Don't Be Deceived - Titus 1:10-16

Today we're going to be in Titus chapter 1, so you want to turn

Titus 1 · chapter mention

there. Titus chapter 1 is a small.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

Book of the Bible. Fits on about a page and 1/2 in

my in my Bible and so it's after second Timothy towards the end

if you don't have a Bible. They would love to.

At the welcome center, get you a Bible either now or before you

leave to make sure you have one. But as you guys turn there, the

Titus chapter 1 I want to. Just take you back to.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

Probably an all too familiar event, an all too familiar event

in your lives, in my life. I just want you to imagine with

me that you're either on your phone, computer or TV and you're

consuming news. The way that you usually.

Watch the news so maybe it's through your an app.

Like TikTok or X? Or maybe it's through some

certain TV channels. I just want you to remember what

that's been like maybe the last few weeks, but really in

general. And I want you to imagine with

me that you're on one news channel or you're flipping

through the algorithm and you see a post that interests to you

or something on the TV that that draws your attention.

And you see, you start to pay attention and listen to what's

being said. And as you listen, you, you hear

a very clear and somewhat compelling version of facts and

truth. And so you're like, OK, sounds

good. I guess that's what happened.

And then you swipe and scroll or change the channel and all of a

sudden they're talking about the same thing.

There's a new person talking about the same thing, yet they

seem to have conflicting facts, A conflicting version of the

truth. Now that's.

Probably fairly familiar, and was.

Also probably. Familiar, and I'm not asking you

to raise your hands, but how many of us, after experiencing

that went on a little bit of a deep dive, more of a deep dive

than we probably care to commit or admit into the rabbit hole of

the Internet of. Whatever choice it was for you.

And this happens, you know, in the last few weeks, it's felt

particularly like a temptation, I think.

And but it happens all the time. And it doesn't just happen for

us people who live in the digital age and a digital

society. It happens to us as embodied

humans with people we know. And it happened to Paul,

happened to Titus, happened to the church on Crete.

In fact, that's part of why Paul.

Writes this letter to Titus. And today we're going to.

Read. What Paul's instruction to Titus

is to instruct the church on how to deal with conflicting.

Facts. How to deal?

With the temptation to dive into the rabbit hole of conspiracy

and to dive in the rabbit hole of legalism.

And we're going to see what Paul's instruction is.

So if you guys will turn, if you haven't already, to Titus

Titus 1 · chapter mention

Chapter 1, we'll be in. Chapter.

Sorry, verses. 10 through 16, but I want to remind.

Us all of what? This context.

Of this letter is what? Paul is writing to so Paul's

writing to Titus, and I'm going to read.

Verse 5. For us, just to remind us this

reason, Paul says I left you in Crete that you should set an

order, the things that are lacking and appoint elders in

every city as I commanded you. So Paul is writing.

To Titus, but this. Letter is not just.

For Titus. To read devotionally or

personally. It's a letter for Titus.

To do something with namely to go from city to city, town to

town, place to place and establish leaders.

Notice what Paul doesn't say He could.

Have said this, but he doesn't. Say this.

I might have said this if I was writing Titus.

He doesn't say, though. Titus, go and find the

population center of Crete, buy a building, renovate it, see

what you can do, and then send out information to all the

cities and all the towns. And then you, Titus alone,

instruct everybody in what is true, what is right, and what is

good. He doesn't say.

That he could have. Said that, but instead he says

go from city to city, town to town, place to place.

Find men of good repute and establish them as you talked

about. Last week as elders.

As elders who are qualified elders who are trained leaders.

Pastors, overseers, Paul says. And so this letter was.

To be read by Titus. To be used to establish churches

all throughout Crete. And it was.

To be used as he traveled to read to the church.

And so as we sit here, it's not just for pastors.

Elders, people who are leaders. It's for every Christian.

Paul is has in mind every believer in the household of

faith to be listening to this, understanding this and knowing

this is. What Titus is up to?

This is what the elders. Are up to the pastors, the

overseers. And this is what I need to be.

This is what I need to do to make sure that the.

Truth. Of the Gospel remains central to

the church on the island of Crete.

