Titus

Good morning, Saylorville! If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can find the book of Titus in the New Testament, Titus chapter 1, as we begin a brand new series this morning and for the next several weeks titled Doctrine on Display. Doctrine on Display. And the title of this particular… that’s the theme of the entire series, and the title, so this message is Adorning God’s Doctrine. Okay?

So I got… just the other day I was doing a podcast with Pastor Paul, and we were just getting ready to start. He was looking right across the table at me, and he goes, “Dude, what’s wrong with your eye?” And I go, “I don’t know. What’s wrong?” He goes, “It’s like all red!” And I grabbed my phone, took a selfie of it. It was all red! I had no idea. It wasn’t hurting me or anything. I didn’t know why. It was kind of concerning, and I went to my optometrist and he said, “Hey, he said, “You broke a blood vessel while you were working….” I discovered that you can break a blood vessel in your eye when you’re working out. But you know what else I discovered? You can’t hide a red eye. Everybody asks, ‘What’s wrong with your eye?’

‘What’s wrong with your eye?’ And don’t be doing that after like 16 people did in the first service. I went to a restaurant just last night. I mean, it was kind of dark in there. Just to pick up a couple of soups. I walked in and the guy, the guy looks at me, “Dude, what’s wrong with your eye?” Sheesh! (audience laughing)

Years ago, I was studying this book, and I came upon chapter two in verse 10 where we read:

Titus 2:10b,  ‘… in everything, adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.’

And I was just absolutely struck by the verbiage! The word adorn is the word “kosmeo?.” We get our English word “cosmetic” from this word. Now, you know what cosmetics do, right? They can cover up, but they can also beautify. And that’s the idea. The idea in the word adorn is to make something attractive. And as I was just meditating on that little line, the thought occurred to me… just struck me like lightning… I… can’t add to the doctrine of God, but I can adorn it... and so can you.

And this is exactly where Paul is going in this letter to Titus. He’s talking about doctrine that’s on display… our faith and our practice, our belief and our behavior, inextricably tied together. And when they are, it’s a beautiful thing!

So here’s the difference in the book of Romans, and in the book of Ephesians, and in the book of Colossians. In everyone of those books and others, there are what we call hinge chapters where Paul front loads the beginning of the book, and for several chapters, doctrine, doctrine, truth, theology. Let’s go deep. And then there’s a hinge chapter where he gets very practical. And the rest of the book is very practical. He doesn’t do that here with Titus. No, he doesn’t do that at all. In fact, here Paul mixes truth and character tightly weaving them throughout the entire book.

And the reason is because bad guys were living on this island. and they were creeping into the church, and claiming Christianity without any character to back it up, to back up their claims that is. So Paul is going to continue reminding us that our character serves like clothing. It serves like beautiful clothing, dressing up the truth of God. That’s what it does.

So, the setting is Paul writing to Titus, and Titus is on the island of Crete. Now the island of Crete is actually a part of Greece. It’s just south of the main peninsula, or whatever you want to call it, of Greece. And it’s a beautiful island! In fact, it’s kind of a resort of sorts, if you wanna call it, but he, so he… here’s what he says in Titus chapter 1 and verse 5:

Titus 1:5, “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, (The implication is it’s a little out of order) and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—”

So Paul had started… we have no history of this happening… But apparently Paul was on this large island of Crete, and while he was there he planted a number of, at least a couple… two, three, maybe more, we don’t know… But he planted these churches, and they were small, but they were growing, and they needed, they desperately needed strong, godly leadership… eldership, pastors… to protect them from the false teachers that were trying to creep in, and really destroy them, so to speak. Again, this is a beautiful island, like a vacation resort, but this was no vacation. He’s really concerned about what’s going on. And so let’s look at these first four verses as we get going here. It says:

Titus 1:1-4

1 “Paul, a servant (word means slave) of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, (Notice the weaving going on here)

2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

3 and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.”

So we are talking about adorning the doctrine of God. How do we do that? How do we adorn God’s doctrine? And so we’re gonna look at four ways in which we can do that this morning.

And the first one is with your humility. And I want you to notice how Paul leads. I love how he leads here! Rather than talking down to Titus as an apostle, he speaks up to him as a slave. “Paul, a servant…” the word servant is… some of your bibles may actually translate it… slave. It’s the word “doulos”. The word “doulos” always means “slave.” If you’ve got an old King James’s it says “bond servant.” That’s the idea there. “… and an Apostle of Jesus Christ…” He leads with being a servant. I love this! Paul is saying that leaders, no matter where you’re at, in the stratosphere of leadership, you should be a servant.

