God’s Unwavering Commitment | 2 Timothy 2:1-14

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Everybody, Welcome to the Bible guys. We appreciate you tuning in and giving us a shot, another shot, hopefully another shot. Yeah, maybe there's the second shot. No, no, do you mean to take a shot at them? No? No, I don't want them taking a shot at us. Just give us another shot. But I just didn't realize how many implications that phrase has take a shot, give us a shot. Different implications, time different. Yeah, that's or a big shot. We're a fan of one, or I've been not a fan of the other. I've been shot. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, Hey, welcome to the Bible guys. And we are in the middle of a series called god Well, talking about God's promises in different contexts, written by different authors in different centuries actually, and all within the same book of the Bible. Yeah one, it's all about him being faithful. Yeah yeah, yeah, for sure it is. And we're gonna be in tewod Timothy chapter two today. Yeah, but before we do, we have a different segment for today. This one's for you, Chris and all of our fans to play along at home and try to beat you. Uh so we're gonna see if Chris can guess the keyword while I give you clues without using the forbidden words. Okay. So so it's a race against me. It's like taboo. So they're racing against me. And hopefully if you're watching a video, we'll put all the words, the italicized words on screen that you're not allowed to say. Yes, correct, okay, yes? Are you ready? Okay? How many words are there? Five words? Okay? Are you ready? Can you tell me? Do they have a theme? Ummm no, okay, all right, I'm always getting nervous about this. Okay, are you ready? Yes, here we go. My wife has an obsession about this morning fluid. Oh I'm not allowed to say morning. Coffee. Answer, he's coffee, that's right. But I wasn't allowed to say morning. I wasn't gonna say caffeine, drink, mug or addicted. Well, and normally you don't blow it, but you blow. I know I blew that one this teah. Do you ever see the people on family Feud? This this team who's like ready to steal? They always go like this with their hands they must tell them to do that. That's right, it's so goofy. Okay, here's another one. Uh, I don't feel like doing it today, but I might do it the next day. Procrastinate almost what's the whole word procrastination? There you go. I wasn't about to say later, delay, avoid tomorrow, or task, so I said the next day, okay. Uh, let me see. This is a person who worries because they're putting too much into it worry work. No, no, no, they're putting too much into it. They're putting too much into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The word would uh, it's it's it's all one word. Investor what what? But instead of above, you would say it's. Oh, I don't think you're allowed to do that like above a below. I'm not I'm not allowed to do that. Yeah, you can't do like rhymes okay, antonyms or like okay, I thought I could sounds like okay rhymes with so. So you're you're extremely worried about something because you're putting too much mental work on it. Too much mental work anxiety. So you're a oh oh. Oh, oh okay. Were you about to say overthinking? Yes, yeh, I blew it overthink yeah, because you saw Yeah, that's right. You now to my verb. Yes, okay, oh my goodness, creations Okay you said, oh and I was like over thinking. So here you go. Are you ready for this? Sorry, while I'm sorry for the fourth one, for the I'm blown it, I've blown it on. To be honest, this is not this is not real. This is yes. Okay, are you ready? Yes? Okay. So people, yes, who are obsessed with social media, always walking around taking selfies, the worst people in the world. They their their job title is influencer. There you go, very good. I wasn't allowed to say followers, Instagram, promote brand or sponsored. Oh wow, okay, so influencer. Yeah. By the way, I don't think all influencers are the worst people in the world, but that's not who you were describing at first. That's right, And some influencers are good. Some actually I would say maybe most are bad. When when here's the fifth one, this's the fifth one. Uh. Sometimes you can be sending a message and it winds up sending a cuss word instead to the word you typed. What Sometimes you can be saying a computer oh, you mean like a autocorrect autocorrect. Okay, okay, yeah, there you go. You got that. So so we got three. Well, I wasn't about to say type o, but I said typed. Those are two different words. They are. Those are two with two totally different meanings. They're not even related phone, fixed, wrong or text. I wasn't say those words are pretty close cousins. Type, typed and typo or two different things. Yeah, they are different things, yes. For sure, they're different actions. I'm not sure if you are allowed to say a form of the word or not, though there. Is not a form. Typo was not a form of typed. Are you allowed to say procrastinate? If the words procussion a form a form of a form of No, no, no, you're talking about different meanings. Typed, types typing are all forms of type. But type o is an incorrect thing. It's different. Yeah, it's so different, very very very different. It's the most different ever, it's. The most differentest. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to make a ruling on that one. That's unanimous. That's accepted, Okay, otherwise we will three out of them. You blew it? Do you both blew two? And then if you're gonna ding me for typo, because I said. Typed No, no, no, I'm not gonna ding you. You've already been dinged. You've been dinged. Typo is a noun, typed is a verb. What about type type? Oh? That that's that's a verb too, right, it's two type yes, okay, all right? So anyways, man, that was great. It was really No one else is really great. Really, that's it. That's transition. I'll do. I'll do a sub I'll do a substantial tradition. Are you ready? Yes, Jeff, I feel like when you were doing that game, you were discipling me. Really yeah, I feel like I feel like you were big brothering me. The whole time you were. Leading those bringing you along, you were bringing me along us, bringing you to the answer. And you know what that reminded me? What the relationship between Paul and Timothy. Yeah, and even though i'm your elder. By significantly, you're significantly older than. Me when it comes to this game. I think our viewers at least can tell. Yeah, they say, they. Say, who's the guy with the white hair, who's the guy with the black hair? But they always actually nobody nobody says that, but they say, and your hair is not even white Beard. It's big time, big time white But anyway, I was going to say, uh, even though I'm your elder when it comes to this game, Jeff, you were my mentor mentor. Yeah. Yeah. So this is what's happening is Paul wrote a couple of letters to Timothy while he was in prison, and Timothy was his young protege, and he's kind of mentoring Timothy, and Timothy is about to step into primary elder leadership. He's sending him off to crete and different places to establish churches and to establish elders and leaders of churches, and so he's given them guidance even though he's a young man. And so in two Timothy, Chapter two, he says, Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you. In Christ Jesus, you've heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. Endure suffering along with me as a good soldier, Christ Jesus. Soldiers don't get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them, and athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules, and hard working farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Think about what I'm saying. The Lord will help you understand all these things. I always remember that Jesus Christ, the descended the King David, was raised from the dead. This is the good news I preach. Because I preach this good news, I'm suffering and have been chained like a criminal. But the Word of God cannot be chained. So I'm willing to endure anything if it'll bring salvation eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen. It's a trustworthy saying. If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. Remind everyone about these things and command them in God's presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless and they can ruin those who hear them. Well, there you go, there you go. He goes on and says, work hard, Oh, he keeps going. He does, he does so being a good soldier of Jesus Christ. That's the heading on chapter two for me. And he starts off by saying, Timothy my dear son, and I love that, isn't it so endearing? So again, you've already explained that he's a mentor to Timothy. And you know he's not necessarily related to Timothy, or he's not related to Timothy, but he's but your firs name as my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus. You've heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who also be able to pass them on to others. Now, a lot of people don't know this. In fact, I would venture to say maybe even I don't know, eighty percent, maybe possibly of everybody who listens to the Bible guys regularly, they always hear us talk about the Timothy initiative. Yeah, right, or Tti we say that, And a lot of time, not always, but a lot of time when you're not here and we have the platinum edition or just the average edition with Kyle, he said he was the average ed. Right, that's true, that's true. Worth his name was Chad, Right, You're welcome. You're welcome Asthmon. But anyway, so that's the average edition or the Platine edition. With weight, that's right. But oftentimes when we're experiencing that and you're gone, it's because you're on assignment with the Timothy Initiative. So now the Timothy Initiative bases much of their strategy on that verse. Yeah, the whole idea of the Timoth Initiative came from two Timothy. To two, which is the what we just read. Right. He said, you've heard me teach these things, so now you teach them to trustworthy people who will pass them on to others. So Paul's saying, Timothy, I taught you. So I Paul taught you, Timothy, and you taught faithful people who are passing it out to others. And Paul is looking not just at making a disciple. And this is where I