Pass It On

Titus 2:1 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: 2 that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; 3 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things-- 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. 6 Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, 7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, 8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

There are two primary influences in every life. One is the world, and the other is The Lord God Almighty and His Word.

We have to resist one to have the other.

Some propose man has no say-so in the choice of influence. I say experience teaches us otherwise.

The question is: How are we to learn which influence is in our best interest, given that we are literally made of the world – and that our default position is to follow after the world?

This, in essence, is the role of the church. (The true church.) It is the duty of the church to provide guidance for the young in the choices they make. This is to take place everywhere, in all phases of life.

We sometimes think of the church as a place we go. At its best, we may imagine the church to be the place we go to learn God’s Word and God’s ways. It is the responsibility of the pastor to teach us about how God’s Word fits our lives, and it is our responsibility to listen and determine whether or not what the pastor is saying applies to us.

When God’s Word is being taught plainly, it is good that we listen and consider – but there is so much more to the ‘life’ of the church than listening and, perhaps, doing what the Word of God says…

Here Paul teaches us we are to pass along what we have learned to the younger generation coming up next, and perhaps even to the generation coming up after them.

How helpful it is when those who have experienced the tragedy of worldly influence take the time and loving energy to pass along to the younger men and younger women exactly how beneficial it can be to follow ONLY God’s influence in this world.

There is SUCH a gravitational pull against the Christian tide, perhaps never more so than right now. How we need the older experienced folks to teach the younger inexperienced folks. The Word is life. The world is death. Pass it on…

-  Pastor Bill

Who Do You Trust?

Titus 1:1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, 3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior; 4 To Titus, a true son in our common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. 5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you-- 6 if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.

How many people do you trust with your most important possessions?

I have always been amazed Jesus trusted the growth and expansion of the church to men, especially since the men He chose had not exactly demonstrated competence in the time Jesus spent with them. One betrayed Him, one denied Him, and one of them was very forthright in his doubt.

Of those gathered as Jesus pronounced His great commission in Matthew 28, the gospel writer even notes, “some doubted.”

This is the history of the church.

Jesus knew His example coupled with man’s weakness would be a powerful combination - even if men were dubious about that being true.

Now comes Paul, following that same program. Invest and divest. Distribute. Share leadership roles. Allow others to run things too.

The Book of Titus is yet another example of how Paul followed and implemented Jesus’ example. In Titus, Paul saw a young man with a desire equal to his own. Titus had been a traveling companion of Paul’s for several years, and now Paul turns over to him his most priceless and crucial possession: Jesus’ church.

Paul was a church planter. Of that we are certain. There is probably no greater example of church planting than what we see of Paul’s life as a missionary in the Book of Acts. But Paul did not just preach the gospel - he planted churches.

First, Jesus trusted Paul to plant churches, and now Paul trusts Titus to manage the churches which have been planted at Crete. This is a wonderful distribution of command and giftedness which is founded in the trust of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer who has shown himself faithful.

The Lord can do a whole lot with a faithful man, and Titus is another wonderful example. That the Lord trusts men with His most priceless possession on earth is amazing enough – but even more amazing is the kind of man in whom He places His trust. Never discount faithfulness in comparison to ability.

-  Pastor Bill

Well-Done

2 Tim 4:1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Incentive. We work for incentive. We are motivated by incentive.

Paul, if nothing else, is a man with GREAT and GOOD incentive. He super-blesses me by his example. It is hard for me to imagine a better example among men to follow.

I know that when I work, I desire some kind of reward. Some kind of fairly immediate reward. The more I work, the greater I desire that reward to be. Now.

Paul’s reward, on the other hand, was prison. A Roman dungeon. Worse, he was abandoned by all of his friends except Luke - as a direct result of the trouble he found himself in.

For Paul’s leadership in the church, he was arrested and falsely charged. Sentenced to death. Rather than be identified with Paul, his friends abandoned him.

Now there’s a reward for you, eh? Paul finds himself in about as backwards a situation as you could possibly expect considering his strong moral courage and conviction.

Yet, in his last extant communication prior to his beheading, all Paul speaks of is his reward. He has allowed himself to be poured out as a drink offering before God, he has run his race - it is finished! – Now he finally looks up to his reward.

Of which he is certain.

Sometimes it really bothers people that Christians are SO certain of their reward. They think it arrogant to make this kind of “presumption.” They sort of extrapolate their own uncertainty upon everyone else, and chafe at the one who “thinks he knows.”

But hey, Paul does know for certain. Paul does KNOW his reward – the crown of righteousness – which the Lord of Righteousness will give. The reason he knows is because he never sought reward in this world.

-  Pastor Bill

End-Times Church

2 Tim 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

Ten years ago this morning we had a clear view of what the end of the world will look like. When those 2 planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York City, they shook, they staggered, and then they fell. It was as if the whole world was exemplified by what happened to those buildings.

Majestically they stood. They were the symbols of everything we trust in this world. Capital. Power. Strength. Steel. Concrete.

It becomes difficult to look at buildings such as those, in all their majesty, to see the humanity housed inside. The life inside becomes invisible, until…

Churches were flooded with people in the days immediately following 9-11. People were seeking certainty in what had suddenly been revealed to be a very uncertain world. Why was church the automatic destination for those seeking a safe harbor?

It didn’t last. Churches emptied back out, and eventually became even smaller in attendance than they had been before.

Now Ground Zero is re-born. The Freedom Tower is rising daily, and the Memorial Plaza and the new Grand Central Transit Station are rising – once again all very majestically. The sense is about the power of architectural design, and how the soaring open-span spaces can lift the spirit of man.

We are unquestionably in the last days of mankind, and of the church.

It is remarkable the Bible can so reliably predict the physical and historical events which take place during the end-times. We can read the Bible these days like a road map or history book of the events transpiring before our eyes…

More remarkable is how the Bible predicts the condition of the heart of man during the end times. Could there be a better, more concise description of the condition of mankind during the last days? Doesn’t it look like today?

-  Pastor Bill