As I was thinking, I thought of one of our elders, I won’t tell you which one. We have a large staff thread that goes out regularly. Somebody on the thread will invariably, on any given Sunday, will have somebody that didn’t show up to man a door, one of the doors, various doors come… people coming in, or we need a parking lot attendant, or we need a Sunday School teacher. We need something. And whenever that individual sends out this thread, it’s sort of an all points bulletin and somebody’s got to help us. I’m in… I’m in need, and every single almost, every single time… unless he’s otherwise obligated, that elder will say, “I’m in.” And he is in… because he demonstrates that spirit of humility and servanthood.

Now Paul doesn’t run away from the fact that he’s an Apostle. No, he’s an Apostle. He’s a servant of God… and an Apostle. So there’s… that means “one that’s specially sent by God.” They’re appointed by Jesus as the Apostle Paul was. But he doesn’t shy away from the fact that he’s an Apostle, but he doesn’t lead with it.

It reminds of what Peter said. Peter was talking about giftedness, and if you’re a child of God… and I never assume a room this full of people, everybody here’s a child of God. I don’t assume that. Some of you need to become a child of God. But if you are, then you are gifted. You… God has gifted you. And Peter tells us that if you have a gift or you know your gifts, he gives two words… Use it! Use it for the glory of God. Use your giftedness. And if your life leads with who God has unashamedly called you to be, His slave, you’ll make the greatest impact, and you’ll be adorning the doctrine of God. So we adorn with our humility and with our doctrine! I mean, doctrine basically is teaching. It’s theology. It’s the faith you hold to. It’s what you believe. Okay? So adorning God’s doctrine presupposes you’re being taught sound doctrine. Look at chapter 2 and verse 1.

Titus 2:1, “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.”

So in the first verse of the first chapter, Paul jumps right into the deep end of the pool. He says:

Titus 1:1, “Paul, a servant of God (slave of God) and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect…”

Now when you read the word elect, does that kind of make you kind of nervous? It shouldn’t.

I formally pastored a church that there were several people in the church, as soon as you mentioned election or predestination they just started shuddering. They didn’t want me to speak on it. And I found out that the former pastors before me never taught it, even though the Bible teaches it constantly! I’m here to tell you, it’s a comforting doctrine and one you should embrace. He says, ‘I’m talking to the elect of God.’ When I get into it… by the way, when I get into a debate, and I don’t often, but when I get into a debate on the doctrine of election and predestination, I always, 100% of the time, 100% of the time, I go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 10 where Paul says:

2 Timothy 2:10, ‘Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may obtain salvation through faith in Christ Jesus…’

You hear what Paul’s doing? He’s saying, ‘I’m bustin’ my hiney! I’m goin’ after it! I’m workin’ hard (to do what?) ‘ to win people to Jesus who’ve already been chosen by God that they’re gonna be saved.’ Paul got it! Paul didn’t get hung up on the doctrine of election. He knew that he had a responsibility to proclaim. It was God’s responsibility to save. Period! And so… and he does that… By the way, when God saves... if God saves you, He will do it through the proclamation of the truth. Look what he says in verse 2. He says:

Titus 1:2-3

2 “… in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, (I’ll come back to that) promised before the ages began

3 and at the proper time manifested in His word through (what?) the preaching…”

The word preaching means… it doesn’t mean, it doesn’t convey just being behind a pulpit doing what I’m doing, though I am preaching right now. It just means “to proclaim truth,” and you can do that one on one as well as me doing it here.

Last week, a friend of mine came to the Easter services. He’s not a follower of Christ. We’re very close. We meet together almost every week. Every Friday we get together for about an hour or so. We talk about theology and talk about salvation. He’s super highly, he’s a super high intellect. He’s a gracious man, and for the first time he came last week. And so some people got to meet him and they shook hands with him, and out in the hallway somebody who knew who he was said to him, “Well, you get to come here and hear Pat preach today.” He said to him, “I get to hear Pat preach every Friday.” And he actually was defining what this word means… exactly that, just “to proclaim.”

