Rev. David Holwick S Grow Your Faith, #6
First Baptist Church Father's Day
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 15, 2014
1 Corinthians 4:15-17
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I. It is Call Your Dad Day.
A. My first Father's Day without a father.
1) I think of things I wished I had asked him, or remembered
when he told me.
a) Many stories about my ancestors are now gone for good.
2) Fathers have a way of molding you, for good or ill.
a) You watch how they react in various situations in life.
b) They pass on their pearls of wisdom.
c) Even their negative traits can teach valuable lessons.
3) What lessons will my kids remember from me?
B. Fatherly influence doesn't have to be biological.
1) As far as we can tell, the Apostle Paul never had any
children.
2) But he did tutor a young man named Timothy as if he were
his own flesh and blood.
a) Paul probably made more of an imprint on that man
than his own father did.
b) He opened up his whole life for him.
II. Mentors are important.
A. The concept goes back a long time.
According to Homer's Odyssey, when King Odysseus went off
to fight in the Trojan War, he left his son Telemachus
in the hands of a wise old man named Mentor.
Mentor was charged with the task of teaching the young man
wisdom. #64440
Ironically, the goddess Athena disguised herself as Mentor
and told Telemachus to stand up to the suitors trying
to manipulate his mother, and to go find what
happened to his father.
So Telemachus was mentored by both a man and a woman.
B. If you want to grow spiritually, find a mentor.
1) Someone who knows more than you do and you respect.
2) Someone who cares about you spiritually.
3) Someone who is willing to devote some time and effort
to you.
C. Ultimately, you should become a mentor to someone else.
III. Mentoring in the Bible.
A. There are many examples in the Scripture.
1) Moses and Joshua.
2) Elijah and Elisha.
3) Barnabas and Mark.
a) When the young Mark bugged out on a mission trip, the
older Barnabas stuck by him -- Paul did not.
b) Mark was eventually restored even to Paul's good graces
and went on to write the gospel of Mark.
B. Paul and Timothy are the most fleshed-out examples.
1) We know much about the depth of their relationship because
of the letters of 1 & 2 Timothy.
a) Paul points out areas of weakness Timothy had, like
being too timid in the face of criticism.
b) He also encourages him, and reminds him of his spiritual
heritage.
c) They shared a great deal of their lives together.
2) In the end, Paul passed his ministry on to Timothy.
a) This is the ultimate goal of mentoring - bring them
to a place where they replace you.
b) Maybe they'll do an even better job.
IV. A mentor can be a powerful influence on your life.
A. What a mentor can do for you.
1) Instead of pooling your ignorance with other low-level
Christians, you can gain insight from a mature believer.
2) It is not just head-knowledge but learning from how they
live and how they follow God.
3) They can challenge you to get out of a rut and grow into
something greater than you have been.
B. Mentors may not be obvious at first.
Eugene Peterson is a noted Christian author.
He is the translator of the Message Bible.
When he was a college student he got into a spiritual funk.
He wasn't growing and he had a lot of questions.
He tried talking to his pastor.
After listening to Eugene for five minutes, the pastor
decided his problem was sex.
Eugene was 20 years old and had plenty of interest in sex
but he didn't think it was his problem.
He next approached a man who had the reputation in their
church of being a saint.
The man had spent 40 years in a wheelchair after being
shot in a holdup in Cleveland.
There was a quiet serenity about him.
Eugene had always heard he was wise and holy.
So he went to him and talked to him about what he was
experiencing.
The man was happy to meet with Eugene and suggested they
use the Bible as the text for their conversation.
But there was no conversation.
The man was only interested in acquiring an audience for
his "wisdom."
He proceeded to lecture Eugene from the book of Ephesians
for the three or four meetings they had together.
Eugene had no idea the Bible could be so dull.
Then a friend suggested Eugene talk to Reuben Lance.
Rueben was a fix-it man, good at plumbing and carpentry.
