Please, if you would, turn in your Bibles to Titus, Chapter one. Titus, Chapter one. Now, as we rejoin our series on the Book of Titus, we're studying this letter for a particular reason. The Book of Titus is Paul the Apostle's instructions about how to build strong churches on the frontier of the Gospel. The island of Crete was something like the Wild west of the ancient world. There were full of colorful characters and crazy sin issues and a burgeoning barren forming church. And so Paul and Titus, after evangelizing, beginning some organization, Paul leaves Titus with instructions to build a strong set of churches at this frontier of the Gospel. And that's exactly what we want to do here at Cross of Grace. And so we are learning from his example.
We're going to be reading about leadership today from Titus, Chapter one, verses five through nine. And as we read, I want to invite you to think about what your expectations are for leadership versus what may be emphasized here. Titus 1, verse 5. This is God's word. This is why I left you in Crete. So that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant, or quick tempered, or a drunkard, or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good self, controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firm to this trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it. This is God's word.
And Lord, we pray for your blessing on the teaching and the hearing of your Word in your presence. Amen.
That's the headline of the whole book. Everything Paul is going to instruct Titus to do is this reordering of life. And I love this phrase, put what remains into order. Because in many ways, this is a short summation of the whole movement of the Gospel. The whole movement of the Gospel is from disorder back to order under the lordship of Christ. Because remember, in Genesis 1 and 2, things were created orderly and beautiful. And the Lord's continued phrase is, it was good. It was good. It was good. It was very good until Genesis 3. And then when sin enters the world, all of a sudden, everything gets disrupted. And notice what happens in Genesis 3. Immediately, everything orderly becomes disordered. Adam and Eve's relationship to God is disordered. Their relationship to one another is disordered. Their relationship to the world around them is disordered. And this is how humanity continues until the coming of Christ. Coming of Christ is so significant because in him we see the perfect order of God walking around on the earth. And through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus begins to take disorderly sinners and make them into reordered saints of Jesus Christ.
Now, that is ongoing. And so what Paul says is, I put, I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained in order. How are we going to do that? By appointing first elders in every town. What Paul does is very significant. He looks at all of the craziness and the wild west nature of the island of Crete and goes, okay, this island needs a lot of things, but here's where we're going to start. We're going to start with setting up the church.
Now, that's really significant. And it's important for us here, too, because, look, I love our city of El Paso. I love the Frontera region. But There was so much that's disordered here, isn't there? There's so much that's broken in our communities. There's fatherlessness and poverty and addiction and broken marriages and families. And we could suggest a lot of things that need to change in El Paso, right? I mean, at the top of my list would be a mandatory retaking of driver's ed for every single person in the city. That would just be where I would start, right? I'd be like, okay, first things first. Does everyone know how to drive? How did you guys pass? We're going to start there. Maybe you have ideas. We need this. We need that. We need this. You know where Paul starts? He looks at the Wild west and says, you know what? This needs a church. And he does that because the church is the vehicle of gospel reordering of lives. He takes sinners and makes them saints, reordered under the lordship of Christ. He gathers them into the church and then he sends them out into the island that it might bring order again to every heart on the island of Crete, right? That's the trajectory. And by the way, that's why we as Christ. Somebody asked me recently, why are we trying to plant a church in Horizon? This is why we're trying to plant a church in Horizon. This is why we want to continue to build churches that plant churches. Because this is part of the mission of God, that we would take what we have and begin with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church of Jesus Christ to bring what is disorderly and broken around us back into peace and order and wholeness through the proclamation of the gospel and the building of the church. That's what we want to do.
6 · Structural pivot from the sermon's theological foundation (gospel reordering) to its practical outworking (leadership qualifications)
Now, how does Paul start? Well, he starts this big mission with leadership, with the leadership of the church. And as I said, remember, what we're trying to do is keep two audiences, I mean, two applications in mind. First, these are the leaders we should look for, appoint and follow. And second, these are qualities that should be present and growing in every Christian. What leaders must be is what all Christians should be as their lives are reordered by Christ. So three areas today we're going to look at. First is reordered homes.
