Titus Chapter 2:1-5

Oh, it was that way. I know it was that close.

But that's the closest rails. Oh, gotcha. All right.

Live from Sacramento. Let me e -mail the link to one of our sisters in Christ.

What happened? You felt relieved? Sure, sure.

Yeah, that's good. I was, like, sleeping. And then

I was shocked that the election results were out so early. Everyone was saying, we won't know for a week.

Right? So I was, like, what? These experts don't know a thing. You know?

Yeah, it's, like, so sad. It's just all you get paid to do is just to say it's too close to call.

And it wasn't too close to call. And it didn't take a week. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I think they were lying. I think people were lying. Because there's. Who? What was prop three about?

Oh, yeah, yeah. What can we do? I voted no for everything except 36.

36 was a yes. Yeah, because I didn't want the repeat offenders and shoplifters.

It's kind of dangerous. People work at jobs. Yeah, now everything's locked up.

It's very inconvenient. Yeah. Oh, yeah,

I don't remember the library thing. Okay. Okay, we'll get started.

It happened. Well, I'm, you know, glad that 36 is a yes, so it's safer.

Like, that was, I think. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, by a lot.

I mean, I, you know. I think you're giving too much credit to California here,

Caroline. California is far gone. California is. So let's just give thanks to God.

I thought 36 was probably the most impactful thing in our lives, living in California.

We're always way too left of the rest of the nation anyway.

Right. So I thought if we can actually stop people from stealing.

Right. Then that's a big bonus. And thank God. You know,

I thought that was a huge plus. I was very happy with that. Yeah.

Let's pray. Father, we're grateful that you're in charge. Thank you that there will be some law and order in this state.

Thank you that the election results are out earlier than expected. Thank you that there weren't any riots.

Thank you. It's smooth so far. And we pray that you would keep this nation peaceful. Help the transition to go smoothly.

And Father, we pray that you would continue to bless this country.

Have mercy on us because we don't really deserve your blessing. We've gone so far from what is right.

But God, we pray that you would turn people's souls away from wickedness and turn their souls to you.

In Jesus' name. Amen. What is it?

Oh, yeah. We also pray that you would keep President Trump safe.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah, that guy. Yeah, it's just his life is in danger.

All right. All right. So let's go over this. Chapter two is on household codes.

Household codes are actually very common in Pauline letters.

It's about how each member of the household, how each member is supposed to live faithfully.

It starts with older men, and then it goes on to older women. And then it goes to young women because older women are to disciple young women.

So it kind of naturally transitioned that way. And then goes to young man.

And then it goes to slaves. I do want to talk about Bible's view on slavery.

Slavery does exist in the Bible. First and foremost, this slavery is different from the

American slavery because it was not based upon skin color. It was based upon socioeconomic background.

If someone owed a lot of money, there was no title. What is it?

Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Right. There is no credit score going down. You sell yourself into slavery until you can buy yourself back out.

And if you think about it, that's better than starving to death. Because back then you would starve to death.

There was an ample amount of food. There weren't grocery stores. There weren't food closets.

There weren't any of those. You would starve to death if you run out of money. So that was the best option.

Next, in Hebrew slavery, although this one wouldn't be Hebrew slavery,

Hebrew slaves were freed after six years of service, no matter how much they owed.

So God actually cared way more about freedom than any of the pagan nations back then.

After all, the Egyptians tried to enslave them forever. And also other pagan nations, they didn't really care for slaves.

If a slave had been killed by an animal, there was no consequence to the animal or the owner.

That is not the case for Hebrew slaves. If a Hebrew slave gets killed, the beast has to be put to death.

And in fact, if the beast is known to kill and the owner was negligent, then the owner would also suffer the consequence, too.

Hey, Dexter. So slavery was different back then and also in the

Greek and Roman slavery. Again, it wasn't based upon skin color. It was based upon socioeconomic background.

And Paul writes this not to change the system. Paul's goal isn't changing the system.

Paul's goal is how can each member of a

Christian household live faithfully? After all, it would not have helped at all for Paul to say to the slaves revolt.

And they have like no power, no weapons, no training whatsoever. And it would actually look pretty violent to the rest of the world.

