Rick Warren - Expand Your Faith & God Will Reveal His Plan for Your Life

0:00If you want God's blessing on your life, you're going to have to learn to live by faith. Because everything God does in you, through you, for you, and to you, he does because you put your faith in his grace. God always moves according to your faith. The Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God. The Bible says according to your faith that will be done unto you. The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. It says whatever is not a faith is sin. The problem is everything in this world focuses against you to keep you from living by faith. That's why this weekend in this series, I want us to look at being faithful in a faithless world. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus said this. He said when I, the Son of Man, return, and Jesus is coming back one day, when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find on earth who have faith?

1:03Why is it so important? Well, the Bible tells us three things about the importance of faith. I want you to write these down. Number one, the Bible tells us that God is looking for faithful people. God is physically, visibly, actively taking the initiative to look for faithful people that he can bless. God is looking for people that he can bless and what he looks for is people of faith. Second Chronicles 169 says this. For the eyes of the Lord, search back and forth across the whole world looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him so that he can show his great power in helping them. This has been one of my life verses. That God is looking for people to use and if you get usable, he will wear you out. If you get blessable, he will bless your socks off. That's why I don't wear socks. And God says, I will use you if you will be usable.

2:04God is looking for people, faithful people that he can use. Number two, the second thing the Bible teaches is that faithful people are hard to find. They are actually quite rare. People who trust God with all their heart and soul and mind and streak, they are actually quite rare. Faithful people are hard to find. The Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 6. Everyone talks about how faithful he is, but it is difficult to find someone who really is. A lot of people talk the talk, but they don't really trust God. They don't really believe God. They are trusting their credit card. They are trusting everything else. They say they believe in God, but they don't really trust them when it comes to their finances, their health, their job, and these other things. Psalm 53 says this. God looks down from heaven at the children of men to see if a single one is wise and seeks God.

3:06But he says all of them have proven faithless, circle that word, faithless. They have all proven faithless. They have all been corrupted by the world. And not one of them always does right. Faithful people are hard to find. God is looking for people to bless, but he can't find people who are blessable, who are going to live by faith. Now the third thing the Bible says is this. Faithfulness is the key. To blessing, to victory. It's the key to victory in your life, overall of the problems in your life, and it's the key to blessing in your life. Just being a faithful man, a faithful woman. The Bible says this in 1 John 5. Every child of God can defeat the world. Remember we're in this battle called the Invisible War. And it is our faith, circle that, our faith that gives us the victory. That's how you're going to overcome your problems. Not by intelligence, not by money, not by creativity, but it is by your faith you're going to be able to overcome difficulties, distress, despair, things like that.

4:15Every child of God can defeat the world and it is our faith that gives us this victory. No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God. And the Bible says in Proverbs 28-20, a faithful man will be richly blessed. I want your life to be richly blessed. But in order for you to have that blessing, you're going to have to learn faithfulness. You're going to have to learn how God tests it and you're going to have to learn how God grows it. So let's look this weekend at the sixth test of faithfulness. And how God uses these things in your life to grow your faith so that then he can bless you. Let's get right into it. Number one, the Bible tells us that God uses little things to test your integrity. Now we often think, oh, it's the big things in life that create a leader.

5:17No, the big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is built not in the big things of life. It's built in the small things of life. That's where integrity shows up in the stuff nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes, in the small unseen, unspectacular moral choices of life where you're going to live. You're moral choices of life where you do the right thing and nobody's ever going to see it. God tests your integrity in the little things and faithfulness requires integrity. Faithful people reveal their integrity in the small, the unseen, and the unnoticed acts that nobody ever knows about. Luke 16 verse 10, Jesus says this. Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones and who has ever dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones. Now what is he saying here?

6:18He's saying your public blessing is determined by your private integrity. Did you hear that? Every time a politician has a scandal, you can always count on his defenders to come out and say this. It really shouldn't matter what a guy's private life is like. Have you ever heard that one? It really shouldn't matter what a guy does in his private life. It hasn't has anything to do with him as a leader. It has everything to do with him as a leader because if a man lives to his wife, he'll lie to his constituency. Believe me, if he'll lie to his best friend that he said to death to us part and be dishonest and he'll reject and cheat on her, he will cheat on you voter. Count on it. My public blessing as a leader comes because of private integrity that nobody ever sees. Your public blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see.