think sometimes churches make mistakes. I think it's where we've made mistakes here to church, we're just trying to make more disciples, right, right, more Timothy's But Paul was looking past Timothy to Timothy's disciple, hoping and praying that his disciple would be a disciple maker for others also. So I Paul taught you Timothy, who taught faithful people, who taught others also. He was looking to the fourth generation. It's the only reason why the Gospel has made it all the way to you and me and everywhere around the world in two thousand years is because disciple making goes beyond just making a disciple. You have to be making disciple makers. And there's a note that's exponential. That's exponential growth. When Paul is not thinking about how to replace himself, Paul's looking for the fourth generation. That's exponential. Most churches, if they're growing at all, are growing by addition. Even here's church. So the church you and I pastor this last year we grew by. We grew by about eleven hundred people, give or take. As we finish up twenty twenty five, we'll see, but I think it's going to be pretty close to eleven hundred eleven hundred fifty people. That's amazing. God's blessed us. We baptized. We're going to have baptized eight hundred people. We have a big baptism coming up this weekend, so it'll be eight hundred and something. We have eighty people sign up right now. Yeah, so we will baptize eight hundred and something people this year. That is an amazing work of God. That's I think we're borderline revival kind of stuff happening at aer Tois Church. But that's not multiplication, that's addition, yeah, because we already had thousands, right, right, right, So we have thousands and then we add one thousand more, that's addition, right. But the way Paul was, if we did Paul's math, one, it leads to two, leads to four. Right, if everyone leads to four, that's. Right, then that would mean next year we would have ten thousand people. The year after that, we'd have twenty thousand people. The year after that we'd have forty thousand people. That would mean next year we would baptize sixteen hundred people, and the year after that we baptie thirty two hundred people. After that we baptize sixty four hundred people. That is exponential growth. And that's when you start leaning into that third and fourth generation believers, not just addition, but multiply. And that's the model and that's why the gospel has spread so far, so fast. It's almost unbelievable how fast the gospel spread in that first hundred years with no cars, no planes, no radio, no television, no electricity, no motors, no internet, no phones. Right, it's unbelievable how fast it spread in that first hundred years. And it's this way. It's because of this. It was exponential growth. As you were doing that list, my mind went to no phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury like Robinson Crusoe, as primitive as can be. So you've got the Gilligans Island going on in your head. Join us here each week, my friends, you're sure to get a smile with seven stranded castaways here on Gilligans Are. Yeah, that wasn't exactly what I was thinking. But no, that. You were going through all the. All the things that didn't exist. That's right, that's right. And the gospel spreads so fast. And this is what this is the reason why is because the metric, the matrix that Paul was using was a multiplication matrix. And most of us, most pastors were thinking addition. Always we're thinking a percentage edition. If we could just add ten percent, if we could just add fifteen percent, if we could just add five percent, right that that that's that's usually what we're doing. And we're happy with that because corporate America is happy with a two three percent, four percent return. And so we've kind of gotten this corporate mindset rather than this holy spirit and tend to cost kind of mindset of multiplication from the get go. Yeah, I know all that, but like, there are plenty of churches that really don't experience growth. There's a lot of churches that you know, sometimes go into the red. Only ten percent of all churches grow by ten percent or more in any given year. That these ninety percent of churches don't grow by double digits, Well, isn't that amazing? Yeah, well, it's amazing considering and I say this with the obviously we both do with a grand amount of humility. But last year's growth was thirty five percent, so. Was the year before. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's it's one of those things that that's why I'm saying, I think heritage is on the verge of if we're not rate in our revival revivals always precede awakenings. Revivals, are you know, God says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then while I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land. So what our desire as Christians is, we want God to heal our land. We want we want God to just sweep through our nation and the millions of people who are far from Him, we want them to meet Jesus. And there are these great awakenings that have happened in history, even in American history. There's been three great awakenings in American history, at least two, maybe three. There seems to be revival that sweep through the American culture about every fifty years. We're sitting right on the verge of one of those time slots right now. This is about it. So God's people come back, and what was dried up in their faith and what was starting to be kind of old news suddenly has this fresh, revived feeling. God brings all this new life into it. And it's because we come to the point where we begin collectively seeking God's face. We're coming back to him, We're confessing our sin we're trying to get right with God, and then what happens is He breaks people's hearts for the lost, and then there's an awakening that begins to happen, where the God's spirit begins to spread. And I think we're seeing awakening among our young people in our nation today. So we have to have a plan as church leaders, not for audition. When we're sitting on the verge of a revival and awakening is beginning among us, we have to have a multiplication strategy. And that is I believe genuinely that we are. One of the things we do with the Timothy Initiatives is we'd lay out a strategy, a matrix where we share the Gospel regularly. I'm sharing my story in God's story. I have an opportunity to lead you to Jesus. Finally, you know, you share the Gospel fifteen times, You're gonna lead somebody to Jesus. I'm just telling you, if you would learn how to share the Romans Road, the Three Circles, the Great Divide, the ABC's of Salvation, any model of sharing your faith. If John John three sixteen, if you would share the Gospel fifteen times, you will lead somebody to Jesus. That seems to be true in every nation in the world. It seems to be every. Culture is why do you say fifteen? Is that an actual step? Yes? O, yes, yeah. On average in the West it's ten. But in the whole world, you share the Gospel fifteen times and offer to lead them to Jesus. Offer, hey, would you confess your sins and avite Jesus, come your Savior. Get to that point fifteen times after you share the Gospel, you're gonna lead somebody Jesus. So I lead you to Jesus, let's say. And then from there I start kind of downloading with you the fundamentals of the faith, you know, the idea of walking in the spirit, the idea of learning how to share your faith. What is God's story? What's my story? You know, your testimony, because there's two bullets that take the devil out in the book Revelation. It's the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Right, those are the two things that take out the devil. So we need those two things, God's story and my story. And then beginning to learn about what it means to function in the church and to serve and to you know, the basic theological components. So I'm bringing you along on this one on one. It's not just a generic sit in church. But then it's also obedience based discipleship. Do these things, Paul said, I taught you, and then you did them, and you taught others and they're doing them and they're taught. These faithful men are teaching others to do these things. This is what he's saying. It's an obedience based discipleship, not a knowledge based discipleship. And then I'm modeling it for you. And Paul says, you saw me do it, now you're doing it, and you're teaching others to do it. They see you do it. So we're using the matrix I do you watch and then maybe it's sharing the gospel or something, and then I do you help? Now I'm recruiting you into it, and quickly, not years days of I do you help, and then it pivots you do I help Now. I've got to trust you, and that's hard. That's the hardest thing for leaders is to let their followers begin doing and we stand back and watch. It's incredibly difficult. I do or you do? I help you? And then finally I step back and not do it all you do. I watch, and by that point I'm able to spin you off. This is why Paul was able to be in prison and send Timothy off to go make new new elders in the church. He's a young man, but in a fairly short amount of time, Paul discipled him to be able to go and get to the third and fourth generation and have spiritual authority to be able to plant churches and establish elders. And we've lost that model. We've lost this idea, and we've to turned church into give money and listen to me talk right right, not making disciple makers. Instead, it's we've made listeners of our discipleship conversations. Yeah. So the four sides of the square that you were describing is very commonly known as the leadership square. So most people go from side one to side four, where they say, I do you watch? Okay, now you do I watch. But to actually teach somebody to bring them along to disciple them is side two and three, which is like, hey, I'll still take the lead, but you help. And now you take the lead, but I'm still here to help you. Right before you get to you're on your own, and so yeah, it's just a wonderful. Let me let me let me tell you how I've seen that practically and something really exciting that's happening here to church. So last winter, my wife and I hosted a small group in our home and it was all young adults, really sharp young adults, and I was teaching, and