“Unfinished Business!” - Titus part 1
Thesis: Many of us have been given a task that is unfinished by the Lord and we wants us to complete it for Him. The result if we accept these missions is that many will come to understand the truth, many will embrace the truth and many will live by the truth.
Text: Titus 1
New International Version
Titus 1:1 (NIV)
1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—
Titus 1:2 (NIV)
2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,
Titus 1:3 (NIV)
3and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
Titus 1:4 (NIV)
4To Titus, my true son in our common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Titus 1:5 (NIV)
5The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
Titus 1:6 (NIV)
6An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.
Titus 1:7 (NIV)
7Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.
Titus 1:8 (NIV)
8Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
Titus 1:9 (NIV)
9He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
Titus 1:10 (NIV)
10For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group.
Titus 1:11 (NIV)
11They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.
Titus 1:12 (NIV)
12Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”
Titus 1:13 (NIV)
13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith
Titus 1:14 (NIV)
14and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth.
Titus 1:15 (NIV)
15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.
Titus 1:16 (NIV)
16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
Introduction:
Titus was given the task by Paul and the Lord to minister to the Cretan people and to make sure that he completed the unfinished tasks and to raised up leaders - elders in each town so that each church would have spiritual leadership which would hold to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Titus was given a couple major responsibilities by the Apostle Paul so that the Crete people could be discipled in accordance with sound doctrine.
In this near year of 2004 my challenge for you today is to have you answer the following question: “What unfinished business is there in your life that the Lord wants you to complete?”
In other words:
• What tasks have you not completed that you know you need too?
• What action points in your life still have remained motionless?
• What messages are still unspoken?
• What appointments have been unscheduled and ignored?
• What gift given to you by the Lord still remains dormant in your life?
• What ministry opportunity in your life remains on the back burner?
• What passion for Jesus is left chained in the corner?
Many of us have had the answers to these questions race through our mind in the last few moments. I honestly believe the Holy Spirit is speaking too many of you about the necessity of finishing the unfinished business in your lives. The message is delivered to you today just like in the movies Mission Impossible. They hear the mission then they get the choice to accept it or to reject it. You have that choice today. You can accept the responsibility of completing the task or you can reject it and go on with your life as is. It can stay the same – no thrills – no challenges – just the mind set of getting by – just a ho hum life – or you can decide to step out complete the unfinished business for the Lord.
Titus was an individual just like each you here today who when faced with a Mission Impossible for the Lord accepted the challenge and as a result experienced “More of the Lord” in his life.
Video Illustration: The Beginning of Mission Impossible when the agent accepts the Mission.
We look a video clip like this and we admire this man for accepting the mission and all the risks that go along with it. The truth is we envy this man because he is willing to live his life on the edge and seize the adventure. He is willing to take risks so he can be the hero who saves peoples lives from the enemy.
Truth is each of us here today can do the same for the Lord and the people around you in this very community. You just have to be willing to take the risk-accept the mission-get out of your comfort zone and really serve the Lord through the adventure.
Illustration- Risks
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out for another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing, your true self
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failure
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing
They may avoid suffering and sorrow but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live
Charmed by their attitudes they are a slave, they have forfeited their freedom
Only a person who risks is free
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
Risk taking should be an indispensable part of the Christian walk. When we look back over church history we see Christians who risked all to make a difference for the Kingdom of God. These individuals had courage to begin something or take a stand for God in the midst of difficult circumstances. For some it meant ridicule, slanderous remarks, becoming laughing stocks in their community, it meant being condemned by their community, it meant imprisonment, it meant personal loss of family, friends, and finances. It meant facing a dangerous situation. For some it cost them their lives. But all these risk takers made an eternal impact for the Kingdom of God.
1. Titus a man willing to accept the missions that seemed impossible and difficult.
a. Titus was a Greek Christian who was converted by the Apostle Paul. Paul said at one point that Titus was “my true son in our common faith” (Titus 1:4).
i. Paul stood up for Titus against the Jewish Christians who said that non Jews had to be circumcised to be accepted by the Lord. Paul won his case inspired on by the Holy Spirit and set in motion that Salvation was by faith alone in Jesus and not in accordance with works like the Jewish tradition promoted.
b. Titus surfaces in the Bible on different occasions: He is eluded too in Acts 15, He is mentioned in 2 Corinthians, and in Ephesians.
i. Titus is often referred to as one of Paul’s travel companions on his missionary journeys.
ii. Titus had been charged before this charge in Titus with the Mission to go to the Corinthian church and deal with the immorality, the divisions and the other sins going on in this church.
iii. He accepted this mission and went and we are told that he returned to Paul with joy and his spirit refreshed from the Corinthians (2 Cor. 7:13).
iv. A time later other difficulties arose in Corinth and Paul sent Titus back to deal with these issues as well. Once again the unfinished business was completed and the church and the Christians were blessed Titus ability to complete the tasks for the Lord at hand.
