Last Sunday night, I was about to walk into the TSA line at Sky Harbor, and I reached into my pocket for my wallet, and it wasn't there. Yeah, that nagging feeling that I was forgetting something, it was true. I forgot my wallet. Sense of panic starts in your stomach, right? You go, and then your mind starts to go, okay, do I have any other form of ID? No. Am I gonna need my wallet in LA for a week? Uh, yes. Not good. So, uh, after introing a sermon last week, where I said men are depicted in our culture like idiots, ignorant, dumber than their family pets, and in need of their all-competent wives to get them out of all their messes, there I was, in line, calling my wife. Hey, babe. Yeah, uh, I forgot my wallet. The irony of that moment was not lost on me, by the way. I realized that immediately. Oh, I did miss my flight and I got on another one and I was okay. And thankfully when my wife found my wallet here in my office, she didn't see it at first. And so I was like, yes, okay. It wasn't just me. It was her too. Awesome. Felt better about that. I was looking for anything. And then, uh, So on my phone, I share my location with my wife and with Dale, one of our pastors here. And so as I'm landing in Vegas to make the jump to Burbank, I get a text. What are you doing in Vegas? Yeah. To which I replied, hoping I'd get to LA without you noticing. and having to tell you how dumb I am." He was very gracious. He said, tired does not equal dumb. So I felt good about that. But I say all that to say this. I'm not standing here each week on top of Holy Mountain, okay, thundering rebukes down at you while I, the holy man, don't need what I'm saying. Listen, my wife, my mom, my aunt and uncle, and my closest friend all go to church here. And that means that they could all tell you, I am a beggar, begging for bread like everybody else. Yes, he needs all of these things. And so the truth that we're going to need, that I need this morning, is in Titus chapter 2. So if you are not there, turn to Titus chapter 2. That's page 1100 in those blue Bibles, Titus chapter 2. Now in case you missed last week, let me set the context for all of us. Titus is on the island of Crete. Crete is in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. And the culture on the island of Crete was a lot like that ride at Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean. not the kind of place you want to move to, buy a house, raise kids, or retire. It's crazy. The culture was opposed to biblical truth and what they lived for and what they believed about God and the things that meant most to them. And then you add to that false teaching spread by false teachers all over the island in the churches, and you've just got a mess. And so Paul says, hey Titus, you need to stay here to straighten these churches out. You need to straighten them out in two areas. First, in what they believe. And you need to straighten them out second, in how they live. Now that wasn't going to happen without godly leadership. So that's chapter 1, verses 5 to 9. Godly leadership, that's going to straighten things out. And it wasn't going to happen without identifying the problem on the island of Crete. That's chapter 1, verses 10 to 16. And finally, what the Christians believed and how they lived, that wasn't going to be straightened out without Titus specifically addressing subgroups in every church. The culture had just seeped in so much that he actually needed to be very specific and say, older men, this is how you need to be, and older women, this is how you need to be, and younger women, this is how you need to be. And as we've looked at starting last week and today, Titus was also to focus on the young men. Young men in that culture would be between the ages of 12-13 and somewhere under 50. That would be the definition of a young man in that culture. Now remember the Bible is not written to us, but it was written for us. So what that means is that while Paul is writing this letter to his ministry associate Titus, really what's going on for us is this is God addressing us. And so this is God helping us thrive in a dying culture. Because if you've looked out at our culture lately, you see that it too is opposed and growing more and more opposed to biblical truth. However, the temptation is for us to look out at the culture and then look down on it. Like, why can't they be more like us? Or it's becoming like the culture. Hey, we need to be more like them. This text, this whole section actually, says that we win the culture by being different than the culture, by being biblical, and by showing the culture that Jesus is better. He's better than what they live for. He's better than what means the most to them. He's better than what they believe about God. He is better. And while the culture is not going to see what we believe, because what we believe is in our heads, They can see what we believe through our lives. And that's the point. Lives live, chapter two, verse one, in accord with sound doctrine. Lives live so that we are adorning the truth about Jesus, chapter two, verse 10, and that word adorn means that our lives are meant to make Jesus look great, that our lives make Jesus look good, that's the goal. That to a world out there who might have weird ideas about Jesus that aren't accurate, Our lives are meant to show the world, the culture dying around us. No, there's something