It's been such a beautiful weekend, hasn't it? And I have a nephew visiting from out of town and we decided to get outdoors a little bit yesterday and do a little hiking up in the mountains. And I have a new book and it's about waterfalls in the upstate and tells you how you can find them, hike to them and see them. And so I thought, let's go find this waterfall. And so he and I drove up and found the trailhead and headed off. and started looking for the right trail and ended up on the wrong trail. And it was nice. It was beautiful. We ended up hiking up to the top of some mountain and then finding some beautiful stream and taking pictures and eating our snacks and just enjoying the sunshine and the breeze and all of that. And it was beautiful, but we never did find the waterfall. I didn't look at the directions carefully enough or look at the kiosk at the parking lot closely enough and we just headed off in the wrong direction and it was great and nice and fun and enjoyable but we never did see what we went to see. As we were doing it and trying one trail and then another and I said, you know, we're kind of living and learning, aren't we? You know, you kind of Try to figure things out as you go and try this and doesn't work so well. So you try that and maybe you end up where you were headed. Maybe you don't. And that's we call that learning and living or living and learning when it comes to life. Right. And I was thinking about that in relation to what we're doing in our study of Titus, because we're trying to flip that around, aren't we? Not just figure things out as we go and make a lot of mistakes and maybe not end up where we're supposed to be. Actually, we're trying to do the opposite because the book of Titus is about doing the opposite. It is about learning. And then living, we find out the truth, we understand God's word, we know his will. He tells us how to know him, how to receive that grace, the grace that saves us, the grace that strengthens us that we've been thinking about and focusing on here this morning. We we learn these things and then we live them. We live them out. We live day to day, we live through the tests and the trials and the temptations and the problems. And so so we learn and we live. And that's that's what we're endeavoring to do. And we're going very, very carefully through the book of Titus. And today we're going to be in Titus chapter two, looking at a couple of verses here. I'm still calling this healthy living, healthy living, because, as we have pointed out before, Paul uses the word sound. Comes from a word that means to be healthy. He talks about sound doctrine. What we learn must be true. It must be right. It must be healthy. But he also talks about ways to practice sound living, sound thinking and sound behaving. And so our lives are to be healthy as well. And we talked about healthy living for Older men, we talked about healthy living for older women and younger women. And today we come to a section that talks about two more groups of people. And Paul is telling Titus what to teach his people. They lived on this island called Crete in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Greece. And in chapter two, he tells Titus to address these specific groups of people about healthy living. And today we come to these two groups and one of them is an age group. The other one is a group by vocation. It is a group of people who follow a certain vocation. So look with me at Titus chapter two and let me read for us verses six, seven and eight. Titus two, starting with verse six. Paul tells Titus, Likewise, exhort the young men. To be sober minded. In all things, showing yourself, he says to Titus, to be a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned. That one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Would you pray with me again, Lord, as we look to your word this morning, we acknowledge our weakness. We cannot understand spiritual truth without the help of the spirit of God. And so we ask you for that help today. Or there are many, many things on our minds, burdens, distractions, problems. Things that will take our minds away, but I pray now that you'll help us to reign it all in. And to concentrate our thoughts on the word of God. Help us to open our hearts to the spirit of God, help us to yield our wills to the will of God. Lord, teach us, I pray, so that we might learn and live. And I pray it in Jesus name. Amen. First category that he speaks to here is the category of young men, so we're going to talk today about healthy living for young men in just a minute and heard about something that happened this past year that kind of illustrates to me, I think, some of what it is that we are talking about here today. Every year, hundreds of people attempt to climb to the summit of the world's highest mountain, which is Mount Everest. It's 29,035 feet at its peak. That is about five and a half miles high. It's a very dangerous endeavor, and people regularly die making the attempt. And last year in May a 24 year old young man from Israel named Nadav Ben Yehuda made the climb. And Nadav would have been the youngest Israeli to reach the peak of Mount Everest. And he was within 300 meters of reaching the summit. And as he was working his way along with others toward the summit he passed one And then another climber who had fallen and died along the way. And the other hikers and climbers were just passing them by, passing by these fallen climbers. And he came to a third one and he realized it was someone that he knew. A man who was, I believe, in his 40s, actually