Willow Ridge Sermons

March 9th, 2025 • "But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine." — Titus 2:1

This week's message from Titus 2 focuses on the importance of sound doctrine and spiritual maturity in our daily lives. Paul emphasizes the role of older men and women in guiding the younger generation, the necessity of self-control, and the power of a life rooted in godliness. Through principles of discipline, reverence, and discipleship, we are called to live in a way that reflects Christ’s teachings. Join us as we explore how growing in faith transforms our character and strengthens our witness to the world.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast.

We're so glad you chose to listen today.

This week's message from Titus 2 focuses on the importance of sound doctrine and spiritual

maturity in our daily lives.

Paul emphasizes the role of older men and women in guiding the younger generation, the

necessity of self-control, and the power of a life rooted in godliness.

Through principles of discipline, reverence, and discipleship, we are called to live in

a way that reflects Christ's teachings.

Join us as we explore how growing in faith transforms our character and strengthens our

witness to the world.

Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, I invite you to join us in Titus chapter 2.

We'll all get through today.

We'll all be energized in the morning, and hopefully we'll all get a nap this afternoon.

I heard somebody say the older and older that you get, the harder these Sundays are, and they're

difficult by all means.

But I want to thank each and every one of you for being here, even though you lost an hour

of sleep last night.

If you're a first-time guest, thank you for being here, especially.

You are an honored guest here at our church.

We are blessed to have you here with us.

And at the end of the service, my wife and I will be back here at this table with a black

cloth on it.

And we're there.

We'd love for you to stop by so that we can learn your name.

We can thank you personally for being here.

And then if you do happen to have any questions for us, we would love to be able to answer

those.

A couple things for you guys to be praying for and praying through this week.

First off, I will be leading a team.

There will be 10 of us that will be traveling to India this week.

We'll be leaving Wednesday, and we're excited about that.

We've been working on this trip for really almost a year.

Team come together over about the last six months.

We're going to be going into the Christian school that we work with there and teaching

health science through a Christian worldview.

So we're excited about that.

We're going to host a women's ministry event.

We're going to do a community concert.

We're going to do small group leaders training.

And then we're going to be doing some teaching and a Bible college about discipleship and working

through Titus.

And so excited about all of those opportunities to do that.

So I want to encourage you to be praying for us as we head out on this journey.

I want to read a Bible verse and then say a couple things.

Before we pray, but to get our mind focused on what God has for us.

Titus 2 verse 1 says this, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

A little sneak preview into the message.

When Paul says to teach sound doctrine, that word, when you begin to understand what it literally

means is not just what you know, but it's what you live.

It's what you live.

So there's kind of point 1A and we'll get there in just a second.

This week, one of our beloved, dear church members, Ms. Vera.

Many of you know Ms. Vera.

She got some tough news from the doctor.

And we didn't know if we'd see Ms. Vera this morning.

And so I was walking to my office to get my notes for this morning and Ms. Vera was walking

in.

And so Ms. Jackie's going to be back there with Ms. Vera.

What I'd like for us to do is just pray for Ms. Vera.

All right.

And thank God for her faithfulness.

Amen.

That what she knows about the Lord is not a thought in her mind simply, but it is evidence

of faithfulness in her life.

And so would you join me as we go before the Lord, as we prepare to study his word, and

as we pray for Ms. Vera.

God, I thank you for today.

What a joy and honor it is to open your word.

God, I pray that what will be said is that we teach sound doctrine.

But God, I thank you for the saints, like Ms. Vera, who faithfully live what they believe.

God, I pray for Ms. Vera, and I pray for her doctor's appointments.

I pray for those that are caring for her during this time.

I pray for her family, her friends, her loved ones who surround her.

God, we pray for her.

We pray for her healing.

God, whether her healing happened here, or praise God for her healing for all of eternity.

God, we thank you for her.

We thank you for her faithfulness.

God, we thank you for how that's modeled to her brothers and sisters in Christ, her fellow

church members.

