Transcript

I thought it would be a wonderful time to look at what God says is to be the goal, to be the aspiration, to be the desire of every woman who knows and loves Jesus Christ. The Titus 2 Woman, the Titus 2 Wife, and the Titus 2 Mother are what we're going to look at in the Scriptures this morning.

These verses that we're going to read in just a moment, the first eight, are a message from God to every single woman. God has set down a pattern that every woman should strive towards. Being a Titus 2 woman of godliness should be the goal and the desire of every mother for her daughters, of every husband for his wife, of every child for their mother, of every believer who is a woman for their own life.

But Titus 2 is the pattern that God gave. If you want to be vital in Christ's Church, if you want to be useful in God's kingdom, if you want to be rewarded at Christ's Bema Seat Judgment, these verses are the marching orders for our lives. There is no clearer pattern for a godly woman in all of God's Word than these twelve characteristic qualities recorded for us in these verses. This is what God desires, this is what God explains, and this is what God expects from obedient, yielded, godly women.

If you're looking for a passage to study in depth that can change your life, here's one. If you are looking for a special passage to memorize, to meditate upon, that can transform your thinking and totally give you a life's direction, this is it. This is a wonderful template, pattern, model, and goal for each of us. If you want to go through life confident that you're doing exactly what God wants you to do every day, here it is.

Most people struggle with purpose in life. The older they get, they wonder if they have done anything significant. They wonder if they've really used their life as they see it going by so fast. That's truly a consideration that many people have. If you're wondering if your days are spent wisely, Titus 2 is a lesson from God that you don't have to go away to some faraway place to accomplish. You don't have to get financial support to start up this new endeavor. You don't even have to have any spectacular gifting. All you have to do is love and follow the Lord, and you can start down the Titus 2 track.

As we open to the first eight verses, and as I read them, I hope that you will listen to them as they are, the very voice of God. When we read the Bible aloud, we hear God's voice speaking to us. Hear the very voice of God, speaking not to a select few, but in these eight verses, to every man, woman, and child here today. God is asking each of us to live in such a way that our lives can become a pattern of His grace. That can be used by Him to mentor, to encourage, to coach, to tutor, to teach, to train, and to guide someone else's life toward Him. There's nothing greater in life than to be useful for God. Titus 2 tells us how to be useful for God.

Titus 2, but as for you. Now, Titus was a pastor on the little island of Crete that's still there today, and so that's who Paul's writing to, but as for you, Titus, speak these things which are proper for sound doctrine. Verse 2 starts with the older men. That the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith and love and patience. Verse 3, he switches gears to the older, Titus 2 women of the faith. The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given too much wine, teachers of good things. Verse 4 begins with the last quality, that they admonish the young women. So, there are the older women's character qualities, those four plus, admonishing, training, teaching, and patterning in the lives of younger women. Then the younger women are addressed. The young women, this is what they're to be taught: to love their husbands. It's amazing, there's no qualifier on that, it just plain says women need to be trained to love their husbands.

Secondly, unusually, to love their children. Verse 5, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands. Then the purpose clause, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. In other words, if they don't love their husbands, don't love their children, if they're not chaste, discreet, sober, and all these things, it blasphemes God's Word. See, these are not optional things. They're what God wants. They're His pattern. They're His goal. They're His desire. So that His Word is not blasphemed.

Verse 6, likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned. That, another purpose clause; the one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. He says this kind of life silences the critics and makes us a powerful witness. That's what God's pattern is for each of us.

Let's bow in prayer. Father, thank You that we can be reading Your word forever settled in Heaven, and yet recorded for us to hold and to learn and to hear Your voice. Thank You for this recording of Your voice, of Your mind, of Your desires, of Your very words. And I pray that by Your Spirit, You will speak to every one of our hearts. That we will say, what does that mean for a response from me to You, oh God? What do You want me to do? And I pray we wouldn't merely hear Your word, but do it. That the Titus 2 model for women that we see, for men that we'll see, as You terry, and if You're willing in the future, I pray it will become the longing of our hearts, the direction of our lives. May we be useful men and women, boys and girls, for you, O Lord. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

I want you to think about who is getting this letter. Remember this primarily was written to a group of people in the 1st century living on a little island out in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea called Crete, part of the Roman Empire. Secondarily, and wonderfully, it's also written to us. It's written to Christ's Church. It wasn't written solely for them, but it was written directly to them. So, the way we must interpret it is to look at it as it was directed to them 2,000 years ago and then ask the Spirit of God to apply it and to give us the strength by His grace to live this way that God desires.

