Kristie Anyabwile | Living as Titus 2 Women in a Romans 1 World | TGCW18

but at time this afternoon I am gonna talk about this there's Titus - living in a Romans one world we'll talk about it in two ways and use two passes of Scripture and so hope that you all will be able to track with me this afternoon living is Titus two women in a Romans one world first of all we have to state the problem and the problem is we'll find in Romans 1 that we're in a state of emergency and then we'll we'll spend some time there and then we'll talk secondly about the solution and the solution that I'm proposing this afternoon is older and younger women investing in each other and we'll look at Titus 2:4 for that portion so good let's get it started a state of emergency as you're well aware it's a situation of normally of national danger or disaster something big usually citizens are encouraged to change their normal behavior behavior in order for government and other agencies to implement emergency plans and often the state of emergency is declared during a time of natural disaster human disasters civil unrest war some other international or widespread conflict so an example recent couple examples recently in our country the California wildfires right back in December I know at one point there were twenty-one thousand acres had been burned by fires in about six communities and then if you think more recently just about a few weeks ago there was a state of emergency called for in Florida with tropical storm Alberto it was bearing down on the state and the governor there issued a state of emergency these are tragic events and they call us to prayer they call people to action and they call us to be aware of the danger and then to run for safety a state of emergency really is a worst-case scenario come true however once the situation is neutralized the danger is alleviated and order is restored then the state of emergency can be lifted now think about that idea the state of emergency and I just think about our society today and how it's becoming more and more morally ambiguous and relativistic any degree of femininity is shunned a secular understanding of masculinity is celebrated celebrates machismo and breeds misogyny sexuality and gender are fluid independence indicates power dependence as a sign of weakness our lives are completely private except for what we showcased on social media and no one is to question or push against our personal ideas or preferences or goals we pursue what we want when we want and how we want it we're very much living in a Romans 1 world and I think in the church we in particularly women are in a spiritual state of emergency that calls for us to neutralize the threat of secular thinking to warn of the dangers of sin and judgment and to restore biblical order to a society out of control I'm going to read Romans 1 to give us context for this Romans 1 beginning in verse 16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so they are without excuse for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things therefore God gave them up to them in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever amen for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for one another men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God God gave them up to a debase mind to do what ought not to be done they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness evil covetousness malice they are full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness their gossips slanderers haters of god insolent haughty boastful inventors of evil disobedient to parents foolish faithless heartless ruthless though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them not a great state of being in this passage I want to point out Romans 1 3 things I want to point out God's revelation of righteousness or wrath and from verses 16 to 20 and then man's response of utter rebellion against God in verses 21 to 23 and then the tragic resolution that we'll look at briefly and verses 24 to 32 so first God's revelation in verses 16 to 17 we see God reveals his righteousness right you see it in 16 and 17 Paul is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe and it reveals the righteousness of God through faith in Christ we also see that God reveals his wrath in verses 18 to 20 God's wrath is being revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men because he's clearly revealed himself to them yet they suppress this truth we see the suppression of truth in the relatives 'im relativism of our day where the belief is that there's no absolute truth but it's pretty easy to see the flaw the foolishness of flawed that idea as the very statement itself is exerting and absolutely secondly verses 21 to 23 we see man's response so God's we see God's revealing both his righteousness and his wrath and now we see man's response in verses 21 to 23 and I'm just glancing over these verses to paint a quick picture for you so in verses 21 to 23 we see that humanity fell into idolatry because they fell to honor God and show gratitude to him exchanging the truth about him for a lie they didn't give him the glory that he's due they didn't give him gratitude rather they presumed upon God's kindness and took him for granted they were empty the Bible says devoid of reason and their hearts were darkened and they display the height of foolishness by denying God's exist and then they fall into idolatry and then lastly verses 24 to 32 we see the tragic resolution to this state of rebellion God left mankind to do whatever their evil hearts desire because of their disregard and rejection of him so we're in the state of emergency we're in a state of emergency because what Paul was addressing in his day is the same for us today the trajectory of humanity when left in their sin is toward more sin deeper sin even settled reveling in sin and then we also see in our day our ability and even disinterest in pursuing the things of God and pursuing godliness therefore we need God's righteousness to reign and rule in our day if left unaddressed in unanswered the fate of those in our day will be the same as those in Paul's day God will give them up and it's not a great way to start off a workshop but we need to be clear that there there are real women in real danger of real judgment if we can't find a way to neutralize the threat of sin to alleviate the danger of judgment and restore order to the lives of women whom