WEBVTT 00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:05.120 I'm going to invite you to take your Bible and go to the book of Titus with me, the book of Titus. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:14.880 And we're going to be in chapter two. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:16.320 Chapter 2. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:22.000 Some of you might remember a film that was made in or released in 1997. 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:26.800 Yeah, I know, almost 30 years ago, with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.679 It was titled As Good As It Gets. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:31.760 Any of you remember that? 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.719 If you're under 40, you probably heard about it. 00:00:34.799 --> 00:00:36.560 You probably never watched it. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:41.759 But in this movie, As Good As It Gets, Nicholson plays a character by the name of Melvin. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:50.079 And Melvin is about, in every way possible, one of the most impossible persons to ever be around. 00:00:50.320 --> 00:01:06.079 In every way, he's rude, he's obnoxious, he's offensive, and he he really turns off just about every single person he meets, whether in a brief encounter or in some longer interaction. 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:10.560 He is in that way very, very hard to like. 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:14.480 It'd be like hugging a porcupine, this guy. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:29.200 But there's this special moment in this movie where he's sitting down with Carol, who's played by Helen Hunt, and they're in a restaurant, and he is just it's just trying to come out of him as hard as it can be. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:34.480 He's trying to give a compliment where he would normally say something very obnoxious. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:39.760 And you could tell he's really, really, really trying to get this out. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:47.040 And he makes an awkward attempt at it, uh, which um Carol doesn't quite understand. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:55.680 And he stops and he catches himself and he says, What I'm trying to say is, you make me want to be a better man. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:01.920 And it is one of the most special moments in the whole film. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:11.120 And Carol, played by Helen Hunt, says, That has got to be the best compliment I have ever received. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:31.120 And it really is a profound moment, not because of just how tender it is and how special that would be to say and to hear uh in a relationship, but it really does show the distance between who Melvin is and what he wants to be. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:37.039 And he's grateful that someone's in his life that's pushing him toward that. 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:44.159 And I think every guy who's in this room understands that sentence, right? 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:46.960 And I've said it several times to Royal. 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:49.439 You make me want to be a better man. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:54.240 And sometimes we play with it jokingly, and sometimes it's dead serious. 00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:06.000 But we know what it means to want to be a better man, to be a better husband, to be a better father, to be a better believer, to be different than what we are right at the moment. 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:10.639 And this is exactly where this text is going to meet us this morning. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:15.199 But the Apostle Paul is not simply giving us tips for self-improvement here. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:17.680 He's going to show us something far, far better. 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:24.240 He's going to tell us the things that actually shape people into being different than what they are right now. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:29.759 And what he will say is that it's grace that teaches us and grace that shapes us. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:41.360 Now, this book Titus, Paul is writing to Titus, who is a church leader who has been given the task on the island of Crete to strengthen churches there. 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:43.680 And it's no easy assignment. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:46.400 This is rather hard soil that he's in. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:54.719 And Paul there describes the Cretans as people who are liars, who are evil beasts, who are lazy gluttons. 00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:05.199 It's a really difficult culture in which Titus is given this charge to form a community of believers whose lives reflect the gospel. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:12.159 In the middle of a culture that's completely contrary to what gospel shape looks like. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:25.680 And Paul is telling Timothy that the way this is done is not through self-improvement, not through behavior modification, but through how the gospel shapes human lives. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:29.839 And so the church's conduct will reflect that. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:32.639 It will be grace that's made visible. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:36.480 It's the gospel with skin on it. 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:44.720 And so Paul opens up Titus chapter 2, and as he starts to unpack this, he begins with a command in verse 1. 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:46.000 Take a look at it. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:53.920 He said, As for you, but you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:05:04.480 And that aversive there is significant because it draws a line from what Paul just talked about at the end of chapter one and what he's about to enter into in chapter two. 