Doing Good - The High Cost of Not Doing Good, Part 2

Do you know why it's so important that Christians live like Christians? I mean, I say that a lot at Living on the Edge. Do you know where I got it and why it's so important?

Well, that's today. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians.

Hi, I'm Dave Drury. In just a minute, we'll continue our series, Doing Good, What Happens When Christians Live Like Christians. In this program, Chip continues his look at the specific and helpful instructions the Apostle Paul passed along to his protégé Titus and how that wisdom applies to us today. But before we begin, if you've been encouraged by this series so far, would you take a minute after this message and share it with a friend? Now, you can do that through the Chip Ingram app or by sending them the free MP3s you'll find at livingontheedge.org. As we get started, Chip picks up where he left off last time in Titus chapter 2 by explaining how people practice doing good in different ways depending on their stage of life.

Now, let's dive in. I've had people, I'm sure it's unintentional, but they've asked my wife, so what do you do? And she said, well, I'm actually a homemaker and she's worked at different times.

But she goes, you know, during this season when our kids were small and then on up through, you know, when we sent them out, I just felt like that was my greatest priority. And I've just had people look at her like, oh, so you don't really have a real job, so you must not really be an important person. And instead, we've had an entire world for the last 20 years bombard women and tell them that you don't really matter if you don't work outside the home. In fact, beyond working outside the home, I mean really, really make it happen. And all that liberation has done is most women I know have two jobs.

They have all the job where they work and I know all the theory about all the things are going to be shared at home. It really doesn't work that way, does it? Who feels the moral weight of nurturing? Who feels the moral weight of what happens with kids?

Who feels the moral weight? And I just, I think women have really been pulled apart. Does it mean you can't work?

I don't think so. But I think what it does mean is your priorities in a season of life, you can only work and get needed income after you know you're taking care of what no one else can do. Because on the one hand, it's really interesting. People will, you know, at least come to me and say, well, you must be, you know, really amazed. God's done a few things through you.

And I think, well, you know, has, but they're kind of one-offs. And I look at my wife and I look at, you know, the time that she spent investing in our kids. And I think of our greatest joys and what's happening.

Our kids are impacting far more people than I ever will in all my life. Your investment is a long haul investment, very painful with and very difficult with not a lot of reward during the journey. But the payoff is deeper and greater. And so you have to have a long fuse. You've got to really believe. You know what?

This may feel kind of hard, but you know, you're really talking maybe what, 15 years, 10, 12 that are super, super critical. And then you launch the kind of people that change the world. And so now he says, older men, this is what a Christian looks like who lives like a Christian, older women and younger women. And then notice he says, here's why. So that God's word will not be discredited. That's the idea. People won't speak evil of it. In other words, God's word, wow, this must be true.

Why? Because of how older men and older women and young women actually live. Summary here is that our character and relationships at home, are you ready for this?

Should cause our children to want to be like us and cause our neighbors and our friends to admire our marriages and our parenting, not question our faith. I remember talking to a guy that was very quote famous in a very technical field and a friend of a friend conversation. And it was relayed to me as we were talking about this. He had a young man who was like 18, 19, 20 years old. And in the interviewing process he says, well, what do you really want to be when you grow up? He goes, I want to be like my dad. Oh, you want to be a famous engineer like your dad? He goes, oh no, I want to be a Christian like my dad.

My dad's the greatest person I've ever met. You know what, that's what I want. But that means whether I'm an older man or an older woman or a young woman, can you see, what would it take for our kids to grow up in environments where they would say, I want to be like you. I don't want to do what you did or I might have different gifts and different passions, but the kind of person, the kind of Christian, the kind of friend, the kind of mom, the kind of dad, I want to be like you. See, that's how the revolution of Jesus Christ turned the world upside down.

He now goes to the young men in the home and he says you younger men, he says you need to be self-controlled. And interestingly, the word changes as you go through, like I did in my Bible, the word teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, train, encourage, exhort, teach, teach. What you realize is people don't know how to do this. If people already know something, you don't have to teach them. Go through your Bible if you would or if you have a little Kindle and highlight, teach, teach. And what you'll see is all of chapter 2, except for the second half which we already covered, it's all about people have to learn. Your kids have to learn.

Your friends have to learn. The people you disciple, that we have to teach them. And the culture in Crete, just like the culture today, is the opposite of Christians living like Christians.

In fact, the tragedy is in most churches, the culture is different than Christians living like Christians. And so our work's cut out for us. And so now it gets a little stronger. He says I want you to exhort, I want you to admonish the young men. And it's interesting, there's only one thing you're supposed to tell them, be self-controlled.

You make your own conclusions on that one. The word self-control has showed up in every single one of the relationships and it simply means to master oneself, to be disciplined. And I would say to young men here, to be disciplined or controlled over your passions for success, for wealth, for sex, for power, and for fame. And when young men are disciplined and aligned by the power of God, with their time, their priorities with their family, their own spiritual development, in prayer, in God's word, and they don't allow their work or their hobbies to dominate their lives, they step up and they change the world.

They have energy, they have focus, they have dreams. Those are the kind of Christians that change the world. And then he says to Timothy, you know, well how do you do that? How are you going to teach him to be self-controlled? And he says to Titus, excuse me, very similar comments to the other young pastor Timothy, he says you set them an example.

You tell them be self-controlled and then tell them just look at me guys. Well how would you like to be that pastor? You just, you model self-control, you model godliness, you model loving relationships, you model faith, you model how to treat women, you model how to treat your kids. And then demonstrated, he says, in the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. The word integrity has to do with motives. Notice the false teachers, they did it for money.

He says Titus, you teach in a way where people know you're not into their wallet, you're not into fame, you're not into impressing people, you're just living it out. And then also it needs to be serious. Don't come half-hearted and give half-baked messages.

You need to give messages that are well researched and you need to do it with dignity and you need to do it with the sobriety that you do it before the living God. And notice why. I mean the reason here. So that the critics may have no basis for their accusations about the church.

Literally it's about us. When young men are self-controlled and don't lust on the job and don't log on to porn sites and don't tell dirty jokes and love their wives and take time and don't get addicted to work and are good dads, not perfect dads, good dads. Tell you what, that's a rare breed. You meet a man like that, pretty soon all that criticism about Christians and the church and intolerant and hypocritical and yang yang yang yang yang yang.

I'll tell you what, you start exporting more and more of those kind of people, man you don't have it all together but you don't live like I live. You live a lot like Jesus and when you don't, you don't fake it. You own it. You're real.

You're authentic. That's like spiritual honey drawing the bees who long for life and they're all around us where we work in our neighborhoods. He shifts it now and says Christians need to live like Christians for the credibility of God's word and for the credibility of his church but not just in our homes and our relationships but he shifts gears now and talks about work.

Now obviously it's a different world so we have to make a little transition here. He's gonna talk to slaves because the great majority of the Christians were slaves and by the way, what he's gonna say to slaves make your calling and your job really easy compared to what he's gonna ask them to do. Because you need to understand the view of slavery and slavery in the world. Aristotle said this, Aristotle said you can't misuse or abuse a slave because it's a piece of property not unlike a washbasin or a woman. How'd you like to live in a world where you are a piece of property and therefore if you are beaten, you know what, it's like you know my car if I want to wreck it I can wreck my car. If I want to beat it up I can beat up my car. Now to be fair, many people were very kind to their slaves but no right and by the way like if it's not going real well this was not one of the options. You know master, I know I've kind of been here for quite a while but I've asked for a transfer. I'm gonna be quitting.

There is no plan B. So listen, this is why the church changed the world. What he's gonna tell them is impossible and yet they did it but they didn't do it in their own strength, they did it by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the power of God's Word in the context of authentic community where they would meet and hear the teaching of the Scripture. They were all illiterate and so these scrolls would be read and they would memorize them out loud together and go over them, over them, over them in their mind and then they would meet in homes and they would share a meal and they would talk about you know that letter we got you know that was passed around that one to Ephesians and that other little one to the Colossians and that one to the Thessalonicans and then they got up and they went into horrendous working situations and they've responded by and large by his power the way Jesus would have responded if he was actually living inside their body which he was. And so he says to them a slave whether you have a Christian or non-Christian master be subject to your masters that's sort of the overarching the idea is you got to be submit to them you have to obey what they say.

Try to please or satisfy them. The idea here is just do a good job. I was in New York City and heard Tim Keller speak and he was talking about impact in the marketplace and he said you know we kind of have a generation and both young and old that we really want our work to have such meaning and we wanted to change the world and he said you know that's great but you know part of just serving God sometimes it's just like doing a great job. You know if you're a dentist and drilling teeth I mean this bicuspid is going to change the world.

No but it will really be important to that person that you're putting that crown on or if you're an airplane pilot it's like all I do is fly from here to Beijing all I do is fly from here Southwest back and forth. When you land correctly we love you. Do things with excellence create software with excellence. Come on time do a great job.

Please your masters. Then it says not to talk back to them. So there's a respect there's an attitude. Those of you that are supervisors or employees you know that people show to work but you know sometimes it's like this. I got attitude. I'm here but I don't like you and I'm going to do it as little as possible to make as much as possible and I'm just going to sort of poison things because you know when you find employees with a good attitude and then petty thievery was just common so that the slaves would steal he says don't steal from them and then show that you can be trusted. I mean can you imagine a master where you realize I don't know what this Christian stuff is and this Jesus and all this talk of resurrection and this is wild and crazy but all I know is if I had another ten slaves like that I'd change the world.

If I had a hundred our company would be that's what God wants us to be where we're at. I was picking up my laundry yesterday and the fellow's a guy I've gotten to know and he's come to church some but his wife works at another church so he doesn't go here but I know he's a believer and I was I was behind the guy in front of me and the guy in front of me said oh it's my shirt did you get that stain out? He goes well yeah I really tried you know he said but it was blood so you know didn't come out. He said well I want the stain to come out. He goes well you know I can do it more but I'm afraid it'll go right through the fabric and he said well man if you can't get the stain out I don't want to pay for that.

And I'm sitting there thinking let's see now who got the stain in the shirt? You brought the shirt, he cleaned the shirt, he tried to get the stain out of the shirt and he goes no I don't I don't pay for that and this guy's response I saw you know how you see sort of his eyes flash like but then I mean the guy didn't even catch it. He goes absolutely sir that'd be okay yeah I'll take that right off your bill and you know took care of him and I got my stuff and I walked out and you know had one of those little promptings I thought you know what man now that's a Christian living like a Christian. I went back in there and it cleared out I said hey can I tell you something? He said what? I said man way to go way to go that was such a great attitude that was such a great response you could have talked back you could have argued and you know something you just handle that with class. Colossians 3 23 and 24 says do your work not as unto men not for I service not for their reward do your work as unto the Lord as an act of worship I'm going to create this for God I'm going to build this for God I'm going to fix this for God I'm going to write this software for God I'm going to lead this team meeting for God and his inspection is what I care about. Why? So that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive attractive it's a really amazing New Testament word it's the picture like taking a very special gem and dropping it into a setting but then around the setting you put all these other very very precious gems and with a background in gold so it just adorns it so just makes it awesome looking and God says when we do our work that way it makes people scratch their head and go so everyone else left early and you didn't why you didn't really have to turn that in on your expense report but you did and you knew we had a problem well it wasn't even in your area but you covered for another guy and what's this about and I would recommend this is not the exact it's Jesus but it's Jesus and in the right way in the right time you can verbalize and share as you earn that kind of respect well turn to the back page if you will because I'd like to wrap it up as we think about being the kind of older men older women younger women and younger women and slaves workers that really are Christians that live like Christian at home and at work but we live in a day where our reputation as Christians has taken a hit our influence is marginalized and our children are abandoning the faith so let me ask you what has the power to convince an unbelieving world that God's Word is true second what has the power to restore credibility and influence to the church and third what has the power to make people want to explore a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the answer to all three is doing good where you live and where you work doing good not talking about it doing good in the power of the Holy Spirit as a person who understands you can't do it apart from time and God's Word and it is impossible unless you can do it life with people that give you the strength and encouragement and the accountability to become who God has saved you to become you don't need any more of God he needs more of you and when he gets more of you and can allow his life to flow through you you will be an older man that will admire and respect you'll be an older woman woman who realizes that the greatest beauty that you have to share is beauty that's on the inside not the outside and you'll be a young woman who has clean and clear and wise priorities and you can invest in the thing that matters most and use your gifts to help other people and you'll be a young man who says you know something I got a lot of passions and there's a lot of ditches and a lot of potholes out there but I'm gonna set my face like a flint and I'm gonna be a man of God and a great father and a godly husband and I'm gonna go to work and work will not own me but I'm gonna go to work in a way unto you and I'm gonna ask you for the opportunity with the energy and the dreams you put in me to change the world but it starts with doing good. Chip will be right back with his application for this message the high cost of not doing good from his series doing good what happens when Christians live like Christians the Bible teaches that we're saved by God's grace and our faith in him so where does that leave doing good works I mean why does it matter how we interact with one another through chips teaching in the book of Titus we'll learn how our decision to do good for another person is more than just a simple gesture it's an opportunity to impact their life don't miss the easy ways you can practice doing good every day and how we can dramatically change our world for the better now if you missed any part of this series the chip Ingram app is a great way to catch up anytime which helps with me here in studio now and chip toward the end of your teaching today you talked about the power and necessity of living life in community why don't you take a second and explain why that's such an important part of our Christian walk well Dave I'll tell you I don't want to oversimplify but Jesus said I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly at the heart of the Christian life it's allowing Jesus to live his life through you by the power of the Holy Spirit rooted in the Word of God in the context of community and that little word bio means life and so I've just taken that acronym here Living on the Edge and it simplifies it for me if you want the life of Christ lived out it means be you have to get before God daily and before him with other people weekly in worship the I is for in community you have to do life with people heart to heart face to face and the O is on mission 24 7 what I've seen so much is people have lost the in community aspect it's impossible to obey the Word of God to experience life by yourself get with a group of people watch the videos on your own then discuss them do it live do it online do it however it works best but take the next step get in community you'll never regret it good idea Chip thanks well we have a growing library of small group resources and they're so easy to use Chip provides the teaching and then you'll have time to discuss what you've heard alongside our helpful study guides so if you're not in community yet or you aren't sure what to study next let me encourage you to check out the small group resources for doing good to learn more go to Living on the Edge dot org or call us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 that's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or Living on the Edge dot org app listeners tap special offers well now here's Chip to share some final thoughts from today's message as we close today's program I want to give us a little perspective about what we've heard Titus is writing empowered by the Holy Spirit to tell a group of people in a very secular culture and with a group of Christians whose lives really aren't matching up the message of the gospel and so as we think back he's told them in your homes you need to live this way because that's how Christians live and at work this is how you need to work and this is how you represent your boss and how you tell the truth so that God's Word won't be discredited and at the very end you know I raised the question about what has the power to convince an unbelieving world that God's Word is true I mean what has that power or what has the power to restore credibility and influence to the church I mean when you see Christians portrayed on TV or if you talk with people it's like you know the church you're relevant what's going on or finally what has the power to cause people that you know and that you love maybe a relative a neighbor a co-worker maybe one of your kids to really want to explore who Jesus Christ is and what he really has to say and it's so simple and yet it's so profound it's doing good it's when we actually live it out and it's not just these huge things that we do it it's little acts of kindness it's showing up to work on time it's being the kind of employee that a you know a supervisor doesn't know why you do what you do maybe yet but it's being that kind of person and I think sometimes we get this idea that there's going to be this big dramatic moment that changes everything and the fact of the matter it's lots of tiny small moments of living an ordinary godly loving caring life that make all the difference in the world and I just want to say to all of you fellow ordinary people who feel like life is kind of mundane and you're just kind and you're just loving and you're living it out and you're praying God is going to use that it's the accumulation of those things that are really going to make a difference let's all commit together to be Christians that just do good live good in the power of the Holy Spirit and trust God that he's going to use the testimony of our lives most often when we don't even know it to bring multitudes to Christ just before we close I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support if you found today's program helpful but have never supported us financially there's never been a better time than right now when you give a gift to Living on the Edge it'll be matched dollar for dollar thanks to some very generous friends of the ministry making a donation is easy just go to Living on the Edge org tap donate on the app or give us a call at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 that's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 on behalf of chip and everyone here thank you in advance for your generosity well until next time this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge you