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We're in Titus chapter one and
our march through the Christian life of Paul. I see you found
the legacy slave seating back in the back. Well, Paul says
in, don't be shocked. this church was built in the
colonial era, well, not colonial, it's in the American 1815, but
they had slaves in New England, and I guess the Christians brought
them to church, and there are seats back there where they used
to let them sit. They would rent them out to the people that,
the church rented the seats, and the people could bring their
slaves to church. A legacy to a dark chapter, and the, ray
of hope through it, that those people came to know Jesus Christ
as their savior. They told their kids and they told their kids.
And now some of our greatest pastors, some of our greatest
Christians in church history have been American people of
African extraction because of God may have meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. So you found that seat back there.
Why don't we tear those seats out? No, that's our history. And God is gracious despite our
failures. Paul is a slave of God in Titus 1. We've been talking
about this a lot lately. Paul talks about it in his pastoral
epistles. Remember the challenge of 1 Timothy
6, verses one and two, the way to think about, if you're a Roman
slave, how to think about it. Take your life as an eternal
thing. Take your day's work as something God is looking at for
eternal reward and be God's free man despite being a slave. And
if you're free, recognize you're enslaved to Christ because he
bought you. And so think in terms of eternal things. Think of the
things above in your, in your life. And then you realize that
your economic situation is your temporal mission context. It's
what I'm dealing with now. It's what I'm dealing with now
in order to be about God's work. There was a time, a season in
my life, when I would drive with my beautiful young wife, who
is going to be my wife of 20 years this week. Thank you for applauding her. We would drive through the whole
country of Texas. Texas. We would drive from Fort
Hood down to San Antonio. San Antonio, we would drive from
Fort Hood to San Antonio in a part of the country I didn't really
grow up in. I grew up in East Texas, more like Georgia or Louisiana.
It's hot and humid, but green and rolling hills and bass lakes.
Hill country in Texas is beautiful. It's kind of rugged, but it's
got great topography and scrubby oak trees and mesquite trees
and stuff and billions of deer. It's beautiful. We would drive
on the back highways, trying to avoid the parking lot that
is I-35 from Fort Hood down to San Antonio. And I used to say
to Krista, we're going to end up here along this route, somewhere
along this road. It's beautiful. I mean, it's
majestic when you drive through here. And my grandparents had
a place down near San Antonio and that area. I said, this is
where we're going to retire. or whatever that is. I'm a Lieutenant
in the Army. We're driving in my V6 Mustang.
And I have other mistakes to tell you about. And we had a great time. We were
married seven years before Samuel. BS before Samuel. And I didn't
mean it in the way that sounded. But it's amazing, like trying
to think of my life back then without children. It's like trying
to think of my life without Krista. But I was always like, we're
gonna end up here. And so obviously 14 years after
taking this church, we're here in Eastern Connecticut. And my point is that what I look
at, what I see in my life, what God lets me see, and even puts
in front of me to maybe I'll desire, very often is not what
he desires for me. Sometimes God shows you something
that you could long for, in order to calibrate you when he shows
you what he wants to give you. You have this desire from what
you see or what you can imagine. And then God shows you something
that you could never have imagined. I'm trying to tell you that we
often don't know what to want. What was I wanting when we drive
through the whole country in Central Texas? What was I wanting? Beauty. Beautiful place for my
wife to live and enjoy. Serenity. Satisfaction. I was after happiness. Yeah, that's the thought. You
see a majestic place and think that. Well, fast forward, it's 2000.
Toward the end of my seminary time, a friend has friends that
have a house on Grand Cayman. It's 2007. I'm finishing my master
of theology degree at Dallas seminary. And the friends of
the friends are like, uh, yeah, just if you can pay for groceries
and get yourself here, probably need to get a car on the Island,
but you can stay here for free. So it's just a matter of getting
basically an airline ticket and then paying three times what
you pay for groceries here and, uh, and live in a house for a
week with our friends. And, um, I'm in Grand Cayman, excuse me,
Grand Cayman by Rum Point or whatever, where the snorkeling
is amazing. You don't need to scuba there, just snorkel. The
aquarium is close enough that you, I'm there for about, I don't
know, 15 or 20 minutes as a young seminary student. And I have
a good idea, which Mike can tell you I have a lot of good ideas.
that we need to plant a church here on Grand Cayman. Grand Cayman
Bible Church is really where I want to spend my Februaries.
