Doug McMasters: Let's take our Bible and go to the book of Titus.
Doug McMasters: The book of Titus.
Doug McMasters: If you're new here or you don't have a Bible, you can find one in the pew in front of you.
Doug McMasters: And you can find the book of Titus on page 1058.
Doug McMasters: 1058.
Doug McMasters: And if you don't have a Bible, I'd like to encourage you just to take the one that's in front of you home with you as a gift from us.
Doug McMasters: We would love for you to have the Word of God in your home and in your heart.
Doug McMasters: And please accept that as a gift from us if you don't have a Bible.
Doug McMasters: Just north of California, tucked in between the hills of a city I lived in, Santa Clarita, stood in the 1920s a dam called the St.
Doug McMasters: Francis Dam.
Doug McMasters: It was a massive concrete structure holding back billions of gallons of water in order to bring sun-soaked and parked Los Angeles needed water.
Doug McMasters: And on the paper, it was an engineering marvel.
Doug McMasters: But there was only one problem.
Doug McMasters: The foundation was wrong.
Doug McMasters: The dam was anchored into unstable rock that, when you looked at it, looked very solid, but there were a lot of things wrong with it.
Doug McMasters: They shifted under pressure.
Doug McMasters: And so, shortly after the dam was built, cracks began to appear.
Doug McMasters: Warnings were raised about its instability, and those that were in charge of that engineering did everything that they could to reinforce it, to patch it, to adjust what they needed to do to make it stable, but they never dealt with the underlying problem.
Doug McMasters: The foundation was flawed.
Doug McMasters: And on the night of March 12th, in 1928, that dam broke suddenly.
Doug McMasters: And as all of those gallons of water rushed like a wall 60 miles to the ocean, it left devastation in its wake.
Doug McMasters: Small communities were absolutely wiped off the map, and over 400 people died that night.
Doug McMasters: Not because there was a great storm or an earthquake, but because a dam was built on a bad foundation.
Doug McMasters: And I've cycled past some of the rubble of that St.
Doug McMasters: Francis Dam.
Doug McMasters: And as you go into that valley, it's peaceful, it's beautiful, it's serene, it's quiet, away from all the noise of Los Angeles.
Doug McMasters: But when you know the story of what happened in that valley, you feel somber.
Doug McMasters: You look at the rubble and you see what was once what appeared to be a very stable and solid dam.
Doug McMasters: Nothing but elements of tragedy and death and destruction.
Doug McMasters: And he's writing to Titus and sent him to the island of Crete in order to do something.
Doug McMasters: Something very important, vital, foundational.
Doug McMasters: He's leaving Titus in Crete to set things in order.
Doug McMasters: And this is our third week in this book.
Doug McMasters: And I want us to look at verse 5 as he gives direct statements to him.
Doug McMasters: He's asking Titus to set things in order to make sure a foundation is put right.
Doug McMasters: The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone, and as I directed you to appoint elders in every town.
Doug McMasters: One of the most critical parts of this foundation that Paul is telling Titus to lay is the appointment of church leadership called elders here.
Doug McMasters: And Paul knew what it was like for a church not to have the right men in place.
Doug McMasters: He sends Timothy over to Ephesus in order to take care of a situation there where the wrong men had been put into church leadership.
Doug McMasters: And all of the trouble that they experienced in Ephesus, Paul wants to save the people here through Titus from.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't want the churches in Crete to face all of the trouble that Ephesus had experienced.
Doug McMasters: He wants these young churches to start well and to grow well and to be strong and mature in a way that honors Christ.
Doug McMasters: And so he sets in place, as part of this foundation, Christ-shaped men.
Doug McMasters: Men that will help the church to have a firm foundation upon which to grow, a character that will strengthen them, and a presence that will help them to be godly, healthy, stable, and even beautiful.
Doug McMasters: Last week we looked at part of this, we looked at the cracks that can appear in a person's life that disqualify them from shepherding God's people.
Doug McMasters: And this week we're going to look at the more positive elements that are in this passage of scripture.
