Titus chapter 2. Go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word if you are able. Titus chapter 2 starting in verse 1. This is God's Word, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, And so train the young women to love their husbands and 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. And as God's word, you may be seated. So in Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story about a man who entrusted three servants with a whole lot of money. You remember this? To the first one, he gives the equivalent of 100 years of paychecks. To the second, he gave the equivalent of 40 years of paychecks. And to the third, he gives the equivalent of one year of paychecks. And you know what happens, right? The first two servants double their money. The third one hid his money in the ground. The third one is in trouble. But the first two, the master applauds and he says, Matthew 25, 21 says, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. I believe in the life of every church. God brings that church to moments of decision. He asks them, will you do what's easy or will you be faithful? See, we've been teaching through Titus now since May, and I believe today is one of those days where God is saying to me, where God is saying to our leaders, will you do what's easy? Will you do what is acceptable to the culture? Or will you be faithful? Titus 2.5 may be the most attacked and compromised verse in the Bible for the past 60 years. Teaching that we just read in verse one is sound or healthy. Teaching that we just read in verse three is good. has been libeled by our culture as evil, oppressive, and advocating domestic slavery. So easy in this moment to give into the pressure, to gloss over Titus 2.5. Easy to say it doesn't mean what it actually says. Easy or faithful? Faithful being, teach what the text says. See, because what we have in the Bible is God's word and God is the king, he's the Lord, he's the master, he's in charge. So that what church is is an extension of a monarchy where Jesus is king. So we're told in his word that his word is either in season or out of season. So whether it's easy to preach or whether it takes courage to preach, a faithful pastor has no choice. He must preach the word, the whole word, and nothing but the word, or he silences the king. That's why I said last week, we don't cringe at this text. We celebrate this text. We celebrate it because it's God's word, his kind and gracious word to each of us. And that's what we're gonna do now. So as we consider verses four and five today, I wanna just pull out a second and remember that the text is found in a paragraph where King Jesus through Paul is telling Titus, Titus, I want you to establish thriving churches in a dying culture. The dying culture on the islands of Crete had infiltrated the churches so that false teaching was actually coming out of the churches. Ungodly rebellious living was coming out of these churches. The churches on this island had gone from being lights in the darkness to lights for the darkness. So Titus was there to straighten out these churches in what they believe and to straighten them out in how they lived. And if you remember the words of Jesus, he says that his truth and the change that that truth produces, He says in Matthew 5, 16, he says, let your light, let the light, the truth, let it shine before others. Don't hide it, don't cover it with sin or shame. Let your light shine before others, and here's the reason. He says, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. And what we see in chapter two, verses one to 10 of Titus, is that Paul agrees. How we live, how we treat each other, how our families function, who we are at our jobs even, should be done in faithfulness to Christ. Look at the end of verse five. So that the word of God may not be reviled. So when our lives are lived in faithfulness to Jesus, what happens is that the world sees it and they consider maybe there's something to this Jesus thing. See, non-Christians are given the permission here to judge the legitimacy of our King by our lives. No one can see your commitment to Jesus. There's no like some, I don't know, some little mark that happens to every Christian when you're saved. Oh, there's your commitment. It's that little mole behind your ear, you're a true Christian. No, what happens is that they see the effect of Jesus through our lives. So we show people how attractive the truth really is. We show them how wonderful Jesus really is when they see our lives committed to the King. So in our text, when women over 50, when they teach and model verses four and five, and when women under 50 pattern their lives after verses four and five, and even teach their daughters to do the same, what happens is non-Christians see King Jesus. When the healthy, good teaching of Titus 2.5 is attacked, compromised, and ignored, people don't see Jesus. We don't reach the loss. Our witness for Christ doesn't shine brightly. And as a result of that, people don't see the Jesus that we know and love as easily. Now we left off at verse four last Sunday. So let's pick it up there now. Let's start at the end of verse three. There's a new sentence there in the ESV where it says, older women, it