Timothy

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David has already mentioned this morning we're continuing our study on Courage living for God in difficult times and thank you Jenny you've done an excellent job in in writing the study and I commend that study to you to read and um and to to learn now one of the problems one of the challenges for us when we preach these things is that we don't want to just replicate what the study is but we want to stay true to it as well and so um don't think that by listening to me this morning that you're going to or get everything in the study because there's a lot in that study which is really worthwhile getting hold of which I won't be mentioning today um so uh so so please do that now if you've got your Bibles there and I'm sure you do either the old-fashioned book or um or in your phones on your phones or whatever if you'd like to tune to Acts chapter 16 and like to I'd like to read those first five verses to you and then we'll make some comments about these and other places as well when we look at this character called Timothy so this is how it goes Acts chapter 16 and from verse 1. he that's Paul we're talking about when Paul came to Derby and then to lystra where a disciple named Timothy lived his mother was a Jewish and a Believer but his father was a Greek the brothers at lystra and Iconium spoke well of him Paul wanted to take him along on the journey so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area for they all knew that his father was a Greek as they traveled from town to town they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and Elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey so the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers we know that God always blesses the reading of his word now in three seconds I'm going to give you the brief overview of Timothy's life Okay so we've already read some of this this morning so his name was Timothy or sometimes it's timotheus so sometimes you read depending on the version of the Bible in different parts it's rendered that way uh his mother his name was Eunice and his father we don't know too much about we don't know his name but his mother was a Jew and his father was Greek but we also not only know Timothy's mum's name is Eunice but his grandmother's name was Lois and so Timothy was born around ad17 or he had one couple say to me this morning looking forward to this morning I have a son called Timothy I thought we might be right I've got a nephew called Timothy but we're not related in that way so this Timothy born about ad17 and he died about 1897 so he's a ripe old age when he died but he too like a lot of the characters in the New Testament that we've been looking at all died as Martyrs so we don't know this for sure but in a fairly authoritative book or Fox's book of Martyrs it says this that that Timothy died in 1897 upholding the truth of the Bible Fox's book of Marta states that he was a bishop of Ephesus and was murdered martyred when he told a crowd of pagans that their idolatrous celebrations were ridiculous so they're doing this celebration Timothy stood up told him what a mother feels they were for doing this and as a result of that they got upset and they put him to death so that's the overview of Timothy's life and we're going to have a look at some details now the other studies that we have looked at when we've looked at these characters both Old and New Testament a lot of what we've been talking about is the circumstances in society around about them and I want to take a somewhat different tact today about Timothy we're still on this theme of uh of Courage living for God in difficult times but I want to talk about about the difficult times in a different context to what we have considered so far because I'm not talking so much about Society things but I'm talking about within the family and it's not as though there's family difficulties here but let me explain what I mean um we've probably all heard the expression about passing the Baton an event running relay races now I'm nervous sounding like an authority here because sitting right down the front here we have a phys ed teacher part Excellence who knows all about uh about relay races and so if I make a mistake he's just going to not in agreement and and not say lady you're stupid because you don't know what you're talking about okay so we all understand relay races when um when I was at school we just used to run backwards and forwards and and uh probably however many people would hold their hands out to get the Baton nowadays of course in the big stuff they run around the circle and a four by 100 meters or four by four hundred or whatever distance it is and and so the Baton which is it's this team thing we have to pass a baton on from one person to the next and uh so now dies it's just so good how they do you know in running around is it 20 meters or something they've got to pass it from one I don't know I'm right nobody's nodding in agreement that's what I told him to do hand behind and put it in and and they pick it up and they run the next League and so this idea of dropping the Baton as you're aware comes from that is where where the changeover doesn't really occur so well and um and the Baton is dropped or whatever and there's all sorts of rules about picking it up and so this idea this concept of dropping the Baton um is being taken from that that Sport and it applies to a whole range of other things so corporations businesses and and schools and all sorts of people use this expression about dropping the Baton about letting the team down or or where things are not transferred from one person to another and so when we're talking about passing the Baton I want to talk about this in Timothy's life about passing the Baton and transferring from um from one generation to the next and the difficulty that uh that that's about so I want to say this is that is that there's this natural tendency for things to degenerate over a period of time so whether that be a corporation or