God, we thank you for her.

We thank you for her, Savior.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

All right, Titus 2.

Start verse 1.

We're going to read it back over.

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Last week, we saw the dangers of what happens when you begin to let false doctrine, false

teaching invade the church.

We saw that Jesus warns and speaks to this.

Paul warns and speaks to this.

Peter warns and speaks to this.

Jude warns and speaks to this.

Multiple times throughout scripture, what we begin to see are the heresies, the false doctrines,

and how to deal with that.

And what we find is that the false doctrines, they invade the church.

And when false doctrine invades the church, the gospel message itself is attacked.

And so Paul is calling Titus to not only be the leader and to call qualified leaders, but

to also make sure that these leaders are ready for the fight that is there.

And then in these transitioning here in chapter 2, we're going to get some application parts.

And he begins this transition by saying, but as for you, Titus, let's make sure that this

begins with you.

But as for you, Titus, teach what accords.

So this is what you're going to focus on with sound doctrine.

And this is important, that sound doctrine, lots of times we hear this word doctrine, we

hear the word theology, and we begin to think of right and correct thinking, or right and

correct belief.

And that is absolutely, partially true.

Sound doctrine is right thinking.

Sound doctrine is right teaching.

But sound doctrine is also right living.

It's the proper application of that.

If we go back to two weeks before, when Pastor Dave welcomed us with this book, brought us

into this, he says, it says that Paul, a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the

sake of the faith of God's elect, and their knowledge of the truth, so for the sake of the faith

that they believed, and then they knew, so that it accords with godliness.

And yes, godliness is the way that we think, but godliness is the way we speak, godliness

is the way that we act, it's who we are, because of who we are in Christ.

It's not what we do so that we will be saved, it's who we become, because we are saved.

That all throughout Scripture, continuing the New Testament message, in the gospel of grace,

that God has saved us, that God calls us, that God equips us, that God transforms us.

In the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19 through 20, it's not an intellectual pursuit.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and

the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you always to the ends of the age.

Teaching them that what we know, we tell, what we know, we show, and that when we show, we go.

And we see this process of what's there.

God's Word will always point you to application, and application always comes from transformation

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

When I was in college years and years and years ago, the college that I was at required

us to take two arts classes, musical appreciation, theater appreciation, and art appreciation.

Well, I was the type of student that did research because I wanted to understand what was going

to be asked of me.

The first class that I took was music appreciation because I found out that basically everything

that I had learned in middle school band was going to get me at least a B.

All right, like sign me up for that.

Then close to the time that I was getting ready to graduate, I had to make the decision, do

I take art appreciation or do I take theater appreciation?

All right, so I went to my research, and I went for theater appreciation first because I

like movies, I like plays, I like watching people act, this could be fun.

And I found out the irony of this, I found out that in theater appreciation, at the end of

the semester, you had to put on a play in which everyone was required to be on stage and speak

in front of a crowd of a couple hundred people.

And I was like, there's absolutely no way that I can ever do that, right?

So no, so I'm not going to do that.

So instead, I signed up for art appreciation.

Now, let me tell you, if you're an art person, man, that is great.

My grandma was an artist.

We've got her paintings all over our house.

I'm not an art guy.

Like a stick figure is good.

I can't draw a circle.

Like it's bad.

If my kids ever needed me like in third grade or second grade to like plagiarize for them

the art project that they were sent home to do, like I can't do it.

I can't cut in a straight line, never was able to.

Like that's just not me.

That's just not my thing.

But I found out that the class, like what we would have to do each week was we would

be given 50 pieces of art from a specific discipline of art.

And then we would be tested on 10 of those that were selected randomly.

And we had to answer for each piece that was selected.

We had to answer these four questions.

Who was the artist that created this piece?

The second thing, when did the artist create this piece?

The third one was what was the name of that piece called?

And then the fourth is one additional piece of information about that piece of art that

we could share.

It's like, I can do that.

