Let's go ahead and let's turn in our Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 2, and the passage we're looking at is one of the most enriching and challenging passages we read of in the pastoral epistles. I love this text of Scripture. It is very deep. There's a lot that we could mine out of this passage of Scripture, but I want us to really look at what is the big picture point that the Apostle Paul is trying to communicate in 2 Timothy chapter 2. And really that main point is we need to have a culture of mentoring the next generation. That's what we need. If the church today does not reach the next generation and does not disciple the next generation and does not mentor the next generation, wherever the church has failed to do that, the church is going to begin to decline massively in the next generation. Now, God is always doing His work in the world. The church could be declining on some level in a certain community. That doesn't mean it's declining everywhere. It may not be even declining in all local assemblies in one simple community the same way. You could have a community where there are some churches that are massively declining and others that are really doing the work very well. It's not about a location as much as it is having a culture where what we're going to talk about this morning is going on regularly. And it begins in our homes. It begins in our families. It's not just the role of the church, but it's the role of the family in a healthy church where they are being discipled and mentored. That is where this culture begins. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 1 says the following, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Now therefore, my son, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Now, you may be sitting here this morning going, well, Pastor, I thought we were talking about the story of the church at Ephesus. What does 2 Timothy chapter 2 have to do with the story of the church at Ephesus? Well, it actually has a lot to do with the story of the church at Ephesus because Timothy is in Ephesus and he is ministering to the church in Paul's absence, and so Paul is challenging Timothy This is the kind of culture that the church of Ephesus needs if it's going to survive from one generation to the next generation. Next week, Lord willing, we're going to look at Paul's address to the elders and to the deacons at the church at Ephesus, and the reason that Paul could address a body of men, a group of men, is because there was this kind of a culture in the church. So, this is an important part of us understanding the story of the church at Ephesus. Really, what Paul is doing is he's reminding Timothy, rekindle that very needed culture within the church at Ephesus. And, you know, we constantly need this reminder in our own local church as well. Even when this is going on in a church, a church has to be continually reminded that this is the ministry and this is the mission, this has got to be the heartbeat of the church. Every generation, every season of a church's life, this has to be central to it. So the question is really what is the point of the passage? Let me give you this summary. 2 Timothy 2 gives a glimpse into the heart. of discipleship and mentoring as we see Paul's fatherly encouragement to Timothy. Now, there was no biological relationship between Paul and Timothy, but Paul calls Timothy his son. And when Timothy thinks of Paul, he thinks of him as his father. That is a very, very personal relationship. We're going to see why that's such an important part of this topic. The reason we're examining this, though, is ultimately that God wants us to invest our lives in mentoring the next generation of Christ's disciples. I'm going to ask this question before we get into the passage. What role are you playing right now in mentoring the next generation? You might say, well, I don't have any kids. I didn't ask if you had children. I asked, what role are you playing in mentoring the next generation? You might say, well, I raised my kids and what it is is what it is. They're now doing the work that I was doing 20 years ago. I didn't ask, do you have any children in your home? I asked, what role are you playing in mentoring the next generation? You might say, well, Pastor, I'm a really busy person. I have a job that is very intensive. It's demanding of me mentally. It's demanding of me emotionally. It's demanding of me physically. It demands my time. Again, the question is, what role are you playing personally and investing and mentoring the next generation? I believe there is no legitimate excuse that we as God's people can give this morning to not be personally involved in this matter. I mean that seriously. You might say, well, I'm a shut-in, what can I do? You can write letters to people. You can make phone calls. You can encourage them through the various means that are available through technology. Mentoring the next generation is a critical component in the survival of a church in a location. It is true in every society. It's true in every generation. And if we don't do it, we're going to see the death of the church where we are. We're going to see it. Not the death of the church in the sense that there won't be a continuation of God's work, but in that physical location you won't see the vibrance anymore. You won't see people being reached with the gospel. You will not see mission work being, people all over the world being supported financially because there won't be people to support that work. This is an important matter. So I