Put Down the Remote, Pick Up Titus 2

We open with gratitude and confession, then settle into a plain, sturdy vision for prayer, marriage, and civic virtue rooted in Titus 2 and Psalm 99. Along the way we honor a Civil War sailor, consider John Adams and Lincoln on affliction and hope, and challenge the distractions that steal our devotion.

• simple prayer as a daily anchor
• marriage fidelity and actions proving love
• Titus 2 roles and lived integrity
• Psalm 99 holiness, justice, and grateful discipline
• Proverbs 26:17 on restraint and meddling
• grace that trains us to say no to sin
• Asa Betham’s courage and ordinary duty under fire
• John Adams, Lincoln, and virtue forged by hardship
• reordering loves away from sports, screens, and noise
• celebrating liberty with devotion to God

If you're looking for a family fun middle grade read, I would humbly recommend Countryside. You can get it Amazon, Barnes Noble, pretty much any bookstore can order it hardback, paperback, ebook. And if you enjoy it, if you'd leave a review somewhere and share it with somebody else, I'd be very grateful for that.

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome, Gratitude, and Opening Prayer
• 2:46 Simple Prayer and Daily Devotion
• 3:56 Marriage, Fidelity, and Accountability
• 5:20 Scripture Reading: Titus 2
• 7:46 Psalm 99 and God’s Holiness
• 8:45 Proverbs 26:17 and Wise Restraint
• 10:34 Grace, Discipline, and Not Adding Burdens
• 10:37 Medal of Honor: Asa Betham
• 11:58 John Adams, Lincoln, and National Affliction
• 15:23 Misplaced Zeal: Sports, Distraction, and Idolatry
• 18:16 Adams on July 2nd and True Celebration
• 20:03 Closing Blessing and Book Mention

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hey folks, this is Jesse Coates, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, and whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to tell others about the podcast, share it with people, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. Very, very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ, of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son Jesus Christ. Forgive us our sins, Father. Forgive us our greed, our selfishness, our pride, our arrogance, judgment of others, rash words, actions, adulterous thoughts, covetousness, lust. Cowardice and unbelief help us to overcome what we do believe. Forgive us our sins as a nation. Forgive us for our support of abortion, feminism, sexual deviancy of every kind, rejection of you and your son. Please bring us back to you, both as individuals, as a nation. Help us to find those who are lost and lead them to you as well. Help us to be men and women after your own heart, Father. Thank you for those who listen to the podcast. Please be with them and their families. Bless them, guide them, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind. Be with our leaders. Father, please, both in the pulpit and in the state, give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to lead and rule in fear of you. President, vice president, admirals, generals, senators, representatives, judges, governors, pastors, priests. Bless our marriages across the nation, Father. Help us to fulfill the roles and responsibilities that you have given for us as husbands or wives. And guide my words here, Father, please. In your Son's name we pray. Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him? Prayer doesn't have to be fancy folks. And if you don't have anything else, excuse me, I ought to do this on the podcast more. Right? You just pray the Lord's prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom of the power and the glory forever and ever.

