Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Titus 2:1-10, NASB
- Series: Sent for the Sake of the Gospel (2026), no. 10
- Date: Sunday, August 9, 2026 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Seeing the Gospel Lived Out
Some of the best meals that I’ve ever eaten are ones that don’t come from a written recipe. Some of those have been made by people in this room. I’ve asked if I could get the recipe, and the answer was, “Oh, well, I’d have to write something down.” A lot of the best meals are where somebody would just have to show you because there’s not a written recipe. And in some of those cases, if you tried to write down the recipe, it still wouldn’t come out right. You need to see it done.
I think of my grandfather, who was famous for making barbecued chicken and cooking it over charcoal. I asked him one time what steps he followed. “I don’t know. Just come watch.” I still can’t make it as good as he did, but I learned more about making it from watching him than I would have from a recipe.
This is not a perfect analogy, but what we’re talking about today from the book of Titus is this idea of watching something being done instead of just reading about it. The reason I say it’s not a perfect analogy is because we’re talking about disciple making—being a disciple and being a disciple maker—and while it helps us to see, we don’t want to discount the written recipe.
I believe in the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture. Scripture tells us everything that we need in order to obey God and to live a faithful life. Paul said all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. It is beneficial for correction and rebuke and instruction in righteousness. It is all we need for those things.
And yet, as we look in Titus today, Scripture itself tells us that it helps those lessons to stick if we see them lived out, if we see the example. It is vitally important that we read about what God wants us to do, because this is the authoritative standard. But it helps those lessons to stick if we don’t just read the recipe, but we also see the cake being made.
What we’re going to look at this morning is what the Apostle Paul wrote, as he was moved by the Holy Spirit, to Titus about the need for people to be disciple makers within the church. We’re continuing this series on being sent for the sake of the gospel, and we’ve moved into some things that are not just about making the invitation or sharing the gospel, but about being the kind of people who will share the gospel and who will live out the Great Commission.
Paul has some instructions here for us today on what it means to be the kind of people who show discipleship. It is enormously beneficial to be disciples together, where we can be encouraged by one another, challenged by one another, and look to examples within the body of what it means to follow Jesus.
We’re in Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 10, where the Apostle Paul talks about this idea of being able to see the lessons of Scripture lived out and, in particular, to be people who put the lessons of Scripture on display so that they can be learned.
Paul writes:
But as for you, proclaim the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. Urge slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be pleasing, not argumentative, not stealing, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
When he says, “But as for you,” he is referring back to chapter 1 and those who were not living according to God’s expectations. He says, “But you are supposed to be different,” speaking to those within the church. Titus is the leader of that church in particular: “As for you, proclaim the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.”
He is giving instructions here. This is God’s Word giving us written instructions, but part of these written instructions is for them to be lived out and put on display in the church so that people can learn from that visual lesson.
Our Lives Reflect the Gospel
God knows, because He created us, that we’re visual creatures. Frequently throughout Scripture we are given a spiritual truth and also given a visual example of it. That’s part of why we observe the Lord’s Supper. God reveals the truth in Scripture about the sacrifice of Jesus and its meaning, and about the price that He paid for our salvation. But God also knew that, being visual creatures, we needed a visual reminder so we would get it.
Every time we partake of that broken bread and that cup that’s poured out, we are visually reminded of the body that was broken and the blood that was shed. God knows we need visual examples, and He has given those to us. In this case, He has given those things to us in the form of one another.
As we gather together as a body and as we live out the things that we’ve learned, we are setting an example for one another. We see in verses 1 and 10 that the church makes disciples as our lives reflect the gospel. There are certain things that He has called us to do and to be that reflect the gospel.
When I say “reflect the gospel,” I mean the gospel has changed us, and it should be visible. If we belong to Jesus Christ, there should be a change in us from who we were before or who we otherwise would have been.
This is one of the classic passages people turn to about how the church disciples one another and what this is supposed to look like. It is not by accident that these instructions are interwoven with the thought that we are reflecting the gospel. It is not just a list of rules that has been given to us. Paul has not set out this text to be a checklist of behaviors: just work down through this checklist and be all these things, work harder, try harder, and be better.
Interwoven through all of this is the motivation behind it: we want to reflect the gospel. We want to reflect the change that Jesus Christ has made in us. We want to be weird in the most positive sense of that word, so that the world would look at our behavior and our lives and say, “There is something different about these people.”