So I love this verse. It's.

I bring it up 1 to show the context, but two, because it's a

lot of people have a life verse and there's a lot of great life

verses out there. This is my work.

Verse, and it really is a verse for.

Any pastor, but in particular I get to oversee the communities,

the Calvary communities of our church, the missional family of

disciples. That we have.

All throughout the city and part of my role is to go around to

find different places. Where there is no leader.

And to raise up a leader, to multiply leaders and to make

sure that there are communities of faith in.

Every part of our city and so I love this verse it's.

Helpful for us and Paul says this is the reason why we need

to do. This he says. 4 You need to

establish leaders good sound. Leaders 4 verse. 10 There are

many insubordinate idle talkers and deceivers.

Now that probably sounds a bit familiar, right?

We probably can imagine a caricature.

Or maybe. Very particular people.

That we know, whether online or in person, that that sound like

this. They're insubordinate when you

confront them with truth, they they, they don't listen.

They don't really care what anybody else has to.

Say. They just know what they had to.

Say so they say it. No matter what, they're idle.

Talkers, they just say whatever. Comes to mind whether it's.

True or whether it's. Not whether they they know it to

be true or whether they've looked into it.

Their idol talkers and their deceivers.

Not only do they say things that they think maybe are true, they

say things that they know, they teach things that they know are

not true. And Paul hones in on one group

of people that was particularly a problem on Crete.

He says. Especially those of the

circumcision and those are the circumcision, not a term that we

probably use, probably not one that you used in the last week.

And if you did, people. Probably looked at you funny,

but it's a term that in Paul's day and from the other writings

that we have of Paul's in the New Testament, we know was

referring to ethnically Jewish Christians.

So people who are. Jewish by by their.

Ethnicity but they're now Christians who were saying that

although. Christ had fulfilled the law.

We. Still need to follow.

Every detail of the law. Including the laws of

circumcision. So they were going around to

Greeks and Gentiles and saying you need to be circumcised

according to the Torah and. Follow all that the Torah has to

say. And so in our day, you may not

have those people in our lives, we may not know those people, we

may not be aware of anybody trying to tell us that exact

thing. But we do know people.

Of this stereotype. Of this makeup, They're

religious people, people who we maybe.

Would say are overly religious. Meaning that they add things

that most of us would say that that's not a part of the gospel,

that's not how you get saved. It's by grace alone, by faith

alone. It's not through the the

following the Torah. Jesus fulfilled it.

And, and in their day they were saying they need to do this and

they need to do that. You need to do the ritual hand

washings and and sacrifice at the temple.

In our day, it might look a little bit different, but there

are people in church around church that add things to the

gospel, religious people who seem to be.

Too religious too. Intellectual for the simple

truth. Of the gospel.

The Gospel. Seems too simple.

So there needs to be more. There needs to be a deeper

knowledge and a higher. Set of rules and this.

Reminds us that from Paul. 'S day all the way till our day.

The the main problem, the main opponent of the church, the main

form of corruption, comes from within, not from the outside.

In fact, the Church is more hurt by corruption from within than

it is from those. Outside of the church.

He studied church history from Paul's day.

To up to our very. Time and you know that to be

true. So Paul is writing to Titus to

say. This is what you need to do in

the church to make sure that the simple.

Gospel, The gospel that Jesus brought, the gospel of Jesus is

taught faithfully. And this is what he says you

need to do verse 11, just to warn you, it's going to sound a

bit. It's a bit like a cultural.

Heresy as Americans, but it's important for us, he says.

Verse 11. Whose mouth must be?

Stopped in. Other words, these people need

to be silenced and remember the context.

He's writing to Titus in the church, right?

As Christians in America, we do value.

Right, free speech and. Having open.

Dialogue with people who disagree with us and.

Trying to win them for the gospel.

Having good conversations that lead to God.

Conversations that become, hopefully, gospel conversations

as people give. Their life to Jesus.

Like we want to have that. We don't want to silence

everybody that disagrees. We want to talk with them and

have. Dialogue and to grow together

and to hopefully see them give their life to Jesus.

But within the church, truth needs to be protected.

Within the church, we need to be careful to hold to the simple.

