The Needed Example Of Older Saints - part 2

All right. Please turn in your Bibles to Titus 2. Hopefully you're already there. And we'll also, if you want to make a marking of it right now,! We'll be in 1 Corinthians 13 a little bit as well.

Titus chapter 2. Titus 3.

Titus 3.

With our lives is that dash of time. And so what does it look like for you? What does it look like for us? And so taking that into consideration. And during that short period of time, we looked into Ecclesiastes 12 and made you really feel good about life.

And the fact that we have to deal with the really unpleasant reality of aging. And that in Ecclesiastes 12, the metaphor that's used by Solomon of the household that represents the body.

And you've got the arms and the hands that begin to shake and the legs that begin to bend and stoop with less strength. And that you have fewer teeth to chew with. And eyesight is becoming dimmer.

It's harder to hear things well. And you're having a harder time sleeping. You can ask me to stop if I'm describing you too much.

And we develop a fear of falling due to instability on our feet. And that's laid out for you in Ecclesiastes 12 verses 1 through 8.

And it's a sad reality, but it is reality nonetheless. And people, as they get older, deal with those problems and trials, some more than others.

Since our life is short, it almost seems unfair that we must meet with such trials. Since we're really not long on this earth, given the ocean of eternity.

But the fact is that all these trials will directly influence the character that we possess as we get older. It will directly influence the type of personality and individual you are.

How do we handle the trials that we're given in life? What is our goal through it all? And these really are questions that we must answer. These are questions we must come face to face with.

How are we going to handle the trials that we have to experience in life? I mean, trials that we are well acquainted with and well aware of. Trials, as I mentioned even today, of a family who has a little girl that there's an uncertainty of her longevity in life.

If she will be alive for much longer, depending on whether or not her body is rejecting the transplanted lungs or not. A family who is, three weeks ago, had no clue that somebody had leukemia and inoperable cancer and would be soon passing out of this world and into glory.

A family who, you know, just two years ago were healthy and doing well. And then after an unfortunate incident of a brain bleed. And now one of them is in decline.

These are trials that we don't necessarily anticipate and we certainly don't desire. But they are trials that we have to face in one form or fashion, nonetheless, in our lives.

So what is your goal in going through it? Because you're going to have to go through it. Not maybe exactly in the same way, but the similar content.

How are you handling the trials that you're given in life? And what's your goal through it all? The ultimate goal that we have and should have is to produce fruit to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 31, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And 2 Corinthians 5 verse 9 says whether we're at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.

No matter where we are. And 2 Corinthians 5 is probably the most connected application to this. Because it's talking about being home with the Lord or away from the Lord in our earthly bodies.

Wherever we're at, we are seeking to please Him in all we do. At least that is what we ought to be striving for. And so having the aim to glorify God in all we do, including growing older, you can continue to glorify God.

And when we aim to do that, it strengthens the bonds in a healthy church. It strengthens the bonds between the believers in God, of course.

As you're seeking to please Him and honor Him, you're going to be seeking that out in Scripture. What does that look like in my life? And so naturally your relationship to God is going to get stronger as you're striving in that direction.

And it's also going to strengthen the bonds between believers. As you're seeking to honor God and give God the glory, well part of that, what are the two great commandments, right?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. So if you're seeking to give glory to God and honor God and bear fruit for His namesake, then you're going to be loving God, and you're going to be loving your neighbor as yourself.

And that can only continue to strengthen bonds in a church. And I've seen that. I've seen that happen personally. Not far from here.

Actually, not far from here at all. For me, the last few years has been, they say the first three years of a pastor's tenure in a church can be some of the most trying times, and it also can be the least trying time, depending on the way it swings.

It hasn't been particularly a trial for me at all. But what has been such a blessing has been seeing the bonds in our body of believers grow stronger.

Now, that's not to say that everything's the same, or everyone is here, has always been here, and all that. I mean, we've had people leave, and it's sad to see them go, and to have that connection then lost in this regard.