whatever there can be a degeneration I want to talk specifically today about passing the Baton from one generation to the next and how sometimes we can drop the Baton and sometimes the person just doesn't pick up the Baton even though it's been handed on to them but but to talk about dropping the Baton and how important it is in passing the Baton from one generation to the next and this is the difficult time so I'm referring to today so I'm not talking about Society we're talking about within families within Church families about passing the Baton of the Gospel on from one generation to the next you see there's this downward slide that can occur every movement every corporation just about starts off with a man or a woman who has this amazing and this fantastic dream they're a person who's on a mission and have a passion for what they're on about so if I was to say to you in the corporate world if I was to say to you about KFC immediately you would say Colonel Sanders that's right Paul misguided man I mean why do things with chicken I'll never know I'm not a chicken fan some people drive forwards and when I say Ford you think of Henry Ford so there was a man at the beginning but in Christian circles there's also things started off with a man or a woman as well so Salvation Army William Booth and to read some of his writings some things that he wrote and just say soul staring or the wesleys with the Methodist Church John Knox with the Presbyterians what about the Baptist well we were a part of the radical Reformation it's not too much radical about us these days I guess but but there was this this is how things started missions World missions start off with the modern missions as thought given the um the credit to a man by the name William Carey or dealing with slavery another Christian by Wilberforce and so there's this person who had this mission who had this dream god-given dream often and um and and they're just full of passion that's with all their life's about and and because they have this dream they then start to recruit other people and so what was started off with them as a man or a woman then becomes a movement as it changes from a man or a woman to a group of people and then when you get a group of people what do you have to do you have to start organizing things and say you end up with a machine and then after a while this is a natural tendency after a while this machine um this machine takes so much time and energy just to keep the machine moving that that becomes a monument that is the original Dream or vision this original passion has been lost and the organization just exists trying to keep the organization going and I'm sure that in our minds we can think of of Christian organizations and second organizations have gone that way and if you're not sure see any of any others around here we'll be able to give you a list of days about how what started off originally and how things look now are really quite different now it's not always the case that because along the way things have to be reinvented sometimes I've been in situations where trying to to help people to help groups churches or whatever to to to revitalize and one of the things that we do is go back so why was this church first brought into being this local church or to take it back even further how was the church brought into me and you've heard us all of us it's the past is I think up the front here from time to time have said the important thing is for us to keep the main thing the main thing and so that's to prevent this this natural degeneration which takes place from man to movement to machine to Monument and then dice out after that and and so you want to keep on things and and so it can happen in a family as well that this baton can be dropped or this degeneration can take place unless we are intentional doing something intentional about addressing it now there's several ways ways that we can do that but I just want to talk about this way of doing it in this relationship between Paul and Timothy and um and and in fact if there's nothing else you write down or take a photo of if you take the the photos this is the most important slide um well I think it one of the most important slides that I want to share this morning that says this is the preventative action it's a key statement every Christian needs a Barnabas to receive encouragement to Timothy to God as a disciple and an epaphroditist to enjoy on a peer level that's a quote from a book and for the life of me have been thinking about it this week I cannot remember the name of the author or the book where I read it but it's just such a key statement I'm sure it'll come to me somewhere in the week or maybe one of you can recall what book it's from Barnabas we know Timothy we know paphroditus we probably don't know too much he's only mentioned in the book of Philippians and he was the one who was like a peer with Paul and delivered care package from the church at Philippi to Paul I want to put in one of these words just to keep Kim on the straight no epaphroditus um see how you're going there Kim doesn't she do an excellent job uh really appreciate Kim as I know a lot of people out there do as well so this is the key thing every Christian needs a Barnabas to receive encouragement to Timothy to guide as a disciple and epaphroditus to enjoy on a peer level in the study today we drop Barnabas and we'd put in pool because that's who we're looking at now do you understand that very first word every do you understand that every means every does that mean anybody's exempt no nobody's exempt means every Christian but what if you like um like a hundred years old and being a Christian for all that time every Christian needs these three relationships what about if you're young and you only every Christian and if you're writing that down circle the word every or even better still don't write the word every Christian and just put the word I in there I need a Barnabas to receive encouragement a Timothy to God as a disciple and epaphroditus to enjoy on a peer