The Long Game Investment

This message explores the power of personal investment through the life of Timothy, a young leader whose extraordinary impact can be traced back to ordinary people who intentionally invested in him. Paul encouraged, prayed for, mentored, and challenged Timothy, but he also recognized that Timothy’s faith had first been nurtured by his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois. Their seemingly ordinary investment helped prepare Timothy to serve and lead churches through difficult circumstances, ultimately contributing to the spread of the gospel far beyond anything they could have imagined. His story reminds us that God often accomplishes extraordinary things through ordinary relationships and that investment equals impact.

This message challenges us to recognize that investing in others doesn’t require a special position, program, or extraordinary ability—it happens one intentional moment at a time. Like individual Lego bricks gradually becoming something much bigger, listening to someone, praying for them, sending an encouraging message, showing kindness, sharing a meal, or simply making someone feel seen can build into an impact we may never fully realize. Whether at home, work, school, church, or in our communities, every relationship provides an opportunity to invest in someone. Ultimately, this message reminds us that people matter, and when we consistently invest our time, attention, encouragement, and faith into others, God can use those ordinary moments to create extraordinary impact.

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, so we are in this series called Little Giants, looking at God having always been in the business, it would seem, of doing extraordinary things through seemingly ordinary things and ordinary people. And this is a theme throughout history because every person is a person just like the next person, and God chooses to use people to reach people, and there are stories after stories after stories throughout not only scripture but human history, where it would appear that God took ordinary things and ordinary people and did extraordinary things. And this week we are going to look at one of those individuals in the New Testament of our Bibles as this series explores stories, situations, and people throughout the Word of God, in and through which God did extraordinary things. And today we're going to look at a young man at the time whose name was Timothy. And you may have heard of Timothy. He was a protege of a man named Paul. And Timothy receives a few letters from Paul that were written to him, and we're going to look at a piece of one of those today. And what we're going to learn from the life of Timothy, what would become known as an extraordinary life, and we'll unpack that this morning together, but we're going to learn this. We're going to learn the power of personal investment. The power of personal investment. And it's going to show up in Timothy's life quite a bit. And again, for context, at the time of, you know, what we understand of the story of this man named Timothy who lived a few thousand years ago, he was a younger man who was given church leadership responsibilities. In fact, Timothy was such at the place in his life where ministry was new to him and leadership was new to him that he struggled with some things at first. And Timothy's life is one of significant impact, but he didn't know that it was necessarily going to be like that sometimes because Timothy is coached by a man named Paul who wrote about a third of the New Testament of your Bible. And Paul, actually, there are 13 letters that Paul writes to different people and churches in the New Testament. Out of those 13, two of them are written directly to Timothy. But out of those 13, 10 out of 13 include Timothy in some fashion. And so, whereas we might just know Timothy as this young man who was a protege of Paul, who we like to quote as, don't let anybody look down on you because you're young. And that's about the extent of our knowledge, if you grew up in church, with who Timothy is. But Timothy's life was extraordinary, and he had an extraordinary level of impact that you and I are actually on the receiving end of, even to this day. And I'll explain why in just a moment. But Timothy's a man raised in a Christian home. We'll look at that as well. And seemingly kind of normal life, but then along the way meets Paul, and Paul basically adopts him kind of as a spiritual son. That's what he'll refer to him as. And he says, look, Timothy, I'm going to raise you up and coach you and challenge you and send you to do some really special things. And Timothy struggled with that a bit. He dealt with fear and anxiety and worry and self-doubt. So much that Timothy actually, Paul would kind of suggest to him a few things he could do to kind of settle his stomach and help with his fear and anxiety. And we know that, right? We understand that stress, fear, anxiety, those types of things can cause a physical reaction in our bodies. And maybe some more gray hairs start to pop up and we look wiser than we really are because of the stress in our lives or whatever it is. But we understand that. And Timothy, as a young man, he's experiencing it. And you've got to think too, he's in places and spaces where, you know, he's trying to lead people who are decades older than him. And they're looking at him like, who's this young man, and who do you think you are coming and telling us these things? And so Timothy dealt with some stuff that we don't seem to consider oftentimes, because if we're not careful, we forget that the people we read of in Scripture are real people who really existed. And Timothy is one of those, this young man given this immense task to help take the gospel to the world, because that's Paul, the one who's going to write the words in the letter, we're going