 Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to the session. Let's begin this time with the word of prayer. So I request maybe any one of us can lead us in prayer at this time. Let's go ahead. Anyone can lead please. That's great. What a God we come before you. And also Lord, pray for each one of us in the classroom at Lord's room of the FNP and also for the gather, guide us to the end where we come with a special prayer. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you Zeddy. Alright, so we've almost come towards the end of our teaching content. So last class we talked a little bit. I know that many of us will be here last class. Oh, you were in Mangalore? Yeah. So if you've missed it, those who have probably missed the class, you can just go online, go back and just listen to the session so that you'll be able to track along with us. Okay, so we're in chapter seven, right? And last class we talked a little bit about, you know, the characteristics of a spiritual father and mother. We saw the difference as well of who a spiritual father is and a spiritual teacher. But we ended that whole portion by saying that a spiritual father can be a spiritual teacher. A spiritual teacher can be a spiritual father, right? And the main goal of a spiritual father or a mother is to raise up a person from a place of immaturity to a place of maturity, right? And very important to remember is that, you know, when we are ministering to people and we say, okay, people consider us as a spiritual father or a spiritual teacher, it's very important to be in a place where we feel that, you know, it shouldn't be like, I know everything. The scriptures teach us that we are all changing from glory to glory. We all have this very important aspect of learning and growing into the things of God. So just because people consider me or you as a spiritual father or a mother doesn't mean that that's where I stop, right? It is a place where we continue to grow until we meet the Lord, right? And so now we'll just look at a few aspects on a beautiful lesson on Paul and Timothy. I'm sure many of us have read the book of Acts and seen the life of the great apostle Paul and how he was able to mentor and spiritually raise up this young Timothy to being a leader, right? So let's look at this, right? Second Timothy 1-2, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at this, my dearly beloved son. Now, Timothy Paul is considering Timothy as a son, right? And he can do it not only because of his age. So we know that the apostle Paul was probably about 50 years old when he started in his first missionary journey and by the time he met Timothy it must have been at least a year or a year and a half later. And Timothy was probably about 17 or 18 years old just in his teens, right? And so when Timothy probably looked at Paul, he looked at him as a father. And I'm sure Paul also looked at Timothy as a son. But it was more than just the age factor. Here Paul is referring to Timothy as his dearly beloved son in terms of a spiritual nature, right? So let's see the first point here. There was a divine connection, right? Look at this, Acts 16-1-2-3. Then he came to Derby and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was then named Timothyus, the son of a certain woman who was a Jewish and believed. But his father was a Greek, which was well reported by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium, right? Now, Lystra, Iconium, Derby, these are all the churches in Galatia, right? Verse 3, him who Paul would have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters for they all knew that his father was a Greek, right? Now, look at the way God has orchestrated this. Apostle Paul has finished his first missionary journey. Going into his second missionary journey and he said, okay, let me go and visit the churches that I planted in the first missionary journey. So he's going there and then he meets this young man named Timothy, right? And the church in Derby said, okay, this person, Timothy, look at his testimony, which was well reported by the brethren that were in Lystra and Iconium. So people had a good report about him. Hey, this young man, 17 years old, living a good life. He knows probably he knew the scriptures well and then he also believed in the Lord Jesus. He had this certain kind of a gift inside of him where people noticed it, probably. And when Paul saw Timothy, there was a divine connection. That's so beautiful. See, if you look at it, Iconium, Lystra, Derby, Poseidon, Antioch, right? All these churches, there were probably plenty of people, plenty of young people in these churches and many of them were also good believers in serving the Lord in the churches. But there was something that attracted Paul to Timothy. It was a divine connection. It was not like Timothy was just maybe a good-looking person. It was not because of the physical nature of who Timothy was. It was nothing to do with physical. There was a divine connection. So when Paul saw Timothy, maybe the Holy Spirit stirred his heart saying, Take this young man