Title: God's Calling for Young Believers
Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:12
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
Well, this morning we're going to do something that I don't normally do, which is to leap over the biblical context right to a point of application. See, 1 Timothy 4.12, which is a favorite verse of many young believers, it was one of my favorites when I was young in the faith, the verse itself is set in the context of a young pastor who is laboring to be faithful in ministry. That's the biblical context, and we're going to look at that sometime next week as well.
And it would be from that context that we would then make a broader application to all people, but certainly to young believers. But today I want to reverse that. Now, again, I do intend to go back, and we'll work through verses 11 through 16 as a unit next week, so I'm not going to rip the context out and dispense with it.
But today I want to begin by addressing young believers and exhorting them from this verse. 1 Timothy 4.12 is not the only place that the Bible ministers to youth. There are many passages in Scripture, I think about even Ephesians 6, verses 1 through 3, for example, that addresses children, younger believers.
But there's even a whole book of the Bible that is specifically addressed to children and young adults, and that's the book of Proverbs. We actually were in Proverbs this morning. Proverbs itself is full of wisdom and instruction and advice and warnings, all to help young believers to live a God-honoring life.
In many ways, however, the apostle Paul is encapsulating the wisdom of Proverbs into a very carefully constructed verse that is designed to direct and encourage his young disciple. And so I want to look at this verse together. We're just going to look at this one verse, 1 Timothy 4.12. Paul writes to his young disciple, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself as an example of those who believe.
Now, this one verse, I believe, resonates with so many younger believers because I think it clearly expresses God's calling for them over and against the overwhelming lack of clarity coupled with the chaos and the confusion from the world. Very simply, today, kids don't know who they are. They don't know who they're supposed to follow.
They don't know what to do, what to value. And more importantly, they don't understand the purpose for their life. So many children, especially now, are asking this question.
If not verbally, they're certainly thinking it inside. Why am I here? What should I be doing? See, the world is very happy to tell them, do whatever you want. Make yourself happy.
Live for yourself. Do whatever feels good. But the older you get, the more you realize how empty that is.
But this isn't just a problem in the world. It also exists in the church. I think this problem is also here.
What does God want from me? I think so many young believers, and I don't mean young in terms of the number of years you've been a Christian, I mean just younger in age in general. What does God want from me? What am I supposed to do? Now I will say that God's desire for all people, according to 1 Timothy 2.4, which we saw quite a while ago, a couple months ago, God's desire for all people is for them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants people to become Christians, so no matter how old you are, that is God's desire for you.
But is that it? Is that only it? And I think even parents can fall into this trap of believing that all they have to do for their kids is get them saved and then get them married. But there's more. There is a lot more to this.
I would argue that our greatest responsibility to our children is to teach them how to live the Christian life, which includes not only salvation, but sound doctrine and even godly character. After all, we don't want our children to end up like my friend Alan, who I mentioned last week, who calls himself a Christian and yet has no godliness to show for his profession. Now, as I mentioned last week, I made up the name Alan because I don't think anyone here is named Alan.
It's a hypothetical. And if anyone at any point in time comes to the church named Alan, just tell them not to listen to that sermon. But in the time that we have today, I do want to walk through this verse because I want to help you, and I want to bring application from this verse to young believers.
And so my message today is called God's Calling to Young Believers. But if you look at the verse with me, in verse 12, we see Paul tells Timothy, "...let no one look down on your youthfulness." There's a Greek word that's used here for look down, and it refers to a despising or a thinking little of, or even a disrespecting. And it reveals the timeless war between the generations.
So oftentimes we feel this chasm between the younger generation that seems to view the older as being out of touch, or stuck in their ways, or unwilling to do hard things, or just downright critical. And if you're younger, maybe that's some of the feelings that you have toward those who are older. But the older generation tends to see the younger as untested, immature, idealistic, easily manipulated.
But the Bible actually commends one to the other. 1 Timothy 5.1 calls on younger believers, but he addresses younger men to respect those who are older, treat them as fathers, and the older women as mothers. If you're younger in the faith, if you're younger in age, God's desire for you is to look up to those who are older than you, more mature than you, and to look at them like you would honor your parents and treat them as such.
But vice versa, the older are also given the stewardship of aiding and discipling the younger. Look at Titus chapter 2. It's not just the super-Christians who are charged with discipling the younger generation. It's all older men, all older women are to come alongside the younger and help them and teach them and walk with them.
