Multiply Through Your Family's Witness | August 23, 2026

Ishmael LaBiosa: Well, happy Sunday. Today we start a new message series simply entitled Multiply, a study through Second Timothy. From time to time people ask me, How do you come up with the message series? And oftentimes message series are hoisted upon me. I don't get ⁓ say in the matter, it feels. that ⁓ sometimes in my office, oftentimes on Saturday morning when I do my exercise, which means walk to the gym with a thinking about running every now and then, I do lightly jog from time to time. But it's in those places where sometimes God says, This is what I am doing, Rusty, will you pay attention? And there have been a series of events or a series of conversations that have really hoisted this message series on me. The first one, which this is a good place to start, was my wife shared with me ⁓ over the summer that in the women's ministry they were thinking about doing mentorship. And I did not say my first thought. Which is a sermon in itself. Yes. Whoever laughed, you got the point. Good. ⁓ because I had known in years past, so now I tell you, sorry, Melissa, I say now what I wasn't going to say, but now it's okay to say it. I I thought to myself, Well that's good to try, probably won't work. That's what I said in my faithless soul. Okay. And I'm always like it's always nice for me to be proven wrong. And tons of women have signed up now to be mentors. There's a whole list. And if you're looking to be mentored or looking to mentor, you can be a part of it, ladies. So that was kind of God saying, Rusty, see what I'm doing and I say, God, I see. Thank you for that. He says, Well, I'd like you to see something else. And I said, ⁓ okay, what else would you like to see? And Pastor Ishmael, we work pretty hard here to make things move forward. And I would like to say this is because of our great strategy, but I know it's not, because I have here the proof, which you'll hopefully get next week, of our small group lists. Now I'm usually happy if I can have twelve of these. ⁓ and for years we've wanted more men to pick up the mantle and to be available for other men. We wanted cup places for couples to go and singles to go and everybody to go. And oftentimes we do have small groups, but there are gaps. And we go with what we have, but we realize there are gaps, and this year. More than any other year, not because of the strategy that we have. We have more small group offerings than we ever have. And God says, Will you see that, Rusty? And I said, God, I see that, thank you. And then I keep a pretty good track of things here. you know, attendance and giving and all the rest. I try to just keep my eye on the pulse, and I can't help but notice that even over the summer, your attendance in Sunday school has drifted up, and God says, Would you see that, Rusty? And I said, God, I see that. He says, You see what I'm doing? And I said, Yes, I see what you're doing. And really what pushed me over the edge was a few weeks back, by the way, I I know some of you are praying for me, I appreciate that. We're doing too many funerals here at Liberty Baptist. And funerals for seven year olds, nineteen year olds, it's not good. And so I appreciate those who pray for me and pray for these families who are profoundly grieving. But a few weeks back I did another funeral to a man I thought a great deal of, Fred Cresswich. And Fred ⁓ We ⁓ we met and wrote his obituary. And then after we had written the obituary of Margaret, his wife, and posted it on social media, the family was somehow able to unlock Fred's phone. Which to me was hilarious that Fred used technology in any way. Long ago, Fred was on the leadership team here at Liberty Baptist, long ago now. Well, not that long ago, I mean, but long ago enough. And I remember coming to an elder meeting and I said, This has been this has been a minute ago, I said, we are going to start promoting our church activities on Facebook. And I'll never forget that it took me a while when I said Facebook, evidently all Fred heard was face, and he legitimately couldn't understand why I was talking about a lotion. I mean you can't imagine, yes. This was not this was not high tech. And so they finally got Fred's phone open. Well he had written his own obituary in the phone. And one of the things that he wanted kind of the world to know at his death was here's the arrangements, respect my family's privacy. If you want to give a donation, here you can give a donation. But he says, and I've never seen this in an obituary. He says, rather than give I mean you can give a donation you want to, he says, why not think about mentoring a child? Never seen that in an obituary. And I couldn't help but notice that Second Timothy, when the Apostle Paul is at the end of his life, Second Timothy is the last Paul, is the last r letter Paul. ever writes. The letters of Paul are actually organized in the New Testament from longest to shortest. That's how they're organized. Not a sophisticated organization. So they're not organized in chronological order. You