Now, saying that Christianity is the only religion, as far as I know, that abolished slavery in multiple different times.

One is in the Roman times. I got to do more research on that.

But then the second one is during the British Empire. It was actually the

Christian evangelicals who fought for ending the slave trade and eventually getting rid of slavery as a whole, with William Wilberforce being one of the main examples.

He was a famous parliament member who devoted his life to ending the slave trade, and he successfully did so.

And the British Empire ended slavery without shedding any slaves blood, as in there was no revolt.

There was no revolution like the Haitian Revolution, which was really bloody. So, again, the

Bible, although does not specifically end slavery, but it does set up the teaching that even a slave is precious to Jesus.

Even a slave is a member of Jesus's body. And with that, the natural implication and the natural consequence, in this case positively, is that Christian brothers and sisters could not think of continuing the system of slavery as a loving thing to do for brothers and sisters in Christ.

So that's the short but important context of slavery in the

Bible. It is there. It is very well protected compared to the pagan nations around.

And it also sets up Christian churches to actually not view slaves as less than, right?

Less than they are. They're all saved by grace alone, and they're all equal parts of Jesus's body.

So that's the household code, one through ten. And hopefully we'll talk about each one.

The immediate context is that Paul was trying to establish what in the island of Crete?

Does anyone remember what Paul was trying to establish? Order in the church, right?

And through what was he trying to set up order?

What is it? Duties. Yeah. That's which verse are you looking at?

Oh, that's what that's what we're going to talk about. Right. But here, I mean, how what was

Paul exhorting Titus to do to set up order in the church?

What was he supposed to do first? What kind of what does

Paul need to do? What does he need to look for? Who does he need to look for? Elders.

Yeah. The first chapter was mainly to establish the elders in the church.

Right. And does anyone remember what characteristics or qualities of men that Titus was supposed to look for?

Blameless husband of one wife. Yeah.

Ordered family. Right. Prudent.

Diligent. Right. Yeah. All of those things. Not driven by money. Not selfish. Right. Not arrogant.

Not easily angered. Faithful. We talked about how in one sense, that's what every

Christian is called to be. It's not like, oh, I'm not an elder, so I'm going to be greedy for money.

Right. I'm not an elder, so I'm going to lie. I'm not an elder, so I'm going to curse you out.

Right. That's not it. So what's astounding is Paul setting up elders who are just ideally just faithful man in Christ.

They don't need PhDs. They don't need some extraordinary talent. They don't need to be millionaires and billionaires.

They just need to be faithful men from any socioeconomic background. Right. Some church history has it that the freed slave,

I think, Epaphras, became an elder. It's not in the Bible, but maybe.

And that's presumably possible because in the church, there's no slave or free men or women.

Right. They're all righteous in Christ. So that's the point.

Right. And now the context here is from the leaders of the church, from the proper leadership,

Paul addresses the proper function in the church. Everyone else.

This is important because in the end, just having the right leadership does not guarantee you have a full, faithful, functioning church.

Everyone else needs to be addressed. Right. So now Paul addresses the whole church.

And what's important here is the incentive that Paul gives to obeying is totally

God -centered. Because oftentimes, you know what, we can obey and it can be self -centered.

We obey so we don't get punished. We obey so that we get praised, recognized.

Right. But Paul's reason is in verse 10, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our

Savior in all things. The obedience of not stealing for slaves, even if no one's looking, is because in the end, they're going to represent

Christ. And when Paul says our Savior, Jesus is just as much as Paul's Savior, just as much as a slave

Savior. And I think that is a beautiful exhortation. That's the incentive to obey.

And that's got to be our incentive to obey to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We obey even when no one else is looking because of Jesus.

The purpose is Christ -centric. Now, let's read verse 1.

Who can read just verse 1? That's just it. In transition. One sentence?

Yeah, just one sentence. You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.

Good. Now, when it says, however, my translation is but, someone might have to say,

Diane, do you have but too? But. But. Okay. However, but that's a contrast word, right?

So, what that means is he was just talking about false teachers and how dangerous they are, right?

So, but. Yes, it changes the subject. That's right.

Right. They don't have, they didn't have the chapter. So, watching out for these words, keywords, but, however, now, that's very important.

