison there? And are they strong in their faith? Are they trusting God through these trials? He wants to know that.

He wants to know their state. And so it's a good thing for Paul to know what's going on in their lives, and I think for us. Do we want to know what's going on in each other's lives? Do we want to know how people are doing? Do we talk to people about their walk? How is your Bible reading? What are you learning? How are you growing? Where are your struggles? What can I pray for you for? That ought to be first and foremost in our lives when we're talking to people like, where are you at? What is your state? How can I help you? How can I encourage you? How can I come alongside you and build you up? We ought to be doing that with each other.

And Paul desired that with the Philippians. And even though he couldn't be there, he was willing to send Timothy to make sure that he knew what was going on so that he could be an encouragement to the Philippian church. So Timothy was available.

Philippians 220 to 21 says, for I have no one like minded who will sincerely care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which have Christ Jesus. I call this Timothy's proven character. Now, I stole this from the next section because the next verse, it says that Timothy's proven character.

But I want to use character in a different way. The next verse talks about his character and the way he lives. This is his character and the type of person that he is.

And he starts out by saying, for I have no one like minded. Now, the reason I read all the way from the beginning of the chapter is because we have let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ. Let you have things like, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit that deals with our mindset.

Let each one esteem others better than himself, that deals with the way we think. Let each one of you not look out for his own interests, but also the interests of others. That is based on how we view others.

And so this is why it fits in. I think it's because Paul's saying Timothy is like minded. He has this mind that we've been talking about at the beginning of second time.

So I can mark that he's. Timothy has this like mind. He's thinking the same way Paul is.

He's focused on the right things. He's focused on serving so he can send Timothy to the Philippians to minister, to encourage them, to build up them, because he knows that Timothy has that same mindset, that he's going to do that, because that's what Paul would do. So he's like minded.

So we looked at Philippians two, one through five. There he also says, who will sincerely care for your state? So he has the sincerity about him that he truly cares. This word sincerity means genuinely care.

In fact, the word care here is a word that means to be anxious and most often is used as worry or anxiety. The Bible talks about, be anxious for nothing but everything. In prayer and supplication.

Make your request known to God. That's the same word. When Jesus talks about do not worry about tomorrow.

That's the same word. So a lot of times this is used as a negative thing. Don't worry.

Don't be anxious. Trust God. Here.

The idea is a positive idea, that he's generally anxious for them in a way that he cares about their state. He has the sincerity that he loves and cares about these people. And Paul's sending him because he has that attitude.

Not only is he like minded to Paul, but he cares. He wants what's best for the Philippian church. He's going to do what's going to help them to grow in the Lord.

One Corinthians 1225 and 26. Who would like to read that? Go ahead, Jonathan. That there should be no prison in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all members suffer with it. Where if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. So in one Corinthians twelve, this is where Paul deals with the body of Christ, and that we're all joined and knit together, each one effectively doing its part.

And he brings up this point here, that the members should have the same care, same word here, by the way, the same care for each other. We should be concerned about each other. We should love one another enough that we see needs, we meet needs we serve.

We help build each other up. That's how the body should work. In fact, he gives an example, if the body's hurting, if someone in the body is hurting, we ought to hurt with them.

Not to bring up things that make people sad, but just recently, Andy Stearns' wife went to be home with the Lord. And while we rejoice that she has gone with the Lord, we know that Mr. Stearns is hurting.

He's going through some hard times that a lot of people don't go through. We ought to be hurting with him. I'm thankful in some ways not that sue passed away also, but I feel like I have a comfort that I got from God, that I know what it feels like, I know what he's going through, and I can be there for him.

And he actually said, when things kind of calm down, let's get together and have lunch. I want to talk with you, and I want to be there for him because he's part of the body and I want to serve him and help him and comfort him with the comfort that God has given me. And so there's opportunities all around us, and it doesn't have to be something as extreme as that.

People can be having difficulty at their jobs, they can be having difficulty in their relationships. They could just feel like nothing's going right in their life. And we can be there.

And if they're hurting, we should be hurting with them and supporting them in that. But also here it gives a positive if one member is honored, all members rejoice with it. That's how the body works, too.