Doug McMasters: So as we look into Titus 1 again, I want us to reflect just for a moment on what we saw last week and then move into what we're going to look at more fully in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: So look at verse 7 with me and see the contrast that Paul draws here.
Doug McMasters: He says in verse 6, an elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, with faithful children, not accused of wildness of rebellion.
Doug McMasters: And then in verse 7, as an overseer of God's household, he must be blameless.
Doug McMasters: Not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not greedy for money.
Doug McMasters: So he lays out for these things that can be detrimental not only to the person's life, but to the rest of the people of God.
Doug McMasters: A man who lacks self-control, not just with drink, but in other appetites erodes his credibility and clouds his judgment.
Doug McMasters: We saw how a man who is domineering in his attitude toward others is going to be someone who wounds rather than protects the flock.
Doug McMasters: We saw how a love of money can distort ministry into something done for personal gain rather than something done out of love and sacrifice.
Doug McMasters: Paul lays down these patterns plainly because he understands the cost of what it would mean to take someone with these things in their life that are patterned by these behaviors and what kind of destructive force they would have among God's people.
Doug McMasters: And so he's telling Titus, be cautious, be aware of who you're looking at.
Doug McMasters: Because if you don't, people are going to be wounded and hurt.
Doug McMasters: The vulnerable are going to be taken advantage of.
Doug McMasters: And the witness of the gospel is going to be overshadowed by the trouble that is rising up within the church, and the name of Christ will be besmirched in the community.
Doug McMasters: So, in order to safeguard the church, he tells Titus what should not be in the life of a potential leader.
Doug McMasters: But in verse 8, he wants us to move beyond that sort of cleared path to show what ought to be patterns in a behavior.
Doug McMasters: And so he makes a deliberate turn in the passage in order to move toward those things.
Doug McMasters: Because he wants the church not just to know what not to look for, but what actually to move toward, to see the true portrait of a man whose life is built by Christ Himself.
Doug McMasters: And so he lays out this positive vision, the kind of life that reflects the heart of Christ.
Doug McMasters: He wants the church to see the beauty of what Christ can do in their own hearts as well as in their leaders, and to recognize the aroma of Christ as it grows among the whole church.
Doug McMasters: So let's look at verse 8 and see the character that Paul describes.
Doug McMasters: And I want us to see it as a composite picture, not just six elements standing on their own, not just a list of virtues that we can pick apart one at a time, though we want to examine them one at a time, but we want to see them as six shades of color that build a portrait of a man whose life has been shaped by Christ.
Doug McMasters: The first one is this hospitable in verse 8.
Doug McMasters: Hospitable.
Doug McMasters: Though that's probably included, but a lover of strangers.
Doug McMasters: It's an interesting term.
Doug McMasters: We see this all the way in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 18.
Doug McMasters: Abraham meets three men.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't know who they are, but he welcomes them in.
Doug McMasters: He sees that they are hungry.
Doug McMasters: And so he rushes about, and with generosity and with care and warmth and urgency, he goes about taking care of their need and welcomes them into his presence.
Doug McMasters: He is a lover of strangers.
Doug McMasters: In Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 2, the church is told to show hospitality to strangers.
Doug McMasters: Royal and I yesterday were looking at uh hotels in London to spend some time in, perhaps around Christmas, when we see our two sons and their families, and knowing that they live in small places and all getting together, it might be best for Royal and I to get a hotel room.
Doug McMasters: So we're just looking at prices and places that are close to where one of my sons lives, not thinking anything other than let's get a room.
Doug McMasters: But in the day of the New Testament, inns were not those kind of places.
Doug McMasters: They were places where trouble could happen.
Doug McMasters: And so Christians, as they moved from place to place within the Roman world, they would take care of one another and they would open up their homes and give them food and lodging and provide for their needs and perhaps even help them along their way to get further down the road if they had somewhere to go.
Doug McMasters: And so the church is told to have that sense of openness and welcome, to care for the needs of others, to see them as they are, not without discernment, but with love and attention.
Doug McMasters: And so Paul here is describing hospitality.
Doug McMasters: He's not talking about, you know, uh an elder and his wife having a house open and having dinner parties every week.
