True Mentor, Jesus (2 Timothy 1:1~6)

True Mentor, Jesus (2 Timothy 1:1~6)

 

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ^[a] by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

² To Timothy, a beloved son:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

³ I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, ⁴ greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, ⁵ when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. ⁶ Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

 

Intro)

 

1. Mentor and teacher of life.

There are 3 kinds of people who impact our lives parent, teacher, and friend. Teacher is second the most important role in our lives. Having excellent mentor is like light bulb that makes our lives bright. Having a good discipline is having someone to pass down the will and a dream
Confucius, Creator of Confucianism he had 3,000 of students, but his favorite of all was Ahn Hueh. Ahn Hueh was poor, but took the class with joy and accepts Confucius’ will and Confucius counted this high and he picked him as his favorite. However, When Ahn Hueh was turning 30 he faced sudden death, so Confucius was crying and shouted ‘ah..!! Sky has ruined me!”

 

2. Plato was person who was in noble class and have will in politic. He got to meet Socrates and had him as his mentor for 8 years and had great influence in personality and judgment. When Plato turned 28 years old he saw his mentor Socrates drank poison to death in prison, and he changed his mind from going in politics to philosophy. If Plato didn’t get to meet Socrates he will be just regular politics, but he got to have Socrates as mentor, so he could have become a great philosopher.

 

 3. If Peter who was simply fisher didn’t meet Jesus who told him I will make you fisher who catches people, then he couldn’t have become leader at early church era.

 

Teacher cannot be a good teacher just because has a good skills. Teacher needs to have abilities to lead student in right direction from true heart such as concerning their path and be the light to their lives.

 

Therefore, good relationships between teacher and student like Confucius and Ahn Hueh, Socrates and Plato, and Jesus and Peter are relationship that brings blessing to each other.

 

Jesus Christ is Counselor, Strategist, and savior who will lead us to the most successful way in our lives.

 

 

Body) 

 

A) Parent as teacher 1. Of course parent is the most valuable teacher to their children. Saint Paul says who his first teacher was when he was in young age in 2 Timothy 1:5, ‘when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.’ And in 2 Timothy 4: 3-4, 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.  It says at the end of world people would not listen and learn a right lesson from teacher, but become arrogant. People will have selective hearing so they want to learn whatever   sounds good to them and ignore the truth. Therefore, it is hard to be a good teacher and give true lesson in end of world.   2. one day there was a survey from newspaper company asking ‘what is the biggest problem in education in this days?’ to 100 current employed teachers. The 1first top answer was absences of home education.   Home is the place where children need to learn their habit, manner, personality. However, today’s home does not fulfilling its own duty. What I experience in American is that child does not know what adult is like children do not greet to adult in church and just pass by them like they are like ghost. We are losing manner in our society. Even adults chew gum in service time, some females comes to church service like they are half naked. Yawning without covering their mouth when pastor is sharing the sermon. Home education is really important we come to church to be presentable to Jesus our lord like how soldiers have tip topped uniform if they are having a meeting with some higher ranker.       Secondly, Parent needs to plan out the time schedules for education. Parents need to take care of their children they are your biggest investment. Do not neglect your children into selfishness. As parent you need to teach them a team work, and patience.                           Third, We are all focused on getting higher grade in school, but we really need true education in our lives in order for them to have right path way in their lives. They cannot just pursuit their desire otherwise they will ruin their lives. In book of Proverbs 22:6 says, ‘6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.’ It is important to learn God’s word when they are young. Jewish has great way to teach their children. They have 39 books of the old testaments that they pass down for home education. Especially the personality part they teach at age of 7 is brilliant. They are global population of 0.2%, but still get notified for their education. We need to keep it up! We have 66 books of the new testament there is no reason that we cannot grow brilliant future in our children. Loving everyone, you are the most important teacher. Parent needs to learn well, so their family could learn well. Let us learn from our true teacher God and be us become good influence to our children so they could go to right path of success with blessing. What about Jesus? He loved his disciples with his own life. He punished whoever sinned, but he covered their mistakes and weakness with love. He taught them with tears. He is teacher of love and wisdom. Teacher has power in his word. We need to take after him, so we can be a good teacher as well.
	B) Focus on Sunday school 1. John Wanamaker, who has hundreds of shopping malls under his name over the U.S one day he was called to the white house. President Harrison wanted him to take the position for the postmaster general, but he rejected and reason being is because he considers Sunday school teacher work as the most important job he has and if he cannot teach children because of his job that will be a problem. President told him that his work won’t be a problem with his church work, so Wannamaker took the job. After he took the job he traveled to the church every time and taught children for 4 years, and over 67 years he never missed teaching children in church as Sunday school teacher. The church he was serving became the best church has Sunday school for children. John said Sunday school teacher is my main fulltime job that I need to serve for life, but postmaster general was a part time job last few years. Wanamaker spent rest of his life as great teacher and showed true role model of teacher to his students.
	Today, there is a saying there are many teachers, but no mentor. This goes to the church and school as well. We need to have more heart and teach children with passion. Saint Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:15, ‘15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.' We need to teach them not just knowledge, but have to have heart that Paul has.   Con) If you consider this kind of facts, it is not too much to emphasize the mentor’s role in children’s lives. Parent, Sunday school teacher we all need to guide our children to Jesus and pray continuously, so they can learn his unconditional love and dedication, and so they can become great worker of God that spread his word. Hallelujah!   by ik sun ahn