Titus 3:8-15 - Division and Heretics With Spiky Hair

Well, welcome back to Strength of the Day, and we are well into December.

Aren't you gone?

I am. How are you here?

I, you know, this is just one of God's little mysteries.

How are you here when you're gone?

Exactly.

So if you don't know, today is, what is today?

The 18th.

Today is the 18th, but today is not the 18th.

Correct.

So this is a pre-recorded recording.

I can't believe you let them behind the, what's the phrase from Wizard of Oz?

Curtain.

Yeah, behind the curtain.

Yeah. However, what time does this normally drop in the mornings?

Like 1.15.

I'm very tired.

But not in the future.

Really, I'm very tired.

Currently, he is very tired.

So if I yawn at all during this episode and you are watching, I'm sorry. If I yawn and you are just listening, I am again, I'm sorry, because you're going to hear that like, hmmm.

And it's not because I'm not interested in what Bryon has to say or what I have to say. I'm just tired. So anyway, well, how's your trip already?

You guys have been gone from here for eight days.

Yeah, in faith, I am claiming that everything went well.

Has anything good happened since you've been gone?

I'm going to assume that we have gotten moved into our place. Nothing was broken. None of me was broken.

Hopefully.

We are on the third flight.

We're on the third floor in our apartment. Are you really?

Hence, you got to lug all that stuff up?

We do, which thankfully, there's not a... Actually, I'm going to assume so. That would seem pretty normal.

I hope so.

Yeah. Otherwise, it's a lot of carrying. So anyway, a lot of changes here.

And Bryon's Bacchusaur has been moving, and he flew back for this episode. I did, just for you. No, we are actually recording this just a couple of days before Bryon and Sam moved to Maryland.

But we wanted to, for Strength of the Day, we want to wrap up this book, Titus, and then let you know kind of where we're going from here.

A special plan for next week, December 25th, which I will tell you since you're viewing and you've already listened in, we're two and a half minutes in already.

Yeah.

You've stayed long enough that next week is pre-recorded as well. So just so you know.

I don't know if that's a surprise to anyone at this point.

As are every week. So anyway, all right. Well, we've been in the Book of Titus.

Bryon, what is the Book of Titus about?

Yeah, Book of Titus is Paul writing to Titus and encouraging him. He had sent Titus on a mission to kind of shore some things up on the island of Crete.

And the island was a real kind of hub for trade in that part of the world, in the Roman and Grecian world. And there were several churches in various cities all across the island.

However, there had been some false teachers that had come in and had really wreaked some havoc into the churches, taught false things. They were being greedy and just taking money from people.

And so Paul was encouraging Titus, hey, I left you in Crete so that you would set up elders, so that you would set up pastors in every city.

He gives them kind of the character traits that a pastor would have, a good, godly Christian, not someone that is unlike any other person in the sense of like, you are, you know, you're, I don't know, you're a cartoon, you're something substantively

different from me. It's no, it's a regular person, but one that follows the Lord wholeheartedly and that God had kind of set aside to be able to be in ministry.

So he encourages him in that, he encourages him to rebuke the false teachers because he says it will be a help to them, it will hopefully bring them to a place of obedience in the faith.

In chapter two, he goes through and talks about the Holy Spirit's work in the lives of old men and young men and old women and young women and masters and servants. And he encourages them, don't just live like all of the people around you live.

Don't do all of the things that they do. Don't say all of the things that they say, but allow God's Spirit to work in you. Allow the word of God to determine your actions and your behavior so that you can be a light to those around you.

He closes out chapter two talking about the grace of God that has appeared to everyone, bringing salvation and teaching us to love good works, to look for the Savior, to loathe our sin. I remembered all of your things you said.

Holy hells.

Yes. And so he's going through and he's encouraging them in that respect. And then last week we looked at, in chapter three, we did that in just one episode, right?

Yeah. He goes through and encourages them to not be lawless rebels, but instead to be patient and kind towards people who are in the exact same position that the Cretans used to be in without God, not having the Spirit.

And he encourages them saying, Hey, God, God loved you. He planned for your salvation. The son died for your salvation.

The Holy Spirit lives inside of you. He regenerated you. And so now as a result of all of that, you've been saved.

So don't look down on the people that maybe aren't quite where you're at. Have some grace, have some love and forgiveness towards them because you don't know who God will save next.

And so encourages them in that way and to do good works and to care about others. And that's where we left off last week.

So I love I will just say this. I love the theme of the Book of Titus is investing in people. You know, the right investment in me and the right investment in others.

So we are coming then to this last episode and this last opportunity really today to kind of just wrap up a couple of thoughts. And then maybe we'll maybe we'll say something that stands out from the entire book.

But this morning or afternoon or evening, whenever you watch this, we're going to jump into Titus 3 beginning in verse number 9. And we will read down through the end of the book. Should we start in verse 8?