7:25God uses little things to test my integrity. Not only that, notice the next verse, Jesus says this. And if you have not been faithful with that which belongs to somebody else, who will give you what belongs to you? Now he's talking here about the concept of apprenticeship that before God gives you something, he will often loan it to you. He'll often see how you work in somebody else's, for many centuries, the only way you learn to job scale is you became an apprentice in somebody else's job. If you wanted to learn to be a shoemaker, you apprentice to a shoemaker who mentored you. If you wanted to be a mechanic, you apprentice to a mechanic and you worked in his mechanic shop before you got your own. Today is where many people are starting things and they've never apprentice to anybody else and they get in all kinds of trouble. He says before you get your own, you need to serve in somebody else.

8:30As a pastor, I apprenticed under many other ministries before I was given my own ministry. I served as a youth pastor under a guy's ministry in Norwalk. I served as a Christian teacher in a college before, under somebody else's ministry, I served as an associate pastor. I served as a writer in a Christian organization long before God gave me my own ministry. He says if you're not faithful with somebody else's job, who's going to give you? Are you as particular with somebody else loans you something, somebody loans you a card. Is it nice to lose your own car? Somebody loans you their home to go on vacation. Do you treat it as nice as you would your own home? You see, I learned a long time ago this principle. I don't have to own it to enjoy it. But I can take care of it even though it's not mine. And so I don't have to own stuff for people to, you know, this week a guy, I had to fly over to Phoenix to speak at a convention.

9:37Rick, why don't you get your own plane? I said absolutely not. Never, you will never hear me get my own plane. Now, if you want to buy one, I'll use yours. I'll be happy, but I don't have to own it to enjoy it. He said, but you fly all around the world. I said, no, no, I'm not going to buy a plane. First place, I don't think it's good for pastors to own that kind of stuff. But I said, I don't have to own it to enjoy it. If somebody else wants to provide, you got a plane, fine. I'll use it. But don't worry about having to own something in order to enjoy it. God will often try and trust you with something that somebody else's before he gives you your own. Number two, second, very important. God uses my talents to test my unselfishness. God uses my talents to test my unselfishness.

10:37Now, you have to decide in life who or what you're going to live for. And you really got two choices in life. You're either going to live for yourself, a self-centered, miserly life, or be, you're going to live for something greater than yourself, which I highly suggest. The Kingdom of God, live for Jesus Christ. You're going to live for yourself, or you're going to live for something bigger than yourself. Faithful people don't live for themselves. They realize that the talents God gave them are not for their own benefit, but for the, to make the world a better place. Do you realize this? That when God made you, He gave you all kinds of gifts, all kinds of talents, all kinds of abilities. We call it your shape if you've taken Class 3.01, your spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality, and your experiences. These five things make you you. And God made you you, and there's nobody like you in the whole world, and He wants you to be you for His glory.

11:38Now, God shaped you to serve Him. How do you serve God? There's only one way to serve God by serving other people. On this planet, you cannot serve God directly because you can't see Him. So the only way you can serve God is by serving others. And when you serve others, you are serving God, and God shaped you to serve Him. Now, faithful people realize that their talents are not for their benefit. You know those talents you've got? I'm sorry they weren't given for your, your sake. You were given the ability you got to help other people, for instance, one of my gifts, one of my talents is I have an a talent at teaching. But God gave me the teaching gift, not to benefit me, but to help you. My gift helps you. In the same way, God has gifted you. And your gift was meant to help me and to help other people around you. Now, if I don't use my gifts, my talents, you get cheated. If you don't use the gifts and talents that God gave you, I get cheated.

12:43Now, you may have a talent for art, and you say, well, why do I do art? Because I just love to do it. Well, that's nice, but that's not a good enough motive. Because God didn't give you artistic ability just so you can love to do it. He gave it to you so you can use your art in some ways to help other people. Some of you have an ability to fix things. Some of you are good at mechanics, some of you are good at math, some of you are good at closing deals, some of you are good at music, some of you are good at organizing, and you can organize something really quick. And some of you are good at trimming and gardening, and you know what? God made us all different so everything in the world gets done. If we all like to do the same thing, there'd be a lot left undone. So God made us all like to do different things. Now, those things that God gave you are not for your benefit. They are given as a stewardship, and God is watching you to see if you use what he gave you effectively on earth.