We were there in February. It was wonderful. Grand Cayman
Bible Church. And, you know, my point in all
this is we have all kinds of things that we see that we might
like. Garth Brooks has that song you might remember from the early
90s, unanswered prayer. Some of God's greatest gifts
are unanswered prayers. We have things that we see that
we might like, that we might say we want, but we don't really
know what we want. We don't really know how that
would go. We don't really know the outcome. And I think it's
very helpful to take a cue from the Lord Jesus and say, not as
I will, but your will be done. And that is the Christian life
of Paul. Paul didn't want to be imprisoned, but, God wanted
him to write the letter to the Ephesians, the letter to the
Colossians, the letter to the Philippians. Paul didn't want
to be chained to a Roman soldier and uncomfortable. He wanted
to go see those people, but God wanted him to write what would
impact us forever. Paul didn't want to miss the
ministry in Crete and have to send Titus. He wanted to go help
Titus in person. He wanted to sit down with Titus,
but he couldn't sit down with Titus. He had to write him a
letter. In fact, I contend that Paul would always opt for face-to-face
instruction, always. But very often he was prevented
from face-to-face instruction. He couldn't always just stop
on the way to Miletus and let the Ephesian elders come to the
island and he'd give them one more message. He couldn't always
do that. He had to write letters. And the Christian life of Paul
is I can't do the mission the way I'd like to. So I'll do it
the way I can, and I'll write these letters to these recipients. And what God did with that circumstance
of Paul's life, what he'd rather have and what he ended up having,
is why you and I have a spiritual life. Because we have Romans,
because we have Ephesians. Paul longs to be with the Romans. I can't be with you, so I'll
write you a systematic theology treatise instead. I'll teach
you by writing what I would have taught you face to face. That
is, as we are quickly closing down the Christian life of Paul,
a saga we've been through for three years. If we're in Titus,
that means that there's one more letter after Titus, and then
we're done with the Christian life of Paul. Understand, Paul's
ministry was day by day, not looking back with regret, Philippians
3, looking forward to what Jesus has for us, focusing on the mission
in the moment. How can I do the work? I can't
go in person, I'll write a letter. The apostle Paul was on mission.
And at the end of his life, he says in 2 Timothy, he could say
no regrets. He could say no wasted time.
He could say there's laid up for me the crown of righteousness
because I have been on mission. And that is a model for you and
me. That's the way we live. And the only, listen, the only
way you can live that way is to let go of you and look at
the Lord Jesus, keep your eyes on him and say, what does he
want from me? And then in the Bible, you have very clear instructions
from him, what he wants. I could go in the room today.
I could go around the room with you today. I can ask you from
what you've studied in the word, from what you've understood,
not from me, but from God's word. If I've taught it to you, then
let's make it about the word. And could I ask you, do you know
what Jesus wants for you? Can you say that from the Bible?
Can you open the scriptures and say what Jesus Christ wants for
you? What he wants you to do? What
he wants you to receive? There's a lie about, it's been
around with us since Genesis three, that God is wanting to
give you only so much, but he's holding back what he could do
for you. There's so much more, but God is keeping you restricted. He's holding back on the things
you really want. You don't have what you want
because God is holding back. He's a holder backer. Do you
from the scriptures have a rebuttal to that? Do you have a way of
saying that's not the way it is? Because I do. For example,
let's hear the privileges of the apostle Paul modeled for
Titus and therefore for us in Titus one. Paul, a slave of God,
an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of
God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to
godliness for those who are chosen and for their faith, and for
the knowledge, this full knowledge, that is in accordance with your
spiritual walk, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who
cannot lie, promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested
even His Word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according
to the commandment of God our Savior. In a way, I can say God wants
this for you. He wants it for you. There's
one in the pew. He wants this for you and we got a dusty Bible.
We blow it off. We say, well, I mean, what has
he done for me lately? But in the mind of the apostle
Paul, this is the deposit of nothing less than God's person
revealed to us, restricted to writing so that we would know
him. And it turns out knowing him means taking in what he's
told you about himself, believing it, and then acting on it. It's a relationship. It's not
a study of a person like a biographical study. It's walking with him. It's being empowered by the spirit
of God, who and what he wants you to be as his representative.
