Speaker: Steve Anderson

Passage: Titus 2

FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

We are in the Book of Titus, Becoming the Households of God, and we’ve been in chapter 2 for the last several weeks. Pastor Greg has been giving us some great messages, speaking to the older men, the younger men, the older women, the younger women. 

And something captured me as we were going through these messages, and that is, there is something generationally significant that’s taking place in Paul’s words to Titus.

And so, this morning, if you’ve got your Bibles, I want you to go to the Book of Titus. That’s where we’re going to spend part of our time. We’re also going to be spending part of our time in the Book of Deuteronomy. So, if you want to have a little bookmark there, we’ll be going there in a little while. 

But I want to speak to you today generationally. I want to speak to you today as a son, as a father, and as a grandfather. I want to tap into what Paul is trying to say in the Book of Titus, what his motivation is, because it should be our motivation as well. 

See, Paul is communicating this to Titus with a very strong sense of urgency. In Titus 1:5, Paul says this: “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might set in order what remains.” And let’s read chapter 2, verses 1-8, as a recap. “But as for you, proclaim the things which are fitting for sound doctrine, sound teaching. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance, to be patient and understanding as they drive I-25.” Your version doesn’t say that? That must be Paul’s letter to Steven. 

“Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips or enslaved to too much wine, teaching what is good, so 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, so that the word of God will 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, so that the opponent will be put to shame having nothing bad to say about us.” 

See, Paul knows that the key to set in order what remains is to get the homes right. Yeah, he’s speaking about some church dynamics with overseers and elders and things like that in chapter 1, but then he gets down into it. He crashes through the front door and starts rearranging the furniture. Get your homes right. 

Paul is emphasizing older men, younger men, older women, younger women in chapter 2. He is challenging each and every one of us. Last week’s teaching by Pastor Greg was direct to women. Why? Because God takes that role seriously. 

As a woman, you should take what the Word of God says about you and take it seriously, that there’s responsibilities that have been put on you, just as there’s been responsibilities put on men. There’s responsibilities that we each have, and we need to take those roles seriously. 

So, the question is, why does all of this matter? What’s the crux that Paul is trying to get to here? I believe the answer is that he knows the importance of passing down the faith from generation to generation, and it starts with us getting our own individual lives in order, and he’s giving us that focus in Titus. 

Now, the Apostle Paul was the author of this letter to Titus. We also know that the apostle Paul, as he calls himself, the Pharisee of Pharisees, was a Jewish scholar. He was one of the high and rising Pharisees before his conversion on the road to Damascus. 

The apostle Paul knew the Bible. He knew the Old Testament. Keep in mind, there was no New Testament at this time. I mean, this letter to Titus is part of the New Testament now, but they didn’t have the New Testament back then. 

What did they have? They had the teachings of the apostles. They were sharing teachings back and forth, but they also had the Old Testament. That was very important to them, especially with the Jewish roots of Christianity. Paul knew history. He knew the Word of God, which means he knew history. 

I believe it was the author George Sotomayor that said this famous phrase: those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And many of us live that out every single day, in our lives and in our families. The same dysfunctional things keep happening, and it doesn’t seem like we can break the cycle, and we can’t get out of our own way. 

TITUS AND DEUTERONOMY

The more I read and study Titus, the more I’m inclined to call it Paul’s Deuteronomy. This was Paul’s last letter before his final imprisonment and his execution. Now, he wrote the book of 2 Timothy when he was in prison, and that was his last letter, but his second-to-last letter was this one to Titus. And I believe there is that sense of urgency taking place in Paul as he is writing this letter to Titus. He is putting together a massive to-do list in this letter. 

See, the persecution of Nero was increasing. The church was getting plucked off and persecuted and put to death. And so, Paul knows, I’ve got to get some things right, I’ve got to get the church in a good position for what they are about to face. 

Just in the first twenty-five verses of the Book of Titus, I counted forty-five directives or descriptions by Paul. Be this, don’t be this; do this, don’t do this. Forty-five times in the first twenty-five verses. 

This is his to-do list: there’s calls to encourage, there’s calls to teach and instruct. It’s the only letter where he is imploring the older and the younger generations. He is channeling his inner Moses. 

Now, Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books in the Bible. I read it probably once a month. I constantly go back to it. There is so much in the Book of Deuteronomy. It’s the last words of Moses in the last week of his life to the Israelites before they’re about to go into the Promised Land, a new generation of Israelites. 