Truths of the Bible the simple truths of the gospel the church

is that the. Bastion of truth in a city.

It's a place where people. Should know that they can step

into any church. Gathering.

Whether it be a Sunday gathering at 1-2.

Three auto drive. Or a Wednesday gathering.

Or a Tuesday gathering in a home throughout the city.

They should know that if I step into there, there's going to be

a group of people who are committed to the same thing they

have the same view on life from. The Bible, it says that.

These people need to be. Stopped because they subvert

whole households. Teaching things which they ought

not for the sake of dishonest gain.

And again, this probably sounds somewhat familiar.

We can all think. Of people who teach.

Things that we disagree with that probably aren't true, that

most likely aren't true, maybe we actually know that they're

not true and the reason that they teach them, the reason why

they peddle them is so that they can sell something.

Whether you get support for their quote UN quote.

Ministry, whether it's to sell some product or.

Whether it's to get subscribers, likes, followers.

They. Peddle false that they peddle

lies to get us to follow. For a dishonest gain.

It's one of the hallmarks. Of what these people, these.

Teachers are like, and now why does this matter, Paul?

Says verse 11, who subvert whole households.

It matters. This matters like truth matters.

These people need to be silenced because there are households

that are being subverted now, not just like nuclear Family,

mom, dad, kids, households. Remember the context.

Paul is writing to Titus as he. Travels around Crete

establishing a network of churches, a network of churches

that most likely most often met in homes.

And so he's saying there are. People, these teachers.

Deceivers. Who are going into these

churches, into these households of faith, and they're teaching

things which are false. They're teaching things.

Which are deceptive. They're teaching things which

are insubordinate with the gospel.

They're stepping into a Calvary community and and they're using

the whole discussion. To teach about their pet

theology or conspiracy theory. And this is something that we

run into from time to time, something that we help coach

community leaders through. And they're great at it.

They might, you know, from time to time think.

Let me give a moment to to this question.

And that question becomes the question for the next 7 weeks as

they continue to preach on their.

Pet issue. These people subvert whole

households. You see a community of faith.

You see it nationwide. Worldwide, where there's a

church that starts to believe. Something off slowly and surely

the. Church drifts from the Gospel,

so whatever. Their dishonest gain was they

were subverting whole households.

Maybe maybe they had a corner on the Dove market and they knew to

get people to simply. Sacrifice more doves.

We could make a ton of money off of this.

Maybe they had the corner on the the holy water and they knew

they. Could sell this holy water.

Make a killing. Whatever it was.

They knew they could make money off of what they were teaching,

and they're teaching it for dishonest gain and subverting

the households to which. They taught it.

Now Paul's going to quote one of their own, and I want us to read

this in the in the correct way, because there's one way of

reading this and it sounds really, really harsh, and it's

meant to be a little. Harsh, but Paul's also.

Saying this a little bit tongue in cheek, so see if you can

notice. It's kind of hard to pick up on,

but see if you can notice the. Joke that he is.

Kind of telling while also delivering a hard.

Truth here, verse 12. One of them a prophet of their

own. Says this.

Cretans are always liars. They're always liars.

They never tell. The truth?

They're evil beasts. In fact, in their day, one of

the jokes about the creation Cretans was that there weren't a

lot of wild animals on the island.

And they would joke that they didn't need wild animals because

there were enough Cretans to make up for enough evil beast

wild animal Cretan people that they didn't need any of the wild

animals of other islands. And then finally he says lazy

gluttons. To which Paul says this.

Testimony verse 13 is true. This Cretan who says that

Cretans never tell the truth is actually telling the truth for

once. And that's the little tongue in

cheek right there. And it would as Titus.

Reads it to the Cretans. They would put them the little

on their heels with a little. Smile on their face, probably.

He got us. Yeah.

We, we don't always tell the truth.

And we are a little bit mischievous.

And we we do often do things for the wrong reason because we're

lazy and we're gluttonous. Now, we probably wouldn't

exactly as Americans line up with those things, but maybe,

maybe you could say something like this about people in our

day who. Peddle what they call truth.

For the wrong reasons, which is actually false.