But think about Christ's Church of the 1st century. Christ's Church was born into a sin-warped, sin-darkened world. Even Christmas comes and is celebrated annually, just a few days away from the longest night of darkness. The winter's longest point of darkness, the 22nd of December. Remember the 21st of June is the summer solstice, and the winter, whatever that one is called, is just three days before Christmas, and it's the day that light is least on this planet. And it's interesting, on the night of the longest darkness, the light of the world came. It's a yearly testimony of Jesus Christ's coming into a sin-darkened, sin-warped world. So that's how the Gospel came. When it came, the Gospel came to sin-scarred lives and confused families.

Basically, people are emotionally the same. Whatever culture they live in, whatever era of this planet's history, we are basically all very similar throughout history and throughout this planet. So, sin warps and scars and confuses. That's where the Gospel came in the 1st century. Men and women who were gloriously saved did not automatically become great wives and mothers or husbands and fathers.

Have you ever thought about that? These Roman culture, sin-warped, sin-scarred, confused people got saved, and they didn't instantly become super dads and super moms and super men and women, husbands and wives. They didn't. When they were saved, God graciously gave them everything they needed to become godly wives and mothers, godly husbands and fathers. But they needed something else. That's why Titus was instructed by Paul, through the Holy Spirit, for this passage.

What do you do when people come to faith in Christ, when they have all the power of God bodily within them, in the person of Jesus Christ, through the power of His Spirit, and they have God's grace poured out in their lives? How do they live out this incredible life? They need something. Actually, two things. Men and women, these new believers, needed coaching, training, modeling, and encouragement in a relationship that would show them how to be all that Christ designed for them to be.

Now, there were two ways they would get this. As an entire church body, they would gather, and these new converts were trained in, first of all, this worship service setting, like we have this morning with the proclamation of God's Word. That entire church body would have the Scriptures faithfully taught, they would be fed healthy doctrine for spiritual growth. That group teaching of the gathered Church was vitally performed by Titus and by many others, gifted, called pastor teachers who were like Timothy and Titus and the pastors of all the local churches that were serving the Lord. That group teaching of the gathered church would be the proclamation and the sustenance they needed.

But Paul is instructing something else. He's not talking to the pastors here. He's not talking to Titus. He's telling Titus to turn over a second prong of the biblical ministry to a group of people in the church. You have to understand that Titus 2 is talking not about what Titus was supposed to do. Titus the elder, Titus the pastor, Titus the shepherd of the flock. It was what Titus was to encourage a secondary ministry of a special group of people in the church. That special group of people was these Titus 2 men, Titus 2 women, Titus 2 learning younger women, and Titus 2 learning younger men. That's the picture of the New Testament Church.

Side by side with the didactic teaching of God's Word that fed Christ's flock weekly was another equally vital ministry that's captured in this chapter. Christ's Church used what you could call coaches in godly living. That's what he's calling for: mentors, teachers, nurturers who would take the Word of God that had been taught and apply it to the everyday life of these individuals.

Christ's Church grew strong in those early years because everyone in His church knew what they were each supposed to be doing. Each man knew how a godly man was to live his life. That's verse 1, that's verse 2, that's vverses6,7, and 8. That's what every man knew. They had been taught, they heard this, they got the letter, they got the memo, they heard the word. That's how men were supposed to behave. Each woman knew how a godly woman was to live her daily life. That's verse 3, verse 4, verse 5 of the second chapter. Christ's Church grew into a potent force for changing the world in the quiet, nurturing session that Titus 2 men and women performed in practical discipleship.

Just as important as the teaching and preaching of the doctrines of God's word was the modeling and nurturing of individual saints through practical, hands-on lessons in godly living. Do you ever wonder how those people who were saved changed so radically? They had the same Bible we do. They had the same truth that we have. They had the same Spirit of God dwelling within them. They had the same gathering that has happened for 2,000 years of the corporate gathering of the body of Christ.