13:46And if you use it effectively on earth, listen, he's going to give you more responsibility in heaven. There's a whole lot of teaching on this in scripture. Jesus told many parables about it that God is studying your faithfulness. Have you ever thought about why didn't God just create us and take us to heaven? Why does he put us here on a broken planet for 80 years or 90 years or whatever? He puts you here because life is a test and life is a trust and life is a temporary assignment. And he's watching to see if you are faithful with what he gave you here on earth to bless other people, he's going to give you greater rewards, greater responsibility, and greater roles in heaven. This is a test. Now, the Bible says this, 1 Peter, chapter 4. Each one of you should use whatever gift he has received to make a ton of money. Retire and die. No, no, no, he says to serve others faithfully, circle that word faithfully, faithfully administering your a manager and your manager of the talent you've been given.

14:56Faithfully managing God's grace in its various form. God gave you talents and he's watching to see if you're faithful with them. Now, one of the principles we know is if you don't use it, you, you lose it. Talent is like a muscle. If you use muscle, it gets stronger. If you don't use your muscle, you lose your muscle. If you don't use your talent because of fear or laziness or anything like that, God will take it away and give it to somebody else. Whatever you use wisely, God gives you more of. Would you write that down? Whatever I use wisely, God will give me more of. If you use your time wisely, God will give you more time. If you use your energy wisely, God will give you more energy. If you use your money wisely, God will give you more money. I have found that if you use your influence wisely, God will give you more influence. But if you're faithful and little, then you'll be faithful in much.

16:06So if I take my talents, if I use my talents wisely, God will increase my talent. And I'll get better at it. And I'll get more better at it. And better and better and better. Because God gives to people who use what He gives them effectively. Look at the next verse. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove what. Okay, that's what we're talking about this weekend. God is watching to see, do I use my time, my money, my influence, do I use my intelligence, do I use my brain wisely? Then He's going to give you more. Whatever I use wisely, God will give me more of. There are two great themes in the Bible. Two great themes. One is salvation. And the other is stewardship. They're taught from cover to cover. So the third question is, have I trusted Jesus for my forgiveness stewardship is what are you doing with what you've been given? And God is looking at both of these major themes in your life.

17:12Number three, the third test. And if you pass this test, then God gives you more blessing. And this test will be on and on. Number three, God uses tough times to teach me persistence. The difference between faithful people and unfaithful people is unfaithful people give up at the first sign of difficulty. Faithful people keep on keeping on. Faithful people are determined. Faithful people are diligent. Faithful people are persistent. Faithful people don't know how to quit. You know how a little nut and acorn becomes an oak tree. An oak tree is just an acorn that refuse to give up. And it just kept on keeping on. And you just never give up. I'm not that smart, but I do have one thing is I don't know how to quit.

18:15And as always too soon to quit. You are never a failure to you quit. And it's always too soon to quit. God uses tough times to test my persistence. You know when we started saddleback with just K I preached the first sermon to one person my wife. She thought it was too long. It's been downhill ever since. 31 years later, she's still saying it's too long. I thought when we started the church, we'd get a building real quick. We went 15 years without a building. In the first 13 years of this church, we used 79 different facilities. You know how many times I felt like giving up just every Monday morning. But I don't know how to quit. And we said, God said, Rick, if I never give you a building, will you still serve me? I said, absolutely. saddleback route over 10,000 people before we built this first building. How would you like to set up and take down a church for 10,000 people every week?

19:22There's not a lot of glory to that. It's just hard work. God says I use tough times to test your persistence. Notice this verse. You're going through tough times right now. This verse is for you. Second Corinthians 4. This is why we never give up, though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small, and they won't last very long. But they will produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever, because when you're going through tough times, you're growing in character. So he says, we don't look at the troubles we can see right now. Now, there's, we don't keep our eyes on the problem. Rather, we look forward to what we have not seen, the reward for persevering. For the troubles we've seen will soon be over, but the joist to come will last forever.

