Studies In the Life of a Young Man

turn your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 1 as most of you know we're starting a new series on Timothy on Sunday night and we're rotating between four the pastors and we'll be bringing some other folks in as well maybe to share some of the passages and we're going to in Romans we tried to cover about a half a passage half a chapter uh each time and that took a long time and even there but uh we wanted to slow down here a little bit so we're we're going to smaller chunks and last week uh Pastor John he talked to you about the the foundation of the book you know whenever going to study a book of the Bible you want to know who wrote it and who they wrote it to and where they wrote it to and so what

he covered last week he's talking about the writer Paul and a little bit about him and and uh who's writing the book and then also about the city of Ephesus is where uh this church was at and that was very important to the study and and these are good foundational knowledge that you should always go to when you start a book is just find out as much as you can about the people about the place and about the circumstances as well and so l a great foundation and so I've got the the next part here in verse number two so start with verse one it says Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the Commandment of God Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ which is Our Hope unto Timothy my own son in faith grace

mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ Our Lord now as we go through this series what we're going to do is we're going to provide you with an outline and we're going to normally do that online unfortunately we had a problem with that tonight but we'll have it next week and we're going to provide last week's outline this this week's outline and by the time you're done you'll have the outline for the whole book of Timothy if you want it you can download it now I made 10 copies cuz some of you are uh you know oldfashioned you don't go online stuff so but I don't want to throw ones away so I made 10 copies if you want a copy of the outline printed raise your hand and Rick's going

to bring it to you right now he'll give you the first come first serve until all 10 are gone so I need 10 hands to go up so I'm not wasting any paper and that way you can follow along with the notes if you'd like to as well and doing that and then next week we'll have them online for you too to follow along that way but I want to talk today about who the letter was written to and that's pretty obvious it's named Timothy first and second Timothy and so who is Timothy and I've titled the message tonight studies in the life of a Godly of a young man studies in the life of a young man you know the first thing we know about Timothy is we know his name Timothy in Proverbs chapter 21 22 verse

number one it says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold your name identifies who you are it it tells everybody that this is this person and you were given that name when you were born uh you didn't have a choice in your name uh your parents chose it out maybe they chose it because it was a favorite aunt or uncle or or a grandparent maybe they chose it because they uh there was a very popular uh movie star or other celebrity U my name Wayne comes from John Wayne the movie star and uh or maybe they chose it because it was just the name of the year uh or they chose it because they wanted to get revenge on you and make you live with

that name the rest of your life I'm not sure of all the reasons uh but it's good you know I think it's good to know what your name means in 1st Samuel chter 25 and verse 25 it says let not my Lord I pray thee regard this man of bile even nabal for as his name is so is he nabal is his name and Folly is with him the name nabal in the Hebrew means fool now you got to wonder what kind of parent called their kid fool now as a parent you probably think that's appropriate for my kid hey you fool what are you doing you fool you know but some parent the day their child was born they looked him in the face and said you look like a fool you know and there's some other Bible names the same way uh you

know we named our son Caleb and and uh I when I first looked it up I I read it meant loyal and then when I studied in the Hebrew I found out literally means dog hey dog get in here for lunch hey dog go to bed you know uh it literally means dog and so I I wonder what Hebrew mom named his child dog and you know Isaac Isaac means laughter because they laughed at God when he told them that they were going to have a child and so you can kind of understand that one a little bit and and there's other names Kabab in the Bible there's a lot of names that they're meanings you think why did that parent choose that name for their child' in this case Timothy's name means and and by the way I encourage

you whenever you read a name in the Bible look it up you can look it up on the computer uh see what it means today you can look it up and see what it meant in the Bible language of Greek or Hebrew as well and Timothy's name meant honoring God or God's honor honoring God or God's honor now Timothy is a still somewhat of a popular name today and the list of popularity in 2024 it's number 241 it was the most popular name in 1960 and in 1960 there was 138 girls named Timothy I'm not sure why but that was on the internet there you can believe everything on the internet and so Timothy's name is not a Hebrew name it's a Greek name and that's significant and we'll look at that a little bit more but

uh if you look at 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse number 17 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 17 it says now on to the king Eternal Immortal invisible the only wise God be honor and Glory forever and ever amen so here as we quote this verse we're basically saying to Timothy Timothy your name means honoring God and you should give God the honor and glory in everything that you do in in Revelation 4: 11 it says Thou Art Worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created and so we as Christians should give honor and glory to God and that's literally what Timothy's name meant is he was one that gave honor and glory to God now I

believe one of the ways that we honor God Is by honoring others in Romans CH 12 and verse number 10 it says be kindly affectionate one to another with Brotherly Love in honor preferring one another the the word honor the idea of this word here means to Value it says I am going to Value you as a person now there are some people you value because you count them worthy of that value they're a good friend they're they're they've got certain abilities and talents that you appreciate uh there's just something about them that that you feel like this is a valuable friend this is someone I value as a friend but it's also the idea of honoring somebody is to Value them not because of what they can give

to you but because of who they are to God they had so much value to God that he died for them he sent his son to die for them and if God said they have enough value for you me to give my son's life for then I ought to give them value see some people you value them because of who they are and what they do and other people you say that one's not quite as valuable to me but yet they are valuable to God and we honor God by honoring one another we also honor God by honoring Authority in Romans chap 13: 7 and 8 it says render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom Fear To whom fear honor to whom honor owe no man anything but to love one another for he that

loveth another hath fulfilled the law a and so to honor Authority whether it's the governmental Authority we're right in the middle of a political season boy we hear a lot of dishonor of one another and our politicians and and a lot of people uh dishonor those that are in authority and and I don't agree with a lot of our authorities today and I I don't agree with their policies I don't agree with their actions and and many of things about them but they're still the authority and the Bible says to honor those who are in authority to to give them the respect not always of their position of their person but always of their position we also honor God by honoring our spouses married people the

Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3:7 likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being HS together the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered so giving honor onto the wife as the weaker vessel now when we say weaker vessel doesn't mean she's lesser uh than the husband is the idea of the weaker vessel is one that is value you remember the word honor means to Value something and when you value something you treat it differently for many years one way we would kind of support our income was we'd go to a storage auctions you ever seen those on TV the storage auctions we' go buy those lockers and then sort through it

and sell some of it throw some away give some of it away and keep some and and I remember one time we found this ugly vase in this storage locker I think was ugly and uh I just kind of tossed it in a box and didn't think much about it and then and I let my kids play with it and everything and then later on somebody saw that vase they said you know that vase is very valuable it is worth a lot of money I took it out of the toy box I put it up on the shelf and I treated it very differently because I saw the value in it at that point and when you realize that this is the spouse that God has given me and this spouse is of Great Value then you treat your spouse differently you honor your spouse

and I believe we also honor God by honoring our spiritual leaders in 1 Timothy 5 and: 17 says let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in word and Doctrine and as those who've been around for a while know what the idea of double honor is to honor the person and to honor the position when I was in the military when I would salute officers sometimes I would look at their shoulder and sometimes I would look them in the eye when they were a good person I looked him in the eye and saluted them as a person as well as their position when they were not not the best officer around I still saluted their position I looked at their shoulder but not at

their eye because I didn't respect them but I respected their position and that double honor is is something we ought to give to those that are like Pastor anger in my life I I double honor him because of his position as my first uh Pastor that I served under and but also his position as my mentor and as my friend is as a person to help me to grow in the Lord and giving that position that person that double honor that they deserve as well and I believe if you study the life of Timothy and we'll look at a little this in this lesson but if you study the life of Timothy he did all four of those he honored God but he honored God by honoring others as well and that's important to our to live up

to our name Timothy was a man that whose name meant honor God and God wants to honor him and one another so what does your name mean in Exodus 33:17 it says the Lord said unto Moses I will do this thing also that thou has spoken for thou has found Grace in my sight and I Know Thee by name so what does your name mean first of all what does it mean in actuality how many of you here you know what your name means raise your hand okay a bunch of you do if you don't I'd encourage you to look it up I think it's kind of a fun thing to do for example the name John means gracious and I think that very much describes you John I appreciate that uh it's a good name for him uh the name Jason means god God

