This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our look through Titus chapter two. We're going to look at
verses two to five today. We began yesterday looking at the value of God's truth
in our lives, and Paul's headed in a direction here.

As we head towards the end of the chapter, he's going to be talking all through
this chapter about how God's truth helps you to live an attractive life, the
kind of life that only Jesus can live through us. And as we begin in verse two,
we begin a list of how we individually need the truth of God's word in our
lives. The main point in this is that we all need God's truth, not one group
above the other or instead of the other.

We all need God's truth. It's not like you get older and you outgrow your need
for God's truth. We all need God's truth, men and women, older and younger, we
all need it.

And in this list of us all needing God's truth, Paul just sort of goes through
this list, shows us how, and he begins with the older men, with those who most
likely would have been the ones to think, "Well, I've got it all settled. I've
got it all figured out. Now let everybody else live out God's truth.

" But also he begins with those whom Titus, who was a younger man at this time,
whom Titus most likely might ignore in his teaching of the truth, "Oh, I better
not get involved with the older men. They know more than I do. I'll just teach
the other people, the people that it's easier to teach.

" No, Paul is saying to Titus, "Everyone needs to hear God's truth. Everyone
needs to hear. " And starting with the older men, he says, here's what you do,
verse two, "Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect,
self-controlled, and sound in faith and love and in endurance.

" In these verses, he's talking about, "As I get older, what do I need? What do
I need to be truly attractive? " If you're younger, you may not know this yet,
but you're going to know it pretty soon.

As you get older, you begin to look in the mirror more and more, and you think,
"What is that ugly face that's staring at me out of the mirror? " You see that
you're not quite as physically attractive as you were one day. Now I know they
say things about how you become more attractive at this age or that age, but as
you become older, you look in the mirror and you realize, "It's all a lie.

Physically, I may not look the same as I used to. " In our culture, especially,
there were some cultures in history where old age was thought of as attractive
by the entire culture, but across the world today in our cultures, it's youth
that's thought of as attractive physically, but that's not where the true
attraction is. You can be physically attractive, but also repulsive from the
inside out.

You've met people like that. How do you become spiritually attractive? How do
you become the kind of person that other people just love to be around?

How do you be the kind of person that kindness and grace just flows out of that
person? Paul, in these verses, he's saying to us that there are strengths and
weaknesses at every stage of life, and what you do is you build on your
strengths. As you become older, it would be easy to become more irritable.

It would be easy to become more prideful, but instead of that, he says, "Why
don't you choose to become somebody different? Attractive older men, what do
they look like? " He says, "Here's what they look like.

They're temperate. They're worthy of respect. They're self-controlled.

They're sound. They're sound in faith and love and endurance. They're temperate.

" That means that they have tempered their life. They're not living for the
wrong things of life. They're living for the right things in life.

As you become older, one of the ways that you should become more attractive is
that you learn that temporary pleasures of sin, they cost more than they're
worth, so you just don't live for that stuff anymore, and you become an example
to other people that you don't have to live for those things. In fact, that's
not what life is all about. It is not worth it.

You're worthy of respect. You should be able to respect old age, but sometimes
those that become older become more prideful. They actually push other people
away, sometimes because of their pain, sometimes because life has not worked out
like you wanted it to work out, but the years that God has given you and the
ways that God has given you to live, that is worth respect.

Now, if you're younger, that means you respect somebody who's older. If you're
older, that means you live a life that's worthy of respect, and one of the ways
you do that is by being self-controlled. We're going to talk about that a lot
through the book of Titus.

We're going to talk about that a lot this week. Self-control is not a
self-powered life. It's a Christ-powered life.

It's being able to live out the kind of life that he has for me. He says you're
attractive, an older man, as you're solid. You're not somebody who is chasing
after things that you've never gotten in life.

You ever seen that happen when somebody gets older? We call it a midlife crisis
sometimes, but sometimes it comes at 60 or 70, I've seen. Sometimes it comes at
40.

Sometimes it comes at 30. You start to get older, and you lose some of the
things that you thought you were going to have, and so instead of becoming
solid, living a solid life, you start to get crazy. You start to just think,
"Well, I'm older now.

I can do whatever I want. " So you just do whatever you want, and people go,
"What happened to him? " You want to be truly attractive as you get older?

Live a solid life in faith, in love, and in endurance. Have the kind of faith
that other people are going to look at and say, "That's something I can count
on. " That kind of love in your life that other people look at and think,
"That's something I can rely on.

" Have the endurance in your life that people look at you and think, "They're
going all the way to the end. " Trust in Christ. That's what's attractive in a
guy's life as you get older.

That's what you look for. That's what you build for. Paul is talking to Titus
here and saying, "Teach this in people's lives.

" So as I know older guys, I want to encourage that in their lives. As I become
an older guy, I want to see God do that in my life. He talks about older men,
but he also talks about older women.

Now the difficult part of that, of course, is finding somebody who will admit
they are an older woman. If you happen to get to that age of 85 or 90, I think
there comes a point eventually where you say, "Okay, I'm willing to admit it. I
am an older woman at this point.

" At that point, what does Paul have to say? What does the scripture have to
say? In verse 3, "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way that
they live.

Not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. "
What's attractive in an older woman? Be reverent.

The difference is living with an attitude that you're in God's presence every
moment of your life. Clement, one of the early leaders of the church, the church
fathers said, "You live all of life as if it was a sacred assembly. " And you
know this.

You've been in the presence of some older women. You just feel like you're in
the presence of God. You feel like you're at a worship service just by talking
to them.

Live that way. He says, "Don't live this way. Don't be a slanderer.

Don't be addicted to much wine. " In that culture, and even in our culture today
sometimes, older women have more time. And in that time, you can use it to
gossip or you can use it to praise God.