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:19.920 And he's just finished talking about false teachers, about how rebellious they are, about how empty they are, about how deceptive they are, and how contrary they are and hypocritical that they claim to know God but actually deny him. 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:26.720 And he says to Titus, but you, Titus, be different. 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:34.079 Don't be an empty talktor, don't be a deceiver, don't be rebellious, and don't be hypocritical. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:40.959 But you be different, teach different, build a different kind of people. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:45.360 Because these false teachers are wrecking homes and lives. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:53.519 And what you are to teach is meant to bring health and life and development and strength into other people. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:01.439 And so what follows in chapter two is one of the most beautifully structured passages in all of the New Testament. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:07.360 And Paul traces the shape of sound doctrine across four groups. 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:16.800 He talks about older men, and then he talks about older women, and then he talks about younger women, and then he talks about younger men. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:34.160 And he shows us what the gospel looks like in each of those areas, how the gospel shapes each stage of life that we're in, each circumstances that we might face, each set of pressures that come at us. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:41.680 And it's a comprehensive vision of what the gospel-shaped life looks like and what a gospel community looks like. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:45.360 So this morning we're going to talk to the men. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.199 Next week, ladies, it's going to be your turn. 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:53.519 And it's Mother's Day, so I don't know how that happened, honestly. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:58.639 So today we're going to talk to the older men and the younger women. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:04.560 And next week we're going to draw our attention toward the older women and the younger women. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.120 And I know there's no older women in here. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:11.839 I understand that, but but we'll we'll talk to them next week anyway. 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:19.759 And the question, men, I want you to ask yourself today is what kind of man does grace produce? 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.720 What kind of man does grace produce? 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:32.160 And before we walk through this text, I want you to hold intention something at the very end of this chapter. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:34.480 Look at verse 11 and 12. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:48.079 The grace of God appeared, bringing salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lust, and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in this present age. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:50.879 Now notice that word instructing there. 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:53.920 It's telling us that grace is not passive. 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:58.800 Grace doesn't merely forgive us and leave us where it found us. 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:06.160 Grace trains us, grace shapes us, grace forms us, it makes us different. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:25.839 And so what Paul is about to describe to Titus and what we're about to look at for older men and younger men are not just moral targets to hit by our own effort, but they are the shape that grace makes us into as older men and younger men. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:33.759 Ladies, I don't want this to be simply a pitchfork uh sermon for you. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:42.480 Like, this is for the guys and for that guy and for the one next to me. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:43.919 Right? 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:45.919 I don't want it to be that. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:54.799 You can be an active listener in this week just as much as the men will be called upon to be active listeners next week. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:00.559 First of all, as we go through this, pray for the men while we're unpacking this. 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:07.279 Pray that these would be the characteristics that are built into the lives of the men of our church. 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:10.639 Here's some other things. 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:18.000 Where those character qualities are highlighted, grab them because they don't have a gender connected to them. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:22.240 These are for all of us in some fashion. 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:30.960 Also, be an agent of change in the men of your life. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:40.159 First of all, to be in a place of accountability for them, but also in a place of acceptable growth. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:53.200 If grace is going to be the active agent to change their lives, be a part of that active work of grace so that they might be different too. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.440 And here's an important thing to hear, ladies. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:02.480 Satan accuses, grace changes. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:03.360 Okay? 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:05.279 You want me to repeat that? 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:06.320 Right? 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.080 Satan accuses, grace changes. 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:18.559 You may see your guy where he isn't, or where he not at where he should be. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:21.759 He probably already knows that. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:31.919 Helping him be aware of that may be needed, but helping him get there won't be simply by accusing him that he's not there. 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:44.639 You can model, you can assist, you can encourage, and yes, you can even rebuke, but with grace, because grace makes us better. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:48.480 It doesn't just tell us we aren't there. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:53.039 Okay, so be an agent of grace in that man's life. 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:55.200 All right, guys, here we go. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:02.240 Let's look first of all at the shape of sound doctrine, the shape of sound doctrine in verse one. 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:04.960 Let's look at what Paul tells Titus here. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:13.120 He said, But as for you, teach what is in accord or what accords with sound teaching. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:28.320 Now, like I said, Paul is drawing the line here between false teachers on one side who profess to know God but deny him, who are teaching things that are untethered from the truth, that are full of emptiness, no substance, no shape, destructive. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:44.320 And on the other side is meant to be Titus, and by extension, every other faithful pastor and every other faithful church, who are teaching those things that are in accord, what's fitting with and suitable to, and what lines up with sound doctrine. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:48.799 Now, take a look at that phrase sound there. 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:57.759 Because the English can sound, and the CSB has done it well by giving us a little different of a word. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:04.320 It tells us there that we are meant to be dealing with sound teaching. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.759 Other versions call it sound doctrine. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:11.679 But I know what sound doctrine sounds like to some of us. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:18.240 It sounds like a theological textbook that's heavy enough to hold your door still on a windy day. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:26.000 And you might have cracked a page or two of it, but the rest of it's just too complex and too deep and too too much for you to handle. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.960 And you can kind of go, sound doctrine. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:39.519 Or it can feel like something so sober that it feels dried out and untouchable. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:44.559 But I want you to hear how Paul actually describes it here. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:55.919 Because the word that Paul is using in the Greek, and I don't typically use Greek words out loud, one because Konstantinos is here, and I know he'll tell me I'm not saying it right. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:57.840 So that's one reason. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.559 But whoje, I'm gonna mess it up. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:02.559 Hoogi I know, whoji I know. 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:10.240 Now listen carefully to whoji know, because it sounds like, because this is where we get our word from, hygiene. 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:12.159 Hygiene. 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:28.879 When Paul is talking about sound teaching, he is talking about healthy teaching, wholesome teaching, life-giving teaching. 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:44.639 Yes, it's precise truth, carefully given, that speaks accurate things about God, but it's a lot more than that. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:14:06.320 It is healthy in that it produces health, it gives life, it comes into the life of a person or into their family or into a church, and it makes them well, it makes them healthy and wholesome and whole. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:10.240 Paul uses it in 1 Timothy 6 3. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:26.159 He said he warns there against things that do not agree with sound words, healthy words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching that accords with godliness. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:28.399 So, what is healthy teaching? 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:32.480 Our Savior is a health-giving savior. 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:34.559 That's why we call him Savior. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:40.000 He's a deliverer from all things destructive, including ourselves and our sin. 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:42.720 First Timothy one ten. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:55.120 Paul contrasts sound teaching with things like lawlessness, disobedience, the ungodly, and the profane. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:04.960 So sound teaching, now catch this, is not merely correct information about God. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:13.360 Sound teaching is health-producing truth that transforms the way people live. 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:27.759 It is obviously correct information about God, but it's correct information about God that produces in its truth a transformation in the way that people live. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:38.720 So, what does that healthy teaching look like when it does take root in people's lives? 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:43.600 And that's where we start to move into this passage a little deeper. 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:48.720 Our second point is the steadfastness of Christ-shaped older men. 