See, they were heirs to the promise, heirs to the promised land. But you know what they also were? They were also children of a disobedient generation. So, there’s some dysfunction there that Moses is trying to deal with as they get ready to go on to the new phase of their life. 

So, he spends the first three chapters talking about what went wrong in the last forty years. What went wrong? Why did it go wrong? And now we’re going to talk about what we need to do going forward. It was his to-do list. 

Moses is the last representative of his generation. Think of him as being the grandfather. He was the last one of that generation. The only two of the next generation are Joshua and Caleb, they’re the only ones that are allowed to go into the Promised Land, them and their families, because of the disobedience of that generation, but they were faithful to God’s word. 

So now, Moses is speaking to the next generation, Joshua and Caleb’s children, and the generations that are going to follow. So, three generations are represented in the Book of Deuteronomy, and Moses goes into full patriarch mode, beginning in chapter 4, and that’s where I want to spend a lot of time this morning. 

DEUTERONOMY 4 AND 6

And as I read these words, I want you to let the Word of God pierce your heart. I want the Word of God to say, Hey, did you just hear that? That’s you. There’s going to be a lot in these Scriptures, in Deuteronomy 4 and Deuteronomy 6. And I guarantee you that God is going to speak something to you, and it’s going to resonate, and it’s going to bring revelation to you. 

Deuteronomy 4, starting in verse 1. “Now listen Israel,” that word listen, it’s the Hebrew word shama, and it means to listen and hear with acting obedience. Doesn’t mean just to hear it, it means you have to obey what I’m talking about here. There’s an obedience attached to it. 

“Listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you will live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor, for all the men who followed Baal-peor, the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. But you who clung to the Lord your God are alive today, every one of you. 

“See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you are to do these things in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. So keep them and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or this whole Law which I am setting before you today? 

“Only be careful.” That’s the word shamar, which is from shama, same thing. “Be careful for yourself and watch over your soul diligently, so that you will not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons.” 

Or another translation will say, “Make them known to your children and your grandchildren.” So, when you hear sons or grandsons, I want you to think of the all-encompassing children and grandchildren. Moses is speaking about generation to generation. 

Now he’s saying, I’m giving you some stuff, and it’s not just yours to keep. It’s yours to pass on. It’s yours to make sure that your generation is good and the next one after you is good as well. 

Listen to Moses again in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy: “Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may do them in the land that you are going to take possession of it, to teach you so that you may do them.” 

Lot of verbs in Deuteronomy. Verbs mean action. “So that you, your son, and your grandson will fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.” 

How many want their days prolonged? Me. Not enough hands going up. That’s not church growth. “Now Israel, you shall listen and be careful to do them, so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.” 

And now, starting in verse 4, this is a very famous passage of Scripture. Jesus quotes it. In the Hebrew culture, it’s one of the most important passages of Scripture in the Bible. It’s called the Shema. “Hear (shama), Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the road, and when you lie down, and when you get up. You shall also tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as the frontlets on your forehead. You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” 

Practicing Hebrews would recite Deuteronomy 6:4-9 twice a day. In fact, they would, at night, use part of that Scripture that I just read as a closing prayer to their children. They would pray this and read this over their children. 

I believe that if we are truly obedient to these words, I don’t care what you’re going through, it will fast-track God to move in that situation. It will break patterns. It will remove strongholds. It will reverse history. They are commands, but they are commands that have promises attached. 

THE FEAR OF THE LORD

Do you know who is probably camped at the feet of Moses as he was speaking these words? Joshua. Joshua was the man who has been charged to lead this next generation into the promised land. Moses is not going in. God said, Your disobedience is keeping you out. Joshua is the man that’s going to take it from here. 

So, Joshua is probably camped at the feet of Moses, taking in every single word. After Moses dies, God takes some time to build Joshua up. In Joshua, chapter 1, he says, “Be strong and courageous, Joshua. Meditate on my word day and night.” 

And listen to Joshua’s final words just before his death. They’ve gone into the Promised Land, they’ve taken the land. They’ve had all of this success, all of these victories, and now it’s time for Joshua to die, and it’s time for him to speak to the next generation that’s coming. 

Listen to his words: “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth.” Every time I hear the phrase, “Fear the Lord,” that’s a tough one sometimes for me to translate, but I have my own personal translation: I cannot imagine what life without the Lord is, and I don’t want to stand in front of Him at the end and not have known Him. That’s the fear of the Lord. 