So, the contrast is between Titus and the false teachers here. So, unlike the false teachers who were prideful, greedy for gain, deceitful, focused on themselves and focused on irrelevant teachings like Jewish myths, right?

What does Titus need to be? What does he need to focus on? Sound doctrine.

What is sound doctrine? It's from the

Holy Spirit. Sure. Yeah. God's word. Biblical.

Yeah. It has to be from God. I looked up sound doctrine.

Shows up at least twice. One is 1st Timothy 1 .10. And, you know, just as a reminder, when you see like a phrase and you don't know like what could it mean, right?

Have a concordance and look for a sound doctrine or sound teaching concordance that matches your translation and look it up and go to that place and see how that phrase is functioning.

So, 1st Timothy 1 .10. What has now been revealed by, I got to the 2nd

Timothy. That's not right. 1st Timothy 1 .10. For fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

So, sound doctrine is not for, as in these people, sexually immoral, homosexuals, murderers, liars, kidnappers.

They're not living by sound doctrine. That's what 1st Timothy 1 .10 tells us.

So, sound doctrine tells us how to live. 2nd

Timothy 4 .3 also has the phrase sound doctrine. I'll turn to that.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.

Right? So, for 2nd Timothy 4 .3, during the end times, people will not want sound doctrine.

And it feels like we're living in that time. Yeah, we are, right? They will follow their own hearts.

I mean, that's kind of like all the shows, right? Follow your own heart. Yeah. Proposition 3.

Do you remember Proposition 3? It's a constitutional amendment to change the word about marriage from men and women to like whatever.

Yeah. So, yeah, that's not sound doctrine. But I mean, every show, movie basically is about follow your own heart.

It's like follow your own heart, even if it hurts someone. Follow. Yeah. You see me doing wrong because I know.

Yeah, right. I hear that a lot. Right. And these people will pursue teachers who will provide itching ears that suit their desires.

Right. Ears that want to hear what they want to hear in. If you're reading the

Bible and you're never challenged by it, either you're really, really, really holy or you're reading it wrong.

You're making it fit your agenda. Right. Or if you're never challenged by like a pastor or teacher radio you're listening to, then you might be listening to the wrong kind.

Right. If they're just telling you everything you're doing is just fine.

You know, that's a scary thing. Yeah.

Like Joel Osteen and whatever. Right. I can't even remember many of them.

Copeland. I forget his first one. Huh? Yeah.

But we're talking about like. Yeah. Like prosperity gospel.

Yeah. All right. So sound doctrine. What does that tell us about sound doctrine?

We looked at two other verses that talk about sound doctrine. What does that tell us about sound doctrine?

Needs to represent God's character. Yeah. What else? Yeah.

It comes from God's word and helps when you read it every day. Right. For sure.

Anything else? It's God's standard. Right. It's not our standard.

Sound doctrine is not our standard. I like that. And it has to come from God's word and it reflects

God's character. Right. So sound doctrine, it's not just about like having the right, like downloading information, although information is important, but it's about it's got to be transformative.

You got to live that way. You can't just say it. Right. Sound teaching.

That means promote spiritual maturity. Sound doctrine promotes spiritual maturity that reflects

God's character. Right. Very important. And now the question is, how important is sound doctrine in the church?

Very important. What would result from unsound doctrine in the church? Chaos. Anything specific?

Yeah. Poor representation to the world. Right. Like, hey, you're just as bad.

Hey, like, I mean, you hear that. Right. Yeah. Christians, they lie. Right. They cheat each other.

And that's not sound doctrine. Right. That's not driven by sound. Yeah. They don't preach repentance.

And so people think they're all good, even though they might not be good with God. Right. Good. Oh, if you look at any of these cults that are not really

Christian. There they have unsound doctrines. Right. There's manipulation.

There's money. Money grabbing. Right. Money laundering. Polygamy. Right. Why? Why?

How did Joseph Smith get people to believe that he can marry so many women?

Well, unsound doctrine. Right. He changed the doctrine from one man and one woman that Jesus promoted, which he designed.

He says, no, it's OK. I have my own book here. Right. And read that one only and read the

Bible through that. Right. And that's why you get narcissistic abused by the pastors who try to control people and sexually immoral.