better, and that something better is Christ. But here's the deal. Both the Bible and the culture are trying to disciple every one of us. Both the Bible and the culture are coming specifically alongside young men and young women, and the culture is screaming at you and me, postpone adulthood. Put it off as long as you can. Don't take responsibility, don't get married, don't have kids, have fun for as long as you can. In his book, A Practical Guide to Culture, John Stonestreet says sociologists refer to our time in America as people suffering from the Peter Pan syndrome. They also, one sociologist calls, says that adolescents, teenagers, young adults in their 30s and even 40s have a failure to launch. And others call our time in America a time of perpetual adolescence. One sociologist said, for the first time in history, the old want to be young. First time. Before that, it was, hey kid, you only got a little bit of time and then you're gonna be an adult. You gotta take responsibility, get married, start a career, have kids. You gotta do that fast. Life is happening. Before 70 years ago, there was no such thing as teenager, adolescent, or young adult. Before 70 years ago, you know what there was? Two life stages, childhood and adulthood, and that was it. There was not this like, oh, you just slow down becoming an adult and take your time, and you don't need to get there very fast. You've got plenty of time. No, you got married, started a family, and your career, if not in your early 20s, in your late teens. Now, today, We cannot possibly imagine adult, calling people in their 20s adults, and giving them adult responsibilities. We know like 18 you can vote and all that stuff, but we're like, but when it comes to like, oh yeah, let's put that 20 year old into leadership, it's like, nah, they're a kid. You can't do that, they're children. And that is because, Stone Street continues, we cease to be a culture where kids aspire to be adults. We've become a culture where adults aspire to be kids or at least adolescents forever. And he continues, if we love our kids and we care about their futures, we cannot allow them to settle into perpetual adolescence. Rather, we must directly confront it and call them instead to maturity and moral responsibility. And listen, that's what Titus 2, six to eight is all about. Calling young men, confronting the pull of the culture to be perpetual adolescents, confronting that and calling them to biblical masculinity and biblical maturity and responsibility. So as we're gonna read verses six through eight right now, and so as we do that, will you please stand for the reading of God's word? So we've gone to four services, we're still trying to figure out how are we gonna get everything in that we've done before and we find important, and reading the scriptures while we stand is definitely important. Titus 2-6, this is God's word. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. And as God's word, you may be seated. Last week, if you weren't here, what we talked about is the Bible's overarching plan for young men. And that plan is that we kill Peter Pan. We kill this idea that we never grow up, that we rid ourselves of the poison that seeps in from our culture that tells us postpone adulthood, live for pleasure, avoid responsibility, be experts in things that have no eternal value at all. And instead, in the words of 1 Corinthians 16, 13, act like men. Which, as we saw last week, means follow the example of Jesus, the perfect man. Following example happens as grace fills the life of young men who discipline themselves for godliness. And then look at 2.11. It's God's grace. God's grace has appeared. And then verse 12, that grace is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in the present age. Now, every week I bring us back to verses 11 and 12, and there's a reason for that. Because there are many today who say the best way to speak to young men is to shame them and to yell at them. That's how you get them to change. That's how you get them to grow up. This passage disagrees. This passage says the way that you disciple young men and you get them to grow up is through grace. More grace understood, more grace experienced. Notice, the more self-control, the more godly a life will become as they experience more grace. And so all of the instructions in verses one to 10 flow out of the grace that we're gonna see in verses 11 to 14. And those instructions, notice verse seven, Begin, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. Now I need to warn you at this moment that we are moving into a Bible nerd moment. Okay, so I'm sorry about that, but we just have to do it. You just got to take your Bible nerd medicine. And so here we go. So this passage, verses six to eight, the scholars are all over the place on how to translate all of this. 2 Peter 3, verses 15-16, Peter says that some of Paul's writings are hard to understand, and this is one of those passages. Not quite sure how to translate it, all these scholars, and so what I told you last week, for instance, is verse 6. You see, we looked at that last week, but there's that phrase at the beginning of verse 7, in all respects. And I said, I think the Greek is stronger to say that it belongs to verse 6, so urge the younger men to be self-controlled in all respects. The idea there is that in every area of their lives, in their bodies, their