Moments in the life of a Pastor

Walking with God

Category Archives: James “The Litmus Test for life”


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20. Mentoring matters – Part 7

Titus 2:1-8

“As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. 2 Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience. 3 Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. 4 These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, 5 to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God. 6 In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely. 7 And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.8 Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.”

So, what does the life of a mature woman look like? 

  1. LIFE – What kind of a life are you going to live”
  1. Careful with your walk Reverent – Honor God in the way that you live.

When it comes to women Paul tells Titus to teach the older women to walk in a way that honors God. Paul is telling you to stop listening to the lies of the culture and start listen to and live for the Lord. It frees you from being a people pleaser and lets you live from an audience of One. This one verse gives value to women because it reminds you not to get wrapped up in your looks but your life. Are you listening to the Lord or are you listening to the lies? The world says you are here for pleasure, but the Word says you are here for a purpose. When you make it about looks you end up competing with other women instead of coming alongside. You end up being mean instead of mentoring. Don’t believe me, then why do women respond so rudely when they show up to an event and there is another woman wearing the same dress? Why are your first thoughts, I can’t believe she wore that besides I look better just look at her butt it looks so big! Paul is telling you to living for the Lord not for an image. He is calling you to pursue purity not popularity. So let me ask you are listening to the voice of Christ or the critical and crushing peer pressure of this culture?  If I were to ask 10 different women WHAT IS BEAUTY? Would they all say the same thing? God loves variety. If I pulled out different kinds of flowers and said roses are beautiful but lilies are not or carnations are not you would disagree with me. If we really believed that we would try to get all flowers to become roses, we would force carnations to conform to our picture of pretty. You have a few too many pettles so we would pluck and preen them and try to force them into the shape we want. But what we are really doing in the name of beauty is butchering and killing God’s creation. In 2015 the beauty industry generated $56.2 billion in the United States alone. While we are busy trying to mold them into man’s definition of beauty we are missing the bigness of God’s beauty. We have reduced God’s beauty into something that’s small and shallow and evaluates and elevates women based on the sensual instead of the spiritual. Is it any wonder that most women suffer from self-esteem issues? Today the world is telling women to base their life on looks and then we wonder why women are stuck in slavery and being reduced to sexual objects. Basing life solely on looks leads to lust, but basing it on the Lord leads to love. Ladies are you basing your life on truth or on trash? Are you listening to the culture or Christ, ladies this isn’t truth its trash, and yet its what most of you are letting run and ruin your life. Pursuing the Lord frees you from worrying about what the world things. Rather than worrying about the wrinkles we should worry about our walk. 


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13 Dealing with the Disobedient – Part 4

Titus 1:9-16

“9 He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong. 10 For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. 11 They must be silenced, because they are turning whole families away from the truth by their false teaching. And they do it only for money. 12 Even one of their own men, a prophet from Crete, has said about them, “The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals, and lazy gluttons.” 13 This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith. 14 They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people who have turned away from the truth.15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.”

It’s here that Paul reminds us of the goal which is to:

3.         Reconcile the Rebellious – Vs 15-16

The context here refers to those who are devoted to the rules but don’t have a relationship with Jesus. The word translated “pure” is the same word used to describe those who have been washed clean by Jesus Christ. Verse 16 reminds us that even though an individual may claim to know God, how they live can cancel out their confession. A changed character leads to changed conduct. Proper belief must express itself in proper behavior. Isaiah 29:13: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” What Paul is saying here is that people do what they do because of what is in their hearts. Just because they speak about spiritual things doesn’t mean that they are saved. Its here that Paul uses some strong words.

Detestable. This comes from a word that means, “to emit a foul odor” and was used to describe that which is an abomination to God.

Disobedient. This word literally refers to one who refuses to be persuaded. There are those who don’t believe not because of insufficient evidence but because of proud hearts.

Worthless. Meaning that their lives don’t stand the test, it was used of metals that were rejected by refiners because of impurities.

So let me ask you a challenging question, are you a Christian or a counterfeit. Are you a follower of Jesus Christ or a fake? There are those who have convinced themselves that they are a Christian, but in reality you’re not. Paul gave a very serious challenge to church people in 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.” Have you ever really examined yourself?

There are people who profess Christ but don’t possess Christ. Some of you claim to be a Christian with your words but you prove that you are carnal with your walk. What about you are you a professor of faith or a possessor of faith? For many years John Wesley professed to be a believer and yet when he took the time to examine himself, he came to the conclusion that he was not a Christian. This is what he said in his sermon called, “The Almost Christian.”

“I did go thus for many years, as many of this place can testify; using diligence to eschew all evil, and to have a conscience void of offence; redeeming the time; buying up every opportunity of doing all good to all men; constantly and carefully using all the public and all the private means of grace; endeavoring, after a steady seriousness of behavior, at all times, and in all places: and God is my record, before whom I stand, doing all this in sincerity; having a real design to serve God; a hearty desire to do his will in all things; to please him who had called me to ‘fight the good fight,’ and to ‘lay hold on eternal life.’ Yet my own conscience bears me witness, in the Holy Ghost, that all this time I was but almost a Christian”

What about you are you a child of the King or a counterfeit?