 All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a new week. Let's just begin this time with the word of prayer. We begin our session. I'll leave it open. Any one of us can please pray? Let's start. Go ahead. Anybody want to pray? Yes, please go ahead. Thank you for this day that you've given to us, Father Jehovah. I commit everybody to die, Father Jehovah. Thank you for your divine providence, Father Jehovah, Thank you, Father. It's never the good to be worshiped better than you, Father Jehovah. I commit everybody to die, Father Jehovah. All students and our teachers, I pray, Father Jehovah, to continue giving more knowledge, more guidance, Father Jehovah, so that you can lead us, Father, as people who are learning, Father Jehovah. As we head towards the end of our session, Father Jehovah, I pray that you have all your plans to understand before you are found and glorified. I commit everybody, even those who have not joined Father Jehovah, that you're going to hasten their pace so that they can join and learn together in the mighty name of your sign, Jesus, I pray, and believe in man. Amen. Thank you so much. All right. So today should be our last class. We've been talking a lot about discipleship and small groups. So last week we talked about the characteristics of a spiritual father and mother. You know, one who is a spiritual father and mother is one who is involved, who is able to correct, to repute, to disciple, to guide their spiritual son or daughter. One who goes beyond just a casual relationship to more meaningful relationships. You know, a spiritual father and mother is one who deals with our character more than our gifting, right? So we talked about this, right? Our gifting is something that we exercise, we grow in our gifting. But building our character is also important because it is our character that can help us to function effectively out of the gifting that God has given us, right? Then we also looked at how a spiritual father or a spiritual mother does not, you know, does not feel insecure, does not feel jealous when their son or their spiritual son or daughter is doing better than them, right? Now, especially in Christendom, we see not everywhere, but there are times when, you know, we look at the example of Saul and King Saul and David, right? And how the jealousy came in, you know, because everyone were like, okay, Saul has done so much, Saul has killed thousands, but here's David, he kills tens of thousands. And so somewhere there was jealousy and the whole, you know, the story, the whole relationship between them was, you know, marred. And so as a spiritual son and daughter, even in the natural, right, when you have a son or a daughter, you always want them to do better than what we are doing. And the same goes in terms of, you know, a spiritual son or daughter. We have to encourage them, we have to lift them up, they are doing better than us, better than us, you know, celebrate them, you know, publicly exhort them, encourage them and help them to do what they're doing, right? Spiritual fathers and mothers can make mistakes, but here's the thing, especially, you know, in ministry, when you go up, as you gain a certain kind of maturity, everyone, you know, value your advice, value the way that you are as a leader. And sometimes we make mistakes, but a true or a genuine father or mother will acknowledge the mistake they have made and correct themselves, right? Because the thing with, you know, especially pastors and leaders who've been serving for many years, we are so used to giving advice. We are so used to getting people to do things, right? We are used to being in this position of leadership where we tell people what to do. And sometimes when we get feedback about how we must change certain things in our life, we can take it the wrong way, right? We can say, hey, how can you tell me, you know, I'm 20 years in ministry, you're just five years. And we may not say it, but we may think it, we may feel it in ourselves. Now a true spiritual father or a mother will be willing to correct their mistakes, willing to take feedback, correct their mistakes, correct their wrong and move on. Now, here's the difference. What I've noticed is sometimes when a spiritual father or mother is corrected, we should never come to a place where they're saying, oh, I've made something wrong. I've done something wrong. And I acknowledge my mistake, so I don't think I'm an effective leader. Now, we know that's not from God, right? Take correction, acknowledge the mistake, okay, I've made this mistake, make correction and continue being the leader. You don't have to step down. You don't have to say, now, again, what's on what kind of a wrong that has happened? But if it's something simple, where you feel that you've got angry and you know, by mistake you have, in that anger you have shouted at somebody in your team, you don't have to step down for that. You acknowledge your mistake, you say, okay, hey, I'm so sorry I was got angry. I let myself get angry and I burst it out in anger. So I apologize, I hope, I know I just pray that each of you will forgive me and you know, just get back to doing what we were doing before and I myself will go back to the word, go back, spend time in God's presence, ask God for forgiveness and move on, right? I don't have to think of it and keep dwelling on it. So we ended this last week's chapter by saying that