and get him connected to the team. So what did Paul do? Very wisely, he goes, he takes Timothy. So Timothy's mother is a Jew, father is a Greek. And if you look at it, it's always, you know, a person is always acknowledged by the father. So when people saw Timothy, they saw him as a Greek because his father was a Greek. So what did Paul do? He goes, he sets up a divine connection and he sets up things in Timothy's life and he gets him to be circumcised so that the other Jews don't question him. And immediately after that, Paul, this young man joins Timothy, the young man joins Paul in the Second Missionary Journey. And just, can we picture, when we read it, it may sound, yeah, so what? Now remember, this is Apostle Paul. His level of maturity was so high. It was a time when the churches are being persecuted. It was a time when, you know, Paul is, he has this vision of starting and planting churches and he's taking this young man, Timothy, and Timothy had probably a hundred other choices in his life. But he decided to go with Paul. And that became a beautiful divine connection there. And so sometimes, God may send Timothy's into your life or send you as a Paul to other people's lives. You may be the person who will just open the door and you let Timothy come in and then after that God may put you aside. Remember what God did to bring Paul into the ministry? In just a few chapters before this, God chose Barnabas. Barnabas went, found Saul of Tarsus, brought him to Antioch. They ministered there. Barnabas gave, if you notice, that everywhere in the book of Acts, whenever Paul and Barnabas were there, Paul was preaching more than Barnabas. Barnabas was just probably just in the back seat, right? And then God used Barnabas to bring, just to open the door to ministry for Paul. Then after that, we hardly hear about Barnabas. Hardly we know about his ministry. I'm sure they all would have done wonderful ministry. But there was a Paul that God was wanting to use greatly. So very important lesson. When you and I look at young people or we get opportunities to be a Paul to somebody else, don't look at their failures or don't look at what they are at that moment. And I'm sure Timothy, they spoke good of him, but it's probably not well-versed with the scriptures. So I told him, okay, you should learn the whole of the Old Testament. And then I'll come back after my second missionary journey. And then after some time, let me see if you know it and then I'll take you. No, he didn't have any kind of thoughts of that. So he just said, okay, Timothy, you've got a good report. There was a divine connection. He said, come on, let's go. And it was not a connection that lasted for one or two years. It lasted for a long time. Here Paul is writing in 2 Timothy, which is his last letter. He raised up Timothy to this place of leadership, put him in Ephesus, in one of the most difficult churches to lead and raised him up as a leader. So I'm sure when Paul looked at Timothy, he didn't look at him as a 17-year-old boy, but probably Paul looked at Timothy as a pastor leading the church in Ephesus, doing God's work. So it's very important that we learn to be sensitive to those divine connections that God brings into our life. Secondly, let me share this. When I was in my early 22, 23, there's this young man. Young man in the sense he was in his early 30s that time, very fervent. So he would come to me and say, hey, why don't you come and preach here and preach there? And I never really understood why. Why is this person normally asking me? I hardly knew anything. But now when I look back, I say, okay, God, you used that person. He was a simple man. He was a tailor. He was just a simple tailor. But God used him to open many doors of opportunities for me. And so when people, when God opens these doors, it's not necessary that it has to be a pastor. It has to be a prophet. It has to be an apostle or a worship leader now. God can use anyone. For me, it was a tailor. God can use somebody else for you. I don't know where is he. I do keep in touch with him every now and then. But he's a simple man, very, very simple. But he opened so many doors of opportunities for me. So those divine connections are important. Secondly, a special bond is created. 1 Timothy 1-2, unto Timothy, my own son. Look at that. My own son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace be to you. Again, 2 Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Here again, 2 Timothy 2-1, my son. Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 4-17, for this cause I sent to you. Timothy is who is my beloved son. This is during the Second Missionary Journey. Paul writes this letter during his Second Missionary Journey. And he's saying, 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. Look at this. In a couple of, probably within a year, Paul is saying, I'm sending Timothy, my beloved son, who is faithful in the Lord, and Timothy will remind you of my ways, that is Paul's ways of being in Christ. Look at the trust and the bond that has already been built up between Paul and Timothy. Now, we know that the Corinthian church was a troubled church, wonderful church, a lot of troubles, a lot of problems going on inside that church. So Paul is saying, I'm sending Timothy. Now, can you picture this? Timothy, a young boy, is going to a church where there's so many problems, all matured believers, people are prophesying, speaking in tongues, gifts of the Spirit are there, and this young Timothy is going with this letter which Apostle Paul wrote, and when they're opening it and saying it, they're saying, oh, Paul is calling you, beloved son, and Timothy, you are going to teach us the ways of Christ. Okay, sit, teach us. Look at that. It's so powerful. So there was a special bond, a special relationship that had been created between Paul and Timothy. I can only imagine. They are sitting in a ship, Paul and Timothy, and Timothy is saying, okay, Paul, it's a four-day journey for us. So now you tell me, tell me something about your life, and Paul is just narrating everything that's happened in his life. Tell me, how did you, you know, on the road to Damascus, what happened to you? Why did that happen? What did you feel after that? We may not know it, but Timothy may know it. Timothy may have asked Paul, Paul, after that, you went to Arabia, you were there for three years, tell me, what did you do there? How did you manage? How did you, what did you eat? When you prayed, what happened? And maybe, you know, when persecution comes, Paul, what do you think about? How did you manage these persecutions? Weren't you afraid? You see that, like a father and son just sitting and talking. You can see that beautiful picture, right? Yeah, that father and son moments. Paul considered Timothy as a spiritual son, and Timothy definitely looked up to Paul as a spiritual father. It was both ways, right? You know, Timothy could have said, I am not doing this. I can't do this. I'm too young for this ministry stuff. I don't mind sitting in one place and serving in a church. But Paul, to come with you, I have, I'll have to get shipwrecked, beaten, I'm put into prison. I'm not ready for this. I'm too young for all of this, no. He probably may have felt it, but he said, no, I'm going to stay with Paul. And I know the calling upon my life. This special bond was created. Thirdly, a special closeness and transparency, right? Second Timothy 3, 10 and 11, but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity and patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lister, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me, right? Paul not only shared the good things of ministry, you know, when we see a person's life changed, and we see a church being planted and many lives being changed, that is the greatest and the most beautiful thing to see in ministry. It is the most beautiful thing to see. It's so fulfilling to see a person who was living in sin, saved by the power of the Holy Spirit, living a holy life, and we're seeing that it is, you know, you can come to a place and say, God, I thank you for seeing this, for letting me watch this. But Paul did not just show Timothy the good things in ministry. Paul allowed Timothy to see and know who Paul was really, the pattern of his life. Look at this. You've known my doctrine. That means what? What I'm teaching. You know it, Paul. I've told you the doctrine. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Son came into this world. He, and we know the Apostle Paul's doctrine. It would have been so powerful. The manner of life. You say, okay, you saw me. I was persecuted. I was beaten. You saw me. I didn't give in. I didn't give up on the ministry. You saw the purpose for which I live. Timothy, you know that if, you know, if I die, it's good. I'll be with the Lord. If I don't, you know that I'm going to be here and I'm going to continue the ministry. That's my purpose. That's the only thing God has called me for. Then there's faith. Timothy, you've seen the faith that I have. When I was in prison with Silas, you saw. We were praying. We were singing songs of, rejoicing and singing songs of praise. And the whole prison came crumbling down. You saw that. You saw the long suffering. You saw the challenges that I went through. The shipwreck, the beaten. Three times I was lashed. The 40 minus one. Beaten with rods, stoned. You saw that. Do you think it's fun? It's not fun. Then you saw the way that I love. Charity is love. The way I loved the church, the way I loved each one of you. And you saw the patience in which we worked with you. Right? Remember that Paul was in Galatia. Sorry, Timothy was in Galatia. Remember the Galatians, what they did? They went back to circumcision. Paul was patient with them. So what is he saying here? Timothy, it's not only the good things in ministry. It's wonderful. But it's also the challenges that we will face. And Timothy, you have to be ready to go through whatever the ministry calls you for. It could be a difficult time. It could be mountains that you'll have to face. It could be challenges from people, from the enemy, from our