But do you know what they had that often is not fully functional these days? Because we live such fast lives. We live such compressed lives. Everybody's running out of time, and they just wish they could do this and that, but they never get time. They had close-knit, nurturing relationships of an older believer in a one-on-one or a small group setting with a younger believer. That is one of the few differences I can see between the 1st century and the 21st century. We just don't seem to have time for those types of things universally across the Church these days.

The building blocks of Christ's Church are Spirit-filled men and women. Lives are given daily as obedient servants to God. Since all of us are either men or women, it's imperative to know what God desires of men and what God desires of women. To be Spirit-filled, useful servants. God wants men and women who will mentor, who will nurture, and who will coach godly living for His Church. These individuals believe that God has called them to touch one life at a time for His glory.

Now, we live in an age where we like to do mass marketing. We like to do big events. Do you know what the Early Church was? It was nurturing of individuals. It was the highest desire of those men and women of God to pour their lives into another individual. When they got done pouring their life into that individual, they would, as a man, pour their life into another man. You see that model with Paul. Paul was doing the group sessions. But he always had a Timothy nearby. He always had a Titus nearby. He always had an Epaphroditus. He always had an Onesimus that he was working with. A Philemon he was writing to, whom he knew. He always had these individuals that he was pouring his life into, and he knew what was going on in their lives.

When God gets to pick a curriculum for His Church, what does He choose to be taught? Look down. Let me just point it out to you. God picked 12 godly character qualities for women and picked 12 vital character qualities for men. He lays them down. In verses 1 and 2, there are six non-negotiables for godly older men in the faith to model by their lives. You can pick them out. They're clear as day. They're written down. They've been there for 2,000 years. In verses 3 and 4, God lays down five non-negotiables in the lives of great women as role models. Then, at the end of verse 4 and into verse 5, God describes seven non-negotiables that every younger woman needs to learn that have already been mastered by an older woman in the faith.

Now, remember this idea is that the older don't train in something that they haven't lived and they don't understand and they don't know anything about. The older men were to have already lived out what the younger men are to be taught, those six characteristics. The older women were supposedly mentoring in something that they had experienced and seen the Lord forge in their lives themselves. So there's a wonderful commonality here where the older can say, yeah, I've struggled through that. I've already gone through that. I understand. They open the Word, and open their lives, and open their homes, and open their time to pour into these younger. Finally, in Titus 2:6-8, God finally sets down six non-negotiable character qualities that will be embraced by every young man who wishes to be godly and useful for Christ's Church.

Our focus will be on the character God seeks to see developing in every woman. But I want to start with 12 godly characteristics of highly useful women. In other words, what is it that God can use in your life? If you've got to choose what you're going to do with your time, and you're looking at how fast it's traveling by, I would focus on the characteristics that God is useful for eternity. If you want to invest your life wisely, invest in cultivating the characteristics that are highly useful to God. He will use you as a nurturing woman. Women who are highly useful to God have these characteristics. The long-term goal of their lives is geared toward being useful to God.

See, there have to be little choices. You can't do everything. I heard someone recently say, you're supposed to be a jack of all trades, a master of none. No, the original was a jack of all trades, but a master of one. See, we can do many things in life, but we're to master one. Those who want to be highly useful to God want to master that which is vital to Him.

Parents who want their children to be useful to the Lord begin early on to point their children toward the high calling and great joy of being a Titus 2 woman and a Titus 2 man. The whole goal of Titus 2 as a woman is to train younger women in biblical, simple to measure, Spirit-empowered, love-based living. This is not heavy doctrine stuff. This is not talking in big Greek and Latin words. This is practical, everyday living. Someday, we need to realize that no matter how much up here we have of all this vast knowledge, if it doesn't come down to everyday life, then it's not true Titus 2 daily love-based living. That's what he said, empowered by the Spirit.

We'll examine the character God desires, the character God calls for, and the character God uses in women of any age. It's a lifestyle all women of any age should long for and aspire towards. Basically, I could summarize a Titus 2 woman as a godly wife who loves her husband in such a profound way that he appears deeply satisfied with her love. If you want to know how to spot a Titus 2 woman, look for children who are so obviously loved by their mother, and look for a husband who walks around so grateful and so apparently loved by his wife, because those are the two highest teaching methods of a godly Titus 2 woman. She is to teach other women how to love their husbands.

