An Example for Believers — Erlo Stegen

Where are the people that are getting engaged? Where are the people that are getting engaged? I'll tell you a secret. I went to Afghanistan. I went to Afghanistan. I went to Afghanistan. I went to Afghanistan.

And I asked them, what kind of a testimony do these young people have? And I got some very good reports about them. And it's a wonderful thing to see young people who are determined to follow the Lord in a sanctified and cleansed way.

So I didn't ask you to tell me about yourselves. I went to others to hear what they saw in your lives and say about you. Am I unfair in that? But I'll do the same with you. Because the others are like my eyes.

Okay. Someone asked, why do I put on the ring and not someone else? Don't they do it themselves? I'll tell you why. They say it's God that has brought them together. So in the name of the Lord, I've done it.

Of course, if you've just been together even before this, then, of course, then you can do it yourselves. May God help you that as you've lived a sanctified life up to now, that you will continue doing so.

Until the day you get married, that there's no contact and you phone each other and have contact via phone or whatever. If you choose to go that way, then you'll have to get married somewhere else, not here.

We have whom? We have whom? All right. I agree. And she didn't just agree overnight. For some, it takes time until they know that it's the right thing for them to do. But that's not a bad thing. I think it's a good thing.

So she's from Johannesburg, so can you really say, well, is there something good that can come out of Johannesburg? He's from the Peter Meritsburg area. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the lives that they've lived.

Thank you for how they've conducted themselves even before us. Bless them for it. And help them, Lord, to follow you in a sanctified, purified way until they stand before the altar. Amen. Amen. There's the mother.

One can be thankful and be happy with the parents, with the mother who's still alive, that she's got a son like this. Her mother passed away. The father couldn't be here, but her uncle is here. He's right there at the back.

An Example for Believers from First Timothy 4

It's really a reason to rejoice for parents if they have children like this. Thank you. May God be with you. Continue serving him always. Our text is in 1 Timothy 4. Verse 12. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word and in deed.

In conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. I'll continue reading even if we won't be able to speak about it. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

Meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. May the Lord give you an ear to hear, and if you haven't got your Bible with you, then when you get home you can take your Bible and read it again.

May the Lord be with you. Take heed to yourself, this is verse 16, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. So there are quite a few messages or sermons within this.

So by doing this you save yourself and save others, but there are some people who don't save themselves, they destroy themselves by not doing what they are told to do here. But today I would like to focus on what I want to be the crux of this message.

Why Believers Need Examples

Be an example. I have prayed with those that were here in front and thanked that they were an example and prayed that they will be an example, each one should be an example. And they should be an example even to the believers, for the believers themselves need an example.

Because very often even the believers, they go off the rails, you can't even rely on a believer anymore. A preacher phoned me this morning and said I don't know what to do anymore, my young people are going into the world.

They are wearing trousers, they are putting on make-up, they are just going the way of the world. Another one about a mother who was siding with her child and justifying what the child had done. And I said, I said it's because they don't know the Lord, that's why they are going that way.

For the Bible speaks of a time when you won't need to say to your brother, know the Lord, for he will know the Lord. But the problem is, even believers need an example because otherwise they just go in the wrong direction.

Believers as Letters Read by Everyone

I will tell you the verse that I am going to mention now, but I will give you homework, you can go home and read it. Where it says, it's in Corinthians, I won't say where, otherwise you just start paging in your Bible and you won't listen anymore.

You can look it up at home. You are a letter written in our hearts. Some people say we just listen to God. We listen to God, not to man. A person who says I don't listen to man, I only listen to God, such a person is actually blind and foolish.

Paul says you are a letter written in our hearts, read by everyone. If you are at school, they are reading you. Even your friends read you. Whether you do something in open or in secret, you are being read.

And not just the believers read you, but the unbelievers too, and in fact they actually take more note even than the believers. The ungodly and the heathen are sharper than the Christians nowadays, even those that are born again.

If you want to know whether a person is spiritually alive, go to the heathen, they will tell you. But the Christians, they cover all the vileness and evil. If you want to know whether a person is spiritually alive, go to the heathen, they will tell you.

So everyone reads you, even your children read you, and maybe they are the way they are because of what they read in you. The whole world reads you, the believers and the unbelievers, they take special note.

So you are a letter written, read by everyone. So be a letter of Christ. Written through our worship. Written not by ink, but by God's Holy Spirit, His Living Spirit. Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of your hearts that are soft.

So each of you, So each of you is a letter written, and may that letter be a good letter found even in the hearts of people like Paul and the servants of the Lord. There are few people that still read the Bible in the world today.

But they read something, they read us. What kind of a letter are you to those around you and your family? And may your life be a letter written by the Living God, not with ink, but through the Holy Spirit.

The Living God. Some unbelievers say, we don't want to be Christians, because of the Christians. Look at them, look at their children. Just look at their lives and their children, what they like. Be an example, because people are reading you, whether they're white or black or Indian or colored, whoever it is, is looking at you.