Joshua is saying. “Now, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your father served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in the land in which you are now living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua mentions the word serve five times in those two verses. Joshua is thinking generationally, but he’s also thinking about it in the time, in the context, of serving. For me, as I think about generations, as I think about where I’ve been, where I am now, and where I’m going, and what is the legacy that’s going to be in front of me, my thought has to be that the next generation is the most important one, and that’s where my focus has to be. 

If we fall asleep as fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, if we fall asleep at the wheel, we will lose the next generation. In Judges 2:8-10, it says this. Now, keep in mind, Joshua had just said these words to Israel. He just said these words to pass on what Moses passed on to him. He’s now passing it on to them. 

Listen to this: “Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and another generation rose up after them who did not know the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.” 

How could that be? How did that happen? They had just had all of this success, they had just entered into the promise, and now another generation is rising up, and they don’t know the Lord. I don’t know if they were too busy conquering, too busy fighting, I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t wrap my head around that. 

All I know is, I look at that and I go, You know what? There is nothing taken for granted. I have to do what Moses was instructing Joshua and that generation to do. I must take the statutes of the Lord. I must take the good things of the Lord and I must pass it on to the next generation, and I must make sure that they do not forget how good He is and how faithful He is. 

This is what I believe Paul is trying to communicate to us in the Book of Titus. See, Moses said, Be careful for yourself, watch over your soul diligently, and that’s why Paul’s giving us this incredible to-do list in the Book of Titus. 

See, salvation through Jesus Christ is the most important thing that can ever happen in any individual’s life, and Paul will go into more of the salvation thing later on, in Titus 2 and into chapter 3.

SHAPING A FAMILY

But how many know that living out our faith is rewarding, but it’s also challenging? Amen. How many know that raising children up to love the Lord is rewarding, but it’s challenging? And leaving behind a legacy that shapes generations is rewarding, but it’s challenging. 

I am a blessed man. I have a wife and two children who love and serve Jesus, or better put, I have a Proverbs 31 wife and two Titus 2 children. Both kids married God-fearing spouses, and now they are blessing us with Jesus-loving grandchildren. I may have set the culture, but my wife, Elizabeth, she did the heavy lifting. 

Here’s the latest addition to our family. Meet Beckett Miles Anderson, born May 26, my first grandson to go with my four granddaughters. Elizabeth and I were convinced that God was just going to use the Anderson family to populate the world with just unbelievable girls. 

I just told the Lord, Just one grandson, just one, and if possible, can you do it through my son so that my name lives on? Don’t think that’s not important to me. There’s my son with Elizabeth and me, three generations of Anderson men. 

When I read Titus and Deuteronomy chapters 4 and 6, this is where my attention goes. My attention goes now to my son and my grandson. I hope I have a lot of days left on this planet, but just know this: that I’m going to take advantage of every single day that I’m here to make sure that the next generation is not lost, and I’m going to train them up as best I can to know the Lord. 

But what about my four granddaughters? I tell you, we know how to bring good-looking girls into the world. Please hear me on this: I am their Papi. I will always love them. I will always have a lap for them to jump into. They will always, at least, I hope, see and hear Jesus in me when they’re around me. I will be their patriarch, I will be their spiritual covering, and I will teach them the ways and the statutes of God.

But Paul says something very unique in Titus 2. It’s the older women who are to encourage the younger women. He doesn’t tell the older men to encourage the younger men. He says that’s how they’re supposed to be. The only group that he says is to encourage the other one is older women to encourage the younger women. 

That’s why, when you heard Pastor Greg’s messages over the last couple of weeks, when he was talking to the women, ladies, please take your role seriously. That’s why Paul is putting an emphasis on that. If my four granddaughters are going to soar, it’s going to happen because of their mom and their grandmother, because they’re going to encourage them to be those Proverbs 31 women. 

There’s a Pew Research study that over the last three to five years, the largest decline in the church is in young women, ages eighteen to twenty-nine. The same Pew Research study showed that the greatest increase in the church is young men, ages eighteen to twenty-nine. 

That tells me that there is a battle going on for this generation. It’s called Gen Z. They’re called the Zoomers, but there’s a battle going on for those girls. We all have to fight for that generation. 

Now, some of you might be in this room, and you might be in that age group. You might have friends that are maybe in that same type of battle. You can come alongside them as friends. You might have kids that are in that age group. This might be a motivation to drive you to your knees, or you might have grandchildren in that age group. 

Just know that there is a battle going on for that generation, and that’s the generation that’s coming up next. They’re the generation that’s going to shape the Church, that’s going to shape this earth, and we need to fight for that generation. 

