The Church of Eleven22 - Standout Christians - Titus - Wk 2

Episode Date: April 6, 2025

You must fight to go against the flow of culture. Right belief should lead to right living. Every believer—young and old— should live a life that reflects the Gospel because we’ve been changed by the grace of Jesus. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen and amen. Welcome to the Church of 1122, a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter who you are or what you look like or where you're from or what you used to believe or what you've done or what has been done to you, that if you fall into the all people category,

then this church is for you to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus. Amen. Amen. And Kate Marcy worship with us at 722 on Thursday night, and I just want to come. commend them for their bravery and for having the guts to show up to an invitation to come to church and then surrender their life for Lordship of Christ. Amen. Pretty amazing girls. Hey, welcome to

week two of this study on Titus. We're calling it a field guide for kingdom revolution. Last week, we started out, Pastor Britt and Pastor Todd kicked us off. And basically, they said the problem in all of the world is sin and sinners and the solution is Jesus. And the way that Jesus wants to get the good news of the gospel to the whole world is through the local church. And so this week, we're going to pick it up in chapter two, but I've got to let you know there's going to be a lot of talk about behavior, but this comes on the heels of last week, which is all about belief, because our belief drives our behavior, that what we know about Jesus and know that he loves us, that drives us to act in a certain way. And what Paul has done is Paul meets this kid named Titus,

leads him to Christ, raises him in the ministry, and then sends him to this place called Crete to be a pastor. And Crete is a little island. It's crazy. It's, it's, it's, it, it's, pirates of the Caribbean, but like the, the, the, the, the, 17 version of it, all right? There's some really, really bad stuff going on in Crete. And so it's the perfect place for a church to be planted. And so the Apostle Paul is teaching on Titus, who is the pastor of this church on what it's going to be like to pastor this church in this this this pretty crazy place but my dear friend uh pastor jd grere he says that titus chapter two one of the ways to thinking about it really the whole book of titus is it really teaches three things that we need to go in the right direction we need to stay in the game

and we need to play our position and he says it reminds him of coaching little league now he coached soccer i never coached soccer but i coach me some little league baseball and little league football all right and if you want patience in your life, don't pray for it, coach little league. And this is what it's like. The first thing that you've got to get right in Little League is you've got to go in the right direction. Like I used to coach this little flag football team. And before we would get out there, like when it was our turn, I coached the offense, we would get out there on offense.

I go, okay, boys, listen, listen, we're going that way. This is very important. Don't go that way. We're going that way. Our goal is that way. and why did you have to teach them that? Because sometimes the boys would get the ball and they'd be like, there's a lot of people that way.

Why don't I just go that way? It seems easier. That way's hard, that way's easy. And we laugh, but you know what a lot of churches do? A lot of churches get the ball and go, that way's hard. I don't want to do hard. I'm going to do easy. I'm going to run the wrong way.

So you've got to go in the right direction, and then you've got to stay in the game. Again, have you ever played a little league? And you're like, where's our center fielder? He's getting a snow cone. Timmy, get back. We need you on the field. He's like, but I like snow cones.

That's neat. But we need you to stay in the game. And then lastly, we need you to play your position. This is the instruction that the Apostle Paul is giving to Titus to give to his church. He's going to talk a lot about orthopraxy. Orthodoxy, believing the right things is important. But it should always be accompanied by. doing the right things.

And again, we talk about this all the time. Dallas Willard said, the gospel is not anti-effort, it's just anti-earning. That we do things as believers. We don't do things to earn our salvation, but because of what Christ has done for us, then it drives us to do the kind of things

that people that follow Jesus do. It's a little setup before we get into some instructions. Titus chapter 2, verse 1 says this. But as for you. So we've got to explain what the but's there for because this starts with a negative conjunction. So he's saying, Titus, I want you to teach some things, but I don't want you to teach the things that I just warned you about in the previous chapter.

So here's what he's saying in chapter 1, verse 10 in following. He says, Titus, don't be like these people. Don't be insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. And how many of you know, they ain't no party like a circumcision party, right? They must be silenced since they are upsetting the whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own said Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy glutton's. This testimony is true.

Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. So he's saying, Titus, don't teach like that, because that's what's happening in Crete. He says, first of all, don't teach legalism.

this Jewish mythology that through some religious surgery being circumcised, somehow that would earn your right standing before God. Don't teach legalism. Don't teach the commands of man. The commands of man, and many of you have probably heard this from religious leaders, essentially says what the Bible says in the gospel that for all who believe you would receive the right to become a child of God, that's good. It's just not quite enough.

in addition to that, here's some other things that you must do or must not do in order to be right before God. Anybody that teaches some kind of legalism that is Jesus plus anything for your salvation, it ruins everything. Because essentially what you're doing, it would be like you walk up to Jesus hanging on the cross for your sins and going, good try. You almost did it. But it's your death on the cross plus my good behavior and anti-bad behavior that is going to say. me. He says, don't teach that. And don't teach licentiousness. Don't teach that you can just believe in Jesus and then do whatever you want. Because if you do this, you're going to be a lying, evil glutton, because that's what the Cretans were, a bunch of lying evil gluttons. But they would

go to church on the weekend, and they would sing with their hands up, and they would pray at the end the service and they would say, well, see, I can do whatever I want because I've asked Jesus into my heart and because of His grace, now I can go live like I want to. Well, you cannot separate Jesus being Lord and Savior. It's a package deal. The whole things come together. And part of the reasons that Cretans did this is because they had these myths. They believe in this part of mythology that they believe Zeus, like the God of God's, was born in Crete. And the way Zeus got to be Zeus is he lied and then he used his power to sleep with whoever he wanted and he would just kind of sit on a cloud and get drunk and cast down lightning bolts. And they believe that their God, Zeus, came from Crete.