Secondly, teach them how to love their children. Those are the first two that God put on the list. So those are very evident. She is also a godly mother whose children know they are deeply loved. Look for a woman who radiates love and joy, and you have a godly Titus 2 woman.

This morning, think of the most loving, gracious, self-sacrificing mother you could ever imagine. Think of one that knows you, loves you, helps you, understands you, encourages you, comforts you in every failure, and rejoices in every good choice you make. You have just imagined the Titus 2 godly older woman of the church. That's what she's like in the context of this relationship. That's how they did it back then. That's how they turned them from paganism to the godly Christian home they'd never grown up in, they never knew. It was through the nurture of that older woman, of the younger, of that older man, of the younger.

Godly womanhood is, as laid down in God's Word, caught more than it's taught. Paul did not call for Titus as the pastor to train all the women in these qualities that God wanted them to cultivate. Rather, Titus taught the truth, and God called upon the godly older women of Christ's Church. They were the ones to be deployed, all of them, in this ministry. He singles out the women of faith, those who had already learned to love their husbands, those who had already learned how to love their children, those who learn to be reverent, who learn to be godly, and modest, and wise. He charged them with seeking out and meeting with every younger woman in the church. This wasn't a signup; get the flyer. This was an active living process where the older women knew there was no higher calling than to find another woman to pour their life into. The younger women knew that there was no greater realm to learn from than to find that radiant, godly example and to learn from her.

Paul seems to describe far more than a Bible study for those Early Church believers. He seems to be calling for practical hands-on training sessions. He seems to be pointing toward one-on-one nurturing in homes by an older woman in the faith as being the norm. Older women aspired to have the joy of entering the home and life of another woman and of pouring her love, her life, and most of all, her godly experience into that younger woman's life and marriage and family.

What was the result of all this? Let me just briefly describe, and just skip through the words of this passage. The fantastic results of a Titus 2 long-term, behind-the-scenes, encouraging, discipling, and coaching ministry. In other words, what are the results? What would happen if this really went on in lives, in women, in the Church? Number one, it says at the end of verse 4, that Titus 2 women would encourage a grateful army of husbands who feel deeply loved by their wives. Did you know there are a lot of husbands who don't feel loved by their wives? They know that they love them. They know they committed to it. They know they're godly women. They just don't feel loved by their wives. What was the first thing the Holy Spirit chose to have taught the young married women believers? Look at verse 4. The older women, verse 4, that's the purpose clause, that they're supposed to live this life, in verse 3, that they admonish the young women, we're just into the first line of verse 4.

Remember, the Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God. The Holy Spirit orchestrated and engineered every word of the Bible. We firmly hold to the verbal plenary, the full inspiration of God's Word. So it's not an accident, it's not like we sit around and shuffle and try and figure out what order it's in. The Holy Spirit ordered the Bible. What's the first priority that young married women believers need deeply to be trained in? It's right there - love their husbands. The Holy Spirit believed that the priority to make the New Testament Church the vibrant, Holy Spirit-led assembly it became, the Holy Spirit felt that the way you do that is to start with the believing women who are young and newly married. You need to get in those homes, and godly, reverent, holy women are to train them how to love their husbands.

I was already reading my list to Bonnie this morning and last night. I'm going to share the actual ideas that you can get from the Scripture, but let me talk about what'll happen. Can you imagine what a deep and lasting impact upon this local body of Christ's Church to have men coming home to a wife who's earnestly being taught how to love her own husband? Can you imagine how that would just ripple through the assembly? Such a love is a powerful testimony in a culture where women are being pressed into being worldly, self-seeking, independent, do their own thing women. If nothing else, every family would be enriched if every younger woman were taught in a practical, simple, and personal way how to love their, as Paul puts it, their own husband. How to focus their life, their love, and their desire on that one God gave them.