So, now I see myself in a different light as a man. I now see my role as a husband and as a father and as a grandfather a lot differently than I did before when it comes to those young women. 

I need to pour myself into my wife, I need to pour myself into my daughter, I need to pour myself into my daughter-in-law so that they can encourage the younger women, so that they can encourage my four granddaughters, and whatever else may follow, so that they are fully equipped to do that and model what a Proverbs 31 woman looks like. 

It’s a different dynamic, though, with my grandson. My job and responsibility to my son as he was growing up in our household was to exemplify what Biblical manhood looked like, and I tried to do that the best I could with my son, and now he has his son, and now it’s my chance, as a patriarch, as a grandfather, to pour into both of them. 

This is what a man of God looks like. This is what a man of God is supposed to be. And they’re going to notice it and look at it as they see how I treat my wife, how I treat my kids, how I treat the people around me. 

Boy, when Pastor Greg a few weeks ago was talking about Ephesians 5, and Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church, he said something at the end of the message. He said, Men, when your wife leans into you, they should see and feel Jesus. 

I was out of town at the time that message took place, and so I was listening to the podcast, and as soon as he said that, the sermon ended, I went, What? You’re going to leave me there? And I had to call him up on the phone, and I said, You can’t just leave me there. But it caused me to say, Okay, what’s my role now as a man? 

Titus 2 tells me that when my wife leans into me, she needs to see Jesus. When my four granddaughters look at me, they need to see how I treat Elizabeth. They need to see how I treat my kids. They need to see how I’m treating them. 

My job now is to make sure that the faith of Jesus Christ and salvation continues on to the next generation, and not just my faith, but also in obedience to God’s Word, an obedience that is commanded, but it’s also rewarded. 

LEAVING A LEGACY

I want to close this off by leaving you with four things, four intentional movements that will leave a legacy in your lives. So, if you want to write these down, these are four things that Elizabeth and I have had active in our lives before we were married, and all throughout our thirty-eight years of being married. And I know that if you implement these things in your lives, things will change and things will happen. These will help everyone, but especially parents and grandparents. 

Number one: read the Bible every day. Joshua 1:8, God says to Joshua, “The Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will achieve success.”

There’s a command and a reward both in that Scripture. Both of my children have said to me in their grown-up years now, both of them said to me that they always came to know and expect one thing when they woke up in the morning when they were living with us. 

When they woke up in the morning and came out of their bedrooms first thing in the morning, they could always expect one thing: that dad was going to be either on the couch or on the porch with his Bible. And they took that with them, and they tried to make the Word of God part of their everyday lives. 

The times that I hear God the most– how many know that it’s a good thing to hear from the Lord? The times that I hear God the most are the times where I am meditating on His Word, and His Scripture comes alive. 

And as Hebrews 4 says, “The Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,” and it pierces down deep into my soul. And it’s that particular time when the Word of God comes to life, and the Spirit then prompts me and says, That’s speaking to you right now. And I can hear the voice of God through the Holy Spirit, through what I just read in the Word of God. If you’re having trouble hearing the voice of God, meditate on His Word. 

Number two: pray daily. This is where Elizabeth is a rock star, and it’s why I attribute most of the success of the successful raising of our children to her. She likes to say that, Hey, it’s fifty-fifty. I said, No, it’s eighty-twenty, it was 80% you and 20% me. 

And you want to know why? Because this lady prays like crazy. There’s a phrase that says there’s nothing more powerful than a praying mom or a praying grandmom. She had a list, and still has that list today. 

She was in the eight o’clock service, and I was sitting next to her, and she had her prayer list out. She had her little book, and she had her list out, her little to-do list, her little prayer items for that particular day. She had a list of daily prayer items, and she prayed it every single day. 

She prayed for our kids before they were born. She prayed for our grandchildren before our children could even walk. She prayed for their spouses before they even knew what a spouse was. She was constantly thinking ahead and praying ahead and putting things out there. 

We remember in our studies in the Book of Revelation, it talks about prayers going into these bowls, and eventually the prayers get so full that the Lord says it’s time to pour those things out. That’s my wife. I believe there was a special bowl in Heaven that was reserved specifically for my wife because she prayed so much. This has to be the Elizabeth bowl right here. She prayed constantly. 