Right. Like unsound doctrine and horrible spiritual abuse actually go hand in hand.

That also. Also, another thing is there can be a pastor who can teach theologically correct things, but live not according to sound doctrine.

So don't just look for. Oh, he's he and I agree with all these doctrines.

I mean, right. Steve Lawson is an example recently. I don't know if you've heard of Steve Lawson.

He was like a preaching professor and like a big name pastor.

But he was like committing adultery on the side, like for years.

Oh, yeah. So, you know, right. Right. But he had, quote unquote, good teaching.

Right. But that's not sound doctrine. Sound doctrine does not have sexual immorality in the life of the believer.

All right. Now we go to verse two. Who can read versus actually verse two?

Because it's just for older men. Go ahead, Dexter. All right.

Let's unpack each one. What does it mean to be sober, temperate?

It can't just mean like, oh, just don't come to church drunk. Right. Yeah.

Okay. I like that. There's some control. Self -control. Yeah. Yeah. Not high on marijuana.

Right. For sure. Oh, what is it, Lauren? Sound mind.

I like that. Sound mind. Healthy mind even. Right. Sound mind. Right mind. Right.

Steadfastness. You know, some people are out of their mind, but that's not sound mind. Right. I like that.

In fact, this word for sober is not just for older men. Elders are supposed to be sober minded.

That's from first Timothy three, two. And deacons' wives must be sober minded. So it's not just for men.

It's for anyone. First Timothy three, 11. What does this tell us about our minds?

Yeah. Our minds are quite important. You know what I've realized? I've realized when

I'm around people who curse a lot, curse words come up in my mind.

And it's so bothersome because it's like, man, I don't speak like this. But I'm just so around people who curse that it just comes up.

And of course, you can't avoid, you know, people who curse. It seems like on the street, they're everywhere.

Books. Yeah. And in the end, we got to fill our minds with what is sound.

Right. Of course, you can't live an Amish life. Pretty sure California wouldn't want us to do.

Won't allow us to do that. Right. But you can at least although you can't avoid everything that's like impure out there, but you can fill your mind in your own time with what is sound.

Right. You can saturate of scripture. Open it up to a verse that you you're struggling with.

Like if you're anxious, open up to like second Timothy one seven. Right.

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind.

Right. Good. So older men are supposed to be of sober mind, sound mind. Right.

Yes. It means not drunk and not high, but it's so much more than that. Right. It's it's right in the head.

The next one is they are to be reverent. What does it mean to be reverent?

Respectful. Respectable. Right. Dignified, highly respected, worthy of honor.

In Philippians four eight, Paul tells us we must fill our minds with honorable things.

So that's that. Right. First Timothy three, eight and eleven deacons and deaconess is why deacons wives rather must be respectable, dignified.

They must not be partaking in things that would bring dishonor, shame, right?

So how they live matters. How they are, although I don't want to say, you know, you got to live as looking for public image, but how they are viewed in public matters.

You know, like older Christian men cannot be just, oh, yeah, he's that adulterous guy who keeps sleeping around, you know, that is not respectable.

Yeah. Next one is temperate. What does it mean to be temperate?

Self -controlled. Yeah, I like that. Self -controlled. Similar idea here, right?

Self -controlled means like prudence. There's control of oneself. Soundness of mind also is very parallel to this.

Sensible, not driven by emotions. So many again,

I'm not against emotions. If you if you're feeling experiencing certain emotions,

I don't tell people, hey, don't cry. I don't tell people don't be mad. You surrender it to God, right?

God, I am feeling angry because so and so that this helped me to surrender the outcome and any expectation of resolve, resolution or any expectation of vengeance or justice.

I surrender it to you knowing that you can handle it better. So that's what it is.

Telling someone who's angry, don't be mad, doesn't help one bit. Telling someone who's crying, don't cry.

It's kind of manipulative because they're experiencing their emotion. Actually, it is manipulative.

Like you don't get to control other person's emotion. Yeah. Just pray for them and help them to surrender it to Christ.

Again, control of oneself, not driven by hype and trance. Self -controlled.

All right. Next one is sound in faith.