1. As I studied about Titus I discovered a man – not a superhuman man just a man who followed the simple faith of The Gospel impact people’s lives.
2. In essence he became an agent of change for the Lord.
c. He accepted difficult Missions- missions which seemed impossible to complete but he succeed with the help of the Lord and simple faith. I see that this young man had a determination to complete the impossible tasks he was asked to finish.
i. From my study I never see him saying no to a mission impossible.
1. He never questioned Paul’s assignments, judgments or demands. He said “yes” because I believe he wanted to serve the Lord with his whole heart.
ii. He is an individual portrayed with organizational skills, problem solving skills, managerial skills, interpersonal relationship skills and teaching skills that transformed people’s lives.
iii. Rutherford says, “Titus was not merely a good but a capable man, tactful and resourceful and skilful in handling of men and of affairs” (EErdman’s, 2989).
iv. Maxwell says Titus was “…a troubleshooter, like Paul, Titus was a tough, bottom-line decision maker…a task-orientated specialist. Paul sent him on a number of special assignments that required a specialist…a teachable servant. He demonstrated himself to be a meek and willing learner under Paul’s tutelage…This servant-leader proved valuable in reaching Asia Minor, since he was a Gentile himself” (Maxwell Leadership Bible, pgs. 1490,1491).
2. Titus accepted the mission to complete the unfinished business in Crete and made history, and honorable mention in the Bible.
a. You may be thinking what was the unfinished business? Good question lets learn from Titus what that was.
i. I see that he was to silence the rebellious people, the deceivers in Crete according to Titus 1:10-11
1. You may ask why? Well the word tells us that he needed to stop them because they were ruining people’s lives and destroying family units in Crete so that they themselves could profit dishonestly from it.
ii. Sounds like a serious mission doesn’t it?
1. Let’s take our thoughts out of the text for a moment and apply this to today. Does this sound familiar?
a. Are there false prophets out their today giving people advice that is ruining there lives?
i. Are their false prophets out their promoting things that are destroying family units?
2. If we are really honest with ourselves we can say that what was happening in Crete is happening to day in America.
a. There are many false Prophets out there giving advice on how to live and ruining peoples lives:
i. Drugs are fun and you can control them.
ii. Put yourself first.
iii. Life is all about you.
iv. The one with the most toys win.
v. Life is about financial success.
vi. Sex before marriage is okay it won’t affect anything.
1. Truth is those who live together before marriage have about a 70% divorce rate.
2. Compared with the normal 50% divorce rate.
vii. Divorce does not hurt anyone.
1. The phrase in Malachi 2:16 springs out to me “I hate divorce!” says God. Why does he hate divorce you may be thinking? Well if you have ever been involved in a divorce or had a close friend or family member go through it you see why. Divorce- rips people’s hearts apart. Just look around at what divorce has done to our society:
• Men and women who divorce have a increased likelihood to switch from Christianity to none (Leora E. Lawton, Journal for the scientific study of Religion 2001.)
• Divorce is associated with a range of pour outcomes among children. Compared with children with continuously married parents, children with divorced parents continued to score significantly lower on measures of academic achievement, conduct, psychological adjustment, self-concept, and social relations (Amato, Paul R., Journal of Family Psychology, 2001).
• Parental divorce especially weakened relationships between adult children and their fathers. While parental divorce harmed both son-father relationship and daughter-father relationship, the harmful effect was stronger in the former. In addition, the dissolution of a marriage of one’s children had a negative effect on all child-parent relationships (Gayle Kaufman. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 1998).
• Divorce causes economic hardship: Mothers especially face a decrease in income which leads to increased stress for the parent and the possibility of more time away from home because of a the need of more income (Cancio, Orbuch, & Thorton, 2000).
• A decrease in the amount of time of parental supervision and involvement in the child’s life (Cancio, Orbuch, & Thorton, 2000).
• A significant amount of children in divorced scenarios lose virtually all contact with their fathers. Some reports of father contact after divorce reveal the following statistics:
o Families who have experienced divorce less than two years had 43% father contact with the children.
o Families divorced 3-5 years had 33% father contact with the children
o Families divorced 6-10 years had 19% father contact with the children.
o Families divorced 11 years and up the father contact percent goes to 12%. (Demographics of Divorce, by Robert Hughes Jr.).
• Rutgers University Sociology Prof. David Popenoe, and Jean Bethke Elshtain, Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago divinity School. Concluded that the decline of marriage is mainly responsible for the deteriorating well-being of children.
• Richards and colleagues followed 17,000 children born one week in 1958 in Britain, United States and new Zealand. They discovered the following:
o He found that children of divorced parents, on average, left the house earlier and started families sooner than did the children of “intact” families.
o Middle-class girls were especially affected by divorce, he found. They had a 45% chance of marrying by age 20, while children from intact families had a 15% of marrying young.
o He also stated that children of divorce suffer a rapid fall in their self-esteem after the divorce.