20:27You see, there's something God is more interested in than what you do. He's more interested in what you're becoming than what's happening to you. And God often allows trials, troubles, tribulations, problems, persistence, but in your life, to teach you the diligence, determination, and character. The problem you're going through right now, this is a test. It's easy to serve God when things are going great. Now, if you're going through a lot of problems, now, if you're going through a tough time right now, and almost everybody is, the next verse you need to memorize. So put a star by it, go home and write it down on a card, and memorize it this week for encouragement. Galatians 6.9. Don't get tired of doing what is right. You will, circle will, not might, you will be rewarded when the time is right if you don't give up.

21:29I want us to read that verse aloud together. Read it with me. Don't get tired of doing what's right. You will be rewarded when the time is right if you don't give up. You need to memorize that verse because God uses tough times to test your persistence. One of my great spiritual lessons I learned from that theologian forest gump. Everybody remember the story, forest gump. In forest gump, there's a story of a hard time that they go through which a hurricane tsunami comes into the south part of America. And all of the fishing, remember, forest gump has a fishing boat. Bubba gump shrimp. He's got a fishing boat. And all of the other fishing boats say, we got a storm coming in, so we're going to play it safe. We're not going to be out fishing during the storm.

22:30We're going to pull into the harbor. We're going to batten down the hatches. We're going to tie up next to shore. And we're going to wait out this recession. This storm. Economic tough times are coming. We got a storm coming in. It's a parable. And so we're going to tie up and we're going to play it safe. We're not going to be out fishing. We're going to wait out the storm. We're going to be play it conservative. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. One fishing boat is doing what fishing boats are made to do. Fish. And so forest gump is out on the ocean fishing in the middle of the storm. If you remember this story, at the end of the storm, every boat that had tied down in the harbor was destroyed. They had all been dashed against the rocks. They were completely dominated and broken up. They were all destroyed. And after the storm, forest gump dominated the market.

23:31Because he was the only one who didn't play it safe. Number four, the fourth thing that you need to understand is that God uses shortages to test my generosity. God uses shortages to test my generosity. And that's how I get into it. Faithful people are generous when they don't have it to give. Now follow me on this, anybody can be generous when you've got a surplus. I can be generous with my time, when I got a lot of extra money, when I got a lot of extra money. I can be generous with my energy, when I got extra energy to spend. and I've got a lot of extra help to give. It's when I don't have enough for me. I don't have enough time for me. I don't have enough energy for me. I don't have enough money for me.

24:32I don't have enough talent for me. And I give it a way to help others. God goes, this is a test. And I'm watching you to see if you are faithful. It will you be faithful and will you trust me. Now a great example of this in the Bible is the story of the church in Macedonia. Macedonia was an area of Greece. Alexander the Great, he was from Macedonia. His father was Philip of Macedonia. Now there's a church in this place called Macedonia, in Greece, and there's another church in Greece called the Corinthians. Corinth is a city in Greece. And Paul writes a letter to the church at Corinth and he's bragging on the church at Macedonia for them being generous in the middle of their shortages. Here's what he says, look up here on the screen. He says those people over there, Macedonia, they're going through this enormous recession. He goes, they have been going through severe trouble.

25:33They've been going through very hard times. And out of their extreme poverty, these people are flat broke, has flowed extreme generosity and overwhelming joy. What's he talking about? He said those people over there, they are hurting like crazy, but they gave them huge offering to help the church down in Jerusalem that's starving right now. He goes, out of their poverty came generosity. He said, God's watching that. They are being faithful. They are being faithful. Did you know that the number one test, the acid test of your faith in your life, is your finances. Not anything else, but it's your finances. Why? Because we spend most of our time thinking, making, worrying, investing, saving, money. It's the acid test of how much do I trust God? My finances. In fact, Jesus said it like this.

26:36I tell you, use worldly wealth, your worldly resources. That's your time, your money, your energy, everything. Use your worldly resources to benefit others. And to make friends for eternity. In other words, to help people into heaven, finance missions. In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven. He said, when you help other people with whatever you want, he said, when you help other people with whatever you've got, you're storing up a reward for you in heaven. But if you are unfaithful, there's that word. If you're unfaithful with your worldly wealth, you just spend it all on yourself. Who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? You cannot serve both God and money. He said, if I can't trust you with material world wealth in this world, I'm not gonna trust you with the true riches of heaven in eternity. This is a test.

