"A Study of the book of Acts" by Neal Pollard - Part 8

to our culture in our day, our challenges that we still face,

circumstances, situations that the Cumberland Trace congregation has

or potentially will encounter. And so this is very helpful

to us as good things happen for us in a congregation.

And inevitably, as I look out over the— this auditorium

this morning, folks in different stages of circumstances

of life. And so I think as we look particularly on the Second

Missionary Journey, we're going to see a lot of what hits us as a church

and as individuals. The Second Missionary Journey is the

longest by reason of how much time it took, how much

distance was covered, but we're not really going to be looking at the missionary

journeys as a geographical

download. We're going to be looking at some of the things that happened on there.

I want to just tell you up front, there will be some things we won't

hit that may be even familiar territory. We are going to spend 2

or 3 seconds on the Philippian experience that we have

said a lot about. And again, I refer you back to Chris Young's fantastic

class on Acts. He took 2 quarters to walk through the book of Acts and

really helped us a lot. So that would be good background or supplement to what

we are talking about today. The first challenge that we see in Acts 16,

and by the way, remember where we left off last week?

Paul and Barnabas split because of a disagreement over whether to take

John Mark. And Barnabas and John Mark go off to Cyprus.

Barnabas, as far as the book of Acts is concerned, disappears from the

scene. And John Mark is going to reappear in

the epistles that Paul writes and that Peter writes later

on. But as they go their way, Paul takes

Silas with him, and they're going to go on a missionary journey. And Paul's

going to pick up a couple of fellow workers that are going to

be very important to the events that take place in the second journey.

Now, as we look at, in terms of the challenges that they

faced, one of the challenges is related to that pivot point,

that break in the first and the second missionary journey, because that

pivot point centers around 2 young men. Who are they? I already mentioned one.

Who's one of the young men that's kind of at the center of this this

break between the first and second journey?

Okay, so Timothy's one of them. It's the one we didn't just mention. Who's the

other one? John Mark. Now,

they play an important role even though they're very secondary. Mark, as far as

we can tell, was only ever an assistant. Maybe he was an attendant.

He took notes. He maybe handled logistics.

Everything we can see, there's no indication that he

preached sermons or taught Bible classes. He was more in the background.

Maybe that served him well because what's he going to ultimately do later

at some point? Okay, Paul's going

to call for him, but in his own life and ministry, what significant

thing does Mark do later? Write the Gospel of Mark.

It's pretty big. It is a

very focused document in which he deals

with the identity of Jesus. It's at the heart of it. Who is this Jesus?

That's what the book of Mark is all about. Mark 8:28-38.

Mark 8:28–38

But then there's Timothy. Do you see the irony

that Paul is going to go find a young assistant to

help? Maybe in Paul's mind he's thinking, I can train him in

some ways that some deficiencies that John Mark I may perceive

in him, Although I think we can say that Paul's going to have to at

least say he was at least part wrong in his assessment of Mark. And you

see that when he begins to write about Mark being useful,

Mark being a coworker. Send him to me because I find

him one that would help in the work that we're doing. But there's also going

to be Timothy himself. And the first challenge— and it's a challenge we

face here— is how do we develop tomorrow's leaders?

How do we identify in this congregation those young people

that, uh, and, and we'll talk about what young means in just a moment,

who are so much a part of who this church will

be in 20 years. Maybe they're not in positions of leadership

right now, but as we continue to march toward the grave,

all of us, and to age out, there are those coming up behind

us. And what are we doing substantially to help them to be the leaders

that God expects us to perpetuate in

the body of Christ. Now, just a little bit of facts

as we get started this morning with regard to this church. I reached out to

some of our vision groups to get some solid numbers on those

that we would call the young people of this congregation.

There's some of you, and I hope you don't ever take that as a negative

thing. Who here would mind being

called a young person? Do you feel pretty good about that? You know, I don't

remember when it happened. I remember for years being taught, you know, Neil's one

of our young preachers. I don't hear that anymore. I don't— I still feel

the same as I did when they said that before. So there are a

lot of us who are going to be excluded from that group. But in this

congregation, it was surprising to me. I asked, you know, we just renamed

one of our vision groups from young adults to the 20s and 30s. And so

in the strict observation of that, anybody have any idea

how many we have that would be— now don't include the college students

or those in the college age range who are post-high school.