says they are to teach what is good. Now what is the good that they are to teach? Verse four, and so train the young women to love their husbands and 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. The elders must instruct older women to take younger women under their wings, to pass on the healthy good virtue first of loving their children. So we take a step back and we say, okay, what is Paul talking about here? Faithfulness to Jesus will be seen in moms, point number one, who have a caring, affectionate, and loyal love for your kids. Have a caring, affectionate, and loyal love for your kids. The word children in verse four means offspring of any age. And so Christian moms are to be children lovers. Now obviously that doesn't refer to the natural affections that moms have for their kids. This refers to something else. The word for love here means to care about, but it speaks of tenderness, kindness, and devotion. It speaks of a concern that she's always concerned about what's best for her kids. But as we saw last week, not at the expense of her husband, who's to be number one in her heart, as love for husband is number one on the list here. Now I don't know what was going on on the island of Crete exactly, but you have to think it was pretty bad if Paul has to say this. Teach the younger Christian women to love their kids. It must've been pretty bad, but we kind of see this in our culture, right? Like, why would younger women need to be taught to train to love their children? Well, our culture minimizes the natural affections that women have for their kids. It's not that important. And it undermines the caring affection and loyal love they should have for their kids, right? Because kids are seen as obstacles to your peace. They're an impediment to your fulfillment. They are a hindrance to your happiness. Don't be concerned about what's best for them. Be concerned about what's best for you. In fact, our culture is so satanic that if a mom's affections are non-existent for her kids, and if her care, affection, and loyalty for them has fully been undermined, then she can have them killed before they're born, and our culture celebrates that as bravery. That's how sick our culture, well, that is how rebellious our culture is against God's pure and simple good word. So young moms, you're being challenged to be countercultural. Loving your kids physically, socially, emotionally, morally, practically, spiritually, with no limits and no conditions, that is so against our culture, but so in line with God's word. Now I know it's mess and disobedience and fights and meals and snacks and laundry and pickup and drop off. I know they forgot something and more messes and more meals and more fights, and that's just your husband. Let alone your kids, right? I heard that, amen. Listen, the culture is a riptide seeking to rip you away from God's truth. And you have to decide whether you're gonna resist the pull of the culture and see your children not as burdens, but as the greatest blessing, one of the greatest blessings God will ever give you. So practically speaking, how do you love your children? Let me just give you four ways quickly to love your kids. First, love your kids by telling them about Jesus. Read the Bible to them, sing the Bible to them, teach them the Bible. You are teaching them about the greatest person, the greatest truth in the history of humanity, which is Christ. Second, love them by your example as a follower of Jesus. Don't teach them to be one way here at church and the opposite way everywhere else. And by the way, as I'm saying this, dads, it's kind of obvious this refers to you too, grandparents as well. Third, Love them by disciplining their disobedience diligently. That might just be for parents. Love them by disciplining their disobedience diligently. This is Proverbs 13, 24. Listen to what it says. Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. Now listen, don't overthink this. And for God's sake, don't go to the world and ask them, hey, how should I raise my kids? The world has no idea how to raise your kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Because they're gonna take rebellion and they're going to promote that as this is how you love your kids. It's not true. Good parenting is not getting them to do what you want them to do. Good loving parenting is consistently doing with your kid what the Bible tells you to do. So if you don't teach them to obey all the way, right away, with a happy heart, if you teach them to obey after you count to three, or when you raise your voice, or for a bribe, you are actually training your kids to disobey. And then what happens is someone like a boss or the police will train them to obey, but the consequences will be much worse if they have to train them versus if you train them. So train your kids early to obey, train them often to obey all the way right away with joy. And fourth, love your kids by parenting their hearts, not just their behavior. I don't have time to go into this, but on the back of your notes, I recommend some books and I recommend the book to you, Shepherding a Child's Heart. This book is Christian parenting gold. Like when your child is born, this book should just float down from heaven and be dropped in your lap. It is that necessary, that good. It is required reading for Christian parents. You should read it. You should read it over and over. You should read it with other parents. You should read this book. It is phenomenal. But I don't have time to go into this. So you can see I have six points to get through in the shortest amount of time I've ever given myself to preach. So it's helpful. So listen, the end of verse four, love your husband, love your kids, sets the tone for verse five. So notice the text. Next, older Christian women are to train younger Christian women to be self-controlled. That's the next word. This word means having control of your mind, your emotions, your mouth, and your life. with God's help. She's in control of herself, her head, her heart, her hands. She's not wild, unrestrained, brain in a blender, foot in mouth disease. That's not her. God's will is controlling her. So she's saying, what does God want me to do? And that is controlling her decisions, her actions, her heart, her life, her relationships, her schedule, her commitments, her priorities, all controlled by God's will. So faithfulness to King Jesus will be seen in Christian women who, point number two, keep your mind and schedule balanced for your family. Keep your mind and schedule balanced for your family. And you might be sitting there going, for your family? Where's that in the text? Well, I'm glad you asked. The whole context of verses four and five is the family. How do you know that? Because the first virtue and the second virtue at the end of verse four, love your husbands and children, that's the family. The fifth virtue, working at home, that's the family. The seventh virtue, submissive to your husband, that's the family. So really, all seven of these virtues is clearly directed towards family relationships. So a self-controlled heart and a balanced life is a blessing to her family. Again, does our culture help with this? No, right? Self-control doesn't exist as a regular message in our culture, let alone controlling ourself with God's will. No, we're to control our decisions with our will, right? Self-control is mocked, self-expression, self-actualization, that's what's championed. Are you beginning to see a pattern here? What the culture champions, the Bible rejects. What the Bible promotes, the culture rejects every single time. So the question is, who has discipled you more on what it means to be a wife and a mom? Is it the culture or is it the Bible? Now, when I say the word self-control, does anything particular come to mind? Self-control is meant to be like a castle wall against the enemies of your life and your family. God is likely leading the application of this word to your life right now. He may have already brought that to mind, like here's where I need more control in my life. Maybe it's food, maybe it's feelings, maybe it's your schedule is out of control because you can't say no, maybe it's your priorities, maybe your kids are doing too much, maybe you're doing too much so that God and his word and his ways are getting leftovers rather than focus of your time and energy, I don't know. But the preacher knows that God knows, and the preacher knows that God loves you and is working through his word to bring you more in line with what God wants. Bring balance to your mind and to your schedule so your family will be blessed as you follow God's will for your life. Look back at the text. Next, young women are to be pure. This isn't a hard word at all. It refers to sexual purity, being chaste, not seductive. Obviously the context is young women, young Christian women, but like self-control, purity should be true for all Christians, right? So all of us should be sexually pure before, during, and after marriage. So you will do God's will and be a blessing to your family when you are, point number three, modest on the outside and loyal on the inside. Modest on the outside, loyal on the inside. What this means is that she doesn't do anything in what she thinks, what she imagines, what she plans, how she talks, how she dresses that will cause someone to lust after her. In her heart, she is a one man kind of woman, singularly devoted to her husband or the Lord if she doesn't have a husband. Hebrews 13.4 supports this, where it says, let the marriage bed be undefiled. For God will judge the sexually immoral, that sex before marriage, and he will judge the adulterous, that sex with anyone other than your spouse after marriage. So older women are to be lifeguards. as the culture is pulling you away from sexual purity and telling you, no, satisfaction is found, and just express yourself, flaunt it, be powerful, express your sexuality. The older women are to get their arms around the younger women, like lifeguards go, no, don't go in that direction and kill your family. Culture, you go, girl. It's their fault if they're tempted by what you say or how you dress. That's their problem, not yours. Work it. No, listen, Christians are to be loving and kind, and kindness in the New Testament means that we are considerate of other people's hearts and other people's lives. Listen, sexual purity before marriage and in marriage, meaning no adultery, was designed