[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. During this time, missionary Jason Holt preaches on the subject of discipleship.
[0:15] I'd like for you to open up God's words to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter number 4. 1 Corinthians, chapter number 4. We're going to read a few verses here from this passage in just a moment.
[0:26] And as we're getting ready to head back, you know, you have all the thoughts of leaving and the thoughts of all the things that one would like to do if given the opportunity.
[0:41] We know clearly what the Lord has called us to do, being missionaries there in Chile. Spending time during this furlough with some of the guys that are going to different parts of the world kind of gives you a desire to want to be with them and head off over into Africa for a while or be over in Asia working in some of the countries and be a part of some of the things going on in different places.
[1:04] Even here in Vision, it would be great to be a part of the church plant that you guys are looking at launching over in Fulton County. I was born and raised a little further south of Fulton County in Clayton County.
[1:17] And even since I've been back, those that are from Atlanta know that there's been so much transition in that area of southern Atlanta. And I've thought so many times, even told my wife so many times, as we've driven through areas where I grew up at, where there were many good churches back in, you know, the 80s and back in that time when I was a child.
[1:40] And so many of those churches have gone. And there's just opportunities and needs and places. But, you know, we only can be at one place at one time. And God's called all of us to our place of service.
[1:52] And there's no doubt in my mind that God wants us to be in Santiago, Chile. But wouldn't it be neat if we were able to be in more than one place at one time? Hudson Taylor once said, If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for China.
[2:06] And the idea there, as he's saying that, is that one life isn't enough really to attack the need there in China. If I had two lives, then that really wouldn't be quite enough.
[2:16] If I had a thousand lives and could go in so many different areas of China, then what a great blessing that would be. I don't know if I'm the only person that kind of thinks like that. But so many times I think if there was another, if I could duplicate myself, it would be great to go over and work with the Bastions in Thailand.
[2:33] It would be awesome to go over into India and learn just a completely distinct culture from the ones that I've been exposed to. It would be awesome to be with the coffees down in. Well, it would be great to be with some of you guys.
[2:46] I'm just kidding, Mark. I just had to throw that in. So it would be great to be, you know, working in some of these other places. Paul, I think, had some of the same thoughts and some of the same desires.
[2:58] As we read through the book of Acts and we find that so many times he was praying and desiring to go into certain cities and certain regions and wanted to preach the gospel here and wanted to preach the gospel there.
[3:12] And sometimes God gave him the green light and sometimes he told him to stop and sometimes he directed him in other paths. And as we read through some of the letters that Paul wrote, we find that same thought process being echoed through many of his letters.
[3:28] I'm just going to read a few while you're waiting to read here with me in 1 Corinthians 4. But he said in Romans 1.11, For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established.
[3:45] He said, I long inside of me to be with you, to see you. And the reason he was saying that is because obviously he wasn't with them. He was in another place desiring to be somewhere else.
[3:58] When we were in Chile, many times we desired and longed to be back, to see friends, to see our home church, to see family. Being here in the States, we longed to be in Chile and to be there with the ministry and our family there and all that God's doing there in the country of Chile.
[4:17] And here Paul speaks of that. In Philippians 1.8, he says something quite similar. Philippians 1.8, The Bible says, For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
[4:31] The bowels of Jesus Christ, kind of an old Bible way of saying, with all my heart, from the deepest part of my being, I just want to be with you, but I'm not with you.
[4:43] He also goes on to say later in that same book, Philippians 4.1, Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
[4:57] And that word beloved is such a deep word, a rich word, that talks about the love and the commitment that he had toward these people and how he longed to be with them. In 2 Timothy 1.4, he says, Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy.
[5:19] Here he is writing Timothy and he's talking about how he wants to see him. And we know from history that 2 Timothy, being the last book that he wrote before, he was martyred for the faith, for the ministry that he had.
[5:33] And he's writing young Timothy, the last letter that he would pen. And he says, Man, I wish I was with you and I want to see you and I want to be with you, but I can't be there and I'm here and God's got a reason for it and I want to be over in that church and I would like to be over in that city and I've still got some plans and I want to go over into Spain for a while and preach and there's other places that God hadn't let me go, but I want to go.
[5:58] And that was kind of the mindset that we see Paul living in. And no doubt in a missions church like this, many times we can have those same thoughts and so many times there's opportunities to take short missions trips.
