Ishmael LaBiosa: We continue our message series through Second Timothy, and today we must take multiplication seriously. ⁓ Christianity does not pass from one generation to the next without intentionality. And so Second Timothy is Paul's last words, and he is giving Timothy instruction on how to be intentional to pass. The glorious gospel from one generation to the next. This is our responsibility, by the way. It's our responsibility not only to live a Christian life, but it is our responsibility to make sure that once we are gone, we have done all that we can to make sure the gospel is passed on. We notice that Jesus did not minister in solo. He picked twelve disciples and poured into three. We notice that Paul did not minister in solo. He always had people around him passing things on. It's been interesting to me to just watch not just churches, but even organizations that keep their culture. That means from one generation to the next, they keep a certain culture ⁓ among their people. And it really is amazing to watch. One particular place that impresses me with their culture is a fast food restaurant, Chick-fil-A. They impressed me. ⁓ Chick-fil-A was actually started by Truett Cathy, who was a Southern Baptist. Did you know that? And his Christian ideals influenced the way he set the culture at Chick-fil-A. I mean, not that I'm against McDonald's. I kind of am because I don't think it's real food, but nevertheless, my children eat it. Okay. ⁓ Go get a burger at McDonald's and go get a chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A and notice the difference. ⁓ One is like here. And the other is my pleasure. Now, why is that the case? Well, it's because Chick-fil-A actually thought you ought to be intentional about training up the next group of workers. And I'll give you some of the things that they do that clearly was influenced, True Cathy was influenced by his Christianity, that maybe we ought to think about. We're not passing on chicken sandwiches. We're passing on Christianity. Here's some things that they do that maybe the other places don't do. Number one, they hire for character and then train for skill. You know, most places when they get somebody say, I want to get a job, they're like, Well, we got an opening in the shift, and you're a warm body, and we need a warm body, so you have a body, and we need a warm body, you're hired. It's not the way it works out at Chick-fil-A. When they interview future employees, they want to notice a few things. Are they nice to talk to? Do they smile? Do they have a warm presence? Do they seem to be generally people of character? I think that's a very different approach. And then, by the way, they hire the people, not based upon the skill on the resume, but the character, the perceived character, the person in front of them. But then they don't leave character just with no training. They say, if you're gonna work here, number one, you don't only give the chicken sandwich, you make eye contact. So it's not enough to deliver the goods. You gotta deliver the goods and you gotta make eye contact. Also, they had they tell their employees they have to learn how to smile. I do think it'd be interesting, and there's been like experiments about this. One of the ways to create a more cheerful, cheerful church is to just once you walk through the door, you have to smile. You're like, no, Rusty, that's awful. I just fake it. I mean it'd be amazing if you walk through the door and you just make yourself do this. Like I am not happy, but I'm smiling. You know, it actually changes the culture of churches and businesses if you just tell the people, I'm sorry, no long faces allowed, smile, I don't care if you want to or not. And then they monitor tone. They say you must speak in a friendly tone. So no, like here's a sandwich. You know, here's the sandwich, same words, but makes a big difference. And then one that I know they do. And so I've known a few guys that work at Chick-fil-A. And so I just I just do it. I'm still in debate if it's deeply Christian or not, but I've done it so ⁓ the Lord can convict me because they'll give you my chicken sandwich and I'll say thank you. And they have to say, My pleasure. And then they'll say, Can I get a can I get one of those sauces? And they'll give it to me. I'll say thank you. They say, My pleasure. And then and then I and at one time I was up to about fourteen my pleasures, and the guy's looking at me like I know what you're doing. And I said, I'd just say it how many times you would say it. And they're like, I gotta keep doing the bosses right there. I'm like, well, thank you. My pleasure. But I had a good time. ⁓ But you know what? It's still nice on 14 to hear still my pleasure rather than you know, it's interesting. Then notice they this is the other thing, they do this. Training is specific, repeatable, and measurable. They actually, in many businesses, they're like, here, watch a video, which people don't watch, or here's a handbook, which they don't read. They move people from station to station. First of all, you have to manage the sauces, then you have to manage bagging, then you manage the headset, then you manage the window, then you do the breading, and then you do the boards. It's like you gotta do one before the other, and that's the reason. That they still have a 95% accuracy rating. It's not by accident, it's by repetition. Also, job advancement. People know what the next thing is they can do. You you move from team member to trainer, from trainer to area or shift leader, from shift leader to director of function, and then they say you work here long