Got to do this to graduate.

Here we go.

I made flashcards.

We got it done.

And at the end of every test, I forgot what I just learned.

At the end of art appreciation, I did not appreciate art anymore than when I started with art, right?

I didn't gain the ability to paint, the ability to sculpt, the ability to draw.

I didn't even gain the ability to look at art and tell you, like, what is good art and what is not bad art.

I just knew a list of facts.

That's it.

That was the extent of my art appreciation.

Paul's warning to Titus is this.

Do not teach Bible appreciation.

That sometimes in the teaching of God's Word, it's done so with a desire to give me the facts

that I can regurgitate them, I can tell you the author was, I can tell you the name, I can tell you when it was written, I can tell you a couple things about it.

But to develop the heart, but to develop the heart to transform and to being the one who knows this, who lives this, who desires this is foreign.

So Paul writes to Titus, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

that it's who you are in Christ Jesus and that it's what you know and that it works through the power of the Holy Spirit to produce godliness in you.

And then Paul is going to address, instruct Titus.

He's got, the church there is like our church now.

It's got different people, different aspects, different backgrounds.

And he says, like, here's, here's how you're going to do this with the five different types of people in your congregation.

He said there's going to be older men, older women, younger women, younger men, and servants, bond servants is what they refer to here.

All right.

And here's, there's a reason each of these people, groups, ranges are being addressed.

And we're going to talk about why they are addressed.

But, but the important part that's for us as well is there's, there's something that we can all learn from their instruction, right?

There's something that we can all learn from their instruction.

So, so here's, here's also getting into this.

If I will let you choose, if you fall into the older or younger category, right?

Somebody asked me this week, like, what is the age on those?

Man, I ain't answering that, right?

Right.

Like, I'm not falling into that trap.

I'm pretty sure every lady here falls into the younger category, though.

All right.

Every single one of you, regardless that that's where you fall.

But we're all going to take these truths and see what God wants to do in us and through us with this.

So, so Titus 2.2, we're going to get some different kinds of doctrine here.

Titus 2.2, older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-control, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

We're going to call this the doctrine of maturity.

Older men, the older we get.

Here's what Paul instructs Titus.

The older we get, the more we should have grown in maturity.

And this is marked by, catch this, fellas, self-controlled faithfulness embodied by love.

The older we get, the more, Paul says to Titus, that your older men should be marked by self-control and faithfulness, which is embodied by love.

In 1993, a classic movie of all time came out.

One of the greatest comedies of all time because it honestly reflects a lot of popular, of today's actual culture, both in 1993 before and after.

It starred Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, and Anne Margaret.

The movie is entitled, appropriately so, Grumpy Old Men.

And you know what that movie was about?

Two grumpy old men, right?

That's the whole premise of the movie.

These two guys are grumpy.

They don't get along.

They get a negative mindset of how they live.

They're selfish.

They're focused on themselves.

They're not thinking about others.

And the truth is, though, oftentimes, apart from Christ and maturity of the Spirit, this is who we become.

The more we're left with our sin, the more the stereotype of the movie falls into actuality in our lives.

The older I get, quite honestly, the less that I care.

And unfortunately, we wear it as a badge of honor.

But that can, that's opposite of what the gospel teaches.

You see, here's what the gospel says.

Older men, younger men, older women, younger women.

Here's how the gospel works, that the longer I live, the more I walk with Jesus, the more I walk with Jesus, the more I should look, act, think, respond, and speak like Jesus.

Not grumpy old men, but older, matured, Christ-like followers.

This is who we're called to be.

When Paul defines maturity of the church at Ephesus, here's what he says.

So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro from the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, he says, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.

So Paul says, like, spiritually speaking, like, stop being little children.

Stop being tossed to and fro like the waves, but grow.

Grow up, mature, become seasoned, become experienced.

The longer you walk with Jesus, the more you should reflect the walking with Christ.

And in every way in which you walk, there's no part of your life that should be left unchecked.

There's no part of your life that you get to hold sacred apart from him.

That it's all before him, the doctrine of maturity.

That you and I, as we walk with Christ, regardless if we're older or younger, male or female, when we are a follower of Christ, there's a pursuit of maturity that we go after.

Now, older women.

And again, I'm not speaking directly to anyone here directly with that title, but pieces we can draw.

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good.

We see this, we see the doctrine of reverence.

Paul addresses three areas with these ladies.

He addresses their action, their speech, their self-control.

And a lot of ways very similar to what he's addressed with the others.

Here's what Paul's getting to.

Here's what Paul is asking when we use this word reverence and why we use this word in the doctrine of reverence.

Is how do you carry yourself before the Lord, before him?

We don't just come before the Lord in worship.

We are always before him.

How do you carry yourself before the Lord and before others?

The idea of reverence is aligned with fitting for an office, and very specifically what Paul gives Titus is that this office for these older women is to be that which teaches the younger women.

To live a life under the authority of God and in relationship with God, and do we carry that type of faith?

Are we those that say that I surrender to him and that I carry forth a relationship with him that is so impactful in my life because of who I am in Christ,

because now the call of my life is to take that of what we've already seen in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and teach it to others.

Well, how can we teach it?

Because we live it.

We pursue it.

We walk through it day by day in the faith of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11, 7 says,

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear, constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

By this he condemned the world and became an heir of righteousness.

That comes by faith.

Both here and in Titus, they carry this idea, this truth of God's word as presenting yourself as one who has heard from God.

Build a boat.

Salvation.

Trust in Christ.

Salvation.

And then, in reverence, we have to do something with that.

And the reverence is we respond accordingly to faith-filled obedience.

Right?

Like, it's never been the work that justifies.

It's those who have been justified who does the work that God's called them to.

And he says, older women, as you're going to take and you're going to teach,

as you're going to teach these younger women that we're going to talk about in just a second,

this has to be who you are and what you do.

In church, that has to be us.

We're going to see this with the discipleship, the process of what God's called us to.

But we've all got a purpose.

We've all got a place.

We all have a peace in where God's placing us.

So, younger women.

Verse 4 and 5.

Younger women.

And so, train the young women to love their husbands and children,

to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands,

that the word of God may not be reviled.

So, we're going to look at this and we're going to look at the doctrine of teachability.

The doctrine of teachability.

He says, those of you who have the experience,

what you're to do is you're to teach those who do not have the experience.

We're looking at men and women.

We're talking first generation believers.

We're talking what we're seeing is their life has been penetrated and changed by the power of the gospel.

And in very early onset, right, it's the process of what we're continuing with today.

It still works because God is in it and this is what we see.

We see the process of discipleship in the church and we're all a part of that.

Those of you who've experienced this, those of you who know this, those of you that this is what you're about,

what are you to do?

Are you to hold on to it and guard it and protect it and this is yours no matter what?

No, no, no, no.

You're to teach it.

You're to share it.

This is what it means to walk alongside others.

This is what it means for them to grow in godliness, to grow in Christ likeness, to grow in obedience to him.

This is the discipleship process that we see.

And those of us who need to be teaching are those of us who need to be and oftentimes find ourselves in the exact same situations

where the people we are teaching currently find themselves.

And so we walk through, through life's experience of this is what it means to watch God work and move

and I can testify to it because I've seen it in my life and I've walked through it as well.

Peter talks about this in 1 Peter 5.5.

He says, likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders.

Clothe yourself, all of you, with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Be teachable.

Like when, when someone comes to you

and they're going to point out something that you need to correct.

They're going to point out something in your life that you've done wrong.

That's, that's not godly.

That's not good.

That's not of him.

How does your heart begin to respond?

Is it receptive?

Is it humble?

Or is it defensive?

And arrogant.

I became the pastor of this church 12 years ago.

Loved every single moment.

Sometimes been really, really sweet and easy.

Sometimes been really, really hard.

And God's been good all the way through it.

About a year in, one of our elders, who loved me enough to say this to me, he calls me.

He said, what are you, what are you doing?

I was like, nothing, man.

I got some time.

Like, what's going on?

We had had an elders meeting the week before.

And he said, you know, whenever somebody starts off with, I need to tell you something, but you need to know that I love you.

Like, what they're saying is, I might make you mad.

Please remember that I love you.

And he said this.

He said, please don't respond and just think and let the Holy Spirit teach in this.

He said, I love your leadership.

I love what God's doing in you.

I love all of that.

But man, when you receive criticism, he said about five seconds in, I'll watch you stop listening and I'll watch you start to formulate your argument.

And he said, that's not godly.

And I said, thank you, man.

Have a nice day.

And he said, I love you.

But I just need you to share that with you.

And you know what?

He was right.

And you know what?

A lot of times, he still is.

And the problem is not that your or their criticism is unfair.

The problem is not that your or their criticism isn't true.

Because sometimes you get criticism that's both unfair and untrue.

But not all the criticism that you and I get is unfair and untrue.

The problem is that sometimes, a lot of times, more times than I wish, my heart is arrogant.

And the issue is me.

And I need to do what God tells us to do.

And embrace humility.

That there are things that I do not know.

There are things that I do incorrectly.

And I need faithful people in my life to address those areas in my life.

And I need to receive that instruction and watch and wait and praise the Lord for two things.

Number one, that there's people who love me enough to say the difficult things to me.

So many times we think, we think, I love encouragement.

Right?

How many of you love encouragement?

All of us.

We have a tendency to think that those people who encourage us are solely the people who love us.

But we need to be taught as well.

And imagine being a teacher.

And every student that writes two plus two and answers at five,

if you pat them on the head and say,

well, you got it right because you didn't want to tell them you got it wrong.

Be teachable.

And be willing to teach others.

Be willing to teach others.

Next, younger men.

Younger men.

It's a category I feel like I fall into.

Just kidding, right?

I worked in the yard yesterday for six hours,

and it feels like I got hit by a Mack truck.

I'm just going to be honest with you.

Younger men.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.

And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned.

So that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

We'll talk to you about the doctrine of discipline.

The doctrine of discipline.

Self-control.

This has been a theme through all.

Self-control is defined as one who follows sound reason of the gospel, of God's word, and restrains his passions.

So we begin to see with self-control.

Self-control is one who follows sound reason and restrains his passion.

The way Paul defines this and gives examples of this is modeling good works, teaching integrity, using sound speech.

Think about this.

Men, young men, old men, young ladies, older ladies.

Here's what we're going to do.

Model the good works of Christ that God promises for us in Ephesians 2.10.

Do them.

Model them.

Bring someone alongside with you so that they see.

Model the good works.

Teach integrity.

The integrity of God's word.

Be who you are.

If you claim Christ, let that be what comes from you.

Teach with integrity.

Use sound speech.

What comes from the mouth is a picture of the heart.

Here's what I think Paul is saying.

If you're a young man in this room, I wish someone would have said this to me.

At a younger age and more often, grow up.

Grow up.

What this world needs is not more silly little boys.

What this world needs is more godly men.

And when we look from and draw from and begin to understand the truth of God's word, it's not grow up as the culture dictates.

It's not grow up in what you're comfortable with.

It's grow up in Christ.

Mature.

1 Timothy 4.

Paul writes to Titus.

Paul writes to Timothy.

Both young pastors that Paul's invested deeply in.

If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.

Being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.

Rather, train yourself for godliness.

In order to grow up, we have to start focusing on the godliness.

In order to grow up, we have to determine, spiritually speaking, Lord, not through my power, but through the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord.

Create in me the disciplines that reflect Christ and will bring people to know you.

Make us disciplined.

When Aaron and I were away at our marriage retreat, and one of the topics that we talked about was Sabbath.