You can use it to get addicted to something, to escape. And he says addicted to
wine here. Maybe wine you're addicted to.

It could be entertainment that you're addicted to. It could be a lot of things
you get addicted to. In that culture, there was a lot of wine in that culture,
so it was an easy addiction.

In our culture, there's a lot of TV in our culture. It's an easy addiction. So
he says, "Don't get addicted, but instead live a life of holiness and faith.

" Live a life where you teach what's good. In verse 4, he's going to say you
want to teach what's good to those who are younger. Live a life where you're
training those who are coming along behind you.

Now, some people as they read this list, they say, "Why does Paul choose these?
" I mean, he didn't tell the men not to drink much wine. Well, he does in other
places.

He certainly does go after men very strongly in other places, as he writes. I
think he chose these particularly because this is what the people in Crete were
struggling with. There were women who were struggling with gossip.

There were women who were struggling with being addicted. And so he speaks to
them personally because he loves them. If I'm older, what do I need?

I need the things that Paul talks about here to older men, older women. What if
I'm younger? What do I need?

Well, Paul has a word to younger women. In verse 4, he says, "Then they can
train the younger women to love their husbands and children. " Verse 5, "To be
self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to
their husbands so that no one will malign the word of God.

" Younger women, how do you live so that you're truly attractive? First, you let
older women train you. You don't think you got it all figured out.

I think that most younger women that I meet want older women to train them. It's
just that older women in their lives sometimes think they don't have anything to
say. So sometimes you have to encourage, "Oh yes, you do have something to say.

" Sometimes you have to show up and meet with them again and again so you can
hear the truth that comes out. Notice the Bible says the older should teach the
younger. That means that you have to learn.

In fact, teach the younger to love their husbands and kids. If you feel like
you're younger, you're a younger wife, you've got young kids, and you feel like,
"This does not come naturally, loving my husband, loving my kids. " That's what
the Bible says.

It doesn't come naturally. It is something you have to learn. And one of the
ways that you learn it is from older women.

This idea that if you truly love your kids, it would just come naturally and
easily, that is a total ridiculous lie. You've got to learn to be loving. And
one of the ways you learn is through models.

He goes on and says, "Be self-controlled. " There that word is again. Be
self-controlled.

Live life based on the power of Christ. Be pure. Be busy, he says.

Live out in your home a busy life. Do the things that God's given you to do. Be
subject to your husband.

That word "subject" has the idea not of inequality. It's a word that's very easy
to misunderstand today, and sometimes I wish we could use a different word in
the Bible because all of our definitions have to do with inequality and even
slavery, subjection. But in the Bible, it meant nothing like that.

It has the idea of the combination of sexual equality and complementary
humility. In the New Testament, we're to be subject to one another. I'm to be
subject to you in my home, and you're to be subject to me in the home.

Parents to children, children to parents, wives to husbands, husbands to wives.
Now we have different roles in that. There's a broader issue here as we look
through this.

Is Paul, this claim is often made, is Paul somehow putting women into an
inferior position when he uses a phrase like this? Of course not. That's a
misunderstanding of what the word means.

It's a total misunderstanding of history. History shows that it's the truth of
scripture that has set women free. Have people misused Paul's words and God's
words?

Of course. It's a mistake that's often made that we attack or we discount the
original word of God rather than realizing that it's the false teachers that
have twisted the word of God. The truth of the matter is God's word is good, and
God's word gives healthy families.

Is it good for men to sacrifice for wives to respect as we're told to do in
Ephesians? Of course. Is it good for men to be a spiritual leader in their home?

Of course it is. Is it good for wives to be busy at God's work instead of
getting caught up in gossip or addictions? Of course.

Is it good for men to treat their wives and children with sacrificial kindness
and love? Absolutely. That is the fresh spring of truth.

Don't close that off because someone downstream once polluted it. You get back
to that truth and you watch what God does in your family. The truth of the
matter is, here's the tough part.

This truth, it requires me to be unselfish, and I am tempted to be selfish. In
fact, I am tempted to use others' false teaching of God's truth as an excuse to
stay in my selfishness. I don't like it when God says, "You need to sacrifice
for your wife.

" So I take some mis-teaching of that and I say, "Well, that obviously doesn't
make sense. " And I miss the truth purposefully because I don't like it when God
says, "You need to sacrifice for your wife. " Truth of the matter is, subjection
has nothing at all to do with inequality.

It has everything to do with service and everything to do with a deep humility
that happens in our relationships with one another. Paul says you do this, you
live in this kind of way so that no one will malign God's word. They'll see that
God's word is making a difference in your life.

So my question as I come to the end of this is, is there some way that my
freedom aligns God's word? Is there some way that I'm living where I say, "Well,
I'm free in Christ to do that, but it's bringing shame upon the Word of God. "
One of the questions you have to ask in life is, "Who is it that I'm trying to
attract?

Am I trying to attract people who want to live for themselves, impress them, or
am I trying to impress people who want to live a new kind of life, the kind of
fresh, new life that only God can give, the kind of people who want to live
towards eternity? " Older and younger, men and women, God has something to say
to all of us because he loves every one of us. And he knows we all need to hear
it.

I need to hear it. So let's pray right now that we'll hear God's word for our
lives individually. Jesus Christ, help us to hear.

Help us to hear what you have to say to us, not to cast an eye on other people
and think about how they're living or not living your word. Help us to think
about us. Whether I'm older or younger, man or woman, help me think today about
how I can live out your word and to live it in such a way that Jesus Christ, I
sense the fresh spring of your truth in my life.

I pray for your power in my life today, Jesus, in your name, amen. We're going
to talk about younger men, and we're also going to talk about the power of our
example.