Secondly, Titus 2 women, it's the second part of verse 4. Titus 2 women train younger women in one of the hardest and yet most rewarding investments in life. It trains them how to have children who feel deeply loved by their mothers. Did you know an older mother who's raised them has the wisdom from their mistakes and failures to actually train a younger mother? The Holy Spirit emphasizes very clearly that the key to raising children is loving them. Titus 2 women train and teach and model, and mentor moms into the deepening of ways to love their children that can be felt.

Now, studies of our culture tell us that one of the most common complaints in the 21st-century child is that they don't feel loved. Now, maybe they are hard to love, and maybe they don't stay around long enough to feel it, but it doesn't matter. That is a common ailment. Most mothers love their children, but many children do not feel that love. Titus 2 women are coaches who tutor and mentor young moms in ways to show love.

Thirdly, and now we're dropping down into verse 5, Titus 2 women train younger women in the holiness and purity that pleases God, and unleashes the power of the Holy Spirit. There is much suppression of the Spirit of God by areas in our lives that grieve and quench Him. And a godly older woman teaches a younger woman how to be this discreet, sensible, and wise woman in her choices in life. What a rich resource for new marriages and families to have a young woman walk through these days side by side with a godly, Spirit-filled woman who will regularly, personally, individually mother and coach and cheer her on in skillful living as a wife, as a mother, and as a woman of God on a day to day basis. That's the idea.

Titus 2 women were not found primarily in classrooms. They were in the kitchen with a younger woman. They were in the dining room. They were in the nursery. They were at the grocery store. A Titus 2 woman was a hands-on tutor, nurturing younger women in the laboratory of life. Walking through life together. Praying with them. Sharing. Learning. Loving. It's like having someone who really knows you and loves you and walks through life with you.

Titus 2 women in the ministry also tutor them, and the next word after verse 5, to be discreet, the next word in the New King James is chaste. That's an unusual word, isn't it? Chaste. That's holiness and purity that pleases God and unleashes the power of the Spirit. The training a Titus 2 older woman gives is just part of that seven-piece package that's immensely practical and not theoretical. This piece is modesty, purity, and chaste behavior, which must be learned and modeled, and practiced. God directed the power of a godly Spirit-filled woman of biblical maturity to sit discussing with a younger woman what pleases God in their dress, in their behavior, in their conduct.

Christ's Church needed younger women who learned biblical modesty through a godly older woman lovingly applying the Word of God, so she could interact and say, but why? How? Wow. Where does it say that? We all operate by saying, oh, stop. What did you mean by that? How does that happen? When? Where? That's what goes on in our minds the whole time. But you can't do that in a group setting. You often can't do it in a very large group setting if it's very close to your life. So this chastity, this chaste holiness and purity that pleases God is best taught woman to woman in a very small setting where the Word is open and the lives are open and it's explained.

Another one, and then we'll get into the individual facets of the older woman's life, but just another example. A Titus 2 older woman teaches younger women the centrality in God's plan of a young woman's priority being her home. Now, this is probably the most controversial. If you look down the list in verse 5, to be discreet, chaste. Now, here's the most contested word in this whole verse: homemakers.

In our culture, that is just crazy, even among Christians. I see so much backpedaling away from this in literature. Homemaking, though, is a woman's priority. Her home, God says, is her priority. If you just look, four of these seven things younger women are to teach all surround the home. She's supposed to through her home, love her husband through her home, love her children through her home, be one who is a homemaker. They just surround the home. Homemaking is a learned art. So many women never have the hands-on training that is needed. Life is so full, our culture has moved away from homemaking, and few young women ever get mentored in the godly, biblical art of homemaking. It's like something that we look at in Little House on the Prairie. It's just wow, that must have been nice back then. But it's an art that can be learned and can be cultivated, and can be taught.

God placed the first two priorities in the Titus 2 list as being loving husbands and loving children. Younger women are called to see the priority of their homes, and the only way they can learn that priority is by a long-term relationship with a godly woman who has mastered the art.

Let's look at those godly women who have mastered the art. So, back up to verse 3, and let's begin a step-by-step look at all 12 characteristics of the Titus 2 woman. Paul lists them in these verses we've already read. But we'll look at them one by one. Older women who have mastered all 12 of these areas are to train younger women in the last 7.