This is the apostle Paul's identity, and it is a model for you and
me. This brings us to Titus 1.4. where Paul describes Titus. He
said, this is me. I'm the man on mission for the
advancement of the gospel ministry so that all those that are chosen
by God can come to faith in Christ and grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ and be about his work. That's who
I am. And then he says who Titus is to Titus. This is interesting. I don't think Titus would recognize
that name if you said it. T-I-T-O with a Yoda subscript,
a subscripted I. That's the dative form of Titus's
name. The ending is O-S, because it's Greek. And you never say
that letter as an I. It's always an E sound. That
name would be Titos, Titos. Doesn't sound great to us, I
guess. Titus sounds really tough. I like that name. And if I had
a child and I named him Titus, I would call him Titus. But my
point is that we're talking a language, we're translating from Greek
and these people are Mediterranean and it's very foreign to us.
But he says to Titus, my true child, genesios technos, my legitimate
child, my begotten from me, not somebody that is not my begotten
one. And I think what this means is
that I evangelized you and you came to faith in Christ through
my ministry so that God begot you as a newborn son, a firstborn
son, but he used me in that birthing process. So in the spiritual
sense, you're my son. Apollos didn't evangelize you,
I did. And I think the same thing is true for Timothy. And this,
beloved, I told you it'd be neat to live where the rocks are big
and the deer are plentiful, you know, in hill country in Texas,
and the enchiladas are on every corner. I mean, it'd be great.
Can you imagine evangelizing someone as a young man who then
you send as a missionary to work you can't go to, and then he
carries on the work? Can you imagine doing that? What
do you want out of life? What good thing do you want to
see happen in life? I mean, there is nothing like
seeing eternal life in someone that you share Christ with, who
then takes such a hold on the word. And God takes such a hold
on him or her that they go into the work and you're equipping
them now for mature service. Titus is now going to go designate
elders. as an apostolic emissary, my
true child, according to the common faith, our common faith,
what we believe in together. I asked you if you know what
Jesus Christ wants for you. Well, the apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ says this to every group of Christians, except the
Galatians, and he means it for them too. He just wants to start
in on the corrections with the Galatians. In all of Paul's letters,
he says, this is what God wants for you. grace, mercy, and peace. Usually it's grace and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the blessing,
it is the greeting, it is the watchword of the Apostle Paul.
Now watch out for this. When we say God bless, sometimes
it's as cliched as how are you doing? When Paul says, may God
bless you with his grace and his peace, he's reminding all
of those that read that, including you and me, that this is the
God we serve. He's the God of grace and peace
who wants you to have it. Not the God of my imagination,
who's mad at me. Not the God of my imagination
who, if I had trouble with my dad, I superimposed my father's
failures on God the Father somehow and start making accusations. This is the God of grace and
peace to you. And the way He's shown you that
is in Jesus Christ who came to die for your sins. Grace, mercy,
and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior. Now in chapter one, verse three, There we go. According to the
command of our Savior, who is God. Titus 1.3 says, God, Theos
is the Savior. Theos is the, usually when Paul
says Theos, T-H-E-O-S, Theos, he means God the Father. But
he will also tell you that God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit are one God in three persons. Paul would
tell you that. He doesn't say it in those words. This is called
theology. But notice that he identifies
God as the Savior. Did you know that the Father
sent the Son, and in that sense is your Savior, because the Son
is carrying out the Father's instructions? Did you know that's
the way the Father is your Savior? The Father didn't die on the
cross for your sins. The Father and the Son are not
the same person, but we have one God in three persons. God,
the Father, is your Savior. Did you know that the Holy Spirit
has applied the saving work of Christ to you? The Spirit is
your Savior in the sense of His work in our so great salvation. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit, God is your Savior. And Jesus Christ is your Savior
in the sense as the executive, the one who carried out this
great plan. So Paul says, the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior. He also says that there is a
father and a son. May this grace and peace come
from God, the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the planner
and the executor, the one that sends and the one that's sent.
Now to understand the Christian life of the apostle Paul, that
Paul is understand just a Christian. He's not a special Paul line
Christian. Paul didn't say the last word on the church age.
