Teachers of Good

[00:00:01] Lord Jesus, you are our prophet. You speak to us from God. And we thank you that your Word gives us so many good things. [00:00:12] We thank you that it's true, reliable, that it guides us like a lamp that shines, so that we know where to walk. [00:00:21] We thank you that it guides us in the way of life, in the way of wisdom. [00:00:27] So we ask Lord Jesus, that by your spirit you would open our hearts, that you would give us diligence as we attend to your word, that we might indeed be guided in its truths, so that we might learn more of you and how we may live before you as those who have been redeemed, living lives of thanksgiving and living lives as living sacrifices, acceptable and pleasing to you through Jesus, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. [00:01:02] Sermon text is from Titus 2. [00:01:06] We'll read verses 3 through 5. [00:01:12] Titus 2, beginning in verse 3. This is God's word, so give attention. [00:01:19] Older women likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled thus far. God's Word Please be seated. [00:02:00] There's various ways that we learn things in life, but usually we learn a lot of the things that we learn from a teacher. But teachers can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, all sorts of titles that we give to teachers, and the way that they teach us can look like all kinds of different things. When we use the word teacher in English, we tend to think of someone standing in the front of a room, like I am right now, teaching a group of people that are seated. Of course, that's teaching and grade school all the way up through college and grad school. That's how we learn in a formal, structured way. But teaching happens in lots of other ways, doesn't it? [00:02:43] Parents teach their children pretty much. They should be teaching their children pretty much all day long, every day. They teach by example. They teach by correction. They teach kind of just as we do life together, right, as a family. [00:03:00] But teaching. We can think of another example of teaching that maybe gets at a little bit of what Paul's talking about here. [00:03:09] If you go to get a job, you're a young man and you're starting out in life and you want to get a job, say as a carpenter, the way that you learn is not primarily by going and sitting in a classroom and receiving lectures on what a nail is, what a hammer is, and the different kinds of lumber and building materials and how to use them and how to put them together to become a house. [00:03:36] We don't learn that way to learn a trade like being a carpenter. No. You go and you get a job working as a laborer. And the first thing you learn how to do is pick up trash. [00:03:46] You pick up trash and you sweep the floor and sweep the sawdust. And then after you've done that for a few days, then they teach you how to move building materials. You pick up lumber and you carry it from the truck and you stack it. And then you pick it up from the stack and you carry it into the house wherever the carpenter needs it. [00:04:07] And then this process progresses. And you learn by doing, and you learn by watching the senior carpenters, the master carpenters, or journeyman carpenters. You learn by watching them. And then eventually, after you've learned about all of the materials by handling them, carrying them out, you've learned their names. When the carpenter says, go get this. [00:04:27] Go get a two by four or go get a sheet of plywood this size, you know what he's talking about, so you know what to go get. [00:04:33] Then you start to learn the names of the tools. Then when you learn what they are and what they look like, eventually they hand you a hammer and they say, okay, now here's how to use this. [00:04:43] And then you begin to learn how to use the tools and how to cut the materials and to shape them so that you can make joints and walls. And then you learn how to put them together. And the process goes on and on and on. [00:04:55] And it takes years, several years, a number of years, before you get to be a full journeyman carpenter where you can build houses on your own. It's a process. And we would probably, if we had to pick one word to describe that kind of learning and teaching, we would call it mentoring. It's probably the modern word we would use. Used to talk about being an apprentice or an apprenticeship. But that kind of learning is a lot of how we raise our children. We mentor them. They say, watch our example, Ra. We correct them, we show them how to do things all day long, all life long, until they're grown and out of the home. And then we kind of keep mentoring them, hopefully if we maintain a good relationship. [00:05:38] It's this kind of teaching and learning, this sort of mentorship that Paul has in mind when he says that the older women are to teach what is good and so train the young women. [00:05:52] And that