leaders, from rulers. You've got to face it. But you also know that God is with you. So what did Timothy do? Timothy responded by following the pattern and patterning himself after what Paul saw. Look at that. Can you picture this? Can you picture the apostle Paul chained up his hands or chained up his feet or chained up? And he's saying, Timothy, you write this. And Timothy is wondering, why don't you just take a rest? You know, they've beaten you. They've scourged you. Why don't you rest? No, no, you write this about the church. And then I'm going to send you to go. Timothy, you're not afraid of being, I'm sorry, Paul, you're not afraid of being beaten. No, no, all of that doesn't matter to me. And so now Timothy is wondering, okay, how do, what is this? What kind of person is this man? Look at his focus. Look at his vision. Look at this zeal in which he is, you know, fulfilling the purpose of God in his life. I want to be like him. And so Timothy responded by patterning himself after what he saw apostle Paul. Do you think when, you know, Timothy went to Ephesus and there was persecution, do you think Timothy would have said, okay, sorry, I would not believe in Jesus? There's no way that would have happened. Why? Firstly, because the Holy Spirit was inside of him. And secondly, he would have seen the apostle Paul. They said, do what you have to do. I'm patterning myself from apostle Paul. I've seen him. I've seen his life. If he was beaten, if Jesus was beaten and my spiritual father or my leader, the apostle Paul was beaten for Jesus' sake, how much more should I not be willing to take out of this? I'm sure he would not have even worried about it. He patterned himself. Right? So there is this closeness, this transparency, totally communication of specific instructions. First Timothy 1.8. This charge, I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. Look at that. So Paul is reminding Timothy here and he's saying, Timothy, according to the prophecies that were placed upon you and spoken over your life, hold on to those prophecies and fight a good warfare. He's saying hold on to those prophecies. Maybe people have prophesied, hey, one day you will be a pastor. One day Timothy, you will go to places and God will open doors for you and you will be looking after, you will be ministering to people, you will be healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, you will be raising up the dead. And Timothy is this young boy wondering when will all this happen? But Paul is saying, Timothy, according to the prophecies that were spoken upon you, you fight a good warfare. Look at this instruction. Paul is not saying, I'll come, I'm there, I'm coming there to fight for you. He's saying, you fight a good warfare. So there are some things. Whether we have a spiritual father, whether we don't have a spiritual father or mother, there are battles that we have to fight on our own and nobody can do it for us. There are some battles we fight on our knees. We go back and we fight and we say, God, this is a battle that I'm facing, but I know that you are there with me. So I hold on to the prophecy of your Word, I hold on to the Word of God and I'm going to trust what you have said in your Word and I will declare this over my life. Let me share what happened. I just wanted to share this. In the year 2000 and I think it was 2008 or 7 or 8, some of that, my eldest brother, he had a problem and basically he overdosed and he was rushed to the hospital. We went into the emergency and they hooked him up and said there's no heartbeat. There's no heartbeat. We can't get a heartbeat. And at that moment, I was not a believer. He was probably 26 years old at that time. At that moment I said, God, the Word says you have come to give life and life in abundance. I know that this is something that we have sinned against you and this is the result of doing something wrong, but you are greater than this. You said you've come to give life, so I stand on your scripture. That was probably one of the few verses that I knew at that time. I said, the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come to give you life and life in abundance and I stood on the scripture. I remember it very clearly. I said, I thank you that my brother will live. I went back, I parked the vehicle, I came back. He was sitting and having juice. And I asked the doctor what happened. He said, I don't know, he just sat up. They didn't do anything to him. You know, when we have the Word of God, it is the mightiest weapon that we can use to fight a good warfare. I can tell you so many examples. When my father was down with COVID and his O2, his oxygen was on 50%, he's about 72 years old. When I spoke to the doctor, the doctor said, there is no way he's going to live without a ventilator. We could not find a ventilator. There was no ventilators available. And they said, it's going to be probably three or four days more. That's it. We remember standing on the Word. What does the Word say? God, this is what your Word says. It's holding on to the Word. And he walked out of the