Engaged: Engaging God's Priorities

[Music] [Music] [Music] without you i'll be back [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] and [Music] [Applause] [Music] building my kingdom just to watch it [Music] without you what'd you do [Music] [Music] where would i be [Music] is [Music] that's me without your town [Music] me depends on um it depends on [Music] who breaks the power of sin and darkness [Music] is this is [Music] you laid down [Music] all that you've done for me [Music] who makes the [Music] and orphanage [Music] is [Music] you laid down [Music] worthy is the lamb who was slain worthy is the king who conquered the grave were these is the key [Music] worthy of this is amazing [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] this world has nothing for me this life is [Music] whatever will come our way [Music] and i'm miss jane and today we continue to kid-size the book of titus now in this part of titus the apostle paul tells titus to teach in a way that will keep people from sin not only teach but he had to practice what he teached i mean preached yes paul wanted titus to be an example of how god wants us to live now paul gave titus things to watch out for and warn people about i wonder if people in our day still struggle with the same things or or have we really shaped up well let's go over to our church and take a look surely after all these years after titus lived we've changed our ways well here's a fine senior saint let's take a look okay paul told titus that the old men should be respectable with a lot of self-control in other words not doing dumb things and someone others can look up to whatever maybe we'll have better luck with the ladies the older women are to be respectful and not be gossips or addicted to much wine whatever the older ladies are to teach the younger ladies to love their husbands and children to be busy at home treating their husbands with respect whatever it also talks about slaves slaves wait we don't have slaves now well i think you can change the word slave to employee or your boss if you're working for someone it says to try to please them and don't talk back to them show that you won't steal from them and can be trusted whatever well it seems like things haven't changed much we're still surrounded by sinners of course we are cause i'm a sinner he's a sinner she's a sinner we're all sinners hey paul wanted titus to be an example to these people to show them how to live but you know what else hasn't changed yes i do the good news that jesus died for all our sins and if we accept him we may still struggle with sin but we will be forgiven and we want to thank the fine students of bethany's school who helped us out today see you next time kids whatever [Music] amen it's a great reminder we all still may struggle but in christ we're forgiven we have forgiveness we have redemption we can walk with him thank you so much for joining us today welcome welcome to everyone online who is joining us we're glad that you are with us today we're going to be hearing from god's word from that passage just listening to what god has [Music] well it is [Music] [Music] any trials in your life today let this [Music] blessed [Music] is [Music] shed his own blood for my soul [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] praise the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] man [Music] shall be [Music] us [Music] is [Music] it is thank you lord amen let's look to him together sing this out with me oh we look to the sun set our of eyes sing his praises forever [Music] salvation tearing through the dead of night see the kingdom burst into color at the speed of light freedom shaking up the atmosphere [Music] as the shadows fade into nothing as the day appears beyond the skies [Music] [Music] is [Music] creation waking up to kingdom come see the hope of heaven shining like the rising sun now forever up from death to light there's no fear in love and no darkness in his emphasis [Music] jesus [Music] forever [Music] [Music] reaching out for us the everlasting one jesus are come beyond the skies [Music] set our eyes on our savior see the images see the images [Music] [Music] yes [Music] we need you father [Music] i worship you i'll worship you you are here working in this place i worship you i worship you [Music] i worship you i worship you you are here working in this place i worship you i worship you you are we make miracle work promise keep light in the darkness my god that is who you are you are we make a miracle work promise keep light in the darkness my god that is who you are you are here you are here [Music] turn you are here [Music] that is who you are [Music] you are [Music] my god that is who you are you are lord we make a miracle worker promise keep light in the darkness my god that is who you are [Music] you never stop [Music] you never stop [Music] you never [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] that is who you are yes you are lord we make a miracle work a [Music] that promise who you are well good morning everyone welcome those of you who are joining us online it's great to be here with you guys this morning i think of that line even when i don't see you you're working and in the midst of what has been an incredibly difficult season where there have been questions god where are you at in the midst of this god when we don't see you we still know that you're working god is at work in our church he's drawing new people he's using us and i just want to invite you guys to connect with us if you'd grab the digital connect card and just fill that out let us know how we can be praying for you let us know how we could be praising god for the work that he's doing in your life and i want to invite you guys it takes a lot to get these services up and running and there are opportunities for you to join us in serving our church and so if you're interested in doing that please fill out the connect card listen that's a great way to to serve our body but it's an aw it's also a great way to develop community and to be connected to this church in meaningful ways now our desire is to have an impact on our city and so i want to let you know of a few opportunities that we have coming up that you guys can serve with us next sunday is mother's day i'll let you know right now lauren has not given birth to marigold yet she's at home she's resting and at any moment she was 39 weeks on thursday so any time now the anticipation is killing me so be praying for her and uh and for us and i'll i'll be sure to let you guys know when she comes but next sunday is mother's day and we have a tradition of serving the mothers at the lydia house and so we're gonna have cards here next sunday where you can write out a word of encouragement to the women that are there we're also going to be catering dinner for them we've got tacos coming in for them and