A Bold Example Series

A-Z of Boldness

Bold in our EXAMPLE

1 Timothy 4:12

"12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity"

Like many children, Billy didn’t like to study, and would much rather go outside and play baseball after school rather than doing his homework. Unfortunately that meant his grades suffered, and he even failed math.

His parents tried everything they could to get him to do better in math, but he continued to fail. They got him a fun computer game that was supposed to make learning math fun. They hired someone to Tutor him but nothing seemed to work. They didn’t know what to do. Finally one of their friends suggested that they try putting him into a private christian school. They thought about it for a few days, and decided to give it a try.

So they took him across town and enrolled him in the small Catholic School. They were shocked that afternoon when Billy came home and went straight to his room, closed the door, and immediately started working on his math homework. His mother had to almost force him to come down for dinner, and then after supper, he went right back up to his room and studied some more.

Several weeks later he brought his report card home and laid it on the kitchen table for his parents to see. When his mother read it, she was amazed to see that he had gotten an "A" in math.

She asked him about it. She wanted to know what had made such a dramatic difference in his grade. She asked him if it was the teachers, or the kind of books that they were using, but he just shook his head and said "no."

Then she looked him in the eye and said, well would you please tell me why your math grade has improved so dramatically. He said, well the first day I walked into math class I looked up on the wall, and saw a man nailed to a huge plus sign, and I realized that they were serious about math and that I was going to have to quit fooling around."

Sometimes we all need a little extra motivation whether it’s with our homework or our Spiritual lives. The Apostle Paul wrote the following passage of Scripture to his young friend Timothy to encourage him and motivate him to set a good example for the people he was ministering to in the city of Ephesus.

Paul’s purpose for writing to Timothy was to give him some much-needed advice on how to deal with certain problems that had developed in the church at Ephesus. He also wanted to encourage Timothy not to give up, but to instead remain strong in the Faith and keep fighting the good fight.

Paul also encouraged Timothy to teach the people in Ephesus the truths of the Gospel and to set a good Christian Example for them to follow. In verse 12 of our text Paul suggested to Timothy that there were five areas where he could set a good example for others to follow.

This morning we will continue our series on the A-Z of Boldness as we look at being BOLD in our EXAMPLE

I. Be a Good Example in Speech

In other words Paul was advising Him to be careful in what he said and how he said it. Paul had lived long enough to know that people sometimes twist your words and make it mean something totally different.

Which of course is good advice. It’s also wise to be careful what you say and who you say it to, because once you say it, it can’t be taken back. Whoever said “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” was wrong.

I don’t know how many times I heard my Mother and Grandmother say; “If you can’t say something nice about someone, then don’t say anything at all.”

The Apostle James certainly understood how painful and destructive words can be. In the third chapter of James, he compares the tongue to a wild animal that no-one can tame, and even goes as far as saying that our tongues are “full of deadly poison.” Now obviously he never meant that to be taken literally. He was simply saying that we need to choose our words carefully, because what we say could result in a lot of pain and suffering for someone else.

Psalm 119:14 "14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."

I personally believe people should be able to tell that you are Christian by simply listening to what you have to say, and how you say it.