Let's start in verse 8.

Yeah.

So we're going to start in verse 8 and I'll read it and then throw it over to you.

Beautiful.

All right. So Titus chapter 3 verse 8 says, This is a faithful saying and these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and useless.

Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

When I send Artemis to you or Titicus, be diligent to come to meet in Icopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter here. Send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste, that they may lack nothing.

And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. All who are with me, greet you, greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all, amen.

There's a lot as you look in the context of this entire book that's in these last few verses, but let me just ask you, throw it over to you first. What stands out to you? What do you think is the connection?

What's something from these verses that jump off the page?

Yeah, as he's been going through, a lot of the book has been kind of primarily positive. As he's been going through talking about the elders that Titus would appoint, mainly a positive thing, Chapter 2, mainly positive.

Hey, here are all of the things that these people should be doing.

Yeah, for the most part, positive.

Yes. There's kind of two main parts I see in the book.

Except for Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

Yes, and that is, I think, the connection point between both of these more negative passages, where as he's been going through and giving, okay, these teachers have been saying all of these things and doing all of these things.

I'm giving all of the positive things that you should be doing and should be affirming in the Cretan churches.

It says, but you're going to encounter some people, Titus, that will not listen to these things, and instead, they're going to want to argue with you about genealogies, disputes, contentions, striving about the law.

And as a result, they're going to want to divide these churches as a result of rejecting what Paul had given Titus through the Holy Spirit.

And so to this point, I think it's mainly, I would think, directed towards the teachers, though I think there could also definitely be some, maybe people that have been following those teachers that would adopt some of their practices and some of

their beliefs that would then continue to follow them in their divisiveness and the fighting. So I think it's connected to those.

I would like to ask you, because you gave a little teaser at the end of last week's episode, and you said that you either had some stories or some times where you have had to look at these verses and kind of obey them even in some interactions with

others.

Yeah.

So I would say that's on the application side of it, but I agree with what you're saying, how these verses tie in. On the application side of all of this is what he says in verse number nine, okay?

So, hey Titus, set things in order, teach people what matter. And we've just gone through, here's a whole lot of stuff that matters.

Yes.

Now, you are going to encounter people that don't get it and they just want to argue. And that's where I think these verses come in to say like, there's going to be people that are going to ask foolish questions.

They're going to want to argue over, I don't know, like genealogies, like who was born when and who and how many generations and all that. Is there a secret hidden sign in these numbers in the genealogies?

And Paul says, they're going to want to talk about that. They're going to be contentious. They're going to strive about the law.

So, interpretation. Well, no, that's your interpretation. But let me show you the proper interpretation.

Or even as we see in some of the Book of Acts, we have the Judaizers coming along saying, hey, it's great you have Jesus, but you need all this stuff from the law as well.

Add this too.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

And then verse 10, reject a divisive man after the first instance. So, there's going to be division.

Yes.

All right. Someone's going to literally cause. And I think the key in it though, is to this part is, sorry, the random fly that just like almost attacked me.

The end of verse number nine, when he just says this, that they're profitable and unprofitable and useless. He's not talking about the people.

Yes.

Right. We all know that if you're watching, listening, whatever, like people are the point. Yes.

That's why Jesus came to die for people. But arguments are not the point. Yeah.

And so getting back to just application. I know after pastoring for 12 and a half years, being in ministry my entire life, like I was talking to a friend yesterday, ministry is all I know, like literally all I know.

Like your family, your dad does real estate. You could, if something happened, the world crashed and you need to do something, your family can probably fall back on some trades. I literally have ministry, that's all I've ever known.

So I've seen and I've experienced a lot more in churches than other people maybe have. And that's not an arrogant statement or anything like that, that just ends my life. I've seen people fight over the dumbest things.

And I've seen friendships broken by pastors, like pastors who were friends that argue over stuff that just doesn't matter. And I referenced the needing to reference this in my own personal life.

Like I genuinely have had men like call me on the phone about silly stuff. I've had someone call me, every staff member I've hired. I've had an outside person call me to tell me that I was wrong.

I've had someone call me on you.

Well, to be fair, they were right.

You're leaving.

Exactly. It took a while for you to kick me out.

Apparently, yeah. But that's the thing. People who call, and I remember with Pastor Robert, I joke with Rob about this, but with Pastor Rob, when he came, he still has the same hair, but he spiked his hair up.

Here we are in farming Moses Lake, right? Ten years ago when Rob came on staff, even then, social media hadn't really taken off yet like it has.

Especially here in Moses Lake.

Yeah. We really are five years behind everything else on social media often. But you had this young man coming up from California that had spiky blonde hair, like literally reddish hair.

I remember somebody was like, well, Dennis, you need to be aware of these young men that have spiky hair. I genuinely, it caught me off guard.

