Now we're in Titus chapter 2, so turn your Bibles to Titus chapter 2. We're working our way through this book and this little three-chapter letter that Paul wrote to Titus. Titus was the overseeing elder over the churches on the little Greek island of Crete. in the first century. And Paul, at this time, this was probably in between his first and second imprisonment, and he writes a letter to Timothy, and then he writes a letter to Titus to these two pastors or overseers of these churches to give them instructions for the churches. Now, what was going on with the churches in the island of Crete was they were severely immature. They were in disarray a little bit. And so the first thing that Paul tells Titus that he needs to do to get this church in order is he needs to ordain elders. So in order to ordain elders, he tells them how they are to be qualified. So we went through that list of qualification. Then he tells them what the elders are supposed to do. And then we got into chapter two last week. And as he's telling them, they need to be able to defend against false teachers and all of that. In chapter 2, he then goes on in verse 1, and he says, So part of his responsibility as an elder is to teach sound doctrine to the church. And then Paul goes into a list of things. He already talked about what elders are supposed to look like. Now he goes into four groups, five groups, sorry, five groups of people in the church, and he says, this is what you're supposed to look like. It's rather convicting. So first he uses the term aged men in your King James Version. Most other translations say older. But he talks first about the older men. Then he talks about the older women, then he talks about the younger women, then the young men, and then slaves. And we'll talk about slaves. Probably the application we can use for that is employees. So, let's do this. Let's read verses 1 through 10, and then we'll start off and we'll break these down because there's a lot here to look at. as I did last week. I'm going to be very careful with what I say because this is probably one of the most countercultural lessons that I could think of teaching. Seriously, I mean, if the news media caught wind of what I was gonna teach from the Bible, they'd probably wanna shut our church down, because this goes against the grain of everything that is in the culture today, okay? So let's read verse one of chapter two, going to verse 10. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, and charity in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, and that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. and all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, and doctrines showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well, and all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." The title of this lesson is Sound Doctrine for the Church, and the first part we see Paul's instruction to Titus. Then he goes on, his instruction to Titus is to teach the church. Then we see Paul's instruction to older men. We talked about this last week. Then he moves from older men to older women. And in the older women, he says this about them. He says, that they be in behaviors becoming holiness, not false accusers, not giving them much wine, teachers of good things. And we sort of stop there. He continues it on a little bit in the first part of verse 4. Verse 4 he says, that they may teach the young women to be sober. Okay, so part of the older women is to teach the younger women. We mentioned this last week, that this is not necessarily speaking of a classroom setting, although that is not prohibited in the Bible, that women teach women in a formal setting like that. The prohibition is women teaching men in a formal setting. That is a prohibition in the scriptures. But this is not, what I'm saying is, this is not what Paul's talking about here. And this specific section and context, what he's speaking of, is an example. So you live your life as an example, and through that example, you mentor and you teach the younger women. And then he gives what the younger women should be learning from the older women. Before you think, oh, he's just giving it to us, the women, I'm going to get to the young men as well. So just hang with me. So here's what he says about the younger women. Now, I also want to point out this little word that goes continually throughout this section, and that is the word likewise. In each section, he says likewise. Now, the understanding of the Greek term behind this is that each group builds upon each group. So it's not just like, okay, the older guys listen to what their section is and then just tune out everything else. No, everybody really needs to be listening to this because this is conduct becoming of any Christian. except for maybe the specifics of loving your husband's guys, okay? That is a little bit specific, okay? So we see, encourage young women in the first part of verse four. So then we see, we're going to start off with Paul's instruction to younger women. Let me give you a couple of introductory thoughts before we jump into this section that I think is relevant to what we're discussing. No biblical standard is more viciously attacked today than the God-ordained role of women in society. As with many worldly influences, the feminist movement has made great inroads in the church including the evangelical church, in the name of women's rights, the word of God is dishonored as being sexist, chauvinistic, and unfairly limiting. Any objections that come to the mind about whatever the Bible limits for the role of women is not a Christian objection. That is from the humanistic, worldly influence that is already pervaded in our society and in our thinking. You want to know how much biblical thinking you have your mind