The Spiritual Nursery — 1 Thessalonians 2

0:00 Alright. So let's take a look at a couple passages. First Thessalonians chapter two verses seven and eight. Paul writes this, but we were gentle among you just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children so affectionately longing for you. We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of god but also our lives because you became dear to us.

0:29 You might recall that in Paul's second missionary journey, they get the Macedonian call. They come in Macedonia. One of the places they went, of course, there's Philippi and then there's Thessalonica. But they were... Paul was only in Thessalonica for a short period of time.

0:47 It's... The word says he was there for three Sabbath days. And because of persecution, he was driven out. He had to leave. And so there was a number of people respond to the gospel, a new assembly started there, and can you imagine Paul happened to to leave and here are new converts, a new gathering of the saints.

1:07 But he's telling them that while we were with you, we were very affectionate towards you. We're very tender towards you. We nurtured you just like a mother would take care of a newborn babe. Lot of work, lot of personal attention, a lot of care. Now I wanna balance that with something he tells Timothy in second Timothy two verses two through three.

1:36 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. And I made the point in an earlier session that we have four generations of disciples in the... This verse, Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful man, faithful man that will teach others. So what happens if you see someone make a profession of faith and you start discipling them, you start working with them, you're you're teaching the rudiments of the faith, and yet they just don't take off? It's a struggle to get them to come to bible studies.

2:17 It's a struggle to get them to come to meetings of the church, to really commit to spiritual things, and you see them having a propensity to follow after secular things and hang out with their old friends. What do you do? Well, obviously, as Peter says in first Peter two two, a newborn babe needs frequent feedings of the sincere milk of God. But in time, there should be growth. Right?

2:45 Hebrews chapter five, the writer exhorts them and says, you know, you're still hanging on to the fundamentals. You haven't moved on into the more serious things, and the context here is the the priesthood of Christ. There should be... If if a true believer is getting steady doses of the sincere milk of the word, there should be growth. One of the ways you can tell that in bible studies is how someone answers questions.

3:15 If they're really laying hold of of the scripture, that means the spirit of god is giving them enlightenment. First Corinthians chapter two. And their faithfulness, that's another good indication. So over the years, there's been times where I've had these people who have made professions. I want them to go on, but they're just not.

3:35 They're not committed. What do you do? Now this is just my suggestion. I give them about six months, And then I just pull them aside and say, listen, I really care about you. I want you to grow on, but you're not serious about this.

3:52 So I'm just gonna commit you to the Lord. If there's a time in the future where you wanna continue the discipleship, let me know, and we'll pick up where we left off. Sometimes they'll come back. In other times, they don't. I think it's...

4:09 If the enemy can get us entertaining his children, if the enemy can get us attending to goats to neglect god's sheep, he'll do it. And so sometimes if somebody is not truly born again, it doesn't matter how much we invest in them, they're not gonna go forward. They gotta be born again first. They gotta have the spirit of god. So if the devil can keep us busy entertaining his people while we're neglecting those who need it, he will.

4:39 And so it's actually just a prioritizing our time in our ministry. So, I'll just suggest to you that's kind of what I found. I give him six months after that. I commit them to the lord, but I also leave the door open for them to come back. Alright.

5:06 It's a father who draws them. The lord Jesus said in John six forty four. It's conviction of the holy spirit. All we are are... The only two things that really matters in evangelism is the word of god and the spirit of god.

5:21 That's it. We're the spectators of god's grace. And so we're to accurately convey the word of god, the spirit of god works on that soul. If they come to Christ, praise the Lord, it's his work. And by the way, don't say that somebody is saved if they make a profession.

5:41 You don't know. Sometimes they go to camps and say, oh, such and such got saved last night or we had 10 people who got saved this week at camp. You don't know. Time will tell if they're truly born again or not. But it's fair to say they made a profession last night.

5:58 Okay? So be careful about that. Only the lord knows if they're saved. So if you see someone come to Christ, I suggest that within forty eight hours, you begin discipleship with them. Don't let them cool off.

