Passing Down Ancient Wisdom from One Generation to the Next

I invite you to turn to the Epistle to Titus, written by the Apostle Paul to Pastor Titus. It is a very nourishing and very solid epistle. It contains a very special teaching and was written by the Apostle Paul to a pastor of a church that Paul had helped establish, and Titus had been assigned to pastor that community.

It was almost like starting a work practically from scratch, and it was a somewhat difficult community; that area seems to have been known as a somewhat problematic area and, in fact, had a bad reputation. And Paul felt the need to speak to Titus about how he should deal with this somewhat problematic community. And it is important to know that in light of what he is advising Titus to preach, say, and teach, and how he should conduct himself, because he is doing so in the context of a difficult community, a problematic community, a community with a somewhat prickly character. And, for example, if you go to verse 12, before the beginning of chapter 2, verse 1, Paul speaks about this community and says:

“...One of them, their own prophet, said, ‘Cretans’—because this was the region of Crete, and this community in which Titus was pastoring was located there; and Paul says, ‘Look, even one of their own people said about them: always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons...’”

Have you ever been called an evil beast? I hope not. But it is a good way to insult someone: evil beast, glutton, lazy. What a terrible recommendation. And he says, “This testimony is true.” It is not false; it is true; that is what they are like. And he says:

“...Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith...”

You know, there is also a place in pastoral work for rebuking people. So, if I ever rebuke you, know that I am acting under the authority of the Word. People think pastors are only there to pat them on the head. There are times when we must confront as well; that is part of pastoral work. How many say amen? Hallelujah! Glory to God.

Thank God I am just the opposite, a bundle of sweetness and blessing. No one has anything to say about me. But it says, “Rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith.”

What does the Word do? When one preaches the Word of the Lord, there are times when the Word can be confrontational; it can be unpleasant, as though it pricks you, but part of the reason is that it is also medicine that heals us. Sometimes when medicine is applied to us, it stings and even hurts, but it brings healing and produces life.

So Paul says, use the Word with these people; their truly Christian character must be formed. Therefore, I believe that what Paul is saying must be understood in light of that negative context, that rough, carnal character possessed by this community, which is gradually being formed into a community that reflects Christian character.

So here in chapter 2, he begins a corrective teaching. He tells Titus, look, concentrate on this, preach this, form this kind of character and sensitivity in them; let your teaching be of this kind in order to counteract those negative attitudes they have. We pastors must teach according to what we discern our people need. We must give them the food they need, and the pastor chooses what to give every Sunday, every time he speaks, as he discerns the needs of the people of God. And so Paul says, these are the things that you have to say and teach.

I believe that in the times in which we live, in this social context in which the church operates, when people come to church, they also come needing to be formed. I feel that our calling as pastors and preachers should be precisely that: to forge in our people a certain sensitivity, a certain way of being, a character. I believe that this is the most important part of the Christian life: allowing God, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God to shape our character, our personality, our way of being, acting, and conducting ourselves.

So Paul says, well, this is the diagnosis; this is what these people suffer from; these are their faults. Then he says:

“...But you...” —he is speaking in light of what he has just addressed in his introduction—“Titus, as the pastor you are, must do this; this is how you must teach, preach, and conduct yourself. But you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.”

Brothers and sisters, you know that today pastors and churches are under tremendous pressure to change doctrine or to suppress and remain silent about certain topics and teachings that people consider offensive, that the prevailing culture considers contrary to its appetites, desires, preferences, and what it regards as moral, ethical, and so forth.

Our culture has changed in an extraordinary way; everything is being questioned in our time, from sexuality and human relationships to politics and morality. It is a time of great change. And there is tremendous pressure on the church, on churches, and on pastors to preach only about certain things and not about others, so that people can come into church and feel comfortable, so that their lunch will not be spoiled when they leave church, so that they will not leave feeling confronted, upset, and uneasy. No, people come to be anesthetized. Many people come to church so that someone will tell me something nice, comfort me, encourage me, tell me that I am valuable and that God loves me—and all of that is very necessary and very important. The church should not be a place people leave limping because the pastor has been whipping them the whole time he was preaching. No. I believe there has to be the other side. But many times, we must...