If things are going well, if people are growing, if they're doing what God wants them to do, we rejoice in that. We're excited about that. We want that.

So we ought to have a sincerity for each other, a love for each other that reflects in this way. And then he ends this part of the passage here for all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. So I think I'm going to take this from the negative, from the all seek their own.

To spin this positively, that Timothy was a guy who sought the things which are of Christ. He sought the things that God wants, that Christ wants for him. He wanted to do the will of God.

Let's read Colossians three, one and two. Someone read that, please. Thank you.

Sorry. Then you are raised with Christ at the right hand of God. So if then you were raised with Christ, that sounds like if maybe you were raised with Christ.

No, this is idea. You were raised with Christ. And since you were raised with Christ, this is what you ought to do.

You ought to seek those things which are above. We ought to focus on the things of God, the things of Christ, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. And that goes on to say, set your mind on things above things of the earth.

Where is our focus as Christians? Are we focused on the things of God? Are we focused on who God is and what God wants us to do? Are we focused? Know, and I'm gonna get myself in trouble here. Are we focused on the packer buccaneer game this afternoon? I am going to watch it, but that ought to not be my whole focus. There was a time in my life when the packers lost.

I was grumpy for three days. That shouldn't happen. That's not a christian thing.

My focus ought to be on the things of God. And maybe I watch a game, but I don't let it distract me. I don't let it be my focus.

And if there's important things to do, who cares about the football game? I need to do the things of God. And do we focus on the things above? Do we focus on this scenario where we're talking about the church and building up the church? Do we focus on serving others around us and doing what God wants us to do to help people grow, to help people in their walk? Or are we focused on our own things? Even early in this book where Paul says, some preach Christ from selfish ambition, some preach Christ from sincerity, he says, my focus is that the gospel is preached but there's an idea there that what is your attitude? Are you focused on doing things for your glory, even what seems like what we call religious godly things? Are we focused on bringing glory to Christ? Are we focused on the things above? And Timothy was the type of guy, he was like minded. He was sincere and genuine in his care for the church, and he was focused on the right things.

And so that's his proven character. Philippians 222 says, but you know his proven character, that as a son with his father, he served within the gospel. So I think this is more to Timothy's proven faithfulness, this phrase.

But you know his proven character. I tried to do a literal translation of this, and it comes out to you, but you are knowing the truth of him. It doesn't actually use the word character or proving, you know, the truth of him.

You know what Timothy's really like. His testimony speaks for itself. You can look at Timothy and you can see how he is serving the Lord.

Let's look at one. Corinthians 1610. Go ahead, Isabelle.

And here's one of those passages where at the end of the passage, at the end of the book, Paul's talking about Timothy here. So that's normal. But it says here at the end, for he does the work of the Lord.

He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. His character is faithful. He's been diligent to be doing the right things.

And Paul says his testimony, you know the truth of him. You know what he's like. You know how Timothy's acting.

Can people say that about you? Can people say, I'm going to pick on Nathan? Nathan, we know your character. We know what you are. You say that jokingly, but you don't want to go to, oh, that's unfortunate.

I wish you didn't know what it's like. You want to have a testimony that people say, hey, look at Nathan. He's the guy who's serving.

He's doing what's right. He's serving God, and Nathan's not going to do it perfectly. I understand that none of us are going to.

But is our overall character, is our overall lifestyle showing that we want to serve God and do what he wants us to do? And Timothy was the type of guy that did that. In fact, Paul says in Philippians two, verse 22 that as a son with his father, he served with me in the gospel, and so he served like a son. He was the type of person that.

And you think about when you have a son who really looks up to his father and wants to be like his father. And I've had this where I've gone out to work on a project or something, and Caleb a lot of times now, will come out and say, hey, dad, can I help you with that? He wants to do what I do. He wants to help with the project.

And if I'm doing something, he'll do that. Nathan used to be like that. Nathan's now so busy that I don't think he has as much time as he used to.

But that's what a son does when they look up to their father. They want to participate in that. They want to do what he's doing.

They want to learn what he's learning. And Timothy was like that. He served with Paul.

He wanted to do what Paul was doing. He wanted to be faithful like Paul. And he showed that in his character.

