Sermon Tone Analysis

March 16, 2012

By John Barnett

Read, print and listen to this resource on our website www.DiscoverTheBook.org

In a full and rich life like many of us lead, there are those satisfying moments here and there, when one thing is “complete” in our lives.

That’s why I love Jiffy Lube—they do a complete 16 point check of everything vital for my safety and the best operation of my car.

So when I drive away that task is complete, all done, nothing left to do.

Things completed, give such a great feeling: a completed assignment so our work is done; a completely balanced diet so we are healthy; all our requirements completed, so the pressures are off…all of those feel so good.

*The Joy of Completion*

The dictionary defines this word so well:

com·plete adj., = Having all necessary or normal parts, components, or steps; Having come to an end; concluded; Entire: a complete meal.

Accomplished: a complete musician.

Thorough; consummate: a complete coward.

Caught in bounds by a receiver: a complete pass.

In our spiritual lives God says that we are ‘complete in Christ” (Col.

2:9).

Colossians 2:9-10 /"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and* you are complete in Him*, who is the head of all principality and power"/.

NKJV

The word Paul used for complete is *pleroo* means ‘full or filled to the full’.

That is one amazing spiritual truths we’d all do well to ponder for long enough, until we started realizing that all we need for life and godliness God has overflowed into our lives through Christ.

We know that, believe that, rest in that—and then often feel so incomplete on a day-to-day basis.

Have you ever felt less than ‘complete’?

Are their parts of your life that you are unsure about what it is exactly that God wants for you?

Anything that is important to God that involves our life—He has clearly explained His wishes.

God has left a complete way of life for us in His Word.

Anything that God desires for us to know and do—He has written down and given to us.

And, for every woman and young woman who are believers this morning, God has reduced your items needed to be ‘complete’ to a list containing just 33 words in the Greek language.

That complete list of God’s expectations for women to completely please Him by their daily lives contains just 12 qualities every woman is to use to measure their lives against.

This morning we can read that amazing list found in God's Word at Titus 2:

Titus 2:3-5 /"the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed."/

NKJV

*God is not looking for Superwoman*

One of the most beloved chapters for women, wives, and mothers is that venerable old chapter 31 of Proverbs.

There we see in the Old Testament that incredible woman of virtue whose “pricelessness” is beyond rubies—she is the woman of excellence, the mother of mothers, and the wife that excels them all.

For centuries the Proverbs 31 woman has been extolled and held forth as a model for all, but for many she seems to be superwoman.

In fact when this passage is read, often on Mother’s Day, many women sit a little lower in their seats as this Proverbs 31 woman seems to never sleep, never tire, never fail, and seems to be just plain perfect.

Much as we love the example of Proverbs 31, *the passage never says that this is God’s command for every woman*—it is just a picture of what one virtuous woman’s life was like.

This passage was never intended to be a one size fits all for all women of all ages.

It is just to be an inspiring look at what a virtuous woman was like 3,000 years ago.

So God does not expect every godly woman: to stay up all night, to sew clothes for every member of her household, to be a gourmet chef, to sell her wares to others on the side.

Proverbs 31 is an inspiring picture of all the ways a woman can bless her husband and children.

Most of us could never do all that she did and survive.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum from the inspirational Proverbs 31 woman is the God designed Titus 2 grace-energized woman.

*Titus 2 is God’ Plan for ALL Women in Christ*

Titus 2 is not meant to be an inspirational picture of some yesteryear woman of virtue from 2,000 years ago.

God's Word presents the Titus Two woman as God’s plan, God’s desire, and God’s marching orders for all women in Christ of any age in any era of Christ's Church.

If there is one passage every young lady should memorize it is right here.

If there is one paragraph in the Bible every bride-to-be should have down as a part of her preparation to be married—this is it.

If there are a handful of verses every tired mother and busy wife need as the ones they hold to as they have just enough strength to make it through one more day—look no further.

Welcome to the complete woman of God, the “Complete Woman” as defined and described by God.

The Complete Woman of Grace is saved by grace, and energized by the Spirit of God to live such an extraordinary life that the world, her husband, and her children all notice that she is different because she is in step with the Spirit and Word of God.

Ministry in Christ's church was never easy even from the start.

Turn back in Paul’s letter to Pastor Titus, missionary church-planter to Crete—and look at the description of the cultural background of the congregation Titus served two thousand years ago.

Titus 1:12-13 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

This testimony is true.

Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith (NKJV)

Wow, just think of what a miracle it was to find group of believers saved out of such a godless society.

They came from centuries of culture dominated by *total* (‘always’) *untrustworthines*s (‘liars’),* total out-of-control living* (‘evil beasts’), and the *total undisciplined pursuit of personal lust-filled appetites* (‘lazy gluttons’).

Again we see from these two verses that when the Gospel of Jesus Christ entered the Roman world of the New Testament the landscape was very bleak.

Christ's church was born into a sin-warped, sin-darkened world of mixed-up marriages, sin-scarred lives, and confused families.

I really believe that this insight into the Cretan culture can stir our hearts to glorify the amazing grace and saving power of God.

• If the Gospel of Christ can reach into a culture of people who were the descendents of the wicked, pagan Old Testament Philistines (as in Goliath and David) and build them into grace-energized servants of Christ's church—*He can work with anyone.

*

• If God can make saints out of people who had so descended in their personal character until Paul describes them with this trio of disparaging words “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”—*He can change anyone no matter how weak, how wicked, how undisciplined.*

What was the plan God had in mind to transform these very un-saintly people?

The same plan He has for all of us this morning.

Save them by His grace and sanctify them by His Word.

Paul did not call for Titus as the pastor to train all the women in these qualities God wanted them to cultivate; rather he called upon the godly older women of Christ's church.

He singles out the women of faith, those who had already learned to love their husbands, learned to love their children, and learned to be reverent, godly, modest and wise—and charged them with seeking out and meeting with every younger woman in the church.

*Older Women are to be Mentors*

*v.