Similar idea, sound and faith is. We see that in Titus 113, the purpose of rebuking the false teachers was actually that they may be sound in faith, that what that means is they would abandon false teaching and Jewish mythologies.

Right. They were focused on these obscure teachings that probably got people to question, like, am

I really following Christ? Am I really living for Christ? Well, I'm still eating pork.

Oh, is that bad? You know, Jewish myths, right? What if you're in Christ? He's made all things clean.

Right. You can eat pork. So soundness in faith is getting away from false teaching.

So older men must not be into that. And what's important here is the goal for the older men in the church is the same for just being healthy in the faith.

It's not like, oh, but older women. Yeah, you can be into false teaching. No, it's for really anyone.

Right. You got to have the right faith. You got the right object of faith, which is Jesus Christ. You got to believe in Jesus Christ that he died for your sin, suffer the punishment and rose from the dead.

That is the beginning of the sound faith. There's no other beginning than Jesus Christ for Christianity.

And he is the right goal of faith. You want to become more like Christ every day.

You're being sanctified. You want to look more like Jesus. You don't want to look more like your neighbor.

You want to look more like Jesus. And he's the standard. Well, that doesn't sound so good.

Well, that's what Jesus said. So that's the standard, right? That's that's the right standard.

And next is in love. What does love mean? OK, and anyone have a good answer for love?

OK, God, God is love. But we can't say love is God. Because God is love, but we can't say love is

God. Then we're defying the concept of love. OK, love, love looks like speaking

God's best, even if it has personal sacrifice. Good.

Yeah. Yeah. First, first Corinthians, right? Thirteen has a whole list, right?

Right. Love is kind. Love is patient. Right. I like this one.

This one is from our biblical counseling course, Unbound. And if anyone's interested, just let me know.

I am meeting with just individuals now, but I'm I'm open to any other options, too.

In that counseling course, love is the passionate desire for God's best for the other person, even if it is costly, very similar to what

Lauren said, right? Passionate desire for God's best in the other person's life, even if it's costly, even if it hurts.

All right. And that that means speaking the right thing, even if it hurts the relationship because it's out of love.

Can you say sound and faith? Then can you say sound and love? Can you read it?

Sound and faith. And then that is that love and perseverance, all three are sound.

I think there is separate sound and faith. I yeah,

I think grammatically it's sound and faith by itself and then in love.

I mean, I yeah, I mean, one can say they're all godly and healthy, but yeah, in love.

And then we have impatience or endurance, right?

Perseverance, endurance, patience. They're all the same interpretation. Endurance is not just for spiritual elites, right?

Like if you talk to like an older saint, like maybe like the

Arnett's or Audrey, when she was here, she was like a 90 year old lady who was she still she she just can't make it too much.

She has hard issues to come in person. But she was here when the church was founded 75 years ago, over 75 years ago.

Her dad donated the land for this church. So, yeah, and her dad was not even a

Christian. But she she has a lot of wisdom and experience that you can say she's endured a lot.

She's endured a lot of things. Audrey Hunt, right. But endurance is not just for her.

Endurance is for anyone. God gives us the endurance, right?

God gives us in Colossians 1, 11, we endure with God's glorious might.

It's not our strength that we endure. It's not like, just hold on. In the end, we borrow from God.

What that means is patience is not natural. And you know what? If patience is hard.

You're right. I mean, if Paul, who is like a super saint, right?

Paul endured so much and Paul is saying, I'll turn to Colossians 1,

I mean, it's crazy. Colossians 1, 11. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power.

I mean, there are three strength words just in that verse. Strengthened with all might, not just some might, all might, according to his glorious power.

That's the same glorious power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And then it says, for all patience and long -suffering with joy.

Oftentimes in our world, we think power and we think like political, right? I mean, even the election, like White House, right?

We think that. But for Paul to endure, to be faithful until the end, to persevere, that takes

God's power. And sometimes we need to go to God for that. I think all the time, rather, right?

Not just sometimes. Yeah. And we need to pray for people in authority because, yeah, they're probably not saved.

Yeah. A church is, so these are the,

I know we unpack each one, but I think it's important to know these qualities because this is not just for older men.

It's for you, too. I can find you other places in which patience and endurance is applicable to you and love, for sure.

Right now, a church is blessed when there are older men who are not toddlers in the faith.

When you have mature leaders, mature older men, they might not even be elders.

A church is blessed when you have mature men. I've been part of a church where,

I don't know, we've been part of a church where just there are not many mature men.

Huh, Lauren? Yeah. And it's unstable, right?

It's unstable. It's chaotic. And this is why it's important.

Right. And I think we're blessed to have, like, not just elders, but like we have older men who are sound in faith, right?

So, like even Jim, right? Jim reads the Bible every day, right? And he will point out, like, don't read this kind of book because it is witchcraft, you know, like, yeah.

So, so that's important. We need mature men who know the Bible, right?

Harold, Victor, right? For sure. And the younger men need to look up to the older men.

Right. There is actually a huge blessing to older men pouring into the younger men's lives.

And the other part's the same. Women. So who can read verse three?

The three, four, five. Let's do three just for the older women. Let's give some time for older women.

Yeah, go ahead. Just three. I know, but we'll unpick three.

All right. Yeah, well, we'll talk about that.

So here, likewise means similarly, right? So like older women aren't supposed to be held to a different standard, right?

They're likewise. They're supposed to be reverend. And we won't go over reverend too much.

But this word for reverend is actually a different word, literally translated.

It's actually like priest like. Yeah, so it's like there's really holy, pure.

That's you know, there's this purity like reverence here, right? So it's priest like.

So older women are supposed to stand out in their purity. And what does that mean?

They're not slanderers. Oh, what does that mean to be a slanderer? Gossip saying bad things.

Yeah. Bad things about other people gossip. What is it? Perjury.

Yeah. Yeah. Lying. Right. It's deceitful. Slandering also it comes from.

It has the same root as the word Diabolos, which means devil. Slandering is what the devil does.

When the devil puts into your mind that Jesus doesn't love you anymore, that's a slander.

It's blasphemy, right? Slandering. Slandering is not godly.

And why is this mentioned? Well, think about this. This is written for the Cretan church, the

Cretan church in Crete. In that context, what does this tell us about how the women in Crete behaved?

Exactly. They were slandering. They were getting drunk. Right. It says not given too much wine.

Well, quit drinking in the morning, you know. But isn't that like that?

Like you see, I mean, I don't really watch shows, but like all these like housewife shows, like for some reason, they always have a glass of wine and they're swirling it around.

And it's early morning and it's like, what are you doing? And they're gossiping.

Yeah, they're gossiping about their neighbors. But when the neighbor comes, like, I love you so much.

Like, all right. It's like that's the Cretan woman. Right.

And Paul says, don't be like that. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

And here women are teachers of good teachers of good things.

It's the literal translation. This is important because oftentimes people think women need to not really study theology.

Women need to not read the Bible like super like. Old fashioned legalistic people, women don't need to study the

Bible, you know. And that's wrong. This says women need to teach.

And here the purpose is who can read verse four. Go ahead.

And and so train the young women to love their husbands and children.

Yeah. The purpose of older women knowing scripture well is for discipleship.

It's so that they can train up the next generation of women to love their husbands and to love their children.

And could you also read verse five, too? To be self -control, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

OK, I'll unpack each one. What's the purpose of good teaching for from older women?

That's right. So the younger women know what's appropriate. One of the saddest things is that discipleship among women, but not just women, really, just discipleship in general is gone in the church.

It's people don't do it. I don't know why. Is it awkward? I don't know. They don't have the time. I don't know.

But that's not what it's supposed to be. And I will say this. Women are more complicated relationally to each other than men are.

Men have no problem being discipled in any context as long as the person is actually capable of discipling.

Doesn't matter the age. Doesn't I've learned from someone who's younger than me because he knew how to pray better, you know, like it didn't bother me.

But for some reason, women, it's harder and women know that there's ickiness there.

But that's not the norm. That's not the norm for the Bible. The Bible says older women are to train up younger women.

What does this tell us about our growth and godliness? It's stunted when we don't listen to others.

Yeah, Dexter. Yeah. Growth in godliness is never a solo journey.

My I have some red flags in my mind when I meet someone new. One of them is

I don't I'm a Christian, but I don't really need the church. I'm a

Christian, but, you know, it's just a personal thing. I will agree it is a personal thing.

Yes, you do personally commit to Christ, but it doesn't stay that way. Back then, back in the first century, when you got saved, you were saved into the church.

And I'm not saying the Catholic church, you whatever your local church is. You never walked with Christ just by yourself.

So discipleship needs to actually happen. Many young women need to be taught by mature women in faith and women need to be in rich relationships with mature women.

And that is quite, quite important. It's lacking in America.

I can't speak for other countries because I haven't really ministered there. But it's like if you like go to like other churches, like they're women

Bible study. It's just like. You're not even studying the Bible, right? It's like some book written by another woman author who's kind of sort of touching on the

Bible, but it's mainly just her opinion. It's it's a bummer, and I'm just glad that Barb actually goes through the

Bible, you know, like that's rare and she sticks to that, right? All right, let's unpack the other ones to train them up to love their husbands and to love their children.

Why do you think it's important that it says love for the husband comes before the love for the children?

Yeah, the priority is every wife must love the husband first and then the children die.

There are, of course, exceptions in which like the husband is an abuser, then you need to separate, like you need help immediately.

The husband needs to be taken away immediately, right? But that's not the main point.

That's not the norm that Paul's talking about. In fact, it's actually loving to separate. Yeah, if there's an abuse, it's loving to remove the husband because you are looking out for his best,

God's best, which is stop making him sin against you and sin against God.

Right. Right. So there is a proper order there.

Oftentimes children are idolized so that like husbands are left behind or that there's a disparity or a gap like between the wife and the husband.

And that is not the proper way to live. That's not a healthy marriage. Right. The children become the center and then the husband is out.

That happens. But in every family member, the core, the first core family is always husband and wife, and then the kid joins them.

Right, right. But in a human marriage context. Now, next is to be discreet, discreet, chaste.

Discreet has the same idea of like discerning of the mind.

So I won't unpack that more because we were talking about the mind quite a lot. Actually, prudent.

Right. Being wise, having them sensible, having the mind that aligns with God's will.

I won't go over that more because we did talk about the mind quite a lot for prior for older men.

Again, women aren't supposed to be driven by emotions either. Right. They're driven by prudence and wisdom.

You give me a wise woman. You know that she's mature in faith. You give me a wise woman.

She is a wife material. Right. She's not driven by emotion. She's driven by facts and God's standards.

Chaste first. Chaste means pure, pure. The reason for pure is idolatry often is illustrated by adultery because it's about faithfulness to God.

So Paul betrothed the church to one husband to present her as a pure virgin to Christ.

So idolatry and adultery often go together. If you're committing idolatry, you're being adulterous to God.

And in the same way, if you're committing adultery to your husband, then you're not really worshiping the right

God either. So that's why purity is important.

Purity is not to be left behind in a mirror in marriage. Working at home.

I do want to unpack this. Workers at home. You know what? We live in society.

Even our church. We have women working. We have single mothers. And I'm not going to call it.

I don't believe they're sinning. And here's why.

There are cases when you're living in a fallen sinful world. There are scenarios in which moms have to work if they're single.

There's no other way or their kids are going to start. So it's not. It's you can't call them as sin.

What that means is ideally, if they're able to stay home with their kids, that's ideal.

That's that's that's what needs to happen. But you know what? If you're a single mom and you can't feed your family, what are you going to do?

Right. And I know one of the single moms for sure, like she changed her career so she can work at night and she can spend her time in the morning with her daughter so that when the daughter is sleeping, she works at night.

Like she changed her career just for that. Like that's godly. That's really faithful. But not many people can do that.

Right. So I'm not going to be legalistic about that. This was written when they did before this time.

Times are different. Yeah. And good point. You mentioned that. And probably the last point, because we're running out of time.

Our government has set up the society to have women go back to work.

And here's what I mean. First, inflation. Whenever they spend like drunken sailors, it makes everything more expensive in terms of dollars.

Like it costs more. So some of you might have had just dad working and mom staying home as a staying home homemaker.

Some of you might have had the blessing of that. That was way more common in the olden days.

But nowadays, they can't. It's not affordable. You can't live with just one person working.