7 · Unpacks the first leadership qualification—sexual faithfulness—by contrasting Roman cultural expectations (nobility, wealth) with Paul's countercultural starting point (private sexual purity)
Homes. Now, that's surprising, isn't it? In the Roman world, they would have started looking for leaders with. With standing, with nobility, with wealth, with citizenship. But that's not where Paul starts. Paul starts here, verse 6. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife. Now, above reproach here does not mean sinless. Only Jesus is Sinless, but it means above being, above any disqualifying charge that could be brought. And what's the first qualification? The husband of one wife. Now, you might think, okay, well, that one's easy. No polygamy check. Like, I think our church is okay so far, right? I don't have more than one wife, so check. That is not what's in view here. Literally, the language is a one woman man. Now, that does not specifically disqualify single men. Paul was single at the time. Or widowers who remarry, or those biblically divorced who get biblically remarried. Instead, the emphasis is that they are a one woman man in the sense that they are romantically and sexually faithful only to their wife if they are married and they conduct themselves in all of life in purity. Now, Greek and Roman culture was a culture of rampant sexual disorder. And ours is no different. We live in a culture of exploitative and ungodly content on all of our social media feeds and our Netflix queues. We live in a hookup culture. We live in a culture where flirtatious relationships at work are common. But Paul says, not so among the house of the Lord. We are to be one woman men. Right? This is this private area of life that often is the most private area of someone's life is the first area Paul addresses. And he dresses it, remember, because he starts with the gospel. And later in Ephesians 5, he will explain that the reason marriage is so uniquely precious and sexuality is so unique in its application is that marriage is intended to be a picture of Christ and the church, to be a picture of the gospel itself. And so the first test of a leader is this. Are they telling the truth about the gospel? Not just with their lips, not just with their confession of faith, but are they telling the truth about the gospel with their bedrooms, with their sexuality, with their romantic affection? Right? Is there a conformity that. That reflects the reality that the gospel has taken hold of their hearts?
8 · Applies the sexual purity qualification universally to the congregation, reframing it as a question of gospel truthfulness
And so the question for all of us is this. Do we, in this most private and personal area, tell the truth about the gospel? Look, we can have accolades and degrees and work successes, but if we cannot master ourselves in this area, we must pause and repent and seek help.
9 · Expounds the second home-based qualification: children who are faithfully instructed and orderly
The husband of one wife and then second, his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Now, it seems best to read that, that. That phrase believers, that literally the, the language is full of faith or faithful. And so what's in. What's in view in the. In Those. Those two sort of principles is that the elder's home, the pastor's home, the leader's home, should be full of instruction in the faith and should be orderly so that there's not rampant, chaotic sin happening. And what's in view here seems to be those children living at home. Whoa. Does that mean those children living at home with their parents? And so the effect is this. They're faithfully instructed and they are orderly.
10 · Argues that while parents are aware of countless needs (academic, social, athletic), Paul elevates two needs as foundational and non-negotiable: faithful instruction and orderly conduct
Now, these two elements are clear because, look, as parents, you're probably, like me, aware of a whole host of needs that your kids have, right? But if you're a parent, you walk around with some of those needs at the forefront of your mind. At first, it's real basic. They need food, they need sleep. You know, it's like, okay. But then they get more complicated as your kids grow up. They need help with their homework. They need grades. They need to do better on their sports team. They need friends. They need this. They need. They have a health issue. They have this. They have that. You are aware of all these needs. But Paul presses two needs in the home to the forefront, and he basically asks, is there faithful instruction and is there order in the home? Those needs are foundational for the rest of your children's lives to thrive. Look, if they're getting straight A's and they're killing it on their sports team, but they are not being instructed in the faith, and there is not an appropriate restraint toward gospel priorities and ways that honor the Lord. Friends, if we get straight A's and start athletes but don't have these, we have failed as parents, not succeeded.
