Mr Clyde Kilough

Sermon Transcript

December 29, 2001

God's Great Promises
The Power of Example

I have with me something that may bring back some memories for some of you in here. It is a 1966, it says, but it for the year of 1965 Imperial School Diplomat. Now some of you may have some memories of this. I don't know who. I came into possession of this book because one section of it deals with the summer education program in Orr, Minnesota in 1965, the first year they had summer camp in MN. Many of you have gone through that program.

I went there when I was thirteen years old. They had one session. It was six weeks long. And the group from Texas went up a week early, and we went back a group late. I was gone to summer camp for eight weeks as a thirteen year old. And it was wonderful. I mean, I just had a great time there. And they sent this yearbook to all the campers and it has really been something that I have treasured.

You know, you open it up and whenever I look at this book and go through that section on summer camp, I see a lot of people that come back to mind. I see their face and instantly it transports me back to a certain time or place or thing that we were doing. And for all of those that I knew, I see some faces and names. I didn't know what their names were at the time, but I remember the person. And instantly an impression is formed. That was thirty-six years ago, and impression is there. Many of them are good. Some of them aren't. But nevertheless, there is an impression formed and it is very interesting.

Now there are some people in here you would know. Including Randy Schreiber, Robin Webber. For a small fee...I would never sell out my friends. But I am going to leave the book on the pew after services and if you will check out pages 152, 138, and 32, there are some really interesting photographs in there. Some of which you may or may not recognize. Just don't look at mine please.

There is one picture in this book though, that whenever I see it, it always brings a pleasant memory to me. A really pleasant memory. It was a counselor, it wasn't a camper. It was a counselor. And it wasn't even my counselor. It was a counselor I had very little to do with. He was in the next dorm to mine but I don't think I had more than one personal encounter with this man at summer camp. But that one encounter with that man left a very deep, deep, impression. I am not going to mention any names, although I have no problem mentioning his because it is a very fine name in my book, and I think in many other people's books too. But nevertheless, just to keep it totally anonymous.

The incident concerned some stones. There was a big rock pile up by the cafeteria which was under construction at that time, newly constructed as much of the camp was. Thirteen-year-old boys, well let me change it, fifty, three year old boys. Anytime there is a man with a pile of rocks and a body of water, if he finds a flat rock there is something in a man that makes him, he has got to throw it. You just have to skip rocks. And my friends and I found a whole hand full of perfect skipping rocks. And we knew we were going to go back to our dorm by the lake and we were going to skip these rocks because it is just so much fun when you are thirteen.

Our counselor wasn't there and neither was our assistant counselor for some reason so we were told, one of the older boys, was told you take the group back to the dorm and we will come later, the two counselors said. And the route that he took us took us was probably a hundred feet from the lake. It was too far to throw the stones so we just said, awh we will get rid of them, and we chucked our rocks. Coming out of the woods down the trail was a staff member. He comes out of the woods and he stops our dorm and, very authoritative strong voice said, "Alright who was throwing rocks at that kid down there?" We are all looking around at each other. And he said, "I saw somebody in this group throwing rocks at that kid and I want to know who it was."

Well we didn't realize it, but there was a big oak tree by the water and there was a camper sitting on the other side of this oak tree, between the tree and the water. We couldn't see him. But to this staff member coming out of the woods, he saw this group and he saw this boy and he saw people chunking rocks, and he thought in his mind somebody was throwing rocks at this boy.

So we sort of timidly raised our hands and we started to explain. And there was no explanation. We were guilty. It was very clear what the crime was. And we started to say, but. And of course talking back gets you in more trouble. So he said where is your counselor? And we said he is not with us. So he said well, you go to the next counselor and tell him to give you five swats each.

Now, let me explain something about life and times back in the sixties. People look back then and they sometime tell horror stories. It wasn't just an isolated area of life. That was the way life was. In my Junior High School, the Principal had a big paddle. Everybody got swats. And that was just a part of the way of life. And Mr. Schreiber's sermon title was Twenty Chickens. I thought about titling mine Twenty Swats. That is no indication of how many I got.

But that is just the way it was. Corporal punishment was part of a lot of life. And most of it was not abusive and most people were not psychologically damaged, and we survived quite nicely. But, all that being said, at the time you are not thinking of survival. You are not thinking thirty years down the road and saying this won't be so bad. It is the scariest thing you can imagine. Especially when the counselor next to you is nine feet tall, mine was. Mr. Schreiber as counselor as a matter of fact. You probably remember him well. I think he was 6'8". Tall, tall man. Tall guy. When you are thirteen and you are about 3'2", somebody that tall just looks like Goliath. This massive man. And I was supposed to go to him and ask him to give me five swats. That is cruel and unusual. So we trundled over there. I was scared. I was just shaking in my boots. At thirteen, I was trying to be a good kid. I was trying to keep my nose clean through camp. I hadn't had any swats. We were about half way through. And the thought was just petrifying to me.

Furthermore, this is another ancient philosophy that some of the older folks will remember, it used to be a lot of parents thinking in their philosophy that boy if you get a licking at school, you are going to get another one at home. My parents didn't necessarily hold to that, but this wasn't school, this was church camp, and I didn't know if they might give me another one four weeks later when I got home.

So it was scary. It was my first brush with the law at camp, you know. And I was going to sound like ninety nine percent of the criminals, "I didn't do it, honest." Right kid.

So I went to him. It was terrifying. I hadn't received any swats yet, like I had said, but I had seen them. And those guys were good. After about four weeks at camp, I mean they had it down. There was an extensive, full arch, get the full back swing, follow through, nice snap of the wrist, I figured I would end up in the tree limb somewhere.

So, we go to this counselor and we explained our story. And he listened to us. And he was kind. And he said finally, well I tell you what boys, I am going to reduce it from five to three. We were so thankful. And he said, who is first? I said, okay, I will go. So he said bend over and grab your ankles. This is a visual moment for you okay. You can visualize right about here is my posterior. And I clenched my face and I closed my eyes. And he had a paddle that must have been a good thirty-six inches long. I mean, it took the whole sheet of plywood cut diagonally it looked like, to make this thing. Holes drilled in it to make air flow more efficient. So we were there, I was cringing, just waiting for it, and here is how it was. He gave me a little tap. And I looked up. Smiled. It dawned on me. This was going to be the extent of my punishment. He did the same thing to my friends and said now get out of here. We ran back. We were crying. We were so thankful. You have this release of emotion. And we were so grateful that those three swats were just little taps. Didn't even hurt at all. It was the most wonderful thing that happened to me that day in some ways at camp.

I don't remember a single sermon I heard that year at camp. No Bible studies. That was thirty-six years ago. Don't look at me as if that is something bad. I don't remembers any sermons, but I remember that. That was very powerful to me.

There are a lot of lessons that could be drawn from this example. You may be wondering, okay, what lesson? Well, you know, I could talk about mercy. I could talk about fairness. I could talk about justice. I could talk about believing somebody. There are a lot of things I could talk about. Actually what I want to talk about is simply, example. Because in all of those things, he set an example to me that was powerful. I could read fifty scriptures about mercy and I wouldn't understand it as much as experiencing the scripture that was put into action. There was scripture put into action. And unless scripture is lived it isn't worth a whole lot, is it. But when you see it lived it verifies the veracity and the truth of the scripture. The scripture of and by itself is a teacher. But when you see it lived that is when the lessons really come home as to how the scripture works in life. And this quality of mercy was just powerful. Seeing it live in his life as it applied to me was really eye opening.

I have told that story many, many times. It made a lasting impression. Now everybody in this room has stories of examples that have been set for you about any number of issues in life. Pick an issue and you will be able to tell a story about it, that tells you an example of something good or something bad, as it related to that.

You know, the fact that we all can recall stories of people's examples, tells us that example makes an impact. If you can remember stories from your past, you can probably remember stories thirty-five years ago, or when you were a little kid. Every one of those stories is an example of something. And the fact that you can remember it all these years gives you an indication of the power of example. Example can be extremely powerful.

Here is another thing that is really scary. If you are thinking of stories, chances are you are in someone else's story. Have you ever thought about that? Every one of us are in somebody else's story of example about something. Now that is a little scary. Is it good? Is it bad?

Out of this incident that I was telling about, the stone throwing incident, there were two authority figures in that. One of them made a wonderful impression, and one of them did not. But I chose to look at the good example. That is the one I chose to have shape my life rather than the bad one. All of us chose which example we are going to look at, and we chose which ones we are going to allow to mold and shape us. And if we chose to look at all the negative stuff in life, we will see plenty of negative examples but that is going to mold us in the wrong direction. It is not real healthy to dwell on a lot on negative examples even though they are there.

Example is very powerful. We all set them. Some of you young people, you may leave here and never see one of these other young people again. Maybe ten years from now you will bump into them and you will remember them. Oh yeah, you were at summer camp in 2001 at Oakhurst. We were in the same dorm weren't we. I remember you. You know what they will remember? The example that was set. That is what they will remember. Ten years from now what is it going to be?

There is a really interesting scripture that has a lot to offer for a young person. There is a time when Paul told Timothy something that a young person reading the Bible would sort of pay attention to. He told Timothy, let no one despise your youth. Let no one despise your youth. Timothy wasn't exactly a kid. He had been with Paul, helping Paul, for about fifteen years. The Greek word for youth can describe anyone of military age. That is up to age 40. Some commentaries say Timothy was probably about age 40. So you look at that and say why would he be saying let no man despise your youth, if he was 40 years old? Well for one thing he was young in comparison to Paul. Youth is relative. It is all relative. I was recently introduced by somebody as, this young man. And I thought, I am 50 years old and he is introducing me as this young man. It is all relative. Compared to the person introducing me, I was young. But age is not the issue here.

What I want to look at in this scripture is one of the most important things a young person can understand about maturity, spiritual maturity, and its affect on your relationships in life. Paul hit on something very valuable here. It is really valuable for everybody, but it is particularly valuable to young people. And being a young person's weekend, I want to have you look at this.

In Paul's words we find advice. Some good advise. Not only for the young, but for the relationships between the younger and older. And not only is it good advise, when you follow the trail of cause and effect to its very end, you find that this advise if followed has an effect upon the strengthening of the whole church. It is part of having a strong church. The problem that Paul was address with Timothy was one of despising. He said, let no one despise your youth. What does that mean to despise your youth? In some ways, probably every young person can identify with this. The word despise means to think down on or to think slightly of.

For you teenagers, have you ever felt like somebody looked down on you at one time or another simply because you were young? You ever feel dismissed? Feel like your opinion doesn't count a whole lot? It is all because of your age? Because of your youthfulness?

"Mom, I am seventeen. I am practically an adult". Yeah, yeah. Well.

And you feel like you are treated like you are eleven. "Dad, I am nineteen now."

Oh, I felt that way. Probably you have from time to time. Paul told Timothy, he said don't let anybody do that. Well, how do you stop them? How do you stop somebody? Do you yell at them? Scream at them? Put a fist in their face and say don't you treat me like that? The Bible says, let no man despise your youth. I will punch you out.

How do you stop somebody from despising, looking down on, thinking slightly of your youthfulness if you want to be thought as mature?

The scripture is I Cor. 4:12. Paul hit on something that is so important here. It is just one of the laws of life. How life works.

1 Tim. 4:12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

There is one way to get respect. One lasting way. That is through example. Now, example can gain it in an instant. As it did in my relationship with that counselor in the story I was telling you about. Or you may gain it over time. But sooner or later the most important opinion anybody will ever draw about you will be the one based on your example, because we can't hide example. We can't cover it up with words. Example lays it out there what we are.

Now, Paul was telling Timothy something. And actually, because it is in the Bible, he is telling us too. He is telling Timothy you need to think consciously about this. Think about this. Being an example. You need to think about it. It is a decision. But very few people think about it. How many teenagers do you think at school ever give thought to their example in terms of what kind of example will I set? Should I set? How often do you hear it in school forms? This is your school. We represent certain standards and you represent our schools. You are an example of what we believe in. There is not a whole lot in society that focuses on instructing a young person to consciously decide to be an example. But Paul was telling him you need to do this.

Being an example, choosing to be an example, has a lot to do with responsibility and accountability to others, because the very word example means that it is not about us. It is about what other people gain from being around you, or from seeing what your life does to other people. We don't set examples for ourselves. We set examples for other people. So it has to do with the way other people will be affected by our lives. So if one is thinking about being an example, they are considering, in essence, a responsibility to other people.

Now sometimes people say, well I don't care what other people think. Should we? Should we care what other people think? Well, the case could be made both ways. No, if it is for the wrong reasons. If you are molding your life according to whatever anybody thinks about you. But if you are concerned about what other people think because their behavior may be affected by your behavior, then yes, we should care what other people think. Deeply.

Ask yourself this, to make the point clear. As a parent, does it matter what other people think if it is your kids? It doesn't take us long to realize what other people think can be very important.

One of the greatest marks of maturity and leadership, especially in a young person, is when they chose to accept the responsibility of being an example setter.

Have you ever thought much about that, teenagers? Have you ever thought about, I am going to set an example this weekend to other people, and consciously live life based upon how other people will see you living your life? Decisions you make are going to be geared by them. Someone who does that, first of all, looks to their example Jesus Christ. Then they look to other people's examples who have already followed Him. And then they decide to strive to follow that example. And not only do they strive to follow other people's examples who have gone before, they also realize other people will then be looking at what I am doing. And maybe, if they see what I am doing is in the footsteps of other good examples, maybe those other people will be influenced to follow that trail of life. Examples will always be set one way or the other, but this scripture implies to consciously set out to set an example of the highest examples.

This is an issue of maturity. Paul was telling Timothy there is a way to be mature that will effect people the way look at you. It was hard for Timothy. He was a younger pastor. And maybe, in a church that had been raised up by Paul, people were comparing young Timothy to Paul. Paul said, don't worry about it. Just do the right thing. Do the right thing and people will change. They will think of you in the right way.

You know, there is a Sprite commercial, I guess it is still running, what does it say? Image is nothing. Taste is everything. Well if you are going to make a commercial based on what Paul was writing here, it would be, age is nothing, maturity is everything. Age is nothing and maturity is everything, because for you young people, youthfulness is an age, but maturity is a way of thinking. Youthfulness is an age. And you can do nothing about what age you are. But you can do a lot about the way you think. And thinking in the line of, I am going to set an example, is one of the pathways to maturity. It is one of the pathways to people respecting you in your youthfulness. We don't respect people, young people don't respect their peers even, who act immature. Most don't. But the pathway to maturity is a way of living God's way.

I have seen older people, I have seen people in their 50's, 60's, and 70's, be very immature. And I have seen teenagers be mature beyond their years. But it had nothing to do with age. It had to do with thinking.

Paul says, be an example to the believers. Now think about that for a minute. That is a burden isn't it? Because after all, isn't it the believers who are supposed to be an example to the world? And here he is telling a young man, you be an example to the believers. All you teens here, I would encourage you to strive to be an example to the believers.

Now, who are the believers? Let's start with those younger than you. If you are a teenager, look around and you will see children here, some of which you may not even know their names in your local congregation. But I guarantee you, a lot of those little kids look up to the teenagers. Do you remember when you were eight or nine years old looking up to some of the seventeen, eighteen year olds?

