The Adventure of Helping Someone Grow in Faith

What if helping someone grow in faith was simpler than you think? This message brings clarity and confidence to one of the most important callings in the Christian life. Pastor Chris Teien walks through Acts 8:26-35 to show how ordinary believers can make a lasting spiritual impact by being available, intentional, and rooted in God’s Word. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/19041223

Key Points:
1. Be Available to God’s Opportunities – Acts 8:26-27
 Philip was willing to go where God sent him. Spiritual impact begins with availability and a willingness to be used.

2. Start with Where People Are – Acts 8:30
 Philip listened, asked questions, and met the Ethiopian in his current understanding. Effective discipleship begins with understanding people.

3. Point People to Jesus Through Scripture – Acts 8:35
 Philip used Isaiah 53 to explain the gospel. God’s Word is central in leading people to Christ.

4. Help People Take Their Next Step of Obedience – Acts 8:36
 The Ethiopian responded through baptism. Discipleship moves people toward action, not just knowledge.

5. Trust God to Do What You Cannot Do – 1 Corinthians 3:6
 We plant and water, but God brings the growth. The results ultimately belong to Him.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 Pastor Chris shares a story from his time in sales, where he prayed for God to use him and experienced multiple unexpected opportunities to share Christ. His availability led to meaningful gospel conversations.

Notable Quotes:
 “God doesn’t expect you to reach everyone, but He does expect you to reach someone.”
 “When you show up, the Holy Spirit shows up.”
 “Discipleship doesn’t have to be complicated, it just has to be intentional.”

Actionable Takeaways:
 Ask God daily to make you available for His purposes
 Look for one person you can intentionally invest in
 Use simple Scripture to guide spiritual conversations
 Encourage someone to take a next step of obedience

Scripture References:
 Matthew 28:18-20 – The Great Commission
 Acts 8:26-40 – Philip and the Ethiopian
 Isaiah 53 – The prophecy of Christ
 1 Corinthians 3:6 – God gives the growth
 Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trusting God for direction
 Romans 10:17 – Faith comes through hearing

Keywords:
 discipleship, evangelism, faith growth, Great Commission, Acts 8, sharing the gospel, spiritual growth, obedience, Christian living

Challenge:
 Ask God this week to show you one person you can invest in and take a step of faith to begin that conversation.

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Matthew 28. Again, Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. So our theme for this month is discipling, making disciples, helping people become fully devoted followers of Jesus. Every one of us who has received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior should be growing as a disciple and reproducing, discipling others. So the minister of the church, according to Ephesians 4.11, is to equip God's people for works of service, not to do all the work. Couldn't even do all the work on my own. I couldn't go around and invest in every single person to help make disciples, but you can. You can invest in somebody, and I can invest in a few people. And together we can make a difference. If we want to make a difference on the range, if we want our church to grow, every one of us needs to continue to be active in inviting people to Christ. You can invite people to church too, but to share Christ with people. And then to help them to grow. We offer right now media video service. We just search in the search box, discipling, and you'll see all sorts of videos that can help you grow in Christ. We don't lack information. We've got lots of resources. We do lack investing the time and applying it to our lives and trying to reach others. I read one thing that said one-third of people, when they graduate high school or college, will not pick up another instructional book and read it through. But we want people to come to Jesus and then to read the Bible. And there's a spiritual battle that goes with that. And it's also 66 books in one, and depending on which translation you get, sometimes it's hard for people to understand. And so we're calling them to a whole new way of life as scripture for their authority, and it's not natural to them. So we need to talk about that today. We need to talk about okay, we keep hearing this passage, and you'll hear it for the rest of the month. But what are we supposed to do with it? Everybody knows. We should make disciples. But the question is, how? What am I supposed to do? How could I even get that done? What do I say? What if I get it wrong? What if they ask me a question I don't know the answer to? What if I make it awkward? What if they don't come back? All of those things. And so as we as a church think about the things that are important to us, we need to look to Scripture to get those examples, and we just need to keep encouraging each other, and we need to keep it simple. We really need to not crowd this with too many things, or nobody's gonna do anything. Did you ever get confused with directions? Now that my phone usually does a good job giving me directions, I just trust it's gonna get me there. But in the days when I was a youth pastor down in Iowa and didn't have the phone GPS and everything, to get directions to some farmer's house, they never really use road names. It's like, well, you go out to Phil Johnson's farm, you take a left, go about two miles, and then Elizabeth's house is there, she's got the big siloid with the quilt on the barn. You want to take a right there, and you're just listening to all this, and you're like, I don't have a clue. And eventually I tune out and hope that I'll figure it out. But sometimes when you talk to people about growing in Christ and all of the things that they can do, they do the same thing. They tune out. They tune out and they're like, okay. They smile a lot and they're like, okay, yeah, but they don't do it. So sometimes when you do step by step, sometimes that helps. We learned in our Sunday school class today that it's always good to look for people that are into you. That if you've got somebody that likes you and is willing to connect with you, I said some other things too, but that can be good if you're looking for someone to disciple. But just be open to be used by God. So I thought about just summarizing this passage. And then I thought, well, I'll just read it because you might miss the context of it otherwise. And there's nothing wrong with reading scripture in church. So in Acts chapter 8, in the Bible, not on the screen, this is the New International Version. Just real quick, Philip is doing good things for Christ. And the church is being persecuted in Acts chapter 8, but Philip and Samaria, verse 4 says, Those who had been scattered from Jerusalem preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to the city and to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. And so then it talks more about Philip and Peter and all this stuff. Then when you get to verse 25, it says, After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. But Philip, Philip, it says, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all of the treasury of the Kandak, which means queen of Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, Go to that chariot and stay near it. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. How can I? he said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And this is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading. From Isaiah 53. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shears is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. And the eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, approached at Azatos and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. So, in that passage, we see a really good example of what it means to be used by God to make a difference in somebody's life. And one of the things that really stands out is that Philip was available to be used by God. And so the Spirit is just moving these guys around, the disciples around, so that they can tell people about Christ. And first it was to the Jews primarily, and then to the Gentiles, and then in the next chapter, they're going to go get Saul, Paul, and they're doing everything they can to increase the knowledge of Christ and what it means to follow Christ. And the church is growing, the Holy Spirit is moving, and that is so exciting. And Philip, Philip was available. Philip was one of those believers that was willing to be used by God to go wherever God sent him, or after the baptism, boom, he's off to another spot. That'd be a cool way to travel. But to just proclaim the gospel wherever you go. And I guess historically, I guess historically, 20 years later, Philip is still in Caesarea with his four daughters, it says. And so this eunuch, I mean, you know what a eunuch is, but usually kings and stuff would employ people like that because they felt safe around the king's wives and whatever. But this was a royal official. This was somebody that had means. My guess is he wasn't traveling by himself. My guess is there was probably an entourage with him. And but he had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was wanting to be tuned in to what God was doing, and the Holy Spirit took note of him. So we don't have any solid historical evidence to say what would happen as a result of that meeting, but tradition says that there was a large church, Christian church in Ethiopia, as a result of that experience. But to be open to the opportunities. Do you ever feel that God inspires you, encourages you, motivates you to do something? It's like go speak to that person or go do that nice thing for that person, or the next time you get together with your coworker, maybe ask them about spiritual things. Maybe when you go to that family gathering, maybe you tell them about what Christ has been doing in your life, all those different things to be available. Maybe you have scripture passages, Bible tracts, New Testament Bibles. You can take ours, the How to Find God New Testament. You can take that and share that with somebody. There's a bunch of Billy Graham films and a bunch of other furry Christian movies on YouTube right now. I should probably make a webpage with a link of what some of the good ones are. But sometimes people might hear you and might be interested in spiritual things, and sometimes the movie connects with them. Sometimes what's said about Christ in the movie connects with them, and that can be a powerful witness to help people to come to Christ, but to be available. Are you available? So in Isaiah 6.8, I guess the Lord was overheard saying, Who shall I send? And Isaiah replied, Here I am, send me. Did you ever hear a call like that before? Here am I, here am I, send me. Would you be willing to commit yourself to the Lord even today? To say, I am willing and available? Send me, use me. I want to be used by you. And just trust that God's going to direct your steps. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your steps, direct your paths to be available, can be so meaningful, so wonderful. I think I shared before that when I was in sales a long time ago, I had sales leaders across the country, and the guy in New York, he was always rude. He's like, Don't give me any of that Minnesota nice garbage. I don't want to hear it. And anyway, then I met him face to face at a sales convention. And I got an opportunity to share Christ with him. And because I tolerated all of his craziness, he was willing to listen. Now he didn't pray to receive Christ that day. Somebody else did, but nonetheless, I prayed before I went to that sales convention. I was supposed to give a presentation on the handheld lensometer, which was something that you could take to a third world country and figure out what optical lenses the prescription was and whatever. I guess you could use it here too, but most doctors didn't. But I was supposed to give my presentation, and instead of polishing up on my presentation, I prayed that God would use me that day. I also gave a good presentation, but I prayed that God would use me that day, and I had three different opportunities to proclaim Jesus that day. And it wasn't a normal day, it was a good day because I was available. Are you available? Do you tell God that you are willing to have your schedule interrupted so that you might be used by him? Philip was, and he was moved into a position where he was able to answer this question. He listened to. He was just walking along the chariot and he heard this going on and he recognized the passage and he thought to himself, if there is any passage that you could take out of the Old Testament to bring a bridge to who Jesus is and what he's just done and what he offers today, it's this passage. And so he went with it. And he must have told them too that the response to the gospel was also being baptized because the Ethiopian guy, after he heard it, he wanted to act, he wanted to respond, and he said, Hey, there's some water, baptize me now, and that can be good. If you want to be baptized, currently we have a baptism tank there. If you want to be baptized, let me know, and we could do something even next Sunday. Baptisms are always good as a public thing, not a private thing, because it's a public proclamation of your faith in Jesus. And so it's always good when you share your testimony about what your life was like before you came to Christ, how you came to Christ, and what your life has been like since. That's good. But you know, even just sharing your belief in Christ and wanting to follow into obedience to be baptized, those things are good. But I get ahead of my point a little bit. So anyway, this guy was a big deal. So he was the treasurer, he was the official, he was a person of influence. Maybe you're not a person of influence, but my guess is you must be influencing somebody. Maybe your kids, maybe your neighbors, maybe your extended family, just friends. Friends, even friends from the past. Are you available to be used by God? Start with people where you are, start with where you are, start with where people are. That all makes sense, right? But to start with where people are is saying that Philip listened, asked questions, and then started there. Do you understand what you are reading? Have you ever come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Or are you still somewhere along the way? Oh, somewhere along the way? How far along the way are you? Oh, you started to read the Bible. What do you think of it? Okay, let me show you how the Bible works. It's 66 books under one cover and lead them through that. Start with where they are. Answer some of their questions and lead them farther. That can be very important. Sometimes listening for a bit and then giving direction is good. Sometimes avoiding distractions is good, where you say, hey, that is a really good question. And so how about we focus on this right now? I'm gonna write that down. We're gonna come back to that one. Okay? So you don't avoid, so you don't get on those little rabbit trails. Sometimes I think in the spiritual battle, people get distracted and ask all sorts of weird questions. 1 Corinthians 9.22, Paul writes, I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some. So I personally look for a bridge of communication and connection to try to talk to people about different things. So I'm not an expert in all things, and I would never claim to be, but for people that are into cars, sometimes I try to talk about cars. To people that are into fishing, sometimes I try to talk about fishing. Sometimes talk about current events or places you've been or people you know or just anything. And sometimes, sometimes you make a connection. Sometimes you find something that is the person's passion, and they really want to talk about that, so they get to talk about that for a bit, and then you have an opportunity to encourage them and also then talk about faith in Christ. Whatever you can do to bridge conversations. I tell you though, sometimes the Holy Spirit enables me and hopefully you in such a way that when you're in the conversation, you're amazed at the things you're saying. Because I've literally had people say, How do you know that? How you've been have you been reading my mail? I don't know that. I'm just throwing things out there and I'm connecting with the person I think. Sometimes the Holy Spirit gives you the right topic, sometimes he gives you the right verses, sometimes he gives you and equips you with the right things to say so that you can be successful proclaiming Jesus because we minister through the Spirit's power, not on our own. If we lead someone to Christ, we don't go, oh God, I bet you're proud of me, Lord. I did that. You're like, oh Lord, thank you for using me to come into that person's life. That is a great thing. Sometimes people say things that are wrong, and it's not really the time to correct them, whether it's cars, boats, or sometimes even scriptural things. Sometimes you come back to that later. But it's good to listen and not have people get all defensive. You know, when Jesus came to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, he just asked the Samaritan woman, he's just like, Will you give me a drink? And then the Samaritan woman went on and on asking all these questions. She's like, You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan woman. You're not supposed to ask me for a drink. And Jesus says, You would have, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And then Jesus goes on with that. So when someone is new to faith, don't overwhelm them with everything at once or they feel lost. If someone is struggling with doubt and you immediately start giving strong answers without listening, they feel unheard. If someone is hurting and you jump straight to solutions without compassion, they shut down. But when you listen first, everything changes. So some people are curious, some people are skeptical, some people are hurting, some people have pieces of the truth, but not the whole picture. Some people have heard the wrong gospel story, not the correct one. Some people associate what religious people have done to bring shame to the cause of Christ. And those are all issues. But number three, we point people to Jesus through Scripture. We point people to Jesus through Scripture. Like we looked at last week, Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus. Jesus, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. And I know what you're saying. I don't know every one of the scriptures to do that. That sounds intimidating, but that's not it at all. Sometimes you just take what you know and you go from there. I'm sure that if you've read through the Bible at all, you must have some great Bible passages that have really impacted you. Maybe you've highlighted them in your Bible or on your phone. Just start with that. So you don't need to give them the whole Bible in one setting. But meaningful verses, again, I believe the Holy Spirit will help you sometimes to find those verses. I mentioned this before, and this is actually in a time of crisis, but I think it works in evangelism too, is that we led someone to Christ. Actually, we were trying to lead someone to Christ, and he didn't come to Christ until we took him to a big event. He got saved at the big event. And then we were trying to disciple him. And as time went on, his wife got really sick, and so he wanted us to pray while she was in the hospital that she would live. And so, usually, my experience with people in the hospital is you pray some and you sit some, but he just wanted to keep praying and keep praying scripture. So I had gone through all of my favorite healing verses in the Bible and exhausted them. And it came to this point where, and it was absolutely amazing that I was praying, we were praying together, and we kept praying, and every time I would open my Bible to a spot and I would look, there would be another section to pray. And I would pray that, and then I would go to an it was a God moment. I don't think that's the way it usually works, but I'd say that to you to know so that you know that if you're faithful to show up, that God can work through you. I don't think the Holy Spirit kicks in and gives you all that stuff if you're sitting on the couch or sitting in the chair, sitting in the car, thinking, oh, I think I could do that. Maybe I don't know, I'm kind of scared. But when you get up, when you show up, when you're with them, I think the Holy Spirit can show up and give you the things to say, give you the questions to ask, help you to know which verses might be helpful. That's no substitute for spending time in God's Word or having resources or knowing what to do, and I'm gonna talk about that in a minute here. But scripture, it says then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news of Jesus. So Philip took him from Isaiah 53, 700 years past, and brought them all the way up to what just happened with Jesus and what was going on now, and filled them all in. And the Ethiopian guy responded, got baptized, and was filled with joy, even though Philip left. Philip was just there temporarily. He was sometimes God is going to call you to walk with someone for a long time. And other times it's just for a moment. You're just the messenger on the way, and you'll cross paths and you'll fulfill your mission and do what God wanted you to do, and then you're off to the next thing. And other times God will bring people into your life and you will grow together, you'll serve together, you'll be long time friends together. All of those are good. Romans 10.17 says, faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. So the message is heard through God's word. Sometimes people listen on like a Christian radio station and they hear stuff about Scripture and they read Scripture and they might watch videos about Scripture and all this stuff. But somehow, when you interact with them, ask them some questions, give them some information, it clicks. Maybe you didn't even tell them anything new. Maybe you just reaffirmed what they were thinking, but you came with more credibility than the video or the audio or the radio or whatever. If you are a real person, a godly person that they respect, they will listen to you. And you can help them. And that is number four, help people take their next step of obedience. James says, don't just merely listen to the word, do what it says. And again, in the Great Commission that we read in the beginning, we're supposed to teach them to obey. So it's really easy to read scripture and to become experts in scripture and to become experts at Bible trivia, but not apply God's word to your life. Not walk in obedience. Sometimes when a godly person comes alongside another person, they can help guide them and direct them in the things that are important and the things that need to change and the things that should be happening that maybe they don't even realize. I mean, things like if you want to be godly, as we're friends, if you want to be godly, you need to focus on this and don't be distracted by that, and avoid this temptation, and avoid this, and pursue this, and all of these different things. You can help people take their next step of obedience. So as they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Here's some water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? And I'm sure that Philip explained to him what baptism was and what it meant. And so again, baptism is a public thing, but the Ethiopian guy was probably traveling with a bunch of other people that watched and witnessed this baptism. And that can be a good thing. That can be a very good thing to obey Jesus, to see people obey Jesus. And in your Christian, if you're serving, if you're serving God, to see people taking those steps of faith, those steps of obedience, as they are applying the things that they've heard, they've learned, maybe even the things that you've said. Oh, I really like it when I keep telling people things over and over again and they don't seem to get it, and then one day they tell someone else like it was their own idea, you know, like they just thought of it, even though I've been saying it all along. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool to see people get involved serving, people getting involved in ministry, people retelling the message and bringing other people to Christ. And that's number five. Trust God to do what you cannot do. I can't do any of this on my own. As the pastor of a church, I can't make the church grow on my own. I mean, I could have the best sermons, I could even be musical, I could, you know, sing like a Christian rock star or whatever. But to really make the church grow, every one of us need to be praying, every one of us needs to be involved, every one of us need to be reaching out to the people outside these doors and inside these doors. And if we get visitors to connect with them, everybody that comes to church wants a friend. But to trust that God is at work. 1 Corinthians 3, 6. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. God makes the church grow. God makes the believer grow. God invests in people. So we need to be available to the opportunities God gives you to start with where, start with where they are, point them to Jesus through Scripture and help them take their next step of obedience while we trust God to do what we can't do. So, no, let me give you a tool quickly. A tool. So, tools are very good in ministry. And sometimes we discount tools because we think they're old. You know what's old? Coca-Cola is old. They've been kind of running the same Coca-Cola thing since like 1930. Well, it turns out they've been running some discipleship material since about that time, too. So when Billy Graham started to hit the evangelism circuits and started to make a big deal in the Crusades, they were leading people to Christ, but they didn't have a method to follow up. And he connected with his friend Dawson Trotman, who would start the navigators, who made some discipleship material to help the believer, the new believer, to grow in Christ. Not to learn everything about Christ, but to gain a foundation on how to live the Christian life. And so this material has been published and it's been around since like the 50s, and it's still published today, and it's still used today. And it has value because the word of God hasn't changed. 2,000 years later, we're still using it, preaching it, applying it. And so over those many years, they found that these 13 topics were very important to build in faith. It's like knots used by sailors. Do you know that sailors' knots haven't really changed much? There's some knots that sailors tie that are the same knots that were used in the 1600s. They are still being used today. And do you know that I'm sure you know, when you try to teach a kid to read, try to teach someone to read, that you start with simple things, not big words, or you try to teach them another language. Say, okay, one in a second language. You know, give them the basics so they don't get lost. Those things are very important. And so the navigators came out with the lessons in assurance book. It's actually lessons on assurance and lessons in Christian living. And first it was just six lessons, but in this book, it's got all 13 sessions, and then it's got some scripture memory cards in the back. And so you can use this as a tool. When I inherited the bookshelf when I came to this church, the pastor's bookshelf, there were a bunch of these booklets and packets from a 2013 Billy Graham Crusade, and they didn't really know what to do with them. But I looked through there and found that the living in Christ booklets would really be helpful to you, to us, if we're trying to help a new believer grow in Christ. And they have part of that My Heart, Christ's Home thing that we went through. Was it last summer? I think there was a message on that. But so this is kind of the same thing that the navigators have come up with in a different kind of package. But so you could take this booklet and you could get together with someone and you could help them get the foundations of Christ. So in this booklet, just real quick, the 13 topics that they thought were the most important is to have an assurance of salvation. I have eternal life through Jesus Christ. To have assurance of answered prayer, that God hears and answers my prayer, to teach them about prayer. Assurance of victory in Christ, that I can overcome temptation and even talk to them about spiritual warfare. So what's happening here is in this booklet, it's got fill in the blanks, it's got they're supposed to take the Bible and maybe even show them there's an index in the front or whatever, but they're supposed to struggle with trying to find these passages in the Bible and then fill in the blanks. And the way that it works best, I think, is that if you can get the person to do the lesson before you get together, then you can discuss the topic. Sometimes you have to go through the chapter with the person, help them find the Bible verse, help them find the answer, fill in the blank and fill in the chapter. And that's the way to do it. But the best way to do it when you find the responsive person, the person that you can really invest in is the person who's like, all right, I'm game, and they get it done. Actually, it's easier now that you can look up verses on your phone, but to come prepared for the chapter and the topic, and then you can talk to them more in depth about what the subject is. This month's theme is discipleship. Okay? So your topic for the day when you get together, the topic for the week is assurance of victory and overcoming temptation. Number three. Number four, assurance of forgiveness when I confess my sin. God forgives me. How important it is in the Christian life to confess any known sin, to keep that fellowship going, keep those blessings flowing. Assurance of guidance, how God directs my life as I trust him. How can we know God's will for our life? That's an important topic. Number six, putting Christ first. I make Jesus Christ the priority of my life, seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness. Number seven, his strength. God strengthens me for everything he calls me to do. I can do all things through Christ. He strengthens me. Number eight, God's word. God's word equips me for how to live and the importance of scripture and even how scripture works. And maybe on that subject, on that day, you might help them to figure out what is for our time and what was just for their time, especially in the Old Testament, and what's a universal truth for all time, and how can they rightly divide the word of truth? That's a good topic for that week. Love. God calls me to love others in action and in truth. 10. Giving. I honor God by giving faithfully and willingly. Giving is actually an act of worship, a spiritual discipline, a huge thing in the Christian life, what you do with your finances, actually, your time, your talents, and your treasure. The church, I need fellowship with other believers to grow. It's important that we gather together as a church instead of just being lone ranger Christians. Good works. God has saved me to live a life of good works, works that He's prepared in advance for me to do. And 13, witnessing. I share my faith and help others follow Jesus. So those are topics that are covered in these short chapters in this book. And then if you find somebody that's really willing, there are so many different materials that are available. But the Navigators is really good with discipleship training material. And they have the two seven series book that you could go through Growing Strong in God's Family, and they've got other ones of those, or there's a Every Man, a Warrior, those types of things. The number of tools and books is pretty endless. You can even use our How to Find God New Testament to do this. But I'm giving you something. I'm giving you something so you can't say, I don't know what to do. We got to get past this, I don't know what to do, and say, Well, I know one thing I could do, and then start with that, and then see how it works. And as you invest in more people's lives, then you can do more to expand your resources and see what really works for you. So that is what I had for today. Next time we get together, we're gonna look at how to make this faith multiply. How can we do that as a church as we focus on cultivating, planting, and reaping and making a difference in the kingdom of God? And then the last one on May 3rd is making an eternal difference. But let me pray the worship team can come on up here. Jesus, I thank you so much that you have given us so many resources. You have given us your word, you have given us your spirit, you have given us your strength. Lord, I pray that we would be willing, that you would use us, that you would do great things in our lives and in this church. Lord, I pray that we would quit being spectators and become participants, that we would be players, that we would just get in the game and be used of you. If there's no anybody here that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, I pray that they would talk to us, grab one of these How to Find God New Testaments, look on like the third page and see what it means to be a Christ follower, or call us and ask us, or whatever. Lord, we pray that everyone here is a Christ follower. We pray that everybody here would want to follow you in obedience. We pray that everyone here would look for opportunities to spread your word and to build up other believers, and that when our lives are spent, when our days are done, we would look back and think how wonderful it has been to serve you and be used by you, and just look at the fruit of righteousness around us because of what you've done through us. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.