Be an Iceberg Christian: Setting an Example in Your Youth

0:00 Let's pray together. the father in heaven is precious few minutes would you have a word for us about what it means to be an example not just as a man a woman or human but as a Christian we want to be an influence for Jesus and so would you be pleased in these few short minutes with the help of your spirit to guide us give us a vision help us dream a dream in Jesus name we pray amen I want to start with something surprising I'm surprised there are so many people in this room to hear about being an example strange it's an amazing just that you're at the cross conference. But then with the other good options here that you would come and want to focus on being an example for Jesus, I find to be amazing and deeply encouraging. So I'm assuming I got some wonderfully unusual men and women in the room here. And my assumption is that you want to be the kind of person who leads and shapes and is a catalyst for godly change in other people. That's what it means to set an example. You want to be an influence for Jesus. You have a holy discontent with the status quo on your campus and online and perhaps even in your church. You don't want to be conditioned by algorithms and endless scrolling and be conditioned by other people who are being conditioned by algorithms and endless scrolling. You want to be an influence to condition them back to sanity and humanity and real life. You don't want to be shaped by the

2:07 world but by the Word, God's Word, His Son in the Scriptures and do that in the context of a truth-telling, faithful, local church. And far above the where's and the what's and the how's that dominate the thinking of your generation, you have an all-encompassing who? Jesus Christ. You have a holy ambition to live for Him and to influence others for him and to lead a life worth emulating that would lead people to him. You have a hunger that Jesus can only satisfy and a holy discontent with this world and a godly ambition to make much of Jesus and not waste the one life you've been given, which means you want to set an example. I take it that's who I'm speaking to in these few minutes and in our few minutes of Q&A that follows and I thank God for you. I'm thrilled to be among you. Now these days as much as I love ministering among college students and young adults, I find myself these days, find myself in these contexts with fellow pastors and with seminary students, young guys who want to be pastors. And one thing I love to do is challenge them to be iceberg pastors. That's the term, iceberg pastors.

3:47 You may know the fancy fact about icebergs. 10% visible above the surface, 90% underwater, Unvisible. Unvisible. That's why icebergs are so dangerous for ships, like Titanic. Titanic had 35 feet below the water, 60 feet above the water. Not that that's why it wrecked, but they didn't see the 90 percent, didn't avoid the 90 percent of the iceberg. In the open water, it's not enough to steer clear of the 10 percent. you got to navigate around the 90% that is unseen. That's why we have this expression, the tip of the iceberg. When some issue has a visible part and the more significant part, the main part is unseen beneath the surface, we talk about the tip of the iceberg. So I've said before to fellow pastors and aspiring pastors. I want you to be an iceberg pastor. Join me in trying to be an iceberg pastor, which means you learn more than you teach and you ponder more than you preach. Your soul feeds on more of God than you try to feed others. This is a real danger in ministry when your outputs begin to chase your inputs. That But what you're taking in, you're immediately pivoting and trying to minister to others, instead of just taking in more and giving out a little.

5:32 And now what I want to do for you, and this is new to me, in coming to Cross 26 and thinking about this room filled with 18 to 25-year-olds, I want to issue an iceberg challenge to you with a little tweak. I know you're not all pastors. You're not all teaching regularly. in a room full of young men young men and women like this with a holy ambition to set an example for others I want to encourage you to be an iceberg Christian that the example the 10 percent that's above the water 10 percent that's visible wouldn't be the entirety of your Christian walk but just the little piece that sticks up that people see And beneath the surface is 90% solid, thick, weighty iceberg.

6:29 So let your light shine. Be an example. Live a life worthy of emulation. Be a holy influencer for Jesus. And let that visible influence just be a glimpse of what's beneath the surface. be bigger under the water than you are above the water in just these few short minutes I want to take you to 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 12 is the famous verse where Paul's talking to young adult Timothy Timothy's not 8 years old or 12 Timothy's in his 20s or early 30s this is a good correspondence for you like Timothy And Paul's talking to a young Timothy, and he says, set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. And what I want to do in our few minutes is make one simple observation in 1 Timothy 4, especially verses 11 to 16.

7:30 I want you to see the outputs that Paul expects that are above the waterline and the private inputs beneath the surface that are necessary for Timothy to be who he should be. So two parts here in 1 Timothy chapter 4. 10% above, 90% unseen. So look with me at verses 11 to 16. And see if you see the two parts while I read. And then I'll point them out here briefly.

8:09 1 Timothy 4, verse 11. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth. Cross 26. But set the believers in example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers.

9:01 So very simple here, two parts. First, the 10%. This is the public, visible part. So note the outputs here that Paul is expecting of Timothy. Verse 11. Command and teach. Paul is assigned to go to Ephesus. Timothy is assigned to go there as Paul's delegate. Timothy is supposed to teach what he's learned from Paul with the appropriate forcefulness. So command these things. There's moral weight to the teaching. Then verse 12, set the believers an example, something to be seen, a model, something to be emulated. verse 13 Timothy is to read Scripture in public and to give exhortations and to teach the church based on Scripture that's public that's above the surface about verse 14 scratch your head on verse 14 I take it that the ministry of teaching is what Paul is referring to in verse 14 he ends verse 13 talking about teaching. He's going to come back to teaching, explicitly in verse 16. I think that's the gift that Timothy had and was given, and Paul expects him to exercise, which is a visible 10% gift above the surface. And then verse 15, he says he wants all to see your progress. That's an amazing statement. So live out that example that all may see your progress. So that's the public, visible part of Timothy's call and his life. He's a teacher. He teaches in public. And more than just teach, he's supposed to show his progress, be an example of his growth, of his maturation in Jesus.