But it still proves difficult because of the inherent prejudices of both groups. There's a generation war. And the thing is, there always is.
There always is. Every single generation, the older just thinks that, oh boy, in my day, the younger generation, they have it so much differently. And then when we grow up, we say, oh, in my day, and it's always in my day.
But the thing is, the Gen Z-ers are going to someday say, well, in my day, you know, it just keeps on happening. But we are to see what God's desire is for all of us as believers to figure out where we are in the timeline, where we are in the spiritual spectrum, and help those who are around us, either older or younger. But even in Paul's day, youthfulness was looked on with disdain, disdain.
Younger people were looked down because of their immaturity and naivete. Paul even uses the word here, neotes. It's translated youthfulness, and it comes from the Greek word neos, which is the word for youth.
And it refers to children, youths, and even persons up to age 30. In fact, we have some ancient writings that referred to 40-year-olds as neos, as youths. So even Timothy is considered youthful because scholars generally think that he's somewhere between the age of 28 and 35 when this letter is being written to him.
He was a relatively young man, certainly young for a pastor. However, numerical age is really not the issue here. The issue is immaturity and the character of the person.
And so Paul says, let no one look down on your youthfulness. Don't let people look down on you because of your age. Don't let them dismiss you, is what he's saying.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, well, how do I do that? I can't control what other people think and feel, right? I can't make you respect me or vice versa. No, but you can work to remove the reasons for those feelings. In other words, Paul is saying, don't give anyone a reason to look down on you because of your age.
Well, how are you able to do that? How do you change people's perspective and their opinions of you and their view of you? Well, Paul gives the answer in the last line of the verse. Look at the end of the verse. He says, you are to show yourself an example of those who believe.
This word ginomai in the Greek is to become or to set yourself up as. When he says, show yourself, demonstrate yourself to be. This implies transformation.
It implies development. It's what you must become. Well, what must you become? Well, he says you must become and show yourself to be an example of those who believe.
You are to become an example. This Greek word for example is tupos. If you were to look at it, it looks like the word type, typos.
It looks like typos, but it literally refers to the pattern or a model or an image. In this case, it's a representative picture of something else. Well, of what? What's the picture of? It's a picture of those who believe, in other words, Christians, Christians.
In fact, Paul regularly speaks of this. He tells the Philippians in chapter three, verse 17 of his letter, brethren, join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern that you have in us. In essence, he's saying, in every way that I am faithful to God, follow my example.
He says that in first Corinthians 11, one as well. Follow me as I follow Christ. Don't follow me in the ways that I'm sinful and selfish and debauched, but if there's any godliness in me, follow me in those ways.
Follow the examples, not just of me, but follow the examples of others who demonstrate faithfulness in the Christian life. That's what Hebrews chapter 11 is all about. That's our cloud of witnesses from the Bible that show us pictures of faithfulness.
Now, there's no perfect person in that list. The only perfect one is Christ, and so preeminently, we are to look at him as the tupos, the type, the example, the model. But even in the church in Thessalonica, he commends them in first Thessalonians 1, 6, because they had become imitators of us, he says, and of the Lord, and thereby became an example to all the believers.
He told the Thessalonian church, he goes, you guys have watched me and the other apostles. You've looked at the Lord, and you have become an example of what a Christian, what a church is supposed to be like. Thessalonica was a young church.
Second Thessalonians 3, 9, Paul says, we offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example. And so this implies really two big things. Number one, that you study the faithful example of other believers, and then doing so, you're also studying the example set by Christ.
So this implies attentiveness and study and looking. I mean, when was the last time that you actually examined the life of another believer in a positive way? Not to look down and cast judgment or anything like that, but just to look at, think of the godliest person that you know. Maybe it's not even, maybe it's someone here, maybe it's someone that you grew up with, maybe it's a pastor you had when you were a kid or someone who discipled you, maybe it's your own parents.
Think about the godliest person that you know, and what are some of the things that they exemplify? Maybe it's their faithfulness in scripture reading and study. Maybe it's their devout devoutness in prayer. Maybe it's the way that they treat their spouse or the way that they parent their kids.
Maybe it's where they serve at church. Maybe it's the way that they evangelize. Maybe it's their commitment to holiness and piety, whatever it may be.