hospital. The doctor said, we don't know how his O2 has come up to 95 in one night. So he can be discharged. Evening he was discharged. Let me tell you something. The Word of God, Hebrews 4-12, is alive. It's powerful. It is tougher than a double-edged sword. So when you are fighting this warfare, you got the mightiest weapon, which is the Word of God. And you hold on to the Word. See, these visions and prophecy and Word of Knowledge, all of that is good. We need them. It encourages us. Hebrews 1, what does it say? In these last days, God has spoken through his Son. John 1, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. His Son is Jesus. His Son is the Word. So I want to encourage all of us, all of us, right? There will be challenges. There will be things that we will go through. Ups and downs is a part of life. But you have the Word of God. So you have to fight the good warfare. Sometimes we may be very easily saying, you pray for me so that this problem goes away. There are people who pray, what are you doing? You got the weapons. You got the Bible. I've got the Bible. I've got the Word of God. We use it to fight the good warfare. And Paul is writing to Timothy saying, according to the prophecies, you fight a good warfare. 1st Timothy 620, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so-called. So he's saying, be committed to the truth. The NKJV thinks as the truth. Avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions. Paul is telling Timothy, teaching him what to do and also what not to do. And what to avoid. What you do is you keep to the Word and what you don't do is talk profane, vain babblings, oppositions and all these ideas and new doctrines that try to enter the church. Stay away from them. Don't spend time on that. Spend time on the Word. Spend time on the truth of God's Word. First point, communication of encouragement, exhortation and correction. This is the, I would say encouragement and exhortation is fine, but correction is somewhere, you know, sometimes as leaders it is one of the most difficult thing to do. Paul gave Timothy very good encouragement, positive encouragement. Again, one of the toughest things in ministry is to administer correction, but we have to learn how to do it lovingly, positively in an uplifting way. Now, if you don't correct a person, your Timothy, then the very thing you allow will become a disease that will eat into their life and destroy them. It becomes a disease. Any disease, if it's left untreated, it's going to eat up your body. It's not always, you know, I know it's written here, it'll become a cancer, but there are different kinds of diseases that can take control over you. So as a leader, you must be willing to learn to administer correction. And I remember as a, you know, at a very young age, you know, sometimes you're very zealous for God and we want to prove a point. So I remember when I was, just became a believer, I used to spend, I don't know, maybe four, four and a half, five hours in prayer. I was young, I had nothing else to do. So I'd come back home from work and I would start at six, seven sometimes, go all the way up to eleven, twelve at times, and then I would have my dinner and just sleep. Now that became a habit and there came a time when I would meet young men and women, youth, probably my age or maybe a little older, and the first thing I would ask them, how was your prayer life? I'd say, yeah, I prayed, how long? Yeah, twenty minutes. I would get so upset. I would really get upset. I would say, you know, I remember telling them, twenty minutes of prayer. Okay, what was the prayer about? I'd say, oh, thank you Lord for the TV and for the fridge. Thank you for good life and the sun and the moon and the stars. So that's what you prayed for, twenty minutes. But they had big problems in life. They would say, you pray for me. So I don't pray for you. I would be so zealous, but then I learned that that's not the way to do things. And so over time, I thank God for teaching me and helping me to remove that attitude of, you know, only I can pray and I can do this and I can do that. It really humbly broke me down there. And so it could even be a two minute sentence saying, God, I love you and I thank you for my life. I could be so powerful, then a five hours of prayer and God really ministered to me. So there were times that I had to, you know, people, young people, I had to correct them. You know, giving positive and loving feedback, that's wonderful, uplifting. That's wonderful. But in times of correction, I remember giving correction to people and many of them have taken it in a good way. Some of them have not. But it doesn't stop you. This is part of leadership. You look at leadership anywhere in the Bible. Moses corrected Joshua. Joshua corrected the leaders, you know, everywhere, everywhere, right? It's part of ministry. Correction in life is doing a spiritual surgery. It hurts, but it has a positive result. It has a positive result. If somebody takes that correction and works on it, it has a positive result. So don't stop yourself as a