Beacon Sunday Service: January 26, 2025

If you guys can rise again with me, I will uh read our passage for today. It's Titus chapter two. Uh congratulations, we finished chapter one. Now we're in chapter two, starting today. But I'll read verse one again and then two and six for context. And it reads, but as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Verse six, and likewise urge the younger men to be sensible. Let's pray together. Father, we're so thankful that you've just invited us to come to your table to feast, to fellowship. And Lord, you are the guest of honor in this place. And I pray, Father God, that you would use our time really to just communicate your great heart to your flock.

Father, I pray for your strength to not just hear, but to apply. Wisdom to discern the falsities that are spoken into our ears and to discern that from just truth that you would want us to live by. So we pray for your help to listen well, to apply well, and we pray for just a good time of feeding. And we ask just that you would protect our time, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat. I'm I'm an American citizen. I was born in Korea and I immigrated to the States in 1981, so at the age of three. And I went through all of my elementary school years here in California, as well as my junior high school through college years. And so I'd like to consider myself a native Californian, though that's not technically accurate.

So for the first 30 years of my life, 27 of them had been lived in America, all as a Korean national. And I was culturally American in many ways, but I was not an American. But in 2007, at the age of 29, I finally became naturalized as a U.S. citizen. I officially became a U.S. citizen, and we had a giant ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center, just a few miles away from here. I took a vow, I made a pledge, I pledged my allegiance to serve the United States as a model and responsible citizen. At that time, I was given an application for a new passport, a new legal name, a new legal status, new legal rights afforded to me by the Constitution, and then I was given to me some literature of the responsibilities that I now had as an American.

I had to turn in my green card. And I exchanged for that, I got a citizenship certificate. The old was gone, the new had come, and then in the eyes of the state, this was a radical change. It was a change completely in status. It was a change in my identity, and I went from an alien, a resident, uh, to a citizen. And the radical change in my identity, primarily, it was first like legal. Um the day after the ceremony, I didn't feel any different from the days leading up to the naturalization. Nothing in my day-to-day life was any different. I looked the same. I sounded the same socially, physically, intellectually, geographically, things pretty much remained the same. Nothing had changed, but everything had changed.

So for starters, from that point on, Korea, South Korea could no longer demand anything of me. And though today I still remain connected to Korea, and though I am genetically and ethnically Korean, in every legal way, shape, or form, I am an American. And as a citizen of the United States since 2007, I have had the exact same rights as privileges as those who have been naturalized decades before me. I've had the exact same statuses as as all of my peers who had their U.S. citizenship from birth. With my new citizenship also came with it just newfound responsibilities and expectations. None of which is gonna come as a surprise to you. I was given literature to read about these responsibilities.

As an American citizen, I am now required uh required to serve on juries. Yay, right? And but to even take up arms if need be for this country. I have a civic responsibility to vote. I wouldn't lose my citizenship if I didn't vote, but it was a privilege that would be good for me to exercise. So before 2007, I couldn't do any of those things, even if I had wanted to. I had no rights to do so. I was also not expected to do so. But from 2007 on, I have been obligated to do so. And it's a privilege to serve and represent this country. And I know that this is not necessarily the case with everyone who becomes naturalized, but my affections for the country have actually changed. And I've grown in love for the United States over the last 18 years, more and more.

So this might offend you, though I still have an affection for Korea, ties to Korea. If the US and Korea plays in a World Cup match or an Olympic game, I'm rooting for the States.

Affections don't have to change for a person to remain an American, but it's only natural that they do. When a person comes to faith in Christ, there are many changes to identities, right? He is a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come. The change also is first legal. Okay, the change is first in a change of standing. But unlike becoming a U.S. citizen, for the Christian, over time, the heart's affections cannot but change. Allegiances are to be completely different. Values are to be completely different. Expectations of that person are completely different. So a person can become a U.S. citizen just for its benefits and simply conform to do the bare minimum. A person can become an American in standing and then in outward profession only, but this cannot be the case with the Christian.

It cannot but manifest change in the Christian. So salvation is not only a legal change of status, but also a change that has been made from the inside out. Do you believe this? Okay. With kingdom citizenship, the heart has been completely replaced. And it's a heart that beats for the kingdom of God. So if someone says that a person can become a Christian and not have the heart's affections changed, that person is espousing a theological impossibility. That's not in the Bible. A person who has changed from non-Christian to Christian, you cannot not have a new heart. So Philippians 3, 20 to 21 reads, our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by his working through which he is able to even subject all things to himself.