enough you can own a franchise. They know the next step in the process. And then ⁓ Lot of people who work in fast food, ⁓ they're gonna do something else. And Chick-fil-A's fine with that. They say, Tell me what you wanna be. They say, I want to be a nurse, I wanna be an engineer. Fine. We wanna keep you as long as we can keep you. So tell me your exam schedule, or tell me your doctor's appointments, or tell me this, and we'll work with you because we want you to work here and enjoy this until it's the right time for you to go somewhere somewhere else. And then the culture's just enforced. Some of some of the things closed on Sundays. One of the few businesses in America that still closes on Sundays. Modest dress ⁓ is enforced ⁓ there. You don't show up dress however you want. Food safety is non-negotiable. And then these scripts like my pleasure and the eye contact, they make sure they happen. Now, all of that training makes you enjoy the experience a great deal more. But whether you went to Chick-fil-A ten years ago or you went yesterday. You still kind of chuckle because you know what you're going to get. And that's the level of intentionality for what is sometimes called Christian chicken, Chick-fil-A. But I often wonder the level of intentionality that we have to pass Christianity on to the next generation. I actually hear some parents say, Well, I'm not gonna put this too much on my kids, I'm just gonna kind of let them figure it out. Well, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? You know, you just let people figure stuff out and the things they're going to figure out. That's like, we'll just, I'll just not do any discipline, and I'm sure I'll wake up one day ⁓ self-disciplined. That's crazy. Christianity to be passed down must be done with deep intentionality. And we see today in 2 Timothy 2, verse 1 through 15, some of the intentional things that Paul tells Timothy that he needs to do to make sure this unbroken chain is. Continues, three big ideas today and three big illustrations that guide passing it on. The first big idea is to multiply. We must be intentional about passing on what we have learned. Verse one says You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Timothy, Paul's child in the faith, is to be strong in the grace of Jesus, not in his own strength, but in God's grace. But what we notice here is the mechanism of multiplication. It is Jesus to Paul. That's the way it worked. Paul to Timothy. But then Paul says, not only to you, Timothy, but Timothy to faithful men who will teach. Others also. You have a multi-generational passing it on. You know, one of the things that I'm a bit worried about ⁓ with message series is I don't want us to miss the obvious. We'll spend about six, seven weeks in Second Timothy. And we'll get to the end of the series, and here's the question Do you have anybody that you're intentionally pouring into? You say, Well, I'm too young for that. Okay, do you have anybody intentionally pouring into you? The good news here is tons of small group opportunities, tons of Sunday school opportunities. The women just started a women women mentoring program. You can use what we offer here to help you, but this is not something that we should have to program. This is something that you should just live. This is something that ought to just be normative in the Christian life. And here's one of my big takeaways. Don't leave this message series without your Paul or without your Timothy. Don't do it. Because in some ways, I'm up here talking to the air if the most basic truth of this message series is not followed. Paul says, Timothy, I'm passing it on to you. You pass it on to faithful men who will pass it on to others. And so this is such a basic truth, but one in our individualistic Christianity. I'll focus on my own Christian life. I'll do my own thing. As far as pouring into somebody else, I'll see if I have time. Well, that may be how you feel as an American. It's not how you should feel as a Christian, because there, the Bible is our guide, and this is our guide for multiplication. Now, Paul doesn't leave. This up in the air, he says, you ought to tell the next generation to think through these three analogies. And so he describes these illustrations and then tells Timothy, these convey a lot of truth and should have meditation. Notice the second big idea to multiply. We must provide clear guidance about disciplined faithfulness to others. Second Timothy 2, verse 3 says, Share in suffering. As a good soldier of Christ Jesus, to please the recruiter, no one serving as a soldier gets entangled in the concerns of everyday life. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard working farmer who ought to be first to get a share of the crops. There are two ideas here that Paul wants to share with Timothy that we need to pass on the gospel, but we need to pass on these as well. He first looks at a soldier. Two big ideas here. Number one, the soldier is to suffer. Nobody signs up to be a soldier and is surprised when they get shot at. Because that's part of what it means to be a soldier. But plenty of people sign up to be a Christian and are taken aback when they get shot at. Like why did this happen? Why did bad things happen? I can't believe people think a certain way. I can't believe they reacted that way. Welcome to Christianity. Welcome to life. Okay? And Paul says the people you pass on, you not only need to pass on the gospel, they need to have some characteristics. One of them is that they're willing to suffer a bit as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And then the bigger