11 · Applies the parental instruction and order qualifications specifically to fathers, emphasizing that church ministries can only supplement—not replace—a father's instruction
And so the reality is we hear all of those other needs loudly. But Paul says, no, no, we need to turn the volume up in these two particular areas. Now, I particularly want to press on dads here because while this in many ways is to be true of both parents, mothers and fathers, these two are particular emphases of the way that God has designed dads to function in their home. There should be a faithful instruction of the kids. Brothers, churches and ministries can supplement parental instruction, but they cannot replace faithful fatherly instruction. What your kids need from you as a dad can only come from you. Now, we want to rally around you as a church, but it's got to be there from you. It needs to be an active instruction. And then second, there needs to be clear order.
12 · Illustrates the ordering influence of fatherly presence with a study showing that simply having fathers physically present at schools reduces behavioral problems and drug use
There was this study I was talking to John Vogan about a while ago where at a school, at particular schools, they found the kids are very disorderly and have lots of crazy Behavior issues. What they found is a particular strategy that often works is that they round up dads of or men in the community, dads of people going to that school, men in the community, fathers, grandfathers, uncles. And they just have the dads show up at the school and greet everybody, you know, and they're just there while the kids are eating lunch. And they're just kind of nodding. Hey, how's it going? Good to see you all. It's funny, just the presence of dads all of a sudden, like, tones down some of the boyish, chaotic behavior that was defining the school. Drug use goes down. All this other stuff goes down when the presence of dads are there. Friends, brothers, that's what we're meant to do. We're meant to be that kind of influence on our homes.
13 · Reiterates the priority claim with stark either-or language: professional, academic, and athletic success without faithful home instruction and order is not success but failure
Because the reality is this, if we win at work, we win degrees, we win. You know, we have the best one rep max at the local gym, right? If we do all that stuff, but we fail in these two areas, we've not. We've not succeeded in. Life is where we start.
14 · Addresses the male eldership requirement explicitly by grounding it in the household metaphor for the church
Now, one key excursus here is I want you to note that it does say a one woman man, a man of one woman. Now, there is a very clear set of instructions in scripture that in the Bible's teaching, elders and pastors, who are the same thing biblically, are elders and pastors are to be male and not female. And that is explicit in this text, in First Timothy and in other places in Scripture. But notice one of the reasons why that is the case in this context. In Scripture's paradigm, the church functions like a household. Now, the church is not intended to function like a business. It's not intended to function like an army. It's intended to function like a household. And in a human household, moms and dads are both needed and they can't replace one another. Children get some things from moms that they don't get from dad. They get some things from dad they don't get from mom. They need both. They complement one another. And a particular emphasis for men is what we're talking about. It's instruction and defense or order.
15 · Illustrates the complementarian logic of male eldership with a domestic analogy: just as everyone instinctively looks to the father when there's a 'bump in the night,' so the church looks to its fathers-in-the-faith (elders) when there's doctrinal danger or false teaching
Now, let me give you a really basic illustration that's true even in our progressive age. It is very true that all of a sudden all the sort of the confusion and progressivism of the world begins to evaporate when in the middle of the night, there is a real weird noise in the house. If there is a bump in the middle of the night, typically nobody's arguing about like, well, whose role is this? Like, the kids and the mom are looking at dad going like, go ahead, better check that out, right? And typically brothers, you know that, right? You're not. Look. You're not looking. Hey, wife. You know, I mean, we. I got the last one. You know, it's like, nope. Okay, here we go. You know, marching downstairs, it's similar. Do you see how that functions? Similarly, this is the way that Titus is being instructed to set up biblical pastors and leaders. When there is a doctrinal bump in the night, when there is a threat to the church, when there is false teaching, when somebody needs to get rebuked in the faith who is called the dads of the church, the. The fathers in the faith who are functioning as elders. And that's one of the reasons you can see the wisdom of God, that for those conversations, the men are leading the way. The fathers in the faith are leading the way.
16 · Structural pivot from the first major section (reordered homes) to the second major section (reordered virtue)
All right, second area, this first area, second area is reordered virtue. Reordered virtue, verse 7.
17 · Expounds the vice list in Titus 1:7 by contrasting each trait with Roman cultural expectations
For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach, and he must not be a series of things. Arrogant, quick tempered, drunkard, violent, greedy, and he must be hospitable, Lover of good self, controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. Now there's. You can see this comparison and contrast. He should not be these things. He should be these things. So if you think about it in the mirror, when you look in the mirror, you should not see some of these things. And you should see some of these things. What should you not see? Well, essentially, it's disorderly behavior. First, not arrogant. Now, this is controversial in the first century because in. I was looking at this, in Roman culture, arrogance or pride actually was a virtue. So Romans prided themselves on being the kind of guy that could walk into the room and command it, right? Just be like, yep, I have arrived. I was reading about, you know, how guys entered the room. There was this one movie studio executive that it did not matter who, what room he entered, he would walk straight to the center of the room and fold his arms and begin talking. It didn't matter if it wasn't his office, right? He would just walk right into the middle, fold his arms and start talking. Right? That's. The Romans are like, yeah, get it right. And Paul is saying, not that, not arrogant, not quick tempered either, right? This is often in our culture, any emotion, any expression of emotion is seen as natural and good and right in many ways. But this is a restraint of our temper. This is a restraint of Our emotions. Not also a drunkard, meaning somebody not given over to addictions. And in our day that'd be alcohol, drug use, pornography use, other addictions, not violent, right? Not again, this goes with the quick tempered, not known for outbursts of anger, should not be hitting walls or yelling or violently bursting out in our home or workplaces. And last, not greedy for gain. Again, this is so counter to Roman culture. They would wear all of their finery and wealth on their sleeve.
18 · Expounds the virtue list in Titus 1:7-8, again contrasting each trait with cultural expectations
And not so Paul says, among the church, we're called away from disorder and then we are called to be reordered in a new way. Look at this. First, reordering, hospitable. Now again, this is also not a common Roman virtue. In Roman culture you would only have people over who were your same social standing and whom you already knew kind of as another noble family. You'd be like, oh, do we know them? Oh, we don't know them. They're not coming over for dinner, right? But, but in the Christian church, the highest quote unquote, officers of the church are to have their homes and doors open to all the church. Very countercultural. And they are also be a lover of good. Now this is important because you might start to get the impression that a godly Christian leader is the kind of man who just kind of walks around like this and never shows emotion. You know, as excited as he gets is like a raised eyebrow, you know, one of those, like, oh, that's the kind of man I'm supposed to be. No, no, no, this is a lover of good. Think of David in the Old Testament, rejoicing, dancing, singing. You find the right things and you are passionate about them. Right? You're not the guy, you know, sitting in church that's mumbling the words. You're the guy that whenever a truth is being projected on the screen, you are singing out because you love good. You rejoice, you're amening, you're excited about the Bible. Then excited about the right things, holding back, restraining yourself for the wrong things and then upright. This is the horizontal relationship of people around you, meaning at business you don't cut corners, you don't bend the truth. You're known as a person of integrity. And then vertically you are holy. There's a holiness in your life, there's a reverence that before God you're putting your life in front of the Lord and saying, lord, does this please you? And then the virtue that ties all these together is discipline. This is not a Childish, impulsive man, a start and stop kind of person. This is a discipline focused man going in the same direction over the long haul.
19 · Argues that the unifying concept behind all the virtue and vice lists is 'steward'—a person who sees their life, family, and ministry as entrusted resources to be managed for Christ's glory, not personal platform
Now, you might think, okay, there's a lot there. How do I tie all of this together? Well, the think the thing that ties all this together is verse seven for an overseer as God's steward. That word steward, I actually think ties all this together because essentially it reframes all of this behavior as a man aware, a person aware that the Lord has given them their life, given them their family, given them their job, and has going, what can I do that honors Christ with his resources? Right? They see the church not as a platform for their own personal game, their own personal brand, but they see the church as a stewardship. And so should every believer see what the Lord has given them.