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:52.080 Take a look at verse two with me here. 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:56.960 But you're to proclaim the things consistent with sound teaching. 00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:08.399 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, sound in faith, love, and endurance. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:10.080 So there it is. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:13.440 That's what sound teaching produces. 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:15.200 Six qualities. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.159 Three of them largely external. 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:20.559 The lines are a little fuzzy here. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:25.279 Three of them are more internal, if I can put it that way. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:36.639 Three of them display themselves, these qualities, more in the outward sense, and three of them more inwardly are the controls inside. 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:49.759 And together they they they form a portrait, not of a personality, not of a temperament, but of the shape of grace that carves men into this image. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:51.919 So let's walk through it. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:56.320 And as we do, we'll unpack it little by little and then more as we go forward. 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:02.080 First of all, self-controlled or sober-minded. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:10.160 The first and the third ones are difficult to talk about because our English translations often use interchangeable words there. 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:16.400 And that even the CSB in a different place uses the same word in two different ways. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:26.640 But let's think about this for a second and let's dig into it. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:34.240 What this word in the Greek is talking about, quite literally, in its older usage, was someone who was not drunk, right? 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:37.200 Someone who was actually sober. 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:41.119 And we still use that word in that kind of fashion. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:47.359 And a person who's not dulled in their senses by way of alcohol. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:50.319 That's sober physically. 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:54.400 But Paul is using it in a more expansive way. 00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:09.839 He's talking about not that narrow meaning, but that internal sort of controls that leads to outward action of mental and spiritual clarity that comes. 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:25.279 A sober-minded man is a man who sees life clearly, whose senses about the world he's in are not dulled by sin and error. 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:31.039 He's not carried along by the latest crisis. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:36.400 He's not swept up in the emotional currents of the culture. 00:18:37.039 --> 00:18:41.279 He's not panicking when bad news comes. 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:46.240 He doesn't lose his head when things aren't good. 00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:50.000 There's a clarity about that person. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:19:04.640 There's the capacity to be able to come into any situation and to assess it, to weigh it out, and to respond to it rather than being at the whim of reactions. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:08.720 That's what it's talking about. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:10.720 Sober-mindedness. 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:17.839 The second one is worthy of respect or dignified. 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:19.359 Dignified. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:25.519 It's a propriety, a lifestyle that's befitting to the moment. 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:32.160 It's a behavior of living the way one ought to live in that situation. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:39.839 Now, to be dignified does not mean to be stuffy. 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:42.480 Doesn't mean to be formal. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:46.720 It doesn't mean that you never laugh or you don't relax. 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:53.599 It doesn't mean that you carry with this this permanent expression of disapproval. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:02.799 I I went to a church service at actually a pastor's conference in England. 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:14.480 And I was sitting there eager to hear the preached word, and there was a number of guys up on the platform, and every one of them, and there were several of them all lined up, and they were about to pray. 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:16.559 And they prayed like this. 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:25.039 And I thought, if I'm going to be spiritual with these guys, I need to poke my eyes out too. 00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:31.440 And I thought, okay, that's a little different. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.880 Being dignified is not necessarily being dour, right? 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:41.279 That's rigidity, that's not dignity. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:54.960 What Paul is talking about here is a holy gravitas, a weightiness of your character, a seriousness of your purpose. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:20:59.759 One of my favorite Hebrew words is kabod. 00:21:00.319 --> 00:21:01.599 It means glory. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:04.640 And it can be used otherwise too. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:06.240 It means weighty. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:07.759 Heavy. 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:17.440 Right? 