from the country of Turkey. He had met him before. He was making the climb as well. His name was Aydin Irmak. Not of knew that if he pressed on, he would make the summit, he would achieve his ambitions, he would be famous, he would receive honor. But if he stops to help Irmak, he would give up the possibility of summiting Everest on that day. And he chose in that moment to stop and to help this man, he tied this man to himself and carried him for nine hours back down to the nearest base camp. And saved his life. I think this is a picture of them transporting this man after they had saved him. I don't know for sure this is actually from Nadav's Facebook page and I think this is a picture of them transporting the man after that after he had rescued him. This is a picture of them after it happened. And of course the Turkish man Aden owes his life now to not of and they have become bonded and united in this friendship. This illustrates what Paul tells Titus to teach to the young men on this island of Crete. And so we're talking about healthy living for young men. And he uses this word. And it is interesting that for for the younger men he talks to in verse six here, he only gives them one thing to think about. So this is not so hard, right? All the rest have this long list. But to the younger men, it gives them one quality to focus on. Now, of course, it's very extensive. It's very comprehensive. It's not easy, but it is simple. He says, likewise, exhort, encourage, call, challenge the young men to be sober minded, sober minded. Now, we've seen this word before. It's translated other ways in the translation we are using. Some translations use the word sensible to translate it every single time. And it does mean that it means to be sensible. It means to use good judgment. It means that you are not controlled by personal ambition. You have a goal and you're going to accomplish it and you neglect everything and everyone else. It doesn't mean it means that you're not controlled by personal ambition. It means that you are not controlled by your appetites, you crave, you desire, you want something physical, something pleasurable. And your appetites control you means you're not controlled by your appetites or your emotions or by circumstances or by what other people are doing. It means you're thinking clearly and you are making good decisions. And just like not have been, Yehuda was not controlled in that moment by his personal ambition, by what everybody else was doing, everybody was walking right by this man who was dying. Ignoring him to fulfill their personal ambitions, he was not controlled by that. He was controlled by something more important, more valuable. And that's exactly what Paul is telling Titus to teach the young men on the island of Crete to do, to learn what is true. To learn what is right, to learn what is valuable and to live accordingly, to live by that, not these other things that would drive us and determine what we do and how we live. Learn what is true, right and valuable and live by that. Now, of course, the question is, who are the younger men? Right. We've been trying to kind of nail this down and figure out what groups he's talking about. Well, we know from before that the older men that he talks to in verse two are probably about age 50 and older. So the younger men would be those younger than that. Right. So I'm dividing this into two stages because I think there are different needs and different challenges in these stages of life. And so I would say that the younger men are in this age group of later teens to late 40s. That's a pretty broad age group. But you're here this morning and you're in that age group. He's talking directly to you. He's speaking to you. Now, again, I know others will automatically think he's not talking to me. Remember, we do this in community. We live the Christian life together. We pray for each other. We encourage each other. By the way, we were in an awesome Bible study group this morning at nine o'clock with a group of of other adults looking at the word, talking about it, listening to each other, feeding on the word together, encouraging each other, giving examples. That was awesome. I needed that. We need this. We grow in community and fellowship with one another. So, yes, he's addressing specific groups, but it's somehow related to every single one of us. So in these two stages, I would I would say the first one is early manhood. You're up to 30 something. And there is a set of issues and there are areas of life where you need to be sensible, where you need to be sober minded, where you need to use good judgment, where you need to not be controlled by ambitions or appetites or what everybody else is doing, but you need to learn truth and you need to live accordingly. If you're in this stage of life, especially your late teens, early 20s, you're making some major choices that will affect you for the rest of your life. You're making vocational choices about what you're going to do with your life. You're making educational choices about going to school and being trained for whatever vocation or career or profession that you go into. You're making relational choices. You are dating. You are thinking about marriage. You're getting into being a husband and having children and parenting all of that. You're making lifestyle choices, you're thinking, what am I going to do with in this area, what I'm going to do in this area with entertainment and alcohol and money, use of finances, spending habits, all these things, you're making lifestyle choices. You have a