You say, Well, Americans, they. They love the value of free.

Speech. And so they're going to use it

no matter, no matter how they can, even if they know they're

teaching things false, they're going to.

Use their freedom of speech. To do it and Americans, they

love their money, they love the capitalism.

And so Americans are going to say whatever they want to say to

make whatever money they can make, because that's what

Americans. Are like a little harsh, right

but also a little true as we. Scour the Internet as we meet

people in our city, as sadly as we even meet people in our own

church as Paul is instructing Titus to deal with.

We find people. Who are?

Teaching things that are false, that don't accord with the

truth. Of the Gospel.

For dishonest gain. According to the values of

their. System, the American system,

verse 13, Paul continues, says this testimony.

Is true, therefore. He's going to hone in on really

exactly what we should do. So silence them.

But how do you silence them? Because there's a lot of ways to

silence the person, some more harsh than others.

What's Paul? 'S version, he says first.

Rebuke them sharply. I want to pause there because

this, this is important. We need to hear this part.

Rebuke them sharply. Dealing with heresy, dealing

with lies in a church community requires.

Sharp rebuke requires it. We.

Have to be willing to have hard conversations with brothers and

sisters, whether it be in a Sunday gathering, whether it be

in a community. Or throughout the week.

In your life with believers you know we have to be willing to be

bold for the. Truth and to rebuke each other

sharply, we. Have to be willing to do that.

We have to be willing to know the truth and stand on the

truth. We have to be willing to do

that. And Paul continues, comma that

they may be sound in the faith. We have to be willing to have a

card conversation to stand firm on truth.

Why not? So people run away angry and

bitter. With a lot of church, but so

that they are. Sound in the faith.

The word sound here is also. The word for healthy?

In other words, we want to confront people, rebuke them, so

that they can live. A healthy life with.

God, the goal is love. The goal?

Is Communion community the goal? Is that we would.

Continue to be unified around the truth, and this is

important, rebuke them. Sharply, for the right reasons.

Chesterton puts. It this way he likes this to

war. He's a great British pastor and

writer. He says that the true soldier.

Fights not because he hates what's in front of him.

But because he loves what is. Behind him.

In other words. We as Christians, we don't.

Fight because we hate. The person in front of us, we

don't fight because of that. We don't go into the city and

preach the gospel. Because we hate people.

We don't stand in the church and have hard conversations with

those that we are in community with because we hate them, no.

We do it because we. Love what's behind us.

We love the church community. We love the gospel.

We love that. Which we are fighting for and

our hope is to not see that person lost, but to see that

person one, to see that person unified with the rest of the

body. Verse 14, Paul continues, and

he's going to give us a little bit more information about what.

These false. Teachers were talking about and

see if you can draw any. Parallels to our day.

Verse 14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments

of men who turn from the truth. So there's these Jewish fables.

In our lexicon, the way that we probably.

Would talk about this. On the streets of Boise, not

giving. Heed to conspiracy theories all.

Right, not giving heed to the. Theories of the world that we

would say that that's a conspiracy theory.

Isaiah said it. This way in his time, just in

case you think that this is a new problem as Americans where

you hop online and you talk to somebody that you know at work

and all they can talk about is the conspiracy around XY or Z.

Isaiah says this. Isaiah 8 verse 12 do not say a

Isaiah 8:12

conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy.

In other words, he's saying do not worry about the.

Conspiracies of this. World do not call everything a

conspiracy, he says. Take things as they.

Are take them for fact and I heard it said.

This week and I found this really helpful.

Actually had a friend share this first with me and another

friend. They said, you know, there,

there is one conspiracy. That we should give.

All of our time to you know that.

There are a lot of conspiracies out there.

That don't really matter. But there's this, really.

Great conspiracy, one that we've all heard of.

And it's this conspiracy. That there is this guy A.

Couple thousand years ago, who lived in the ancient near East

and he claimed to be God and he walked around the.

Sea of Galilee, different places.

And he, he healed people. He.

Preached this message that was really making people upset but

also bringing life to others and he he told people he was going

to die he told people he was going to bring healing and life

through his resurrection and then he died he.

