Alright, I want you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Titus in chapter number two this morning We have you know, I've been preaching and and really for some time You may not realize that I've been building upon that series of messages I just haven't called it the same series, but I've been building upon the text that you find in Titus in chapter number one and How that Paul told Titus that He had left him in Crete to set things in order. To set things in order that are lacking. And I was really using that as the introduction for my series of messages. But then I began to realize that as the pastor, everything that I teach is doing that. It is setting the foundations and setting things in order that we as a church need to know. And one of the things that I had been thinking about, is preaching this message that I'm going to preach today. The topic. It's been on my heart and thinking about it for a period of time. But I just chose Father's Day to share this message because I'm going to talk about mentors and discipleship. Mentors and discipleship. I'm really going to talk about the mentor and apprentice relationship And how important that is inside the church, and how important it is for men to take their position. But when you're talking about this text, you can't just single out the men. You need to talk about the entire context of what Paul is telling Titus. But it is important for us to understand this relationship. Again, Paul told Titus that there are some things that he needs to set in order. Titus 1.5, For this cause I left I 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. Now if you jumped over to chapter number 2, in verse number 1, you find that he says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. And so one of the things that Paul is telling Titus is that you need to teach sound doctrine. And that's so important. We need to understand how important sound doctrine is. But we also want to understand that it's not all about doctrine. It's about the application of what you have been taught. And putting what you have been taught into practice and in teaching someone else how to follow in your footsteps. Now if you turn back to 2 Timothy chapter 2 very quickly, Paul is teaching Timothy also. He says in 2 Timothy chapter 2, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 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. What we understand from that is that Titus and Timothy were Paul's apprentices. Paul was their mentor. Paul was teaching them how to be men of God. Paul was teaching them how to teach others how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. So Paul was their mentor and they were his apprentices. Let's think about that relationship for just a few minutes. Let's think about the mentor and apprentice relationship and how important that is. Think about, let's take a blacksmith for example and how important mentors and apprentices were in days gone by. Think about a community in the days before the Industrial Revolution and how important it was that someone would be a mentor to someone else. We'll say that you were the village blacksmith and what would happen there? Well, there would be a young man that would come along. Many times it was your son. Some other times it may have been someone else in the community, but they wanted to learn that trade. They wanted to learn how to be a blacksmith. And so how did they learn that? Well, they learned how to be a blacksmith by coming to work for you as their apprentice. And you would teach them all that they needed to know about blacksmithing. You would teach them how to build the fire, and you would teach them how to add the right amount of oxygen, and you would teach them how to temper the steel, and you would teach them how to use the hammer, and you would teach them how to use the anvil, and all those things. You would teach them, and that was a relationship. that the mentor and the apprentice had, and the apprentice learned exactly what the blacksmith knew. Now, as time went by, and as the industrial revolution came along, things like blacksmithing went out of style because it was more automated and it was easier to create things like knives and pitchforks and plows and everything that blacksmiths used to create. You could have them created in a faster way and in a cheaper way. And so that relationship between the mentor and the apprentice began to break down. Now, one thing you also remember is that the mentor would not only teach the apprentice how to do the exact duty. He taught them more than, we'll take a blacksmith for example, he taught them more than just how to build the fire and form the metal. He taught them about life. He taught them how to deal with customers. He taught them, the mentor would teach them how to handle money. The mentor would teach them about how to live. Many aspects of their life they learned from their mentor. Well, as the Industrial Revolution came along and as the mentor and apprentice relationship began to break down, what happened is the many lessons that young men would learn or young women, as the case might be, they would learn. those begin to be dropped because that mentor was not there every day to teach them. They didn't learn from an apprentice. They went to work in a factory and no longer was there a mentor and apprentice. Now there was a boss who was responsible for several people instead of just one. And no longer was UA, no longer was the mentor preparing someone to be able to do that job and to take their place, but now you were just a number. Now you were just getting paid a salary. Now no longer were you stamping your name on the product. Remember, a mentor was known by the product that they produced, right? A