Is My Savior and if you know Jason he needs saving a lot because he's always getting hurt somehow or another so God has got to watch over Jason that's for sure um the name Ricky means brave ruler powerful leader all right and uh then the name Diane uh my wife's name means Heavenly Divine shining I like that all right and then uh Miranda means talks a lot no no that doesn't mean that um I'm sorry I read that wrong Miranda actually means worthy of admiration worthy of admiration and then Marissa means of the Sea of the sea she comes out of the Philippines and so uh that's good there too all right so I I could go through a lot more names but you got internet you got Google go search your own

name do your own work all right but what does your name mean and it's interesting and it's nice to know this is what my name means but you know what's more important to that what is the reputation of your name it doesn't matter what your name means by definition as much as it matters what your name means by reputation the Bible says in Revelation chapter 3 and verse number one and unto the angel the Church of Sardis write these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars I Know Thy works that thou Hast a name that thou livest in our dead so they had a name but their reputation was they were dead spiritually and you may have a good name physically but do you have a

good name spiritually there are many examples in the Bible we could give you of people for example in Mark chapter 7 verse 13 it we're doing the disciples on Sunday morning it talks about James and John then remember what the next phrase is the sons of thunder they had a reputation you know uh I always love tupu and Jesse and his brother George they all got saved here at haa in fact most of their family got saved here but talking to these guys growing up uh especially Jesse and George I think more so than tupu but uh they had a reputation for being kind of uh you know these big guys that you had didn't mess around with you know now today they're the gentle Giants the his reputation is so

changed and we're thankful for that and and these guys were known as the sons of thunder they sounds to me like they were guys got mad quick and gotten arguments and were loud and boisterous then there's James chapter 2 and verse 23 where it says Abraham was called the friend of God now that's not what his name means but that's what his reputation was so let me ask you a question when people hear your name what do they think see people hear my name they don't think Wayne wagon Master because that's what my name means in fact we had uh the fellow two Fellowship Friday and Saturday Friday uh was it Friday night or last night the Jacob and Jane one of our Chinese couples came over and they told

me the the name and and S it was is way we Min way mean all right I'm getting it I'm working on it and it means what for the people for the people all right but people don't say here my name and say oh that's the wagon master I think it's kind of propriate I'm the leading the church and that was the guy who led the wagons across the country or the for the people I hope I you feel like I'm for the people but that's not what they think about so what does your name bring into connotation in people's mind when they hear I I believe Timothy and we'll see that had a reputation a good reputation what about you see some uh names some reputations they stink Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse number one a

good name is better than precious ointment in the day of death than one the day of one's birth is better than precious ointment you can try to cover a bad smell with a good smell and it doesn't work Junior High boy understand that okay you try to cover a bad smell with a good smell it just makes everything worse especially that axe stuff they used to have you know and and a good reputation can't be just covered over it's got to be lived and a good reputation is easy to ruin some of you remember the illustration I use for the the the peaches the the in in love and the fruit of the spirit and I use a peach as the fruit of the spirit of love because it's soft and sweet and fuzzy on the outside

but sooner or later you're going to hit the pits uh of the pits in the relationship and the real test of Love is what do you do when you hit the pits of the relationship but one of the things that you talked about is Peaches in a can if you got a can of peaches you can look on the outside see the label says peaches but if you got a jar of peaches you can see the peaches see we can put an outside label on that says I'm a Christian and try to put on an outside label of a good reputation but what's better is when people can see in you and they can see Christ in your life and they can see the reputation now if you went down to the store to buy a jar of peaches and you look at the jar on the on

the Shelf there and you saw that in that jar was beautiful orange bright orange Peach peaches just look absolutely lovely but there was also one little fly inside that jar would you buy the jar one fly can destroy the entire ointment and that's the way it is with a testimony one sin one mistake one wrong choice can destroy your testimony your reputation can stink so some reputation stink other reputations are respected in 1st Samuel chapter 18 and verse number 30 then the princes of the Philistines went forth and it came to pass after they went forth that David behaved himself more wisely than all the Servants of Saul so his name was much set by now David had a lot of problems don't get me

wrong we all do but David overall had a reputation that this was a man that loved God this was a man that had a heart towards God he had struggles with sin in his life and other issues that he dealt with but he had a reputation is your reputation respected or does your reputation stink wh which which is it for you you see with a reputation it not only tells me something about what people think about you but it's also going to tell me what people are going to think about when you when they hear about you I I would hope that after hearing me preach and knowing me that if somebody walked up to you tonight and said did you hear that Pastor was drunk last week now I would hope most of your

reaction would be no way because you know me I was raised by an alcoholic father I want nothing to do with alcohol I I just think it's the worst choice you can make it's like putting a gun to your head saying I think it's not going to bow my head out this time and and if there's one thing that you would just not listen to gossip on there's a lot maybe other things you'd listen to gossip on that that Pastor can't sing or something else like that but uh that's one thing you wouldn't listen to go because my reputation see a reputation is what people think about you when they hear about you and if you don't like it people believe gossip about you it's wrong for gossip don't don't don't mistake