no spiritual father or spiritual mother is perfect. There's no one perfect but God. So there will be people who make mistakes and we as sons and daughters, if we have spiritual fathers and mothers, we must be willing to forgive them. Don't hold back grudges, don't hold back and say, he said this five years back, let it go, it's five years back. So we closed in that. Today we will talk about this final portion of our course and let me just present the notes. Yeah, lessons from Timothy, Paul and Timothy's relationship, lessons from Paul and Timothy's relationship. Now, if we look at the epistles, if you read the book of Acts, how the apostle Paul, you know, chose this young man named Timothy. Now we must understand, Timothy was approximately about 17, 18 years. He was a young man, right? And Paul was probably, you know, he started his first missionary journey when he was probably about 50 years old. So Timothy, he met during his second missionary journey. So we can say probably about 53, 53 or 54 years old. Now you see the age gap, there's 153, Paul is about 53 years old. And now you've got Timothy who's about 17, 18 years old, young man. And how did this relationship grow? What are the lessons that we can learn from this relationship? So we'll just look at a few points here and then we can bring this entire course to a close. So this is the background. Paul is, he's probably around 33 years old and he had the encounter in Damascus, three years in Arabia, 14 years of silence, so 17 odd years he was, you know, away from the ministry, he was in Tarsus, nobody knows what he did there. And then Saul, sorry Barnabas goes, finds Saul of Tarsus, brings him to the church and then later they come to Jerusalem, church in Antioch and then from Antioch they come to Jerusalem. So that happened probably when he was about 50 and the first mission journey was about two and a half to three years. The second missionary journey, Paul and Timothy meet each other. Second Timothy, one and two. To Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the last letter Paul is writing to Timothy. Now it's interesting, no? Paul had started so many churches, so many leaders he has raised up and you know, there was so much that he had to say. He's already written a letter to the church in Ephesus. He's written a letter to Timothy before this and now he's writing his last letter, the last ever letter he's going to pen with his own hands and he's saying to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. So look at this, let's look at the points that we can learn from this, this lessons from Paul and Timothy. First one, it was a divine connection, right? Now Acts 16, one to three, this is what happened. Then he came to Derby and Lister and behold a certain disciple of their name, Timothyus, the son of a certain woman which was a Jewish and believed but his father was a Greek which was well reported of by the president that were at Lister, an Iconium. Him would all have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters for they knew all that his father was a Greek, right? Now Paul has finished his first missionary journey, he's starting off in his second missionary journey but he decides I'll do one thing, I'll go to Galatia and I'll visit all the churches that I met in the first missionary journey. So he goes to Iconium, Lister, Derby and when he came to Derby there's Timothy there and the church in Derby is saying, this is a young man, Timothy, he's full of zeal, he's full of zeal, he's probably volunteering in the church and so there was a good report about him. Now his father was a Greek, his mother was a Jew so Paul says, okay Timothy, you want to come with me? There was an immediate divine connection, right? The immediate, I feel it would have been in such a way that Paul would have seen Timothy and said, oh one day this young boy can be a great leader and maybe Timothy saw Paul and thought, oh how I wish I could go with him wherever he's going and see how the ministry is done, a divine connection. And we can make up because then divine connections will always last for long, most of the time, they last for long. Now Barnabas, remember before this Barnabas goes and he says, hey I need help in Antioch. Let me go searching for this man named Saul of Tarsus. I met him many, many, many years ago. We lowered him down that basket and he ran away but I remember him. Let me go search for him. He goes to Tarsus, brings him and comes to Antioch. Now it was a divine connection by God but later on we see that there was this whole conflict between them. Now it's not that that divine connection broke off. It was just a conflict that caused them to go separate ways but towards the end Paul writes in his letter and he says, I forget, I think it's our first Timothy. He says, bring John Mark because he's helpful for me in my ministry. So divine connections, be sensitive to divine connections. God will set up divine connections in our life. God may send Timothy into your life. God may send you as a Paul into other people's lives. Be sensitive to these divine connections. Now it could be something very simple. I remember when I was in Bible college, there was this young boy and he had come from a different, from North India where things are very, there's not much of English. It's more of the regional language there. He had come here to study and during the first week, he hardly