Now that's a little bit of a mouthful. But in Philippians 3.20, Paul reminds Christians that they who had once been in darkness are now kingdom citizens living in the light. They are now people who belong to heaven. And in verse 21, Paul describes the mysterious and changing effect, affecting power of Jesus Christ. So he uses the word will.

A Christian's home is not of this earth. Or I mean we sing about it, right? But the Christian is passionate for a home he hasn't actually yet been to. A Christian is homesick for a home that he has not yet lived in. And he cannot wait to go home. This new softened heart is wired to beat for heaven. So in this life, the Christian is just passing through as a sojourner as like a spiritual hotel guest. Okay. At some point, the journey will come to an end. He will check out and he will go home. You guys, you guys following the illustration. You invest into your home. You never would invest into your hotel room, right? In which you're just quickly passing through. No matter how luxurious your hotel stay is, or no matter how horrible your hotel stay is, you hold on to it loosely, right?

Because it's extremely temporary. You may change the furniture in your home. You may change the curtain. Now we don't use curtainism. You may change the blinds in your home. You won't do that in a hotel room because you don't care. You'd be a fool to invest money into uh replacing the furniture in a hotel. Okay, that you're checking out of. So for the Christian, this world is no longer home. Amen. Okay, now theologically you're agreeing with this, but the Christian, this is not home. The world's values, the world's cultures are now foreign to the Christian. The Christian is out of place on earth. Just as much as an American would feel out of place living in Afghanistan, the Christian cannot but feel out of place on this side of eternity.

So if you feel a little bit out of place as a Christian living in a dark place, good. That's normal. If you feel right at home here, that's a sign of danger. Does that make sense? Christians in the New Testament felt this misfitness very acutely. They were citizens of the light surrounded by darkness, and that was readily understood, that it was readily understood that they were exiles and sojourners and citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Okay? So that at the time of the Bible, when it was being written, that was universal knowledge. So first, it was head knowledge. The Christian understood this theologically. It was heart knowledge. The Christian felt it emotionally. Third, it was social knowledge.

The Christian often suffered from this relationally. So Christians in the biblical world felt displaced and never comfortable. And that was a universal experience of the New Testament believer. So the apostle Paul or Peter addressed believers as such in 1 Peter 1 1. Do you see this? You guys are aliens. Okay? The author of Hebrews even mentioned that this has always been the case with the people of God. Those who had put their faith and trust in Christ were kingdom citizens with kingdom identities, with kingdom values, with kingdom allegiances, with kingdom pursuits. What are the values of this world? Ungodliness, worldliness, greed, lusts, deeds of darkness. So living among that, a Christian can't but feel out of place.

He wants to go home, and that's the heartbeat of the entire letter to Titus. Send me home. But while I wait, let me live really to please. Okay, so that's the heartbeat of Titus. And I'm gonna read this Titus heartbeat for you. Okay. Verses 11 to 13. It's actually uh uh not just from 12. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. And that salvation, it's instructing us that while denying ungodliness, worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age while we're passing through. Okay? So we don't like it here, but we need to be sensible, righteous, and godly. Looking forward to the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen. That's the heartbeat of the entire letter. So now, while the Christian waits for the homecoming of all homecomings, he's living as an ambassador of the new kingdom here on earth. The Christian is living as a missionary to a dying world. Like if if uh why do Christians go and do crazy things in very dangerous and unpleasant parts of the world? Why? Not to make a home, right? They go with a missional purpose. They make sacrifices and they adjust intentionally. They suffer discomfort knowingly, right? So God has invited all to the wedding of all weddings. Amen? The invitation has gone out. And the Christian spends his time joyfully getting the invites out. He lives in the world because there is a specific purpose for his life in the world.

And though he's living in the world, he doesn't assimilate to the world. So the Christian, by definition, is in the world, but he is not of the world. There's many passages that talk about that. So the Christians' values are different, the Christian's passions are different. His life looks different, all to the glory of his great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. So Titus chapter 2, it was bookended with exhortations to Titus to speak this. Okay? So he's supposed to speak that every representative of the kingdom of God has a role to play. Every Christian had been entrusted with a role to steward. And Titus was to speak on these roles. So first, he's told to cheer on to build up and to exhort the church in the living out of these roles.