unknown: 3:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 3:35

One of the little prayers that my father offers often throughout his life, right, is just the saying, the Bible verse, here over Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Amen. Sometimes that's all you've got, folks, and that's just fine. And God and the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest. And if you're married, do you act like it? Do you actually implement these verses that we read each day? Do you claim that you want this great marriage, but you're doing nothing about it? Or are you actually acting the way that God tells you to as a husband or a wife? Right? Because that's all that really matters, folks. Actions tell you everything. You follow the scripture, you follow these scriptures in your marriage, it shows that you love your spouse. You don't, it shows that you don't love your spouse. It's that simple. Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral. It doesn't mean you can't have eternal forgiveness for those sins, folks, if we actually turn away from them just like the woman caught in adultery. Right. But we do need to turn away from them. Turn back to God. Seek His forgiveness, His grace, His mercy. Yeah. I think we'll leave it there for today. Alright, so the Bible verse, scripture reading for today. We're going to start with Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 15. As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes and to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely, and you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. Teach the truth so that your teaching can't be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us. Slaves must always obey their masters and do their best to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive in every way. For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people, and we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people totally committed to doing good deeds. You must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them. You have the authority to correct them when necessary. So don't let anyone disregard what you say. He sits on his throne between the cherubim. Let the whole earth quake. The Lord sits in his majesty in Jerusalem exalted above all the nations. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Your holy, your name is holy. Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established fairness, you have acted with justice and righteousness throughout Israel. Exalt the Lord our God, bow low before his feet for he is holy. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel also called on his name. They cried to the Lord for help, and he answered them. He spoke to Israel from the pillar of cloud, and they followed the laws and decrees he gave them. O Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but you punished them when they went wrong. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem, for the Lord our God is holy. Proverbs 26, 17. Interfering in someone else's argument is as foolish as janking a dog's ears. How many of us do that, stick our noses in where it doesn't belong? And then you go back up here to Psalm 99, verse 8, you were forgiving God to them, but you punished them when they went wrong. Folks, there's a proverb in there too, maybe a couple that talk about the fact that we ought to be grateful for God's discipline, because just like a father that really truly loves his son, he disciplines him. God truly loves us, he disciplines us. And we ought to be grateful for that. Titus 2, we read some of those verses pretty often on the roles and responsibilities of men and women. Grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. We are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will be revealed. Right? That's the hope that we have. That's what we ought to look forward to each day. The only other thing that I thought while reading these scriptures this morning, folks, is don't add burdens to your own life or to the lives of others that aren't in Scripture. Don't make things up, don't add things. Don't take things away either, folks, but don't add burdens to yourself or to others that aren't here in Scripture. Medal of Honor for today is Asa Betham. Coxwain, U.S. Civil War, USS Fontusic, U.S. Navy, December 24, 1864 through January 22nd, 1865, Fort Fisher and Wilmington, North Carolina. Served on board the USS Fontusic during the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, 24 December, 1864 to 22 January 1865. Carrying out his duties faithfully during this period, Betham was recommended for gallantry and skill and for his cool courage while under the fire of the enemy throughout these various actions. Accredited to New York, New York, not awarded posthumously. Born 1838, New York, location of metal, American Nemismatic Society. I know I'm saying that wrong, sorry. New York. New York. Asa Betham. These citations that are older, they're not as long, and you know that there must be a lot more to the story than what we're getting. History quotes for today. July 3, 1776, the day after Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail. It is the will of heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect at least. It will inspire us with many virtues which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinements in states as well as individuals. This kind of echoes Lincoln's comment about the Civil War and the fact that as much as people wanted it to be over, and as much as people didn't think it was going to last as long as it had already, and be as horrible, that that just it was God's will, and it might be God's will that it continued until every drop of blood and every penny that had been taken from slaves was repaid, right? I think both of those, this quote from Adams here on July of 1776, and that quote from Lincoln, they're very relevant to today, folks. There's gonna have to be a time at which we acknowledge that peaceful coexistence with individuals who follow leftism, socialism, communism, Nazism, fascism, and Islam is just not possible. And we don't know what that's gonna look like. It might tear the country asunder. It might mean that calamity is still more wasting and distress is yet more dreadful, as Adam says, are yet to come. It's hard to see that that's not gonna be the case, minus a miracle by God Almighty, which would be wonderful. But the point is to trust God, to trust His will, right? To look at it from an internal point of view. And also this is a great part here by Adams that will inspire us with many virtues which we have not and correct many errors, follies, and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinements in states as well as individuals, right? One of the reasons that the Israeli military is so good is because they don't have a choice. Their back's literally against the ocean and they're surrounded by enemies. They have to be good. There's nowhere else to fall back to. And in these moments with these storm clouds that are gathering on the horizon for us in America, that affliction. And I think you see it already. You look at the response to the Charlie Kirk assassination. People are realizing that there's there's a lot of pain that's coming. And it makes you really focus on what's important. I I didn't really mean to get off into this, but but it fits here. I had the thought recently. I've thrown myself in the history of the podcast under the bus for watching sports. That's one of one of my foibles over the years. Uh I don't do it as much anymore, thank you, Lord. But there was a time, folks, where I could sit and watch 12 hours of college football on a Saturday, and that would not bother me at all. I that was a great way. Uh and I was married and had kids, and you know what? That was just sounded like a good plan to me. So it must be for everybody else, right? And I would get so wrapped up. It and it didn't even have to be a team that I really cared about, folks. That was the sad part. It could have been just some random team, but I would get so wrapped up. I would pick somebody I wanted to win. And man, all of a sudden, my whole life depended on whether that team was going to win or lose. And I think that's one of the reasons I've actually stepped back, is because it it just made me so anxious, so uptight. And it was a sporting event. It didn't matter in the grand scheme of things at all. We get so wrapped up, we we've had so many blessings and so much from God. He's given us so much that it's almost like we're looking for things to be concerned about. We have food, we have clothing, we have health, you know, we've got a phenomenal healthcare system, despite what people say relative to the rest of the world. And we get so wrapped up in who's being engaged to who and what the latest sports team is doing. And folks, I'm telling you right now, if you get more excited and more emotionally tied up in a sporting event, if you're more concerned, if you know more statistics about that team, or if you've talked more emotionally and longer about the team, you know, your team lost from whenever the other night, then you've put that same amount of energy and effort into God or your marriage, you're wrong. And you're just asking for heartache and trouble. And it's just that simple. If you're getting, and and if it's not sports that that your weakness is, if it's social media or shopping or Netflix or Hulu or Prime or whatever, if you're more excited about your TV show or your sports team, more emotionally engaged than you are God or your spouse, you're wrong. And you're just opening the door to evil. Got one more quote from Adams. Uh same day, writing again to his wife Abigail, july third, seventeen seventy-six. The second day of July, 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forever forward. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this declaration and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means, that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we may regret it, which I trust in God we shall not. You go back to his comment over and over again, his son's comment, duty is ours, results are God's. We should celebrate America, folks. We should celebrate the Declaration of Independence. It ought to be a great holiday. And it ought to remind us of God and his Son Jesus Christ and his birth and death and resurrection. Because that's the way we were founded. If you're looking for a family fun middle grade read, I would humbly recommend Countryside. You can get it Amazon, Barnes Noble, pretty much any bookstore can order it hardback, paperback, ebook. And if you enjoy it, if you'd leave a review somewhere and share it with somebody else, I'd be very grateful for that. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.