don't often know what happens when. But 2 Timothy is Paul's last will and testament. It's his last four chapters he is writing. He sees his death coming. He says in ⁓ 2 Timothy 4, he says, I am about to be poured out. Like a drink offering. It's a euphemism for his own martyrdom. Church tradition tells us that Paul would be beheaded by Nero in Rome. And so he sees all this coming. And so what does the Apostle Paul want to do with the last moments of life that he has? He wants to make sure that his mentor, Timothy, has gotten the final instruction that he needs so that he can continue on the work when Paul is gone. I I'll just say we can be busy doing a lot of things, and I'm busy doing a lot of things, and you're busy doing a lot of things, but this message series shot one across the bowel for me that while all the things we're doing are important as far as they go, what will be left when we are gone will be those whom we have poured into. And the mission will continue. Because we have been invested in and we invest so that our faithful life hopefully will be faithful will be given and poured into other people's lives so that they can be faithful and it can carry on. This is not a minor theme in the Bible, by the way. If you read the Bible from cover to cover, what you notice is Moses has a Joshua. That Elijah has an Elisha, that Jesus has twelve and invests primarily in three, that Paul has a friend, Luke, it's good to have a friend too, but he has a Timothy and a Titus who he pours into. This idea of intensive one on one multiplication is not a minor theme, but a major theme and kind of woe is me and woe is you. If we overlook it in our busyness, Christian mentorship is the intentional relational process of helping another believer grow in Christ's likeness, maturity, and ministry effectiveness. It involves life on life investment, modeling, teaching, encouraging, correcting, so that the mentee becomes a faithful follower who can in turn disciple others. If I told you you had three and a half years to change the world, what would you do? I'd become a social media influencer. I would run a campaign, right? I mean, you would come up with some grand idea. Jesus had three and a half years to change the world. He picked 12 guys. He says, I'm going to live with you guys. I'm going to walk with you guys. I'm going to teach you guys. When I'm gone, you're up. And if that's the example of Jesus, and it's the example of the Bible, that should not be absent. And honestly, before I came up with this idea, God was already working it here through mentorship, through small group, through Sunday school, and even an obituary page that from the grave Fred said, You ought to do this, or you got time to do it. And so I just want to Pour these verses out to you, give you a little bit of instruction today, but more than I want to inform your mind, I want to kind of move your heart and your hand so that you actually do this which the Scripture commands. Second Timothy chapter one, verses one through five. Three big ideas today that outline these five verses. The first big idea to multiply, we should understand the need for mentorship. Verse 1 says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by God's will for the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my dearly loved child. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. The opening of Paul's letters are often deceptively simple. I used to not pay much mind to the greetings because I thought they were kind of unnecessary salutations. Let's get to the meat. What I've come to find out, and plenty of other scholars have pointed out, is that which Paul says in greater detail later on. He's already tipping his hand in his greeting. He's always so much on his mind that it's already bleeding out the end of his pen. I think a few points here that talk about how Paul has established himself to be ready to be a mentor. He says, which is such a typical introduction for Paul, but he always adds a few extra things. He says Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and this is the interesting part, he says, by God's will. He does that in a few places. You know, one of the if you're gonna be a good mentor, you gotta be steady. You got to be somebody people can count on. I think about one of my mentors, my dad, If he was nothing, if he was nothing, he was nothing but consistent. He was the same every time you knew what you got. And I as a as a son, that was really nice. ⁓ that he was so consistent. My grandmother, ⁓ if she thought it she said it. And so when she said it it was the truth. She she ⁓ and so she's getting older and ⁓ I remember She said, Jerry, that's my dad's name. When you walked across the yard, whatever, forty-five years ago to marry my mom, she says, you're the same Jerry that was here today. And I thought, well, that's the truth. You know, if Nana in her negativity, I can say that, you know, ⁓ because if there was a flaw, she'd have she'd have plucked at it a little bit there and she she put it to it. You say, Well, why do you say all