level so naturally well maybe not naturally some of you said I wonder where the load has got this in place yes I do and not only do I have it in place in my own life now but I would reckon for the vast majority and maybe all of my Ministry life I've had these relationships in place and and to have those people the barnabases Over You Who Um who who regularly encourage and pray for you is a key thing um earlier this year a man who was one of my pastors when I was still in the army Dan in Melbourne passed away so sad that he passed away but even up until the last few years we would occasionally correspond by email and pretty well every time you'd say David I pray for you every Thursday now that's somebody who's my pastor back in like 19 19 we've got to work this out a long time ago 1972 1972-73 something like that ever since then every Thursday prayed for me can you imagine that that's a Barnabas for you um told it I think you're aware that we went up to uh to Townsville you know I spoke at a a well one of my mentors in many ways a Barnabas to me he had asked me to speak at his funeral and I still have a Barnabas now who catch up with and and um and he's probably been my mentor the longest serving Mentor that I've had pretty well for all my Ministry life and For Better or For Worse he was probably some of you might say for better for worse but he was it was a key person in having me come to caboolture as in the first time I was here as a pastor back in 1988 but we still catch up periodically and I catch up with he and his wife over coffee just corresponding with him recently it's a time we had a coffee and whatever it's so so it I need to have the barnabasas I need to have the epaphroditus goddesses who we meet with on appeal level and and I in the last month we've met with a couple of another couple of couples who uh who we enjoy and uh the Timothy's as well I'll say a bit more and so this is passing on the back and I want to talk about it just briefly in one area and then more in detail in another first thing I want to talk about and this is a brief one is that it's the importance of passing on the Baton in the family um you know about Timothy the pulse is about Timothy that I've made that Faith which is in you also existed in your mother Eunice but also in your grandmother Lois now there I don't know what you how you respond to that but to consider that there are three generations that these Lois Eunice Timothy where the Baton has been passed on so successfully from one generation to another in the family and that's really really tough place for it to occur as I say sometimes it has been a result of not holding the Baton out sometimes it's been a case of where the Baton hasn't been grasped so it's not always a parent parent or grandparent issue is that sometimes it can be the child issue that they just haven't taken hold of so let's understand that very clearly and and today I don't want to this is not a sermon about parenting and families but it's interesting if we were to turn to one Thessalonians that Paul when he's talking about Ministry he gives the ministry this uh uh he gives it this um this family um Family explanation where he says this in month Thessalonians chapter 2 and verses 7 to 12. he says this in verse 7 but we're a gentle among you like a mother and then a little bit further on he says he says down in verse 11 for you know that we dealt with each one of you as a father deals with his own children so Paul is talking to the church at thessalonica and say hey in my Ministry amongst you I'm Minister amongst you this is like we were mum and dad to you and and so passing on the Baton is um is very much a key thing to happen in the family now I'm aware that we've got some uh some families here single parent families and uh I just want to say these that we reckon you've got a really tough job and and uh good on you for doing what you do and I just hope that you know around about you that you have others who can also help and fill in for that other other parent role as the as the surrogant grandparent or something like that but isn't it interesting that Paul says here are some characteristics of a mother that we wanted to display to you in our ministry at thessalonica we were gentle and we were caring and we were there for you night and day that's what mothers are like isn't it and dance to the big overlap in both of these of course and so we're not sort of saying these clear demarcation here but but particularly the night and day thing you know it's just to be available and we had this agreement when our kids were youngins that in the middle of the night when they wake up for a feed that it was my job to go and get the kid in their hands job to feed and put them back together again you know there are some times when when I pretended just to stay asleep it's not news to hand she's aware of that you know so I wouldn't declare something new to her up from my peer but you know sometimes the apprented pretended to be asleep and so she'd get up and then sometimes she pretended to be asleep too waiting for me to get up and sometimes we discovered we both pretended to be asleep and the kid went back to sleep we woke up in the morning and they were still there you know it was was amazing that was one way of teaching him how to how to sleep through the night but but there's something about this Mother's Gentle Touch here of the the gentle of caring the night and day the 24 hour thing often we see things our mothers or all of these things list them all off then Paul also says hey we're also like a father amongst you as well and he talks about these three these things in verses 10 to 12 that is the father modeled encouraging comforting and urging and isn't that what a father's role is the father models things in the in the high kids just whether dad realized or not where the kids realize it or not but Dad often is setting the time and the kids model themselves and which we could sit in our own kids we see it more clearly in our grandkids of of how that has become the model and more