What Will You Get? It Will Be According to Your Way of Proceeding!

STUDY: # 942 –CHURCH IN THE HOUSES FROM: JUNE 6 @ 12, 2017

Topic: What Will You Get? It Will Be According to Your Way of Proceeding! Titus 1:5-13 (Ephesians 5:21-25) "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ...) If a man is the head it is because he has God (Vs. 21), because he fears God. Husbands "love" your wives (Vs. 25), the reason is because the husband is the head. In Ephesians 6:1 children are told to obey their parents "in the Lord". Parents are told to not provoke their children to anger (Ephesians 6:4). If this is the truth that you have learned, then you should live this way. You shouldn’t live in disorder. You should live your life as the Holy Scriptures say in Ephesians 6:4 "... in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Paul had great wisdom, given to him by the Holy Spirit! The apostle wrote "... to Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and APPOINT ELDERS in every town as I directed you...” (Titus 1:4-5) Titus was a faithful disciple of Paul. Titus was sent to Crete, an island in Greece, to attend to the church’s matters. He had to teach the Cretan brothers the right way, before God, to conduct themselves as members of a Christian family. The reason for Titus being in Crete was to teach and correct the "deficiencies" within the church, beginning with order within the family, especially among the ELDERS (leaders). Do not expect any ministries before all members of your family are faithful members of the Church. Titus would establish faithful ELDERS; with order in their lives and in their homes. In turn, these would care and teach the brethren according to the faith and discipline that they themselves lived (Titus 1:7 "For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach ... "). You can tell a true believer from his behavior "at home." There is no honor in being so busy with work outside that the house is abandoned. In life, all that can be done for the Church cannot atone (suffer the punishment for committing the fault) the abandonment of one's own family. The ELDER’S (one who runs the church) family must be free, without the elder being accused of being a bad parent. There has to be discipline in the family. Discipline is achieved with a soft hand; without tragedies, screams, or the appearance of superiority. There are children who say, "My parents are one thing in the Church, and at home they are another." Happiness should reign in the home of an elder. One who enters that house should come out feeling better than when he entered. For the ELDER, real training is in the house, then in the Church! Titus 1: 7,8 ("... not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined ...") An adamantly stubborn person is so content with himself that he does not like anything else and does not care to please anyone else. Someone like this will insist on his rights, and be inconsiderate of others. He is an unpleasant, intolerant person, who believes that there is no better way to do things than his. This is fatal in the ELDER who is to govern "free" people. No one who is intolerant, contemptuous (who shows contempt or indifference) and arrogant can occupy a position of responsibility in the Church. He cannot be proud, angry, nor given to vice. He does not

look for dishonest money. Many times, we try to make dishonest money, which seems to grow interest for doing good to others. The Cretans were like this. They could no longer distinguish what business was dirty. They lost their conscience (Vs.12). We have to be accommodating, hospitable. This is so difficult! How should an elder be? He must love foreigners, and good things. He must heartily respond to goodness. Someone careful or prudent, who refuses to do evil, who only admits and approves what righteous reason dictates. One is prudent when all instincts are wisely controlled. The elder must be just; giving God and men what is due. He gives God "reverence" and people respect. He must be independent. Titus 1: 9-11 ("... must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.") There are those who say and teach falsehood. Faithful ministers have to oppose them so that the foolishness of those false teachers becomes evident. This has to be done so they do not continue to teach. They should be resisted and shamed with the sound teaching of the Scriptures. Answer them harshly so that they grow healthy in the faith. If we are going to strive for something, it should be for being worthy of being called children of the Most High. Our way of proceeding will be evident in what we win with our offspring as we reach old age. Amen.