of this? You gotta be solid if you're gonna be a mentor. And this is how Paul is solid. Paul says, I've been given a position. It was a burdensome position. He's an apostle. ⁓ he's called apart. He's got a Paul's not a pastor, he's an apostle. It's a one generational group that once they're dead, they're dead. And the only problem with being an apostle is kind of the credential of being an apostle, is you get to suffer big. It wasn't something he really wanted, but it was something that Paul had. And Paul says he was an apostle by God's will. You know, and here's y sometimes people they vacillate around and are not very good mentors because they haven't really nailed it down that God has called me to this particular place, to this particular ministry, to this particular position. And it is God's will for me, and no matter the difficulty, no matter the obstacle, no matter the struggle, I'm going to be here and do this. Some people just haven't nailed it down. They're up and they're down and they're all around, and nobody can follow you because you don't quite know where you are and where you're going. Paul says, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will. I'll fulfill this until I die, and because of this, I will likely die untimely. And then Paul also keeps motivation. Paul's an older man now, at least older for first century standards, and he sees his life ending, his earthly life. But then he says, for the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, Paul says, even though my earthly life is ending, life as I know it is really only beginning. He says, Because I have the promise of life that is in Christ, that the grave may be calling. But life beyond the grave is calling even more. Getting some of these things hammered down. This is who I am in life. This is what God has called me to do. And I will serve him till my last breath, because at my last breath I will wake up to newness of life and fullness of life in eternity. That level of steadiness is going to be needed if you're going to mentor. And then he addresses His mentee. He says to Timothy, I I used to overlook phrases in the Bible that now I realize in hindsight I shouldn't have overlooked, because there's a very important phrase. Paul says to Timothy, my dearly loved child. Some translations say son. My dearly loved son or dearly loved child. I I think I was challenged by a friend of mine. He said ⁓ how did God the Father think about God the Son? Although, well, that's an odd question. And then he gave me the answer. It was so obvious. You know how the Father, God the Father, thought about the Son? The Father says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased. And then I can't help but notice that Paul says to Timothy, This is my beloved. Dearly loved son. Our good English translation would be, This is my beloved son. There are some things in life that have surprised me, it's gotten a little bit older. I'm running out of a window here, so I'm gonna take full advantage of it while I've got it. I'm not going to be able in the near term to use illustrations of my children, so I better take it while I got it before they tell me, Dad, stop it. Okay. Last night, ⁓ Thomas is in the back seat. And Thomas can be wild. He's six. And so he was wild in the back seat and Melissa said, Thomas, that's enough. Thomas quieted down, the behavior stopped, and then this little voice from the back says, Mom, do you still love me? Melissa right on cue said, Thomas, I certainly love you and nothing you do will stop me from loving you. And he said, okay, I was just a little worried that what I was doing might have caused some problems. You know, that's so innocent. You know what I've come to find out? That if you don't deeply internalize that you're a beloved son beloved daughter. It reverberates. I cannot tell you the amount of thirty year old men, forty year old men, fifty year old men, sixty year old men, seventy year old men and ladies, eighty year old men, ninety year old men and ladies. who didn't feel like they were beloved sons and daughters and they carried it with them. It's always interesting. I for a season was a pretty active counselor. I'm still, but not as active. And always remember asking, why did this person get better? Especially to my counseling supervisor. And he says, Rusty, the healing just happens in the relationship. I said, That's the biggest non answer I've ever heard, you know. But what I've come to find out, the healing actually happened in the relationship. Somewhere along the way, the one who was being poured into actually began to internalize. This person has heard everything about me and loves me just as I am. And that there's no class for this. This just happens. And when Paul looks at Timothy. Timothy likely believes that Paul sees him as he is and loves him like Jesus loved him. By the way, Paul learned from Jesus how to be loved unconditionally. Because Paul had a rough past. Jesus saw all of it and loved him, called him into the ministry. Paul says, I'm a chief of sinners. But loved by God. Now he's