He didn't. The last word of the church age
and the scriptures was written by John, probably 30 years after
Paul's death. Some people want to say, no,
we're in the second phase of the church age with Paul. Well, you need
a third phase with John because John is the apostle writing to
the churches in Asia minor where Paul wrote Ephesus and, and these
other churches, Laodicea where Paul wrote his circular letter
of Ephesians. So the mid-act dispensationalism or Pauline
Christianity, or we're taking a step beyond, I believe this
is an error people get into because they haven't looked closely enough
at what Jesus says, especially in the upper room discourse of
John 13 through 17, and how Paul's words reflect constantly what
Jesus taught for those who would believe in the words of the disciples
for us today. In other words, beloved, everything
you have in the church age epistles, Paul's writings, Peter's, James,
John's writings, these are fruit. These are part of the plant that
grows out of the upper room discourse, Jesus' last teaching for the
church, laying the groundwork for us who remain after his departure,
who would receive the Holy Spirit, who would then be his representatives. Do you understand that in the
great prayer of John 17, Jesus says something very shocking
to us. Hours before he said, Tetelestai,
it is finished. Jesus said, I have accomplished
the work, Father, that you sent me to do. I was in seminary class. Coming to understand some of
these things for the first time in terms of getting my theology
out of the Bible and its consistent presentation. Sitting under some
of the great giants of the 20th century. My favorite professor,
well, it's kind of a tie. It's kind of a toss up between
two or three guys, but one of my favorite people I've ever
studied with was J. Dwight Pentecost. And I don't
know which birthday it was. We celebrated in class. I think
it was like 93 or something. Maybe it was 91, something like
that. We had a birthday cake. And Pentecost brought this out in
great detail when we got to this point in John 17, that he came
to do the will of the father. He came to reveal the father.
Now you and I would say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Jesus
came in the flesh of man to die on the cross for our sins. And
we would with the apostle John say, that's right. He came to
do the will of the father. He came to reveal the father. The
father sent his son because he loved us. That's John 3.16 and
Romans 5.8. And the love of God expressed
through the son is revealing the father, you see. And so there's
no greater demonstration of God's character than the cross of Christ,
where righteousness must be satisfied and justice must be satisfied
and love must be satisfied. God loved you, so he sent his
son and satisfied his wrath on sin in Christ. What's my point? The mission of revealing the
father continues. Jesus took the work that God
gave him to do in that revelation and commended it to us. Now we
don't die for people's sins, but we continue to reveal the
father. Does anyone know what John 14, verse six says? Jesus
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the father, but through me. No one comes to the father except
through me. As you represent God and share
Christ with others, you understand you through Christ are introducing
people to God, the Father. You're continuing the work Jesus
started or that he was working on that had been going on since
God began to reveal himself to mankind. It's a continuation
of that revelatory work in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the
power of God, the Holy Spirit. So Paul is part of this mission
that Jesus was given, that he commended to the apostles and
the great commission. In all four gospels, we have
a representation of this and which we continue and we persist
in today. What an amazing thing to deny
Martianite false teaching and to embrace our savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ and the teachings of the apostle Paul, a slave
of Christ. Paul says that God wants you
to have God's grace and mercy and peace. And you and I need
to repent, change our thinking, when we think other than that
about God. Does the rod of correction have
to be employed for us to have God's grace and mercy and peace
at times? Does God have to spank us as his little children? Yep. Anybody know a passage in scripture
which says that if we're really his kids, that he really spanks
us? Hebrews chapter 12, borrowing from Proverbs 3, David whooped
his kids. Proverbs 3, Solomon writing about
being a father, trained by his father, David, and God spanks his. That's pretty
stark language, the way God describes it. But why? Does He punish them? Is He punishing us for our sins?
Is He showing us what our sins get us? Or is he training us
that that's not the way, this is the way. Not this, get back
on the path. Is dad training us or is dad
bringing his wrath on sin in us? One of those is the Bible. You have a father that is satisfied
on your account because of Jesus Christ. And this is what he's
like. He wants you to have his grace and mercy and peace. Oh,
please, if you are in the situation where God needs to spank you
so that he can give you his grace and mercy and peace, please make
the adjustment. Get back on the path before the
rod helps you back on the path, but make certain you understand
his rod and his staff, they comfort me. If I'm wrong, I want to be
corrected so I can get to where I need to be right. And that's the attitude that
you come to a loving father who wants to train you. If I'm wrong,
dad, help me get right. For the reason, for this reason,
what reason? For this reason, I left you in
Crete, was able to show some beautiful Mediterranean pictures
of islands because we're on the island of Crete today here on,
Mystery Island for the kids next week. This week, I left you in
Crete that you would set in order what remains. Okay. The purpose
for which I left you there was for you to set things in order.