27:36Let me give you five principles right now. I want you to write these down to make it through tough times. These are five principles that if you will do these things, God will bless you in your life in these areas, okay? Number one, first principle in a recession. God gives to generous people. God gives to generous people. This is a principle in the Bible. God says, the more generous you are, the more generous I'm gonna be with you. If you're generous with your time, I'm gonna give you more time. If you're generous with your energy, I'm gonna give you more energy. If you're generous with your talent, I'm gonna give you more talent. God says, why does God want me to be generous? Obviously, He doesn't need it. He wants me to be like Him. Everything I have in my life, everything you have in your life is because of the generosity of God. Your heart is beating because of the generosity of God. The blood in your veins and the air you breathe is all there

28:38because of the generosity of God. God so loved that He gave. And God wants us to grow up and be like Him, like Father, like Son, like Father, like daughter. God wants me to learn to be generous. And so He rewards it. And there's a principle throughout the Bible where God says, the more generous you are, the more generous I will be with you. You cannot out give God. I have played this game for many years. Most of you know my story. K and I started tithing when we were married 36 years ago and each year raised our tithe from 10%, at least 1% a year, to 11%, 12% to 13%, 15, sometimes on big years when I get a raise, I'd raise it 3%, 4%, sometimes it was really tight. We were barely making ends meet. We'd raise it just quarter percent. Why? We didn't tell, we weren't trying to show off. I didn't tell anybody about this for 30 years, but I wanted my heart to grow bigger. And every year I wanted to be more like Jesus.

29:40So I was trying to learn. In general, most of you know that today K and I give away 91% of our income and live on 9%. Most of you know, I don't take a salary from this church. I've served this church free for 31 years. And it's been fun learning to give it away. And I've played this game where God says, Rick, you give to me and I'll give to you and we'll see who wins. And I have lost that game for 36 years. Now God gives to generous people. And the more I give, the more God blesses me. Number two, this is a real important one. Obeying God's vision will bring God's provision. Obeying God's vision will bring God's provision. In other words, if you do what God tells you to do and you don't have the money, you don't have the energy, you don't have the people, you don't have it, God will bring it along the resources you need at the right time. Because what He calls you to do, He's gonna fulfill.

30:42What He's giving you the vision for, He will give you the provision for. He'll give you the provision for. And so what you need to do is you step out in faith to do what you know God's called you to do. Here's the third principle. This is a real important one. When I do, all God tells me to do, he does what I can't do. When I do, all God tells me to do, he does what I can't do. Now this story of the feeding of the 5,000 in the Bible is a perfect example of this. Do you remember this story? The miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 people. They're all out in the desert. Jesus has been teaching all day. It's the end of the day and everybody's hungry. There's no McDonald's anywhere. So the disciples come to Jesus, said, send them all away, Lord, so then go home and eat. Jesus looks at the disciples and He says, you feed them.

31:42Now that was impossible here. God often asks you to do the impossible to stretch your faith. He looks and says, you feed them. They said, Lord, we can't. We don't want any money. We don't want any food. There's no place to buy food. We can't. Jesus said, you feed them. So the name says, anybody got a lunch and out of that entire 5,000 people, one little kid has little sack lunch. And in that little sack lunch are five little tiny rolls of bread and two little fish like sardines. And a little kid takes his measly little lunch and he gives it to Jesus. He gives Jesus everything he's got. It's not much, but he gives it to him. Jesus takes it, he breaks it, he blesses it, and he multiplies it, and he feeds 5,000 people with it. And then at the end of their all feeding, they gather 12 baskets of leftover. There was so much leftover. What's the principle there?

32:42When I give what little I've got, God multiplies it and he makes up for it. Fourth principle, very important. When I have a need, I sow a seed. When I have a need, I sow a seed. Now here's the point. Whatever you need more of, give it away. If you need more energy, give energy to helping other people and God will give you more energy. If you need more time, give some of your time away, unselfishly, and God will give you more time. If you need more intelligence, you give whatever you got away to help others. If you need more money, whatever you need, you sow a seed. Can you imagine a farmer going, well, it's recession. I think I'll just keep all the seed in the barn. No, you've got to plan it in order to profit from it. Now, whatever you need in your life, you sow that as a seed and it will be responsible

33:43to come back to you. Here's the fifth principle, very important. There's always a delay between sowing and reaping. There is always a delay between sowing and reaping. In other words, if I go out and I plan a kernel of corn in the ground, tomorrow, I'm not going to see a full grown stock of corn with 20 years on it. It ain't going to happen. There is a season between planting and harvesting, between the seed and the fruit. There is always a time delay and what's going on in the time delay? This is a test. It's a test of your faith. Will I be faithful? Will I keep on doing the right thing? Will I do what God wants me to do and see what God does? There's two other ways that God tests your faithfulness. And when you pass these tests, he pours out blessing on your life. Here they are. Number five, faithful people bring friends to Jesus.