When I preach, I have to draw my teaching from the Word of God, not from the customs of the world, not from the times, but from what the Word of the Lord says. And we must also come to church to be taught, instructed, and formed; and even when the pastor says something we do not like, we have to meditate on it because this man standing here preaching is supposed to have the best intentions. I can only preach what my conscience tells me and what I feel the Word of the Lord is saying. And if you do not agree, at least give me the benefit of the doubt that I am doing everything possible to preach what the Bible calls sound doctrine. In other words, not subtle, exotic, sophisticated, and sometimes heretical teachings, but that good, homemade, solid, time-tested food that withstands the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit and that, when God examines it, He says, “I approve it; I place My seal of approval upon that teaching.”

More than ever, the church needs sound doctrine. Especially in these times, I believe people do not need so many theologically sophisticated teachings, although that is good from time to time; what they need is solid food, spinach, and protein, because these are difficult times.

“...Speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine”—and then he gives him some examples, and you will see that Paul includes a very diverse set of character qualities that Titus must emphasize in his teaching, many different qualities. We are going to see a variety of things and characteristics that he must advise the members of his congregation to acquire and display.

But before getting into that, I see the summary of it all, the coherence within this entire variety of things, as being about Christian character. There is a character, a personality, an attitude that must characterize the children of God. And I believe that the emphasis he places on all these different qualities concerns sobriety, dignity, seriousness, discipline—a restrained demeanor, I might say. That is the emphasis. There are other qualities that the Bible points out in other passages of Scripture, but in this case what is being highlighted are those qualities of seriousness and integrity: sober conduct, centered and well-balanced conduct.

Thus, a sober, dignified, disciplined, serious life. And then he speaks to the older men, and here I believe he is referring not to elders such as pastors, who are elders in the spiritual sense, but rather to people who are more advanced in age, people who are getting older. And I do not think we have to go too far here, to someone who is 80, 85, or 90 years old. I believe it can also refer to the more mature adults in the congregation. But he speaks to the older men because, remember, in those days old age was highly revered. The elders in a community were the people whom one looked to as an example; they were the people who served as models worthy of respect, reverence, and veneration.

So he says that, in a congregation, you must teach the older men, the people who are more advanced in age, to be sober, serious, and prudent. Those are three things that I believe are qualities we should all begin to develop, and we will see later that when he speaks about young men and young women who are of marriageable age or married, he also suggests a very similar spiritual profile. But he mentions about six characteristics regarding the older men—the first ones, I believe, are parts of a whole—sober, serious, and prudent; and then he says that they should be sound in faith, love, and patience.

But let us take a moment to consider these three qualities. I do not think I have time to discuss all of them, but I hope that in the end you will leave with, as it were, a deposit of teaching upon which you can meditate, even if I am unable to cover this entire passage exhaustively. The first quality says that they should be sober. That quality, in the original Greek, nephalios, refers specifically to not being... It is the opposite of a person who is given to wine, who is addicted to wine or alcohol: one who is abstinent, who is sober. But I believe it goes far beyond merely dependence on liquor. And the idea is that they should be people who keep their appetites and impulses under control. I believe that as a man or woman of God grows and develops in maturity, he or she should be a person who is in control of his or her appetites. I believe that this is something one gradually develops over the years, but one gradually subjects the flesh, dependencies, and appetites to the doctrine and teaching of the Lord.

I believe that the word sobriety also refers to a person who is not at the mercy of circumstances, always experiencing tremendous enthusiasm or tremendous aversion toward others. It is a person whose fluctuations do not swing from one extreme to another but who instead moves in a very moderate way—someone sober, measured, and disciplined in his or her emotions.

I believe that this is one of the things we must aim for every day in our lives: to be more and more in control of our emotions and appetites, and to ask the Lord each day to make us more aware of ourselves so that we may know, literally, which foot we limp on, so that the Lord may then bring those things under His discipline.