relationship as a as a new young adult. With your adult parents. And sometimes there are issues there. You're you're coming out of a time of being under their guidance and even under their control. And now you're coming into more independence. And sometimes that puts a strain on that relationship. There may be serious difficulties in that relationship. You may have had a falling out. There's hostility, anger, maybe even abuse has taken place. And you've got this to deal with and to work through and wrestle through. You have issues of purity. This is a time of desire and temptation when it comes to sexual purity. And you got to make choices in these areas and and make those choices not based on your desires, what everybody else is doing or thinks is right, but based on truth, based on values to learn and live. I ask you this morning, if you are in this stage of early manhood, what area of life right now is challenging for you? You probably know what it is. There's some area of your life right now that you're experiencing a challenge in. You're a young man, 18, 19, 20, early 20s, up to 30s, whatever. And there's something that that's a challenge for you. It's a question. It's a problem. It's a burden. It's a struggle. It's a temptation. It's a habit. It's a choice. It's this big looming thing. What am I going to do about this? And in that area, you need to be sensible. You need to use good judgment. You need to not follow just your desires and appetites, not just your personal ambitions or what will bring you pleasure or bring you approval or attention or fame. But learn truth and live accordingly. So there's the stage of life of early man that I think there's also the stage of life, which we'll just call this morning midlife. Nobody likes to think about that, but but that's what it is. Late 30s and the late 40s. And there's a set of areas where you need to be sensible and use good judgment and not follow your appetites or your ambitions. Also, some of them are the same. The applications are just different. But, you know, there are tests and trials and temptations that are unique to your stage of life. You may have made some bad choices in your teens and your 20s, and you're now recovering from those. Some bad financial choices, some bad relational choices, some bad moral choices, some bad lifestyle choices. And you're now recovering from this. It's time for you to use your head. That's really what this means to be sensible means use your head. Stop doing stupid things and start doing wise things is the idea. Yeah, you need you need to be sensible at this point in your life. You are walking with God. And you are learning truth and maybe you know a good bit, but you don't know it all. And this is a time for you to really strengthen that walk with God. To to be careful about what you read and what you believe, there's so much information, so many appealing ideas and so many people that are speaking and writing and and broadcasting. and delivering information to you. There's so much that you can read. You've got to be careful with that and be discerning with all that information. Some of it's truth. Some of it's not. Some of it's there to draw you in and to get something for what to fulfill their desires, their appetites, their ambitions, and to use you to accomplish that. We have to be discerning. There are physical changes in this stage of life. There are health issues that take place. You realize that there are unfulfilled expectations and disappointments in life. Things aren't turning out exactly how you thought they would be. If you're married, you are growing still as a husband. You are facing issues and challenges as a parent at this stage in life. Sometimes there's a change in job or career or location or an opportunity to change your job or your career or your location. I put the question to you in this stage of life, what is the greatest challenge you have right now? What decision are you facing? What golden opportunity is right in front of you right now or just possibility or or new new thing that you might be tempted to try? What is your greatest responsibility right now? What is your greatest temptation right now, today, last night, this week? What's your greatest temptation and how are you handling that following your appetites, fulfilling your ambitions, listening what everybody else is saying and watching what they're doing and doing accordingly? Or are you learning truth? And are you living by it? Now, why do we even need to address these things? Why do we even have to talk about this? Why did Paul bring it up to Titus and tell Titus to pass it on to others? Because there are dangers in this stage of life of early manhood, the stage of life of midlife. There are dangers here. There are dangers when it comes to your walk with God and just the life that you live. And let me just throw a few of them out to you. One of them is that we just do foolish things, don't we? We do sinful things. We make choices that affect us for the rest of our lives and there's a danger zone there. Because if we do the wrong thing, it can affect us in a really bad way for the rest of our lives. A danger is that we do naturally follow our impulses and our appetites rather than truth and principles and values. A danger is that we are easily influenced by other people. Through the media. By the culture around us, rather than intentionally influencing ourselves with truth. And what is right and what is valuable, we naturally pursue material things, pleasurable things rather than eternal things and spiritual things. We're