Think about what that is. Study the faithful example of other believers and as doing so, study the Lord's example. And then number two, beyond studying the example, modeling those qualities and embracing them as your own so that you become the example.
If you know that there is a believer who is faithful in one area, do the same. Watch how they pray, watch how they study and read and teach and live their lives and do that yourself. That's the idea.
I think this is why, one reason I love to read Christian biography. I love Christian biography because it displays godly examples of faithfulness in the life of other believers. And it's good when they're already passed on because you can see the whole panorama of their life, warts and all.
There's no perfect Christian under heaven here. And so when you look at the life of someone, you can look at both their faults and you can see how the Lord has blessed them. And even you get to see the Lord's hand, His grace, grace and mercy through their faults and sins.
But there's so many examples of even young believers who devoted their lives to Christ at a very young age and proved to be examples of others. I think about believers like David Brainerd, who was one of the earliest missionaries on the New England frontier back in the 1700s. Edward Payson, who pastored a church in Maine.
Robert Murray McShane, William Borden, Amy Carmichael, Adoniram and Ann Judson, Charles Spurgeon, even Titus and Timothy, young believers who the Lord used mightily. And so I would exhort you instead of wasting your teens and early 20s and selfishness and uselessness like I did. Instead of doing that, consider the calling of God on your life.
A life to become an example of a faithful Christian. You don't have to be old to do that. In fact, it's better if you're not.
It's better to harness the time now to redeem the time. Consider the potential extra years of fruitfulness. I didn't start really pursuing the Lord seriously until I was in my late 20s.
I wish I could get that decade and longer back. I wish I could get my college years back. But consider how much sin and debauchery you might avoid.
Consider how fresh your mind is. I work with a lot of older men, older men who are in the men's theology, and a lot of times I hear it, man, I'm just not as sharp with these things. My mind doesn't work the way it used to work.
It's a common thing. But when you're young, your mind is spongy. You can just take in so much and you can learn a lot when you're younger.
Consider how much energy you have. You have so much energy for life and ministry. The whole world is before you, either to tempt you and destroy you or to be reached for Christ.
You have an opportunity. It doesn't matter how young you are, you have an opportunity to be used by God. My young friends, I cannot even tell you how many older believers are sitting around you in this room right now who wish that they had your opportunity.
Amen to that? I hear it all the time. I wish I could go back and do more. I hear it all the time.
How much you would do for Christ if you could start over. How much more godliness you would embrace at a young age. And so my young friends, don't waste your life by chasing the things that will never satisfy you and never fulfill you.
Instead, spend your time becoming an example of those who believe. Of course, the next question is, hey, that's great, Pastor, but how do I do that? How do I do that? How do I begin? Where do I start? What do I focus on? There's so much, right? Well, thankfully, in verse 12 here, Paul gives five areas of life. Five areas of life that you can begin to focus on immediately, even as you seek to become a godly example to other people.
Now, certainly, this is not an exhaustive list. This isn't everything, friends. This isn't everything you could possibly do, but it's certainly a demonstrable list.
It is certainly a bigger picture of the Christian life. And we're going to see that you could take any one of these words and themes and you could just trace it through the whole Bible. And I would actually commend that to you.
I'm going to sort of deep dive on one of these today a little bit, but there is so much opportunity to just take these and learn. Take one theme and just trace it through the whole Bible, and you'll see there's so much instruction for you. The Bible's a goldmine of wisdom and instruction to teach you how to live a Christian life, especially at a young age.
So let's look at these together. How to become a godly example. Number one, number one, become a godly example in speech, in speech.
The Greek word used here is logos. It's the word that really literally means word or saying. It can also mean speech or discourse, but it's any kind of speech or language here.
But in the context, it refers to how you speak and what you say. Of course, we know that from the Lord Jesus Christ that it is out of your heart that the mouth speaks. So when a person's talking, what they're really doing is they're emptying the contents of their heart.
That's what's coming out of their mouth. If your heart is good, Jesus says, meaning regenerate, born again, thankful. If your heart is hopeful, if it's loving, then your speech will reflect that.
But if your heart is bad, Jesus says, if it's wicked, vile, ungrateful, entitled, bitter, then your speech is going to reflect that as well. The things that you say will come out of that kind of heart. Yet the Bible has much to say about speech, especially of the young, young people in their speech.
