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Voddie Baucham - Family Shepherding Titus 1_5-9 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: We'll take a Bible, please one that you brought, or
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  Speaker 1: if you need one, there should be one in the
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  Speaker 1: chair in front of you, and invite you to turn
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  Speaker 1: with me to today's text. Doctor Backham will be speaking
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  Speaker 1: on Titus chapter one, verses five through nine. If you
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  Speaker 1: use the Bible in the chairs, it's page nine hundred
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  Speaker 1: and ninety eight, page nine ninety eight Titus chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: verses five through nine. Let's stand together as we read
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  Speaker 1: the word of God.
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  Speaker 2: Hear the word of the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Then this morning, Paul writes, this is why I left
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  Speaker 1: you in crete, so that you might put what remained
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  Speaker 1: into order, and to point elders in every town as
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  Speaker 1: I directed you. If anyone is above reproach. The husband
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  Speaker 1: of one wife and his children are believers and not
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  Speaker 1: open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer,
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  Speaker 1: as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not
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  Speaker 1: be arrogant or quick tempered, or a drunkard, or violent
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  Speaker 1: or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good,
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  Speaker 1: self controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm
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  Speaker 1: to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may
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  Speaker 1: be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also
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  Speaker 1: to rebuke those who contradict it.
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  Speaker 2: This is the word of the Lord. You may be
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  Speaker 2: seated well, good morning. Is indeed a delight to be
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  Speaker 2: with you on this morning, And to address my assigned topic,
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  Speaker 2: which is family shepherding. And you might think it odd
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  Speaker 2: to address the issue of family shepherding and a pastor
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  Speaker 2: scripture that is one of the seminal texts on the
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  Speaker 2: qualifications for elders. But I assure you this is the
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  Speaker 2: perfect place for us to be. Perfect place for a
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  Speaker 2: number of reasons. First, when we look at the Book
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  Speaker 2: of Titus, if you go with me to that first
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  Speaker 2: paragraph there in the book, Paul gives us really the
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  Speaker 2: theme of the book, beginning verse one, Paul a servant
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  Speaker 2: of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the
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  Speaker 2: sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge
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  Speaker 2: of the truth which accords with Godliness and hope of
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  Speaker 2: eternal life with God, who never lies, promised before the
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  Speaker 2: ages began, and at the proper time, manifested in the world,
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  Speaker 2: or manifested in the Word, through the preaching with which
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  Speaker 2: I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.
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  Speaker 2: That phrase there at the beginning of verse one, their
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  Speaker 2: knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. That's the
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  Speaker 2: theme of the Book of Titus, the knowledge of the
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  Speaker 2: truth that accords with godliness. And throughout the letter he
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  Speaker 2: is pointing to and making a distinction between those who
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  Speaker 2: know the truth and are therefore godly and those who
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  Speaker 2: do not know the truth and are therefore ungodly. By
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  Speaker 2: the way, this knowledge of the truth is not just informational.
