Monumental Ministry to a Monumental Generation part 1

Now as most of you know we are loading up most of our students who are headed to student camp tomorrow bright and early. I heard the groans this Wednesday night when I handed out the instructional sheet about what time we were to meet to depart. We will be attending glory day student summer camp which is held every year in the little town of Ocoee Tennessee. This year there will be nine churches attending a little over 180 people and this might surprise some of you but this has been the 17th year that we have hosted glory day student summer camp. Now I'll share a little more about the history a little later on in the message.

Now the name and the overall theme of what we do at glory days each year comes out of a little psalm psalm chapter 24. I would invite you to mark that down and go look at look at that a little later in your own personal time. We are setting apart a unique time and a unique place to ascend the hill of the Lord. We desire to meet with Him and we desire to dig deep into His Word and we are working to build a generation who desire to seek the Lord's face and who desire to know Him and know His ways. This is the overall theme and purpose of what we do no matter what the theme is the teaching theme each year. Now there's a backstory to all of this.

Most of you know that I spent 10 years doing full-time student ministry work. I spent six years at First Baptist Church in Ellisville, Mississippi and there we were able to build a ministry almost from scratch, almost from the ground up. Then I spent four years at East Haven Baptist Church here in Brookhaven and there we worked hard to try and reform the ministry to be more balanced and healthy and really to be a part of the overall work of the church. Now there are two things that God did in me during those years of student ministry and really serving in any capacity in the life of the church.

Two things that have lasted in me throughout these years and these two things have impacted this church in you really more than you know. I began years ago a constant fight. I mean a constant fight against unbiblical programming and events and ministries within the church. I worked hard to reform programs like Sunday School. I refused to partner with certain ministers and ministries because they were unbiblical. I started from scratch a lot of ministry because I wanted solid biblical ministry and all those years if I had a Wednesday night student worship service or Bible study it would always be word of God focused or centered.

A mission trip would be to help the church and to propagate the gospel not just to do good works. Now what about this student camp called glory days? Now its origin came out of that great struggle praying and fasting and seeking the Lord and desiring to put a group of students in the life of the church in a unique place for the Lord to work in their life. When I left student ministry truthfully I did not think that it would continue but other ministers that we partner with, friends, they strongly twisted my arm to continue in this work and we've had many great successes.

We've had ministers of the gospel, ministers born again at a student camp. We've had ministers wives born again. We've had many many young people saved and we don't have invitations and signed cards and count numbers. No we never ask we just hear about it later or even sometimes years later. Every year we get emails and we get phone calls and we get text messages about what God did in somebody's life. Sometimes five, six, seven years later they still talk about things that God did and how it molded them into the people that God wants them to be.

The last two or three years we've even had young men whom God called into the ministry and they are in their seminary years and they are relating back to us things that we taught them and how they're helping them in that journey. And then second I begin to see that student ministry needed to be a part of the overall work of the church. It needed to be a small part of a larger work which included the total church and the family. I began to reform my ministry long before it was popular for some the right books and speak about the subject of reforming the work. I worked hard to involve parents within the ministry.

I worked to assist parents in their jobs of raising their teenagers. I wanted the ministry to assist parents not to take their place or their responsibility. I worked hard to bring adults and church leaders into the part of the student ministry. I worked to get teenagers involved in the other areas of the church. I wanted the ministry to be a greater part, a part of a greater work within the life of the church. Ultimately that approach hurt me. Truthfully I was accused of trying to start a church within the church and I discovered the hard way that you can't have a healthy ministry unless you have a healthy church.

One piece of the pie is only as good as the whole. Now question, what does this have to do with Nola Baptist Church today? This is very relevant to where we are in the life of Nola Baptist Church far more than you know. And what I mean is this, we have worked hard here in the life of Nola to give healthy balanced programming within the life of the church. What we do is word-centered and we strive to have balance in these areas of the life of the church. We do not get out of whack and lose sight of teaching God's Word. We do not let one ministry take over and dominate the life of the church.

This leads me to what I believe we need to see this morning in the Scriptures. Now this is not an advertisement for student camp. You might say, "Pastor, you're being opportunistic." No, that's not the case. There is something that I believe we need to see from the Scriptures and really and truly glory days this event, this ministry within our teenagers lives, it's a timely example of what we're going to study this morning in the Scripture. This is a part of our summer series. We call this series Messages from the Pastors Heart and these messages I believe are doing a monumental work in us.