they're excited about that and we have space for five volunteers to join us in serving them so if you're interested in doing that again use the connect card the digital connect card let us know and we'll we'll get that all set up for you guys another thing that is just a reality and and i politics aside our long beach convention center is hosting migrant children um we are looking into ways that we can be the hands and feet of jesus to serve them while they're here to be hospitable and to demonstrate the love of jesus christ and so we'll keep you guys posted if you as an individual are interested in being a part of that go ahead and uh email info bethanylb.org and we'll get you information on that so i'm going to pray for pastor tim as he comes up to give us the word father god we thank you so much that we can have confidence in knowing that you are at work that as your word goes forth we have the promise that it will not return to you void without accomplishing the purposes for which you've sent it god our desire is to be engaged to be a people whose lives are informed by the reality of the gospel god that we as a result of your mercy and the washing and regeneration that takes place in the outpouring of your spirit becomes something different and so god i pray minister to us now through your word we ask this in jesus name amen today's scripture reading is from titus chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. but as for you speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine older men are to be temperate dignified sensible sound and faith in love in perseverance older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine teaching what is good so they may encourage the young women to love their husbands to love their children to be sensible pure workers at home kind being subject to their own husbands so that the word of the god of god will not be dishonored likewise urge the young men to be sensible in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine dignified sound and speech which is beyond reproach so that the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything to be well pleasing not argumentative not pilfering but showing good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of god our savior in every respect this is the word of the lord amen well good morning have you ever read a passage of scripture and and just thought nope god that one's not for me don't want to do it uh it's too hard maybe maybe it was a passage on loving your neighbor and you thought god you don't know my neighbor or uh maybe it's a passage on forgiving someone for giving someone an offense they've done towards you and you've thought god you don't know how awful they were to me maybe it was a passage on loving your enemy praying for those who persecute you if that god they you don't know how badly they hurt me i don't want to do that god and maybe you've thought maybe you've thought god no i'm not doing it if there was a passage of scripture a page that you could just rip out and throw away and say not doing it lord what would that be what would that be now let me just tell you real quick i didn't rip a page out of my bible okay this is a blank journal it was given to me about eight years ago at a conference i've never used it it was free not free to the person who made it i guess but it was free to me and i only took out two pages okay there's a lot of pages left but a question for you when you think about scripture and you think and you say to yourself god are you say to god this one i'm not going to follow this one's too hard i just can't do it god aren't you in a sense doing the same thing ripping out that page throwing it away and saying nope not going to follow it god not going to follow it second timothy 3 16 and 17 says all scripture is inspired by god and profitable for teaching for reproof for correction for training in righteousness so that the man of god may be adequate equipped for every good work now if these verses are true and we know that they are we need to rethink how we respond to a verse or a passage of scripture that we don't agree with or we don't like because paul tells us in timothy that all scripture is inspired by god the writers of scripture weren't just thinking on their own what can i do to upset someone today that's a good one let me write it down right they weren't thinking that they were writing down what god inspired them to write and all of it is profitable for us and in today's passage we're going to probably read some things that may cause some of us to say no that is that is you don't understand culture today god you don't understand how i'll get run over by that by people who are out there to get me who don't care we're going to read some passages that may make us think twice about whether or not we want to follow them and i want us to just remind ourselves of 2nd timothy 3 in those instances that all scripture is inspired by god and profitable profitable for our lives those passages maybe that we question we're going to we're going to ask today god what does this mean how do i apply it to my life what is profitable for me here so i want us to pray real quick uh again i know that you know we've we've prayed already this morning but i want us to pray again and give this time to the lord and give our hearts to him give our our um our biases to him our questions to him so that we can truly hear from god this morning let's pray heavenly father i know if we're honest all of us have some passage of scripture that we want to ignore we don't want to follow that's true because we're just sinful men and women who are selfish at times we want to follow you in our hearts god i think of the man who said lord i believe help my unbelief i think it's like that sometimes with obedience i want to believe god help my i want to obey help my disobedience so god today if we read something as we read something that maybe maybe causes us to pause for a minute and question whether or not we can do it god may we give those times to you may we remind ourselves that these words are inspired by you and profitable for our lives may we surrender our wills to yours god in jesus name amen all right some background to catch us up into where we are here in the book of titus uh paul wrote to titus a young man on the island of crete and he's given titus instructions for the church in crete now remember what uh pastor dave read to us last week and preached about last week about the the people of crete chapter 1 verse 12 said one of themselves a prophet of their own said cretans are always liars evil beasts and lazy gluttons that's the culture the church lived in liars evil people evil people lazy people lazy gluttons people who wanted things for themselves but didn't want to work for it that's the culture the church lived in horrible culture and god called his followers