Sermon Tone Analysis

March 14, 2012

By John Barnett

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We were saved by God’s grace; and we are kept by God’s grace; and we live in a way that pleases God and earns His rewards—energized by His grace.

These past few weeks we have been looking at God’s high calling for women in His Church; and sometimes it may seem that living that way is impossible—and that is the truth.

Titus 2 women live a humanly impossible life.

They must be energized by God’s grace to live that way!

So step back and survey the whole scope of Christ's New Testament church and His plan for us.

As believers this morning we are on the journey of new beginnings through Christ—energized each step of the way by grace.

Titus 2 is a roadmap for all who want their life to count.

It is God’s pathway of disciplines to choose each day in the power of the Spirit of grace.

God’s plan to work in the world is His church .

Christ's church may be described as a group of people, energized by grace, doing the impossible for the glory of God.

A key insight into God’s plan to reach the world through Christ's church is in Titus chapter 2.

The verses of this chapter contain a call to First Century men and women energized by grace to live an extraordinary spiritual life in a very unspiritual culture.

When grace energizes us we want to deny ungodliness in any form we find it cropping up in our lives.

When God’s grace energizes us we want to mortify lust in any form in our lives.

When we study this idea of the older-in-the-faith godly, Titus 2 woman we are describing a woman who has chosen to learn from God how to live her life day-by-day and step-by-step in way that pleases God.

Women energized by grace are useful to God.

When the Gospel of Jesus Christ entered the Roman world of the New Testament the landscape was very bleak.

Christ's church was born into a sin-warped, sin-darkened world of mixed-up marriages, sin-scarred lives, and confused families.

But men and women who were gloriously saved did not automatically become great wives and mothers, or husbands and fathers.

When they came to Christ and were forgiven, God graciously gave them everything they needed to become godly wives, mothers, husbands, and fathers.

But, they needed something else.

They need worship services that taught them to believe correctly, and then they needed small group discipleship times to learn how to behave correctly.

Correct behavior is behavior energized by grace.

Titus 2 describes how God works in the life of a believer.

When we were saved and the gospel of grace began in our lives, the evidence is seen in the sanctification process.

Grace always teaches genuine believers how to say no to sin in any form.

The Titus Two woman is an imperfect person, saved by God, and energized by His grace to live an exemplary life as described in Titus 2:3-4.

So we could easily say that:

• Women energized by grace—are reverent in their behavior,

• Women energized by grace—are not slanderers,

• Women energized by grace—are not given to much wine,

• Women energized by grace—are teachers of good things, and

• Women energized by grace—are discipling younger women.

Those new believers, fresh out of paganism needed coaching, training, modeling, and encouraging in a one-on-one relationship.

Godly behavior is a series of choices; and those men and women had to be nurtured in daily skills that would lead to loving marriages and families.

And that is the vital ministry which we find captured for us in Titus 2.

*Christ's Church Used Grace Energized Coaches in Godly Living*

Just as important as the preaching and teaching of the doctrines of God's Word was the modeling and nurturing of individual saints through practical hands-on lessons in godly living.

The building blocks of Christ's church are Spirit-filled men and women.

Lives given daily as obedient servants of God.

God wants men and women that will mentor, nurture, and coach godly living for His church.

These individuals believe that God has called them to touch one life at a time for His glory.

For just a moment please follow along in your Bibles in Titus 2:1-8, as I again read those special character traits for men and women.

v.1 But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: v.2 that the [grace energized] *older men* be:

1. sober,

2. reverent,

3. temperate,

4. sound in faith,

5. [sound in] love,

6. [sound in] patience;

v. 3 the [grace energized] *older women* likewise, that they be

1.

reverent in behavior,

2. not slanderers,

3. not given to much wine,

4. teachers of good things— v. 4

5. that they admonish

the [grace energized] *young women*

1. to love their husbands,

2. to love their children, v. 5

3. to be discreet,

4. chaste,

5. homemakers,

6. good,

7. obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

v. 6 Likewise exhort the [grace energized] *young men*

1. to be sober-minded, v. 7

2. in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works;

3. in doctrine showing integrity,

4. reverence,

5. incorruptibility, v. 8

6. sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

(NKJV)

When God gets to pick the curriculum for His Church, what does He choose to be taught?

He lays down twelve vital godly character qualities for women and 12 vital godly character qualities for men.

Women energized by grace have these characteristics are highly useful to God.

The long-term goal of their lives is geared towards being useful to God.

Parents who want their children be useful for the Lord begin early on to point their children towards the high calling and great joy of being a Titus 2 woman and the Titus 2 man.

The whole goal of a Titus 2 woman is to train younger women in Biblical, simple-to-measure, Spirit-empowered, love-based living.

*v.

3a “the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior”* (1) Women energized by grace live like holy servants of God.

Paul starts first using the word translated “reverent” that conveys the idea of ‘acting as a representative of a god’.

That is how Paul describes the devout and godly character of the Titus 2 woman.

Older women are to live like holy priests serving in the presence of God.

Their sacred personal devotion to the Lord has slowly come to influence every aspect of their lives.

Godly older woman have simply taken Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and Galatians 2:20 seriously.

*Bodies presented as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, not conformed to this world, but with transformed and renewed minds, in bodies that are temples of the Holy Spirit glorifying God in your body and spirit, which are God’s; no longer living for me, but Christ living through me.*

They have presented themselves to the Lord, they have begun to live life the way God asked them to live—as a walking temple of God, as a consecrated priest of God, as a living sacrifice, and as a bondservant of the Lord.

Women energized by grace live like holy servants of God.

*v.

3b “not slanderers” (2) *Women energized by grace guard their tongues.

Godly Titus 2 women never are to surrender their tongues to the devil.

They are prompted by the Holy Spirit to make sure that what they say is absolutely true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report before they say it—lest they discredit their ministry effectiveness as a godly Titus 2 woman.

They*think first*: before starting to say something pause a few seconds and ask are these words pleasing to God.

They also *talk less* making each a time to speak as Peter said, speaking as the oracles of God.

And they start that *practice now*.

Don't waste your greatest tool.

Women energized by grace live like holy servants of God, and guard their tongues.