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Getting Things In Order Where It Really Counts

Pastor Floyd's 5th message from the series "Getting Things In Order"

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You know over a little over a year ago Nick Floyd preached on the passage that I’m about to preach.  I was gone one Sunday, and he decided he would delve into Titus 2, and uh, he sent me what he had done a little over a year ago this week, and I found something I wanted to share with you because I think it’s so worthy of recounting it.  I want to use it as an illustration to begin our thinking, and you’ve got to dial in with me, or you may get lost from the very beginning.

I want to talk to you about the world and it’s filled with boys who can shave.  Historically a guy would go through two life phases: boy then man.  The transition from boy to man was comprised of five sociological variables that happened almost simultaneously or close in succession, and here they are.  Any of this sound familiar?  Leave your parents home.  Finish your education or vocational training.  Start a career track.  Job, not a dead-end joe one.  Meet women, love her, honor her, court her, and marry her.  Have children with her.  Therein lies those five sociological successions.

But here’s what happened.  Rather than moving from boy to man, we’ve created something called adolescence.  It’s a third life stage in the middle between boy and man.  We don’t know what to call them so we just call them guys.  These are boys who can shave.  Today adolescence starts somewhere in the teen years, and continues indefinitely.  There is no foreseeable end.

The problem with adolescence is guys don’t know when they’re ever going to grow up and be men, and no pressure is exerted upon them to do so.  Is it when you’re 16 and you can drive?  Or 18 when you can vote and join the military?  Is it when you graduate from college after you’ve worked on your undergrad degree for 7 or 8 years?  Can I get a witness?   Is it when you get married?  Is it when you have kids?  Is it when you buy a house?  No one knows.  So we are left in this indefinite adolescence and a Peter Pan syndrome epidemic where men want to remain boys forever.

Sadly that is not simply a problem in the male gender, it is also a problem in the female gender.   I got a witness down here on that.  There seems to be a fear growing up.  A fear about growing up, a fear about aging, a fear about maturing.  What’s to fear?  Why is there so much fear about it?

I thought about this this week and I thought I would share it to you in a defining statement.  In America aging is a growing reality, but it still remains highly underrated.  And even maturity in life is extremely undervalued. Now I want you to get your arms around what I just said.  I want you to look at that statement.  Aging is a growing reality; we’re older than we’ve ever been in the lifetime of America that is.  I mean people are aging, they’re getting older, they are living longer because of progressive ability in medicine, and some people are taking care of themselves better so they’re living longer.  But you know what?  It doesn’t matter what the aging issue is; it’s far underrated.

How many people do you know that would say, “Boy I cant…I’m so excited about being old!”  We don’t value that very much.  And sadly even maturity is, is highly and extremely undervalued.  You would think that people would want to applaud maturity, but sometime we want to run from it because maturity has a way to convict the other person, and maturity has a way of holding you accountable when you’re around someone who is mature.

In Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 10, Paul speaks to the cutting edge issues of the American culture.  But before we work through the passage, what I want to do is I want to take you on a flight with me in a jet.  I want you to look at this passage from 30,000 feet up because we can get so deep in the passage we will lose ourselves.  That’s not what I want to do today.  I want to stay up, but we’re going to go down, and we’re just not going to stay down very long.  But, but, if you, you go deeper solely you will lose what it means.  So from 30,000 feet up, what is Paul trying to say?

First of all he says that sound doctrine that is expressed through right living.  This passage values sound doctrine that is expressed through right living.  I’m telling you that is very important for us to understand.  This passage adds major value to living out what you say you believe.  And for whatever it’s worth, right living is gospel living.  There is no right living apart from the Gospel.  We cannot live better because we want to.  We are all fallen creatures.  We’re not in the process of getting better; we’re in a process of getting worse apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This passage also values each stage of life in each generation.  How important that is.  It speaks to every stage, to each generation.  This morning in our worship service while we were doing that very song in our first service at Springdale, one of our great members began to have physical issues, and I noticed people running to her, and I went back and had prayer with her.  Her name is Neva Buchanan, one of our finest.  And I was reminded of how valuable that generation is.

