Training Up Youth
Notes
Transcript
Intro/PH
Intro/PH
Good morning I’m TC Cook the Director of The PowerHouse in Daviess County IN. I want to thank you guys for allowing me the time to talk about The PowerHouse and to share GOd’s word with you.
The PowerHouse exists to build relationships with Jr High and Sr High youth in order to share the Gospel.
One of the main ways we do this is our after school program Monday through Friday. During this program teens walk from the high school down to our big White House on Main St. where we provide them a safe place to come during the most at risk time of the day 3-6pm. We also provide them a warm meal, games and fellowship. All of this with the focus on finding moments to share the Gospel which we know is the only way to transform their lives for eternity.
We have teens that come in that their last meal of the day will be at the PowerHouse.
We have teens that do not have a home to go to but will try to find a friend to stay with where they can sleep on their couch.
We have teens that will not say a word all day at school but when they come to the PowerHouse they feel comfortable enough to never stop talking lol.
Quick story-Ok. There was a girl who started coming during the summer a few years ago. When she showed up her hair was black, her clothes were all black and she cussed like a sailor. She had built a wall up to keep as many ppl out as she could. My wife had been meeting with her and sharing with her a lot. She had been out to the house a few times even. I noticed that she started always making a point to come and tell me hi when she got their and bye before she left. But it still didn’t really dawn on us that she wasn’t just changing just on the inside but her whole appearance on the outside had changed. We noticed this when she spent 7 hours in a hair salon getting her hair back to her normal color from black to blondish brown. We noticed that her clothes had changed too. She wasn’t dressing in all black any more. My wife asked her just a few days ago what all of this change was about and she said well it’s just coming to the PowerHouse. She said I found a place where I belong.
And by Gods grace folks, this is what we do. We know there are teens who need food, and we feed them. We know there are teens that need clothes, so we clothe them. We know their are teens who need a place just to get away from the chaos at home and we provide that safe place for them. But this just last for now. We can feed, clothe, and shelter them and they can wind up going straight to hell with a full belly, and clothes on their back. People need the Gospel. They need to know of a Savior that has come and died for our sins. So yes we feed them and we clothe them, but ultimately we share with them the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.
So how can you help. Well there are a few ways.
Number 1. And I mean this. We need your prayers. These teens in our community need your prayers. Their families need your prayers. Our staff and volunteers that are hearing these stories day in and day out need your prayers.
Number 2. We need meals. Whether you cook it and bring it in or your cook it and freeze it for us to heat up, we need warm meals for these teens.
Number 3. We have this envelope fundraiser that we are doing. Here is how it works. There are envelopes that range from $1-$250 dollars. Ill be in the back and I ask that you grab one that you would like to give. If all these envelopes come back 1-250 then we would have raised over 30,000 and the most any had to give was 250. That’s because 1 plus 2 plus 3 and so on. Now if you don’t see the amount you want then we can put multiple envelopes together to make that amount. Like if $100 is gone then we can put a 55 and 45 together to make 100.
So if you have any questions or anything you can see me at the table directly after the service.
Text
Text
Now would you please open your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Timothy Chapter 4:12. 1 Timothy 4:12 I have entitled this message Training Up Youth. With the subtitle, it starts with you.
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
Let’s Pray:
God’s Word
God’s Word
Now I am a firm believer that every word in this Bible is the very word of God. I believe that every man that wrote these words were inspired to do so by the Holy Spirit and that as Paul wrote to Timothy in his second letter in chapter 3 verse 16 and 17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
I believe that holding to this is one of the foundational pillars of the Christian Faith. If you do away with the very word of God your foundation has no truth to reason with. It has no truth to guide your way. As David says in Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Its Gods word that the Holy Spirt uses to instruct us. It’s God’s word that Paul says corrects us and trains us and equips us for good works. We have to have God’s word. AMEN.
In God’s word I believe it has everything we need to live a life of Godliness. Every part of our lives the word of God speaks too. Now we as Christians must read this. We must glean for this. We must understand this from Genesis to Revelation. Some of it is difficult to understand. Sure. And i am thankful for old dead guys that devoted their time and energy and their lives to understanding it and teaching it to others. I am thankful to guys who are alive today who still do the same thing. In my attempt to learn from God’s word I seek them out. Not for their opinion but for the way they use other passages to explain other passages. The saying goes that Scripture interprets scripture and their is only one right interpretation of the Bible and that is God’s.
Therefore I am commited to scripture as I hope and pray that you are too.
You see I have to be commited. I have to be commited to knowing truth. The Lord has placed me in the middle of 50 teens every day. Every day they come in and they are searching for answers. All day long they are getting all kinds of evil thrown at them. They have porn at their finger tips. Not just that but they have social media tempting them to lust and go watch things that will lead them down the dark addiction of porn.
Teens come in and they are asking themselves what gender they want to be. Not how were they born, but what do they feel like today. Literally church we have teens walking through our doors that one day they are female and the next day the have decided to be male and the next day back to female.
They have began at an early age to question their sexuality. They are exchanging normal relations for abnormal relations.