So in… notice, you see the word manifest. “He manifested it? That word manifest is a rich word. It means “to hold to a light,” means “to bring it to light.” This is how God brings His salvation to light… through preaching. He manifests it through the preaching of the Word. This is what he met when he said to the Corinthians:

[1 Corinthians 1:18] ‘The message, the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it’s the power of God.’

That’s what the proclamation of God does. That’s why I love the expression:

“I led them to Christ.”

Just in the last service somebody who I led to Christ 22 years ago was revisiting us. They’ve moved away. They’re living for Jesus somewhere else. And I even asked him when it was in a certain way, “When did I lead you to Christ?” Now, that wasn’t an arrogant question. That is an accurate question. If I lead you to Jesus, I can’t save you. I’m just bringing you to Him. He’s the one who saves… Amen?

And this is exactly what Andrew did with his brother… Peter, in John chapter one verse 42, where Andrew brought Peter to Jesus.

[John 1:42, “He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).”]

He lead him to Jesus… and that’s all we’re doing. It’s God who does the saving. Right?

The doctrine of election is also a very comforting doctrine, by the way. My friend, Dave Heisterkamp, when he first became a church… actually, when we brought him in he was our Administrative Pastor. I had designs on him. ‘You stay here for five years, we’re gonna make you a Church Planter.’ He gave me a year and a half and left. And he went to a church up north, and the very first day on the job… the church was old, it was musty. Nobody had been saved in years. There were books piling up in the baptismal. Nobody… it wasn’t even being used. And he was sitting in the church on the first day, and he was… a spirit of depression sort of came on him. And thinking… he was wondering if he’d made the right decision. And he read in Acts chapter 18, these words. He read these words. This was from Jesus:

[Acts 18:10b] ‘… for I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city…’

And that was linking to the doctrine of election. What he was getting out of this was, ‘God has picked people out. I’ve just gotta find ’em!’ And he did as he went to work for Jesus.

I want you to notice something else here that Paul does with this whole business of doctrine. How he describes God is really interesting.

[Titus 1:2] “… in hope of eternal life, which God who never lies…”

The Greek phrase who never lies literally says, “The non-lying God.” It’s kind of strange. Why would Paul be compelled to describe God as a non-lying God? You need to know something. Whenever you pick up a New Testament epistle… letter… you’re reading somebody else’s mail. The book of Titus wasn’t written to you. It was written for you, but it was written to somebody else. It was written to the Christians living on the island of Crete. Crete claimed to be the place where Zeus resided. Zeus, the god of gods, the greatest of all mythical gods, was from Crete. And so listen to how, well… skip down to verse 12. Just real quick, just check it out.

Titus 1:12-13

12 “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

13 This testimony is true.”

… because the Cretans were in love with Zeus, and Zeus was known… You know what Zeus was known for? Zeus was known for seducing, for deceiving, for lying! The pagans of Crete loved a lying God, and our God does not lie! Amen? That’s why Paul said that. That’s why he did that.

Today, truth is more accessible than it has ever been, and yet I marvel at how constantly God’s people are given over to lies. I think Mark Twain was right when he said:

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

Mark Twain

… Constantly giving in to conspiracies. It’s mind blowing to me!

I did a podcast… the same one I was doing with Paul when he cited my red eye… and in the middle of it he said to me, he said, he said, “Pastor, how do you account for the pandemic of anxiety and doubt and depression that’s going on today? — even amongst Christians.” And my answer to him was something along these lines. I said, “I believe with all of the options of audio, and podcasting, and YouTube, I think all of that has given way to a new illiteracy in the church. You’re not reading. You’re not actually reading.” And thus, you’re opened all kinds of crazy stuff, lunatic type of stuff! So, ‘Well I read. I get the little Bible verse that comes up.’  And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” Read the word of God! This is how God protects us! I think we’re living in a self-inflicted illiteracy, a self-inflicted famine for truth. And some of you are in it. You’re in that famine! And it’s all on you! All you’re doing right now in your life, if that’s you, is you are affirming what the prophet Amos said. Amos said in Amos 8 verse 11, he said:

Amos 8:11, ‘There’s coming a time when I will send a famine on the land, says the Lord. Not a famine for food or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of God.’

Have you ever heard that? Have you ever read that? We’re living in that famine right now in a day when truth is more accessible than it has ever been. We choose not to spend time in the truth.

