Titus 2:1-10 - Pastor Rob Doesn't Participate and All-Ages Discipleship

Well, welcome back to Strength of the Day.

I am here with a man with a great shirt. And I love these shirts. Where did you get those again?

So my friend, Dave McCracken.

Legendary.

His granddaughter.

Okay.

Who special needs.

She drew this. Wow. And they sent it to print.

That is so cool. I really do.

Do you know if they have like anywhere you can buy them online?

They don't. They actually don't run anymore. But I talked to my wife.

Yeah. And I was like, Hey, you're an artist. Could you like recreate like, you know, she would share but recreate something like this.

Yeah.

It's like, yeah, I could do something like that.

So maybe next year we'll do that.

Nice. Very nice.

Anyway, I love this. The lion and the lamb.

Yes.

Of course, my kids are always like, Dad, is the lion about to eat the lamb?

And I'm like, oh, no, the lion of Judah, the lamb that was slain. It's a whole song.

It's all right. Come on. All right.

Well, we are in the Book of Titus and we've been in it for a whole one week so far.

And last week we went over chapter one and we learned that Titus was a kind of a ministry companion of Paul. And Paul had sent him to the island of Crete, where there were a lot of bad people.

Mercenary soldiers, liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

Yes. And Paul said everything bad that has been said about them is true.

Just so you know, I wasn't describing most of us over the Thanksgiving holiday. Lazy gluttons. A lot of people just ate a lot.

Wow.

Anyway, I just came here to learn about the Bible and I feel very attacked right now.

Remember last week we talked about my sarcasm, Paul's sarcasm?

All I remember is you're talking about pastors, and because Paul gave... How you make the big bucks. No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

We'll get there. No, inaccurate, but also we'll get there. Paul is giving Titus A.

There have been some very bad teachers that have come in, that have taught bad things. They are, they were getting paid the big bucks. And as a result...

So what does that say about you?

That I'm a good teacher because I'm not getting paid the big bucks.

So he tells Titus, hey, I want you to appoint some godly, good pastors and leaders. Don't put in positions of leadership these bad people. And he gives two lists, one of a faithful Christian and one that should exemplify what pastors are like.

And then he gives a list of what the current teachers were like, and it was not the same list. And so he encourages him in that and goes, all right, here are the type of pastors and leaders that you need.

And then he goes one step kind of below into while you are there with these churches on the island of Crete. Here's the kind of church members. Whoa, bless you.

Here are the kind of church members. Here are the kinds of people and Christians that need to be in the churches because it's not just enough that you have godly leadership.

If churches are going to make a difference in their area, in their city, in their island, in their world, then it needs to be that there is godly leadership and there are godly Christians inside.

And some of the believers there in Crete, because of the encouragement and prompting of the bad teachers, they were just behaving like all of the other Cretans. They were lying. They were rebelling, rebelling.

They were engaging in the immorality, not immortality, immorality and sin, just like all of the people around them were. And so Paul tells Titus, hey, here's what I want to encourage you to tell the believers there in Crete.

Pastor, would you read through our section for today?

Yeah. So we're in Titus chapter 2 and verses 1 through 10. Yep.

Yeah, let's do that.

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given too

much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise,

exhort the young men to be sober minded, in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, and incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be

ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our

Savior in all things. I love, okay, there's a bunch here, but something that real quick that just stands out to me that I'll forget to say is, I love the last part when it says that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. It

basically is like that they would be an ornament, a decoration, something of beauty that just makes God look good. Realizing like, wow, that person's life matches the life of Christ.

That's what Christianity looks like?

Yeah. It's, okay. That's appealing, that's beautiful, that's something you want.

There's a lot going on here, and I really, here's what I would just say right off the bat today. I think Titus chapter one, or chapter two, verses one through ten is a great pattern for any church to follow.

And it is completely built upon discipleship. That's what it is. It's like, hey listen, if you believe in God, then live that faith and let that faith flow from you to affect those around you.

And there's a lot more I want to give kind of as application, but real quick, what stands out to you in those verses that you want to mention?

Yeah, I think about how many times you can see the word either like sober, sober minded, temperate, reverent. Especially my generation can be very irreverent, kind of a nothing is sacred. You can just kind of have fun, poke all the time.

Yeah.

And I think one thing that stands out from all of the commands to not do that, but to be sober and reverent, I think that ought to challenge us that we would have a seriousness about people, that we would genuinely love people.

And I bet this is maybe Pastor Robert Elliott.

Out there? Yeah.

I was going to bring him in. He was just going to peek his head in.

He's not.

Oh, wow.

I can't believe him.

So we ought to have a soberness about people, about the gospel, about our lives. That I have seen it be easy for people to be flippant about their actions, especially sinful actions. It's, well, I was just in a bad mood.

I've been stressed. I've been whatever. But I think having a sobriety and a seriousness about how we interact with God and the things of God, I think that's a wonderful thing.

Yeah.

Well, the idea of the be sober minded is the idea of to be clear thinking.

Yeah.

To have clarity in your thinking. And I agree with you. Like if we can approach the Lord without a flippant, you know, just say, and whatever, like who cares attitude?

