Let's open our Bibles to 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6. We're looking at following Jesus in the aspect this evening that we begin with as we complete this description of how exactly to do that is that following Jesus is also the proof of salvation. In fact, John, writing at the end of the apostolic age, the apostle John, the last living, last remaining voice of Jesus Christ in this world, writing the scripture, said something that we really need to heed this evening. He says that following Jesus is not only the call of every believer, it's also the test of true salvation. Verse 6 of 1 John 2, He says this, whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. It's a very absolute statement. So salvation is more than just reciting the correct creed. It also involves walking as Christ walked. The evidence, the proof is in the transformed way of life is what John is saying. So discipleship is all about learning to follow Jesus. Going and making disciples is going and bringing people to the point not only that they embrace Christ, but they embrace the lifestyle of following Christ. And that is so vital. Although the word discipleship is common, and it's a term that's used constantly in many churches, we don't seem to see Christ-like people developing as readily as it's talked about. Discipleship is just everywhere talked about, but the product is sometimes scarce in the church. We live in a land where millions of born-again Christians are suffering from acute biblical illiteracy. We live in a land where many believers are enslaved to culture-accommodating lifestyles. It's a critical time for us to reassess how God's Word says to train people to become true believers of Jesus Christ, true believers that follow Jesus Christ. A generation ago, one writer put it this way, He said, perhaps the greatest single weakness of the contemporary Christian church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all. And what is worse, they do not think it's strange that they are not involved. They're only involved to the point of joining something. They're not involved in actually causing what they are a part of to enlarge and grow in the lives of individuals. They're just participants by donating in their presence, not by actually doing what Christ left all of us to do, to follow him and to make disciples. As soon as we recognize, this writer said, Christ's intention to make his church a militant company, we understand at once that the conventional arrangement cannot suffice. There's no real chance of victory in a campaign if 90 plus percent of all the soldiers have never been trained and are not involved in the battle. But that's exactly where we stand now. That's a thought to ponder. It'd be interesting to see if we truly assessed in our fellowship how many are truly disciple-making disciplers. It would be fascinating. In analyzing the Gospels, and if you were to read all 89 chapters, and I encourage this all the time, it's a wonderful process to actually for yourself take a section of scripture and look for one thing, one concept, one subject. But if you were to analyze Christ's ministry pattern, We would find in those 89 chapters that no less than 17 times Jesus ministered to the multitudes there I mean if you take and harmonize the Gospels and and don't just have four different versions of the same thing But just look at his entire three and a half year ministry. You'd find that there are 17 multitude teaching sessions that Jesus actually is recorded as teaching in those 89 chapters and But Christ's small group sessions recorded in the Gospels number no less than 46. It's almost a three for one ratio of large group to small group. Although this is just an observation. we could conclude that Christ's plan was to offer a mix of 25% public training, that's a large group session, and 75% small group nurturing in discipleship, in hands-on demonstrations of how to do it, and accountability to see whether it was done. So if we are just going by observation, Jesus was a three-for-one. For every big group, he had three small group sessions. John Wesley, a great advocate of discipleship almost 300 years ago, wrote these words. He said, That's his way of saying that people that are just born again without being discipled are so quick to slumber back into their old ways without that nurturing. So in the year 1743, and by the way, he wrote that in his journal. One of the fascinating things to read is John Wesley's journal. He wrote in it almost every day on horseback. And with the new Google Book Project, you can actually read very close to the original version of that for free online. It's fascinating. I was reading it this afternoon. But in 1743, in his journal, he organized a society. And you all know that today as the Methodist Church, and I'm not going to comment on where the Methodist Church has gone in their doctrinal position, but at the founding, John Wesley was a powerful force in the hands of the Lord that spun out some of the most amazing ministry around the world. But this is what he wrote in his journal. He said, I'm starting a society. A company of men in form, seeking the power of godliness, united in order to pray together, to receive words of exhortation, to watch over one another in love, so that they may help each other to work out their own salvation. Remember how Paul said, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure? He said that that is, Wesley said that is to be mutually worked out. Well, the rest is history. From Wesley's ministry, the Methodist Church began and spread across the world in evangelism and missionary work. What's amazing is that Wesley saw the need for not just group gatherings. He had massive group teaching sessions, as many as 20,000 and 30,000 at a crack. But he organized all them into smaller bands of of a kind of a group that we would call a large Bible study, but then