I have a relative… I love this guy! He would… we were talking on the phone not long ago. He even admits that he’s given over to conspiracies, and then he told me the conspiracy. I wanted to pull my hair out as I was listening to him! It was nuts! So I just… I thought of a very profound question to ask him. I said, “Are you reading your Bible?” Well, you know what the answer was, don’t you? And that’s the reason why he is caving, capitulating… like some of you… to every kind of conspiracy, mind-blowing, non-truth, conspiracy that’s out there. This is why David wrote in Psalm 119, he said:

Amos 8:11, ‘There’s coming a time when I will send a famine on the land, says the Lord. Not a famine for food or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of God.’

… You want to discern… what is false? Then you’ve gotta know what’s true! You’ve gotta have your nose in the book of God. You’ve gotta spend time reading, studying, loving, devouring, memorizing the Word of God! It’ll be like an to you against the lies that are out there. So if you want to adorn the doctrine of God, then do it with your doctrine.

And thirdly, with your transformed life. Again, as I said at the beginning, Paul inextricably weaves truth and practice throughout this entire business. This is no exception. He says this right out of the shoot:

Titus 1:1b, “… for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness…”

Truth… godliness.  One leads to another. The word knowledge here, by the way, is not the normal word, “gino?sko?,” or “gnosis,” which just means “knowledge.” It has a prefix in front of it. It’s the word “epic,” or “epi,” which means “down.” It means the idea is it’s a knowledge that’s complete, that’s full, that’s robust, that will help you, that’s real. Paul is concerned not only with what the Gospel is. He is concerned with what the Gospel does in your life and in mine. That’s why if anyone’s in Christ, they’re a new creation, old things… they’re gone. All things become new. [2 Corinthians 5:17] Look over in chapter two in verse 11, just to show you this weaving again:

Titus 2:11-12

11“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

12 training us to renounce (some of your Bible say, “deny”) ungodliness and worldly passions…”

That word renounce… That word in the Greek, literally… in fact, if you have an NIV, it gives a literal translation of the word. It literally means “say no.” Grace doesn’t just inform you. It actually activates you to say ‘no’ to ungodliness.

About a month after becoming a Christian, I was a chain smoker. I smoked two packs a day. If I had two cigarettes left in my second pack, I’d had a pretty good day. And so, I’d become a Christian. I knew I needed to quit, so I tried to quit. I got it down to one cigarette a day. You wanna know if you’re a slave to something? Try to get it down to one thing a day. Then you know you’re a slave, ’cause you’re just waitin’ for the next day! And so the next day comes, and I needed some gas in our Volkswagen, and I told my wife, I’m going to put some gas in the car… which was true, but my real design was to drive up to my unsaved, lost father-in-law’s house two miles up the road and bum a cigarette from him. I’d get my one cigarette that way. And as I’m driving… literally, this is where… I had never read this verse before. I was a brand new Christian! I’m driving. I’ve got my hands on the wheel. It’s almost like Satan’s going, ‘Just come… just come… come get it… come get it!’ And I kid you not. I was halfway up the hill. I literally verbalized, I said, “NO!” — and I turned the car! And as soon as… I kid you not, as God is my witness… as soon as I turned that car, I… I was free! I was completely free! I never touched another cigarette, because what I learned was that the grace of God that brings salvation doesn’t just bring salvation. It teaches us to say ‘NO’ to the things that will not adorn the doctrine of God. And that’s why Paul uses the adjective ‘true’ when he says:

[Titus 1:4]’To [Titus,] my true child…’

See, that’s a rare word. It’s only used a very small, handful of times in New Testament. It literally means “genuine.” So the idea is that Timothy, we don’t know a whole… I mean, Titus… we don’t know a ton about Titus, We do know this. He was the real deal. And that’s why Paul could trust him. If it was true, I mean… it reminds me of one of my former mentors now with the Lord. We were driving in the car one day, and I was pleading with him that there’s a guy in our church who had zero character, but he’d been around the church all this life. I doubled down, I asked the guy if he was saved. He said he’d prayed. ‘I prayed, I prayed to receive Jesus. I did, I did.’ And I was telling this mentor of mine, ‘He says he’s prayed to trust Jesus.’ And this mentor of mine said, “Well, you tell them it didn’t take!” (Laughter)

I’m wondering if it didn’t take with some of you. You pray a prayer… nothing happened. No change. Paul is concerned, as he writes Timothy [Titus] that there’s a whole generation of people who are praying prayers and nothing has happened in your life, because it didn’t come from your heart. You really didn’t repent. It wasn’t real. and the grace of God is not operative in your life. Today, if you’re hearing the voice of God through the manifestation of preaching, repent and believe the Gospel, and be changed, and you can start adorning the doctrine of God.