[6:12] And I know that some here were in South Africa just in the last few days and some are on their way right now to Burkina Faso and others will be headed out next week.
[6:23] We'll be leaving to go to Chile and what a great opportunity. But how can we be in several places at the same time? How can we be in many places at the same time?
[6:34] If we had the option to duplicate ourselves, to have three or four, imagine having seven or eight Jasons. Man, that would be a scary world, wouldn't it?
[6:44] But for me at least, it sounds like a pretty good opportunity, a pretty good idea. Although it might drive a lot of people crazy. But imagine that opportunity. Well, I think that that idea is a very biblical idea and I think it's a very possible idea and I think it's something not just for the ones that have given their lives to full-time service, living overseas and working as missionaries.
[7:11] But I think that God wants us all to be involved in working to be in many places and many times and we'll see here from this passage how we can do that.
[7:23] Look what the Bible says in verse number 14. I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. And here Paul is and he's writing this church and he directs himself to the church and refers to them as his sons.
[7:42] And he's speaking very bluntly and very candidly about some concerns he has about their life and their beliefs and what they're doing.
[7:53] And he says to them there that he's writing and he's not wanting to shame them, but he's wanting to warn them and he's writing them as beloved sons, is so dearly loved sons.
[8:05] Look what the Bible says in verse 15. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
[8:19] Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, Timothy, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways, which be in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church.
[8:42] Let's pray together and we'll see some applications from this passage. God, I pray that you would work in our hearts this evening and change us and help us to realize the importance of the message that we find here in this passage.
[8:55] And I pray that all of us will leave here with the renewed dedication of following the principles that we're going to see here from your word. I pray your name will be glorified and we will leave here to put into practice some of the things that we're about to see.
[9:10] We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if we're going to be in more than one place at a time, it all starts by having some children, by having some kids.
[9:21] Here, Paul, he writes the church and he refers to them as his sons in the faith. Then he says, I'm going to send Timothy to you and Timothy is my dearly beloved son.
[9:34] And you know, if we are going to be in many places at the same time, if we're going to try to reproduce ourselves, there's obviously no secret weapon and there's no replication that we can jump into a machine and push a button and come out three of us.
[9:50] Obviously, that's not what we're talking about at all. But Paul was able to be in several places at the same time through his influence and through the life that was reproduced in others and it has all to do with having some children spiritually, having some children.
[10:07] Look what this passage says in verse number 15. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, ye have, yet have ye not many fathers.
[10:19] You know, today there's so many teachers, there's so many instructors, there's so many books and there's so many podcasts and there's so many pastors and you can get on YouTube or wherever you might want to go and find resource after resource and instructor after instructor and someone to give you some kind of advice about whatever you would like to know inside of the Word of God and Bible study and the Christian walk and biblical exposition and so many things you can learn.
[10:52] There's so many instructors and we praise the Lord for that. But an instructor and a father are two different things. Someone that can just give you information is an instructor but the relationship Paul had here with these believers, he was a father.
[11:09] That means that he loved those believers and he cared for them and when they hurt, he hurt and when they were struggling, he was struggling and when they were doing well, he was happy and I think if you're not a father here this evening or a mother here this evening, then you might not be able to understand it as well as the parents.
[11:30] And I think some of you parents that are on into the latter stages of being parents and now you have children that are out of the house and they're making their own decisions, I think some of you can even understand these things maybe a little more than I can because here you are looking at a distance and spiritually speaking, I see our children in the faith in Chile and the decisions they're making, sometimes great decisions and sometimes not very good decisions.
[11:58] And since we've been here in the States, there's been times of rejoicing about all that God's doing and times of pain about some of the difficulties that are going on in the lives of our spiritual children and the bad decisions that they have been taking or maybe a few of them have gotten into things that have been destructive in their life.
[12:21] And here Paul, he's writing a church and they've gotten off course and they're teaching things that don't come from the Bible and they're involved in some sin that's not at all honoring to the Lord and he writes them and he says, I want you to know that I love you and you're my children and I care about you and you're dear to me and I'm not coming to you to kick you around or insult you or drop you.
[12:45] I'm here to help you and you can't get rid of me because we're family. We're not just in some kind of instructor-student relationship.
[12:57] And you know what we need today is inside of our church, our church, Vision Baptist Church, the ones that are gathered here is that we can adopt that way of seeing the spiritual relationship we have with others.