naturally selfish. We just are. We're just naturally selfish. We fulfill what brings us immediate gratification rather than investing for the long term. We fail to get good counsel before making big decisions. We think we've got it. Know what I want to do. Going to do it. Go for it. Looks good. Sounds good. Here we go. We fail to get good counsel and get ourselves in trouble. This is a stage of life when we can get ourselves into serious financial debt. And we rack up the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars that you spend the rest or a major part of your life getting out of. This is a time of life when you are susceptible to get rich schemes. This is a time in life when you can get involved in a relationship with another person. Who pulls you down and takes you away from being the person that God wants you to be in doing what God has directed you to do. This is a stage of life when we can easily squander time. We can just squander away hours doing nothing worthwhile. We all have our downtime. We all have our leisure activities. We need a break. We need to relieve the tension so we can get back to work. But younger men can squander hours and hours of time, we can we can waste days, we can waste weeks, even years of time and of life during this stage. We want to live to be comfortable and have pleasure rather than by. Truth. And you know, it's interesting. We have this one little verse in Titus, this one little word. But there is other scripture that talks about and to young men. So let's take a let's take a little. A little survey, a little excursion here. I'm not going to have you turn to all these, but I do want to put some of them in front of you. And I encourage you to jot these references down and look at them later. I want to deliver to you right now some truth. If you're going to live sensibly and use good judgment rather than according to your appetites and your ambitions and what other people are doing, how do you do that? Let me deliver some truth to you here this morning. And these these come from other scriptures throughout the Bible. And the first one comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 11, going into verse chapter 12, verse one. Listen to what he says. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth. In other words, he's saying, hey, enjoy what's good about being young. Nobody wants to take that away from you. Enjoy what's good about being young. Rejoice, oh, young man, in your youth. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But listen to what he says. Know that for all these, listen, God will bring you into judgment. You know what he's telling you as a young man? He's saying that you are responsible before God for how you live as a younger man. The judgment that you will face as someone who has never trusted Christ as your savior and you die in your sins. Is the judgment of being separated from God forever in the eternal torment of a place called hell? That's the punishment for sin. Jesus died. For you. And because of your sins and he rose again, when you trust Jesus to save you, he forgives you, gives you eternal life. And you are rescued, you are saved from that punishment, you're saved forever. Christians. Will stand before Jesus Christ. At something called the judgment seat of Christ. And that's the judgment seat of Christ. He will examine and evaluate what we have done in this life. He will not punish us for the wrong we've done. It's not to determine whether we go to heaven or hell. The judgment seat of Christ is where he will evaluate what we've done in this life and reward us for what we have done that is for his glory and matters for eternity. And you know what we do with those rewards? Revelation describes. All believers gathering before this savior and laying at his feet the crowns that he has used to reward us because he's the one that receives the glory. If you're a Christian and you love Christ, you live for that moment. So think about this in terms of that, what you're doing right now in your late teens, what will you have? that will pass the test at the judgment seat of Christ that will give you something to give the Savior for when you were 18. And 19 and 20. What about you in your 20s if you are if what you did in your 20s is singled out and tried by fire and tested what will come out of that fire and pass the test that you can say to the Savior. Here's what I did for you and for your glory and that matters in eternity while I was in my 20s. And I deposit this at your feet because I love you and you're the one that gets the glory here. What about your 30s? What about your 40s? What about early man? What about midlife? The question is, You have this period of time, yes, to enjoy the good things that go with it, but you are responsible before God with what you do with this time. There's a truth that can guide us as we learn and live. Another one. Comes from the book of Joel. And some other passages as well, in fact, flip the first John chapter two. It's just a few pages over to the right. Go past Hebrews and James and first Peter and Get the first, John, go to chapter two. Here's the second truth for you. You are key in God's gospel work in the. World, you as a young man. Have a key role. Play a vital part in God's gospel work that's going on right now in the world. Listen to Joel chapter 2 verse 28. Here's the prophecy and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Listen, your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. God was telling the people of Israel through the prophet Joel, I'm going to pour out my spirit. My Holy Spirit will come in his fullness. This would happen after Jesus died and was buried and rose from the dead and ascended back to heaven. The Holy Spirit would come and move upon and move in people. And he's saying everybody is going to experience this. And a lot of people are going to have something to say. God is going to speak to young men and God is going to speak through young men. Yes. You are vital to the work of God in the world, the work of the gospel around the world right now. Look at 1st John Chapter 2. He singles you out again. Verse 12 I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. Verse 13 I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men. Because you have overcome the wicked one. Keep reading that right to little children. He goes back to the cycle again because you've known the father. I've written to you fathers because you have known him. It was from the beginning. I have written to you, young men. Because you are strong. And the word of God abides in you, you have overcome the wicked one. Nobody's telling you here. Yes, there are different groups of people, different levels of maturity within the body of Christ. He does single you out. He says, you know, there are Christians who are more mature than you are as a young man. There are people who have different roles than you do as a young man. But you have a key role. Also, you are strong as a young man. You have a vitality. and an energy that older people do not have. What are you going to use it for yourself or for Christ? You have a choice to make. He says, you have the word of God abiding in you. You guys can learn things and commit them to memory and they make sense and you understand them and you remember them. Us old guys have to go back. What was John 3 16 again? I can't remember how that goes. The stuff just falls out. It's back there somewhere. We try to pull it up. You're just like this. You're just spitting it out. Things stick. They stay. You can recall them. You have a strong body, a strong mind. God's word is going deep into your heart. He's saying grab hold of that. You have won some victories over Satan. You have overcome the wicked one that happened first when you got saved. If you're a Christian, that is a major victory over Satan. It happens when you begin to obey God. It happens when you are baptized and follow Christ in that way. You you let it be known. You shout it out that you're a Christ follower when you're baptized. It happens when you begin to obey God and change wrong habits and resist temptation and overcome sin and share the gospel and tell people how you were saved. You're overcoming the wicked one. You're winning great victories. He's saying you have a vital role, use your youth for gospel work and for the glory of Jesus Christ. There's a third truth. You know, you can get overconfident because of your vitality and your strength and your knowledge, but please be careful, don't get overconfident. Living for God requires super human strength. Which you don't have. You don't have what it takes to fight all the battles, you don't have what it takes to go the distance. You might be able to do the however many K run or the Spartan race or the, you know, whatever, play basketball for three hours nonstop. You may be able to do that. You may have what it takes to go the distance, but you don't have what it takes to win the battles and go the distance of the Christian life, just as what we've been talking about and singing about this morning is is we are weak. You've got to acknowledge that. But he is strong. Jerry read from Isaiah 40 for us. You know what that passage goes on to say? It says the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Yes, he gives power to the weak and those who have no might increases strength. Listen. Isaiah 40, even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who do you know what is to say, but those who wait on the Lord, Shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. If you try to live. The Christian life and do the Christian things in your own strength, you will grow weak, you will wear down, you will falter, you will fall. You are inadequate. And you must learn to rely on God. That's really what it means to wait on the Lord doesn't mean sit back and do nothing. It means to rely on him. It means that you rest in his strength, Lord, I need to be strong for this, but I'm not strong for this. I want to be strong in you. And that's the truth here. Be strong, but not in your own strength. Be strong in him. Waiting on the Lord means you rest in his strength. It means you follow his lead. You want to just charge out and go after it and you've got your goal and your career, your vocation, your financial objectives, all that, whatever it is, hold on, wait on the Lord. Follow his lead, yes, you'll make decisions, yes, you will pursue objectives, of course you will, but follow his lead. Rest in his strength, follow his lead, go at his pace. You want that relationship to happen. It's not happening. Are you waiting on a relationship, are you waiting on her to finally say yes, no, you're waiting on the Lord, aren't you? You're going at his pace. And then give him the glory. When you're strong in him, you can turn around and say, I didn't do that. I couldn't have done that. God did that. I praise him that he gave me the strength. To live for him. There's one more truth, and this one's kind of for all of us. This is interesting. In First Timothy, chapter five, Paul is talking to Timothy there and he's telling Timothy as a pastor how to handle problems. And he tells him how to handle the problem with an older man. He says, don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. In other words, show respect to him. But then Paul tells Timothy there also to exhort younger men as brothers. And I think the idea is don't talk down to them. Don't disparage them. Don't feel like you're better than they are. Even as a pastor, Timothy, you treat those younger guys like your brothers. You talk to them man to man. And it's true. Young men deserve a level of respect. They don't know it all. They're making some mistakes. They're still growing. They're not as mature as you are if you're one of the older men. But it's good for us to remember these are guys. These are men. They do have thoughts. They do have a heart. Let's pray for them, let's encourage them, let's listen to what they have to say, let's talk through the issues that they may have. Let's appreciate them. So that's a truth as well for all of us, the young men do deserve a level of respect. So how do we do this? If you are in this stage of life, how do you do this if you say, all right, God's word says I'm supposed to be sensible. Using good judgment, not following my appetites or my ambitions or everybody else's doing, but learning truth and living it out. How do I do that? What are some ways that you can do this? Well, one, of course, is just to learn and live. That involves learning truth. Learn truth. Go into God's word yourself. It may be difficult, complicated or very familiar to you, but there's always something there for you. Make time day by day to be in the word. Continually expose your mind and heart to truth. It's as simple as reading God's word with an attentive mind and an open heart every day. Whether you're on a plan or you're reading through a book or you're focusing on one chapter, you're memorizing one verse and you're meditating on that. Just get into God's word on a daily basis. You're learning. You're learning truth. You're exposing yourself to it. You're exposing your exposing your heart to it. There's so many distractions. You've got if you've got the scriptures on a device, that's fine. That's great. But there's so many distractions you can be reading. And five seconds later, you're off and never, never land somewhere. You've got to eliminate or overcome those distractions so that you can get God's word into your heart. Yes, other things are important and helpful, but but you need truth. In a situation like this, it's good to have something where you can write down maybe not every single thing the pastor or the teacher says, but something reach out there and grab something that's for me. I need that. That makes sense. I want to remember that. I want to go back to that later. I want to pray over that. So you engage, you actively learn and live and walk in the spirit. That means you submit to him. That means to obey him. That means to to turn toward the spirit rather than be driven by self and your flesh and by the world. Another big one is to get a mentor. If you have a dad in your life that you can look to. For counsel, for guidance, for prayer, for accountability, that's great, if not, Just think about it and pray about it. Is there somebody that I know that I respect that I could talk to and just just be around sometimes? And if that person is not initiating mentoring, you just say, hey, sir, can we have coffee together sometime? I just want to talk and maybe ask you a few questions. Get some advice. Doesn't have to be this big official program. Just do it. Can we just talk and have some questions? I'd love to hear your insight on this. I've seen your life. I've watched you live it out. And I respect you. And I'd love to get some advice on something that may turn into something more long term and and and deeper. And I would encourage the rest of us to to pursue this and be open to this. And maybe you think, is there someone that I should be spending time with? And you, as an older man, might be afraid of this and thinking, I don't know what to say. I'm inadequate. Yes, we are. But you know what guys want? They just want us to spend a little time with them and say, how's it going? What are your challenges? How can I pray for you? You think I can help you with? And pretty soon they'll say, actually, there is. Actually, there is something you can pray for me about. Actually, there is a question that I have. Actually, there is something I'm struggling with. Actually, there is a sin I'm having a hard time overcoming. Don't open up to you. It takes time. It takes repeated exposure. But for guys in this stage of life, it does help to have a mentor and then become responsible. Is your 20s playtime? Is it me time? What is it for you? These are well-known facts. Let me review them for you this morning. This comes from an article that I read that kind of repeats some things that have become known over the last few years. The 20s are a black box. And there's a lot of churning in there. One third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s. More job changes than in any other stretch. Two thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. Marriage occurs later than ever. We're in the thick of what one sociologist calls the changing timetable for adulthood. And if you haven't guessed yet, what I'm about to tell you is to grow up. Sociologists traditionally define the transition to adulthood as marked by five milestones. Don't misunderstand these. If you don't have these in place, it doesn't necessarily mean that you aren't a grown man or an adult woman. That's not the point. But