I couldn't stay. I had to go. So here's what you
need to do. Set things in order. How do you
set things in order? in God's design. Well, Jethro
had an idea for Moses. Moses, you can't sit and listen
to everybody's problems and judge all 2.4 million or whatever people
in Israel. You're going to have to delegate
this down. And that's what you see here, a delegation. Setting
things in order means we have overseers that keep order. And
now we're gonna talk about the episkopoi, the overseers. That
you appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Presbuteroi
is the word elder. It means older man, an elderly
man. It's a technical term in context
like this where we're talking about the office of elder. And
we're gonna hear the other word for this office as overseer in
a moment. Now, I'm itching to take you
to 1 Peter 5 and show you how the elder and overseer are to
shepherd or pastor. All three, but we'll just leave
that. I'll just make the statement.
I want you to appoint elders in every city as I directed you.
Now, does this mean that each local assembly of believers has
multiple elders in verse five? Is that what that means? Or is
it the every city has multiple elders? I'm just trying to read
the text. I can show you other places where
it seems like plural elders in one group, but this is not necessarily
a dogmatic rule that you have to have multiple elders. But
anyway, Paul says, Titus is to appoint them. You have to put
this instruction intention, the command to appoint elders. You
have to put an intention with the command not to appoint elders.
Paul tells Timothy in a couple of places we just saw in 1 Timothy,
that you don't lay hands on someone too soon. You don't get a newly
planted Christian that has promise of pastoral ministry because
you'll become conceited and fall in the snare of the devil. So
these are where you don't do it when you have somebody that's
not an elder. I believe the word of point, the way Paul is using
it, he means identify. And if you're not, you're not.
If you are, you are. And that is, I think, vital. In every
city as I directed you, namely, here's what I told you before,
and here's where they have to be. Nobody can raise a word against
him. Above reproach or blameless is
talking about not having your character open to slander or
assassination because of your conduct. Above reproach doesn't
mean sinlessly perfect. And all God's people who are
here with me pastoring say amen, because not there at all. Above reproach, the husband of
one wife, one woman, man, literally. When Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy
3 about the kids, he needed to have them in order. So he could
manage his household. Because otherwise, how is he
going to manage the household of God, the pillar and ground of the
truth? The household, the body of believers is the pillar and
ground of the truth. So having children here who believe, how can I guarantee my kids will
believe? How do I know if they're the ones? Well, see, if you adopt
a, I'm going to try to figure out who's the elect and then
speak to them attitude, that's bad theology. It's not what you're
supposed to do. What you're supposed to tell
people on the basis of 1 John 2, verses one and two, what you're
supposed to tell people is that Jesus paid for your sins on the
cross. Little Jimmy, little Bobby, little Ella, Jesus died for your
sins on the cross. Do you know what happens to little
kids whose parents understand the gospel and present it to
their kids in love? Do you know what happens to those
kids? Today's most popular reform preachers would say they get
spurious conversions because they're little children and they
don't really know what they're committing to. Do you know what
the word of God says? Elders children have to believe.
They have to be believers. How in the world? How in the
world can you have an experiment of life mentality where I don't
know if I'm really elect until I die and I trust God all the
way, misapplying Matthew 25, 31 and other places. How in the
world can you have that and then say, you have legitimate elders
who have legitimately believing children. I have to confess to
you, I've got six boys and only five of them are believers. And it's not my fault. One of
them is 13 months old, 14 months old. And it's a test, it's a challenge.
You tell someone about Christ at a very young age, it's all
they know. That's how I came along. And people will say, no,
you don't really need to tell them. I've had beloved teachers
at seminary say, yeah, it's bad to tell little kids, you know,
and wait till they're older. So then they have like enough of
the world in them to deny. I think that's insane. I think
that's a prescription for spiritual and cultural suicide. Just because you baptize a baby
doesn't make that baby a Christian. Just because you whisper Allah
is the prophet in a baby's ear doesn't make that baby a committed
Muslim in my perspective. It makes a cultural Muslim in
the way that's the way they do in Islam. They whisper in the
baby's ear and that's it, Allah Akbar. Now that little baby is
an agent, is going to grow in the function of volition through
the miracle of the use of language. And as you teach that baby to
speak, pretty soon you better teach that baby to praise God
who made her, who made him. And so the children who believe
are those that you've told about Christ that believed. You know
why they believed you? Because you told them. Well, that's not fair. They didn't
have a chance to go to the lake of fire that way. It's not God's way. Has David Roseland had questions
about his faith growing up? Have I had questions? Have I
had existential moments of terror about all that I believed? Is
this really so? Am I just going on human authority, my mother
and father? At some point, I've got to think for myself. Am I
just going on the human authority of my pastor? Well, he said it.