The crazier part is that our culture is telling us we have to not just accept this but encourage it aka affirm. They have told us that if we dont then teens will commit suicide because they are not being loved. The sad thing is we are more politically correct and more encouraging of all lifestyles than we have ever been in our history in America yet the suicide right has sky rocketed in our country.
Since 1999 suicides in age 15-19 have risen 35%. This is after a big dip in 2003-2008. from 2008- present it has actually gone up 43% and is still on the rise. We have been lied to. We have bought in to this lie church.
This is why not just I but we the church must know truth. we must know God’s word. Affirming what the Bible calls sin is not saving our children. No in fact it is harming them and it always will. Sin brings forth death. The Bible is very clear on that.
Mis Reading
Mis Reading
And thus we come to our text. Paul in writing to Timothy is discipling him and encouraging him how to conduct himself and teach others to conduct themselves in Ephesus. In this verse Paul tells Timothy to let no one despise him for his youth.
Now this verse has been used by many of young person especially new believers who are gun ho to run into all forms of ministry opportunities upon the Lord saving their souls. The Lord saves them and they are hungry and eggar to please Him with their lives. This is a good thing. This is something that we as older believers do not want to stifle but we want to help cultivate in them. However, the way that this part of verse 12 is used is actually wrong in the text.
Yes, of course we shouldn’t look down on anyone just because of their age. And of course, this happens with every generation.
But, this verse isn't talking to the older believers and their sin. No, it actually reads more like this, do not give them an opportunity or a reason to despise you for your age.
He is telling Timothy to be mature. Act like a christian man. Don’t get caught up in foolishness.
How many of us know young people who are more concerned with entertainment than they are responsibility? This should not be us christian. We should be training up a child in the way they should go.
You see the world has told us lies upon lies. Some of them are chase your career first then settle down and have children. Well some have bought that lie and then found out later that it is too late for them to start a family.
We have bought the lie that work is a necessary evil, shoot some of us have taken that further and said it is just plain evil and we should let the government pay us. When in reality work was given to us by God pre fall and it glorifies God for us to work and do it well.
You see these are childish things the world has tried to teach us. The world has tried to tell us that we need to delay all responsibility. It used to be 18 and you were on your own. Now you can live off your family until your 26 according to the government.
Its childish things. Its foolishness. Timothy wasn’t to conduct himself childishly. He wasn’t supposed to give them any reason they could to look at him and say, well see he is just a foolish child. He doesn’t know any better.
No, in fact Paul goes on. He says do not give them a reason to blame you for your youth, but set the believers an example. He tells him to set the standard. Be someone that they could look towards for the example.
Paul did not lessen the responsibility for Timothy. He didn’t coddle him and think that because of his age he couldn’t handle it. He didn’t make excuses for him. No, he raised the bar. He told him to be the example.
Paul says to be the example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. So in all areas of your life Timothy, you be the example.
This should hit home with us. This should be something that we write on a post-it note and memorize. We should set the example.
Now before you tune me out and say, TC I don’t have young people around me. I do not have a ministry like the PowerHouse and I am not Timothy leading a church. There are no young people in the church, how do I do this?
Well men do you have a wife? Grandparent, do you have any grandchildren? Retired person do you have time to volunteer at the PowerHouse?
There are ways. God will use you at the white steamer to set the example, he will use you in your family to set the example, He will use you right where you are to set the example.
You’re still here, God is still using you!!
Now then, how? Well let’s break down what Paul says.
He says to be an example with our speech. Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
Watch what you say. Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
This is important according to scripture. We will be held accountable for every word we say.
Paul says to be an example in conduct.Philippians 1:27 A
Philippians 1:27 (ESV)
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,
Abstain from every form of evil.
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Pauls says to be an example in love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (ESV)
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass
You see, we need not run to the world to tell us what love is. We have God’s very definition. Love is not Love. Love is not a feeling. love is not a fleeting emotion that comes and goes. No love is an action.
Paul says to be an example in faith.
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
And lastly Paul says in Purity.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Its these things that Paul instructs Timothy to set an example in. That means for Timothy this is work. He has to be on guard with these sins. He has to make sure that his life is one that is worthy of the Gospel.
And that is the charge I give to you. Not only in outward looks but spiritual inward looks. We should not bend on any of these issues. We should not bend on the truth. The Bible says the truth will set you free. We have to quit letting the world set the example for what these things are and we the church should set the example.
As Paul instructs Timothy, with all due respect I want to instruct you. Do not give people the opportunity to look down on you for your age. Do not let them see you and think you wasted your life or you have given up. Finish the race God has set before you. Hold true to scripture, ALL OF IT. Do not let this culture tell you their truth when you have in your hands the very word of God, THE TRUTH. It speaks to every aspect of your life. Every aspect of our culture.
This is how you train youth. You set the standard and bar high and you model it. Our standard is holiness and righteousness in all areas of our lives And that should be what we all strive for and teach others to strive for too. The great puritans had a saying, a motto for life; All of Christ for all of life.
Now let me close with this. Titus 2:1-8
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
Let’s Pray