And I don't know if you know this, but we become who we worship. And the one that they worship was a lying, evil drunkard and then sure enough they became lying evil drunkards. And so Paul tells Titus, so don't. Don't teach legalism and don't teach licentiousness and don't teach laziness. You can't just believe in Jesus and then think you're going to sit around and do nothing. Again, we are not saved by good works, but we are saved two good works. And so he says, don't teach these things. But instead, as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

By the way, I virtually say this every single week before I preach. I say, if you've got your Bibles and I hope you do, turn to wherever we are, okay? This isn't a TED talk. This isn't my opinion that what we're going to do every single week around here is we are going to teach the revealed word of God. We are going to teach sound doctrine. You don't need my opinions on things. What we need to know is what the word of God says. And that word sound can also be translated healthy.

The Greek word here is the same word that we get hygienic or hygiene from. Anybody workout? Anybody work out in here, you know, a couple of you? Okay, good. That's neat. How many of your workout folks know that you can't out-train your fork? You know what I'm saying? What your mama told you is true.

You are what you eat. And if you look like a twinkie, it's because you're eating twinkies. Kind of gooey in the middle and weird on the outside, too. You know what I mean? Well, you can be like a spiritual twinky if you don't pay close attention. In order to be healthy, like physically, you've got to have at least three things. You've got to have some kind of diet. You've got to rest and sleep and then some kind of exercise.

Well, interestingly enough, in the Christian life, you need the same three things. You have to have a habitual diet of the Word of God. Congratulations, you're getting it right now, okay? This is kind of like, you know, I'm just sort of throwing food at you. I hope you eat up. It won't be enough to sustain you if all you ever do is come hear me preach. You also have to personally eat during the week and you need to get in little circles with people and talk about your diet.

That's called Bible study. And then there's also got to be sleep. You got to rest in the Lord. Have you ever thought about what happens to you every single day of your life? I mean, it is this supernatural physiological phenomenon. You go into a coma every day. Just to remind you that you can't do this on your own, you have to be refueled in order to do what you're called to do tomorrow.

You miss that like three days in a row and you're going to go crazy. And so we need to rest in the Lord and then there's got to be exercise that God has called us to do certain things. And he says, so here's what I need you to do. I need you to teach that which accords with a healthy or sound doctrine.

He's saying teach the gospel. To live a life that has been reshaped in response to the gospel. And again, what you believe about who God is and what he thinks about you ought to drive your behaviors. And doctrine matters. I told you this before. You can't rightly love God without right thoughts about God. I don't care what you feel in your heart. Doctrine matters. I told you before, if I were to go home and write a song to Gretchen, it wouldn't be very good. But if I did, so baby sat down, I wrote you this song.

And I sang to her about how much I love her beautiful red hair. She ain't going to like. it. Why? She got red hair. She's going to think, I think you're saying it about somebody else. And when we have wrong thoughts about God and you say untrue things to him about him, he don't like it. There's a very famous verse. Romans 828. Everybody loves it. I love it. I quote it all the time. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. But he keeps going in verse 29. Here's what God's purpose is. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined, don't worry about that word, it just means predestined. It means what it means.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be firstborn among many brothers. What does that mean? That means that when you become a believer in Jesus, then the whole rest of your life through progressive sanctification, God is conforming you into the image of his son. How can we be conformed into the image of Christ if you don't know who he is? This is why doctrine matters. So you won't be conformed

into the image of Christ. You will be deformed. That's what you will be. And oftentimes, what begins to happen to people who don't know the scriptures, if you don't know the scriptures, you won't know the character and nature of God, and what will happen is you'll try to form God

into your own image. You ever heard somebody say these things? Well, the God that I worship would never send somebody to hell. Well, of course you think that, because you made that God up in your head. you're actually worshiping you this is why it's so important

that you know sound doctrine and of course there's going to be places in the Bible that you don't like do you know why because you are a crooked and depraved evil blackhearted sinner like the Seagulls on Nemo coming out of the womb just going mine mine mine mine

mine and try to tell the sovereign king of the universe how we ought to do, sex and money and power. Look, some of you goofballs took two chances at the eighth grade. You know who you are. And you're trying to tell God how to live life. Of course there's some parts in here. Listen, we're about to get to the fun part of the sermon. Fun for me.

It ain't going to be fun for you. We're going to talk to older men, older women, younger men, younger women, about what you ought to do in response to the gospel. and if it doesn't offend you, come see me in the lobby and I'll make it personal, okay? I'll just pick on you directly. You ever get a trainer? You think they make you do things you want to do? No, no, no, no, no.

