Douglas Campbell's sermon, 'The Great Calling of Women,' centers on Titus 2:1-5, emphasizing the roles and responsibilities of women in the Christian faith. Campbell highlights the importance of sound doctrine and the complementary roles of men and women as prescribed by scripture. He underscores the need for older women to teach and guide younger women in loving their families and living a life of virtue, aligning with biblical womanhood. The sermon critiques cultural norms that contradict biblical teachings, encouraging women to find fulfillment in their God-given roles, especially as homemakers and mothers. Campbell advocates for a life devoted to Christ, arguing that true fulfillment and happiness are found in knowing and serving God. The sermon also warns against false teachings and the cultural pressures that divert from biblical truths.

Amen. This morning I'm reading from Titus chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. As you go there, I want to give a thank you to the elders and the deacons and all of you who mightily stepped up in my time away to rest and to dwell in the Word of the Lord. What a blessing it is. You guys went right to work and we have a projector show up.

And I think Mr. Gregg was fighting with that for a while and he said we've got more fighting to do because we need to get it to fit the screen better but just what a blessing what a blessing it is to serve with with the elders who are completely supportive and ready to step up and help and do whatever they can. What a blessing to get to spend some time with my family and time in God's Word and that just to draw near is such a blessing. Amen. I'm sure I'm forgetting a hundred people, so I love you all.

I love you all. Thank you very much. Titus chapter 2, 1 through 5. I know that I've preached on this in the past, and this morning I'm going to not go deep into all of this, but I want to look specifically at the great calling of women. The word of God says, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and in steadfastness. 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for this beautiful day You've given us.

Father, thank You that so often as we come to the Word, we're reminded that the Word is Christ. Christ is the Word. That your Word is your revelation of yourself to us. That Father, while we can't see you, we can see your word. We can know you by your word.

And Father, this morning we know that as we come to your word, as we peer into it, We peer into your very nature. So Father, this morning help us to be conformed to the image of Christ. Help us to be conformed by your Word. We ask Father that Your Holy Spirit would change our hearts, that He would help us to see in truth, that He would help us to cast off the blinders of growing up in a culture that it puts upon our eyes, but the scales would fall off our eyes and that God we would see you and worship you in spirit and in truth. Father give us that today we ask.

Father for we need more of you. Help us we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's start at the beginning in Titus 2 verses 1 through 2.

It says, But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love, and in steadfastness. We are reminded over and over and over again in Scripture that we are to teach what accords with sound doctrine. This is specifically written to a young pastor, a young man in the faith, to reminding him once again, as we saw Paul remind Timothy several times, and as we see other parts in scripture, even to examine ourselves to be sure that we're in the faith, but to teach what accords with sound doctrine. We know that in the Greek language, or specifically In Hebrew, when we repeat things, it adds emphasis.

And in our culture, we go on the computer and we highlight it and click the bold button. But in the way that they ordered their language, it was repetition. And that's why we say God is holy, holy, holy. It is of the utmost. He is the holiest.

He has the highest emphasis of holy. And I believe, and rightly so, it's why we find over and over and over in the New Testament to teach what accords with sound doctrine. That understanding scripture and teaching it rightly is of the highest priority of all who teach. And it's also of the highest priority of all who teach their families. And it's also of the highest priority of all those who come to Scripture to know God.

See, all of us have, as we just prayed, all of us have these blinders of growing up in a culture. And this culture taints us, it skews our vision, and we must pray and plead that God would help us to overcome the skew. And how do we do that? By diving into and and feasting upon and studying the Word of God. There are many teachers, and in fact, all through the New Testament, we're warned as well over and over again, Beware of the false teachers.

Beware. They will teach what your itching ears want to hear. And so often, what your itching ears want to hear is almost always false. It's almost always manipulation. How does the guy selling snake oil sell his snake oil?

He goes around and tells you what you want to hear. He might see a whole yard full of dandelions and he will say, boy you have a beautiful yard full of flowers. I just love your yard." And you would say, well, thank you. Oh, and also, what a nice shirt you have on. Where do you get those?

I've not seen shirts like that. And by the time he's got you flattered, he'd say, and by the way, I have the snake oil. I noticed that you have a little cough. The snake oil is exactly what you need. And if you just got rid of that cough, no one would notice it anymore.

They would notice your beautiful shirt. Give me a hundred dollars. In fact, we're worn of false teachers whom that is their primary motivation. It is to feed their bellies. It is to acquire money.

It is to manipulate to get what they want, and they're not concerned at all what God wants. Our flesh loves to have its ears tickled. Are you teaching what accords with sound doctrine? And in fact, Why we had to back up and read this is because it directly applies to the older and the younger women, just as it applies to these older men and the younger men that come after this. It says, older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-control.

And look what the next words are, sound in faith. First, you're to teach what accords with sound doctrine, and already we're reminded, older men, you are to be sound in faith. What does sound in faith mean? It means you teach what accords with sound doctrine. I can tell very much about a man and what he believes about God.