I went back to Orlando, Florida three weeks ago, walked into church there, and there was a man there, he is an elder in the church, he is in his forty's. We grew up in the same church except I was ten years older than he was. He started talking and about three minutes into our conversation he said, you were one of the big guys that all us little kids just looked up to. I didn't know it at the time. But it made sense because when I was eleven years old and started going to church, there were eighteen year olds that I looked up to. That is the way it is when you are in that stage of life.

There are little kids here who look up to a lot of you teenagers. You go to summer camp, and the younger ones are looking up to those in the challenger group. And you are setting an example. It is a very important example.

This counselor I was telling you about, he was probably twenty. But to a thirteen year old, he was an older authority figure who had the power to affect a life. Your example can affect the lives of little kids. And here is something scary for you teenagers. There is probably not a teenager sitting in here who hasn't had other parents, not your own, but other parents watch you to see if they want their little kids hanging around you. It happens. Parents can verify this. Do you ever watch the teens at church? And if you have preteens, thinking, do I want my kids hanging around, babysat by this person, having this person being an older brother, a camp mate to them, or whatever? And we look at examples. It is part of parental responsibility to look at people's examples. Now, if a teenager says, that is fine, go ahead and look because I am going to do what Paul told Timothy. I am going to strive to be an example to the believers.

Believers can also be your peers. How valuable is it, with weekends like this, where you can be around other people your age who have the same values and the same life style? Do you ever think I wish about ten of us could all go to the same school. If we could all go to the same school it would be so much easier. Why would it be easier? Because there is strength in numbers. There is a bond that is built. There is a strengthening that comes with peers being examples to one another. And when one starts to falter in their behavior, the other ones say no let's not do that. And they set the right example that helps one another. It is called simply, positive peer pressure.

The believers can be older people. I have seen some examples that were very inspiring, even corrective. Nobody thought they were corrective, and they weren't doing anything to correct, but sometimes I have compared my behavior to somebody else's, a young person, and thought, you know, I could be more like that. I could do better.

It doesn't matter how old we are; right is right, and wrong is wrong. And if a young person is doing the right thing and an older person sees it, it can be really encouraging.

Let me see a show of hands. How many of you over twenty years old have ever been inspired or encouraged or impressed by a good example of a teenager in the Church? Look at the hands go up. In order for a hand to go up, they had to remember something. And if they remembered it, an impression was made. The power of example.

It will be that way. This weekend in Cincinnati, in fact today, the Cincinnati weekend has been going several years. They have, oh I don't know, over a 1.000 people go to it. The pastor who puts it all together, Jim O'Brien, is handing out today the first of what he hopes will be a series, called the Ezekiel award. It is an award that he wants to give to a young person based on the scripture in Ezekiel that says I sought for someone who would stand in the gap. And he wants to give it to a young person, a teenager, who stands in the gap for the way of God.

I don't know who is getting it this year, but he was telling me an example of a situation that happened I believe in Kentucky not long ago where there is a schoolteacher, a church member who is a schoolteacher. She was not going to be fired because that is illegal, but her contract was not going to be renewed because of keeping the Feast. So she was not going to be retained as a teacher. There was another church member who was a teenager there, a teenage girl, thought that was wrong. She went to the school board meeting, stood up, requested time, and stood up before the school board and gave a speech about how this was itself a behavior setting a wrong example, talked about the rights of freedom of religion, talked about the school teacher and how they were wrong as a school board to let her contract expire. And when she was finished, the school Superintendent stood up and said, young lady, based on your words, I personally will reinstate this teach. And there is a schoolteacher in the church today because a teenager stood up.

I heard about that and I thought if that person would have come to me I might have said, well you know, you got to hang tough during these tests and trials in life, don't you. I don't know that it would have crossed my mind to get up and go down to there to the school board. But I set there and heard that story and thought that is really outstanding. What a wonderful example of somebody of willing to be an example of the way of God. People are going to see. People don't go around spying. They just see. We see behavior in life.