spoke any English. He didn't know what a guitar is. He didn't see a guitar. So he was in these most rural parts of North India and very, very lonely, interior villages of North India and he had come to a city like Bangalore and the first week itself, somewhere there was a connection. I don't know if it was from him but for me, somewhere I felt I'm connected to him. So I would always tell him, hey, you come sit next to me and he would speak in Hindi, you would say Paul and he would speak to me and the reason he said, I don't understand anything what the teachers are saying. They're talking English so fast. I don't understand anything, it's better I go. It's better I don't stay back here. And I remember, you know, but he was very, very matured and Christ and he really wanted to learn. So I remember telling him, you know, you have this one year, this one year, the first year, if you don't improve your marks, then you go back to a Hindi, go to a Hindi Bible college. But give one year a chance and that one year he, you know, we would stay together every single day, every moment of the day we would like, you know, he would keep listening to the readings of sermons and he would write down these words, English words and say, what does this mean? And then, you know, and he was a wonderful prayer warrior. He could pray and so I would learn from him and say, how do you pray? You know, you're praying for hours, how do you do that? And he would sit and pray together and it's so wonderful to see that, you know, he completed his two year course, he's gone back to his hometown, and he started at church and he's one of our outreach pastors right now, APC Outreach pastors. So, you know, at times God brings these divine connections and you can be a Timothy or you can be a Paul sent to others' lives. So we must be willing to do that, right? It's a divine connection. Two, it's a special bond. First Timothy one and two. Timothy, my own son in the faith. I look at this. Second Timothy one and two. Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Second Timothy two, one. Therefore, my son, Corinthians, to the Corinthians he's writing, 1 Corinthians 417, for this cause I've sent you Timothy who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord. Right? There was a special bond, a special relationship between Paul and Timothy. Paul considered Timothy as a spiritual son and Timothy I'm sure looked at Paul as a spiritual father. Now, here's the interesting thing. It didn't happen overnight. Paul is writing Timothy maybe at least seven to eight years later, writing to Timothy, at least seven to eight years later. But in that seven or eight years, he has seen Paul doing the ministry. He has seen the Apostle Paul being beaten, being put to prison. He's seen Paul being, you know, going through challenges, going through persecutions and turmoil and physical illness, mental illness. Just this, you know, but he's also seen the ministry. He's seen healings. He's seen miracles. He has seen Paul's rare life, the faith. He put him in prison. Paul is praying. I'm sure Paul wouldn't have said, you know, come and see I'm praying in prison. Timothy would have come with a scene. How is this guy praying in prison? I'm sure it would have captured his heart. He would have thought, oh man, how can you do this? How can he be so a man of such faith? But he was a special boy and he learned. He learned. He would have seen it. And Paul is so wonderfully saying, he's my son in the faith. Never does Paul say, oh, he's, you know, he was a little boy. Now I took him. So he's been helping me. No, he's my son. There's a special relationship. Third one, a special closeness and transparency. Second Timothy 3, 10 and 11. But thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch at Iconium, at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. You know, there was, Apostle Paul did not tell Timothy, you know, hey, Timothy, come on, join the ministry. It's good fun. We can go to places. We'll just preach about the gospel. Now people will give on to the Lord. We'll use it. We'll travel. We'll see these beautiful places. You know, we can go Asia Minor. We couldn't go into Europe. Things will be good. You'll have a good life. Then, you know, whenever you want, you can leave. No, Apostle Paul knew and made it clear to Timothy. Timothy has got to be challenges. There's going to be people who will cast ridicule us. They may beat us. They may put us into prison. All these things may happen. So it's not it's not something that is, it's not like, okay, everything is easy. There was such a closeness and transparency which Apostle Paul allowed Timothy to see and really know who the Apostle Paul was. Now, what did the Apostle Paul respond it by following or back turning himself after what he saw in Paul? I'm sure when he I can just picture this going back to Ephesus Paul is saying, Timothy you are now the leader. You're the pastor of the church of Ephesus. There's already bishops and beacons and leaders and elders and all of that there in the church. He's sending this young man probably in his early 30s now and he's sending Timothy. Timothy, you're in your early 30s don't let anyone despise you. Go look after the church in Ephesus and I'm sure Timothy would have thought of all that he has seen the Apostle Paul do and he would have turned himself after. Hey, this is what Apostle Paul did. So I'll also do