34:50God is watching you and faithful people, faithful people share their faith. Faithful people share their faith. Faithful people bring others into the faith. If I don't share my faith, I am being unfaithful. Now, a good example of this is these four guys in the Bible had a friend who was paralyzed and they had the faith to think, you know, if we could just get our friend to Jesus, Jesus would heal the guy and then our friend would be well. And they had faith that if they could get their friend to Jesus, he'd be healed. The story is told here in, they're on your outline in Matthew chapter nine. It says, some men brought to Jesus a paralytic, a paralyzed man, a paralyzed friend lying on a mat. He couldn't even get to Jesus. He was paralyzed. When Jesus saw their faith, circle the phrase, their faith.

35:52When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, take heart son, your sins are forgiven. I didn't print the rest of the verse, the rest of the verse says, and he said, take up your mat and go home. And the guy was instantly healed. Now, Jesus heals the guy. Now, according to that verse, did Jesus heal the guy because of the sick man's faith or because of the friend's faith? What? Yeah, the friends. It says, when Jesus saw their faith, you guys had enough faith that if you could get your paralyzed man to me, I'd save him. On the basis of their faith, not the guy who was sick, but their faith, he healed the man. Now, listen very closely. You have friends that are paralyzed and can't get to Jesus. You have friends who are paralyzed by guilt and they can't get to Jesus. They're paralyzed by doubt and they can't get to Jesus. They're paralyzed by fear. They're paralyzed by worry.

36:52They're paralyzed by insecurity and they can't get to Jesus. And the only way they're gonna get to Jesus is you're gonna have to bring them. And if you have enough faith to bring them to Jesus, they will get saved. But they're not gonna get saved. They're not gonna be healed. Their life isn't gonna be turned around until you have enough faith to bring them to Jesus. Now, when God looks out and He sees people bringing people to Him, He not only heals those people, He blesses the person who brought them. If you want the blessing of God on your business, if you want the blessing of God on your family, if you want the blessing of God on your life, just start bringing friends to Jesus. And if you bring your friends to Jesus, God says, that's the kind of person I'm looking for. They are faithful and God blesses faithfulness. You want God's blessing on any area of your life, just start bringing your friends to Jesus. And you watch what happens.

37:53God will do things in your life, your finances, your health, your business. You could not imagine. Faithful people bring friends to Jesus, which is why we don't ever stop reaching out. We keep starting campuses, we keep starting churches, we keep doing outreaches to bring more friends to Jesus. Why? The moment this church stops bringing people to Jesus, the hand of blessing has taken off of it. God is blessing this church because there are people in it who are still bringing their friends to Jesus. And they're getting blessed from it. One last principle, number five, or six, faithful people build the faith of others. Faithful people build the faith of others. And when God sees your faithfulness, he blesses you. Now, building the faith of others is called mentoring, or discipling. It's simply encouraging somebody in the faith

38:54who's younger in the faith than you. Everybody in life needs a Paul, and everybody needs a Timothy. What's a Paul? That's somebody who's older than you who can kind of encourage you, and encourage you, and be a coach to you spiritually, and just be there to pray for you. Everybody needs a Paul, and everybody needs a Timothy. That's somebody who's not been a Christian as long as you. Maybe you've only been a Christian one week longer, but they can be your Timothy. And you need to be mentoring somebody younger than you. Now, you don't need to be a hundred steps ahead of that person, because they can't see you. You only need to be one step ahead. And if you start helping other people in their faith, you're gonna find God blessing your socks off. Faithful people build the faith of others. God has called every Christian to do this. Notice this verse, second Timothy, chapter two, verse two. The things Paul is talking to Timothy. Paul says, the things you've learned from me, Timothy,