to read in just a moment. Paul's whole life's devotion was to the spreading of the good news of Jesus. The good news of Jesus that says this there is a God, He is holy, He is perfect, He made everything. He made human beings. And human beings did what we always seem to be great at doing, which was trip over our own two feet, get in the way, and mess it up. And as a result, we took God's perfection and we ran from it. And so God, in his love and mercy and grace, understanding that imperfection cannot line up with perfection, loved people so much that he would send Jesus, his son, to make a way, pay a price we owed die a death we should have died, and make a way we could never make on our own, to be with God eternally, for our soul to be at rest because God loved us so much. Paul devoted his life to that message. We call it the gospel. And as he devoted his life to this, he was his own kind of, I guess, intrinsic motivation was to take this good news of Jesus everywhere he possibly could. But he needed people to help with that. Timothy is one of those who he tasked big time in helping with that. And he was very close with Timothy. And we read that in these words in the book of 2 Timothy. You can find it in your phone or find it in your Bible. In the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 1, there's a greeting here that can be easily overlooked, and there are some lessons hiding in plain sight. In 2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 2 through 6, as we look at the power of personal investment, listen to what Paul writes to Timothy. I am writing to you, Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace. Timothy, I thank God for you. The God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Now listen to this. You know, this week, it was actually yesterday. Yesterday I got a phone call from a very dear old friend, and he's going through some stuff. And he gave me about an hour's worth synopsis of his life the last six months. And it was real deal stuff that he was going through. And at the end of our conversation, he says, Scott, I want you to know I pray for you regularly. I pray for Robin regularly, and I pray for Hope and Silas regularly. And I pray for Sunrise Church regularly. This guy lives 2,000 miles away. And if you've ever been on the receiving end of knowing that someone is praying for you, you know how much it blesses you. So remember, this is a real person receiving this letter from a man he admired, loved, and respected, who just writes to him, this young man Timothy, he reads, That night and day this hero of mine is constantly remembering me in my prayers. Paul goes on to say, I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted, and I will be filled with joy when we are together again. Feel the moment. We don't do that oftentimes because it's hard, right? We feel like the Bible's so far away from us. This was written 2,000 years ago. It is hard for us to relate, but it's not hard for us to relate when you start to consider the context. Here is Timothy. He has been given a task of helping lead these churches. And the gospel movement was a bit chaotic and it was, it still had bambi legs. You know, it it was it this was new. This isn't like we have the internet and we have the whole council of God's word now, you know, in 2026. That's not how it was then. The message of the gospel was starting to be spread. And so ministry leadership was a relatively new concept in what we would call the early Christian church. And so here's Timothy, tasked with this leadership. And he's young, he feels ill-equipped, he's nervous, he's got, he's just ridden with anxiety and self-doubt, and he's, you know, he's probably thinking, I don't know how to do this. And, you know, for some of us in our modern context, it's hard to relate sometimes, but Timothy was going through real deal stuff trying to lead people. And you can imagine when Paul was there, he felt like everything was okay. At one point, when Paul was there with him, doing ministry with him, training him, Timothy probably walked in and it was like, okay, great. I may not have a cape, but Paul has a cape, and we've got this. And then you can imagine Paul getting to that point and saying, okay, Timothy, it's you now. And the fear, I mean, I picture it almost like this. This is gonna sound silly, but you've got Timothy, he's at the edge of the pool and he's got his floaties on and he's ready to jump in, and Paul's there, like, just jump, just jump, buddy, you got it. And he's like, I got it, I got it. And then Paul looks at him and he's like, Okay, great, now you got it. I'm gonna get out the pool. And Timothy's like, I don't got it, I don't got it. But feel the moment. He loves this man, he trusts this man, he's been taught and trained by this man. He relies on this man, and this man says, I gotta go help other leaders and other churches. You're gonna take care of this one. And there's there's real emotion there. And Paul says, I remember that, and I want you to know I love you and I'm praying for you. And then he goes on to encourage Timothy with these words. Verse 5, I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid hands upon you, blessed you, and prayed over you. Timothy is afraid, he's struggling, there's nervousness, there's apprehension, and Paul says continue to the faith and fan into flames that which God has given you. And I will tell you, Timothy did just that. Timothy's mentioned in ten out of the thirteen letters that Paul writes, there are three specific churches that Timothy had direct leadership involvement in, and these churches are unique, and they had um, well, what's the nice way of saying this? These churches had issues, and some bigger than others, and some very unique, and there's three churches that Timothy was directly involved in, and oftentimes people don't realize this