And in fact that is the most important thing that that tells me almost everything about you. If I spent 20 minutes with you and asked you what you thought about God, and what you thought about this, and what you thought about that, I would very much, I would know you enough to know whether I think I should trust you or not. Whether I would want you to teach my children or not. One of the things that I sorry I'm gonna play with that the whole morning. One of the things that I don't like about visiting other churches is one of the things I really like about our church is that as soon as you go there they want to drag your kids off somewhere else.

But I know the world well enough to know that there aren't a lot of teachers who teach sound doctrine. And I'm responsible for what my children hear. I'm responsible for what they know. And if I'm to love my children, my love utmost must be, I must care about their souls. I must, this is more than just sending them to a room so they can color a picture.

That this is their very souls that I'm exposing to men or women whom I do not know. That seems extreme. But in fact, it's loving my children. So men, are you sound in faith? Do you know this well?

I'm not picking on the men today, so I'm just gonna brush by you and Pray that the Holy Spirit would wound you that you might come to the Word of God. Are you sound in faith? Look with the next word it says older men are to be sober minded dignified self-control Sound and faith and love and steadfastness Oftentimes we look at Ephesians and we say, well actually that's not where I'm going, but men are to love their wives, But older men are even commanded that they are to love those in the church. I have noticed that even in the secular world, there seems to be this divide. That older men take two different paths.

They can either, the older they get, they can grumble more and they can get hateful more and they can hate the world more, or they can get softer and softer and softer. And I believe that God is using this. For instance, my dad, who was a sergeant in the Marines, was very hard on me as a son, and I'm thankful for most of that. And I watched my kids do the things that I did, and he says, oh, Don't worry about it. They're just kids.

Like, who are you? I would be doing work by now. And that's not really... Right? My son has done what would be considered severe in my world as a kid.

Anyway, older men you are to be gross sound in faith and love and steadfastness. And then Titus 2-3, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. So are women to teach? Absolutely, they are.

We oftentimes, because we believe in a, I believe that, and rightly so, the Bible teaches a complementary relationship between men and women, that while we are equal, we are gifted and we are called to different roles. And when we fill those roles, we are doing as God has called us to do. We are being obedient to God. And we find in Titus that in chapter 1 he's talking about more personal things, but in Titus 2 he shifts and begins to talk about family relationships and family roles. And this is Scripture.

This is what older women are commanded to do. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. Older women are to be mature. And I'm not saying they are to be physically mature, but older women are to be spiritually mature.

They're to be biblically mature. See, I believe that God oftentimes in His Word, when He starts to separate men and women and children, the Word oftentimes starts to point out our weaknesses. And it begins to show us that if we are to be mature, this is where we will be. And while men have faults and we have things that are easy because we're designed for different roles, we have things that are easier to sidetrack us or to derail us. Women likewise have specific areas in which they are easily sidetracked and derailed.

And as we become more like Christ, we begin to conquer these areas. It says women are to be reverent in behavior. Our culture doesn't celebrate this. In fact, what do we see in our culture? The respected women are those who get on the internet and bash Starbucks for making their coffee too cold or too warm or whatever or how we see this culture rising up as they fear that their ability to murder their children could be taken away.

And those women who are celebrated are those who have the biggest mouth, the biggest mouthpiece. What does the Word of God say? Older women, like ways, are to be reverent. They're to be respectable. I praise God for you who are that you don't have to be the loudest person in the room.

In fact, I hear stories oftentimes at funerals how a lot of times the grandfather will have this attribute to where, you know, grandpa never said much And we'd come to family gatherings and he would just listen. And he just hardly ever talked and everybody else is talking all the time and talking over each other. And you know, all at once, grandpa would stand up because he had something to say and everyone would be quiet. Because what he had to say was respectable. It held weight.

Those who talk all the time rarely held any weight. That's why the preacher shouldn't talk all the time probably. But in essence, this is speaking of older women, but it's also speaking of men. It's also speaking of you and I. If we have to dominate the conversation, it's that our words are weaker.

I can't remember who said it, but maybe it's a proverb. When there are many words, Sin is unavoidable. We should be people who are careful about our words. But specifically, and I believe that because we know secularly in the science world, not that that holds any weight with us, but we know that they say that on average men talk about a third of the time that women talk and women talk use, men use one a third of the words that women would use in a day. And that's in no way bashing women.

You were created different than us. Men can go through a really hard day at work and we come home and we sit down and my wife, I think I aggravate her, she says, how did work go today? And I say, okay. We're just different. There's nothing wrong with that.

But when there are lots of words, sin is very nearby. So older women are to be reverent in behavior. They watch their tongues. They watch what they say. We find in Scripture that women actually are held very high in Christianity.

In fact, what you and I would be accused of, because we're very conservative, We are essentially, we believe what the Bible says. We would be considered probably conservative fundamentalists. We would be all the way to the extreme where we said, you really believe that Jonah was in the belly of a fish? And I will say, absolutely I do. Because God said it and he's smarter than you not to not to insult your intelligence but he's smarter But women are to be reverent in behavior.