And Paul says he has done that. He served like a son. If we go back to one Corinthians 417, Paul calls him my beloved and faithful son in the Lord.

He was faithful in the Lord. He was doing what God wanted him to do. And Paul says, you can look at him.

You know the truth of who Timothy is. He has the right attitude. He has the right viewpoint, but he's also serving faithful.

He's doing what God wants him to do. And then one more point here, and I think we will get done early. Philippians 223.

He says, therefore, I hope to send them at once as soon as I see how it goes with me. So I think Timothy's willingness here, we see in this case, Paul wants to send them to the Philippians, and we see that he wants to send them at once. And there's kind of implied sense here that Timothy is going to go when Paul's ready to send him.

Timothy's off and going. He's willing to go. So therefore, I hope to send him at once.

He's going to send him immediately. And he adds one caveat. As soon as Paul knows his fate, as soon as I know how it goes with me.

Because remember, Paul talked about in Philippians 121 through 25 that to live is Christ and to die is gain, and he doesn't know which he'll choose. And kind of the idea that he doesn't know what his fate is going to be. God has not revealed that to him yet, whether he's going to survive this imprisonment or not, even whether he's going to be released or not.

But his desire was to serve the church and to come to them and minister to them. And verse 24, which I didn't include in this. In verse 24 here it says, but I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.

So I think he has a belief that he is going to be released and he's going to be able to come to them. But until then, he's going to send Timothy, who's willing to go? Who's willing to serve? And it begs the question, are we willing to serve how God wants us to? Sometimes missionaries come into the church, and part of their message, part of their plea is that consider if God's called you to the mission field. And part of it, they're trying to share what they're doing.

Part of it, they're trying to recruit other people to go where the Lord wants them to go. And sometimes it gets a little bit. You have missionary after missionary saying this, but the idea is the same.

Are you considering to go where God wants to go? And I'm not saying you have to go to Africa or Asia or South America or something like that, but God's called you here to serve. God's called you in this church, in your community, in the place you live, in the place you work, to be a light for Christ, to be an example of who Christ is, to be a bearer of the gospel. And are you willing to do whatever God wants you to do here? Timothy was willing to go.

Timothy was willing to be sent immediately by Paul, and that's part of his character there. So before I get to the takeaways, I'm going to open this up for any questions you might have or any comments, and then I'll give you two quick takeaways here. Everybody's quiet today.

Okay, takeaways. So I have Timothy as an example of what Christians should think like and what a Christian should act like. Paul saw his faithfulness and his willingness to serve and trust him to do the work of the ministry.

The application here, we likewise should be faithful, that we can be trusted to do what Christ wants us to do. We're called to serve. Ephesians 210 says, we are God's workmanship in Christ, created to do good works.

Our whole point, the whole goal, the whole reason for saving us is that we do the things of God, that we serve him, that we are faithful to his cause and to his call. So we should be faithful, that we can be trusted to do what Christ wants us to do. We should be doing that.

And even if it's hard, we should be doing what God wants us to do. Second one here, when there are others who are serving faithful and acting righteously. We can look to them as examples in our life.

Paul lifted up all these people as examples. He lifted up himself a lot of times. Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

That kind of idea he's showing Timothy. Here's Timothy. You know his character, you know who he is, you know what his mindset is.

I think it's a good thing to be able to look at some examples and say, hey, that person's really serving. I want to be like them and do what they're doing. Again, nobody's perfect.

Nobody is without sin. But there are people who are faithfully serving God in Christ, and we should not be afraid to say, hey, they're doing the right thing. Let's try to be like them so we can look to them as examples in our lives.

We should learn from them and be encouraged by their faithful lifestyle. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The Bible, over and over, Paul gives examples of people who are serving faithfully.

And I think that's for us to see that it's not just somebody like Paul. It's not just somebody like Peter. It's not just the apostles that can do these things.

We can serve faithfully and be who God wants us to be. And so I think it's a good thing to have christian role models, christian examples in your life that you can say, hey, that's somebody who's faithfully serving. I want to be more like that.

