The Silver Servers

Three scriptures we read this morning, had them printed because they were a little bit scattered. The blessing of wisdom. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days years of life, where abundant welfare will they give you. And then the glory of young men is their strength, but the beauty of old men is their gray hair. Then finally, a hoary head is a crown of glory.

It is gained in a righteous life. The hoary head idea is the gray hair, like a crown that older people wear. To be old in the old testament was a great honor. Just to be old was a great honor. It was assumed that one had advanced in years because of personal wisdom and righteousness before God.

In the old testament, if you were old, it meant you were good. It meant somehow there was something about you that God liked and therefore, he permitted you to live to a ripe old age. The aged were respected at this time, not just because of advanced years, but because of the knowledge and the grace and the holiness and the favor from God that old age represented. Now when Solomon was writing, old age was 40. So just the case, some of you were thinking, oh, this sermon is not for me.

Think again. We know, of course, however, that these things, this grace and this knowledge and this holiness, these things don't come just with age. Growing older doesn't necessarily mean growing in virtue. I mean, Solomon grew older, but as he grew older, he grew further away from God. So growing older doesn't necessarily mean growing in virtue.

The benefit of age, however, in this regard is that we have a greater experience of life with which we can judge and discern what is important and what is true. And of course, the hindrance of age, aside from physical limitations, is that many times we fail to respond to the truth that we discover because it may be more comfortable to remain in our old positions. See, the trouble with age is that we hate to change. We have the wisdom, we have the experience, we have the knowledge to discern what is true, what is good, what is right, what is worthy, what is noble. We've learned the hard way how to find these things.

But sometimes because of age, we're feeling so comfortable that even though we find out what is true and right and good and noble and high and worthy, we don't wanna change. We're like the old way a whole lot better. Well, God, through the apostle Paul, takes the opportunity to speak to the mature saints in laying out for them, in addition to what is expected of every Christian, the very special responsibilities of the older Christian man and the older Christian woman. And so this morning, I entitled my lesson, the silver servers, with respect to the things that God is teaching specifically to the older man and to the older woman in the church. Open your bibles to Titus, please, chapter 2, and our lesson will be taken from this text.

Titus chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. And in verse 1, we have a little bit of background to what is going on between Paul and Titus here. Titus chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. Paul says, but as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. So Paul begins by an address to Titus, an instruction to Titus to organize the churches.

And if we've read chapter 1, we don't have time to do that, but we've seen in chapter 1, he's given Titus instructions to organize the churches and appoint elders in every church and also he's encouraged him to defend the faith against those who would divide the church with false teaching. And then Titus was to instruct the church correctly. He was to teach them to conduct themselves in a way that reflected sound doctrine. Act according to what is good and what is right and what has been taught to you. Very important principle.

In the book of James chapter 3 verses 13 to 18, James demonstrates that improper conduct many times stems from improper teaching and improper teachers. Good teaching, James says, leads to purity and peace and gentleness and mercy and perseverance and honesty. And bad teaching and bad teachers lead to jealousy and selfish ambition and disorder and every evil thing. So Paul is careful to tell Titus, make sure you tell people to act according to the good teaching which I have given to you. And so Titus, beginning in chapter 1, begins with instructions about elders.

And then immediately, he follows with instructions to the older saints because next to the elders in the church, the older saints have the greatest influence. Note that Titus was instructed by Paul to teach these older saints what their conduct ought to be. He says, you teach the older men and you teach the older women what they ought to do. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting that they have to be taught what they ought to do?

This suggests that even the old are to aspire to continue to grow according to Christ's teaching. Unfortunately, there are times we think, you know, well, I've made it. You know, I've been here 30. I've been 30 years in this church. You know?

I can't learn. I'm only here to hear. I'm only here to listen. I'm only here to see what's going on. But Paul says, you ought to teach the older saints that they ought to do certain things, which means there's room for growth for the older saint.

And so he begins in chapter 2 verse 2 with the older men. And he says to them in verse 2, older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. One verse, but one verse that speaks volumes. He says they should be temperate and dignified and sensible. Those three words describe the character that the mature saint ought to have.

The character that the mature saint is striving to obtain. He said the older saint, the older man in Christ needs to be temperate. This does not only mean temperate in so far as alcohol, of course, it includes that, but temperate in thoughts, temperate in action and indeed, not a man who is rushed to his feet by any flighty teaching or idea or any, thing that happens in the church, any little movement, any little wave that takes place. The older man needs to be temperate, steady, to be moved back and forth with the rush of events that take place in the church that that go on as normal from day to day. He said the older man should be dignified.