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  Speaker 2: He makes that clear later on in the letter that
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  Speaker 2: this knowledge of the truth to which he refers is
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  Speaker 2: the knowledge of the message of the Gospel. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: let's look there now, go to the chapter two. The
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  Speaker 2: end of chapter two, Chapter two, beginning verse eleven, the
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  Speaker 2: universe ten, he talks about adorning the doctrine of God
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  Speaker 2: our Savior, wearing the doctrine of God love. That phrase,
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  Speaker 2: adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, put it on,
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  Speaker 2: wear it. What does sound doctrine look like when you
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  Speaker 2: wear it, when you live it? Two eleven he says,
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  Speaker 2: for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for
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  Speaker 2: all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions
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  Speaker 2: and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in
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  Speaker 2: the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing
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  Speaker 2: of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 2: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all
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  Speaker 2: lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his
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  Speaker 2: own possession who are zealous for good works. So there
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  Speaker 2: is that truth that we are to know. It's the
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  Speaker 2: truth that Christ gave himself. Christ died a vicarious substitutionary
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  Speaker 2: atoning death on the cross in order to redeem a
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  Speaker 2: people for himself, but to redeem a people for himself
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  Speaker 2: who don't just escape hell, but to redeem a people
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  Speaker 2: for himself, who are, by virtue of their redemption, zealous
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  Speaker 2: for good works. And he gets very particular in relation
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  Speaker 2: to the good works that he's addressing here, and he
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  Speaker 2: goes to where the rubber meets the road, and he
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  Speaker 2: talks about the home, the household, the family, which is
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  Speaker 2: incredibly important, and he does it in a number of
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  Speaker 2: his letters. He gives the household codes. And the reason
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  Speaker 2: that he does this is because there is no place
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  Speaker 2: better to see and determine what you truly believe. Amen
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you can fool folks at church, you can
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  Speaker 2: fool folks at your job, but your spouse and your
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  Speaker 2: children they know. And people talk about the difficulty of
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  Speaker 2: raising teenagers. There are a number of reasons that make
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  Speaker 2: it difficult to raise teenagers, right, I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: one thing that makes it difficult to raise teenagers is
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  Speaker 2: feeding them. Amen, somebody, right. But another thing that makes
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  Speaker 2: it difficult to raise teenagers is that they are walking
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  Speaker 2: hypocrisy detectors except their own. But outside of themselves, they
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  Speaker 2: see all hypocrisy in here. There's something that blocks the
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  Speaker 2: detector from from from working on the on the inside,
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  Speaker 2: but on the outside they are walking hypocrisy detectors. And
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  Speaker 2: that that's a death knell for a man or a
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  Speaker 2: woman who is outwardly professing Christ but not living it inwardly.
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  Speaker 2: Because you can't hide there, you can hide outside. Some
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  Speaker 2: of you, some of you did it today. Some of
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  Speaker 2: you did it this morning. Right. You got into a big, knockdown,
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  Speaker 2: dragon out fight this morning before church. You know, you
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  Speaker 2: are arguing about you know, somebody not getting up on
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  Speaker 2: time or whatever. You just at each other, right, you know,
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  Speaker 2: maybe somebody didn't like how somebody was driving, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and then at each other over how he was driving.
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  Speaker 2: And then you get into the parking lot and you
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  Speaker 2: just pass the parking space and why you got you know,
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  Speaker 2: all this is going on, right, and they're gritting the
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  Speaker 2: teeth and the jaws are tight and all that, and
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  Speaker 2: then you park and get out of the car and say,
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  Speaker 2: he brow, how you doing grabbing each other's hands. Right.
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  Speaker 2: That's why when people's marriages fall apart, usually the response
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  Speaker 2: in the church is, wait, what them? Because you can
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  Speaker 2: hide it out there, you cannot hide it at home.
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  Speaker 2: That's where we are who we really are. You can't
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  Speaker 2: keep your mask on at home, not for long. And
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  Speaker 2: so they're in chapter two, and it's interesting. I want
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  Speaker 2: to make an argument for the fact that this is
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  Speaker 2: the list that we need to be looking at for
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  Speaker 2: godly shepherds, not just for elders. And there are people
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  Speaker 2: who may have a problem with that, but I want
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  Speaker 2: to show you a number of reasons that I believe
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  Speaker 2: that is the case. And one is when you go
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  Speaker 2: to chapter two, look at chapter two and look at
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  Speaker 2: beginning of verse three. We'll see two things here. Right.
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  Speaker 2: Number one, we see this whole idea of knowledge of
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  Speaker 2: the truth that accords with Godliness being manifested in the home. Look,
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  Speaker 2: older women, likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not
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  Speaker 2: slanderers or slaves too much wine. They are to teach
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  Speaker 2: what is good, that's knowledge of the truth. And so
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  Speaker 2: they are to teach what is good. And so what's
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  Speaker 2: the results of their teaching? And so train the young
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  Speaker 2: women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled, pure,
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  Speaker 2: working at home, kind, submissive to their own husbands, that
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  Speaker 2: the word of God may not be reviled. So there
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  Speaker 2: is a direct link right there, right to knowledge of
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  Speaker 2: the truth, this sound teaching of the gospel and the
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  Speaker 2: implications thereof, and the fruit being born within the context
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  Speaker 2: of that place where we all live and have our
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  Speaker 2: most significant relationships, and see the clearest manifestation of our
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  Speaker 2: godliness or lack thereof, which is the home. We have
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  Speaker 2: that list of things that older women are teaching younger
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  Speaker 2: men women, right, and then what's interesting is verse six,
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  Speaker 2: likewise urge the younger men to be self control. That's it.