Any thoughts or questions now? Yes. Comments, too? Yeah, that's fine. So I had heard this has probably been like ten years ago, that everyone needs to have a call in their life.

But after listening to this, I would say that Paul and Timothy are maybe more on the same level. Yeah, I am tracking with you. I think partially that is true.

Timothy is obviously example to the church. We also see, especially from the books of first and second Timothy, that Timothy was still one who was growing and was learning from Paul. In two Timothy, it talks about the things you've heard from me, from Paul.

You commit them to faithful men who will be able to serve others. Also, there is a pattern of Paul's been teaching Timothy. Timothy's to be passing that on to the next generation.

That generation passes on to the next generation. So there's this discipleship model where Timothy was being discipled by Paul. So I think both are true.

To answer that, I think it's good. We've talked a lot about discipleship, and as a smaller church, sometimes it's hard to have a formal discipleship. But there ought to be some discipleship in your life.

There ought to be people who are. I'll use the term mentor. I don't like the term mentor always, but somebody who you can go to and say, hey, I need some help.

I need somebody to talk to. I'm in a situation. I'm not sure what to do, not sure what the right response is, that you can talk to them and know that they're going to give you faithful advice.

As you're growing, you should also be pulling people under your wings and saying, hey, I'm here for you. I want to help you grow. I want to teach you the things I learned.

I think that's very important. So to answer your question, I think both are true. Well, because I started to think maybe instead of thinking of Paul as like, I don't know, because it started, Paul and Timothy were maybe more on the friendship type level.

And then I thought, really exalt Jesus at the top of the kind of thing. I don't know. Well, it's also probably a neat point here.

I think this maybe is kind of what you're getting at, too, is that we're not in this alone. We ought to be coworkers. We ought to be ministering alongside of each other.

Even if Paul and Timothy did have this, it looks like this discipling relationship where Paul was over Timothy in some ways. But Timothy also participated in the ministry and shared in that ministry of Paul. So even know, I'll use my kids as an example.

As a parent, my job is to disciple my kids. My job is to raise them up in training, admission of the Lord. There's that relationship, but eventually I want them to serve.

Abigail and Nathan and I have been leading music now for several years together. That's a ministry together where we're more coworkers than me having a discipleship relationship over them, even though I'm still their father and I'm still there to be a spiritual mentor to them. And you can look in other ways.

That's just one example. So you can see that I think you can have both. You can have a discipleship relationship, but there ought to be a sharing of ministry also, and a partnership there.

TED something I saw recently, but the network, eventually generations, the only way that they're gonna, even the people that aren't born get that information is from discipleship, from one to another. We can have be good examples for the lost. If we're not good examples for each other as well, and have the discipleship, then control who's going to get the message.

But if we don't do that and we let them die out or whatever. But when you become a grandfather, hopefully, or when Nathan becomes a grandfather, if you think that far ahead, if I can take your salvation like somebody led you to Christ. Ted well, the person that led you to Christ, somebody led them to Christ.

The person that led that person that led you to Christ, somebody led them to Christ. There's this generation imparting this, and I think I'm using this in the salvation type sense, but those people that led you to Christ, they had some training somewhere along the way because they knew enough to be able to relay the gospel accurately to a point that you understood it and were able to trust Christ as your savior. And you're obviously here now, in a sense, being discipled, at least within the context of the church, through the word being preached and taught in different ways through the fellowship you're having with other believers.

There's at least the informal going on there where you're growing in as that, you know, people like, I'm going to die someday, or Christ will return, or I'll be at a point where I just can't physically do it anymore. Somebody else is going to step in and take over, hopefully, and be teaching. The point is to keep training people to do that, that do teach faithful men to teach others also, that kind of concept.

So, yes, there ought to be that continuing on and on like that, like you're saying. So that's good. I think I said the same thing you did in word of your way.

Yeah, talking about that. Okay. I thought I was doing really good because that clock, it says 25 after, but I forgot that that clock has stopped.

So I'm actually two minutes from being done here. I'll let you ask any more questions or comments afterwards, but let's go ahead and we'll close. Lynn will close us in prayer.

Lord, Father, we thank you for today. And Lord, thank you for sunshine. Lord, thank you for... Lord.