this. There's a closeness. There was a transparency between each other. The best part is Apostle Paul allowed Timothy to see his life, to see his sufferings, to see his to see the miracles, to see the goodness of God and also to see how ministries can be a joyful thing even through persecutions. And eventually put him in the most hostile place which is Ephesus. Fourth one, communication of specific instructions 1 Timothy 1 18. This charge I come down to these, San Timothy according to the prophecies which went before you that thou by them be mightiest war or good warfare. This is the King James version. But the other versions, the new King James are through the prophecies which are given to you by the laying on of hands that you may wage a good warfare. So Paul is telling Timothy Timothy there were prophecies made about you maybe I have made some of them and others have prophesied over you that you're going to be a leader. Now here is your opportunity by putting you in Ephesus so you wage a good warfare. Right? Hold on to the prophecies that were spoken about you. 1st Timothy 620, oh Timothy keep that which is committed to thee by trust that to thy trust avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called. Here Paul is instructing Timothy teaching him what to do what not to do. What pit falls to avoid what are the other things that we must do. Now if you read 1st and 2nd Timothy it's a lot of instructions. Now it's not like Paul was just arbitrary writing to Timothy. He knew Timothy needed these instructions right? And so very clearly so as a spiritual father and mother we can call them sons, we call them daughters, we love them but it's also our responsibility to give instructions right? What are the things that teaching him what to do what not to do, what are pit falls to avoid, what are things that worked, what are things that didn't work and we just release it to our people who are spiritual sons or daughters. Now for example 10 years down the line if there's somebody that I'm ministering to I'm mentoring they say hey I want to start a church. I'm sure I can give some kind of input some kind of instructions. Why? Because it's been some time. I've made my share of mistakes, I've learned this is how we can build a church. These are the things just because it's a church doesn't mean it doesn't come with problems there a church is a group of people and people are of different characters different temperaments different likes, different kinds of people but as a leader all is saying you must learn how to teach them how to bring that unity in the faith, avoid these kind of pitfalls and he talks about a lot of instructions in 1st and 2nd Timothy right? So it's very important as sons and fathers to bring that word of you know that word of instructions and then you have also communication of encouragement exhortation and correction. Paul gave Timothy positive encouragement. Now this is one of the most difficult things that we can do in ministry is to administer correction and it's very difficult because you have to learn to do it in a loving way be positive, be uplifting but if you don't correct your Timothy or you don't correct your son or your daughter in the Lord things will allow to grow and it will be like cancer that will eat into their life and destroy them. Let me give you this example many years back I was talking to this young man and I felt that he could be a good life group leader. So I said to him hey you already got I see that you're very interested in volunteering and you have this wonderful command over your English and your desire to lead so why not you think about starting a life group he said okay give me some time so I told him okay here's what we'll do six to eight months you attend a life group I'll connect you to a life group just attend, see how things are done so he did that and even as he attended I kept talking to the life group leader I said how is he doing, is he attending regularly is he involved in the time of discussion is he there for is he on time how's his character talking the right way or is he it's not like I'm it's not like we're checking up on him but just so that we get feedback to make him a better leader in the future and then over time it was eight months somewhere along the time we decided okay let's make him a life group leader so we called him we told him I was just talking to him like how a life group leader must have a good character we must learn how to behave we must learn how to minister to counsel each other and then in the course of the conversation he mentioned that he so I asked him what do you do in your free time he said I like to watch series like I don't know if it was Netflix or you know you have all those things that I don't know about all those things but you know these comedy series and all these science fiction series that are there on television so he watches them on the phone so I asked him how many hours do you spend on that every day I watch at least three or four episodes so that's about three hours that was a concern so I remember telling him see it may not be a sin it's not what you're watching if it's not right if it's vulgar then this don't watch it but then if it's nothing vulgar but it's just comedy or whatever that is but as a leader what you do is very important because what gets into you is what you will portray outside right now I'm being very careful right I'm not