it's wrong for people to gossip but you ought to stop and before get mad at them stop and think why what am I doing that somebody would actually believe that about me that they wouldn't just immediately say no way because that's your reputation and and and reputation is one of a few names that have not defiled themselves as we talked about they're one that has made the choice Revelation 3:4 thou Hast a few names even as Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy they've made choices now some names are hard to pronounce or they're hard to spell we've got a number of them here in this church Cindy we I like call her Cindy because their

last name zman is is a hard one to uh spell right and get right uh uh Jerome and Jennifer ichan uh what made it even harder is both Jerome and his sisters would come to church and they spelled their last name differently so that really confused me but uh um you got uh angat tupu uh so if you want to figure out how to spell that one or you've got uh other names so some names are hard to spell some names are hard to pronounce some names are rare and unique in 2 Timothy 1: 16-18 we have onerous I I love that name I I really want to name one of my kids onesis I just thought it'd be fun to stand at the door and say oh get in here I just thought it'd be a great name but what I loved even more

about is the ible says he off refreshed me he had a great name but he had a great reputation he was just refreshing to be around just a blessing and and some people are like that their name is unique my my last name surface is unique I haven't found very many people with that name and actually originally came from the German zerus when we came when my family came to America but you know I want to be remembered for my unique character not my unique name people remember you're surface you live in Hawaii surfing you know that kind of all goes together but I I more rather have that your your pastor surface you love the Lord I want a reputation that honors God there are some Nam there are common

names I'll go over to Acts chapter 16 Acts chapter 16 and look at verses 1 and two Acts chapter 16 and verses 1 and two Bible says then came he to durba listra and behold a certain disciple was there named timotheus the son of a certain woman which was a Jewish and believed but his father was a Greek which was well reported by the Brethren that were at lria and aonia now see Timothy was somewhat of a common name but Timothy was a certain disciple see he by reputation was not common he by name was relatively common but by reputation he was unique in Titus 3:14 it says and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful see Titus had a reputation of of

of good works of doing the right thing and and so we want to have a name that has a a unique meaning but more importantly unique reputation second thing about Timothy is that a Godly Heritage in second Timothy chapter 1 and verse number five 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5 it says when I called to remembrance the unan faith that is in thee which dwelt first th grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice I persuaded thee also uh and again in Acts 16:1 then came he to deran list and behold a certain disciple was there named timotheus the son of a certain woman Timothy had a good testimony because he had a good mom and a good grandma and he was taught the word of God in second Timothy chapter 3 and

verses 14-1 17 it says but continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou Hast learned them and that from a child thou has known the holy scriptures which make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus all scripture is given by inspiration of God as profitable for Doctrine for reprove for correction for instruction righteousness the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto all good works see Timothy had a Godly Heritage was raised with the word of God taught the word of God Parents give your kids a Godly Heritage give them the word of God and Timothy was missing his father we hear nothing about his dad now

we don't know if his dad was dead or if his dad was unsaved or not a dead be dad and gone we don't know for sure but he wasn't in the picture and apparently wasn't saved because he's not mentioned about salvation and yet Timothy even without a Godly father turned out to be a Godly Man sometimes we want to blame well I'm the way I am because of my background because of where I came from Timothy had probably one of the roughest backgrounds of all the young men in the Bible and yet turned out for the Lord Daniel's another example of that don't blame your background for what you turned out to be now what Timothy did have is he had a spiritual Mentor a spiritual father in 1 Timothy uh chapter 2 1

and verse two it says unto Timothy my own son in the faith listen wherever you're at whether you have a Godly Dad or not especially those in the military and travel around wherever you at find yourself a spiritual dad Pastor anger is my spiritual dad Dalton Heath a missionary from mesan my spiritual dad every time I call Hey Dad how you doing and these are men that have influenced my life I didn't have a doubt around but I'm thankful for the men that that became my spiritual fathers influenced my life and that's I believe how Timothy turned out we need these kind of people in our we need our mentors we need people that are going to guide us in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 you can look that up

later but it talks about being Guided by mentors and then we need to be taught to teach teach in 2 Timothy 2 1:2 thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that has heard of me among many witness the same commit thou to Faithful Men Who should be able to teach others also Timothy was able to teach because he was taught get a mentor is going to teach you and then find someone you can teach that'll make you what you need to be and then the last thing about Timothy is his Godly character go to Philippians chapter 2 Philippians chapter 2 look at verses 19 through 23 Philippians 2: 19-23 it tells us about Timothy here it says but I trust in the Lord to

send timotheus shortly unto you that also may be a good Comfort when I know your state for I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ but you know the proof of him that as a son with the father you served me in the gospel Timothy had a Godly character and and you go through that Timothy came after Mark's Paul's disaster with Mark remember they took mark on their first missionary journey he quit and went back home when they were getting ready to on a second missionary Uncle Barnabas was was Paul's partner wanted to take Mark with and Paul said I don't take quitters and it was such a battle between them going

separate ways so Paul was really not happy with his interns at that point and I'm sure when Timothy came along he was really tough on him now Mark later on got right and was well reported of and all the rest that but the thing about Timothy I'm going to go through this quick because I don't have time but he was submissive when Timothy started going with Paul the first thing Paul said to him if you're going to go remember Timothy was a Hebrew mom a Greek dad he was not circumcised Paul was still trying to reach the Jews at that point so he said to Timothy which was a a young man late teens early 20s said Timothy if you're going to go with me on my missionary journey you got to get circumcised

now if you do not know what circumcision is go home and look it up but it's what they do to male baby boys about 8 days after they're born or so somewhere within two weeks and they say it doesn't hurt and they're lying and it does hurt for a 20year old man with no anesthesia and no doctors and no hospitals and I can imagine when Paul said Timothy I want you to come with me but you're going to have to be circumcised he goes what I had to what and he submitted it wasn't required by the gospel of grace this was an Old Testament law not required by the gospel of the New Testament but Paul didn't want to be a stumbling block and here's the kicker the next preacher boy after Timothy was Titus and

if you read in Galatians chapter 2:3 it tells us that Titus did not have to get circumcised I can imagine Timothy is like what I had he can you imagine that it's kind of like in in John where where uh Peter says well what about John what's going to happen to him Jesus said don't worry about him I'm talking to you it's submissive he was a servant everywhere in the Bible Timothy was going somewhere going here going there even in second Timothy chapter 4 Paul says to Timothy hey bring my coat and bring my books to me now Timothy at this point is a full-fledged Pastor on his own he could have had the attitude wait a minute I'm not your flunky anymore I'm not your gopher anymore what are you

telling me what to do I'm a grown man but he didn't he was submissive he stuck it out he didn't quit and I'm going fast you we'll have these notes available for you he he could have quit but he didn't number of times he could have quit he didn't even when Paul wanted to quit Timothy kept going and encouraged him in the Lord and Timothy the Bible called Paul calls him my true workfellow the word workfellow comes from the Greek word synergy folks I'll tell you how you can serve the Lord find somebody that you can have Synergy with find people you can get together and work and serve the Lord together with it just increases your abilities and Timothy was a student study to show theirself

approved on God a Workman need not to be ashamed this is what made Timothy successful now when you read first first and second Timothy I'll tell you one thing that my feeling is maybe you guys John Ander Peter you've seen it too is I believe at that point in his life he was kind of discouraged folks I'm I'm going to be very Frank and honest with you sometimes being a pastor is not easy you're carrying everybody's burdens you get you got to deal with all the problems every time you think things are going great some problem comes up again and I really believe at this point in his career Timothy was discouraged and that's why Paul wrote him these two letters you can see it in the way Paul wrote

says don't quit don't give up you can keep going and he kept going and that's what you and I need to do so there's some great lessons in the life of a young man called Timothy study it out and again I'll make these notes you I'll apologize I had to go quickly at the end but we want to stay on our time uh Factor here so we have the question and answers so we're going to break up into small groups for short question answer time we got food waiting so I figured I'd get you out of here by 7 so group leaders you need to stop at 7 o'clock there's three questions what does your name mean share it real quickly briefly what if you know what your name means but what do you want it to mean that's what

I want to hear even more this is what I want people to think about when they hear my name I want to think here's somebody that loves God here's somebody that wants to serve the Lord here's somebody's always helpful here's somebody's refreshing and then secondly how do you get a good or a bad reputation how do you get a good or bad reputation what is it gives you your reputation and then thirdly who gave you your Godly Heritage and what does it take to pass on that Godly Heritage the Next Generation