[13:12] That it's not just, okay, I have my spot in my pew and I'm worried about my wife and my children and my life and our things that we're doing but you know, everyone else, well, they have their own things to worry about but I'm not that concerned about them.
[13:30] No, that's not at all the biblical attitude that we find in God's word. But the Bible tells us that we're family. We're family. And you know what?
[13:40] When we talk about this family relationship and specifically what we're speaking of tonight is that we, as healthy members of God's family, we should be having spiritual children.
[13:51] There should be some people in our lives that look to us not just as some instructor and that's the reason we emphasize so frequently that foundations is not a lesson, a series of lessons.
[14:02] You've heard it, I'm sure, a million times if you've been around here for any length of time. It's not just giving some instructions but it's about being a father to that person and loving them and helping them and being concerned about them and the lessons is part of it but it's just a small part of it but you're there to help that person grow in their Christian walk in their marriage in their relationship with their parents if they're a young person.
[14:31] That's what God wants us to do. That's what Paul did. And if we're going to be in many places at the same time that all starts when we start having spiritual children.
[14:44] You know, having children is a lot more than just giving birth. We gave, I was about to say we gave birth. My wife gave birth and I watched for the first time a little over nine years ago and I remember being so scared as a new father.
[14:59] We got up and left, got on Bethelview Road and hopped on 400 and headed down to Northside Hospital and that was just about a month. It was really 29 days before we left for language school and Lori was about four days past her due date and we showed up to the hospital and Katie came along there some hours later and we had our first child.
[15:23] I remember as we loaded Katie up into the car seat and I was so nervous because I thought I'm not sure what all these straps are supposed to do and I'm not sure how to put her in and I got in the car and started driving back up 400 and I thought every car that came near I'm going like 45, you know, and I'm thinking any moment now something could happen and this little kid back here, I mean she's so small she might just like fall out the window.
[15:47] I mean who knows? If some of you knew parents maybe you had thoughts like that or maybe I'm just a weirdo, I don't know. But, you know, that was really looking back that was kind of the easy part.
[16:00] That was the fun part. The birth and, you know, the sleepless nights they were difficult and all those other things. You know, sure it was difficult but when they were so small and they slept like 20 hours a day oh to God that my children slept 20 hours a day.
[16:18] No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. But those days were so, they were fun. But we all know those that have older children that raising children is not about just birthing children.
[16:31] That's the first step in a long process but there comes after the birth years of commitment, years of help, years of instruction, years of love, years of correction, years of praying and trusting God that He'll do something in their lives and they'll be saved and that when they arrive in their teen years that they won't depart from the things of the Lord and it's just a long process and spiritually speaking it's not very much different.
[17:04] And our attitude needs to change radically and I say our because I'm including myself when we think about the local church and we think about soul winning and we think about sharing our faith and we think about new people being saved we should understand that those are souls, those are children that have been entrusted into our care as we serve the Lord and Paul goes on and we've already read it he says follow me in other passages he said follow me as I follow Jesus and here we find the process of raising children is so important.
[17:40] how can we be in more than one place at a time? Well it starts when we have spiritual children when we have spiritual children look what the Bible says here in verse number 16 wherefore I beseech you be you followers of me you know it starts by having spiritual children but you teach your kids more by example than you really do by your lessons and we all know about that many today want to be instructors but few want to be fathers and that can be applied to both physically the real world of tangible families or the spiritual side of the whole thing we need to be more than just instructors but to be fathers and to help them encourage them and say follow my example as I follow Jesus because it's more caught than taught I'm sure you've heard that many times no doubt they said of the disciples in the early days of the book of Acts that these men we can tell they've been with Jesus they've caught something that reminds us of Jesus and they had that testimony and that's what should happen with our own spiritual children look at verse 17 and this is where I want to settle in for a bit the Bible says for this cause have I sent you
[18:56] Timotheus he said back in the previous verses I love you and I'm correcting you I'm warning you I'm doing it as a father to sons and I want to be with you but I can't be with you and I'm sending Timothy and look what Timothy is going to do Timothy who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways so this Timothy he's being sent for this reason for this reason and I can just imagine as I'm sitting here in the states and thinking about the ministry going on there in Chile and thinking about the future days when no doubt will be spread out in many cities of Chile God willing preaching the gospel through many church plants that might be in different areas I guess I'll come on down here and I can only imagine being in one area and thinking about another area and because of circumstances not being able to get away at that moment and saying you know what
[20:03] I love you and I'm warning you and I'm helping you and I'm not mad I'm just concerned and I'm very very very I just had this intense desire to be with you to help you to correct you and to show you a lot of things that you need to know but I can't but you know what I'm going to send Timothy and Timothy you know what he's going to do he's my beloved son in the faith I love him just like I love my own family and I love him more than I love myself and he's just my beloved son and he's going to go he's faithful in the Lord and he's going to remind you of everything that I would say and Timothy in this passage and we see it in other passages he gets sent off basically as a little Paul to do Paul's ministry and Paul's work in another part of the world and here Paul is having spiritual sons in the faith and he's training those guys and spending time with those guys and loving those guys to the point that they become so much like Paul that Paul later can say you know
[21:11] I can't be in more than one place at a time but I can send you over there and I can send you over there and via my example and my life by proxy I can be in multiple places at the same time that's the biblical pattern that we find all through God's word let's look over in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 3 1 Thessalonians chapter number 3 look what the Bible says here in verse number 2 let's start in verse number 1 so we understand the context a little better I hear some pages turning still alright let's read what it says 1 Thessalonians 3 1 wherefore when we could no longer forbear we thought it good to be left at Athens alone and send Timotheus our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to what?
[22:15] to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith if you have time later read on down through like verse 6 and it just shows all that Timothy was going to do there and here's the part that really encourages me if we're going to be in many places at one time it starts by having children and we need to raise those children and they learn more by our example than they do by our words and with those guys with those children we can theoretically be in several places at the same time through our influence and through the things that we have taught them but here we find that Timothy was capable of doing it apparently just as well as Paul was and you know the exciting thing for me and I don't say this as a father of children that are adults and maybe in another 20 years I'll preach the message and talk about it about my own physical children but spiritually speaking it's so exciting to see how someone can be an unbeliever and be saved and grow in the faith and give their lives to the Lord and come to the point where you can send them to do the ministry or to preach a message or to organize some activity and you look back and you say you know what the truth is they did it just as good as I would have done it or you know what
[23:37] I think maybe they did it even better than I would have done it and you know God's called each of us to be involved in that am I allowed to be like real straightforward and blunt and frank do I have that liberty here I'm going to Chile so if I don't I guess you guys let's get over it you know I've heard since I've been here some of the let's start with the training center students then we'll move on to the church some of the training center students talk about we need more students or we need to recruit more we need to do this or we need that but you know the biblical pattern is we need to raise guys that can be in the ministry we need to have sons in the faith and sometimes we look up and we think up in the sense of whoever's ahead of us and look at the pastoral staff or look at the missionary staff and we think alright guys it's your responsibility to go out and find some guys that want to serve the Lord and send them back in and they can be part of the training center and that's really what up we look up and you guys need to do a little bit better of a job but the truth is student
[24:44] I encourage you you should be reproducing yourself amen amen there we go give myself a little bit of encouragement I feel better about it anyway I've heard I've heard some laymen if I can be a little personal talk about well you know here at Vision everybody leaves everybody's here they're here for six or eight months or twelve months or we have one song leader and he goes this way and another song leader he goes that way and another song leader and I think the one they have now they're like I hope he leaves no I'm just kidding you did a great job he wrote me on Monday and he said tell me what your message is going to be like and we'd like to prepare a song for it and I told him well it's going to be about having spiritual sons that can reproduce your ministry and be at multiple places at the same time and I said if you can find a song that goes with that you're doing a great job and he did it all starts with just one voice and then another person comes along and soon a mighty chorus man you did good and so one comes another comes and sometimes we have the attitude well you know we need some people to stay and I agree with you wholeheartedly we need people we need goers and we need senders and goers we need to be reproducing goers and senders and senders need to be reproducing themselves as well amen and as a 35 year old man or a 55 year old man or a 45 year old lady or a 17 year old young person or whatever it might be in your particular stage of life what if we were to decide today that we would do whatever it takes to reproduce ourselves and have one other person that's following the Lord and serving the Lord and with time it's going to take a long time for those new believers to grow up that's the reason why we didn't come back to the states for six years and two months because we decided we wouldn't leave until people could run the ministry the guys from Chile and so it took a long time to get people ready for that but what if you were to decide
