Introduction:
What is Expected of a Church Member?
(Titus 2:1-10)
- Live what you believe. (Titus 2:1-10)
- Older Men . (Titus 2:2)
- Older Women . (Titus 2:3-4a)
Proverbs 10:18 - ...whoever utters slander is a fool.
Psalm 101:5 - Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I will destroy.
- Younger Women . (Titus 2:4b-5)
- Young Men . (Titus 2:6-8)
- Employees . (Titus 2:9-10)
- Invest in others. (Titus 2:3-4, 6-7)
- Shine on. (Titus 2:5, 8, 10)
Matthew 5:16 - let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:47-00:49
All right, Titus chapter two, are you there?
00:53-01:09
A lot of you know I served as an associate pastor of a church up in Butler for 11 years, and there was a man there, his name was Lou, and he went to be with the Lord a few years ago.
01:10-01:16
But Lou was, he was such a pillar in that church, and such a character.
01:16-01:20
He always, always, always spoke with this gruff tone.
01:21-01:24
Even though he was being very kind, he always talked to you like this.
01:25-01:26
He can be saying the nicest thing.
01:26-01:29
He can be saying, "Have a nice day." But it would just be like this all the time.
01:31-01:32
And I loved Lou.
01:34-01:43
And one particular Sunday, when Aaron and I were going in, and for worship, we had this crazy idea.
01:45-01:47
You're not gonna believe this.
01:48-01:49
We had this crazy idea.
01:49-01:53
We're like, let's sit somewhere completely different than where we normally sit.
01:55-02:01
Some of you looked like shocked by that, but believe it or not, you can do that.
02:03-02:04
You can sit anywhere.
02:05-02:06
So we had this crazy idea.
02:07-02:12
Usually we sat on the pulpit side, but we're like, let's go sit on the other side, and we ended up sitting right behind Lou.
02:14-02:19
And it was during meet and greet time, you know meet and greet time, the thing that everybody hates about church.
02:19-02:29
It was during meet and greet time that Lou stood up and turned around, and he, as he often did, just laid into me.
02:29-02:43
I had a shirt and a tie on, and Lou's like, I'm gonna say something, and I don't wanna hurt your feelings, but back when I was an elder in this church, you wore a shirt, a tie, and a suit coat.
02:44-02:48
I'm like, "Well, Lou, I got a shirt and tie on, right?
02:48-02:49
"Two out of three ain't bad, right?
02:50-03:11
"According to Meat Loaf, right?" He's like, "Shirt, tie, suit coat." And I'm like, "Well, you know, I think, yeah." "Shirt, tie, I know I'm hurting your feelings now, "but shirt, tie, and suit coat, "that's what was expected when I was an elder in this church." And I'm like, "All right, yeah, yeah, okay, "thank you for that." And then meet and greet time was mercifully over.
03:12-03:22
And Pastor Bob got up to preach and Lou sat down and within the first couple minutes, he was out.
03:25-03:30
And I don't mean like, whoo, I nodded off there for a second, which nobody here does.
03:31-03:35
I don't mean that, I mean, R-E-M, out.
03:37-03:40
And if you know my wife, you could probably guess what she said.
03:41-03:46
She leaned over to me and she said, "When he was an elder, did they say anything about sleeping during the sermon?"
03:46-03:47
(congregation laughing)
03:47-03:48
Like calm.
03:51-03:52
I'm like, "You're so right, Aaron."
03:53-03:54
(laughing)
03:55-04:01
But there were very clear expectations on the leadership.
04:02-04:06
Shirt, tie, suit coat.
04:08-04:15
And that's what we're seeing here as we go through Titus, not the shirt, tie, and suit code, but we're seeing expectations of a church, right?
04:16-04:22
And in chapter one, we saw that there were expectations for church leaders.
04:24-04:30
And as we get to chapter two, we're going to see that there's expectations for the congregation.
04:33-04:37
In other words, there's expectations for you, right?
04:38-04:46
This ain't the movies, where you come in and take your seat and observe the things that are happening and then leave.
04:48-04:49
There's expectations for you.