If you wanted to do them, you wouldn't have to waste money on a trainer. You would just do it. Listen, man, the Word of God is God's revelation to us that we would be conformed into the image and likeness of his son. And the more defensive you feel in here pay very close attention, it could be. the gift of the conviction of the Holy Spirit saying, hey, you selfish little person, you might need to change in this area to be more like me. So that's the context before he digs in. Verse two, he says this. He says, older men. So first we're going to start with older men. So what does it mean to be an older man in the Bible? Well, the rabbinical tradition was 53 years old.

And I'll turn 52 this year, so I'm still got it. All right. I just totally made that up. There's not an age here. It's more like a stage of life, okay? So older men. I'm going to say, in the context, I think I can make a decent case, this is like when your kids are out of the house.

Like you're a grandparent, or this is kind of like when your kids get their driver's license. You know what I mean? They kind of go where they want and do crazy stuff. All right? So this is old guys.

Ready? Old guys? Here's the command to us. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in the faith. in love and in steadfastness. So what does this mean, older men?

Let me put it on the bottom shelf. Don't be grumpy, man. Older men tend to get grumpy, especially churchmen. You ever notice this? Grumpy is when you wake up every day and you're mad about something and you're just finding something to put it on all day long. And older men can just complain about everything. Plain about the government and church and why did they change the words.

Holy, holy, holy. I don't even need to add that part. All right, right, right. Older men have a tendency to remember life better than it was. Remember, you tell all his lies, like you used to walk up, you walk to school, uphill both ways, in the snow. It wasn't snowing. You living in Jacksonville, you liar.

You think everything was better than it was. It wasn't better. And when he says, be sober-minded. Here's what old men, older men can have a tendency to do, okay? You get real grumpy, like we get everything right, everybody else is screwing everything else up. And then what happens is you get drunk on your own opinions, and your own emotions and then surround yourselves with a bunch of other people, and that's all you

talk about. I mean, there's movies called Grumpy Old Men. And he's going, don't be like that, man. Instead, men, you've got to act like men. Don't act like boys. Let me tell you what happens in American society. A bunch of old men start acting like boys because you bought into a lie called the American Dream. Now listen, man, I'm pro-America.

All right, America's great. It's jacked up. Greatest country ever. But of all the countries, even though it might be the best one, it's still crooked and depraved and jacked up. And you've been sold a bill of goods, and you think you've earned the right to do nothing with the rest of your life.

And the moment you begin to advocate responsibility, and the majority of your time every single day of the week is chasing after some hobby, you're not acting like a senior. acting like a toddler. Give me my toys. I'm going to play. Gov, go, go, go, go, go, go. Hunt, hunt, hunt, fish, fish, fish, boat, whatever it is. And you can do that stuff a little bit, but you don't get to retire from the Great Commission. That you, you got to stay in the game. You can't advocate responsibility and then complain about it. And listen, man, here at the church,

we need you to set the tone in the church. Older men, we are looking to you to see what a life of faithfulness who loves their wife as Christ loved the church and raises a godly family. We're not looking to 30-year-old to emulate them because nobody wants to be like them. We need you to stay in the game. Do you know when Moses got called to ministry? He was 80.

That's when God did all the significant things in his life. Abraham was old when he got called in the ministry. There's a story in the Old Testament of Caleb, who was an old man in his 80s, and there was one part in the promised land. and everybody was afraid of, and this old man was like, give him to me. And he goes and he takes over a mountain. Listen, old guys, you've got to stay in the game.

And part of the way that you stay in the game is this. You see, you've got to disciple and mentor the upcoming generation. Let me ask you this. Who are you mentoring and discipling? You should be able to write down names right now. And if you are not discipling the upcoming generation, then you better not complain about them. You can't look at it.

be like, what's wrong with these kids today? We raised them, you idiot. That's like the chef complaining about the menu. You dummy? They are a reflection of us. And so instead of seeing them is how dare you, what if you had a little bit of sympathy and says, you know what?

Instead of saying, what's wrong with you, you begin to say, you know what, I need to disciple you. And I'm telling you, there's a generation of like 18 to 25-year-olds, and they are yearning for some older men in their life. So don't be a grumpy old man. Here's a quote for you, see if this sounds familiar. This guy says, children today love luxury. They have bad manners, content for authority, they show disrespect for their elders.

They love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not servants in their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents. They chatter before company. They gobble up food at the table, and they tyrannize their teachers. Sound familiar? You know who said that?

Socrates, 400 BC. Our kids jacked up? Yeah, and so were you. And so don't be a complainer. Don't be a complainer. Be a disciple maker. We need a generation of old guys that are meeting with some young guys, encouraging them.

Think about the etymology of that word in English. That means you're going to take some courage and you're going to put it in this young generation. And we're going to be the kind of people that look at them and, of course, discipline. And of course say, hey, man, to me to tighten up a little bit. Don't be lazy.

Don't be licentious. Don't be a legalist. But let's head in the direction. Could you say what the apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians 111? Follow me as I follow Christ. I don't have it all together, but I got a great Savior. So if you walk in my footsteps, we will be heading towards what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I need you to act like men.

