and turn, if you would, with me to the book of Titus, the epistle to Titus in the New Testament. If you would, let's stand together for the reading of God's Word out of respect for the Word of God. We're going to read verses 1 through 5, Titus 2, 1 through 5. And let's read the verses out loud together like one big group here this morning. All the verses out loud together. Verse one. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness. not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Let's pray. Lord, I do pray that you bless the reading of your word this morning. I ask that you would speak to us and help us as we seek to be good parents and good Christians, good church members, and good citizens in this community that we live in. I do pray that you'd help us to do all things to the glory of God, that you would be praised for all of it. And Lord, that we would not seek man's approval or man's praise, but Lord, we would seek your honor. And may you be glorified in this world. And may the devil be ashamed. And I do pray that you bless this day and all that is said and done in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated this morning. I want to talk to you for a few moments on how, as a woman, how to make your home beautiful. How a woman, a lady, can make her home beautiful. The word here, verse number one, the word become is the idea of to make beautiful. The things that thou speak thou, the things which become sound doctrine. I remember as a kid, I got a new suit as a child one time, and maybe the very first suit I ever wore, I don't know. But I remember somebody came up to me and said, well, you look very dapper. And I said, well, okay, thank you. And five years of age, I didn't know what dapper meant. But I remember then somebody one time said, well, that's very becoming, that suit is very becoming. And I'm like, I don't know what that means either. But it means, the idea here is becoming. If somebody says that's becoming to you, what they mean is that looks good on you. We should speak the things, this is to all of us, we should speak the things which make sound doctrine beautiful. Verse number 10, we have the same idea here, not purloining, not being dishonest, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. We know some people that can make the truth look really good. And then there's some people that can make the truth very ugly. Some people use the Bible as a club, unfortunately, instead of using it as a sword, as it properly should be used. We know all kinds of people get on Facebook and they try to tear the Church of God down. by exalting themselves. They think because I have a stronger position on something, we can tear down other Christians. Well, that's actually a dishonest use of scripture, to use the Bible to push our convictions and to make ourselves look more spiritual. Well, that's dishonest. What should be done is to use what we should be doing is using the scripture to glorify God and to edify the body. And there's times for admonishment. We understand that there's times where we need to take the scriptures and reprove and rebuke, right? And exhort. There's a necessary time for that. Sometimes what we've seen is people tearing others down with the scriptures, and they're making the truth look ugly. What we should do is use our testimony, our life, to make the truth of scripture beautiful, and adorn the scriptures. And I'm not saying that we ever trim the message. We never should water down the gospel, okay? Some people misunderstand this. We're supposed to speak the truth, but in love. And I think that's a very important thing as a Christian, as a mature Christian, to learn how to speak the truth, to say what needs to be said, but to do it in a loving way. Unfortunately, many times we don't say things that we should say because we're afraid to offend people, but rather we should say what needs to be said because we love people. You can make the truth ugly, or you can make it beautiful. And that's why it says, speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Well, it's Mother's Day, so I want to talk to you a little bit today about being a godly mother and helping that mother to have a beautiful home. We have some ugly homes, and some of them are in beautiful houses, okay? We have a lot of ugly homes in this country, but they have beautiful houses. It's not because we're not trying. There's a lot of different seminars that you can go to on how to have a good home. There's a lot of different philosophies and books that you can read. And there's a lot of counselors and conferences and marriage coaches that you can go to and on and on. We're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth because we're not using the Word of God and that is foundational for our home. The Word of God should have preeminence in our home. Unfortunately, what has preeminence is everything else. The Word of God should be first place. Titus 2 verse 2, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. Now we need to have some aged and sober and godly men in our churches. And there's something wonderful about a man who has lived his life for the Lord and is still living his life for the Lord. Amen. And is still going forward. Maybe not able to do everything that they want to do for God, but they are doing what they can do for God. And they're faithful. It's more important to be faithful than to be flashy, okay? There's a lot of people out there that they're the flash in the pan, so to speak. They have a big moment of excitement. They get saved and they start doing great things for God and people are excited about that. But then very soon they fizzle out. but faithfulness is a greater quality than flashiness. And so if you're faithful to the very end, as a man, that's a blessing. The aged men, and their job is to teach and to be an example, but also, verse three, the aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh, adorning holiness. They're holy in their lifestyle. The woman, the aged woman is to be an example to the younger women. Her legacy is to be holy, number one. Holy in her lifestyle, the way that she lives. Holiness, it's so important. This word holiness, the scholar tells us, has something to do with the priest as he's coming out of the temple. And he's in there, he's burning incense in the temple, and he's doing his priestly duties. And when he comes out of the temple, as he's been there in proximity to the power and the holiness and the presence of God, when he comes out of the temple, you can smell the incense on his garments. I know people like that. You can get around them and they just exude the presence of God. They exude holiness. There's something about them that's different. And my friend, that's how we should be. Not just the women. This message is directed at the ladies this morning, but us as men should also be exuding holiness because we've been in the presence of God. We've been in close proximity to God. And also in this church age, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of God. And people should see that, it should come out of us. I've heard somebody say one time that sometimes the only Jesus that anyone will ever see is you. It's Jesus in you. I love what Ron Hamilton, they just sang the song Rejoice in the Lord, but he also wrote a song called I Saw Jesus in You. and seeing Jesus in somebody is all the difference that we need. People get saved because they see something different in your life, and there's something about your life that is attractive. You have that attractive quality, and it's not that you're attracting people to yourself through your winsome personality and your charisma, but rather that you are attracting people to Jesus Christ through your life. And a godly woman A woman that's to be an example, first of all, she's to be holy, holy in her lifestyle and the way she lives. It's the perfume of God in her life that attracts others, attracts those that are seeking to be close to God. And I just love being around people that have that quality. Number two, we see verse three, that she's godly in her speech, that she has in her behavior that which becometh or adorns holiness, but also she's not a false accuser. False accuser. This word false accuser is the same word we get our word devil from. And the very word devil, diabolos, means someone who is casting slander about. It means a slanderer, a false accuser. One woman was talking about going to heaven. She said, you know, I'm just wondering when I get to heaven if I will wear a robe and how will I ever get my robe over my wings? A friend said, well, what concerns me is how you're going to get that hat over your horns. You know, unfortunately, there's a lot of people that they think that they're a godly Christian, but they spend their time tearing down other godly Christians. What we should do as believers in Christ, we should seek to edify and build up and encourage one another in the faith and seek to say things that are helpful rather than hurtful. Again, like I said, it's how we wield either a club or a sword, we can use the truth and make it truth beautiful or we can make the truth ugly. And there's times and places to say what needs to be said and to correct where it needs to be corrected. But there's many times where we're just tearing people down because of our wicked self-will and our flesh coming through. We're trying to just build ourselves up by stepping over other people. And that's ungodly. A woman that is a false accuser is not a godly woman. There's something ugly about a home that's not a home, a holy home, a home that's filled with slander and gossip. We need to be careful. And I know that many times we don't think we're gossiping because we're just reporting the news. You know what I'm saying? There's times where we think, well, I'm just telling the truth. I'm just telling it like it is. And I'm not telling a lie. Everything that I'm saying is true. But gossip doesn't necessarily have much to do with telling a lie as much as it has to do with not being edifying in what we're saying. You know, you could tell all kinds of things that are true and you could be tearing somebody down in a wrong way. One of the good rules of thumb here for gossip is if I'm telling somebody something, do they really need to know? Are they one of the parties involved? Are they going to be helped? and edified, is it necessary for me to tell them? Or am I just talking? Am I just saying things because I want to say them? Because maybe it makes me feel better about myself? And that is definitely the flesh coming through. Now we see the word false accuser here is obviously is talking about somebody that is telling lies, a tail bearer, somebody that is a false witness, they're a liar, a false accuser. We need to be careful about our mouths and the things that we say. She is godly, not only holy in her lifestyle, but godly in her speech. Thirdly today, verse three, we see that she's free from addictive things. We see they're not given to much wine. Not given to much wine now some people might be saying well not given to much wine titus chapter 1 we see not given to wine As the bishop should not be given to wine and here the holy woman should not be given to much wine Okay, well, let's just say That she should not be given to addictive things because the Bible is very clear about alcohol and we could talk more about that some other time. But the Bible says to be tempered in Galatians 5 as well as 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 6 to be temperate. To not allow things to control us. The Bible says very clearly, Paul says that we should not be drunk with wine, where is the next says, but to be what? Filled with the spirit. Okay, so if anything is gonna take first place, take away and detract from the guidance and the direction of the Holy Spirit, then that thing is wrong. Whatever it might be, it doesn't have to just be alcohol. It could be any other addictive substance or addictive activity that should not be what controls us. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of this message here in verse number three would include cigarettes and pills and drugs and anything else that's addictive. The Holy Spirit is who should have control of us, not some other substance. We need to be careful about that. Some people would pat themselves on the back and say, I've never taken a drink of alcohol, but they're addicted to some other, maybe a pill or even over-the-counter drug. We need to be careful about those things, that we wouldn't allow them to control us. Now, there's hope in Christ. Thank God for that. And some of you might be chained to some addiction today. I would say probably all of us have an addiction. The sin is, any sin is addictive, okay? There's a certain sin that gets you that might not get me, okay? We all have something that gets us though, something that is something that would take control of us if we would allow it to. But if we walk in the Spirit, if we submit and yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, then there's, it's impossible when we're completely yielded to the Spirit, it's impossible for the flesh to take over. You might be saying, well, that sounds really great, I'd love to just be submitted to the Holy Spirit all the time. And wouldn't we all? But that requires us to choose that, okay? Praise God, He saved us, and we're sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption, and we're kept by the Father, and we're kept by the Son, And praise God for that, and we can't lose our salvation, because God can't lose us, He's keeping us, okay? Praise God. But we can still, in our flesh, we can still choose to satisfy the sinful flesh. Although that sinful flesh should be crucified. it still seemingly has some life left in it, all right? This flesh of mine is gonna battle me, battle the spirit, until the day that I'm laid into the tomb or I'm caught up with the Lord in the clouds, amen? But we need to be careful that we're not allowing addictions to take control of any part of our life. We need to be solely and completely yielded to the Holy Spirit, amen? Number four today, we see in verse number four. Verses 4 and 5, that they may teach the younger women. Verse 4, we'll just end right there for a second. Teach the younger women. Who is going to teach the younger women today to be homemakers? You know, they don't teach that in public school anymore. I think they got rid of all the home ec labs years ago, possibly, out of the public schools. But needless to say, it's not the job of the school to teach your children everything, okay? The school is there as an extension of the parent's authority. Unfortunately, what schools are telling you is that they are the authority, and you as a parent have to submit to them. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible's first, God's first institution is the home, amen? And we have the church as well, and we have government, praise God for God's institutions and God's provision for order and government and all of those things. And all of those things are important, But because the school thinks that they're in charge of your children, sometimes parents are beginning to buy into that and they're just letting the school teach their children everything. You're not abdicating, you should not abdicate your duty as a parent to teach your child about the most core principles of everything about life. First, starting with spiritual things. Your children should be hearing from you about the word of God. By the way, it's not my job to teach your children the Bible. Do you know that? It's your job Now you bring them to church and you put them in Sunday school and and you expose them to this and this is a great place This is an institution of God that is here to edify the believer and to build up and encourage and to instruct and to and to equip But it's not our job solely to raise your child and to teach them the things of God. It is your job as a parent. Just like it's your job as a parent to teach your child a good godly character and to teach your child how to get up in the morning and how to go to bed at night. You know, part of the problem with getting up in the morning is that we don't go to bed at night. Do you know that? And I know you might be thinking it's so hard for me to get up in the morning. The problem is it's so hard for you to discipline yourself to go to bed at night. See, we have so many different things in our lives now, like electricity, okay, but also phones and computers and all of these things that make our lives so much more I was going to say easy, but actually the truth is it makes our life a lot more complicated, doesn't it? You know, we laugh at people that lived a hundred years ago before, you know, they had electricity everywhere. People lived off what we call living off the grid was normal back then. You know, when the sun went down, guess what you did? You went to bed. When the sun came up, you know what you did? He got up in the morning, I understand, we live in the 21st century, people work every shift, you know, first, second, third, and people working, I appreciate what the police do, they have to work on Sundays, you know, they don't even get a day off on Sunday. Paramedics, firefighters, doctors, they have to work 24-7 sometimes, right? And there's always somebody at the, Here in Milwaukee, here, there's somebody always at the fire station taking care of that. Appreciate what Brother Dan, I think of Brother Dan, 911 operators, they don't get a day off. That's necessarily, I mean, they get a day off, but somebody has to be there manning the phones, right? And that's a 24-7 thing, 365. And you know, how many of you ever been to Chick-fil-A? They get a day off, okay? Chick-fil-A, they take Sunday off, which is good. I think we should be closed on Sunday. And I could go to Chick-fil-A 24-6, amen? And appreciate all that they do there. But we understand that years ago, things were shut down on Sundays. Things shut down at night. That's God's design and we think that we're so sophisticated and we've got it all together because we have all of the information and technology and gadgets and everything that make our life so much more complicated. And we're wondering why we can't function because we're burning the candle at both ends. And it's not God's fault. We need to, by God's grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit, get control and obtain and become somebody that is, rather than being controlled by everything else and everyone else's agenda and schedule, we just say, you know what, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna keep this thing very simple. This one thing I do, okay, we're gonna be faithful to God's house, to the church, the body of Christ, and that's not just on Sundays, by the way. We're gonna be faithful to the body of Christ every day of the week, okay? We're gonna put the priority where it needs to be. Family, but then also God's family. God first, our spouse, our children, the family of God. And sometimes the church family's needs come before our own family and we have to put things on pause for a moment, but ultimately your family comes first, okay, we understand that. But sometimes we have to shift things around. But we can do that, we can do everything that we need to do by God's grace if we put priorities where they need to be. Part of that is disciplining ourselves to go to bed at night and get up in the morning. So very basic, you might be thinking this is so elementary, but some people need to hear this. Some people need to hear this. See, we're being controlled by electronic, I think of video games, one of the most addictive things for children is video games and computers and phones and all those things. You might be thinking, well, pastor, you're preaching on my sin now, come on, move on, talk about the mothers, and I don't wanna be talking about this now. and that's not what we're here for. We're here to honor mom. We're not here to talk about my video games. Well, I understand that, but you need to set yourself up and set your children up for a life of success, not just in this world, but a success with their relationship with God, and that includes disciplining. Discipline your children in the areas of their time management. Go to bed and get up, okay? Requires us to set a schedule sometimes. I know some people laugh at my wife, and I remember people laughed at her when she said, yeah, my children have to go to bed at a certain time. But I think it's important, we make that a priority, and we understand, again, Mrs. Hoover and I, we will drop anything to help anyone in the church at any time. I mean, there's been times at two, three in the morning I've gotten calls from people to take them to the hospital. We've done that, we make it pop. That's our ministry, that's what we're here for. And sometimes the kids have to get woke up, and we put them in the car, in their pajamas, and all of those types of things. But, for the most part, we try to follow a schedule. I think it'd be important to do that. And that's not to say I don't struggle. I struggle with this, and my flesh fights me every day. And not every day I win, and not every day God wins, okay? But we need to make it a priority to not allow addictions to control us. But who's gonna teach the younger women today to be a homemaker? It's you, mom. You aged women. You don't even have to be a mom to teach younger women, okay? And sometimes great insight comes from those that are older than us. We need to listen, okay? I enjoy going to, when we've done nursing home, going and just sitting and talking with people, just listening to them, those that are older. I love listening to those that fought in World War II. There's very few of them left. But I love listening to those that have insight, because they've seen a lot of life. And it goes by very quickly, I've heard. It goes by too quickly. So it'd be important for us at a very early age to just get engaged and to start listening, to start thinking. You know, I need to submit to those that actually might know more than I do on these things. And you that are aged, you need to take your role seriously of, I'm an authority, or in a sense, I have a responsibility to convey this truth to somebody. To take what I've learned, as Paul taught Timothy, to take what was committed to you and to commit it to somebody else. What was invested in your life should be invested in somebody else's life. Don't be the dead sea where everything comes in and nothing goes out, okay? Be somebody that is taking wisdom and insight that was given to you And whether it was given to you by somebody telling you these things or it was the Holy Spirit through the word of God and convey that and teach that to somebody else. So unfortunately there's a lot of people getting married today and they don't know the very first thing about being a husband or being a wife because nobody took the time to invest in them and to teach them. And we have some friends, and they got married, and I understand why they stayed so thin. Because their wife didn't know how to cook. And as you know, unfortunately, in a sense, my wife knows how to cook. Because some of you knew me before I was married, and you see me now. And it's been a struggle, okay? And when they cook so well and they do a good job, and I'm not saying she's perfect, but what I'm saying is women need to teach, you need to take time to teach these young, you might be saying, nobody had ever taught me how to do it either. We can work towards learning some things, grow. Don't take the fact that somebody maybe didn't teach you how to do something as an excuse to be lazy. See, moms, you shouldn't let your husband do all the work around the house. I'm not saying it's your job to do everything, but if your husband is working and you're able to stay at home, he shouldn't have to come home to a mess every single day. Amen? Some of you older ladies are in agreement on this because you know it's right. Okay, your husband shouldn't have to be washing the dishes every night and changing every single diaper. Your husband shouldn't have to do all of the things that you should really have done, but you're too lazy to do them. It's wrong. I would dare say it's a sin. So we don't teach our children, unfortunately, the very basic things of life, and we wonder why they struggle when they get married. So unfortunately, women who don't know how to cook and men who don't know how to cook or take care of the home either, for that matter, men, you shouldn't let your wife do everything either. Now, your wife should cook a good meal for you. But you know, once in a while, you should cook a good meal for her too. You might be saying, pastor, please, you're going to get me into trouble. But you can take your wife to a nice restaurant, okay? You might not know the first thing about cooking, but you can provide for the home and you can give her a break once in a while, okay? I don't think she would object to that, okay? But some married folks don't even know how to cook. Some young ladies don't even know the recipe for ice cubes. I mean, I know how to make ice cubes. They don't know the very first thing about, I can make toast, I bet some of these kids down here can make toast, they can make cereal. But it's sad because they were not, women were not taught in this generation how to make a home, how to be a keeper at home. The Bible says there, verse number five, or let's start in verse four, let's continue, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, and to love their children. to be discreet. We're gonna cover each one of these things. Chase, but here it is, keepers at home, this is what we're talking about. Keepers at home, her main occupation is in the home. You might be saying, well, what's wrong with working outside the home? Nothing. Nothing's wrong with working outside the home, but if you have children in the home, you're main occupation, and you have a husband, that's your main job and duty. You're saying, well, this isn't right, Pastor. Yeah, of course, according to today's society, it's not right, but that's not our gauge. See, today's society is not the benchmark. The Word of God is the benchmark. This is God's first... And you think the world's got it together? Let me ask you a question. Be quite frankly honest. The world is a mess. Our society is a mess. See, we've elevated feminism and we've defamed manhood and being a man. Now what passes for a man today is really just being a macho guy and not really being a faithful husband and a faithful father. See he's got all kinds of muscles but he's a wimp because he doesn't do his job as a father and as a husband. And we got women that act like they're the authority and they're putting their husbands down. And he might make a good show of it in public, but behind the scenes he's so henpecked, as Larry Brown would say, he's so henpecked he has to roost on the bedpost every night. But it's unfortunate that we have women that are taking the role of the husband, and we have husbands that are taking the role of the wife. Say amen. If you don't agree with that, well then you disagree with the Bible. Because that's God's created order. The husband, God created Adam, and then he created Eve to be the help meat. The society is so messed up, they don't know whether it's a boy or a girl. Well, we're gonna let them decide. When they're five or six, maybe they'll figure it out. And we're not gonna tell them. We're just gonna get them gender neutral clothing. We're not gonna say they're a boy. We're not gonna say they're a girl. It's amazing. It's amazing what's going on. We need to teach the younger children. I'm not abdicating this to just the women. It's the men's job too, okay? The men are supposed to teach boys how to be men, okay? I remember my dad, when I was, and you might be saying, well, that's not such a big deal, this thing, but I remember I was carrying a stack of books, and this was very, one of the things, everything else my dad taught was probably subtle and things I didn't even catch onto, but this one thing I caught onto when I was in seventh grade, I was carrying my books into school like this. He said, don't carry your books like that, carry them under your arm like that. He said, girls carry their books like this. I didn't know what that meant, but all I knew is when I see a boy carrying their books like this, and we see guys all the time, you know, bebopping down the road, and they don't walk like men. You might be saying, what's such a big deal about that? But I think a boy that, that is, a father to teach his boy how to act like a man. How to carry, and I'm not saying you have to, we were down in Tennessee, and they say every man carries a knife. I'm not saying you have to teach them how to do that, okay? But what I'm saying is they need to carry themselves as a man. and stop letting the women lead. And you might be saying, well, what if the woman wants to lead? Well, then she shouldn't lead, but she's just looking for a man to lead her. I know that you don't agree with this, some of you, but you're so backslidden, you don't know up from down. Really don't. There's some folks in this church or watching on livestream, who are in total agreement, they're lockstep with the world's stinking agenda, and they haven't followed the word of God, they know all about the Bible. They could tell you all about the Bible, but they don't obey the Bible. They'd rather let the world tell them how to live. So we need to have women that teach the younger women How to be a keeper at the home. Hollywood's not going to teach you how to do that. Hollywood's not going to teach you how to be sober. It means to be wise and to keep desires and passions under control. You know what Hollywood teaches you and what the world's philosophy says, well just follow your heart, do whatever you wanna do. That's why we have women and men getting married and within a year's time, they're splitting up because they say, you know what, this isn't what I wanted, this wasn't what I was looking for, but you know what, the vow that they made was till death do us part. But oh, this isn't fun anymore. Oh, a woman. And a man, a godly woman, or a man should be sober. Women, you need to be sober, to be wise, to keep desires and passions under control. Love their own husbands and children. Be affectionate wives and mothers. Tell your children that you love them. Carry your children, hold your children. Don't let other people raise your children for you. God gave you those wonderful children. They're a blessing, they should be a blessing to you. And you should take care of them. Don't spend your life Facebook and Instagram and snapchat know what I don't even know if that's out there anymore all these other things and Twitter all right and YouTube you know they thought about putting YouTube Twitter and Facebook together gonna call it you twit face and but they're putting more effort and time into social media than in raising their children then taking care of their husbands Don't you love your husband? Don't you love your children? Wives, don't you love your husbands? It's sad to see the children that are being raised today, they're raising themselves. Mom's not raising the kids. Dad's not there. Kids are clueless today. We wonder, why do they turn out the way we do? We did everything we could. We gave them a good home. We provided for them. And we gave them a good education. But you forgot, you're supposed to love your children. Love your children. Providing a roof over their head is not just, that's not loving your child. That's doing what even the infidels would do. Even the unfaithful unbelievers put a roof over their children's heads. They provide for them. But you know, as a Christian, you ought to be bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in love. bringing them to God, praying for them, caring for them. Your husband is just wanting a wife that would just love him. Amen, man. You want to say it, you're too afraid to, I know. You know, your wife's gonna smack you across the face as soon as we leave here. You said amen right there. But you wives, you need to love your husbands. You don't even know, and I'm not totally blaming you because some of you don't even know how to love your husband because all you ever saw was your mom nagging your dad all the time and putting him down and being unkind and unloving. But how do we know how to love our spouse? Well, we go to the example of Jesus Christ. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church. You might be saying, well, I don't know how to love and submit and all those things. Just ask God for help. Find a good godly woman to help you, encourage you. Men, find a good godly man of character, of good character, and who's loyal to his wife, and loyal to his children, and loves his wife, and loves his children, and is faithful to God, and is faithful to God's people. So many times we know what's wrong. I mean, we could watch Jerry Springer and say, well, I know that's wrong. Absolutely wrong. But sometimes we just don't know what's right because we haven't seen it exemplified in our lives. We've never seen anyone be a loving husband or be a loving wife. Be a loving parent. And I understand some of you have that baggage in your life, and it hurts, and it's painful to carry that with you, but we need to just forgive and let go of some of that stuff and just say, that's under the blood of Christ. Praise God, He saved me. Because if not for the grace of God, there go I. I could be in the exact same place. I could be hateful to my children. I could be abusive to my children. I could be hateful towards my wife. I could be abusive towards my wife. but for the grace of God I don't have to do that. That's not who I am. That's not who I have to be. It's unfortunate to note that many divorced situations, many parents Divorced parents produce children that will divorce as well. There's many homes in America that are facing divorce today that all they've ever seen was dysfunction. And it's sad to note that. But you don't have to do that. You don't have to be there. That doesn't have to be your life story. That doesn't have to be you. Oh, wouldn't you want to be a trophy of God's grace and to see your life different than your parents' lives? You might be saying, well, my parents were saved. They knew better and they still got divorced. That doesn't have to be you. God's merciful, God's gracious. Just because your children go by the wayside doesn't mean you can't reach your grandchildren. They can be trophies of God's grace. So we need to teach the younger children. Who's going to teach the younger children or the women to be homemakers, to be sober, to love their own husbands, to be discreet? The word discreet there means sound of mind, self-controlled, moderately opinionated. You might be saying, well, you're not being very discreet this morning, Pastor. You're being pretty opinionated. Well, I'm trying to just follow the Bible, okay? If my opinion lines up with the Bible, I hope that that's what it is. But I understand that sometimes we get our opinions and we get ourselves, you know, where we're just, you know, saying everything that comes to our mind. And that can happen a lot on That can happen a lot in a church setting. We can become very opinionated in our, even our Sunday school classes or with other brothers and sisters in Christ or on social media and things like that. And unfortunately, there's a lot of people that become so opinionated that they split churches and they can't, you know, they can't bear up and stay in a church because they don't agree with something. I understand we're all gonna have different views on things. Sometimes it's better just to keep it to ourself. because maybe we're wrong. Do you ever think about that? You might say, I just believe this, and this is the right way to do something, whether it's a standard or conviction or whatever it is. You might have this, bless God, everybody ought to be doing this, and if they're not doing it, they're not right with God. Maybe you're wrong. Sometimes we have beliefs we hold to opinions, but we don't know why we even have those opinions. Why don't we search the word of God and just be discreet about what we believe sometimes in certain areas. If we disagree, as Bob Jones Sr. said, where good men disagree, tread lightly. Sometimes your best friend's not gonna have the same opinion as you. Be careful to be discreet, to be self-controlled and moderately opinion. Also, chase, the word there, chase, means to be pure. Be pure, be pure. You know, it's sad to note that, I believe it's by the age 12, I just read the other day, 94% of children will view pornography. 94%. I think of these kids, most of them are upstairs. By the age of 12. Oh, God is gracious and God is able to do anything, but the reason we have fracturing in our homes today is because of impurity, impurity. It may not be a physical impurity, but it's a purity that's impurity in the heart, impurity in the heart. It's easy to live a double life today, to be two things, to be dishonest. We need to be so careful that we're pure when we teach our children. We come to the expectation that our children should be pure. The public school, again, I've heard from so many people that have gone through the public school, and they're not taught abstinence. They laugh at abstinence because they don't think that's even possible, to wait until you're married. They laugh at that. It's not possible. My wife and I, we were pure when we got married. See, that's not taught today. Many of you were as well. You waited until you got married. And today that's laughed at and that's scoffed at because that's impossible. But with God, that's possible. And it should be the norm for Christians, okay? It shouldn't be like, wow, they must be a really stellar Christian because they waited till they got married to have their first kiss. And in Christian circles, that's laughed at today. That's scoffed at. And I'm not being unkind to anyone that didn't wait to have their first kiss because, like I said, God is merciful and it doesn't matter. That doesn't mean they're less of a Christian than I am. but what I'm saying is we have to understand the way that we hold these convictions should be pure and we should we should be gracious and and sometimes our opinions are wrong but according to the scriptures I think we should wait okay be pure and and to be careful how you know how close we come to things sometimes We think, well, it's not sin. I'm just getting kind of close. Solomon said, can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Sometimes we think, well, I'm just getting kind of close to that, but I'm not involved with it. I'm not doing anything wrong. We should be careful about the appearance of evil. We should be careful about not touching that. The Bible says it's not good for a man to touch a woman. Okay, but we need to put a premium on purity, not drag it through the mud and say, well, that's just stupid. You know, purity, what's that? You know, we're under grace. We can do whatever we want. Anyways, I'm getting off on a rabbit trail here. Let's keep going. Our next thing we see here is good. after keepers at home, good. What that means is in all respects and in all relations, to be a good wife, a good mother, a good sister, there can be no higher characteristic ascribed than to say that she is good. She's good. Lastly, obedient to their own husbands. She submitted to their husbands that the gospel may not be injuriously spoken of. As you see there in verse number five, that the word of God be not blasphemed. You know why Christians get a bad name is because of Christians and the Christian's behavior. Because we don't back up what we believe, or so we say we believe. See, we say, well, I believe the Bible, but we're not doing all the things that the Bible says. You might be saying, well, it's hard to do all the things the Bible says. You're right, but by the grace of God, we can start turning the ship and start going the right direction and say, God, help me to do what's right, and God, help me to be a keeper at home, and help me to be a good wife, a good sister, or a good mother, a loving wife, a loving mother, and help me to do what's right, and a lot of it, honestly, is not so much to do with behavior, but it has a lot to do with our heart and our attitude towards things, see? When people know, you know, they see our life, and they say, you know what, they're not perfect, but if they see this person, they have a good heart, and they have a pure heart, and they're wanting to do what's right, and they have a submitted heart to God, see, that is what makes all the difference in the world. They're not perfect, we get that. You know, the world gets that. Even the world understands Christians aren't perfect. They're not looking necessarily at being perfect, but they're looking at why are they doing it? And are they double-tongued, okay? Are they saying one thing and doing another thing, see? Let me ask you this question. If somebody were to approach you and say, you know what you're doing is wrong, The Bible says that's wrong. And if your first attitude is one of defensiveness, I don't know, I can do that, I'm allowed to do that, that's the wrong attitude. See, if your attitude is one of submission and godly fear, and you know what, if the Bible says that's wrong, please help me understand that. And a lot of it has to do with attitude, not so much performance and behavior. See, that's what we think is important. We think, I just need to have all my T's crossed and all my I's dotted and everything in place, and I need to look the part, and I need to be a good Christian, and I need to show up on Sunday and wear my suit and tie and wear a dress, and I need to look my part. That's not what God's looking for. God's looking for relationship. If your heart's submitted to God, that's the most important thing. Because God can then lead you into his perfect will. See, if you're just doing your own will and you're trying to please God, so to speak, in your own way by looking a certain part, really, you're not pleasing God, you're pleasing yourself. You're trying to get people to see you. You're trying to get people to look at you and say, well, they're a good Christian, and they come from good stock. Those are the blue bloods over there. Those are the best of the best. Those are the best and the brightest, and they got good children. Look at all those children lined up, and they're doing everything just right, and they're not flinching at all in church, and they've got their lives squared away. but give it about 10 or 15 years. If their heart's not submitted to God, you'll see every one of those kids go to the devil. You think I'm telling you a story. I've seen it. I've seen it. Because it's all about performance. It's not about what's on the outside primarily, that is important, but it needs to start from within, okay? So by the grace of God, you say, God, I don't know anything about this. I never was taught these things. I was never taught to get all of this in line here, to be free from addictions, to be godly in my speech, to holy in my lifestyle. I understand those things are right, you might be saying to God, but I don't know how to do that. Well, first of all, I think you're on the right track, because if you just come to God just as you are, so we sing the song, Just As I Am, but without one plea, just as a sinner coming to God for salvation, saying, God, there's nothing I can do, I'm worthless, I'm a wretch. But I know that your son, Jesus, died on the cross, and he's worthy. and the blood that he shed for me is enough to cover my sin and wash my sin away. Praise God for that. And as a Christian, you come to him in the same posture and attitude and just say, God, I know I can't do this in my flesh. I am weak. I am unable to do it. But by God's grace, I can do it. As Paul said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. That's where we need to be. God, work through me. Let's stand and pray. Father, Lord, I pray that you bless this day, this time in your word. I pray that you'd help us to be able to beautify our homes. And pray for these ladies, so many wonderful godly women in our church. But I pray that you'd help us to take it up another level here and to shore up things that need to be shored up in our life. There's areas that we all need to work on. Lord, primarily I think of here in this passage that we need to be helping that next generation. Thank you for the moms that are raising their children. I pray that they'd be encouraged this morning to just keep going. Because the proof is in the pudding. It's not about how we look, but it's what's on the inside. I pray that you'd help us to ignite that fire again, to realize, you know what, I need to just keep going. Things seem to be falling apart, but thank God he's with me. I pray that you'd help us today in that way. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.