Admonition Podcast

For the past several weeks, we have been studying the evangelism model that was given us
by Rob through the evangelism training seminar.

We have learned all of the steps, well, most of the steps from contacts to prospects,
prospects to Bible studies, Bible studies to converts, converts to new Christians, and new

Christians back to more contacts.

Tonight, we're going to start off in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, and we're really looking at
verses

14 through 17.

First Corinthians chapter 4, 14 through 17.

After we get the baptism, we are going to be faced with new converts.

But this is not a religion of dunk them and leave them.

There are things that we still need to do after that process.

He writes in 1 Corinthians,

When we think of the word mentoring, what comes to your thoughts?

Mentoring is an effective retention and training tool used many times in businesses today.

Almost all AAA businesses use this.

In today's workplace, we may have heard it called coaching.

This approach provides new employees with a safe, non-threatening environment where they
can ask questions, seek clarification,

Better understanding.

Receive personal guidance without the fear of being accosted, made fun of, or simply
embarrassment.

Mentoring pairs, yeah, there's mentoring pairs in an inexperienced person with a seasoned
individual to offer guidance, advice, instruction, feedback, ongoing support.

It's connecting someone least experienced with someone far more experienced.

When a company fails to implement some form of mentoring, it often unintentionally sets
new employees up for frustration and failure, does it not?

I know that when I go into a new business or a new job workplace in the secular world, I
like to be taught what I'm supposed to be doing.

They can't just put you out on the floor of the receiving and the back of Lowe's until you
go ahead and receive this 18-wheeler truck in.

I don't know how to read a manifest.

I don't know...

where the keys to the door locks are.

I don't know who to call if I need to use a lockout tag out system for uh hazardous goods
that may come in the back.

Historically, this is not a new concept.

This is something that's been used long ago.

Long before modern corporate coaching, the idea of mentorship was embedded in the idea of
apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships stretch back thousands of years, originally from my findings in ancient
Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome.

and so on.

All practiced them.

In these societies, a young person would live typically and work under the roof of someone
far more experienced.

A skilled master craftsman, think blacksmith, swordsmith, carpenter.

They would typically live with this person day in and day out, becoming their shadow,
essentially, tied at the hip.

These apprenticeships were necessary because complex trades like metalworking, weaving,
stone carving,

ship building especially, could not be mastered simply by reading an instruction booklet.

I have a hard enough time with the things that we get to have to build from Ikea, let
alone going out into the woods, sawing down the trees and having a little scribbled

instruction of build a ship.

That's far harder than what we find at Ikea.

Skills had to be observed, they had to be practiced, they had to be corrected and refined
under careful eye of an expert.

This is how we learn.

This arrangement was mutually beneficial.

The master was able to preserve and pass on specialized knowledge and skills, keeping the
younger from the pitfalls of what he had already learned the hard way, ensuring the craft

would not die out while the apprentice supplied labor while learning and growing in a
workplace, and it would eventually take on the trade themselves, becoming a skilled master

themselves.

Apprenticeships existed not merely to teach,

but to shape a worker's habits, ethics, skill sets.

Over time, this wasn't an overnight thing, they developed laborers for growing societies
while preserving the integrity of whatever trade they were apprenticeship-ing under or

mentoring under.

The same principle applies to us spiritually today, doesn't it?

In the church, we often rejoice when someone is baptized.

We got to rejoice this morning.

But oftentimes I see churches fail to nurture them

afterwards.

So many different denominations dunk them or sprinkle them or whatever they think that
salvation consists of and then just leave them out hanging to dry.

Spiritually speaking we kind of bring them in the front door and almost let them leave out
the back don't we?

Jesus gives us a model that goes beyond conversion.

Let's look at Matthew chapter 28 and read verses 18 through 20.

Here we have the greatest teacher of all time giving us a straightforward model of exactly
what we're supposed to do.

Matthew chapter 28, starting in verse 18, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all
power is given on me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations.

There's teaching.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you all way.

even until the end of world.

Do we see the pattern there?

We have teach, baptize, and teach again.

So the teaching continues on even after the baptism.

Sadly, so many congregations fulfill the first two steps but then neglect the third.

Yet Jesus emphasized so openly ongoing instruction, teaching them to observe, to do as He
says, all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

So this is a command to teach.

It's not something that we can choose to do or leave out.

So why mentoring matters in the church?