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  Speaker 2: That's it. There's three reasons I believe that the list
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  Speaker 2: for younger men is that list in chapter one. My
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  Speaker 2: first reason, not my strongest, the fact that there's no
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  Speaker 2: list in chapter two. Hey, man, I didn't say it
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  Speaker 2: was the strong reason. I just said it as a
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  Speaker 2: reason there's no list in chapter two. It makes no sense.
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  Speaker 2: Why isn't there a list in chapter two? There's a
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  Speaker 2: list right for older women and younger women. There's no
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  Speaker 2: list for older men and younger men. Okay, there's a
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  Speaker 2: second reason. Look at verse seven. Show yourself in all
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  Speaker 2: respects to be a model of good works. And in
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  Speaker 2: your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound that cannot be condemned,
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  Speaker 2: so that an opponent may be put to shame, having
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  Speaker 2: nothing evil to say against us. Show yourself in all
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  Speaker 2: respects to be a model of good works. Riddle me this,
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  Speaker 2: Why would elders need to model something that is only
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  Speaker 2: required of them? That makes no sense. You model something
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  Speaker 2: for people to follow, right, I mean, if nobody's gonna follow,
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  Speaker 2: you're not You're not modeling, you're performing. Right. But he
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  Speaker 2: said show yourself to be a model. And then there's
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  Speaker 2: a third reason that I'm arguing that the list for
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  Speaker 2: all godly men is this list we find in chapter one.
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  Speaker 2: Remember number one, there's no list in chapter two. Number two.
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  Speaker 2: The elders just supposed to be modeling something. And here's
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  Speaker 2: number three. There's nothing on this list that you're willing
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  Speaker 2: to say, now, I'll pass on that one for my son.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing in this list. Everything in this list, anyone who's
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  Speaker 2: raising a son, any Christian who wants to raise a
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  Speaker 2: godly son, you are going to hold on to everything
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  Speaker 2: in this list and not pass over any stitch of it.
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  Speaker 2: This is the list which means, young men, hear me.
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  Speaker 2: If you want to see what it looks like and
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  Speaker 2: what you need to prepare for in order to be
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  Speaker 2: a godly man and a godly husband and a godly
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  Speaker 2: father who shepherds his family. This is what you pay
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  Speaker 2: attention to. This is what you pursue if you're raising
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  Speaker 2: a young man. This is the standard to which we
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  Speaker 2: call him, and it's incredibly important because if we don't,
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  Speaker 2: the world has a standard. And the world's standard is
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  Speaker 2: the billfold, the ball field, and the bedroom. That's the
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  Speaker 2: world's standard. That's how they define manhood. Right again, it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't take long to figure this out. We're not even
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  Speaker 2: men and we're not like women. If women want to
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  Speaker 2: know you, If a woman wants to know you, she
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  Speaker 2: wants to know who you're connected to. Right, So you
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  Speaker 2: get women together who've never met each other, within a
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  Speaker 2: few seconds of the conversation, they're gonna be talking about
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  Speaker 2: their families. I want to know you want to know
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  Speaker 2: who you're connected to, who's your wife, who's your husband,
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  Speaker 2: who's your children? Men want to know each other within seconds.
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  Speaker 2: It's what's your job, which is code for how much
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  Speaker 2: money you make. It's the billfold we're measuring. We're measuring
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  Speaker 2: ourselves against one another. Right, how successful are you? Then?
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  Speaker 2: Is the ball field? Right? Are you an athlete? Where
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  Speaker 2: are you an athlete? How far did you go? How
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  Speaker 2: good were you? Right? Because that's how that's how we
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  Speaker 2: define the manhood. You know, I played so and so
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  Speaker 2: for such and such. Oh really, well, I played for you, right, okay?
