Make Your Investment- Count Finding Faithful Men

One of my favorite chapters of the New Testament is the second chapter of 2 Timothy. In this chapter the Apostle Paul uses seven metaphors to describe what a faithful pastor or gospel worker looks like. The seven metaphors he uses are:

· A steward who entrusts the gospel to faithful men.

· A soldier who endures hardship and desires to please his commander.

· An athlete who trains and competes according to the rules.

· A farmer who works hard planting, watering, cultivating, and harvesting.

· An approved worker who labors over the Word of God-rightly dividing the truth.

· A vessel fit for the Master’s use.

· A servant desiring to please his Lord.

And while all of these pictures are what a faithful pastor ought to look like, I want to call your attention to the steward who entrusts the gospel to faithful men.

According to the Apostle Paul a faithful pastor is like a steward. A steward is one who manages the resources or the affairs of another. The steward of Christ will not manage material wealth, but spiritual treasures. He will entrust the precious treasure of the gospel to the “faithful men.”

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:1- 2).

In this passage, the Apostle Paul is admonishing his “son in the faith” Timothy to “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” In other words, Timothy will need to rely on God’s grace as he fulfills his ministry. He will need to rely on the grace and strength that God will supply as Timothy depends on Him.

In addition, Paul tells Timothy to entrust the gospel “to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” This was Paul’s practice in the early church to raise up pastors and gospel workers- to disciple and mentor “others also.”

Paul is telling Timothy that one of the things a faithful pastor should do is identify and invest in emerging leaders who would become pastors or gospel workers in the churches.

Paul told Timothy to look for faithful men to invest in, or men of FAITH. I’ve developed an acronym for FAITH. The kind of men we should identify and pour our lives into should be faithful, available, intentional about spiritual growth, teachable and hungry for God.

Dave Kraft in his book, Leaders that Last says: one of the most important things that a pastor or leader in the church should do is identify, equip, and empower emerging leaders. Yet, he is amazed that so few pastors and church leaders are doing it.

If we need to make our investment count, we must ask God to help us identify the right men that we can “walk with” to help them grow and develop as leaders.

During the next couple of weeks we’ll discover how to identify these men in order to make our investment of time and resources count.