by God for your joy and satisfaction, but the world tells you that purity destroys joy and satisfaction. So again, what is it gonna be? The world wants to destroy you. It wants to destroy you by taking you away from God's word. And you might be right now going, yeah, amen, until we get to this next one. Now the most controversial statement in Titus 2.5. Families are blessed and Jesus is not blast themed by a dying culture when women are, quote, working at home. No one misunderstood this text 60 years ago. No one misunderstood this text for hundreds of years before 60 years ago. It's just two words, home and work smashed together. So it means that she is to be a home worker, like husband lover or child lover. In verse four, the focus of her love, her care, her affection is to be her husband and her kids. So the focus of her work, her energy, her intellect, her skills, her attention is to be her home. So faithfulness to King Jesus will be seen in Christian women who point number four, make your family and your home your second highest priority. Make your family and home your second highest priority. Now obviously I say second highest priority because who is the Christian's first priority? Jesus, right? Like he's the first priority. But listen, when Jesus is your highest priority, you take his word and you seek to do what it says. And so when he's your highest priority, your family and your home, if you're married, will be your second highest priority. Look at the text. That word working means diligence, not laziness, being idle or distracted. At home is the location where that diligence is primarily focused. And you're like, well, you know, it's probably just one verse and you know, it's probably nowhere else. First Timothy chapter five. First Timothy chapter five, you can turn there if you want, it's two books to the left. But Paul is describing what God wants for younger widows, widows, Christian widows whose husbands have died. He said, if they're younger, if they're under 50, under 40, what do I want for them? He says, I want them to, I want, he says, First Timothy 5.14, I want younger widows to marry, bear children, and here's our phrase, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. Just that phrase, manage their households, is fascinating. I don't usually drop Greek words to show off my Greek knowledge, but I'm gonna do it here because I think it will be helpful. The word translated manage your households is a word, oikodespotane. Oikodespotane, now oikos means house, but despotane, does that sound familiar like an English word? Despot. She is the home despot. She is the home master, the home ruler, the manager, the director, the one who is in charge in her home. Home is the location of her oversight, supervision, and her energy. She runs her home with intelligence, skill, efficiency, hard work, and love. Listen, God's will is for you to give most of your time to your husband, your kids, and your home. Proverbs 31, 27, the woman to be, and listen, if you're single, the woman to look for, the woman to pray for, it says that she, quote, looks well to the ways of her home. She watches over it well. She manages things in her home well. She's watching and she's looking and she's doing that well. Listen, the culture wants to tell you that that kind of work is less than. That work is not less than anything. It's a lie that you're wasting your time and your talents by working at home because a career, that's where you're really gonna be satisfied. By quote unquote, liberating Christian women from this, the world has liberated from God, them from God and his specific source of joy and blessing that he's created them to have. Listen, it is a lie that this is domestic house arrest, chaining women to stoves and enslaving them to a harem of one. All the things that I've read about this view this week. What the world sees as oppressive, what the flesh just feels is like, I don't want that. God considers precious. In the first century, no married woman worked outside the home. No one on Crete would have read this and thought it means, oh, it means working at home, like it says there in the text. That means working outside the home. Like no one would have read that and thought that. Now, let's talk about some qualifications and explanations here, but before I do that, let me just be clear. All of these explanations and qualifications do not take away anything that I've just said. Now, look at the text. Does it say confined to the home? Nope. She can never go outside the home and do anything besides all this home stuff. That's not what it says. This is devoted to the home. Man, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't help her around the house. That's not what that means either. You should help. That's, again, servant leadership. It doesn't mean that you're wasting your talents. God created women to be multitaskers that are incredible at relationships. That's why you excel in an office environment. but God gave you those talents for your family. What about a job outside the home? If you're married without kids or your kids are grown, then obviously, like, not a problem, have a job. If you're married, the question you have to answer is how am I doing it at making