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:19.359 Worthy of respect. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:28.079 Paul uses the same word in Philippians 4 8 when he says, whatsoever things are honorable, think on these things. 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:36.720 So a dignified person is a person whose life invites others to think about honorable things. 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:42.640 Who walks into a room and can shift the tone of that room. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:48.640 Not because he's an imposing character, but because there's a weight. 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:53.599 A weight to his person, his character. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.079 The third quality is sensible. 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:57.359 Sensible. 00:21:58.079 --> 00:21:59.599 And this is a foundational. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:08.319 Word here for the entire book of Titus because it shows up with older women and younger women and younger men also. 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:11.759 This one is cuts across all of them. 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:14.319 It's a thread that runs through the whole chapter. 00:22:17.279 --> 00:22:25.359 And here we find a sensible person, a person who has the right thoughts for the right moment. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:30.240 A person who's thinking guides their actions. 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:34.880 A person who acts in a way that's proper to the moment. 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:37.119 That's being sensible. 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:49.200 And so a person who's sensible is learned by grace and been taught by grace to govern their desires and to govern their reactions and their impulses. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:23:02.480 And who isn't always saying what first comes to mind and isn't always acting on what feelings first rise, and isn't always chasing what first opportunity presents itself. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:05.519 There's a sensibleness to it. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:10.559 Not emotionless, not detached, but controlled. 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:21.279 These largely outer acting qualities, and like I said, the categories are blurred here, move toward three more inward-focused ones. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:24.400 And take a look at them as we go forward here. 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:28.240 Sound in faith, love and endurance. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:31.839 And there's that word healthy again, sound. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:36.640 And notice, first of all, healthy in faith. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:43.279 An older man is to be healthy in his trust of God. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:49.599 Now, obviously, this is not talking about an untested faith. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:24:00.160 For anybody who's been in athletics at all, you know that the degree of your strength and your abilities have been honed by a lot of testing, right? 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:06.319 A healthy faith is not the faith of a person who's never gone through anything. 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:20.000 A healthy faith is an older man who's gone through the furnace, who's lived through life's difficulties, whose trust in God has matured and strengthened in the middle of them. 00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:41.200 This is a man who's sat at the doctor's office and gotten the hard news, or stood at a graveside and wept with loved ones, or has walked through seasons where God feels distance and his prayers seem unanswered, and God's promises seem more conceptual than real. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:45.680 But he keeps on trusting. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:03.119 But because grace has taught him that circumstances aren't the end of the story. 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:09.759 God's in control, even when things look very, very foggy. 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:37.920 Sound in faith, sound in love. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:41.680 This is not just sentimental love. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:47.680 This is not kind of the affection that shows up at a celebration and disappears when trouble happens. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:51.599 This is a steady, sacrificial, present love. 00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:57.920 It's the kind of love that notices someone who's having a difficult day and moves toward it. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:25:59.920 Moves toward that person. 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:09.359 The kind of person who loves enough to remember not just to be at the funeral, but to give a call three weeks after and say, I know it's a lonely moment right now. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:11.519 And I want you to know and pray. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:18.880 It's a love that's shaped by the gospel, that's shaped by the love of God, who's loved us when we were unlovable. 00:26:19.680 --> 00:26:22.559 And then sound in endurance. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:31.680 Someone who remains in the station no matter how much pressure there is. 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.079 That's what endurance is. 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:41.599 It's active, it's patient, it's persevering, and it's found in the midst of difficulty. 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:48.799 It is someone who stays steady in the midst of the long game of obedience. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:56.240 And when we think about these six things, this is what grace is shaping in us. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:27:10.240 And the reason why it's grace that's shaping it in us is because, as we'll notice later in Titus 2 at the very end of it, the grace of God has appeared, and it's Jesus who's appeared. 