You see every generation is.  Today we imagine that if it’s new we want it, if it’s next, we love it.  But we don’t value the now, or the then.  I just want to say it to all of Cross Church; I don’t want a church that just has a bunch of young adults in it, even though I would love to have a church with thousands of young adults.  Why?  Because that alone is not simply a New Testament church.  A New Testament church is a multi-generational church.  And for whatever it’s worth, if we had a church with just young adults in it, you couldn’t pay for a lot of it.

Thirdly, this passage values one generation investing in the next generation.  In fact I tell you it could be the most illustrative illustration of that anywhere in the New Testament.  One generation investing in the next generation.

And finally, it values living your faith out personally, in your family, through your church, and in your workplace.  Those four major areas, and whatever this is worth, none of these can be separated, none of them can be categorized, they’re all in a box together, and each one should have a Gospel flair, and a Gospel bent.

So in other words if you want to take what we said, and you want to break it down even further, you can say that this passage values the following:  Getting Things in Order Where it Really Counts.  That’s what the passage values.  And that is exactly what we’re talking about today.  We’re going to talk about your personal life.  We’re going to talk about the family.  We’re going to talk about the church, and we’re going to talk about the workplace because that’s where it really counts.

Now I want us to move our discussion to what the passage teaches.  We talked about what it values, now let’s talk about what it teaches.  Chapter 2, verse 1, what we’re going to do is we’re going to read a verse we’re going to work through the verse.  Then we’re going to move on to the next verse.  That’s the way we’re going to do it today.  But what is this verse saying?  The Bible says these words in Titus chapter number 2, verse 1.  “But as for you,” now let’s just stop right there.  That is a sharp contrast to what he has been talking about.  He changes the identity and the motion of the text.  In chapter 1 if you’ll remember what we talked about is that new Christians had come about.  Paul had been there.  A great move of God had taken place.  Now he was placing Titus there to appoint elders in the church for the purpose of of leading them and, and teaching them what was right.

Why?  Because of an infiltration of false teaching, and false teachers.  Here’s what he is saying in the passage in chapter 2, verse 1.  While that was true of false teaching and false teachers, “But as for you,” what a minute!  Channel changed!  Things are different here.  And what does he say about it?  “Teach what accords with sound doctrine.” Teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Here’s what Paul is teaching Titus to teach.  Teach people how to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Teach people that it’s not simply about what you say you believe, even though that is absolutely critical, but it’s you living out what you say you believe.  We call this Gospel living.  All the way from verse 1 to verse 10, he talks about the Gospel and adorning the church of Jesus Christ by living the Gospel.

If you will remember over in the first part of chapter 1 he talks about how we need to live in accordance with godliness, truth which accords with godliness.  We find that in chapter 1, verse number 2.  Therefore he is saying, he is saying to us right gospel living is rooted in biblical truth.  In other words you’re never going to live beyond what you believe, but you better make sure you believe the right thing.  And once you know you believe the right thing, you had better live it or else we’re going to lose our testimony in the community.

He says here that Gospel living is never rooted in cultural idealism, but in biblical truth, sound body, sound truth.  That same word sound is the word healthy.  Healthy doctrine.  Listen to this.  Five times in the book of Titus does Paul call Titus to teaching sound doctrine, healthy doctrine.  And the call in this section from verse 1 all the way through verse 10 is live your life in a way that corresponds with the biblical truth that you say you believe.

And then he tells us how to do it in each generation.  Isn’t that an amazing thing?  I mean God has given you a prescription about how to live when you’re young, when you’re older.  That’s gospel, and He’s telling us how to live out the Gospel.  Therefore, let’s move to verse number 2.  Verse number 2 everything changes, because verse number 2 begins to talk about those generations.  We’re going to talk about older men.  He talks about older men.

Chapter 2, verse 2.  Listen to the text.  “Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.” Now who are older men?  Older men are men who are leaders.  They’re older than other men.  They’re men who are leading other men.  Perhaps we can say, we will say that in relationship to the woman, but perhaps it is when that man is no longer able to bear children that he would end up being categorized as an older man.

However, I don’t want to go completely that far because here’s the reality.  If you’re older than somebody else, you have an accountability and a responsibility to that younger man.  But in relationship to the older man, listen to what he says.  He said you have to be leaders in restraining your desires relating to all the indulgences.  Relating to all the indulgences.  Sober-minded, that’s what that means.