idea here in the text, I think, is single-mindedness. A soldier stays focused on the mission. And a Roman soldier in the first century couldn't have a side hustle. Good moonlight. Couldn't have a little side business over here doing what he's doing. A Roman soldier had to stay focused. Now I I'll I'll be honest with you. ⁓ Melissa and I were talking this morning, we had a lot going on. And yesterday was a lot going on. And having a lot going on is not necessarily a bad thing. Okay? But when it becomes a bad thing is when you lose focus of what you're doing. You know, we need to say, and I need to say, I control the calendar. The calendar does not Control me. And in the midst of all the stuff we're doing, you ought to be able to answer the question, what are you doing? What is the reason for all of this? There are some times you knew you do need to be busy on the mission. The mission is busy. It's time to move. But Paul says the people that are going to be faithful to carry Christianity from one generation to the next. are going to keep that as a top priority. And honestly, I can see in a lot of folks, and sometimes my own life, that life just gets busy, and the singular priority of I need to glorify Jesus Christ with my life, I serve him uttermost. That ought to be the single minded focus of my life, and whatever else doesn't fit with that needs to go. Honestly, if God if if if Satan cannot defeat us in moral error, he can just defeat us in distraction. And Paul says, if you're gonna pass this on, you ought to have people who can keep their eye on the mission and they're not all over the place. Honestly, my question is can you demonstrate for people how not to be all over the place because you're not all over the place? It's fine to be busy. So ought to know what you're doing. The single-minded soldier has as his focus to please his commanding officer. That's the analogy. Then the second analogy that Paul tells young Timothy, if you're going to pass it on, you need to think about this one. He says, if anyone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. In first century Greek culture, which was all over the place, the Olympic games were played. We get our modern-day Olympics. From the Greek Olympics. And, you know, you can play the game, but if you break the rules, even if you win the game, you lose the game. My my boys the other day had cards out. And I thought, ⁓ yeah, I remember this. They had Pokemon. I don't remember Pokemon. I mean, of all things, most miserable in life, a Pokemon card, you know. I mean, ⁓ whatever, it's fine. They were they were enjoying it and they were They were looking at ⁓ and trading them back and forth. And I thought, well, you know, and I'm gonna talk like a forty-four-year-old, and I could care less. Back in the good old days, which whenever they were. I mean, we had cards with America's pastime, which is baseball, okay? My goodness. And you would not only get right here in town, you could go get yourself a pack of baseball cards, and included in the baseball cards was a stick of gum, okay? And I mean You nutrition people would go crazy. I took that stick of gum that was coated and I do not know what, and I broke it off in my mouth like hardtack, and I chewed it and I looked at my baseball cards, okay? And I am still alive and I got a yearly physical and he says, You're doing fine. Didn't hurt me a bit, you know. So there you have it. But ⁓ I mean we w and so what would we we took our baseball cards. I'm not off track by the way, I'm making a point. But you listen to this better than when I ex when I tell you what the Bible says, I tell you some crazy story and you're like I mean I guess what the Bible says, you're like I don't understand you p it really makes it hard to preach. I'm gonna tell you that. So I have you a good baseball s card protector had nine slots. Nine slots. You put one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two. Because you're not put it in that last spot because that's the place you would Turn the page. And you want to crinkle your baseball card. Because it's got to be in mint condition so you can sell it. Okay? And so I remember as like a nine year old, I had visions that I would never have to work again. Okay? Because because there was one particular player, he was larger than life, and he loaded the first three pages of my album. His name? Now I'm gonna date myself. Jose Conseco. What a man. Okay. I mean, Jose Conseco and Martin Maguire, the Bash Brothers baby. Okay? I mean, where everybody else looked like they had been on a diet. Jose Conseco and Martin Maguire walked around like this. They took the bat, they couldn't hardly bend their arms because their biceps were so big, and they could flat crank the baseball. Well. 2005, all my dreams were dashed. Because Jose Conseco published his book, Juiced, and said, Yeah, we were taking steroids like crazy. And you know what happened to my baseball collection? I just gave it to Scott, my brother. I said, You can have it. This ain't gonna be worth anything anymore. Because these guys who were larger than life. Their stats, their home runs. Now you laugh, but now think about this which you won't laugh about. A Christian who says they're follower of Jesus, a pastor who says he's a follower of Jesus, and then is not a person of integrity. You're like, well, these things aren't worth much anymore. It doesn't mean what they said is not true, but it puts a cloud over things. And Paul says, look, we don't need someone who's just single-minded. You need to pick people of integrity. And then he gives one more an analogy here. He says, it is