blacksmith would be known by the quality of the product that he produced. As the industrial revolution came along and people no longer cared as much about the product because it didn't have their name on it, all they wanted to do was get it done so they could get their paycheck and they could get home. And so that mentor and apprentice relationship began to break down. And so because of that, we understand that some of those things that were taught have broken down. But I want you to think about this. I read an article this week just that goes along with that. That is, discipleship is by mentoring. Think about this. You go back to the words of Jesus. You go back to Matthew 5. We're not going to turn there right now, but go back to Matthew chapter number 5, and you read the teachings that Jesus gave there in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is the Sermon on the Mount. That is, Jesus teaching His followers what it means to be His disciple. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Jesus said, go in and teach all nations. What that phrase means is, go and make disciples. Remember He said, teaching them to observe all things. I want you to make disciples. Now, the people who were the direct followers of Jesus, who walked this earth whenever Jesus walked here, how did they know what it meant to be a disciple? Well, they know what it meant to be a disciple because they heard the very words of Jesus. And so they could listen as Jesus taught, and they could say, okay, this is what Jesus means. Jesus taught them some very difficult things, some things that they weren't accustomed to. They had to leave behind some of their Judaism. They had to leave behind some of the things that they had been taught in the past. Jesus changed their teaching. He didn't change their teaching. He just told them the truth of what they had been taught, which they hadn't been taught the truth in the past. But Jesus taught them, and so they followed Him, and they learned what it meant to be His disciple. Now, today, how are you going to know how to be a disciple? How do you know what it means to be a follower of Jesus? Remember, a disciple means to be a follower of the teachings of. How do you know what that means? Well, we can go to the Bible, and we can find the teachings, we can find the words of Jesus, and we can learn that, and we can follow that. But if you read a passage of Scripture, and as you're reading, how do you know what that means? Well, you've had someone to teach you. Remember, Paul told Timothy, the things that thou hast learned, commit thou to other men also, that they may be able to teach others. We ought to understand this process of someone learning what the Word of God means, and then teaching someone else what it means, is the process that has gone on for the last 2,000 years. You're able to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ because someone for the last 2,000 years has kept up this process of mentor and apprenticeship. Someone has learned the truths of the Word of God, and then they have taught them to someone else. They have taught someone what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And so this process that Paul instituted with Timothy and with Titus, Titus and Timothy took that, and they learned the things that Paul had taught, and then they took that and committed it to others. They taught others also, so that others has learned. And then when those others learned, they took what they learned, and they taught it to more people. And so 2,000 years down the road, you and I know what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, because someone was a mentor. Someone taught you what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Someone taught you not only doctrinal things, but practical things about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So, we want to understand how important that is. Where is the art of blacksmithing today? Does every town have a blacksmith? No, we have a hardware store. If we need a sickle, which we're not going to use a sickle, we're going to use a steel, right? We're not going to use a hand sickle. We're going to fire up the old weed eater, right? But if we needed one, where would we go? We wouldn't go to the blacksmith. We would go to the hardware store, right? We would buy one that's been mass produced by a machine. There are still some blacksmiths around. They have learned the art and they have been taught the art. But they're few and far between. Why? Because the mentor and apprentice relationship has gone out of style and it's no longer needed. Well, what's going to happen to discipleship if the mentors stop mentoring? And what's going to happen to discipleship if the apprentices stop learning? Well, discipleship is going to fall by the wayside. And what happens if the teachers stop teaching? Well, then truth is going to fall in the streets. And so we want to understand how important it is, this relationship of a mentor that is discipling another, the apprenticeship relationship, we need to understand how important that is. And Paul describes that in the book of Titus in chapter number 2, as he's talking to Titus. So let's turn there, and we haven't read it all, but we'll read it just now. Titus in chapter number 2, and we'll begin reading in verse number 1. It says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becoming holiness, not false accusers, not given of much wine, teachers of good things. That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise, exhort to be sober-minded in all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works and doctrine, showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you, exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." Now