Calling // Storytellers // Shaun Ames // June 21st, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The Fireman Who Knelt in the Mud

A stranger’s knees sank into Tennessee clay as he prayed with a broken man. True discipleship isn’t about titles or platforms but showing up in the grime of someone’s chaos. The fireman didn’t preach at the lost musician—he got eye-level with his pain. Christ’s love becomes tangible when we abandon pride to meet others where they’re drowning. Lasting transformation begins with hands dirty from pulling others upward. [56:13]

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:12–16, ESV)

Reflection: Whose knees still bear the dirt stains from kneeling beside you in your darkest pit? How might you kneel in someone else’s mud this week?

Day 2: Seeds That Sleep in Silent Soil

Farmers plant without seeing sprouts. A sheriff’s tractor-side invitation and a relentless neighbor’s church pleas felt fruitless for decades. But buried seeds crack open when God’s spring arrives. Our small obediences—awkward invites, quiet prayers—are time capsules of grace. What withers in our sight might root deeply in secret, awaiting resurrection rain. Never discount the dormant harvest. [01:07:41]

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6, ESV)

Reflection: What forgotten seed did someone plant in you that finally bloomed? Where have you stopped watering ground because you saw no green?

Day 3: The Last Show Played Sober

A child’s proud gaze from the merch table became a mirror. Tour bus lights revealed the hollowness of applause. Clarity comes when we see ourselves through the eyes of those we’re called to protect. Walking away from toxic cycles often starts with one sober night—one moment where love outweighs addiction. True courage isn’t staying on stage, but stepping into the quiet dark to pray till dawn. [58:40]

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24, ESV)

Reflection: What “stage” have you been performing on that’s costing your soul? What would it look like to walk toward back porch prayers tonight?

Day 4: When the Table of Demons Loses Its Appeal

Some cups leave a aftertaste of ash. The musician finally gagged on the bitterness of trying to drink both holy wine and hell’s brew. Freedom begins when we push back from the wrong table, even if it means leaving a feast. True craving comes when we stop pretending poison tastes fine. Christ’s table may seem empty compared to the world’s spread—until we taste the bread of life. [01:01:12]

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:21, ESV)

Reflection: Which “cup” have you been sipping while pretending it doesn’t conflict with communion? What needs to be pushed away to fully grasp Christ’s chalice?

Day 5: Baptizing Under Grandma’s Watchful Sky

Generations ripple from a single converted heart. A Mexican river baptism under a grandmother’s heavenward gaze, vows renewed under oak branches—these are the harvests of planted seeds. Our obedience today becomes someone else’s inheritance tomorrow. Legacy isn’t about perfection but creating footholds for those climbing behind us. Live so your great-grandchildren’s faith has your fingerprints on it. [01:13:15]

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:4, ESV)

Reflection: Who in your spiritual lineage handed you the faith like a baton? What intentional act today could echo through your family’s next three generations?

Sermon Summary

Paul writes to Timothy as an older apostle to a younger man and tells him not to let anybody despise his youth, but to be an example in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, and purity. The text puts preaching and living together. Paul does not let Timothy teach God’s truth while living like God’s truth does not matter. The call is righteousness that fits a person of God, and that kind of life can become a powerful and positive influence for Christ.

The “hole in the heart” names the emptiness that worldly success could not fill. Record deals, touring, television work, songwriting, and applause could not patch what only God could heal. Alcohol tried to fill that hole, but the hole stayed empty. God had been calling since childhood, even when that call was ignored again and again.

A fireman in Murfreesboro became a Timothy kind of example. He walked the walk and talked the talk, and every chance he had, he dropped God into the conversation without forcing him on anybody. That man got down on his knees with a sinner and helped lead him to the Lord. The conversion was real, but drifting away from the example also exposed the difference between being a believer and being a follower.

The Batesville show became the breaking point. A little boy looked up at his dad with pride, and that look exposed shame, not glory. A long night of prayer brought the truth into the open: worldly things were being gained, but family and soul were being lost. The cup of demons and the cup of the Lord could not both be held, and the old life had to end.

The strange road into bail bonding and bounty hunting became a place where Christ stood at the center. Arrested people, meth labs, ghettos, chaos, addiction, tears, and cussing all became moments to speak of the One who pulls people out of darkness and into light. Jesus Christ was named as the One who can pull a person out of the pits of hell and into loving arms.

The call to serve came when the Holy Spirit made it clear that God wanted it all. Old invitations to church, neighborly questions, relentless love, and quiet examples suddenly sprang up like seeds that had been dormant for years. The body of Christ then moved from being visible to living inside a family. Third John’s joy became the point: no greater joy than children walking in the truth. Tiny seeds, faithfully planted, can help bring generations home to Christ.

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Key Takeaways

1. Example is never wasted. Paul’s word to Timothy makes a holy life part of the witness, not a decoration added to it. A believer’s conduct can either make the gospel look weightless or make it visible in flesh and blood. The fireman’s ordinary faithfulness shows that a life lived straight before God can become someone else’s doorway into grace. [53:03]
2. Lukewarm belief is not following. A Christian label can sit on top of a life that is still drinking from the wrong cup. The difference between believing and following appears when obedience starts costing something real. God’s love was not absent, but love that is never returned becomes a one-sided relationship that leaves the soul ashamed and restless. [56:43]
3. Tiny seeds can sleep for years. Paul’s image of planting and watering pushes patience deeper than quick results. A church invitation, a holy example, or a loving word may look like nothing at the time, but God can make that seed rise years later in one morning. Dormant seed is not dead seed when God has kept it in the ground. [67:41]
4. Christ pulls chaos into peace. The jailhouse conversations show that Jesus does not wait for a clean setting before He speaks. Addiction, crime, anger, and tears became the very places where the name of Christ entered the room. The One who pulls people out of darkness does not merely improve behavior, but brings a soul out of chaos and into peace. [62:52]
5. Holy testimonies create broken testimonies. People raised in faithful obedience may think their story is not dramatic enough, but their steadiness often becomes the seedbed for someone else’s rescue. A clean testimony is not a small testimony when it introduces broken people to Jesus. Because holy lives told their stories, shattered lives were given stories that now lead to Christ.