Proverbs alone is a college-level course on wisdom in speaking. There's so much in the Bible, especially in Proverbs, about speech and language and how you talk. Even the epistle to James, which is really the New Testament version of Proverbs, has much to say in the way of warning of the dangers of not bridling and guarding your tongue.
Look at James 3, verses 1-12, and you'll see it there. But I want to give you this morning six exhortations for speech from the Scriptures. I'm only going to do a deep dive on this one thing, and we're going to go a little faster through the other ones, but I want to show you how to do this, okay? Because I don't want you to leave here and not have something to start with.
So we're going to talk about speech first. So six exhortations from the Bible about your speech. Number one, my friends, speak truthfully.
Speak truthfully. Proverbs 6-17 says that God hates a lying tongue. Don't lie.
We teach our young children that, right? Don't lie to me. Tell the truth. How many of your parents are telling you that same kind of thing? Tell me the truth.
Ephesians 4-25 says, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, to his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Moreover, we are to speak the truth in love as we continue to grow in Christ, Ephesians 4-15. And so, my friends, lying will get you nowhere in this life, but truthfulness and honesty will set you apart as a godly example.
So truthfully. Number two, speak carefully. Speak carefully.
Proverbs 29-20 warns against the foolish man who speaks hasty words. The old adage, think before you speak, applies here. Or better said by James in James 1-19, but let every one of you be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
It is the tendency of the young and immature to speak about whatever they're thinking about, to just speak out of their ignorance and just talk and not even know what they're talking about. But the wise will speak thoughtfully and carefully. Which then leads us to number three, speak graciously.
Speak graciously. Colossians 4-6 says, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were with salt, so that you know how to respond to each person. And so in other words, things like sarcasm, rudeness, impatience, pushiness, none of those constitute gracious speech.
Kindness, politeness, warmness, love, joy, tenderness, these are the attributes of gracious speech and it will help you no matter who you speak to. If you speak graciously to people, they'll receive you. But you go to a job, you go to school, you get into a relationship, a marriage, if you don't know how to speak graciously, you're going to get hurt and you're going to hurt other people too.
So how do we become an example of Christian godliness? Number four, speak cleanly. Speak cleanly. You could also say speak purely.
In other words, Ephesians 4-29, let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, building up according to the need of the moment that it may give grace to those who hear. Ask yourself the question, as you speak to people, do my words give grace to those who hear me? Or do they receive bitterness and wrath and do they just receive my aggression and my anger and my vitriol when I speak? A few verses later he adds, there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. And so in other words, my friends, cursing, swearing, perverse language, dirty jokes, even useless talk, even nothing.
Now I'm all for having fun. Anybody who knows me personally knows I have a sense of humor. I like to be goofy.
I like to do voices. I like to tell jokes, but there's a time and a place for everything. If your life is patterned after just uselessness in speech, you're not using your speech well.
The Lord desires better. Will others see you as an example of how you speak? If you speak purely, chastely, helpfully, thankfully? Number five, speak sparingly. That's a big one, isn't it? Proverbs 10, 19, where words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
Boy, that one stings me a little bit. Using your mouth to just talk a lot. God gave you both a mouth and a brain and one to restrain the other, okay? Learn to speak when it's needed and not just to fill the space.
And lastly, number six, speak purposefully. Let your words mean something. Are you saying something for real or are you just talking because you're bored? Titus is encouraged in chapter 2, verse 8, to be sound in speech, which is beyond reproach so that the opponent will be put to shame.
What does that have to do with it? It's talking about witness. It's purposeful speech that will be edifying, useful, and ultimately effective in your personal witness. Is your speech purposeful? I'll tell you, there are those, and I know you probably know people like this as well.
There are those who don't speak a lot, but when they do, it's with gravitas. It's with heaviness and meaning. There are certain people, and some of you are even in this church, there are certain people that when they open their mouth to speak, I shut up.
I just stop talking because what they're about to say is going to be really good. And I'll tell you, that's a rare trait these days. But I'll tell you, when you have a person who knows how to do that well, it is strong.
It's powerful. It's helpful. It's godly.
And so how do we consider our speech? Those are just a few encouragements of just one facet of how to do this, how to become an example of faithfulness as a believer regarding speech. The second area Paul addresses here in verse 12 is in the area of conduct. And like I said, we're going to move a little bit quicker now.