But that doesn't take away from the bonds that exist here, that are already here, and that are growing stronger. And I know they're growing stronger based on how I hear about people encouraging other people and being an encouragement to them and bringing them along.

I think the most vocal about it has been Ed. Ed makes no bones out of it. So-and-so called me, or so-and-so sent me a text. Hey, come on, I'll see you at church. Or he gets a ride to church if he doesn't have a way.

You know, so that is those bonds of strengthening in the name of Christ to his glory. And so, as you have it as your aim to glorify God through your trials, and we know, based on Ecclesiastes 12, and just practical living, that as you get older, those trials become more evident, more apparent, and more abundant, it's, you know, and you're seeking to glorify God through it all, you're going to get those stronger bonds with God, you're going to get those stronger bonds with believers.

And so old age should bring greater love for God. It should bring greater love for God's people. It should bring greater love for the sacred things of God.

It should bring a greater love to want to be in the Word of God, and to desire to know God through His Word, and to pray, and to have fellowship.

At the age of 83, after having traveled some 250,000 miles on horseback, and having preached more than 40,000 sermons, and produced some 200 books and pamphlets, John Wesley regretted, 83 years old, he regretted that he was unable to read and write for more than 15 hours a day without his eyes becoming too tired to work.

And after his 86th birthday, he admitted to an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5.30 in the morning. This is...

I don't even know what to say. I mean, what are your daily goals and ambitions for the Lord? I mean, that's what gets me thinking. Like, what's my goal and ambition in the name of God?

That was his ambition and his goal, to live his life to the glory of God in all he could do. And so, I mean, I would never venture to write for 15 hours in a day.

Though I've had some close calls when I was a student, and long papers were put off to the last minute. And I know I'm not the only one who understands that in this room. But that's amazing.

But he realized the potential, he realized what he had before, and as he was getting older, that that was getting less and less. His desire wasn't less, his capability was less.

And that's something else to keep in mind. You know, in Ecclesiastes 12.1, right, it says to, you know, to enjoy, oh, it just escaped my brain.

But basically, you know, it's to rejoice in your creator while you're young. Because as you get older, that opportunity is going to decrease and go away.

James Dobson has said, if we fully comprehended the brevity of life, our greatest desire would be to please God and to serve one another. Unfortunately, this is not the reality in churches.

As I mentioned briefly last week, I'm briefly mentioning again today. Rather, what we see in churches are generational gaps that are forged in the old and young alike.

We feel like that, oh, we can't get along with other people. Young people and old people, they can't get along and have a relationship and get to know each other and grow together in Christ.

And so we have these generational gaps, and there's differences of interest. And you've got older people today who would love to, like, they know about smartphones, but they've never held one in their hand.

And you've got younger generation who, like, have had it since the crib. It's like they were born with it. And so, you know, you've got those differences and interests and such, but does that mean that there can't actually be a relationship between younger and old?

You also have discontented feelings toward one another related to preferences in ministry. And now I thought about it, like, what are some options I could choose from?

Well, I didn't want to make the list, so I just stuck with the age-old music wars from about 30 years ago. I praise God, that's not a war in this church.

But I have been around churches where that was an issue. They would not think of having a guitar even up on the stage or in the building, let alone leading worship in that regard.

That doesn't seem to be an issue. Maybe one time it was. I wasn't here, and you don't need to remind me or tell me about it. But that comes up. And it's not just in music.

It's how do we go about ministry? How do we carry out ministry? What is it supposed to look like? So you get people who have discontented feelings, and you've got bitterness between believers in the church.

And Paul writes about that in Philippians 4, when he says, I urge you, you odia and syntyche to live in harmony for the sake of the gospel, as workers for the gospel.

But we have that, discontented feelings towards one another. And there's like this, you know, this tension, this fighting, and this infighting, and that makes the bonds in the church weaker.

And so it's not that, you know, that can't exist. It just shouldn't exist. And if it does exist, it should be addressed. We should seek to remove that tension and remove those bitter feelings and seek to establish good communication and love for one another.

Larger church gatherings are prone to cliques, introducing perceived divisions in the church. You like that word click? I don't know why that's stuck in my brain, but that's what it is, right?