Sabbath.

How about resting.

And the speaker challenged us.

He said, you know, we can rest a lot of ways and not Sabbath.

He said, we can rest in ways that allow us to pursue the passions of the flesh.

Or we can rest in ways that create in us a growing heart and passion for the Lord.

And that's what it means to rest.

Sometimes when we hear maturity, and this is going to be for all of us, for all of us, we think what that word means is I can't have fun anymore.

We think what it means is I can't laugh.

We think what it means is I have to be serious all the time.

We think what it means is I've got to remove these things that bring happiness into my life, and I've got to be the stick in the mud.

I can't be fun anymore.

People aren't going to want to be around me.

Don't you know that's not the type of Christian that I want to be?

I want to be the type of Christian that people are drawn to.

I want to be the type of Christian that people want to listen to.

I want to be the type of Christian that's fun to be around.

And here's what I'll say when it begins to look, when you begin to evaluate, when you begin to, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit to open your mind, to open your eyes, to open your hearts on the things that you need to eliminate in your life.

There's one question that I find that I can ask myself over and over again, whether it's Sabbath, whether it's loving my wife, whether it's leading my family, whether it's pastor in this church, whether it's growing in discipline is this.

Does fill in the blank, whatever that is for you or for me, does it create in me a growing desire for Jesus?

Does it?

Go back to art.

For some of you, man, sitting down and working with colors and painting, and it helps you be able to lock in and see how your creator, as he painted the canvas of creation, worked and moved.

And it causes within you, as you're creating right there before him, to praise and worship him.

Maybe for some of you, it's being outside.

It's engaging with nature and the creation of all God has for you.

Maybe it's gathering with friends and laughter and food and all of this.

Does it create in you?

It's not do you enjoy it.

It's does it create in us a growing desire for God.

And God, who is so good to us, God is who is so kind to us, he gives us so many blessings of things to enjoy that movies can sit there and stir our heart and create in us a growing desire for God.

Watching a baseball game, going to a ballet, reading a book, going for a walk, taking a nap later today, praise the Lord, will create in you or the others around you a growing desire for God.

Creating the disciplines.

And the last, bondservants.

Bondservants.

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything.

They are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith.

So that in everything, they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

It's the doctrine of submission.

A couple things concerning bondservants as we look at this.

Slavery in the day that this was written had many different aspects to it.

Many different types of slaves.

It's a very common practice during the time that this was written.

Paul is not, has not, will not condone slavery.

But there's a work that is happening in these churches that is a remarkable work that is taking place.

And that, to the best of my knowledge, historically has not been the same.

What is happening in these places like what we see in Crete and what we see in Ephesus and other areas.

Again, slavery common.

Was that both slaves and their masters were being saved by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And were becoming part of the church together.

They were becoming brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so, Paul, while not condoning slavery, is looking at the mission and is seeing what is happening and is taking place.

And he's responding, addressing how servants should live as missionaries where they find themselves.

And in instances where, like we look in Ephesians, and we see where he addresses with the masters of how they should conduct themselves.

And it's the same challenge that God gives you and that God gives me.

Here, Paul says this word, submit.

Submit.

Now, when we use that word, you and I, I'm going to put you in this with me.

I was just going to say me, but you're there too.

We want to begin to jump to the exceptions.

What about this?

And what about this?

And I'm not saying that you're incorrect in the whatabouts.

But here's what I'm going to say.

Submitting is not a word that we want to embrace.

It's a word that carries with it a view that is belittling.

It's a word we see as given from those on high to those who they see as lower than them.

But Paul, in Ephesians 5, the sentence before he talks about husbands and wives.

In the section before he talks about fathers with their children.

In the chapter before he talks about slaves and masters.

As he's walking through in chapter 4 and chapter 5, at the very beginning of chapter 5, and he's talking about what it looks like to be a part of the body of Christ.

He sums up everything he's written in one sentence.

So it's not just the bond servant.

It's not just the master.

That the expectation of God's word as we are a body of Christ, we are a family, brothers and sisters in Christ, and the uniqueness of the different relationships in the room, and the uniqueness of how God has brought us together.

That God establishes amongst his people, modeled by Jesus, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Oh, but that's so belittling.

Well, here's how I think we submit to others.

Here's how I think we submit to others.

Number one.

It's a willingness to sacrifice.

Sacrifice what?

Everything.

The Bible does not define you and I as an owner.

The Bible defines you and I as stewards.

Stewards of all that God has given us.

And in our stewardship, we sacrifice.

The second way of how I think we submit to others is we think more about others and less about ourselves.

We don't think less of ourselves.

I understand that I, just like you, am made in the image of God.

I understand that I, just like you, am valuable.

And I'm valuable because Christ gave his life for me and Christ gave his life for you.

That I'm precious.

That this is the words that God uses to describe me and this is the word that God uses to describe you.

But can I tell you what I'm really, really, really good at?

I'm really good about thinking about myself.

And I can be really poor about thinking about others.

But if I'm going to submit, then what I need to do is I need to get my mind off of me and I need to get my mind on others.

So I need to be willing to sacrifice.

I need to get my mind off of myself and get my mind on others.

And then the third thing that I need to do is I need to seek to serve.

I need to seek to serve.

I heard serving one time described as this.

If you see a need and can fulfill that need by bringing glory to God, then do it.

That's serving.

Serving the church, serving your home, serving your community.

And Jesus says that we can go and by the things that we do and by the words that we say that people will see us and give glory to our God who's in heaven.

And so we seek to serve.

We seek to serve others.

And lastly, that we seek to obey God.

We seek to obey God.

I feel like my life for so long has been marked by a negotiation of obedience.

Well, God, I'm ready for this, but I'm not ready for this.

God, I'm ready to obey here, but I'm not ready to obey here.

But that one I seek to obey because it's not just about submitting to just the others in the room.

It's about submitting to him who's called us and loved us and died for us and saved us in submission to him.

And all of this, you've got to have a church that's prepared to battle the false doctrines that are being taught.

Paul warns Titus about that.

Paul's instructing Titus to prepare a church that's going to be an effective vessel for the gospel.

And the same model that we see by Jesus is the same model that we see in Acts.

It's the same model that we see in the early church.

It's the same model we see continuing on through history.

It's the same model that we embrace today.

And it's the doctrine of discipleship.

It's the doctrine of discipleship.

That there's this process as God brings the uniqueness of this group together.

With your strengths and my strengths.

With your weaknesses and my weaknesses.

With your gifts and my gifts.

With your personality and my personality.

With your perspective and my perspective.

All centered and grounded on the authoritative truth of the word of God.

That it's our calling to grow.

To grow.

And that happens through discipleship.

Let me tell you church.

Discipleship is not a program.

But that doesn't mean that God can't take and use programs to disciple his people.

I'm not one for commercials of what we're doing around the church.

But I can tell you that two years ago when God began to lay on our heart to rethink and to restructure and to move into a way where we would see God grow us in the area of discipleship.

And all we wanted to do was be obedient.

We didn't know what it looked like.

We didn't know what it would be.

But it came forth.

And what God did was not eliminate.

But what God did was grow out our opportunities for discipleship.

And we said, look, what we're desiring to do, not just for you, but for ourselves.

My family reaps the benefit of this.

Is to provide you and I with more and more opportunities where we can come alongside one another.

And we can pour into one another and we can teach one another and we can invest in one another so that we can grow in our relationship with God so that we'll see these aspects that are being talked about here.

We'll see them ring true in our life so that we can take what we've been taught so that we can take what we've been instructed and we can pass it down to other men and women so that they can be faithful and do the exact same thing so that the true gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't end with you.

But it continues on from generation after generation and it's not because you and I are good enough and smart enough and capable enough to do it.