And then he's called to reprove in the church members' failures to live out these roles. Okay, to correct. And these were just expectations that God had for every Christian. There were expectations for all Christians, and these communicated expectations for kingdom citizens were very much part of the sound doctrine in chapter 2, verse 1. Now, good theology always leads to good application and practice. Amen. Otherwise, that's bad hypocrisy and hypocrisy or bad theology and hypocrisy at worst. So Titus was to speak theologically, and then in light of that theology, to pass on clearly God's desires for every believer and how they're supposed to carry themselves while they're living as exiles in a foreign and hostile land.

Okay. So Christians are to be different from non-Christians. Amen. Christians cannot but be different from non-Christians. Would you wholeheartedly agree with that? Alright. You guys agreed at least with a nod or in your hearts. I heard, I heard your heart, okay. Christian manhood cannot but look different from worldly manhood. Amen. Christian womanhood cannot but look different from worldly womanhood. Christian leadership cannot but look different from worldly leadership. The Christian worker working to shine brightly for Jesus in the workplace cannot but look different from the worldly employee working hard just to get a paycheck. And that's what Paul is saying that Titus and the church elders need to communicate again and again to the churches.

And we're gonna be diving into these roles for the next eight weeks. So Titus is told to speak twice. You guys see this? It's bookended. And as uh, and he's supposed to speak with authority on the roles that Christians are to play in the world. Titus 2.15. So he's speaking with authority. So as your pastor, I have been given the exact same task to carry out. Would you guys agree? Okay. I too am called to speak the contents of these instructions with the authority that comes from the scriptures themselves. And so if I handle and if I prep and if I communicate the word of God accurately, I'm to let no one disregard me. So my job is to make sure I'm speaking accurately. So no one is to disregard me, no matter how uncomfortable I make him feel or her feel.

We're gonna be uncomfortable for the next two months. I guarantee it. At some point you're gonna be like, ooh, I'm falling short. So we're gonna feel uncomfortable, but I pray that though there may be uncomfortable verses in this chapter, that we would listen carefully, think deeply, and then just joyfully submit to Christ our head in whatever he desires. Amen. So I want to uh just you might not be able to see this. You don't necessarily have to be able to see it clearly, but I'm gonna give a few preliminary notes on chapter two, okay? As we'll be in this chapter for the next two couple months. On the right, you're gonna see a screenshot of my notes. And it should help you to visually catch the major points of the chapter.

Okay? In the entirety of chapter two, the apostle Paul tells Titus to speak instructions to very specific groups. Okay? Paul is all inclusive here. Everybody falls into one of these three these groups, and possibly even up to three of these groups. All right. So first the instructions are to older men, Titus 2.2, then to older women, Titus 2 3. And then he implicitly instructs the older women to take charge of the discipleship of the younger women, Titus 2, 4 to 5. The younger men are given very brief instructions in Titus 2.6. Then everybody who would be some kind of face of the ministry, some leadership position in the church, they're given instructions. Titus himself is told to model these things in Titus 2, 7 to 8.

And then slaves, the employees of the day, they're addressed in Titus 2, 9 to 10. And then all of God's people are told what God expects of them in that Titus heartbeat in verses 11 to 14. So through this entire chapter, the word henna appears a lot. Okay? And the word henna, and it's translated so that it's a very grammatically important word. It indicates a reasoning behind every instruction given. So there's a lot at stake. So it's pretty clear and explicit. Okay? Can someone turn the heater off? I'm like dying. Older women, they must be instructed. Why? Hina, so that they can model instruct without hypocrisy. Why do younger women need to be instructed? Because Paul implies that when women are not living in the way that God had designed for them, the word of God is slandered.

The word of God is sneered at, scoffed, and rejected. Why must leaders like Titus model sound doctrine well? Hinna, all opponents of the Christian faith, you're gonna silence them. Don't give them ammo to attack you. Why must slaves be exhort exhorted? Hinah, that they may make the gospel even more attractive by the way they work in their jobs. So there's like a divine offensive and a defensive strategy that's employed here through the life of the Christian, the kingdom citizen. Okay? So in this, you may, I mean, I don't know if you can see it, but you will also notice that the word sensible is used five times in this chapter alone. Sensible. It was already once used in chapter one, so total of six times.