They should be sober; they should be serious. That is a very interesting word, the word semnos. In fact, how many of you attended this past Wednesday’s service? I know that some of you were here, and if you were not, ask the Lord to forgive you right now. I certainly forgive you. In the Epistle to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul also speaks of a series of qualities. When he says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is honest,” that word honest is the same word Paul uses here for serious. I was saying that in Philippians, that word translated into Spanish as “honest” is not exactly what the original Greek means.

The word semnos refers instead to possessing a certain dignity, something honorable, a way of walking with a certain dignity. And it refers to that quality that a person—a man or woman of God who has experience in the ways of the Lord—should possess: they should be distinguished by dignified conduct, honorable conduct worthy of respect. So it conveys the idea that we, the servants of God, are not crude people who are always going around slapping others on the back and telling jokes left and right. Nor does it mean that we should be overly solemn, but there must be a certain demeanor, a certain dignity. As one matures in the Lord, one should conduct oneself in a serious, sober, and dignified manner.

The other word is prudent, sophron or sophronein, which means that they should have self-control, that they should be in control. It is the same word Paul uses when he says, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, of love, and”—the word sophronein—“self-control.” But it also means a sober mind, a sound mind. They should be prudent.

Do you know what the word prudent means? A person who thinks things through, who speaks when it is time to speak, who has the right word, who conducts himself discreetly. And as you can see, these three words—sober, serious, prudent—form something like a photograph, a profile of a man who is mature in the Lord, and this can also apply to a woman. We must possess that restrained character, that sober conduct worthy of a person who has been dealt with by the Holy Spirit and who thinks things through before doing them, who is not carried away by emotions and appetites but is controlled by the Word of God.

The complete opposite of the profile of those people when they come into the church—the Cretans: beasts, gluttons, idle, liars. This is the complete opposite. And certainly, as we children of God grow in the faith, we have to keep asking the Lord, “Lord, make us behave more and more each day with that dignity, with that character that inspires reverence and respect from others.”

So, sober-minded, serious, prudent. It says that they are to be sound in faith, in love, and in patience. In other words, to be sound means to be balanced, refined, healthy in those 3 areas: in faith—clearly, they must have a solid faith and be people of solid doctrine—and they must also be people who know how to make their way through the trials and difficulties of life; sound in faith and in love. A man who is mature in the Lord, a woman who is mature in the Lord, has to reflect that loving character. The older we get, the less we should be like grouchy old people. Have you seen the caricature of the cranky, quarrelsome, difficult, eccentric old man? A Christian should be the complete opposite. As the years go by, they should become more loving, more tender, more tolerant of others, so that people want to be with them rather than the opposite.

In love and in patience—that word patience is ‘jupomone’; it means in fortitude, in endurance, when trials and difficulties come. He is talking about men, but again, I say that these things can certainly also apply to all of us; nevertheless, these should be some of the character qualities of the elders in the congregation, the mature people in the church.

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in their demeanor.” That is a very beautiful idea. I wrote Catestemate ieroprepeis here, and it means… it is extremely interesting because Paul wrote these things in the original Greek: that their demeanor should be fitting for a holy person; that they should conduct themselves and walk in such a way that, when people see them, their bearing and behavior are fitting for someone who walks in holiness. This is interesting in connection with this word semnos, serious. He is applying that same kind of qualities to a woman who is mature in the ways of the Lord as well.

I think that, tying this in with what I preached last Wednesday about everything that is honorable—which we also call everything that is honest—we should think about these things. It is a quality of the child of God as God continues to deal with us. I certainly believe that the servants of the Lord, both men and women, should acquire that bearing. It does not mean that we do not laugh; it does not mean that we do not have a good sense of humor. But there does have to be that characteristic of a certain reverence in the way we walk and behave, a certain manner.