Statistics reveal that new converts typically need to make about three or four meaningful
connections with a congregation in order to remain faithful.

If you only have one friend in the church that you come to visit each week, it's a lot
harder to remain faithful than if you've made really close friends with everyone in the

church, right?

You have a larger network, a larger net of people to catch you should you fall away.

within a congregation in order to remain faithful.

Without relationships, they often feel isolated.

They could drift away, can't they?

That's why part of our evangelism model includes follow-up.

We have the new converts class, things like that, which we'll touch on later.

We cannot simply leave new Christians to figure out what a Christian lifestyle consists of
on their own.

Yes, they've learned from the back to the Bible pamphlets.

They've run through book one, book two, book three.

Maybe they even went through to believe the Bible.

They didn't believe God was there, made it all the way up to here.

But that's not everything that pertains into godliness and goodness, does it?

Those are the building blocks, those are the foundations.

These people are still, in the words of scripture, newborn babies who need the milk before
they can handle the solid food, as they state in 1 Peter 2, too.

So we need to help Christians grow through.

We're going to start implementing a new convert class.

This is going to teach fundamentals of faith, Christian living, maybe apologetics.

Mentoring relationships, we're going to need to set those up.

These provide spiritual coaching, they provide accountability, and they provide
encouragement to those that may otherwise fall apart.

Opportunities for involvement are also very, very important.

This helps them form bonds with other members here and develop their own gifts for
service.

What better way to mentor and teach a new convert than to have him help out with, say,
like the Fourth of July thing that we did, or have him help out and

Go to a class.

Have him help out by going and door knocking.

There's so many different things.

Food preparation, visiting the sick.

Pair each new convert with an experienced Christian, not someone who's new in the faith
also, who will check on them, pray with them, walk alongside them.

We need to invite them into our homes.

We need to share meals with them.

God calls us His family, doesn't He?

We're part of His body.

How far away is your pointer finger from your thumb?

Not too far, right?

Typically when you go to pick things up, they meet, they work together to do it.

The Christian body should be the same way.

We need to act as a family.

We need to encourage them to attend Bible studies, participate in service projects,
develop friendships within the church, and follow up regularly.

Not just in the first few weeks.

This isn't something that we go all gung-ho for one month and then leave.

This has to be a long-term thing as they mature in the faith.

In essence, mentoring in the church is a spiritual apprenticeship, isn't it?

It's the same thing.

We want them to live under God's roof.

We want them to learn from God along with us, just as apprenticeships would have done with
the master craftsmen of the trade back in ancient Egypt.

Just as ancient masters invested their time and wisdom into apprentices to preserve their
craft, we're called to invest in new believers and to preserve and grow their faith,

aren't we?

Evangelism does not simply stop at the baptistry.

Again, it's not just a dip them and leave them.

It continues in the classroom.

It continues in the pew.

It continues in our home and it continues in our hearts.

We have to cultivate this kind of relationship with them.

It's not going to simply come about on its own.

In Hebrews 10, starting in verse 24, it says, and let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and to good works.

Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is.

but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

It's our job to keep up with them or we're not doing what we're supposed to be.

There's a precedent for this.

We see mentorship in the Bible in the pattern of Paul.

In the early church, we see an intentional model of mentorship and discipleship compared
together, tied at the hip.

Paul didn't emerge as a spiritual giant on his own.

From the beginning, he was guided and encouraged by someone who believed in his potential.

Do remember who that was?

Barnabas.

Acts chapter nine shows how Barnabas took a risk on Paul, vouching for him before the
apostles when others were afraid.

I mean, he was once called Saul.

He, Saul.

I dropped the L.

He persecuted Christians.

He hunted them down and murdered them in cold blood.

investing in their spiritual growth just as Barnabas had invested in his.

Paul didn't just teach them doctrine.

He walked with them.

He held their hand.

He was a brother to them.

He challenged them.

He encouraged them.

He shaped their character as well as their knowledge.

This led to trust.

Let's look at Titus 1 and verse 5.

See what Paul writes there, Titus chapter 1 and verse 5.

For this cause, I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are
wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee." This shows the level

of trust, doesn't it?

Paul viewed Titus as a capable and faithful leader, an apprentice who had now matured into
a mentor himself.

He delegated serious responsibilities.

This wasn't something to take lightly.

Organizing the church, he sent him off to set things in order, didn't he?

He set him off to appoint qualified elders as well so he could trust him.

This wasn't just the voice of a distant supervisor either.