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:29.680 And so we find Jesus as the truly sober-minded one, who in the middle of the Garden of Gethsemane, when every impulse would be to run away from what's about to happen, he cries out, Not my will but yours be done. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:47.279 When he's standing before Pilate, and he's belittled and mocked and beaten, and he's able to stay steady in a room where people are accusing him, and rattles Pilate, but he stays steady. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:28:00.400 When he's surrounded by soldiers who are gambling for his clothes at the foot of the cross, and mockers are staring at him and daring him to come down. 00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:07.599 And he's he could have done what he said to Peter I could call legions of angels to free me here. 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:12.079 But he doesn't. 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:21.759 He stays there because of enduring the shame for the joy that's set before him. 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:39.839 Sound in love, greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:42.319 And there he is, laying his life down. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:50.640 Sound in endurance, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. 00:28:50.880 --> 00:29:02.400 So every quality Paul is telling Titus that the older men should find grace shaping in their lives and should move themselves toward is found ultimately in Christ. 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:06.559 He is the producer and the prototype of this maturity. 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:10.880 He is the image into which we are being conformed. 00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:14.160 But let me make a point here. 00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:20.319 Simply by being old, right? 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:28.160 Bob just read a verse about uh the gray hair is a sign of wisdom. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:31.839 Uh, if it be found in the way of righteousness, right? 00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:35.039 Uh gray hair is not wisdom. 00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:40.000 Gray hair in the way of righteousness is a sign of wisdom. 00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:48.240 So if you're walking in the way of righteousness, it doesn't matter what hair color you've got or what other what hair color you dyed your hair. 00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:54.880 Age alone is not going to produce sober-mindedness. 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:59.279 Some men get more impulsive with age, not less. 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:02.240 Age alone is not going to produce dignity. 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:10.160 Some men get more petty the older they get, more demanding, more entitled. 00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:15.359 Age alone is not going to produce self-control or faith or love or endurance. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.400 What produces these things is grace. 00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:20.240 Grace. 00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:29.680 And so I want you to think of a man, and I'm going to embody a man in 40 years of pastoral observation. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:33.359 A man sitting in a hospital waiting room. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:40.079 His wife is in surgery, and the outcome is really uncertain. 00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:45.599 His kids are there, and they're pacing the floor. 00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:50.000 His grandchildren are playing, and they're too young to understand what's going on. 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:55.680 And this man has been in these kind of moments a hundred times. 00:30:57.680 --> 00:30:59.039 And he's steady. 00:31:09.440 --> 00:31:14.240 His cheeks are layered with sweat and tears. 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:17.359 His hands are clasped. 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:26.960 But underneath the moment is a calm and a peace and a trust. 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:35.200 And he can put his hand on his son and say, God is in control of this. 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:41.519 He's been faithful to us, and he'll be faithful through this. 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:58.960 And in that moment, that son and daughter and grandchildren are going to get a lesson I could never speak as a preacher or any other preacher. 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:13.279 Because it's a sermon shaped by days and weeks and months and years of walking with God and having grace move his heart. 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:17.759 This is what Paul is calling for. 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:25.119 He's not calling us to perfection, but he's calling us to a direction that grace brings us to. 00:32:25.519 --> 00:32:38.079 A steadiness of character that's been forged by grace, has been tested in time, and that is visible to anyone who is paying attention to it. 00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:42.559 So let me talk to you guys, older men. 00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:46.000 And uh, I'm gray enough to be one of them now. 00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:49.759 Some of you probably don't think you are an older man. 00:32:50.640 --> 00:33:00.240 We had we had a new image group at church, and I had a 75-year-old come to me as they were walking in and saying, I'm looking forward forward to being with the older people today. 00:33:01.519 --> 00:33:03.759 I'm like, oh boy, okay. 00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:11.920 If you are 45 or older, you are well within the older category. 00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:19.039 If you're in your late 30s, you're already over the hill statistically. 