Doug McMasters: He's not even talking necessarily about having a room in the house that is laid out for a guest and keeping that as a sacred spot.
Doug McMasters: He's really describing the totality of a person's attitude in this word hospitality.
Doug McMasters: Someone who's open, welcoming, attentive to the needs of others.
Doug McMasters: A person might be quiet, they may not have many people into their home, but they'll spend time in the pew with someone that they see has a need.
Doug McMasters: Or they'll have a conversation aside with another one when they discover that there's a there's a way that that person needs their input.
Doug McMasters: Hospitable elder is a man who perhaps would notice a new couple coming in, and instead of just sort of circling around the old friends, would say, I'd like to go meet that person and find out why they're here and how I can make them feel welcome.
Doug McMasters: In short, a hospitable elder is approachable.
Doug McMasters: He is a place of welcome, he makes room in his life for others, particularly in their needs.
Doug McMasters: Now, this is not just something that the elders are meant to have.
Doug McMasters: These are meant to be a composite picture of all believers as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, which means all of us are meant to take on this idea.
Doug McMasters: And it might mean having a shared meal with someone in our fellowship lunch and sitting down and saying, let's learn to know one another better.
Doug McMasters: And it might mean opening up your home.
Doug McMasters: But at the core of it all is this sense of care and welcome and attention to people in their need.
Doug McMasters: Let's go dig a little deeper in this.
Doug McMasters: The second one, not just a lover of strangers, but secondly, as it tells us here in verse 8, tells us a lover of what is good.
Doug McMasters: A lover of what is good.
Doug McMasters: Now, this is a person who is not just living according to principle, but a person whose heart is drawn to what is good, whose instincts move to what is noble, to what is wholesome, to what is life-giving.
Doug McMasters: This is a man whose life is not marked by cynicism or the sensational or the controversial.
Doug McMasters: This is not a guy who's going to spend 20 hours a day digging into conspiracy theories on Twitter.
Doug McMasters: This is a man who's a lover of good.
Doug McMasters: He delights in those things that reflect the character of God.
Doug McMasters: His affections have been shaped by grace so much that he moves to the places that display God Himself.
Doug McMasters: So we see this lover of good is sourced in God Himself.
Doug McMasters: And in Acts chapter 11, we're giving a great example of that in the person of Barnabas.
Doug McMasters: Luke describes Barnabas in this way.
Doug McMasters: He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
Doug McMasters: That's a great description.
Doug McMasters: Wouldn't that be wonderful if someone could say that about you?
Doug McMasters: A good person, full of God's Spirit and of faith.
Doug McMasters: How did he show that?
Doug McMasters: Well, when Saul, who was at those early days a persecutor of the church, came into the conversion and owned Christ as Lord and Savior.
Doug McMasters: And he comes into the church, and the rest of the church is wary.
Doug McMasters: Who is this guy?
Doug McMasters: Why is he here?
Doug McMasters: What is he going to do?
Doug McMasters: Has he come to understand more about us so he can separate us and destroy us?
Doug McMasters: Barnabas sits down with him, finds out the reality of his faith, and takes him in and encourages him and encourages the body of Christ to receive this person who was once an enemy of the gospel, but is now a servant of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: He's a lover of what is good.
Doug McMasters: He delights in what God delights in.
Doug McMasters: And this is an elder.
Doug McMasters: An elder that isn't cynical or sensational or controversial.
Doug McMasters: An elder whose instincts have been shaped by the goodness of God, who gravitates toward things that build up rather than tear down.
Doug McMasters: Someone who notices the evidences of grace in a person's life and moves toward it with words of encouragement.
Doug McMasters: Who takes aside a believer in the congregation, not to chide them, not to correct them, but simply to say, I watched you the other day praying for someone who looked like they needed a friend.
Doug McMasters: I just want to say, way to go.
Doug McMasters: That was wonderful for you to do that.
Doug McMasters: A lover of good.
Doug McMasters: Again, this is not just for elders.
Doug McMasters: This is to be a practical expression of all of us as God's people, who speak well of others, who gravitate toward areas of God's goodness and grace, that don't start our conversations with our frustrations, but rather look for ways to support and to strengthen the good.