6:11 Start personally meeting with them. I talked to you about basic Christian training. That's... I take everyone through that that makes a profession of Christ. There's another workbook in front of that that Gene Gibson wrote called Survey of Christianity.

6:31 And by the way, if you're a father and you're looking for material for your children, I took all four of my children through the survey and then I took all four of them through the basic Christian training. You can do survey around nine to 10, 11 years old, and then the BCT maybe 13 or 14 years of age, and that just gives them a good foundation. The basic Christian training, just for example, has the first lesson's on the gospel, second's lordship, third... Sorry. First is on the gospel, second's on Christology, third is on lordship, then get some baptism, security of salvation, talks about church life, how to overcome temptation, how to pray, how to share testimony, the lord's supper, just real fundamentals of the faith.

7:21 And although it is a discipleship manual, and I said this in an earlier study, we've had dozens of people come to Christ to that study. They think they're Christians, but under the the conviction of the spirit and the conviction of god's word, they find out I'm not saved and they get saved. So if somebody says, oh, I'll do a study. Don't assume that they're a believer or not. Just teach God's word.

7:47 Let God's spirit have his way, and you'll find out. They'll either grow in their... The relationship with the Lord or they'll come to the Lord. Another thing I like to do is provide a new convert a notebook, just a little spiral notebook. Carry this with you everywhere you go.

8:04 If you have a question, write it down. When you get several questions, we'll have you over for dinner, and we'll spend an evening talking about it. By the way, the kitchen table is a great place to see people come to the Lord. Just have people over for dinner, then afterwards, you can just casually open the conversation and present the the truth of the gospel to them. That was one of the hardest things in leaving Kansas is we had to get all of our stuff from Kansas to Montana, 1,500 mile trip, in one twenty four foot moving truck.

8:41 So we sold a lot of stuff, got rid of stuff, we've had this kitchen table we bought at a garage sale like thirty years ago, and we had to leave that behind. My wife and I were looking at that table thinking of, oh, do you remember when Lee came to Christ after dinner? And, you know, just the different people through the years that come to the lord around that kitchen table. It's kinda hard to to leave that. The home is a wonderful place for spiritual ministry.

9:08 Meet two or three times a week. This is essential. We've already had this discussion about the mentor investing in the mentee. You have to spend time with them, And I like to see new converts being at least two bible studies a week. Three if they can take it.

9:28 And it's just like a newborn babe, massive doses of sincere milk of the word. And what that does is it starts an appetite right from day one that carries through for the rest of their lives. If you start a lethargic feeding pattern at the start, they tend to be lethargic for the rest of their lives. So set out a good example at the start. In the Rockford meeting, it's the second assembly we're involved with starting.

9:58 A brother named Lee was in three bible studies a week. Another man that came to Lord Dennis was in two bible studies a week. Lee became an elder in the church four and a half years after he was saved. Dennis became an elder in a church five and a half years after he was saved. That doesn't happen everywhere but if you can get people come to the lord and just saturate them with the word of God and they're eager, they'll grow really fast.

10:23 And by the way, Dennis is still an elder in the meeting now, almost thirty years later. So it's really exciting, to see him going on strong for the Lord. Share personal concerns and pray together. As a mentor, it's you're not holding yourself up as some invincible believer. You're just being real with the person.

10:46 Hey, I have the same nature as you do. I have the same struggles as you do. And to share those and pray together builds camaraderie. It builds when you can laugh together, cry together, pray over anything, it just builds a stronger relationship. Teach lordship from the start.

11:06 We looked at Luke six forty six last night. Don't call me lord if you're not gonna do what I do. Or the lord said it this way, why call me lord if you're not gonna do what I say? And John fourteen fifteen, if you love me, you'll obey my commandments. So it's good for a new convert just to go to the word.

11:27 What's the lord say? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna obey him? Is he Lord or is he not? Psalm sixty three one is a good passage.