Died. And a day passed and he didn't

rise, and they remembered he'd been stabbed.

Through his. Through his.

Sigh. Where blood and water had flown

out, he'd been buried and wrapped in gauze and sealed in a

tomb. And two days passed and they

they sat. There and his followers.

They weaved and they mourned, and then on the third day they

went to visit him. And what did they find?

Well, they found that what he said would happen, actually.

His disciples said they said it. Happened this man, this man

named Jesus had risen from the grave.

And the conspiracy goes not just that he he rose from the grave

and lived. But that he is still.

Alive today and this friend that pointed that out said, you know,

there's one conspiracy theory to go after.

It's that one. And when you get to the bottom

of understanding. Who Jesus was who?

Jesus is and what he did and what he's doing.

Then maybe you can have time to deal with a couple other

conspiracy theories, but not until you.

Figure out the whole breadth. Of knowledge that Jesus wants

you to know. So in other words, really our

all our time here on earth should be spent knowing Jesus.

What he did, what he's. Doing and what he will do.

So they're given their time. They're teaching these fables.

And the second is that they've turned from the truth to

commandments of men, in other words.

To legalism. They're saying, you know,

there's some secret things, some conspiracies that we want to let

you in on for maybe the low cost of 599 a month and we'll get you

in. And they're saying and also

there's some extra. Rules that.

Probably, you know, Paul and Titus, they didn't tell you

about these rules because they're holding out on you.

Sounds oddly familiar, right? Genesis 3 the enemy saying to

Eve some things God held out with you on, some extra things,

new things, some things that are actually beneficial for.

You that the church or that Paul?

Doesn't want you to know. And so again, for the low cost,

so 599, I'll tell you what those things are and then you can do

them. And Paul says.

These people. They're being the typical creed.

They're lying, they're giving heed to the false things,

they're creating new rules, and they're making it harder for

people to know. Jesus and harder for.

Them to follow him. Then Paul starts to confront

some of the commandments that they were teaching.

In verse 15. He says to the pure all things

are pure. With a.

The circumcision was saying is that there's things that aren't

pure, like you can't eat all these things and you need to do

things a certain way to be pure yourself.

Temple rites and ritual washings and sacrifices.

And Paul says no, no, remember what Jesus did remember?

What Jesus did, he created. Clean people, pure people,

people who had been purified from the inside out.

And for those people, all things, everything is pure.

But to those who are defiled. And then believing nothing.

Is pure but. Even their mind and their

conscience are defiled that First off sometimes.

I hear this verse used. In a in a way.

That's to do. Whatever you want to do

sinfully, this is not what Paul is saying.

He's not saying that to the pure, everything is pure, even

sin. So go ahead.

Sin all you want and if anybody could confronts you about it,

just tell them that they're just not as.

Pure as you I've heard it used. That way, as a dangerous way to

use it, what Paul is saying is that pure people cleanse people.

People have been washed by the blood.

Of Jesus they choose what is good.

And they? Are what is good.

As they become more and more like Christ.

But to those who are defiled, he says.

Everything they do is bad. Remember, there are people

showing up to church gatherings and teaching something that

seems somewhat good, right? Like most people would say, it's

a good thing to do. Teach the church.

And it seems good, but even that good thing that they're doing,

trying to quote UN quote. Help the church.

Is actually a defile thing. It's actually an evil thing.

This is even their mind, the things that they're thinking

about, their conscience, what they feel, even those things

are. Out of whack they are.

Wrong. And So what does this mean for

us? You can find people like this in

all of our. World, there's people who.

Everything that. They see every.

Conversation that you have with them, they're pointing out

what's impure, what's broken, what needs to be fixed and.

There's levels to that that's. Helpful.

There's also a point where they're adding things and

they're doing more and they're saying that there's an extra

piece. To the Gospel.

And so how can we tell the good from the bad?

Who can tell a teacher? That is.

Teaching truth and helping the. Church versus a teacher that.

Is teaching something that is deceptive and false and contrary

to the gospel? 1 by by knowing the Bible and

being able to test things based on that.

But Paul gives us this great test in verse 16.

He says they profess to know God.

These false teachers, they profess.

To know God, but in works they deny him being abominable,

disobedient and. Disqualified for every good

work. So right off the bat.

Paul says in works. They deny him, in other words.

They have this great talk, they have all these rules, but what

they actually do, if you were to watch their life?

Doesn't even live up to what? They ask of others.

They say people need to do this, but they don't even do it.

Their talk does not match. Their walk and.

Their life doesn't match the. Bar that they set for others

the. Second thing Paul says is they

are abominable or if you have the NLT.

It says disposable. And they live in a way that that

God himself looks at and says that is revolting and not just

God. There are people that you would

look at if you saw. Their life in the whole of it,

you'd say. Not that life.

You'd teach them some things that are interesting, but.

Look at your life. Doesn't seem like a life that I

want. It seems gross.

It seems vile. It seems contrary to the way

that I see. That Jesus lives the good life.

To be able to to see that, we have to be able to know people

personally and see their lives. Disobedient pulses, meaning that

they will not be convinced. You might try to convince them,

and you might try to convince them with truth, and they won't

even be convinced by. Clear cut truth.

They don't care. They won't submit to authority.

They won't submit to Titus, to Paul.

They won't submit to. God disqualified, Paul says, for

every good work in other. Words, even the the things that

they say. That they do that are good.

Are not good when they try to bring order to the church.

They actually bring this disorder when they try to bring

truth. To the church, they actually.

Bring falsehood now for most of us, right we we might be able to

use that on people in our. Lives, which is great.

We know a lot of. People, and this will.

Help us as we hear. Something false from someone we

know. We can see their life, but in

our day. As we live digitally, there is a

problem. A lot of us can't see the lives

of those that maybe have been teaching us online.

And so Paul gives us another test in Timothy, first Timothy

chapter one verse 4. And he says don't give heed to

fables. And this test is all about the

message. How do you test the message?

If you can't see the messenger, how do you test the message?

Don't give heed to. Fables and endless genealogy.

Which cause? Disputes rather than godly

edification which is in faith. So 2 tests from this.

Is this dispute endless? In other words, could you get to

a conclusion? That you could stick to is

there. Some way of knowing what the

answer is? Or are you bringing up your

issue in the Calvary community and you talk about it?

Week after week after. Week.

And it's this endless thing because there's no actual way to

discern whether what you are saying is true or not.

We need to be people who are. Concerned with what the Bible is

concerned with. The Bible is very clear.

On what the Bible is. Concerned.

With maybe people who care about that.

And then secondly, is this discussion edifying?

Or is it helpful? If we were to find the solution

to this problem or to this debate, would anybody's life

improve, or would we just be kind of in the same place?

But no one ever helped and no one ever cared for, and nothing

really changing. There's disputes like that, that

we can argue back and forth and they might be fun and they might

be interesting, but in the end we can never tell.

What is actually true? And even if we could, no one

would be helped. And so then how do we do?

This as a church because. Remember Paul?

Paul's concerned about. Individual believers.

The Church. Was going to hear this

individually and the whole church, everyone included, all

of us would have the responsibility to test people

and to to keep an eye out. For false teachers.

But Paul is also concerned for the church doing it corporately,

remember, and Titus taking care of making sure each person in

the church. Was well cared for.

So first thing is we need. To copy Paul's strategy now

Paul's strategy here is is very. Telling and it's very important

and it's something that that we're doing our best and getting

better. With year by year to.

Copy and to implement. As we try to raise up leaders.

Who can as verse 9 says. Hold fast to the faithful Word.

As he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine.

Both to exhort. And convict those who

contradict. Want to raise up leaders to

serve? In kids ministry and youth

ministry in the area. Where I serve to serve as

Calvary community leaders. So that there can be people.

In every place of our. City who know truth and know how

God thinks about things. Know how to discern truth from

falsehood. People that you can know

personally and see if their life matches up to their teaching.

People that can know you personally and can see the areas

in which your life has gone off the rails or some way which

you've been deceived by the enemy or by the.

Culture or by yourself? It was our goal to to raise up.

More and more leaders. To raise up.