Like, no, I'm clearly thinking like I am talking with God, living for God. That's what that that sober minded has to do with. Yeah.

What else stands out to you?

Yeah, I think about both in verse number four, like you mentioned with discipleship, that the older women are to teach the younger.

Yeah.

And I know it can be easy sometimes for us to go, oh, okay. Well, the younger generation and that will be you. The younger generation has got this.

They can do the teaching. They can do the discipling. We've been Christians for long enough.

I'll leave that to the next generation. I think we ought to take a personal ownership, and I think that can go at any stage.

Yes.

That it's not just, hey, at our church, the 55 and ups, you guys need to teach people and all of us underneath, like we'll just let you teach us, but each of us should take an interest and a care in those that are in the stage behind us.

So for you, it might be maybe someone my age or it might be for me that I help out with the teens or something, but that we have a care, not just for our generation and for people at maybe our maturity and up, but that we would have a care for people

that are younger, that are going through things that maybe we've gone through, that we would have a love for that.

Let me say this on that.

I totally agree. And you look in the passage, it's talking about older women teaching younger women, and older men teaching younger men.

I was asked at a church that I spoke at recently, it was a men's group and they asked a question to me as a pastor, like how do you want people in your church to invest in others, the older men and the younger men and all of that, kind of along this

line. And I just said this and I would remind all of our listeners and those watching, here's a great lesson that we should have in our mind constantly. I can learn from anybody. Yes, like that should be my mindset.

I can learn from anybody. So, yes, the idea older to younger is very biblical. It should be there, but I can learn from anybody.

So as a 40 year old man, like, what are you 26?

So 26 years old, like I tell our church, I have learned from all of our staff guys, and I've learned from Brian, I've learned from Pastor Rob and Pastor Carlos and all of them on just a bunch of different things. Well, what is that?

That is somebody sharpening me, me learning from someone who's younger than me. Hannah and I were joking, I think when we first hired you, like our staff is closer in age to our kids than to us.

But like, honestly, I think that's biblical, not just in the staff position, but the idea that I can learn from anyone.

And so at that conference, I said that, like, just recognize, Titus chapter 2 is yes, learning from the older and the younger submitting and following. But I think there's a great challenge to just have mentorship in our life from every angle.

And that takes humility, right? The Bible says that a wise man receives instruction. And that's something that we all need.

So go ahead, what are we going to say?

Yeah, I think verses 4 and 5 are very fitting, especially within the realm of Cretan culture. And especially during that time, it was very popular for women to kind of push off marriage. There would be kind of some immorality, some sleeping around.

And as a result, Paul is telling Titus like, hey, encourage them, don't put off marriage. That's not something that ties you down in the sense of, maybe not as much nowadays, it's kind of fallen out of favor. But the older phrase, ball and chain.

Yeah. Just so you know, Gen Z does not like that.

They don't know that phrase.

No, no, they know it.

They don't like it?

They do not like that phrase.

That's good for me to know.

Yeah, I just, I don't want you to step into a landmine.

To say that someday.

Exactly.

I probably would not think of that, but.

Great.

Because I'm not that smart. I'd be like, you know, that's that phrase, that phrase like, no, the old ball and string. I don't know what it is.

Anyway, I'm sorry.

Back to the passage.

Paul encourages the older women to encourage the younger women that they would be pure, that they would be their homemakers, workers at home kind, being subject to their own husband, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Yeah.

And I think that's a very important phrase that kind of shows up a couple of times through, that the word of God, the reputation of God, the appearance of God, are all what we should live our lives and relationships in light of.

Yeah.

So here, if you had, you know, maybe someone that was looking in on the relationship of a young Cretan mother and father, and they see, oh well, she's never at home, she's never doing her responsibility at that time of taking care of the kids.

Instead, she's out carousing with whoever. Well, if that's what a Christian is, then I don't want to be a Christian.

I can do that without it anyway.

Yeah, I can do that without submitting to, you know, Jesus or whatever. So to that end, he gives that thing there as well in verse number eight. Love this one for the young men.

Sound and speech, which is beyond reproach. There's that phrase again from last week. So that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

And we talked a little bit last week about the accuser of the brethren.

Yeah.

And that goes for the opponent as well as just any opponent.

Yeah, any adversary, anybody who's against the gospel. Yes. Can't bring accusation that would be would be believed.

Yes.

And I think that that brings comfort and boldness for human opponents. Definitely. And I think it brings incredible comfort that Paul is telling Titus, hey, having this soundness in speech, which is beyond reproach, is possible.

And that you can live your life in an obedient way to the gospel, so that if Satan wanted to bring accusation, he can't bring anything. He'll be shut up by Christ as is. But man, what a comfort to our hearts.

I think about, is it in 1st John where he says, like, blessed is the man whose heart does not condemn him? That is not 1st John 3. Is that Romans 14?

No, I think it is 1st John, isn't it?

No, it's not.

Yeah, because I think it's about the meat. I don't know.

Might be Romans. Oh yeah, it is Romans. Romans 14 or 1st Corinthians 8.

There's so many good passages in the Bible.

You should read them.

All of them, today.

Just put down whatever you're doing. Read the entire Bible today.