He says you need to be dignified, meaning you need to be respected.  He says here in the text that you need to be self-controlled, which means you’re not giving yourself to frivolity, and to carelessness.  In other words, older men are not to act like they are adolescences.  They’re not.  There’s no such thing biblically as adolescence.

And we need to be leaders in something else, notice what he says here.  Sound in faith.  Leaders in faith.  Leaders in trusting God.  I want to say this to every older man in this room today, no one needs to have more faith than the older men in this church.  You need to be a man committed to a great life of faith.  People don’t need to look at you and wonder what you believe, wonder whether or not you’re a Christian, wonder whether or not you’re committed to this or committed to that.  They need to know that when it’s tough, when it’s challenging, you’re the one standing up and saying I believe God!  That’s faith.

And you need to be leaders in loving all people.  He talked about how those men need to be loving all people.  Very important to love.  I want to say this to every older man today.  Life has a way of making you bitter.  Life has a way of making you cynical.  Don’t buy into cynicism, and don’t buy into becoming bitter.  Men never let anyone outside of your circle of love.  It doesn’t matter what they say about you, or do to you, never let anyone outside of your circle of love.

And then he calls us to be leaders in faithfulness.  That’s what the word steadfastness means.  Leaders in faithfulness.  Faithfulness to what?  Listen to this.  The very things he’s talking about in the passage.  God.  Family.  Church.  Overall, finishing well.  All the way to the end, finishing well.  I thought about this this week and uh, this is kind of a challenging thing to talk about but, but, but because I want to finish well, I, I know we hear a lot about that, and all, but you know there’s not a lot of men, older men, finishing well.  There’s just not.  They get caught up in stuff.  And I thought this week why is that so?

The passage speaks to it, because they cannot restrain themselves, and they lack self-control.  Let me say it another way.  They may shave, but they’ve never grown up.  And what we have to do is to grow up in the Lord so we can call our adolescent tendencies even when we’re 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years of age into order!  And not become enslaved to it.

Then he moves the passage to older women.  Now, let’s read about what older women are to be, and to do.  Let’s start in verse 3.  “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.  They are to teach what is good.”  Verse 4.  “And so train the young women,” that’s another thing the older women need to be, and now he is absolutely making a transition here and all of a sudden he’s talking about younger women also.  “So train the young women to love their husbands,” not leave their husbands, “to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be reviled.”

Question?  When is an older woman become an older woman?  I ain’t going there!  Amen?  However I felt all week when I was studying this I needed to just sit down during this part and let Jeana come teach.  Some of y’all would like that but she doesn’t like to talk in front of a lot of people, at least she says she doesn’t.  And, I’m not so sure that’s always true.  But regardless she really doesn’t, that doesn’t, you know that’s not her deal.  So I wouldn’t want to put her under that pressure.  However, I’m just going to tell you what the Scripture says.  How about that?  Because the Scripture, you don’t ever have to apologize for it.

Many people would say that the older woman, once she enters into times when she cannot bear children then she becomes the older woman.  Again, I’m not sure that needs to be the credentials, because in reality if you are older than someone else, you have been called by God to pour your life into them if you have something worth in your life pouring them in about.

So he tells us here that older women need to be holy women of God.  Holy women of God.  Verse 3; reverent in behavior.  That means to be holy women of God.  Listen to it this way: living out the Gospel.  Someone needs to look at the life of an older woman and say man she lives the Gospel.  She lives for Christ.  Man, she exuberant in her faith.

And then it tells what an older woman should not do.  She should not become a slanderer.  Isn’t that amazing out of all people to speak to the issue of slander, he doesn’t deal with it with anybody else, but he speaks to it relating to older women.  The Bible here uses the word in the Greek the same word for the word devils.  It used 34 times in the New Testament referring to Satan, and here’s the important thing, he is calling women not to be used of Satan to accuse others falsely, to become gossips, spreading half-truths and lies, never being enslaved to any kind of drink that would ever cause them to dishonor Jesus Christ.

And while those things they will not do, here’s what he says an older woman needs to do.  Teach others how to please God.  Younger women how to please God.  Teaching here does not mean that we need to imagine a lecture stand and a woman standing up in a classroom, and let’s say this was all women here, and she is teaching those women.  Now while that has value and I’m not discrediting that, and that’s a part of teaching, that’s not what he’s really saying here.  He is saying you do it through life example, and through pouring yourself into the younger women.  It’s called mentoring those women.