But here we see the Greek word anastrophe, which is referring to one's manner of life or their behavior. In Ephesians 4.22-24, Paul juxtaposes, he sets apart there the former manner of life, which is the old self, and the new self, he says, which is in the likeness of God, which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. He's talking about how we conduct ourselves, our manner of life.
Will we behave in a manner that is godly and respectable and holy, or are we going to behave in a way that is sinful and fleshly? Now, I want to just push the pause button and give you a word of caution. There is a temptation with regard to younger children and younger believers to simply act well through behavior modification, and yet they have a heart that's far from God. And I'll tell you, that's a very tricky thing as a parent, isn't it? I know that a lot of you parents deal with this, and so do we, that, you know, you want your kid to behave well.
You want them to just, you know, not be the worst kid in the room, right? There's that parental fear. When my kid is the one who's melting down or falling apart or causing a problem, it's like, oh, you're mortified as a parent, right? And so we spend so much of our time just trying to box them in and keep them just from hurting themselves and everybody else around them. And yet there's the danger.
Just because your child acts well doesn't mean their heart is geared toward the Lord. And so we have to practice shepherding and guiding their hearts to the Lord and then reining them in in their behaviors, but ultimately you want their heart to inform the behavior. You don't want them just to act like Christians, but to actually be Christians.
That's a hard thing to do, isn't it? But I'll tell you, it is rewarding when you can lead your children toward the Lord and they begin to act out how they actually believe in heart. And so be careful. Don't just have them act well, and especially you younger believers, don't just act well because people are looking.
How do you act and live when only God is watching? When no one else is around you and no one's looking at your life, do you act the same before the eyes of God than you would before people in church? Consider that. Now, what Paul is talking about is not the danger of just acting well. He's actually talking about acting like a Christian, Christian conduct, godly conduct, conducting your life in a way that honors God and testifies about what you believe.
We are called in 1 Peter 1.15 to be holy in conduct, set apart, different than the world. 2 Peter 2.12, to keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, in front of unbelievers. James 3.13, to show your good behavior, your deeds of gentleness and wisdom.
But of course, this can only come, your conduct will only be exemplary ultimately if the next thing is genuine and true. So number three, becoming a godly example in love. We've talked about speech, we've talked about conduct, now love, love.
Now, this word gets destroyed and misused and misunderstood all the time. The world's view of love is horrendously misguided. Let me just tell you, love is not a feeling.
Love is not a force. Love is not blind acceptance. And I'll tell you, love is not the same thing as sex.
It's not the same thing. The Bible uses the word love, agape, here. There's four different Greek words for love, but the one that we're talking about here is agape, which is Paul's word.
It has to do more with generosity and devotion. Think about John 3.16, for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. God demonstrates love through giving, giving.
Love is generosity. It's selfless sacrifice. It's compassion and action.
Love is far more an obedience than it is a feeling. Now, the obedience and the faithfulness of love can produce the feelings. When you love well and you're loved by others, yes, you feel amazing.
But the problem is when we chase the feelings and we don't chase the obedience of love. And so what does it mean for young believers to become an example in love? Well, I think it's no less than two things. When Jesus was asked in Matthew 22 about the greatest commandment, remember what He said? He said, this is the greatest commandment, that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
In other words, this is devoted worship. It's relationship to God, it's service for the sake of the Lord. And so let me ask you this question, my young friends.
Do you, or are you cultivating, are you growing and nurturing a love for God? A love for God. See, it's more than just getting saved. Now, I love conversions.
I love baptizing young believers who have a strong profession of faith. I'll just tell you as an aside, I do get a little nervous when a younger person wants to be baptized because sometimes it's hard to know, is this really for you? Or is this because your parents told you you should get baptized? Or you saw all your friends do it? Or are you really saying that at this age, now and for the rest of my life, I'm going to follow Jesus? Because if that's true, I am so blessed to baptize you as a believer. But that's the thing.
It's not just about getting saved and getting converted. It's about growing to know and love the one who made you, to love the one who saved you, to love the one who sustains you. It's about loving God.
And how do you love God? Well, you love God with your heart, soul, mind, even with your strength. In other words, everything in your life becomes geared toward knowing and loving God. Again, how you speak, how you feel, how you live, what you do, what you say.