The first one is, it says in verse 3, the older women likewise that they be reverent in their behavior. Reverent, that's the first one. Paul first draws a word from the Roman world. In fact, the word he uses is an unusual word. It comes right out of the culture that they lived in. I was telling Bonnie, I said, it just rang like a bell because it was something everyone knew, everyone saw their whole life growing up in the Greco-Roman world. Paul says, I want you to be reverent. Now, to us, reverent, I don't know, what do you think of with reverent? You might think of a dark suit and white shirt, or whatever, or Puritan, quiet, not talking. But that's not the idea.

It captured the entire bearing of the godly role model women in Christ's Church. Paul used a word that meant to operate as a priest in a temple. It's actually the pagan background of this word. In the ancient world, temples and gods were always outside of town. I never knew that until our last trip. I never thought about that. We were standing outside of Ephesus, came out of the Great Theater, and then when we came out of the Great Theater in Ephesus, there was this gigantic, I'd never seen it before, this gigantic road, marble road going off into a bank of trees. I asked the guide, I said, what's that? He said, oh, that's the Sacred Way. I said, what's the Sacred Way? He says one mile from here, that way, is the great temple of Diana of the Ephesians. I looked back, I said, it's outside of town. He said, every temple is outside of town. The Greeks and Romans never put their temples in town. They always put them way outside of town.

They had this big road you had to go on. Before you could start on the road, you had to take a little bath. You had to put on a sacred garment. You walked down the road to the temple. When you got to the temple, you were greeted by similarly clad priests and priestesses who were representatives of the gods. They acted like representatives of the gods. That's the word Paul uses. Because the Greek word translated reverent, only used here in the Bible, conveys the idea of being priest-like. Now, isn't it interesting, the very first description of what a godly, older woman in the faith is to be reverent, priest-like in her behavior. Wow. That is a message in itself.

It's a word for acting as a representative of a god. That's the word Paul uses to describe the devout and godly character of a Titus 2 woman. Older women are to live like holy priests, serving in the presence of God as they live life. Their sacred, personal devotion to the Lord slowly comes to influence every part of their life. Notice what it says, that they be reverent in behavior. In other words, this is just spread throughout their whole life. This priest-like behavior. It just permeates all of their life.

This is the Greek word semnos. It means august, venerable, honorable, or, in the context of a local church, a woman who lives in such a godly way that she can be emulated and venerated for her character. Her life is an example to the women of the flock of all ages. In fact, this same basic word is used all through the New Testament. In 1 Timothy 3:11, it says, likewise, their women must be reverent. Paul, right in the middle of discussing what elders and deacons look like, right in the middle of that, he says, likewise, their gynaikas must be semnos, their women must be reverent. This priest-like representative of God is a behavior of life.

It's amazing how often this is used. It says in New King James, reverent, New American says dignified, New International says worthy of respect. This is talking about a lifestyle that is beautifully desired to be emulated. It's someone who is revered, someone who is venerated in a godly sense, so you say, I want to follow the Lord like they do. Doesn't that sound like 1 Corinthians 11:1? Be you followers of Christ, Paul said, like I am. See, he was a model. He said, I want a Church filled with women models of Christ. No higher aspiration. No higher usefulness than that.

Paul calls all of us who will be useful in Christ's Church to the same high calling. The same word in basic form is used for deacons, 1 Timothy 3:8. The same word is used for older men, Titus 2:2. In fact, Paul extends this priest-like attitude to the life and goal of every believer. It says in 1 Timothy 2:2, we must all lead a tranquil and quiet life in godliness, and this word, semnos, dignity, this priest-like behavior, always behaving like we're a priest of the king of the universe.

This word also shows up in the guide for what we're to think about in Philippians 4:8. Do you remember? Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are, and there it is, noble is the way it's translated there, but it means this reverent behavior. Think about what leads to reverent priest-like behavior. Meditate on these things. Paul was reminding the Early Church believers that what they thought about and allowed to stay on their minds is what they would become.

So the consecrated godly woman of Titus 2 would be heeding what the Old Testament repeatedly says. Do you remember Proverbs 23:7? For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As a person, what we think about and meditate on, we become. That's what this is. For a person to think about noble things, about reverent, godly things, directs their whole life toward becoming that. So a Titus 2 woman knows whatever she reads, whatever she listens to, whatever she watches, whatever she allows to stay on her mind, that's what she'll become.