00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:25.920 You have already reached the top, and you are about to find out how fast it is on the downside. 00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:30.880 But I want to talk to you. 00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:36.480 You don't have to be perfect, but you can be present, right? 00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:40.559 You can be willing, you can offer yourself to grace. 00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:45.119 God is at work in you, and he wants to use you. 00:33:45.759 --> 00:34:05.279 Every trial that you've faced in your life, every temptation you've resisted, every sin that you've repented of, every Sunday that you've shown up, every Bible that you've worn out, everything that God is producing in you is meant to be used through you to be of influence to other men. 00:34:06.880 --> 00:34:15.760 So let me encourage you with this: take that maturity, however weak and frail you think it might be, and show up in a young man's life. 00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:19.920 Be available to him, be visible to him. 00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:27.760 Let them see how you've handled frustration, let them watch you deal with disappointment. 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:32.079 Let them hear you talk about how you've walked through loss. 00:34:32.320 --> 00:34:34.239 They need to hear that. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:41.760 Because your life is a lesson and not just one, it's a whole curriculum. 00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:49.599 And if you're an older man who's failed, repentance can teach also. 00:34:50.960 --> 00:35:03.280 A man who has stumbled and has been restored by grace may not teach what an unfallen man can teach, but he can teach something that guy can't. 00:35:03.840 --> 00:35:08.559 And that is how to find the grace of God meet you even in your failures. 00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:13.360 David sinned catastrophic. 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:17.599 Peter denied Christ three times. 00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:28.559 Not something to be proud of, but something even grace can redeem and use you in the middle of. 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:24.400 So drop down and take a look at verse six. 00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:30.719 In the same way, encourage young men to be self-controlled in everything. 00:37:32.079 --> 00:37:35.440 The older men get six, the young guys get one. 00:37:36.239 --> 00:37:38.480 Doesn't seem fair, does it? 00:37:40.239 --> 00:37:45.840 One word, one quality that covers it all. 00:37:46.400 --> 00:37:49.039 Self-controlled in everything. 00:37:51.519 --> 00:38:01.519 A disciplined mind, a governed life, the one thing that will be the root of all the others and meets every situation. 00:38:02.559 --> 00:38:08.239 Because if a young man lacks self-control, everything else falls apart. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:19.280 But if a man has self-control in his relationships and in his work and his worship and his character, he'll have self-control in his future also. 00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:25.199 Again, this is not simply produced by moral achievement. 00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:28.559 It's grace that produces this self-control. 00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:42.559 The pressures of ambition and the pressures of desire, the pressures of comfort and approval and status are dangers to young men. 00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:56.480 And the answer is this: a grace-shaped ability to be controlled in the face of those youthful desires and temptations. 00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:00.800 But you're not left alone, young men. 00:39:00.960 --> 00:39:02.880 Take a look at verse seven. 00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:14.400 Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:17.199 There you have it, young men. 00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:19.519 You're not left without a model. 00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:34.000 And that model is found here as Titus was speaking to the younger men in the church, and a charge to me, a charge to Micah, a charge to our elders. 00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:36.880 And I would dare say a charge to all of our older men. 00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:40.079 Be an example to these young ones. 00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:47.119 Because younger men were going to learn self-control, not from a book, but from a life. 00:39:47.599 --> 00:39:51.119 They're going to see it by the older men who are living it. 00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:55.599 Because this is the way God has designed his people to work together. 00:39:56.320 --> 00:39:59.679 Now let's drop down to the bottom because we need to say this. 00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:01.679 We're going to say more about it later. 00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:05.360 But look at verse 11 and 12 again with me. 00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:18.719 The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lust and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in this present age. 00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:30.960 That word training there is the kind of training that talks about a parent teaching their child how to grow up and to live in this world. 00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:35.679 It's not punishment, it's formation. 00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:56.480 It is shaping through careful, patient, daily work the life of your child so that they might be well equipped in this world to carry on in all the responsibilities and circumstances that they have or will face. 00:40:57.280 --> 00:40:58.880 That's parenting. 00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:11.039 And here grace is instructing us with patient, careful, daily shaping that makes us these kind of people. 