This wasn't just the overseer of the job calling and telling you what to do and just
delegating tasks.

It's the tone of a master craftsman handling his tools to his apprentice, isn't it?

It's almost, when you run the race for, uh

Oh, the yearly race that they run with the rings.

The Olympics, there we go.

The name was not coming to me.

When you run the Olympics, do they not pass the torch one to another?

The first runner passes it to the second, so on and so forth.

Titus had been mentored and now he was ready to multiply that investment in others.

We can look at Timothy.

Paul's relationship with Timothy was personal.

1 Timothy 5, 21, Paul says, charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect
angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing

by partiality.

This wasn't a casual conversation.

This was a mission, wasn't it?

Paul instructs Timothy with both urgency and care.

knowing the weight of his spiritual leadership.

Paul doesn't stop at doctoral instruction.

He also instructs Timothy's personal life, doesn't he?

At one point he reaches out and he tells him in verse 23, drink no longer water, but use a
little wine for thy stomach sate and then often infirmities.

He showed concern for Timothy's health.

He cared for him.

And we don't know what his stomach sate and what his infirmities were per se.

That's a topic for a totally different time.

But focusing on mentorship, it's not just about teaching doctrine.

It's multi-spectrum.

It's about caring for the whole person, their faith, their character, their health, their
endurance, their knowledge, their soul at the core of it.

This pattern of spiritual mentorship, one generation investing in the next, was a key
reason the early church grew so strong despite

all the persecution.

Think of the cultural oppression that they had from the Romans, the legal persecution that
they had, internal struggles.

I mean, faithful men and women passed down the gospel not only by teaching but by
training.

They had to walk alongside those that were mentoring them.

You had people after you that would take away your life.

Of course they cared for one another.

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2, and the things that thou hast heard of me
among many witnesses,

The same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." This is a
model of almost math, It's multiplication.

Paul teaches Timothy, Timothy teaches faithful men, faithful men spread it on to others.

It grows.

So just like our evangelism model where we have contacts turning into prospects and we
take all the many, the hundreds, maybe even thousands of contacts and we boil them down

into Bible studies.

and the Bible studies boil down into the baptisms, and then the baptisms into the new
converts that are then trained.

Now they go out and they find more hundreds, more thousands of contacts, and we keep
bubbling those down and keep turning the wheels of the evangelism model to add people into

God's kingdom.

This is a generational pattern.

It's a biblical blueprint for leadership development and congregational strength.

This is how we grow in number.

And not only in number, but in strength as well.

Our new converts should not stay new converts for 20 plus years.

They should learn.

They should grow.

They should become more involved over time.

They should get involved in the services, start presiding over the Lord's table, lead
singing.

There is a way for everyone to work for our Lord.

If we want strong churches, we're going to have to follow the same model.

We're going to have to identify and mentor new Christians.

We're gonna have to walk with them, not just once a week, but throughout the rest of their
lives.

We're gonna have to get into life's trenches together with them.

At the same time, we need to equip them to lead, to serve, and eventually mentor others.

But don't forget to care for the whole person.

That's spiritual, emotional, physical.

And we need to eventually trust them with real responsibility as they grow.

We can't see these backseat drivers all the time.

There comes a point where dad has to go sit in the backseat or even get out of the car and
the child has his license and they drive off for the first time and you're crossing your

fingers, hope they don't get into a wreck.

It happens.

I'm sure my parents were terrified when I got behind the wheel.

A mentor is a living example.

This is another big portion about the mentoring program.

It has to be someone who can live the faith and not just say it.

This is not a do as you're told, but it's a do as I do mentality.

A true mentor is more than just an instructor.

They're someone that the mentee, the person being taught, can look to as a living example.

Many athletes set extraordinary goals, and one of them most effective techniques they use
to reach those goals

is to find someone who's already achieved them, If you want that eight pack of abs, find
someone who already has that eight pack of abs.

Ask them how they got there.

Learn from them.

Think about how it works in sports.

Athletes begin to alter things like uh eating like their mentor, they dress like their
mentor, most importantly, they train like their mentor, they study the routines, the

discipline, the habits.

It's proven success.

If you follow the same eating guidelines and trading guidelines as an Olympic athlete, you
may not become an Olympic athlete, say that five times fast, but you will get better.

Let me ask, has anyone ever here went to the gym and paid for a personal trainer?

I have, on a couple of occasions.