there are six different groups of people that Paul tells Titus to address. Well, Titus is one of those six groups of people. Six different groups of people that are taught here. And my main focus really was, as I was thinking about this passage of Scripture, was to talk about the aged men and to tell them how important their duty and their responsibility is as a mentor for the young men in our church. But if I'm going to teach that passage, I have to teach the entire thing. I have to talk to all the different groups that are mentioned there. But as you go down and read those things, I want you to notice what is mentioned, and I want you to also notice what is not mentioned. Let's just take the aged men, for example, in verse number 2. That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, and in patience. I want you to notice there's no doctrinal things that Paul told Titus to tell the aged men to teach the young men. The doctrinal things, who did he tell to teach the doctrinal things? But speak thou the things which become a sound doctrine. He's telling that to Titus. It's the pastor's job to teach doctrine. The aged men are to teach the younger men how to live. I want you to understand that. There are no doctrinal things there. The aged men are to teach the young men how to live. If you look at the aged women, what are they to do? He's going to tell them how that they are to live, and that they are to teach the young women also. You see, Paul was saying, aged men, exhort the young men. Aged women, teach the young women. You have a mentor, you have an apprentice, you have this relationship. How are the young people going to learn how to live? They're going to learn how to live by following your example. You be the mentor, and you teach them. We need to understand how important this relationship is. And sometimes we might understand that the breakdown of our society has happened because this relationship has been broken down. Either because the mentors have stopped teaching or the apprentices have stopped learning. Whatever the case might be, this mentor and apprentice relationship inside the church has broken down. And that's why our society is breaking down. So we want to understand how important this is. You need to understand how important it is that, you know, listen, I'm the aged man now. I don't like to think about that. But when it comes to aged men, the age group that that's talking about, I fall in that age group. Every day I look in the mirror and I see more and more gray hair and I'm thinking, I'm getting older. I'm an aged man now and I have a responsibility to teach the young men. Listen, if you're anywhere from 35 and up, you have a responsibility to teach the young men of our church how to live following after Christ. And it's not, look, this is not just inside your family. That's your first priority. But then it's inside the church. You have a responsibility as an aged man of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church to teach the young men how they are to live. Aged women also. You have a responsibility to teach the young women of our church. And we're going to look and see what it says to teach. But it's not teaching doctrine. It's teaching them how to live. Now, one thing we know for sure is you look at the young men, it tells them that in doctrine they need to show uncorruptness. How can they be uncorrupt in their doctrine if they are not being taught proper doctrine? Well, they can't be. And so we understand being taught doctrine is important. But what Paul is talking to Titus about is teaching them how to live. Six different groups are mentioned here. Six different groups are mentioned. And we want to talk about all six of those. Now, I can't go very in-depth with each of these. I would love to be able to, but we can't. The first group that Paul mentions here is Titus. Titus, as we've already said, is Paul's apprentice. Titus was left in Crete. Crete is an island that is about 150 miles long and anywhere from 7 to 30 miles wide. Many churches were there on that island and Titus was to set in things or order that were lacking to ordain elders and to teach sound doctrine. What would that sound doctrine be? Things like the doctrine of salvation, that salvation is by grace through faith without the works of the law, without the law at all. Teach about regeneration, teach about justification, teach about sanctification. He was to teach good doctrine which would produce a good life and a good way of life. To teach the duties that are incumbent upon the professors of religion. I forget which commentator stated it that way, but we do need to realize this. That you can't walk the aisle and say that I'm saved and everything's okay. Now I can go do whatever I want to. No. You have some duties upon you because you have been saved by the grace of God. You are responsible to perform some duties. Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow after Jesus. You must follow after Jesus. You cannot be saved without being a disciple of Jesus. A disciple of Jesus, if you're truly saved, you're going to become a disciple of Jesus. You can't recite some prayer. You can't just go be baptized. You can't just shake the preacher's hand. You can't just Say, well, I believe, and then go and do whatever you want to. No, if you're saved, you're going to become a disciple of Jesus. That's the sound doctrine that Paul is telling Titus that they need to follow. Now, in the next verse, he addresses the aged men. Now, here's what I want you to notice. Notice as you're reading in Titus chapter number 2, and at the end of verse 1, there's a colon. Okay? What that means is, Paul says, Titus, teach the things which become sound doctrine. teach the things that will produce sound doctrine," colon. What that means is what Paul is going to describe in the words following is sound doctrine. So, to teach the aged men to be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in peace, or in patience, that's sound doctrine. To teach the aged women that their behavior should be as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given of much wine, teachers of good things, that's sound doctrine. The aged women, what they are to be, that's sound doctrine. The young men, what they're exhorted to be, that's sound doctrine. So what Titus is teaching the others is sound doctrine. So let's think about this for just a minute. Let's think about the aged men and what their responsibilities are. Again, we're thinking about, and I want you to keep in mind, this mentor and apprentice relationship. And that's what Paul's describing here. And so as you read through this, you're going to fall into these categories somewhere. You're either an aged man or a young man. You're either an aged woman or a young woman. And so you need to take, you're either a mentor or an apprentice. I can probably say that you're probably maybe a little bit of both because as an apprentice matures, one of the very first things he ought to do is He starts becoming a mentor, and he starts mentoring others. You have to understand that as a follower of Jesus, you need to be taking your position as a mentor. You can't say, well, you know, I'm not mature enough, or I don't know enough, or whatever the case might be. You have to take your position. Why? Why is it important that the aged men become mentors? Why is it important that the aged women become mentors and that you teach others also? Well, as I've already described, how do you know what it means to be a disciple? Because someone was a mentor and taught someone else what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If we stop that mentor relationship, then how's the people that come behind you going to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus. You know that I've been thinking about the future. I've been pastor here for 21 years, and you're thinking about another 21 years. How are we going to guarantee that in the next 21 years that people are going to be living as disciples of Jesus? It's going to happen as the aged men and the aged women take up their position as mentors, and they teach others. It's not only doctrine. The things that he's telling them to teach them are the practical things. What it means in everyday life to be a true disciple of Jesus. Again, remember, the blacksmith didn't just teach them how to build the fire and to work on the anvil. He taught them all about the business. He taught them all about dealing with people. He's taught them many things about what it meant to be a blacksmith, because a blacksmith was not just hammering metal. And being a disciple of Jesus is more than just saying, I'm saved. It's more than just saying, I'm a Baptist. It's about putting the things that you have taught into practice in your life. And if we stop doing that, if we stop practicing, and if we stop teaching, and if we stop learning, then future generations are not going to know what it means to be a disciple. So we've got to continue this relationship so that others know what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Now, the older men, You have a responsibility to teach the younger men. Teach them to do what? You need to teach them to be sober, to be grave, to be temperate, to be sound in faith, in charity, in patience. Teach them how to apply the Word of God to real life situations. Making disciples is teaching others how to live. In order to teach others how to live, You must know how to do it yourself first. You need to learn what is important. The things that are important are these things. Paul tells Titus to teach the men to be sober. It has a couple of different meanings, but it does mean to teach them to be free from intoxicants. You need to teach them how to be free from intoxicants. In Vines it says, so they can diligently watch over their lives, as an example to the younger. So, to be sober, to be free from intoxicants, so they can be diligent about watching over their lives, as an example to the younger. Men, fathers, you have a great responsibility to watch over your lives because your children are watching you. Your children are going to follow in your footsteps. And if they follow in your footsteps, where is that going to lead them? To be grave. To be grave is to be serious of purpose, to know, to self-respect in conduct. to be temperate, is self-controlled, moderate in opinion or passion. Sound in faith is to be dedicated to Christ and His work. Walking in faith, so you're instructing the younger men how to walk in faith. The word charity there means agape, which agape is love to others without the desire for that return, not seeking repayment. In other words, I'm going to do this for you because you do this for me. And patience means to bear the infirmities of this body or the service of Christ, to bear that in patience, waiting and trusting in Christ. Men, let me ask you a question. You're saved by the grace of God. You're a member of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church. How are you teaching our young men to be those things? Who are your apprentices? Who are you teaching to be these things? How are you showing them how to put that into practice? It's your responsibility. Are you doing it? That relationship between the mentor and the apprentice, we cannot let it drop. Because if we let it drop, then these things that the Bible tells us that we ought to be, young men are not going to know what it means