39:58in the presence of many witnesses, you are to entrust to other faithful people. There's that word faithful, who will also be qualified to pass it on to others. Now notice, in that verse, there are four generations. Paul says, I help build up your faith. Now, you're to find somebody who's faithful and help build up their faith, who they will turn around and build up the faith of others. Four generations in one verse. Four generations. This is called mentoring. It's called discipling. Don't you wish when you were in your 20s and you're a young guy, if you had had an older guy who was a Christian who said, you know what, I don't know a whole lot, but let's just get together for coffee once a month and we'll just talk and I'll pray for you. And you need some help in your business. I don't know a whole lot, but I can tell you what I know. You need some help in your family, your marriage. I can tell you what not to do. I can tell you what not to do.

40:58That's mentoring. See, it's wise to learn from experience. It's wise to learn from experiences, mistakes of others. I don't have time to learn it all myself. And let's say if you're a young woman, wouldn't you like to have an older woman, a godly woman who takes you under her wing and says, look, I know you've got problems with your kids, problems with your husband or problems with your career or problems with this going to school. I'll tell you what, I'll just be there to hang on with you. I'll be there to pray with. I don't know a whole lot, but I'll just be there for you. Wouldn't you have wanted that as a young Christian? Of course you would have. Of course you would have. Here's what Jesus said to Peter, Luke 22. This is before Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus knew he was gonna do it and he said this. Peter, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith will not completely fail. He said, Peter, I already know you're gonna fail, but I've already prayed for you and I know you're gonna come out of it. So after you've repented and come back to me,

42:00after you've blown it and you've come back to me, strengthen and build up the faith of your brothers. Now that we say, be a mentor. What I want you'll be able to do is you to take your biggest problems and failures and save somebody else from making the same mistake. And you'll be able to say like Job, look up here on the screen. This is what a mentor does. You'll sing God's praises to everyone. You meet, testifying. Here's what you'll say. I messed up my life. I messed up my life and let me tell you it wasn't worth it. But God stepped in and saved me and I'm alive again. That's called mentoring. I messed up my life. Let me tell you it wasn't worth it. But God stepped in and saved me. He'll help you too. So hang in there. God is gonna use you as a mentor. Let's power heads.

43:02I want you to follow me in this prayer after I pray for you. Lord, I know Father, you're looking for faithful people to use. You're looking for faithful people to bless. I know the people of real faith are hard to find. And yet you have said, faithfulness is the key to blessing. It is the key to victory. And that a faithful man, a faithful woman, will be richly blessed. I want these people in our family to be richly blessed. So help us to respond to the six tests of faith with the way that we ought to respond. Now you pray. And you're in your heart and your mind say this. Dear God, please use the little things in my life to grow my integrity. The stuff that nobody sees. Help me to be faithful in that which isn't my own

44:02so that you can give me my own. And God used my talents to grow my unsolfichness. Help me to realize that my giftedness, my abilities were not made for my benefit, but to make the world a better place. And to help others. Lord, the tough times I'm going through, I'm going to ask you to use them to grow my persistence. Help me to not give up. Help me to keep on keeping on. Help me to not look at the problem but the reward in heaven for growing in character. And you know, Lord, the stuff that I lack that I've got a shortage on in my life. I'm going to ask you to help me to grow in generosity through the shortages of my life. To be generous when I can't afford it with my time, with my praise. Help me to be generous in affirming others.

45:05To be generous with my money. Help me to be generous with my love. Help me to be generous, not with criticism, but with praise. I want to learn to be generous in every area. I want to obey your vision and expect your provision. I want to do what you tell me to do and then watch you make up the difference. I want to be generous so that you can be generous to me so I can be more generous. Where I have a need, help me plant a seed. And when there's a delay between the seed and the harvest, help me to realize you are still, you're still testing my faith. Lord, I want Your blessing on my family, on my business, on my life. Help me to faithfully bring other friends to the faith. To bring my friends to Jesus who are paralyzed

46:08and don't have enough faith on their own to come to You. And help me to build the faith of others. It scares me to death, but I'm willing to be a mentor. I ask you to help me be a faithful person so that you can bless me in your name. If you've never invited Jesus Christ in your life, say, Jesus Christ, come into my life right now. I want to put my faith in you. Amen. Thank you.