Think of a king or a queen—Queen Elizabeth in England, for example—and how, when she greets people, when she is riding in a car with a crowd around her, she waves her hand like this, very gently, with great dignity. Not like, “Hey, how are you all doing?” That is how it is here in the United States; here it is the complete opposite. Here, the president is supposed to mingle with everyone, have a beer with someone from television, and tell jokes. The old sensibility was that a person who moves at certain levels should behave with a certain dignity that reflects who they are. We are kings and priests, does the Word of the Lord not say so? Tell yourself, I am a queen, I am a priest, and then behave that way; let us see what is going on here.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their demeanor. The worst thing you can have out there is an elderly woman in a miniskirt and fishnet stockings pretending she is 25 years old. I believe you have to embrace your age, and the same applies equally to a man, wearing a huge chain around his neck at the age of 80 and acting like a teenager. No, you have to be reverent; you have to behave in a certain way. We ask the Lord to help us grow old gracefully and with dignity. But that does not mean we are just going to give up and die, sister, understand me. Put on your lipstick and your little heels; do not worry. As long as God allows you to do it, do it; that is good. But be reverent in your demeanor.

Not slanderers. Listen, a gossipy old woman is the worst thing in the world, brothers and sisters. And a gossipy old man too, an elderly man—no, no, we have to be… Slander, gossip, and murmuring are things that are not fitting for a son or daughter of God. We have to rebuke that and remove it completely from the church. Our speech must be seasoned with salt, the Word says. If you want to add a little sugar and cinnamon too, even better.

A child of God has to speak in a measured way; their words must carry weight, rather than slandering people and speaking ill of them. People should be able to trust a child of God because they know that child of God will not stab them in the back.

Not slanderers, not slaves to wine. Imagine an elderly woman completely drunk, staggering around like this—that is death itself. Older women must be sober-minded. But again, it is not merely about drinking. I believe that any kind of… what it is referring to there is that self-control, that restraint we must have. If your addiction is Coca-Cola, well, sister, ask the Lord to help you drink less Coca-Cola. Whatever it may be, we must be in control of our appetites and in control of our emotions.

Let us ask the Lord for the self-control that is fitting for a son or daughter of God. Are you still with me, or are you bored? Because this is not sophisticated teaching; this is rice and beans with stewed meat. It is home cooking, but it is very healthy.

Not slanderers, not slaves to wine, teachers of what is good. Caladidas calos. Say that 100 times really fast. It means that they are to be good instructors in what is good. A female servant of God should be distinguished by the fact that words of teaching and wisdom come from her mouth. And it is interesting that he then applies this to the role older women, the more mature women, are to play in instructing the younger women of the church.

I know that all the sisters are now saying, “Oh, that applies to me. I am the young woman, and the older women should teach me.” Because there are no older women here. It says that they are to teach the young women to love their husbands and their children.

I am going to get into something that may be a little controversial for the liberated women in our church and for the professional, modern women of our time. But I was struck by this idea of the more experienced women discipling the younger women. That was a custom that could be very easily understood in ancient times, but nowadays I believe the custom of young women seeking out role models and mentors who can help them learn the role of a mature Christian woman in the Spirit has been lost—because it has to be mutual.

And I want to apply that because, in truth, that was what captivated me most about this passage. I believe that in our times we have lost something that has been a very important quality throughout human history: the transfer of culture, the transfer of ancient knowledge from one generation to the next. Nowadays it is completely the opposite, with young people… You see, for example, I have a lot of difficulty with this idea of churches for young adults, which is so common in the United States at this time—churches where you do not see a single older person, but everyone is somewhere between 20 and 30 years old, and that is it. And I believe that is contrary to the Word of the Lord.

What I believe in instead is that transfer in which the old instruct the young and receive energy from them, while the young bless the elderly with their vitality and strength and learn from them, and they mutually shape and work upon one another. The devil has sought to divide the generations in our time, and you see that nowadays the world is, in many areas, practically governed by young people. For example, the world of technology, the world of music, the world of cinema and the media—much of that is governed by people in their 20s and 30s. They are the ones who code computers and handle the music side of things; all those people are young. Today youth is greatly glorified; old age, not so much. And I believe that this is partly what is causing many of the serious problems we have in our culture.

Paul tells Timothy: teach the older women to instruct and mentor the younger women. And that means that the younger women must allow themselves to be mentored and display an attitude of wanting to be taught. Because many times we adults and older people want to teach the young, but we encounter that barrier: do not touch me, stay out of my life, all under a false sense of independence and this notion that you have to respect my space. You see 10-year-old children telling their father, “Respect my space.” And parents often allow themselves to be intimidated by that.

I believe that what God wants is a healthy closeness in which adults who have experience and have been shaped by life go on teaching. And that was what captivated me most about this passage, and that is what I want to dwell on. Perhaps I do not have enough time to unpack everything I am telling you here, but it says that they are to “teach the young women to love their husbands and their children, to be prudent, pure, keepers of their homes, kind, and subject to their husbands.”

I know that if I were speaking out of my own flesh, you would now be throwing bananas, tomatoes, and lettuce at me up here, because this is so contrary to the culture in which we live. Many women say, “Me, take care of my home? Respect my husband? Submit to him? Forget it.” Everyone pounces on anyone who dares to say it. That is why I believe it says here to teach sound doctrine. In other words, the church has to teach what brings health to cultures and nations. When that is lost, when we pastors allow ourselves to be intimidated and do not preach these things because we are afraid of what people may think, we have lost the sound counsel of the Word. We are robbing our congregations.

I believe there is a profile for a man and a woman—and I am now talking about youth and about the character and behavior of a Christian man and woman—that has nothing to do with the twenty-first century, the twentieth century, the twenty-fifth century, or whatever century it may be. This is something age-old and eternal.

Paul tells him: have the older women teach the younger women in the congregation; disciple them and mentor them so that they will love their husbands and their children. As I said, I do not have enough time to go into each of these things, but let me tell you something. I believe that one of the things that has been lost in this time, amid the flux of culture, changing roles, and the liberties modern culture takes in shaping people, is that even in many churches this sort of thing can no longer be preached. That is because, in a very subtle way, what the Word of the Lord says has been replaced by another kind of understanding that has been reached little by little, very quietly, and everyone has come to an agreement: We are not going to preach these things, and if we do preach them, we will do so in passing, rushing on to the next verse where we are on safe ground. And things that are so important are no longer preached.

Brothers and sisters, at this time, when human sexuality is in such a state of flux and undergoing such change as never before in history, Christian families have to place great emphasis on teaching their children what the behavior of a man and a woman should be. Now I am not going to speak so much about character itself, but rather about what it means to be a good wife, what it means to be a good husband, what it means to be a masculine man, and what it means to be a feminine woman, because this is very important.

I know that I am wading into very deep waters. Yesterday I was in a store, and as I was walking down its aisles, I saw an American woman who looked about 35 or 40 years old. She appeared to be—I am sure she was—quite well educated, and she was with a little girl who was about 10 or 11 years old. When I saw her, I was struck, and Meche says I am quite a troublemaker because I am always observing the drama of human life. So what struck me when I saw her was that the girl was wearing athletic pants, a sports cap, and a sports T-shirt. I looked because she seemed to be a girl, but frankly, I was not sure. I saw her from behind, and she could have been a little girl or a little boy. And I observed the mother as well… Incidentally, I may be imagining a whole world of things here, but I think I am a fairly good observer, that God gives me a certain degree of discernment, and I feel quite confident in saying what I am saying. And if not, in any case, she does not even know that we are talking about her.

The fact is that I observed her carefully, and then I saw her from the side, and she was a little girl, a young girl, because her anatomy was already developing to some extent. But what captivated me was that, apart from that, her behavior made it very difficult to tell whether she was male or female. And I believe she was already displaying certain characteristics… she was rather androgynous; she could have been male, she could have been female, and her mother was completely at ease. And I wondered, how must this mother feel? I suspect that she was…

We are at a stage where nowadays even children—I recently learned that they are being taught... Juan Carlos was telling me that in Colombia, and here in parts of the United States, children are being taught, “Don’t decide what you are yet, because you are neither male nor female; that is something that is decided little by little and that culture teaches you.” There is a lot of talk about that, and every day, more and more in this culture here in the United States, I see more and more people whom you look at and do not know whether they are men or women. Am I right or not? How many of you have had that experience?

And sometimes you observe someone and do not know whether the person is a man or a woman. Meche and I were traveling, and there was another young person, about 12, 13, or 14 years old; but again, I studied and examined the person carefully, and I did not know—I could not tell at certain moments—whether it was a girl, a young female. Meche assures me that it was a female. Or perhaps it was a young woman with serious fluctuations in terms of her feminine identity, or a boy—that was what I thought—with serious difficulties regarding his masculinity.