saying don't watch TV don't watch the news we have to we have to keep ourselves updated if you have to watch TV go ahead just make sure it doesn't take priority over your life shouldn't be like oh I want to get back home from work office quickly just rest for a while and then watch Netflix if that's the case then you can see that it's becoming a bondage we may say hey no it's not a bondage but just like it's the same as drinking or smoking I'm not addicted just one off thing but again it can become something that is constantly eating up inside I remember telling this young man he was very casual in the way he spoke he would crack jokes every now and then and I told him see it's good what you're doing here's what it is what you see and what you share is what you will bring out as a leader if you're only watching comedy shows you'll end up only cracking jokes most of the time or if you're only watching all these things that are getting into you how will you be able to minister more I'm not saying don't watch but spend more time in God's work as a leader we need the wisdom so then he said okay from 3 hours I'll not watch I'll make it 1 hour and he did it and I remember through the end of it I think it was a year or so now he was so strong in the world he was able to learn the word he would ask me for Bible study material he would ask me for the material that books to read which book is good for leadership and I would share and I saw that there was this sudden change one year down the line there was so much of maturity in the way he spoke the way he led the team then he started his life group many people started joining his life group and it was a wonderful life group and he's so different to what he was before I just felt that if we don't correct if we don't be loving, positive, uplifting and if we don't bring correction what happens is it becomes like a cancer so correction is like spiritual surgery you're opening up the heart you're opening up inside and saying other things that you may have to take it out it hurts but the result is positive now on the flip side there will be times you give these kind of corrections I'm the person who's taking that correction may get offended they may say how can you tell me in those cases you cannot do anything about it you can just say see I'm trying to help you to be a better leader and these are the mistakes I made that's why I'm sharing with you if they take it in the right way, good but if they don't they start justifying or they start saying I am like this how can you judge me and all those kind of things then it's okay just move on you'll be there to minister to have them but then don't be discouraged go on to raise up many more leaders many more Timothy's for God's kingdom communication of genuine cause it was communication of genuine cause the price that one must pay to serve God again Paul didn't smooth talk anybody not only Timothy he didn't smooth talk anybody we talked about Corinthians last last semester we saw that he was quite harsh he didn't smooth talk he didn't say this is how it is he looked at the Galatians and he said what's happening he communicated with them he didn't say I share the gospel with all you believe in Jesus these people have gone back to circumcision he didn't keep it in his heart and just think about it and let it become a whole feeling of regret and hate on the church but he communicated hey this is what I am angry with this is what you have done and so I am upset and then he also communicates the good things it's not only the bad things he also communicates but then later on in Galatians he says oh you are children of God you are sons and daughters you are called for a purpose and he is exhorting them he corrects them he exhorts them same thing he does to the Corinthians first letter he says all are just causing so much trouble in the church divisions, strife, anger, jealousy pride everything is happening there then in the second letter he says oh you are seated with him you are the weapons of your warfare you are the children of God you have the gifts of the spirit it goes on to exhort them so communication is very important and this I learned the hard way as well can I join ministry sometimes I thought they will understand what they should do for example we have a conference and over time I thought they will understand they must know what to do so whatever I have shared but it's not so I say we need to have good communication communication can avoid these errors and it can avoid problems just by communicating to one another in the right way here the apostle Paul he laid things out he invited Paul he said come share in my sufferings he tells the church in Corinth people think I am an apostle and you are questioning the right of my apostle now look at this these are the things that I have done these are the sufferings I have done all are my sons and daughters because you all gave birth your birth in Christ through my ministry so I have the right to correct you so he is just laying it out there is no smooth talking at all so in terms of spiritual father and mother there is a place of bringing correction and love but there is never a place for smooth talking there is a difference correction is done out of love you do it genuinely talk in love bring correction in love be positive, be uplifting but it is not smooth talking just because somebody is angry imagine you are in