Part of the reason we're studying Titus and we studied Timothy is because that's what Paul did. When Paul was older, he met Timothy and Titus, young guys, and he raised them up to be men of God and you don't get to retire or graduate from the mission of God or the Great Commission. So stay in the game. Stay in the game. And listen, do you know a part of the reason we've got so many old guys that are plugged in here at this church? It's because we've been hammering this since the day we started. When we started the church of, when we started 1122 the service at Beach, I was terrified

that it would just be all 20-year-olds because I thought the concentration of that much ignorance in one place is terrifying to me. And so I have walked over young families since we began. again to find some grandparents out there, some gray hairs and no hairs. You know what I'm saying? Some people's hair turns gray. Some turns loose. Whatever. We'll take you. All right. We need you in the game. You're not done. And we live in a world right now that says the older you get, the less and less valuable you are. But in the kingdom of God, every single day he wakes you up. You've got more and more and more value to the kingdom of God and to this church. We need you here.

Stay plugged in. Stay plugged in. And with it in mind, speaking of value, do you know we have 18 services at nursing home and elder care facilities? And we say we love you guys. And as long as you've got breath in your lungs, you have a place in the kingdom of God. So old guys, don't be grumpy, man. Be sober-minded, dignified, self-control, sound of the faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Second group, older women.

This ought to be fun. All right, how old is an older woman? I'm not answering that. I'm just asking that question. Okay? There's not really an age, but I think you're going to see here, based on the next two, that I think we're talking like,

if you've got no more little kids, you know, if you don't have to drive taxi anymore for yours, then you're probably in this group. There's a lot more of you in this group than you're going to put yourself in, but so here we go. Listen to this. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slave to much wine.

They are to teach what is good. And so train the young women. Here's what this means, older women, especially older church women. Don't be crabby, man. If older men tend to get grumpy, older women tend to get crusty. Just complain about everything. We actually have a category for this these days. It's called a carrot.

Listen, I hate that. I know a few carins. They're the best people I know. But you know what that means. A carin, like online when they show all these videos, this is somebody who has decided that the whole world needs to run by the preferences of this lady. These are the kind of people that, like, you know,

complain about everything and walk around with a clipboard and run HOA's, man. Those aren't the right flowers, right? And they just decide they're the HOA of everybody else's life. Be careful. And look at this warning. Of all the things to warn them about, the older women, it's like, hey, listen, man, don't sit around and just talk junk about everybody and drink too much. Can you believe that at some point in human history that women who had got a little older had a little less responsibility would sit around and gossip and day drink and just death scroll?

Can you believe that used to happen? You see, this is not an old book. This is a timeless book. And it's a temptation. It just is. So older women, don't make comfort your God. Don't make comfort your God. Stay in the game.

You can't spend the majority of your time sitting around, talking about everybody else, and being slave to much wine, and calling a disciple group. That's not what a disciple group is. And speaking of, he says, don't be slave to much wine. Listen, you know, nowhere in the Bible doesn't say

you can't drink alcohol or touch alcohol. It takes serious wisdom. But the Bible is very clear to not be drunk. And this phrase here is, don't be slave to wine. Has alcohol become your master? Does it tell you what to do? Does it consume your thoughts? If that's the case, you should tell somebody.

You need help. You need help from the Spirit of God. You need help from your family. And you're not going to be able to get out of this thing alone. The enemy is trying to steal, kill, kill, and destroy. And what's interesting is instead of using your mouth for slander, which is to kill, did you know actually the Greek word there is Diablo? We use that word for the devil.

That when you accuse with your mouth, you were teeming with the devil because he is the accuser of the brethren. Do you know what she did? Can you believe what she's wearing when you do that kind of thing? Instead, what we're supposed to do is use that very same instrument, our mouth, to partner up with God who is a creator, not one that tears down. It doesn't take very much energy to tear anything down. see the internet it takes a whole lot of energy to build things up and so he says instead use that same mouth to teach what is good and so train the younger women so instead of seeing a younger girl younger woman and being critical of her why don't you be sympathetic towards her and say you know

what she needs she probably needs an older woman in her life to help her learn who she is in in christ older woman be that kind of woman So older men and older women, if you are not faithfully pouring into an upcoming generation, then you have lost the right to complain about them and the condition of our society. So make disciples, volunteer in our kids ministry, a student ministry, our 1825 ministry, lead a disciple group. It could be an official role like that. It could be an unofficial role. Like, this could be your daughter-in-law, your daughter, this could be nieces.

are you spending the majority of your time thinking and talking about everything that's wrong or are you making a difference for the kingdom of God? Stay in the game. Stay in the game. Now young women. Now what stage is this? I know most of you think you're in that stage, you're not in that stage, okay? Some of you are. I'm going to say this is like 18 to parents of kids that are still need a ride. All right, this is you. Here's what I'm what this is. Oh, and you're going to get ready. Okay. This is going to be very unpopular. Young women. Titus teach the young women these things. Love their husbands and children. Be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands.