So ideally, yes. You know what? Most mom, most Christian mom, if you ask, if you could, would you, if possible, would you stay home and stay with your baby?

And definitely would say yes. That's the ideal. But the government, unfortunately, has set it up so that women have to go to work.

Like another reason is like, why do I have to work two jobs? Well, so my wife can stay home. She could work.

In fact, like her hourly pay because of her specialty in speech would be like, if she finds the right job, it could be double than what

I get paid at the school. But yeah, and I stay home. But I think,

I mean, first, I think it is better for the woman to stay home. And that's what the kid wants.

That's what our baby wants. He says, no, Mama, stay home. Daddy, work. For sure.

But again, we have set up our culture to where like women are almost like they kind of have to force to work.

And another thing, what's more cruel is they manipulate these little girls and women, young women, to think that what they really need is a good career.

And by the time they're 40, 50 and they can't have kids, they regret that.

And it is cruel. Because in the end, when they're 60, they're not going to have anyone to spend

Thanksgiving with. And when they're 60, they're not thinking,

I'm glad my 401k is cushy. But you know what?

With Cassandra and I'm sure like Lauren, you know, you can say every hour, dime

I spent with on and with my kid, it was worth it. Right?

Yeah. And that's because women are made for that kind of relationship. So again, ideally, that's great.

But our society has brainwashed young women, unfortunately, to want that.

And unfortunately, partly it's the church's fault for not celebrating moms.

Right. You know what? Why is it that whenever there's a women conference, it's like it's not really a homemaker speaking, but it's like a professor with a

Ph .D. Right. And wrote many books. Oh, well, then what?

Who is the church celebrating there? Who is the church focusing on? Not moms, entrepreneurs, academics.

And I'm not saying academics, women academics are wrong. But I think the church really needs to actually celebrate and encourage moms.

Right. They need to encourage moms. That is a great calling. It's a beautiful calling.

Even in society as a whole, you say there was a conference and you were celebrating moms.

The other women would talk trash about that. Exactly. They talk trash about moms.

Like, how dare you say that women need to be moms and stay home? That's slavery.

It's like, and you think working for another man and being told what to do is better?

You know? Yeah. And that person, that boss will not be there at your funeral.

That person will not be there when you're sick. Right. But your kid will.

Your husband will. That boss will not take care of you when you're in hospital, but your kid might.

Right. Again, mom is a great calling. And I think that's the thing about that verse.

Yes, it is. It's hard to read because we have been so socially just brainwashed.

But if there are any young women listening, which I don't know, I don't think so. It's a great calling.

Right? Right? What is it? All these athletes,

I don't really watch sports, but then when there are interviews, right? Like, who do you want to thank? Mom.

Always mom. Mom who cooked for me. Mom who drove me to practice. Mom who supported me.

Mom who believed in me when no one else did. I don't know. Maybe dad, if the dad's the coach, too.

I don't know. But mom is always first. And all of you probably would agree.

I mean, not all, because some moms are crazy. But many of you will say, you know what?

Yeah. Mom was important in my life as a child. My mom was.

And, like, she's not even Christian. She stayed home for a certain amount of time because I asked her to.

Yeah. And now she's working. But, you know, she does. Yeah, yeah.

My sister. I have a twin sister. So, yeah, I'm sure she has, too. But my mom has a

PhD. She could have worked when I was a kid. But she chose to take some time off to stay home.

And I'm grateful for it. Because I don't know. Like, I might have gotten into bad things if I didn't have a mom to come home to from school.

Right? So, with that, we'll pick it up. Yeah. We got to go.

I'll pray. And we'll pick it up at verse 6. But we'll pick it up at verse 5 just to finish it up.

Because there were some parts I left out. But thank you all for coming. This is what the household of God is supposed to look like.

Right? The church. Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for the wisdom in this chapter.

Thank you that you have set up your family and the church so well.

And help us to not be influenced by the culture to throw this away.

Help us to treasure it, value it, and protect it. Please, we pray for all the women and men at this church to pursue godliness, sound teaching, sound doctrine, to live it, and help us to be more like Christ.

Help all the marriages. Please keep all the marriages together. And please keep all the moms encouraged.

Because it's a hard job. It's a non -ending job. Please give them encouragement. Give them the strength to endure.