## [71:14]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[50:25] - Prayer and Opening Words
[52:46] - Reading 1 Timothy 4:12-16
[53:41] - Paul’s Call to Be an Example
[54:11] - The Hole Success Could Not Fill
[55:29] - A Fireman Who Walked the Walk
[56:43] - Believer, But Not a Follower
[57:46] - The Last Show in Batesville
[60:14] - Choosing the Lord’s Table
[61:34] - New Life After Music
[62:22] - Finding Ministry in the Jailhouse
[65:13] - God Calls for Everything
[66:33] - Seeds Planted by Faithful People
[68:54] - The Body of Christ Becomes Home
[72:12] - No Greater Joy Than Truth
[73:36] - Be the Fireman

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

1 Timothy 4:12-16
“Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” [52:46]

3 John 1:4
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” [01:12:21]

1 Corinthians 3:6
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” [01:07:41]

1 Corinthians 10:21
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.”

Observation questions

In 1 Timothy 4:12, what areas does Paul name where a believer is to be an example?
What details show that success, travel, songwriting, and applause still did not fill the “hole in the heart”? [54:11]
What made the fireman such a clear example of Christian faithfulness in everyday life? [55:32]
What happened during the Batesville show and the long night afterward that made it clear the old life had to end? [57:46]

Interpretation questions

Paul ties teaching Scripture and watching one’s life closely together in 1 Timothy 4:12-16. Why is that connection so important, especially for anyone who says they belong to Christ? [53:41]
A person can say, “I believe,” and still be living far from obedience. What is the difference between being a believer and being a follower, and how does that difference show up in real life? [56:43]
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.” What kinds of divided loyalties does that warning expose in a person’s life today? [01:00:34]
If God gives the growth, why do simple acts like invitations, steady prayer, and quiet example still matter so much? [01:06:33]

Application questions

Paul says to be an example in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Which one of those areas feels strongest right now, and which one needs the most attention from the Lord? [52:55]
A person can carry a “Christian” label while still living from the wrong cup. Where is there any hint of double-mindedness right now—public faith but private compromise, Sunday worship but weekday drift? [56:43]
Worldly success could not fill the empty place in the heart. What has most often competed for that place in life—approval, money, pleasure, distraction, achievement, or something else? How has that been showing up lately? [54:24]
Tiny seeds can lie dormant for years. Who are one or two people that may need steady prayer, a gentle invitation, or a faithful example right now, even if there has been no visible response yet? [01:07:41]
Christ meets people in places of chaos and speaks peace there. Where is there chaos close at hand right now—in the home, workplace, extended family, or community—where the presence and words of Jesus could be carried with greater courage? [01:02:22]
There is no greater joy than seeing children walk in the truth. What would it look like to pursue that kind of joy more intentionally in the home, with children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or younger believers? [01:12:21]
“Be the fireman” is a call to simple, lived-out faithfulness. Who first comes to mind as someone who may need a patient, honest, Christ-centered example from you this week? What might that actually look like? [01:14:53]

Sermon Clips

48s

“``Most of us have heard this next verse a lot. First Corinthians three six, Paul says that he planted the seed, Apollo's watered it, but God has been making it grow. But we can't think of the process of planting a seed as a farmer or with a garden where you plant a seed and then a few days later, it grows or a few weeks later depending on what you plant. These seeds that we plant can lay dormant for years until God decides to make them grow. And the morning after I heard the call to serve, all of those seeds sprung forth beautifully.”

45s

“But the holy spirit was still working in me. But I was not living a life that was honorable or pleasing to the lord. I was a believer and I talked a good game, but I was not a follower. And to me, there's a big difference. God loved me, but I didn't show him love back. It was a one-sided relationship and I was lukewarm at best. I was not living a life that I was proud of. I was not living the life that my family was proud of. I was not living a life that God was proud of, and I didn't wanna live that life anymore.”

40s

“And then I'd stop talking. I'd stop talking because I knew the next the next is the one who can pull you out of the darkness and into the light. Jesus Christ is the one who can pull you out of the pits of hell and up into his loving arms. Jesus Christ is the one who can pull you out of a life of chaos into a life of peace. Many times, they would start dog cussing me. I don't wanna hear about your God. I I don't wanna hear about Jesus. But most the time, they would start crying uncontrollably.”

60s

“My wife came out that morning. I'm sure she thought I'd been up all night drinking, and I told her I was done. I was leaving music and I wasn't going back. I couldn't continue the life I was living if I wanted to know God. Matthew six twenty four and in Luke six thirteen, it tells us that we cannot serve God and money. And in Corinthians, we're told that we cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of the demons too. You cannot have a part of the Lord's table and the table of demons. And I knew which table I was at. I knew which cup I was drinking from. I was drinking at the table of the demons, and I wanted to I wanted to sit at God's table. I wanted to drink from his cup. I wanted to drink the living water.”

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