wanna begin, first of all, with a couple of introductory thoughts. Passing on the faith to the next generation, it is one of the greatest duties of any Christian. This is a huge matter. I use the word duty because God has entrusted us with a heavy responsibility. We've got to be involved in it. We cannot be lazy in this matter. We can't be rebellious in this matter. We've got to take this duty very, very seriously. Fathers are commanded to disciple their children. I'm reminded in Deuteronomy chapter 6 where it says that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind. And this is the way that the Scriptures put it, these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." That means everywhere we go, we've got to be engaging in conversations with our children. Yesterday, I took my two of my younger kids fishing, and it's always an experience when you take little kids fishing. But one of the things that was great about that experience was that throughout the time, we got into all kinds of very unique conversations. And sometimes it blows me away what kinds of questions a five, six, or seven-year-old will ask. And then as a pastor, I go like, how do I answer that question on a level that they can understand and that will really be helpful to them? This is what the scriptures are talking about. It's meaning you gotta eat meals together, you gotta drive in the car together. Obviously no cars there, but you've gotta interact with one another, you've gotta spend time. You cannot mentor people that you're not physically interacting with. It's an impossibility. Psalm 78, the psalm that we read this morning, is that disciple making should cross multiple generations. So it's not just like, oh, I need to invest in my kids and then I'm done. But you invest in your kids and then in their kids and depending on how long you live and when your kids have kids, if that happens, you may even have the opportunity to invest for a period of time in another generation. Psalm 78 verse 2, he says, I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works which he hath done. That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, which should arise and declare them to their children that they might set their hope in God. and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. It's a great responsibility. This is the church's fundamental mandate, Matthew 28, 19 to 20. How could we get through Missions Month without at least mentioning the Great Commission, right? It says, go ye therefore and teach. teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. That word teach means to make disciples. So I gotta preach the gospel and then I gotta teach them what Jesus expects of them as those who have been redeemed and they're forgiven and they're cleansed. This is how the Christian is supposed to conduct themselves in the world, the church's mandate. How do we disciple the next generation? Well, this passage is a great opportunity for us to see how it works. 2 Timothy 2 gives us a powerful example of what biblical mentoring looks like. And what's great about this passage is that it actually takes us outside of the typical mode of dad teaching his kids and mom teaching her kids. And it actually shows us an example of someone who came from a dysfunctional family, who is being mentored by a man who was not married, did not have children, and we know nothing about the father of the person who is being mentored. In other words, this situation isn't your typical, dad, teach your boys and teach your girls, and mom, teach your children. This is Paul, a single man, investing in someone who we don't know anything about his dads. That is mentoring. Great picture, and by the way, extremely appropriate, extremely applicable for the context that we live in. The first truth I want you to see from this text is that we have to invest in rich relationships if we're gonna see mentoring going on. Verse number one says this, thou therefore my, what's the next word? Son. Was Paul married? Nope. Did Paul have children? Nope. But he calls him his son. Why? Because that was how closely knit this relationship was. This relationship was deep. It was personal. It was rich. Christians should be practically motivated by Christ's love. And that manifests itself out in relationship. How do you love your neighbor as yourself if you don't come in contact with your neighbor? How do you serve your neighbor if you never lift a finger to do anything for your neighbor? You can summarize the entire law by saying, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, relationship is an absolutely essential part of living out the Christian life faithfully. And I wanna remind you that the world does not have the capacity for such depth. When the world talks about love, it does not talk about love in the kinds of terms that the Scriptures talk about love. The world does not even have the capacity, apart from Christ and the redemptive work of the gospel and a new nature in Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit and growth into Christ's likeness, the world does not have the capacity to love in such a way. And just because the Christian has the capacity to love in such a way doesn't mean that they will or that they do. The local church should be the sweetest place of relationship you'll ever encounter in life. It's not that it always is, but I tell you there are some churches where that's true. There are some churches you walk in and you say, you know what, there's something here that's very sweet. I don't see this where I work. I don't see this at my family reunions. I don't see this anywhere. I don't see this in communities. But it's here, why? It's because of the gospel. Listen to the way that the scriptures talk about Christian love. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 7. Paul says, we were gentle among you as a nurse cherisheth her children. Colossians 3, 12, he says, put on as the elect of God, boughs of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering. The world doesn't love like that. The world says, I like you when you like me. I'm good to you when you're good to me. But if you don't treat me right and if you rub me the wrong way and our personalities clash, then you and I have nothing to do with one another because that's too much work. But that's not what the Bible says about Christian love. It says as God's children, we are to love deeply, and we're to be kind, and we're to be humble, and we're supposed to be meek, and we're supposed to be very patient with people. The mark of our maturity is a lot more how we relate to people in a godly way than it is about what we know, or whether or not we're here. By the way, what we know matters, and being here matters, But the way we relate to people is a much better standard of understanding where we're at. 1 John chapter 3 verse 16 says the following, He says, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion. This is not the way we talk, bowels of compassion, but it means that you don't feel emotionally affected at all by the real needs of your brother. You have no compassion. Another way to put it is, you are callous towards real needs. He says, how does the love of God dwell in him? You're a Christian, then why don't you love people? You're a Christian, why don't you care about people in real need? That's what he's saying. He says there's an inconsistency here that is big time problematic. That's what he's saying. First John chapter four, verse seven, he says, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. He's the source. Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. It means you can't love like this unless you're actually a Christian, unless you're actually growing into Christlikeness. That's what he means by being born of God, knowing God. You cannot love like this unless you're a Christian. That's what he's saying. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. So He saved us to forgive us our sins, to give us eternal life, and to live through us. That's what He's saying. Paul's relationship with Timothy was a very special one. In fact, to appreciate this, you gotta go to Acts chapter 14 to know the history. Paul and Timothy met during a very difficult season of his life. In Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas preached in Iconium, and there the Jews and the Gentiles that believed came close to them and they invested in them. But while they're ministering, a group from within the city, unbelieving Jews primarily, went and they stirred up the community, and especially those unbelieving Gentiles, they incited a riot against the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul had to flee for his life because he was being physically assaulted. He goes 20 miles away to Lystra and to Derbe, and there he starts preaching again. And guess what happens? 20 miles away, This is not in the modern world where people just get in the car and they drive over there 15 or 20 minutes, well, 20 minutes later, right? They get there and then, oh, look what's going on. No, they have to travel a day to get there and the same people that stirred up all this problem there back in Iconium, they come to Lystra and to Derby and they try to do the same thing. They're successful. The Apostle Paul is stoned and left for dead outside the city. In fact, some believe he actually died and that he was resurrected. Whatever the case, when he came back, he went and he preached again. Guess who he met during that very tumultuous period? Timothy. You know why Timothy had so much respect for Paul? because he knew Paul was the real deal. You don't get stoned and then go right back out into that city and preach the same message that they dragged you out of the city and tried to kill you for if you don't really believe in this thing. He goes, this guy's the real deal. And the way that Paul puts it in 2 Timothy 3 is he says, thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured. Paul says that in Timothy, he goes, I remember that. His most formative memories of Paul were shaped by that. Paul diligently invested in this young man, Timothy, and his family. 2 Timothy chapter one verse three tells us, he says, I thank God whom I serve that without ceasing I've remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears that I might be filled with joy. Do we actually weep? over the hurts and the burdens and the spiritual well-being of other Christians. Paul and Timothy did. We don't weep over people that we're kind of like not connected to emotionally. And that connection didn't happen by accident. It was not an accidental thing. It wasn't an incidental thing. It's because there was real rich relationship going on between them. He says, I have labored, or he says, I remember the unfeigned faith that is in thee, that dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, thy mother Eunice, I am persuaded is in thee also. I want to put thee in remembrance to stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. He's talking about how Paul was there at his ordination. I think one of the most emotionally connecting moments in a young minister's heart