They've been doing a great work in me and Brother Keith as well. And we're just unfolding what the Lord has been laying on my heart for quite some weeks during this summer time. Now our Lord is preparing us, I believe, as His chosen instruments to be used around the world and that is the chosen instrument of the church. Now this morning we're going to go back to our Titus passages. I know they're open before you from our Scripture reading earlier. I read chapter 1 of verse 5 but then we're going to spend most of our time starting in verse 2 of chapter 2. I'll go back and read verse 1 and on down.

Paul says to Titus in verse 1 of chapter 2, "But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith and love and perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, that they may encourage the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, to be pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible in all things.

Show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach in order that the opponent may not put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us." And then I'll pause there because he transitions to talk about slaves relating to their masters. Now a little bit about context. What do we have here as far as context with the verses that I've read? What's going on in the book? Paul is writing to Titus while he is serving there in the church on the island of Crete.

Now Crete was a little island there in the Mediterranean Sea and Paul administered there with Titus and he left him behind to continue the work. That's what we see in verse 5. "For this reason I left you there in Crete." He was to continue to work. Now Titus was the faithful companion of Paul. He traveled and he ministered with Paul extensively. He's called Paul's fellow worker back in 1 Corinthians 8 23. He was well known in the New Testament work. He is mentioned 13 times in the New Testament and he is mentioned nine times the book of 2 Corinthians alone.

He even accompanied Paul and Barnabas to that very important Jerusalem Council meeting there in Acts chapter 13 15 and that took place in Jerusalem. Now other than Timothy, Titus was the most faithful and the most promising upstart elders under Paul's ministry. He would have been considered one of his right-hand men. Now simplistically what's going on here? There were churches there on the island and in his apostolic authority Paul leaves Titus there on Crete. He appoints him to continue that apostolic work. Now notice the church. Notice this church, this church work going on here and this is just a brief summary.

In chapter 1 verses 5 to 9 Paul gives Titus instructions on appointing elders. There were no elders in the church. In verses 10 to 16 Paul gives instructions on dealing with some unsound doctrine that was influencing the church. In chapter 2 verse 1 Paul tells Titus to teach sound doctrine. See this was in rebuttal to the unsound doctrine. But in chapter 2 starting in verse 1 on down to verse 10, Titus is called to deal with very practical matters. He was to deal with home life and marriage. He was to teach on sound doctrine in those areas as well as to be a great example to many different people in the life of the church.

But we also see a different teaching setting. This is very important to see. This was something we are very very familiar with and we do not realize it. The setting was, the teaching setting was, the local church. Now there are four observations I want to make here this morning. Some of these are very quick. Some of these are very quick and then I'll make some application at the end of the message. This has been our pattern. I'll put before you these four observations. We see teaching from Titus to the church in chapter 2 verse 1 and then we see teaching from Titus to the younger and this is seen in verses 6 to 8.

And then we see teaching from older to the younger and then we see from men to men and then women to women. And this is all in these verses. And like I said, some of these are short. Some of these we'll spend a little more time on. The outline, the major outline is before you. As always we encourage you to take notes as we progress through this message. Now we've read our scripture so let's get right into our outline. Number one, notice we see teaching from Titus to the church. We see teaching from Titus to the church back at verse 1 of chapter 2.

But as for you, and you could insert the word Titus there, that wouldn't be inaccurate, but as for you Titus, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Now here with this one verse we see one of Titus's major duties there on Crete with those churches. He was to lead the church. He was to correct the church. Yes, he was to organize the church. He was to govern the church. We see all of that in chapter 1 verse 5. What does he say? Said all of these things in order. But in verse 1 of chapter 2 we see that he was to teach the church. Paul reminded Titus of those who are propagating the bad doctrine.

In chapter 1 verse 10, Paul says this bad doctrine was of the circumcision, meaning it pertained to the misuse of the Jewish law. And so in chapter 2 verse 1, Paul tells Titus to teach. Teach sound doctrine in the life of the church. This would have been done in appointing those elders that the churches needed desperately. He was to teach these qualifications that were listed in verses 6 to 9 in chapter 1. He was to deal with these practical matters that we spoke of in chapter 2 verses 2 to 10. And there were also doctrinal themes that we see in the book even though it's very short.

Teaching concerning God's grace and salvation and the deity of Christ and also his second coming. Within the book there is the doctrine of the atonement that is taught within Paul's writings. And then there's also material on the regeneration of the lost and the renewal of the believer. And see, Titus was to teach all of this and more. Now what is my point here? Titus was to teach the church concerning these matters and much more. He would have been their primary teacher since he was in the align of the Apostle Paul. And there were no elders. He was appointing and he was training those elders. But he was the pastor of these churches.