So Paul goes on to describe a number of things here. We could talk in a lot of ways about all these details. But the things he wrote 2,000 years ago are still the same big issues in life today.

1 Tim. 4:12 ... be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

The way we talk, well you might think well he is going to talk about all the bad words. Well you know all about bad words. Let me talk for a minute about good words. Being an example to the believers in good words. Having kind words. Talking to people. Having kind words for the elderly. Spending a little time. These things build good relationships, and you know what? It builds respect.

In conduct. The way we behave. We have all been places at summer camp and you see people who are true to their word. The first thing is word, but then words have to be backed up by conduct. You have all seen other young people who had good words on the surface or when the counselor was around or when the minister was around or another adult. Good words. Put on the smiley face, and as soon as they are gone their conduct is different. There is a word for that. You know what it is. And it sets an example that is not backed up. It is a character deficiency.

Character always floats to the top. Character can't be hidden behind words. So conduct is what backs up the words.

In love. The Word here is agape. God love. Not ordinary human love, which can come with people that we are close to or click with, but this type of love doesn't come from the heart, it comes from the will. It comes from pursuing the will of God and saying you know, God's way is to love people no matter what they do to you. It is a way of being able to forgive. It is a way of being able to turn the other cheek. It is a way that when a world is growing colder, I am not going to let it happen to me. I am going to still care about people because it is God's way. That is tough love. And I don't mean being tough towards people. I mean it is strong. It never fails. But it comes from God.

And so for a person to set an example of this, they have to be asking God help me. Help me to have that type of love that You have. When a person has the type of love that God has, and a young person can be developing it, it stands out in a crowd. It just stands out far above and beyond anyone else. You will be different. You will be respected and it will be for the right reasons. And you will be showing the way. The world needs to see the way.

It is a cruel world. Sometimes you will see cruelties in the Church. The example that I told you about at the beginning, there was a cruelty done to me. I don't think the person was cruel themselves, but their judgment wasn't fair. And then there was a wonderful thing done to me. And the way of thinking in the world, when something is not done right to us, the common reaction is to treat back and react in kind. But all that does is make us like other people. God's way, the love of God, seeks to not get revenge. To not get bitter. But to care for people. And that is a strong person.

The word faith here means loyalty. The person who has looked at life. A young person. You can be thirteen years old and look at life and realize that hey, life is going to have ups and downs. Good times and bad. Tests and trials and blessings. That is the way life is. So through it all I am going to loyal to all. No matter if I am in a time of test or in a time of blessing. Loyalty is steadfastness.

In purity. Not being contaminated in any way. These are the issues that make up life. And when you take on this mantel of responsibility to say okay, okay, God, I will be an example. One way of the other I am going to be an example. I am going to chose to try my very best to be an example of the way You would be. To follow You. And to be an example to the believers. That will have a deep impact on your life. Because if you chose to be an example, then you have to chose to live the life of character that backs it up. And when you build Godly character that makes you strong. That makes you very respectable.

There is a lot that could be said in this area. I hope you will study it. Think about it. What I have given you is just a brief overview. All of these areas need a lot of thought of how they apply, what they mean, in the life of a young person. Paul told Titus in 2:8, just a little bit over, he said, you know, he said in verse 6:

Titus 2:6 Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded,

Sober minded. Does that mean we go to medieval times tonight and we are all sober faced. Do you see them jesting? Sober. That was funny but I can't laugh because I am a sober minded person. No, it doesn't mean going without fun and being all serious. Sober minded doesn't mean seriousness in that way; what is on the external. It means mature. It means thinking maturely.

Anybody who applies 1Tim 4 and say okay, I am going to follow Paul's admonition to set an example, you are beginning to think maturely. Set that example and you will be mature. And when you are mature, people younger than you, older than you, will look at you, they will not despise your youth. They will not think slightly of you, but they will have the highest respect. But more important then that, more important than even, is that God will look at you. And God will say, well done. You have represented Me very well. I am really pleased with you. And that is the respect that really counts.