Doug McMasters: A church that's filled with that kind of love of good is not only going to declare the gospel, it's going to display the gospel.
Doug McMasters: Now let's move a little further on.
Doug McMasters: Sensible.
Doug McMasters: Sensible, it says in verse 8.
Doug McMasters: This word speaks of sound judgment, it speaks of discernment, it speaks of a disciplined mind.
Doug McMasters: It speaks of a steadiness of thought.
Doug McMasters: It describes a person who's not impulsive or reactionary.
Doug McMasters: It describes a person who has the ability to think clearly about an issue and to think carefully through difficulties, who responds with wisdom rather than reaction.
Doug McMasters: Someone whose inner life is ordered, whose emotions and desires are not in charge.
Doug McMasters: 1 Peter 4 7, believers are told to be self-controlled and sober-minded, so that they can pray and live faithfully in a world that's full of distractions and pressures and opposition.
Doug McMasters: And this is what Paul says is requisite in an elder's life.
Doug McMasters: Because a sensible elder is not going to be someone who's easily provoked.
Doug McMasters: He's not someone who's going to make decisions in haste.
Doug McMasters: He's not going to be someone who speaks without thought.
Doug McMasters: This is a person who listens before he speaks, who weighs matters, whose emotions don't dictate his actions, who has a steadiness about him that becomes a refuge and a safe place for others within the body of Christ.
Doug McMasters: And so an elder has to deal with a difficult situation or perhaps even a personal confrontation.
Doug McMasters: It's going to be a person who takes a deep breath, who says, Let me listen, who weighs the situation out before giving a response.
Doug McMasters: And his restraint and his clarity give space for people to be honest.
Doug McMasters: Again, this is not just for elderness.
Doug McMasters: This is something that God wants to build in all of us.
Doug McMasters: So you might be here saying, How can I be sensible as a believer?
Doug McMasters: Well, pause instead of responding and reacting if someone gives you a hurtful comment.
Doug McMasters: Perhaps it's someone who disciplines their time so they can spend more of that time doing something beneficial and helpful.
Doug McMasters: Or someone who resists the pull of distractions, whose emotions aren't whipping them around this way and that.
Doug McMasters: Let's go deeper into this.
Doug McMasters: The fourth one of these six, righteous.
Doug McMasters: We use righteous in a lot of different ways.
Doug McMasters: We could say, that's righteous, and say something commendatory.
Doug McMasters: Or we could say, Oh, you're righteous, and say something blameworthy about someone, as though they're too high and mighty.
Doug McMasters: But the word of God talks about righteous as someone whose lives are marked by justice and fairness and even uprightness.
Doug McMasters: This is a person who treats others rightly because they live under the righteous rule of God.
Doug McMasters: This is a life that lives out among others the kind of things that they've learned about God Himself.
Doug McMasters: Someone who's not guided by personal advantage, shifting emotions and the pressures of the moment, but wants to live a life of integrity in all the situations that they encounter.
Doug McMasters: Psalm 15, this is something I gave to my sons when they were young, is that a person walks blamelessly and does what is right and makes a promise even to their own hurt.
Doug McMasters: This is a person who trusts from the heart, and when they say something, they mean it, even if it's going to cost them.
Doug McMasters: Micah 6:8 says that God's people are to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God, showing us that righteousness is not just personal morality, but it is how we treat those around us.
Doug McMasters: In the book of Ruth, Boaz was a person who looked at Ruth and her situation, and he realized he was a near redeemer of hers.
Doug McMasters: And I can't tell you the whole story, but his interaction with her was marked by fairness, transparency.
Doug McMasters: Honor and care.
Doug McMasters: And he didn't cut corners, and he weighed out the matter and the circumstances, and at personal cost stepped into providing for her need.
Doug McMasters: This is what it means for a man to be righteous, to be trustworthy, to treat people fairly, to make decisions that are based upon God's word and God's wisdom, whose integrity builds a stability among the church.