clear in some circumstances than others and so this whole parenting thing from mum and dad in passing on the Baton is is an important matter there's gentle caring and and so on and then he makes this amazing statement in all of this where he says this he says um in verse 8 where we shared our lives with you folk that's what parenting is really about for both mum and dad is to invest Our Lives in you but it's also important in ministry as well one of our doors we've got one of our daughters here this morning and her husband and family it's not her it's one of our other daughters that she did first semester at Uni and then came to anime and done and said you could see the fear on her face I think oh my mum and dad going to say to this but she came to us and said um I'm thinking I'd like some time out from University and probably surprised by my response because immediately I said I think that's a great idea for a variety of reasons I said and just the relief on her and she said just uh to be thinking about that and um anyway since you said you want to go to Bible College do Summit Bible College Rich Bible College so we've talked about that and I said look you could go to this college which is going to give you a good academic if you want to keep going but if you want to go to a college where they're going to invest in their life and you go to this one I was referring to this my mentor was the principle there and just as he and his wife had invested their lives into us I knew that as a principal of the college that they invested their lives in their students that's the one she chose she also made a husband there too by the way but that's another story as well but but you see the investing of Lies as parents in our kids not to be distant but to invest our lives in them but also in Ministry is the key thing for us in passing on the Baton so that's family passing on the Baton but there's Also spiritually as well and time has already gone and I want to do something else a bit different so I'm going to go through these very quickly um spiritually there's Paul and Timothy and we read about this in one Thessalonians and so you might need to just follow these through a bit more in a bit more detail later on so acts 16 1 to 5 talks about gives us some insight into passing on the Baton spiritually firstly there's this Divine appointment in meeting where uh where it says in in Acts 16 where where Paul goes and and meets Timothy there let me just look this up he came to Derby then to lystra where a disciple named Timothy lit so this is not some coincidental meeting but this is a god-ordained meeting together God organized for Paul to be there and for Timothy to be there and they met it's not only that but Paul's makes these observations he looks at his family of origin about his mother and father his mother was a believer he also looks at Timothy and sees that Timothy is a disciple in verse 1 as well and he also looked at Timothy and heard what others were saying about Timothy that Timothy had a reputation that the brothers spoke well of him so Paul is looking for somebody to mentor and and he's looking for for a younger person God leads him to lystra this God or night appointment where there's this uh where there's this young character here who's um he's just young but from a Christian certainly Christian mum and grandmother he himself is a disciple everybody's speaking well of him and Paul says I can use someone like that and I can mentor him and it says there that Paul selected him in verse three and they went off on Mission now says in verse 3 also as they said off on on this mission that Paul circumcised him and I've put there that equipped him that he adapted to Mission now you need to understand very clearly that uh that uh remember that Timothy's dad was Greek so there's no and the Jews his mother was a Jew Jews circumcised the kids the Greeks didn't so Timothy hadn't but they're going to minister amongst Jews and so it's important that that uh that Timothy in every way was going to be acceptable to the uh to the culture in which he was going to be ministering and so Paul says well one of those things is that you're going to have to be circumcised but there's this equipping for Ministry that making sure that everything was there as as part of this mentoring process and then there's a couple of other things I want to say about this is that a part of the thing is that he mentored him as well and there's this action reflection model that that we see more and more in the Bible this is a model which Jesus did and this is the model that Paul did as well what I mean by action reflection is this is that nowhere did Jesus did his disciples down and uh in a classroom and say and he's going to listen to my lecture here's the assignment and here's the exam at the end rather it was sending out on the mission disciples as you go on a mission come back and we'll talk about how it all went and time and time again in the gospels you read how that this action reflection model of training is what Jesus did and when we get to Paul and to Timothy we find this same thing happening again so in Acts chapter 17 and verse 14 Paul sends Timothy out on a mission in chapter 18 and verse 5 he says come back here let's have a talk about this and then again in chapter 19 and verse 22 Paul sends Timothy out on a mission and then in chapter 20 and verse 1 come back here and let's let's reconnect and talk about it so there's this action reflection model which is a fantastic model and passing on the bat and the model for training disciples then there's the identification where often when we read these these letters in the New Testament we think pulls all of them but in sixth Romans 16 1 Second Corinthians 1 in all the rest of those we read in the introductions Paul and Timothy Paul and Timothy Paul and Timothy and a few others in various places so here's this young bloke here who um who's just taking on Ministry Paul who's at the other end of his ministry is um is investing his life in passing the bat not being like a