Obedient Servants

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in Titus chapter 2 tonight. Titus chapter 2. And we were looking last week at a passage that deals with really training one another within the local church and how we are all gifted with things that we can teach someone who’s coming behind us in the faith as well as we have things that we can learn from those who’ve gone on before us.

And it’s not even necessarily always a matter of age, because somebody can be younger chronologically, but be an older Christian, if that makes sense the way I’m saying that. Somebody who, well, this has been my circumstance in a couple of occasions that I remember back in Arkansas when we were doing our discipleship groups, you know, there might be people in there who were in their 40s or 50s and had been Christians for 10 or 15 years, whereas I’m in my 20s and have been Christian for over 20 years and probably am a little further alone than they are in the spiritual journey. We all, it’s not just a matter of who’s older, who’s younger, but we all have something that we can teach those who are coming along where we have been, while at the same time, spiritually, we can learn from people who are now where we’re headed.

And so we discussed this part of it last week, and he moves on from just talking about, okay, the young men need to do this, the young women need to do this, the older men, the older women, and he goes on in the passage we’re going to look at tonight and talks about servants. But let’s go ahead and go back to verse 1 and look at this whole thing in context.

It says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience, the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, excuse me, a little tongue-tied tonight, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

And he goes on in the new part tonight in verse 9 to say, exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Now from there he goes on to deal with more spiritual issues. If we in fact want to separate the spiritual from the practical everyday issues, which is not always a good idea because our spiritual condition determines how we act in our everyday lives.

It’s hard to separate the two. But he goes on to talk more about doctrinal issues from there. Tonight I want us to look primarily at verses 9 and 10 where he deals with servants.

And one thing that jumps out immediately is the way he begins this passage in chapter 2 where he talks in verse one about the things which become sound doctrine. He talks about in verse three, behavior that becomes, becometh holiness. And then in verse 10, he talks about adorning the doctrine of God, our savior in all things.

And these sort of tie in together because I talked to you last week and tried to explain this idea of becoming. That when he says, speak the things which become sound doctrine. He’s not saying that speak and hope that your teaching becomes sound doctrine.

What he’s telling them, what he’s telling Titus to convey to the church is that they need to teach and train one another in behaviors that become sound doctrine in the sense that, oh, that hairdo is very becoming, or where’d you get that dress? It’s very becoming. It suits you.

So what kind of behavior is suitable and goes with sound doctrine. It’s godly behavior. Godly behavior goes hand in hand with godly doctrine.

And so when he says, speak thou the things that become sound doctrine, he’s not just talking about teach sound doctrine, but he’s talking about teach the things also that go with it as well. And in verse three, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness. Holiness is not so much how you act, it’s who you are, or what you are, I should say.

God is holy. God doesn’t just act holy. God is holy.

It’s his nature. And when the Bible talks about people being holy, it indicates being set apart, being different. And if we are set apart by nature as Christians, now we know that we sin, we know that we’re still fallen individuals, but if we are by nature as Christians, holy and set apart to God, then comes the behavior that we’re supposed to act like it.

So this behavior as becometh holiness indicates that their behavior should be something that was fitting for the holiness that they’ve been given, the setting apart. If we have, as believers, been set apart unto God, we’ve been sanctified to God, and he’s looked at us and said, you’re mine, you’re holy to me, you’re reserved and set apart for a purpose unto me, then we need to act like it. our behavior needs to be becoming to that station we hold.

Does that make sense? So our behavior, in other words, needs to fit the nature that we’ve been given. And it ties in so very well with verse 10, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

We can very easily teach the doctrines of God. We can very easily teach true doctrine. A person can very easily say and profess and maybe even believe the right things, and yet their life not match up with it.

And speaking specifically in this context of servants. Now, we’re not usually servants or slaves in our day and age. We fortunately have the 13th Amendment in this country, and we’re not enslaved.

There are instructions, though, in the New Testament to Christians who were slaves, or to slaves who became Christians, on how they were supposed to act, how they were supposed to behave. As servants, how were you supposed to behave? We may not be servants or slaves in the sense that they were, but we still work for other people.

We all have, well, unless you’re retired or self-employed, you have a boss. We all have authorities who are over us to one degree or another. If we were driving down here and saw somebody, some unfortunate soul who’d been pulled over by both the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Garvin County Sheriff’s Department.