minds, their emotions, their desires, their decisions, be self-controlled in all things. It's just simply a restatement of 1 Corinthians 9.25. Second is notice verse 7, that phrase, in your teaching. In Greek, that's literally in the doctrine. And so for a lot of other nerdy Greek reasons I'm not gonna get into, I think that little phrase there, in your teaching or in the doctrine, actually concludes the command in verse seven. So verse seven should read, show yourself to be a model of good works in conformity to the doctrine. Now, why do I say all that? Why do we pause for a couple minutes to do a Bible nerd moment? Because I'm very committed to you understanding why I teach you the things that I do. I want you to see in the text, like, this is what the text says. And what the text is saying is that for young men, there should not be a difference between what they teach and what they believe and how they live. That doctrine and life should come together. That they should not unsay with their lives what they say with their lips. That there should not be a hidden life of hypocrisy and sin. That what Titus is to teach all of the churches on the island of Crete should be exactly how he lives. There shouldn't be this, hey, do as I do and not as I say. There should be none of that in Titus. Good works. These things that the Bible tells us to do, this obedience, always flows out of doctrine. And so like a model showing off other people's clothes. So Titus was to be a model showing off what God says is right. To put it differently, the Bible is the Play-Doh mold and Titus was to be the Play-Doh. His life as a pastor is to show other Christians, this is how you should live your life. His teaching is gonna carry little authority. His teaching is gonna have little impact if his life does not back up his teaching. So his life must match his teaching no matter where he is or who he's with. And listen, that's not only true for pastors. That's true for Christians. So all of us should, point number one, embrace being an example. Embrace being an example. In that moment, even me saying that, I know for many, it's like, what? I'm not a role model. I don't like that. Don't look at me, look at Jesus. We need to welcome this reality with open arms that you are an example to others of what it means to be a Christian. Whether you like it or not, you are. Don't hide it. Don't say it's not for you. We need to embrace this reality that we're examples. You are a walking billboard for all the people that know you of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, unless you're hiding that. And if you're hiding it, then your greatest fear, if you haven't been living according to God's word, is that you get found out. And that's not a good place to be in either. Embrace being an example. While this is true for all Christians, this is especially true for young Christian men. So to another young man, Timothy, Paul tells him, 1 Timothy 4, 12, he says, let no one look down on your youthfulness. Let no one look at you and go, oh, you know, he's just a kid. You know, he'll figure this out someday. You know, we all went through it. And so let no one look down on your youthfulness. Let no one say about you, oh, he's just a kid. He says, no, instead set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and purity. Young men, how you interact with others in person and online, how you live, how you carry yourself, how your love for Christ, your love for other people, your commitment to the Lord, your trust in the Lord, how you use your body, how you treat women, that should be an example of how anybody should do those things. Notice verse seven, that word yourself. That word yourself is critical because what Paul's not saying is like, hey, you know, just go get in the corner and wait to be zapped by God and then you'll come out of that zap and then you'll just do this. It'll just naturally flow. No, he says commit yourself, show yourself. This is Titus, like take this commitment on yourself. This is what it means to be a pastor. This is what it means to be a Christian. But in this moment, there's that inner lawyer right now. I'm young. I'm immature. I'm just a kid. I'm entitled to mess around a little bit, right? Like, I don't need to worry about this. Like, I'll get to that eventually. When Paul writes the words young men in his mind, he's thinking 13 to 50. 13 to 50. You'd be expected at 13 to say, okay, you need to begin to be done with childish things, and you need to begin to move on to maturity and adulthood at 13. And really, Titus is to be an example for these young men. We need examples, we need role models and standards, people that show us, notice verse seven, show yourself. We need people that show us, this is how you live, this is a life worthy of imitating. But the question is, are we thinking along those lines? That my life is worthy of imitating for my kids, for my grandkids, for my coworkers, the other kids at school. Do our lives give people, hey, this is a biblical example of what it means to be a Christian. Are we, in the words of Philippians 1 27, living our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel? In this moment, oh, nobody can do that. You know, the lawyer comes in, oh no, pastor, come on. Nobody can do that. Notice the text does not give us any outs. The text says, show yourself to be an example. For the pastor, the one who