mother and father to him ensuring that just not only in his family from Grandma to mum to Son but also in the church there's somebody else he's been investing and pouring their life into this young character isn't no wonder that Timothy turned out to be such uh such a highly developed and useful Christian well let me just say a few key verses about from second Timothy I'm just going to read them I'm going to comment on them wish we had time to but Timothy chapter 1 of verse 5 this gives us some idea so first and second Timothy Paul at the end of his life is writing to Timothy these these last instructions and uh and Jenny in her study says here are some themes to look at and they're important themes I've just picked out a few key verses here and it says this I just picked out a few it's they're all important second Timothy 1 5 I'm reminded of your sincere Faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother years that I'm persuaded now lives in you also there's the affirmation of the family of origin study and do your best 2 Timothy 2 15 study and do your best to present yourself to God approved a Workman tested by a trial who has no reason to be ashamed accurately hand handing and skillfully teaching the word of Truth when I was a young fellow which is a long time ago I was talking with one of the young young guys in the church they had a kid's church now before church asked him about book week and whatever and I said in my day we didn't have book week it was all parchments and tablets and so on sort of looked at me I said hey back in my day we'll the Earth was flat in my day and uh he said oh the Earth is right and I said yeah around but we all thought it was flat that's how long ago it was when I went to school but uh but when I went to Sunday school we used to get little tickets some of you might remember that with the text on them and if we were well behaved always got a ticket mostly um and I just remember there's one ticket in the Old King James version it had this this verse on 2 Timothy 2 15. and I don't know why it's the only ticket I ever remember and it's one that I memorize studied to show King James version spills show s-h-e-w-u-s-h-e-w studied to show yourself approved unto God a Workman rightly dividing the word of Truth interesting is it that as a kid that somehow that verse um it was the and here I am today in front of you talking about it 2 Timothy 3 14 and 15. but that's for you continue in what you've learned and become convinced of because you know those from whom you've alluded and how from infancy you've known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ all scripture this is the mission all scriptures God breathed and it's useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work I want to conclude by just saying does this work in the here and now and also it does I'm going to hopefully show that it does when I came here as Pastor for whatever years ago one of the things the church Council said to me he was they said I want you to invest into developing young leaders and say to search out who you think might be any young leaders and to see you to develop so without making it not I actually met with some of the young guys in the church and I thought we're just having a coffee they didn't realize actually interviewing them and uh and seeking out one person who might uh might particularly invest in in my time here this whole area of mentoring has been a major part of my functioning and I'm not sure how many people some people have mentored just for a short time some for a bit longer and some of you have been a part of that and um and also I just think my standing here today is also part of that mentoring The Wider group but one of the people who uh who I felt God leading me to is this young single guy by the name of Dylan and um and he was just just a well a young character things about Timothy impressive young guy good family so on and so I met with him and one of the times I said Dylan this is what I'm thinking about doing is just mentoring you and there was a bit of a unusual start and weren't sure whether it was going to happen talking with his dad one time and he said I think Dylan wants to you know it's worthwhile following up and I said well I'm not going to follow him up because I said to Dylan if he wants me to Mentor him he has to come back to me I'm going to make it tough he's going to come back to me I'm not going to approach him and Dylan did and and so we've been in this relationship for I'm not sure how long it's not a lifelong relationship at the end of every year we sit together and we say to each other say to Dylan you want to go another year or not it's free for him to say no it's free for uh for me for either of us to say no so he went from this just a young character that when he came on we then took him on honors and intern that became a bit of a struggle because Daryl is Dad was on the church Council and so we had flood senior so if we had a big flood what do you call a little flood and so I said we'll need to call him puddles and so sometimes you'll still hear him and he doesn't mind me saying this he but sometimes you'll still hear some people calling him puddles so if you call out puddles he'll know who you're talking to and then somewhere along the line um as early came on the scene as well so the way we want to clean this morning we're going to have to try to do this we've gone well and truly over time I think it's worth it go ask Dylan and zali and then it's going to come up as well and we're going to ask him a few questions they said will we um will we send them some questions and so what we did is that Anna and I sat down and worked out some easy questions but they were just kidding them we've got the tough ones we're going to ask no that's not true so we're going to try and get through this interview fairly quickly if we can just to say well this is what has been happening does it work out in practice and then you can make the uh the decision for yourself okay we've got our notes Here our in-depth interview