You get the cliquishness. You don't see it as much in a congregation of 60-some people. But if you're in a congregation or a church where there's 600 people or 1,000 people, it definitely shows up.

I remember when I went to, I moved to Tennessee after my time at Word of Life because that's where my parents were and that's where my bed was. I started looking for a church that I wanted to attend and the one that I grew up, you know, when I was in high school was similar to this one here, maybe even a little smaller.

And so you go to Tennessee, I mean, I went to, I was like, oh, First Baptist, whatever, like name the city, right? Alcoa, Meribu, whatever. I think I went to First Baptist Meribu and I think there were like 2,000 people there.

I didn't know, like I sat, went to the Sunday school class and they seemed to be a nice close-knit group and I was invited to the Christmas parties and I could not get to know anybody and it was very clickish.

Even in those meetings, it was like, you know, these people got together and like hung out and did their thing and it was just, I found a smaller church. But even in small churches, you get that. And so the larger the church is, the more prone you are to seeing that and that introduces perceived divisions in the church.

Now, even in a small church like this, I'll be honest with you because I know it's there and you know it's there and so I'm not going to beat around the bush. A lot of the people who attend this church are my family.

They're the pastor's family so you better not get on my bad side. But no, like, so like, there are a lot that are family and so that can introduce a perceived division.

Like, oh, we're not in the inner circle. By the way, we don't draw circles in our family. It's the people outside that are putting the lines. We are so, we love every one of you and we're so happy.

We're actually, you're all our family at this point, right? But, no, these are where these divisions can start to creep in. That's not there.

It shouldn't be. And we need to talk about it if it is. But overall, churches are prone to the norms and mores of society. They're prone to the norms and mores of society influencing its social construct rather than the Bible.

We think generational gaps are normal. We think that older and younger people can't get along and have common interests and can't grow together. But when you get into the scripture, that's not the case. In Titus chapter 2, let's read verses 2 through 10.

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teachings show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.

Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

Paul's prescribing in these verses a series of requirements that are necessary for members of a healthy church to have an evangelistic impact, for members of a healthy church to grow into maturity, into Christ-likeness.

And so, and he breaks down and I shared this last week, if you were to look at verses 5, 8, and 10, you get three reasons why the older men and the older women are to be instructors of and trainers of the younger men and the younger women.

In verse 5, it's so that the word of God may not be reviled. In verse 8, it's so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.

And in verse 10, it's so that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. So it's so that the word of God is not reviled, so that no one can say anything evil about us that would be true.

And it's so that we would adorn the doctrine of God. We would actually live out and flesh out the doctrine of God. And so the next couple weeks, I want to take time and look at these, particularly these verses here in 2 and 3, as it relates with the older men and the older women.

We'll start with the men this week and then next week because it's Communion Sunday and I have a shorter message time. We'll talk about the women. So older men, we're told in verse 2, are to be sober-minded.

The Greek word carries the root idea of being free from intoxication. You may have a translation that says temperate in it. But it's not just speaking of alcoholic means of intoxication, but anything that brings fuzziness of mind.

And I'm not talking about age. Like, again, when you get older, you kind of get a fuzzy memory sometimes. That's not what we're talking about here. In a number of languages, I got this from the Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament based on semantic domains if you want to know.

In a number of languages, that Greek word there may be idiomatically rendered as one who holds himself in or one who always has a halter on himself.

So a sober-minded man is one who avoids extravagance and overindulgence. We can even kind of put in there a little bit the self-control aspect, but that comes up later.

So because of his life experience, he's able to discern more clearly which things are of the greatest importance and value. So he uses his time and his money and his energy more carefully and selectively than when he was younger and less mature.

His priorities are in the right order and he's satisfied with fewer and simpler things. He's found that what he thought he wanted that would give him satisfaction never did.

And have you ever run into that? That you thought something would bring satisfaction or a lasting happiness and joy and it doesn't? I mean, for different people it may be different things.