we were teaching through Tewod Timothy as a matter of fact, and I was I from the get go, I decided I wanted them to begin taking the lead. They came for me to lead, but I wanted them to begin leading. And so the first two weeks I explained how a discovery Bible study works and that what we're gonna do is we're gonna look back at what were the promises we made to God last week? And what are the things we're praying about. We're going to look up what's God's saying to us today. We're going to ask these basic questions. What is the Bible say about God? Was to say about people? What was to say? You know all these things? And then the end, we're going to look forward. What is God ask me to do this next week? Is result We're gonna make a commitment. So I did that two weeks in a row. There were two young guys that are pretty sharp guys, and so I said to them. I said to one of them, I said, hey, this week, when I get to the look back part, I'm going to bring it up, but I want you to take an initiative and you be the first one to speak on it. He's like, oh, okay, I said, because I want to get the whole group going, but I want you're kind of a leader. I see this in you. I see God doing this in you, and so you speak up first and just kind of remind us. He's okay. And then I went to the other guy and I say, hey, listen, this week, when I get to the looking up part, we start asking. I want you to ask, what is this passage teach us about God? What's this passage teach about people? I want you to be speaking up on that one, okay, cause you're kind of leaders, is what I see in you. He's like, okay, i'll do it so then and then i'll finish up with the last. So we did that two weeks. Then I said, hey, here's what I really want. You know, you're doing such a good job leading. Why don't you lead the look back part and I'll I'll be the first to speak up. And then I went to the other guy, why don't you lead the look up part? And I'll be the first one to speak up. Oh okay. They were a little nervous, but they were more confident because what they did two weeks before. So they do that. Then we come down to the seventh and eighth week and I couldn't be there. I was out of town, and so I went to them and say, hey, I need you guys to lead this for me, and they were ready. Well, then now they're both leading four or five groups. They have twenty twenty five guys in each of their groups. They were talking about how to share their faith. One of the guys goes, well, what we have to do is start practicing looking for opportunities to share the three circles. He said, that's the way I'm learning how to share the gospel, and we need to look for Well, then DoorDash guy shows up and the guys go share the three circles with him, and he was like it was nervous. He's like he was looking for every reason not to share it. But you know, they're watching. So he steps up, shares the gospel with this guy, leads his guy to Jesus. That's awesome. This guy has come to Heritage Church ten times. He's in a small group. He's on fire. I think we're gonna baptize him this weekend, super excited for Jesus. Next thing, you know, all those young men that were in this guy's group and now want to learn how to be a disciple because they saw him run the play and they saw it work, and now they're on fire. And so we've got like twenty five forty guys that are going to be in this next round of training on how to be a disciple maker because they saw him do it. Wow. Right, So in one year, yeah, one year, I taught two guys. Those two guys are leading almost sixty guys that are on fire to become disciple makers. That's how it works. You know. The best first multiplication, The best. Part is if we were running a Bible study on Segwi Timothy two, we barely got past the first couple of verses. Yeah, yeah, and yet we didn't even get to the problems are highlighted. Verse was if we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. So you know, listen, that's definitely our time. But the fact that Paul says, even when we are unfaithful, God remains faithful, all that really means is his faithfulness is not connected to our faithfulness, right, So yeah, you know, God doesn't wink at our sin. God doesn't want us to disobey. God obviously invites us and commands us to obey. But all that to say, no matter how unfaithful we may be or may not be, none of that is going to influence the fact that God is always faithful. Yeah, he will never turn his back on us even if we stumble. That's right. He's always for us, and he's going to keep supporting us as long as we're in this mission. All this is connected is connected to disciple making. That's right. And if you stumble with this a little bit, don't worry. I'm with you. And then and he says, for he cannot deny who he. Is, it's the essence of who he is. Yeah, great, he cannot deny who he is. He cannot be something he's not. Yeah, you know, which is just really great. So hey, so go share the Gospel. He's with you, he can't help but be with you. That's right. Yeah, that's great. Okay, well, hey, that's definitely our time, so thanks for tuning in. We'll see you tomorrow, hopefully on the Bible. Guys,