They're going to teach you how to plan and prepare your meals, aren't they?

They're gonna teach you how to measure BMI or body mass index, make sure you're not
getting too much fat.

They're going to teach you how to perform the exercises correctly.

And they're gonna give you how many repetitions, how many sets you need to complete.

So think of those four things in relation to physical therapy.

This becomes the blueprint for growth.

So how do we translate that into spiritual lives?

New Christians need someone to teach them.

Think of it like the personal trainer.

You need to engage in regular Bible study.

What are you consuming?

What are you eating?

The BMI, the body mass index?

What is the seriousness of sin?

What is the weight of the sin?

Do you have too much in you?

How do you the exercises correctly?

Let's teach them how to study.

How do you do it effectively?

More importantly, how do you study God's word consistently?

How many repetitions?

What do you need to do?

How many times do I need to do it?

How often?

How often and in what ways do we need to feed on God's Word?

I can tell you this, if you've ever went four to five days on a fast, you get very hungry,
right?

It hurts.

You fast for a whole week, two weeks, three weeks, you're starving at that point.

try going that long without reading God's Word.

It is infinitely more damaging to you than going three weeks without food, because it's
going to last forever.

Bodily exercise profiteth a little, but spiritual exercise is going to take us a lot
further, right?

If we want new converts to succeed, we want them to flourish, grow into strong servants in
Christ's army,

We cannot neglect their spiritual growth or mentorship.

A new convert left alone is like an athlete without a coach.

You can't throw a 10-year-old on a field and expect him to become, you know, the wide
receiver or the quarterback.

They're directionless.

They're vulnerable to bad habits.

And anyone who tries to work out on their own, they're likely to give up.

I've given up multiple times.

Mentorship requires innovation.

It's universal.

In the world of technology and innovation, many legendary creators were once students of
someone else.

I started looking this up because it's where my mind goes.

Who here knows the name of Steve Jobs?

Right?

The visionary behind Apple, the cell phones, the iPods, the iPads, all the iDevices.

Did you know that he was heavily influenced by his mentor, Mike Mercula?

He was an early Apple investor.

uh He had advised and taught Jobs key principles of design, marketing, and vision.

That's what shaped Apple's entire future, was because of the mentorship there.

Jobs didn't keep the wisdom to himself.

Later in his career, he started mentoring younger innovators at Apple, passing on those
same principles.

So what was the result?

Does everyone know what an Apple iPhone is?

Yes.

Can our mentorship lead us to teach new Christians to where the world

actually knows what the definition of a Christian is?

And no, I'm not talking about a Catholic or a Baptist that calls themselves by the name of
Christian.

We need to define our terms and let them know what being a Christian means.

It's not a loose term you simply slap on any religion you like.

It's something that should be sacred.

This shows that success breeds success.

When someone passes down their knowledge and habits, others can build on that foundation.

They can flourish.

The same thing happens with spiritual.

In the church, the pattern holds true.

If we want our new converts to succeed and become flourishing, strong servants in Christ,
we can't neglect their spiritual growth.

Paul encouraged Philippians 3.17, brethren, join in following my example and mark them
which walk so as ye have us.

for an example.

Paul understood that people not only learn from instruction, but from imitation.

Mentoring in the church is not about elevating one man or another.

It's not saying, well, I'm a mentor.

It's about elevating Christ and showing who follows him.

Paul also wrote, 1 Corinthians 11, one, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

We always say to God,

be the glory, not to man.

Paul made it clear that his mentorship was only valuable because his own life was
patterned after Christ's.

That's the heart of Christian mentorship.

It's not to create copies of ourselves.

It's to help create copies of Christ, to get them to be more like Christ.

So what are some practical steps for Christian mentorship?

We need to be intentional.

We need to pair new converts with seasoned Christians who live as examples of Christ.

We need to model regular Bible reading, prayer, worship.

not just in words, in our own life.

They don't need to be with a mentor that only cracks their Bible open when they walk
through these doors and sit in these pews.

And he's to be someone that's going to reach out to them, spend time with them, answers
their questions, walk with them through their struggles, text them, encourage them to

come, send them memes of the Bible.

Why not?

Be a friend, get close to them, encourage them to find their place in the church's work
and to serve alongside you.

We're a team.

We are a family.

And we always need to point them to Christ, making sure that they know the goal is not to
imitate us, but to imitate the one who taught us.

When we do this, we're able to fulfill the pattern laid out in scripture.