It's because the Holy Spirit is all powerful and that's how he worked in and amongst the church.

I love this.

What we do every single Sunday as we gather in this room together to teach and to learn from God's word.

But church, I'm telling you, what you need are men and women sitting shoulder to shoulder around you as we walk through in smaller contexts together.

So we can grow.

So that we can mature.

This card is out there.

We've got five different studies that will start on March the 23rd.

We're covering theology with the doctrine of angels.

Talking about Satan as well and demons and the work that they're doing.

We're talking about grief.

Grief.

Something that very few of us are equipped to walk through.

All of us will walk through it.

And none of us get to choose when we walk through it.

And how do we walk through it in a way that glorifies God?

We're going to have two studies for our ladies.

We're going to have one study for our ladies that will help grow them and teach them with the thoughts that captivate them to set them free.

To stop listening to the lie that Satan speaks and to live in the power of the gospel with what God has for them.

We'll talk about how we can be consumed with the hurry and the busy of this world and in doing so we'll lose track of what God has for us.

And we'll talk about world religions and cults.

So if Sunday mornings work great for you, we've got the opportunity for you to engage and to be a part of this.

And we encourage you to do so.

And you can scan this QR code on the back and you can get connected and everything's good to go.

And if you don't like signing the QR code, go back there and tell Dave and make him write your name down and we'll get you in one.

We've also got small groups, small groups to meet on Sunday morning, small groups to meet almost every single night of the week with an opportunity and a place for you to open God's word, to dive in, to come alongside other believers so that we can walk alongside this, alongside one another.

Now, I'm not saying that you've got to do one or the other.

But I am saying this, that God has called you to be discipled.

And you can't disciple you.

We do it together.

But it takes commitment.

And it's hard sometimes.

But it's good.

We need it.

So would you join me in taking another step of obedience?

For what God has for us.

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you for the truth of your word.

The truth that, Lord, you instructed Titus to teach at Crete.

God, the truth of your word that you call us to teach in Lexington.

God, may we be faithful.

May we be willing to grow.

May we be willing to be uncomfortable.

God, I pray for your Holy Spirit to work and move in us.

Because, Lord, we thank you.

We thank you, Lord, that your word says that this is for the sake of your elect.

Those of us saved by you.

So that, Lord, we can know about you.

We can know about your goodness and your mercy and your grace.

We can know about your plans that you have for us.

We can know your will.

And so, God, that from that, Lord, that we can go and that we can do them.

And that we can live in the power of Christ.

Seeing others come to know you.

For your name and for your glory.

And it's in Jesus' name and pray.

Amen.

We've got prayer and courage on either side of the auditorium.

If you're here today and you're like, I'm not a follower of Jesus and I want to know where to begin.

Encourage you to come and talk with them.

They'd love to explain to you.

They would love to pray with you.

They would love to encourage you and share with you who Jesus is.

But I want to ask you a question to think on.

If you're a follower of Jesus.

Are you growing?

Are you teaching?

Are you sharing?

Are you teachable?

Are you maturing?

Are you frustrated because you feel like you're just stuck?

And you know Jesus and you love him and you follow him.

But you feel like right now, like spiritually speaking, man, those wheels are just spinning and they're not catching.

I just want to encourage you this morning.

Maybe what you have, maybe what you have is a Bible appreciation.

And maybe what you need is a Bible application.

And come and join us.

Pour into us.

Let us pour into you.

Let's sit down together and open God's word.

Let's laugh together.

Let's cry together.

Let's encourage one another.

Let's correct one another.

Let's celebrate what God is doing.

Let us seek what God is doing.

Let us have the reflection of what the church is created to be.

Men and women under the lordship of Christ.

Growing together in obedience to Christ.

So that others will come to know him.

It's discipleship.

That's it for this week's message.

Be sure to check back next week for another episode.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date with everything happening at Willow Ridge

by visiting us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and online at willowridgechurch.org.

Thanks again for listening.

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