these are characteristics of someone who is not living selfishly, but is taking responsibility for adulthood. Five milestones. One is completing school. One is leaving home. one is becoming financially independent, one is marrying, and one is having a child. In 1960, 77% of women and 65% of men had achieved all these five milestones by the time they reached 30. Among 30-year-olds in 2000, according to the United States Census Bureau, fewer than half of women and one-third of men had done so. Now, I know there are circumstances and various reasons for maybe not reaching one or several of those milestones. But again, we're talking in general categories here. What I put to you is it's very possible for you as a young man to enter your 20s in self mode. And be thinking that it's playtime. and continuing to be dependent on others and never really entering life and taking responsibility and holding down a job and and pursuing a relationship and becoming a husband or a father. And it's just because you're selfish or immature. What he's challenging you to do here is to grow up, is to to be responsible and become responsible. This is a time for you. And again, I'm addressing especially in that early manhood stage. This is a time for you to transition to adulthood. So what does that mean for you? What does it mean for you to become responsible? That's homework for you. Go think about that. Talk to a parent. Talk to someone that you respect and say, OK, here I'm at this stage in life. Am I being responsible? Am I irresponsible? Maybe I'm being selfish. Maybe I'm immature. How do I need to take a step into or in adulthood at this point in my life? The 20s are a time to learn and live. The 20s are a time to grow and serve. The 20s are not me time. They are man up time. The 20s are time not just for yourself, but for God to invest and use for God and for others. Another way to be sensible is to think long term, not have been Yehuda If he had been thinking short term, accomplishing my goal, achieve my ambition, get the fame, get the notoriety and the attention and the fame that goes with it. And he could have pressed on and left the other man laying there who would have minutes later died. Instead, he stopped. Everybody else passed him by. He started yelling at the man. He shook him. He woke him up. Slung him over his shoulder, as it were, carried him nine hours back down the mountain to base camp and saved his life. In that setting, he made a choice that was not for short term satisfaction or achievement. But for what was valuable, another man's life that would have certainly have long term benefits for the other man, certainly, and for both of them. What is it for you? Is there something right now at your stage in life where you are on the path? And you're about to make a choice. Or, you know, you'll be faced with one soon and you could choose short term enjoyment, satisfaction, fulfillment, achievement. But maybe you need to choose to do something else that will bring long term benefit, maybe even eternal fruit for the glory of God. And then just make wise decisions, think things through, be sensible, get wise counsel, pray about things. Seek God's will. Paul tells Titus to teach these various groups. To learn and live. What we see, starting in verse seven of Titus two, is that he does not leave Titus out. Pastors should be learning and living also. I'm going to touch on this, honestly, not because I want to brush past it, but because of time, you don't want to be another 20 minutes, do you? I didn't think so. I know this doesn't apply to most of us here. But we do have seven pastors here at Calvary. A number of you. Are in ministry. Probably some of you are headed into ministry, these things are important for you. Remember, we do our Christianity in community. So I and we as pastors and men in ministry need your encouragement, need your prayer, need your accountability in these areas. If you're the wife of someone in ministry or headed into ministry, these are areas where you can pray for your husband and encourage him. Healthy living for pastors includes the area of the pastor's daily and personal life. Notice Paul says to Titus in all things, verse seven, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works. I see three things here. First of all, transparency, showing yourself means that the pastor's life is on display. I don't always like that we in ministry don't necessarily always like that, but it goes with the territory. Our lives are on display. And we are to be living out our Christianity In front of the body and the church family, there's transparency there doesn't mean, you know, every little detail about me, my family, my life, my relationship with my wife or other pastors. You don't know everything, but you do see a lot and you should be able to. There should be an element of transparency there. It also includes authenticity. It means that the pastor lives out what he teaches. He says in all things. He talks about a pattern of good works. These are specific aspects of obedience. It means that everything you know, Paul told Titus to tell his people a lot of things. I mean, you read those lists, right? But Titus himself is included in all those things, good works that summarizes everything in this book, all the living side of learning and living. So Titus was supposed to be living out those things also. So pastors are to be authentic, living out what we teach, and it also includes consistency. He says a pattern of good works, that is an example, it does not mean that we are perfect. It certainly does