Generational Discipleship

Remember the movie "The Karate Kid" where Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel by making him do simple tasks like waxing the car and painting the fence? Daniel faced great challenges from bullying that Mr Miyagi took him under his wing to mentor him, through martial arts, all sorts of chores, these tasks were building his skills. In the same way, biblical mentorship often involves learning through daily life. Paul mentored Titus through shared experiences and teachings, showing that God's lessons often come disguised in the ordinary.

Problem in NA according to the PEW research is declining due to switching about a third from Christianity to no faith but a majority of Christians come to follow Jesus between 10-29 years old. All in all it goes to show you that a person’s decision of following Jesus or not will most likely happen in their young years but this shouldn’t scare you because Gen Z and Gen Alpha are starving for truth, searching for hope, and looking for fulfillment and the church who is commissioned with bringing this hope we call the good news, the gospel, can deliver it. We spent the last few weeks looking at four powerful reasons for hope in following Christ but as we look forward in the new year, in the season of goal setting and resolution that in 2025 we can carry on the hope of Christ and be able to help the next generation recognize the call of following Jesus, as Isaiah 52:7

Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Impacting the next generation to follow Jesus best comes from an overflow from your current devotion to Christ as Savior and Lord. A model for others to know, see, and replicate but sometimes gets ignored when our priorities shift away from devotion to Christ.

This is so essential because more and more people and especially young people, are asking questions about their purpose? what eternity looks like? who is God and is He truly real, loving, and just? is the church a healthy community for me to be apart of? And much more… We can be mirrors of Christ reflecting others the hope He offers and point them to the direction of following Him.

We shouldn’t have to fear from the hard questions people may struggle to find answers to, we ought to walk alongside them and trust in the Lord who guides us in every step to encourage you and use you as a vessel to deliver the hope of Christ.

We can be encoruagers reminding that following Jesus is not limited to a one time decision, its a life-changing commitment and life-long devotion to follow the Almighty God who is the Creator and Author of life. and even though we turned away from God, he sent His son Jesus to die on the cross and by His death and resurrection gave all humanity the opportunity to be united with Him now and forever for Jesus said

John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

There is nothing that you can do to ever convince God to stop loving you and allowing you to be united with Him now and forever. Following Jesus requires a decision from you to follow Him as Savior and Lord, and devotion to turn away from sin the best you can and following His example with faith and obedience. As you continue faithfully following Jesus, abiding in His presence, magnifying His greatness, and loving those around you, and being filled with the Holy Spirit to empower you to serve others, you will see inward transformation that overflows outwardly that others will recognize that somethings different about you. This is what faith and obedience in Christ will lead, for you to be recognizably and boldly living like Jesus.

But there’s one more responsibility we have as Christians and that is the responsibility of making disciples. When Jesus resurrected from the grave, He appeared to His disciples showing them that He is God and defeated sin and death, His disciples believed fully that Jesus is the Savior and Lord and this is what He called them and all Christians to do. Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

As Doug has mentioned before and surveys show that we are about one generation away from Christianity rapidly declining in our own backyard. The question comes down, are we going to do something about it, would you consider if you are a Christian to have 2025 be the year that you follow the call from Jesus to make disciples? How amazing would it be to see hundreds and thousands of people in CHQ county saved and following Christ, that would be amazing. But where do we start? It starts with your devotion to following Jesus and from an overflow of following his example you disciple others to follow the example you set. Essentially this is discipleship and discipleship is just like mentorship.

Biblical mentorship is showing and sharing Christ’s example to those you do life with and/or those you commit to growing together.

Let’s look at Titus 2:1-8 for it offers four areas of how we can be mentored and mentor others to be effective and multiplying followers of Jesus.

The New International Version (Chapter 2)

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. Titus 2:1-8

Paul wrote this letter to one of his mentees Titus encouraging and guiding him on leading and pastoring the church in Crete and one of the main focuses that Titus and the whole church should be challenged by is mentoring the next generation to follow Jesus. Here are four considerations on Biblical mentorship

Biblical mentorship requires sound doctrine

The New International Version (Chapter 2)

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.