So older women according to verse 4 and 5, are to train, here’s the transition, younger women.  Which means they are to instruct them to behave wisely, and to use good discernment.  And he mentions 7 areas that the older woman needs to talk to the younger woman about.  And I want to say this to every younger, or older woman, and I want to say it to every older man.  You cannot mentor someone to be something that you are not already yourself.  Don’t try to do that.

I think sometimes in today’s church you know when I was growing up in church, I have to admit I grew up in a small church, 30 to 40 on Sunday, that was a great day.  I drove by it a week ago when I was there to see my mom, and I’m telling you I showed my son, I showed my grandsons, and I told them that’s where I got saved, and it’s just a little bit bigger than that choir loft.  All right?

But we didn’t even know what the word mentoring meant.  I didn’t even know what that word meant.  I never had anybody mentor me.  I’d probably be better if I had of, but you know we didn’t get into formal relationships like everybody’s emphasizing today.  And I’m not saying that’s the way it ought to be, or shouldn’t be, I’m just telling you the key is you can’t take anybody somewhere that you yourself are not living.

Now ladies, older women, here is what God tells you to pour into the lives of younger women.  These seven things: teach them to love their husbands.  Loving him unconditionally, I might add.  And loving him in a determined manner.  The Scripture here is referring to loving him in a determined manner even with affection.  And I want this for all of the women to make you feel better, you’re not even to do that, excuse me, let me say it better this way: you are to do that even if he is not worthy!  And all of us are a bunch of jug heads, so none of us ever get worthy ladies.  You know I’m sorry, but that’s what God, you know, He asked you to do.  I ain’t going there any further.

He’s telling us to be secondly, ladies, to be lovers of their children.  Loving the children in every way, loving them sacrificially, loving them in a way that only a mother can love, and a mother can do.  Let me put it this way, wives and mothers are called according to the Scripture to set the love thermostat with affection in the home.  Wow.  Some of you guys are thinking man I hope the thermostat gets reset!  Well that’s between you and your bride.  I’m not going there either.

Thirdly, to be self-controlled.  Pour into younger women about what it means to be self-controlled.  You know what that indicates?  It indicates a disciplined life, controlled by the Holy Spirit of God.  That’s what it means.  And by the way, you cannot have self-control apart from the fruit of the Spirit, the filling of the fruit of the Spirit in your life.  It’s impossible!  It’s impossible!  Go to Galatians 5.  Go to Galatians 6.  It’s impossible!

Fourth, to be pure.  Pure.  We hear a lot in our day about how men are impure, and men are leaving their wives, or men are you know, they’re on the internet, they’re going things they don’t need to be doing, they’re doing this, doing that.  Let me tell you something folks, that’s all changed.  You know you can stay on that track if you want, but that’s an old worn out track, and yes men are doing that, but let me just tell you something, women are doing it in the same manner.  And here’s what the call is, be true to your husband in your mind, and in your heart.

I’ve never picked up one of those romance novels, but I’m going to tell you there are people all over the world that absolutely are concerned with those romance novels.  I’m not saying that’s bad or good.  I don’t know if they’re rated G, PG, PG-13, or R, and don’t really care because I’m not going to read one.  That’s between you and the Holy Spirit of God, but whatever you put in your mind, it needs to lead you to your husband, not away from your husband.

Fifth, working at home.  Working at home.  Now I want to, I want to really grab your hearts here because I want to talk about what the passage does not say, as well as what it says.  What the passage does not say is that a woman cannot work outside of the home.  To say that you are interpreting that falsely.  That’s not what the passage is saying.  But regardless if a woman is working inside the home, or outside the home, or both, what the passage is saying is, is that the family needs to be the most important thing in your life, and willing to sacrifice for them!  And you don’t sacrifice for them on the alter of anything else because that’s the value of the family and the life of an older woman, and a younger woman.

You know we have a lot of ladies who are employed at our church.  We honored one today that’s been with us 20 years.  She’s an incredible woman.  And behind her on the stage were all of these kids, and these grand, now grandchild and another one on the way, and I mean she’s an incredible model.  But she has to manage all of that all the time.  Now sometime she looks like she’s trying to manage all of it.  She gets a little frazzled at times.  I understand that.  I try to be compassionate to that.  But I want to say this to you today, that is between you and the Lord, but just remember don’t ever neglect your family.  Figure out how to do it.  Y’all figure out your scheme, and what you do is between you and God.  But let’s remember what the passage doesn’t say, as well as what it says.