So selection, how do we choose new mentors?

Well, they gotta be mature Christians, don't they?

Can't be another new convert.

Has to be somebody seasoned in the faith, somebody sound androctrine, living by the
scriptures, not merely knowing them either.

You can have the entire Bible memorized and not live by the principles therein.

I used to be able to quote the first chapter of Hamlet back when I was in high school.

That doesn't help me at all now.

I can't do it now, but that's not the point.

Mentors should strive to build genuine relationships, become true friends.

In the early stages, it might mean checking on them daily through texts, emails, phone
calls, visits.

As the new Christian grows in maturity, that frequency can lessen.

It doesn't have to be every single day for the rest of your life.

Mentors should spend time with their new Christian friends in everyday settings.

Ask them out to golf.

Go fishing with them.

Ask them if you can help mow their yard.

There's lots of the go to a movie.

Sporting events, hike.

In one congregation Rob told me about, I've got his thing written down here, what he said,
a young adults group met in different homes each month.

Hill does this.

Every single month they have a young adult gathering over at the birch's house.

I go every single month because I like to make those connections.

We always write cards to the orphans or to someone else that may need cards.

They like to apply the evangelism model.

I go every single month that I can.

In this particular writing that Rob told me about, he said that one day there, a member's
spouse obeyed the gospel.

And here's what he said.

He did it because he realized Christians can have fun too.

He thought for whatever reason that it was just living by a book, being very stern, almost
like chained down.

But when he realized that Christians were just normal people too, he was open to studying.

He learned through the back of the Bible.

He saw that believers are ordinary people with an extraordinary goal, right?

What is our goal?

To reach heaven, to be with Christ, to serve Him for eternity?

When he realized that, this person said, sign me up.

Think of the way many online communities mentor newcomers.

Coding forums, open source project, experienced developers and computers take time to
guide beginners reviewing what they had written down on their code.

They offer advice, they encourage them as they grow.

The support system helps newcomers stick with it and learn faster.

Tell me, a family that sticks together, is it one that lifts each other up in faith and
grows?

Yes.

Galatians 6, 1, and 2.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one in
the spirit of meekness, considering thyself.

Lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of
Christ.

Mentoring requires time.

It requires patience.

It requires sacrifice.

but it does not take away our God-given ability to enjoy life together.

Christians can still have fun.

It shows the world that Christians can be joyful.

It shows the world that Christians can be supportive of one another.

And it shows the world more importantly that we're united in our goal towards reaching
eternity together as well, doesn't it?

So how do we advise new converts?

This happens through intentional daily encouragement.

Again, like I said earlier, sending Bible videos, sending devotionals, sharing the gospel.

Maybe it's articles that you read throughout the week.

I send our buddy Michael, I send him encouragements throughout the week.

I don't ever get texts back, but I hope that one will stick at some point.

Take time to discuss lessons together.

Hey, dude, were you able to read that article?

you did?

Great.

Let's talk about it.

This could be in a formal setting.

It could be a meal over coffee.

Not everything has to be a business transaction.

Make sure they're faithfully attending the new converts class and activate participating
in its lessons.

And above all, we need to pray for them, right?

How many of you still have your bookmarks with the names?

Have you been praying regularly for them?

On a daily basis, I hope you have.

I do with mine.

I don't have it in my coat right now.

I believe it's in my bag, but you get the point.

Those people on the list, pray for them.

When you meet someone new, add them to the list.

Keep praying for them.

So many times we discount the power of prayer.

Christ went to his own Father in prayer.

He certainly didn't do it because he didn't think anything would happen.

He did it because he knew his Father had the power to change things.

He taught us to pray, after all.

Paul modeled his ongoing mentorship in his relations with Timothy and Titus, as letters
revealed a pattern of spiritual coaching, not just in doctrine, but in practical ministry

and personal focus.

1 Timothy 1, starting in verse 3, says, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when
I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

neither give heed to fables and endless geologies, which minister questions.

rather than godly edifying which is in faith.

So do.

Here Paul urges Timothy to stay in the Course, in Ephesus, and focus on sound doctrine.

He warns against distractions.

These are fables, who begat who begat who.

Those kind of endless debates don't build faith, do they?

Spending time in what God said is what builds faith.

Paul's almost protecting Timothy by showing him where not to waste his energy.

Need to do the same thing with our new converts.

Titus 3 and verse 9, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and
striving about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain.