there to be set apart to be different than that culture so that god's light would shine through them to people who know needed to know jesus as lord and savior and so as we look at um as we look at titus today we're going to see uh instructions that that paul is writing to us but it's god giving us those instructions for how to live in a godless society paul's giving instructions to six distinct people groups here titus and five other groups and he's going to be talking about christian character christian attitudes christian behavior now you may not find yourself let me say it a different way you're probably only going to find yourself in one of these distinct people groups but it would be wrong for us to think that the things paul gives to the other groups don't also apply to us god's word always applies to us even if we weren't the ones he specifically wrote to we'll see that that'll make more sense as we go through this so paul's going to give specific priorities to each of these groups and we're going to try and figure out why why did he give that priority to this group that priority to this group so starting in titus chapter 2 verse 1 paul says here but as for you speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine all right the first priority we see here is to speak the truth in love where do i get that out of this verse well speaking he's he's telling uh titus not just speaking in a formal way in a classroom or like what i'm doing up here but the word there for speaking is uh is just speaking not just teaching but speaking as in the everyday interactions that we have maybe in his prayers titus is to speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine fitting means in accordance with or consistent with sound doctrine what is sound doctrine it's healthy teaching it's it's right teaching about god's truth so titus is to give practical instruction based on and consistent with god's truths the way to do that the way that he does that consistently is doing it through love i've been in churches i've been in settings where um the person up front in in telling people what to do is kind of overbearing in it and almost giving it like a demand that doesn't usually sit well with us does it but if someone speaks to us in love and talks to us about why this is important how this is important then we're more ready to hear the false teachers that pastor dave taught about last week they they taught because of it says for the sake of sordid gain it said by their deeds they denied christ being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed titus is to be different than that he needs to speak the truth in love not for his own gain so that people will hear what he says and they'll see that his life is different and they'll want to follow the things he's saying so first priority is to speak the truth in love verse 2 it says older men are to be temperate dignified sensible sound in faith in love and perseverance our next priority is to apply truth in love first speak the truth in love now apply truth and love let's answer the question here because it will help us for the rest of the passage who does paul mean by older men now this may dismay some of you but many commentators agreed that the delineation between older and younger that we're going to see here older was those 40 years old and above sorry if you find yourself in that group i'm in that group i'm well into that group but 40 and above was was considered older men and women here 39 and below was the younger men and women here okay so older men men like my age were to be temperate which is to be sober clear-headed self-controlled society admired heavy drinkers both in older men and older women so this was a very appropriate command for paul to give the older men in the church because they needed to be different than the people around them he called them to be temperate sober clear-headed dignified reverent worthy of respect he called them to be sensible which is thoughtful and again self-controlled and then he said you need to be sound in faith in love and perseverance perseverance could also be endurance or endurance with a thought to eternity they were to be healthy and grounded in these things why would paul give these instructions to older men if you're in the older men age group or older women age group you should remember a movie from the early 1990s called grumpy old men right it was pretty funny uh grumpy is only funny in the movies right in reality nobody likes a grumpy old man okay but when i was thinking about this i was thinking okay why why would older men have a tendency to be grumpy i don't know what i came up with was they've likely worked in a in a job for maybe 50 years by the time they retire and if they're still working like me maybe you've been in your job less than that but for most of us the whole time we spend in our careers someone's telling us what to do you think after maybe 30 40 or 50 years maybe you know how to do your job and you think i don't need someone telling me what to do anymore right but um we're still we still have people telling us what to do and so there is a tendency to not let people do that anymore there's a tendency to want to say look i know what i'm doing here you don't have to tell me there's a tendency he says here be sober minded or temperate be reverent worthy of respect be sensible sound in faith in love and perseverance there's a temptation not to do things out of love anymore i think the older we get we get impatient we get intolerant of of people and things if we're not living by the fruit of the spirit we could become grumpy old men and and paul these things in this list to old men older men these things are also found in the lists of qualifications for elders if you think about even our elders typically our elders are 40 years older and above there's nothing says they have to be but typically they're 40 or above and if they aren't living out these qualities then they are not qualified to be elders and whether whether the older men are elders or not the older men are examples to other people in the church the older men are to be examples of godly living of godly behavior godly attitudes and if we are not paying attention to these things we lose our ability to speak into the lives of others through our behavior and our actions and our words and so older men and all of us we need to apply god's truths to our lives so we can be example of what it's like to live a life of morality and godliness one other note on this seriousness godliness should not be confused for gloominess christian living should not be gloomy it should not be drudgery christian living should be attractive we're going to see this later in the passage christian living should be attractive to those around us there's no room for eeyore's in the church right no room for yours okay going on verse three