RUCU Cell Leader's Training Weekend 2006 - Titus 2, Dave Bish
Titus 2(Bish has some very nice diagrams to illustrate some of the points of this talk but I'm not clever enough to get them on the computer!)
We need to have a clear idea of what we're doing and how to do it!
Chapter 2 starts and ends in the same way - you gotta teach!
What does the task of teaching the Bible really entail? Nehemiah 8. Hunger for the word. Hunger for hours spent learning about God's word.
Am I hungry? If not, why not? Is cell hungry?
Get cell group equipped for mission. Demand excellence in teaching. Not performance, but truth. Things that aren't true destroy people. (Titus 1)
Everybody is to be taught. If not taught well, they'll have bad theology.
Start with older people in the congregation, an example to the younger. Older women teach younger women, older model the gospel to the younger.
We need to be proactive in seeking people who can model the gospel to us, can mentor us.
Verse 5 - these are the marks younger women are told to have. Standards for men too. Looking for ongoing, lifelong discipleship as a Christian.
Remain teachable ALWAYS. Take every opportunity to be taught. Find people who have faced issues you're facing. People who will not just affirm you but challenge you. We don't like it, but need it. It's priceless to be able to take critique, to let people point us to the cross. The cross is where we're most heavily critiqued. Don't crticise to destroy, but lovingly correct each other. But don't just tell people the gospel, live it.
Do we have the appropriate seriousness when we teach God's word? But also the joy and excitement?
Verses 5, 8, 19 - common pattern to these verses. Why are these things so important to God's people?
See the connection -
GOSPEL CONVICTION TEACHES GOSPEL CHARACTER, which ADORNS GOSPEL CONVICTION
The way we live speaks really loudly about the things we believe.
If people aren't taught to be these things then they won't be them - they'll be the opposite - but will say they're Christians. And then the Word of God gets reviled. People won't want to be Christians.
Titus is told to teach people so that their lives will adorn God's word. Does my life make people think that Christian belief looks good? Regardless of whether they believe in it, do people look at my life and think 'yeah'?
Again, the bar is raised for us. But hope is not lost! God wants to be glorified. He wouldn't stake that on the way we live if we couldn't do it in His strength. Hallelujah! Verse 11 - "For" - these standards apply because of what we see in verses 11-14.
Repetition in verses 11 and 13. There are two key fixed points in history that shape the way we live. The cross (grace), and heaven (glory). These shape the standards of our life here in the present. For what purpose? Verse 12.
Grace saves us, and then trains us. Trains/teaches us as opposed to what? Where else do I go for teaching? Grace teaches us to say 'NO!' to the pasions/pleasures that we might otherwise follow.
So two fixed points, one in the past and one in the future, change the present.
Is it barking mad to build our faith around the cross? People hate/deny the gospel because it doesn't allow us to contribute anything to our salvation. They want to stand proud before God. But the cross humbles us. Everything in the past is gone. We're not a sea of individual people. We belong to each other. God didn't save us just to be in a relationship with Him individually, but to be a family of believers. A body of people who are zealous for doing good works. Not using rules/lawkeeping to be godly, but to live a new life. It's an appealing idea to be zealous for good works, but how do we get that? Don't always feel like it! Sin tells us we need to try harder. Grace tells us we're perfect and trains us to say 'no' to ungodliness. God looks at us and says 'Mine. I own you.' (WOW!!!!AMAAAAZIN'!)
Get cell group equipped for mission. Demand excellence in teaching. Not performance, but truth. Things that aren't true destroy people. (Titus 1)
Everybody is to be taught. If not taught well, they'll have bad theology.
Start with older people in the congregation, an example to the younger. Older women teach younger women, older model the gospel to the younger.
We need to be proactive in seeking people who can model the gospel to us, can mentor us.
Verse 5 - these are the marks younger women are told to have. Standards for men too. Looking for ongoing, lifelong discipleship as a Christian.
Remain teachable ALWAYS. Take every opportunity to be taught. Find people who have faced issues you're facing. People who will not just affirm you but challenge you. We don't like it, but need it. It's priceless to be able to take critique, to let people point us to the cross. The cross is where we're most heavily critiqued. Don't crticise to destroy, but lovingly correct each other. But don't just tell people the gospel, live it.
Do we have the appropriate seriousness when we teach God's word? But also the joy and excitement?
Verses 5, 8, 19 - common pattern to these verses. Why are these things so important to God's people?
See the connection -
GOSPEL CONVICTION TEACHES GOSPEL CHARACTER, which ADORNS GOSPEL CONVICTION
The way we live speaks really loudly about the things we believe.
If people aren't taught to be these things then they won't be them - they'll be the opposite - but will say they're Christians. And then the Word of God gets reviled. People won't want to be Christians.
Titus is told to teach people so that their lives will adorn God's word. Does my life make people think that Christian belief looks good? Regardless of whether they believe in it, do people look at my life and think 'yeah'?
Again, the bar is raised for us. But hope is not lost! God wants to be glorified. He wouldn't stake that on the way we live if we couldn't do it in His strength. Hallelujah! Verse 11 - "For" - these standards apply because of what we see in verses 11-14.
Repetition in verses 11 and 13. There are two key fixed points in history that shape the way we live. The cross (grace), and heaven (glory). These shape the standards of our life here in the present. For what purpose? Verse 12.
Grace saves us, and then trains us. Trains/teaches us as opposed to what? Where else do I go for teaching? Grace teaches us to say 'NO!' to the pasions/pleasures that we might otherwise follow.
So two fixed points, one in the past and one in the future, change the present.
Is it barking mad to build our faith around the cross? People hate/deny the gospel because it doesn't allow us to contribute anything to our salvation. They want to stand proud before God. But the cross humbles us. Everything in the past is gone. We're not a sea of individual people. We belong to each other. God didn't save us just to be in a relationship with Him individually, but to be a family of believers. A body of people who are zealous for doing good works. Not using rules/lawkeeping to be godly, but to live a new life. It's an appealing idea to be zealous for good works, but how do we get that? Don't always feel like it! Sin tells us we need to try harder. Grace tells us we're perfect and trains us to say 'no' to ungodliness. God looks at us and says 'Mine. I own you.' (WOW!!!!AMAAAAZIN'!)
That should begin to teach us how we should now live.
The cross gives us grace to save us and to take us home. We need to listen to grace. Grace doesn't condemn us, it convicts us of our sin but doesn't condemn. It can be uncomfortable to hear, but it transforms us.
The chief way that will come into our lives is to dwell on God's word. Week by week, day by day, we need to let God blow our mind. The grace of God is all we need. We don't move on from it, we only move deeper into our need for it.
DOES MY LIFE ADORN THE GOSPEL?
AM I LISTENING TO GRACE?
The cross gives us grace to save us and to take us home. We need to listen to grace. Grace doesn't condemn us, it convicts us of our sin but doesn't condemn. It can be uncomfortable to hear, but it transforms us.
The chief way that will come into our lives is to dwell on God's word. Week by week, day by day, we need to let God blow our mind. The grace of God is all we need. We don't move on from it, we only move deeper into our need for it.
DOES MY LIFE ADORN THE GOSPEL?
AM I LISTENING TO GRACE?
posted by Welshie @ 7:00 pm
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