So a godly woman, in the context of Titus 2, or any believer, in the wider context of the Bible, who allows anything whether it's television, or movies, or magazines, or any other media to stimulate their flesh by feeding their minds with lying, and profanity, and illegitimate sexual things, and gossip, and occultic images, and so much more, will slowly have their minds depart from what the Bible says is noble, and dignified, and worthy of respect, and holiness. Soon their actions will follow their mind, and they will not be acting reverent in their behavior. Titus 2, verse 3. This godly, older woman has made a conscious choice to appropriate the power of the Spirit of God, by the grace of God, to make a choice to be reverent, priest-like, in her behavior.

What does all that mean? A godly, older woman has simply taken Romans 12:1-2 seriously. Turn there, and we're going to end there. Romans 12, look at this. You know this. You memorized it. But are you living it? A godly, older woman in the faith has taken, in a simple way, Romans 12:1-2 seriously. They have presented themselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice. They say, my goals, my desires, my plans, my aspirations, my career, my drive, are not going my way. I consciously sacrifice all of that to You, Lord. I am going to be a living sacrifice. And they begin to live life the way God asks them to live.

What is that? As a walking temple of God. Remember, for you're not your own, you're bought with a price. You and I are the temples of the living God. God has mobile temples. The Greeks and Romans had big edifices outside of town, a mile and you walked down a sacred way. When you were there, you were on sacred ground. We live in sacred ground. We are living, walking temples of the God of the universe. When we collect together, we're all living stones built up into a temple of worship to Him. But when we depart from this place, we all retain our priest and priestess of God living within us as His holy temple, and we are to walk through life that way. You know what the Titus 2 man and woman, the godly older men and women are? They realize that and they act that way because they presented themselves to God and they have begun to live a life the way God asked them to live as walking temples of God, as consecrated priests of God, as living sacrifices, as bondservants of the Lord.

Romans 12, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, this is only to believers, only to the born again. By the mercies of God, that's the other eleven chapters of Romans that are preceded, showing His merciful plan of gracious salvation. That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. That's the plan. You say, Lord, is me watching that, doing that, thinking that, going there, doing whatever, is that holy? Is that acceptable to You? It doesn't matter if it's acceptable to my peers and my culture. Is it acceptable to You? Because I'm supposed to live holy and acceptable to God, which is my spiritual offering of worship. Literally, the last line, which is your reasonable service, means my spiritual service of worship. That's what I want my life to be. That's what this Titus 2 woman is. She has this reverent behavior.

How does this happen? Verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world. The Titus 2 godly, useful servant says, I will not be conformed to this world. That's an imperative, by the way. The first imperative is in the second verse. After this presentation, it's living out a life saying, I will not be conformed to this world. That's the negative. The positive is, I will be transformed by the renewing of my mind. That happens by my Spirit-indwelt mind being fed the Word of God.

So, what is a Titus 2 woman? First of all, she is reverent in her behavior. She is a woman who is reverent, like she's a priest of the Most High God. You know what the Bible says? That is seen by those around her. She doesn't have to wear a big badge that says, Titus 2 woman, follow me. People notice that she acts like she belongs to the Lord. She has a reverent dignity, a holiness, yet an accessibleness that she can pour her life and her walk and her passion into the life of a younger woman. That's what God wants every woman to long to be. It's available by His grace to all of us today.

Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father in Heaven, I pray that on this day that we would honor the women of Your word that are to be extolled. And that there would be a stirring in the hearts of every woman to look back at Titus chapter 2, to look at verses 3 and 4 and 5, to say, are those qualities developing in my life? Do I really seek those? Are they the priority? Have I really chosen to say no to conformity to this world? Have I really spent enough time to be transformed by Your word? Do I really walk through life behaving reverently like a priest of God? And if in any way we aren't, I pray that we would make choices today to repent of any ungodliness that clouds Your image in our lives. That we would ask you to open Your word to us, and cause us to choose to walk down this wonderful Titus 2 path. So in everything, we honor You, O Lord. We want to be those useful servants. In the precious name of Jesus, we pray. All God's people said, Amen.