leader. Don't stop yourself from correcting people. But we correct it in love. We're not correcting to show that, okay, I'm better than you, or I know more than you, but we're correcting so that the person that you're ministering to is built up, is encouraged, and there's a positive result. And you see that person growing into maturity. That's the whole point of bringing correction. And we see the Apostle Paul, I'm sure, has done all of this to Timothy. He must have corrected him. He must have shared things with him, told him, do this, don't do that. And that's why we can see that, you know, Timothy went on to become the leader of the pastor of the church in Ephesus, right? Sixthly, communication of genuine cause. Again, we talked about this, right? Paul didn't just say that, okay, join ministry, everyone will, love you, everyone will call you pastor, everyone will say good job, and if you applaud it, no, Paul didn't smooth talk Timothy. He laid out the things, he said there's a price you will have to pay. It's going to be a difficult time. It's not as easy as it looks. It's not like ministry that we see now. You book a flight, you go to a certain place, you do some ministry there, you book a flight again, come back, and you say I went for ministry. It's not what it is now, but we thank God for easy communication and easy travel and all of this. But it was so much more different at those times. Paul laid out the things. He said, listen, when you are going in a ship, that ship may break down, and you may be shipwrecked for 2-3 days. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with 5 or 10 people surrounding you, beating you up and putting you into a prison? Are you okay with that? Are you okay with people ridiculing you and throwing stones at you when you're preaching? I'm sure he laid out the cost. But he invited Timothy to share in his sufferings. He said, listen, Timothy, if you do all of this, you will have a greater reward in heaven. He was not putting fear into Timothy, but he was also saying, Timothy, these are the costs. Don't be surprised about this. Don't be surprised when people beat you up, put you into prison. But also, don't be surprised if people are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the gospel. Don't be surprised when lives are being touched and there are healings and miracles. Don't be surprised about that as well. Because with sufferings comes great, great rewards. You will see the reward. God didn't wait. God didn't say, okay, Paul, you go through all the sufferings. After that, I will give you the reward. The apostle Paul went through all the sufferings. He also saw the rewards in his life. He saw the churches planted. He saw people's lives being touched. He saw the ministry that was being done there. Number seven, communication with regard. First, Timothy 6.11. He says, but thou, O man of God. Now, he's saying, O man of God. Brother, son, faithful servant, man of God. What a beautiful way to address a young Timothy. Saying, O man of God. Second Corinthians 1.1. Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And Timothy our brother unto the church of God, which is at Corinth with all the saints, which are in all Akhaya. Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ. By the will of God. Very important sentence. Paul is acknowledging. He's not saying, Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ because of my prophecies and because of what I saw and because of what I did. He's saying, by the will of God. And Timothy our brother. Here he says, man of God. Now he's saying, brother. Filemen 1.1. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Timothy our brother. So you see that Paul is communicating with a high sense of regard to Timothy. He calls Timothy a man of God. He recognized Timothy's true worth, his calling, his gifting and his anointing. The apostle Paul didn't look at Timothy as still this young, small boy running around behind him. He says, no. Hey, Timothy is a man of God. There's a true worth. There's a gifting, there's callings and there's an anointing upon his life. And so now I'm sending him to you. And he's a leader. A freedom as a man of God. And Paul writes to Timothy himself and says, Timothy don't let others despise you because of your youth. You are a leader. You are a man of God. You stand for who you are. So when Paul communicated with the other believers, he said, Timothy is a man of God. And when it comes out from a man like apostle Paul, I'm sure there would have been such a big regard for Timothy. People would have thought, hey, who's this small boy coming and telling us what to do? But when they opened the letter, they saw the man of God. They would have said, hey, Paul is considering him as a man of God. So we got to respect him. He communicated with high regard. Finally, eighth one, sorry, eighth and ninth, delegation and deputization. He delegated responsibility. Paul left Timothy to take care of the church in Ephesus. He practically trained him, groomed him into being this man of God. And Paul at the end had enough trust