Well, that's very off the wall. It's a very foolish disunity. Yeah.

He wanted to, this guy wanted to debate with me.

About Rob's hair.

About Rob's hair and I just honestly, I was like, you know what?

Rob, you know, at that time, I don't know how old he is, 31 right now. At that time, he's 21 and he had interned for us in Lakewood. So I knew him.

I said, I knew him since he was 14. I just looked at that man and I said, Rob is one of the best soul winning young men I've ever met. I said, he loves the Lord and him and his wife are going to do an amazing job here.

And I'm not going to even answer that question. Because in my mind, I'm like, pardon me, I'm going to say it. I wanted to say like, you're an idiot.

Really? And so then again, when I hired Micah, somebody else, when I hired Carlo, when I hired you, it's just like, well, are you sure? Then what I'm getting at is not those experiences.

I'm getting at this passage that we still face this. And you, those of you listening, those of you watching, like, well, I'm going to throw it to you first. I know you've been, I mean, you've been serving here for, we're just shy of five years.

I'm going to say five years, because you guys came here five years ago for the first time. And we, I think, signed a verbal agreement in November of that year or whatever.

So, you know, over these five years, how have you seen verses like this play out that could have gone a bad way, but didn't, maybe in your life or even in the ministry here?

What's some application you take away from these verses from your own life experiences?

Yeah, I think for me, some things that have really stuck out have been the people that make verse 8, what they pursue, believing in God, maintaining good works, that which is good and profitable.

The people that have made that their goal and their aim, that's what they talk about. I think of, we referenced Deacon Mike Gazelle a couple weeks ago.

He's one that I know from maybe his particular church background had some specific things that maybe he had heard throughout his life that I'm sure he could maybe have discussions or arguments or something with people in various circumstances.

But I have seen him exemplify verse eight, that he believes in God and he is maintaining good works, that he's kind to people, he's constantly praying for his coworkers, he's sharing the gospel, he's inviting people to church.

He's one of those people that maybe if he doesn't necessarily have the most on-pitch voice of everyone that I've ever heard in my life, he sings out with all of his might, no matter what the song is.

If he knows the song, then he's really belting it out and it is one of my favorite sounds to hear at church because it doesn't matter what the circumstance is, he is all in and I've seen him exemplify this.

Loving people, loving God, serving God, wholeheartedly worshiping God.

And I think much like you've seen.

And we can name hundreds of people from here that have done that.

100%.

Mike, he's not picking on you, by the way, just so you know, because I know you're watching.

We love you, Mike, you're great.

Probably not at 1 a.m. However, he might be because he gets off work sometimes.

Anyways, but I think both of us, like you've mentioned that you've had me with some staff members, I think both of us have seen over the years, I've been involved in church ministries for the past maybe 12, 14, 15 years.

And I have seen when people have made verse 9 instead of something to avoid, they've made it something to be pursued. Yeah. And I've seen deacons leave churches over just foolish things that didn't have anything to do with scripture.

There's been times where I've seen pastors really have to kind of pivot their whole ministry in order to deal with divisive people. And I think it's a constant reminder to me because all of us have things that we have strong opinions about.

And just because we wouldn't want to divide over a particular issue doesn't mean that there aren't sometimes things that we maybe don't have a good attitude or a good opinion through.

And so I think something that we mentioned even back when we were talking about the false teachers and some of their ways of not just saying, oh yeah, all those people out there are bad and terrible, but looking introspectively and going, okay, what?

Not on the Bible. What outside things caused my heart to go, oh, I don't want to talk with that person. Oh, I don't want to fellowship with him.

Oh, I don't want to. And I think as we do that, as we realize that being a divisive Christian is something to avoid. Yeah.

I find it strong in there. He says divisive person after the first and second admonition rejects, knowing that they are.

It's kind of a similar thing to what Jesus talks about with church discipline, where when a person is willfully rejecting the word of God, that there's that that takes place in the life of a church.

And I don't ever want to be that person that maybe over some petty issue, I'm like, oh, I don't want to hang out with Pastor Dennis anymore. I don't want to talk with him anymore.

I don't want to hang out with Pastor Dennis anymore.

I'm doing it anyway. Listen, you can either be divisive about this or you can be just like...

So I think that's something, as I'm looking at this passage that's going through my mind is, all of us have really strong opinions about some things that aren't Bible. I mentioned Baltics last week.

I think for many of our viewers could possibly be Republican if certain things are... I'm trying to think of the word. I cannot think of the word.

If certain groupings of people that they say are accurate, many of you might be Republicans.

I think we can sometimes go, okay, if you're like a big old Trump guy, and you're like, okay, I'm going to divide from anyone that's maybe a Vivek or a Nicky or whoever else is there at this point. Yeah, DeSantis at this point.