Is that how it is? Just because he said it? Or at
some point, did I have to say, no, no, no, no, I've walked with
him. And he's more importantly, he's
walked with me all this way. And I know whom I believed. See,
that's the challenge for kids that grow up in the faith, is
you have to make the switch from, I'm following what my parents
said, to I'm following the one that they told me about, and
I'm trusting him. And beloved, the sooner the better.
It's called being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're comfortable because
the kids come with us to church. They say the right things. What'd
you learn in Sunday school? I forgot already. While I looked at your
little paper, did you talk about Jonah? Oh, yeah, we talked about
Jonah. And we're comfortable because it's how it's going.
We have to look at these little kids, moms and dads of little
kids, you've got to look at them as you're going to blink your
eyes, and they're going to be facing questions about the fundamentals
of life that the culture around you cannot answer anymore. And
it used to could. Used to could. I'm still from
down there. The culture used to be able to
say, boys are boys and girls are girls, the end. Can't say
it anymore. Your kids are going to face that.
And there's only one answer for why that is. And it's always
been the same answer because God made it that way. How are they
going to go? How are they going to go? I know
of so many cases of shipwrecks of faith with kids that were
brought up in church. So it's almost the normal thing
you see. What do you see? Well, mom and
dad said this way, but then at school, they said this way. By
the way, the little boys aren't listening to the teachers. If
they're like me, they're looking at the little girls. Otherwise, they're wanting to
play, or they're zoning, or looking out the window. They're worried
about what their friends say, or their friends think. And then
some of them eventually catch on and say, well, the culture
we're just in is what the teachers are saying. And they're acculturated. They're calibrated. Their worldview
is the world, is the culture that we live in, and the way
the world has impacted it. And all of a sudden, what you've
been telling them isn't really so because you don't really know.
Mom and dad didn't get the culture that I'm raised in in the school.
They don't know about the way it really is. Because at home,
it's not the same. And at school, everybody's this
way. And the power of everybody says, the power that we're going
to kill the Earth with climate change because everyone says
so. The power of everybody says what everyone knows and nobody
can prove. That's the power of culture.
And so what do you have to do as an elder? You've got to have
children who believe. And why does the elder need children
who believe? Because he's an example to the flock. And the
children in the church family need to believe. And the parents
need to be evangelists of their children. But to be able to say
they're believing, think about that. Now, What about the question
of someone that believed as a child, and then as they get older, not
so much. I don't know, not so much. Well,
that becomes an example problem for the family, for the church
family. Not everyone can be an elder. Having children who, it
doesn't say have believed, it says who believe. Not accused
of dissipation or rebellion. Notice it doesn't say that they're
dissipated or rebellious. It says not accused of it. There's
an outside perspective thing that Paul keeps bringing up.
He kind of hints at it. The way you are perceived matters. Sometimes there's smoke and that
tells you there's fire. And sometimes there's made up
smoke and there is no fire. Sometimes someone makes an accusation.
It's not true. Paul says about this in Timothy,
you don't accept an accusation against an elder except on two
or three witnesses. right? But when this is like a known
problem, not fit, you can't be leading. Now notice the way this
works. Gene Getz called this the measure of a man, that this
is how we're all supposed to be. And Paul is showing what
the elder is as an example. I think that's right. We're all
supposed to be like this, but the person in the leadership,
the people in leadership have to be this way. For the overseer
must be above reproach. Again, blameless. Someone can't
speak. The word above reproach is a
Greek word that means cannot be spoken against. As God's steward,
God's householder, the one that's been entrusted with this ministry,
that's been delegated with it, who is faithful in that ministry. Not self-willed. That's a tough
one. What is self-willed? I think this is somebody personally,
I believe what he's saying is somebody that's waiting on the
Lord. Someone who's saying God's way, not my way. They figured
out the very fundamentals, the basics of your relationship with
God. Hopefully that elder has not
quick tempered. We'll skip that one real fast. not addicted to wine, not a fighter,
not a brawler. Pugnacious means someone that's
looking for a fight. It doesn't mean someone walking
around looking to punch you. It doesn't mean that. It can
mean that. But this word pugnacious means
spoiling for a fight. I'm looking to argue with you.