We see right up to this point to the end of the letter he was the pastor. And he was to shun this bad doctrine. Chapter 3 verse 9 tells us he was to deal with divisions that had crept into the church possibly in chapter 3 verse 10. All of this and so much more show us that Titus. We see that Titus was to teach in the church. But then the second major truth in our outline, we see teaching from Titus to the younger. We see teaching from Titus to the younger. I want to go back and read verses 6 to 8 because this is very important. And then we'll make some observations. What does he say? Likewise.

You could insert Titus name there because he's addressing Titus. Likewise, Titus. Urged the young men to be sensible in all things. Show yourselves to be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine. Dignified. Sound in speech which is beyond reproach in order that the opponent may be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us. So here we see a few specifics concerning Titus teaching and his preaching position. I want to use that language. Not just what he taught but who he taught. And that is important for us to see. Verse 6 says that Paul commanded Titus to teach the young men of the church. Is it that what we see?

Go back and look at verse 6. Likewise, Titus. Urged the young men. Urged those young men. All the commentators that I consulted render this term young men just what it says in the English Standard Version or the New American Standard. Young men. Now there's one commentator that I ran across. He said that this term referred to young men 12 years age of age and older. So what are we seeing here? Paul instructs Titus there in the churches to teach the young men of those churches. So it is obvious that Titus was to put forth the effort to instruct this particular age group within the church.

In his apostolic wisdom, Paul saw the need for specific teaching in the lives of these young men. Notice this was concerning practical things. Things that refer to or pertain to what? The Christian life. It's a short list but there is so much. But notice this list real quickly. Verse 6 says that he taught them to be sensible or to be self-controlled. Now this encompasses a lot. This speaks of living a life of self-constraint and discipline. This speaks of mastering their youthful passions and desires. Mastering temptations which come with that age. This speaks of avoiding excess and frivolous living.

Self-controlled and self-disciplined living was what he was to teach these young men. And then second, our second observation here, Titus was to be an example to these young men. We see that right away in verse 7. This means that Titus was to get close to them in life so that he could be that example for them to see. This speaks of life connected to life ministry I call it. This speaks of two terms that we use regularly here at NOLA. This speaks of body life, the body of Christ connected to one another, and Christian community. Community with people of different ages, Christian community. Now look what Titus was the model for them.

He was to be an example of good works, verse 7 says. He was to be an example of integrity in his teaching in verse 7. He was to be an example of clean and pure speech, verse 8 tells us. And he was to be an example of good reputation, verse 8 and verse 9. Now what is my point here? Titus was to actively engage this particular age group. He was to teach them in word and in example. He was to get up close to these young men. These were very practical everyday concerns for Christian young men. And Titus was to engage in this work, this particular work with this particular age group. Now I'm going to ask you a question. What is the context here?

The context is the local church. Those churches there on the island of Crete, what does chapter 1 verse 5 say? Paul says I left you there on Crete to do what? To sort out these matters, to do these things in the lives of these churches. And then our third major truth, we see teaching from older to younger. We see teaching from older to younger. Go back to the verses. We see this particularly in verse 3. What does he say? Old, older women. Now that's not necessarily a polite term, but we'll see what this means. Older women likewise. And he gives some instruction there in verse 3 how they should live. But then notice verse 4.

That they, that they may encourage the young women. So what do we see here? This is older to younger. Now notice that Paul mentions older men in verse 2. Go back to verse 2. Older men. But he seems to spend a little more time instructing the women here. Now there are no names that are mentioned. Just like before, we do see the what that's taught, but we need to see the who. Who is teaching who? In verses 3 and 4 we see one group, older women, and they were to instruct or teach another group, younger women.

Now the Bible commentators say this term older women refers to women who are past childbearing years and they are past child rearing years. It is obvious that the age of the younger women were those who had husbands, they had children, they had responsibilities associated with that age. And notice quickly what Paul commanded them to teach. This is the older to the younger. They were to love their husbands and children. We see that in verse 4. They were to be self-controlled and pure in heart. In verse 5 they were to be busy in their homes. In verse 5 and they were to be kind in their disposition.

In verse 5 and then they were to be submissive to their husbands. This is the older teaching the younger women. Now what is my point? These older women were to actively engage these younger women. They were to purposely teach them. It is not listed here, but I would assume that example would surely be a part of this teaching. They were to be up close and they were to be personal. These were common everyday issues that these Christian women, these young women and mothers would face. And these older women were to purposely teach and engage these younger women. Again the question of context. This is written to the church.