preaches good works must be a pattern of those good works. For the Christian, good doctrine and a good life should go together. The sad thing though, Is that for the people that claim to love the Bible the most? The ones who like sound doctrine and truth and those things mean the most and all of their theological T's are crossed and all of their doctrinal I's are dotted. In my experience, they're some of the meanest, unloving, disobedient, stingy people in the church. And it's sad. And then on the flip side, the ones who don't have their T's crossed and their I's are crossed and their T's are dotted theologically, there's all over the place. They're loving, they're kind, they're hospitable. And for me, that makes my hard drive crash. Like what? The people that love the Bible the most should live the Bible the most. The people that love the Bible should not unsay with their lives what they're saying with their lips. And sadly, nothing so stains the truth and stains the reputation of our Savior than Christians, especially Christian leaders who are not models of good works, who don't seek to imitate the Savior in what we say and how we live. When I was about nine years old, 1986, oh, I just outed myself, how old I am, that's embarrassing. Anyway, back in the day, 1986, I started collecting baseball cards, and that year, I don't know why I remembered this. When I got the Pete Rose card, I got this card, and unlike all the other cards, in the bottom corner where it said his position, his was different than everybody else's. His had a position, and then it said slash, and then it said coach. I was like, what? How does he, nine years old, how does he play the game and coach the game? Does he talk to himself? How does he do that? Back in the day, there were only three channels, so it's not like I could just watch a game, turn on ESPN, oh, tell me about this, oh, baseball guru. It's like I couldn't do that. So just kind of lived in that, oh, that's interesting. Player coaches, that's what pastors are supposed to be, player coaches. They're not coaches who bark commands and place burdens on Christians that they refuse to carry. They help people live the Christian life, the same life that they're trying to live too. And that example of good works in this passage first is meant to rub off on the young men who see, oh, this is, the pastor's, okay, that's how I'm supposed to be as a young man. Oh, and then that's supposed to spill over into the whole church. As all of us are going, oh, that's what a life of good, that's what a model of good works is meant to look like. But see what we do in this moment, and it's gonna come in the other moments that we look at these other points, is that we are tempted to take advantage of grace and go, well, God knows I'm a sinner. He knows this is so hard for me. He knows that I struggle and I'm just dust and I don't really get it. And you know, he's fine with this. He really, you know, he'll forgive and everything's good. You will not find that, those excuses in the Bible. You will not find that. You will find commands like this, show yourself to be a model of good works. So the question then is if Christians followed our example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity, How godly would those Christians be? If they followed our example in church attendance, in giving and serving, if they followed our example on our computers and our cell phones, if they followed our example all week, would they be stronger, more godly Christians? For those of us who have kids, let's just admit it right now, that is already happening, right? Your kids, your grandkids, they are learning from you what it means to be a Christian. Right? Our kids are learning how to live by our examples. They're learning how important Jesus is, how important church is to you. They're learning how to treat their spouses, how to talk about family members, how to talk about friends. They're learning all of life from us. So whether we want to embrace it or not, we are walking billboards everywhere we go for Christ. So instead of pushing it away, Let's embrace this idea that we are examples or role models. Now look back at verse seven. Next, Titus was to show himself to have integrity. The word integrity means uncorrupted, it means pure. The opposite of this word, this word's never used outside of this verse, but the opposite of this word is used outside of the Bible to describe some of the very worst people in society, who, by the way, need Christ. So Christians are to be uncorrupted. No, it's not referring to sinlessness. See, I say that Christians are to be uncorrupted, and immediately the lawyer comes in and goes, no, no, we can't be that. I mean, we're sinners. No, this is referring to the corruption we know is in our lives that we do nothing about. This is referring to, I recognize it, and I'm seeking to get it out. This is referring to the habits, the behaviors, the ways that we sin, that we excuse, the ways we disobey God, the ways that we are self-centered and expect everyone else to be the same, centered on us. And it's saying instead of holding onto that and excusing that, we thrive in a dying culture, point number two, when we remove sin from our lives. Remove sin from your life. While we will always sin, We should never make peace with that reality. We should never accept it as inevitable. We should never refuse to take