is mine is mine working yeah okay well we've just been listening to David talking about passing on the man was there anything in the sermon that that resonated with you either of you both of you that you can share with us right now

hey check one two yep yep hey hey yeah yeah this is what I used to do can you hear me now yep kind of just I'll just give him a sec am I coming through yes cool um I think the thing that stood out for me most is that it is a button and it does have to be picked up as well as being passed on and so loader hinted at it a little bit our mentorship began sort of weirdly I think we had an initial coffee and I sort of said ah not sure about this I'll go back and then you came a second time and laid it out a little bit more clearly and then Lodo had done his part he had said hey it's here if you want it and it took me to then go yeah you know what let's let's do this and grab hold of it so so yeah it really goes both ways

yeah there's so much I could take from that sermon like that was really fantastic and um I think something I have never thought too much about before like when you spoke about passing on the button through your family and I think um like we we don't have a family yet but um that's something I'd like to do when we have kids and I think hmm actually my parents have invested in us kids and Dylan's parents as well have played a big role and um yeah just actually stopping to think about that I think that's really important and I think um with Timothy sometimes it's so easy to just think of the other Christians around you and yeah just stopping and reflecting about family and how that it can be passed on

this one's to Dylan you've been as David mentioned you've been his mentor and being mentored by him for a few years now can you name two or three things that have been beneficial in that time it's my opinion that everyone needs a Barnabas okay you're never gonna get sick and tired of proper encouragement and that's as simple as like our Mentor sessions will often happen at a coffee place and so we'll sit down and the first thing we do is catch up about life I know that there is someone interested in how my life is going both physically emotionally spiritually all aspects so it's really good to have someone who's there and just encouraging you in something as simple as finding a car um so that that's one thing is everyone needs that everyone needs someone to feed into them but also everyone needs someone to pull them up right part part of the mentorship is that when there's something that needs to be improved when there's an area that I'm not necessarily doing what I could be doing and it could be somewhere there I could be grown and pushed sometimes you need a little push you need a bit of encouragement and say hey why don't you go out and do that but you also need someone to come back to after you've done that and reflect like you said in the sermon to to go out give it a go and if it goes poorly that doesn't mean you never do it again you can come back and go okay why didn't this happen what are your thoughts how can you encourage me or is this something that we leave for someone else and where is God leading us there

Dylan became an art and I suggested to Dylan that he might consider inviting you along to our get together so how did you feel about that what did Dylan tell you what to expect

a little bit nervous like not not in a bad way but am I going to be intruding and but then thinking well if I've been invited of course I'm not intruding and this is going to be quite beneficial for me um I think it was just good to built relationship I was I was failing new to the church and it was good to build relationships with you later and um just to get to know you and you get to know me and just begin that mentoring relationship yeah and then Anne I um I asked you about joining us as well and how did you feel when I suggested that we start meeting there's two couples together what did you look forward to I was excited about the Prospect and delighted because they're a delightful couple and really got on well with them and saw great potential and giftedness in both of them and I and also reflected back to the time of our when we first started in in history and and how much I valued older and more experienced pastors and wives investing their time into our lives and we appreciated that all through our all through the Ministries that we've done so it was good that I could pass on some things some thoughts to you too and it's been a really good time sharing and and learning from you as well I think we're quite compatible in a lot of ways um similar a lot of similarities there so it's been good just to share in fact that later my next question to zali the others observed a connection or a Synergy between you and Anne as we've gathered has there been anything that stood out for you as you and Anne have engaged with each other yeah I think I think I I too