Titus as the elder of the churches there on Crete as he is forming and molding those churches. This was it within the context of the church. And then our fourth observation we see teaching from men to men and women to women. Men to men and women to women. Now you might say pastor you've already said that, but we need to see this. Now what we do see it from verses 2 all the way to verse 8. We see this is very practical. Matters pertaining to young men, matters pertaining to young women, matters of purity, matters of holiness, things that pertain to self-control, matters pertaining to the home and marriage and children and even doctrine.

All of those things are right here. Now what am I showing you here? What's my point? Older men are mentioned here. Older women as well. Younger men and younger men women and this young pastor named Titus. There is specific instructions given by Paul for one gender to influence another gender. Titus was to teach in the church, but we see older men teaching the younger men and we see older women teaching the younger women. And again I ask that question what's the context? The context is the church. These letters are written to the church. Now from time to time I ask you to perform this exercise.

I want us to take a step or two back away from what we have seen. I talked to a friend yesterday about this exercise of taking a few steps back or big picture examining the scriptures. He said that when he was in college his art teacher would tell them to take several steps of back away from their project to get perspective. And this is what I call big picture. We can get tied down sometimes with the details and we can't see the big picture. Now a question. What do we see in this letter to the church?

In the heart of the letter from the Apostle Paul he instructs the church to engage in meeting spiritual needs in certain age groups within the church. It is plainly seen here. First spiritual needs for certain groups within the church and then second age divisions led by solid Christian adults to meet those needs. Church history is very important for us because when we look back at church history we can see biblical Christianity modeled for us. Now it's not authoritative but it is a barometer. There is a wonderful Christian biography of Jonathan Edwards published by Banner of Truth. The author is very respected. His name is Ian Murray.

Truthfully I look for my copy. I think I've loaned it out. Maybe one of you has it. If you have it just wear it out. That's okay I'll buy another. But a part of the biography of Jonathan Edwards it covers the ministry that he had during the Great Awakening during the 19 or excuse me 1740s the 1740s there in New England. Now during the Great Awakening there were throngs of people who were being converted. Many within the church members of the church and many from outside the church and the churches were being revived spiritually and there were many other leaders besides Jonathan Edwards.

But one of the things that Edwards did very very often is he would meet with young people. If you go and study his works and writings he met with young people by our definition those of youth age and college age and what am I trying to show you? He was giving them spiritual instruction concerning their needs from the Word of God. That is exactly what's happening here on the Island of Crete. In these churches through men like Titus and other men and women that we don't have their names we just see them there. Now as you pastor I want to give some words of explanation. This is much needed for us in the health and well-being of our church.

I love you and I ask you to carefully listen. Now all of this that I'm going to share comes with years of prayer, years of studying the Scriptures, years of reading other men's perspectives, and studying church history. And there are a few ways I want to help us here and this will further explain what I'm trying to share. First what I'm proposing here in no way intrudes on the responsibilities of fathers and mothers. Let me repeat that because I want to make that clear. In no way am I trying to trample or disregard or do away with the responsibilities of fathers and mothers.

Parents are to instruct their own children in the Word of God and in the ways of God. Dads it starts with you. Listen dads it starts with you and then moms you are to instruct your own in the ways of God in God's Word. And you have a responsibility to instruct your children in God's Word and by example in your home and in every aspect of your life. And the pastor asks you a question. Are you faithfully? Are you faithfully by word indeed teaching your children the ways of God and the Word of God? Now there are two extremes or errors here. First there are parents who pawn this responsibility off on the church.

Yes I use the word pawn because when you pawn something you get a cheap price for something that is supposed to be of value. And there's some that pawn this responsibility off on the church and other adults and church leaders. But then second there are parents who refuse to allow others to minister the Word of God and Christian things within their children and either extreme is wrong. So first this is in no way me intruding on the responsibility of parents and their responsibilities to their children. And then second there are two extremes in the church today in ministering to children and students and this needs to be seen.

There are some that create children's ministry and youth ministry call it student ministry and it is nothing more than entertainment. The young people they are hardly ever taught God's Word. Most of the time what they are taught is shallow and it's loaded with fun and entertainment. Young people in some of these settings hardly ever sit on the church pew with their parents. They never hear the Word of God taught from the pulpit. Sunday school and other so-called teaching programs are weak in substance and weak in leadership. In these ministries most do not have Titus like examples to teach and lead. It is fun.

It is entertainment sprinkled with a little bit of Jesus. This is all height. This is no life change. It is wicked. It is worldly and it is woefully unbiblical. But then some within the church see this error and they over correct. Oh some within the church they see this error and they over correct. They say any age division in the church is wrong. There have been entire movements created by this over correction. Books have been written to promote this type of ministry. I have many of those books. I've studied them. As a matter of fact there are some who have written those books.

