Why do we train up pastors?

Powerpoint Pictures: Diamond; Safe; Security Guard; Lazer beam alarm system; Hole in the ground

How do you protect something precious?  Like a diamond.

What could you do to make sure it is not lost or stolen?

What could you do to protect it?

There are lots of things you can do.

You could put it in a safe, or place a guard on duty to guard it, or surround it by a high tech alarm system, or hide it somewhere no-one else know.

Now there is something that needs to be protected which is far more precious than a diamond, and that is the gospel – the good news that Jesus lived, died, and rose again to save everyone who believes in Him from their sins.

There is nothing more precious than this message because only the gospel can save us.  Only the gospel is the power of God to save all who believe in it.

Now if this good news is so precious, it needs to be protected.

So that it is not lost.

So that it is not altered.

So that people everywhere around the world and in any and every generation to come – those still to be born – can hear it.

How do we do this?

In the Bible we learn one of the ways we can do this in a letter the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy.

He says in the letter: “Guard the good deposit” referring to this message, and then he says, here’s one way you can do this.

“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

One of the ways we protect the gospel is not by locking a Bible in a safe, putting a guard on duty, or hiding it where no-one can find it.  No, people need to hear about Jesus and what He has done if they are going to be saved.