Sent Timotheus!

1 Thessalonians 3:2
And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith.

I see a couple of truths in this verse. The Apostle was hindered because of a multitude of problems. His concern is to keep on keeping on! He would not be stopped in his efforts to help others in their relationship with the Lord.

I get to travel to a lot of Churches each year, I am not convinced that the majority of Pastors have an attitude that says; "I will NOT be stopped" or "I MUST accomplish what God has sent me to do!"

I see a lot of churches that expect their pastor to do it all! I also see pastors that would not accept help! As a minister of God, I believe we must seek out workers to train, and test to be able to help us and or multiply our efforts. It is Biblical to do this. Every Minister needs to be actively training someone to replace him or to be able to reach out beyond the abilities that they possess.

Every Pastor, every Ministry, every Missionary should be seeking to train a Timothy! Notice what the Apostle had to say about his Timothy!

Our Brother!

The first qualification is that our Timothy needs to be saved. Our brother! That sure gives us a lot of prospects. Remember if God can use you or me He can use any one!

And minister of God!

Not every brother will make the cut here but, never underestimate what or whom God may want to be a minister. Some will be short term ministers, other will be vocational ministers. Even ladies ministered to the needs of Churches. I am not advocating women pastors, but am saying we can use the abilities of every born again child of God to accomplish the task God has called us to, and do it much better because some other "ministers" bring a different view to the table.

Our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ!

Once again we are reminded that if we have been given a title, like Pastor, Preacher, Missionary, or Evangelist that never diminishes that fact we have fellow labourers all around us. No biggy names, just servants of the Most High God! A servant is just that, a servant!

The Apostle give us the quick reasons why it is vitally important to have a Timothy!

To establish you.

Many Churches fall short in establishing new converts. I do not see many churches investing in the lives of new converts / members to help them become established in the faith of Jesus Christ. If we do not do the work to establish believers in the faith, we will be expending a lot of resources in putting out small fires in the life of those who do not know how to get a hold of God. By not equipping workers to help the body of believers to trust God, we will become frustrated and miss out on the bigger blessings of God.

To comfort you concerning your faith.

I see an awful lot of Christians that are not secure in their personal faith. They leach upon the faith of their leaders, never developing the confidence they must have in their own abilities to secure a God reviled faith in Him.

As a Minister I have learned I can not do it all, I need to have help. I know I have that Heavenly, spiritual help of the Holy Spirit! I also know that when I have humanly help I can double the effort to do the work I am called to.

The Apostle sent Timothy, Who would you send?