How many 20s and 30s do you think we have in this congregation?

Okay, wow, y'all are all on top of that. Okay, 57, 60.

That's a sizable number when you think about the fact we've been averaging

about 400 for our morning worship. So, somebody who's smarter

than me, isn't that about 20%? Pretty close to it?

I just did that in my head just then. Now, college students range

between 20 and 30, and I know that's somewhat seasonal. It drops some in

this time of the year, but when they come back here, as they start trickling

back in the next few weeks, That's,

that's an incredible addition to the almost

60 that are 20s and 30s. Now, how many do you think

are— I don't know how to say it— 0 to 18, or newborns

through 18 years old, high school seniors? Let's say just high school seniors is

how I actually reached out and asked the committee.

Somebody said 60. Okay, Joyce,

you're almost there. 97. Now, when you consider

that we have several expectant mothers, then that's probably a pretty good number. We're going

to count them, right? So where's Chris, you know, or Jack? Count those ladies

that are obviously pregnant, that you know they're pregnant. So now, when you— we

were on our honeymoon and I learned a lesson very quickly. We was going up

a gondola at Ober Gatlinburg and I asked the woman when she was

going to have her baby. I've never done that again. So now

you take that number, those numbers together, and we're talking

about almost 200 who are what

the Bible would call youth. When you think

about Timothy and what Paul's going to say to him in 1 Timothy 4:12,

1 Timothy 4:12

that let no one despise your youth, that's over

a decade after this, these events in Acts 16.

And so he's possibly a teenager here. And so we talk— we think

about the resource that God has given to us. And when I got all those

numbers initially, I got to tell you, I was excited to

think about that kind of a number, almost 200.

And then it got very sobering very quickly. You know, there's a, there's a parable

Jesus tells in Luke chapter 12, verse 48 about those— that

Luke 12:48

servant who knew his master's will and he didn't do it.

He's going to receive many stripes. The one who didn't know his master's will,

by comparison because he didn't know, he didn't have the knowledge

that is expected of one who's a follower of Jesus, the one who

knew his master's will and didn't do it, what kind of punishment did he receive?

Many stripes. Now, here's the upshot of that.

This— we use this statement a lot, but that's the context of

it. To whom much is given,

what? Much is required. And so

this is a passage about accountability, and it says to us, what are we going

to do to develop the raw material of

tomorrow's leaders, of our young people? And of course, we say it,

and we should, not just tomorrow's leaders. And that's part of

how we respond to that challenge is to recognize that

we have such an opportunity in front of us. So with that being the

case, let's look at Acts 16:1-5.

Acts 16:1–5

Turn your Bibles over there in Acts chapter 16, verse 1

Acts 16:1

through verse 5. And again, this is

at the very beginning of that journey as Barnabas

and John Mark have headed to Cyprus. Paul came

also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy,

the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was

a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of

the Jews who were in those places,

for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

And as they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for

observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who

were in Jerusalem. Do you remember back in Acts 15, they all met together?

All these Gentiles are being won to Christ,

and the question is, what does God expect of

them? And do you remember how they worked through that? They talked

about the great results that God had given them, but I want you to notice

how especially James It's a great pattern for

us. Takes them to the Scripture. What does the Bible say? What do the Scriptures

tell us that we ought to do? And so, once they leaned

on that foundation and they came to a consensus, they weren't making policy for the

church. They were trying to figure out how do we handle this practical situation.

Then they sent Paul and Silas out to tell

others what the congregation had decided.

Suggested was the way to handle this. Okay? So, that's the

context in which we see these things. And as you look at the passage we

just read in Acts 16:1-5, what does the Scripture there tell us about

Acts 16:1–5

Timothy? What are some of the facts?

Okay. Alright. So, what does that tell us?

His father is a Gentile or Greek. His mother is

a Jew. Might have

felt some prejudice, particularly by the Jews. Yeah?