he organized the entire church into groups of four. And those four made a covenant and a commitment and stayed together and had a lifelong covenant to pray for one another. It was the same men together, women together, the same status in life, basically the same age, and they made a commitment to go through life together. And the short of it is that Wesley's church transformed the decadent English culture. into the potent force that sent out the generation of missionaries that we read their biographies. It's amazing. Christians that were baptized into the hope of both eternal life and newness of life are often not successful in living Christ out in practical everyday ways. In other words, we just had a baptism last week and they were buried with Christ in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection and Paul said that's to newness of life. All the believers that come to Christ that are baptized, they're buried with Christ and they come out newness of life and often they don't know how to live that life in everyday ways. It's just a concept. It's not often a reality. This most likely is because the biblical concept of teaching in the church has transformed into more of a telling or pointing to available resources rather than a lifestyle demonstration. And that's where we are in Titus 2-7. Titus was to be a pattern, not a pointer, not a teller. He was to be a demonstrator and the church was to be filled with demonstrators. In fact, if you turn back to Hebrews 5 with me, you're in 1 John. Back up a little bit to Hebrews chapter 5. This is not new. This problem, this more talk than walk has been around from the beginning because nurturing is very hard. But look what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 5 and verse 11. He said, we have much to say about this. He said, there's so much more I could teach about this. But it's hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers. He said, you should already have graduated into becoming disciple makers. You should be already nurturing people. You should already be a pattern for others to follow. You should be finding your group of four or your larger group and multiplying yourself. when for the time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. What he's saying is you're not getting out of preschool. You have a big body and a little experience of the knowledge of Christ. You need the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. In other words, hasn't experienced them. They're just concepts that have not yet been experienced. They're just at an arm's length of distance. They're just ethereal. They're not concrete. But solid food, verse 14, is for the mature. How is maturity measured? Who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. They're actually engaged in practicing the spiritual truths. In other words, no discipleship equals spiritual immaturity. That's what the Word of God is presenting. That's why it was so vital. That's why Paul discipled disciple makers. That's why he deployed Timothy and Titus and told them that the rule for the churches and the emphasis of the epistles was in nurturing in the Word of God more than just the saying the truth. It was patterning and having the church filled with those who pattern the truth. Okay, what does spiritual immaturity look like? In other words tonight, If you look at these little charts, there's all kinds of health charts. In fact, it's hard to look at all of them. They say these are the signs of this and the signs of this and the signs of this. And if you're 40 and this shows up, you need to do this. And if you're 50, you need to do this. Let's do a spiritual health chart. What are the signs of spiritual maturity? In other words, what are the signs that you have not been discipled and need to be discipled? need to get out of this milk stuff of Hebrews 5 and need to get out of spiritual preschool. What are the signs? Well, there are just some ways you can tell someone hasn't been discipled. Number one, they have a marginal desire for God's word. In other words, they're biblically illiterate. They hardly know how to find their way around the Bible. They don't know the books. They don't even understand how it all fits together. It's just they're biblically illiterate and they can't tell the difference between a Ben Franklin saying from poor Richard's Almanac and the Bible. They just they just kind of and so they don't comment on anything because they're not sure or they walk in the flesh. They don't know the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit. They just think everybody lives the way they live, and they don't even understand that they are walking in the flesh. Thirdly, they have few works of faith. There's no evidence of being filled with God's love to serve others. They aren't prompted by the Spirit to give. They've never been nurtured in these basic, simple disciplines. They're easily swayed and deceived by false doctrines. That's a sign of not being discipled. They're stuck in basics. There's no growth. They have a limited desire for fellowship with other believers. You almost have to drag them to things. They have a strong desire for worldly possessions. They have all kinds of selfish ambitions. And they are spirited in their competition. They love to compete and excel over others. And that is not commended in the scriptures. They have a difficulty in repenting and forgiving others. They lack compassion for the lost. They think the missionaries should have that. They're not actively assisting in the spiritual development of others. If you ask, who are you personally involved in spiritual life? They go, what? What do you mean by that? How? And they don't understand this idea of being actually connected to someone else. They have a limited sense of God. They know little of his character. They certainly can't understand his will. Their life is filled with