20 · Pastoral pivot where the preacher steps out of the expositional mode to address men directly and personally
Now, I'm going to press on the guys here just for a minute, because, brothers, this passage has been working on me all week and I have been convicted all week. So I get to bring you into that now in the next few minutes because you've only dealt with this for like a half hour. I've been here all week.
21 · Identifies two dominant but false models of masculinity in contemporary culture: the Shrinking Man (passive, avoidant, mastered by vices) and the Raging Man (domineering, angry, trying to master everything)
Okay, but I think the reason that word steward is so helpful is it. Is it. It pulls us away from the two, I'd say, most common male characters in our culture, if I could say it that way. The first male character I'll call the Incredible Shrinking man, and what I mean by that is he is a man who is pushed and pulled by everything around him in life. He is a man who's mastered by other things and domineered by other things. And some of those are his own impulses. He's given to vices like pornography and alcohol or other things that he's mastered by those things. And he is pushed around in his home and community and workplace, and he seems to shrink further. And his main goal in life is to avoid conflict, avoid anything uncomfortable and get a free afternoon to be able to watch his favorite team for a few minutes. And that's kind of what he's going on, going after in life just continues to shrink. Or on the other side, you've got the incredible raging man, the angry man, the guy who looks around and is like, you know what? I am going to walk into the center of the room, and you know what? My marriage is going to conform to what I want to see. My family is going to conform to what I want to see. My workplace, they should be listening to me. And, and, and these people around me, they should be listening to me. And I know what's going on. And you're basically going, I'm not going to be mastered by anything. I'm the master. I'm going to master everything around me. And of course it ultimately is unsuccessful in every area. So you rage and you get angry and you fight and you try. And those tend to be the two most common men in our culture, right?
22 · Refutes both cultural models and presents the biblical alternative: a man mastered by Christ
But brothers, neither of them is a biblical man. And each of them notice this, each of them, there's, there are aspects to which they're commended in our culture to just being a soft spoken man who is willing to listen, who doesn't rock the boat. There are certain quarters that says, oh yeah, that's good, that's what men should be. Not this big angry man, but this, this very gentle, docile, tamed man. That's what we're looking for. Or like, no, no, no, you should be, you should be loud and strong about being a man. And that's what it means to be a man. And you should not take anything from anybody. Neither of them is biblical. And instead of being mastered by other things or seeking to master the things around you, a biblical man, hear me on this, is mastered by Christ. A biblical man is a man who goes, you know what? I am not going to be mastered by any of the vices around me because I'm mastered by Christ. And I'm also not going to try to domineer those around me because I'm a slave of Christ. I'm just a steward. This isn't mine, right? This marriage, this family, this workplace, this job, this career, this isn't mine. It's for the Lord. What does the Lord want me to do with these things? And you see where that toughness and tenderness come together in this beautiful countercultural way. And you think that seems impossible. I've never seen a guy like that. Yes, you have. And his name is Jesus Christ, right? Jesus was absolutely the strongest leader in the room in any situation. But he also would bend down and wash his disciples feet, right? He, he rejoiced at the wrong thing, at the right things, and he wept at the wrong things, right? This is who we want to be. Brothers, stewards, slaves of Christ.
23 · Broadens the application from male elders to all Christians: the trajectory of the Christian life is to grow every year more like Christ and less like the false cultural models
And so again while all of, while the leaders in the church are required to be these things, all Christians should have this as their goal and trajectory. Every year a little bit less like the bad models of masculinity and femininity around us and every year a little more like the model of Jesus Christ. That's what we want to be.
24 · Structural pivot from the second major section (reordered virtue) to the third major section (reordered ministry priorities)
And third and last reordered ministry priority. So if we have the home that's being faithfully served, if we've got a picture of virtue, we see who we want to be in the mirror, then what do we actually do in ministry in the church? Well, verse nine, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.
25 · Explains Titus 1:9's three ministry requirements (hold firm, teach, rebuke) and resets congregational expectations for leadership
Now this is an extraordinary first task. First task is notice this, it's not all of the things you normally think of when you think of a powerful notable Christian leader. The first task, hold on to the Bible, right? That's task one. Now guys, this is so important because I think many of us are going like, okay, well I want something new, I want something fresh, I want something. That's what I'm looking for from my leaders. I want something new and exciting and fresh and, and Paul is like, nope, what you want is the same word that has been trustworthy and sure for thousands of years because it comes from the very mouth of God. That's what you want. So you want to be hold firm, you want to be able to give instruction and you want to be able to rebuke those who contradict it. These are the three requirements for the Christian leader. Now the reason that's so important, before we jump in, kind of dive in in detail. The reason that's so important is that I think it resets what we're looking for in the Christian leaders around us and what we are striving to be ourselves. There are some things that we some areas in which we expect too much of Christian leaders and some areas in which we expect too little of Christian leaders. And what I mean by that is we expect too much of the non required things that the Bible never requires of Christian pastors or elders or leaders. And what I mean by that is so often we expect Christian leaders to all be visionaries, to all be master counselors, to all be perfect community organizers, to all be political experts, to all be our best friends, to all be skilled at social media and getting things to go viral, to all be great at writing and business and video content and all the rest. And we're like, yeah, that's what I'm looking for. For right. Look, if this is your church, okay, this is what you want to, you know, obviously I'm speaking to people who are going to church here, but I know a number of you are going to end up in other places and you're going to be thinking about, okay, what, what am I looking for in the Christian leaders at my church or in the Christian leaders I'm going to follow. And friends, let me encourage you and charge you. Don't put unbiblical burdens on the Christian leaders in your life. Right. I, I think that many of them will be gifted in one or two or three of those good optional areas. But too often we expect too much of the non required things. But then let me encourage you with this. Hold the line and do not expect too little of the most important things. And what I mean by that is a Christian leader, a pastor or an elder must do these things. They must. They must hold on to the trustworthy word when the culture around them is raging. They must be able to know and love and explain the Bible and they must have the courage to say hard things when things are out of alignment with the word of God. They must. So do not compromise there. Look for a guy, he may look different than you expected. But brothers and sisters, if he is faithful in these areas, he is a faithful pastor. That's what we want to pursue here.
26 · Applies the first ministry requirement (hold firm to Scripture) to all Christians using a naval warfare analogy
So if we're going to do this, if we're going to all grow in these things, here are three things, three areas that every Christian is to grow in as a trajectory. While we might not all be skilled to teach publicly or skilled as counselors, we all should hold on to the Bible, know how to explain it and be able to rebuke false teaching. Okay? So number one, hold firm to the trustworthy word. Now this is, I get the picture of that Napoleonic era of sailing master and commander thing where in the middle of a storm or in the middle of a fire fight where the deck is being hit with cannonballs and everything is splintering, often you'd have the first mate shouting out, hold fast sailors, hold fast, fast. If you see these old movies, sometimes they'll be calling out hold steady, hold. You know how many times they're just saying the guys hold, right? They have a bunch of stuff to do. You know what they can't do. If they're not holding fast, they're not going to be able to do anything else. If these guys are sliding off the deck, if their courage fails and they're huddled up in a corner, nothing else matters. And so the call from the captain and the first mate is hold fast, hold fast. Friends, we are need to be those who, with the Christians around us where God has given us influence are to be calling out hold fast. When there's storms in our lives and storms in the lives of people we're in home group with and storms in our kids lives, we're to be calling out in the middle of the storm. Hold fast. Hold on to the word. It's trustworthy. He never lies, he's faithful. He's with us. That's where to be calling out, hold firm. Hold firm. Amen. I think we should encourage one another with that. Hold firm.