trained and how much the world has your mind trained. See what your response is whenever the Bible talks about things you don't like but the culture accepts. It should be understood that the basic tenets of feminism did not originate in modern society and were not produced simply by the self-centered ambitions of contemporary women who want to be free to be whatever they want to be and do whatever they want to do. The feminist agenda is an ancient and at root satanic It is a primeval heresy that is part of Satan's strategy to undermine and destroy God's plan for mankind." When did the roots of feminism begin? It was the Garden of Eden, when Eve stepped out of the role that she was supposed to be, and then mankind went into the Fall. Now after the Fall, you have a double-edged sword of a problem. Because a part of the curse that Eve was given was that the King James words it this way, that her desire should be towards her husband. A bunch of idiotic men have interpreted that to say that women will have an unduly sexual desire for men, and I think that's a man coming up with that. Now, when you understand the Hebrew behind that, the idea is that God has placed the role of women to be in submission to their husbands, and their desire is going to be to rebel against that. That's part of the curse. That's part of the fall. Now, here's where the men fall into it. I think I haven't wrote it down, so let me read it to make it a little bit clearer. The curse on Eve was woman's desire would henceforth be to usurp the place of man's headship and that he would resist that desire and even more strongly exercise his control over her." In other words, this way, women have a sinful propensity to usurp men's authority and men have a sinful propensity to put women under their feet. Don't get me wrong by saying this about the feminist agenda and all of this stuff that I'm for chauvinism. That is the misunderstanding. We have this idea in the culture that if you disagree with something that you absolutely hate the other thing. There's no balance that can be understood. What I'm talking about is not what the world thinks is right or what you think is right. It's what the Bible has taught. Now, there's an idea that came about in the modern idea of feminism that's called egalitarianism. How many of you have ever heard of that term, egalitarian? Egalitarian is this idea that came about with the feminist revolution, and that is that men and women are equal in every way. Now, this has pervaded the church. This has invaded the church. It's infiltrated the church, and many churches, denominations, have accepted this over the years. This was the rise of women pastors and different things like that. But we at Calvary Baptist Church take a biblical stance. The biblical stance is what's called complementarianism, or else I like to make a little bit more of a specification. It's two-part complementarianism. What is this? It's that God created men and women equal, but has different roles for men and women in the home and in the church. And that's what the Bible teaches. Now we understand that once we're in Christ, as Paul teaches in Galatians, that there is no bond or free, there's no Greek or Jew, there's no male or female. That is not taking away, and this is what you see today with the gender revolution, Paul is not teaching in Galatians with that, that there are no gender distinctions whatsoever. That is idiotic, and that is not understanding the whole of Scripture or interpreting that passage rightly. What Paul is teaching is that once you are in the body of Christ, as Christians, as God sees His bride of Christ and the saved of earth, there's no classification, gender, or distinction that's better than the other. That's what he's teaching there. But Paul is the same guy who wrote that in Galatians is writing this right here. And he writes Timothy and many other passages in the New Testament that clearly gives the distinctions of the roles of men and women in the home and in the church. The divine decree that man would rule over women in this way was part of God's curse on humanity and it takes a manifestation of grace in Christ by the filling of the Holy Spirit to resolve the created order and harmony of proper submission in a relationship that becomes corrupted by disorder, by sin. Now, this right here is not accepted in society today. Not accepted. To say And what we have right now going on is a fight within the church between a couple of celebrity names going on because one person said this and one continually moves towards a position of wanting to have, you know, no limits on women in the church whatsoever. And so what's going on is you're seeing basically the dividing line happen. One of the big fights is going on right now in the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptist Convention. The current president of the Southern Baptist Convention has declared that he thought it would be good if a certain female personality in Christianity would be a great president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was speaking of Beth Moore. You say, well, that's not in the church. That's not a pastor. What's the big deal with that? Well, the big deal for the Southern Baptists that they have to deal with is this. The responsibilities of the Southern Baptist Convention President is to travel many times for speaking engagements in churches on Sunday morning, to fill the pulpit. So if the President of the SBC was a woman, you either changed the qualifications of the job, or you changed the Biblical standard. And so there's a fight going on with that to see what's gonna happen. And there's been some conservative voices that's been calling that out. The culture does not, listen, the culture is not content with letting them be their way and