Galatia and you you are saying hey we need to get circumcised and then apostle Paul ends up there and he says oh you want to be circumcised see this is what this is what I thought to you about you want to be loving now he can't do it that way because he needs to bring it out he needs to communicate with them what has already been communicated that if you go back to circumcision you are just the value of the gospel the value of the cross is lost there is no use of the cross if you are going back to circumcision either you go back to circumcision and let go of this leave in the gospel let go of circumcision he makes it clear there are genuine costs but apostle Paul if I let go of circumcision people will not they will not talk to me they will not accept me in their communities I am not allowed in the temple to pray it is a cost it is a cost that you have to pay but that is what it is so we see that the apostle Paul shared the genuine cost and he communicated with them seventh one communication with regard first Timothy 611 again he is communicating with regard he is calling Timothy man of God no more a 17 year old boy working around with me but now you are a man of God second Corinthians and Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother under the church of God with all the saints that are in all of Akhaya look at this he called him son he called him beloved son now he is calling him brother Timothy our brother under the church of God at Corinth Timothy spent a few spend some time in Corinth that is what they knew about Timothy and so he is writing there he is our brother under the church of God Paul communicated with a high sense of regard for Timothy he is calling Timothy he is a man of God now sharing this from apostle Paul Timothy would have felt oh man all these years all these years of these trials and difficulties that I went through and just hear this from the great apostle Paul a man of God I am sure he would have been so encouraged would have been so energized would have been so happy to hear it from a leader like Paul the apostle Paul recognized Timothy through what his calling his gifting and his anointing so even as spiritual fathers and mothers they communicate with each other in regard they honor each other each one of us have different callings different giftings different anointing so we must recognize what they are doing 8th one and deputization there was an element of deputization or delegation of authority and responsibility now Paul left Timothy to the care of the church at Ephesus and through practical training Timothy was groomed into this man of God so Paul trusted Timothy he had confidence in Timothy so he delegated Timothy and this is a wonderful sign of a spiritual father and mother which is train them trust them and put your confidence on them give them a training you trust and build confidence in them give them responsibility there is no point of me training me imagine Paul trained Timothy now it is 10 years now next we will go to another place ok come we will go here Timothy is probably waiting when will my opportunity come now a true father or mother will delegate responsibilities say ok you do it you can do it basically just pushing you into the water and saying go for it you can do it go for it and this delegation it is so wonderful I experienced it when leaders you go over this time of training and then they say go for it I trust you I have confidence in you that is such a relieving feeling it is a feeling of oh my leaders trust me they have the confidence and on the other side I am sure Timothy would have said now apostle Paul has trust and confidence in me must I prepare myself to look after the church right but we must delegate leaders 9 to 1 have a positive recommendations 1 Corinthians 16 then now if Timothy comes see that he may be with you without fear for he work at the work of the Lord as I also do Philippians 2 19 through 23 but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ but he know the proof of him that as a son with the father he has served me in the gospel him therefore I send presently as soon as I shall I see how it will go with me after proving Timothy Paul recommended him positively and enthusiastically proved him he is saying Timothy is now a leader now he is saying ok I am going to send Timothy to you right he is writing the church in Philippi now the reason he is going to Philippi is to bring some of the gifts to take it to Jerusalem because the church of Jerusalem is being persecuted you go to collect the offerings and what is Paul saying Timothy you know him there is no one else like minded like him just like I have a burden for you Philippians I know you are sad about my situation I am sitting here in prison I know that you are crying and beeping and praying for me I know that you are hurt there is no one else I can send but Timothy because he also feels the same way for you he also feels the same feeling that I have for you as one who planted the church you are my sons and daughters he feels the same way as well others seek their own but he seeks the things of God and I am commissioning as a son as a father he has served me in the gospel and so it is like I am sending him approve of him receive him as if it is me as if it is there so what a positive recommendation recommendations are important right even if you look at the corporate world together recommend if somebody