More people to send out to start communities all throughout our

city. And it would be cool if we had a

community in every neighborhood where everyone in our church was

well known and that neighborhood was well known and prayed for

and people in that neighborhood knew.

If I have a question about. Faith if I have a.

Question about God. I know there's this house that

every Tuesday or Sunday. Or whatever day that there's a

group of people that gathers. There and they study the Bible

and they pray and I know I can go ask them know that those

neighbors care about truth and they and they might be helpful

in this. So Paul, he didn't remain

silent. He didn't say, hey, just get

away from everybody. He said establish the right

leaders over the right church. He did not succeed from the

church. He could have said, you know

what, Titus? Let's just do our own thing.

Let's not worry. About it let's just.

Start new churches and they say, I'm going to go into those

places. I'm going to do what's right and

let's go find the lost. You'll find the confused and

bring order. Second, we want to make sure we

maintain Paul's standards. We want to make sure we maintain

Paul's standards. And so as we raise up leaders,

there's a temptation always right to to raise up leaders and

say, well. We need more leaders and so.

We're going to lower the standards and Paul very clearly

last week's passage. If you didn't hear the sermon,

go back and listen to it. Or just.

Read it, it's very clear the standards for leaders.

People that are going to. Keep the church on track are

very high. They need to stay high and we

hope to only raise those standards.

And so if you're somebody here who is.

Maybe here for the first time. Or maybe you've been a part of a

church, been a part of our church even, and you always had

these questions and these doubts, and you've never known.

Where to work those? Things out the best.

Place to do that? The place where?

You can be personally known and personally pastored by a

community leader is in the Calvary community and then for

some of us, we're strong in our faith.

We know what's right. We meet the qualifications of.

Leaders, overseers of elders and.

The step for you might. Be to take a group.

And to continue to. Be a leader that you.

Are over an increasingly. Sized group of that.

Might be a Calvary community, might just be some people you

know, might be coworkers. But to continue to lead and now

I've been kind of plagued by, not really plagued by, but I've

been pondering this question this last week.

If we were. To experience revival, I want us

to all think about this. If in the next year, just

imagine this might say revival. Imagine in the next year God

brought as many people as normally come to him in 10

years, in one year in our city. Just imagine that.

Imagine Boise goes from however many believers are in Boise and

that just multiplies. By like 3 to 5.

Multiplies by like 3 or 5. What would we do?

My the question that's plagued. Me is would we actually be ready

for that? I know that there's faithful men

and women of our. Church who pray for that

regularly. That God would move here in a

powerful way. That their neighbors and

coworkers, friends and family would flood into the church.

That there would be true. Revival and the question that

that that's been haunting me all week because I read this is.

Would we actually be ready for that?

Because when revival comes, when the move of God comes, the enemy

fights back and and false. Teachers deceptive.

Thoughts. And teachings.

Arise and so I wonder if God through.

Through Titus is preparing us. And say hey, just.

Just get us an. Order.

Let's set in order the things that need to be set in order.

Let's. Raise up leaders.

But my count like to serve. Our our whole church.

We have about 20 communities. We had 70.

That would be the minimum that would actually.

Serve our whole church. And then we had 70 and and and

say our church double s in size had those ready to multiply.

We could be ready to help at least double the amount of.

People each week. That we help and that we serve

and that we pastor and we'd be ready to make sure that as

people come to faith in Jesus, they don't just come to a

knowledge that they are quote UN quote sage, but don't know how

to live out the teachings of Jesus.

That they enter into a house that's ready for them, that

loves them and is ready to help them and teach them.

And at the very least, even if that never happens, we simply.

Do a better job. Of upholding truth and

discipling people in our church. SO wants to think about that.

And Paul's instruction is for all of us as we think through.

As we scroll, as we talk, as we live our lives, there are people

who. Are going to try to convince us

that there's more to. The gospel or less to the

gospel, Try to. Convince us that there's secret

things or higher things, and Paul's instruction is for all of

us, hold on to the truth. Of the Gospel hold.

On to the truth. Help others to do the same.

Thanks for joining us today. If you would like to watch the

full service, check out the link in the description.

For next steps and to learn more, visit calvaryboise.com.