not mean that we are up on a pedestal. We are men just as you are men. Our humanity is no different from yours. Our sinful nature is no different from yours. We are not perfect. We are not on a pedestal, but the people that we shepherd should be able to observe our daily lives and our family relationships and how we respond to trials and what we do when we succeed, how we handle it, when we fail and see how it works. When you're a Christian. You should be able to see how truth works in the life of a real man, and you should be able to see the grace of God at work in our lives. There should be consistency there to the point that you can observe and say, oh, that's how it works and follow it to that degree. He also talks about the healthy pastor's message. And this includes motivation that is pure. That's what the word integrity means, it means not corrupted, not susceptible to corruption. Corruption is doing something for the wrong reason, for personal gain. It means you exploit your position or the trust that people have in you for personal gain, for pleasure, for esteem, for money, whatever. No, your message should not be corrupted. You should not be doing this for some gain that you get. It also means that you're not infected by the society, the Cretan society and culture should not infect and contaminate Titus's life. The views of the false teachers should not affect his beliefs and his teaching. And the same is true for us. Our motives should be pure. The reason that we do and say what we say should be pure. We should have integrity. It includes delivery that gets respect. That's in the word reverence. We talked about in Chapter two, verse two, for the older men, they should be reverent. It's the same word. It means that you give a reason to people to respect And he's talking here about doctrine, probably talking about how Titus delivered his message. Don't have time to show you that this morning, but the word means means the things what he was saying and how he was saying it here, focusing especially on how he was saying it, how the message is delivered. Doesn't mean that the pastor or the preacher has to be somber and always serious. It does mean that the way we deliver the message brings to it The respect it is due. The pastor is not a stand up comedian. The pastor is not the host of a television show. The pastor is a teacher and a preacher of the word of God. We should deliver it in a way that gets respect to it. And. As we preach and teach our message. Includes content that is true to the word. That's the idea of sound speech. The word speech here probably has to do with what is being said, the content of the message. A healthy message is based on healthy doctrine. It comes from truth. It conforms to truth. It is not based on opinion or experts, whether they be secular or Christian. It is a message that arises out of truth that represents truth. Represents truth accurately, confidently, clearly, courageously and fully. And this message. Actually becomes one of the major sources of what all of us. Learn. And live how important that is, but a great responsibility that is. Let me remind us. That what we're talking about this morning whether for younger men, pastors or any of us, is not just a list of things to work on. These are not things for you to do so God will bless you. Notice with me again, chapter two, verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Teaching us. So we're learning. What are we learning? We're learning from the grace of God. The grace of God here who appeared is Jesus. Jesus came. He died. He was buried. He rose again to save us from our sins. Read on teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live. There's the living side. We're learning and living. And you see the next word soberly. Guys, that's the word, same word as sober minded that we looked at this morning. Sensibly using good judgment, what this is telling us is that these qualities are what God has saved you. To be and to do. His grace. Makes it possible for you to be forgiven for the times in which you are not these things. Makes it possible for you to be restored to fellowship with God. His grace makes it possible for you to develop these qualities and to grow in them as he infuses you daily with grace. As you rely on him and trust in him and yield to his spirit, he works this in you as you yield to him and submit to him and obey him, it comes out in your life. And we respond to him, we submit to him. We pursue these qualities, we cultivate them the best we can by the grace of God. Young man. What needs to happen today for you to be sensible? What needs to change today for you to be sensible? You need to be forgiven. Accept it by the grace of God. Do you need to bring your whole life into submission to God and say, you're the Lord. I've been living for myself, you're the Lord, I submit now to you. You need to make a choice, something you're faced with right now, a decision, I need to do this sensible thing by the grace of God and for the glory of God. Respond to God's grace. Let's pray about it, would you pray with me? We have heard from You. We now respond to You. Thank You for Your grace that forgives. Thank You for Your grace that restores. Thank You for Your grace that enables and equips and strengthens. Oh God, we need Your grace today. It comes to us in the person of our Savior Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, we need your grace. Thank you for speaking, thank you for teaching. Thank you for what we've learned, help us now by your grace to go and live. In Jesus name, Amen.