Doug McMasters: An upright man is a man who, when he faces a personal situation that's difficult, doesn't just gravitate to the easy answer and doesn't just give favor to someone who might be a familiar friend.
Doug McMasters: It might have to say something strong to someone who's very, very close to him personally.
Doug McMasters: Even if it's uncomfortable.
Doug McMasters: Let's take a look at the next one.
Doug McMasters: Holy.
Doug McMasters: This word talks about devotion, talks about purity, talks about reverence.
Doug McMasters: It talks about not just a withdrawal from things that are sinful, but a dedication to those things that are sacred.
Doug McMasters: It describes a life that's oriented toward God, not just away from sin, shaped by God's presence and marked by God's priorities.
Doug McMasters: 1 Peter 1, all of us in 1 15 are told to be holy in all our conduct because God Himself is holy.
Doug McMasters: A holy person is not a sinless person or a perfect person, but it is a devoted person.
Doug McMasters: A person whose life has direction toward God.
Doug McMasters: And this is the portrait that Paul is painting of church leadership.
Doug McMasters: An elder is not a divided, double-minded man.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't have a private life and a public life that are not integrated.
Doug McMasters: He guards his mind, he guards his habits, he guards his affections, because he knows that holiness builds over the long term in all the little choices that are made in life.
Doug McMasters: His life, as you see it, has a weightiness and a gravity to it because it's impressive, because you see an integration of life in every aspect.
Doug McMasters: An elder is a man who, when he looks at himself, will deal quickly with any sense of bitterness or discontent that arises.
Doug McMasters: Who takes steps to guard his own soul because he needs to be in a position where he can help to guard others.
Doug McMasters: Who's not dramatic but consistent, who's credible, and his life has depth.
Doug McMasters: Again, this is not just for elders, this is meant to be for all of us.
Doug McMasters: We are to be people marked with this, that we are people who take sin seriously and don't deal with it casually.
Doug McMasters: That we might make choices of stepping away from entertainment that might be to our detriment and might dull our spiritual sensitivity and understanding.
Doug McMasters: I like what Brian says sometimes.
Doug McMasters: He says you have to know what your kryptonite is.
Doug McMasters: You have to know those things that might be the places that are weakest for you, and to set up guards.
Doug McMasters: And a church marked by holiness becomes a compelling community because holiness and devotion to God and movement toward God and his person builds a body of people that live a life that's not only good and holy, but pleasing and beautiful.
Doug McMasters: It's not marked by perfection, but it's marked by humility, sincerity, and growing obedience.
Doug McMasters: Let's take a look at the last one here.
Doug McMasters: Self-controlled.
Doug McMasters: This is a man who needs to be ordered, intentional, governed by the Spirit, rather than his impulses.
Doug McMasters: A man who is steady, whose life is shaped around what is good and wise and godly.
Doug McMasters: He's not controlled by his appetites, he's he moves forward by way of his convictions.
Doug McMasters: He's strengthened by grace.
Doug McMasters: He's committed to practices that keep him walking toward God.
Doug McMasters: We'll see in Titus chapter 2 that all of us are to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and we show in that the discipline that grace teaches us.
Doug McMasters: It's not self-effort, but it is self-control.
Doug McMasters: Paul talks about disciplining his body in 1 Corinthians 9 27, that he might remain faithful to the ministry that had been entrusted to him.
Doug McMasters: And Nehemiah in the Old Testament is a wonderful picture of this.
Doug McMasters: As he enters into that situation in which he examines the walls and the state of Jerusalem as they were moving away from the Babylonian captivity back into the land of promise.
Doug McMasters: He examined those things and he gave way to personal gain and he stayed focused on the work that God had given him.
Doug McMasters: He disciplined himself in order to persevere in the mission that was there.
Doug McMasters: And he didn't allow the consequences and the circumstances of the moment direct him.
Doug McMasters: He didn't let fear distract him.
Doug McMasters: He didn't allow opposition to pull him off course.
Doug McMasters: He was steady and he became a source of strength for the people that he led.
Doug McMasters: This is an elder.