27 · Applies the second ministry requirement (teach sound doctrine) to all Christians
Second, give instruction in sound or healthy doctrine. Now this is the particular skill of the pastor, the particular expertise that's called for. And it might be in big public meetings, that might be in very private counseling moments, but that's where the pastor is recognized, required to be skilled. But all Christians are under the mandate of Matthew 28, which is to make disciples, teaching them to do all that Jesus commanded. That might look like, you know, with your kids, that might look like in a home group, that might look like over a coffee with a brother or sister. We are all to be growing in the ability to say brother, sister, come along with us. Me, let's go to the Word. Let me explain what that means. We're all to do that.
28 · Applies the third ministry requirement (rebuke false teaching) to all Christians
And third, rebuke those who contradict sound doctrine. Now look, we are not all just called to instruction, but defense. All of us, every single Christian must be able to say, that's wrong according to the Bible. We have to. Now, we live in an age where any rebuke or any correction is often seen as inappropriate or unfriendly or unhelpful. Right? We just want to go to people that are going to affirm us and, and console us. And we don't. We gravitate away from people that say, you're doing it wrong. Right? It's like, I'm not going to meet with that guy anymore. He told me I was doing it wrong. And, and yet that is what we're all called to do at times, to say brother or sister, I love you. But it is not right according to the Word. And pastors in particular must be courageous enough to have hard conversations and say hard things at times.
29 · Illustrates faithful ministry with a personal anecdote about a seasoned pastor in his 70s still pursuing growth in clarity and simplicity—still taking classes, still wrestling with the text, still making sure the Bible is open in counseling
Now, last month I had the opportunity to sit with some guys that have been around in ministry for a number of decades. And one of the guys was a well known leader who had been leading in the church since his, basically his early 20s and he's in his early 70s, so he had about 15 years of experience to look back on. And I was so challenged and encouraged by a couple of things he said and ways in which he was still trying to grow. So this is the guy in his 70s saying, I'm still trying to grow in these areas. And the first thing he said he was still trying to grow in is he said, man, when it comes to my preaching, I really am just trying to grow in, being clear. And he was taking classes. He was still reading books. He was still trying to get into the Word. He was still wrestling with text. And his goal, like, if I'm, like, In my early 70s, I'm thinking, I got 50 years of experience. I think I'm good. I don't need any more classes. I'm just not gonna read any more books. I read a bunch of books. All right, I did the time. I'm good now. But not. So this brother, he's like, I just. I just want to be more clear is what he was saying. And then the other thing is when it comes to counseling, when he sits across from people one on one or in a small group to help them wrestle with the things of the Word, he said one thing that he had been growing in was making sure that whenever he met with somebody, the Bible was open, and he invited the person he was talking to to read it. And I just thought, oh, that's probably good. Yeah, like. Like, you don't want to forget that. That's. I'm going to write that down, Open Bible and read in counseling moments, right? And I'd love just his humility and simplicity. Saying, man, it's so easy. You got all this stuff going on. You're asking questions, you're thinking about what problems I just don't want to forget. Open the Bible. Read it. Open the Bible. Read it. Friends, that's the picture of a Christian leader. It may not be flashy. It may not involve a Steve Jobs entrance with perfectly choreographed lights, but this is what faithfulness looks like in leadership. And this is the model for us.