is applying for a job the recommendation comes from a senior manager I am sure they can go up to the next step of the interview process very quickly this is recommended by senior manager this person so immediately there is value that is some kind of a additional value added to this candidate same thing here apostle Paul is saying he has got the same spirit imagine the Philippian church waiting for this guy named Timothy some of them have seen him some of them haven't seen him and then Timothy comes and everyone are looking at Timothy and thinking oh apostle Paul maybe like this just like him probably some of them not even seen apostle Paul but surely maybe apostle Paul have the same spirit so he has the same spirit as me so is he they are looking at him and looking at apostle Paul the same spirit tenth one he becomes a co-worker Roman 1621 Timothy my fellow worker 1st Thessalonians 3 1 & 2 wherefore when we could no longer forebear we thought it would be good to be left at Athens alone and sent Timothy as our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer look at that our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith now we know the problem here in the church in Thessalonians Thessalonica they are all worried some of them are saying hey the second coming is already over why are we still here and all those problems so Paul is saying ok don't worry I am sending my best man over Timothy go encourage establish he will come there he will establish you he will comfort you concerning your faith right Timothy eventually goes from a son or a young boy a son he goes into becoming a a man of God taking on leadership when he becomes a fellow worker co-worker but wait a minute Timothy is only 10 years in the ministry but you are 30 years in the ministry it's ok he is a fellow worker whether he is 10 whether he is 5 but we both are doing the same thing he is given a place of co-equals in the ministry because as sons and daughters this is this must be our heart and as leaders we are mentoring as fathers and mothers we are mentoring people bring them to a place where they say hey he is a co-worker he is co-equal with me in the ministry he has to learn a lot of things more he is still maybe young he may have to learn a lot of things but he is co-equal he is a co-worker in the ministry problems arise when the son fails to grow up he desires the son to always remain a son if the son fails to grow up if the son is going on doing the same thing again go buy vegetables go to this go to that go open the church clean the church all that is there initially but we want to see them growing right and we want to see these sons and daughters taking their place growing in the world growing in maturity and becoming jointaires co-workers in the ministry our desire is to see everyone mature into a place where each one of us can become spiritual father and mother to others and you know we can raise up each one of us can become spiritual fathers and mothers that is what we want to do so just in conclusion have a vision for your church ministry for your cell groups develop a strategy and go to it our goal here is not just knowledge but it is action right so it is not just learning getting knowledge of raising up leaders who can become sons and daughters I am sure we all are in this you know in this walk of life probably you know going on to that place of becoming son and daughter and so take it up don't throw it away be patient let the Lord work in the right time God will open the right door and you will be able to be a son a father or a mother to the next generation so that is wonderful alright so we brought this entire course to a close any questions any thoughts anything that you would like to add before we close the questions I hope this course was interesting I really enjoyed teaching yesterday Kumar go ahead just to know one thing sir that people used to not only nowadays say a spiritual father but they also say a spiritual grandfather and all so the terminology is right as per the scripture because nowhere the Bible speaks about that one doubt I have thank you sir see a lot of things in Christianity is you know over time it's all made up we come up with things now spiritual grandfather again whether spiritual father or spiritual grandfather the point is are they ministering to your spirit so if you see the age difference between Paul and Timothy almost the grandfather but not really so Timothy was 17 he possibly would have been 50 years old easily so that was a big gap but these terms no Shri Kumar should not should not hold us like hey I am your spiritual grandfather your spiritual father it's more about doing than just a term so I would say that person is somebody who is speaking into your life ministering to you you're growing in the Lord you just leave it as spiritual father you don't have to say it's your grandfather I don't think that's required that's my personal thought thank you sir anything else just a few years go ahead just wanted to get some insight from you on that church in Korea which has considered to be the biggest church and I think one of the reasons is because they had were able to really expand on the cell groups and the life groups within the church so I'm not sure if you have any insights on how they grew substantially and maybe there was some maybe there were some areas where they were not doing things so I just wanted to find out