the hardworking farmer who ought to be first to get a share of the crops. Now, this analogy is different than the other two because A soldier trains and trains and trains and trains, but a soldier is usually defined by a few battles. And if they're really good in that moment, even if their training wasn't great, they're remembered as really good. Athletes the same way. An athlete some some athletes are so talented that they can not train as hard, but man, in I mean, we're in football season now. I I played football in high school with some guys and and I worked hard. I worked out in the gym and I did all I was supposed to do and and I did the best I could, but there were a few guys who they could laze around, they could do nothing. Man on Friday night, they're three times as good as I was. Okay? But Paul puts his third i illustration. You know what's the difference between a soldier who can show up in battle and an athlete who can perform in a game? A farmer? You know what he has to do? He has to work every single day. You gotta get up and work. The sun has risen. You gotta get up and work before the sun goes down. And there's a grueling quality to this. ⁓ If you've ever tried to serve people, if you've ever tried to live out Christianity, there's a grueling quality to it. The hard working farmer. Just you gotta. I mean, we're seven day a week operation. I mean here. I mean if if you don't believe me, look at your proclaimer. It's got like a timeline on it. And you gotta show up and work every day. You gotta do a little bit every day. If you don't pay attention to it every day. And you know what I've come to find out? Some people they just you can't handle that. They're like, I gotta take a break every day. If I work a day, I gotta take a break a day, and I gotta work a day. Well, if a farmer did that, guess what happened to the farm? It'd be overgrown and shut down. And so Paul says, Do you do you see what needs to be happening here? I think I'm giving you this third point and I'll be conclude. These illustrations show the level of intentionality that Paul says, don't just pass it on to faithful men, but make sure that they can understand the protocols of faithfulness as they live out Christianity. Here's the third big idea, which really centers this on Jesus. To multiply, we can could we should consider that our faithfulness to Christ is the result of his faithfulness to us. Verse 7, he says, Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Which means these illustrations need to be thought about for a bit. But more than the illustrations that we ought to think about, we ought to keep in mind Jesus. Risen from the dead, descended from David according to my gospel. For this I suffer to the point of being bound like a criminal, but God's message is not bound. This is why I endure all things for the elect, so that they may also obtain salvation, which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy. If we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. While we need to work and while we need to strive to pass the gospel on, to be honest, it's ultimately Jesus who's working and striving. His grace is sustaining to see to it that his message continues on. And it's our responsibility to endure with Christ, to stay faithful to him. And yet there's a promise here in this text That if even if we're faithless, he remains faithful. Paul does have in view here people who seem to say they've believed in Jesus and then deny him. If you don't believe him, he'll if you deny him, he'll deny you. But even in our struggle and our difficulty, he'll continue to be faithful and carry us on to the end. Here's my appeal to you, church. Don't leave this series without a Timothy. Don't leave this series without Without a paw. And that if Christian organizations like a Chick-fil-A can be intentional about how main maintaining a culture so that you buy a chicken sandwich, I hope the Church of Jesus Christ can be intentional to make sure that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully passed from one generation to the next. This altar is open. This is not a perfunctory time of service. If you need to come and say, God, show me my Paul, show me my Timothy. This altar is open. If you're here today, you're not a Christian. There's never been a time, never been a place where you said, God, I admit I'm a sinner, and God by faith I trust in Jesus. If you were to die today, if you don't know where you'd spend eternity, I'll be right here. Pastor Ishmael will be here. We'll take a Bible and show you how you can be a Christian. I don't assume on any Sunday morning that everybody's a Christian. I don't assume that everybody's trusted in Jesus. You say, Rusty, what does it mean to become a Christian? It means you can't work for it. You receive it as a gift that Jesus gives you. You receive it through repentance, admitting your sin, and faith. And if you've never done that, don't leave from this place without knowing that your eternity is secure. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask you. God, we ask you that we would be faithful. in our life not only to live a Christian life but to encourage others to do the same. God, may this be a place of multiplication. And God I pray for the person today who's still very much isolated. Their life has consumed their schedule. They're undivided they're not undivided in their attention. And so God we pray that you would focus them, that their priorities would be put in order. God, that their ultimate aim would be to please you with their life. God, we ask for your wisdom and guidance in Jesus' name. Amen.