11:00 Then Paul mentions these five areas. If I had time, I would give you an example of a biblical youth who modeled each of these five. Here's just a taste. You do your own study. Purity. I'm taking them in backwards order. Purity, young Daniel. Daniel chapter 1. He refused to be contaminated by his unbelieving society. You don't have to feed on what the unbelieving world is feeding on.

11:37 Get a better spiritual diet than the world's. Don't scroll through Babylon like everyone else. Fight to be pure like a young Daniel, which does include sexual purity. 1 Timothy 5, 1 and 2, and more. Faith, like a young Jeremiah.

12:03 This is where God speaks to Jeremiah in chapter 1, verses 7 and 8 of Jeremiah and says, Do not say, young Jeremiah, I'm only a youth. For to all to whom I send you, you shall go. And whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. So, cross 26, hear this. Don't undersell your age. Rise above the world's low expectation for 20-somethings. Take a risk in faith, like Jeremiah. Find a clear calling from God and do it. How about love? There's a young David. 1 Samuel chapter 17 Goliath issued the challenge and neither Saul nor any other Israelite soldier responded to the call and then David heard the need he didn't dream this up David didn't say I want to fight a giant David heard a need and he dared to volunteer Listen for needs.

13:19 Seek to fulfill needs, even if it's dangerous. David was willing to die to his own safety and comfort and convenience to help others. Esther would be an example of such love as well. How about conduct? We'd go to Titus. Very similar to our main point here, Titus 2.7. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. Let your vibrant inner life shine in your actions. Show the world. Show the church godly conduct like Titus. Speech. The young Elihu in Job chapter 32 to 37. He knew that it was God's spirit that makes one wise, not age. so he says in Job 32 verses 8 to 9 if you're in your 20s this is a verse for you look it up study it memorize it Job 32 8 and 9 it is the spirit in man the breath of the almighty that makes him understand it is not the old who are wise nor the aged who understand what is right in other words simply living life It doesn't make you wise automatically.

14:42 It's the Spirit of God who gives someone godly wisdom. And He can do that in your youth. The Holy Spirit's not too young to be wise. So don't undersell the power of the Spirit in you. He is never too young. My main emphasis, other than purity, faith, love, conduct, speech, my main emphasis is on the 90%. That's what I want to finish with. The quiet, unseen, under the surface 90%. And I want you to see that in this passage. Earlier in this chapter, Paul has talked to Timothy about his being trained. That's verse 6. That's quiet. It's out of sight.

15:35 And Timothy should be training himself in godliness, verse 7. But especially in our paragraph, we've got these three things. First in verse 15, Paul says, practice these things, that is, cultivate them. Cultivating is something you do in a private unseen place. When you cultivate a garden, you do it unseen so that someday people will come and see the blossoming flowers. You cultivate habits in private that someday do see the light of day when they grow and blossom. The same word that Paul uses here for cultivate is used in Acts 4, verse 25 to talk about the nation's plotting, conspiring. It happens quietly, behind closed doors.

16:31 It's unseen, and then someday it has public implications. Second, verse 15, immerse yourself in them, he says. this is be in them exist in them live in them saturate yourself in them soak yourself in the scriptures last night in the discussion Piper had his Bible and he said immerse yourself here using the language the same way Paul is right here in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Immerse yourself. Be in the Word. Be in the Scriptures. Last verse 16. Keep a close watch on yourself. Literally, fix your attention on yourself and on your teaching. So I count those three aspects of Paul's iceberg charge here to Timothy. The first, First, cultivate in private what lies beneath good public teaching, what lies beneath a model public life.

17:46 There are habits of mind, habits of heart to be cultivated and to have expression someday in the 10%. Second, saturate yourself in, be in the scriptures privately. your life in them that you may teach them well to the church Timothy that you may live them well in the 10% cross 26 and third fix your attention keep a close watch on yourself daily communion with Jesus don't let yourself drift from the life giving nourishment of vine. so brothers and sisters it is a good noble desire to want to influence others for Jesus I want you all to have that desire and in some ways give your life to it but how how do you go about setting an example that's what's so remarkable in 1 Timothy chapter 4 Yet Paul wanted Timothy to set an example, not on accident, on purpose.

19:04 Be intentional about it. Pray about it. Obey Paul's command, Timothy, be an example. And all the while, he wants him to do it like an iceberg. Be the kind of person in private, in the 90% that will make your little 10% example that sticks up visible above the water to be genuine and to be enduring. That you not be a flash in the pan or a phony in the example you set. Devote yourself to knowing and enjoying Jesus. Then let your visible example radiate from your invisible heart and invisible habits of soul. Yes, let your light shine. And when people get closer, they'll see you're not thin and shallow and hollow, but even better up close than from a distance.

20:09 So my younger brothers and sisters in Christ, take in more than you give out. Hear more than you speak. Know yourself loved by God even more than you love others. Spend far more energy and attention cultivating the inner life, your devotional life, your knowing and enjoying Jesus, than you spend on dreaming about your public example. Be bigger on the inside than the outside. Be more impressive in person than online. Be more real up close than from far away. And do be an example. Do be an influence for Jesus. Let that 10% be a genuine expression of the quiet, massive, steady, 90% beneath the surface. Be an iceberg Christian.

21:15 Father in heaven, I thank you for many in this room who are already taking steps in that direction and being that. And I pray for some in this room to have that desire, that trajectory, that possibility, freshly impressed upon the soul, that this might be a turning point. This might be a time to say, I'm not going to gauge everything on the public example. I'm going to let my light shine, my little 10% light that reflects a 90% weighty, unseen knower and lover of Jesus. Make it true in our lives in these days ahead, and would you help us now in this Q&A. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.