it seriously. We should seek to remove sin from our lives. Jesus was pretty serious about this. Mark chapter nine. He says, if your hand causes you to sin, that's no big deal. Is that what your Bible says? Your Bible say that, anybody? If your hand causes you to sin, what? cut it off. It's better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell. Now if you have a Bible with red letters, those words are in red letters, end of Mark chapter nine. In Jesus' day, and really until very recently, to cut off your hand meant that it's gone forever. You can't reattach that thing and use it, it's over. So what is Jesus getting at? I think what he's getting at is this, take the sin in your life seriously, so seriously that you make it unrepeatable. The self-mutilation that Jesus is talking about is a picture of repentance. It's a turning decisively from sin, doing whatever you have to do to make it unrepeatable. Not putting up with it, not being okay with it, hey, this is how it's been, this is just the way we've been, this is just who I am, it's my personality, it's my upbringing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, no. No excuses, cut it off, deal with it, repent. Because here's the issue, you and I are constantly repenting and believing all day, all day, all day. See, we're either repenting of our sin and we're committing ourselves to Christ or we are repenting of our commitment to Christ and we're giving ourselves to our sin. And so Jesus is saying our relationship to sin, how we treat sin, how we think about it, shows if we really take God seriously or we're just kind of indifferent to him. Oh, you know, again, he understands it's no big deal to him. We're all sinners and he gets it. Romans 8.13 says to put to death the deeds of the body. To refuse to cut sin out of our lives, to refuse to repent, is to say that my sin is more valuable than Christ. And to say that ultimately is to say, Jesus is better, is not better than my sin. My sin is better than Jesus. My rebellion is better than Jesus and is to be not saved. That's the point. You take this to its logical conclusion, Jesus is saying, and you are trading me for hell and thinking, I got a great deal. First Peter 2.11, it's called abstaining from the passions of the flesh. which wage war against your soul. In the soul of the Christian, there is this desire to please God, and there's this desire to sin, and there's a war. They're two battle, like two armies at war inside of us. And instead of, I'm struggling with my sin, like, oh, I just feel so bad about it. Jesus, take this from me. You will never find that prayer. Take my sin from me. You know what you find in the Bible? It's Hebrews 12, four. It's not struggle with your sin. Hebrews 12, four, struggle against your sin. Fight it. Go to war with your sin. Don't excuse it. Take it seriously and remove it from your life. Now again, well, pastor, you can't really do that, you know, because you're always gonna be a sinner and a saint. And so those kind of, you know what that's called? That's called using biblical truth in unbiblical ways. that's taking biblical truth and use it to say sin is really no big deal because grace, and no, what does grace teach us to do? Chapter two, verse 12. Say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live upright, self-controlled, godly lives in the present age. If you need help with that, that's what pastors are for. That's what godly Christian friends are for. That's what mentors are for. But don't, right now, here's the thought. Keep this a secret, don't tell anybody. Listen, just put it in the light. Get it out in the open. I was talking with a guy before the first service today, and he said, hey, even in the past month that I've been coming here, he's like, I've had to make some hard decisions. I made a decision that cost me multiple tens of thousands of dollars, but I needed to do the right thing. I needed to obey God, and I'm glad I did it. And he said, you know, I just have this, and he kind of paused, and I said, it's freedom. And he says, don't say that again, because I'm gonna start crying. He said, I gotta go in. And I said, but that's what it is. It's not just the freedom of forgiveness, it's the freedom of faithfulness. The freedom that comes from being faithful to know I'm doing what the Lord wants me to do. I'm so tempted, so I had another conversation. I'm just gonna, I've got time. This is the benefit of coming to the 1145, because I can just keep talking. So after last service, I'm standing at the back, shaking hands, and this lady pulls me aside, tears holding back. I know exactly what you're talking about in point number two, because I lived for 21 years in a same-sex relationship. And I've just given that up two months ago, because Jesus, because the Bible tells me to. And it's hard. It's hard. That's what he wants. That's not somebody who's like, oh, you know, yeah, sin in my life, whatever, God forgives. They know, and just like Christian, you know, that the sin, that the spotlight that is on your life right now by God's Spirit, respond and remove it. I look back at verse seven. Next, Titus was to show himself to have dignity. Dignity. Anyone use that word this week? Dignity? I don't know about you. I don't use that word very often. I did this week because I was working on this, but usually dignity not coming in my head. However, though we may