passed that on. to Timothy. I just want to commend this to you. This type of relationship. And and I have to preach to the choir here, me. That I can get busy doing so many other things. Well we got the building project needs to be done. ⁓ we got the program. ⁓ you know the fall festival's coming up pretty soon. Christmas is right around the corner. ⁓ there's 17 hospital visits. We ought to cover those. There's this, there's this, there's this. I can be doing this. I'm preaching to me here. You can get so distracted and forget There is one or two or three that are right around you that are watching really, really, really closely, and if you miss it with them, you've really missed it. And this message here is just kind of a wake up call to look around and see who am I a Paul to and who do I need to be a Timothy to? Here's my simple appeal be a mentor and be mentored. You've got to decide, do I just do one of those now? Do I do both of those now? Or do I just do some combination? You need to figure that out before this series is over. I wanted to commend to you the second big idea, which also is deep into the relationship of mentoring. The second big idea to multiply, we should emulate the lives of faithful people. Paul says, I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my Forefathers did when I constantly remember you in my prayers day and night. Two quick points on that one well, it sounds to be a simple verse, but there's two big ideas here that really throw, I think, two pretty significant punches of application. Number one, the person that you're mentoring should be the object of your praying. Paul says, I thank God when I constantly remember you. Timothy and not just every now and then when it strikes me, I remember I constantly remember you in my prayers day and night. I ask you, who have you prayed for this week outside of yourself? Who constantly fills your prayer list? You know, if I don't pray for my own children, what type of dad am I? If I don't pray for my own family, what type of person am I? If I don't pray for people in this church family? And and Paul says, I thank God, and he says, I remember you. Do the people around you feel like they're dearly loved? And do the people around you know You cover them in prayer. Timothy knew that. You know why? Because Paul told him, I'm praying for you. I'm praying, I don't pray for you every now and then. I'm praying for you completely. Now, Paul doesn't see his life as disconnected from the lives of the faithful. Sometimes in life we can become isolated. Sometimes in life we can say, look, everybody's crazy. I might as well be crazy too. ⁓ but Paul doesn't get distracted like that. He says, he says, I thank God. He's praying for Timothy, but he says, I serve God with a clear conscience, as my forefathers or my ancestors did. Now, one of the things I do here almost every winter. So if you come here in January, I'll give you a preview of what I typically do. Now, God could change the course, so that's another issue, but I feel compelled when I when I have a long stretch of time that usually from January to March I preach a big biography. Last last winter I preached to the life of Moses prior to that. I preached the life of David and Solomon. ⁓ I've preached the life of Elijah and Elisha. I've I I I try to give these big narratives. Why? Because you when you read the Bible you get to see lives, the the lives of the faithful. You get to see them in real life situations, you get to see them struggling. I I think one of the things that's encouraging to me as I read the Bible is that people are just people. What separates out the faithful from the faithless? They just trust God even in the midst of their difficulties, even in the midst of their struggles, even in the midst of their faithlessness, they say, God, I I I as the cry in the gospel of Mark, I believe help my unbelief. And in addition to just reading the Bible, which is first order, here's something I commend to you before this series is over, especially if you are a mentor. If you have never carved out time in your life to read one Christian biography, you ought to do it. Just ⁓ read outside of an area that you may Not normally read in. And you say, Rusty, I don't like to read. Great. You can get in your car and it can read to you. Or you can actually ask AI. We got it. Might as well use it. You could say, I have 30 minutes. Could you summarize the life of whoever and turn it into a podcast and speak it back to me as I drive to the hospital? I may or may not have tried that. Okay? So why not do all of these things? Why not why not expose your mind to faithful lives? They give you a few. Some of the biographies I've read that have helped me. And ⁓ I'll try to remember to put this on on Facebook. So if you want to, because people say, I can't keep up. Well, don't worry about it. Just listen. God might say that one's for you. ⁓ I put them in no particular order. ⁓ the the the biography of Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, he was a very interesting man, not a perfect man, none