Well, that's fun, isn't it? Everybody like that? No amen's? All right. Not from the guys, dummy. Amen? Shut up. Shut up. way fellas you should never quote a verse that starts out to the young women that's not yours to quote you dummy if you're quoting these verses you already lost and you're too dumb to talk to all right young women it says to love their husbands and children be self-control pure working at home kind submissive to their own husbands by the way the cretan women would live the opposite of this that they bragged on being sexually immoral that not settling down to sleep with many as many

as they could. And according to the scriptures, your first calling is home. Now, when it says working at home, literally in Greek, that could be translated a good manager of the household or a home lover. Now, does it mean that women can't work outside the home? No, no, no. See Proverbs 31. This is a woman who worked and made money. See Phoebe, see Lydia. That's not, it doesn't mean that you can't work outside the home. It means that your primary attention and affection is to manage the household. And again, in Crete, the norm was that women

would pursue self-actualization by bathing themselves in self-indulgence. But what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, is that our lives are primarily defined by self-sacrifice. And honestly, a lot of this is our culture today. Now, in Crete, the women we're doing, I mean, really, really debauchous kind of things. But so it is today.

Because we have a culture today that says, this is the pattern of my life. I'm going to hook up, shack up, break up, repeat. Hook up, shack up, break up, repeat. Hook up, shack up, break up, repeat. And then wonder why your life isn't where you wanted it to be. Because you're just on a road that leads somewhere that's not to the destination that you hope for. I mean, you hope and pray for a good godly marriage with children to raise. and yet if you're on a path of hookup, shack up, break up, repeat, it just doesn't go in that direction.

And the Bible is going to say flee sexual immorality and sexual immorality is any kind of sex outside the covenant of marriage. And girls, the reason that you should not have sex outside of the covenant of marriage is, listen, because you are too valuable to give yourself away to anybody. And when you give yourself away to somebody who hasn't committed their whole life to you as a husband, it devalue. use yourself. The Bible in 1st Corinthians 6 says this, you are not your own. You are bought with a price, therefore honor God with your body. That you are so valuable to the king of the universe that he places value on you by sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die for you. That's how valuable you are. And that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. His works are wonderful. You should know that full well, and you are one of those. And what it requires for a man to be able to touch you that way is he,

like Christ laid down his life for us, he has to give you his whole life in the covenant of marriage. He's got to give you his money, his job, his affection, his attention, and his fidelity. And once he gives you all of that, then and only then does he stand rightly in a place where you could give yourself to him. You are valuable and you've got to treat yourself as valuable. And if you continue in a hookup, shack up, breakup kind of culture, I'm just telling you, it's not going to go well. and this is what he says here,

that your first calling is at home, and there is no greater calling. Again, like I said, you can work outside the home, see Proverbs 31, Phoebe, Lydia, a bunch of that, but your primary efforts are at home. And this world is trying to sell you a bill of goods, and it's a lie. That if you're pursuing, if you're pursuing

the affirmation of this world, it will never, ever be enough. And what's interesting is that the sociologists are now finally catching up with God's created order. The most satisfied women in the country right now are Christian married women with kids. That's just it.

And that their careers will never fully and finally satisfied. Again, can you have a career? Of course if that's what God calls you to do. Of course, of course. But the primary heart condition is to love God, love your husband, love your children, and then go to work. It says this too.

It says twice. It says to love their husbands and children, and notice husband is first, kids are second. Young mamas, you got to hear that. Now, that doesn't mean neglect the little ones because, you know, the husband can get his own stuff out of the refrigerator. That's not what that means.

I know you've got to feed your kids and stuff. And then it says, and be submissive to their own husbands. That was a fun one in it. If you don't know what that means, the features five says wives submit to your own husbands, as in to the Lord. That was fun, right? And I know the word submit isn't very popular these days, right?

neither is stay married this is God's order now submit doesn't mean that he makes all the decisions and you have to do what he says that's not what it means at all in fact in Ephesians chapter 5 before it says submit to the husbands it says we should submit ourselves to one another as unto the Lord that a good marriage is like a good friendship where there's a lot of mutual submission and so submission is not that like he tells you what to do and you got to

that's not what it means at all when the Bible says wives submit to your own husband as unto the Lord This is my, you know, Dylan, South Carolina, very redneck. Let me put this on the bottom shelf. In the heart of every single man, he is looking for respect and affirmation. And most men are starving when it comes to respect and affirmation. And we get all kind of respect and affirmation from all kind of dumb people that don't really matter that much. Like your golf buddies would be like, that's a nice swing there, Ted.

And it just never satisfies. Like, thanks, okay? And yet, the way God has ordered this thing is that he has used you in the life of your husband to be the loudest voice echoing the voice of the Holy Spirit in his life. And I'm telling you, when a man has the affirmation and respect of his wife, it's unbelievable how loud that voice is in his life. I'm telling you, listen, I'm a relatively successful human being. Like, as far as ministry goes, it's going real good. After this, I'll stand out in the lobby and people will line up and I'll sign books and take pictures and hug and pray for people and do all the things.

And one compliment for my wife is infinitely bigger in my world than all of the wonderful emails that you send every single week. I mean, just on Thursday, right before I walked out, Gretchen just texting me. Praying for you as you preach tonight, I know you're going to crush it. I mean, I walked out here like Billy Graham. I'm like, well, you better watch out, son. It's crazy, isn't it? I mean, it could be silly. I've told you this before, but if Gretchen can't get the lid off the jelly jar, and she's like, eh, and she said, babe, will you?