He said also you need to pour kindness into that person.  She works in her home not with an iron hand, but you teach her to operate with kindness to her family.  Seventh, pour into those younger women about being submissive to their own husbands.  Do you know what that word means?  That means living under the authority and the leadership of your husband, bringing honor to your husband.

Ladies, listen very carefully, do not dishonor your husband publicly.  You will ruin him, and I want to say to all of us as men, while the passage here doesn’t speak to it in this relationship towards us, one of the worst things we can ever do is dishonor our wife publicly.  You will shut her heart to you.

Now why is all that important?  Listen to what he says.  So that the Word of God may not be reviled.  Now think about that.  So the Word of God will not be reviled.  That means that His people view their life personally and when people view your life in marriage, the Word of God is not being maligned.  They don’t look at you and see you not living out the Gospel.  They don’t look at you in that regard.  No.  They look at you as being a serious woman of God who lives out her faith in all of those phases, and that is what our goal needs to be.

Now let’s talk about younger men.  Younger men.  Who are younger men?  Well all those that are still obviously bearing children, probably younger men would be anybody that is uh, uh you know doing that, and so here’s what the Scripture says in verse 6 about that.  And he says this, he says, “Likewise urge the younger men to be self-controlled.” Then he moves to talking about giving words for Titus, but let me remind you Titus was a younger man, therefore, what he was telling Titus also has application for all the younger men.  And notice what he says about that in verse 7.  “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech, and cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.”

Once again he talks about the power of the personal testimony.  So here is what he’s urging younger men to do.  He is urging them to do one major thing.  It’s very interesting that he does this.  One.  Think about all, think about all the younger men in this room that still have children at home.  You think about all the junk in your life, and all the challenges in your life, and he tells Titus now listen out of all those things, they’re important, let me tell you how you deal with all of it.  You teach them self-control.  Pretty insightful.

I take you back to Galatians 5, the filling of the Holy Spirit.  I take you back to chapter 5, verse 22, 23 about the Fruit of the Spirit.  What is one of the fruit?  Self-control.  Here is what he is saying.  Urge those men to be self-controlled, showing restraint in the right areas of life, and not letting their immaturity manipulate them towards sin!  And we all have elements of our immaturity still with us.  So he’s referring here to boys probably as young as 12, and those are that you know not past the child-bearing years, to might be who knows, 50, 60’s, who knows.  But listen, teach younger men to have the quality of self-control.

And if we teach young men how to have the quality of self-control, this will keep them from acting like boys when they’re 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 years of age.  Anybody want to give me a witness?  It will keep them pure, and will keep them being team players, rather than thinking like most men think; it’s always about us.

Verse 7 and verse 8 the transition goes to Titus, but it’s still applicable to young men.  He says that young men are to show themselves to be a worthy example, and to model a good works.  Younger men need to be busy for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, doing good works through the church serving others.  I want to say this to all of you that’s still have kids at home, younger men, let me tell you what Paul is telling you, no one needs to be more busy for the Gospel, and busy for the Gospel through their church than younger men!  You say well I tell you what it’s a different culture.  It’s a different day.  Hey, come on now, you don’t think those truths are eternal?  Well you know I’ve got kids and they’re in this and that, and oh by the time I do that, and I go out here and work 40, 50, 60 hours week, boy I don’t have anything left.  Well you better find something left.  Perhaps you need to create greater margin in your life.  Perhaps there’s some things you’re involved in you don’t need to be involved in.  I’m just telling you Paul is calling us to get our best for Jesus when we’re young.

Being full of integrity, being full of character, having dignity in all situations, he calls us to.  He says speak words that are controlled by the Holy Spirit.  Listen to this younger men, speak words that are controlled by the Holy Spirit, rather than losing control, and acting like an idiot when your kids shot gets blocked, or you’re at a baseball game and the umpire calls ball rather than strike, or strike rather than ball.  Um-hm.