They got a two-for-one special. And when you see those flashing blue and red lights in your rearview mirror, do you have the option of saying, no, this is a free country, I can keep going if I want to? I guess you do have that option, but good things are not in store for you if you do. They’re going to haul you off to jail when they finally catch you for evading the police or whatever they call it.

Now, we have authorities over us. And even here in a free country, we have authorities over us. There are laws that we have to follow.

There are principles that we have to follow. We have authority all around us. I remember thinking as a kid, and I hear this from kids nowadays and now I laugh at how naive it is and how naive I was.

We say, I can’t wait to be grown up so no one tells me what? What to do. Oh, child, it only gets worse from here.

Because right now you’re only listening to mom and dad and your teachers. And one day you’re going to grow up and you’re still going to, whether you choose to listen or not, you’re still going to have mom and dad telling you what to do. And on top of that, you’re going to have a boss, and you’re going to have, you know, you’re going to want to drive your car, so you’re going to have to deal with the Department of Public Safety.

You’re going to deal with the IRS. You’re going to deal with, parents and teachers are easy when it comes to those that we, those we work for in that sense. And as much as I hate to say it, in some ways it does feel like we work for the IRS or whoever else that we’re dealing with.

The fact is that God has put authorities over all of us. And we all have rules that we have to follow. That is a hard thing sometimes still for me to accept because I don’t like being told what to do.

I’ll just be honest with you. That’s a character flaw in mine. I don’t enjoy being told what to do.

If you ask me, I will do almost anything for you. But tell me what I’m going to do. And that does not sit well.

And yet God has given us authority for a reason. God’s given us authority to keep us in line. God’s given authority to help protect us in some areas.

And so we as Christians all have, whether it’s a master in the sense of being a servant or it’s master in the sense of an authority over us, we all have authorities that we’re supposed to submit to. And Paul wrote in Romans chapter 13 that he says, let every soul be subject. Is it 13 or 12?

Now, I all of a sudden can’t remember. It’s toward the end of Romans. It says, let every soul be subject to the higher powers.

And he goes on to say, but there’s no authority given but of God. Now, I don’t know how that works in every country. Did God put Kim Jong-un in power?

Well, he had to allow it to happen. I don’t know if that’s God’s plan A for North Korea, but God allowed that man to be in power. God allowed the communists to be in power.

And people are to obey the law, as long as it doesn’t contradict God’s law. When it contradicts God’s law, then we suddenly have a choice. Do we work for God or do we work for man?

And I would hope that he would give us the courage to follow his law and then to suffer the consequences of doing right. But we have authorities over us and we’re supposed to be obedient and it’s not just supposed to be, well, I’m going to obey you, I’m going to do what you say. Outwardly, it’s supposed to be an attitude of obedience and of submission.

I think everybody in here, as far as I know, you’ve raised children. Did you want your kids when you told them you go clean your room? Did you want them to go grumbling and fussing the whole way?

And sure, they clean their room, but there’s clearly, their heart is not in submission. Or did you want them to say, yes, mom, yes, dad, I’ll go do that and do it in the right spirit. Well, I think we’d all prefer to have the latter.

And so we’re supposed to have this attitude, not just the outward obedience, but an attitude of obedience. And he says here, exhort servants to be obedient, to be obedient unto their own masters. We all have authorities.

We may not have the same authorities. in our lives. Your boss may be different from my boss.

You may work for somebody, if you’re still in the labor force, you may work for somebody who is tough to deal with, tough to get along with. I’m blessed with a wonderful boss, and visiting with him on Friday, talked to him about being not just my boss, my brother in Christ, and I’m glad for that, and it’s easy to be obedient under those circumstances. But you know what?

We don’t all have the same authorities, and he says, teach, exhort the servants to be obedient to their own masters. Whatever master life has dealt you, whatever authorities life has dealt you that God has allowed you to have, God expects us to be obedient to those. And it’d be very easy to look and say, well, I sure could be obedient if I had that authority in my life and look at somebody else’s situation.

Well, whatever somebody else has or doesn’t have or does is not the issue. We’re taught that the servants should be obedient unto their own masters. So we’re to be obedient not just in actions, but in attitude to those God has placed in authority over us.

Without looking around and saying, well, the grass could be greener over here. Sure, I’d be obedient if they were like this person. No, we’re to be obedient unto the masters that God has allowed to be in our own lives.

It says, and to please them well in all things, not answering again. to please them well in all things. It should be within the job description of a Christian, not in the sense of our job description for our job, but as being Christians, that whatever job we’re to do, whatever job we do, that we ought to try to excel at the job we do.

And not just for the material benefits, hey, it’s great if we do great work and we get a raise or we get more perks or whatever. Some of you are retired and the jobs you do, you don’t get paid for. So retired, I’m convinced from being around retired people, retired doesn’t mean you don’t work anymore.

Retired means you work just as hard, if not harder, but for no pay. So you’re busy, a lot of you are busy a lot of the time, and you’re doing a lot of things, just not getting paid for it. But whatever we as Christians find to do, whatever God has called us to do, we ought to try to excel at it.

And we may make more money, we may not. We may get a promotion, we may not. There may be something in it for us, there may not.

But we’re to do the best we possibly can as a testimony to those around us of what it means to follow Christ. Because what we do as believers ought to reflect on Jesus Christ and it ought to reflect favorably. You know what? Eventually, nobody’s going to care what the test scores were in my classroom.

Brother, I don’t know exactly what you do at the lumber yard, but I’m guessing you sell lumber, don’t you? What’s that? You throw it.

You know what? There’s going to come a point where nobody’s going to care anymore how much lumber, brother, shanked through. At some point, the numbers aren’t going to matter.

At some point. But people will remember what kind of person we were and the kind of employee we were. They may forget the numbers.

They may forget he was on time every day. But the overall picture they have, especially if they know we’re believers, especially if they know we’re believers, the kind of testimony we lived. They may forget the little details, but the overall picture should still be very clear to them after a while.

And they may never voice it to you. You may never get a pat on the back for it. But they’ll notice.

They’ll notice. I’ve talked to a number of people who work in the restaurant industry who say that they hate working Sundays. I can’t blame them.

I would hate working Sundays too, except I do here. But they hate working Sundays because they say the Christians come in after church and they’re so rude and they’re so, and I’ve seen some of this. And I try to go out of my way to be extra nice, especially if I go out on Sundays because they can tell you’ve been to church.

But I’ve been in restaurants where I’ve seen other people who’ve obviously come from church and they are just rude and dismissive. And that’s a horrible testimony. That’s a horrible testimony for Christians to have.

And I don’t know if it’s most of us or just a small number, but some people have earned that, and they’ve earned it unfairly for all of us. Now, I wonder sometimes if it can’t be the same in the workplace. I don’t want to hire a Christian.

They’re just grumpy all the time. Do you know grumpy Christians? Do you know any grumpy Christians?

A grumpy Christian is worse than a grumpy lost person, I’m convinced. More difficult to deal with. or they complain about this or that, or they look down on everybody else.

There are probably workplaces in this country where Christians have the same kind of reputation that they do in restaurants on Sunday. Isn’t it a shame? Isn’t it a shame?

Because we’re taught in God’s Word that we don’t look at this just as punching in and punching out and doing whatever we can for the money but not really caring. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes that whatever our hands find to do, do it with all our mind. The Bible tells us elsewhere that whatever God has given us to do, says don’t do it as though, and I’m paraphrasing here, but don’t do it as though you’re pleasing earthly masters, but do it as unto the Lord.

You’d think I could remember what the verse was because I’ve got it written down on a whiteboard in my class reminding the kids that you’re not just doing your math and English and all of this because I said so, or you want to make your parents happy. You’re doing it in order to honor and glorify God. Whatever you do, whether it’s as a student, as a retired person, or anything in between, do everything as unto the Lord.

So we as Christians ought to have the best testimony and people ought to say, yeah, I’d hire a Christian in a heartbeat because they work so hard and they’re trustworthy and they do the right thing. And folks, I know I’m preaching to the choir here. I don’t look out at this group and think for a minute that anybody in here is lacking in this area.

And so tonight is not a rebuke. Tonight is this is what’s in Scripture And even though we’re doing well, I’d like to think there’s always room for improvement. But to be obedient to their own masters and to please them well in all things, to do whatever we can.

You know, didn’t Jesus say something about going the extra mile? If somebody compels you to carry their stuff for a mile, then do it for two miles. If the boss says, I need you to move 500 pounds of lumber, I don’t know how much that would even be.

Do they even categorize it by the pound? No, not for sale. Okay.

There’s so much I don’t know about the lumber business. The boss might tell Brother Shank, I’ve got all of this lumber out here and it needs to be loaded. I’ll get some of the guys, but if you can load 500 pounds of it for me.

What’s wrong with Brother Shank loading 1,000? I’m going to put that on you because I’m not the one doing it. I hate grading papers.

I do. I just do. And in the kind of teaching I’m doing right now, there’s not a whole lot to grade because they’re kind of taught to score their own, which is good.

And then my job is to go back and score the things that they can’t, grade the things that they can’t, and make sure they’re being honest about it. And it’s supposed to teach them responsibility and honesty. But there’s some of it that I have to go and score, and it’s usually English or spelling.

And those are the hardest things to go back and grade or score. And I hate doing it. And there are times, okay, I could just let this one slide.

You know what? No, I need to do it all. I need to do everything that I’ve got here to do, not leave it for somebody else, do twice as much as I’m asked to do, because of the testimony, because of the testimony that it gives to other people.

And I say that even working in a Christian organization, because not everybody in a Christian organization is a Christian. I learned that a long time ago. Not everybody who sits in church is a Christian.

Not every student who comes to a Christian school or parent who sends their kids to a Christian school is a Christian. And everything we do, whether you’re in a Christian organization or a secular organization, everything we do as believers reflects on Jesus Christ, either for the good or for the bad. And so we want to be obedient to those who are in authority over us and please them well by doing a good job, by doing the best we can.

Not answering again. There’s a big one. No back talk.

We don’t like it from our kids. Don’t like it from other people’s kids. And I’m sure bosses hate it from employees.

We need to learn to be submissive. That’s hard for us as Americans. Our country was founded.

I realize this is kind of stereotypes, but there’s a lot said about how Canadians tend to be polite and quiet when they go overseas, whereas Americans are loud and demanding. Well, there’s a reason for that. You go back to the founding of those two countries.

We both came out of Great Britain, but Americans, it’s sort of in our culture, in our DNA, that we’re the country, we’re not taking guff off of anybody, and we’re not going to put up with it, we’re just going to have a revolution and kick you out. And the Canadians said, no, we’ll stick with you a little longer. It’s in our DNA, we don’t like to be told what to do.

This is a hard thing for Americans to say, we need to learn to be submissive to authority. And I’m not saying Canada’s better than the U. S.

either, so don’t hate me. I do like Canada, but I like America as well. It is a hard thing for Americans to learn to be submissive, and yet we as Christians are taught, don’t answer again.

Don’t talk back. It needs to be an attitude of submission. Our outward behavior can be right, but there can be a heart problem.

We talk about that a lot with the kids at school. Now, it’s not just that we’re trying to get you to stop talking or do your work. It’s the heart issue behind it.

And there can be a lot of things that can slide if we know the heart is in the right place. It can overlook a lot of mistakes if we know the heart is in the right place. We need to get to a place where our hearts are in the right place.

Our hearts are submissive, not just because the boss is wonderful, but because God has told us to. And we don’t answer again. We’re submissive in our attitudes.

I need to hurry up through this. Not purloining. That word purloining means stealing or embezzling.

Well, that should be pretty simple and straightforward. Don’t take what’s not yours. I tell my kids all the time, don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.

I figure if they can get that memorized at an early age, they’ll be ahead of a lot of other people. Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity. Fidelity means that you’re going to do what you say you’re going to do.

When I was in insurance years ago, we sold something called fidelity bonds. You know, people in certain jobs, people in certain industries have to be bonded. And one type of bond that they sell is a fidelity bond.

And there are some jobs where a broken promise costs somebody a lot of money. where an employee doesn’t carry out their duties the way they’re supposed to. For example, a stockbroker.

If somebody puts in an order, I want to buy 5,000 shares of AT&T, and they tell the customer, okay, we’ll put that order in, and they don’t do it, and they don’t do it for three or four days, and suddenly the price of AT&T has gone up, and it costs the people a lot of extra money, well, somebody’s going to be on the hook for that. And there’s that fidelity bond. It’s insurance that somebody is going to do what they say they’re going to do.

So he tells us not purloining, not stealing, not embezzling, not being corrupt, but showing all good fidelity, doing what we say we’re going to do, being people of our word. And you know what? When we make promises, we need to keep them, if it’s within our power to do so.

If it’s not within our power to do so, then we need to be upfront and honest about the causes and explain to people why. And we need to be willing to take the consequences for that. But we need to be people of integrity, people of honesty.

It says that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Because there’s a world that’s watching us. There’s a world that’s watching us to see how we behave.

And does our living match up? So much in Titus goes back to this. Does our living match up with what our doctrine professes to be?

And so four things very quickly from this passage. Here we go again. You’ve already gotten most of the message.

Four things that we need to be mindful of from this passage. Verse 9 says, exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters. So first of all, Christians must obey their God-given authorities.

We’ve got to do it. Unless they’re telling us to do something that directly contradicts God’s word, then we need to obey those in authority over us. If they tell you, I need you to work three extra hours tonight, okay, if we can do it, we do it.

If they tell us, I need you to sacrifice on this altar to bail, no, not going to do it. If they tell you the speed limit is 65, that doesn’t contradict the law of God, as much as I’d like to drive 70 on the way here. It doesn’t contradict the law of God, so we need to obey that law.

They tell us you can’t go to church. No, no, that contradicts God’s law. We see what the difference is there.

So Christians must obey their God-given authority. Second of all, Christians should be the most diligent, efficient workers. Because it says in verse 9, and to please them well in all things, not answering again.

And why should we be the most diligent, efficient workers? not because, I mean, in a company, in whatever we do as volunteer work, whatever, guys, this is not just about employment because I realize that a good proportion of the people in here will retire. But whatever we’re doing, we should be the most diligent or efficient people at.

Because we’re better than everybody else? Because Christians are inherently smarter or more talented? No.

Because we realize we’re not doing it for other people. We’re not even doing it for ourselves. We’re doing it to the honor and glory of God.

Third of all, Christians must never betray others’ trust in the course of their work. This one seems obvious to me. We should be people of our word, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity.

When people trust us to do something or not do something, we ought to live up to that to the best of our ability. You know what? This used to be common practice even among non-Christians in our country, that people were people of their word.

I’ve never lived through it, but I’ve heard about a time when deals used to be done on a handshake. and a man was only as good as his word, sadly we are past that time apparently. But just because it’s gone out of style for the mainstream culture doesn’t mean it’s gone out of style as far as God’s word is concerned.

And we as Christians need to learn never to betray others’ trust. There are going to be times we’re going to let people down because we’re fallen, sinful people. There are going to be times when we say we’re going to finish something at a certain time and we’re just not able to do it. But you know what?

we should work and struggle and strive to make it a practice and a habit to not betray others’ trust, but to do what we say we’re going to do, to follow through on our promises and to be people of integrity. And fourth of all, most importantly, the reason why all of this matters, I’m going to admit to you it feels really strange to come in and preach to this crowd about work habits. First of all, I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a message in church on work habits.

Many of you are retired, and whether you are retired or employed, you’re probably all doing these things anyway. So I’m telling you this, number one, because it’s here in the book of Titus, but also for this very important reason, that Christians should be a reflection of what Christ has done in their lives. Why are work habits important enough to talk about in church?

Because everything we do reflects on Jesus Christ. If the world knows you’re a Christian and they should, they’re watching you. They’re watching me. They want to see how we behave, how we live.

That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. What kind of picture? What kind of picture does our life paint of the world or paint for the world of the things that we believe?

Because our walk talks louder than our talk talks. I’m not going to try to go through that whole saying again because it’s a tongue twister. But you get the idea.

The walk is louder than the talk. And that’s what they’ll take notice of. What kind of picture does our life paint?

What kind of picture does our life show the world about what we believe? Does it say that Jesus Christ has died for me, has forgiven my sins, and changed me from the inside out? Or does it say that the whole Jesus thing is a lot of talk, and we’re just like everybody else?

And then which one of those options is going to point people to the cross? It seems like such a simple thing. Work hard and be honest. But it has profound implications for the way the world around us views the gospel and the Savior we serve.