And I go, I'm like, you dang right. That's it. And it's just simple, and she's just like, Hercules, Hercules. So whatever that means in his life, that's what that's talking about, okay? Now, your primary job is to be like Jesus. and he came not to be served but to serve but to serve by the way that's all of our jobs but specifically young women you're being lied to by this culture and so he says all right young women love their husbands and children be self-controlled pure be a home lover kind and submissive

to their own husbands that the reason you're doing it is not to just be an awesome version of you, but the reason that you're doing this is that the Word of God may not be reviled. You know what the result is? There are people watching you. And even, especially in the secularizing age that we live in, what's crazy is there will be some of your peers that will criticize the way you do marriage and family, and yet deep down in their hearts, they want what you have. Because you were walking in a way that God has ordered.

So, and the reason, ultimately wives, the reason. that you submit to your own husband. By the way, nowhere in the Bible doesn't say women submit to men. No, no, no, no, no, it's not how it works. You just submit to your own husband. Why? Because you trust God, that God has ordered that marriage.

Verse six, likewise, I'm gonna talk to the younger men here, ready? He says, urge, that means yell at. So boys, if you're like, why you yell at me all the time? So what the Bible tells me to do. And I always found myself, I found myself, like when I play football, I'd gravitate towards the coach, coaches that yelled at me the most because they care. The one that ignored me, I knew he didn't really care how I played. So the reason I yell at you is because I love you, dude. I

want what's best for you. Here's what it says. It says, likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Did you know back in the day some of the younger men weren't the best decision makers? They were ruled by their hormones and laziness and their flesh and impulse. Can you believe it. Now for you younger man, because you're dumb, I'm talking about you. You just if I feel it, I'm going to do it. Don't. He says, likewise, urge the younger men to be self-control. There's a little bit of debate in verse seven and following is if he only gave the younger men one instruction, because that's all they can keep up with, or if he's still talking to younger man, or maybe he's talking to Titus, but either way, Titus was a young man, so it all still applies. Verse seven, show yourself in all

respects to be a model of good work. And in your teaching, show integrity. Listen, younger men, don't live compartmentalized lives. You don't have a work life on an online life and a Friday night out at the club's life and a church life. You have one and only life. The word integrity comes from integer, which means one. You got one and only life. Act that way. He says, he also says, show integrity and dignity. That means grow up. Be dignified. And sound speech that kind of be condemn. Watch your mouth. So that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us. Is there evil things to say about young men right now? Of course, but can you imagine if every young man that followed after Jesus conducted himself as a follower of Jesus and all

of the world is like, man, young men these days, except this one group of young men who were different. The way they talk is different. They're growing up. They're taking responsibility. They're dignified. when everybody else is trying to get paid without doing anything, like being a YouTube influencer, these young men actually take responsibility. Young men, here's what it means. Act like men. And if you're not a man yet, act like one until you get there. In fact, you know how low the bar is these days? Young men, you got it made, dude. Seriously. I mean, I know the world is coming against you, but do you know what it would take for you, young men, to be an alpha male these days?

All you have to do is watch your mouth, get a job, pass English, be halfway decent to girls. If you're just half a step above Beavis and Butthead, everybody would be like, what a stud he is. So grow up and act like men. Why? Because you're going to practice like you play. And if you practice like a boy, you'll never be able to play the man. And listen, ain't no good football coach on the planet. if the player fumbles in practice is ever going to give him the ball when it's on the line.

Because he knows you're going to fumble in the game. And so if you fumble with every girl you've ever gone out with, then no wonder the Lord hasn't trusted you with one of his daughters yet. Because you haven't proven yourself trustworthy. So young men grow up and act like men. Verse nine, bond servants. We've talked about this in First Timothy. In our contest, this will be employees.

So employees, if you've got a boss tomorrow, if you go to work tomorrow, here's what we are to do, are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering. That means don't take something that doesn't belong to you, but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. So think about this. The Bible doesn't say this, but in my mind, this is how it works.

Can you imagine if Titus and the leaders of his church get together with Paul? And they're like, all right, Paul, how are we going to take over Crete for the name of Jesus? I mean, what's our strategic plan? Should we march? Should we make Crete great again? Like, what are we going to do? What's our plan? T-shirts, hats?

What are we going to do? Do we take over the power centers of Crete? And it'd be like from the top down. Is that how we're going to take over? And Paul's like, all right, you want to change this crazy island that you live on. You want to change your society? And they're like, yeah, that's what we want. And he'd be like, all right, here's what I need you to do.

Ready, write this down. Love your family. Be a person of integrity. Go to work. Old guys, don't be grumpy. Young women, I mean young men, grow up, act like men. Older women, don't be crabby. Teach the younger women.

Younger women, be who God has called you to be. Go to work, love your family, love Jesus. And you will change the world. It's kind of, in Jordan Peterson's book, The Twelve Rules for Life, one of the things he starts with, if you want to change the world, how about start with cleaning up your room? This is what Paul, that was not a,

a new idea from Jordan Peterson, though he's smart and talks like Herman the Frog. This is an idea comes from Titus chapter two. You want to change the world? Cool, man. Grow up. Show some responsibility, love your family, and act like it. And when you do that in everything, the world, the unbelieving world may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. That's what he's saying. When we live out the gospel, people are watching. So in verse 11, he's going to talk about the gospel. He's going to talk about what drives us to make these changes. Because hopefully at this point, no matter what category you fall in, hopefully some of us are like, man, I need to do a little bit different. But the doing is not what's going to earn God's favor in your life.

It's because of what Christ has done for us that should drive us to act differently. Because he says this, for the grace of God has appeared. And so if you're an old man, an old woman, a young woman, a young man, and you try to do these things, How many of you know we all are going to need grace? Amen? And he says grace has appeared bringing salvation for all people. And grace has a face. His name is Jesus. And he has come for all people. That doesn't mean every single human being on the planet. This means all kind of people, all types of people, all color people, all sizes of people, male, female, all people have been offered the grace of God. And it's not what we do on his behalf.

It's what he has done on our behalf that drives us to live the kind of life. lives that he's called us to. Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. You see, salvation is not only receiving Jesus. Salvation is also turning away from this world. That's called repentance. You know, in a couple months or so, we're going to do beach baptism again. It's going to be awesome. I bet we'll baptize over a thousand people. It'll be incredible. And I'm making a little change. on the interaction that happens when you get baptized. Up at this point at our church, we've just asked one question.

Who is Jesus to you? And the answer is, my Lord and Savior. And then we'll say, upon your public profession of Jesus Christ's Lord and Savior, I baptize you, my Christian brother or sister. And I'm the Father or Son, Holy Spirit. We dunk you, okay? But now we're going to add one thing for two reasons. One, because of verses like this.

And in the early church, there was a second question that they asked. They would say this. Do you renounce your flesh, this world, and any connection or allegiance to the devil or His? his darkness that you have ever had. That is what being saved means. It's not like I'm, it's not like a buffet. It's not like, oh man, I live my life the way I want to

and I do whatever I want. Ooh, and I'm going to spring some Jesus sauce at the end and I'm going to be good. No, no, no, no, no, no. When we claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, what we're saying is my flesh is not my Lord, this world is not my Lord. And any connection with this enemy

who is trying to kill, still and destroy me, I renounce you and I claim Jesus as my Lord and Savior. So get ready. That's what we're going to do. Then he says, waiting for our blessed hope. And what is our blessed hope? The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. You see, too many times in our culture, at home, at work, everywhere, we're focused on the wrong things. This world tells you to focus on yourself. It's a miserable existence, especially in this obsession with therapy these days. Therapy helps for sure as long as it's a good Christian counselor with a biblical worldview.

But if all you ever do is focus on you, you know what your problem is? You. Or sometimes we focus on our circumstances and we think when all of this shapes up, maybe then I'll be okay. But the Bible says don't focus on yourself and don't focus on your circumstances. Focus on your Savior. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author, and the perfect of your faith. Get your eyes up above the horizon a little bit because he has come to save us. Who gave himself for us to redeem us.

That means he paid for you from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, that you're not your own, you're bought at a price, who are zealous for good works. This means when you get run over by the grace train, it changes everything about everything about everything. Then he closes with this. declare these things. Exort and rebuke with all authority and let no one disregard you. Talk about these things. What things do we talk about?

We talk about the gospel. How many of you have heard this quote? It says, preach the gospel at all times. Use words only when necessary. You ever heard that? Sounds cute, doesn't it? So dumb. They attribute it to St. Francis of Assisi.

He never said that, ever. He would be mad if you said that he said that. Why? because you know when you need to talk about it, it's always necessary to talk about it. Nobody's gonna see you like, you know what, Bill, you take out the trash every week and so it's a studious way.

Could you tell me about what it means to be saved? No, you gotta use words. You gotta declare the redemption. You gotta declare that God purchased you. You gotta declare that God is making himself a people. And then, a big part of Titus too, and then you live in such a way that you don't betray what you say you believe,

the way you behave. So here's the whole point. You want to be a standout Christian? I mean, you want to change the world. You want to shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation. You want to be a standout Jesus follower. Just act like one. Just act like one. Make sure you're smoking what you're selling. So what does that mean? It means this, grow up, go to work, work hard. Love God and people with your one and only life. And love and grow your family. Why? That's what Jesus did. This is exactly what Jesus did. Two thousand years ago, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, gets up off of his throne in heaven where the elders are surrounded with some kind of weird angelic cherubim fire irides wing creature singing,

holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And he gets up off of his throne and he takes off his royal robe and he lays down his crown and he lays down his scepter. his diadem, and he swan dives down here to Bethlehem, and he wraps himself in flesh as a baby in a manger. And for 30 years, we basically don't even hear from him. One time when he was 12, and he got lost from home. So parents, that should make you feel better about yourself, okay? And you know what he did that whole time? There's one verse about Jesus from 12 to 30. He grew up. He acted like a man. The Bible says, and he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and That's Luke 252.