But nowadays, increasingly, in the world in which we live, human sexuality is being questioned as never before in all of history. And we—what I want to say is this—as the church of Jesus Christ, as fathers and mothers, you young mothers and fathers and those who will have children in the future, do not be afraid to teach your sons or daughters to be masculine or feminine. I do believe that there is a way of being a man and a way of being a woman. Forgive me, but that must be taught continually. And from the time our children are born, we have to teach them.

Because there is a biological masculinity that is anatomical and chemical, hormonal, but beyond that there is also what manliness is, what that masculine character is, what that feminine attitude is, and I believe that this is important for a human being’s health. As for little boys playing with dolls, well, up to a point; but I believe that little boys should still play with action heroes, and they must be taught to do things, because we are living in a dangerous time. Nowadays, you almost have to tilt things in the opposite direction because the force pulling the other way is so great that, in our homes, we have to teach our sons what it means to be a man and our daughters what it means to be a woman. Sisters, I believe that we must teach our daughters how to take care of a home.

I believe that, whenever possible, one should exercise... I know that this varies; everyone is different. From the time she was little, Abigail knew that she wanted to have children and wanted to learn to cook and all of that. It took Sonia longer; she is entering that stage now. Sonia has been more intellectually and professionally oriented, but she too is now learning how to take care of a home as she looks toward getting married soon. And I believe it is important, whenever possible, for mothers to disciple their daughters so that they begin looking toward the future, when those daughters will have a home.

I believe that nowadays, in this modern world in which we live, young people go into marriage thinking it is fifty-fifty: you take out the trash today, and I will take it out tomorrow. You wash the dishes today, and I will wash them tomorrow. And I believe that there clearly has to be mutuality. Here is Meche, who will not let me lie. Meche, do I wash dishes at home? Of course I do. If I have to wash, if I have to mop, I believe in all of that. I am covering myself in advance so that you understand what I am saying, sisters.

This idea that women are the ones who do everything at home while the man arrives and sits down to watch television, as the woman comes home from work and then also starts cooking and washing the dishes and doing everything, going to bed at two in the morning while he has been snoring since nine at night—I do not believe in that. But I do believe there is something very special that we need to teach young women as they grow, because nowadays I see these young people, and at 13, 14, or 17 years old, you do not see in them the ability to woo a woman. How do you woo a young woman? How do you speak to a woman; how do you treat her? When they have to enter a home and raise and educate children, where will they learn these things if there is no mentoring, if we parents do not teach our sons to be manly?

I believe that in a relationship between a man and a woman, the man possesses a certain natural aggressiveness that is necessary, provided it is controlled. I believe that part of a homosexual’s problem is that he has not learned to get in touch with that aggressive, manly side in relation to women. And if he can often find that voice, it is much easier to deal with that situation.

But I do believe that, whenever possible, we should teach our children—the church of Jesus Christ has to educate our young women—to be homemakers, to know what it means to care for a home, to respect a husband, and to submit to a husband’s leadership. At the same time, the man must also be taught to protect his wife and family; not to be oppressive, controlling, harmful, or violent toward his loved ones; quite the opposite, to be a figure of Christ in the home, while also knowing that there is leadership.

I believe in the leadership of the man, and I believe there is something beautiful when a woman respects her husband and also when the man does not abuse that right but serves his wife as Christ, Scripture says, served the church. Then it becomes a wonderful dance in which the woman respects her husband and the husband overflows with love for his wife. That is precious.

And I believe that this should be preached, brothers and sisters. If the church of Jesus Christ remains silent about these things because they are not politically correct, because they run counter to the culture, we are depriving our people of the opportunity to hear these things that they need to hear. That is what sound doctrine is called, brothers and sisters, and that is what this society needs at this time: that we parents in the churches educate our children, discipline them, disciple them, and teach them.

