My first sermon

When I was a young lad, I was the one who always volunteered to do the sermon on youth day. You know, that one Sunday out of the year where the youth do everything. Music, Sermon, plate passing; everything.

However, whenever I did, I always ripped my sermons off of the internet. I always managed to find free websites with pre-prepared sermons. This one is the first one that I have ever written and developed MYSELF. I will be speaking this up coming Wednesday to my fellow students who are involved with our campus ministry.

Some things to note:

There is some rather personal information here. I don't mind sharing it, but bear that in mind.

Our Campus Ministry is going through a major change; we're getting a new minister. My mentor has not yet left, but his office is very weird and bare looking. He was minister here for 12 years.

I have a pattern of anonymity. I'm keeping it that way, so there will be some missing names here.



There is a day in my mind, about a year back, which I can look back on and call a turning point in my life in Christ.

I had just come from watching my young cousins march in a parade, and was helping my Grandfather (we call him Pappasugar) rebuild a house that had burned pretty badly. I was talking to my Pappasugar about the thing that we had talked about pretty much all summer; God. He's a preacher in the American Baptist Association, and I was trying to figure out if God was calling me into ministry. What else were we going to talk about?



I still remember him up on a ladder, looking over the top of a door frame through the... um... support things... (a lot of help I was...), as he said to me "Son, God's not calling you into 'campus ministry' or youth ministry. He doesn't do that. He calls people into Pastoral ministry, or missions work. That's it."



Let me tell you something about my pappa-He's hard core. My Pappasugar's title is Dr. [anonymous]. He is (or was at the time, I don't know if he still is) on the faculty of a brand new seminary that recently opened up in [city, state]. He has his doctorate in Biblical Languages. He gets up at about 5 or 6 EVERY MORNING and studies for 2-4 hours. He's literally forgotten more sermons and lessons that he's written in his collection of folders and binders and works than I have heard.


He is a BIG man in the ABA. He once stood up to the whole lot of them, the ENTIRE ABA, because some people from LOUISIANA MISSIONARY BAPTIST INSTITUTE & SEMINARY were starting some stuff at one of their yearly associational conferences. You know what happened? They backed down. And you'd be hard pressed to find a tougher guy; Men, when we're done, ask me about the time he got kicked by a horse. *shudder*



I remember looking up at him through those... support things... with all of these things and more going through my mind like BANG BANG BANG BANG, at the speed of thought. I was looking Dr. [anonymous] in the face with all of these thoughts, feeling a bit angry, and a bit offended, and a lot sad, but NEVER confused, and in all of this was the realization that the day is not far off when I'm going to have to grow a spine and tell my Pappasugar that he's just wrong.



And that's ok.



A lot of people our age would be ok with that verbally, but not in practice. "Who am I to tell such a distinguished member of the Body of Christ about God?" "What is my learning compared to theirs?" Part of that, I think, comes from us. I was like that, and still am to some degree. "What if I'm wrong? They know so much more than I do. They're so much more experienced. They're so much wiser than I am."

Part of it, I think, comes from the church. Churches everywhere have this mindset that "they're the leaders of tomorrow, the future of the Church!" *fanfare* "So we'll keep them in this warehouse, and train them, and educate them, and grow them, and when we're dead and gone, they will take our place and be unleashed upon the world to do the works of God!" And they tell us that, all the way from middle school up into and through college.



But we're not the church of tomorrow. We're the Body of Christ now.



Acts 16:1-5
Paul and Silas went first to Derbe and then on to Lystra. There they met Timothy, a young disciple whose mother was a Jewish believer, but whose father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek. Then they went from town to town, explaining the decision regarding the commandments that were to be obeyed, as decided by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew daily in numbers.