• 85% of prisoners, 78% of high school dropouts, 82% of teenage girls who become pregnant, the majority of drug and alcohol abusers – all come from single – mother- headed – households (Washington Times 12/19/95).
• According to the National Center for Health Statistics, a child living with his/her divorced mother, compared to a child living with both parents, is 375% more likely to need professional treatment for emotional or behavioral problems and is almost twice as likely to repeat a grade in school, is more likely to suffer chronic asthma, frequent headaches, and/or bed wetting, develop a stammer or speech defect, suffer from anxiety or depression, and be diagnosed as hyperactive.
• Another study discovered:
o 63% of all youth suicides
o 71% of all adolescent chemical/substance abuse
o 90% of all homeless and runaway children come from single parent households according to David Garrod
viii. We can now see why God hates divorce.
b. We still today see people trying to undermine the message of Jesus for example: The new buzz in the secular world is the book the Da Vinci Code. Christianity Today has this to say about the book:
i. Perhaps you’ve heard of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. This fictional thriller has captures the coveted number one sales ranking at Amazon.com, camped out for 32 weeks on the New York Times best seller list, and inspired a one-hour ABC News special. Along the way, it has sparked debates about the legitimacy of Western and Christian History. While ABC New feature focused on Brown’s fascination with an alleged marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, The Da Vinci Code contains many more (equally dubious) claims about Christianity’s historic origins and theological development. The central claim Brown’s novel makes about Christianity is that “almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.” Why? Because of a single meeting of bishops in 325, at the city of Nicea in modern-day Turkey. There, argues Brown, church leaders who wanted to consolidate their power base (he calls this, anachronistically, “the Vatican” or “Roman Catholic church”) created a divine Christ and an infallible Scripture-both of them novelties that had never before existed among Christians. Brown is right about one thing and not much more. In the course of Christian history, few events loom large than the Council of Nicea in 325.
3. Truth is there is still a lot of unfinished business left here in America today.
3. Titus was instructed to complete the unfinished business of teaching sound doctrine and the best way to do this was by appointing Elders in every town who would teach sound doctrine.
a. Titus was to do what Maxwell says is the Law of Reproduction.
i. This simply implies that we should be preparing leaders to lead the people so as to preserve what God has done in people’s lives.
1. Maxwell notes that this is accomplished by the following method (1492):
a. Choose the men
b. Cultivate the models
c. Create the ministries
d. Construct the management
e. Communicate the mindset
f. Celebrate the mentoring
ii. It’s all about making sure that people are taught the truth- that they here sound doctrine.
a. Sound doctrine :
i. Brings unity not disunity
ii. Brings life not death
iii. Brings a servant attitude not a self-centered attitude
iv. Brings freedom from bondage
v. Brings actions of love not hate
vi. Brings hope not hopelessness
vii. Brings peace not chaos
viii. Brings security not insecurity
ix. Brings forgiveness not unforgiveness
x. Brings faith in God not in oneself
xi. Brings wisdom from above not below
xii. Brings a tamed tongue not a vile tongue
xiii. Brings thanksgiving to the hear not bitterness to the heart
xiv. Brings changed lives not unchanged lives bent on evil ways
xv. Brings about people who want to please God not others
2. According to Titus these Elders had to model an appropriate lifestyle.
a. When a person knows God his lifestyle aligns with the Word of God.
b. Titus will know an Elder because their life will look like the following:
i. He will be blameless- have experienced God’s forgiveness and his life models it.
ii. He will not be overbearing.
1. He will be a servant-leader not a authoritarian dictator style leader.
2. He will be fair.
iii. He will not be quick-tempered
1. Fly off the handle over nothing all the time.
iv. He will not be given to drunkenness
v. He will not be violent
1. Cruel in his approach to others
2. An abuser of others
vi. He not pursue dishonest gain
1. He will be honest and trustworthy
vii. He will be hospitable
1. Welcoming to all
viii. He will be one who loves what is good
ix. He will be one who is self-controlled
x. He will be one who is holy
1. Has the gift of holiness in his life
xi. He will be one who is upright
xii. He will be one who is disciplined
xiii. He must be one who will hold firmly to the trust worthy message of the Gospel.
1. Why? So he can encourage others.
2. So he can refute those who oppose it.
Conclusion:
In this near year of 2004 my challenge for you today is to have you answer the following question: “What unfinished business is there in your life that the Lord wants you to complete?”
In other words:
• What tasks have you not completed that you know you need too?
• What action points in your life still have remained motionless?
• What messages are still unspoken?
• What appointments have been unscheduled and ignored?
• What gift given to you by the Lord still remains dormant in your life?
• What ministry opportunity in your life remains on the back burner?
• What passion for Jesus is left chained in the corner?
Many of us here today need to follow the model of Titus and accept the mission God has for us and complete the unfinished task at hand. But it all depends on your willingness to say yes to the mission.
So what is your choice? Yes or No!*
