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.