04:49-05:01
And if you call this your church, whether you're an official member or not, if you call this your church, you have to understand, there's expectations and not ones that me or the elders of this church have written up.
05:01-05:03
It's in the word of God.
05:04-05:07
God expects something from you in a church.
05:10-05:11
So that's where we're going today.
05:12-05:14
On your outline, write this down.
05:14-05:17
What is expected of a church member?
05:18-05:18
This is for you.
05:20-05:23
Number one, live what you believe.
05:28-05:29
Live what you believe.
05:31-05:33
Look at verse one in chapter two.
05:33-05:41
He says, "But as for you," he's contrasting with, you know, the passage that Pastor Taylor preached last week about, you know, what do we do about false teaching?
05:43-05:45
And Pastor Taylor told us that.
05:45-06:01
And now he says, "But as for you, Titus, teach what accords with sound doctrine." Notice he didn't say teach sound doctrine.
06:01-06:03
He already covered that in chapter one.
06:04-06:04
Already covered that.
06:06-06:12
He says to teach what accords with sound doctrine.
06:13-06:14
What accords with.
06:18-06:28
Meaning not only preachers should you teach the word of God but you need to help people understand how they should reflect this truth in their lives.
06:29-06:29
That's what he's saying.
06:30-06:31
It's more than information.
06:31-06:38
It's more than somebody standing up here saying, let me give you a bunch of Bible factoids that'll be very interesting to you.
06:38-06:43
It's saying, hey, here's what God said, therefore, here's how you should reflect this in your life.
06:44-06:47
That's what he's calling Titus to do.
06:47-06:51
How do I specifically go after this truth in my life?
06:52-06:55
And you're going to see as we go through here, he has something for everyone.
06:56-06:58
All right, we're gonna go through this rather quickly.
06:58-07:00
First of all, he addresses older men.
07:01-07:04
All right, so basically we got like five sermons in one here.
07:04-07:06
So older men, look at verse two.
07:07-07:22
He says, "Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, "self-controlled, sound in faith, "in love, and in steadfastness." Stop there, older men.
07:24-07:30
Now throughout this passage, as he's addressing men and women, He talks about older men, older women, and younger men and young women.
07:30-07:36
And I know right now you're thinking, what is the criteria for being older?
07:39-07:42
There's no magic number, all right?
07:42-07:46
But you're going to see in the context here, it's going to be pretty obvious what he's saying.
07:47-07:53
He's, when he's referring to older people, he's talking about those who have finished raising their kids.
07:54-08:01
And when he talks about younger people, he's talking about those who are still having and raising kids.
08:01-08:04
Again, that's gonna be very clear here as we go through.
08:04-08:11
But to the older men, he simply says, you need to live a mature life of faith.
08:13-08:15
Not extravagant, not unstable.
08:15-08:25
Like look, as an older man in the church, as someone that the younger guys are looking up to, and we're gonna get to that in a second, He says, you need to be done with the goofy kid stuff.
08:27-08:28
You need to grow up.
08:28-08:30
You need to act like a man.
08:32-08:36
Then he moves on to older women, verses three and four.
08:38-08:48
He says, "Older women likewise are to be reverent "in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
08:49-08:54
They are to teach what is good and so train the young women.
08:55-08:55
Stop there.
08:57-09:00
You're like, well, what kind of a person should the older woman be?
09:00-09:03
He says, did you see that in verse three?
09:03-09:11
Likewise, older women, likewise, like the same kind of person, an older man is.
09:14-09:14
Right?
09:15-09:19
The maturity, the godliness, the example that you're setting.
09:22-09:27
Same kind of person, but he adds something here as he addresses the older women.
09:29-09:30
Did you catch that?
09:30-09:37
He says, "Not slanderers." I wanna talk about slander for a second.
09:39-09:44
You know the Greek word for slander here is the word diabolos.
09:45-09:49
It's a word that's used 34 times in the New Testament as the name for Satan.
09:53-09:56
And we studied this when we were in the book of Revelation.
09:56-09:56
Remember that?
09:56-09:57
That was a fun year.
09:57-10:00
Revelation chapter 12, verses nine and 10.
10:00-10:01
You don't need to turn there.