One of the things that Rob taught us when going through the Back to the Bible series, if
they have the question, if they want to chase the don't chase the rabbit.

Don't do it.

Defer.

Don't debate.

Write it down.

If it's not answered in the booklets, you can come back to it at the end.

Christ himself asked far more questions than he gave answers to, didn't he?

The principle of ongoing support is not limited to scripture.

But as Christians, how often do we feel isolated like we're the only ones enduring a
certain trial?

Can a mentorship help us from feeling that way?

Of course it can.

When we open up to others in the church, we discover brothers and sisters who've walked
similar paths.

You would be surprised at some of the conversations that I've had with people, and they
were surprised to hear some of the conversations I've had with them.

Sometimes,

We bring up our paths to relate to this person, to tell them, look, I know what you're
going through.

It's tough.

I may have done something similar.

Here's what happened.

Here's how I got through it.

Here's how I turned my life around and gave it to Christ.

We don't have to feel bad for those things.

We need to learn from them.

It may just be the push they need to hear that someone else has gone through the same
thing or something similar.

Scriptures help people through.

We need to our mentees practical advice for staying faithful.

Our own personal experiences and failures and the story of our redemption can absolutely
encourage others to keep going, can't it?

Sometimes it's easier when you find a like-minded soul who's went through the same
downfalls, the same problems that you have.

Even Christ says that He became a man so that what?

He could understand us better, didn't He?

We don't have a high priest who cannot be reached by our feelings.

He knows what it's like to be human.

He knows what it's like to be tempted.

And yet He did it without sin.

But let's remember the big picture.

All experts were once beginners.

No expert became an expert overnight.

Nobody knows all the scripture in one week.

Doesn't happen.

It takes a lifetime of learning.

It takes a lifetime of growing.

And it takes a lifetime of walking faithfully in Christ.

I like to think that I learned a lot at the Memphis School of Preaching.

Two years, 12 hours a day, five days a week, sometimes six or seven days a week.

It's a lot of hours.

I can tell you right now, I still know hardly anything.

There is a lot more for me to learn, a lot more for me to grow with.

Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24 says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and
good works, exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching.

The whole point of mentorship is exhortation.

It's walking with one another.

It's helping one another.

It's encouraging growth and building up each other in love.

As we help new converts stay on the narrow path, we ourselves are also strengthened.

What better way to learn than to teach what you know, right?

It helps retention.

Some of the best ways that I have learned was when I had to teach a class on what I was
currently studying, because you study way more than you would have had on your own.

Because now you have to prep yourself for questions that are incoming.

Because they're definitely coming and you should have an answer.

We're strengthened by this.

And the church becomes...

the church becomes a better home for them.

I heard about someone conducting a Bible study, during which a couple who were concerned
about their growing children stated that their children had patterned their lives after

their father.

Again, this is a story from Rob that he shared with me.

Taking on the same job, they took on the same hobbies, and even the same lifestyle as
their father.

He told me that the parents had told him, if only we had modeled Christ, they would be
saved at this point.

They asked Rob what they could do now.

He had this to say, you can influence them until you have done what you want them to do.

We have to be examples, don't we?

The truth is you can't save someone else until you've tended to your own soul.

We've got to concentrate on our own spiritual conditions, don't we?

Think about when you get on the plane, anyone that's ever even flown a short flight, you
put on your own oxygen mask before you can put on someone else's oxygen mask.

Your example of obedience to the gospel is the first step in leading your family to
Christ.

It's the first step in your leading a wayward Christian to Christ.

It's the first step in leading a new convert to Christ.

Your obedience to the gospel is the first step, period.

We need to live it out every day for them.

As for us as a congregation, when you see new converts among us, new people, sit with
them.

Encourage them.

We don't need cliques.

We don't need friend groups.

Everyone needs to be involved with everybody else in some way, shape, or form.

I cannot tell you how many churches I've went to where the CLP group over here won't talk
to the CLP group over there, and then there's one over here that won't invite anyone else

to their game night.

It's been almost every congregation I've been in, and it's terrible.

We're supposed to be a family.

We need to sit with them, we need to encourage them, and we need to be the mentor they
need to succeed.

Our consistent example in worship and daily life is what can set them up for spiritual
success.

The lesson's yours.

If you've not been the example others can follow towards Christ, you can change that
today.

If you have needs, prayer requests, or you're ready to obey the gospel, we invite you to
come forward as we stand and we sing the song of the church.