we minister to every day so how do we do that you might be wondering and what this Titus to have to do with it good question I'm convinced that if older and younger women invest in each other's lives not only would we grow in our personal discipleship but we would serve a sort of outposts of the Great Commission to others who are in need of God's rescue so for the rest of the time that was just to paint a quick picture in Romans 1 before the rest of the time I want to offer the solution older and younger women investing in each other's lives and we'll do that by looking more carefully at Titus chapter 2 so you can turn there or click there tap there if you have your Bibles but Titus - I'll read one through five and then I'll read 11 through 14 okay so looking at Titus - there's a few things to keep in mind about the book first of all Titus 2 chapter 2 particular is gospel motivated if you look at verses 11 through 14 of chapter 2 it's all about the good news of the gospel that frees us from sin and frees us to live in a manner pleasing to God not because of our works but because of God's perfect Christ's perfect righteousness applied to us as we repent of our sin and turn to Christ by faith secondly another thing to keep in mind is that Titus 2 is pastoral and relational because we see in verse 1 of chapter 2 the charge for the pastor pastor Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine and so you see that pastoral responsibility but then in verses 3 to 10 it all happens in the context of discipleship so you get first one from pastor verses 3 through 10 to the to the pew right from pastor to Pew and then thirdly keep in mind that Titus 2 makes the great commission gender-specific gen and what I mean by that is not I mean not just limited to men or pastors right some people like oh well you know it's the pestis job to preach the gospel so why do I need to do it well Titus 2 shows us that and gives us specific instructions to women and how to be both student disciple and how to also be teacher in the things of God much of what I'm about to share for the rest of our time is part of a chapter that our co-wrote with Susan hunt in a book that is edited by both Gloria Furman and Kathleen Nelson and the book is called word field women's ministry loving and serving the church and I think coffee's in the bookstore if anybody who wants to pick it up but if you're taking notes here are three reasons why we need to take Titus we need to have Titus 2 as our method for lifting the state of emergency one from verses three to five and also from Matthew 28 our responsibility to carry out the great commission two is that there's redemptive purpose behind some of the practical concerns that we see outlined we'll see that in verses 11 to 14 and then also in 11 to 14 will look at thirdly there's a return on your investment in the lives of women we'll look at again 11 to 14 so let me that's a let me read Titus 2 1 to 5 and then 11 to 14 and then I'll tell you a story but as for you teach what accords with sound doctrine older men are to be sober minded dignified self-controlled sound in faith in love and in steadfastness or the women likewise are to be reverent in behavior not slanderers or slaves too much wine they are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children to be self-controlled pure working at home kind and submissive to their own husband's that the Word of God may not be reviled verse 11 for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age waiting for a blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works so here's a story I'm gonna ask question first how many of you have had the opportunity to ask as an older woman a younger woman to walk alongside you in discipleship praise the Lord if you now how many of you who are younger women have had the opportunity to ask an older woman to invest in your life in the ministry of discipleship nice lots and lots of yes this is amazing I saw one statistic that said over 50% of the women here 55 or something are twenty or thirty year olds and so there's a lot of y'all it's a smaller percentage of women who are kind of in the 50 and over range but we're good we're okay I asked a question because I you know a lot of times women really struggle with discipleship they struggle with the ask right who should I ask can I ask what happens when I ask what am I getting myself into and so on its own to what I'm doing and so on and so forth well the first two older women I asked to mentor me they both said no no I can kind of smile about it now but at the time I was devastated I knew both women pretty well we served together in the same church for a number of years we enjoyed fellowship with one another all the time and they were women who when you read Titus 2 and you look at verses 3 to 5 their names are written all over it as models of women who are reverent and self-controlled and and and lovers of their husbands and children and so on and so forth and many women already in our church were learning from their lifestyle and from their faith so I was excited about the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with one of these ladies and and so you might think then if you're already learning from them then why were you looking for that's what you're looking for what more were you looking for and I think at the time I'd only been a Christian for a couple of years or short number of years and I was looking for an older woman who I could just lay my life before her as an open book you know I wanted somebody to hold my head well I walked out my faith in the callings that the Lord had given me as a young wife and mother mother and I felt like I needed a spiritual mom someone who could help teach me and train me to live for the glory of God in all of life so I made the first request we met at a local restaurant and already knew what I wanted to order for breakfast because I had you know I had everything all planned out I nervously scanned the menu stalling for time because I knew I had to ask this question I'm praying for boldness and like just the right words to express to her my desire and what I was hoping for and I pray for God's wisdom and asked him to show me who I could ask to walk with me in in this way so I thought I was I thought I was good so I place my order I put away the menu took the deep breath then I said something like thanks for coming to breakfast with me I've been so encouraged by your life and your and your faith and I've been learning so much from you already by watching how you raise your children and your grandchildren and teaching toddlers of Sunday School and all of this and how you care for your husband and you've just been a model to me in so many ways but I know that there's more that I need to learn and I've been praying for mentor and I believe that the Lord directed me to you to ask if you consider I don't even think I use the word disciple in back then I think I might assent mentor or something to mentor me and help me grow in my walk with the Lord I did just like that there was silence awkward pause the godly woman to this this godly woman took a deep breath and she says something like honey you have to know where she calls everybody honey I'm honored that you would make such a request of me she said but I have to say no right now she's from North Carolina too so she has a country twang she's I got my grandkids keeping me busy and I have work and I just don't think I have I have time right now Oh like okay so I'm embarrassed I mean I'm hurt and trying to play it off I tried to let her off the hook it was like ah that's okay I understand I didn't if your schedule changes in the future you can let me know you know wasn't hopeful and she says I sure will baby she calls everybody baby too and so I finished that breakfast as fast as I could drove home in a flood of tears and in that moment I made a promise to the Lord and I said to the Lord that by His grace I made a promise to the Lord that by His grace I feel like I've been able to keep for over 20 years now as a Christian and that promise was if any woman ever came to me in my local church asking me to mentor her or to walk with her or disciple her whatever where I was using at the time that I would never say no I would find some time some way to invest in her life and you know what happens when you make promises to God like that right well it wasn't long when a young college student well she wasn't constant at the time she worked in college ministry and I had been you know I've been married a few years and she was a newlywed and she might have been pregnant at a time I can't remember but she was like I was just wondering if I could just come to your house sometimes and like sit with you and and cook with you over dinner and just ask you questions and stuff and I was like sure yeah I mean I got a cook and I like to cook and I like to talk I wasn't sure what the questions were gonna be about but I was hoping it was gonna be about food because I knew that so what develop was just a beautiful relationship of me and this young lady cooking together over dinner you know every once a week or was every other week or so and her just asking me questions about life and about marriage and about motherhood and about stuff I knew answers to and stuff I didn't know answers to we prayed together we cried together we laughed together we did all the things right what our young people say no we we did life together right is that right okay fast-forward years later I was in conversation with this godly woman who told me no and we were talking about the needs for discipleship among younger women actually and you know it was years later come on I had forgiven her but she got very quiet and after a moment of reflection she said you know honey I remember when you asked me to disciple you she said honestly I had never been asked that question before and I didn't know how to respond she said I wasn't too busy for you she said I was scared because I didn't think that I could do what you were asking of me and she said baby I'm sorry for how I responded to you that day in that conversation left me thinking and praying a lot about how older women could be encouraged to embrace their calling to train younger women according to the instructions of Titus 2 I don't know if any of you have had similar experience I want you to raise your hand but it's pretty painful to it's a vulnerable moment to ask someone to enter into your life that way and if any of you have had experience similar to mine I know I know that feeling of pain and even fear of oh my gosh can I do it again and what if I get another no and I did get to knows but anyways I love them both and they're still dear friends but if we look at Titus to first of all and I'm gonna also look at Matthew 28 in a second as well we see this responsibility to carry out the Great Commission so my heart was for bold steps I want two older women to take the bold steps of faith to mentor and I wanted the younger women to take the bold steps of faith to ask for help and to be clear I don't I don't see these bold steps as recommendations I see them as requirements for every Christian to be making disciples and teaching disciples and living as disciples as a matter of fact disciple literally means what student learner right so until Christ returns all of us in this room and all of us on this planet who are his are required to be both teacher and student obeying the commands that Christ handed down to us in the gospel through his disciples in Matthew 28:19 2:20 Jesus went to his disciples and said go therefore and make disciples of all nations right baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I'm with you always to the end of the age if you're a disciple of Jesus at that time can you imagine the pressure they must have felt when they heard Jesus say go and make disciples of all nations then he says teach them to obey all I have commanded you I imagine they would have felt crushed under the weight of that kind of responsibility but the Lord Jesus reminded them that his expectation of the would always be accompanied by his presence I am with you always to the end of the age now if you believe you have wisdom to share then pry it's gonna surface that you're gonna have to deal with but if you believe the Lord is with you and because he is with you he will give you wisdom by his spirit then you don't have to worry about expectations can I do this will it be enough will I be effective how can I measure up to their standards to the standards I hold up for myself or even to God's standard am i doing or saying the right thing ladies trust that the Spirit will do his word in and through both you and the woman that your disciple II don't try to be perfect just try to be faithful faithful to the Word of God faithful in prayer faithful in your commitment to the women that God has placed in your life however it is true that younger women can expect a lot I mean they expect a lot because they need a lot granite some expectations can be unrealistic or unbiblical or inflexible or self-centered and all the things at times but this is precisely why they need older women you can add balance to maybe expectations that are out of that are out of balance by pointing them to Christ by reminding them of his sufficiency and encouraging them to place their hope in him above all things so in order to alleviate or in order to lift this state of emergency we have to be great commission gospel-centered women we have to be women who boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ boldly going forth to make disciples and to teach disciples and to live as a disciple of Christ secondly there's a redemptive purpose behind the practical concern so I'm sure if you've done any study of Titus 2 you've most likely broke it down each characteristics of the older woman and the younger woman you probably spent a lot of time expounding traits like reverence and self-control and working at home and so on and try to make those qualities practical to daily life and this is good and it's right how we live before God and man matters Paul teaches that faithfulness in these practical matters makes the Word of God attractive and his evidence of the grace of God at work in us we are as he says many times to pastor Titus to devote ourselves to good works but if we settle for taking care of practical concerns only focusing on our roles and our conduct then we fail to grasp the greater redemptive purpose in our practice there's a big question why in verses 11 to 14 of Titus 2 that must be answered as we carry out these important good words the answer of course is the gospel and we see it here presented very clearly in 11 to 14 the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age waiting for our Blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who were zealous for good works so when we're talking about being great commissioned gospel focused women we are talking about almost elevating Titus 2 moving from the very practical necessary good and right concerns that are there but to answering that question why why should we be workers you know able workers at home why should we love our husbands and children this way why should we be kind and all of those things because the grace of God has appeared through His Son Jesus Christ and he teaches us how to live up rightly in this present age and these are the things that we communicate to one another in our Titus to disciple in relationships and then finally there's this return on your investment as much as younger women want to learn from older women to be encouraged and equipped and exhorted to live for the glory of the Lord remember that the Lord is gonna do in you what he enables you to do in the lives of the younger women you disciple we don't have it all together but God does and he will encourage and equip and exhort you as much as you do the same for others so there's more there's more than just it's not a one-sided deal where the older woman reigns down all her wisdom and years of knowledge and experience and Christian maturity on the younger woman and the younger woman just like soaks it in and takes it all in in it it's a one way show no it's a relationship and so as much as an older woman is putting in the Lord is gonna be filling her I know I'm just gonna go off for just once a little rabbit trail for a second here here's the thing I think older women can when I see this day and age I'll put it this way as I see a lot of young women who are zealous who are eager we have a church plant so I talked to a lot of young women who are also in church plants and there's this hunger in this thirst in this longing for older women I don't know why church plants are really young so like the average age is like 30 or something and so I talk to a lot of women in church plants who say they're no older women in our church like I'm 33 and I'm the oldest one you oh this one and that kind of thing is so there's this longing for older women to be evolved in their lives I'm gonna it's your little challenge if you're an you consider yourself to be an older woman I ain't gonna tell you what that is but if you consider yourself to be an older woman can I encourage you to really pray the next time your church sends out a church plant really pray with your husband and your family about whether or not he would be calling you to go to that young church plant I'm telling you I'm telling you the church these young church plants need older women they need older men they need people who are mature in the faith who can walk with them and encourage them in the faith so church plant ladies you're welcome [Laughter] also in addition to that I see on the other side a lot of younger women who maybe they come out of parachurch ministry maybe they're fresh out of college they got all the knowledge they know the theology they know the old guys they know that young guys they you know they know the Spurgeon's and the ones whose names start with a e and stuff like that you know and they know big words and it can be intimidating to try to as an older woman who may not have had that kind of theological training or background it can be intimidating to and make and feel almost like you don't have anything to offer because man she knows all the stuff well guess what she and as old as you are so there are things that you know and that you've learned by sheer Christian experience and I think whether you're you know an older woman and you've been saved three years or you're an older woman and you've been saved 45 years the Lord is the Lord works beautifully in using that combination of age and and devotion to him in a way that ministers to younger women so don't feel like you have to compete or compare or even you know kind of hang with all the knowledge that you think a younger woman may have that you don't give them what you got you know Christian experience is valuable in the lives of younger women okay back on and also remember this is an encouragement but it's not gonna sound like it remember that you are inadequate and again I don't say that to discourage you I say that to encourage you to depend on the Lord and to know the sufficiency of Christ to help you in your inadequacy what if they ask me a question I don't know the answer to well you could say I don't know but let me pray about it ask around think about I'll get back to you or let's study it together or something like that what if they asked me a question that I should know the answer to well you can still say you know I should be able to answer that but it's not coming to me clearly so let me think about and get back to you now if they ask you a question like what's the gospel you can't answer that then take that bold step and ask someone else you know who can clearly communicate and articulate the gospel and have her walk you through it okay there's humility and vulnerability in this so you might say you you know somebody say well what's the gospel you're like deer in the headlights I'm not a guy wait a minute hold on it's got it and then you have someone to walk alongside you and they explain a full gospel you know a full gospel presentation or message to you and it's like yeah I know that I just didn't know how to explain it to someone else and I think that you know that can happen that it can happen that there are things that some people think our basic to the faith that we know and that we know in to a certain extent but we're not able to communicate it or to articulate it I should say we're not able to articulate it clearly and so get help with that ask somebody and you know what if you really don't know the gospel and someone explains it to you and then you realize oh wait actually I didn't know that then praise the Lord repent and trust in Christ that's what they were there for to bring you to Jesus so you might discover that you're hearing it understanding the gospel for the first time praise God and man what could be more beautiful than to finally understand that you're indeed a sinner and in need of a righteousness outside of yourself that can only come from Christ who live the perfect life that you can never did live and die the death that you deserve for your sin and who rose from the dead three days later so that you might not die but be given eternal life with him we cannot leave our sisters in the state of emergency when women are not connected in meaningful disciple relationships they're in danger they're in danger of being disconnected from the body they're in danger of being swept away in sin they're in danger of being discouraged or lonely and not only is that woman's spiritual care in jeopardy but the women and men and boys and girls who don't yet know Christ are missing out on her evangelistic witness in their lives we need every part of the body making disciples teaching disciples and living as disciples and even though in my early years of being a Christian I didn't have a spiritual mom or a mentor to disciple me the Lord used the writings of godly women to teach me spiritual disciplines and to route me and God's Word he also used older and younger women in my life to help me grow as a wife and a mom watching and learning from their lives so the Lord taught me he taught me from Mandy extreme discipline and diligence in caring for her home and in caring for her body he taught me from my friend Nadia just how to rate raise my daughters our children were about the same age but she's been a Christian longer than me and I learned so much from her just watching her raise and train her children and also loving her husband my friend Nancy is a Bible teacher and taught me to look deeply into the Word of God for his wisdom and instruction and to really be zealous about teaching other women the truths that God was teaching me my friend Sarah taught me so much about prayer and about going to God in prayer like in a moment going to God in prayer in joy and in sorrow grabbing the hand of a sister and not saying hey I'm gonna pray for you I'm gonna pray for you grabbing the hand of a sister saying no one let's pray right now let's pray and and intercede on her behalf my friend Kim taught me as a pastor's wife how to support and encourage my husband when he became a pastor my friend Eli just oozes wisdom from the Word of God I don't know she's taught me a lot my friend car is young and sweet and just evangelistically zealous she loves her husband and children so well and she's taught me so much about being gracious and kind and gentle and being bold in sharing my faith my friend nicole has taught me a lot about organization and writing for the glory of God my friend Maura and it stirs up in me greater zeal to know God better and to dig deeper into his word just seeing her energy and seeing her love for the word and seeing her grow and her knowledge of God that fuels me my friend Sean they just teaches Shi I've learned so much from her about just having fun making the joy of the Lord my strength enjoying life and enjoying God's people and fellowshipping with them and I can go on and I'm sure you can go on talking about the people that God has placed in your life near and far who have been an influence in your life for good God was at work in my heart through the know may he be at work in your heart to say yes and to take Titus too seriously because we're in a state of emergency people are dying in their sin every moment and we have the message of life and if we take that message of life pour it into the life of another and then teach her the things that God is teaching us and then she becomes she joins another woman and does the same thing i multiplies it just think about the growth of god's kingdom and the soon return of our Savior we have to get to work and be busy about taking Titus 2 seriously than investing in the lives of our sisters let's pray father we thank you so much for this afternoon for this time just considering Titus 2 afresh and thinking about Lord that this isn't some just this isn't some optional activity that we can choose to involve ourselves in but Lord this is a command directly from you through your word as you call us to make disciples and then to teach disciples give us a heart for this lord give us zeal for this give us vision for this make us prayerful in considering whom we can invest in and who might be able to invest in us and Lord build your kingdom from these relationships by growing us in maturity and in our knowledge of you and then helping us to reach out to others who are not yet Christians and are not yet followers of the Lord Jesus Christ father do this for your glory we pray in Jesus name I'm in

Channel: The Gospel Coalition

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Length: 43min 57sec (2637 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019