On Monday, she prayed for marriages, our marriage, their marriages, and now our grandchildren’s marriages. She prays that every Monday. On Tuesday, she prays for temperament and personality. Wednesday, she prays for wisdom, knowledge, and discernment. On Thursday, any health and physical needs that might be there. 

And on Friday, she prays for their relationship with Jesus, that they would come to know the Lord, and after they come to know the Lord, that their relationship with Jesus would grow and prosper, and they would have an impact on the Kingdom. 

Monday through Friday, every single day for the last thirty-eight years. The power of a praying woman. Younger women, please learn from that. 

Number three: serve. Nothing activates your faith like serving, and church is the best place to do that. We’ve got lots of opportunities in this church. There’s lots of opportunities outside this church as well. 

The main thing is that as we read in Joshua 24, he mentioned serving five times in that passage of Scripture: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” 

When our kids were growing up, Elizabeth and I were active in the youth ministries. We were in the nursery when they were babies. We were in the elementary school. We were in the junior high. We were counselors on a junior high mission trip that our kids went on. 

We took our family on family mission trips by ourselves, just so that they could experience what God can do in a third-world country when we go in with the Gospel and go in with the hands and feet of Jesus, it changed our kids’ lives. 

My son is an incredible soccer player, played two years professionally in Germany, always had a soccer ball on his foot. I remember he was about eight years old when we went down to Mexico, to Ciudad Juárez, and he saw some kids out there kicking the soccer ball around. 

All he could do was just get out there and start kicking the soccer ball around with these kids in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. And all these kids running up to him and wanting to be around him, and him having an impact. 

He’s carried that forth today. He’s now a teacher in the Poudre School District. He’s now the head soccer coach at Rocky Mountain High School. He’s impacting kids, and he’s doing it in the act of service. Our kids saw us in action, and they did it, and are continuing to do it, and they’re going to teach their kids how to do it. So, that’s number three, serve 

Number four, this is the most important one of all, and this is mostly for you, parents and grandparents: proclaim blessing over your children and your grandchildren. The final words of Moses in Deuteronomy 34 are his patriarchal blessing to the children of Israel. Those are his last recorded words, and then Moses died. He knew the challenges that were coming. 

He had said his to-dos, but now it was time to bless, and he blessed them. What a legacy. 

We wrote blessings over our kids at an early age, and we had them permanently and visibly placed in our home, and now we’re doing the same thing with our grandchildren. And I keep the blessings that we wrote.

I’m a marketing graphics guy, so I took their pictures, and then Elizabeth and I came up with the wording, and we wrote them all down, and I put them on Photoshop, and then we printed them off, and we put 8×10 pictures in frames, and then we gave them to our kids. 

And now those blessings of all the grandkids are prominently placed in their home, and when they’re old enough to read them, they’re going to see them, and they’re going to see the blessings that Papi and Gigi have proclaimed over them based on the Word of God. 

This is our legacy. This is our heritage. And it’s never too late to do this. You say, Well, my kids are old. Well, if you’ve never written a blessing or proclaimed a blessing over your kids, it’s never too late to do it. Do it now. Do it over your grandkids. 

You might say, I’ve got kids that aren’t serving the Lord. Then be agents of blessing and not cursing. Moses talks a lot about blessing and cursing in Deuteronomy, he said, I put before you blessing and curse. I put before you life and death. Choose life. Choose the blessing. Bless them, bless your kids, bless your grandkids. 

If they’re prodigals, I am hopeful. I’m not going to guarantee it, but I am hopeful that if you have prodigals– kids that aren’t serving the Lord– maybe they’ve wandered off, that if you will write down a blessing, and you will proclaim that blessing day after day, and put that out there. I am hopeful that something positive will happen. 

There is power in our words. There is power in our blessing. So, please take heed to that. Proclaim blessing over your kids and your grandchildren. I promise you that if you put these four things in practice and do them diligently, it will change your life, your children’s lives, and the lives of your grandchildren. 

Let’s pray. Lord, we thank You for Your word. Thank You, Lord, that we have the power to proclaim that this generation will not be lost and that we will do what we can to preserve and prepare that next generation. 

I pray right now for parents and grandparents, right now that might be saying, Yep, that’s me, that we’ve got kids that aren’t serving the Lord. I pray right now, Lord, that You will pour into them Your words. 

You will pour into them things that they can put forth regarding those children and those grandchildren, that they will be able to proclaim blessing over them, and that they will feel the need and the urge and the prompting of the Holy Spirit to run back into the Father’s arms. 

We pray for a prodigal moment to happen in the lives of the people of this church. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.