of ⁓ are, but that was a very interesting to read his life. Jonathan Edwards, a very famous preacher in America. The autobiography of George Mueller, who ran an orphanage and God like daily provided for him. There's a very moving book through the gates of splendor. Elizabeth Elliott gives the account of the death of her husband as he attempted to minister in Ecuador who was martyred. The Hiding Place, Gory Tin Boom, a moving story of faith and courage and her forgiveness after she was under Nazi persecution. Hudson Taylor's Secret, Spiritual Secret, talks about the spiritual biography of a ⁓ pioneer missionary, another great book on the Golden Shore, gives the story of Edniram Judson, the biography of Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher of Europe. C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy, where Lewis gives his own account from a journey from atheism to the Christian faith. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a compelling modern biography of the cost of discipleship, the biography of John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, who talks about running a slave trade and then becoming a Christian and writing the song Amazing Grace. William Carey's biography. Where Carrie left a cobbler's bench in England to take take the gospel of India. And another one they made the list twice. Elizabeth Elliott's recorded about the difficulty of losing her husband, and that's difficult. But she also wrote several other books talking about how she made it after that. You know, I if if you say, Well, I've I've never read any Christian biography, you're missing something. Paul says that I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience. As my forefathers did. He had seen their lives and knew how to model his life after it. Now here's my kind of the lower the boom for my final application today. Here's the third point. You say, Rusty, where should all this mentoring start? You ready? Your house. That's where it should start. It should start in your home. Because this third big idea says to multiply, we should engender a godly heritage in our families. Verse four, Paul says, Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy, recalling, clearly recalling, your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, and then in your mother Eunice. And that I am convinced is in you also. I want you to know also deeply the deep I want to talk about Timothy's family for a moment, but I want to s show you how deeply relational this is. Paul remembers Timothy's tears, which his tears about. Probably Paul going to prison. They got separated. Why is Paul writing Second Timothy? Because Timothy and Paul are not together. And so when they separated, Timothy i i it's like I I'm not ready for you to leave. Rarely is the mentee ready for the mentor to leave. The mentor just ends up leaving. That's the way it is. Especially if you've got a good mentor. You hope they live forever and they don't. And nevertheless, but Paul says, I remember your tears, and Paul is not like saying, I'm just pouring into you. It's a one-way street. One of the greatest things a mentor can have is a mentee who thinks is going to carry on, because Paul says, I long to see you so that. I may be filled with joy. This isn't just a one-way street. Paul says, You're my beloved son, and your presence encourages me. By the way, if you need to get off the sidelines, you want encouragement? Find somebody who listens and follows and is ready to carry on the faith. That'll be an encouragement to you. I want to talk a little bit about Timothy's family. Timothy's family is not perfect. We don't have all the data that we want to have. But this is the data that we do have. Acts sixteen, verse one gives us the biography the quick sketch of Timothy's family. And it says that his father, Timothy's father, was a Greek. Now you say, Rusty, I'm gonna have a hard time passing on a spiritual heritage because not everybody on my family is on the same page. Well, welcome to life. Okay? Not everybody's on the same page. And evidently. While this is an argument from silence, albeit a strong argument, that Timothy's dad's probably not a believer. Because when Paul says, I recall the sincere faith that your mom and grandmom had. Dad, we know Dad, he's a Greek. But that's all we know. And sometimes it's just nice to say he might be a nice guy, but he's not a believer. And by the way, Paul is brought into Timothy's life. To fill the gaps of a dad who didn't do maybe what needed to be done. So, one of the things you can pray for in your family, I'll pray for for my family, God send people in James and Thomas' life to fill the gaps that I can't fill. Because no matter what I do, there'll be gaps. Even me giving it the best shot I can. But this is what I want to say: Lois and Eunice showed up. I I remember I helped a guy, I mean I really helped a guy as best I could and I'll never forget there was a older lady in the church, she's now deceased, the guy tried to help. He's now deceased. There was a mother, there was a lady