10:01-10:09
But Revelation chapter 12, verses nine and 10 says that Satan is a deceiver and an accuser.
10:10-10:11
Do you know what that means?
10:11-10:32
as a deceiver, Satan goes before man and says, "God is bad." And as an accuser, Satan goes before God and says, "Man is bad." That's what Satan does.
10:34-10:37
That's why the word slander is attached to his name.
10:40-10:53
Because catch this, Satan is constantly trying to make man think negatively of God, and constantly trying to make God think negatively of man.
10:54-10:56
That's what slander is.
10:57-11:04
Slander is telling or repeating lies in order to hurt someone's reputation.
11:07-11:16
And slander typically travels around with a family member, you know, has annoying little cousin called Gossip.
11:19-11:22
Slander is, it's mean-spirited.
11:27-11:31
Slander's desire is to make someone else look bad.
11:33-11:36
Slander's goal is to be divisive.
11:37-11:41
And it ultimately affects many more people than you think that it does.
11:44-11:51
There's nothing that you can do that is more Satan-like than slander.
11:53-12:05
And going to other people to talk about someone else, to paint them in a negative light, to make them think differently about this person that you're talking about.
12:06-12:08
That's what Satan does, all right?
12:10-12:16
And if you're involved in it now, you need to repent.
12:19-12:23
And I could do a whole sermon series just about slander.
12:23-12:25
That's not where we are right now in God's word.
12:26-12:31
Because the truth is, God says so much about slander.
12:32-12:40
So if you're involved in it now, if you're right now, if you're like trying to justify it in your mind or minimize it in your mind, I just wanna tell you two things about slander.
12:41-12:53
If you're involved in speaking negatively about people, trying to get other people's opinion to change about someone, here's a couple of things that God says about slander.
12:54-13:09
Proverbs 10, 18 says, "Whoever utters slander is a fool." If that's what you're doing, If you're going around spreading information to drag somebody else's reputation down, you're a fool.
13:10-13:14
And I'm too shy to ever call somebody a fool, but that's what God said.
13:15-13:15
All right?
13:17-13:18
It gets worse.
13:20-13:23
If you're involved in slander, we're in a church 101 right now, right?
13:23-13:24
Let's talk about Psalm 101.
13:25-13:26
Psalm 101 verse five says this.
13:28-13:39
"Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly, I will destroy." And you're like, "What does that mean?" I don't know.
13:40-13:41
But it's not good.
13:43-13:44
And I wouldn't want to find out.
13:49-14:05
Paul tells the older women, "Look, it has no place in the church." Only those of you who call yourself a Christian, a mature Christian that other people should look to, it doesn't have any place in the church.
14:09-14:10
All right, younger women.
14:12-14:17
Younger, okay, so the older women are to, it says, where were we at here?
14:17-14:36
So train the young women, verse four, to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, old, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Stop there.
14:36-14:37
Younger women.
14:39-14:39
Younger women.
14:40-14:44
If you're married, listen young ladies, if you're married, you need to love your husbands.
14:46-14:54
Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, you don't know my husband." And I would reply with, "Well, you don't know my God "because he doesn't make suggestions.
14:56-14:56
"He makes commands.
14:57-15:02
"And he says, 'Love your husband.'" Listen, love is a commitment.
15:03-15:06
And your marriage isn't always going to look like a rom-com.
15:09-15:10
Did the kids still say rom-com?
15:13-15:14
Somebody help me out.
15:14-15:14
No?
15:14-15:19
No, okay, Stacy's like, "Yeah." Okay, that was, I just found out what that meant.
15:20-15:21
I'm embarrassed to admit that.
15:22-15:22
Romantic comedy.
15:24-15:25
One of them Lifetime movies.
15:28-15:28
Hallmark.
15:29-15:32
Yeah, I'm sorry, Lifetime, no, that's the, no, no, not Lifetime.
15:33-15:37
Those are completely different, those aren't romantic at all.
15:40-15:41
Hallmark, thank you, Jay.
15:43-15:44
This is what happens when you go off script.
15:46-15:47
We're just gonna start over.
15:50-15:53
Your marriage is not always going to look like a rom-com.
15:54-15:55
It's just not.
15:58-16:00
So love your husbands, also love your children.
16:01-16:08
If you are a mom, God has an absolutely unique ministry for you.
16:10-16:13
And your highest calling is raising godly kids.
16:15-16:16
Now listen very closely.
16:17-16:24
I am not saying that working outside the home is wrong, ladies, I'm not saying that.
16:24-16:29
But I am saying that not making your home a priority absolutely is wrong.
16:31-16:34
There's no other job in the world, moms.
16:34-16:42
There's no other job in the world that you could have that will make a bigger impact than loving and raising your kids.
16:45-16:46
All right, so what else does he say?
16:51-16:53
Submissive to their own husbands.
16:56-16:58
I have a lot to say about that.
17:00-17:03
Young ladies, you need to be submissive to your own husbands.
17:06-17:10
I have a lot to say about that, but I'm not going to.
17:14-17:20
because there's actually an upcoming sermon all about this.
17:21-17:22
And you're like, when is that?
17:23-17:23
I'm not telling.
17:25-17:27
Because I want you all to be here for that.
17:29-17:33
And if I tell you, you will find some reason not to be here, ladies.
17:35-17:36
So it'll be a surprise.
17:39-17:39
All right?
17:42-17:42
Younger women.
17:42-18:23
on then to address the young men. Look at verse 6. Verse 6, he says, "Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us." Stop there, men, this kind of cracked me up a little bit as I was reading it this week, it's like, giving all of these commands and exhortations to all these people, and then he gets to the young men, and do you notice it's like one thing, just one thing. It's like self-control.
18:25-18:39
Young men, control yourself, men, come on. Like, okay Paul, what else? Don't worry about anything else. Okay, just, just that self control, just work on that. Control your appetites.
18:40-19:00
Can you just focus on that? That is so hard for young men because young men are very strong and they're very appetite driven. Now when I say appetite driven, I'm not talking about food. You know, I have two teenage boys and I know it is impossible to control that appetite, Right?
19:00-19:04
Can I get an amen from anybody else who has or had teenage boys?
19:05-19:05
Okay.
19:06-19:08
Like how many times a day does your son eat?
19:08-19:10
Like just once, but it's for 18 hours.
19:12-19:12
(congregation laughing)
19:14-19:15
True or false?
19:16-19:16
True.
19:16-19:19
I don't think he's talking about those appetites.
19:19-19:21
I think he's talking about sexual appetites.
19:21-19:25
Those impulsive drives, the temper, you know, the young man stuff.
19:25-19:31
He's like, hey, you need to urge the young man, Be self-controlled, all right?
19:32-19:34
We had a whole sermon series about some of that stuff.
19:34-19:35
What was that, back in January?
19:38-19:44
So young men, listen, you need to control your appetites, not the other way around, not letting your appetites control you, okay?
19:45-19:51
And then, let's, letter E, employees.
19:52-19:55
Employees, now bear with me here, employees.
19:55-20:02
He says in verse nine, "Slaves are to be submissive "to their own masters in everything.
20:03-20:19
"They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, "not pilfering, but showing all good faith "so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God, "our Savior." Like I didn't say anything about employees in there.
20:19-20:26
Well, he's addressing the last member of the first century household, right?
20:26-20:32
There would have been in any home, there would have been older men and women, younger men and women, and they had slaves.
20:32-20:43
Now, this is not a commentary on slavery, but Paul just had to deal with it as the reality that it was in that culture.
20:43-20:44
It was just part of the culture.
20:45-20:47
So he wasn't just gonna pretend that it wasn't.
20:49-20:55
But the reason I have employees here, as you see these same principles that he gives the slaves working in the home.
20:58-21:01
These are principles that you should have where you work.
21:03-21:03
Right?
21:03-21:04
As employees.
21:05-21:08
And he tells you, look, as an employee, you need to do what you're told.
21:10-21:12
Don't talk back, don't mouth off.
21:12-21:15
He says, as an employee, you need to be honest and loyal.
21:17-21:21
One thing in particular that stands out to me, he says, not pilfering.
21:22-21:25
Obviously not stealing stuff, right?