older women older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior not malicious gossips nor enslaved too much wine teaching what is good so that they may encourage the younger women the young women we're going to stop there verse 4 goes on we're gonna stop there third priority encourage others by your behavior same as the older men older women are to be reverent dignified in their behavior their behavior should be worthy of a great deal of respect something even the godless would respect in in society not malicious gossips okay we're going to camp out here on this for a minute because gossip is a big one for christians right um we like to say in the church no sin is bigger than another all sin even the little sins would condemn us to hell if not for jesus death and resurrection and him paying the penalty for our sin but in reality we live as if different sins hold different weight to lie about something we don't give that the same weight as we would someone who murders someone or someone who has an affair sexual sins get a lot of weight in christian churches but things like gossip well we think who knows who knows i'm gossiping who's this hurting nobody nobody's finding out so this isn't as big as sin because it it's not hurting anybody and no one's going to find out that i'm doing this but let's look at this a little more not malicious gossips paul is saying here don't be slanderers the word translated malicious gossips here when it's used in the singular form it's the same word as the devil or the adversary when used in the plural form it it it has the sense of our speech being devilish when we gossip we're given occasion for the devil to to have victory in our lives and and we're we're imitating the devil when we gossip listen the same instruction to not be malicious gossip shows up in the list of qualities for a deacon and a deaconess in first timothy 3 11. it says women must likewise be dignified not malicious gossips but temperate faithful in all things but this is something that's not only a problem with women men are gossips as well look at what it says in second timothy 3 1-5 realize this that in the last days difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to parents ungrateful unholy unloving irreconcilable malicious gossips without self-control brutal haters of good treacherous reckless conceited lovers of pro lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god hold holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power avoid such men as these so men are called out for being gossips as well as women we all are is it okay to gossip here's a question for you is it okay to gossip if it's not malicious i guess the follow-up question would be is there any gossip that's not malicious in a way um we could debate whether or not all malicious all gossip is malicious but here's what i want us to think about i want to give you three examples of gossip that i've seen i've been pastoring now for 23 years let me give you three examples of gossip that i see that that we just tend to excuse one is the confidential gossip if i told pastor jeff something about me that i wanted to be confidential and i said pastor jeff here it is don't tell anyone i'd like it to be confidential and then let's say pastor jeff goes and tells pastor dave hey dave tim just told me this don't tell anyone it's confidential and then let's say dave goes and tells pastor jacob hey jacob jeff told me this about tim don't tell anyone it's confidential i've talked to people who think that's not gossip because everyone told someone confidentially right but now let me just say that wouldn't happen because pastor jeff and pastor dave and pastor jacob are not gossips i fully trust them that if i say if i say something to them they're going to keep it to themselves you can trust them for that as well but i've seen that in the church multiple times as long as i tell someone confidentially i didn't gossip what happens though is say pastor jeff found out that pastor dave told pastor jacob and then pastor jeff gets upset with pastor dave for telling pastor jacob well shouldn't he be with upset with himself because it shouldn't have gone past him right and again i'm using these guys as examples because they won't be offended by me using their names instead of using someone else's name right but but this happens in our church confidential gossip another one prayer request gossip people are familiar with prayer request gossip i know something about someone say i'll use pastor jeff again jeff is not a gossip he's got big shoulders he can he can take this from me say pastor jeff knew something about me and he knew i wanted it confidential and he went pastor dave and he said pastor dave we need to pray for pastor tim about this thing and he tells him what it is is that gossip okay i've had people tell me i need to know that so i can pray more effectively to which i've always thought if you don't tell god that i have cancer or if you don't tell god that i have this other thing will god not know what to do now i don't have cancer okay but i'm just using these again as examples prayer request gossip it happens a lot how about this disenchantment with leadership gossip this is a more sensitive one because when leaders make a decision about something and we don't like that decision whether it's the style of worship or who can meet on campus or whatever else it may be service times how we dress whatever it is when we are disenchanted with leaders our tendency is to go to someone else that we know is disenchanted with the leaders and we start commiserating about that we start talking about it we try to find other people who are on our side and it's all gossip and it divides the church and so this command to not be malicious gossips it is for all of us even though paul in his list puts it in the list with something the older women are not to do paul also tells the older women that they are to be reverent in their behavior oh he says reverent in your behavior not malicious gossips not enslained not enslaved too much wine teaching what is good again teaching is not so much the classroom type teaching but teaching what is good by your words and by your actions okay why why does he tell them this beginning of verse 4 so that they may encourage the young women paul's giving us an example here of discipleship in the church he wants the older women to encourage the younger women and he he's laying out here character qualities for the older women so that they will be able to encourage and disciple the younger women why does paul give these specific instructions to older women i think it's because these things if if older women are to fulfill the role paul is giving them here to be disciple makers if they are not reverent in their behavior if they are gossips if they are addicted to wine if they don't teach what is good they