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  Speaker 2: And in the bedroom conquests with women, that's how the
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  Speaker 2: world defines manhood. So our sons are out there in
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  Speaker 2: that world and they're hearing that over and over and
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  Speaker 2: over again. This is how you're a man. This is
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  Speaker 2: how you measure yourself against other men. And if we
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  Speaker 2: don't have anything else to offer, what they're going to
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  Speaker 2: have is the billfold, the ball field, and the bedroom
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  Speaker 2: with the Bible on top of it, and that dog
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  Speaker 2: won't hunt. So we have to have this standard. We
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  Speaker 2: have to have this picture, We have to have this
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  Speaker 2: goal in mind. By the way, this is how we
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  Speaker 2: shepherd future shepherds. Amen, this is how we shepherd future shepherds.
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  Speaker 2: Young ladies, if you're here and you have any interest
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  Speaker 2: whatsoever and being married, being a wife and a mother,
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  Speaker 2: and serving the Lord as a wife and the mother,
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  Speaker 2: pay attention, because this right here is what you want, amen.
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  Speaker 2: And if it's not what you want, then repent and
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  Speaker 2: teach yourself to want this rather than whatever else it
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  Speaker 2: was that you thought you wanted. Now with that in mind,
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  Speaker 2: let's look. There are going to be the three movements
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  Speaker 2: here in this text. First the shepherd and his family,
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  Speaker 2: Second the shepherd and his character. Third the shepherd in
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  Speaker 2: his teaching. And we're gonna see that this moves in
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  Speaker 2: reverse order. Look at verse five. This is why I
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  Speaker 2: left you in crete, so that you might put what
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  Speaker 2: remains into order, and to point elders in every town
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  Speaker 2: as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, We're
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  Speaker 2: going to see that word a number of times, above reproach.
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  Speaker 2: That being above reproach is the idea of being exemplary,
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  Speaker 2: not perfect. Christ is perfect. Amen. Being above reproach is
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  Speaker 2: about being exemplary. It means that there's no charge that
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  Speaker 2: you can bring in these areas that's going to stick.
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  Speaker 2: He's exemplary in these areas if anyone is above reproach.
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  Speaker 2: The husband of one wife literally means a one woman man.
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  Speaker 2: Some speculate that, you know, Paul must be talking here
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  Speaker 2: about cultures where you know, people practice polygamy, and he's
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  Speaker 2: just saying here that you can't be a polygamist, you
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  Speaker 2: only have to have one wife. No, the phrase here
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  Speaker 2: is a one woman man. Polygamy was not much of
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  Speaker 2: an issue in these circles. And there's another phrase that
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  Speaker 2: he could have used if he was talking about polygamy.
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  Speaker 2: He could have used a phrase that basically said, can't
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  Speaker 2: be a polygamist. Amen. But the phrase here and again,
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  Speaker 2: we're talking about character. We're talking about character as it
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  Speaker 2: manifests itself in the home. The idea is being a
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  Speaker 2: one woman man, having the character of a one woman man.
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  Speaker 2: If I'm gonna put it in the vernacular for the
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  Speaker 2: young folks, he's not a player. He doesn't treat every
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  Speaker 2: woman as though she's the object of his affections. He
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  Speaker 2: doesn't have a wondering eye. He is a committed, one
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  Speaker 2: woman man. He's a covenant keeper. That's number one. That's
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  Speaker 2: what we want to raise. That's what we want to model.
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  Speaker 2: And as a shepherd, this is what The most important
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  Speaker 2: thing that I can do for my children is model
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  Speaker 2: a love for their mother and a commitmant to her.
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  Speaker 2: It starts there. The greatest and most significant manifestation of
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  Speaker 2: my godliness as a man is there. Husbands, love your
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  Speaker 2: wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up
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  Speaker 2: for her. There in Ephesius chapter five, at the end
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  Speaker 2: of it, we see that Paul says, this mystery is great,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm speaking about Christ and the church. It's a
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  Speaker 2: picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church. So
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  Speaker 2: this gospel that we preach to our children is pictured
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  Speaker 2: and exemplified in the marriage relationship between a husband and
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  Speaker 2: the wife. That's significant. That's significant. Secondly, his children are believers.