is when people who are their peers in ministry and who are their mentors in ministry lay hands on them and say, we believe that God's hand is upon you for ministry. We're praying for you. We want to encourage you and strengthen you. And they're there in that moment. That is a really special time. And I can say that because I've been on both sides of it. It's a very special time. This group of men, these two men served together. They loved each other. Question. Do we have Christian relationships like that? Because that is an essential part in the church's staying and going from one generation to the next. If it's not in the church, the church dies. It's true. Truth number two, we must continually internalize biblical truth. In verse two he says, the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. There is a lot that we could mine out of this particular section of Paul's statements, but let me give you some simple details. First of all, internalizing the Word of God isn't a hobby. It's not just an academic pursuit, like I gotta do this for a class. It's about taking God's Word and it, like, fundamentally changing us. In fact, I love the way that this was communicated last Sunday evening when we had our time with Brother Kevin Cassidy. And he was in James chapter one, and I love that statement. He says, receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. The idea is that when the word of God is placed into your heart, it begins to produce something completely different because of its connection, it's becoming a part of you. I've given this illustration in the past of someone who is grafting like an orange tree into a lemon tree. I'm so excited. I have three oranges on one of my orange trees sitting out on my back deck, and they're just starting to turn ripe. Now, my lemon tree got devastated last year in the spring because of something that happened. But the way that you get an orange tree is not by planting an orange seed. Now, you'll get a tree. But the tree that you get will not be the variety that you think you're going to get because of this cross-pollination issue. So to get the variety that you want, you take a branch from the kind of tree you want and you graft it into a citrus tree, like a lemon tree. And when you graft it in, if it takes, then what happens is from the graft on, it's going to produce not a lemon, but an orange in whatever variety you want it to be. And so you could graft in lots of different varieties into the same tree and you'll produce lots of different varieties of oranges or whatever citrus you want based on the grafts. So when he talks about the word being engrafted into your soul, keep that picture in your mind. The word of God changes you. It changes how you think. It changes what you love. It changes how you relate to people. It fundamentally changes you. When he says we need to continually internalize biblical truth, he's not saying, ha, be academic. He's saying, be sanctified. That's what he's saying. This kind of internalization is an essential part of disciple making. In other words, the way that he puts it is, you need to be involved on some level in this relationship of mentoring. Again, let me read to you what it says, what you have heard among many witnesses, commit the same to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. You see, there are different levels and different relationships within this thing called mentoring. Some are investing time and energy in instruction. Some are receiving time and energy in instruction. And some are receiving so they can pour into the next generation. This is what mentoring looks like. We all should be somewhere in there. Either we're learning to give or we're receiving to be strong to give. Whatever it is, we're looking to be a part of this whole process. So to put it in the simplest terms I can. Number one, be a mentor. Learn the truth from an older Christian. Number two, be a learner. Meditate on the truths that you are learning so they become a part of who you are. Number three, be an investor. Look for teachable people to invest your life into. Now if you are working with people, let's say a pastor or a missionary, the fact is that you're to shepherd the whole congregation. That means you're supposed to be there when they have spiritual needs. You're supposed to teach them and instruct them in the Word of God. But here is the bottom line truth. Not every person who's a part of the church has the same hunger for the Word. They just don't. You'll have somebody that you know they want to learn and they want to internalize because they're more serious than the person sitting next to them. It might be a sibling with another sibling. You might have two kids that grew up in the same house and one is passionate about the Word of God and the other one, he's there. Now, they both need to be discipled and mentored, but one is going to get greater focus. You know why? Because he's going to do it to somebody else down the road, and the other guy isn't. You say, well, that seems a little callous. That is what Paul said. Look for people who will be able to teach others also. He's not saying neglect some people in the church, he's saying invest more time, more energy into those that are willing to learn. Have you ever had someone that you were, because of maybe your work environment or whatever, that you were supposed to like teach them how to do a job, and you have this one person that they like absorb everything. And they just, they're like taking it in. And you're like, I don't even know if I have more to give you. You've taken it all. And they have another person, they look at you like, you have nothing to teach me. And you're like, why am I mentoring you right now? Because it doesn't seem that you have a heart to learn anything. That happens in every single context. It doesn't just happen in the corporate world. It happens in our families, it happens in the church context. We need to be the kinds of people that are hungry for the word, that we want to learn so that somebody who has knowledge and has experience would say, I wanna invest in you because I know that that's gonna be a good use of my time and energy. Then he says, be a mentor, teach them the truth so they can teach the next generation when you're both gone. Whether we like to think about this or not, it's just the truth. We're not here forever. Someday, somebody will be doing what I'm doing. And I hope that they're doing a far better job than I do. And someday, somebody will be doing the job that you're doing. I hope for the sake of the people that they'll be serving, that they do a better job than you did. The fact is, we want the generation following us to be building off of our shoulders what we learned. We want them to not have to relearn. We want them to have an experience that is very rich toward God and a great investment into the advancement of His kingdom. Truth number three. we must wisely shape young perspectives. All of us go through a maturing process. We all go through it. He says in verses three to six, he says, endure hardness. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that worth entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. He says, if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboreth must be first partakers of the fruits. Question, what is Paul trying to tell Timothy? Timothy obviously loves Christ. Timothy obviously is a faithful guy. Timothy obviously has good theological instruction. He's received it from Paul. He has a good mentor. He has someone who's given him a great perspective. So what is Paul trying to say to Timothy? This is what he's trying to say. Timothy, it's not just what you know, and it's not just your commitment to hold fast to what you know, but it's the perspective you take into the arena where you engage in what you know and you give it to other people. Your perspective is huge. You know why something like pre-marriage counseling is so important? It's because a couple needs to hear from a pastor, hey, one day, after you get married, you're gonna have this kind of a conversation. They're like, well, how do you know that? Well, because I've gone through this myself. And they're gonna say, when this happens, here's how you resolve that issue. And they're looking at you like, that ain't gonna happen. It'll happen. I can't tell you the day. I can't tell you the circumstances. It'll happen. A lot of pre-marriage counseling isn't just about teaching something that someone does not know. It's about shaping their perspective so that when they're in a context, they'll go, I get it now. I can handle this now. I can navigate this now. I can pick up these tools and I'm not blindsided by what I'm going through. That's ultimately what Paul is trying to do to Timothy. He's trying to shape the perspective of a young man who's a bit on the naive side, and I don't use the word naivety in the sense that he's a bad person. He just doesn't have experience. It's like what Solomon says to his son in Proverbs 1. He says, I've written these things to give subtlety or craftiness to the simple to the person who's naive or inexperienced, to the young man knowledge so that he has the information to make good decisions and discretion, he has the ability to put it all together. So a person that has a heart that wants to do right and is passionate about it needs perspective as well. Young Christians need mentoring from older, more matured Christians for this very reason. And so there's specific things he says, for one, Be prepared to persevere by God's strength. Verse 1, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Christian life isn't easy. It is not an easy life. It's not easy to do right. It's not easy to stand up by yourself in a context where you're going to suffer for it. It's not easy to have somebody look you in the eye and say, I could care less what you believe. I could care less what you think. But there's a disdain and there's an arrogance toward the truth. It's hard to watch people whose lives are falling apart because they're blinded to the truth. And when you try to help them, you become the enemy. That's hard. And so he says, endure hardness, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Verse number two, he says, deliberately focus your energies, commit to faithful men. He says, look out for people that you can invest in and do it. Submit to Christ's authority when life is overwhelming. Verse 3, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. This morning in Sunday school we had a panel that talked about some of the dynamics of being a military family or a military individual and some of the burdens and the challenges and the struggles that they encounter and we as a church can minister and help them. The fact is that if a person has gone on a deployment and they've been in the line of duty and they've been in a combat scenario, there are things they've experienced that their family has no concept of. There's no way they can wrap their minds around it. They have to endure hardness. And the truth is, it's not just in the physical arena that this happens, but when it comes to