Paul starts in verse 1 by saying, “As for you, proclaim things which are fitting for sound doctrine,” before he goes into all of these behaviors. Paul frequently connects spiritual well-being with truth. As our lives reflect God’s truth, we grow toward spiritual health.
We need to believe the truth that God has revealed, but we also need to practice the truth. Satan believes the truth that God has revealed, but he doesn’t practice it. That’s why it says even the demons believe and tremble. But the demons aren’t saved.
We’re called to believe His truth and to practice it. When we do, there is something the Holy Spirit does to work through that. He begins to shape us and change us, because that’s what the gospel does. Jesus Christ cleans the slate so that we can be forgiven, and then the Holy Spirit begins to work in us so that we are not who we used to be.
Giving the World No Cause to Doubt
It is not just that our lives should fit with sound doctrine. Paul says in verse 5, amid his instructions, that we do these things “so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” As we are growing and living lives that fit with the gospel, God’s Word will not be dishonored.
The world may disagree with us. They may disagree with what we believe, and they may disagree with how we live. But we shouldn’t give them any reason to question God’s Word. They’ll come up with enough of those on their own. By living lives that reflect the gospel, we don’t give them any reason to doubt.
We’ve probably all heard stories where somebody who professes to be a believer—maybe somebody who is a believer—does something they shouldn’t, and then the world says, “Oh, see, now that’s why I could never believe it. It wasn’t even powerful enough to change them.”
There’s no truth in that. Heaven help us if we become a reason for the world to doubt the truth of the Word of God. We don’t want to give them a reason to doubt.
Verse 8, amid these instructions, says, “so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.” Our objective is not to shame people. Their shame is not our objective. It is just the reality that we don’t want to bring reproach on the body of Christ, so that those who falsely accuse the body of Christ are put to shame by their own slander.
There are examples of this from the early church. The Roman pagans considered the Christians to be cannibals. Did any of them really believe that? I don’t know. But they said it. They tried to slander the church. Why? Because we have a meal where we say, “This is My body. This is My blood.” So the accusation became: “They’re eating flesh and drinking blood in their meetings. They’re cannibals.”
Because in the churches we refer to one another as brother and sister, and some of us also happen to be married, you can imagine what the Romans did with that in accusations against the church. Charla is my sister in Christ—very important distinction—but she is also my wife. The Romans took that kind of language and used it to accuse the earliest believers of the most horrible, wretched things they could think of. They said, “These are terrible people.”
But the church showed by the way it lived and the way it loved that those things could not possibly be true, to the point that those beliefs about the church did not catch on. Even our most hardened critics today don’t look at us and say, “Well, they’re a bunch of cannibals.” Everybody knows that’s ridiculous.
We want our lives to reflect the change that the gospel has made so clearly that there is no cause to bring reproach on the body of Christ.
Adorning the Doctrine of God
Paul says in verse 10, again interwoven with these instructions, “so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.” That word “adorn” is important.
Is anybody wearing any adornments today? We don’t have to point them out, but probably most people in this room have some kind of adornment, some kind of decoration. Some of you ladies have earrings on. If it doesn’t serve a practical purpose, it’s an adornment.
Somebody left this wonderful rooster tie clip in my office a few weeks ago that I just love. It’s an adornment. My tie escapes anyway, just as it would with any tie, running around here on Sunday morning. But I love it. It serves no practical purpose. It’s an adornment. It’s there to make things look better.
So what are we doing if we “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior”? We’re making it more attractive.
The gospel, when it is rightly understood and when the Holy Spirit is working on somebody’s heart, is attractive. But the Holy Spirit can use us. The way we live, if we’re following Him, can be used to make the gospel more attractive to the world. Unfortunately, Satan can also use us to make it less attractive.
Our job is to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. As we go through every day, the thought should be that our lives reflect the gospel, and there is a world watching us to see whether it is true, whether it has any real effect.
That doesn’t mean we’re going to be perfect. I think the problem comes when we assume we are perfect or portray ourselves as perfect, because then people are looking for any gotcha moment. In reality, the fact that we’re not perfect makes the story even more beautiful.
God has taken sinners and transformed us into sons and daughters. He has taken us from being enemies who went astray and, kind of like the story of the prodigal son, brought us back into the household—not just as servants, but as sons and daughters, which we did not deserve.