That's the challenge.

That's the challenge. Read the whole Bible.

Whoever's still with us today, like, I'm sorry.

This is just, listen, it's been good. We've seen some good stuff. And I think I just had one other thing.

I love verses 9 and 10 because it's one of those things that it was just these were who the Cretans were and that Paul has to give this instruction is humorous.

Urge slaves to be subject to their own masters and everything to be pleasing, not argumentative. Yeah. Not stealing.

But should we know good faith and goes on there? I just think it's really funny that he's like, all right, guys, like, I know what Cretans are like, stop stealing stuff because then your masters are never going to turn to Christianity.

They're going to be like, no, every one of my slaves that has accepted Jesus like he's stealing from me. He's arguing. He's not doing any of the stuff that I have him hired for.

But I find that humorous that he puts that in there. Okay, slaves, don't steal from your masters.

I think it's very funny. So let's do this. All right, we're almost out of time.

So let's just get some application for this week, I guess, and then we can be done. But you know, when I look at this, here's what I would tell you to do.

All right, so look at this passage today, maybe open up your Bible, Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 10, and identify what life stage are you in? All right, what life stage do you think you're in? Are you an older man that knows the Lord?

Okay, if you are, here's some great characteristics for you to build into your life, to be clear thinking, to be reverent, respectful, to be temperate, under controlled the spirit's control, sound in faith, in love, in patience, great goal.

All right, maybe you're an older woman. As a believer, a follower of God, look into your life and say, okay, am I reverent in my behavior?

Not a slanderer, I'm not putting other people down, not given to much wine, I teach good things, I'm admonishing or encouraging young women to love their husbands, and I'm having a mindset to invest in others. Maybe you're a young man, all right?

To the young men, it says, exhort them to be sober minded. And then I love verse number seven, it says this, and all things showing yourself a pattern of good works.

Years ago, Hannah and I were writing some of the like leadership standards for like our teachers and stuff like that. And one of the things was like, you know, you must be at every service.

And like the way it read, you know, I mean, I'd collected a bunch from other people. The way one of them read, I was like, like, that's really hard because you've got families.

And I had one of our men that came to me like, Pastor, like, I work every other week. So this means I couldn't teach a class because I'm not here.

And so I was like, OK, so Hannah and I, I literally remember we just sat down, we were going over this like what, like what should be written as a leadership standard?

And you know, the statement we came up with is show yourself, having your life showing a pattern of faithfulness to the Lord. Pattern is something if I look back over a six month period, I'm going to see more consistency than inconsistencies.

That's my pattern. And so for young men, like the challenge is there, have show yourself, give your life to have a pattern of good works in what areas, in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility.

So all of these things, young women having those characteristics of that Bryon just mentioned that are written about in verse 5.

And so the challenge I would give you, one of them is this, look into these lists and find out what area, what life stage am I in? And then does my life match this list?

And then the second thing I would encourage you with is to build around you, build around you people, other Christians, who are living out these things and desiring to invest in others.

You know, something I learned years ago, and I'm again excited for Bryon and Samantha going to pastor. And I know I'll challenge you with this even as it gets closer, which is just now a couple of weeks away.

But I would encourage you build around you people that you can learn from. And one of the things, so this is funny, but verse number three, women, older women that be reverent in behavior, not slanderers.

We're going to talk about this, not next week, I think it's the week after, but there's going to be a group of people that are Christians, that we all find ourselves around, that are gossippers and complainers.

And this is just kind of on mind today to give to us before we go. If you find yourself constantly around people that complain and gossip, you're probably not the best people to invest in you.

And again, I know that's not necessarily this whole passage, but it kind of stands out to me, because I think a lot of Christians, we find ourselves around people that complain, and we easily get sucked into that.

And one of the things that I've determined a number of years ago, just even around pastors, like I know pastors that gossip about other people and complain. I don't want to be that guy. You know, and so I don't want to have that invested in my life.

So really just a couple of take aways today. Who am I allowing to invest in to me? Am I being mentored?

Am I mentoring, discipling others? And then which one of these areas do I fit into? Is my life characterized?

Or can I easily be identified as having a pattern of good works, walking with the Lord? And so that's kind of my take away for today. I don't know, you got one before we go?

I do.

I forgot it, but then I remembered it. You are not alone. And I think all throughout the book that that is kind of a recurring theme.

At the very beginning to Titus, hey, God's with you. God's promised you and he won't lie. It says there are going to be people that fit all of the pastoral qualifications.

And you have older men, you have older women, you have younger men, you have younger women. And everyone fits into one of those four categories. And only those four categories.

Amen. We have that hope that you are not alone in your Christian walk. There are other people.

And if you are in need, like reach out. And other people can help you in your spiritual walk. You were not meant to do this all by yourself.

And next week, we will learn kind of the whole energy, the whole impetus behind why we could pursue these things for our lives. And I know it's going to be a big help. So thanks for tuning in today.

And I look forward to seeing you in December.

Wow. Right around the corner.

And we got six feet of snow next week. No, just kidding.

Hopefully not.

Please no snow. Have a wonderful day. Do not get snow.

Bye.