00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:17.440 Because grace is our teacher, it is our trainer, it is the one who forms us. 00:41:17.679 --> 00:41:24.639 A godly man's self-control, whether he's young or old, is not with white knuckled determination. 00:41:26.079 --> 00:41:29.199 It's not gritting your teeth and trying harder. 00:41:30.079 --> 00:41:36.480 It's grace at work in your life as you surrender yourself to God-shaping influences. 00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:41.199 So if you're under 45, you're not alone. 00:41:41.440 --> 00:41:47.039 You've got models in front of you, and you've got the grace of God working within you. 00:41:47.599 --> 00:41:51.039 You don't have to figure out all of this on your own. 00:41:51.280 --> 00:41:53.039 You were never meant to. 00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:56.400 You have influences to help you. 00:41:57.920 --> 00:42:02.480 And so, young men, I want it, I want to say to you something I said to the older men. 00:42:02.639 --> 00:42:04.800 I told them to be available. 00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:12.239 But one of the difficulties of being an older man is you respect another man's space. 00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:18.000 And so you're not going to impose yourself, even though you are available. 00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:21.920 And that means a young man, you need to ask. 00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:42.239 You need to walk up to those older men that you want to have in your life and invite them to coffee, invite them to a meal, ask them about decisions that they've made in their marriage or their career or their finances or their temptations or their troubles or their sufferings. 00:42:42.559 --> 00:42:43.760 Talk to them. 00:42:44.800 --> 00:42:46.719 Ask them what they would do differently. 00:42:46.960 --> 00:42:51.519 Ask them about how they handled those pressures and those disappointments and those temptations. 00:42:52.079 --> 00:42:57.920 And listen to this verse I grabbed a hold of when I was a new believer, Proverbs 13, 20. 00:42:58.159 --> 00:43:01.920 Whoever walks with the wise shall be wise. 00:43:02.400 --> 00:43:06.320 But a companion of fools will suffer harm. 00:43:10.159 --> 00:43:13.599 Go find a wise man and walk with him. 00:43:15.840 --> 00:43:22.639 And remember, in the midst of it all, grace is active to shape us. 00:43:23.440 --> 00:43:25.519 None of this is self-generated. 00:43:26.239 --> 00:43:31.760 What Christ has done for us is what Christ is doing in us. 00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:58.480 And so here we are as God's people, being the result of a Savior who's come to deliver us from our sin and to instruct us on how to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live soberly and righteously in this present age, conforming us to the image of Christ. 00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:24.400 If you're here in this room this morning and all the stuff I've talked to you feels really, really foreign, and if everything that I've talked about by way of the steadiness of these older men feels impossible, or if everything I've talked about about younger men being self-controlled feels like a standard that's outside your reach, that's the point. 00:44:26.159 --> 00:44:29.199 Because apart from the grace of God, it is. 00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:37.760 But I want to tell you this the grace of God has appeared for all people. 00:44:40.079 --> 00:44:46.960 When Jesus came into this world, he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. 00:44:47.280 --> 00:44:50.400 And he came to seek and to save the lost. 00:44:51.280 --> 00:45:07.039 And every single one who's received these words and felt the effect of them, where it is familiar and not foreign to them, where it doesn't feel impossible but reachable through the grace of God, can be you too. 00:45:08.639 --> 00:45:11.679 But you need to come to grace himself. 00:45:12.079 --> 00:45:14.480 And he's called the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:45:14.719 --> 00:45:17.119 And he gives you a wonderful invitation. 00:45:17.599 --> 00:45:23.119 Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 00:45:23.760 --> 00:45:31.519 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am lowly and gentle in heart. 00:45:33.119 --> 00:45:48.480 Come to the Savior and join in the instruction of grace and find yourself transformed from who you are today to what Christ is and what you shall be in eternity. 00:45:49.039 --> 00:45:50.880 Let's pray together. 00:45:54.000 --> 00:46:01.199 Father, we thank you for the wondrous truth that you've come to seek and save. 00:46:02.239 --> 00:46:09.760 We thank you, Father, that our lives are not stagnant, but shaped by grace. 00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:43.920 And so, Father, I want to pray for us that we would have submissiveness and receptivity of heart to you, that we would hear the instruction that grace is giving, that we would yield ourselves to the training that grace is providing, that we would follow the steps of our Savior who models it. 00:46:44.480 --> 00:46:58.159 And that we would build amongst our body not just amen here or there, but a cache of men who are being shaped into the likeness of Christ. 00:46:59.039 --> 00:47:14.559 The kind of community where we build together, younger and older together, bound together by the gospel, shaped by the same grace, and all of us walking toward that same blessed hope, the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 00:47:15.760 --> 00:47:18.719 And Lord, we pray that you would make us such. 00:47:19.280 --> 00:47:31.360 Make us people that are anchored in your word and ready to serve one another and seeking to be shaped like Jesus Himself. 00:47:32.159 --> 00:47:44.880 Father, I pray for the ladies of our church that they in their own life will also build into their life these qualities as they give themselves over to the grace of God. 00:47:45.280 --> 00:48:09.760 And we pray, Father, for those relationships in our church that are close and intimate, where they might be related by blood or by marriage, to where the ladies can be a place of assistance through accountability, through modeling, and through gracious activity that leads men to want what you will shape in their lives. 00:48:10.079 --> 00:48:12.480 And Father, we ask this in Christ's name. 00:48:12.800 --> 00:48:13.280 Amen.