In other words, Jesus learned to love the Lord His God with all of his heart, his soul, his mind, and his strength. And then he went to work, and he worked hard, and he was tempted in every way that every single one of us are tempted, and every single time he chose the will of God over the desires of this world. And he fulfilled his assignment. He fulfilled every promise and prophecy of the Old Testament. And the reason that he came, the job that his father gave him was to come and to redeem me and you.

to pay for us that we could receive freely the gift of salvation. And on the night that he was betrayed, he goes into the Garden of Gassimony, and he's praying about this to the point where he is sweating drops of blood. And he says, Father, if there be any other way, let this cup of the wrath of God pass from me. In other words, Father, if there's any other way for people to be redeemed unto you, if they can be good enough, if any other religion is teaching the truth, if they can just act right or obey the law or line their shocker or visit Mecca, if there be any other way,

that it seems like an awful waste of my blood tomorrow on the cross. And he says, but not my will, but your will be done. And then he is arrested, he is tried, he is convicted, and they take him to a cross outside the city of Jerusalem, and they drive nails through his hands and his feet, just like the Bible said that was going to happen. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, many other places. And he pushes up on his nail pierce feet.

and he doesn't say hope this works. He says, it is finished. It is paid in full. And then they buried him in a borrowed tomb. You know why he used a borrowed tomb? Because he only needed it for the weekend. Because on Sunday, he rolled that stone away. We're going to celebrate that in two weeks.

And he came walking out of the grave. And do you know what Jesus is doing right now? He is growing his family. He's using churches like ours and Jesus loving Bible teaching churches all over the place to take the good news of the gospel to all people. And what we are supposed to do is to do what Jesus did. And listen, man, maybe some of those things aren't working out the way you hope they work out for you. Listen, where the ideal is unrealized, grace abounds.

Grace abounds. But you're a part of this family. So you want to change the world? Yeah, man. Grow up. Go to work, work hard. Love God and people with your one and only life. proclaim these things

grow your family and set your hope on him and he'll use ordinary average uneducated men and women like me and you to turn the whole world upside down now if you don't know

Jesus as your Savior and you go out old men and just try to be less grumpy or young men you try to you know quit just listening to Joe Rogan and Jocko all the time and actually do it Jesus says, or young women, you begin to walk in the calling God has given you. Or older women, you begin to say, you know what, I do need to raise up a new generation. If you just try to do that without knowing Jesus, it's just going to be an exercise in futility.

It'll be as effective as that gym membership that you haven't used since January 8th, okay? First and foremost, in order to live this kind of life, you've got to receive Jesus who lived the life for us that we can never pull off on. our own. And maybe today for the very first time you have heard that it's not what I do, it's what Christ has done for me. And I want to invite you to become a Jesus follower, a Christian, a disciple, a son or a daughter of God in this moment right now. And you may say, well, what must I do? It's not exactly the right question. The right question is what has been done for you? And what has been done is that Jesus paid for your sin at the cross. And if you believe that when he died on the cross, somehow that counted for you,

then the Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you call on the name of the Lord, if you reject this world in your flesh and all the darkness that that means, and you say, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior, will you save me? That's a prayer that he answers, ready, 100% of the time. For all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. and then he, by the power of the spirit of God living in you, will empower you to live out the life that he has called us to. So I want to give you that opportunity. If you bow your head and if you close your eyes, and if today, for the very first time, you are ready to admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

And I believe somehow when Christ's down on the cross, that counted for me. And in this moment, right now, for the very first time, I want to call on the name of a Lord for my salvation. Then I would ask you to signify that by lifting your hand as high as you can. and you just say, Jesus, will you save me? I call on you as my Lord and my Savior, and he will save you in this very moment. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything. And Jesus, I thank you that you came and you bled and you died and you rose from the grave. And because you walked out of the grave, we can walk in a spirit-filled newness of life.

God, I pray that this was wake some of us up who have been asleep to the things of you because we've been so immersed in this culture. And God, I pray that we would live godly lives pursuing you because you pursued us. And that the whole world might see. There's nothing special about us, except that you put your grace upon us. So God, I pray for the older men and the older women.

God, I pray that they would not pursue comfort as their primary motivation, God, they would pursue you. And God, I pray for the young. younger men and the younger women, that you would light a gospel fire in their lives, that they would fix their eyes on you, the author and the perfector of their faith, and they would run the race that you have marked out for us. Lord, if I have gotten in the way in any way, I pray that you would just wipe that from our memories. And Spirit of God, wherever you are bringing conviction, I pray that we would receive that as the gift that it is

and that we would repent and come running to you. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please stand as we respond? We're going to sing like we always do. We're going to bring our first and our best, and we're going to pray with this one caveat. If you're an older man or woman, I especially want you to come pray. And I want you to come pray for your grandchildren

and your children and your nieces and your nephews. And if you don't have any of those, pray for hours. And pray for all these little kids in this upcoming generation right over here. Because we've all been their age. We've never been their age. And I promise you, there'll be something will break loose in the heavenlies if we've got generations of older men and women that are getting on their knees, begging God to move in a significant way in that generation.

Everybody's welcome to come and pray, but I want to invite especially the parents, the grandparents, the aunts, the uncles, the teachers, the coaches to come and pray for that upcoming generation. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond. The reality is everything already belongs to God. and when we give financially, we're acknowledging that we trust him. If you just watch this and feel led to make a donation, text the word donate to 441122 or visit co.e22.com slash donate.

Your generosity is not only an act of worship, but an investment so all people can discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.