walking with God, there are times that we have to endure hardness as a soldier as well. Don't act like you're above the law. In verse 5, he says, strive lawfully, and he uses the analogy of an athlete, and he says, don't cheat. That's what he's saying. If you want to be crowned, you've got to play by the rules. You've got to do right. You can't just pragmatically cut corners. You've got to be principled. You've got to be diligent. That's the point. And verse six, be patient as God grows his church and enjoy the blessings of seeing him work. Verse six says that the husbandman must labor and be first partakers. Anybody ever had the fleeting idea that you could sustain your family by growing food? Let me tell you something. You try that, you'll probably starve, okay? I'll just be really honest about that. It's a lot harder than it looks. You know, you get some chickens, you're like, oh, these chickens are going to be great. I'm going to be eating all these eggs all the time. Then you realize, well, I got to feed them. And by the way, they get sick. And then, you know, how do I take care of them when they get sick? Oh, man, you know, just put the seed in the ground, you water, and that's it. And then all of a sudden, you see all these bugs come, and they decimate this wonderful crop that you have coming. You know, you're counting all this fruit that you're going to bring in, and when you get done, you get like one out of the 20 that you thought you were going to get. And it certainly doesn't look like what you got out of the grocery store. Farmers are engaged in a tough work. Ministry is, too. You have to be patient. You have to make adjustments and learn. There's nothing sweeter than seeing God bless. It's the truth. I could say that firsthand. There is nothing more sweet and humbling, too, than seeing God do a work that you have no power to do. It's a really sweet thing. And the truth is, all of us can see that if we're willing to step into the arena. We all can if we're willing to step into the arena. It's really easy to sit on the sidelines and say, oh, they're not doing it the right way. But they're doing something, aren't they? The fact is that Christian ministry is hard, but it's sweet. And so the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy, Timothy, as a young man who has a heart that loves Jesus, and as a man who has solid conviction and is principled, I wanna shape your perspective so that you won't quit, so that you won't give up. That's what he's saying. And you know what? Our children need this too. They need this when it comes to raising their families. They need this when it comes to just living in a very secular and a very progressive and a very evil generation. We need this. So how do we apply this? Let me give you some very simple closing thoughts. My first question is this. Are we seeking to develop rich relationships with other Christians? Some of us are very, by nature, relational people. Some of us aren't. Whether you are or whether you aren't, it does not mean that you should say, ah, relationships are tough for me, I'm just gonna step away and let other people do that. Don't do that. You don't have to invest in everybody, but you need to invest in somebody. Are you continuing to learn and to grow as a Christian? It's really easy for us at a certain point in our Christian experience to go, you know, I've heard all those Old Testament stories. Pastor gets up, he opens up the Bible to a text, and you go, man, I've heard 50 passages. I've heard this preached on 50 times. Hopefully what you're hearing the 50th time is in line with the other 50, okay? However, Just because you've heard it doesn't mean you don't need to be reminded of it. Every time we come in contact with God's Word, it is a new rich opportunity to shape us. It really is. I eat cornflakes religiously. I don't know why, but that's every morning, and I make my bowl of cornflakes and I eat it. And If I one day decide I'm just not going to do that anymore, I haven't, you know, I've eaten cornflakes, you know, thousands of times, I guess I'm going to stop eating cornflakes. And if I'm just not going to eat anymore, guess what happens? One day you won't see me here. The fact is I need to eat every day. Maybe not every day. Pretty much every day. You need that continual feeding. The Word of God is like that. Every time we come in contact with God's Word, it's shaping us. Are we purposefully investing in the next generation? This is a conscientious matter. It does not happen accidentally. It's deliberate. It involves some sacrifice. It involves some setbacks and frustrations and a willingness to step forward again and again and again. Does our perspective reflect the perspective that Paul is instilling in Timothy? I look at this text and I say, may we as his people invest in the lives of others. No matter what our station in life is, may we invest in others. It's not just good for them, it's good for you. It's a sweet thing. It's not easy, but it's needed. May God help us. Let's bow for prayer. Father, please take the Word of God and use it in our hearts. We desperately need to be a generation of mentors, a generation who's willing to be molded by the Word of God. Father, help us not to be lazy. Help us not to make excuses. Father, help us to be willing to step outside of our comfort zone a little bit and get involved in the lives of others. Father, help us to not be satisfied sitting on the sidelines as a critic. but help us to engage in the struggle for your glory. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.