11:41 Distress morning quiet times. And I think morning quiet times are are better than evening because oftentimes you get tired in the evenings and give the lord the fresh fresh fruits of the day. Again, those of you who are parents, this is another way you can disciple your own children is when they're about seven, start them out in a reader's version, like maybe the NIV reader's version, and then give them a spiral notebook and just ask them, I'm not going tell you how much to read, but I want you to write the date and what you read and just one thought about the Lord or application and have them write it down in that spiral notebook. What I do with my kids is once a week, I would meet with them and see what their thoughts were that they were getting from the Lord. And I do that for six months, and then for another six months every other week, and then for a full year once a month.

12:40 And today all four of our kids as adults still have their morning quiet times, three of the four still journaling. So it's it's a habit for life teaching them. And I have to say, looking back, those are some of the most precious times of my kids to see what the Lord... The thoughts the Lord had given Plus, if you homeschool, as we did, any misspelled words I'd circle it went on their spelling tests. So you got tested for what I knew they didn't know how to spell.

13:30 They they hear about Gentiles getting saved way up in Antioch. So they sent Barnabas up to Antioch to see if that's true. It's true. So Barnabas then goes up to Tarsus, gets Saul, now Paul, brings him back to Antioch, and there they work together for a full year teaching these new converts. And then after a year, Barnabas Barnabas and Paul are called out in the first missionary journey.

13:54 So that's a good example of don't leave new converts behind. Don't leave young people behind. Take them to conferences. Take them to outreach activities. I was just talking, Mindy left to go to a wedding, but I just found out that Scott and Mindy were at the Little Rock, our outreach, which was back twenty eight years ago.

14:22 I don't know if anybody else was here in that, but I was there. Craig, who I talked to you about in a previous session, was one year old in the Lord. I took him to Little Rock. He loved it because his spiritual gifts of evangelism, and so we knocked on doors. It was 95 degrees.

14:41 Little Rock is nothing but hills, and so door to door work was step, step, step, step, knock, knock, knock, step, step aerobics all day long in this heat. He loved it. And... But take take believers where the action is. Evangelize contacts before they get lost.

15:00 I encourage new converts. I say, you know, in about six months, all the friends that you have pretty much are gonna leave you. It's not that you're deserting them. You just don't have the things in common that you did. They're going to leave you.

15:15 So be really diligent in trying to evangelize them before the opportunities are lost. This last point is pretty important, and it's something we've learned out of practice. Britton and I have been involved with starting four New Testament meetings over the last thirty years. A lot of lessons learned, a lot of mistakes. One of the early mistakes is when we see someone come to Christ, we don't invite them to the local assembly right away.

15:48 We work with them, disciple them. When they see the truth for themselves and wanna see it and they have some confidence in us as a teacher, then we bring them to the meeting and they stick. The way we meet is unusual to most of Christendom. And so if you bring somebody in and they have a mindset of what a church should look like and they're comparing to what the world does instead of what scripture, you may lose them. And in the early days, we lost several new converts and couples because of the shock.

16:23 I didn't grow up in a New Testament meeting, and so I understand that. Give you example. A man named Ken came to Christ through a workplace bible study. His wife, Julie, was already a believer. And after a few months of Ken in the stay, invited him out to the new work in Rockford that just started.

16:46 And they came for a while, but then they left. And Julie said, I'm never gonna wear one of those things in my head. And you don't have a pastor and all that, you know, you've you've heard it before. And I said, okay. If you if you don't want to meet with us, there's a Maywood Free Church pretty close to your house.

17:03 That's probably the ex best thing. So they went there. But I continue discipling Ken in the workplace for the next two, three years. We go through first Corinthians. We go through first Corinthians 11.

17:16 He says, man, I didn't know this was in the bible. So he goes home and teaches his wife. And guess what? Took four years, but then they came back to the assembly, and they were in the assembly for almost twenty five years before they moved away. So don't give up on people.

17:33 There's the long way and the short way depending on how willing we are to submit to God's word. And you may see somebody come back after a long period of time. God will bring things into their lives and work with them. But until people see it, there's another couple, Jason and Tabitha. Jason was a drug addict, and Tabitha was alcoholic.