This word means sober minded, serious, not preoccupied by childish concerns or pettiness. The older man should be sensible, meaning prudent and thoughtful and self control. A man who can control his mind, a man that can control his tongue, a man that can control his hands as to what he does, a man that can control his feet, signifying where he stands on issues. Temperate, dignified, sensible. And also, he says, they should be sound or healthy according to the teachings of Christ and the example of the apostles in 3 specific areas.

He says, they should be temperate, dignified, and sensible, and they should be sound. They should be healthy insofar as their faith is concerned. They should be sound in the faith. In other words, their trust and confidence should be in God, and it should be evident that they trust God. The older man should be able to demonstrate faith and assurance to the younger man that God can provide.

You know, the greatest responsibility to demonstrate to the younger generation that God is able to provide in every circumstance belongs to the older man. Is it the younger man that's supposed to show the older man about faith? Is it the younger man that's supposed to be steady like a rock during difficult times? I don't think so. I think that the older man has this responsibility having been trained by Christ and directed by the spirit throughout a lifetime.

The nature or rather the mature saint has his trust in God, not in his savings account, not in his pension plan, not in the government. And his trust and faith in almighty God should be evident to everyone around him. Paul says that the older saint should be sound in love, should be healthy in love. And of course, in the Bible, the love that they talk about is sacrificial love, not love of the world and not love of self and not love of greedy gain, but sacrificial love. Christ showed us love by the example of the cross.

And the older saints are God's tools to show mature love in action. Paul says that the older saints should be sound and healthy in perseverance or the modern term that we use patience. Again, a lifetime of being tested and molded by God should produce a man that is willing and able to sustain inconvenience and adversity and suffering with meekness and cheerfulness and confidence and trust. The body of the older saint may be failing, but the spirit of Christ should shine through as brightly as ever. As the sun shines in the sky, the spirit of Christ should shine through in the body of the older saint.

The older man in Christ, I like to think of him as a smooth stone. All the rough and sharp edges of youth have been worn off by a life of service and perseverance and a high polish appears because of the constant buffing by the words and the spirit of Christ. Older men are the bright and shining jewels in the crown of the church. That's the responsibility. That's the image of the older saint.

Not the image that is sometimes portrayed, someone who is narrow minded, grumpy, grouchy, no time. Not that image, but this gracious, loving, faithful, mature, open person who has been molded by Christ himself. If we don't see it in the older man, if I don't see the father and the son and the older man, who am I gonna see it in? To whom has been given that responsibility? Not to the young, but to the old.

Now in verse 3, 4, 5, Paul turns his attention to the women, to the older women. He says, 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 young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored. You know, the young the older women, Paul says, like the older men are to act in a reverent manner, which reflects a lifetime of being taught the words of Christ. This conduct includes and it's interesting what he says here, verse 3, 4, and 5.

This conduct of the older women includes things that they ought to avoid and things that they ought to pursue. The things that they ought to avoid are 2, he mentioned. There are many more, but he mentions. 21, he says, avoid malicious gossip. Christian women, especially the mature ones, have a lot more important things to do than to exchange gossip.

In Luke chapter, 2 verse 37, we see the picture of Anna, the older woman who was serving at the temple night and day. We read the story of Anna and we don't see her as an individual who was involved in temple gossip. She was serving the Lord. The tongue builds or destroys the church. Do you know that?

It's the tongue that builds or destroys the church from the inside. And the older women are warned to avoid this evil as it is not in character with their exalted position in the kingdom of God as older saints. And he says also to avoid in sobriety. Now many people, that he spoke of in the 1st century here, especially to Titus, were Cretans. And these people had a background of paganism, and they used wine every single day.

So this admonition was very necessary for them. They had used alcohol and so on and so forth in their normal practice and in their religious practice. So it was important to warn them against this thing. In our day and time, we don't use wine in this way in our culture, but it's easy to begin abusing alcohol because it is so prevalent in our culture and we are so encouraged to do so. Imagine when the surgeon general, herself advocates the legalization of dangerous drugs, what kind of society we are living in.

It's also easy to begin abusing medicine and various types of prescription drugs since they also are so easy to obtain and use in the loneliness and the solitude of one's own home. And then he moves from the negative and he goes to the positive and he says, now here are some things that you need to pursue. You need to teach what is good. You older women need to teach what is good. The older women have a very important role in providing an example and help and encouragement and direct teaching of the younger women concerning their role of Christian wife and mother.

This is not a man that is making this up. This is Titus chapter 2 verses 3 to 5. Paul says that they should teach the younger women and the content of their teaching, what is good and what is noble is put forth here. He doesn't only say you ought to teach the younger women, he tells them what they ought to teach the younger women. He says, first of all, they ought to teach them to love their husbands.

Isn't that strange? They ought to teach them to love their husbands. I'm thinking they ought to teach them the various ways and means to demonstrate and express a wife's love to her husband. Christian love is a learned kind of love. We're not born with it.

And who better to teach a younger woman how to express Christian love to her husband than a mature saint who herself has learned through a lifetime of experience how to express that love. Who else is going to teach the younger woman about this, attitude? The older woman can teach and develop in a younger woman how to expand her ability to love and cherish her name. It says also that she ought to teach the younger women how to love her children. Isn't that interesting?

Teaching younger women that this is a priority. Proper childcare and development, who knows best, Who knows better than one who has successfully raised the family of children to teach someone else how to do it? I know. I know. We don't like to hear it from our mothers.

We don't wanna hear what they've got to say. What do they know anyways? They raised us, didn't they? And we know how to do everything. You ever think about where you found out how to do everything?

I would encourage younger women to understand that maybe mama has still a few things left to teach that we might just open ourselves up a little bit. And I would encourage moms and grandmoms and great grandmas to not be afraid to share the good things that you have learned. You know, a lot of times we have many bible studies and there are all kinds of seminars about women's roles in society and women's roles and so on and so forth. But what about this basic teaching here? About how to love our husband successfully and how to raise our children successfully.

He also says to teach younger women to be sensible. In other words, prudent and thoughtful and serious minded. The same word and instruction for older men is given for older women and younger women as well as younger men. This comes with knowledge and understanding of the meaning and application of God's word, especially in regards to younger women. He says, she should teach them to be pure, to be pure, to be chaste, to be sexually pure, to be modest, to be faithful to her husband and to her lord.

And she says or rather he says, to be workers at home all these passages, so twisted, so many times. You know, I've heard some men say, well, the Bible says the woman can't work outside of the home. Look, it says it right here. That's not what it says. It says the older women should teach the younger women to be workers at home.

When you are at home, to be workers. Teach them how to be effective managers of the home, busy in keeping the home. The woman of valor in Proverbs chapter 31, if you read that one, you find out that this woman had outside work. She had many interests. She she sold real estate.

She had a business. She had she managed the household of servants. She was a very, very busy woman. But one thing that we find out about Proverbs chapter 31, with all these many activities, this woman's home was her number one priority. Younger women need to be taught how to make the home the number one priority despite the many other pressures that are upon them.

Today, unfortunately, younger women are easily tempted to place their children in the care of others and to see their homes as merely places that need to be cleaned with the help of their husbands if they can get them to cooperate. And unfortunately, what I hear many times is that they find out too late that they miss the best parts of their children's growth and valuable opportunities to mold them as people. And in addition to that, discourage their husbands by relegating their homes and families to a lower priority and making the earning of extra money the number one priority or the expression of a career, the number one priority over home and family. Paul says that the older women have a responsibility if they have succeeded in their work and succeeded in keeping. There are more and more women of this generation who have learned how to balance a home and a career.

And in a modern application, I would say, according to this passage, the older women need to teach the younger women how to accomplish this. It's possible. I've seen it. I've seen women balance the 2 by making one the priority and the other service the priority. He says they ought to teach them to be kind.

This word can be translated benevolence or kindness. Older women should be teaching the younger ones the why and the how of good works in the name of the Lord. Read through the note New Testament and look at all the women that are mentioned. Dorcas and Lydia and Priscilla and Phoebe and Julia and Lois and Eunice, all of these women in the new testament who distinguished themselves through good works of service, and they are recorded in the bible because of this. Not because of their beauty, not because of their wealth or their ability to preach or teach.

They are remembered for all time because of their ability to be kind to others. Lydia, for example, was a successful and wealthy businesswoman, but she is remembered for her piety and her her hospitality, not for her business success. We should be teaching the younger women to emulate these kinds of people. And again, who better to teach than the older women who themselves have succeeded in this area? And then he says, being subject to their husbands.

The older women are to teach the younger ones to be subject to their own husbands. You know, that the older women teach and encourage this basic principle in the relationship between husband and wife is basic. To receive the teaching that women should submit to their husbands from a man is not always very convincing. When I do that teaching, you know, when I go to Ephesians and I teach that idea, and I look at the faces, you know, you see only me, but I see all of you. And I watch the faces when I teach that boy, I see some old eyes rolling.