if you had any insights on that yes so the church that Christopher was talking about is David Paul Young Church so initially Christopher what happened was the church was not growing at all initially for the first 2-3 years there were still around 100-150 people but he's written a book I'm not sure if I know what the name of the book is there are a lot of videos as well where he has talked about how the church grew and let me just check that so he talks in detail about how the 4th dimension by David Yungi Cho by the 4th dimension he writes the book and he talks in detail about how the life groups the cell groups just began now of course it didn't just start with hundreds of people it all started small but he saw immediate growth now it may not be so for all other places now we must also understand that Korea was going through the early 1960s they were going through a lot of pandemics and there was a lot of earthquakes a lot of physical destructions that were happening it was a very hostile Korea not like what it is now so I'm sure the Lord was doing something additional there was this move of God during that time so we know that it's not a natural growth it's a supernatural growth that it happened a couple of years that what was just hundreds grew to thousands in a couple of years it was supernatural God was doing something so if you can get your hand on the book the 4th dimension he explains how the cell groups was able to grow so yes Christopher right so any other questions sorry I'm taking additional time I just thought we'll close it off so we don't have to meet in the next class welcome welcome Christopher you raised your hand again okay Elisha says what are some challenges that an already established church that tries to now adopt cell groups suffer okay some challenges that already an established church now the moment a church is already established I'm guessing or I'm hoping that an established church will have at least depending on the number you should have at least 30 40 life groups right so some of the things to adopt new cell groups I would say that you know the teen church the teen life groups the youth life groups is something that we it's not something that we miss it would be a challenge to raise up leaders because of what we're seeing now you know youth are open to you know homosexuality this LGBT people are coming into churches is it something that we should agree to and there's other other things new doctrines so we must really train up our youth and our teens in the right way so that they will be able to you know be effective leaders so there's one challenge that I would see the new churches nowadays see while we were growing up we just knew one thing okay grow up read the bible become a leader build on that that's it right not much of the challenges that we see now there's no social media and all the things that are happening now but now things are so different I would say one of the challenge would be the teen and the youth to raise up good leaders for them to you know become fathers and mothers that's one challenge that we will see in this generation but again God is faithful God will raise up people but we as fathers and mothers must take that initiative as well yes Christopher sorry I missed it okay no no problem anything else anyone else would like to share anything any thoughts any questions alright so keep looking at the stream I will post the final exam on the streams on the class work tab as well probably sometime next week thank you so much for joining along with me for this entire course I really enjoyed thank you for taking time to be here and it's really good let's just close in prayer alright so I just leave it open anyone can close in prayer and exit out alright anyone would like to close go ahead anybody can close in prayer can I take off please go ahead shake one thank you and thank you Father God for this wonderful day which has given to us God and we thank you for this journey a lot not so you carried us out of God we used your servant a lot not so with wisdom and Father God and the insight and the grace and the God in which Lord Master he could able to minister to us Father we thank you that every valuable words which came out from his mouth Father let it Lord Master let it be a precious germs in our life and let me able to hold it and Father God let me able to treasure it with us Father God so that in coming days none of these things Father God none of these insights none of these words of wisdom Lord Master we should miss it but let me be able to use it for the ministry and let me able to raise leaders let me become an example Lord Master as we learn like how to fall and the difference in the relationship let me have the divine relationship of God we thank you Father God for using the man of God and Father God and bless us we pray and bless his family Lord Master we thank you Father God Lord give him more strength and grace that he can be used more powerfully in coming days we thank you Father God for each one of us that you prepared our heart to live and we believe that Father God that Father we will be used each one of us is going to use this Lord Master this valuable thing in our life for the glory owner and precious belongs to you in Jesus name we pray Amen and thank you Father thank you Thank you Shri Kabbar Thank you everyone all the best see you soon God bless Thank you so much God bless you too