30 · Pivots from exposition to pastoral confession and gospel reassurance
Now as we close, I got one confession and one hope. Okay? So the confession is this. I need this text as much as anyone else does. This text has been going to work on me. And if you have been able to read this text and process it and go like, yeah, I think I'm good, then I don't know if that's healthy. Because this text is designed to show the mirror of what the trajectory of a Christian leader is. And to say, become more and more like this, and we should all be going, there's room for improvement. But second, the beautiful hope is this. When we see the impurities and the disordered parts of our life. The hope is the gospel that Paul started with in verses 1 through 4. The hope is not, friends. The gospel is not. You're disordered. You need to get reordered. And then Jesus will Love you and save you. That's not the gospel. The gospel we started the letter with is this. God sees you disordered and sinful, and he sent Christ because he loves you in order to save you. Period. That's the gospel. And so that's where we start. We start this long list only after Paul's encouragement to think. Think about the gospel and its impact on our lives. You know, there's this beautiful picture in Zechariah 3. We don't have time to turn there, but I encourage you to read it this week. The picture in Zechariah 3 that I was wrestling with is a vision of the high priest, who's supposed to be holy. He's supposed to be blameless. Real particular calls for what his clothes are to look like. And the vision is that he's standing in front of. Of God with stained clothes, with filthy clothes, right? And the Lord is saying, my people, this is a picture of you. You all stand in front of me with stained or torn and dirty clothes. But you know what the Lord does in that moment? He doesn't leave Joshua there, the high priest, and say, you go clean yourself up. He says, remove from him the iniquity, the garments of iniquity, and clothe him with pure vestments. Do you see what the Lord does? He takes those things, and he gives us his own perfect record and righteousness.
31 · Illustrates imputed righteousness with a childhood memory of learning to tie a tie
You know, years ago, when I was standing in front of the mirror and trying to learn to tie a tie, and you know when you're a young man and you're trying to learn to tie a tie, and you're. And I'm watching my dad, he's next to me, and he's like, okay, like this. And I'm like, okay, like this. And then like that, and then like that. And then he's like. And then you just do this. And then I'm like, I don't know. And it's just like this. This is what the tie looks like. And I'm going like, I don't think this is. This isn't it, right? And so I would try. I would try. But here's what's beautiful. The first few times I had to go to some formal event, like a wedding, you know what my dad would do? He would tie the tie around his own neck, loosen it, and then place it on me. And that is a picture of what Jesus does for every one of us. Christ, when we're like, going, this is not it. I know this is disordered. I know this is a mess. Jesus removes it from us and places on us his righteousness.
32 · Concluding application bringing the gospel and the call to holiness together
And so, friend, if you are aware of an area this morning that you think this is wrong, this is disordered, I need to change. The passage would tell you two things. One, you do need to change. But two, you start by remembering that you have been changed by Jesus Christ, that his righteousness has been over laid onto your life. Even in that particular area of failure, God loved you enough that he sent his son for you, that that area might be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. That area. And so, friends, the good news is I did eventually learn to tie my own ties. And so my dad is not currently still handing me tithes. And that's a picture of the Christian life, right? We receive the righteousness of Christ, but then more and more in our lives, Jesus says, okay, like this now, like this now, like this. And more and more we begin to look like him. Friends, that's. That's what we're all called to. Amen.
33 · Closing charge inviting the congregation to prayerful self-examination in light of the sermon
Would you stand? And let's pray this morning. And as we stand, I just want to encourage you to take this moment. I know we're about to move on quickly. Just take this moment and do two things. One, ask the Lord. Lord, is there a particular area in the mirror that you want me to see? Sometimes we just don't want to look in the mirror, do we? I know I don't at times. And just let's go before the Lord, say, lord, where do I need to see what I don't want to see in the mirror today? Where do I need to repent? Where do I need to ask for your forgiveness? Where do I need to acknowledge that there is an area of my life that's been disordered? Lord, help me to see it. And then that particular area, then I want to encourage you to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a gift for you. If you're not currently a believer, this is an invitation. This moment is for you to allow the Lord to do what he dearly desires to do, which is to take the mess off of your life, to take that mangled tie off of you and place upon you his righteousness. And all you need to do is receive it as a gift in faith, as Paul would say, to say, lord, I believe that you're my Savior, I believe that you're my Lord. I believe you're the perfect man that I could not be. Would you save me? Would you change me? And the Lord today will do that. And if you are in Christ, you have done that. It is a particular application of the blood of Christ, of the righteousness of Christ, to that area to remember. You're not walking around before the face of God a mess anymore. You have been declared righteous because of what Christ has done. Now the Lord invites you to begin to look more and more like the picture of Christ that has covered your life. And so, as we sing, I just want to encourage you, whatever that area is, surrender that area to the Lord this morning. Amen.