That every, like whenever you approach this person, you're
like, he's already in the arena waiting for me. He just wants
to like, let me say something so he can punch me. mentally,
verbally. He just wants to fight. And that's
easy to do with theology. It's easy to say, I know better
than you and say what you got so I can knock it down. No, we're
not looking for a fight. It's not a competition. And we're
certainly not rough with people. Not fond of sordid gain, what
Paul told Timothy about those that want to get rich through
the ministry of the gospel, but rather hospitable. hospitable,
welcoming people, open arms. We want you. We love you. We
will put ourselves out to serve you hospitable, loving what is
good. Actually a lover of the good
is, uh, is one word like, um, the, the idea of there's good
and bad. There's what God approves and
what God disapproves and someone that loves what he likes, what
God likes. And if you think about life in those terms, there are
things God likes and things he doesn't like, and I'm supposed
to love the things that he likes. A lot of the world and the things
that are attractive in the world are no longer available to me. Lover of the good, sensible,
sound-minded literally. Just, so if I have to render
a judgment, I need to be fair and equitable in how we render
the judgment. Devout, committed to God. Self-controlled. Where do I get that? Where do
you get self-control from? Willpower, Richard Simmons? No,
where do you get self-control from? The spirit, how do I know
that? Galatians 5, like 23, the fruit
of the spirit is love and all that goes with it, including
self-control. Galatians 5, 23, this is somebody that has got
the spirit working in them through the word, the fruit of the spirit.
holding fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the
teaching. This is what the overseers do. They hold fast to the faithful
word. That's the teaching of God's
word, which is in accordance with the teaching Paul has received
from Christ. They hang onto it. It's their
first recourse. It's our only recourse. They
hold fast to the faithful word so that this overseer will be
able to both exhort In sound doctrine, that's to encourage
people with the truth and correct, refute those who speak against
it. I'll be able to encourage those
that are open hearted, positive volition to God's word. And I'll
be able to correct those who speak against God's word. I thought
I wasn't supposed to be pugnacious. See with me, it's hard to be
both not a brawler and ready to correct. That is hard for
me. that I have weaknesses and I
have strengths. We like to say that the strengths
outweigh the weaknesses, but everybody knows the truth. But
this was a hard one to be dialed in sufficiently where I am able
to correct in love and not be looking for making corrections.
And I have to tell you, I can be balanced that way in the spirit. I can be worked on by God in
the moment. He can do that with me. It's
called love. but it's God. This is not something I necessarily
wake up in the morning feeling like being. I'm either going
to be correcting or I'm going to be not brawling, pick one.
But the Bible says you're not looking for it, but you are ready
to do it through the word. Beloved in all of these, the
common thread is the word of God. The word of God needs to
be working in your life such that you are a product of it.
And this is the principle of, as we often call it, the 20,
30 or the 20, sorry, the 20%, 80%. The elders are the leaders
of the church. And as such, they're the center
of the 20% of the church family. There are always people in the
church family that are on the fringe. And usually they're the
majority. They're not in the word. They're
not very interested in it. Yeah, we're supposed to go here. It
is Sunday again. Okay. That yeah, I believe. And
they're Christians, they're Christians, but they're not necessarily on
mission. The 80% is not on mission. The 20% are the people that are
doing the work. They're throwing in together
and doing the work. And Preston City Bible Church,
I don't know what the numbers are. I don't put you, I don't
look at each one of you and then mark you down as which one you
are and then do the calculation of what percentage of the church
is of on mission. I don't do that. That's not my
responsibility. I don't have the ability to assess
or discern that, but I believe that that's how it works. So
what do we say? Well, this is a submarine. Everybody's
got a job. Every billet, every place to
sleep comes with a job that goes with all the other stuff. Every
meal that you eat comes with work to do that you're supposed
to be on mission. How successful a submarine are we? How effective
are we as a church family? Let me give you a hint. Loring
said 30 people, by the way, you can do it at 29. Somebody just
needs to double up and do the sounds for the skit. It's like
10 minutes of work a day. 20 minutes of work. 30 people in this church,
this little group are throwing in and taking time off during
an entire week, nine or eight to noon all week to minister
to these children. That's a high percentage of this
group. A lot of you are sacrificing to do this. And we do this as
a church family. This is a good church. We're doing God's work.
