TRAINING YOUR TIMOTHYS

Introduction

Our Timothy Training Class is one of the most important leadership trainings that we do here at Capital Christian Center.

The goal is to envision all potential leaders with the leadership philosophy of CCC and the heart of the Senior Pastor.

This training is for those who will be assuming leadership responsibilities within the church. The Timothys are trained by me to personally impart the vision first hand.

One of the points we want to communicate is that the ministry is birthed in the heart of the Senior Pastor and is like a baby to him, and just like a father of a child would not let just anyone care for his child, the pastor wants to ensure that those he puts the baby into their hands are trustworthy and loyal and will care for the child the same as the pastor would. That is why this is called Training Your Timothys from I Corinthians 4:15-17 and Philippians 2:19-23.

Some of the key attitudes and requirements for a successful training class are:

  1. You must be a member and share is the vision and values of CCC.
  2. Prayerfully sought God’s will to attend the class. It is important for you to believe that God wants you to be in the class, that I have prayerfully considered you, and know that it is God’s will for you to be in the class.
  3. Must believe that I am placed in your life to lead you. If you don’t believe that I am chosen to lead you, you will not be able to receive from me and become a disciple of the ministry. The Timothy Training is to disciple people in the vision of the church, and that starts with believing that I am God’s chosen visionary leader. It’s not to say that I am never wrong or make mistakes – just to believe I am chosen by God to lead.
  4. It is important that all sessions be attended because we are endeavoring to bond together as a leadership community.
  5. Read 2 books from the reading list and turn in a book report for each book that would consist of 2-3 “Power Thoughts” per chapter.
  6. Must be involved with loving and nurturing the congregation through:
  7. Guest Services
  8. Small Groups
  9. Personal Workers/Altar Prayer
  10. Pray prior to each class that you will receive the most that you can from this life changing training session.

Why Are You Here?

What is your purpose for taking this class?

My purpose for you being here is “To become disciples of this ministry.”

(1 Corinthians 4:15; Philippians 2:19)

I.The key is for you to believe you are here because God wants you here.

  1. It is important that you make the personal, vital decision that God wants you here. If you don’t believe this, you are welcome to excuse yourself from coming to future classes.
  1. The challenge you will receive in this class requires that you believe it is God’s invitation for you to be here.
  1. I believe everyone who is here is in the will of God, because as I prayed I believe God chose you to be trained at this time.

II.The purpose of this class is to make disciples who will engage in the vision of this church and help bring it to pass.

  1. For any leader to fulfill the vision that God has given him, he must develop a leadership team. (Exodus 18:13-23; Numbers 11:10-17)
  1. For that team to become successful they must believe in the leader, and that the vision he is trying to fulfill is from God. (1 Chronicles 12:16)
  1. This is why it is important that you are in this class by God’s invitation, not just the Pastor’s or your own initiative.
  1. If you believe that God wants you here, it is easy to trust and be willing to follow His leadership.
  2. True Biblical leaders feel the weight of the vision. (Numbers 11:10-12)
  3. True Biblical leaders take the responsibility to see the vision fulfilled.
    (Numbers 11:13)
  4. True Biblical vision cannot be fulfilled without the help of others.
    (Numbers 11:14-15)
  5. To help a true Biblical leader fulfill the vision, he needs:

1)Others that will stand with Him and be loyal to Him. (Numbers 11:16)

2)Others that will love the vision and care for the vision as the leader does. (Numbers 11:17a)

3)Others that will help bear the burden of the leader to fulfill the vision. (Numbers 11:17b)If you cannot be loyal and stand with the leader and love the vision as he does, you cannot help him fulfill that vision. (1 Corinthians 4:15-17; Philippians 2:19-23)

  1. True Biblical vision is always to be a blessing to those it is directed at.
  1. Example: Although the children of Israel often complained against Moses and resisted his leadership, they were always the focus of the blessings and rewards of getting the vision fulfilled. (Exodus 3:6-10)
  1. It is possible to be called by God to be on a leadership team, but allow wrong motives to disqualify you.

III.For any leadership team to be strong and successful, they must have unity and loyalty to one another. (1 Cor. 1:10; Rom. 15:5-6; 16:17-20; Phil. 2:1-4; Num. 12:1-2; Acts 1:14; 2:1, 46-47; 4-24-31; Titus 3:8-11; 3 John 9-12; 1 Thess. 5:12-13)

  1. Marriage is an example of a leadership team’s development of unity and loyalty.
  1. Explain the marriage process, how two people meet and move toward becoming one flesh (having one vision).
  1. Common experiences=Attending the church.
  2. Getting acquainted=Membership classes, serving in the church.
  3. Dating relationship begins=A commitment is developed.

One woman kind of guy.

One church kind of guy.

Becoming faithful to one church.

  1. Engagement=A strong commitment toward the future is made. But more testing of the relationship needs to take place.
  2. The marriage/wedding=A ceremony of love.

Becoming an elder, staff person, or team leader.

  1. Marriage adjustment=Problem-solving and continued growth. Dealing with unrealistic orunmet expectations.
  2. Raising children=Creating new families.

Creating new leaders for seed.

You Have Been Invited

I.Remember that the call to ministry and the call to serve is an invitation. (Matthew 22:1-9; 13-14)

  1. Everyone receives an invitation to serve.
  1. It is important to note that the invitation comes from God.
  1. He is not forcing; He is giving you a choice.

II.When you feel that the call to minister and serve is not your choice, it affects your motivation in a negative way.

  1. Your motivation can change when it goes from your choice to a choice someone else is making for you.
  1. In the ministry and service for God expectations may be high, pressures may be felt, but the choice to serve is always yours.
  1. Many are called,
  1. But few are chosen.
  2. Our motivation opens the door to us being chosen.

III.To stay chosen you must remain faithful.

  1. Revelation 17:14, “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
  1. Leaders must inspire themselves for the long run.
  1. It must be your choice to get motivated and stay motivated.

Examples -

  • David was called by God to serve his generation, Acts 13.
  • Philemon went from being useless to useful, Philemon 11.
  • Demas went from being useful to useless. We must stay faithful in the present, 2 Timothy 4:10.
  • John Mark went from useful to useless, back to useful. Never give up regardless of the problem. Learn to turn failures around.

IV.Understanding God’s invitation.

  1. You must be convinced that God is inviting you to live a higher life of meaning and purpose. (Mark 10:17-31)
  1. God is inviting you to let Him live His life through you. (Acts 9:15)
  1. So the honor and glory of your ministry must go to God alone.
  2. If a master builder builds a beautiful home we don’t give honor to the tools that He used, but to Him. (1 Corinthians 3:5-16)
  1. God is inviting you to discover your gifting and develop it.
  1. God gifts each one of us. (Romans 12:3-8)
  2. But we must discover that gift, develop and use it.
  3. We must develop our character to effectively flow in our gift.
  1. God is inviting you to serve. (Mark 10:42-45)
  1. Serving is what makes someone great.
  2. Servants are what make great churches.
  3. God builds on the servant-hearted, not the talented.
  4. Our willingness to serve reveals our heart.
  1. God is inviting you to bear your cross daily. (1 Peter 2:20-21)
  1. How do you respond to some of the challenges you face in serving people?
  2. How do you respond when people you love turn against you?
  3. What do you do when you teach someone the Word, pray for them, counsel them, and they still go the wrong way?
  4. What are some other crosses you can think of?
  5. By bearing your cross you fulfill your destiny.

Our Response & Heart Condition

I.How we respond to God’s call comes from the condition of our heart.

  1. Our heart affects our motivation.
  1. Example: A wife can ask her husband to attend church with her.
  2. He can respond to her request as being a pressure or a negative.
  3. Or he can respond by loving to do it to meet his wife’s need.
  4. Going to church isn’t the issue.
  5. It’s who is asking him to do it and how he will choose to respond.
  1. One view of the request is seen as an external pressure, losing their control and choice.
  1. Another view of the request could be internally motivated: it’s my choice and I love to please my wife.
  1. What are some examples of responding to external motivation? Internal motivation?
  1. External motivation is not always wrong when the heart of those using it is to move people into internal motivation.

II.When we are responding to God’s call, it isn’t what He is asking us to do; it’s who is asking us to do it.

  1. The condition of our heart affects how we respond to the call. (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 12:34-35; Mark 7:14-23)
  1. Let’s look at some conditions of the heart in the Bible:
  1. Embittered Heart = A bitter heart cultivates strife, offenses, and envy. No good can come out of a heart when it is bitter. This heart is one of the greatest potential killers, and it disqualifies many people from the call to serve and from relationships. (Hebrews 12:15)
  2. Shallow Heart = having no depth, quick to respond, then having no commitment, and does not know how to connect intimately with God and people. Out of touch with themselves, unrealistic, does not count the cost.
  3. Willing Heart = Working, helping, doings things voluntarily.

Offer willingly=Exodus 35:21, 22, 29

Loyal=1 Chronicles 28:9

Volunteers=Psalm 110:3

Willing hearts must be strong and build strong faith in others.

(Romans 10:17)

  1. Tender Heart = Easily damaged, sensitive to emotional pain, quick to feel compassion, sore to the touch.

Jesus grew up tender before the Lord.Isaiah 53:2

Be tenderhearted.Ephesians 4:32

God will give you a new heart.Ezekiel 36:26

The king’s heart was tender.2 Kings 22:19

A tender heart that is not guarded can become an embittered or hardened heart.

  1. Hardened Heart = Closed, unwilling to hear or listen, stubborn. A hard heart no longer hears. A hard heart must be shattered. (Matthew 13:14; Zechariah 7:11-12; Hebrews 3:13)
  2. Overcrowded Heart = Not focused, easily distracted, does not separate the important from the urgent. A willing heart can easily become overcrowded if it is not guarded. (Proverbs 4:23; Matthew 13:22)
  3. Pure Heart = Without blemish, clean, undefiled. Sin pollutes and defiles our heart. (Matthew 5:7; 23:26; John 13:10; Romans 14:10-13)

  1. Which ones do you feel as a leader you must personally watch out for?
  1. A mature believer will recognize when his heart is not right and repent and offer it to God and ask for His help to have a pure heart. (Ezekiel 36:26)

III.People who do not respond to the invitation of God’s call do so by the condition of their heart, and use good, but unacceptable, excuses to cover up their heart condition.

  1. In Luke 14:16-24 honorable excuses are offered for rejecting the invitation, but they all had an unacceptable heart condition.

Verse 18But they all with one accord began to make excuses.

The motives of their heart were the same: they didn’t put the invitation first, but had more important things in their own life, or they disliked the One who invited them.

  1. Below is a list of unacceptable, but common excuses. These excuses are used to mask the real condition of the heart which is disinterest or dislike.
  1. Turning a deaf ear to the invitation - Matthew 22:5.
  2. Not giving the invitation serious thought.
  3. Putting cares (even good) of this life first - Luke 9:57-62.
  4. I have to go bury my father. (Luke 9: 59-60)
  5. I have to hang out and say goodbye to my relatives. (Luke 9:61-62)
  6. Putting business or profit first - Luke 14:18.
  7. Many would rather pursue material gain than pursue God’s call.
  8. Putting other activities first - Luke 14:19.
  9. I’m already involved in too many important activities to get involved.
  10. Putting a wife, relatives first - Luke 14:20.
  11. Not that you always care that much about your relatives, but the real heart condition (excuse) is that I’m really not that interested in the call.
  1. We can have a reasonable, good excuse that puts an obstacle in our way, then we use that excuse to not totally commit to the call to serve the Lord.
  1. It is deceiving to think that since I have no trouble in a certain area now that I will not have any trouble later.
  1. Because our heart condition can change just as easy from good to evil, and from evil to good.

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TRAINING YOUR TIMOTHYS

VI.Here are some acceptable responses to the call:

  1. The right responses given in the Bible:

Whatever He says to you, do it.John 2:5

Present yourself a living sacrifice.Romans 12:1-2

Be it unto me according to your Word.Luke 1:38

Nevertheless at your Word I will...Luke 5:5

Lord, what will you have me to do?Acts 9:6

  1. What is your personal response to God’s call?
  1. Are you presently willing and prepared to pay the price of not looking back?

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Being Prepared & ProvenIn Your Church

I.Many potential leaders in the body of Christ struggle and never get past the part of local church preparation.

(Acts 16:1-5)

  1. God begins to prove us for leadership through a local church.
  1. Timothy’s training began in a local church. (Acts 16:1-3)
  1. If training begins in a local church, then the first thing a potential leader must do is get committed and get planted. (Psalm 1:1-4; 92:12-15; Acts 14:21-23)
  1. Why does training begin in the local church? The church is the governing body that prepares potential leaders, releases leaders, and corrects leaders.
  1. (Acts 13:1-4; Matthew 18:15-20)
  1. The first step in preparation is to get planted in a church and its vision. Without making that commitment we can never really be a developed Timothy. (Psalms 68:6; 85:12)

II.Training begins with having a disciple’s attitude.

  1. What is the difference between a disciple and a pupil? Pupils want information; disciples learn and practice and teach others what they learn.
  1. A disciple must be a good listener. A scoffer or a person who cannot be taught can never make a good disciple:
  2. Will not go to the wise. Proverbs 15:12
  3. Seeks wisdom and doesn’t find it because he doesn’t go to the wise. Proverbs 14:6
  4. Scoffers insult and speak against those who try to help them. Proverbs 9:7-9
  5. The wise will not try to help the scoffer for this reason.
  6. When the scoffer is dealt with the simple learn. They learn what not to do.
    Proverbs 13:1; 19:25; 21:11; 22:10; 24:9
  1. A disciple is someone under instruction, has a willingness to learn, listen, and take it in, to practice and live what they have learned.
  1. The word disciple implies the existence of a personal attachment with his instructor (1 Corinthians 4:15-17; Philippians 2:19). It becomes in many ways like a father/son relationship.
  1. A disciple has to have the spiritual maturity to overcome personal problems, even his heritage. (Acts 16:1)
  2. We cannot let past problems and personal failures stop us.
  3. We must overcome our setbacks.
  4. We must be over comers, not blamers.

III.Three things local church preparation proves:

  1. Local church preparation proves the opportunity for someone to develop a good report. Acts 16:2, “He was well-spoken of by the brethren.” (Luke 16:10-12; Acts 6:3; 22:12; 3 John 9-12; 1 Timothy 3:7; 5:10)
  1. Local church preparation provides the church community and leadership the opportunity to examine the fruit. (1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Timothy 5:17; Psalm 26:2; Exodus 16:4; 2:20; Deuteronomy 8:2; 13:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:21)
  2. 1 Timothy 3:10, “But let these also first be proved; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.”
  1. Local church preparation provides the opportunity to observe whether there is a submissive spirit or not.
  1. “Submission” is the state of being willing to submit, humbly obedient, to defer to another’s wishes.
  2. Paul was asking Timothy to trust him (submit) when he circumcised him. Timothy’s response to Paul allowed Timothy greater authority and influence in his ministry.
  3. The three levels of authority we should submit to:

1)Submit to God/Word - James 4:7

2)Submit to our conscience - Romans 2:12-16

3)Submit to man at various levels:

LeadersHebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5

GovernmentsRomans 13:1-7

HusbandEphesians 5:22

One anotherEphesians 5:21

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Faithfulness

I.God calls unfaithful people but He chooses the faithful.

(1 Timothy 1:12; 1 Samuel 2:26, 35; 3:19-20)

  1. Faithfulness is an absolute necessity to fulfilling your calling:

My beloved and faithful son in the Lord.1 Cor. 4:17

The faithful will be blessed.Prov. 28:20

Jesus was faithful to God’s house.Heb. 3:1-2

Jeroboam was called but was unfaithful and led Israel into sin

1 King 11:26-40;12:25-33; 14:1-20

  1. Faithfulness is something you look for in potential leaders:

Commit to faithful men.2 Tim. 2:2

Required that a man be foundfaithful1 Cor. 4:2;

How do we look for faithfulness?Prov.20:6

  1. Faithfulness can be defined as, “One who is accountable, steadfast, firm, keeps their promises, follows through on their commitments, swears to their own hurt, trustworthy, can be depended on, internal strength, single-minded, stays focused, and does not get off course.”
  1. Faithfulness is an attitude of God and thus an attribute He wants us to develop into our lives. (Deut. 7:9; Isa. 49:7; Lam. 3:22-23; 1 Cor. 1:9; 10:13; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 3:3; 2 Tim. 2:13; Heb. 10:23; 11:11)
  1. Faithfulness is the key to our personal call to leadership. (Matt. 24:45-46; 25:21-29; Luke 12:42; 19:17; 1 Tim. 1:12; Neh. 9:8; 13:13)
  1. Godly men who choose leaders to serve on the basis of their faithfulness:

Paul chose Onesimus.Col. 4:9