18:14 We're out in the country. I was like, And Jason said, we love each other, and we were told that if we want a relationship to work, we need God in our lives. And we were told you could tell us about that. I said, come on in. I didn't even know who they were.

18:34 Well, I led a man named Lee to the Lord. Lee led a man... A woman named Barbara to the Lord in the workplace, and this was Barbara's son. So that was a loop. And so we sat at the kitchen table, went through the gospel.

18:50 Over two hours, they started weeping, and they trusted Christ. It was amazing. Alcohol and the drugs went phew. Took a while for the cigarettes, but the alcohol and the drugs went. And so I worked...

19:07 They were in such bad shape. I worked with them. That was in January. In May, I finally invited them out to the the chapel because they wanted to be baptized. And I said, okay.

19:23 Taught them about New Testament principles of gathering. Tabitha said, I love the head covering. It's such a beautiful salute to god's authority. They they followed in believers baptism, and they were in the meeting in Rockford for about seventeen years. So god is able, but we've learned early on, just wait till people see the truth for themselves from scripture, have a little confidence in you as a teacher before you invite them to the local meeting.

19:51 Now, some people that could be very quickly. Others, it will take a a little while. Okay. So, things not to do. You see someone come to Christ.

20:01 Seize the conference opportunity to share his or her conversion. This is really important. We read in Romans chapter 10 maybe verse nine. If I confess with thy mouth the lord Jesus, believe my heart that god has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. By the heart, you believe unto righteousness but through the mouth confessions made unto salvation.

20:25 Every time that new believer confesses the truth, you're strengthening their faith and one of the worst things we can do as believers is to rob them of the opportunity for them to confess Christ and strengthen their faith. So, the tendency is when we see someone come to Christ, we bring the meeting and say, oh, here's Rob. He's a new believer. No. Just say, here's Rob.

20:50 Have Rob tell him that he's a new believer. Okay? And that strengthens their faith. So be careful not to rob their opportunity for them to confess Christ. Don't get impatient.

21:03 Babies make messes, spit up, cry. They require a lot of care. Not everything needs to be reproved at once, prioritized, and and to... And work through it as you see the Lord bring conviction. Push too fast.

21:19 This is one of my tendencies. I I just want people to grow as fast as they can. And I and I I step over the line, and I have to go back and apologize. I'm sorry. I pushed too fast on this.

21:31 Please forgive me. You never know where the line is until you overstep it, and then you can kind of pull back, apologize, and then you kind of know the rate to keep challenging. So when they're new believers, give them six, nine months just to learn, and then you can start plugging them into ministry. Again, they have to reflect the character of Christ to what they do, and that takes time. And then lastly, don't neglect a new convert.

21:59 You have to be available. The mentor has to be available to to help the mentee. This is a quote by AW Tozer. He says, God fully expects the church of Jesus Christ to prove itself a miraculous group in the very midst of a hostile world. Christians of necessity must be in contact with the world, but in being in spirit ought to be separate from the world.

22:28 And as such, we should be the most amazing people in the world. I remember a story of George Whitfield. George Whitfield was preaching all around Britain about two hundred and fifty, sixty years ago, and then he came to America, and that was one of the servants of the lord that he used for the great awakening here in America. But there's a story. He was speaking in Scotland, and he was having a meeting at the the chapel in town.

22:58 It's a mining community at 6AM. Can you imagine what a turnout you'd have if you had a 6AM church meeting? So 6AM, and the whole town was turning out for it. The streets were full. Everybody was piling into this little chapel, and the town skeptic was seen walking towards the chapel.

23:22 And, somebody cried out and said, I didn't think you believed in such things. The skeptic said, I don't, but he does, and I can't stay away. There's something contagious about excitement about the Lord, and it's a draw for the children of the devil who don't understand the truth. So we should be the most amazing people in the world, drawing people, having this excitement about ourselves. We have the truth.

24:00 Right? And we get to co inherit and co rule with him. So we should be very excited. So may the Lord see such a miraculous people. Okay.

24:11 So that's all I have, and we'll open it up for questions for the rest of the time.