Okay. Now, we're going to learn that for sure outside of the book

of Acts. That's going to really help us. But there's

some indication here that he's been taught the Scriptures.

All right. So he's of mixed heritage. Joel? All right.

He's got a good reputation. Folks who are in

that area, it's a 50-mile radius.

Are knowledgeable about this man, this young man.

He's well spoken of. He's got a good reputation. How do you do that?

Your deeds, your actions have got to weigh in on that. So look, we do

say he's raw material, and I'm going to show you that he's not finished yet.

He's got some work to do. But already we see that he's got

a background, a religious background. But something

else about that before we leave this idea that Kevin brought up that he was

A Gentile father, a Jewish mother. Yes, some prejudice

from the Jews. What else would that tell us? Would it tell us anything

else? Okay, we're going

to find out here. So that's actually something else that Luke tells us about him.

He's not circumcised. And that's going to matter,

and we'll talk about that in just a second. Anything else you see?

Here's my list. He's a disciple. What does that tell us?

He's a follower of Jesus. We don't have to complicate that.

And he is a true follower of Jesus.

There's no Apollo situation here. There's no circumstance

like the men in Ephesus who only knew the baptism of John

and were baptized again. He is a New Testament Christian

who is following Jesus. And some of what we see here

is going to reinforce that idea. He's well thought of.

And I think that's where Joey was leading us there in the area

that he had been doing the work. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're going

to be doing the kinds of things that make people think well of you.

He had a mixed heritage, so there was conflict in the home.

And is there any significance that it was his mother who was a Jew and

his father who was a Gentile?

Okay. Again, Miss Dolores, we're going to get there when we get outside

of Acts. Yeah, we know your knowledge is— that's right. That's going to be very

huge. But would it have been different if his dad

had been a Jew and his mom had been a Gentile?

Probably so. In a male-dominated society, that probably

would have read a little differently. But how many

circumstances do we know, maybe even that make up our congregation,

where there are folks who've been raised by a

godly mother whose father has been at least spiritually absent,

if not physically absent? And yet,

what great leaders can come out of those contexts.

Great leaders in the body of Christ come from a lot of different directions.

Look, wouldn't we all say that the ideal would be that we are

producing a lot of young people out of homes where

mom and dad are faithfully following Christ? Won't that give them— if

we don't believe that, then we wouldn't gear a lot of what we do here

to try to encourage and strengthen and build up our youth. And we

tell— what are we doing next month? We're having a parenting seminar. What are we

trying to do with that? We're trying to encourage mom and dad to be spiritually

united in raising their children in such a way that when they're old, they won't

depart from it. And so there's certainly advantages to that,

and some people in this room are the products of that.

But I'd say that there are a great many of us in this room who

maybe only had one spiritual role model in the home. And yet you

still can be a spiritual all-star in the kingdom

of God in a situation like that. He was willing to

be circumcised. Now, sometimes we say there's a conflict

here because Paul doesn't circumcise Titus in Galatians 2:3.

Galatians 2:3

What's the difference between Timothy and Titus and

why he did the one and not the other? Say it again.

Okay. And Kevin says where they were working at.

And specifically, what does Paul like to do on his missionary journeys

or in any of his mission efforts that we see in Scripture? When he goes

to a city, where does he go? Synagogues. Who's in the synagogues?

Jews. And there is something to be said about the fact that being

known and his heritage being known apparently widely

enough as he's well thought of and his character is known around the area,

If you have a mother who is a Jew, then there is a certain expectation

that from a ceremonial, circumstantial, cultural side,

you are going to adhere to that. And if you have Jewish blood in you,

then you need to remove any impediment

that would keep Paul from being affected. And so, he is

going to do that. Titus is going to be working on Crete. He is

going to be working among Gentile people, and there are Judaizers in that area

who are saying that you have to be circumcised in order to be a Christian.