21:26-21:33
But I would encourage you that this includes all forms of stealing.
21:34-21:37
Stealing is more than just taking money out of the cash register.
21:41-21:49
Stealing is also working an hourly job where you're being paid by the hour, but you're not working, you're slacking.
21:50-21:51
That's stealing.
21:53-21:56
Work hard while you are at work.
21:57-22:00
I know, so much shocking stuff today.
22:00-22:09
Sitting in a different place in church, wearing a tie, submissive to your own husbands, and while you're at work, work!
22:11-22:13
Not wasting time, not slacking.
22:15-22:17
You're being paid to work, so do your job and do it with a good attitude.
22:18-22:19
That's what he says.
22:22-22:31
You see, back in chapter 1, verse 16, Pastor Taylor covered last week, he talked about those who profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works.
22:32-22:36
Some people claim that they know God, but their life looks anything but that.
22:38-22:40
You see, that's all he's saying here in this passage.
22:41-22:42
He says, "You claim to know God, right?
22:44-22:45
You claim that you know God.
22:47-22:49
Do your works say that you do?
22:50-22:53
It's like that, remember that old saying, how'd that go Mark?
22:53-22:59
Something like, if you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
23:02-23:03
Same point.
23:06-23:10
You profess to know Christ, do you act like somebody that knows him?
23:12-23:14
And see church, what are your expectations?
23:14-23:15
Here's number one expectation.
23:16-23:20
Number one focus has to be your personal walk with Jesus.
23:21-23:23
That's your number one thing.
23:25-23:28
Are you seeing growth in your walk with Christ?
23:31-23:32
You gotta live what you believe.
23:33-23:34
That's number one.
23:35-23:36
What's expected of a church member.
23:36-23:38
Number two, invest in others.
23:41-23:42
Invest in others.
23:42-23:44
All of this stuff needs taught.
23:44-23:45
Yes, absolutely.
23:46-23:53
But I want you to see how, and I want you to see by whom, by who, by whom?
23:53-23:54
Is it who or whom?
23:55-23:56
Whom is with it?
23:56-23:59
Okay, I was right the first time, should've went with it.
24:00-24:03
All right, let's take another run at that.
24:03-24:07
All of this needs taught, yes, but look at how and by whom.
24:09-24:12
Older men discipling the younger men.
24:13-24:17
older women discipling the younger women.
24:18-24:22
And if you're right now saying, yeah, Pastor Jeff, I'm still on the fence about older and younger.
24:23-24:26
I actually saw something this week that really will help you with that.
24:27-24:33
If you're not sure if you're an older person or a younger person, just go to a public place and fall down.
24:35-24:39
If people laugh and point, you're younger.
24:41-24:48
If people gasp and run to help you up, you are otherwise.
24:52-24:58
But he says in verse four, train, verse six, urge, verse seven, model.
25:01-25:05
Listen, I wanna talk to the older people here, okay?
25:06-25:09
So hopefully you did a little exercise in your head and you know if you're older.
25:09-25:12
But I want to talk specifically to the older people right now.
25:15-25:16
Bless you.
25:18-25:20
You have a God-given responsibility here.
25:21-25:23
This isn't an option.
25:30-25:39
And so often in the church, especially in our culture, there's this consumer mentality that people come to church to get.
25:42-25:44
And that is a completely unbiblical mindset.
25:45-25:47
You should look at church as a place to come and give.
25:48-25:49
Again, older people.
25:53-25:57
You need to see this as a place to come and give of yourself to the younger people.
26:01-26:03
And yes, we gotta teach sound doctrine.
26:03-26:06
We certainly strive for that, whoever's standing up here.
26:08-26:16
Yes, we want to urge, he says, urge people to live in a way that honors Christ, but you got to model this.
26:19-26:23
You know, we stand up here and we say, okay, you need to wait on the Lord.
26:25-26:27
When you're going through trials, you need to wait on the Lord.
26:28-26:32
Listen, older people, you got to show the younger people what that looks like.
26:35-26:38
You know, we stand up here and say, you need to love your wife.
26:41-26:49
Older men, you need to show the younger men what that looks like, to pour yourself out, you know, self-sacrificing for your wife.