I have actually found really helpful in growing my faith growing in the Ministries I serve or um like my community and how I can do that getting wonderful wisdom from Anne that's been lovely and yeah yeah sorry

Dylan who sorry where are we up to yeah heavy model for you something that can help me I've missed one oh do you do you think there's been an advantage meeting as couples and it's say what

I think there's been a massive advantage to it um so quite often Lara and I will still have our individual meetings but being able to meet as a couple has been amazing because it means that not only does Ali and I both get the benefit of being able to be fed into and encouraging our ministry because like your faith Journey if you're married or in a relationship your faith Journey isn't just your own right we're called to sharpen one another to build one another up and not only do you do that as a couple as partners as whatever but to be able to meet as others and and see another couple who have run the race a little bit longer and have been through some of the things that you're going through and have found Solutions or been encouraged in ways which can be really encouraging to you is just amazing I think you've you've pretty much said it all but just also doing it as a couple has been very encouraging like when we do it there's there's enough we don't hide anything like all our cards are on the table and yeah yeah

okay have we modeled here something that can now be uh that that now can be shared with others is it a concept that most people could do

I think that you can sometimes sit in a sermon about discipleship or mentoring and go oh that's for the people who know about it it's really not hard let me assure you it is not hard I consider myself a very simple person and this is very simple okay discipleship is getting alongside people it's doing life with them it's building them up it's encouraging them in their faith um and Sally and I do that in a range of ways like something as simple as being at EFG with other Christians and building each other up something as simple as meeting with each of those groups in your EFG for a dinner just one-on-one or two on two and building each other up intentionally investing into their lives and and just yeah being there and being available for one another

um like relationship building so that's easy enough to do just getting alongside people um getting to know each other and um you know sometimes you cannot take how can I be praying for you or just something simple and small it goes a long way and that's that's discipleship too

so would either of you want to add anything else no okay no I feel like you haven't had any questions so a question for you is like with the whole discipleship process you've been doing this for a little while how do you identify those who you want to disable like there might be people out here going I want to be mentored but I need someone to ask me how would you go about the process if someone's there going I'm not mentoring a Timothy how would you go about that well I think what Paul did um as we read in the first layers that's been a that's a good model and I've looked at that so part of that but sometimes people have approached me and asked me whether I'd Mentor them I don't always say yes by the way and in the same way sometimes I ask people they don't always say yes either but it's really a matter of prayer and asking God to lead to people looking for potential and looking for people who you can invest your life into and so there's so much more we could say about that but yeah it's um it's it's uh it's really a God thing bringing people together

okay stay stay here note me okay remember Paul's at the end of his ministry and Timothy's at the beginning you might look at us and say oh well you know the reality is is that the road ahead for us is a lot shorter than the road behind us you look at this couple and they're just starting out on Ministry in fact it's said it's a Monday week Monday week they off to the big interview whether they'll be whether Dylan will be accepted with the registered minister with Queensland Baptist those come from there what when our first meeting is just being a guy not longer out of school to hopefully well I expected in a couple of weeks he'll be fully registered minister with Queensland Baptists and so as an older people passing on the BET into younger people would be willing to pass it on and they've done a fantastic job in picking it up I'm going to pray now we've gone well and truly overhead so I'm making an executive decision we will not have the last song Maybe the band will come up and play we know we'll see how the thing goes but I just want to pray and and then we'll move out for morning too thank you so much for your patience and sitting there now how about as I pray let's stand as I pray in closer service stay here we'll pray father what a delighted is that you have brought the floods and us together and in this way as you have with us and others and others have invested in our lives as others invested in Dylan and Sally's life as well and there's a church we want to commend them to you as they continue this ministry part particularly tomorrow week when they go for their this interview and father we want to commend them to you for those who do the interviewing as well that this will be a positive experience father today as we've talked about how everybody needs a Barnabas the Timothy and the pafford artists pray that you'll lead us to each of these people so that we'll have these three relationships firmly established in our lives so now we pray grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit the love of God the Father remain with us all but now and forevermore. Amen.