Even now, as we continue to fall short of His standard of holiness, He continues to love us and shape us. The gospel works in us even now, shaping us into who He wants us to be.
So we live lives that reflect the gospel. When we do that, we draw people to the gospel—or I should say the Holy Spirit draws people to the gospel, but He uses us to do it. And we set an example that helps others do the same.
Especially when people come in as new believers, our example can help whet their appetite for the gospel. Once they are believers, the way we live in front of them, even when we think they’re not looking, can help them want a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and help them want to be more faithful.
I’ve been a believer for thirty-five years. I can still look around this building, and there are men in particular that I say, “I want to be that guy when I grow up.” I see their example, and it pulls me closer to Jesus. That’s what we want to do for other people.
So how do we do it? That’s where we get into the meat of this in verses 2 through 9.
Everyone Has a Part in Disciple Making
The church makes disciples when each individual plays a part. Sometimes we think of disciple making as a class, or we think of disciple making as a ministry.
I think there can be ministries that are geared more toward disciple making than others. I think there can be a class element involved in disciple making, because part of the Great Commission is “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I’ve commanded you.” We’re teaching God’s truth and teaching people how to obey Jesus.
But when we think of it only in those terms—as a ministry or a class—then we kind of outsource the job of disciple making to a few people within the church, when in reality it is all of our responsibility.
As we look through verses 2 through 9, God’s Word has given every person in the body a role, no matter their age, gender, or status.
He starts in verse 2 with the older men. We don’t have time this morning to go through each of these words and unpack every one of them. There is a lot of meaning here, so I’m going to try to summarize.
Paul says the older men are to be “temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.” To be temperate means to have your emotions and your anger under control—not “to have a temper” in the sense that we usually use that phrase: “Oh, he has a temper. He’s scary.” Paul lays out what kind of lives older men within the body are supposed to live as an example to everybody else.
For the older women, he says in verse 3, “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good.”
In both of these, there is an element of being self-controlled. There is an element of respect for others. These are the kinds of things the world might look at and say, “Well, that makes somebody a good person.” We look at it and say, “It is what makes somebody like Christ. It is what reflects Christ in their lives.”
Then he moves on to the younger women in verses 4 and 5. I notice that the sections of the text for the younger men and the younger women are longer than those for the older men and the older women. Why does Paul—why does the Holy Spirit through Paul—put so much more on the younger people? Because there is more to learn at that age.
With the younger women in verses 4 and 5, the older women are to encourage the young women “to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands.”
Then with the young men in verses 6 through 8: “Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. In all things, show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach.”
We could summarize each of these. In the list that he gives to the older men, he is encouraging them to lead well—to lead well by example in the church, to show everybody what a man of God is supposed to grow into.
With the older women, if we were to summarize what he is telling them with all these descriptor words, it is to be encouragers: to encourage people in the right direction, not to cut down, but to encourage and build up.
With the younger women, they are learning to love and care for their families well. With the young men, they are to shepherd their families well, look to the example of the older men, and grow in that direction.
This is ministry that crosses generations.
By the way, this is also not license to say, “Well, I’m going to pull somebody aside and tell them everything that’s wrong with them because they need to learn.” No. It is encouraging and teaching by example and through relationship so that everyone grows.
As we are teaching and being examples, that also helps us grow. There is an old saying: if you really want to learn something, teach it.
There is a lot of stuff in math that did not make sense to me all through school until I was thrust into having to teach math to sixth graders. Suddenly, the light bulb went on. As we’re teaching people how to become disciples, we’re going to become better disciples ourselves.
Now, you may be sitting there wondering, where is the line between older men and younger men? Where is the line between older women and younger women? I don’t know. He doesn’t spell it out. It’s between you and the Lord.
What I will say is that with some people, you may be the older person. With some people, you may be the younger. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with biological age. It may be spiritual.
The reality is that we all have something to learn from each other. We all have areas where we need to grow. We also have areas where we can teach and be an example. A healthy, growing disciple is going to do both of those things. He is going to learn and teach.
Following Christ Wherever God Has Placed Us
Then we get to verses 9 and 10, and this is one of those passages that is easy to shy away from. Paul encourages the slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be pleasing, not argumentative, not stealing, but showing all good faith.