Women of God, make time to teach. Mothers, teach your daughters to be feminine; prepare them for marriage, because those couples who are fifty percent and fifty percent will often have serious problems, and that is what we are experiencing nowadays with marriage and with so many other things. I believe it should simply be a relationship in which each one gives themselves completely for the other.

If I teach nothing else, brothers and sisters, it is this profile that I see here: young women loving their husbands and their children, being prudent—there is that word prudence again—chaste, pure, women who behave properly, who dress like married women, who conduct themselves in a modest and sober way, who take good care of their home, who make sure their house is not turned upside down, with pants strewn across the floor. Put your house in order; take care of your home. They should be good, gentle, unassuming, and subject to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

In other words, because Christ made us free, we are equal; yet this often brings disrepute, and many men who might be drawn to the Gospel are then scandalized by the behavior of a woman who is now discovering her freedom and equality in Christ. They are scandalized and do not come to church. I have often seen husbands who do not come to church, not because they are difficult, but because their wives do not set an example for them.

There are others who are simply stubborn, and even if the woman threw herself down on the floor before them, they would remain stubborn. But often the woman has to be wise. Sister, receive as much of this as you can and apply it as you are able. I believe you should read the word of the Lord, and this has its applicability.

Likewise, exhort the young men to be prudent. There is something here for everyone: the young men are to be prudent. Older men, older women, young married women, and young men. I believe this is also important: there is something beautiful about young people who behave respectfully. I thank the Lord for the young adults. I see something very beautiful in these young adults, in this young-adult ministry: God is raising up that group in a very beautiful way, and if any of them are here, I want to encourage them. I see characteristics that I believe are very solid and very biblical, in the sense that they are people who want to help their church.

Recently I heard them say, “Look, when we gather, we are using air conditioning and other things. Let us also begin giving offerings to help our church with its expenses.” There is a certain obedience, a certain submission, a certain teachability, a certain gentleness. I see certain qualities that God is blessing, and I hope it remains that way, because there is something beautiful about young people who allow themselves to be taught, who respect their elders, who love their elders, and who express that desire for contact, intimacy, and fellowship. That is very important.

That is the way the Christian family will prosper. It is an intergenerational family: the older people, already experienced and molded by the Holy Spirit, possess certain qualities; they instruct those who will pass through different seasons of life, mentoring and discipling them. Those younger people allow themselves to be taught and instructed; they respect and love. That is the glory of God on earth. There is blessing. The Spirit of God then moves in a very beautiful way.

And to us pastors, it says, “In all things show yourself to be an example of good works.” It is true; we have to set an example, and we have to behave properly. Preaching morality while wearing nothing but your underwear—how can anyone preach that way? It is not that we must be perfect, but we do have to be examples and conduct ourselves in a way that supports what we are preaching.

In teaching, showing integrity and seriousness, sound and irreproachable speech, so that the devil may be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about you. And that is what I have sought to do this morning, brothers and sisters: to give teaching that, as the Word says, is sound, like an ointment that one applies to an irritated wound, soothing the burning, bringing peace to the heart, and healing the people of God, because God’s people need that healing. We must show integrity in what we preach. That is, it is not about what people like to hear, but about preaching what the Lord dictates.

This morning, before I came up here, I asked Him, “Lord, help me preach Your Word—what You want me to preach, not what people want to hear, not what I want people to hear so that they will say, ‘Oh, how good the pastor is,’ but a word that comes from the Holy Spirit for the people of God.”

Let us learn to appreciate and be grateful when the word of the Lord is preached to us, even if we do not like it, even if it unsettles us a little; for that is why we come to the house of the Lord: to be unsettled. May God create in us that character of a people molded by the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us ask the Lord that, as a church, we may be that people with whom God is pleased, that we may have healthy families and raise our children in the fear of the Lord. Father, we open our hearts to Your Word; we open our souls, Lord, to Your teaching. Begin with us, Father. We present to You our children and the generations that lie ahead. May our church be a hospitable place for healthy spirituality, and may this pulpit always be a place where a word of integrity is preached, a word backed by a life, and may our men and women, our young people, and our marriages reflect that health and healing befitting the house of God.

We entrust this word to You and ask You to help us live it out, Lord, each day for the glory of Your name, in the—in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.