[26:44] I'm going to make a conscious decision to win people to the Lord but then to go a step further and to take them adopt them as my son or daughter in the faith and I'm going to share with them and I'm going to love them and I'm going to hurt with them and I'm going to rejoice with them and I'm going to be with them and there for them and it'll be a lot more than an instructor it's going to be family and they can count on me and they can call me and I'm there for them and I'm going to be there for them and imagine in five years if there were two or three more like you sitting here today wouldn't that be incredible have you ever heard the illustration about would you rather have a penny doubled every day for a month or would you rather have like a hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars or whatever number they use have you ever heard that and you've you know as a kid you always thought oh I'd rather have ten thousand dollars but then you start doing the have you guys how many have actually calculated out or seen it and you understand how it works raise your hand all right I want to understand who I'm talking to there's like seven of you okay good the rest of you you can google it when you get home and you'll figure it all out but basically the concept is if you double a penny every day by the end of the month you're going to have a ton of money that will be way more than ten thousand dollars way more than a hundred thousand dollars way more than a million dollars you'll have a lot of money if you were to double it every month a penny the first day two pennies the second day four eight sixteen and just keep going up by the time you get to thirty you get to a lot now let's switch that over that same idea over to disciples what if you were able in 2012 let's cut you some slack by February of 2013 to have another person that is not at your level per se but has already accepted the Lord and they're growing they're reading their Bible they're coming to church they're giving they're sharing their faith and they're making huge strides and they're getting close to even being ready to help out somebody else well what if in 2013 there's two of you and you double yourself by 2014 and you double yourself by 2015 and I would have to take off my shoes to get to the next stage but you get the idea now the numbers if you start calculating it out after ten years because of your influence there would be right at about a thousand twenty four believers following Jesus if we do that every year just doubling ourselves in ten years in twenty years hold on now twenty years guess how many we would have it's just a little over a million in twenty years if you keep that pattern going you see where we're going after about thirty years you're getting around a billion mark of people
[29:32] Philip's looking at me like there's no way that's a lot of toes buddy I tell you what you get everybody in Thailand everyone without their shoes on and you probably still wouldn't have there's a lot that's a lot of people so what's the thing for us that we should take away from this God wants us to reproduce ourselves and we can be in many places at one time if we start today having children in the faith and we decide we're not going to be instructors to them but we're going to be parents to them and you know what's going to happen you lead two or three to the Lord and maybe two or three are not going to want to follow through but if you lead five or six or seven and you keep loving all of them there's going to be two or three of them that are going to stick with it and want to grow and want to follow the Lord so don't get discouraged when the first one kind of bells out we had a like 97 bell out before we had a few stick in chili so just stick with it and trust the Lord and know that God's going to use your efforts but it is possible to evangelize the world but it's just not the missionary's job it's every Christian's job and it's not that difficult when we think about just reproducing ourselves finding somebody that we can love and we can teach and we can help and we can share just like we do with our kids sometimes we correct them many times we correct them many times we teach them but we're just there and we're going to be there for them no matter what happens how many would just say this evening with me
[30:59] Jason I'm going to make a commitment you don't have to put a time frame 12 months but you're going to make a commitment that you intentionally work at in the next few months sharing your faith with the purpose of following through with that new believer and building a relationship with them so that you can help them grow to maturity you don't have to raise your hand I want you to make a decision with the Lord and let's decide that we will be faithful in reproducing ourselves and through our influence maybe in 20 years we won't reach the numbers of a million but maybe we can have imagine in 20 years if you had several hundred people just like you imagine the impact that could have in this community and around the world let's go Lord in a word of prayer Father I thank you for the opportunity and so many times we think I wish I could go there I wish I could be with this guy
[32:00] I wish I could spend a few weeks in this country I wish I could stay here and envision and just really help the ministry grow I wish I could have a part in this upcoming church plan and I know there will be more church plans in the next few years and I wish I could have a part in those as well but I pray that you would help us to grab a hold of the biblical concept of sharing our lives with others and pouring our lives into others and sticking with it and realizing it realizing it's not an instructor student relationship it's family and that's the way you want it and I pray that we would change our way we view it and that we would live according to that and that your name will be honored through it all and we ask this in Jesus name you have been listening to Jason Holt Michigan Chile for more information on Vision Baptist Church log on to www.visionbaptist.com