idea is what I want to look at with you this evening, how older women in the church, older Christian women are called to serve in the church by serving the younger women, by teaching them and mentoring them, kind of in a similar way to how carpenters would apprentice younger learning learners. [00:06:17] So we're going to look at this evening how the older Christian women are to be teachers of good things. We want to look first at how they're to be teachers, who these teachers are, secondly, what these good things are that they're teaching, and then finally give some encouragements and reasons for why we ought to pursue this as a church, and particularly why older Christian women ought to pursue being teachers of. Of good things. [00:06:47] So first, Paul says that they're to be teachers. [00:06:51] Titus, as the pastor, is supposed to instruct the older women in the church to be teachers of good things. Now, you remember the context here. [00:07:00] This is all kind of expounding on his statement in the first verse of the chapter. As for you, Titus, the pastor teach what accords with sound doctrine. [00:07:12] And we've explained that. Basically instruct God's people so that they not only learn the truths of the gospel, but they understand that how they're to be, how their Christian character as persons is to be, and how they're to live their lives in a way that fits with. That's appropriate to. That accords with the gospel that they've come to know and believe. In other words, it's not just a set of ideas up here, but we're to be transformed by the things that we believe about who God is and the way of salvation in Jesus Christ. [00:07:47] And we looked a couple weeks ago at how. At the character of the older men, how they're to be instructed in ways that is befitting an older man who follows Jesus, who believes in him, and then at three particular ways in which older women are to grow in their character as those who are reverent in behavior and then not slanderers, not gossips and false accusers, and not enslaved to wine. Now, he adds one more thing. Now, the English translation here is good because it captures the idea. [00:08:24] But when it says they are to teach what is good. [00:08:32] Here in the English, we have an entire sentence for what in the original is one word. [00:08:39] It's the fourth word, the fourth character trait that older Christian women are to pursue. And it's one word. And our translation, in order to try to bring out the idea captured in that one word, gives us a whole sentence. So and that one word, in order to capture it in English, we would have to do one of those things, you know, where we take several words and we put hyphens in between them and we create a hyphenated word. [00:09:09] The word here is teacher of good things. Imagine that with hyphens in between them. [00:09:15] And then do something that we can't really do in English with a hyphenated word, make it an adjective. [00:09:21] If you're a grammar nerd, you can play with that later. [00:09:25] See if you could come up with an adjective that means teacher of good things. But it's one word, and that's important because it's the fourth idea, the fourth characteristic that older women are to be. They're to pursue being a teacher. [00:09:41] This is a calling, something God is calling them to be a teacher of good things. It's something they're to strive for, just like they're to strive to be reverent in their behavior. [00:09:53] That woman who approaches God in worship, who's been purified through the blood of Christ, so now she can be in God's presence. [00:10:01] And that reverence is the heart attitude of the worshiper of God. And then it flows out all day long as one who comes forth from God's presence, who lives in God's presence, her behavior has changed, but she's supposed to pursue this, as all Christians are to pursue reverent behavior. [00:10:19] But here is another thing. She's to pursue being a teacher of good things. [00:10:27] Now, all of the older women are supposed to be pursuing this. And pastors are to exhort all of the older Christian women to pursue this. [00:10:38] So who are to be the teachers? Ideally, all the women in the church who have some maturity in the faith. They've lived many years serving the Lord. They've raised children. Their children are now out of the home. And now they have the time to serve the Lord, among other things, by instructing others in good things. Well, if the older women are to be the teachers, who are their pupils, their students? [00:11:03] Who are their apprentices? Who are they to be mentoring? It's the younger Christian women, particularly if you look at verse four, the younger women are those who are. Who have children. So those who are of the younger women is. You can think of it this way. The younger women are probably those roughly of the age who they would be bearing and then raising children. And the older women would be those whose children are grown and out of the home. And now they have the time to help these younger ladies. [00:11:35] Those are the teachers. Those are their pupils. [00:11:38] There's a pattern here, a very natural pattern. We've already kind of hinted at this. [00:11:44] Those who are older in a family or in society tend to be those who teach and mentor the younger. This is a way God designed human society. [00:11:55] Teachers in school were usually older than the students for the most part, particularly through all of the younger grades. Right. [00:12:03] Norm Skrinnan, he's a teacher. He knows all of his kids are younger than him. This is a natural pattern. Parents are, as far as I can tell, always younger than their children. Right. So the children learn from their parents, younger siblings. I was the second eldest of seven. My younger siblings learned from me. Now, I taught them some bad things, but hopefully they also learned some good things from me. We were, the older siblings were expected to teach the younger kids things like how to tie their shoes and how to brush their teeth and how to clear their place at the dinner table and how to even a little bit of how to sit still in church. You know, we were supposed to set a good example for our younger siblings. This is a natural pattern that those who are younger learn from those who are older. God designed life to function this way. [00:12:52] So Paul is calling us to do what would be natural, ordinary for us to do, even without having being told to do this. [00:13:02] But it isn't just a natural pattern that you have here. [00:13:07] There is also a gospel pattern. [00:13:10] There's something going on here that flows out of the way the Gospel works. [00:13:18] This is a broader pattern. It's a pattern that applies to all Christians. [00:13:23] The older women and the younger women who are in view here, those who are to teach, those who are to learn, they are those who are followers of Jesus. All of them, just like all of us are. [00:13:34] They're what we call disciples. [00:13:37] We've heard the Gospel. We've followed after Jesus. We're learning from Jesus. He's teaching us. We're his disciples. [00:13:46] And the pattern all throughout the New Testament is that those who come and become disciples of Jesus and begin to learn the truths of how we're saved and how it is we're called to live before the Lord. Every disciple gets to turn around and serve other disciples. [00:14:03] We get to turn and in all sorts of ways love them, share the good news of the Gospel with them, encourage our brothers and sisters in their faith. We get to do all sorts of things. [00:14:16] Anyone who's received the grace and mercy of God in Christ, who's become a disciple of Christ, knows what it is to be forgiven. You know, what it is to repent and put your trust in Christ. And you can share that not just with your fellow Christians. But even with those who don't yet know the Lord, those who become disciples get to serve others. And at the core of that service is that we get to tell others about the gospel. That's true within the church, and it's even true with those outside the church. There's a gospel pattern here that those who become disciples in turn get to serve and encourage others. [00:14:56] Here Paul takes this pattern and applies it to the relationship between the older women and the younger women. [00:15:07] The older women are to be sharing the things that they've grown in, learned in, and walked in for many years with those who come behind them, their younger sisters in the faith. [00:15:20] Now we begin here to see a little bit more of why the older women are especially called to serve the younger Christian women. [00:15:34] The older women have something that maybe other people in the church don't have as much of. [00:15:40] They have some time. [00:15:42] They're not raising their children anymore. They have a little bit more time to their husbands may still be working, but they have a little bit of time that they can devote to serve others. And as you look through the New Testament, you see this pattern over and over again that women are serving actively in all sorts of ways in the church. And this is one of those ways they're called to serve. They can take some of that time they may now have being a little older, and they can devote it to serving their younger sisters. [00:16:13] Not only do being older do they have a little bit of time being older. [00:16:18] More importantly, they have grown in the Christian faith. [00:16:22] They've walked with Jesus, they've followed after him. They've stumbled, they've fallen, they've gotten back up. They've learned and experienced the fruit of the spirit and the truths of the gospel in their own lives, and especially as wives and mothers. And so as those who've matured in these things, they can serve others. [00:16:45] They're equipped to lead in this