not have used this word this week, hopefully we've lived this word this week. The word dignity is translated gravity, seriousness, earnestness. And what it means, it's the kind of life that takes life seriously. And it doesn't mean like never laughing and never, not that. It recognizes like life is significant. There are significant decisions that are gonna impact my future. And I can't take, I just can't be flippant about this. That this idea of dignity speaks of a life and behavior that is worthy of respect. worthy of looking at and going, that's the way it's supposed to be. It's the life of the man that you want to marry your daughter. Going, I want the best. I want someone whose life is serious and it's going in a good direction and there's a trajectory there that's going to make sure that my daughter's going to be taken care of and everything's going to be okay. It's the kind of life that you look at and go, gosh, I hope when my son is that age, when my daughter's that age, I hope they are like that. That's what this word means, dignity. Sadly, there aren't many young men who live lives and act in ways that are worthy of respect. So if we're gonna thrive in a dying culture, we should point number three, have a good reputation. Have a good reputation. Live the kind of life that other people, especially people your own age go, That's good, that's right, that's the way it should be. Now this doesn't refer to man-pleasing, the seeking the approval of people at the expense of pleasing God, I'm not talking about that. The young man, be the kind of young man people think is not like the other young men. Oh, I interact with a lot of them at my work, or I interact with a lot of them around town, but you're different. That's dignity, that's a life worthy of respect, because you're not acting like your age. And that's not arrogance, that's not aloofness, that's not, oh, I just don't, you know, like, I don't care about, it's not that, it's a maturity, it's a grownup, it's a seriousness that you sense. So that you're not a loser. You're not a slob. You're not lazily kind of going through life, floating along. You have goals. You're going for those goals. You're making adult decisions while others your age are still acting like teenagers. You're not doing the wild, crazy, frivolous life filled with meaningless garbage activities that others are giving themselves to. You're saying, no, I'm done with all of that. And God, I just want your will for my life. And I'm gonna charge towards that. Now, we might not think like this, I have a good reputation, but the Bible said, teaches, teaches this idea that we are to have a good name. Proverbs 22 one, quote, a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. Let me say that again, because you might've missed it. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. Billion dollars, right here. Good reputation, right here. Is there anything in the culture that would say, oh yeah, take that good reputation? Think of the superstar athletes and actors, the people that our culture's like, you should be like them, they should, I mean, that is it, that's the paragon, that's the one that you should chase after and match your life to. Who don't care that their reputation smell like garbage? Right? Because they're rich. They're influential. They've got 10 million Instagram followers. They're what all of us should be like. Because they got money. And Proverbs says, that's foolish. The verse continues. Favor, the good view that people have of you, favor is better than silver and gold. Nah, come on. Seriously? Again, we're all being discipled. We're either being discipled by the Bible or by the culture. And don't be surprised when these two are at odds because the culture is simply a collective expression of rebellion. It's not rebellion on a micro scale like individuals. It is the collective expression of rebellion. That's what the world is. That's what culture is. So don't be surprised when these two don't match. They rarely ever match because the culture is at odds with the Bible. But you and I, we have to choose who's going to disciple us. Ecclesiastes 7.1 says, a good name is better than precious ointment. If you lived in Bible times, you're outside, it's hot, there's dust and dirt and there's other not so great stuff all over the roads, right? And you're walking around and, but you get inside. Shade. Okay, that's better. And then they bring you the ointment. And the ointment comes out and it goes on your skin and it's refreshing and it fills your nostrils full of great smells and just allows you to relax and to be refreshed. And that's what the author is saying here. The writer is saying a good name will refresh your life as you experience the benefits. of a good name. A good name will bring blessing into your life. But again, does that really matter to us all that much? You know, like those athletes and actors, we often don't care about our reputations. We don't think about how we come across to other people. It's just like, you know, we let our feelings tell us how to act. And when our feelings lead our lives, rather than truth leading our lives, we often ruin our reputations with other people. And then, you know what we do? We say, I don't care what people think about me. I'm a truth teller. I just tell people the truth, you know, and they got to deal with that. A good name is better than great wealth. It might be if we really believed that we would care far more about how we live than how much we make. And if you don't believe, if you don't have a good reputation with people here at your work or at school or in your family, you should try to make things right. Trying to live with those people with a bad reputation, as you try to live around people with that bad name, it'll keep people at arm's distance from you. It'll make you feel like an outsider, like why don't I fit in and what's going on? Maybe it's not because they're all mean and weird and wicked. Maybe it's because you've said things and done things that have caused people to pull back from you. Oh, you're a true, oh, oh, oh, okay, yeah. Is that how you're gonna talk? That's how you're gonna, okay, I'm gonna back up. I don't care about what people think. Oh, well, then you don't care if I stand back from you. You won't feel the refreshment of a good reputation. You'll feel the fatigue of wondering, why aren't people seeking me out? Why am I held at arm's distance? What is it? What is this going on? Maybe it's the decisions and actions, the way you treat other people, the way you come across has made this uncomfortable, isolated bed that you're lying in. And again, I'm not saying you should live to please everyone around you. That's impossible, and it's sinful. There's only one person that we should live to please, and that's who? Jesus, right? So it's sinful to live to please others, but it's just as sinful to live, like people's opinions of us don't matter at all. That's not true. A good name is better than wealth. It's more refreshing than ointment. And after the second service, someone came up to me and was like, well, you know, John Wooden said that character is more important than reputation, because you can trick people with your reputation, but your character is who you really are. And I said, you're right. What the Bible's saying is that our character and our reputation should match. They should be one. And finally, look at verse eight. Titus was to show himself to have sound speech. Sound speech. The word sound means healthy, life-giving, encouraging. That what you believe and what you say and what you teach others gives spiritual health and encouragement to them. That word speech is the word word. And most often the word word is translated teaching or doctrine in these three books, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. Only once in these three books is that word rightly translated speech. Every other time it should be translated doctrine. And I think that's how it should be translated here. So where it says there in verse eight, sound speech, I think it should read sound doctrine. So that what Paul is saying is what we said before, is Titus, your teaching and your living should be in line with what Paul taught you. That Titus don't deviate from what he taught. And so the way we would say that is we don't wanna deviate from the Bible. So point number four, if we're gonna thrive in a dying culture, let the Bible determine everything in your life. Let the Bible determine everything in your life. No pockets of unsound teaching that is seeped in and just left there like, hey, that's okay. No pockets where what we think and how we live is determined by something else other than the Bible. This same phrase is used, 2 Timothy 1.13, where Paul says, follow the pattern of sound words that you heard from me. And that's the idea, that we're coming to the Bible and we're saying, okay, here's what the Bible says, here's what I'm gonna do. Here's what the Bible says, here's what I'm gonna believe. I'm gonna follow this pattern. The pattern we have here is the pattern I'm gonna have for what I believe and how I live. First Timothy 6.3, we're to have nothing to do with quote, anyone who teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. So when words, teachings are going out that do not agree with the Bible, We're to have nothing to do with that. We're not to like, hey, let's have a little bit of both and kind of put it together, and I want to be kind of in the middle, and I want to hear both sides and kind of see the best from the Bible and from the world. No, there's no fellowship between light and darkness. 2 Timothy 3.16, the Bible is given to teach us, confront us, correct us, and train us to do what's right in God's eyes. And when the Bible does that, we will quote, be complete, equipped for every good work. Every good work, every act of obedience, every loving action, every healthy decision, every wise word, every act that is an example of good works to others can be had when we will let the Bible determine everything in our lives. Often the Bible is not what's determining everything in our lives. Often it's our feelings. Often it's our experience. Often it's some conclusions that we've come to based on what friends or family told us. Some experience we've come to and say, okay, this is the answer and it's the opposite of the Bible says. Often it's worldly advice from friends or family or people with PhD after their names who say like, this is what you should do and it doesn't come from the Bible. Be careful. Nothing else equips you to do everything God wants you to do in every situation you find yourself in. Only the Bible. This is called the sufficiency of Scripture. The Bible is enough for every spiritual problem, every moral