And then keep that in the uh back burner of your minds. Okay, it's not too difficult to see that sensibility is a very important thing for the Christian. Sensibility is one of the defining marks of a Christian. It's how a Christian is supposed to live out his role. Sensibility is to define a Christian's responsibilities. So sensibility is to be expected for every Christian in his life and his speech and his conduct. That's actually the only thing that younger men are urged to do. Just be sensible. Okay. So it's very, it's gonna be very important for us to understand what that is. And we're gonna be touching upon that today. So we're gonna start with God's instructions for the men. Okay. So today we'll be looking at verses two to six.

What does God's will for all Christian men look like? In those instructions are two to six. What does he expect from all Christian men? What is the world to see in every single man who calls himself a Christian? What is manliness? What is a man? It matters very little what the world says it is, right? Who cares what the confused world says what a man is? Our main concern is what God has to say. So we're gonna be looking at verses two to six. So in verse two, the apostle Paul lays out God's expectations for all Christian older men. And then in verse six, he gives a very simple exhortation to all the younger men in the church. Okay, and that's gonna be our sermon outline for today. God's expectations of men and God's exhortations of men.

Easy enough to remember. His expectations and the exhortation. So I'm gonna read the verses again. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Verse 6. Likewise urge the younger men to be sensible. So preliminary question you may be asking is the following. How old must a man be before he is considered biblically older? You guys you guys have that question in your head? Okay. Older presbyters in the Greek, it's a relative word. At my previous church, I was right smack in the middle of all the leadership, but here at the beacon, I'm the oldest guy at the church, right? Well, regardless, I qualify in the list of older men as a most ancient classifications, old meant 40 and up.

Okay, 40 and up. So what does God require of all men, but especially those who are 40 and up Christians? The words are to be implies expectation. Make sense? So these are God's expectations for the older men, the 40 plus group at the church. So here's a chart. I find charts helpful. Okay, so first you'll notice that the words for elder and older have the same root. Okay, the word for the office of elder overseer is a Greek word presbuteras. Repeat after me. Presbuteras. And that's where we get like a presbyterian, okay, elder. And all in the um the word for older is presbyter. Repeat, presbitas. Presbuderas, presbyteras, presbuteras, presbyters. Okay. So all elders and overseers, the leadership in the church are older men, but not all older men are elders and overseers.

The words on the left of the yellow line are the character traits Paul wrote that the elders of the church had to have in Titus chapter 1, verse 6 to 8. Okay, those are like must-haves. These are exemplary qualities that a leader in the church, he better have all of those things. With the exception of the word sensible, which you see here in Titus, which you see there in Titus 1.8, and then an additional five times in chapter 2, none of the words are repeated on this list. You notice that? So this is a list of different expectations. Okay. For the elder, this list is not a different list, it's a continuation. Make sense? So these are things that are expected of the elder, in addition to everything that we talked about in chapter one.

Now, this doesn't mean that if a person is an older man but not an elder, he is exempt from the left side of the chart. No. Okay? The elder simply must be stellar, okay, and outstanding, tested and exemplary in those things. The elder and the overseers to be beyond reproach in all those things, but older men are also to model those things. Younger men are to work hard and strive to be all these things. Okay, so the bar is a little bit low, a little bit lower. So if you guys are under 40, you have a little maybe a couple more years. Okay, because everyone's over 30 at the church. We're all old. Okay. So these are God's expectations of men. So of course, we're all gonna be a work in progress, and we all fall short.

We're all still growing, but these are the expectations and defining marks of Christian manhood. Now, women, okay, we got like five in here, four, like women are just as much expected to be all these things, with the exception of obviously having a wife, okay. All believers are to be all of these things. Why? Because God expects and equips and enables all believers to be holy, holy, holy, just as he is holy. But this needs to especially be the case for the men of the church. So, first on the list of Christian expectations is for men to be temperate. The Greek word is uh nephalias, nephalias, okay, which literally means cautious in the use of wine. Interesting, right? The roots literally mean mind sober, nephalias, mind sober.