Everything in your life is wrapped up in knowing how to love God above all. But that is the greatest commandment. It's the most important thing.
My friends, there's nothing more important than learning how to love the Lord and actually loving Him, being close to Him. But Jesus isn't done. He has a second thing that's asked.
They only asked about the greatest commandment. He tacks on a second. He says the second is like to love your neighbor as yourself.
Oh, this is even harder, isn't it? I can say, oh, I love God. Oh, it's all about me and God. But as soon as other people come into your world, excuse me, I'm trying to love God here.
Leave me alone. Doesn't work like that. No, there's the self-giving and the compassion that I mentioned.
Whether that comes to you and your parents, you and your siblings, your friends, other people at church, kids at school, co-workers at your job, wherever it may be. Let me ask you this question. What about the person who's really hard to love? It's easy to love those who are easy to love, right? But what about those who are more difficult? And I will say, and I'll challenge you with this, young people are generally, generally not known for their love toward the awkward kid.
They're not known for loving the unpopular girl. They're not known for loving the disabled or the elderly. That's not generally speaking a mark of youthfulness.
But boy, it should be. It really should be. Do you truly love others? And as Paul says in Philippians 2, 3, with a humble mind that regards other people as being more important than yourself.
Do you regard people to be more important than you? I encourage you in the spirit of 1 Corinthians 16, 14, to let all that you do be done in love and you will set an example of those who believe. And then there's number four, to become a godly example in faith, in faith. Some have seen this command here, this example as being faithful.
The word is pistis in the Greek. It means faith, but faithfulness in all that you do. But I tend to think just in the context it has to do with spiritual maturity with regarding the things of the faith.
This is your doctrine, the way that you understand scripture, your devotion to prayer, biblical meditation, verse memorization, but also serving and giving and evangelism and discipleship and pretty much all things of the Christian life. Everything that constitutes the Christian faith that you're growing as an example of those things. And I just want to say, I love that we have teenagers attending theology class, serving in nursery, helping on work days, leading a musical worship in several venues.
It's really a wonderful thing. And I would encourage you to seek to find ways to get involved, to grow and to plug in wherever you can. Now, certain things are age appropriate for other things.
There are some things that you probably can't do just yet, but be encouraged. There's a lot that you can do. But the real question here is, do you take your faith seriously? Are you a serious Christian? Do you talk to your friends about Jesus? I'll tell you, when I was a kid, I used to go to church as a kid.
I remember going to school and when kids would hear that I was a church-going kid or I claimed to be a Christian, they would make fun of me. I remember bringing my DC Talk cassette tapes to school and getting harassed like it was persecution. I was persecuted for DC Talk.
But I mean, you know, kids aren't very nice to you all the time. Now, that's a very small thing. But are you ashamed of Christ or do you love Him? And are you not ashamed? My friends, you have no reason to be ashamed.
He is a good Lord. He is a good God. And if He saved you from the consequences of your sin, if He saved you and redeemed you and given you life, how could you not talk about Him? How could you not be excited about Him? And so don't be afraid of that.
A young Christian who is serious about their faith is both a model for other younger believers but also an encouragement to older ones. I get so excited and so encouraged when I see a young believer doing well, walking well. Are there going to be bumps in the road? Do they sometimes say things that are incorrect? Do they still act childish sometimes? Of course, all of us do.
All of us have flaws and faults and sins. But when you see a young believer learning and growing and chasing the Lord, man, it puts fire in my bones. It puts gas in my tank.
And so be a young believer who is serious in their faith. And then finally, let no one look down on your youthfulness, but show yourself as an example of those who believe in the realm of number five, purity. Purity.
Hagnia is the Greek word. It refers to chastity or sexual purity. This is a huge issue today because so many young people are throwing away their purity for casual sex, debauchery, pornography, things like that.
Even among people in church, the rates of sexual immorality are astonishingly high. But God tells His people to flee, to run away from sexual immorality. Even David prayed for a pure heart in Psalm 51.
Second Timothy 2.22, Paul told his young disciple, now flee, run away, flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. A pure heart. Here's the thing, my friends.
Purity starts in the mind. It starts in the mind and then it goes to the eyes and then to the body. It doesn't go from backwards in, okay? You can't just push it all away and have a perverse mind and think you're going to survive.
You won't. You will always give in to temptation if you don't learn to control your mind. But if you guard your mind and you don't let these impure thoughts take root, you'll be better equipped to resist temptation.