Lastly, we adorn the doctrine of God with our leadership… verses six through nine.

Titus 1:6-9

6 “If anyone (Now, he’s talking about those appointing elders. Now he’s talking about elders here) ‘if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,

8 He’s got to be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in (what?) sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘How are you gonna get through that list?’ Listen to this.  Paul is calling Titus to adorn the churches on Crete with godly leaders, godly elders. These churches were growing, and thus they needed to grow their leadership. The word elders in verse five is plural, which leads some to argue that every church should have more than one pastor. I think more likely all it means is that as churches grow, they need more pastors. It’s pretty simple. And the qualifications listed here, I know… I mean, scripture and experience have taught us that we should govern the men we choose to become elders by that list we just read through. And two other things that you should look for in every person you consider as an elder, either the lead elder or just an elder in general. One is spiritual maturity. First Timothy 3:6 says:

1 Timothy 3:6 “… not a novice.’

Have you ever read that? So there… off the table.

I’ve told you about the time I was up in Minnesota, I’d been a Christian for six months! I taught Sunday School, I preached my guts out and they said, ‘We want you to be our pastor!’ I mean, my zeal won ’em over! It would have been the dumbest decision they could have ever made! I wasn’t ready for that. So spiritual maturity and time. Again, back to the pastoral epistle, which is what Titus has been, but in first Timothy five, Paul says:

1 Timothy 5:22, ‘Don’t lay hands on anyone suddenly.’

Have you ever read that? Why? — because it takes time to look at the full complement of the man. You’ve gotta be able to see him, see him in operation, not just preaching, one on one. How does he roll? What is his life like? — And that’s what the rest of this is gonna talk about. That said… I mean, sometimes a running commentary… looking at the whole forest rather than staring at some particular tree… is the best way to get a sense of a passage. And I’m arguing that as I just roll through this here. The pastor is supposed to be above reproach. That means he doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet. And you’re not going to know that unless you’re around him for a while. Right? So I mean…

Just the other day, somebody sent me a video of one of our littles in this church. I’m thinking this little guy was three or four years old. And, sent the video to Pastor Paul and myself… who sent it to me. He had a little guitar and he was playing because he’s… ‘I’m Pastor Paul.’ He was playing Pastor Paul. When he got done, he put it down and then he was Pastor Pat. And Paul and I went back and forth again, just saying, “That’s sobering. They’re looking at us.” You know, when a celebrity athlete has a moral failure, they usually lose advertisers… not always. Pastors lose a lot more than that. When we fail, we threaten, we risk shipwrecking the faith of God’s people! That’s how serious this job is. On the other hand, you can’t hide bad character anymore than I can hide my red eye. It’s usually staring (no pun intended) right at you. Look… Back to the list:

[Titus 1:6] ‘… dedicated to one woman…’ (The Greek says, “One woman kind of man.” The pastor needs to love his wife… dedicated to his wife) believing children…’

Many of you know my story. I had a couple of kids that were just… they threatened to take me out of the ministry! I literally wrote a letter of resignation that was rejected, and I was grateful that the Deacons rejected it, but my boys were borderline scandalous. I’m thankful they walked me through this and, you know… and God’s… they’re both preachers today. Only God. Amen?

[Titus 1:7-8]

7 ‘… Not proud, not quick tempered, not drunk, not angry, not greedy.

8 They’re hospitable. They love doing good. They’re self-controlled. (I take that to mean that the liberties that they have, they control those liberties) They’re upright, (that word upright is where we get our word “righteous.” They’re righteous. The idea in that word is that the elder that you have has to convey a kind of life that says, ‘I can trust him. I can follow him) ‘He’s holy.‘

Somebody asked me where I have this or went,”Man, they’re holy!‘ I mean, do you consider yourself holy?” And I said, (wait for it) “Yes, because holiness is just adjusting yourself to God. That’s all it is.”

There’s an otherliness to holiness. You’re otherly. You’re not just like everybody else. That’s the idea here. And so there’s an otherly aspect to the man. He’s disciplined. Did you see that?

