INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: A month ago, we began to talk about Striving For Church Health. If SCC is going to be a healthy church, the senior saints must lead the way in example and conduct and we, the congregation, must know how to react and respond to their lives and walk among us. Young women must also lead by making their home and family a priority. Now, we come to younger men.
Observation: Younger men have many things as there priorities. Some men set out to conquer college, push through graduate school, learn a new job, establish a family, build up the bank account, and retire at 55. While having these goals are commendable, younger men can sometimes lose their way and miss what’s really important in life as they pursue their goal-filled agenda. It seems that early in adulthood, young men tend to focus on relationships, girls, sports cars, and the big bucks. Some never quite get over that and others take as much as 15 years or more to emerge from their adolescent fantasies. Then as they enter the middle adult years, they begin to evaluate things, and second-guess things, and begin to wonder about their search for meaning and significance. This often leads to what…
Illustration: One author describes a “dropout phenomenon” among middle-aged adults when it comes to church involvement. Six reasons for midlife adults to drop out of organized religion and church specifically (I’ll paraphrase): 1) empty nest freedom, 2) lack of freedom and anonymity, 3) a heightened career surge that leaves less time for church, 4) burnout following unbalanced exertion of younger years, 5) pursuit of leisure activity, and 6) divorce or marriage problems.
Transition: This message today assumes a couple of things today. One is that you’re going to hang in there and not abandon the new community, the body of Christ, no matter how good or bad life may get. Second, you want to know how you can contribute to a healthy church.
Text: Titus 2:1-10
Background: The apostle left Titus on the island of Crete to ’’set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5).’’ They have need for spiritual maturity in the congregation. And so Titus has been given the assignment to work to that end. To establish order in the church Paul gave Titus instructions concerning the behavior of various groups of Christians. Titus was instructed to approach every group in the church and challenge them to a holy lifestyle. “I want them to be godly men and women so that they will be salt and light on that island.” He did not only want them to live holy lives but to preserve a powerful Christian testimony in their community. He wanted them to be a healthy, well-balanced group of believers that clearly and attractively presented the gospel in their island community.
Title: Striving for Church Health – Healthy Younger Men
Miniseries Theme: There are 5 SPECIFIC GROUPS that are addressed: senior adult men, senior adult women, younger women, younger men, and employees. Today, we focus on younger men in particular with applications for everyone.
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OUTLINE
Opening Statement:
Key Word: Paul exhorts Titus to be alert to five different groupings of people on the island. We’re going to break-down what the Apostle shared with Titus so as to clearly communicate what is being said here regarding church health. There are 5 SPECIFIC GROUPS that are addressed.
Healthy Younger Men
Opening Statement: Titus was among the “young men” category.
Recitation: Titus 2:1 But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. [This is my job – to communicate what a healthy church should look like. This was Titus’ job.] 2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. 6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; [Three aspects of responsibility become obvious here: exhortation, example and effect.] 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. 9 Urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
Explanation: Titus is encouraged to take up personal leadership and personal care over young men of which he is one. And this would be, no doubt, the greatest emphasis of his life and ministry. Older men would need to be taught by other older men; older women would need to be encouraged and instructed by other older women; younger women were to be instructed by older women; and now the young men are instructed by one of them who is godly, though young, namely Titus.
Exposition: IV. (:6-8) CONDUCT OF YOUNG MEN
A. "sensible" This word simply means to control themselves. He is saying, in effect, "Titus, tell the young men to be sensible, to submit their emotions and their passions to the Holy Spirit. Young men have a lot of great confidence but no experience; they have great hopes and dreams, but they cannot put it all together yet. They need models and encouragement from their peers as well as from older men. Young men, so potentially volatile, impulsive, passionate, arrogant, ambitious, inexperienced, need to become the masters of all the areas of their lives...everything needs to come under control. Developing self-mastery, self-control, balance, and getting their appetites, their longings and the desires into harness is a difficult thing to do, but it’s necessary. They must exhibit power over their appetites and their faculties. These are essential if they are to be godly. They’ve got to control their lives. So, Paul says you exhort young men to walk in the Spirit, to seek with all their might, to harness themselves and live in spiritual balance and self-control and not to become victimized by those dangers that are lurking all around them.
B. "in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds" He is now saying to Titus, “Set an example with the pattern of your life so that they can copy what you are. Be a sermon; don’t just preach one. Instead of being exclusively verbal; offer to the Cretans a visual as well." Paul shows that the best way to teach young men is through good deeds and example – putting the verbal and visual together for maximum impact!
Quotation: A man’s life is always more forcible than his speech. When men take stock of him they reckon his deeds as dollars and his words as pennies. If his life and doctrine disagree the mass of onlookers accept his practice and reject his preaching. C. H. Spurgeon.
Definition: The word "example" (tupos {too’-pos}) is a very interesting word. It literally means a blow, like you would do with a hammer. It’s the word for a die, a mold, a model, a prototype, a pattern you would trace over, some imprint or impress. You’re to be that. You’re to be the living imprint of virtue, the model that others can follow, the life they can trace their own life on. This is crucial in influencing young men because young men look up to other men; they want a hero that they can follow.
Observation: We human beings seem to be imitative by nature. We need models; they give us direction, challenge and inspiration. The Christian faith is imitative--it is taught by one person to another. Jesus set the pattern when He said to a small band of men, "Follow Me." Example is also crucial in the teaching of Paul. It’s crucial in the teaching of the New Testament. It’s crucial in the life of the church. And younger men have a responsibility to set an example.
Quotation: Paul taught and lived by example. In Acts 20 he could have just quoted, "It is more blessed to give than receive," to instruct them that they should be generous givers. But he didn’t just quote that saying of Jesus, he said, "You know how I was when I was with you, you know that for the space of three years I ceased not night and day with tears to give you what you needed by way of warning. You know that I never coveted any man’s silver, any man’s gold or any man’s clothing, you know the sacrifices I made to earn my own living and now I say to you, it is more blessed to give than receive and you know what I mean because you saw it in my life."
Quotation: And nowhere is it more delineated than in 1 Timothy 4:12, you might want to look at that for a moment, a familiar verse. First Timothy 4:12, writing to another young man, Timothy, Paul says, "Don’t let anybody look down on your youthfulness." Don’t let anybody criticize you just because you’re young. "But rather show yourself an example," the very same phrase he gave to Titus. But here he delineates five categories...speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. In all those areas of life you be a pattern that others can follow.
Exposition:
Speech...that’s your conversation, what comes out of your mouth.
Conduct...that’s your life style, the things you do, the places you go, the possessions you accumulate, the way your treat women, your wife, and kids, every aspect of life.
Love...that’s your self-sacrificing service on behalf of others. Don’t ask them to do it unless you’re demonstrating your sacrificial life as well.
Faith...that means faithfulness, or consistency, demonstrate that you’re not a flash in the pan, you’re not a shooting star, you’re not a comet, you’re there for the long haul. You’re not a spiritual sprinter. You’re consistent, you’re trustworthy, you’re faithful, you’re unwavering, you’re uncompromising; you’re from start to finish.
And then he adds purity, hagneia which has to do with moral sexual purity on the inside and the outside. Be an example in all those areas, what you say, what you do, how you treat other people, your consistency and your moral purity. Be an example.
Setting an example is absolutely crucial and I’ll go so far as to say it is the single greatest aspect of leadership. It doesn’t matter what you say if you don’t live out your words.
C. "with purity in doctrine" Be careful what you teach and believe because it will affect how you behave.
D. "dignified" Younger men tend to be somewhat frivolous. He’s saying you need to be an example to young men of seriousness. Youth tends to be somewhat frivolous, wouldn’t you say? Oh particularly in our culture where we have taken entertainment to the level of a destructive disease, particularly in our culture where we live for entertainment, frivolity, trivia dominates our culture. People can be frivolous and lack the ability to think seriously. Young men are to learn to think seriously. Does that mean you don’t laugh? No, you do laugh. God has given us laughter as a gift from Him and there are times of joy and there’s a season to laugh. But what it does mean is that you understand that things are serious and you need to be serious when you’re dealing with serious things.
E. "sound in speech which is above reproach" The word "sound" here, hugies is from hugiaino which means to be healthy or to
be wholesome, we get the word hygiene from it, to induce health, life-giving, health-giving. Let your speech minister grace to the
hearers. Let it be health-giving, spiritually healthy, spiritually life-giving, edifying, building up. How healthy? So that it is beyond reproach. It is unable to be accused; it is unable to be condemned.
F. Goal: "in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us"
Explanation: Notice the word "us." Paul, the writer, is throwing himself in there. You say, "Paul, you’re not even in Crete. How in the world is the opponent going to say anything bad about you?" Here’s his point: one Christian stands for all. Is that not true? Titus, what you do will affect me. If you destroy the credibility of Christian faith, I go down with you. We have solidarity at that point. One Christian’s failure effects the rest. One’s reproach falls on his brother and his sister. One’s iniquity casts a shadow over the church.
Definition: The word "bad" is phaulos, it means worthless. Don’t let them say that we’re worthless. Don’t let them say that our Christianity has no value. Don’t let them speak evil against us. Silence them and not only silence them but put them to outright shame for the falseness of their accusations, which is so evident because of the known testimony that you maintain. And if you don’t, we all feel the pain. Our testimony in this community right here in Southeastern Indiana is at stake.
Quotation: However, it’s hard for anyone to argue with a great example. “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” - Mark Twain Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying."
Summary: Titus, look, you’ve got a tremendous job. I want young men to be sensible, I want their lives under control and in order to get their lives under control, they have to be committed to good deeds, they have to be committed to living lives of purity alongside the truth. They have to be committed to being serious about serious matters. And they have to speak with their mouths the things that are wholesome and healthy and life-giving and spiritually edifying. Titus, you not only need to tell them that, you need to show them how.
CONCLUSION
Younger Men…
1. Thank God for creating you who/what you are – appetites, needs, dreams. It’s OK to be a man – God-controlled man. But keep all of these things in check.
2. Strive for excellence. Someone is watching you. Avoid lapses into mediocrity.
3. Stay in for the long haul. When I was a kid a popular song was “Another One Bites the Dust.” This is true of many men when they cave into a life of mediocrity and selfish living.