fears, anxieties, and there is a distinct absence of peace. You say, well, how could discipleship affect that? Discipleship is someone older than the Lord saying, you know, I see in you that you're a fearful person. You shouldn't be so fearful. The Bible says that right between sodomy and witchcraft is fear. I mean, it's right on the same level with God. The fearful, the unbelievers, the effeminate, the abusers of themselves and mankind. Read Romans 1. God just lumps those all together. And it's bad. So you shouldn't be so fearful. You should not be anxious. And I'll show you how not to be anxious. Casting your cares on Him. And that is not just a sermon they hear. It's a person that sits beside them and says, Did you hear that? You heard that and you're still fearful? Let me show you what the Bible says. The most repeated command, negative prohibition, is fear not. They have also the presence of covetousness. They're boastful. They're prideful. They're manipulative. They're trying to have their way. There's ongoing financial difficulties in their life. They often live far beyond their means and are in debt. And in a nurturing-discipling relationship, the person discipling them would say, I noticed you always have everything new. How are you paying for all this? I said, oh man, you know, I just have my credit cards. Did you know that the Bible says that that is not the way that you are to live? that you're in bondage to those that you're in debt to and you cannot freely serve the Lord anywhere and you certainly can't be prompted with a spirit of sacrificial giving if you're totally in debt. And besides that you're showing like this world is your home and that kind of nurturing would help them see that their financial difficulties are sinful. Often they're seekers of pleasures. Their lives are marked by a lack of discipline both physically mentally and spiritually. You know physical lack of discipline is a spiritual issue because it's supposed to be our spirit controlling our mind telling our body what to do and most people have that whole thing flipped over and their body is controlling their mind telling their spirit what to do and they don't really have their thoughts in captivity. There's only partial victory over sin. There's nonexistent or lackluster prayer life. There's little or no time or sincere interest in worship. There's no accountability to anyone for anything. And there's a very small degree of grace and mercy toward others and self. And that's just a short description of what people look like that have never had a true nurturing lifestyle of discipleship. And so there's no spiritual growth. And that's why Christ's first words to his first disciples should be our first priority. Let's go back to 2 Timothy 2 and see how we solve this and hopefully learn a little bit more about what it looks like to follow the Lord. We're looking at the model to follow and basically The Apostle Paul gives seven areas that were to be addressed in Timothy's life. Seven areas that God said these are the areas that demonstrate you are following Christ Paul says this is what you need to pay attention to This is what I was working on as you traveled with me Timothy And this is the enlargement of what Paul was doing with Titus number one We saw in verse 19 20 in the first half of 21 is that a grace-energized representation of Christ must have a life that's clean and And we looked at that. So Christ living in my life and through me energizes me to live this life that's clean. The end of verse 21 where it says sanctified and useful for the master a grace energized young man will keep their body as God's instrument to do his will. As Christ constantly desired and said we continually say not my will. My body wants to do your will. So when Christ lives in my life and through me I not only have a life that's clean I have a body that's yielded Thirdly, if you want to look at verse 22 of 2 Timothy, this one should already be underlined and marked. And if you are taking notes, the third element is this, a grace-energized representative of Christ must have a heart that is pure, because it's where the Lord lives. He dwells in our hearts. And it says in Ephesians that Christ may be at home in you. It doesn't mean just merely living in us, but at home. that his surroundings are that which pleases him. This is what Paul says, flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. You see we are to be pursuing the disciplines and the people that cause us to be pure hearted people. We we must not pursue those things that cause us to have impure hearts and Christ energizing us causes us To have a heart that is pure Robert Boyd Munger said in his little booklet my heart Christ's home is what he entitled it that we have to constantly be looking through our life to make sure there's no closed rooms in our life, kind of like off-limits places. We should have everything that is unlimited exposure to Christ in our life, not little secret hidden places we don't let Him in. And grace-energized young men will guard their hearts, they will renounce their flesh, they will purge themselves from any filthiness of the flesh or of the spirit. Now that's not just kind of gracious words. Those are actual scriptures. And I'd like you to turn with me, and in my Bible I have a little arrow that says 2 Corinthians 6.14. So turn back with me to 2 Corinthians 6. And starting in verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 6, we find this description of what God wants for our hearts. How he wants us to be having a heart that is pure. Paul exhorts the man of God, who is pure in heart, that he will see God. In 2 Corinthians 6, 14, we see the way that Christ living in us changes our habits and desires. And it says in verse 14, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. We are supposed to be around them and close to them and ministering to them and seeking to give the