In your pursuit of growing further with your relationship with God, what you study and learn about God is important because, it will shape how you understand, interact with Him and what you will communicate about him and it is critical as you grow in your understanding to do so accurately so that you can discern what is true. Because we want to help others follow Jesus with integrity and not misguiding others to believe in false teaching. In todays day of age there are so many Christians utilizing social media and other platforms to faithfully share God’s word to encourage and teach both believers and unbelievers all around the globe but the church throughout history and even today are met with so much false teaching that even what we scroll on our feeds we may see what appears good biblical teaching but wisdom and discern comes from God’s word which is why we can’t cut away from reading and studying God’s word and replace it with 15-second shorts

The word teach here in verse 1 in Greek is laleo which means “to speak”, the focus of the word here is not so much on instruction like the rest of the passage but in your conversations, what you share about Christ, part of our job to be “sound” and accurate is to not be hypocrites in our actions. Practicing what you preach matters just as much as teaching accurately what scripture says.

It can be intimdating to have the pressure of teaching sound doctrine but you have to remember that God works through willing and faithful servants, As Jesus promised us in Matthew 28:19-20

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We live in a day of age where we have so much access to grow in our knowledge about God, so many books, articles, podcasts, commentaries, videos, discussion guides, etc… that having a question about the faith is only a google search away. Your devotion to learning God’s word, studying for the sake of being accurate, and living it out in your life is pivotal in order to teach sound doctrine.

Biblical mentorship is about living out Christ’s character

The New International Version (Chapter 2)

Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.

As Titus was called to build up the church in Crete Paul instructed him to teach older men and women to live out the ways of following Jesus, the attributes that reflects the work of Jesus death and resurrection and this by no means is a full list of all that we ought to live like a Christian. One thing to mention when you read the letters Paul wrote in the New Testament, he was addressing problems the early churches were facing and how to address them and what you read here are some of the notable mentions. He recognizes that men in the 1st century in Crete struggled with anger and back in those days, being married to an angry husband and a child of a enraged father was dangerous for them to face abuse and on the flip side, women commonly struggled with gossip which sourced much conflict and division in the church of the first century. Paul not making generalizations between men and women but men and women in the first century church were struggling with these specific issues that needed to be addressed before they can mentor the next generation. Additionally his use of “likewise” means that these attributes are not exclusive to either man or woman but for all believers.

The point Paul is making here for Titus is that older men and women ought to be living out Christ’s example for them to mentor the next generation to live after Christ. This is true

Biblical mentorship is about faith in action

The New International Version (Chapter 2)

4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.

I had a professor tell me this in school that the deeper you dig your well the more water you’ll have to supply yourself and others, treat studying and living out God’s word like digging your well. The goal of Biblical mentorship is to impart Christ’s example to those you’re mentoring to successfully live out Christ’s example, to put Christ’s words into action. As James 2:26 mentions

James 2:26 NIV

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

This list of putting these attributes in action for young men and women were specific to the first century needs of how a young man and woman ought to grow up striving but this is not the end all list nor these attributes are exclusive between young men and women. But the aim of Biblical mentorship as Paul was encouraging Titus, who then was encouraging the old men and women to mentor the younger men and women was to take their knowledge of Christ’s example and put it into action. We’re not here to just teach the ways of Christ to just puff up our knowledge, but mentoring the next generation even involves guiding through the practical questions that wisdom is needed. Helping and sharing wisdom with on young people research and buy a car, financial planning, career/business development, raising children, etc.. is Biblical mentorship as long as these practical guidance are shared with . Good financial stewardship should be taught to have tithing and generosity planned in budgets, career progression guidance should not put others down, and helping parents how to incorporate teaching God’s word to their kids.

Titus here was instructed by Paul that the manner we disciple the next generation should be done by believers of the same gender. Growing as a man of God we can be taught and encouraged by faithful women but there are struggles that young men face that other men can relate to and speak into that a woman can’t and vice versa. That is why good Biblical mentorship should come from the same gender because putting our faith in action should be taught and modeled in all areas of life, including the most vulnerable places that ideally should be shared with your fellow brothers in Christ as a man or sisters in Christ as a woman.