Doug McMasters: This is an elder who is disciplined, who can become reliable in the middle of life's storms, whose habits are done with intentionality and responsibility, who's not ruled by impulse or driven by distraction, but whose life is structured in the right direction.
Doug McMasters: This is a man who, even in busy moments, will remember to pray because he knows his heart needs to be set right when he faces the difficulties of the day.
Doug McMasters: This is a person who builds rhythms into his life in order to live responsibly in this world and to stay anchored in the Word of God.
Doug McMasters: And so when unexpected things arise, this course of life that's disciplined gives him the margin to respond and to be able to be fruitful rather than filled with frustration.
Doug McMasters: Again, this is not just for elders, this is for all of us as God's people.
Doug McMasters: To be a community of people who persevere in prayer, who remain faithful in difficulty, and who grow steadily in Christ.
Doug McMasters: Now let's pull it all together.
Doug McMasters: We've seen the contrast, and now we see the elements as they build here in the character that God paints in these six uh colors of the portrait.
Doug McMasters: But now I want us to see the cohesiveness of all of this.
Doug McMasters: If we step back just for a little bit, just a little ways away from the details of these six elements, you're going to see two different directions.
Doug McMasters: You're going to see three of them pertaining to the inward life of the prospective leader, and three of them dealing with the relationships of the prospective leader.
Doug McMasters: The inward and the outward.
Doug McMasters: The inner life that is self-controlled and holy and disciplined, traits that teach us that shepherding begins in the heart, not just in the competencies.
Doug McMasters: It begins with a person who stands before a congregation but has already gone to the quiet places of his own soul and has done a work there in the daily choices that shape his character.
Doug McMasters: But we also see the relational aspect, a person who engages with people, a person who has a posture of benefit and help and encouragement to the people of God, hospitable, a lover of good, upright.
Doug McMasters: This is a person who welcomes others into his life and delights what is in good and encourages it in others.
Doug McMasters: And so it tells us this that leadership in the church is not merely about oversight, it's about relationship.
Doug McMasters: It's about creating an environment where people can grow, where people can heal, and where people can flourish before God their Savior.
Doug McMasters: And so as we hold this together and see this composite, we're seeing this cluster of internal and relational aspects.
Doug McMasters: The man's not so focused on his personal piety that he remains distant from people, and he's not so relational that he is undisciplined and simply moves to the situations.
Doug McMasters: This is a unified portrait that shows us what spiritual maturity is in practice, so that all of us might learn what it means to be open, to be good loving, to be wise, to be fair, to be devoted, to be steady.
Doug McMasters: And when these qualities are present, people will not feel intimidated so much as welcomed by us as God's people.
Doug McMasters: They will see goodness in action, which might alleviate some of their initial suspicions.
Doug McMasters: They'll experience steadiness in a world that's full of volatility.
Doug McMasters: They'll encounter fairness where the world is all about playing favors out.
Doug McMasters: They will sense devotion in a world that's full of hypocrisy and duplicity.
Doug McMasters: And they'll observe discipline when this world is just falling over to grasp at the next passion.
Doug McMasters: This is a composite for elders, and it's a composite for God's people.
Doug McMasters: But I want us to leave us with one thought, and this is key.
Doug McMasters: We need to see where all of these come from.
Doug McMasters: They come from Christ Himself.
Doug McMasters: Passage doesn't say it here directly.
Doug McMasters: Other passages in Titus unpack that, and when we get to those, we'll we'll look at those more fully.
Doug McMasters: But what Paul is pointing Titus to look out for in the prospective leaders that are going to be in this place of building the foundation of a young church.
Doug McMasters: Hospitality, a lover of good, sensible, upright, holy, and disciplined.
Doug McMasters: He wants them to recognize that these things flow out of the life of Christ in a person.
Doug McMasters: And they show the transforming power of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: Paul is telling Titus don't look for extraordinary men, but look for ordinary men who've been transformed by an extraordinary Savior.
Doug McMasters: Because Christ is the one who welcomes not just strangers, but sinners.
Doug McMasters: Christ is the one who loves what is good and embodies goodness in all of its fullness.