area. [00:16:53] So if this fits you, if you're an older Christian woman, then seek others out. [00:17:05] God calls you to serve others, especially younger Christian women, to be teachers of good things for them. [00:17:13] Now you may hear all of this and you may say to yourself, pastor, I read this verse and Paul says something very particular here. [00:17:26] He says. [00:17:31] That the older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor slaves to much wine, and then teachers of good, so that they may train the young women. [00:17:47] In other words, these four things, not just teachers of good, but reverent in behavior, not gossips and not slaves to much wine. They are to be these four Things so that they can train the younger women. [00:18:06] You may read this, you may hear these things and say, pastor, you're telling me I'm called to be a teacher of good things to my younger sisters. [00:18:15] But does this describe me? [00:18:18] Am I reverent in my behavior? [00:18:23] You may even come along and say, pastor, I think I struggle with gossip. [00:18:28] In fact, I know I do. [00:18:31] And maybe you have other serious sins that you deal with. [00:18:37] Pastor Paul says that I am to be these things so that I can lead others, these younger women. [00:18:45] But I'm not there yet. [00:18:50] And you should examine yourself before you go to mentor another young woman, because it's not as evident in the English, but it's very clear in the original and in some other translations that that's what's going on here. [00:19:02] There's a certain level of growth and maturity that has to happen in the Christian faith and in your character, godliness, reverence, and so on before you're able to lead others. [00:19:14] You may not be there yet. And if you're not there yet, the call is still here for you. That's what he's saying. You're called to pursue this, to pursue godliness, reverence, putting away of sin so that you may serve others. [00:19:31] So if you examine yourself, your heart, your life, and you say, yeah, Pastor, this isn't me. [00:19:38] Then, dear sister in Christ, flee to Jesus. [00:19:44] Flee to Him. [00:19:46] The power to change comes from Him. [00:19:50] Forgiveness comes from Him. Jesus is the answer to everything. In this verse, pursue Jesus. Spend time with Him. Draw near to Him. Be in his presence. [00:20:06] That's where that reverence comes from. [00:20:11] Spend time in prayer, in praise, in confessing your sin. The answer to the problem of sin is found in God's presence. [00:20:21] What does the Bible say? Confess your sins and he will forgive you. [00:20:28] That's the promise. [00:20:30] Everything else flows from Jesus. [00:20:33] Holiness, peace, freedom, all of it is found in God's presence in Christ. [00:20:41] And as you spend time there, as he gives you the power to overcome sin, as he changes your heart, by his grace, you will be enabled to serve others as a teacher of good. [00:20:56] That's God's call on you. [00:20:59] Secondly, you are to teach good things. [00:21:04] Who's the teacher? The older Christian women. [00:21:08] What's the subject matter? What's the curriculum? [00:21:12] Good things. [00:21:14] What are good things? [00:21:16] It's exactly what it sounds like, super broad. [00:21:21] All the good stuff that you could come up with from God's Word, and in a way, in the experience of life, living in the home, in relationships. There's all sorts of good things you can Learn about next week. We'll, Lord willing, look at some specifics Paul draws our attention to in verse four and five. [00:21:41] But the heart of the matter here, the heart of the good things in the context of the book of Titus, are the good things that flow from the truths of the Gospel back to verse one. [00:21:54] Teach the things, instruct God's people. Paul says in the things that accord with that are fitting with sound doctrine. [00:22:03] The good things here are the things that flow from the truths of the Gospel. [00:22:07] We had a summary of the Gospel back in chapter one, verse 15. [00:22:15] To the pure, all things are pure. Pure. It was a way of summarizing the Gospel. [00:22:23] The pure are those whom Jesus has purified by faith in him. [00:22:29] If you are pure, it's because you belong to Jesus. You trust in him, and he has washed you clean in his blood. He's taken away the power. I'm sorry, the guilt of sin. And he's purifying you by taking away the power of sin. [00:22:43] And the one who's been purified from the inside out through faith in Jesus Christ, through to him, his life is now pure. Pure things flow from the purified heart. [00:22:54] It's a summary of the Gospel. [00:23:00] What good things do you instruct others in? [00:23:04] Ponder the truths of the Gospel. And this isn't just for women. This is for all of us as we serve one another as parents with our children, as brothers with other Christian men. But you, particularly Christian women, you have met Jesus Christ as your Savior. [00:23:23] You have come face to face with him by faith. And he's taken your heart and he's washed it clean, and he's purified you. [00:23:32] And then you've walked with Jesus for many years. He has led you for many years. [00:23:39] And what have you faced over the years? [00:23:42] Trials, discouragement, temptation. You've fallen, you've struggled with sin. Bitterness, perhaps. All sorts of things. [00:23:52] And then each time, you went back to the truths of the gospel and you said, where is the answer? The answer is found in Jesus, my Savior. He's my Lord, he's my King. I'm struggling. I go to him and he gives me free. [00:24:06] I have guilt and shame because of my sin. I go to him and he sets me free and he gives me joy again. [00:24:13] I'm weak and he strengthens me. You have walked with Jesus year after year. You've experienced the power of his spirit in your heart and life. [00:24:26] You've experienced his purifying, cleansing blood. [00:24:32] You've grown in these things. You've learned in these things, the good things. The very Best things that anyone could share with anyone else. [00:24:42] As you've grown as a Christian woman, you have these things, these wonderful treasures, as in earthen vessels, and you get to share them with your younger sisters in Christ. [00:24:58] Jesus says, I've led you for many years now. You take the things you've learned and share them with your sisters, that they would follow me, as you have, too. [00:25:09] How do you do this? [00:25:12] This is that idea of mentoring. [00:25:15] The word here, the esv, is actually helpful. It chooses to translate the word as train. He says, teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children and so forth. [00:25:29] Train the young women. [00:25:33] That word's helpful. Train. Other words we could use are advise, exhort. [00:25:40] The closest I can come up with one word here to capture the idea is admonish. [00:25:47] The idea here that's in this word, train is. Has to do with the instruction of a person's character so that he would, or she, in this case, would be led to pursue his duties, his moral, ethical duties, in this case, before God. [00:26:05] Now, admonish can have a negative sense in English, so it's probably not the best word here, but you get the idea here. When we're admonishing someone, we're talking to him about moral issues, what's right and what's wrong, and his character, how that's expressed in good or in bad ways. [00:26:26] The word here, train, isn't talking about public teaching, like Bible studies or Sunday schools, or all sorts of other good, wonderful things. [00:26:37] It's talking about a private activity, something that you would do when you would take someone aside and say, hey, you know, I. I heard you say this, or I saw you do that. And I want to tell you that that wasn't the best thing. And here's some reasons why, and here's maybe some better ways that you could handle that kind of a situation. An admonition, a counseling, an exhorting, a correcting of a person's character. Those are the ideas that you find in this word. [00:27:06] And that's something that we can't do one to many. [00:27:10] I can't admonish or instruct each of you about your individual problems or good things that you're pursuing. I have to do that one on one. [00:27:20] And so what Paul is talking about here requires what we would call mentoring, personal mentoring. [00:27:29] And that requires not just private meetings. It requires a personal relationship between the two women. [00:27:37] They have to spend time together. They have to get to know each other. They have to build trust with one another so that the older Women can say to the younger women, she has some rapport. She could say, hey, you know, you really need to address this in your life. And here's some ideas. Maybe we can talk about that. [00:27:57] It's tough stuff, right? But you can do it. If you've built this kind of personal mentoring relationship, you need that in order to talk about how the truths of God's word apply in her life. [00:28:12] Okay, there's something of the what, what you're to be doing and how you're to be doing it. [00:28:21] Helping to apply the Gospel into the personal individual lives of younger women. [00:28:27] Let's apply this a little bit to you older Christian ladies. My older sisters. God has given you a wonderful opportunity to serve, to serve your sisters and to serve Him. [00:28:42] The picture that you find in these verses is of older women actively serving in the church body through mentoring relationships with younger women. [00:28:54] Now that shouldn't surprise us. As you read your New Testament, this kind of active service by women is all over the place. There's the group of women that in the Gospel of Luke are following around after Jesus, serving him, helping him, supporting him. You see it in Acts, you see it in the other epistles. [00:29:12] Older women are all the time serving actively in the church. [00:29:19] Paul says this of older women whom if they become widows. Paul says if these women have served the church in these kinds of ways, then the church can support them if they're widowed. [00:29:33] He says of such a woman that she should be well reported for good works. If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. [00:29:49] These are people who are busy women, older women who are busy about the work of the kingdom. [00:29:57] Such older women who've devoted their time to service can and will be spending time with younger women. [00:30:06] What does that look like? I'm not going to tell you how you live your life exactly, precisely in the details. These are things you get to figure out for yourself. But maybe it looks like spending a day or two a week going and spending time at a younger woman's house. [00:30:20] Maybe you spend half a day or a day helping her with her chores, helping her with her children, and all the while helping to build a relationship so that you can begin to admonish, instruct and apply the gospel in her life. [00:30:36] It's kind of invasive what Paul's describing here with that word train or admonish. [00:30:43] You got to get up in her business, as it were. [00:30:47] And if that's the case. If that's what God wants older women to do, then younger ladies need to be prepared to receive this. [00:30:55] If an older woman comes along and offers the help, especially if she's a godly woman, you look up to let her into your life. [00:31:05] Let her serve you. You need encouragement. You need advice. [00:31:10] You need to be able to answer the question, how do I live the gospel in my marriage we have with my children, with my relationships? [00:31:17] And God is offering you an older woman who's walked these paths before and can help you in it. [00:31:27] Finally, I want to leave you with some exhortations as to why you should pursue being teachers of good things. [00:31:36] There's a way in which some of these is. Some of this applies to all of us. [00:31:41] But this is particularly necessary and true for older Christian women. [00:31:47] Pursue being a teacher of good things first of all, because by God's grace, this is something you can do. [00:31:56] By God's grace, His help, his work in your life. This is something you can do, and it's something I can't do. [00:32:07] I or the other elders in the church, the other older men in the church, can come alongside a young man and meet with him for lunch or for coffee. I can mentor him. I can talk to him about his personal life, his thought life. [00:32:22] I can have an intimate relationship with him. Where we work through how does the gospel apply in the particulars of life? [00:32:29] But it's not appropriate for me or the other elders to do this with younger women in the church. [00:32:36] This is something I can't do, but something that by God's grace and his power, you are enabled to do. [00:32:44] So pursue being a teacher of good things to your younger sisters in the faith. [00:32:51] Secondly, pursue being a teacher of good things to your younger sisters, because this is your field of service. This is the thing God, God has called you to. [00:33:02] We live in a society, even in an American Christian scene, where the feminists complain that they can't be pastors. [00:33:16] God has given you a better calling, one better suited to who you are, to your walk with the Lord. [00:33:23] He's in some ways given you a greater calling, one you can do and I can't. He calls you to mentor your younger sisters in the faith. [00:33:34] That's good stuff. That's your field of service. [00:33:40] It's your field of service. What do you do with your time? [00:33:46] Are your children grown? Are your husband in retirement? What fills your time? [00:33:52] This problem isn't new at all. [00:33:55] Paul warns in First Timothy 5 of widows who don't serve in a positive fashion in the Church, he says if they're not filling their time with all of this good service, he says they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house. And not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not. [00:34:19] Much evil comes from idleness, from filling our lives with things that aren't productive and good. Here is a field of service God has entrusted to you, your younger sisters, to lead them in the faith. [00:34:33] Fill your time with good things, blessing them, serving them, serving Jesus. [00:34:40] This is your field of service. [00:34:42] Pursue being a teacher of good things. [00:34:46] Finally, pursue being a teacher of good things, because God will bring much good fruit from this. [00:34:54] Remember back to when you were a younger woman, you were newly married, or you had a few children that had come along. [00:35:06] I watched my mom do it. I've watched my wife do it. [00:35:09] Being a wife and mother is some of the hardest work on the face of planet Earth. [00:35:15] It's hard physically. [00:35:17] Maybe it's not as hard as physically as bricklaying, but it's very hard physically in other ways. The sleepless nights, the emotional torture, anxiety over your children and their crying and their struggles. It's emotionally difficult. It's spiritually hard work to be a wife and a mother. [00:35:38] And the devil especially likes to come along young women and to isolate them, to cut them off, isolate them from their husband, from their children. And because their time is so spent with all of these things and their struggles, they become isolated from their sisters at church, and he wreaks more havoc on their lives. [00:35:59] God calls you to be with them, to come alongside them, to encourage them, to bless them, to lift up their hands and strengthen them for good work and service. [00:36:11] And you will see God bless not just the fruit of your work with them. You'll see him bless their marriages, their families, their children. [00:36:20] God will bring good things from your service. [00:36:23] It's not just being a wife and a mother. Though being a Christian is hard, this is true for all of us. [00:36:33] Being a Christian is hard because of everything out there that stands against us, that wants to drag us away from the Lord Jesus, to distract us from our callings. [00:36:45] Being as Christian is hard because of what's in here. [00:36:49] Our sin, our discouragement, our weakness. [00:36:52] It isn't just the work of being a wife and a mother, is being a Christian called to serve the Lord, that God is calling you, inviting you to come alongside your sisters and bless and help them. [00:37:05] You get to go and build up your sisters in their faith in Christ. [00:37:11] You get to see them as you come alongside them. You get to see them draw closer to Jesus, and you get to rejoice with them as they grow in their faith. Now those are wonderful reasons. [00:37:27] Wonderful good kingdom God, honoring blessed reasons to seek to be a teacher of good things. Let's pray. [00:37:36] Our gracious God and our Savior, we thank you for Jesus and that in him you give us exactly what we need. [00:37:50] We are impure. [00:37:52] We have the stain of sin and its guilt and its shame. And in Jesus, you wash all of that away. [00:37:59] As our high priest, he pleads with you for us. [00:38:05] Forgive them and you forgive us. [00:38:09] We thank you too, Lord Jesus, that you are our king, that you reign in our hearts, not just outwardly as we hear the Word, but inwardly. You reign as your spirit takes our hearts and changes them and aligns our will and our desires and our faith so that we would accept the promises of your Word and that we would act, that we would live lives that flow forth from that in obedience to you. [00:38:41] But we thank you, Jesus, that not only do you give us what we need in yourself and in the promises of the Gospel, you also give us a family, the family of God. For you have adopted us into your family. We are your sons and daughters and you give us one another. [00:38:59] So that as we walk through this life with all of its challenges, its problems, with all of our weaknesses and failings, you give us each other to walk together, to lift each other up, to encourage each other, to spur each other on. [00:39:15] Lord our God, we ask especially tonight for our older sisters in the faith and for our younger sisters in the faith. We thank you for them for the gifts and treasures that they are as mothers and as wives, as sisters in Christ. We thank you for their witness, their testimony with word and in their lives, to your faithfulness and goodness to them. [00:39:39] We thank you for how they serve, raising children for you, lifting and encouraging up their husbands and blessing everyone around them. O Lord our God, we ask that you would honor these women with your blessings that the promises you have made, to change their hearts, to fill them with your spirit, to give them joy, to give them a life filled with service and the fruit of the Spirit. We ask that you would honor these promises, keep them, fill the women in our congregation with your love, with your strength and power that they might serve you and that they might equip and bless and serve one another together, so that as they do so, the rest of the body might be blessed, encouraged and built up so that we might all together grow with the growth that comes from you, Lord Jesus, our head. [00:40:32] And that as we are united more and more to you and one another as we grow in grace, that the honor and glory would come to you. [00:40:43] We ask that you would help us to be one, as you and the Father are one. [00:40:48] So that the world may know that you are the only true God and that Jesus, your son, is the Savior who of mankind. In his name we pray. Amen.