And Paul says, we're not going to play that game. We're not going to do

that. It's not necessary. And he doesn't need to do that for the work that

he's doing. And so we're not going to. This is an accommodation. This is to

help the gospel to go further. Now, I wanted

to clarify that, but what I want you to do is look at Timothy,

this young disciple, well thought of, mixed heritage young

man who says— and just to think medically

for a moment, here's at least a teenager, Who's saying, I will undergo

that. Look in the Old Testament. You know, the Bible gives us some insight into

what happens when mature people are circumcised. It's a surgery.

It's going to lay you up. It's going to be painful, much more

painful than— you know, babies can't recall that.

And maybe it's humiliating to some degree, but he's willing

to do it. That's the raw material. Now, I also want us to look at—

I don't know why that happened. I'm sorry. What does the rest of the New

Testament tell us about about Timothy?

We've had some of it. Let's review. He had godly

women who taught him the Scriptures. He knew the Scriptures from childhood. What else?

What else do we know about Timothy?

Okay. Alright, so he's a son in the faith.

He's entrusted with carrying on Paul's work. He's going to— we're going to see

the evangelism take place on this second missionary journey.

All right. That— yep. Very, very much so.

He's considered a youth. 1 Timothy 4:12. Again,

1 Timothy 4:12

that's written in the '60s. This is happening in 49, 50,

maybe 51 from the beginning to the end of that. And so

he's a lot younger there than some say the Jewish standard would

be up to 40. And then that's when you leave that Jewish timeframe.

So he could have been a little older than a teenager. But still very young.

What else?

Okay, very good. Maybe this is going to

tell us why. He's number 3 on the trip, by the way. Paul, Silas,

now there's going to be Timothy. Who's the 4th guy that

we're going to pick up? Luke. And how do we know that? Because we're going

to switch to we from they. That's going to always be your indicator in the

book of Acts that Luke's on the journey. He's the writer of the book of

Acts, and when he says we, we're along. Is it possible that

the connection with Luke at least had one dimension to it, that he was a

doctor who could meet the physical needs that Paul

and Timothy had? 1 Timothy 5:23 indicates

1 Timothy 5:23

that he had some stomach issues were the particular problems. All right,

what else? So, he's maybe infirm, got some

health problems. He is

appointed by Paul. He's his son in the faith. Maybe he's converted on the first

missionary journey when Paul first comes through Lystra, Derbe, Iconium.

Him. And he's taught the scriptures by his mom and his grandmother.

What else? Anything else about him?

He was timid. And that's a very— that's a very huge

factor here. When you think about— I want you to draw the comparison.

We don't know exactly what John Mark's problem was.

We can theorize. And some folks have

said some things that maybe we can ground into the book of Acts, and that

is that He was a mama's boy. She was a very prominent

member of the church at Jerusalem. Acts chapter 12, the church is meeting in

Acts 12 · chapter mention

her home when Peter's in prison and they're praying there. She's wealthy enough

that the church can meet in her home. He's a Jerusalem boy,

and maybe he's just so far from home, never been that far, and he goes

back. Maybe it's the rigors of the journey, and it's

so hard. Just making that crossing that they make

when they cross the Mediterranean and where they land at Antioch of Pisidia,

There's a— I think it's the Taurus Mountains, whatever that mountain range is, it's very

high. It's very difficult. And if you have physical infirmities, maybe that's what takes

place. Something causes him to leave the work.

Paul assesses that as being— he's fickle,

he's not trustworthy. But Timothy,

Timothy's got some struggles too. I mean, and these are going to extend at

least a little while because when Paul writes near the end of his

life, so about 64 AD, maybe 14, 15 years after this,

you're going to have Paul admonishing him.

1 Corinthians 16:10 kind of alludes to his being timid,

1 Corinthians 16:10

but Paul says, God's not given us a spirit of timidity. You take hold

of that gift that God has given to you. All right, so we learn a

lot about him. I had it at the top of my list, Tim. He's young,

1 Timothy 4:12. He's sickly, as Brittany said. He possibly

1 Timothy 4:12

has no male spiritual role models before Paul

comes along. And yet, that being the case, we have somebody

that Paul saw as someone that he could make use of.

Now, here's a question for you. Today,

what do you think are our biggest challenges in developing spiritual

leaders among our young people? What are the

biggest challenges we face?

Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna wed those together. Technology was

specifically mentioned, but the influences of the outside

world, and if we'll broaden that out, man, think about all the

different distractions that all of us are facing.

Now depending on where you are on that age continuum, you jumped

into the technology sphere. By the way, it's impacting a lot of us more than

we would think or know or admit. It's distracting us.

It's absorbing us. It's pulling us into its

sphere of influence. And dare I say,

even addicting us to some degree. But if you're a digital native,

or they even say that's not even the right term. I mean, but it's so

endemic. It's all you've ever known. There's a lot

of ways for it to catch you. But beyond that, there's the distractions

that every generation deals with. Okay, I think that's fair. What else?

Okay, so one of the challenges is you're saying fault

rests on our shoulders that we're not entrusting them as we could.

Potentially, right. Yes, sir.

Okay, so I don't know if I didn't say it when I started, Cumberland Trace

is somewhat exceptional. It's not as much the rule.

We have just an embarrassment of riches of young people.

Here, but it's not that way in some places. And so finding candidates

to mentor and to help develop can be hard. And you think about churches

around in this region that are

facing that challenge. Yes,

ma'am.

Yeah.

So that's— so you think about how technology is a unique challenge we face in

our times. So is kind of our cultural approach to group

dynamics. And there are times when it's healthy and good,

and I think we believe in that, where we— you'll notice we

don't have the 2s and 3s in here today,

or the 1st and 2nd graders. We believe that there's,

you know, when Paul would say something like, when I was a child, I spoke

as a child, I thought as a child, and understood as a child, there are

circumstances where it's good for them to be together and learn together.

But if we're not careful, we can overreact to that and break away from what's

been the cultural norm in civilization for most of civilization, and that is an intergenerational

approach where we spend time together. And I think what Miss Laura

said is important in this. Some of that is we who are older

need to be humble, be open, and to

take the first step in reaching out to our young people.

Why don't we do that? Why don't we want to take the first step?

Okay, we fail to take the time. We really don't maybe realize the,

the priority, the importance it is for us to take a moment because

we're looking for maybe that non-Christian visitor. We're looking for that new person

who's in the assembly. We're looking for folks that we needed to tell something to.

And, and it's real easy for us to be looking here when

it would be great for us to take a moment to look here or You

know, even metaphorically, if they're a teenager and they're taller than us, but taking

time to look at them and value them and see them.

I think maybe there's something else. Maybe it's just me. Go ahead, Ian.

Okay. Sure.

Absolutely.

So if we can say it another way, I think you're exactly right.

What are we prioritizing as we look down to look

across to that generation that's being developed?

Maybe we take the time to coach a ball team, which is great.

I did that when our boys were coming up. It's wonderful because it's

a great experience to have with you, with your children.

And it tells them that you're interested in that part of their lives.

Maybe many in this room have done that. Maybe we've taken on young apprentices

or in our professional life to try to give them a hand up, right,

or to give them some skill and experience that will help them as they try

to think about their career. Maybe there are even some in this room who have

spent some time tutoring, at least your own children, where you spent

some time agonizing over open books trying to figure that stuff out.

But how much time are we spending in trying to mentor and develop them spiritually?

Taking somebody who's in that age range and

saying, hey, come with me on a visit. Or would you be my— would you

sit in the classroom with me as I teach, be my assistant there?

Would you be my silent partner in

a Bible study? You know, something like that that tells them, I see something

in you. And I recognize that we need

you. And so come alongside and

we've got to put as much in. We got to put more emphasis if we

believe Matthew 6:33 on those kinds of relationships even

Matthew 6:33

than we do the others. Yep. Go ahead. I heard.

Yep. Go ahead, Chuck.

Don't die until you plant that faith and that

this generation, the generation that's emerging now, that's great. Yes,

ma'am. Absolutely. Um,

and that's where I was going to head with that. And, and I want to

admit something here. I know that we even have some in here.