because they don't appreciate the extraordinary work that God did in and through this man named Timothy. But I want to highlight some things that went on in these churches that Timothy specifically had leadership involvement in that will help us learn a little bit just contextually what Timothy was doing. There were three churches north of Africa, west of Israel, churches in places called Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica. You may be familiar with them because in your Bibles you are going to read books like 1st and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, and Thessalonians. They are the churches Timothy served. The church in Thessalonica was uh, they were interesting. They were a very influential church, but they didn't start out that way. Really, what happened when they started is people did not want to tolerate the gospel. They did not want to hear the message of Jesus so much that they dealt with legitimate persecution as Christians. And I'm talking about the persecution that said, oh, you follow this Jesus way, then we want to ruin your life. We don't want your business to be successful. We're gonna come after you. And they dealt with that real deal persecution so much. There were riots going on in the community. Can you imagine being a young man tasked with taking the gospel to these different places and leading these churches? And you get there and it's like, great, so glad you're here. So here's what's going on. I know you are fresh out of seminary, but there's riots, people are coming after people, and he's thinking, oof, all right, so who's in charge? And they're like, you. And he's I mean, the amount of fear and uncertainty that he would have had to have dealt with, how do you coach people through that? How do you pastor people through that? Timothy, they're trying to destroy my business. Timothy, I've got some, they're coming after us. And he's like, Great, all right. Hang tough. I mean, what do you say? There's real leadership requirement there. The church in Philippi is interesting because some modern churches can identify with this. The church in Philippi started out as a portable church, a set-up teardown church. They didn't have a building. It started, as most believe, from a women's small group on the banks of a river. And then it grew as the gospel message just took hold in people's lives and they built relationships with people. It's interesting because the church in Philippi, that's the first European city to host a Christian church, but they dealt with some stuff too, and it was interesting because that church, as it started to grow, you got people who came in and they were pretty flashy. They were fun, they were wordsmiths, they knew how to eloquently say things and articulate things in a way that could manipulate people, and they would kind of slither in their message, and it sounded passionate and it sounded intelligent, and they ended up doing it not for the sake of the gospel or the glory of God, but for their own personal gain. Not a genuine desire to see people know and follow Jesus. And it started to catch on, and so you can imagine Timothy's in that situation, and he's thinking, man, I need stuff to just settle my stomach before I even preach. And these guys are coming out, and I cannot compete with them. They are pied pipers. People are just following them left and right, but I'm looking at these groups of people and wanting them to know, no, this is what the gospel really is. What they're saying is kind of a distortion. And can you imagine, Timothy? He's like, I nobody's listening to me. They sound better, they look better, they talk better, they have more attractive qualities, they are magnetic. I take tongues. How am I gonna compete with that? And he's serving these churches in Philippi and Thessalonica, the church in Corinth, this one's a doozy. The church in Corinth, the gospel gets presented to this group of people, and their first response is that's a little too pedestrian for us. Yeah, you come back when that message of Jesus is a little bit more polished. We hear you, God, imperfect people, believe in Jesus as Son of God, grace through faith. We get it. Polish that one up. Let's put some more accoutrements on your faith, and then you come back to us. They sat in their arrogance in a way and thought, the gospel is too simple. The same people who had that kind of posture in that place toward the gospel are the same people Paul had to write a letter to and said, Hey, stop having sex with people in your family. They dealt with incest, sexual immorality, all sorts of sexual activity that was going on outside of the context between a marriage of one man and one woman. He's having to write them like, you need to behave like this. This is wrong. Stuff that you and I were thinking, how did people not know that that's not okay? And they're like, no, the gospel's too pedestrian, but incest, we're okay with that. That's why they got two letters. People were suing each other left and right, taking advantage of each other. They didn't even know how to behave in church. All of these churches dealt with some stuff, but here's the unique thing about all these churches the church in Corinth would become so influential that the gospel message would be received not as pedestrian, but as pivotal over time. And it would make its way up to places uh uh in Greece and northern Europe. The church in Thessalonica would be really fascinating because some of these churches would make their way up into places like you would know as modern-day Serbia and different places. The church in Philippi, the first European city to have a church, let's do a little history, shall we? Europe, gospel message. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years go by, and then what happens? Gospel hops on a boat. This is the Atlantic Ocean. I'm charting the waters with my finger, you can see it. And then pink, insert North America. So here's the reality from an historical perspective concerning these three churches that Timothy was heavily involved in, serving in a capacity of leadership. You ready? The gospel message makes its way here because of the work that God did in and through these churches. That is extraordinary. That's extraordinary. And Timothy had a front row seat of service as a leader in these churches. And he was a young man who dealt with anxiety, self-doubt, insecurity, fear, and everything else that comes with trying to lead a gospel ministry movement of people when you are fresh out of training. But Timothy's life is an extraordinary life. But what's hiding in plain sight is what carried Timothy through all he dealt with. We just read in the second letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy 1, that a man named Paul wrote to him to encourage him. Do you know what Paul did? Paul invested in Timothy. But I want you to notice something really interesting here about the personal investment that Timothy received. Because I'm about to tell everybody you can invest in someone personally. And you're gonna say, that's great, Scott, but I'm not Paul. I don't have a lot to give. Well, I am glad you hypothetically and internally said that to me just now. Paul does something to highlight personal investment here that's easy to miss, but it's right here. Do you notice that when Paul says, fan the flame of your faith, fan the flame, continue to be strong in your faith and carry the ministry with you, you notice that he doesn't say, the faith that I gave you. What does he say? The faith I see in you is the same faith that first filled your grandma and your mom. Now those sound like pretty ordinary relationships, don't they? Mom and grandma, boots on the ground, right there, face to face, day after day, raising this young man named Timothy. Paul does not take credit for the strong faith that Timothy had. Who does he credit? The personal investment of mom and grandma. Now, what seems ordinary to us? Well, yeah, of course. I mean, a mother's supposed to invest in her son. A grandma's supposed to invest in her grandson. Okay. But what happens then? Well, what happened in Timothy's life? Strong faith was cultivated. And that personal investment led to extraordinary impact. And here's what I want to encourage you with. I'm going to write it down so you remember it. When it comes to investing in people. Investment equals impact. There is never anything arbitrary about investing in people. Investing in people will always lead to impact. Now that impact may look different at times and it may take time to pay off. And it may not pay off the way you really want it to pay off. But investment in people always leads to impact. Why? Because investment is personal, it's attentive, it's caring. But oftentimes we don't invest in people with intentionality because we are looking at what we hope the results are going to be. And instead of looking at how we can invest in people, we look at what we don't have to invest in people or what we don't think we'll ever see if we invest in people. But that is not the posture God wants us to take when it comes to personally investing in people. I don't think Eunice had any idea that churches in America in 2026 would be talking about the work her son would do in these churches. No. All she knew was this is the gospel. I want my son to know the gospel, and I'm going to invest in him. But what do we do? We're scared of investment because we don't think we have anything to offer or we don't think it'll pay off. That is not how you invest things. In fact, fear, uncertainty, self-doubt, the same things that Timothy dealt with are oftentimes the things that keep us from personally investing in people. But when we understand what investment does, we start to make more sense of it and can maybe see it as a ministry opportunity. If we look at investments outside of people, what do we do with investments? We contribute regularly. Think about it. Think about investments and how the aggregate of them add up over time. If you are to invest in a retirement fund, what do you typically do? Maybe there's an annual contribution that you put into that fund, a biannual contribution, or maybe your company takes X amount of dollars from your paycheck every month and puts it into a retirement account. What are you doing there? You are contributing consistently over time. You're not starting with, man, I hope I have a million dollars when I retire. No, you are incrementally, consistently making those investments. You would do the same thing if you set up a college fund for your kid. You don't look and say, man, college is that much. You say, okay, how can I much can I contribute now? And we see how it pays off over time. You do the same thing when you invest in your health. You don't wake up one day and say, great, today's the day I run a marathon. I'll be back next year. No. What do you do? You go to the gym, you do your push-ups, you walk, you jog, you do things consistently over time. Here's why oftentimes people do not personally invest in others. I don't have much to give, and I don't think it'll pay off. You know why? We are so scared of and concerned with impact that we think my investment could never have that. I want to encourage you with this investment personally into people is like Legos. That's a Lego. Some of us may have a love-hate relationship with Legos. Maybe you've stepped on a few on your way to the kitchen in the middle of the night, and you said some words you wish you didn't say. But that's a Lego. Now that we're not there, are we? No, but I I spent time with this person. I invested in this person, and that didn't no, no, no. Here's how investment works. One moment at a time. And eventually it builds. So how do we do that? How do we invest in people? Oftentimes it's simpler than you think. The easiest way to invest in people is first to simply recognize them, listen to them, and show them that they're seen. Everybody wants to feel seen. Everybody wants to feel known. Everybody wants to believe somebody cares about them. If you have time, you can do that for someone. And then it builds from there. Then it builds. How do we invest in people sometimes? Maybe we fire off that text message. Hey, thinking about you today. How can I pray for you? Hey, I know you've been going through some stuff. Just wanted you to know you're on my mind. Pick up the phone, make that phone call. Dial up that FaceTime call. Connect with them. Fire off a message. Take them to coffee. Take somebody to lunch. I mean, there are so many ways we can invest in people. You can serve together, maybe invite them to your house. Check in on them once every couple of months. You know, there are so many things we can do. Somebody says, oh, I really love Doritos, and a month later you buy them a bag of Doritos, and they think it's just Doritos, but it's not just Doritos. You remembered. And it made an impression on them because you invested in them. There's little things you can do to invest in people. Now, for the sake of the gospel, those things add up over time when you consistently let somebody know, hey, I'm praying for you. Hey, I'd love it if you came to church with me. Hey, is there anything you need? Hey, hey, I've got some people in my life who I think would be good for you to have in your life. Why don't you come meet some of these people? And let me introduce you to some friends. And it compounds and it builds and it builds and it builds over time. And you start to see as you build those Legos that investment equals impact. And it's available to all of us. I'll give you some areas where it's available. First one is you can invest in people at home. Parents, do you invest in your kids? Most parents, we hear that and we think, of course I do. Yeah, I invest in my kids. I make sure they're ready, they're out the door, I take them here, I feed them, I do all these things. No, no, no. I mean, do you invest in your kids? Do you ask them about their lives? Do you listen to them? Do you show an interest in the things in their life? Do they know you care? Invest in them. You can invest in your kids. You know what? You know what's oftentimes, and I get this because Robin and I will, we're doing a parenting foundations class right now on Wednesdays, and we've been having these conversations with some couples, and it's interesting to me. You know what happens in marriage? Like Robin and I, we're we're we're going on 21 years, and one of the things that we've learned over time is that we have to invest in each other. And sometimes as a husband and wife, you forget that because you're like, I live with you. I'm invested. We made human beings together. I don't know, you can get more invested in that. We're the we share a toothbrush cup. We are invested. You can go years without looking at your spouse and saying, Hey, tell me what God's doing in your life. Hey, tell me about what you're learning in this season. Hey, tell me something about you I maybe not know. Hey, can I share with you something God's put on my heart? Hey, can I just listen to you and learn you? Do you invest in your spouse? In your other family relationships with maybe nieces, nephews, grandparents. There are opportunities at home to invest in people. You can invest in people at work. And there are people here right now who are thinking, nope, don't like that. You don't know who I work with. You know one of the easiest ways you can invest in people at work? It's one word. Kindness. Kindness. You know God's word tells us that it's His kindness that leads us to repentance. You want to stand out in a world that values selfishness, self-gain, self-righteousness above so many things. Show kindness to people in your workplace. It might stand out enough to earn you a conversation one day. Kindness might be those Legos, and the conversation may be way up over here. But you got opportunities to make those investments. You got opportunities to make investments at school. I had a conversation with some students. I was speaking at a conference a few months back in the summertime. Some students came up to me and they said, Hey, Pastor Scott, we want to really make a difference, we want to make an impact, but we don't know how we can do that. I mean, we're, you know, we're 16 years old, we're 17 years old, we're 15 years old. Like, what can we do? And I was like, turn around. And they said, okay. I said, look at all them other students. They were like, yeah. I go, you can invest in each other. And they're like, oh yeah, we can do that. You know, we do that here. We celebrate this. You know what we do? We set up lunch clubs on school campuses and we go and we be Jesus to students. And you know, you know who leads those clubs? Not us. Somebody like, I'm not walking onto a school campus, and students are like, yeah, cool guys here. The fact that I just said cool guy means that's not happening. Dorky dad. You know who leads those clubs? Students making investments. Had the conversation again. I was at a different conference every now and then I get a chance to do that. And I was speaking at a men's conference not long ago. And an older guy came up to me after the conference. He was in his 70s and he said, Pastor, I just, you know, I've been at this church for 40 years, and his church was there at this conference. He said, I've been here for 40 years, and I just, I don't feel like there's anything for me at the church anymore. You know, they used to do this, this, this, and this. And they don't do any of that anymore. And so I just, they don't do the things I like anymore. And so I just don't feel like this, there's any ministry for me. And I said, okay, okay, well, do me a favor. And I did what I did with these students. I said, do me a favor, turn around. Let's look at look look look at some stuff. What do you see? He said, I see a room full of men. I said, Great. They all go to your church? He said, Yeah. I said, Do you notice anything about these men other than the fact that they go to your church? He was like, There's a lot of them. I said, Great, we'll start there. Now, do you notice that those young men look like they're in their 20s and those young men look like they're in their 70s? And those young men, I was trying to be polite, so I called them all young men. I'm like, you notice there's different decades and stages of life right here, right? And he goes, yeah. I was like, you ever taken any of them out to coffee? And he looked at me and he goes, I can do that? I said, well, I mean, you probably have to ask your wife first, but yeah, you should probably, you could probably do that. I said, there's a hundred opportunities to invest in people and make an impact in ministry right there. And the light bulb went off. And he realized, okay, programs in my environment do not dictate my ability to make a personal investment in somebody else. That's a choice that we get to make. You can make investments at home, at work, at school. You know what else you can do? I I realized this. Yesterday I went for a run, and uh I don't spell great. That says sports, in case you can't read that. Um, I went for a run and uh I ran by a park, and there's probably like five or six soccer games and flag football games going on. And you know what I saw? Maybe you've seen this at uh sporting events. You see um families who have packed up half of their house to attend a sports game. And it's because they got three kids, so they're playing in three different games, and so they're like, look, we're not home for 12 hours. We're here. We brought the dogs with us because we can't get back to let the dogs out. So they got the dogs, they've got easy up tents. People bring tent. You see the dad just sit like he's going off to battle. Just he's dragging this igloo cooler full of sandwiches to feed an army. He's got a pop-up tent, he's got chairs hanging off of his neck, and he's just like, I love my family, I love my family. He's walking like Frankenstein's monster, trying to get to just to sit down, and they sit down, and you see them everywhere, and they're sitting down. What are they doing? They're carrying these lawn chairs and they're posting up, and you see it. And I thought about it for a moment. I thought, I wonder how many of these parents complain to or complain about their kids' coaches and never invest in their kids' coaches. And then I felt really convicted because I do what I'm about to say. I do this, and I'm admitting this to you, and it may strike you as odd because I talk to people for a living, but I'm actually naturally introverted. So when Robin and I go in public spaces and places, I follow her around like that little fish on the shark. Because I can be somewhat antisocial sometimes, because again, I do this, this is what I do. So I don't actually want to do this all the time. And so we'll go to like football games or or different events, you know, with our kids and our nieces and nephews and stuff like that. And when we sit down, I sit down and I do this. I don't want to talk to nobody. I'm here. But I married someone who is all the social. She makes friends in the line at Target, not just the regular line. Robin can make friends with the self-checkout line. That's how social and friendly she is. People love her so much more than me. It's maddening. And so she helps me. Scott, you should invest in these people. You should connect with these people because people matter. In the end, all that matters is God and people. And investment equals impact. So each conversation, each moment, each challenge, each encouragement, each prayer builds and builds and builds and builds and builds. So what's the lesson for us as we look at the life of Timothy? This extraordinary life. Investment in churches that would impact us today. You can trace back the investment of people in his life. Seems ordinary. All these things seem ordinary. But God does extraordinary through the ordinary. And investment in people is extraordinary. One person at a time. Because investment equals impact. Pray with me, and then Dylan will come close us out with some announcements. God, thank you again for this day and for your word. I pray that your word is heard. God, I thank you for the baptism we got to celebrate because we don't take credit for that. You get the credit for that. Because that's the work you're doing. God, I pray that you would show us opportunities we have to invest in people. And that you would encourage us to make those investments one Lego brick at a time. God, we thank you for all you're doing in and through the life of your church as people are reaching people. May you continue to stir in us a desire to reach more people who could come be a part of this Christian community as we know we need each other and desire to grow in our faith together. So, God, I'm going to pray what we always pray and echo and echo over and over again. That you are honored by everything we have said, everything we have done, everything that we have been singing, and everything that we have celebrated. And God, what we learn here doesn't get left here, but that we indeed take it with us. It's in your name we pray.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Amen. Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church. We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you. If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal. Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry partner. If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.