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Summary

In this conversation, Ty Rhymes discusses the transition from traditional preaching to youth ministry, emphasizing the importance of evangelism among young people. He highlights the power of the gospel and the example of Timothy as a model for youth evangelism. Rhymes stresses the need for believers to live lives that make the gospel believable, to show compassion, and to let their actions speak before their words. He concludes by encouraging listeners to seize opportunities for evangelism, asserting that age does not limit influence, but obedience to God does.

Chapters

00:00 Mobilizing Youth for Evangelism
01:00 The Gospel’s Timeless Message
04:44 Timothy: A Model for Youth Evangelism
08:55 Living a Believable Life
14:44 Compassion in Evangelism
21:03 The Importance of Example
24:53 Speaking Up for the Gospel

Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.*

Ty Rhymes (00:02)
Brian mentioned that I made a transition about a year ago to youth ministry. Did full-time preaching for almost 10 years, I guess, and then did it backwards. Most guys go from youth ministry to preaching, and I went the other way. And it’s ⁓ been an interesting thing. And this year, with transitioning to youth ministry, I didn’t preach very much ⁓ as compared to what my experiences have been since I graduated school.

was preaching all the time and then when transitioning to youth ministry I don’t get to do that much. My wife woke up excited this morning. She was just all excited and I thought it was because I was gonna get to preach but it was because Jimmy Clark was on the lineup. Jimmy Clark has always been one of Heidi’s favorites. When I met her several years ago she told me Jimmy Clark was one of her favorites and I thought that excitement this morning was evident and that’s why Jimmy spoke earlier. But I do appreciate the opportunity to be here with you this morning.

this afternoon. Romans 1-16, Paul said, the gospel is the power to save everyone who believes. That’s still true today, right? The gospel saves everyone who believes. That’s never changed. And that message, the gospel message has changed communities, it’s changed families, it’s changed individuals, and that’s always been the story. That’s what it does. But one thing that has changed to me, at least

something that has become evident and maybe why we have to have a week’s worth of discussions on the subject of evangelism is because somewhere along the way from generation to generation what has changed is folks thoughts on their obligations to share the message, right? That somewhere along the way we may have lost the zeal or the desire or maybe we reason within ourselves like Rick mentioned earlier why we don’t have to do that or we shouldn’t do that.

And so while the gospel still has the power to change somewhere along the lines, we might have convinced ourselves that our obligation to share that has. And so while we direct our attention to this study this afternoon about the youth sharing the gospel, some people quietly assume, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anybody say this out loud, but I think that people quietly assume that evangelism belongs to people who are trained and professional.

people that have titles, people that maybe stand before churches or direct youth programs, something along the sort. But it was interesting to me that as I began to flip through the scripture, I noticed really quickly that scripture doesn’t support that idea, that God had always used ordinary people, ordinary people to move his message along to different groups of people or to nations or to individuals specifically. And one of the clearest examples of that to me is Timothy.

When Timothy first comes on the scene in Acts 16 and verse number two, it says of him that in Lystra and Iconium, the brethren there spoke well of Timothy. That is, before Timothy ever joined Paul on a missionary journey, we don’t know how young he was. Brother Clark mentioned the other night that he was a young man, and so by the time he comes on the scene there in Acts 16 and verse two, his faith, his character, his integrity had already been spoken of.

by the churches in Lystra and Iconium before Timothy ever said anything, before he ever had done something. And so I know that Timothy was an incredible example of character, integrity, and faith, even from a youth. And not to mention that as Timothy leaves with Paul on this missionary journey, that you know Paul doesn’t just view him as someone who is a potential helper or a potential leader or a potential preacher, but he views him as useful in the mission.

in that moment. You know, we always say the youth are the future of the church. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say stupid from the pulpit, but it’s stupid. It’s not true.

