The Obedient Church

The Obedient Church

Pm September 20th 2009

Titus 1:5-16

Introduction

Last week we began a six part series through the book of Titus, the title of this series is “Will the true church arise”. The purpose for this series is to compare our church to the biblical model for church and see how we stack up, how we measure up to the bible, and the way God ordained for the church to operate.

Last week we learned what the five calls of the Church are, and they were to serve, to live godly lives, to live hopeful lives, to uphold the bible, and to make disciples.

Tonight we will learn about being an Obedient church, and what an obedient church looks like, again it is my desire that compare our church to this biblical model and see how we measure up, and again the challenge will be, if there is any area where we don’t measure, then we should take steps to measure up.

Read Scriptures: Titus 1:5-16

I. The Obedient Church fulfills its God given Purpose.

Vs. 5 “The 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.”

What is the purpose of the Church? The purpose of the church is to see to it that the gospel is spread throughout the entire world.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”

I will submit to you First Baptist Church if we are not seeing to it that the gospel is advancing in our community, in our parish, in our state, in our country, and in our world, then we are not an obedient Church.

Paul gave Titus a purpose for being on the island of Crete, and that was to appoint elders in every town where there was a church, and organize the Church, and that reminds us tonight that we have a God given purpose for being here in this community, and that is to spread the gospel.

II. The Obedient Church calls and appoints obedient leaders

Vs. 6-9 “An 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. Since 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. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He 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.”

The churches standing in the community, will only be as good as the standing its leaders have in the community.

If the churches leadership is bad, then the standing in the community will be bad, and listen I am not just talking about the preacher. I believe that is why God puts passages like this in the bible, it is not only found here in this book, but also in other books in the New Testament.

An obedient church is one who appoints obedient leaders. Well preacher what qualities should a leader have to be a leader in the church.

1. Blameless. Now blameless doesn’t mean perfect, because if that were the case then we would have no leaders, but it does mean in the community no one can stand up and make an accusation against the leader. Whether that is dishonesty or gossiping, or what have you, a leader should be blameless.

2. Husband of one wife. Here we go, there is a debate that has been going on for years as to what this means. Does it mean that if a leader’s spouse dies and then remarries then they are not fit to be a leader, I will submit to you no that is not what it means. We know that we have the mandate from scripture that if you are married, and your spouse dies then you have the freedom to remarry or as the apostle Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 7:39 “The must belong to the Lord”.

Does it mean that if a leader has never been married then he is not fit to be a leader, and again I will submit to you know, in fact this same apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7:32 “I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how can he please the Lord.”

What if the Leader is divorced, should they continue in leadership, now we are getting down to the brass tax of the issue, you have to ask the question, for what reason is the person divorced, are they divorced because the leader either committed adultery or just walked out of the marriage for no good reason, or are they divorced because the spouse committed adultery or just walked out for no good reason?