26:49-26:50
You need to show them.
26:52-26:54
You know, we say, submit to your husbands.
26:56-27:02
Older women, listen, you're gonna show the young ladies what that looks like.
27:05-27:08
'Cause it's one thing for a middle-aged dude to stand up here and say that.
27:10-27:20
But it's a completely different thing, older ladies, for you to show them the blessing that comes when you honor God's word.
27:24-27:32
And right now, if you're like, I hear what you're saying, and I see what Paul's saying, that's how you as a pastor, I'm single, but I'm single.
27:33-27:43
Okay, then you show single people and you show teenagers what trust and contentment in God looks like as a single person.
27:43-27:45
Show them what that looks like.
27:47-27:54
Because you see all of this stuff, it's just conceptual, right?
27:55-27:57
Wait on the Lord, love and forgive.
27:58-28:05
It's all conceptual until you older people Demonstrate for the younger people what it looks like.
28:09-28:12
And sadly in the church, older people are just so often disregarded.
28:15-28:20
I've heard pastors talk about this, like, "Yeah, we're just after the young people.
28:20-28:27
"We're just targeting the young people." And they kind of push the older people out the door, because we're for the younger people.
28:29-28:32
Lame, your church is going to be lame.
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Because older people should be one of the greatest blessings in this church.
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Because older people have something that younger people don't have.
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Older people have something that young people are unable to have.
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And do you know what that is?
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Experience.
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Experience.
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Older people, they took their lumps.
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They tried things the hard way.
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They learned from their mistakes.
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They've traveled.
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They've buried friends and family.
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Older people have seen prayers answered specifically.
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Older people have learned what it means to deal with difficult people.
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Older people can give testimony of being a good steward.
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with God's stuff. Through growing in Jesus Christ, older people have learned how to control their impulses, how to control the words that come out of their mouth, how to control their temper. They're confident in their faith. They're not self-centered. Over time they've learned patience. So if you're an older person, you should be involved in one of the ladies' ministries here.
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You should be involved, older men. You should be involved in the fishermen group.
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Our older people should be our small group leaders.
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You should be involved in a ministry team.
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There are so many young families here.
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And without you showing what it looks like to faithfully follow Christ over time, it's a concept on a page.
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Older people, you've got to train up the next generation.
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I would just lovingly encourage you, don't abandon the post that God has assigned you.
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Don't leave the young people without an example.
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All right, invest in others.
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Invest in others.
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And finally, number three, shine on.
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You crazy dogman, shine on.
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Okay, we covered what to teach and who to teach, and we covered how to teach, And we also see in this passage why, why?
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The end of verse five, he says that the word of God may not be reviled.
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The end of verse eight, he talks about an opponent being put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.
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And verse 10, he says, "In everything adorn the doctrine of God our Savior." The result of godly living obviously benefits the church, obviously.
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but it's also about our witness to the world.
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Because when Christians aren't following Christ, the world loves that.
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The world loves to see that.
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Why?
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Because it justifies their unbelief.
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They're like, you know what?
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I knew they were a bunch of hypocrites and look what they're doing.
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I knew it.
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And the result is they end up blaspheming God.
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That's what he talks about in verse five.
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The word of God being reviled, that's what happens.
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When you say you're a follower of Christ, but you don't act like it.
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How can the world believe that Jesus changes people when those who claim to follow Jesus aren't changed?
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You know, when there's fighting in the church there's gossip and there's sex scandals and there's leaders stealing from the church.
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What do we have to offer the world when we act just like them?
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That's why verse 10, I love this, this should be underlined in your Bible.
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There'll be somebody at the door checking your Bibles on your way out to make sure that you underline this.
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He says, "So that in everything they may adorn "the doctrine of God our Savior." You know what that means?
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That means you need to show people out there, your unsaved neighbors, your unsaved coworkers, you need to show them the greatness of God by showing that following Jesus Christ is your greatest joy.
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The biggest blessing in my life is knowing my Savior.
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That is far greater than anything that I've ever experienced or ever will experience.
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They need to see that in your life.
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You are a billboard, like it or not, you're a billboard for following Jesus Christ.