This goes back to when I was— my first ministry job,

um, I was 19. I was a

youth minister with the kids who were a year younger than me. That's, by the

way, that's not a good idea. It's really not. You know, who's the, who's the

mature voice in the room? And if you knew me at 19, you know it

was not me. Um, but, um, from,

from that time to now, there are times I don't wrestle with it like I

used to, but there are times where I, I'm a little intimidated.

Y'all hear that? Teenagers in the room? I don't know. I probably

shouldn't say that out loud, but, but why? Does anybody else ever have that?

Why, why are you intimidated? I can

tell you why I'm intimidated. I want to hear why you're intimidated. Maybe it's therapy

here.

What? Okay.

There's, there's, what do we call that? That's the, um,

the generation gap, right? So we feel like, um,

their world is so different from ours that, that we'd have a hard time relating

to one another. They'd have a hard time relating to me. You know, maybe you're

searching for when, when I was coming up,

you were dating. You had a girlfriend and boyfriend.

You know, I hesitate to say, is that even the lingo? Is that the terminology

that you— so if you— and sometimes there's a perception that

you're not relevant, you're not

cool, whatever.

And I guess if we were looking for a theological word to

address that, it would be hogwash. It's not that way. It's not

so. We have got— we've got to move past that and anticipate.

And there could be a lot of different things that you're— what you're perceiving is

not reality. If you feel insecure, is it possible ever

that young people feel insecure? That they don't feel sure of

themselves or they're facing a peer pressure that

they're trying to navigate through when you're trying to interact with them? Maybe if it's

in a Bible classroom setting. And so we've got to work through some of that.

There's more that we could say, but I think this goes back to

what was said at the beginning about the distractions from the outside. There's the bad

influence of the world that makes our job of developing tomorrow's

leaders harder. There's an attrition rate in every generation.

Paul says there in 2 Timothy 2 to Timothy, flee also

youthful lusts. Well, what does that imply to us? Some don't.

And we can think back, no matter what generation you're in, you can think of

peers who did not overcome that challenge and they fell away.

The bad influence of the home. Really,

at the end of the day, look, the church is in a support position.

We need to be active. We need to not abdicate that

role whatsoever, but at the end of the day, the instruction of

the Bible is addressed primarily to the home, to the father and the mother

and the instruction that takes place there, and we can't hope that

the church is going to offset A life that's lived

where Christ is not first in the home. And so the good

news is each of us in our home units can, can be contributing

to tomorrow's spiritual leaders. Misplaced priorities,

we mentioned that. Matthew 6:33, that's what Ian was talking

Matthew 6:33

about. Lack of commitment by potential mentors where we go,

I'm not enough, I can't break through. I want you to remember

what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:5, if you hesitate to encourage Young people,

2 Corinthians 3:5

our adequacy is not of ourselves.

It is of God. Why not take this challenge up?

Commit to yourself that you're going to encourage a young person

before you leave here today. And before you say anything,

remind yourself of Paul's words here. Our adequacy is not of ourselves.

It's of God. And understanding that,

Let God work through that situation. You may not be able to perceive anything

in that moment. You may not get a very— what you would

perceive to be a very warm response or what you were looking for,

but you have no idea. And in most cases, you're planting a seed

deep down in their heart. You are making a positive difference.

You know, I think a lot of us could say what Lee says is that

when you start collecting your— looking back on your collected memories when you grow up,

I want you to think about how many of those formidable moments

were not given to you by your peers,

although there are some. But I think of the same thing. I can

think of a lot of folks who invested in me who were a lot older

than me, and man, it made such a difference. Yes, sir.

Well, it's a reminder that

this is one of the ways in which we can make use of Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

6, that we're in a battle, we're in a fight. And man,

there is no more precious resource than our young people. And so we can't

afford to let that go by the wayside. Lack of interest

in youth being mentored. And that's

real or perceived? It's probably more perceived than real. And that is

maybe tags on to what Bill just said. We don't think that they're

interested. We don't think that they would, would like that.

So I don't know, it may be that you go up to somebody and you

try to— and, and, and you need to have a relationship first. Don't just go

cold turkey out there and find somebody and say, hey, you're my, you're my Timothy.