Biblical mentorship is about setting Christ’s example in all areas of life

The New International Version (Chapter 2)

7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

As a child I had this toy that fascinated me, I don’t know what its called but its a rectangle with hundreds of plastic rods sticking out on one side and on the other side was a clear plexy glass panel. This toy required to be upright so that when you press your hand on this, a hand impression should come out on the other side holding its shape. But if that toy were to lose half of its rods, any impression you make would be hard to recognize its shape, in the same way, being a Christian requires us to mold our lives to reflect like Christ so that those we are modeling the faith by putting into action. Is your current relationship with Christ, the practices of prayer, devotion to God’s word, fasting, living out Jesus example of serving those who are overlooked in society, and sharing the Gospel message with those around you. This is some of the tasks we do that gives God glory and honor which is good. And as you set that example, just like Paul has mentioned earlier that our teaching and what we proclaim about Jesus must show integrity that aligns with our actions, seriousness that what we teach matters, and soundness that we don’t pick and choose what we like to believe and teach about Jesus like picking toppings for a subway sandwich. We either fully commit to teach and model our way of living like Jesus and set that example for others or we don’t, we cannot serve the desires of Christ and the desires of our sins at the same time. So that whenever someone challenges your faith with your actions, there would be no examples of hypocrisy.

Now you may be sitting here thinking that mentoring the next generation like Christ is hard like I don’t have it all together with my relationship with God for others to glean from, I’m not a pastor or a leader. Some of the best examples I have learned about following Jesus was from those who don’t have it all together because they recognized their short-comings and rely on the Lord daily, I learned so much from people who are not pastors but faithfully followed Jesus for decades, this past week Ruth and I got to see our families and it was wonderful, but one night we were having dinner with her parents, eating delicious mediterrian food because thats their favorite not because they’re from that region. After soome conversations, Ruth was sharing her expereinces of challenges she was facing about finding opportunities to make Christ known in her workplace with all the dynamics at play. From there, we got to her story after story about God using her parents from their expereinces both successful and difficult, and modeling a faithful example for both of us to learn and grow from. They weren’t speaking from an outline or a prepared script, they spoke from faithful experience from God’s mission.

You may be here today and you have been faithfully following Jesus and have many stories of what God has taught you and how you were able to make a difference for the Gospel by sharing Christ with others, you have a treasure of truth that the church needs for you to share especially to the next generation. You can come alongside our children’s and youth programs to invest your expereiences with our young people, if you live near the community college maybe you can consider offering rides to church for students who don’t have transportation, or you can be apart in our community organizations whether faith-based or not to invest in our young people like schools, IMPACT Ministries, YMCA, Boys and girls clubs and any other group that invests in young people that you can join, or if you already connected with young people or someone younger than you by age or years of following Jesus, how are you modeling faith where someone can see Christ example through you? What would it look like for you to purposely change something in your life for you to be present with younger people and intentionally pointing them to Christ?

If you are someone who feels maybe that you haven’t had much expereince in following Jesus maybe you said yes to follow Jesus recently, you can share your story of how God brought you make the best decision for your life and continue growing in your knowledge and practice.

Joining a life group is a great starting point to be mentored by other faithful Christians, ask questions about God, encouraging others by sharing what God is teaching you, receive guidance to navigate hard situations and see how they live out their faith so that you may be ready to have your family members, co workers, neighbors, whoever you know see the transformation power of the Gospel that saved you, continuous refining of your character to align like Christ by the Holy Spirit, and being empowered to be bold with grace and truth to speak and declare that Jesus is the only way, truth and life.

We are in need across the country and even in our county for Biblical mentorship, for church members to be actively seeking out opportinitues to invest in others to follow Jesus faithfully, intentionally using God’s word to encoruage, teach, correct and rebuke sound teaching for others to hear, know , and be challegned to grow, and presently to be connecting with others so that the Hope of Christ can be seen through us. What is 2025 going to look like for you to participate in the Great Commission of seeing people Know God, Find Freedom in Christ and Community, Discover their purpose, and Make a difference for others beyond your influence for the Gospel.