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  Speaker 2: That's an unfortunate translation. The Greek word that's being translated
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  Speaker 2: there is the word pistas for faith, which is also
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  Speaker 2: for belief, to have faith or to believe. The better
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  Speaker 2: translations of this verse say he has faithful children. That's
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  Speaker 2: the better translation for a number of reasons. First of all,
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  Speaker 2: it's a better translation because we're talking about the character
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  Speaker 2: of the man and and my character can be exemplary.
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  Speaker 2: But my character doesn't save my children, Amen, doesn't. We're
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  Speaker 2: talking about the character of the man. Secondly, it would
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  Speaker 2: be incredibly awkward because if this meant, again for an elder,
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  Speaker 2: who is our model for this, if this meant for
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  Speaker 2: an elder that his children had to be converted, then
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  Speaker 2: every time a new child was born into his home,
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  Speaker 2: he'd be disqualified. You see. You see that because because
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  Speaker 2: we're not born believers, Amen, So that would be hugely problematic.
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  Speaker 2: The third reason that that's a better translation is because
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  Speaker 2: the explanation comes immediately after if his children are believers
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  Speaker 2: and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
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  Speaker 2: Now this has to do with how they're raised. You
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  Speaker 2: don't have to be converted for this to not be
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  Speaker 2: open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. So when
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  Speaker 2: we put this in this context and we're talking about
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  Speaker 2: character here, we're talking about the character of a man
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  Speaker 2: as a husband, and the character of a man as
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  Speaker 2: a father that he's exemplary. He's an exemplary husband and
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  Speaker 2: an exemplary father. This doesn't mean that there are no
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  Speaker 2: problems in his marriage or no problems with his kids.
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  Speaker 2: Can you imagine somebody's coming to you for counseling and
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  Speaker 2: they're like, you know, pastor, you know, my wife and
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  Speaker 2: I are struggling with this, and we're wondering if you
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  Speaker 2: could help us. And you're like, what struggle? What is that?
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  Speaker 1: But what is what?
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  Speaker 2: If? What is this thing you call struggle? We've never
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  Speaker 2: had one of those, baby, Have we ever had a struggle? No,
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  Speaker 2: Exemplary doesn't mean that there's no difficulty. Your exemplary in
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  Speaker 2: the way that you walk through it. Exemplary doesn't mean
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  Speaker 2: that your children don't make you want to I'm not
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  Speaker 2: even gonna finish that right because I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: give anybody any ideas, Okay, but it means that you're
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  Speaker 2: exemplary in the way that you walk through that and
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  Speaker 2: the way that we train, in the way that we discipline,
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  Speaker 2: and the way that we correct, and the way that
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  Speaker 2: we disciple, and the way that we mentor in the
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  Speaker 2: way that we restore. So this is what this is
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  Speaker 2: what we're modeling for young men. This is what we're
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  Speaker 2: living out as shepherds in the home, and this is
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  Speaker 2: what as young men we're aiming towards. To be a godly,
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  Speaker 2: faithful one woman man to a wife. It's easy to
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of women, people do it all the time.
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  Speaker 2: It's difficult is having the character to be faithful to
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  Speaker 2: one and being the kind of man that one we
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  Speaker 2: want to stay with long term. Amen. Okay, in the
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  Speaker 2: words of that great theologian Forrest Gump, that's all I
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: have to say about that, right, And young women, young women,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: hear me on this. This is what this is what
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: you look for. This is what you look for. A
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: man who's looking for a wife, not a plaything, a
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: man who wants to be married, a man who wants
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: to be a father someday. If he says he doesn't
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: like kids, he doesn't want kids, run leave. Now. God's
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: first command, be fruitful and multiply. It's part of why
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: we're here. And I know in this culture in which
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: we live and this age in which we live, we
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: despise children. But it's a lie. It's a lie. You
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: know how I know it's a lie because we don't
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: act like that. On the back end, tell my wife
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: this all the time. But when ours were, you know,
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: we Lord have mercy. We got nine kids, we got
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: nine kids, we got nine kids. We got seven kids
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: still at home. And so we walk through the airport
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: and people do that and then with their eyes. It's
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: amazing how people with their eyes can speak whole sentences
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: because with their eyes they go all yours, and then
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: with our eyes we go yep. My favorite is when
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: we're going through the airport with our seven who are
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: still at home, and they go, at lease, all your children.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: I go, nope, we got two more, and people just
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: look like but not. On the back end, if the
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Lord should tarry and give me and my wife another
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: forty fifty years and we're surrounded at the end of
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: our days by fifty grandchildren and a hundred great grandchildren,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: nobody then nobody then is gonna go, I think all yours?
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Do you guys not have a television? Do you not
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: know what? No. On the back end, they will say
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: you are blessed that that that that should be our attitude,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: that children are blessing, that they're that they're inheritance from
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: the Lord. The other thing while we're here. Don't don't, don't,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: don't take this for granted. Can't tell you how many
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: young people have this attitude foisted on them by the culture,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: and it's you know, well, we don't want kids, we
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: may or maybe maybe maybe, And then later on in
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: their life they decide later in life that now they
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: want kids, and then they learn for the first time
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: that you don't just snap your fingers and have one.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: And now they go from ah, we don't know to God, Please, God,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: please don't buy the lie. Don't buy the lie. Secondly,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: the character issue verse seven. For an overseers God, Stewart
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: must be above reproach. There's there's that word again, so
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: above approach and his family life, and then here's above
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: approaching his character. We have negatives and then positives. He
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: must not be arrogant, quick to a drunkard, violent, or
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: greedy for gain. He must not be I should not
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: have to say. If if we see this in our sons,
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: we correct it. We we rebuke it, We we we disciple.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: There we we correct, there we we discipline. There we again.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: If we see these things, we go before the Lord
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: and pray that God roots this out of our sons,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: because that's not the makings of a godly shepherd. And
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: if as a husband and a father, you find yourself
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: struggling with arrogance and a quick temper and drunkenness or
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: violence or greed, if you're here today, repent, turn from
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: that sin. Turn from those sins, and turn to Christ
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: and fire forgiveness, find restoration in Him. And then find
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: someone to mentor you, disciple you, and hold you accountable,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: so that this is not you Verse eight, but hospitable,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: a lover of good, self controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: There's the picture. That's what we're aiming for, young women,
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: that's what you're looking for. It amazes me how many
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: times you find a man who's arrogant or quick tempered,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: or a drunkard, or violent or greedy for gain, and
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: you talk to their Christian wife who's struggling. And here's
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: what I've never heard from a Christian woman. I never
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: heard he was none of those things before we married.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I've never heard that. It's usually yes, I saw those things,
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: but I hoped that God would change him. Or worse,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I hoped that marriage would change him. Listen, marriage doesn't no,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: no marriage doesn't and it won't. Only God by his grace,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: only the Gospel, only knowledge of the truth which accords
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: with godliness. We want the hospitable, the lover of good,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: the self control, the upright, the holy, and the discipline,
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: and then finally the shepherd in his teaching, he must
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: hold firm. And by the way, this is where oftentimes
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: people say, yes, those other things, they're sort of general,
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: and they apply to all men. But certainly verse nine
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: only applies to people who serve as elders. Okay, he
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. Do
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: you not want your son to hold to sound doctrine?
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Come on, now, he must hold firm to the trustworthy
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: word as taught. How is he gonna wash his wife
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: with the water of the word If he's not holding
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: firm to the trustworthy word as taught, How's he gonna
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: do that? Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: the Lord. How does he do that if he doesn't
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: he can exhort or instruct in sound doctrine. How do
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: you instruct in sound doctrine. If you don't hold a
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: sound doctrine, how and how do you bring up children
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: in the discipline and instruction of the Lord if you're
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: not instructing in sound doctrine. No, this is this is
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: also what elders are modeling, because it's what men as
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: shepherds of the home are responsible for and young women.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Let me say this with all of the urgency that
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: I can. If you have not found a man whose
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: godliness is something that you want shepherding your children, don't
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: marry him. He'll be the father of your children, the
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: shepherd of your family. Don't do it. I don't care
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: how tall and handsome and rich and whatever else you
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: want to I don't care. I don't care. I don't care.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: It will never be enough. And there are plenty of
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Christian women who married for looks and for status and
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: for whatever else, who would plead with you and say, girl,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: if you girl, please don't do that. Don't do that.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: I would give anything to have a godly man who
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: loves the Lord, who knows the Word, who can disciple me,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: who can disciple my children, who can be a godly example,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: rather than me having to rescue my children not only
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: from the world, but from the influence of their ungodly Dad. Nothing,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: nothing is more significant than this, so that he might
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: instructing sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict this. Now,
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: this text works backwards. Remember what he says is knowledge
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: of the truth, which accords with godliness. Watch this, if
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: you go backwards from verse nine. You have a man
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: who holds to sound doctrine, so he can teach sound
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: doctrine and refute unsound doctrine. That's his knowledge of the truth.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: That knowledge of the truth accords with godliness Versus seven
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: and eight in his own life, and godliness which manifests
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: itself in the way that he shepherds his wife and
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: his children. That's what we're called to that, that's that's
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: what the Gospel produces in us. And that's what our
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: hope ought to be as husbands and fathers and wives
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: and mothers, that that our homes look like this, so
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: that generations can look like this. Not not that our
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: home guarantees those outcomes, but but we believe that God
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: is sovereign over the means as well as the ends.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: And if the ends is generations of godliness, the means
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: is a generation of faithfulness. At some point, there has
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: to be a generational faithfulness. Let me say this to you.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: My time is gone, but we don't have another service coming.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Last service, I was one minute over and I felt
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: guilty the whole time. I ain't worried about y'all, though. Okay, so,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: but I want to say this because some of you
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: know me or know anything about me. And I know
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: this because people come to me sometimes and they say
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: things like I hear that. I get that. Wives will
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: come to me and say I hear that, and I
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: get that. But you know, my husband's never seen that.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: My husband's never been exposed to that. What do you
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: do if your husband's never been exposed to that? And
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: I kind of smile. And the reason I kind of
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: smile is because I was raised by a single teenage
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: Buddhist mother in south central Los Angeles, California, drug infested,
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: gang infested south central LA. I never heard the gospel
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: till my freshman year in university. I say all that
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: to say that you don't have to grow up with
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: this in order to recognize the truth of it. In Scripture,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: our God is a father to the fatherless. Amen. Here's
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: the second thing. Well, my husband's gone, my husband died,
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: my husband left. I never had a husband. What do
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: I do? You do everything you can, and you trust
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: that God is a father to the fatherless. But here's
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: the other thing that you do. There's a three legged
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: stool here in the milk of Titus. One leg of
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: the stool is godly shepherds in godly families. The second
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: leg of the stool is godly shepherds in churches who
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: are modeling this. The third leg of the stool is
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: godly mature men and women in the church who are
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: modeling and mentoring. That's what we see in chapter two.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: So if that's not present in your home, then it
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: becomes more important that you make sure it's present in
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: your church. That you make sure that your children are
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: exposed to godly, manly elders in the church who exemplify this,
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: and that you find godly mature believers who have lived
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: this in their lives and who can be mentors for
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: you and models for your children. God hasn't left us
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: without an answer, and he hasn't left us without hope.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: He hasn't left us alone. This is important. In fact,
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: it's of the utmost importance. Most people who come to
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: know the Lord come to know the Lord through their
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: home and through their family. The overwhelming majority of people,
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: it's always been that way historically, have come to know
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: the Lord through their home and through their family. God
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: uses this, God blesses this. May we be faithful and
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: try him to do his work as we follow him
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: as godly shepherds who are raising godly shepherds, who are
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: teaching our sons to be this and teaching our daughters
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: to look for it and long for it and to
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: settle for nothing less. Let's pray, our gracious God and
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: our Father. We thank you and praise you for your
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: word for the truth of the Gospel. We thank you
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that saves
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: us and sanctifies us, that transforms us, that conforms us
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: to the very image of Christ, our Shepherd, Grant by
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: your grace that we might embrace this gospel, believe this gospel,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: and be transformed by this gospel, And that as such
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: you would raise up godly homes, godly shepherds, that you
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: would prepare equip and a call godly young men and
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: godly young women to be faithful in their day, and
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: to bear fruit for generations to come. This is our hope,
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: this is our great desire, and we ask it because
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: we do believe that it is in accordance with the
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: will of our Lord, Savior, Master, Redeemer and King. And
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: so we pray this in his name and for his sake. Amen.