They have come out now to admit that their approach was wrong and over correction. And this extreme position says that no one can teach children and youth but the parents. There's a term for this approach that you need to get. It's just called an over correction. And look I'd like you to write that word down over correction. See we're always battling over correction in the life of the church and in the Christian life. And there's another word I want you to write down. Write it down. Underline it. Highlight it and circle it. It's the word balance. We're gonna use this word balance a little more.

Now what is our approach here at Nola Baptist Church? I've been with many of you for years. We've been faithful to minister to the needs of children and students in the years that we've been together. With your children, my children, our children. With your teenagers, my teenagers, our teenagers. We've been faithful to teach them God's Word. We've been faithful to design programming that is for one purpose to teach God's Word and to give them Christian community and body life. And even with our adults we do the same same thing. But I want to revisit this word that I ask you to write down. Balance. Balance.

And I want to show you there's one area in the life of our church that I believe we're a little out of balance. This might surprise somebody. Sunday nights. What am I sharing with you? You know, y'all know that quite a while back we made the transition from a Sunday night worship service to what adult small groups. Now adult small groups are needed. They have grown us in the life of the church and in our personal wall and in our connection with one another. But we miss Sunday night service. And that was a pragmatic decision. What am I just trying to show you?

We're always working to have balance and there's sometimes you do the best that you can do. But again I revisit. Our efforts with our children and in our youth, we have been balanced and biblical and healthy. Now a question as I move closer to closing the message. In the life of Nola Baptist Church, how will we minister to children and young people, students call them youth in the future? This pertains to vision folks. This is how God has led the elders to develop the work of the church here at Nola. We will continue to teach them the Word of God. We will continue to teach our young people, your children, my children, the Word of God.

We will continue to give them Christian community. We will continue to give them body life. We will continue to put before them Titus like examples week after week, month after month, year after year. We will partner with parents within the life of the church to help raise our children and our students to love God. It's not my job to raise your children, no. But we partner together and we will minister even to those outside of the church as God puts them in our path. Trusting that God will work in them as well. Now there's a key to the lock to the whole thing. I'm not mentioning this so far.

And I'm sad to say there are a lot of people that miss this key. I've seen people work for years and miss the key and do it all seemingly for naught. Now what is the key? In all of this work, if our children and our teenagers are not born again by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, at best they will only be religious. You hear that folks? We can teach, we can model, and we can get them physically to live out the things of God, but unless they are born of God, unless they are born again, at best they will only be religious. What does Romans 1 16 say?

Paul says at the beginning of that wonderful book, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation." I said it years ago and I've continued to say it through the years, education without salvation still leads to damnation and we must have both. This is one that only God can do and then there's another that we are responsible to do. What am I showing you? Only God can save. Only God could grant the work of repentance and faith and regeneration.

Only God can save our young people, but we are responsible to teach them God's Word, to roll up our sleeves, to do it in the life of the church, and in our homes we are to be responsible to this work together. Now if you've been here very long with me, you notice something that I say and I pray regularly. Sometimes I say it spontaneously, sometimes I pray it spontaneously, but a lot of times I talk about God doing great things in the lives of our children and youth. I do. I talk about an entire group of young people being born again and used for the glory of God at home and possibly around the world.

I talk about some of our young people even being sent to the foreign mission field, even the father's corners on the globe, and I preach these things and I pray these things. You might say, "Pastor, you really believe that'll happen?" Oh, I sure do. What pleasure would God get by rescuing our young people and using them for His glory? What glory would He receive by doing this work in our children and our teenagers? And I pray and we must pray for the salvation of their souls and for a work of God that only God can do in them, that He would raise up a generation to do great things for God?

Listen, not for me and not for you and not for the American dream, but for the glory of God around the world. That's why I engage in this work. Now what is the title of the message? I guess I just felt like it was better to have it at the end. What do we see? A monumental ministry to a monumental generation. A monumental ministry to a monumental generation. Listen, folks, I believe in this work. I believe that God has given us every little boy, every little girl, every teenager for this work. Now this morning we have a part one. Next week we'll revisit with part two.

We'll pick back up on some of the things that I shared with our student camp. I'll give us a report of what all they experienced this coming week. And I desire to see God build a ministry here, a monumental ministry to young people so as to do a monumental work around the world. This takes me, this takes you, it takes moms and dads, it takes the church, it takes God empowering us to do what we can't do. Let's pray and then we'll sing a closing hymn to close out our worship service.