I don't think it works that way. Spend some time,

get to know them, find out what's going on in their lives.

And I say this, guys, I think this is This is a challenge that,

that a lot of us who are not in that 200 people that I just

mentioned, that we, for these reasons, we don't,

we don't try to work against. And to the degree that

we do, we are impressing tomorrow's leaders.

Yes, sir.

And I would say that we can take that outside the assembly and we could

take that to every facet of ministry life. And so maybe you're a woman here

saying, well, um, you know, That's, that's a worship example, which is very important.

It's very huge. But are there other areas where,

ladies, that you could be doing the same thing where you give somebody an

opportunity, um, to, to grow in those positions, whether it's in a

Bible classroom or, uh, in serving, um,

uh, or in organizing some event like some of the several

ones that we just had? Yes, ma'am.

For sure.

For

sure.

Great, great point, Miss Dan. And by the way, you never know

how you're, you're being perceived. I hope this

isn't being projected as, man, we really are blowing

it here, because we're not. There are so many ways in which— and I was

going to mention that here in just a moment. But let me just tag on

to that and say they did, and Mike's comment too. How did Paul and

Silas do it? Same way that we need to. And I'd love— and by the

way, I hope y'all aren't, because I just gave up about 2 minutes in.

And I'm thinking, I'm teaching next week, so I got 2 weeks in a row.

I was— I'm prepared through the end of the second missionary journey. We're still—

we just got out of the gate. We're still in Lystra. We hadn't even gone

yet. But that's all right. We'll get there. Next week.

But what they did is what we can do. And I think this is important.

They put them in a position to serve. That's what I

just heard. I gave you some examples where Paul gives

Timothy a task that surely stretched him

outside of his comfort zone. And those of us

who have worked in some position of spiritual

leadership of some sort, have— could go back and say somebody threw us.

I heard Kevin said somebody we went and visited this week

said they— the person that taught them how to swim threw them in the deep

end of water and said, swim or drown.

And maybe not just swim or drown, but, you know,

maybe have a life jacket somewhere nearby, but throw them out there where it's a

little bit challenging for them. And I think that's huge. Yep.

There he is.

The same, the same thing being said by somebody besides your parents can be,

can be huge. That's why You've probably experienced this as a

parent. Somebody goes, oh, you just have such a wonderful child. And you go,

5'5? You sure?

But they will listen. That's for sure.

They set the example. They weren't passive. They weren't do as

I say, not as I do. And so you can look in Barnabas. What was

Barnabas known for? Encouragement. He's setting

the example. He's showing what that's like. And could Paul— I mean,

could Timothy say, I don't think I should pursue courage

because my mentor, he's not that courageous? Well, we know different

from that, even though that's one of our challenges we'll see next week. They challenged

them to grow. They admonished. They didn't just encourage.

And maybe that goes to what Chuck was saying. They were willing to say,

look, you need to step up and do better. We don't have that conversation between

Barnabas and John Mark. They're related to one another. Maybe that's a conversation they

could have, but it's obvious that whatever Barnabas did, it,

it helped John Mark to stay strong. They treated

them as coworkers, not children. And that's how Paul will

refer to him in Romans 16:21. And in 2 Timothy 4:11, that's where

Romans 16:21 2 Timothy 4:11

Paul says, send me John Mark because he's useful for ministry.

And they balanced encouragement and admonition.

And so when we Look at what they did. Every one

of those objectives are something that we could do today. And more

than that, I would say that it needs to become a priority that we have,

that we need to encourage one another to see what we're doing to help those

who are coming along. Satan will throw up all the barriers,

all the reasons why we shouldn't, couldn't, it's not me, should be somebody else,

whatever that is. But so start developing those

relationships. And then start utilizing those relationships as

we should with every relationship, and that's to bring people closer to Christ. Any thoughts

or comments? I've got miles to go before

I sleep, but there's no way I can hit anything now,

so the irony is we're going to end this class a little short even though

we've got so much more to do. Thanks very much for your comments and your

attention. I think we dealt with one of the greatest challenges we face, and we'll

look at some more next week.