For some people it's shopping. And, you know, you go and you buy something. Buy that pink flamingo because you think that's going to be so, you know, bring such joy and happiness as you walk to and from your house.

And then later on you have some buyer's remorse. And you realize, oh, that wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be. So all, and we all have that to some degree in one way or another.

Some people, that is books. They love buying books but maybe they never read them. Or they like to think they are going to read them and they never do. I haven't decided which category I fall in there.

I buy a lot of books and I have a lot of unread books on my shelf. I want to read them but I don't have time to. And then there's more books. Well, anyway, Solomon talks about that in Ecclesiastes as well concerning the writing of books that there is no end.

But the godly older man has found out that, hey, these things don't satisfy like I thought they would. And all the possessions and all the accumulation and all the reputation and all the achievement and all the accolades have been somehow set aside on the path of life and discarded because they had no real value.

I have found like when I was younger I was, tended to be a materialistic person. Like I needed, like, oh, I needed that new toy. I was, I loved playing video games.

I was a gamer of sorts and I always wanted the new game that was coming out. And I was, oh man, I gotta have that. And it was, and I'd get it and I'd play it for, I'm embarrassed to tell you how long.

Um, but I, I, I'd play it for a long time and then it'd be like, well, I don't want to play that game anymore. And it gets put on the shelf and then the next one comes out, right? And it's always something more and something more and something more.

The reality is that that doesn't satisfy. You know, and, and some people, it's, it is achievements or accolades. It's recognition. It's success. It's climbing the corporate ladder.

Whatever it is, you know, people see that and they want it and they want more and they want more and they want more and they never reach a point of true contentment when that is what they're truly desiring. And so the, the older man, the godly man who, who has this, this, is sober minded has what Paul has in Philippians 3.8 where Paul says, indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. I was thinking of achievements and accolades as I was reading that.

I had that at one time too. My desire was at some, at some point in my life to be referred to as Dr. Burrata. Not because I was going to be a medical doctor, though I did consider the medical field at one time, but because I will have studied and achieved such a level in the area that I wanted to study that people would have to refer to me as Dr. Burrata.

Maybe I'd get two doctorates. And I was really excited about that. Now, not as excited. Would like to finish my master's someday, maybe, but it's not of importance anymore.

Before I was ready to just move and go and get it and do it, but now I'm like, eh, it's not as important. It's nice to know, and I learn a lot from reading anyway.

There's a lot on YouTube. That's not good for you to watch and learn from Judah, right? Okay. But, but anyway, so advice that one seasoned pastor, so he was a conference speaker one time, he mentioned that he, you know, got popular enough that younger pastors or younger, you know, students who were studying for pastoral ministry would come and hear him on a Sunday.

And, you know, they would always come up after the service and say, oh, great job. No, if there's one thing you could say, one piece of advice you could give, you know, what would it be? And, and he made the mention at this conference, he says, he doesn't remember what it was in the early days, but now he, it's the same across the board every time.

He said, it's stay close and clean. Stay close and clean. He, he simplified it. You can't get much simpler than that. Like, before it, maybe it was like, no, don't study too much, don't take too much time for sermon prep or, you know, don't neglect your family or whatever.

But he just realized, he said, no, it's stay close to the Lord and stay clean in your life. That is of utmost importance in ministry and just in life. And it's absolutely crucial for older men to dispense their wisdom to the next generation.

And to do so means they must be sober-minded. They must have realized and come to the point in their life that there are things that are just not important anymore. It's not a big deal and you push it aside.

Maybe a big deal when you're younger but when you're older it's not there. And so, and how does a younger person get that understanding by being around older people who've been there and done that? And it's better to learn from older people who've been there and done that than to make the mistakes yourself.

And I'll reference again 1 Kings 12 with Rehoboam. Rehoboam didn't listen to the older, wiser individuals who've been there and done that.

He decided to listen to his friends and it led to a split kingdom which is a pretty big deal. You know, it's kind of, well, anyway. So it's a pretty big deal.

So we need to learn from, you know, younger people need to learn from older people. And I'm at that point in life where I'm both learning and I'm also being a dispenser of the wisdom.