At the beginning of his second missionary journey, Paul met Timothy. That's about A.D 49. He went with Paul on the missionary journey, split up with Paul in Macedonia, and joined up with Paul later and went with him on his third missionary journey in about A.D. 54, where they first stopped at Ephesus and stayed for three years (Acts 20:31). Paul went From Ephasus to Troas and Macedonia, but Timothy stayed in Ephesus. Paul was later arrested, and by appealing to Ceasar was transported to Rome in about A.D. 60, where he waited for two years for legal things to happen. Some time after that imprisonment is when Paul wrote 1 Timothy, and Timothy is still a "young man."

1 Timothy 4:12
Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you teach, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Yeah, that's borring stuff nerdy stuff, but it gives us a clue about the thing I'm getting after; age. These are all clues as to about how old Timmothy was.

Keep in mind that, in the Hebrew tradition, a child was 13 years and under. They would be considered a "young man" until about 30 years old. You do the math, and you'll figure out that timothy started out with Paul at about 16 or 17 years old. At 16 or 17 years old, he was traveling about with Paul, strengthening the church in faith. And because of that, the church grew larger in numbers daily.

That means that 8 years later, when Timothy was running the church in Ephesus, he was about 24 or 25.

I'm 22. How old are you?



What does Paul tell Timothy to do at that age? "Teach."



1 Tim. 4:11
Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them.

1 Tim. 4:12
Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you teach, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

1 Tim 6:2
Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them.

2 Tim. 2:2
You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are able to pass them on to others.

2 Tim. 2:24
The Lord's servants must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone. They must be able to teach effectively and be patient with difficult people.

2 Tim. 2:25
They should gently teach those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's hearts, and they will believe the truth.


We are not the church of tomorrow, we are the church now. We have lessons to teach, we have knowledge and wisdom to give, and I'll bet the money that I don't even have right now that [new campus minister] would LOVE to learn a thing or two from us when he gets here.



But we also have to be careful. There's a trap here, easy to see but still easy to fall into. Righ here. Right here.

Hubris. Arrogance. "I'm wise, I have things to teach, I don't care what you say."

There are some things that have to be in place before we can teach and be active in growing the body of Christ.



Acts 16:2
Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium,

Respect is earned. It doesn't matter what you know, no one will listen if they don't have a reason to. And we have to respect them, too.





1 Timothy 5:1-2
Never speak harshly to an older man, but appeal to him respectfully as though he were your own father. Talk to the younger men as you would to your own brothers. Treat the older women as you would your mother, and treat the younger women with all purity as your own sisters.



We have to study.

2 Timothy 2:2
You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are able to pass them on to others.



2 Timothy 2:15
Work hard so God can approve you. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.


How can we teach what we don't know?


There's also one more thing.



1 Timothy

1:19
cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clean



4:7
Train yourself to be Godly.



4:12
Live your life so that you're an example of Godly living.



4:16
Keep a close watch on how you live, and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salcation of those who hear you.



6:11
So run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a Godly life, along with faith, love, and persevearance.



We have to live what we're teaching.

oops. Yeah, I've messed that up, too, but not looking behind me, I am trying SO hard to run the race in such a way as to win, and I can't do it alone. I need you to teach me. I need you to be my examples, and so do [anonymous adult] and [Chair of the Board of Directors] and [New Campus Minister]. The Body of Christ can't function right unless all of the parts work together, so as we are going through this transition between ministers, let's keep that in mind. One of the things I LOVE about our campus ministry is that I can see how many people actually take ownership of it; We know that [Former Campus Minister] wasn't the ministry, and [New Campus Minister] won't be either. We're the ministry. But, I think we can do better. I think that we can do SO much better than the awesomeness that we are right now.



That's a decision we all need to make now. That is your only option from this message that makes you faithful to God, and I truly believe that, even if it does sound incredibly manipulative. If you want to talk to some one about the specifics and details of how you can do that better, if you need some one to pray for you, there will be some people over there. I don't know who, but now some one is going to be there whether it was planned or not. We have all summer to prepare for the coming year. We have all summer to study and train; it's pre-season conditioning. Let's make the most of it.