This is a man here teaching that women ought to subject themselves to their husbands and ought to obey them in everything. I quote the scripture. How much more effective is that teaching when an older woman in Christ who has succeeded in her family, who has a husband that praises her and loves her and cherishes her, who is happy and joyful and at peace and successful, is able to say this teaching to a younger woman. How much more effective is it for them and for the church? To hear it from a sensible, pure, joyful, successful older sister can demonstrate the wisdom of this teaching personified in a happily married older Christian married, woman.

And then in chapter 5 excuse me, chapter 2 verse 5, he finishes the verse by saying, all of these things should be taught that the word of God may not be dishonored. Why so much instruction to the older women and their conduct and responsibility in teaching the younger women? Why only one verse for the man and three verses for the women? Well, a couple of reasons. First of all, the younger women are so influential in raising the next generation of the church and society.

That's why. That's why. Because of their tremendous influence. Yes. The men do the politics and and and the men sign the treaties in front of the cameras and the men make the decisions to go to war, but it is a woman who raises that man.

The circle of influence is complete. Not one man has more influence than women or women have more influence than men, but the circle of influence is balanced. That's why this instruction. Because the younger women are the anchor of the home. I don't care what they say in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

I don't care what they say in National Organization For Women. The woman is the anchor of the home. As the woman is, so is that home. And how they carry out their tasks and conduct themselves will confirm or deny the power of the gospel in many people's eyes. You see, brothers and sisters, people see Christ in the way that we manage our homes and families.

That's how they see Christ. I'm preaching up here. That is my training. That is my vocation, and we are all here and that's one lesson. But what affects people in Choctaw is how you manage your homes, not how I preach.

Not how I preach. Paul instructs older saints to live in such a way that reflects the words of Christ. The men are to be solid and well balanced. The women are to be self controlled and busy themselves in teaching the younger generation how to maintain happy, loving homes and how to honor Jesus Christ through Christian service to the church. So why do I call this lesson the silver servers?

Good reason. Silver is for the value and the beauty of the older saints in Christ. When I, you know, was preparing this lesson, I thought of 2 people. One person I thought, was brother Holly. Brother Holly is 90 wow.

Who cares? 90 something, you know. He's after you're 90, who's counting? Right? He's 90 something.

He's an elder. Well, he isn't anymore. He he retired as an elder just about a year or 2 ago, but he was an elder at the Edmond church. Some of you know who I'm talking about. And he would stand and he would greet people.

And you know what I'm talking about? The the grace of God is exuding through. He was so thin. His skin was so thin and he himself was so transparent. But what you saw was almost like the light of God shining through him.

I mean, there was not a sharp edge on that man at all. And he remembered everyone and he was concerned. You just love you know, when you were near to him, it was like you were near the furnace, you know, in the wintertime or near the air conditioner in the summer. It was cooler this summer and it was warm in the winter to be near brother Holly. And I also think of sister Sitting there in the same idea.

Shake hands with her on Sunday. She she comes and gives me a hug as she does to all of you. And I shake her hand and I shake that hand and what I feel is smooth skin, smooth like ivory, smooth like the love of Christ that's in her for everyone that she comes in contact with. That's who I think of, the silver server. Silver representing the value and the beauty of the older saint in Christ.

And serve her is for what others should see in them, not just age, not just gray hair, not just perhaps some incapacity, of physical age, not that. But what people see are people who have learned from experience how to let the light of Christ shine with loving service. In our congregation, my vision of the silver servers is not just the older saints saints staying busy, to ward off boredom. What I see is the men expressing their love for Christ in busy service to the church in every way that they are able. Retirement often brings greater opportunity for service and not just extra time, just wander on self.

And I see the women expressing their love of Christ and helping to mold the generation of younger women who will be dedicated to their husbands and children and homes and churches and become for the generation after them the same kind of godly women who first taught them. Godly women such as we have here today. I pray that our silver servers in Choctaw will glorify God and build up the church with their holy presence and their dynamic service. We have one thing that age does not change. You know, age changes a lot of things, but one thing that age does not change and that is the way that a person comes to Christ.

Whether you are 10 years old or 110 years old, when we want forgiveness for our sins and desire to be a disciple of Jesus, the way to respond is always the same. Whether you're 10 or a 110 or anywhere in between this morning, if you need to respond to Christ because you're not yet a Christian, we encourage you to come and confess your faith, be, baptized in the name of Jesus as you repent for your sins. And also if you're 10 or a 110 and you've fallen away from Christ like Solomon did at an older age and repented as you read the book of Ecclesiastes, then don't be afraid and don't be embarrassed, whatever your age, to come and be restored to Christ through the prayers of the church. Johnny, one of our elders, is going to lead us in, prayer, or rather lead us in song now. If you have a reason to respond, we encourage you to come forward now as we stand and sing the song of invitation.