It’s not true at all. The youth aren’t the future of the church. And to convince them otherwise is to take away from this example of Paul and Timothy in this missionary journey, where he wasn’t viewing him as some potential aid to the spread of the truth. Moreover, he was an individual who provided something useful in the moment.

And so as we look at Timothy and we work through some of these examples, I want you to see that. I want you to see that his spiritual influence wasn’t determined by his age. It wasn’t determined by how long he had been in school or maybe how long he had been in church. It wasn’t so much that, as much as it was his character, his consistency, and his devotion to Jesus. We’ve been presented this afternoon with an important question. What can youth do to evangelize?

And I believe Timothy’s life gives you some timeless principles. Principles that show how young people can change their communities, how young people might change their families, how young people can change the church. I believe that with all my heart. But before we go any further, I want to emphasize this. I don’t believe Brian only wanted me to talk to teenagers.

I don’t think that he wanted me to just talk to the young people in the room. And I know that because if these principles that come from Timothy’s life are biblical, and they are, they don’t expire with age. They don’t get to say, you know what, I’m done. I’m past that, this young people discussion. It’s for those people. Evangelism isn’t an age-specific assignment. I believe it with all my heart. Evangelism is something that just flows out of a life shaped by Jesus.

And so as we tackle this subject and we work through Timothy for just a few minutes that we have, I’m gonna put something on the screen and I wrote it with the mindset of how would I help my teens in my youth room do something to help someone else know the gospel? How could I help them change hearts for Jesus? But I want you to know that if these are biblical, and I believe they are, they don’t expire with age. And so the question then becomes not just what can youth do, but how are we as…

God’s people applying these principles as we move forward through Timothy’s life. Look with me at Acts 16 and verse number two in the first place. I mentioned that earlier. The first thing I want you to notice, just four observations in our time together. The first one is this. If the youth want to evangelize, or rather if any of us want to, you have to live a life that makes the gospel believable.

In the manuscript, I gave like four different lists of 10 or so things, of things that youth can do, that churches can do to enable them, that we can do to help each other. And then I realized I only had 30 minutes. I was like, I can’t do that. So I had to pull a Jimmy Clark and do something totally different. So the manuscript gives a tons of lists, but I tried to summarize them up into these four things. The first one, live a life that makes the gospel.

So I drew your attention to Acts 16 and verse number two, where it says that Timothy came on, he was a disciple in verse number one, but the brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. I was interested to see that that’s where Timothy’s evangelistic mindset started, or at least when Timothy moves to this missionary journey, this is where it all begins, that it wasn’t about his words, it was about his reputation, at least in Acts 16, too.

that it was about his consistency, not so much a conversation that Timothy had had, but because they had seen Jesus literally change Timothy’s life, that there was something about Timothy’s life that made what he professed to believe.

believable now if you don’t believe me just read the next few verses because if there is ever a case that’s presented that convinces me Timothy’s life matched what he said he believed it’s what happens in acts 16 1 through 5 now let me pause before we peel back the layers of those verses and Remind you of what’s happening in acts 15 so in acts 15 there’s this discussion that Paul has with this council of people over the subject

of circumcision, essentially that those who were non-Jewish believers, there were some Jews that were convinced that they needed to be circumcised in order to become a New Testament Christian. And so Paul would argue with this council and eventually convince them to see the error of their way. They would write a letter and Paul would deliver this letter to all of these churches showing that these non-Jewish converts to Jesus did not have to be circumcised in order to be spiritually pleasing to God.

Okay, and so then you have this letter that’s distributed to the churches. That’s what Paul’s carrying them around. And then you pick up in verse three. Paul, Timothy, this is verse three of chapter 16. Paul wanted Timothy to go with him, so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and the elders at Jerusalem.

for the people to observe so the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew in the numbers. Now if you stop and you think about that, maybe you’re confused like I am. Didn’t you just say that Paul stood before a council of apostles and elders in Jerusalem and helped him understand that a non-Jewish convert does not have to be circumcised in order to be spiritually pleasing to God and the first thing that Paul asked Timothy to do is to undergo that medical procedure. That seems to me like a

A crazy thing, but here’s what Timothy knew.

And this is why I think Timothy did it in Acts 16 without any apparent hesitation, because Timothy knew that in order to help someone know God like he knew God, in order for someone to obey the gospel and embrace the life of Jesus like Timothy had come to embrace, that he was going to have to do something uncomfortable so to win someone to Jesus. So I have a question for you before we ever move forward. What have you been

unwilling to do for Jesus because it might make you a little uncomfortable. Maybe it’s evangelism, since that’s the whole thing this week. What conversations have we not been willing to have with someone else because it’s going to make me a little uncomfortable? You think about how humiliating that must have been for Timothy as a young man. I mean, he wasn’t eight days old like the Jews were when it happened. He wasn’t just a few hours old like it is when it happens when our kids are born, right? Timothy’s a young man.

emotional

trauma that goes with being a teenager and having a procedure done. Not to be crude, I’m around teenagers every day in the classroom and every day in the locker room. And I can’t imagine what kind of emotional trauma a boy would go through if his friends found out he had to do that as a young man. Not to mention then the physical pain, right? The physical pain that Timothy’s having to endure because I’m sure that the medical advancements weren’t quite as great as they are today. So I don’t know how much physical pain he was in, but I know that Timothy knew this.

I love Jesus. And I want somebody else to know Jesus like I know Jesus. And in order to do that, he had to do something incredibly uncomfortable. And I am just so convicted by his example, because here’s what I know from Acts 16, one through five. Timothy’s life proved that he believed what he said about Jesus. It proved.

that the things that he thought and understood in his heart about Jesus, he was willing to live that out. And by the time the words of Timothy’s life, before this even happened, get to Lystra and Iconium, they knew what kind of man Timothy was. He lived a life that was believable, or at least it made the gospel believable. What about Matthew 5 and verse 16? I like that verse. And I didn’t really actually pay much attention to this until the way Brother Clark brought it out last night when he mentioned Matthew 5 and verse 16. He said,

before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” It was just something about the way he stated that that made me realize that it’s not the person who’s doing the good works that’s glorifying their Father in heaven. It’s the one who sees the person doing the good works and in turn as a result of them seeing your good works then they glorify your Father in heaven. But notice the order of the words. What did they do before they glorify your Father in heaven? They see a life

that makes the Father in heaven believable. They see a life that makes the Father in heaven something that they want to achieve, something they want to embrace. I like that in Matthew five and verse number 16. And so when you see that pattern of words, then you understand why Timothy’s life was such so impactful on the church at Lister and Iconium in Acts 16 and verse number two, because they believed what Timothy did. They saw what Timothy did that he believed it. This matters a ton.

I was trying to think about how to order these observations or suggestions. Like, should I put them in order that I feel like are the most important, perhaps? And I don’t know that I could have ever done it in an appropriate way, but I think this idea matters so much because your friends may not ever read scripture, but they’ll read you. You’ve probably heard someone say, you may be the only Bible someone ever reads, and that’s true.

They may not ever open their Bibles, but they’ll study you, and they’ll study your example, and they’ll study your devotion and your faithfulness. An inconsistent Christianity, it does more than just weaken your testimony.

It does more than weaken what you say. In most cases, it’ll silence it altogether. You really wanna make sure somebody doesn’t believe in Jesus, don’t practice what you say you believe. Don’t live out what you say you believe. That’s the surefire way to stop any momentum that you have of bringing someone to the gospel. I think what Paul said to Titus.

and Titus 2, and 8 is appropriate here, especially concerning the example. He said, make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message should be sound. It should be sound beyond reproach so that your opponent will be ashamed. But listen to the last phrase there in verse number 8. He says, he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us. I want to say this probably as clearly as I can possibly think to say concerning this idea of

living lives that make the gospel believable. Culture is not the reason that Christians appear to be losing their influence. People say it all the time, the culture’s just so bad. The culture’s just creeping into the church. Culture’s not the reason that Christians are apparently losing their influence, inconsistent lives are.

The world sees people say, I believe this and this is what I think. And then they see you live this way. The culture is not the reason. It’s the fact that we say we believe one thing and we live another thing. If you’re honest at church and you’re dishonest at home, the gospel is hollow. It’s shallow. It’s not taking any effect. If you speak loudly about Christ at church, but you live harshly and quietly and indifferently at home, well, the gospel feels hollow, undoubtedly. Evangelism, I think, it becomes

when your life matches what you say.

Here’s number two, when we think about this idea of maybe what youth can do, but perhaps the fact that we all fall into these biblical principles. I think number two, that we should care deeply about people and not just the truth. Now, I’m not saying don’t care about the truth. I’m not saying let the truth be magnified in your life, that it should be the most important thing, but I’m just saying that we ought to be careful then how we present the truth to other people. I want you to notice something that was interesting to me in Philippians chapter two. In verse number 19, he mentions that Timothy was

was an incredible aid to him and that he longed for Timothy’s presence and to see him soon so that he could encourage both Paul and the Philippian church. But look what he says in verse 20 about Timothy. Right after he’s longing for his presence and helping the church at Philippi to see the benefit of a guy like Timothy, he says this in verse 20, for I have no one else like-minded who will genuinely care about your interests.

Some of them, some translations say, who will naturally care about your interests? I love that idea. And I don’t know that I’ve ever considered the wording of verse 20 in terms of what Paul was describing about Timothy in the way that he affectionately, intentionally, and deeply cared for those who wore the name of Jesus.

And that’s what Paul said, I can’t think of anyone else that will actually genuinely care about you. ⁓ I don’t think it takes us long to realize in our lives that truth without compassion, it’s just noise, right? Paul said that in 1 Corinthians 13 in verse one, didn’t he? He said if you have this ability to do all kinds of great things for other people, you could move mountains.

But without love, it’s not anything. I mean, you could give what you have and you could give it to everybody, but it’s just noise. It’s just like clanging symbols is essentially what it is. If you have those things, but you do so without love or compassion, then it matters nothing. Compassion without any truth lacks direction, right? You need both things, right? You need a healthy dose of the truth, but those people that you’re teaching, those people that you’re reaching, the people that you’re influencing,

They need to know that you genuinely care. Compassion is not a hindrance, it’s a catalyst, a supreme catalyst, if you will, for the truth. Matthew 9.36, Jesus modeled that, I think, pretty clearly. He looked at the crowds of people and the Bible says he felt compassion for them, that he was moved with compassion because they were distressed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd, is what he said. How did Jesus view individuals that needed something deeply? He looked at them with compassion.

And that kind of compassion moved him to heal. It moved him to teach. It moved him to get to know these people and to involve themselves in their lives. And that serves as a model, I think, for those of us who want to implement those same practices, to help others know that Jesus can heal their broken lives and that Jesus can change their sin-filled lives. That the same Jesus that looked at them with compassion and was moved to meet their needs on earth stands at the right hand of God beckoning.

them to come and experience the same even today. And here’s the point. The point is that we look at Jesus’ example and we realize that He was truth, literally. That the words that were ascribed to Him were full of grace and truth. Inevitably, Jesus loved the truth. He modeled it. He lived it. He was the truth.

But I can’t help but pay attention to passages like Matthew 9.36, where Jesus looked at individuals and was moved with compassion. Now here’s what that means. If we’re gonna look at souls and say, I care about you deeply, then that means we’re gonna ask better questions. We’re not asking the surface level stuff like, hey, how are you? We’re trying to get to know people. We’re trying to get beyond the surface level of things. We’re listening before we speak. Most of the time when we’re trying to teach people the gospel, we wanna say everything and make sure they know

exactly how much we know. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Brother Clark back there say in my two years at Memphis, people won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. I think that’s evident. I think it’s true. I think it’s true in the way that we teach folks the gospel. If we’re really gonna care about other people, we’re gonna speak with humility instead of superiority. Right, Brother Clark mentioned that just a minute ago in his lesson, right? It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus, the Jesus that draws all men to him.