Being an Example in Conduct and Appearance

Be an example to the believers. So be an example even to the believers, that the Christians can look at you, that you can be an example to them from head to toe. Even the way you dress, the way you behave, everything, you should set the example.

Someone who's not alive anymore once said they came to Sizabantu and they watched the people at Sizabantu very closely, from head to toe, they scrutinized them. What do they see in you? One mother said, I'm happy for what God's doing in my child.

I really am so proud of my child. Her chest, she pushes it forward. And her backside, backwards. So much so that people came to her and said, tell us what's happened to you that you are so happy? Well, I'm also learning, I don't realize that so many things speak and mean something, whether they go forwards or backwards.

They just know. And she, they noticed her joy. And that's like it is, you children take note of it. If you live as you should and follow the Lord, it brings much joy to your parents. But if you live the wrong life, you disappoint your parents.

In fact, it's like stoning them. You see when people... If children get engaged like this, young people, it's something that brings joy to the parents' heart. Not like those young people, they get engaged, they get married, all the time they've had affairs long ago, they've got children already.

That's a disgrace. Be an example. And let no one despise your youth. If you live as you should and set a good example, people will honor you, they'll respect you. If you want authority to be respected, then set a good example, even if you're young.

Being an example in your speech, what you say. And in your conduct. And in love. And in faith. And in purity. Be an example. Even in your faith, in your Christian life, and in love. If you want authority to be respected, set a good example, people will honor you, they'll respect you.

When the Muslims look at that film on the crucifixion of Christ, the thing that touches them and moves them is the love the Lord has even for his enemies, and that he prays that God will forgive even those that are persecuting and crucifying him.

Be an example even in love. These past days, I spoke about that love. In Greek, there are how many words that describe love? Who remembers? Who of you remembers? Were you asleep? There's someone who knows Brother Thomas, but he's too old already.

God's love, agape. Second type of love, fileo. That's a love you have for your relative, for your brother. And then there's another word that describes love which shouldn't be found and written in the heart of a person.

That's not a good love. That's the erotic, and it just goes together with the erotic. Be an example, a letter written by God. Today you have... Today people are advocating all types of love, even gay love, lesbianism, homosexuality, things you found in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Be an example, a letter written by God. That's not a good love. That's the erotic, and it just goes together with the erotic. Third type of love, fileo. That's the erotic, and it just goes together with the erotic.

Today people are advocating all types of love, even gay love, lesbianism, homosexuality, things you found in Sodom and Gomorrah. That's the erotic, and it just goes together with the erotic. Be an example, a letter written by God.

Today you have... Today people are advocating all types of love, even gay love, lesbianism, homosexuality, things you found in Sodom and Gomorrah. But then people use the excuse that they were born in that way, they can't help it.

No, we were all born in sin. The truth is that it's like it says in Romans, that because they did not honor God and thank Him and worship Him, God handed them over to all sorts of perverse things. And that's why you find homosexuality.

That's because people didn't honor God, didn't worship Him, didn't thank Him. And so they ended up doing the things that you found in Sodom and Gomorrah. Just recently, a white man came out publicly, he's very well known in the whole world, and he publicly said that he is gay.

And he said he's proud to be gay. He's proud. A man of hell! Because he doesn't serve God and praise God and give God his rightful place. That's why he's a Sodomite. Be an example. An example to everyone.

Purity in Thought and Behavior

Even in purity. If you look at the Greek word for purity, it refers not just purity and what you do and don't do in your behavior, but even in your thought life. Your thoughts need to be cleaned. Your thoughts need to be pure.

And display God's glory and His holiness, not evil and all sorts of filth. Purity, holiness, even in your thought life. You young people, everyone here, have you got wrong thoughts in your head? That means there are devils in you and in your head, and you've got to be set free of those demons.

Be an example in purity. It refers to that purity also in chapter 5. It says you should treat older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with all purity, complete purity, even in your thoughts.

Your thought life has got to be perfectly clean. If not, then you're a rotten potato. You're an evil person. Because God sees your thoughts, and your thoughts reveal what you are. The English can put it very well.

You are not what you think you are. You are what you think. So just look at your thought life, and that's what you are before God. And then you ask yourself, will you enter heaven? At your funeral, the preacher may say he was a godly man, and they'll be shocked when they find you in hell one day.

In all purity, including your thought life, That's why it says you should flee the lusts of the flesh. And that refers to not just fleeing those lusts in your thoughts, but even physically. Proverbs 5, it says you should not go near to the door of a prostitute or an immoral woman.

Proverbs 5, it says you should not go near to the door of a prostitute or an immoral woman. Don't even go near her house. You should flee from those things, just like when the angel told Joseph, take the child, take the mother, and flee to Egypt.

We can just thank God for a man like Joseph. If he wouldn't have been such a holy man, we wouldn't have a savior today. He would have been killed as a child. Proverbs 5, it says you should not go near to the door of a prostitute or an immoral woman.

Whoever gets there should ask, where is Joseph? I want to shake his hand and say thank you Joseph for being obedient. Otherwise we wouldn't be here today. Our savior would have been killed and murdered by Herod.

But because he obeyed, he obeyed immediately. He didn't say, oh I'm still too tired, I've still got to sleep, I can do it tomorrow morning. Proverbs 5, it says you should not go near to the door of a prostitute or an immoral woman.

Whoever gets there should ask, where is Joseph? I want to shake his hand and say thank you Joseph for being obedient. Whoever gets there should ask, where is Joseph? I want to shake his hand and say thank you Joseph for being obedient.

He told Mary, get up, take the child, wrap it up warmly. We've got a long journey, we've got to flee to North Africa, to Egypt. It's good to obey God when he speaks to us through his Holy Spirit, that we quickly obey.

It can save us from many sins. Some people say I'm an alcoholic, I want to be free of this, that they go and sit in the bar. I'm an alcoholic, I want to be free of this, that they go and sit in the bar.

With all the alcohol around you and you say well I just can't get free from this alcohol, but there you sit. And the same applies to a prostitute, why do you go to her? When you listen to this music, rock and pop, and that music arouses you.

Israel in the Wilderness as a Warning

It does something in you, the devils start working within you. Now let's close with this. 1 Corinthians 10. Moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea.

They were baptized. All were baptized. That's symbolic of our baptism. They were under the cloud, under God. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food. All drank the same spiritual drink.

All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. If it would end here it would be wonderful. We could refer to that wonderful congregation that was blessed.

Christ was amongst them. They drank of that rock which was Christ. All ate the same spiritual food. But this shocks us. But with most of them God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

These were special people, a special congregation, Christ in the midst, led by the Holy Spirit, baptized, but God was not pleased and God struck them and many of them died in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples.

So these people that God was not pleased with have become an example to us. That we will not lust as they did. And it says do not become idolaters as some of them. As it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Referring even And they got up to dance in other words. And people dance many places even in church today but if you have sin in your life you will be destroyed together with those people. Nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23 ,000 fell.

In one day 23 ,000 were struck down because of immorality. Are there some immoral things in your life? Or have they been there in the past? Have you repented because of it? Have you confessed it? Have you exposed it and brought it to light?

Or is that still a part of your life? Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer.

That you That's a terrible sin. When you complain about something that has happened to you. Maybe something you've experienced. Something that's happened and you complain about it and you murmur against the Lord.

And you complain about it and say why should this have happened to me? That he sends the destroyer to destroy them. Now all these things happen to them as examples. They are written for our admonition.

These people They are an example to us. They are an example to us. See everyone's an example. Even if you're serving the devil and you're almost like a devil yourself. But you become an example because you'll end up in hell and so you become an example to others.

Love, Accountability, and Final Exhortation

The example even in love. Just read 1 Corinthians 13 and you'll see what real love is. That love that doesn't get irritable. That doesn't complain. And you read about it. What real love is. Be an example.

Are you men an example? Are you a letter written by the living God? You young men, you boys, are you a good example? Or do you get irritable? You get irritable, you get angry, you lose your temper. That is not God's love.

But then you get others who have the wrong love. Like a man who's after a prostitute. Or even gay people who say, no, well, this is also, we're displaying our love for one another. And then you get Christian preachers that go against sodomy.

But when their child grows up and becomes a sodomite, they fight for it. Not against it. For it. We've got such examples even here in South Africa. So you get people, they fight sin, but when their own children start living in that sin, then suddenly you start justifying it or hiding it.

Covering up. So you've been an example, but now continue to be an example. But we all need to be an example. We should all be a letter written by the living God through the Holy Spirit, not a letter written by the devil.

We should all be a letter written by the living God through the Holy Spirit, not a letter written by the devil. Nowadays, you get boys and girls even writing letters to each other, love letters, sending messages to each other.

And maybe people know about it, maybe no one knows about it, but God sees it, he knows it. And you won't get into heaven unless you repent of that. But then you find parents of such children defending their children in the evil.

Pious people, good Christians, and then assisting the devil in their children's life. If you want to go to hell, then go. And don't come here. Don't come back. Let somebody else get your space. If you want to serve the devil, rather don't even come back next year.

Go and study, go to other universities or schools where they don't mind. But we don't need people that live in sin here. Many want to come here. But we don't need such people here. There are many people that will welcome you, other universities and schools and even churches, but we don't need such people here.

The destroyer came unexpectedly when they didn't expect it. And we can just pray and say, Lord, come down and work, come down like a mighty rain, that it will be like a flood that will wash away all the dead corpses and things that shouldn't be there.

Let's pray. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit will work amongst us in a mighty way. Lord, that it will be like a mighty river that washes away everything that doesn't belong there. That it will be washed away by the flood.

That it ends up in the ocean where it can be eaten by the fish there. That it ends up in the ocean where it can be eaten by the fish there. And thrown out onto the shore. Lord, work in a mighty way that your words will not be in vain to us.

And Lord, may your grace be at work, that grace that worked in the couple that got engaged, that it will also work in us. And may the Holy Spirit work day and night. And may the love of the Father, who is holy, that it will fill our hearts and overflow.

Amen.