In this weeks lesson were going to talk about feeding each other. No, not putting food into each other’s mouths and stomachs but putting spiritual sustenance into each others souls. Especially the passing on of this from someone who is more seasoned in their faith to someone who is newer and greener in their faith, so as to develop and grow that faith. This is another piece that I will interject with pieces of my leadership experience, including an activity in class on Sunday, so be prepared. Now, onto the scripture! (2 Timothy 1:1-14)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2To Timothy, my dear son:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
13What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
So, once again, our good ole buddy Paul, the Rabbi from Tarsis, is writing a letter. This time, however, he is not writing to a church, he is writing to someone he has mentored along his journey. He encourages him to talk about Jesus, and lets him know that he prays for him regularly, and asks for prayer in return, in case you haven't noticed, these are all things we've touched on in our last few lessons. We've gotten ourselves under control, we've started talking to others that don’t know about Jesus, and we’re making sure that those that are already a part of the “flock” aren’t wandering off. Now its time to doe some more building. So lets hit the leadership piece.
For anyone that has ever had a job or career that they wanted to advance in, a common activity is personal development, so you can develop the skills to move forward in the company. Well, let’s pretend that the Christian faith is the company we all work for here in this instance so we can relate all this together. A lot of people say that practice makes perfect, this isn’t entirely true. Perfect practice makes perfect. Now the question you're probably asking at this point is “Well how do I know what’s perfect?” – That’s the question I wanted to hear.
You're only going to know what’s perfect by reading the manual on the behavior (in our case, The Holy Bible). From there you start practicing these attributes, but here’s the kicker, you’re not entirely competent to judging yourself at what makes that perfect practice perfect. Here is where a mentor comes in. Someone that you see does that particular thing better than you, is always going to have insight on how you can do it better yourself, and that mentorship goes all the way up the chain to Jesus Christ himself. He mentored the disciples, who then mentored the public, and as it all goes along you have the people that excelled and continued to bring people up to the level or better than they were.
You want to know the real reason why they mentored these people? It is a very simple, fundamental, and MAJORLY overlooked principle of leadership – Legacy building. Legacy building is ensuring that you have the structure in place underneath you to move forward and be confident that the foundation won’t crumble beneath you. If you don’t have someone that can do your job when you move on, one of two things will happen 1 – you’ll get stuck doing your old job AND your new job or 2 – the person that replaces you will mess it up so bad that you’ll all end up right back at square one. So in our company, we want to make sure we have a solid future to move forward to (our eternity). We want to make sure that our families have that same ability, but if we don’t grow the faith, it will die out on this earth, and the rapture will come and no one will know., because nobody told them. They won’t know that their practice wasn’t perfect.
Now I know that it makes sense that I mentor you, and I'm mentored by people with more experience than me, and so forth and so on, but who are you mentoring? Don’t think you’re skilled enough in your faith to mentor someone? Oh contraire, there are PLENTY of people that know less than you do, because there are still millions, if not billions of people that have yet to hear the Gospel at all. There are people that are just starting their faith journey TODAY, and there are plenty more than that that have heard the Gospel, but haven't started their faith journey yet. So take a look around, it’s actually going to be very easy for you to find someone that could benefit from your spiritual mentorship, even if it’s a younger sibling, family member, or neighbor. Anything, and anyone, is the perfect place to start.
Don’t know what you're mentorship should look like? Just look back at the lessons you’ve had so far, just be you, just be the best, Christian you that you can be. Talk and listen. That’s all it takes friends! Before you know it you will be chilling with the CEO of this corporation yourself, and you will be loving every minute of it.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2To Timothy, my dear son:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
13What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
So, once again, our good ole buddy Paul, the Rabbi from Tarsis, is writing a letter. This time, however, he is not writing to a church, he is writing to someone he has mentored along his journey. He encourages him to talk about Jesus, and lets him know that he prays for him regularly, and asks for prayer in return, in case you haven't noticed, these are all things we've touched on in our last few lessons. We've gotten ourselves under control, we've started talking to others that don’t know about Jesus, and we’re making sure that those that are already a part of the “flock” aren’t wandering off. Now its time to doe some more building. So lets hit the leadership piece.
For anyone that has ever had a job or career that they wanted to advance in, a common activity is personal development, so you can develop the skills to move forward in the company. Well, let’s pretend that the Christian faith is the company we all work for here in this instance so we can relate all this together. A lot of people say that practice makes perfect, this isn’t entirely true. Perfect practice makes perfect. Now the question you're probably asking at this point is “Well how do I know what’s perfect?” – That’s the question I wanted to hear.
You're only going to know what’s perfect by reading the manual on the behavior (in our case, The Holy Bible). From there you start practicing these attributes, but here’s the kicker, you’re not entirely competent to judging yourself at what makes that perfect practice perfect. Here is where a mentor comes in. Someone that you see does that particular thing better than you, is always going to have insight on how you can do it better yourself, and that mentorship goes all the way up the chain to Jesus Christ himself. He mentored the disciples, who then mentored the public, and as it all goes along you have the people that excelled and continued to bring people up to the level or better than they were.
You want to know the real reason why they mentored these people? It is a very simple, fundamental, and MAJORLY overlooked principle of leadership – Legacy building. Legacy building is ensuring that you have the structure in place underneath you to move forward and be confident that the foundation won’t crumble beneath you. If you don’t have someone that can do your job when you move on, one of two things will happen 1 – you’ll get stuck doing your old job AND your new job or 2 – the person that replaces you will mess it up so bad that you’ll all end up right back at square one. So in our company, we want to make sure we have a solid future to move forward to (our eternity). We want to make sure that our families have that same ability, but if we don’t grow the faith, it will die out on this earth, and the rapture will come and no one will know., because nobody told them. They won’t know that their practice wasn’t perfect.
Now I know that it makes sense that I mentor you, and I'm mentored by people with more experience than me, and so forth and so on, but who are you mentoring? Don’t think you’re skilled enough in your faith to mentor someone? Oh contraire, there are PLENTY of people that know less than you do, because there are still millions, if not billions of people that have yet to hear the Gospel at all. There are people that are just starting their faith journey TODAY, and there are plenty more than that that have heard the Gospel, but haven't started their faith journey yet. So take a look around, it’s actually going to be very easy for you to find someone that could benefit from your spiritual mentorship, even if it’s a younger sibling, family member, or neighbor. Anything, and anyone, is the perfect place to start.
Don’t know what you're mentorship should look like? Just look back at the lessons you’ve had so far, just be you, just be the best, Christian you that you can be. Talk and listen. That’s all it takes friends! Before you know it you will be chilling with the CEO of this corporation yourself, and you will be loving every minute of it.
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