to be sober, and to be brave, and to be temperate, and to walk in faith, and to have charity, and to walk in patience. They're not going to know how to do that unless you as their mentor teach them how to do it. It's your responsibility. We wonder why things aren't the way they should be or they're not the way that they always have been. It's because mentors have stopped mentoring. I hear people say all the time, Well, I'll give you an example. A sports coach will say, well, my players on my team, they just don't know nothing. They don't know how to do this, and they don't know how to do that, and they don't know how to do other things. And they always want to complain about the things that their players don't know how to do. And you know what I want to tell them? You know what I want to tell them? That's your fault. It's your job as a coach. And I had someone tell me, no, no, no, no, wait a minute, they already know how to do those things. Well, guess what? They don't know, so it's your responsibility as the coach to teach them. You can't complain about the things that they aren't. Your responsibility, your job to teach them. Listen, if we look at our society and say, why is our society this way? It's broken down. It's because the mentors have stopped mentoring. Why are our kids in the shape they're in? Because the parents stopped parenting. That's why. Listen, these kids that come to Bible school and they do things that we don't like for them to do, you know what? It's really not their fault in a lot of cases. They've not been taught and they've not been trained. We can't help it that they don't know how to go through the line and get their food. We don't know how they don't know about not running in the church house or whatever the case might be, whatever you can think of. They haven't been taught. Someone has dropped the ball. They're not teaching them. Someone doesn't understand a responsibility. Listen, we need to understand our responsibility to teach those that are coming behind us so that they can know how to do what they need to do, how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ in the future. They need to know that and they're going to learn it from you. How are you mentoring? The aged women. It says, pay attention to your behavior. It should be, your behavior should be that which is becoming holiness. Peter mentions that, 1 Peter chapter number 3, verses 1-5. Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, that they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation, your chaste way of life, coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of the plaiting of the hair and wearing of gold or putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God a great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands." What's he saying? That you pay attention to your life, that your life is not about what you put on, but it's about what you are in your heart. Let it be the hidden man of the heart, which is incorruptible, which is walking in faith after Jesus Christ. You teach the young ladies how it's not so important to be all dolled up and have all the hair. Listen, that doesn't make you who you are. It's not about what you wear and the high heels and the jewelry and all that. Listen, your value as an individual has nothing to do with that. Your value as an individual has to do with what's in your heart. That's what becoming holiness is. Teaching our young ladies that the value of what is in their heart and being faithful to Christ, that's what we ought to be teaching. He tells them, he tells the older ladies not to be false accusers. That word false accuser right there is the word diabolos, which is the same word that is used of Satan when he is called a false accuser. It's used of the devil. Think about that. Don't be a false accuser. That means do not raise false reports against other members of the church. Do not gossip because gossip causes division. Understand that whether you're a man or whether you're a woman. Whether you go and talk to someone else about another situation, that's called gossip and it causes division and it damages churches. So, ladies, teach our young ladies how not to be false accusers. Not giving too much wine. Not to be enslaved by it. Apparently that was common in Eastern countries. And to be teachers of good things. Notice that the older ladies had a responsibility to teach or mentor the younger women to be honest, to be honorable, to be chaste, and to be pure. So Paul's going to tell Titus what the young ladies are supposed to be. And they know what they're supposed to be because the older ladies have mentored them and taught them. This is what it means. See, the young ladies... You see, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers of home, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Notice the older ladies had a responsibility to teach the younger ladies what it means to be discreet, to be chaste, to be keepers of home, good and obedient, and so forth. The young women are to be sober of a sound mind. They are to love their husbands. Why do they love their husbands? They're to love their husbands because their husbands are going to love them. You see, the husbands have a responsibility to love their wives as Christ loved the church. And so Paul told the church of Ephesus how important it is for husbands to love their wives. Well, it's just as important for wives to love their husbands. And the younger women need to learn how important it is to love their children. In days gone by, who would have thought that we would have had to understand the need to teach young ladies how to love their children? In our world in which we live today, Ladies don't love their children. Parents