I praise God for you. Full circle means I can tell
you that I'm glad I did not end up in the beautiful hills of
Central Texas with access to Fort Hood, go do ministry to
the soldiers on the largest military installation in the free world
we used to call it. That's not what God had for me. What I was
hunting more than anything else by the time I was looking for
a church is positive volition to God's word. Not people looking
for me or someone that sounded like me, but people looking for
the word. Not looking for anyone else either. I want it to sound
like this guy, but God's word. I wanna hear what Paul has to
say in the power of the spirit. I wanna hear what the Lord Jesus
wants me to know and do. I wanna be about his work. That
is what Preston City Bible Church is. And as my friend, Jeff Comeau
has said, there is no other reason to go here than the word of God. We are the household of God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. And I'm not bragging to
say it, saying this is by God's grace, that we have been blessed
with the perspective to say this is what's most important. With
our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Father, we have seen
the example of Paul, the example he paints of Titus, the relationship
between the two, and we're challenged by it. Father, if there's conviction
that has arisen in any hearts today, about the 20% and the
80%, Father, let us settle it. Let us be content to say you
have work for us to do. And day by day, we're gonna be
on it. We know that this is gonna require
a meditation on your word day and night. We're gonna know this
is gonna require a moment by moment intercession where we're
praying without ceasing. Father, we know that this is
going to be strengthened and encouraged by the teaching of
your word. which is the fuel, the Word of God, the fuel for
this spiritual life. Father, let us grow and press
on to maturity so that we can be successful stewards of that
which you've entrusted to us as Paul was. And Father, indeed,
our prayer extends now to those who don't know Jesus as their
Savior. Our burden for them, Father, is an eternal burden.
As Paul said, he wished he could be a curse for his people, so
we think of our countrymen and really those around the world
who don't know Jesus Christ. Father, let the word be real
to them. If there's anyone here today who has heard of Christ
and has not trusted in Jesus as Savior, help them understand
there is no hope except Christ and that they place their faith
entirely and only on him. Father, we love you and praise
you for this opportunity to meditate on these things. Strengthen us
to become like the Apostle Paul as we imitate Christ. We pray
in Jesus' name, amen. Our closing hymn this morning
will be hymn number 547. If you'd all stand, please. Turn your hymnals to hymn number
547. The church is one foundation. ♪ Jesus Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ He
is risen from the ash ♪ ♪ By water and by fire ♪ ♪ By heavy pain and sorrow ♪ ♪ To me his holy life will
be sung again ♪ ♪ We thank God every day ♪ ♪ He's
so careful for all the earth ♪ ♪ Words are worth of salvation ♪ ♪ God on high with honor ♪ ♪ For holy names
He blesses ♪ ♪ Our days were holy ♪ ♪ He presents with every present
♪ ♪ With all articulation ♪ ♪ And with all trouble and war ♪ ♪ He brings a consolation
♪ ♪ What is forevermore ♪ ♪ In love we raise our glass ♪
♪ And the praises we glorify ♪ ♪ Shall be our church at last
♪ ♪ H-T-R-N-F-U ♪ ♪ We're from the three and one ♪ Happy New Year with our two-tested
one. Oh, happy hearts and holy, heart
filled with great sadness. Why can't love begin only on
our May 12th release? Thank you, and I'm going to invite
Jerry Breaux to come up and dismiss us in prayer, please. Please join me in prayer. With
our eyes closed, as we beseech our Heavenly Father and thank
Him for His grace, which enabled us all to come here today and
hear the Word, to ingest it and to rightly apply it to our lives,
we look to you, Father, for your help. We lift up the children that
are going to be taught this week at Vacation Bible School. Father, please help make it an
impact on their lives and that they remember everything that
they're taught, to realize the seriousness that our lives represent. Help us, Father, always to know
that how we live this day will affect all our future, because
one day we shall all stand before the throne of grace and before
the judgment seat of Christ. We ask that you just guide us
through this week, give us traveling mercies, bless all those that
are involved with the VPS. Please bring forth that one person
that's in need of the audio requirements so that the VPS will be successful. And we thank you, Father, for
your grace. Help us to always know that the
sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and that we don't live
by bread alone, but by every word that you have proclaimed.
So just bless us now as we depart, bring us all back safely, give
us traveling mercies, and bless us all, Father. And we ask these
things in Jesus' name, amen.
253 Titus: The Mission to Crete pt 2 --Life of Paul
Series Christian Life of Paul
| Sermon ID | 711211626516313 |
| Duration | 51:17 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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