lose their authority and their ability to be disciple makers when i when i think about teaching what is good i think we're always teaching by our actions and our words is what we're teaching good or is it sinful paul wants the older women to have discipleship relationships with the young women and their actions and words can take them out of the ability to do that if they are not following these instructions that paul has given them here so encourage others by our behavior not discourage them verses four and five again paul says so they may encourage the young women to love their husbands to love their children to be sensible pure workers at home kind being subject to their own husbands so that the word of god will not be dishonored the fourth priority here is to honor god's word how do we do that well paul gives instructions here using the example of young women in the home in the family he says they're to love their husbands and love their children they're to be sensible and pure there to be workers at home okay some of you young women are probably ready to tear that page out of your bible right workers at home what does that mean well i can tell you it doesn't mean the uh the barefoot and pregnant type woman who just stays home doing all the household chores having as many children as possible doing her husband's bidding at any time that he asks that is not what paul has in mind here okay um let's look at this a little more commentators here i'm going gonna give you this one commentators don't agree on what this means but i have studied it i have prayed about it i've talked about it with pastor jeff and um i'm pretty confident about what i'm going to share with you here that that this is a better meaning than that barefoot and pregnant stay at home locked up at home don't leave the house type type woman um a better interpretation of workers at home is good managers of the household or as one commentator said it producers of orderliness in the home not necessarily occupied exclusively with household chores okay after paul and peter were martyred in rome a gentleman named clement became a leader of the church in rome he praised the church in corinth regarding this matter with women at home he said you instructed the young to think temperate and proper thoughts you charged the women to perform all their duties with a blameless reverent and pure conscience cherishing their own husbands as is right and you taught them to abide by the rule of obedience and to manage the affairs of their household with dignity and all discretion i think that's what paul's paul's meaning here let's read from proverbs 31 verses 10 to 31 and see what this says about a worthy woman it says an excellent wife who can find for her worth is far above jewels the heart of her husband trusts in her and will have he will have no lack of gain she does him good and not evil all the days of her life she looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight she is like merchant ships she brings her food from afar she rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens she considers a field and buys it from her earnings she plants a vineyard she girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong she senses that her gain is good her lamp does not go out at night she stretches out her hands to the dis staff and her hands grasp the spindle she extends her hands to the poor and she stretches out her hands to the needy she is not afraid of the snow for her household for all her household are clothed with scarlet she makes coverings for herself her clothing is fine linen and purple her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land she makes linen garments and sells them and supplies belts to the tradesmen strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future she opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness her children rise up and bless her her her husband also he praises her saying many daughters have done nobly but you excel them all charm is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the lord she shall be praised give her the product of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates this is a beautiful picture of a woman who works not only at home but also outside the home to manage her household and and produce goodness in the home godliness in the home paul himself in acts 16 with lydia in philippians 4 with euodia and sintaki he gives examples of christian women who worked outside the home to further the growth of the church and the ministry of the church in the places where they lived and so i think what paul's telling young women is to make homemaking a priority but it's not their only priority it's not their only ministry the world's view of homemaking is very different from god's view of homemaking we kind of need to redeem god's view of homemaking that it's good and it's valuable so paul then tells the younger women workers at home be kind kind is different than nice right kind is a little harder than nice but be kind being subject to their own husbands let's stop there for a minute too what is being subject to their own husbands mean this isn't talking about obedience being subject is not exactly the same as being obedient and men we need to understand that okay to be subject it's an it's an ordering under it's to engage in the order that god's designed to reflect his gospel because marriages are an image of the gospel i want to look i want us to look at ephesians 5 and see what paul wrote here to the church in ephesus about wives and husbands starting in verse 21 he says be subject to one another in the fear of christ wives be subject to your own husbands as to the lord for the husband is the head of the wife as christ also is the head of the church he himself being the savior of the body but as the church is subject to christ so also the wives ought to be subject to their own husbands and everything husbands love your wives just as christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might represent to himself the church in all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and blameless so husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies he who loves his own wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as christ also does the church because we are members of his body and we skip down to verse 33 nevertheless each individual among you is also to love his own wife as himself and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband so what is he saying here the husband is to be a leader not a tyrant the husband is to love his wife by giving himself to her sacrificially the same way christ gave himself to the church he's just yeah this doesn't give husbands license to ask their wives to do anything illegal or immoral or to be abusive towards them is to be a loving leader in the home that's the husband's role the wife is to submit to her loving her husband's loving leadership as as though she's submitting to the lord and she's to respect him and here's the tough thing about this for men and women both even if you don't think your spouse is living up to their end of what they're supposed to do to their responsibility it's your responsibility to live up to what paul and god have called you to do you're going to be held accountable for what you do not for what your spouse does and so um so paul's emphasis here is on a loving caring intimate partnership but paul said this also about um about being subject to husbands and first pers first peter three verses one and two in the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior paul says to the wives even if your husband is an unbeliever you're to submit to his leadership because through that you your behavior may be the thing that brings him to faith in jesus and so again the women the the woman's role is to submit to her husband's leadership but the husband's role is to love her sacrificially as christ loved the church and i have found as i've talked to couples that when the husband is doing his job the wife is more than willing and more than happy to her do hers as well and submit to his leadership so now obviously here not all young women not all women period are married or with children and so some adaptation has to be made here for for women who find themselves single without children but there's much here in the list for young women and for us to to to follow much here that still applies and so why would god give these instructions to the young women without seeming sexist let me just say i think for women who maybe grow up being told their role is in the home that's maybe something they heard more traditionally in the past than maybe they hear now but i think god has put in women an innate sense of mothering and and being a wife most women not all i'm trying to not step on myself here but um but i think a lot of women have a desire to be home and have kids and be married they also have a desire to have a career and be successful and use the gifts that god has given them outside the home and there's sometimes attention there as to which path do i follow and is it possible to do both i think paul is calling young women here to do both be the manager of the household even if that means you step outside the household to work and to be employed still you don't give up that responsibility of being the household manager and being subject to your husband's leadership the world is watching christian families if if young women can get this right it's a it's an incredible example to the world of the beauty of god's order and the relationships he created and how the husband and wife and the parents and the children are to respond to each other it's a beautiful picture when we do it according to god's plan and it it sets us apart from the world and it makes it makes what we're doing attractive to the world so they'll want to know why is it your family works this way what what is it that makes your family successful this way so by honoring god's word the world will see a difference the difference it makes following jesus going on to verse six it says likewise urge the young men to be sensible i'm gonna go through verse eight likewise urge the young men to be sensible in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine dignified sound in speech which is beyond reproach so that the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us fifth priority here don't be the cause of criticism okay don't be the cause of criticism he calls the young men in verse six to be sensible same instruction given to the older men and the young women be thoughtful be self-controlled now question here then comes in does he move from talking to the young man in verse six to talking only to titus in verse seven and eight it kind of sounds like that but titus was a young man and so the instructions here whether paul is still talking to just to all the young men or whether he's just talking to titus the instructions here apply to all young men all young men and then they apply to us as well so what does he say here be an example of good deeds basically practice what you preach he says be pure in doctrine have integrity and soundness in your teaching be dignified be sound in speech which is beyond reproach speech which is healing and restorative and cannot be condemned that's what he means by beyond reproach why does paul give these instructions to the young men sensible an example of good deeds pure indoctrine dignified sound in speech beyond reproach he says here so the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us i think young men whether or not they go to college young men want to conquer the world and maybe i'm stereotyping here but i think for a lot of young men they want to conquer the world they want to succeed in business they want to get ahead and there are great temptations there to cut corners and maybe allow sin a little bit to come in to get ahead so that we can do more for god's work right there's there's always temptations to to allow little sin to accomplish something that will allow us to do more for god god would rather we not do the sin and let him work right but if we are young men all of us if we are not sensible if we say one thing and do another if there's no purity in what we're teaching if we're not dignified if if our speech is just careless and haphazard and there's no nothing healthy in our speech we open ourselves up to justifiable criticism and paul's saying here do these things i'm telling you so that your opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about you it reminded me of daniel when the uh the governors and say traps and all those people uh under nebuchadnezzar sought a way to discredit daniel and and the book of daniel tells us all they could come up with was a law that would cause him not to follow god because his behavior was so righteous there was nothing there was no criticism they could make against him and so i'll let you go to the book of the dna the book of daniel and see what happened there but but they made a law that that said you couldn't pray to any god but the king daniel still went and prayed to the lord god and that's what got him thrown into jail they couldn't find anything bad to speak about him and that's what paul is telling us to do here live your life in such a way that the opponent has nothing bad to say about you know be put to shame because he'll try but he can't discredit you or come up with anything against you first timothy 4 15 and 16 says this take pains with these things be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching persevering these things for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you he says work hard at this that's something for all of us work hard at this don't be the cause of criticism this this verse here ensuring salvation for yourself and those who hear you is not talking about eternal forgiveness eternal salvation he's talking about spiritual health spiritual well-being wholeness but work hard at this take pains with these things be absorbed in them this applies to everything we've heard so far in this passage not just to what he says to the young men here all right our last couple verses before we get to those i just want to say something about them paul is going to speak here to literal slaves i know in a passage like what we're going to read here in a minute we like to say well slaves back then equates to employees now and in a sense the principles are the same but let me just tell you about slaves back then so you kind of have the context of of what paul is saying here because it he wasn't giving them easy instructions these slaves had no rights slavery first before i talk about the slaves sorry i want to say slavery is not a biblical institution slavery is not a divine institution paul in giving instructions to slaves here he's not ordaining slavery or condoning slavery or saying that it's right he's not giving a position on it he's giving guidance for how slaves ought to conduct themselves as christians listen to these descriptions of slavery in the first century after jesus's death estimates vary in regard to the number of slaves in rome though a conservative approximation of the slave population would be 33 to 40 percent of the people were slaves seneca famous roman relates how the senate once considered legislation that proposed distinguishing be between slaves and free men by the type of clothing they would wear um that was proposed in the senate the motion was rejected when the senators realized it would actually let the slaves know how many of them there there really were slavery in the roman world was not racially driven slaves came from all parts of the roman empire the vast majority of slaves were illiterate and lived at or below the substance level the conditions in which most slaves were kept ranged from cruelly inhumane to grim but survivable the same could be said for how they were treated i also want to point out that in our country's history these verses that we're going to read were terribly misused and misinterpreted by slave owners in the south these instructions were not given for the benefit of slave owners to mistreat their slaves in trying to get their slaves to obey these rules these instructions were given by paul to teach slaves how to act how to behave as christians as followers of jesus okay that being said let's look at what he has to say to slaves here urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything to be well pleasing not argumentative not pilfering but showing all good faith so they will adorn the doctrine of god our savior in every respect the last priority we see here is to make god's truth attractive make god's truth attractive ephesians 6 tells slave owners to be obedient for them to their masters here it says be subject to your own master in everything this isn't grounds for the masters to tell them the slaves to do something illegal or immoral which was very much the case back in rome back in our country's history but that's that's not what this verse was saying it was it was telling them to it was telling the slaves to be obedient and to be to submit to them it says be well pleasing to them try to please them don't be argumentative that can be not speaking back against them not not talking back not speaking against them don't complain about your boss behind his back is kind of the idea here he says not pilfering not stealing back from your master or holding back something that's due them showing all good faith being trustworthy being dependable being loyal now if you take these words and you you hold them up against the conditions of slavery that we know of from our own country's history or that i read about from rome it would be really difficult to do this the only way for a slave to do this would would be to be a follower of jesus allowing the holy spirit to empower them to to be christ-like in their behavior christ-like in their words under intense persecution we're called to be the same we're called to the same standard as employees why does paul give these instructions to slave to slaves it says so they will adorn the doctrine of god in every respect what does it mean to adorn the doctrine of god well adorn means to to have order or beauty it means to set forth something attractively i loved this one example in one of the commentaries it says adorn can also mean to trim as in trimming off the burned part of the wick to allow the candle to burn brighter what i loved about that is such a picture of when we adorn the doctrine of god we trim off the sin in our lives we trim off our failings so that god's light can shine more brightly through us for the slave the result of their christian behavior in intense persecution would be to make the doctrine of god more attractive to their unbelieving masters i'm not gonna take the time to read first timothy six one and two jot that down you can read it later but basically paul says in there even if you have a believing master slaves are to regard them as worthy of honor and as i said though these words were written to guides the behavior and the attitudes of slaves they apply to us as employees as well a christian's attitude and behavior should be different you can look at almost any workplace and see the indifference and the disrespect that people give towards those in authority they shouldn't see that in us they shouldn't see that in us our behavior and our attitude should be so attractive that it leads people to christ that's what paul's saying here for all of us colossians 3 verse 23 says whatever you do do your work heartily as for the lord rather than for men there's a popular saying today it says the word of god offends i got to tell you what offends more than the word of god is oftentimes the people of god because we don't act in loving ways making the gospel attractive we make the gospel offensive at times not god's word we need to work hard to make god's truth attractive so that god can use us to bring others to christ now what do we do in response to this i thought of second chronicles chapter 7 verses 13 to 15. god is speaking to king solomon here in the old testament he says if i shut up the heavens so there is no rain or if i command the locust to devour the land or if i send pestilence among my people and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven will forgive their sin and will heal their land now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to their prayer the prayer offered in this place god says here that we are to humble ourselves and to pray and seek and turn when we read a passage like this today there are things in here there were things in here as i read it and studied it there were things in here that i did not want to follow in my head i say yes yes god i want to do your will and i want to be obedient to you but in my spirit it was no these things some of these things are just too hard god don't i do enough already i just don't want to do this he says humble yourself pray seek my face turn from your wicked ways and and i'm wondering if if all of us could take just 15 minutes today sometime this afternoon sometime this evening could we take 15 minutes and humble ourselves and pray and ask god god where do i need to turn from my wicked ways god i'm seeking you holy spirit show me those areas where i need to turn god says here this is a promise if his people do this he will hear he will forgive our sin he will heal our land i don't think anybody would disagree that our land needs healing it comes when we humble ourselves and we pray and we seek his face and we turn from our wicked ways none of us are perfect with these priorities all of us need to have some work to do so 15 minutes today sometime humble yourself seek god's face pray turn from your wicked ways and see what god does in your life and in the lives of those around you let's pray heavenly father i thank you god for your word even for difficult passages for passages that have difficult things that we may not want to follow god help us to remember that these words are inspired by you and all of them are profitable for us god may we be people who are willing to humble ourselves to pray seeking your face and allowing you to convict us and show us the areas that we need to turn from the wicked ways we need to turn from oh god may we be people who who desire to follow you with our whole hearts surrendering our whole will to you god help us to help us to do that in jesus name amen all right i am thankful for our elders and i am so thankful for our elder chairman dana davis and he is going to come and lead us in communion now thanks tim i really appreciate the reminder that as a husband my call is to love my wife as christ loved the church and sometimes i have to tell myself if i'm going to die for my wife i could probably do the dishes every now and then so we are here to remember what christ did for the church and to proclaim the sacrifice of jesus christ so there are two requirements uh the first one is that we have a relationship with jesus christ doesn't really make sense to uh that feels better does it make sense to uh partake in and remember his sacrifice for me if i haven't accepted that sacrifice uh so that's the first part the second part is that we come to the table with clean hands uh that we've washed and and that we've confessed and shared our our sins with christ that we should be doing that on a daily basis and so that we want to be up to date and current uh and and come to the table uh in an honest fashion uh not a perfect fashion so with that in mind uh let me pray and then we'll we'll share in this father we're grateful for the sacrifice for a way that you've made for us to be in communion free with you i confess that sometimes i get caught up in in what other people think and and forget your perspective and what you say about me uh that i'm called that you'll never leave me that you'll sing songs over me i'm grateful for that god i'm grateful that there you have made a way where i couldn't make a way to be in communion with you thank you for that so the lord jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way he took the cup also after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it and remember to me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes now we'll uh just remember go to a time of offering if you're at home there uh or if you're here there are three ways to give we can give online on the website we can text or we can mail in a gift and if you're here today you can share your gift with the ushers who are at the door so thank you for participating [Music] one with god the lord most high hidden glory in creation now revealed in you are christ what a beautiful name it is what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus christ my king what a beautiful name it is nothing compares to this what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus [Music] should jesus [Music] [Music] what a wonderful name it is what a wonderful name it is the name of jesus christ what a wonderful name it is nothing compares to this jesus what a wonderful name it is [Music] um [Music] dad could not hold you [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] the name of jesus [Music] what a powerful name it is the name of jesus thank you guys for leading us in worship elder chair dana thank you so much for bringing us into the presence of god through communion as we close this service i want to announce to you guys so if you haven't met sam noon sam has been at bethany for his whole life came through bethany's school and through the ministries here and has been serving as our college director and you know he stepped into that role a few years ago just spearheading a college ministry just having a desire to see students in college connect to god's truth defend their faith know what they believe and as he's been serving in this it's just kind of been a pioneer rule i think is the best way to describe it with lots of twists and turns but he has sensed god calling him away from this role as he pursues god's heart for his life sam's going to be in ministry just a a godly young man that embodies the character that paul was calling titus to that he's been fully engaged in his faith and i look forward to seeing what god has in store for sam and for his life and so we just wanted to present him with a certificate uh just thanking him recognizing him i'm out of hands uh as well as a bible i know that god's word is important to you sam and i wanted to just bless you with that and i want to pray for you as you pursue god's heart for ministry so let me pray father thanks so much for sam thank you for the depth of his character and the model that he presents to us god i thank you for his service to our church and i know that he's going to continue to be here as he pursues your call for his life we just want to thank you for allowing us the privilege of serving alongside of him and having him utilize his gifts to bless our body so god as we leave this morning i pray that you would just help us go in the power of your spirit and in your love we ask this in jesus name amen god bless you guys have a great rest of your week thank you sam for everything that you've done we'll see you guys next week [Music] [Music] besides [Music]

Channel: Bethany Church Long Beach

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Length: 95min 49sec (5749 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021