don't love their children. Fifty years ago, you would have never believed that you had to teach someone to love their child. But today, we have to teach parents, listen, it's your responsibility to love that child. That's God's gift to you. Love them with all your heart. How can you just take them and throw them aside like they're nothing? Listen, you have a responsibility before God to love your child. But listen, we need to teach them that. To be discreet. self-controlled interactions, chaste, pure, innocent, and modest. You should be teaching the young ladies what it means to be modest. Keepers at home means minding their own family affairs, not busying themselves about in other people's matters. You teach the young ladies how to keep their nose in their own business. Teach them how to be good. Teach them how to be obedient to parents. The mentor and the apprentice. The older women teaching the younger women. This relationship, it needs to be established. Because remember, we're trying to teach what it means to be a disciple. And if the older men and the older women aren't taking their responsibility as a mentor, and they're not teaching the younger women and the younger men, how is what it means to be a disciple? How is that going to be continued on? It's going to be dropped. because the mentors stopped mentoring. Notice, why should the young ladies be all of these things that the Word of God be not blasphemed? Why should it be important to you to mentor others so that the Word of God be not blasphemed? Young men, it says, exhort. Again, to be uncorrupt in their doctrine, to be sober-minded, to practice a pattern of good works. Paul says this to Timothy. Let me just read it to you. 1 Timothy 4.12, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. You need to be an example, young men, to the other young men around you about what it means. What it means to be To be an example in your words, and in your way of life, and in how you love, and in your spirit, and in faith, and in purity, and in sound doctrine. Young men, you didn't need to show a pattern of good works. You need to practice gravity, which means weightiness or heaviness. You understand the gravity or the heaviness of your actions and of what you practice and what you believe. You need to understand that. Men, you need to teach these young men what that means. You need to teach them how to be sincere, which means honest, free from hypocrisy. You need to teach them what it means to be sound in speech. And young men, you need to be sound in speech. You need to be sound in your doctrine. You need to be sound in your way of life. You need to live in such a way that it cannot be condemned. Notice these things. It's about your everyday life and how you live. The aged men, the aged women, the young women, the young men. Paul is telling Titus that the way that they live makes a difference. You need to put that into practice. Even servants. Paul tells servants in verse number 9, exert servants to be obedient. Listen, you're a servant if you're an employee. You need to serve your own master, please your master well, not answering again. You need to live, show all good fidelity. This mentor and disciple relationship is so important. Again, think about this. We said, how can we know what it means to be a follower of Jesus today? Because for the last 2,000 years, someone has been teaching that. How are we going to know in the future what it means to be a disciple of Jesus? Because you continue responsibility as a mentor to teach the younger ones under you. Think about two passages of scripture now. Matthew chapter number seven, we'll just talk about one in closing. Jesus says, Therefore whosoever hear these things of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. Listen, your family, the young people of our church, they're going to face the difficulties of life. How is their life, how is their house going to stand strong? Because you have taught them how to live. You have taught them how to apply the Word of God to their lives. You have taught them how to walk in faith. You have taught them how to be sound in doctrine. You have taught them how to be grave, how to be temperate, how to be sober. You have taught them these things. You have exampled that for them. They have learned from you. And so when the waves and the storms of life come crashing in on them, they're going to be able to stand firm because you taught them. 21 years down the road. 200 years down the road. How is Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church still going to be here? Because you took up the responsibility to mentor today. And you taught others what it means to be a mentor. And they took upon that responsibility and that's been passed down through the years. And the church will stand when Christ returns. Will He find faith? He will if we continue to mentor, if we continue to teach, if we continue to learn, if we continue to practice what it means to be a disciple. Listen, we must understand how important this is because we want our lives to stand firm and we want our future to be blessed, those who come behind us. So we must understand how important this mentoring and discipleship relationship is. Heavenly Father, we just pray that you'll add your blessings to this word. Help us to understand our responsibility to be what this scripture tells us to be. Help us to have a desire to mentor others so that they may know what it means to be a follower of Jesus and they may put that into practice in their lives. And they will be able to stand firm and stand strong because they built their lives upon the rock of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your truth. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.