Sermon Tone Analysis

How to Avoid Distractions to Service and Ministry

9 But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.

10 Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

Main Point: Paul warns Titus to avoid useless and worthless conversations and to admonish those who start them.

Propositional Statement: We must not allow ourselves to be distracted from service and ministry by worthless and pointless debates and issues.

Transitional Sentence: Paul gives Titus two commands for dealing with these types of distractions within the church.

Introduction:

Illustration:

Our world is becoming increasingly filled with distractions.

Information is moving faster than ever before.

It is louder and more intense than ever before.

There are a lot of things in this world that vies for our attention.

Much research has been done in terms of marketing that specifically targets consumers and grabs their attention.

Sports, entertainment, and work can also be distractions to a person.

One of the biggest distractions for people are cell-phones.

Consider some of these compiled facts I found from an article online:

1) The average smartphone owner unlocks their phone 150 times a day.

2) Users spend on average 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their smartphones.

3) 58% of smartphone users don’t go for 1 hour without checking their phones.

4) 40% check their phones in the middle of the night.

5) 80% of smartphone users check their phone within 1 hour of waking up or going to sleep.

6) In 2021, people check their smartphones on average 58 times per day.

BRIEFLY SUMMARIZE AND REVIEW TITUS

We have been learning through this series in Titus that grace enables the believer to perform good works.

We learned last Sunday that Paul explained this principal to Titus.

If you recall, Paul laid out before Titus that the same grace God provided for him in his salvation and redemption was the same grace He gave to him to perform good works.

We have now come near the end of Paul’s letter to Titus.

He has said a lot in just a few chapters.

Titus, was to effectively lead the churches he was in charge of by raising up the right kind of men with the right kind of qualifications to pastor their church.

We are near the end now and Paul has almost said all that he needed to say.

There is one last issue he needs to address to Titus.

Titus needed to deal with distractions to the good works mentioned previously.

He comes back to

OVERVIEW OF THE PASSAGE

We are introduced to this passage with the conjunction “but.”

This word connects what Paul is about to say to the previous verse about grace and good works.

It not only connects the two statements together but it also contrasts them as well.

On the one hand grace enabled Titus to be focused and busy doing works that are good and pleasing to God.

This is about being focused on the service and ministry God has placed him in.

On the other hand Titus needed to deal with the problems that would distract him from accomplishing that very task.

Paul understood that if Titus was distracted, then ministry would stop, good works would not be done, and problems would occur.

Before we begin to look at what the distractions are and how to deal with them, notice with me how Paul describes these distractions in verse 9. First, these distractions are classified as being useless.

There is really no positive advantage to them.

They serve no purpose when compared to ministry.

They also can be very damaging to a church as we saw back in chapter one and we will soon see.

The second is that they are worthless.

There is nothing of value in these things.

They merely distract a person and church from fulfilling the purpose God has for them.

They are lacking any real fruit for the believer.

They are useless.

As we begin to look into these issues, keep the uselessness and worthlessness of these types of conversations in mind.

What Paul is about to lay out before Titus, he describes as being both worthless and useless.

There is no positive advantage to allowing such things to take root in the church.

They are nothing more than mere distractions to prevent the believer and church from gracefully ministering to each other and the world around us.

Let us now look at the two commands Paul gives to Titus on how to prevent useless and worthless issues from distracting from the ministry.

As a church, we would be wise to follow the advice Paul gives to Titus concerning distractions and idle talk.

Avoid All Irrelevant Discussions

Illustration:

Several years ago, our family took an impromptu trip to Washington D.C. My wife does a very good job of planning stuff out so that we can make use of our time.

On the way back we decided to go to Gettysburg for their 150th Anniversary.

We had everything planned out.

We knew what time to leave the hotel so we could spend the day there.

It was only an hour or so away.

We left the hotel with optimism that we would have a full and enjoyable day at Gettysburg.

That was not to be.

We were about 45 minutes on our way to Gettysburg when traffic came to a standstill on the interstate.

We were stopped and nothing was moving.

I remember thinking, “ok, a little set back but we should only lose an hour or so.”

Six hours later we arrived in Gettysburg.

We were stuck in traffic for hours.

It was June so it was hot out.

Our kids were young, so they were getting antsy.

My patience was being tested.

When we arrived around 3, no one was in the mood to see much.

We were planning an all-day trip there and I think we only spent 2 or 3 hours.

If I would have known the problem before we left the hotel then we would have avoided the deadlock on the interstate and we would have gone an alternative route and the day would have been salvaged.

One of the easiest ways to be distracted from doing the good works God desires us to do is when we become so consumed with topics that are fun to debate and listen to but are ultimately fruitless.

While there are certainly good discussions we should have as believers, there are also many discussions that we do have that we probably shouldn’t.

These types of discussions take the focus away from service and ministry and instead places the focus within.

Eventually these discussions that were once fun become divisive.

A third of the church may align with one person on their stance, another third aligns with the other person, and the remaining third just sits back and watches the whole thing unfold and the next thing you know the church has divided itself.

This division thus creates strife and eventually everyone is so busy arguing and disputing with one another that nothing is getting done in the church to reach a lost world or to build each other up.

Soon the rift becomes so great that the church begins to dwindle down one by one until there are only a handful left.

Think about the testimony such a church brings before the community God has placed them in.

If you walked into a church where the tension was so great that even as a visitor you could sense it, would you want to come another Sunday?

Paul admonishes Titus to avoid such discussions in his ministry.

The word for avoid has the very idea of doing your absolute best to avoid by any means necessary these types of conversations.

The word means to “go around so as to avoid.”

Titus was to literally go our of his way not to get sucked into such worthless conversations.

Think of it as if you are walking down your home street and your neighbor just poured some fresh concrete for his driveway.

You saw all the work from earlier in the day, the concrete trucks were out, people were troweling away, and they even put up some caution tape to warn you not to walk in the new concrete.

Most people would be courteous enough to avoid messing up all the hard work they did and not walk on it.

Perhaps you would even cross the street to avoid it.

That’s the idea Paul is telling Titus.

In essence, he is saying” Titus, you know these types of conversations are not good and serve no real purpose.

So why even play into them?

Instead, don’t give them any attention at all.”

So, what specifically does Paul tell Titus to steer clear from?

Paul mentions four specific issues or types of conversations Titus was to avoid.

Foolish Disputes