decision. It's enough to fully give you everything it needs for everything it covers. I remember talking about this I was invited to be on a panel and this was the discussion and you got to picture this, okay? So you're in the crowd and you're looking up at the stage and there's John on the right with his master's degree and there's seven PhDs next to him. They all disagreed with me. That was kind of a awkward conversation to say the least in front of the 200 people that were there that day to watch this panel. So at one point I brought this up. sufficiency of scripture. And one of the PhDs said, I would not go to the Bible to set my broken leg. I'd go to a doctor. And all the PhDs laughed and all the crowd laughs. And in those moments, my brain doesn't fire quickly. And so I just, I didn't know what to say. But as I left and reflected on that, do you see how that conclusion is so completely mistaken? It's off because the Bible doesn't claim to be sufficient for medical issues like a broken leg. But it does claim to give us everything we need for eternal life and everything we need to live a life that pleases God. Everything. The question is, do you believe that? Do you believe that? You may believe the Bible is the word of God, but do you give it the place of God in your life? Not as an object of worship, don't get me wrong. Not as an object of worship, but as an object of obedience. That the Bible is given to tell us about God and to tell us this is how God wants us to live after we give our lives to Christ. And notice the effect when we do that. Verse eight. In sound doctrine, that cannot be condemned. Because it's sound, it's healthy, it's encouraging. So that an opponent, somebody who hates Christianity, somebody who's attacking Christianity, notice the opponent may be put to shame, because they have nothing evil to say about us. None of their accusations stick. Why? Because there's nothing to stick on our lives. Because our lives are following these four points, and really the points we looked at last week put together, and really all of chapter one, verses one to eight, all of that, there's nothing that sticks on the Christian. Though truth will always be condemned by some, their condemnation will be empty. It'll be empty when our lives match, verses six to eight, verses one to eight. The guns of their accusations will have no bullets. And when they can't point out anything evil in our lives, it shames them. And I think what Paul's getting at is it causes them to go, oh, I was wrong. And that in that moment, it opens the door for them to say, maybe there is something different about them. Maybe there is something special. Maybe there is something better about Jesus. Look at the quality of their lives. Sadly, isn't it true that the worst wounds in the church have been self-inflicted? However, our lives embrace these four points. The hope of this passage, I believe, is that the world looks on and goes, Jesus is better. He really is. Look at that community of people. They're so different, but that difference is so much better. What is it about them? Let me conclude to the young men, under 50, how many of you in here? Okay, me too. Let these four points shape your life, not YouTube videos that tell you like this, you only live once, or actors who flaunt their rebellion, or athletes who care more about building their platform than integrity, dignity, and being role models. Young men, your future wives, need you to embrace this. If you're married, our families, our wives need this from us. Our kids, our future kids need this, especially our sons need this from us. Our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, our classmates need this from us. Our county, our country, they may not want this from us, but they don't even know that they need this from us. And young men, this church, our church, needs this from us. It needs us in the words of a hundred-year-old song to quote, rise up, oh men of God. Have done with lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings. Don't let any part of your life not serve the King of Kings. Rise up, O men of God. His kingdom tarries long. He's not returning. It's taken a while. As faithful workmen, watch and pray and light the night of wrong. Bring light into the darkness. of sin. It says, rise up, O men of God. The church for you does wait. This church for you does wait. Your strength unequal to the task, but Christ in you is great. Lift high the cross of Christ. Tread where his feet have trod. As brothers of the son of man, rise up, O men of God. This passage in Titus 2, six to eight was written to young men. But as you can see, the application for this passage really touches every single one of us. And it calls all of us to rise up to the challenge of this text, to be self-controlled examples of good works, integrity, dignity, and sound doctrine. And that as we do that, May God use us in our culture to look and go, there's something different about them. But as they look and they see there's something different about them, it's because God has been taking the chisel of his word and he's been knocking off the crags and the cracks that look more like us and instead he's forming and fashioning us to look like Christ. So that they look on our community and they go, there's something different and that difference is Christ. May God use his word in each of our lives to accomplish that.