here. Some of you don't know. I'll tell you a store a fun story. It's actually not a fun story, it's a terrible story. She was a good lady. Her name was Mary Frances. She attended here forever. Mary Frances Bryant. She used to live right down here. I still ride by the house, think she lives there. It's ridiculous. She's been dead for a long time. ⁓ everybody in her family died. She beared a husband and her children. It was awful. And she just had such a heart for children. A heart for children. For years, she gave tirelessly to the Patrick Henry Boys and Girls home in this area because she just she didn't want a child not to feel loved by mother. Because sh she just had a lot of love to give and she just poured it out. And so that's the type of woman she was. And I was helping this one guy, and I'll never forget. She could see I was distraught and I was a young pastor and Mary Francis looked at me and she says, Rusty, I know you're trying to help that guy. I said, Yes, I am. She says, Here's the problem. I said, What is it, Mary Francis? She said, The help that he needed needed to come a long time ago. And I thought, well that's not very encouraging. She was right. Let me tell you what you get to be. If you are in a family, which you are, you get to be a spiritual anchor point. That's what you get to be. Your family says, Well, I'm not gonna come to church with you anymore. Okay. Well, I'm still going. Your family may say, I don't believe this anymore. Okay. Well I do. Well, I don't think you ought to be spending so much time at the church and doing this type of thing. Okay. Well, I don't think you ought to be spending so much time doing stuff you did. Right? But put the anchor down. And so everybody else can do whatever. Y'all can do it whatever you want, but but Lois and Eunice, we're a dynamic duo. We will not be moved. And when the apostle Paul looks at Timothy and goes, Men, you're young and you're a little fragile around the edges. You might not be as tough as I am. He says I got a lot of confidence in you 'cause I know what's been poured in poured in by me has not been poured in by me alone. It's been poured in by mom and poured in by grandma, you're gonna make it. And this is how I want to end the service today. Of all the places to pass it on, the number one place that we ought to pass it on is our own house with our own family. You say, I wish you wouldn't have brought that up. That's the hardest place to pass it on. Sorry. And and you say, Well, they're not responding. They won't talk. They won't interact with me. Just be a faithful person. Don't waver because they're wavering. Don't don't quit because they quit. And honestly, this is how I end today. Why not pray for your family? See, God help me to be a spiritual anchor point in my family so that when my family finally gets it all back together, they'll remember the steadiness. In my life. I I tried to reflect upon this. I can't I it's hard to know what God would do, but I can't really imagine my life. What would have happened if my mom and dad wouldn't have said on Sunday morning, time go church? ⁓ you don't talk like that. We're Christian. I mean that was that was that's been present with me as long as I had breath in my lungs. The whole wor plenty in the world don't even have that anymore. Do you understand what I'm saying? And so honestly, you say, what do we what do we do here? That sounds a bit overwhelming, Rusty. Do you see this? This is not the front of a stage. This is an altar. And it wouldn't hurt some of you if you feel so compelled to come stand, to come kneel if you can. And just say, God. Help me to be a spiritual anchor point for my family. And come today and pray for your family. So if if I pass it on in no other place. God, would you in your grace help me pass it on or at least be a faithful model to my family around me? That's the first place of multiplication. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, may I tell you God wants you to be his beloved son or daughter. You say, How can I do that, Rusty? You turn from sin and self and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in him alone for your salvation. I'll be here, Pastor Ishmael will be here if you want us to pray with you. If you want to come and just pray, this altar is open. Use it if God leads. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you. God, we pray that our lives would multiply. God that we would have people that we pour into. And God we pray in our own families. That God, you would help us be the spiritual anchor point. that would encourage those around us to be faithful. God, I pray today for some in this room who It's difficult to be the spiritual anchor point. God, I pray you would steady them, encourage them, that you would empower them. to be a beacon of faithfulness, even in a situation of struggle. That when their story is written that they would be seen as a faithful person, a faithful Lois or a faithful Eunice in their family. And that people can draw strength and confidence off of their example. In Jesus' name. Amen.