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And you're either good advertisement or bad advertisement for Jesus.
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That's why Jesus said, Matthew 5, 16, "Let your light shine before others." I shine on, right?
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"Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." That's exactly what Paul's telling Titus right here.
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Show them, show them the beauty of the gospel.
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Show them that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to this earth to teach us about the kingdom of God.
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He suffered and died on the cross, taking our sins on himself, taking our place on the cross and bearing the wrath of God so that through believing in him, anyone can be forgiven.
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It doesn't matter who you are.
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It doesn't matter what you've done.
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God loves you and he sent his son to die for you.
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That gift is available for anyone.
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You can become a child of God.
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You need to show people.
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Show people that we love each other in here.
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When we mess up, we make things right.
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We forgive.
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We're not people that lie to each other, or mess around with each other's spouses.
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In here, we work hard.
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We don't complain.
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We don't lose our tempers in here.
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We're not greedy in here.
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In fact, it's the opposite.
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In here, we're looking for who has need, so that we can rush to meet that need.
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That's what we do in here.
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We always strive to put other people ahead of ourselves.
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They need to see that.
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Show them, show them that we have a joy because of the promise of heaven and a God who will never leave us or forsake us.
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And while the world is falling apart around us, have you noticed we have peace?
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knowing that things are not always going to be as they are now.
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We believe it and we live it.
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People are evaluating the claims of Jesus Christ on the way that you live.
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We should live in a way that unbelievers see the light of Jesus shining through us, and they say, "Hey, I wanna know her God." You know, the church has had a lot of evangelism gimmicks over the years.
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I'm gonna give you one more test to determine whether you're older or younger.
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By show of hands, how many people here remember evangelism explosion?
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You're old.
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You are so old.
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And if a young person had their hand up, it's because an older person told them about it.
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That was an evangelism gimmick.
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All right, old test.
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Raise your hand if you remember Chick tracks.
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It's the senior tour with their hands up.
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I used to love Chick tracks.
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They were so over the top.
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If you don't know what I'm talking about, you gotta get your hands on one.
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It was an evangelism gimmick.
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More recently, how about the Way of the Master?
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Do you remember the Way of the Master?
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How many people, show of hands, Way of the Master?
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You might still be younger and know about Way of the Master.
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Few of you know that, the Ray Comfort thing, right?
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Okay, an evangelism gimmick.
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And younger people today, you know, it's all about websites and podcasts and apps for your phone, and...
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But there is not an evangelism gimmick that ever was or ever will be that works better than this one.
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You ready?
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Followers of Jesus actually following Jesus.
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That's what the world needs.
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And that's what's expected of a church member.
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All right, you bow your heads with me please as the worship team comes up.
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We're going to pray.
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So often it's just easy to get off track.
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And sometimes the church, we sort of get in our holy huddle and sort of get self-focused start to think things are about us and our preferences.
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That's why I'm so thankful for the word of God to give us a word like this to say it's not about us.
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This place is about Jesus.
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The exaltation of the Son of God, changing us so that we can be examples to the next generation and so that we can reach a lost world.
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by living a Christ following life without hypocrisy.
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Father in heaven, we live in a day with just so many new opportunities for gimmicks and fads.
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And we also live in a day that evil and just horrible wickedness is not just happening, but it's being so grossly promoted.
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Father, the world needs right now the church to be the church, sincere followers of Jesus Christ. So I pray, Father, that you would grant repentance to us where it's needed. And that Father, we would lose all of our silly expectations for the church and just focus on what your Word says we are to be and we are to strive after in this church.
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And use us, Father, to be the light in this community.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Titus 2:1-10
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What benefits come from older women discipling younger women & older men discipling younger men (Titus 2:3-4, 6-7)? Name an “older” person that the Lord has used in your life.
What exactly is “slander” (Titus 2:3)? Why do you think people are so strongly tempted to hurt another person’s reputation? How should you respond if someone is speaking to you and slandering another person?
What does your conduct have to do with the church’s evangelism (Titus 2:5, 8, 10)? How can that “make or break” a church’s outreach efforts?
Breakout
Pray for one another.