Hope in Sound Doctrine

Stereotypes

Do sinners ever really change? Are you bored with what God is doing in your life?

What do you love doing? What have you learned recently?

The people who aren’t professional but love something get things done beautifully. Church is supposed to be done beautifully (Titus 2:9b)

Quote:

The world...needs all the lovers--amateurs--it can get. It is a gorgeous old place, full of clownish graces and beautiful drolleries, and it has enough textures, tastes, and smells to keep us intrigued for more time than we have.

“Unfortunately, however, our response to its loveliness is not always delight; it is, far more often than it should be, boredom. And that is not only odd, it is tragic; for boredom is not neutral--it is the fertilizing principle of unloveliness.

“In such a situation, the amateur--the lover, the man who thinks heedlessness is a sin and boredom a heresy--is just the man you need. ...The real world is indeed the mother of loveliness, the womb and matrix in which it is conceived and nurtured; but the loving eye...is the father of it. The graces of the world are the looks of a woman in love; without the woman they could not be there at all; but without her lover, they would not quicken into loveliness.

“There then, is the role of the amateur: to look the world back to grace. ...Man's real work is to look at the things of the world and to love them for what they are. That is, after all, what God does, and man was not made in God's image for nothing. The fruits of his attention can be seen in all the arts, crafts, and sciences.” Loving to Know by Esther Lightcap Meek

We are human beings - made in the image of God but also chosen as the weak, the foolish to bring glory to God. Imitating God who speaks and then keeps His Word.

Pastors and leaders can be professional or we can love our people enough to do church beautifully by silencing disorderly talk and speaking faithful orderly speech.

The need to silence disorderly talk

The goal: living out what you say you believe (sobermindedness) Titus 2:11-14

Romans 12:3

The problem of disorderly talk - speculations and “discovering morality” -

“white lies” - just be blunt, the tricks to not hurt someone’s feelings

find new doctrine, ignore old ones

your pastor does not have all the information, he’s not professional

It promotes shameful motives

Politics

Money for religion

It encourages integration rather than discipleship

Jesus is not just another god

It unwittingly promotes paying attention to lies

The hard work of living out Jesus’ life prevents hypocrisy and therefore lies

It denies God’s grace in the journey of our lives

God’s grace is there to change us not just rescue us

Disorderly talk can ruin churches so pastors (and congregations) need to watch out for it and silence it by delighting in the grace of faithful, orderly speech

The grace of faithful orderly speech

Sharply (drawing a line in the sand)

Heb. 12:5, James 2:9, Eph 5:11,

Church: Membership class, Church covenant, Expositional Preaching, Humble Living (Cross-generational, Cross-Cultural)

Ephesians 5:3-21

It encourages delight in sound doctrine

Doctrine divides?

It nurtures sound living

Pastors - China

It exposes impurity

Living to always find the angle

Living for money

It delights in grace

2 Peter 3:11–13 ESV

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

How? Not simply by telling people they are wrong - Family ways of speaking

Expectations - We can have unconscious, unrealistic, unspoken, unagreed upon expectations. We need conscious, realistic, spoken, and agreed-upon expectations.

By pointing to the Gospel of God’s grace and encouraging the expectation of living consistently Titus 2:11-14

You’ll never be bored and you’ll always be growing if you listen to and speak faithful orderly speech.

Small Group Questions

How do you communicate expectations? What expectations do you have for your spouse, children, church? Are those conscious, spoken, realistic and agreed upon?

How can we encourage our pastors in their responsibility of silencing disorderly speech and speaking faithfully?

How can we encourage one another to live out the Gospel with sober-minded living?