In his epistle to Timothy, his other protege, the apostle Paul specifically addresses the overseers and the deacons' use of wine. Okay, it's not prohibited. He he he uh he addresses it. So the contextual understanding of the word nephalias is specific to wine, but it's broader in that you have to remember wine is the entertainment of the day. You guys following? Okay, so that's what they were thinking of uh when it comes to entertainment of the day. This isn't referring to only wine, Ephesians chapter 5, 18. The temperate man avoids any extravagance and overindulgence in anything. Okay, the temperate man is not drunk or incapacitated by any emotion. The temperate man is not impaired by anything in the world.

Nothing clouds or intoxicates his judgment. You guys follow? The temperate man is not drunk on power. He is not drunk with greed. He is not led astray by any form of entertainment or rest. He is not controlled by any anger or bitterness or spite. The temperate man is always mind sober, mind clear, sober-minded. And this is the expectation of every Christian man. Amen. Every Christian man, this is the expectation and target that nothing intoxicates or incapacitates our ability to serve God. So he is temperate and abstains from anything that wages war against him internally. And why is this so important?

1 Peter 2, 9 to 12. You are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, Hina. You may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, okay, you weren't citizens, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from fleshly lusts, which do what? Wage war against your soul by keeping your conduct excellent among non-believers, henna, in the thing which they slander you as evildoers. Oh, Christians do this too. I've seen, I know Christians who party, I know Christians who get drunk, I know Christians who A, B, C, or D.

So in that accusation, they may, because of your contrary good works, as they observe them, they glorify God on the day of visitation. So in the passage, the apostle Paul similarly reminds the saints of Asia that they were saved from darkness and saved toward light. They are now sojourners and exiles, they're to be temperate and abstain. Why? If you are not temperate in your mind, that affects your behavior. You guys see the words there? And then behavior affects Christian witness. Bad Christian witness mars the glory of God. So the Christian needs to be temperate. Man, woman, older, younger, all Christians need to be mind sober. And it's supposed to be modeled especially by all Christian men.

So temperance is to be cultivated, trained, and strengthened in the younger saints in the church. So if you're like, I'm not 40 yet, I can inebriate my brain with stuff. No, your thinking is already messed up. Okay. What are the things? Let me ask you, you don't have to answer, that cause you to become spiritually intoxicated or incapacitated. What are the things that keep you not praying? What are the things that cause you to be ashamed when you come on Sunday and say, Lord, forgive me. This week again I did ABC and D. Is it watching a show, resting by surfing on the web, playing games, following sports? All of those things in and of themselves, are they okay? Absolutely. Wine is okay. Okay?

I don't drink, but it's not a big deal for me, even though I had an alcoholic father. It really isn't. All of these things are permissible and enjoyable things like wine, like dark chocolate. Okay? Did you guys know that dark chocolate? I once heard that dark chocolate had nutritional value, so I ate a lot of it. It got all chubby. So a little bit is totally fine. Maybe even beneficial. Amen. A lot of it incapacitates you. Too much kills you. Guys following that. The saints of God are to be a temperate people, mind sober. And then church as a whole also needs to be sober-minded, mind sober. Temperance is to characterize life inside the church. So as a church, we together are to be careful not to overindulge the things for the sake of community that keeps us distracted from the main purpose of our gathering.

It's to worship God and to sharpen each other. But a lot of church, church, if the church focuses so much on community, the things that are fine and permissible and good and even helpful, if that becomes a main, you're drunk and incapacitated. You guys follow? Okay. So we're to take care of even our church together. It's not just my job, it's for all of us to be like, hey, let's keep the main thing, the main thing, as graciously and as humbly as we can. And Abel A.W. Tozer, this is what he wrote. A church fed on excitement, with a gifted, lively preacher, with a praise band that's like stellar. If that's what draws a person to the church, a church fed on excitement is no New Testament church at all.

The desire for surface stimulation is a sure mark of the fallen nature and the very thing that Christ died to deliver us from. If you're drunk, it's fine. But if you're clear thinking, you're like, wait a minute, we gotta be very careful with this. Are you guys you guys tracking the flow of thought? Okay. The second expectation of all Christians, and especially of all Christian older men, is that they be dignified. Okay, this means that older men are to behave in a way worthy of respect. Respect, it's hard to earn, easy to lose. You've heard that before, right? So literally, the word is semnas, which is just serious. Okay. Oh, he's serious. So seriousness is the word. This is a bit broader and more general, but Christian men are to live in such a way that commands respect from people, not through a tone of speech, but through respectability of life.

Let me repeat this. Christian men are to live in such a way that's respectable and like wow, for all people to see, not with tone of voice, not with rhetoric only, but by character and quality of his life. Okay. So Christian men were to be men or are to be men. And the image that I get is like of a mighty warrior king, like a young King David before the Bathsheba drama. David, he knew when to fight. He knew how to fight. He knew why to fight. He was never scared. Right? That's why we love King David. But you know he also knew when to be merciful. He knew when to be gracious and show restraint and not be vengeful. Because God ordained that king to be in place. And even though he's trying to kill me, he is a Lord's anointed.

I will restrain myself and I will call him my father. You guys see this in David's life, right? He's a warrior king, and he's a tender gentleman. Helps that he's good looking. Okay, good lookingness sometimes helps with respectability. But he is all of those things. And when he's about to die, he charges his solemn, uh, his son Solomon with this. Oopsie. He charges him with. Then David's time to draw, die drew near. So he commanded Solomon and his son, saying, I'm going the way of all the earth. So you shall be strong. And then what does he say? Be a man. That's a that's a that's a charge. Manly does not mean macho. Okay, or sometimes we're like, ooh, I need to be like all like mysterious. No, doofus, it doesn't mean macho.

Okay. Dignified doesn't mean snooty and upright or uptight, like all like serious, like condescending. Manly doesn't mean insensitive. So you have an image of a warrior king who can kill a giant, but who is a principled servant leader, always open even to correction. You know, he could have killed the prophet Nathan. That would have been the easy solution. He's like, nope. He humbled himself. Worthy of respect, not because of any title, but worthy of respect because of character. Amen. Be a man. Third, Paul commands Titus to charge all the men of the church, both young and old, to be sensible. Now here's an important word because it appears six times in this letter. So what exactly is sensibility?

Okay, the Greek word is so frona, repeat after me. So frona. And we took, we looked into this a little bit when we were looking at the elder qualifications, but translations of this word are often restraint or self-control. I like the word restraint. Okay. So Cretan Christians, remember, they're surrounded by evil beasts, liars, and lazy gluttons. Chapter 1, verse 12. They're worse, they're the worst kind of people. Basically, the Cretans were cheaters, schemers, drunken violent men. So while living among these cheaters, schemers, drunken violent men, Christian man, show so frona, show restraint. A Christian cannot and must not be worldly. Amen. A Christian cannot and must not indulge the things of the world, the things of the flesh.

He must show restraint. And by the grace of God, the Christian will see this restraint growing more and more with each season as he walks with God. So it's a strength to deny instinct. It's a strength to deny like fleshly impulse. It's restraint in the face of an antagonistic enemy who's constantly hurling insults or typing those keyboard warriors who are just typing and slandering me online. It's a restraint that enables me to respond with blessing, kindness, prayer, and even love. It's a restraint that even enables a Christian to even give up eating steak. If it really bothers you, I'll give it up. It's a restraint that enables a person a person to forego his own needs for the rights for the benefit of others.

It's a full mastery over whatever fleshly impulse that a person has. It's the ability to let go of any and everything fleshly, even permissible good things, in submission to the Lordship of Christ. So Sofrona looks like this.

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him what? Deny himself. Take up his cross once every Sunday at a retreat every day, follow me. So here's a way to test your sofrona. Is there any leisurely activity that you are absolutely refusing to give up? Is there any habit that no, no, no, no, no? I could never give that up. That you're of obviously ashamed to share with anybody. But is there anything that you're like, in my walk with Christ, I have this that stumbles and trips me up, but I cannot give it up. You have no sophona. Is there any right that you have that you're unwilling to relinquish? I was so hurt by that person. So I have the right to be angry. But God says, love, because I first loved you.

No. You don't have so frona. So even the vilest person who caused you a lot of harm and grief, sofrona is if the Lord wants me to, I will gladly forgive love, repay with kindness without any expectation. If God says jump, I jump. If he says sit, I sit. If he says lead, I lead. If he says submit, I submit. If he says speak, we speak. If he says be silent, we stop talking. That's what it means to have Jesus not only as my Savior, but more importantly, as my Lord, because the Lord is the only one who I answer to. In all other things, I demonstrate sensibility. You guys follow? In all other things, I will seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and I will gladly deny myself, take up this cross, and just follow as the Lord leads, because he is good.

The men of God were called to be temperate, dignified, and sensible. And remember, sensible, that sofrona is coming up four more times. Okay. And then Paul goes on to list three other things. Actually, it's one thing with three descriptions of it that older men are to be sound in. Okay, the word sound is primarily a quality mentioned, but it's um that's the primary quality that's mentioned, but it has like a sub-value. Okay? Being sound in faith, sound in love, sound in perseverance. That's how the grammar is working. Okay. So sound means healthy. You guys, you guys follow? Sound means healthy. So if someone is of sound mind, what does that mean? It's normal. It's healthy. A healthy human body, believe it or not, is constantly attacked by germs.

You guys know this? Your body is constantly under attack by germs, viruses, harmful agents, but a healthy body for the most part has a strong enough immune system where it's not affected by these germs, viruses, or harmful agents. Right? Because you're fighting it off. And sometimes you don't even know you're fighting it off. I like to think of the word unratled. Okay. So the man of God, the older man is unratled. Nothing rattles his faith. Nothing rattles his love. Nothing hinders his perseverance. He has almost an endless supply of energy, of dignity, of holiness, of passion. Like the older man has seen all the ups and downs. But no matter what the circumstance, he trusts that God is good and he's not shaken.

He understands that God has either ordained everything for my good or for good. So he just trusts God completely. That man is consistent in faith and love and perseverance, no matter what the circumstance. He's learned to be content, whatever the circumstance, whether in plenty or in want, whether being well fed or hungry. Philippians chapter 4. He can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. He is unraveled because he has absolute confidence not only in God's power, but also in God's goodness. Amen. So Romans 8, 28 to 31 or 31. We know that, and you've heard this verse before. For those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

We comfort ourselves with this in times of unexplainable hardship, right? Verse 31. What shall we say then? If God is for us, who's against us? That's a sound man. Age and stage don't lie. The elderly among us, you guys have grandparents who may be very mature, right? Not all grandparents are mature, but for the most part, the elderly generally, they're more staple. They're just broken and unhealthy, but they've seen war, they've raised children, they've helped grandchildren. Generally speaking, the elderly are not thrown around by the vicissitudes of life. Even if people die, the elderly are like, ah, so goes the world, right? They're not shaken. When you have a champion, when you have a sports team that's really good, they fill their roster with veteran players who've seen, who've been tested, who've gone through every kind of stage, and they're battle tested people.

You guys know this, right? That's what the men are supposed to be like. High pressure moment, no worries. I'm sound and I'm unrattled. So here's the thing. The longer you walk with the Lord, the more confidence you lose in you. Right? The longer you walk with the Lord, the more confidence you lose in you, but you have a greater trust in the goodness of God. But this good God is not just good, he's powerful. Because he's good, he's powerful, he loves me. I'm just gonna trust him. So the older man in the church is to be a strong, faithful man, no matter what the season. Now imagine this, okay? Imagine having a church full of men like this. Men who are temperate, manly men who are strong, worthy of respect, men who just show selfless restraint all the time, men whose faith is unraveled, whose love is never inconsistent.

And 30 years from now, you know that he is even more like Jesus than he is now. Can you imagine if we can raise up a small army of men like this? The beacon needs shepherds and leaders like this, so pray for that. Our wives need husbands like this, right? Well, the wives are like, I'm not looking at my husband right now, because there's only like five of you in here. Our children need fathers like this. Amen. So I want to read together the passage one more time, and I'm gonna start with verse one. It reads. But as for you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love and perseverance. Now I'm gonna now include all the younger under 40 men, which is pretty much everybody in here, because our 40-year-old man is on his flight to Washington, DC.

Okay. Urge the younger men to be so frona. That's it. There were expectations of the older men. Verse 6 is a very short exhortation to the younger men of God. Like I said, there are only three men over 40 in our church, and one of them just barely got to 40. So most of our church is pretty young. So here's a simple exhortation. You are urged to be sensible. So frona. And you still remember what we were we talked about in terms of sofrona. This doesn't mean that the other qualities of even the overseer and the elder are things you can completely ignore. But this is why I believe that this is the only thing that's being mentioned. Okay? This is the only thing that Paul mentions. That's the key to unlocking everything else.

Sensibility is the key to unlocking everything else. If there's one thing to focus on as a younger man, it is the discipline of self-denial of putting off the old self, the residual effects of sin. That's the only thing.

You guys have read this before, right? There's a taking off of the old, a putting on of the new. You don't just take off, you also have to clothe. Okay. Does the Christian do the putting off, or is it done to him? Theologically. It's done to him. And we're gonna see that later in Titus chapter 3, but it's done to him. Okay. The Lord Jesus Christ will wash you, will rinse you, will sanctify you, will strip off all the old stuff, often through trials and hardships and tests. Does that make sense? You don't want to be stripped of stuff. But in his love, Christ will purify you. He will rub off the dirt and grime off of you, even if you resist and it's painful.

The effort in cultivate cultivating sensibility in this to younger men is primarily one of surrender and non-resistance. So urge the younger men in the process of them being cleansed and purged and scraped, surrender and resist less.

Putting on with princely garments because you are royalty.

So that he can clothe you with the princely royal garments. Don't resist. So as things are being done to you, as you take notice of what is happening to you and in you, know that he is washing you, he is renewing you. Titus chapter 3, 5. He is cleansing you and he's sanctifying you. Colossians 3 8 to 10. Now you also lay them all aside. Okay, there is the work of God being done to you in this. Wrath. So when your wrath is exposed and you need it correct it, don't resist, don't push back. Anger, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth, do not lie to one another. Since you have put off the old man with its evil practices, put on the new man who's being renewed to the full knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.

Now for the older man, why is this an expectation? And why is this just an exhortation for the younger men? Because God is doing all the work. And for an older man who's walked with God for many years, there is unmistakable change because he doesn't resist much. Lord, sure, give me cancer. It's okay. Lord, give us unemployment. You got this. It's okay. He's been tested. Younger men have not been tested as much. So you let the Spirit do His work, and it can be frustrating until you learn that surrender is the best of things. Amen. So the Christian life and the process of sanctification can often be very painful. And a lot of times when we go through it, we're wondering, like, man, have we even been changed at all?

So as you're listening to this sermon, some of you guys may be like kind of discouraged, like, I'm so far away. But let me close with an illustration. Many years ago, I had heard that most lizards can self-amputate their tails to distract predators and to escape. You guys know this? Lizards can like break off their tail and like right? They can go, they can run off. So I remembered this when I went on a camping trip with my friend as a young teenager. And on that morning of the camping trip, I noticed a lizard chilling on a rock, basking in the sun. And only strictly in the interest of science, I walked up to the lizard and kicked it. Just to see what would happen. Okay? Just to see if the tail would indeed snap off, and it did.

And this three-inch severed piece of tail, it was thrashing and it was flailing for several minutes. So moments before the lizard was just chilling. The tail was not moving. But I kicked it, the tail broke off, and then it took on a life of its own, literally. That tail was dead. It was cut off from its source of life. But while it was still dying, it was flailing and thrashing. The tail was both dead and still dying. Right? Sometimes we who've been transformed completely, we still feel like the transformation is incomplete, right? Because although we're one with Christ, we feel so distant from Christ. Although we've been like made new, our old self still like kind of stubbornly like clings on to us.

Why do we still struggle so much to remember our purpose? Why do I struggle to live a life that's consistent with the truths of scripture? Well, because sin, though it's dead in us, it's still dying in us. It's both already and not yet. So we've been changed, we're still being changed, we've been transformed. God is still transforming us, and he's shaping us into the image of his son. In the process of all that, younger men, let it happen. There's stuff in you that's like flailing and thrashing, like I can't live without this. I need that. No, that's not the life I envisioned for myself. Ah. But over time, what happens? I trust in the Lord with all my heart. I lean not on my own understanding, and in all my ways I acknowledge him because he's always made my path straight.

So in the process, stop resisting the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Hopefully, with each season, as we're being sharpened by the word, as we're being cleansed and renewed by his spirit through the preaching of his word, as we're being shepherded and discipled through the word, we're gonna have an army. One godly man is more powerful than a hundred ungodly doofuses.

Just to be kingdom citizens. We are men and women of God. And for today, my primary prayer is that our men truly will be men. Amen. Amen.