Just the other day, my wife and I, we were watching a game show, and all the contestants were being interviewed. And one of them was a morbidly obese man. And he said, “What do you do?” He said, “I’m a pastor.” And I could tell the host was not impressed, because he was looking at an undisciplined man.

So he’s disciplined, and he’s Word-centered. You see that? Let’s look at it together. Verse 9:

Titus 1:9, “He must hold firm to the trustworthy Word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction,” (watch this) “in sound doctrine…” (And most of us would like to put a period right there, because that’s the kind of pastor you want. He’s good, he’s preaching the Word, he says nice things to you, he strokes your back once in a while, ‘good old guy,’ you. But the rest of it says) “and to rebuke…”

You see the rest of that verse? — Because if a pastor is a shepherd, a shepherd doesn’t just guide the sheep. He’s staving off the wolves! Right? You want a man who preaches the truth and lets the chips fall where they may! And if he has to point a bony finger into the face of a man or a woman not walking with God, so be it! That’s what you have to have. That’s what this guy has to be. That’s how you adorn the doctrine of God in the church.

And Paul has already passed the baton to Titus. He’s not even on the island of Crete anymore, and Titus, though he’s the real deal, would eventually pass the baton to someone else. I did a cursory, look. There aren’t that many good churches on the island of Crete anymore. There’s some. There are some.

It’s no shock that our leadership here at Saylorville has been actively involved in succession… my succession, and I’m the one who instigated it! Now don’t get too impressed with me. I instigated it seven years ago! Let’s just say I’m not in a hurry! Okay?

But I think Paul…  I think Paul had his own succession in mind when he wrote to Titus. It would just be a couple of years later he would write to Timothy.

[2 Timothy 4:7-8]

7 ‘Timothy, I have fought the good fight. (Past tense) ‘I have finished the race.’ (Past tense) ‘I have kept the faith.

8 Now there’s ‘What’s laid up for me?’ — but they’re a crown of righteousness, because I love his appearing!’ I can’t wait to untie the moor from the dock. That’s just a couple of years away.

I was a wrestler. (Greatest sport of all time!) This man’s face and name is not a household name. His name is Gary Kurdelmeier. Gary Kurdelmeier was the wrestling coach for the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, and he was a great coach! He was only there for four years, and they won two national championships! He was a rising phoenix in the realm of wrestling. Gary Kurdelmeier… not a household name… At 40 years of age… he quit! I was 40 when I came to Saylorville! When he was 40 years of age, he handed the reins over to just a 28-year-old, wet behind the ears guy, to coach the team. He had 15 to 20 years of wrestling left in his life… of coaching rather. What a waste! And he just handed it over to this guy by the name of Dan Gabel, a true household name who would go on to rip off 15 national titles!

Now, I don’t know who God’s going to bring in to take my place someday, but it’s going to happen. And if we’re going to adorn the doctrine of God, you better be doing it in your own life, and be looking for that adornment in the man who comes in here and takes over. What does it look like in your own life? What are others saying about you, right now?

Yesterday I was at the gym, (you know, the place I got the red eye?) and I was running around the track, and this older gentleman, (that’s a relative term for me. He was older than me!) Really nice guy… a Hispanic guy. He kept passing me.  He was jogging, and I was not jogging. [LAUGHTER] And so we talked, because I knew he knew… I knew he knew my wife, because he’d go to the classes with me. And he asked about Marilyn, because he hadn’t seen her for a while. And I told him my wife used to work there part-time. She doesn’t work there anymore, but she’ll see him from time to time. And he had real broken English. And he looked at me and he said, “You good. You do good.” — meaning, I guess I was getting around the oval just fine. He said, “And your wife, you tell her “hi.” She is a very lovely woman.” And he walked away. What was he saying? I’ll tell you what he was saying. He was saying that my wife was adorning the doctrine of God. Are you? Let’s pray.

Our Father in heaven, thank You. The time is late. I’ve gone long… Oh well. Thank You for Your word, for the book of Titus, the weaving of truth with practice, and help us to get it so that we can adorn Your truth with our very lives. I do pray for those who have never trusted Jesus. You’re in this room. You know who you are. It’s not… the grace of God is not operable in your life, and today… I don’t care who you are… you’ve faked it long enough. Repent of your sin. Ask God to save you. He will! Believe that Jesus died and rose again for you… and for the rest of us who do know You, Lord, may we seek… strive even… to adorn your doctrine for Your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand.