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The New Normal Part 2

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey
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January 22, 2025 12:00 am

The New Normal Part 2

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey

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January 22, 2025 12:00 am

Have you ever thought about how much your actions under pressure reveal your character? The Apostle Paul knew that godly leadership requires more than skills and charisma—it demands character that’s forged in the everyday trials of life. In today’s episode, Stephen Davey walks us through Titus 1:8, where Paul lays out what it takes to lead God’s church. This isn’t just a checklist for elders; it’s a call for every believer to live a life that is a living testimony of God’s grace. We’ll explore what it means to create a "new normal," one that breaks away from cultural norms and embraces values like hospitality, justice, and a love for what is truly good. Whether you’re a church leader or not, today’s message challenges us all to think about how we’re modeling our faith to those around us. It’s about stepping away from what’s easy and embracing the high calling of living for Christ—both in our churches and in our everyday lives. Tune in and be inspired to live above the status quo and lead others by example.

Listen to the full-length version of this sermon: https://www.wisdomonline.org/teachings/titus-lesson-07

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Delight in Grace
Grace Bible Church / Rich Powell

What kinds of things are worthy of your time and worthy of you spending your hard-earned money on? Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything about that that is excellent, if anything is worthy of praising God about, think on those things.

In other words, meditate on those things, dwell on those, spend your time and money on those things. Having personal convictions to pursue the things that God considers good is one of the qualifications for church elders. In a world where people tend to pursue whatever their heart desires, a commitment to pursue the things that God desires to be good and honorable is the mark of godliness. Here on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey has been working through a series from Titus 1 where Paul gives a list of qualifications for church elders. We've seen several things that elders don't do, but today we shift.

We're going to look at the positive things that elders are to do. He writes next in line here, they're not only hospitable, but notice they are loving what is good. Again, Paul uses a compound word that begins with the same word, philos, for love or strong affection.

And agathos, which is the word typically translated good. An elder loves strangers and he loves what is good. He loves good stuff. That's my word, not Paul's, but that helps you understand it, doesn't it? One ancient manuscript used the same word for a man who loved virtue.

That's helpful. He just loves whatever is intrinsically good, which means you're going to love whatever reminds you of God, right? Because as Jesus told that rich young ruler who came to visit him, there is no one good, same word, but God. In other words, no one is intrinsically good, but God the Father, the Son of course, and the Spirit. So if you want to know somebody who is godly, godlike, they will be walking after the character and nature of God, which is reflected in goodness. They will love things that God would love.

The Greek form here could be rendered lover of good things. Now it doesn't mean he's sequestered himself away from all that is bad, but it does mean he doesn't love what is bad. Because the world is filled with so many men who love what is bad, which is the nature of man, right? So the world is more and more openly in love with bad things and bad activities and bad music and bad people and bad language. And then, it's not finished, it takes another step downward in that it turns around and says, this isn't really bad after all. This is actually good.

You guys are just way too uptight. This isn't bad, it's good. They will not only do sinful things, bad things, but they will give hearty approval to those who practice them, Romans chapter 1, verse 30. It's going to applaud.

You did that? Oh wow, way to go. Paul effectively says here, Titus, go find some men in the churches to serve as elders who are going to straighten out the definitions. Men who will form personal convictions after the intrinsic nature of God's goodness and then be able to turn around to the flock they lead and say, no, that's actually bad.

And this is actually good. You'll be able to spot that kind of man because he's not only going to tell people what's good, he actually loves it. You see, what an elder loves is revealing. What he wants to linger around, what he wants to talk about, what he wants to read, what he wants to listen to, what he looks forward to, what he wants to be in the company of. Paul effectively asks not only elders but congregants, are they good things?

Here's a challenge. Can you write over the books and magazines that you're reading the word good? That is, it's not offensive to the intrinsic nature of God.

It wouldn't violate his character. Can you write over what you listen to or watch or participate in that little word good? Can you write over the head of your boyfriend or girlfriend the word good? Can you write over the songs of your, the lyrics of your favorite songs, the word good? Now that doesn't mean you define good as those things you do in church.

If you can't do them or enjoy them in church, then they're not really good. No, no, no. That's not it. When I go home today, when I go home this afternoon, I'm going to take a nap. I'm going to get that hour back. I've been looking forward to it all morning.

In fact, if I just hurry up, I'd get there quicker. And when I get up, I might even say to Marcia, you know, that was a good nap. It was good. I mean, I believe God was pleased. Now, it wasn't a spiritual discipline. You know, it isn't something I do in church.

Some of you do. You're skilled at it. Now, what I mean is that nap or that novel or that walk in the park or that painting or that drive or that game or that sport or that friendship. There isn't anything about it that would be offensive to God, his nature, his goodness.

And there are a million things you can do just like that. So the question is, are you developing personal conviction and a love for those things that do not offend his nature? That's the point here. Are you a Christian under the influence of modeling after, surrounding yourself with that which is good? Whether you are or not, that's the goal. If you are an elder or an elder want to be, you must be a lover of that which is good. Thirdly, he says here to Titus that an elder is going to model personal common sense. Now, he uses a word in verse 8 that's translated sensible. Elsewhere, perhaps in your Bibles, it might be even here, prudent. Again, it's another compound word that helps us understand a couple of nuances.

It's a combination of sophos. We know the name Sophia for wise, along with the added word phreno, which means to set the mind. The combined idea means that you have a wise mindset. Keep in mind that wisdom has a practical sense of putting into action the things you know. You might know a very knowledgeable man who isn't wise. He knows a lot of things, but he doesn't put into practice things that matter.

That's what he's talking about here. One Bible scholar wrote that this word meant to think soundly, to use common sense, and that just sort of stuck with me. He couldn't help but think immediately of that little phrase, the problem with common sense is that it is no longer common anymore. He could paraphrase to keep one's head about him, to keep your head, to don't go off the reservation, so to speak. What Paul is saying here, one author wrote, is that an elder must not be given to wild and foolish ideas. He must be a man, he writes, who believes that God is the God of the impossible, but he must mix such faith and trust with a good dose of common sense.

For God who gave us our hearts is the same God who gave us our heads. Church leaders then use both their hearts and their heads, which is an essential ingredient, isn't it? Elders are going to be involved in all kinds of decision making. They're going to be involved in all sorts of tangled things and conundrums and problems with people and decisions. They're going to need both faith and common sense, that discernment and that wisdom to know when and where to step and walk. Let me add one more thing to this word before we move on. It has an idea of thinking differently, thinking unlike anybody else.

Maybe this is why Paul will use this particular word and he'll refer to that word as being part of the lives of every one of those individuals that Titus will minister to. This isn't just for the elder. This is for those who need to begin to think differently.

Why? Because we've all been squeezed into the mold. We think like the world. So now we come in and we need to be transformed by the renewing of our what?

Our minds, Romans 12. We've got to begin to think differently. And listen, when you think differently, that means you will be different.

Are you willing? You're no longer going to be influenced by the crowd, but by Christ. You're going to be like that one teenage guy I heard being interviewed on a Christian radio where he said, At my school, I am the peer pressure. It's a powerful statement. Your opinions aren't going to change according to the latest fad, the latest fancy.

You're not going to define right or wrong based on the crowd. You're not poll driven. I've got that on my mind like everybody else during this election season.

Don't you? You hear somebody stand up and say their opinion and you wonder how much of it is related to a poll, and I hope every one of them believe what they say they believe. Tremendous pressure to compromise. One former president of the United States years ago, no longer alive, obviously under the pressure of polls, wrote, and I tucked this into my file and pulled it out again here years afterward. He said, I can't help but wonder what Jesus Christ would have preached if he'd taken a poll. I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he'd taken a poll in Egypt. Where would the Reformation have been if Martin Luther had taken a poll in Germany?

It isn't the poll that counts. It's what's right and what's wrong. That's what makes good leadership, men with courage and belief in what's right.

That makes epics in the history of the world. I would not only agree, I would add, that's exactly what makes for godly leadership in the church. So Paul is telling Titus, go find men who will think wisely and in that differently than culture.

They're probably worth following. So an elder models personal care, models personal conviction, models personal common sense. Another quality surfaces here on the pages of Paul's letter to Titus.

Look at verse 8 again. An elder is, my text translates it, just, just. He models personal consistency.

He's upright. You can translate it. In fact, in these last three characteristics, just, devout, and self-controlled, they all have to do with rightness in relationships. Just refers to an elder's right relationship with others. Devout refers to an elder's relationship with God. And self-control refers to an elder's relationship with oneself, that is his attitudes and his appetite.

We'll talk more about those because we're not going to get there today. But the word just carries the idea of fair play. This is a man that when he shakes your hand, it matters. That's how he has just relationships with others.

He shows up and he follows through. The Greeks defined a just man, by the way, as someone who gave to men whatever it was they were due. Simply a man of his word, a man of integrity, who wants to pattern his life after personal consistency.

It relates to a man's efforts, as we say it, to walk the talk, to practice what he preaches. And that's important because a shepherd's life is to be patterned so to reflect the character of the chief shepherd he represents because people are watching. Remember, we talked about that last time we were together. People are watching, and you know that's true as well. Or maybe you don't.

Maybe you need to be reminded of it. They're watching you. If you have kids, they're watching. Are they ever watching you? If you have little children, they're watching everything.

They don't miss anything. They're going to be able to talk just like you. They're that keen of an observer. And even with your accent, they're going to walk just like you. They're going to swing the bat like you do and flip their hair like you do.

They're watching, in fact, more than we can imagine. I can remember as a youth pastor many years ago working with a teenager who continually lied. It was nearly impossible to get from him a straight answer. I never knew when he was telling me the truth, and he was often caught in lies. I would discover later that his own father had been found out to be lying often to his company and eventually, because of his lying, lost his job.

Now let me be quick to declare any misunderstanding. I'm not implying that every dishonest child has a dishonest parent. I know because I was a dishonest child and I had honest parents. The trouble comes when a parent refuses the pattern, the parent abandons the pattern where there is no consistency.

There's no right or wrong. They're left to determine their sensitivities. They're left to develop their personal choices, their consistencies based on a missing model. A child hears Mom or Dad call in sick and knows they're going to go golf and are shopping. They're not sick. A child gets it when the telephone rings and they answer it, and it's for Uncle Henry, and Mom says, Tell Uncle Henry I'm not here. They get that.

That becomes their normal. I read some time ago about a California mother who was observed going through the grocery store just sort of tapping items every so often. She drew attention with hidden cameras and they began to watch her and they noticed that her two children coming behind her would pocket the things that she tapped.

I wouldn't doubt that one day they'll steal everything from her. The Boston Globe carried an interesting article about setting an example. Your walk measuring up to your talk was rather humorous, practicing what you preach. It carried an article that covered the annual convention of the American Heart Association's convention. There are hundreds of thousands, evidently, of doctors and nurses and medical personnel and researchers who are members of the American Heart Association. The particular convention they were covering focused on the fast food industry and, of course, the horror of it all. I know that none of you will ever, well, never mind.

Okay, but at any rate, you know what I'm talking about. When one cardiologist was interviewed about where he had just come from eating lunch because the reporter saw him coming out of an unnamed fast food restaurant. I won't tell you the name of it, but he had a Big Mac and fries, okay? He was just going to put it together.

The reporter went up to him and stuck the microphone in his face and asked him if he thought he was setting a bad example. And the doctor, a cardiologist, said, and I quote, no, I don't think so, I made sure I took off my name tag before I went in there. Well, that fixes everything.

Thank you for that example. Well, in a way, the Apostle Paul is telling the elders that you never get to take your name tag off. That goes basically for every Christian, right?

Your name tag stays on. That's the new normal. Maybe you're aspiring to leadership, but when you hear talk like that, you're thinking, never mind. Don't aspire to it. Because more than anybody in the flock of the elders, those who lead, including deacons, those who teach, you've got a name tag and it might as well be tattooed on your forehead. You're not taking it off. The word Paul uses here is that your name tag ought to mention or ought to live up to what it implies that you live with this sense, which is visible for everyone to see, of a Christian. If you're an elder, even more so, you provide the pattern for that kind of sensitivity.

The stakes are even higher for those of you who lead. I've got a good illustration of this. A number of years ago, on vacation, I slipped away one morning to play nine holes of golf. I like to play alone because of the way I play. I got put into a threesome.

I didn't want to play in a threesome. They knew each other, but I went along and I just sort of tagged along behind them. They're going down the fairway. They're swearing like sailors, and they're telling one story after another, and I just sort of lagged behind, which was easy because I didn't hit the ball as far as they did anyway, but I was back there.

Finally, on the fifth tee, one of the guys were standing up there. He said, you know, I apologize. I've been leaving you out.

What do you do for a living? I said, I'm a pastor. And man, they just turned pale. They began to apologize for their French.

I've never taken French, but that wasn't French that I was hearing on the golf course. They even started calling me Father. What do you think about that, Father? Father, what are you? And I thought, I don't want to be your father.

I'm not your father. The problem is I had the name tag on now. For the rest of the game, I had to watch my Ps and Qs. In fact, the accountability was a good thing. It was a good thing. And those who aspire to leadership view it as a good thing. It can be painful.

It can be intrusive, but they know better than anybody that it's a good thing. I'm not going to get to the next three characteristics today, but let me just close with a positive illustration of being just. And I'll take an illustration from the life of a golfer who actually knew what he was doing. His name is Tom Watson, and this comes out of sort of the legend of this man who was known, still is, for his integrity.

I'm not sure if he's a believer or not, but he certainly tells the truth and is known for that. He provided a rare example of justice or justness and surprised everyone. Now, of course, if you know Goff, you know he's gone on to win most major championships several times. In the first tournament he ever entered as a young man, very first one, he was making a run for the trophy. The pressure on him as a newcomer was intense as the match progressed. And it was relentless, frankly, he said. He wanted to win so badly.

He talked about this was the moment he'd been dreaming about since he was a little boy. On one of the greens, as he moved up to get ready to putt the ball, he put his putter down behind his ball, and too closely and to his dismay, the ball moved ever so slightly. No one saw it.

This is 40 plus years ago where there weren't cameras on every blade of grass and every, you know, expression. Nobody saw it. But he would say later, I saw it. If he admitted it, he could, of course, lose the hole because he'd have to add a stroke and he could even lose the match. It could cost him so much in his young career. But without much hesitation, he walked over to one of the officials and he said, I moved my ball and everything just kind of froze.

You've got to be kidding. He had a stroke added. He lost the hole.

The good news is he came back and won the match. But from what I know, I can tell you that his decision to be just, to tell the truth when it would cost him so much, maybe even the match, I guarantee you, that decision to tell the truth means more to him now than a 45-year-old plastic trophy that by now has probably come apart. It really matters, especially for the believer and even more especially to an elder. Well, an elder, according to the mind of God, through Paul to Titus, is to be the one to define what matters. What matters most is demonstrating in his life and all our lives a personal care for those in need, a personal conviction for everything that's good and wholesome, a personal common sense for making wise decisions, a personal consistency of uprightness and integrity, and if we're gonna do that, we're gonna ask the Lord, and we will in a moment, to heighten our sense of conscience. These are attributes of those under the influence of the Holy Spirit. And I've often said that Christian maturity is perhaps not sinning less but confessing quicker.

In fact, finding even more things to confess about because as you grow, your conscience becomes more and more sensitive, which is a good thing. Charles Wesley wanted such a sensitive conscience to do the right thing and please his Lord. He wrote a number of hymn texts and one that never quite made it to the top 50, so to speak, is worthy of mention. It was published in 1749, and with this I'll wrap it up.

The lyrics go like this. I want a principle within of watchful, godly fear, a sensibility of sin, a pain to feel it near. Help me, the first approach to feel of pride or wrong desire, to catch the wandering of my will and quench the kindling fire. From thee that I no more may part, no more thy goodness grieve. The family all, the fleshly heart, the tender conscience give.

Quick as the apple of an eye, oh God, my conscience make. Awake my soul when sin is nigh and keep it still awake. Almighty God of truth and love, to me thy power impart the mountain from my soul.

Remove the hardness from my heart. Oh, may the least omission pain my reawakened soul and drive me to your blood again which makes the wounded whole. The lyrics to that hymn are a great reminder for us, encouraging us to develop a sensitive conscience so that we constantly pursue the things that please God. We're looking at what God's word says about the qualifications for church leaders, but as we've seen today, these standards are for every believer. You've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart with pastor and author Stephen Davey.

Today's lesson from the series entitled The Shepherd's Mantle is called The New Normal. Do you ever have questions about the Bible but don't know where to turn? We've developed a tool that can transform how you explore scripture and deepen your understanding of the Christian faith. With just a few keystrokes, you can instantly search through Stephen's teachings and find answers that you can trust.

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Whether you're using a computer, tablet, or smartphone, our tool works seamlessly across all devices. Just type your question, and in seconds you'll have an answer. The tool offers you immediate, insightful answers at the touch of a button. From complex Bible study topics to simple, practical advice, no question is too big or too small for our search tool. We believe that understanding the Bible is essential for a vibrant Christian life, and that's why we're offering this revolutionary resource to make your Bible study more accessible and engaging. You can experience it for yourself today by visiting wisdomonline.org forward slash ask. Just look for the blue icon at the bottom of every page at wisdomonline.org. Thanks for listening. Join us next time on Wisdom for the Hearts. .
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-22 01:03:17 / 2025-01-22 01:13:19 / 10

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