And so it's kind of a neat, neat thing. Sometimes I just have to learn from somebody and just immediately dispense it down. Like I'm being asked, I don't know, let me find out. What do you think? Okay. So, it's great.

Second, dignified. Dignified means they're serious. They're worthy of respect. It doesn't mean that they're boring, gloomy people. Just means they're not frivolous or flippant.

They've lived long enough to see that life is a serious thing. They're over the feeling of immortality and invincibility because they've seen too much and felt too much to be trivial. And that's true, right?

I think Steve, you even mentioned that this morning. When you're younger, there's just kind of this, you know, immortality sense or this invincibility like you can do anything and be all things everywhere and all that stuff.

Like when you're younger, you don't realize that you can fail. You don't realize that you have a limit on what you're able to do. You don't realize that your life can be gone in a second.

I thank God that I had experience in my graduating class. We had two people actually die out of our, in our class. One was when I was in eighth grade before I actually got to the school.

There was a young man who was a twin of another student in the class who died of a heart condition on the soccer field. And the second one died of a car accident our junior year of high school.

And I actually was at fire, I was training, it was a training night and I was riding with my captain from the training and we drove by that accident.

And like, so, you know, we saw the accident, we saw like the, the people being worked on in the field and such. And the next day at school I found out it was one of our class, one of my classmates. And so, you know, I thank God that, you know, I was able to learn the reality of the brevity of life through those moments and that I didn't make any foolish decisions myself that ended my life early.

But, you know, an older man, an older godly man is dignified. They comprehend better their own mortality, the imperfections of this present world, the inability of material things to give lasting deep satisfaction.

They've lived through the hopeful euphoria that says we're going to fix everything. I think we've had those experiences ourselves. I know I've never had the I'm going to fix everything, but I thought I was going to solve all the theological issues of the world in one day.

Now I realize they're just too abundant to even deal with and some aren't even worth my time or yours. Or yours. And so, you know, these older individuals, they've gone through all that and they're on the other side.

They know with an honesty that life is the way it is because man is the way he is. And he's not going to change by himself. No matter how much you do and how much work you put in, you know, you're never going to completely fix everything.

You've got to realize that because man is a sinner and because man is depraved in his mind and his intentions and is selfish to the core that, you know, you can work on fixing things but realize that somebody is just going to come along and mess it up too.

So he's dignified, he's sober-minded, he's dignified, he's self-controlled. They should have the discernment, discretion, and judgment that comes from walking with God for many years.

They control their physical passions and they reject worldly standards and resist worldly attractions. Romans 12, 3, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Think with sober judgment. Think rightly about matters. Our society has been so conditioned by instant gratification that people are constantly making rash and foolish decisions.

That's it. In our world, in our society, in my generation growing up, we could have anything we wanted at our fingertips, especially as computers went from being ridiculously slow, dial-up internet service.

Those of you who don't know what that is, you're blessed. Or maybe not. Maybe you're cursed. I don't know. But as we've gotten more speed, more access to everything, we have this instant gratification.

A question comes up in conversation. We've got to know the answer right then and there as we pull out our phone and look it up, what the answer is. Sometimes that's good and fun, and sometimes it's just annoying. But listen to this.

Nearly 700,000 people last year in 2023 were scammed. Like those scams you get, whether it's phone calls or emails or text messages or what have you.

Now I'm not talking about people who received scam messages. They were actually scammed to the tune of nearly $10 billion in losses. Think about that. Thinking rightly about a situation could potentially prevent that.

I'm not saying always, but there are a lot of things like scams that come across, like phone calls. What in the world? How stupid do these people think I am? They didn't even spell it right or whatever.

It's just amazing. But like 700,000 people scammed to a tune of $10 billion. Americans have, this was fun to look up.

So Americans have $1.1 trillion in credit card debt, $1.6 trillion in automobile debt, and $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.

That's a lot of money. And I get, oh, well, that's a lot of people. Yeah, we've got, what, 350 million people in America now? Not all of them are buying cars and going to school and have credit cards, so let's reduce that down.

It's just, it's amazing. But really what that shows me is that there's not a true self-control or willingness to sit back and say, hey, is that really a good idea to do that?

Now, should I purchase this? Do I really need this? Now, and I by no means ever put myself forward as an example for anything because I've messed up in 10 other places before, you know, this one great thing.

But, I mean, one thing that never happened, like I didn't go out and buy a car on a credit card. That's better than dumb. You know, but God has provided for our family over the last year, 15 months or however long we've been without a second vehicle.

Now, where we've been able to use somebody's, you know, somebody's extra vehicle or, you know, now God gave us a car. No, but the easy thing for me to do would have been to go out and buy one right away.

Oh, is it within the price range? Let's get it and then get it home with a lemon, right? So how much different would these figures be if people exercised self-control? And where are the men who exemplify this in the church?

Sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith. The word sound refers to that which is healthy, proper, whole, and it is what it ought to be. The older men are to have strong, well, whole attitudes in these areas.

To be sound in faith means that the older men have learned that God can indeed be trusted in every way. They do not doubt the truth or sufficiency of his word. They do not waver in their hope that his sovereign plan will be fulfilled.

They know it will happen. Matthew Henry says of being sound in faith that they're sincere and steadfast, constantly adhering to the truth of the gospel, not fond of novelties, nor ready to run into corrupt opinions or parties, nor to be taken with fables or traditions.

They're wise, they're discerning, they trust the word and they trust God and his sovereign plan. Sound in faith, sound in love.

They're to be sound in love toward God, toward God's people and toward those who do not yet know God. They're examples of Christ's love. Remember what Jesus said to his disciples in John 13 verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another as Christ has loved us, so we are to love others.

So they've learned to love when their love is not deserved and to continue loving when it is rejected and even when they suffer because of their loving nature, they continue to love.

They lovingly forgive and they lovingly serve. 1 Corinthians 13 verses 4 through 7 says, love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things and believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends or love never fails I think is another translation of that.

It's amazing. As I was reading that, it is not irritable or resentful. Love is not a curmudgeon.

So the older man, godly man, believes and practices love and he believes and practices the truth of 1 John 4 verse 7. love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

One of the tragedies of old age is when people become unloving and bitter and selfish. This older man, older godly man in the church, the one that the one that church desperately needs, is healthy in his love.

He doesn't love out of emotion. He loves out of principle. He loves because it's right. And finally, in Titus 2 there, not just sound in love, but sound in steadfastness.

Older men are to exhibit the ability to endure hardship, to accept disappointment and failure, to be satisfied despite thwarted personal desires and plans.

It may not go the way you want it to go, but be satisfied with it and trusting God. Philippians 4 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

In case you're wondering, that verse is in its proper context right now. Being content in life. Being content with how God is working and what God is doing in your life.

It's not about what you think you can do that you really can't do, but if you think you do it in the name of Christ, you can do it. Let's put this back in context. I can do all things. I can be in every circumstance and situation.

I can endure it through him who strengthens me. So this older man has learned to graciously live with such difficulties as physical weakness, loneliness, and being misunderstood and unappreciated.

He does not lose heart when things do not turn out the way they had hoped and expected and has the perfect confidence that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

As I mentioned last week, every church is better because of the older saints that are part of it. Whether you're an older man or woman, you bring to the table what younger people need, wisdom and experience.

So in our endeavor to be a New Testament Great Commission church, we must seek out the relationships that will bring glory to God by helping the body of Christ grow in maturity.

And that involves the older saints. So men, heed what has been spoken and shared today. And know your role in the church and ministry and how you contribute to it because the next generation needs it.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to explore what you have shared with us through the Apostle Paul here in Titus.

Lord, I just pray that we would take seriously, not for granted, the expectations of the older saints in the church.

And Lord, we look forward to the weeks to come as we explore the older ladies next week and the young men and young women and their response. Because Lord, church is not a generational thing, Lord.

We are the body of Christ, young and old. We want to be for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.