my family and my home my second highest priority with a job? Does anybody want their doctor to also be their mechanic? Anybody? Does anybody want the police to also be the firemen? No, because we know that the more focused we are, the better we are. So the question is, does my job keep me from managing my home and doing it well? Are my husband and my kids, my home getting my best? Are they getting my leftovers? Or let me put it this way. Am I able to cultivate a strong walk with Christ and love my husband like God wants and love my kids the way God wants and manage my home with excellence? If you're like, yeah, I'm doing that. Well, if so, God has gifted you for ministry in the church. So the first thing to add would be that. And then if you're like, okay, well, yeah, I've got all those things in place. If you're doing all that well with time to spare, maybe a job is great. In Proverbs 31, you know, that super woman, as she's doing all of that stuff, it's clear that the thing she did outside the home, she did after her home was cared for. So the real question is, do you have to work because if you don't, your family won't survive, because you're super poor, or you're a single mom, or divorced, or your husband's in jail? Or do you have to work outside the home for money? Is that really what it is? Or will it hurt to go to one income? Absolutely, it might. Will it take a while to get yourself there financially? It might. Is it gonna last forever? No, it's only temporary. I was talking to someone after the last service. What about your degree and all that work experience that you have? Listen, kids grow up. The time it takes to manage your house well lightens up. And then you know what you do? You start to wish that you could go back to when your kids needed you more. Listen, this is a special, precious time in your life. Don't trade it for money. Don't trade it for comfort. Don't trade it for all of those things. You may need to pray. Ask God for wisdom. I don't know. Your salary and your satisfaction doesn't come from a job. It comes from God being pleased, number one, and it comes from this scene in Proverbs 31, 28. It says that this is the paycheck. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her saying, many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. And listen, that's what I want for you. Think about it. If all the women in this room, if all of you had jobs, and then all of you tithed, we would have all the money we need here. Well, probably not that, but we'd have a lot of money here, right? So I know a message like this actually hurts our bottom line as a church, but listen, it blesses your bottom line in heaven. And I want that for you more than anything else. So look back at the text. Older women should train younger Christian women to be kind. Now this is an interesting word because Greek has a word that means kind, And that's not this word. This word is most often translated good, which means useful or beneficial. It describes people who live exemplary lives, virtuous lives. The context is family, so it's being good to, it's bringing benefit to one's family. That seems to be the idea with this word that the ESV translates kind. One author describes this word this way, he says, quote, she is benevolent, heartily doing what is good and beneficial to others, especially those of her household. So point number five, see your life goal as blessing others and honoring God. Point number five, see your life's goal as blessing others and honoring God. It's 1 Corinthians 10 31 applied to your home. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, including being a wife and mom, do it all to the glory of God. In other words, be the kind of wife and the kind of mom that makes God's word and God's will and God's ways look great. This is simply applying Matthew 22 to your family. Love the Lord with all that you are, and love or prioritize your family to the level you prioritize yourself. Now listen, the culture says fulfillment only comes to your life if it's one, two, three, all about me. But listen, God didn't only create women to be a blessing to others. He creates Christians to bless others, right? That's why God saved us. He saved us to serve. He saved us to look out at the world. These are my neighbors. How can I love them and be a blessing to them? And all he's saying is like, take that ethic, take that idea and bring it to your home, your closest neighbors, your husband and your kids. Listen, we still honor people like soldiers in our culture who sacrifice themselves to help and bless others. And in all kinds of areas, we promote those people. Like, look at that sacrifice. They're so wonderful. Unless it's a mom who sacrifices for her husband and her kids, then she's a loser. So let me just say this. If you're here and you devoted your life to trying to be a Titus 2-5 woman, listen, you're not a loser. and you didn't waste your life. And you're not less than like the world wants you to think you are for making family and home your priority. Your children will call themselves blessed for having you as a mom. Your husband will praise you and value you because he got you as a wife, a woman committed to God's will and devoting her best to her family. You will be happier and more satisfied because listen, you'll be doing what God created you to do. And when you do what God created you to do, you experience blessing and joy. Finally, look at the text. Older women should train younger women to be submissive to their husbands. Oh, so out of the frying pan and into the fire just now, right? Here we go. Again, you have to have an agenda to misunderstand this verse. It's the assault on this for 60 years, both outside the church and inside the church, that has silenced this text and turned what is something that was God created for our good and for our joy, turning it to something evil and ugly. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at each part of this phrase, okay? And we're gonna see what is God saying in this text? So that word submissive translates a word used for soldiers who arrange themselves under the leadership of their commanding officer. It establishes a clear structure of authority, just like we saw last week in the relationships of the Trinity, where there is clear structure of authority. This word, submissive, is in the present tense, meaning submission should not be an occasional whim, but a continual attitude of her heart flowing out in the actions of her life. Notice this word, too, submissive. You can't see this here. It's just a little Greek nerd moment. Sorry, but you need to know. If I didn't think it was important, I wouldn't tell you. This word submissive is in what's called the middle voice, which means the action of the verb is actually that the subject is doing is actually coming back on to the person doing the action. Translation, this text says, wives submit yourself to your own husband voluntarily, never forcibly. Meaning that submission is her job to give. Man, it's never your job to take. The text does not say, husbands, make sure that your wife submits to you. It's not what it says. And finally, notice the text, verse five. The text says that she must be submissive to her own husband. So for those who say passages like this establish a patriarchy where all women must submit to all men, that's just a straight out lie. That's not what this text says. It says, submissive to her own husband in the Christian home. So putting all that together, faithfulness to King Jesus is seen in Christian women, point six, who give your mind, skills, and passions to support your husband's lead. Give your mind, your skills, and your passions to support your husband's lead. The world says that in order to do this, you have to suppress your intelligence, suppress your talents and skills and desires to submit to your husband. No, you fully express them as a blessing to your family and support of and to advance your husband's spiritual leadership in your home. Well, others are like, oh, you know, this isn't really said all that much in the Bible. So, you know, we don't really, I mean, saying it once should be enough, but no, it's just not said very much. No, actually this command is repeated five times in the New Testament. And what Paul does is he pictures this relationship, like the relationship you and I have between our head and our bodies. Ephesians 5, 23. The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body. So your body submits to your head. That's a good thing, right? When there's harmony between your head and your body, you're healthy, everything's good. But when your body doesn't follow the leadership of your head, Nobody thinks that's a good thing, right? That's Tourette syndrome. We go, that's not good, that's bad. That's really bad, it's not desirable, it's not healthy. Well, here's what our culture does. Our culture sets up husband and wife as rivals in a boxing ring. Bodies fighting heads, both vying for king of the mountain. Who's gonna outlast the other and be crowned king of the relationship? What it does is it turns the curse of Genesis 3.16 into a good thing. when Jesus removes the curse and in salvation brings order to the marriage that God intended before sin enters the world. And listen, the world is fine if you submit to a man, as long as he's your boss, not your husband. And they're fine if you organize your life around taking care of children, just as long as they're other people's children, not your children. And as we saw in 5.23, a wife's submission to her husband illustrates the church's submission to Jesus. So a church that disobeys Christ has stopped functioning as it was created. The same is true for a wife who refuses to give her mind, her skills, her passions to her own husband in support of his leadership. Well, hey preacher, Galatians 3.28 says there's no male or female, we're all one in Christ. So that just discounts everything you just said. Last week we saw, yes, men and women are equal in creation, equal in God's image. And yes, men and women are equal in salvation. No gender is more saved than the other one. But listen, the same Paul that wrote Titus two, wrote Galatians three. So in his mind, there's no contradiction between what he said in either passage, but both ideas, equality and value and respect and differences in role that comes together to make a complimentary truth. Again, just like we see in the greatest of all relationships between the members of the Trinity. Well, pastor, I mean, does that mean that she submits to him even if he's in sin? Of course not. No. If he ever demands that you disobey or forbids you from obeying, listen, you obey God rather than him. Well, what if I disagree with my husband? What if he's an idiot? Who just keeps making stupid mistake after stupid decision? He just, I have no trust in him at all. He's just a moron. That's what submission is all about. Submission assumes disagreement will happen. And when you submit to him, even when you disagree, especially when you disagree, You honor God and pleases your king. And you know, in your flesh, you might say, told you so, should have listened to me. But even then, listen, it's in moments like that where again, your skills, your passions, your intellect comes alongside him and says, hey honey, how can we, let's think through this a little more. Well, what if he's not a Christian? Should he submit to him then? 1 Peter 3, one and two. says, wives, be subject to your own husbands so that even if some do not obey the word, even if some are not saved, even if they if they act like they talk about being saved and they they can put on the show. But but, you know, because their life is in so much rebellion against God. It may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Is that easy? Absolutely not. Is it faithful? Yes. Well, doesn't that make it okay for him to be mean, unloving, uncaring, and even abusive to his wife? No. Nowhere is leadership by Christians pictured as anything other than servant leadership. Doing what's best for those the leaders get to lead. That's what leadership is all about. So in marriage it means husbands are to love their wives like Jesus. Sacrificing what's best for themselves, what's best for their wives like Jesus. It's loving her so that she grows spiritually. It's loving their wives like their own bodies with care and consideration. It's loving them to the very end just like we see Jesus doing when he goes to the cross. And notice the end of Titus 2.5. Living that way does what? It shows the world that there is a better way than what they're talking about. It shows the world that they, I may disagree with all that stuff you're talking about there, Christian, but I can see the health in this. I can see the blessing in this, and I might disagree with you, but there's something there that I can't speak against. That's what you have there in verse 5. We're to live this way so that the word of God may not be reviled, slandered, or blasphemed. Now in the ancient world, when a king had a message, he would call the heralds. Did you know this? He'd call the heralds and he'd say, here's the message, now go tell it to my people. So the heralds would go out into the kingdom and their job was to convey the official message of the king. And what the writers in the New Testament do is they take this profession, they take this word and they insert it into the New Testament to describe preachers. That preachers do not have their own message and they do not give their own message. They simply give the message of the King, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. And that's been my goal today. But it's been my goal for this reason. Is Jesus a, I don't know, Is he mean to his people? Is he disrespectful? Is he unkind? Is he out for our harm? No, right? He is the most loving, gracious, merciful, compassionate, wonderful, beautiful King that there could possibly be imagined. So no faithful pastor would want to silence him because everything he says expresses his love. Everything he says is for our good, for our joy, as we obey him, even hard passages like Titus 2.5. So I've tried to help you with this. I've even given you books on the back to start to read. If you look on the back there, I already said Shepherding a Child's Heart required reading for every Christian parent. But right above that is a book by Carolyn Mahaney called Feminine Appeal. And that book is simply these two verses. in Titus in book form. So she goes way deeper into these texts than we're able to. And it just pulls out all of the nuggets and all of the good truth that is in this text. So I'd highly recommend that too. Now I know a message like this, cause I've watched it for, this is the fourth time now that I preached it. And I know a message like this is like a hand grenade that was just dropped in a whole bunch of families. I know it. And so I just want you to know two things. One, unlike like real hand grenades, God means these truths for your good and for your joy. So it might be hard to put your life together as a result of his word, but listen, he is there. He brought you here today to hear this so that you would take the truth that he has and seek to conform your life to it. And second, that's what pastors, elders, that's what the church is for, to help you do that. When you hit the wall and you're like, we don't know what to do, that's why we're here. So let me just say this to close. Don't let anyone say to you, you're just a wife or you're just a mom. Say, no, you're just a lawyer. You're just a doctor, because unlike you, I've given my life to the best gifts that God has given me, my husband and my kids. That's God's will. Let's pray.