and confidence in Timothy to give him this responsibility. Here's where the release happened. Paul had enough trust. He groomed him, he trained him, he saw his life, called him a man of God. Paul had enough trust and confidence and said, okay, Timothy, now you're ready to be a leader. So you go and be the leader which God has called you to be. And he gave him those responsibilities. Did Apostle Paul need help? Do you think he needed help? Yes. There was so much help. He could have said, Timothy, you stay with me only. Because whenever I get imprisoned, you go get me food and calm. You know, you can just put medicine on me and you just make sure that you're there as a prayer warrior for me. No. He said, hey, I can't hold back the call of God upon your life, Paul. See, you are a pastor. You're a leader. I see it when I saw you when you were in, when I chose you when I was 17 years, when you were 17, then I saw you the first time. I took you. I knew I wanted to see you as a leader. So now is the time for you to go and be that leader. And I can only picture Timothy saying, but Paul, you would need me, right? Your people are around. No, no, you don't worry about me. You go to Ephesus, look after the church there. I will handle myself. I know God is with me. Right? Such a wonderful example to learn. Positive recommendation. Right? Look at that recommendation. Again, he's going to Timothy. You've got to keep this picture in your mind. Timothy is going to Corinth. Now, if Timothy comes, see that he may be with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord as I also do. Look at that recommendation. He's selling the church in Corinth now. Don't try to intimidate him. Right? See that he's there with you. You don't be fearful, nor do you intimidate him because he does the work of the Lord just like how I do. Right? Philippians 2, 19. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you that I may, I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know the proof of him that as a son with a father, he has served me in the Gospel. Him therefore I send, I hope to send presently. So soon I shall see how it will go with me. Paul is sending Timothy to Philippi and he's saying this, look at that. I have no man like-minded, like Timothy. And maybe Timothy is saying, am I like-minded as Apostle Paul? Do I think like him? I can only picture him, you know, maybe reading that letter and he's saying, you know, all things I'm like him, but I'm nowhere close to him. Like-minded who naturally cares for your state, meaning who has a heart for each one of you. People seek their own things and people seek their own comforts and their own benefits, but not so with Timothy. Because he's like me, just like how I have a burden for you and the church and the ministry, he has the same burden for you. Finally, the Apostle Paul, sorry, Timothy becomes a co-worker from a place of following, goes on to become a fellow worker. Roman 16, this is Roman 1621. Timothy is my fellow worker. He doesn't say Timothy is my staff or Timothy my, you know, my spiritual follower and all of those things. He doesn't say all of that. He says, he's my fellow worker. We both are working on God's field. He's working, I'm working. We both are working together. So when God sees us, we are co-equal in the ministry. But wait a minute. How can we be co-equal? Paul, you have done so much. You were the one who chose me. So you are always better than me. You've done so much. I've just been with you. Timothy, Paul is saying, no, Timothy, you're a co-worker. You're equal. But what did I do? I didn't do anything. I just was with you. Yeah, that was more than enough. You stood by me and now you are a co-worker. You are doing your part of the ministry. We are co-equal in the ministry. How many of us can say this? How many of us can say this? It's not easy to say this. We keep looking at people who are new in the ministry like as if they don't know anything. But we need to come out of that. We are co-workers with Christ. And I'm sure if God used Timothy even more greater than Apostle Paul, Apostle Paul would have been standing and clapping for him. Saying, ah, yes, I thank God for what he is doing in the life of my son, Timothy. Problems arise when the son fails to grow up or when the father desires the son to always remain as a son instead of becoming a joint heir. It could be two reasons. One, it could be because the son doesn't want to grow up. Or two, the father holds the son saying you remain a son only. Our desire is to see that everyone grows into a place of maturity to become a spiritual father or mother. And so this is our heart in ministry to grow into the things of God. So what we'll do is next class, next Wednesday, I just have a few more thoughts to talk about in discipleship. I'll share those thoughts and then we'll leave it open for questions if there are any. And then next Wednesday will be our last class for this course. All right. Any questions? Any thoughts? Okay. All right. So let's close. We'll meet next Wednesday. Have a great weekend. God bless you all.