gospel to them, but not yoked to them, not in partnership with them. In fact, this word actually is the word that's used for marriage, and this is the key place that says that believers are not to marry unbelievers. And if you don't marry them, you shouldn't be engaged to them. And if you shouldn't marry them, you shouldn't even date them. In fact, you shouldn't even go out with an unbeliever, because it is heading toward, I'm talking about in a dating relationship, because it's heading toward something that is a sin. Because it says, what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Believer is righteous unbelievers lawless and what communion has light the believer with darkness the lost person and what accord has Christ the believer with Belial the unbeliever what part has a believer with an unbeliever what agreement has a temple of God the believer with idols the The idolatrous lifestyle the unbeliever for you are the temple the living God now. This is what I We are heart His temple. This is how God looks at us and what He expects from us. Verse 16 in the middle. As God has said, I will dwell in them. He lives in us, in our heart, in our life, in our spirit. I will walk among them. I will be their God. They will be my people. 17. So that's an assertion, an absolute. That's what is the characteristic of believers, God living in us. Remember even the Christmas story, thou shalt call his name Jesus, which being translated is God with us. See, he is God with us. He is Emmanuel, the one who saves us from our sins so God can live within us. But look at this, verse 17, therefore, what's the therefore for? It's what precedes it, because God lives in us, because Christ dwells in our hearts. Therefore, because of that, Now look at these imperatives. Come out from among them. That's an aristocratic imperative. And be separate. Separate yourselves, says the Lord. Here's another one. Do not touch. That's a present imperative. Constantly do not touch what is unclean. So we are to be characterized by coming out from among them. It doesn't mean ostracizing ourselves from the world. not being at home and embracing worldly lifestyles and becoming enslaved to them. It is a separation. Be separate, says the Lord. Be distinct. Be given over to me. Have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness. And do not touch that which is unclean and I will receive you. Verse 18, I will be a father to you. You'll be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. What he says is you aren't going to experience the joy of being my son, my daughter. You're not going to know the assurance of your salvation if you are unseparated and if you are constantly involved with evil and wickedness. And now look at verse 1 of chapter 7 because it's the conclusion of this thought. And when Robert Stephanus was dividing up the Greek text to publish it in 1550, his horse must be at a bump because he cut the chapter in the wrong place, or Lankton, whoever did it. So look at verse one. Therefore, and again, the therefore is looking back at this whole section, this quotation from Isaiah. This is what he says. Having these promises, what promises? I will be a father to you. You'll be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Having these promises, beloved. So he's talking to believers. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. This is an ongoing, lifelong choice to have a heart that's pure, a body that's yielded. You understand this concept, this whole idea, a life that's clean? This idea is we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. We don't immediately, boom, just are perfect just like this. There is a maturing. This idea of perfecting is maturing. Maturing holiness in the fear of God. We grow in our fear of God, we grow in this desire knowing that thou God seest me and we grow in our desire to not displease him. There's nothing we can do to make him love us anymore or any less but we learn and we grow in our ability to please him in all that we do. God is not pleased when we have filthiness of the flesh or filthiness of the spirit. Filthiness of flesh is deeds we do, of the spirit is attitudes we have. He does not want us to have our hearts defiled by these things. And the benefit, Isaiah 33 and we won't turn there, is a beautiful verse that says that when we do this our eyes will see the king and his beauty in the land that's far off. The Lord says that he is one who will let us see him. Remember Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for what? They see God. And the writer, I mean, Isaiah said that the more we are pure in heart, the more we clearly see our King and His beauty. Isaiah 33 and verse 17. Well, Christ living in my life and through me energizes me, number one, to live a life that's clean, number two, to have a body that's healed, and number three, to have a heart that's pure. Look at verse 23. The fourth element, a grace-energized young man must have a mind that discerns God's way. Notice what it says in verse 23, avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing they generate strife. You need to have a mind that's discerning of what God says is worth focusing on. Grace-energized young men cultivate the mind of Christ. They invite the wisdom that's from above. They think the Word. Now let me show you this. Look at James chapter 3. I'll just demonstrate this in one passage. We could go through many. In fact, we spent a long time looking at the whole word-filled life, Colossians 3, 16 and 17, and letting the word fill us. But just one small example is in James 3, 13 through 18. And this is what James says. He says, So how do we show that we have the wisdom that is prompted by God? Well, negatively, he says, 14, If there's bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart, then you're lying against the truth. So bitter envy and the self-seeking negates God's leading us and showing his will. Verse 15, those who are characterized by the bitterness and selfish seeking, this wisdom isn't descending from above. It's earthly, sensual, demonic. So how do we know when we aren't operating with God's wisdom? He tells us, verse 16, where envy, where there's this constant envious spirit that I don't like what your privileges or your possessions or whatever you have, where envy and where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. Have you ever been involved in something that maybe you're discussing and all of a sudden it just seems to get so confusing and it just doesn't make sense? That is not from the Lord. The Lord is not the author of confusion. And so he said what characterizes this non-wisdom from above, this wisdom that's from beneath, is that there's envy involved, self-seeking, confusion, and every evil thing. And then he says this is what I want you to have, verse 17. The wisdom that God sends, that is from above, is first pure. Remember? Pure. A heart that is pure. A life that's clean. There's this purity that God seeks. Is first pure, then peaceable. Gentle. Willing to yield. Not wanting always to win and have their own way. Full of mercy and good fruits. Without partiality. Without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace So what the the scriptures tell us is that we should always remember we're living in this crooked and perverse generation And we are supposed to have a life that has the wisdom from above and we shine as lights because we know God We know his way we have a confidence walk in life, as it says in the scriptures, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength, and in returning and rest is our salvation. And the Lord said, O that you would hearken unto me, then your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. That's what God wants. So Christ living in my life and through me energizes me to live a life that's clean, a body that's yielded, to have a heart that's pure, and a mind that's discerning, that knows the wisdom from above. But back to 2 Timothy, we've got to get there because there are a few more. 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 24. And if you're marking this, it says in the 24th verse, and a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all. Must not A grace-energized representation of Christ, fifthly, has a manner that reflects Christ's meekness and gentleness. The pattern that Timothy was to live was that he had the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. He was not quarrelsome. He did not fight. He was gentle to all, able to teach, and patient. Grace-energized young men will stay meek and gentle in the power of Christ's Spirit. We do this by taking Christ's yoke. He promised. Remember Matthew 11, 28 to 30? Come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. That meekness, that gentleness. And these grace-energized young men will grow the fruit of the Spirit of God unhindered in their life. And what is that fruit? Well, one of the expressions or manifestations of the Holy Spirit is meekness. Meekness. What is meekness? When we surrender to allowing the Spirit of God to direct our personality, we find Christ's meekness. When we surrender. And meekness is the opposite of asserting ourself. Meekness is the ending of our personal agenda. Meekness is living daily as crucified with Christ. meekness. Remember Moses was the meekest man on earth, it says in the scriptures. Do you know why? Because he had completely surrendered his life as a vehicle for God. He was one who had a manner that reflected the meekness and gentleness. And that's why it was so uncharacteristic of him when he got, you know, when anger caused him to allow the people to get between him and God and he started striking the rock. And the Lord said, you are such a bad example that you're not going to, you disobeyed me and did such a terrible thing because the rock was Christ and it was picturing Christ and Christ is not to be struck he was only once for all crucified and so there's a lot of spiritual implications there so he didn't get to go in the promised land but the bottom line is that Christ living my life in and through me energizes me to have the meekness and gentleness of Christ And so when Christ is at work in us, our life is clean, our body is yielded, our heart is pure, our mind is discerning, and the manner that we live reflects Christ. We wear his yoke. Even that yoke picture is a discipleship picture. The idea is a yoke had two sides, and always the new ox was yoked to the mature one that knew the way to stay straight in plowing. They never put two novices and they didn't usually need two really skilled. They would allow one to be the leader and to teach and guide and cause the other to follow. And that is what Christ says. We need to be yoked to him and learn meekness. Look at verse 25 of Second Timothy 2. This is the sixth element of seven. A grace energized representative of Christ must have a spirit that is humble. The only way to change people is through God's Word. And so it says in verse 25, "...in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth." As Timothy was ministering the Word, and as we minister the Word, and as I said, this whole section on young men begins with encourage the young men. Don't force, don't demand, don't pound. plead with them and encourage them. And you see the same thing here. A spirit that is humble in humility correcting those who are in opposition. Grace-energized young men will clothe themselves in humility. Colossians 3.12. They will wrap up in the apron of a servant, as Peter said, to the elders he served. Now we have to look at that one. That one is so good. Turn to 1 Peter 5. This is one of the most beautiful pictures of this humble spirit we all are to have, especially leaders. And this is the example that Paul is talking about, about clothing ourselves in humility. It says in 1 Peter 5, verses five and six, that we are to wrap ourselves in the apron of a servant. The humble mind of Christ comes into us and the choice we make, and I start in verse three because it's just a beautiful section, it says, elders, verse three, are to not as be lords over those entrusted, but being examples to the flock. So elders are to be examples of this humility. Verse four, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away, if you're an example as an elder. Verse five, likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and, here it is, be clothed with humility. Why? Because, the end of verse five, God resists proud Christians. That's what he says. We're talking about believers here. God resists the proud, but He gives grace. And that word forgive is He constantly is pouring out. If you want to have a stream of the most marvelous, wonderful product that God offers to us, He pours out His grace on the humble. And that's the way to get the stream of blessing is to humble ourselves in His sight. Now, what Peter said is that in verse 5, There are two commands or imperatives. The first one is be submissive. The second one is to be clothed, which literally means, in the tense of it, clothe yourself. It doesn't mean let someone else do this to you. We don't want everybody else to humble us. That's not the idea here. The idea is it's a personal choice. The Greek word, clothe yourself, is eg kombio, which describes the white apron, towel, that a slave wore as they served their masters. When you go to a restaurant, A lot of times they have these little aprons they wear and they have their little order pad there or wherever, you know, sometimes they stick it in their back pocket. But a lot of times they have an apron to show that they're a waiter and they wipe their hands out and everything. That's nothing new. The slaves of the first century wore special aprons to show that they were slaves. So Paul, or Peter, takes this word for the word egg combio means to put on a slave's apron. So this is what he says, all of you clothe yourself with the apron of a slave. That doesn't mean go out and run to the supply store and get an apron and start wearing it to church. It means to clothe ourselves, to come into ministry for Christ saying, I am your slave and this is my service, your church. And that's supposed to start with the elders. And then it says, likewise, everybody be like that. What Peter was thinking about is in John 13, when Jesus washed his disciples' feet, he first, and the same word is used, wrapped a towel around himself. It says in John 13, he girded himself with a towel. He wrapped around himself the apron of the slave. That's exactly what this word means, and Peter probably could still see the Last Supper And that night, vividly in his mind, Jesus quietly arose from the meal, walked to the corner, picked up the apron towel that no one else would lower themselves to wear, and did the foot-washing work of a slave. That's what Jesus did. And Peter said that humility that Christ seeks in his church is one where everyone from the elder to the newest believer all take the slave's apron, all clothe themselves with humility. Why? because anything less than a life of humble slavery to God for others meets the daily resistance that God says he will provide. If we don't become slaves to one another, God said, I'll resist your life. Finally, look at verse 26 of 2 Timothy 2. We're gonna finish, okay? Back to 2 Timothy. Christ living his life in and through me energizes me to have a life that's clean, A body that's yielded, a heart that's pure, a mind that's discerning, a manner that reflects Christ, a spirit that's humble, that I want to wear that apron. Finally, a heart that's compassionate like Christ. Look at verse 26. And that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. Do you know sometimes the people we minister to are captivated by the devil and they do his will? When a Christian is a bad testimony for Christ, they are doing the devil's will. When a Christian, in fact, I said this when we were on the Grace Energized Women, When a Christian speaks things that are not to be spoken, that are slanderous, they are actually becoming a tool of the devil. Satan's name is the slanderer, the one who makes accusations. And so right here in this verse it says, believers can be taken captive by him to do Satan's will. And we're supposed to gently encourage them to come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil. Grace-energized young men will put on a heart of compassion, Colossians 3.12. They will clothe themselves with Christ, Romans 13.14. And when we are clothed with Christ, we are moved as Christ was for others with compassion. We will receive from Christ the blessing of sharing with Him this heart of compassion. So, ask yourself, how am I doing it following Christ? Do I represent Him well? If not, Why not stop right now and renew your decision to be a grace-energized, personalized follower of Christ? Because Christ living in my life and through me energizes me to live a life that's clean in God's sight. That's the important qualifier. A body that's yielded to God's work. A heart that is pure as God's home. A mind that's discerning of God's way. A manner that reflects Christ's gentleness. A spirit that's humble to the ministry of God's Word in a heart that's compassionate like Christ. As 1 John 2, 6 said, if you name the name of Christ, then walk the way he walked. And that's what followers of Christ are all about. Let's bow before the Lord in prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word. It amazes us. Your love surrounds us. And we want your spirit to prompt us and energize us to live a life as representatives of Christ. And I pray that you would challenge and stir each of our hearts to where we can live out Christ in our daily lives. And we ask for in the precious name of Jesus, amen.