And then, oh, okay, well, I'm going to divide from you. You don't love God because you don't pursue this person. Or on the flip side, a person can go, oh, well, you voted for Trump?

Oh, well, okay, I'm done with you. You can't be a real question. And I've seen some of those conversations take place online for people.

And I think this passage would remind us, like, hey, if it doesn't have to do with following the Lord, if it doesn't have to do with what the Bible says, then we need to be very wary of being divisive.

Yeah. What do you think? So I totally agree.

And I would say, here's where the problem comes into that thinking, because I faced it. Okay, well, who defines what's important and what's not?

God does.

Right? So that, again, that's the answer. Okay, God does.

Like, I can close my eyes right now. I can think of two situations, two conversations with two different people, that that came up. Because I said to them, I said, you know, so-and-so, I feel like you are really just giving into a Titus 3.9.

You are getting involved in just foolish questions. And they said, well, they're not foolish to me. And, you know, I'm just like, well, okay, like, you're right, they're not foolish to you.

But your opinion right now is being more divisive than it is in getting an answer to a question. So that's where I think I'll do this. We're out of time today, so I'll wrap up with a couple of thoughts.

And then you can too, I guess. But, I guess, sorry, random thought. Here's all I'll say to the listener, to those viewing today.

Number one, in your life, like what Pastor Bryon said, we are all prone to getting frustrated, letting little things become big things. I have a friend of mine, well. Well.

He's a friend of yours.

Honestly, no.

I have a friend that I would call him a friend. I don't know if he would call me a friend. Wait, no.

He would call me a friend. I don't know if I, anyway. His dad used to say the phrase, don't make mountains out of molehills.

He would say, don't make mountains out of molehills and remember, they're all molehills. Basically, the idea was like everything isn't that big of a deal. And I agreed with him.

He wasn't talking about doctrine. He was talking about all the issues that people struggle with. Like, don't make a big deal of it.

And so I think for us, kind of a quick application today is, like issues are going to come up that we don't like. Things are going to happen that bother us. And again, we're not talking about doctrinal issues.

I'm talking about salvation. I'm not talking about baptism by immersion that is not part of salvation. I'm not talking about the church being impact and being an important part of the Christian's life.

I'm not about silly things that people get frustrated about. Like, don't do it. Just don't get frustrated about it.

And the second thing is when you find yourself engaging with people, check division and unity. Right? Like, we've said this multiple times on our podcast in a church.

Like, the Lord is all about addition and multiplication, and the devil is always about subtraction and division. And like, God is always about adding and making things better.

The devil is about dividing and disputing and arguing and making things worse, subtracting from it. And so I think, you know, when we get engaged with people like that, it isn't just, it isn't just, fine, I'm done.

I'm never talking to them like what Bryon said. I build a wall. You did that.

I'm done.

Build a wall?

It's, yeah, build a wall. Never mind. It's not that mindset of cutting off.

It's like, okay, I'm okay. So my friend that I referenced a minute ago, I genuinely have hit a point where I want to be his friend, but he doesn't want to be my friend. I hate that.

I hurt. I don't like that. But it's okay because what he doesn't want to be friends over, I'm not going to argue with him about because it doesn't matter.

In the long plan of things doesn't mean God's plan. It doesn't matter.

So this week, taking stands, choosing what we take a stand on, like let's make sure we're just standing on scripture, make sure that we're avoiding that spirit of division, and make sure that as we go through the week, we even check our own motives,

like am I the one that's causing division because of my opinion, my strong opinion, sometimes even in the home, I mean really in the home, in a marriage, in any area, this is some good application, of course written about the church, but great for

the home. So anyway, before we wrap up, any last thoughts from you?

Just as you were talking, I thought of Jesus' prayer in the Book of John where he prayed that we would be one as believers.

Yeah, John 17.

And if ever we have to divide from someone, it should be a big deal.

It should not be just a regular habit of ours. It should be a big deal. And I think of that even in the verses, divisive person after the first and second admonition or in church discipline, all the steps that go before it.

People are valuable, love people, and I think verse 8 kind of gives a little bit of the antidote to verse 9. The opposite of useless debates and division is maintaining good works.

Yes, when he even says it to people. Verse 14, like, hey, by the way, remember, good works, people, let's keep the right things on track that matter.

When you're doing good to people, it's real hard to want to cut them off if you're also doing good to them.

Yeah, well, anyway, well, thanks for joining us for this next week. We will wrap up the year.

Yeah.

And it's Christmas Day next Monday. So we'll get a special recording. We'll launch on that day.

I will tell you this, that we also next week will let you know kind of what's taking place in the coming year. But strength for the day as we know it will be different. But there's some new additions coming that we're going to enjoy.

So have a great week and we will see you next Monday morning. Bye.