Why is all that important?  Here’s why, look at it, that an opponent will be put to shame having nothing evil to say about you.  Listen, anyone who is opposed to the Gospel, when you’re living by the Gospel, they can’t criticize you in that regard with credibility that is.  Anyone who, who is a non-Christian that would say something evil about Christians, you take away their arsenal if you’re Gospel living.  What he is saying is younger men do not discredit the Gospel in the minds of others by your word, and by your conduct.

I want to say this to all the younger men, and I just want to categorize it this, younger men that are 20 to 59, can I say this to you?  Don’t discredit the Gospel to your own children because the Gospel’s not really important to you.  Oh it might be important to you that the Gospel’s taken around the world, and people can be saved because you realize enough theologically that people are lost, and people need Christ as Savior to go to heaven when they die, but what about all that Gospel living that he is talking about here in chapter 2, verse 1 through 10 that has to be just as real as living out the Great Commission of making disciples of all the nations?

You see we can say all day long that we’re a Christian, and that we love God, and that we love the Church, but listen, you better remember this guys, it’s all about modeling it!  Modeling it!  In fact that’s the very word that he uses here in the text.  It reminds me of a word that I believe is worthy of every younger man, and every younger woman.  Listen carefully, you teach what you know; you reproduce in your children what you are.  You teach what you know, teach them what you know from the time they get up to the time they go to bed.  That’s what Deuteronomy 6 says.  It’s called the shema.  You teach them to love God from the moment they get up to the moment they go to bed.  You can teach that!  You know it!  But listen carefully; you will reproduce what you are.  And you have to be worried about the credibility within your home as much as you’re worried about the credibility in the community.  Can I get a witness?

Verse 9 and 10 there’s a shift.  He talks about slaves.  We don’t live in a slave culture today where work is done by slaves, and thank God for that!  But we leave in a free culture where work is done by people, and people are employed in the workplace.  So I want to talk about employees because that’s really what he’s indicating here.  Employees are to be submissive to their own masters in everything, their own leaders in everything.  They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that in everything that may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior.

Now listen, we are told how to act in the workplace, and we need to act like.  Here’s what he says we need to be.  Employees, we’re to be submissive to those that we are under their authority.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s the home, or whether it’s the workplace.  It’s one thing to talk about submission, and being under authority, but it’s not your words that put you there, it’s your choices, and your lifestyle, and your conduct.

Living under the authority of those over you in the workplace, listen to what he says, striving to be obedient to them.  That is unless they are asking you to do something that would violate the Word of God.  You know let’s say that your employer asks you to embezzle money.  Well you would never say well I’m to be submissive to that, and I need to go do it.  No, you say in the name of Jesus I refuse to do it, and if you ask me to do it again, I’m going public, even if I lose my job.

Then he says not argumentative.  Do you know what argumentative means?  It means speaking back to your leaders, answering back to the leaders, talking back to the leaders, trying to always have the final word with the one you are accountable to.  Then he says not pilfering.  Pilfering.  What does that mean?  That means stealing embezzling from the company.  Be careful not to use company money and privileges for your own good.  That’s what he’s saying.  And I’m telling you every Christian needs to hear that today.

And by the way, another way he is saying it, and what he is saying you’re not entitled to anything, so don’t act like you are.  But showing all good faith.  That means to be loyal to those who provide for you a job!  Loyalty in the workplace!  Do you realize what a rare quality that is today?  Uh-huh.  I mean those of you that have a job today, are you grateful that you have a job?  Do you tell your employer that you are grateful that you have a job?  Do you express to them your deepest gratitude that you have a job?  I mean listen with the new employment numbers, unemployment numbers that have just come out, some 14 million people in the country still don’t have a job and want a job!  We had better thank God we have a job!

Now why is all that important to act that way?  So that in everything you may adorn the doctrine of God my Savior.  That’s what he said.  IN other words you adorn God in His church, my Savior when you do that.  And by the way you work, here’s what he’s saying, by the way you work, by the way you act at work, by the way you treat others at work, by the way you are a team player at work, by the way you have integrity and you demonstrate loyalty, what he is saying is what?  This is how you adorn the work of Jesus Christ, and people are drawn to you.  He is telling you the workplace is a powerful forum for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I ask you today it’s between you ad the Holy Spirit, and I’m not the Holy Spirit, does your work conduct and your work ethic make the Gospel attractive enough that somebody wants it that you work with?  Or do you turn them off because you talk Jesus with side of your life, and the other side, um, it just isn’t good?

I could go down on a lot of different things here but I’ve got to bring everything to conclusion.  Therefore, I want to close by talking to you about getting things in order where it really counts.  Where does it really count?  Where does it really count that the Gospel is believed?  And the Gospel is lived out?  Where does it really count when you live out your faith?  Where is this?  This passage tells us there are 4 cutting edge places to live out our faith.  Are you ready?  Here they are.

First of all, personally.  You’ve got to live out your faith personally.  It all starts with you!  You need to get away from the blame game.  I would be better if… I could live for Jesus if…  Maybe one day I will…  No, you are who you are because you want to be where you are, and you’re exactly in the posture you are spiritually because that’s where you want to be!  It all starts with you!  And by the way, we cannot take people to live out an area of the Gospel that we ourselves are not living out right now!  Your Christian faith, and your lifestyle, it’s on you.  We don’t need to act like the great Americana that always wants to be blame or act like we’re a victim.  Ladies and gentlemen, we’re accountable to God for ourselves!  And one of the most challenging but yet encouraging, but yet fearful things that the Scripture teaches is that one day Ronnie Floyd, one day each one of you will give a word by word account of your life to Jesus Christ Himself at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ.  Wow.  Personally.

In your family.  I’ve convinced of this, the most difficult place to live out your faith is in the family.  I said that fast, anybody believe that?  The most difficult place to live out your faith is in the family!  While it is the most difficult, it is also the most crucial.  I want to say this to everyone of us who are parents with children at home, or you’re still paying for them, do not discredit the Gospel of Jesus Christ to your children or your spouse!  Do not discredit the church to your children or your spouse!  Live out your faith!  He tells you how to do that in this passage!  He is not only giving us a description of what the Christian life will look like, he is giving a prescription of how to do it.  I’m telling you this book right here is absolutely the most amazing book found anywhere in the world.  Anywhere!

Adrienne Rogers used to say it is not the book of the year; it is the book of the ages.  Through your church.  You cannot live the Christian life and live out your faith apart from the church.  If you think that is based on what you are, you’re in new age mentality and new age philosophy, and thought processes.  I’m sorry; you can’t live out the faith, the Christian faith apart from the church.  It’s impossible.  Good deeds and Gospel living are to be lived through your church.  And the church is so important that Jesus died for it.  Is the church important for you?

I was reading this morning about Adinire Judson taking his family in July of 1813 to Burma to share the gospel.  It’s an amazing story.  But Judson lost two wives, and buried both of them, and seven of his thirteen children all for the purpose of finishing the task of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  William Carrey told him don’t go, it’s a wicked place!  It’s hard to reach, but he went under the call of God, and today Christianity exists in Burma because of Adoniare Judson.

When I think about the sacrifice of great men like that, and then I think about all of our members who can’t come to church because it’s raining outside, or they don’t feel like it.  Wow.  And then in the workplace.  I believe that beyond the family there’s not a more important place of influence for the Gospel than in today’s world than in the workplace.  I wish many days I could get in the suit of corporate America and go live out my faith there because I am convinced it is absolutely, outside of the family, the most influential place for the Gospel of Jesus Christ found anywhere in the world!  I believe that.

I also believe that beyond the family there is not a place where the Gospel is more discredited than the workplace.  We need to be careful how you live.  To everyone of you in the workplace, I say this to you, God has you where He has you, you are where you are, you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ, you are a representative of the King of kinds, and the Lord of lords.  Whether it be a big blessing, a little blessing, a big job, a small job in your mind, little money, lots of money, influence, no influence, let me just tell you something man, you are where you are because God has you there!  Now go live out your faith while you’re there.

I bring finality today with a powerful quote from a man named Brennan Manning.  He is a former Catholic Priest, and a prolific author.  He stated some words that absolutely represent the heartbeat of this passage, and with them I close today.  Listen carefully to them.  He stated, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians:  who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle.”  And then he makes I believe a highly profound statement: “That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

We wonder why the world doesn’t believe.  We wonder why, why the world doesn’t have an interest.  But what’s unbelievable, he says, is that all of us who know how to live, and we have learned how to live by the Gospel, we have been under the instruction of the Word of God, and yet, we don’t live by that Gospel.  And God is calling us to a new moment, a new time, a new era, and I’m telling you today, He wants you to live that way.

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