There were two other passages that came to mind when I think about speaking in terms of evangelism with compassion and it was two passages in Romans. In Romans 9, in the first three verses, Paul was talking about making himself a castaway, cutting himself off, and he says, it’s with great anguish in my heart, these great emotions in my heart that the people without Christ, I would push myself away so that those people could know Christ like I do. That’s the language with deep anguish. Or in Romans 10, in verse number

He says, brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they would be saved.

Paul, what did you want? I want them to know that I love them so much that I would remove myself so that they know what I know about Jesus. And there’s nothing that I want more than for them to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is entirely possible that everybody in this room knows so much truth. It is entirely possible for you to know the truth, to recite the truth, and to speak it, but it is far more likely that someone obey the gospel of Jesus Christ.

from someone that they know genuinely cares about their soul. What can we do to evangelize? We can care deeply about people. Here’s number three. We can let our example speak.

Before our words in first Timothy 4 in verse number 12 Paul told Timothy don’t let anyone look down on you Don’t let anyone despise you for your youth but be an example to the believers and word and conduct and love and faith and impurity and that was Paul’s Admonition to Timothy as he moved forward in ministry Taking the gospel to other people but notice notice what Paul doesn’t say as you read that verse Don’t let anyone despise your youth or look down on you because you’re young

but set an example for the believers in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Notice what Paul doesn’t say in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 12. I don’t recall him looking right here in my Bible and I don’t see it on the screen. I don’t see anywhere where Paul said, Timothy, you prove them all wrong. You prove them all wrong. You just tell them. You tell them how wrong they are. You just go in there fighting. No, Paul says, you live in a way they can’t ignore it.

You live in a way that when they see the gospel lived out in you, they have no excuse. They see someone who is sold out for Jesus and what Jesus can do in your life. All of that matters. And I think it’s true in 1 Peter 3 and…

Verses one and two, Peter was echoing the same sentiment, although he was speaking in terms of husbands and wives, and he was talking about a wife winning her husband over to the Lord. Listen what he says. He says, can do that without a word. That’s what he says in First Peter three, one and two. How do you do that? You let your example speak, that you show others you genuinely believe and have embraced what Jesus is doing. To me, that’s just such a powerful thought. We’re talking about what that looks like. That looks like ⁓ having the courage

to stick to what you know to be true from Jesus in tempting situations. Teens especially find themselves in those situations a lot. How do I make a decision to hold true to what I know is right? What about my words and my speech, refusing to join in in those things when everyone else is doing something? And again, this is biblical, so it’s not age expiring. It doesn’t expire when you get old. That’s important too. Every day, how we speak to each other. What about the courage to stand up?

The courage to stand up for what’s right when everyone else is just willing to bow down and blend in, right? What about that? What about these moments that preach to others? The moments where we’ve made a decision, I’m going to stay true to what I know to be true in the scripture, what I know to be right. And by the way, this verse, it wasn’t written so the adults would critique Timothy. It wasn’t written so they would look at him and say, well, you’re not doing this or are you doing this? It wasn’t a critique verse. It was written so other people could learn from him.

other people would look at his example and say, listen, they have something to learn from you. Again, youth, they’re not the future, right? That in this moment, Paul didn’t see potential in Timothy. He was seeing useful examples of Jesus changing his life, even in his youth. And so he’s saying, I’m writing this so people will look at you and see you as a powerful instrument to change lives for the Lord. I believe that evangelism, example evangelism, can prepare a heart long before a conversation ever happens. ⁓

Here’s number four, and I think I’ve got about five minutes. This is perfect, right? Number four, be willing to speak when the opportunity comes. You really want to change lives. You’ve got to be willing to speak when the opportunity comes. You know, eventually Timothy had to speak. It wasn’t all about example, you know. Be an example. Or in Acts 16 and verse 2, you get to Lister and Iconium and they’ve already heard about Timothy’s example. And some people say, well, I don’t ever have to have a conversation. I’ll just let my example speak for it.

You know, I’ll just be an example evangelist and that’s how people genuinely reason out of having conversations with other people Maybe I don’t have as long as I thought I did. Okay, good You know, they’ll reason out of those conversations because I’ll just let my life, you know I’ll just let my life tell the story I don’t ever have to say it but Timothy had to speak. Did you know that? You know what Paul told him in second Timothy 4 in verse 2 preach the word Be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine or what about second Timothy 1 verse

verses seven and eight where Paul says, didn’t give you or God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. Why would you need those things if it was all about example? Because Timothy, there’s gonna come a time where people’s ears, they’re gonna be drawn away by all of these enticing words. But Timothy, you make sure you’re ready to speak. Romans 10, 14, I’ve heard it addressed several times this week. How will they hear? How will they hear without a preacher? How will they believe without

hearing right? How can they believe? How can they change if someone never speaks? Here’s how the model works. I tried to put them this way. Consistent lives open doors. Compassion softens the heart when you’re in the door. Examples build your credibility when you’re at the table. But you better believe the gospel it can stop as quickly as you got it in with silence.

Conversations, that’s what keeps it going. Making folks consider their situation, presenting them with the truth, giving them the facts as we’ve just heard. I can think of a couple of examples where someone spoke up in silence and it made an eternal difference. What about Jeremiah in Jeremiah 20 and verse nine? Do you remember that? He said, determined that I was gonna be silent and speak no more at his name, but I couldn’t because the word of the Lord was shut up in me like a fire. It was burning in my bones and I was weary. I couldn’t hold it in.

It’s like there was a moment when Jeremiah realized, I’ve got to speak. I’ve got to say it when the opportunity presents itself. What about Acts 4? It really goes back up to verse 13 and following where they had been perceived or they perceived that those two men, Peter and John had been with Jesus. And there’s this opportunity where they’re told, hey, you should just stop. You should stop speaking. You should stop. If you really want to know what’s good for you, stop speaking. Acts 4 and verse 24, we were unable to stop speaking.

about what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard. What about 2 Corinthians 5, verse number 11 and verse number 14? Verse 11 says, for we know the terror of the Lord. And because we know the terror of the Lord, what did Paul say? We persuade men. We know what’s coming, so we’re saying something. In verse 14 he said, the love of Christ compels me. It constrains me. I can’t not say something. I have to say something. What does that look like? An invitation to church?

A simple God is good? Hey, I just want you to know what God’s been doing in my life. Who could it be? What could be a neighbor that you’ve avoided? It could be a family member that you’ve delayed. It could be a conversation you’ve postponed for years. Maybe Acts 8 is a good example of Philip just speaking to one person on the side of the road and what God was able to do in his life. Evangelism, doesn’t require eloquence.

He just requires obedience. Are you gonna do it? Are you gonna do it? It doesn’t stop with an example. It doesn’t stop with me saying I’m gonna do it. It says I’m gonna do it. Timothy’s influence, it reached far beyond his age. Timothy strengthened churches. He encouraged leaders, carried the gospel into different regions that had never heard it before, and scripture presents him as exceptional. But I promise you, it was not because of his talent. It was because he chose to be faithful to the Lord. Timothy proved something we all need to hear, I believe.

that age does not limit influence, but obedience, it’ll unleash it. Thank you for your time.

He said he had five minutes left, he actually had five minutes and 40 seconds left, so I’m gonna give him all this good time.