letting the church be its way. We are living in a culture that is going to dictate the church be like they are. Remember what I talked about last Sunday night from John, what Jesus said to his brothers. The world hates me. Why? Because I tell of its deeds and its deeds are evil. And then in John 15 he told his disciples, he said, if you're going to be of me, the world's going to hate you. Warren Weersbe said this, the Christian home was a totally new thing during this time that this letter was written. The young women saved out of paganism would have to get accustomed to a whole new set of priorities and privileges. Those who had unsaved husbands would need special encouragement. So let's get into this and break this down. Young women, be loving to their husbands, first part of verse 4. He says, teach women to love their husbands. Paul is not speaking here of a romantic or sexual love, which certainly has a proper place in marriage, but of a committed love that godly wives choose to have for their husbands. This is, I think, a big problem with the teaching of love. So many times, and this happens in the church because the church fails to teach its people and its young people. Let me say that. Young people are not, they're being trained in love by Hollywood and the Disney Channel and not by the church. So therefore, when you have an infatuation, then you like that person and it's love, then you get married. But as soon as that infatuation and those feelings wear off, then you get a divorce. That's not love. Love is a choice. Love chooses to love even when the object is unlovely. The greatest priority in the home should be love, said Warren Fierspe. Daniel Aiken said, the way a couple loves each other will model for the children the way they should love their future spouses. I heard this said one time at a couples retreat and it's always stuck with me and Mary. Said the greatest parenting advice this guy said I can give you is to love your spouse in front of your children because it does many things for the kids. It shows them how to have a proper marriage by example, about number one. Number two, it tells them that there's security in the home. It gives them a peace of mind. Whenever there's fighting in the home and there's constant war or battle between mom and dad, The kids are nervous, the kids are unsure, they're uncertain what's going to happen. I mean, you see this from even the earliest ages. Mary and I thought this was funny, we would be playing around when Madison was just first born. She was probably a year or something, just running around and we were playing with her and then we were playing and Mary would do this, like just playing around, not even hard. And Madison, no! Madison didn't like it. You know, and kids don't like that. They understand from a very early age what love is and what love is not. Unsaved women who see inconsistency. Listen to this. Unsaved women who see inconsistency and hypocrisy and their Christian counterparts will have little reason to love and be faithful to their husbands, or even to bother with marriage at all, nor will they see the power of divine transformation and love at work." So the last reason why it's important to love your husbands is because you're being watched. Number two, loving to their children, loving to their children. To love their husbands, to love their children. The most important thing was a mother, let's see, how did it, a mother can love her children is to love them, the most important way a mother can love her children is to love them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. I try as much as I can to spend as much time with the kids and teach them through family worship, through praying with them at night. But you know who has the biggest influence on my child's, my children's salvation? Mary. Oh, I'm the preacher. I get up, teach twice on Sundays, preach twice on Sundays. I do the kids' point, all of this stuff. But Mary's going to have the biggest influence on them. Next, be sensible. Verse 5, to be discreet, and you're King James, to be sensible. Discreet is the Greek word sophron. We're going to see this word again later in the text. It means self-controlled, moderate as to opinion or passion. Listen, this is not John. Can I just stop here? This is not John Holyfield's list of do's and don'ts for the home. This is the Bible. This is God's, okay? We're just defining terms and we're moving on, okay? This is what he says for young women. This is not even pastors' wives or deacons' wives. This is just Christians. You need to be sensible. Next, be pure. be pure. He says, be chaste in your King James. This means pure. This is the Greek word hognos. It means clean, innocent, or modest. This refers to primarily moral purity and especially in this context to sexual purity. According to verse Timothy 2, 9 and 10 is a good cross reference there. You should write that down if you're taking notes. Modesty refers to a healthy sense of shame and saying anything, doing anything, or dressing in any way that would cause a man to lust. Next, here's another one that I would get shot over in the culture. Obedient to their own husbands. Obedient to their own husbands. Wait, I have my order out of the way. We'll come back to that. Oh, no, I skipped it. That's right. Keepers at home. Keepers at home. Okay. Keepers at home, I have this as be a caretaker of home. Let's define this. What is this talking about? Is the Bible teaching here that women have no place in society? They should just be at home taking care of the kids? Well, let's look at it. Keepers at the home, the New American Standard translated workers in the home, is the Greek word οίκυρος, οίκυρος, that's just one word which the English translation translates into four words. Keepers of the home or keepers at home. Keepers at home, Warren Raversby says, does not suggest that her home is a prison where she must be kept. Caring for the home is the idea. Guide the house. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 5.14, the wise husband allows his wife to manage the affairs of the household, for this is her ministry. Now, let me say this. That was Warren Wiersbe's quote. I thought there was some good things in there. But let me say this. You're a team. The husband and wife is a team. This is not the biblical way of saying, the Bible's not saying give everything to the wife, women should handle the money. That's not what it's saying. It's saying work together. Know your wife's strengths. Don't be this domineering. There are some Christian books out there. Brother Steve, you've probably seen this in the independent fundamental realm. I've seen this. In fact, this book was recommended to my wife a lot where basically the man controls everything. And the woman just is supposed to raise the kids. I think, stay away from Debbie Pearl's stuff, if you've ever heard of them. Gothard, I think, teaches a sort of stuff like this. Ridiculous. It's ridiculous. God has given the women special gifts, talents. There's a reason why they're called the better half. and they should be able to use those within the home. Daniel Aiken says this, Proverbs 31, 10-31 teaches that a diligent homemaker may be involved in a wide range of activities and interests. She is not lazy or a busybody, nor is she distracted by outside pursuits and responsibilities that eat up her precious time and attention. I think what's fascinating is in the Proverbs 31, you always hear this Proverbs 31 woman. There's been many messages preached about the Proverbs 31 woman. There's ministries called Proverbs 31 women ministries, those kinds of things. One of the fascinating things I think about the lady in Proverbs 31 is that she was not just, and I don't say this in a demeaning term, but she was not just a homemaker. I mean, she was an innovative, creative, woman that helped make money for the house, that made clothes and sold them at the market, and the men were so impressed with her that they went around the town saying, that is an awesome woman. Dude, you're lucky to have her as a wife. That's an ideal of what it's talking about with a biblical woman and her role as her womanhood. By the way, Let me give a little snippet here about what I talked about at the beginning of the feminist thing. This idea, this idea that the culture is sold for the past 40 years, especially in our country, that for a woman to stay home and take care of her children is second best, is ridiculous, and it is sad, is shameful. Because the most important thing And the most rewarding role that anybody could ever have in life is the production of a child and raising them and turning out a member of society that is good and law-abiding. How could you think of a more important job? But you see it, and probably the biggest purveyor of this idea is Hollywood. You see it in movies all the time. I just want to get away from home. I have so much more to offer. And they forget that the most important thing and the most rewarding thing is those little children at home. One last thing, being a homemaker is not an institutionalized form of bondage and slavery. It is the greatest context for a woman to experience liberation and liberty as she is set free by the plan of God to be the woman God created and saved her to be. Next, your King James says, be good. This is the word agathos. It's best understood, be kind. Young women are to be kind. Next is obedient to their husbands. I have this as be submissive to your husbands. This is the word hupotasso, to be subordinate. to be under obedience, put under subdue, subject, being in subjection to. 1 Timothy 5.14 says, I will therefore that the younger women marry their children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Unless the husband asks his wife to do something unbiblical, illegal, immoral, or unethical, she is to follow his leadership. Those are the qualifications. We have this principle set forth for us with Peter as it goes that the Bible also teaches us to be in subjection to our government. Are there times, you say, whenever we should not be in subjection to the government? And we have this principle given to us by Peter in the book of Acts, where he says we ought to obey God rather than men. So this is the idea. When the Bible tells us to be subject or obedient to authorities over us, we obey it to the point that it violates what God has laid out elsewhere. So when you talk about women in abusive homes, unless the husband is asking his wife to do unbiblical, illegal, immoral, or unethical, she has to follow his leadership. Also, in this context of abusive homes, I think too many times we forget the role of the church in this. The church really needs to come to the aid of women there. Law enforcement needs to be... Too many times I think also whenever churches find out about that, they don't do anything. Why is law enforcement not the first thing you call? That should be self-evident. So, this is Scripture's mandate. This is not John's list. This is Scripture's mandate. Be honoring to God's Word. Why? Why all of these things for the young women? Because that the Word of God be not blasphemed. Be honoring to God's Word. Believers judge the genuineness and value of our faith more by our living than our theology. All right, we're gonna move away from the women. We're done with the women. All right, now we're going to the men. All right, so, younger men. He says, young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded. Exhort, this is the word urge in other translations, perikaleo, it means to call near, to invoke, to call for, to desire, to strongly entreat. He's saying, young men, listen up. Okay? It's sort of like a military guy grabbing him and saying, a tent hut, you know, come to attention. All right? Listen up. I urge you, be sober-minded. Be sober-minded. Be level-headed. This is the same word that's used towards the younger women, sophron, that we talked about, where it says it's translated discreet. Men are supposed to be sober-minded, not just older men. Us younger men are supposed to be sober-minded. We're supposed to be level-headed. Be a good example, verse 7, and all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. Now this is something, let me just hit the guys a little hard here, if you think that I've hit the women hard. Let me hit the guys a little harder. This is something that I'm absolutely ashamed of when it comes to men in our society and in our church. Mainly in the church culture, because too many times you see that it's the mother or the wife that is bringing the children to church, that is getting them there to church. The husband, the men are supposed to be the ones that are the good example. Example, model, statue. Young men should also be on the lookout for godly men that they can emulate, men they can pattern their life after. I guess I would ask you this. Are there anybody in your life that you look up to that you could say, if I said, who's the guy you look up to for a good example, is there a name that pops off your mind right away? If not, look for one. Be pure in doctrine. Be pure in doctrine. And doctrine showing uncorruptness. Uncorruptness means soundness. Our young men should know what the Word of God says. Again, this is not just something... I know this sounds like a list for the pastors. It's not. This is for the older men in the church, the older women in the church, the younger men in the church, the younger women in the church. This is just Christians. You should know the Bible. Because if you're going to lead your home, then you need to be able to lead it in the Scriptures. When your kids ask a question, what does this mean? You should be the one with the answer. So, lead your homes in the Scriptures. Be dignified. Be dignified. This is, in your King James, it's translated gravity. Dignified, this is, the Greek understanding of this is more along the lines of integrity. Integrity. John Phillips said it this way, while living in a corrupt world, they were to exhibit the characteristics of the world to come. While living in bodies prone to corruption, they were to be incorruptible. Do people know you as someone that whenever you say something, they can take it to the bank? Next is blameless in speech. Be blameless in speech. Verse 8, sound in speech that cannot be condemned. Is it the old saying that whenever a bunch of, you know, the idea is that, my dad used to say this, you know, I used to have a mouth like a sailor, because he was in the Navy. Okay. The idea when men were not around women, it was okay to speak however you wanted. Not for Christian men. Not for Christian men. One of the best ways to show your blamelessness to the unsaved world is what comes out of your mouth. How you talk. What happens when you hit your thumb with a hammer? Be pure in testimony. Sound a speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about you. This is your testimony. You live like this. All of this, isn't this sort of like repetition by now? The older men, you live this way because of this. Older ladies, you live this way because of this. Younger women, you live this way because of this. Young men, you live this way. Why? Because the world is watching your testimony. Do they see the people that come from Calvary Baptist Church and say, I don't want anything to do with that church. They're just the same as us. Because we've all seen it, we've all seen people and say we've judged an entire church and decided not to have anything to do with that church because somebody that we know that lived like the devil in front of us said they go there. They must not teach anything over there, look how they live. Alright, let's move away from that. Next, the next section is this. He says in verse 9, exhort servants. Now, we've dealt with this word again before in this passage. I've explained this word to you. This is the word not for servants. This is the word douloi, which is slaves. Now, there were slaves in this time. Slavery was huge during the first century, huge to the Roman Empire. In the first century, one out of three persons in Rome and one out of five elsewhere was a slave. A person could become a slave as a result of being captured in war, defaulting on a debt, inability to support, or voluntarily selling oneself. This happened quite a bit. Somebody was not able to make enough money, so they thought that if they made a deal with somebody that would buy them and they'd sell themselves into slavery, for a period of time so that person would take care of their family. This happened quite a bit. They'd come and live on the quarters and those types of things. Being sold as a child by destitute parents. Birth to slave parents. Conviction of a crime or kidnapping and piracy. Alright. Slavery, let me say this, slavery existed during the time of Christ. It was around. Slavery existed during the time of the apostles. Slavery was going on during this time. In fact, what we understand, not just from this text, but many other texts, that Paul writes to slaves is this. There were slaves that got saved while they were slaves and were still slaves, being now a believer. We also know this from the little letter of Philemon. There were Christians in the church who owned slaves, and their slaves got saved, and they remained slaves to the Christian that they were an owner to. Now, I know what you're thinking. Wait a second. Is John going to start here and try to build a theology that the Bible supports slavery? No. Slavery is deplorable. It's wicked, and it should not be a conduct of a Christian. What I'm saying is, it's two things. It happened, and the Bible doesn't say anything about it, whether it should be a Christian's duty to overthrow government. Let me read it this way, how I have it wrote down. Nowhere in Scripture is rebellion or revolution justified in order to gain freedom, opportunity, or economic, social, or political rights. That's hard for Americans to swallow, isn't it? But it's not in the Bible. It's not in the New Testament for believers. The emphasis is rather on the responsibility of slaves to serve their human masters faithfully and fully in order to reflect the transforming power of God in their lives. Because according to the Bible, how do you transform a nation? How do you transform a society? Not with revolution. With the gospel. with changed lives. And in those lives being changed, they change their behavior. I know I'm running out of time quickly, so let me get through this. The little letter of Philemon. Let me tell you what happens in this letter. It's like 20-something verses. Paul wrote this letter to a guy, a friend of his, who was running a church. His name was Philemon, who ran a little house church. He had a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus stole from Philemon and then took off. While he was running away from the law, he met Paul. Paul won him to Christ. Then Paul discipled him. And then you know what Paul did? Paul taught him to go back to his master. He said, go back to your master, take this letter to him, and then Paul sort of, you know, in a very interesting way that Paul writes, basically tells Onesimus, forgive this guy, accept him back, and treat him like a brother. because I know you're going to do it anyways." That's what Paul puts it. The gospel does not advocate revolt, but submission to the sovereignty of God. And if we believe that God is sovereign, we believe that these things are here for God, that God has put us there for a Christian testimony. With my time basically run out, let me go over these qualifications that's given to slaves in these last two verses. Paul gives five character qualities that should distinguish every slave and every other believer who is employed by someone else. So many take this passage as an application not for us today as employers-employee relationship. So if you work for somebody, Here are some guidelines for you as a believer working for that person. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters. This is be submissive. Same word that's used in verse 5 towards women with their husbands. Not answering again. Or be pleasing. Be pleasing. And to please them well in all things. then not answering again. Be agreeable. Not answering again or not argumentative. If a policy, I thought this was interesting because I've said this sometimes with a political situation that happened several years ago in 2015 with that situation that happened in Kentucky with that lady who refused to do that. Listen to this. MacArthur said this in his commentary. If a policy or requirement is too onerous or involves doing something immoral or unbiblical or in any other way is unacceptable to our conscience, the only permissible alternative at that point is to find another place of employment. Not rebel against your employee. Not try to make some kind of stand to make yourself a martyr. We don't live in that kind of situation. Not yet anyways. We still have the freedom to go find another job. Be principled in your service, verse 10. He says, not purloining. What is this word? The other translations say not pilfering. Basically this, don't steal from your boss. Don't steal. You're a believer. Don't take advantage of the company resources. Shane says, amen. Don't take advantage of the company resources. If the boss says, if management says, this is what this is for, use it for that, not for personal use. Be honest. but showing all good fidelity." This is honesty. And then lastly, be praiseworthy of your Savior. Again, here we have it again. Why? Why do you act like this? Why do you behave this way? That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Because you are a witness for Christ. You live for Christ. We're through it. Everybody, I can breathe a sigh of relief. Okay. That's some counter-cultural stuff. That was some... I heard one guy say one time he was a pastor and his brother had sheep and he told him one time as a pastor, he heard him preach a message that he thought was a little rough. And he come to him and he said, you know, as a shepherd, I feed my sheep every day, but I only shear them once a year. He said, when I shear them, it hurts them, but they need it. So I call sometimes when I teach like that my sheep shearing message. Sometimes we need it. Sometimes we need it. Hey, by the way, before you get aggravated at me, I got it with the whole elder qualifications a couple of weeks ago in my study. I was like, oh, it was just hitting me over the head. Am I living like this? There you go. Me and Prester got it and then we gave it to y'all. Alright, so we'll move on as we chip away at the Book of Titus and finish chapter 2. Not next week. Not next week. I will be gone. We'll be heading to North Carolina Wednesday. We'll be heading to North Carolina Wednesday for Thanksgiving. So next week you'll have somebody else in here. So Then we'll get back started in Titus after we come back from Thanksgiving break. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us. You are a great, wonderful, loving God, and we have a desire to live for you, to show your goodness and show your light to those that are around us. We love you and give you praise. In Jesus' name, amen.