Doug McMasters: Christ is the one who lived out his life with perfect self-control and wasn't ruled by impulse or fear.
Doug McMasters: Christ is the one who was upright in every way and dealing with every person with justice and compassion.
Doug McMasters: Christ is the one who is holy, who is set apart in his devotion to do the will of the Father.
Doug McMasters: And Christ is the one who ordered his life around the will of God.
Doug McMasters: These qualities are not just arbitrary and they're not just utilizing benefits.
Doug McMasters: They're Christ-like.
Doug McMasters: He's the one who is calling these men, he is the one who is conforming these men to his likeness, and he's the one who constrains these men to be serviceable among the body of Christ.
Doug McMasters: Now, what do we learn from this?
Doug McMasters: Well, first of all, one thing we need to learn is that elders are not built overnight.
Doug McMasters: What we're talking about is something that takes time.
Doug McMasters: Time to walk with Christ, time to move away from sin and the repenting of it, learning wisdom, being shaped by grace, who allows the Word of God and the Spirit of God to move them to new places of who they are.
Doug McMasters: It takes time.
Doug McMasters: But we also learn from this that the same spirit that's conforming these men to Christ's likeness is the same spirit that's conforming us.
Doug McMasters: And thus, these are the marks of a church that is controlled by grace.
Doug McMasters: Remind us that the Christian life is not lived in our own strength, but it's derived through the strengthening of God Himself as He builds our life closer and closer to what it means to be like our Savior.
Doug McMasters: And one other thing that we learn from this is that the church's hope is not based ultimately on the perfection of their leaders.
Doug McMasters: Though having consistent men of integrity is important, our sufficiency doesn't lie on them, it lies on Christ Himself.
Doug McMasters: Because men fail.
Doug McMasters: Men grow weary, men need correction, men need encouragement, men need counsel.
Doug McMasters: And all of the elders will be exactly that.
Doug McMasters: Ordinary men who grow weary, who fail at times, who need correction, who need encouragement, who need counsel.
Doug McMasters: But there's one thing we can say the chief shepherd is always faithful, he is always loving, he is always upright, he is always a lover of strangers, he's always a lover of what is good.
Doug McMasters: And so when we look at Titus chapter 1, it's important that we understand the foundation that God is laying here.
Doug McMasters: Now, foundations are not fun to look at.
Doug McMasters: You go you go to a building site and you see the construction all around you, and you kind of want to peek through there and say, What's going on inside there?
Doug McMasters: And you go, that's just a hole in the ground.
Doug McMasters: With all of this rebar sticking up into the air, and it looks ugly.
Doug McMasters: But how important is it for that building to be safe and stable and secure, not only for the first day it's built, but for generations even after?
Doug McMasters: And so Paul here is laying a foundation to stabilize and secure the future, the long-term stability of the people of God on Crete.
Doug McMasters: And he gives us the instructions so that we and New Hyde Park in 2026 might continue to be a church that is built upon a solid foundation, who is strengthened by the beauty of the gospel, alive and on display in the men who lead.
Doug McMasters: That all of us might grow up together into Jesus Christ, who is our Lord and Savior.
Doug McMasters: And once we are, we'll be the kind of people God wants us to be in displaying Him in our generation, that we might shine as lights, as Paul said in Philippians 2, among a generation that's just too twisted.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray together.
Doug McMasters: Father, we thank you that we're not left to our own devices and our own thoughts about what leadership entails within the body of Christ.
Doug McMasters: But we're given a vision of grace.
Doug McMasters: And the encouraging news that you're building your people and that you're shaping your church, and that you're already among our body, forming those who lead.
Doug McMasters: And you're doing this so that we might stand firm, that we would be a people that aren't cracking, crumbling, divided, collapsing under pressure, but resting in you, because you've shaped us so that we might be strong.
Doug McMasters: And so, Father, I pray that you'd give us leaders who embody this portrait, that you would make us a congregation that widely reflects these same graces, and that we might give praise to Christ Himself, who is the foundation upon which we stand, the very strength by which we grow, and the very beauty that shines through us for the glory of your name.
Doug McMasters: And we ask this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.