I would exhort you, read Proverbs 2, read Proverbs 5. Those are helpful. They encourage you to steer clear from the places and the people that will tempt you to sin. It's always foolishness when you know there's a pathway that's going to lead you to sin and you go, I'll just go that way and maybe I won't get tempted.
You always will. You always will. Beloved, your purity, listen to me, your purity is a gift both to you and to your future spouse.
It's a gift to you. Hang on to it. Don't waste it on cheap thrills and heartbreak and debauchery.
And even if you've already given in, maybe some of you have already given in in this way and you've sinned in some form or another. Let me encourage you, confess your sins to the Lord. Confess and He will forgive you.
Learn 1 John 1, 9. Learn that God is able to forgive those who confess their sins. If we confess, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And once you have been forgiven, do your best to remove those sources of temptation and even find a mature believer that you can be accountable to and walk with who can help you.
So show yourself an example in purity. And the Bible says that God will honor that. And so just because you're young, it doesn't mean that you can't represent Christ and can't be strong in the faith.
In fact, I would exhort you, I would encourage you to be an example. To be an example. And I would even extend this beyond, it doesn't matter how old you are.
Some people on the other side of it, they'll read a verse like this and they'll say, youthfulness was a long time ago for me. It is never too late. It is never too late to become a godly example of those who believe.
Talk to those who've been converted later in life. And a lot of times they feel like they're making up for lost time, but they run hard after the Lord. That's admirable.
That's a good thing. Be encouraged. God is for you.
We are for you, my friends. Be encouraged. But remember, ultimately, it's not you who is anything, but it's Christ in you.
Christ in you who is the hope of glory. How do we know that he's for us? Well, the Bible tells us that Jesus came to earth and he gave himself. My young friends, he gave himself for you.
He died on the cross to pay for your sins. He died to take away all the guilt and the shame and the punishment for your sins. It's removed.
It's not going to hang on you anymore. Not only did he die to pay for your sins, he also was buried in the ground. Everything, all the consequences of your sinful life were buried with him.
And then when he rose from the grave, he burst forth in victory. And he demonstrated not only that you've been forgiven in him, but also he blazed a path to glory to give you eternal life. Someday, and it's hard to think about when you're young, but someday you will grow old and you will die.
Some of you might die at other times than others. We don't know when we all pass away. Nobody's promised tomorrow.
But for as long as you have, there's going to come a day when you will see the Lord and you'll have to give an answer for your life. Did you use the life that he gave you for his glory? Did you trust in him for salvation? Or did you use your life for yourself and sin against him? The Bible says those who sin against him and never confess, never believe, never repent. The Lord punishes sin in hell.
But those who have trusted in him, who believe in him, who trust in his promises and the work he's accomplished for us, he gives you eternal life and nobody can take it away. It's a wonderful gift. But here's the thing.
Don't wait. I'll never forget. I talked to a young man one time.
He was probably in his early 20s. And I shared the gospel with him. And he says, I don't know.
He goes, I feel like for me, it might be one of those things. Or maybe at the end of my life, I'll think about this again. And I just remember walking away just heartbroken.
Because who knows when you're going to go? Nobody thinks they're going to die when they die. Nobody's ready for that. Will you give your life to Christ today? Will you live for him today? You have a chance.
And so my young friends, learn to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Use your life well for him and he'll bless you for it. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Lord, I pray, I really do pray that this message is on point. Lord, I know I've skipped ahead to the application.
But Lord, I do feel and sense that this is your calling for young believers. Lord, that you are the one who is drawing sinners to yourself to redeem them, to save them, to exalt them, to be seated in the heavenly places in Christ. And so I pray that especially those who are younger will give ear to this.
They will listen to this and consider their own life. And Lord, that they wouldn't waste it. Oh, Lord, please don't let them waste their life on themselves.
But let them at a young age give their lives to you and be useful for decades upon decades. And Lord, even for those maybe who have missed that opportunity and are older, maybe just in years or even older in the faith, Lord, that you would help them to redeem every last moment of their time to use serving you and learning of you and loving you and using their life for your glory. Lord, every second we have is a gift from you.
Let us use the time and redeem it because we know the days are evil. Let us use our life for you. Thank you for the opportunity.
We bless your name in Jesus name. Amen.