People look at that today and say, “See, the Bible encourages slavery.” The Bible recognizes that slavery existed, and the Bible drew lines for slave owners and slaves on how to do all things to the glory of God.
By the way, it was also teaching from the Bible that led to the abolition of slavery in the Roman Empire. It was Christians following the teaching of Scripture that led to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and the American Republic. The Bible doesn’t condone slavery.
But the point of this is that wherever you are in life—whether you’re one of the older men who leads the church or you’re one of the slaves who has wandered into the church—there is a role to be played in representing Jesus Christ. There is a role to be played in learning as a disciple and discipling others.
That brings us to my closing point this morning: the church makes disciples when we equip people to serve Jesus in their everyday lives.
Think through some of the things that he tells them to learn about, encourage, and teach one another. He is talking about things in family life. With the young women especially, he says to teach them how to love their husbands and their children—just to do the ministry that God has entrusted to them with their family.
When he talks to the young men and says, “Urge the young men to be sensible,” that is a pretty simple, basic life skill. I’m not saying it is always easy. But we are talking about the baseline of good behavior that is going to set you on the right path in life: just be sensible.
All of these things that he lays out are not things we have to go to seminary to learn or to be able to teach. Disciple making is not a seminary course.
Sometimes when we’re talking about discipling people, we think we’re talking about preparing them to preach sermons, teach theology courses, or go be a missionary. All of those things are important and should be taught as the Holy Spirit leads.
But disciple making—raising up a disciple—is teaching somebody to follow, serve, and obey Jesus in the everyday conditions of life that He has called them to.
The things that Paul lays out here are not off-the-wall things that He has called anybody to do. This is basic representing Jesus in your everyday life.
So if the objection in your mind is, “I can’t really disciple anybody. I haven’t been to seminary. I wouldn’t know how to teach somebody to be a teacher,” remember where you are in life. Hopefully, you’re serving Jesus and being obedient where He has placed you. If you are, wherever that may be and whatever role you may be playing, you’ve got something to teach somebody else about following Jesus and being obedient to Him in their everyday situations.
Do we need to understand theology? Absolutely. But we also, as a society and as a church at large—not just ours, but believers as a whole—need people pouring into one another.
We need people teaching others how to be Christian moms and dads, teaching them how to shepherd their kids through this crazy world that we live in. We need people who have walked through that to lovingly share that wisdom with them.
We need people to have a sense of urgency: “I need to learn, and I need to have guidance about these things. How do I walk through difficult situations at work and follow Christ?”
That’s what Paul was teaching to the slave here. I would call that a difficult situation at work.
Have you ever had a difficult situation at work that you had to walk through and try to represent Christ in? Those of you who have, you’ve got something to share with some young person who is just starting out and doesn’t know these things.
When it comes to following Jesus in everyday life, we all have something to teach. And we all have something to learn.
Making the Gospel Attractive
Paul is getting very practical here: in everyday life, helping one another live lives that reflect Jesus and make the gospel attractive.
The opposite is so easy. If we’re not careful and if we’re not intentional, we can live lives that point people away from the gospel.
“He’s as crooked as he can be. Why would I want to follow Jesus?” Not that Jesus is crooked, but the person calling himself a Christian is as crooked as he can be.
“She’s as mean as a snake. Why would I want to follow Jesus if that’s the example?”
No. We want to live lives that reflect the gospel. We want to live lives that point people to obedience to Jesus in everyday life. We want to make the gospel attractive.
We want to remove every obstacle we can so that people will see the beauty in the reality that there is a holy God whose love, forgiveness, and presence we don’t deserve, because we’ve all sinned. We’ve all rebelled against Him.
But in spite of our sin, He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to come willingly to the cross, to take responsibility for all that sin, to be nailed to that cross, shed His blood, and die as the only way we could be forgiven.
Then three days later, He rose again from the dead to prove it. He did that so we could be right with Him.
When we trust Him as our one and only Savior, He wipes that slate clean immediately. God chooses not to remember our sin any longer. Scripture says He puts it as far away from us as east is from the west.
From there on out, He begins transforming us, changing us from the inside out to be more like Jesus.
We want people to see not how good we are, but the beauty of that message. And we do that by showing—by living and showing—how to live in obedience to Jesus in everyday life.