He never married. He was sarcastic.
He was scornful of most of what passed for religion.
Eugene was very intimidated by him, but he went anyway.
They had a summer of conversations and prayer.
Reuben listened and never lectured.
His attentiveness was not so much to Eugene as to God.
Reuben's attitude infected Eugene and he gradually began
to lose interest in himself and got interested in what
God was doing in his life.
That is what mentoring is all about.
#1094
IV. Consider being a mentor yourself.
A. Too few get around to it. #64441
1) Many Christians have been believers for 20, 30, 50 years
and have never been a spiritual mentor to someone else.
2) It is like being stuck in permanent adolescence.
3) You won't grow until you help someone else grow.
B. What a mentor needs:
1) A genuine spiritual experience - you must be born again.
2) Personal integrity: Practice what you preach.
3) Genuine concern for another person to grow spiritually.
a) Mentoring takes regular commitments of time.
b) It is not a one-shot deal.
C. Be accountable to one another.
1) Be honest about yourself and your limitations.
a) You don't have to be perfect to be a mentor.
2) You need to be honest to them.
a) Rebuke them when necessary. (Tough love) #64441
1> You need to be able to tell them,
"That relationship is destructive," or,
"Your anger is way out of line."
2> But it is more than being a nag. A real mentor
builds a relationship of love and trust.
b) A mentor is different from a friend because you
have spiritual goals for them.
V. Jesus is the ultimate mentor.
A. Most of you are aware of how he trained his 12 disciples.
1) He taught them about his Father.
2) He showed them his Father's power through miracles.
3) Then he sent them out to teach and heal.
B. Can we follow his example?
1) It presents some interesting problems.
Pastor Ray Hollenbach calls Jesus the impossible mentor.
He was God-come-to-earth and his life sets the bar impossibly
high for any of us.
Ray gives an example from his ministry.
A young man in his church came to his office.
He had been cheated out of $200 by someone else in the church.
He was really angry and frustrated about it.
That's when Ray made a hasty suggestion:
"You could forgive him his debt. Jesus told us to do just
that."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ray knew this was a
mistake.
The young guy shouted back, "Well, I'm not Jesus!"
That was the end of their discussion.
It's impossible to be like Jesus, isn't it?
Jesus was perfect. He led a sinless life.
It's a paradox: nearly everyone is willing to acknowledge Jesus
as a worthy role model.
But almost no one seriously believes it is possible to live up
to his example.
Our desire to be "just like Jesus" does battle with the
deep-seated notion that it is impossible to be like him.
Who would choose a mentor who is impossible to imitate?
At a different time, Ray Hollenbach asked a group of a dozen
young Christians if they felt it was possible to live a
life without sin for even one day.
He got no takers.
So he rephrased the question and asked if it was possible to
go for an hour without sinning.
Only one of them thought it was possible to stay within the
will of God for a single hour.
These questions are not academic.
They go to the heart of what it means to be "in Christ."
If our intuition tells us that following His example is
impossible, for one day or even an hour, how can we have
the confidence to pursue his vision for us?
The bottom line is that God has a greater vision for what is
possible in your life than you do.
Is it possible for you to learn from Jesus?
#63763
2) Don't limit what God can do in your life.
3) Seek something deeper, and find someone who can help you
get there.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 1094 “The Summer of My Discontent,” Eugene Peterson, Christianity Today
magazine, January 15, 1990, page 28.
#63763 “Is Jesus An Impossible Mentor?” Ray Hollenbach, www.SermonCentral.com,
October 17, 2012.
#64440 “To Teach Is To Touch A Life Forever,” sermon by Bishop Lalachan
Abraham, Believers Church, A G colony, Patna, India,
www.SermonCentral.com, February 2013.
#64441 “Six Marks of A Spiritual Mentor,” sermon by Rev. Jim Butcher,
Madison Baptist Church of Madison, West Virginia, September 2005,
www.SermonCentral.com.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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