There's an extreme temptation and I think it's, I oftentimes think of the invention of the telephone as being something that has been a stumbling block for women and this this sin but in essence that's not true before we had the telephone the we had our on Sunday afternoon our families got together and the ladies talked about this or that. And I'm not just picking on the ladies, because the men do it too. When we have nothing intelligent to say, we talk about other people. What's wrong with our flesh? Why do we do this?

Not slanderers or slaves to much wine, they are to teach what is good. Older women are to be those whom have sought Christ. They have found Him in His Word, and they have been sanctified. That when we teach, one of the reasons why elders, especially those who have lived a long life serving Christ, one of the reasons why they are to teach is because they can teach not only with knowledge, but they can teach with experience. And you need both.

For you to be sanctified in the Word of God. What did the song, I can't remember the words of the song we just sang, but it was that God puts us in the fire. They're not designed to destroy us, but to get the dross out, or the impurity. Dross were impurities and metals, and they would get the metal really hot, and they would get all the impurities out. And God has designed the world in such a way to get the impurities out of you.

And in fact, if you are walking with God for year after year after year after year, if you truly know Him, it is expected. It's actually absurd to think that this isn't happening. That you now know Christ in a way that the younger people do not. Why? Because you've been through the fire.

You've come to know what it means. You've become to know what it means to depend upon Christ. The last couple of weeks, I have looked at myself and I've seen how God has brought me through the fire and to wrestle with my sin. And do you know where it brings me? A lot of it goes on as based off of, I look back and this is the sin or the pitfall of men specifically.

We have to accomplish, we think. We have to, it feels like. And when we look back and we say, well, I didn't accomplish, I didn't accomplish, I didn't do this, I didn't do that, but do you know what the mature Christian says? I can't. All I can do is draw near to Christ.

It's He who accomplishes. And young men, this is something that you have to go through the fire. I tell my young men, my boys, my family, my kids, I say, I would prefer you learn from my mistakes, so you don't have to go through these furnaces, because they hurt. Everything is Christ. It's His battle.

We are just soldiers in that battle. I would ask you older women, have you been through these battles? Do you know Christ? Is He making you reverent in behavior? Is he making you not slanderers or slaves to much wine?

And has he put it upon your heart to teach what is good? And this is qualified here in Titus 2.4. It says, and so trained. Who are they to teach? It says, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children.

Why do they need to be taught to love their husbands and children? Because they don't know how. They need someone who has went through the fire. They need someone who has been taught from her older sisters in Christ. When a young woman gets married and she spends all day cleaning the house for her husband.

And her husband comes home from working all day, and he tromples through the house with his muddy boots all the way to the fridge and says, what's for supper? Young woman must be taught to love her husband anyway. That's hard. She needs an older, mature woman in Christ to encourage her. To encourage her that as your husband draws near to Christ, Christ will change him.

Your nagging will not. I'm not getting on you for nagging because men deserve it. But it won't change them. It's the same thing as the preacher trying to push people harder. It's not going to change them.

It's only Christ. It's only the Word of God. Older women, the younger women in this church desperately need you. They need demonstrated what it means to be a woman of God. They need someone to call when their husband is away working somewhere and their child falls and hits their head on the fireplace.

They need someone to call and say, how do I comfort my child? What should I do? How do I? When I was young, we all laughed about it. My grandma, if you would have called my grandma, I've got a catfish fin, side fin, all the way through my hand and it was not poke clear out of the other side but it was all the way through there and my uncle in the middle of the night took me to my grandma and woke her up and said what what do we need to do and she said oh you don't need to go to the hospital for that.

Find me a pliers. These young women need older women. They need to know that in that case they need to know that the hospital isn't the only answer. I'm not saying take that advice. They need comforted.

I can even tell you When I look at young women with their first child, they are in stress overload. And usually when I see them by their third child, ah, you got this, just let them play outside. Let them crawl out there in the grass, eat the dandelions, clean the yard of. Just kidding. Young women need older women.

They need more. They're In our world today, we're not families who are all Christians. They need Christian women to be able to call. They need more than just their mom, if their mom isn't Christian. Their mom...

I can tell you all this because I hope you're all in Christ. But if your mom isn't Christian, she doesn't know how to discipline your children. She doesn't know. They need you, older women. When they don't know how to discipline their children and their husbands away, they need your number.

Amen? They need to be taught on how to love their children and to love their husbands. They will not get taught this from the world. The world is completely the opposite. What does the world say?

The only thing that matters is your happiness and if you become unhappy, just hit the road. Just do something else. Life's too short to not be happy. I hear it all the time. You know what that is from?

Hell. From the devil. Life isn't about happiness, it's about Christ. And for those who have come to know Christ, we begin to lay our happiness aside and serve Him. Why?

Because that actually is where true happiness comes from. You won't find it if you're seeking happiness. You won't find it by just trying to, let's try to read the Bible for a few weeks and see if that makes us happy. It's not. You have to seek Christ.

And when you find him, happiness comes along with that. And there are times when he leads you through the valley of the shadow of death, and you don't feel a bit happy, and yet you know that he is by your side. So train the young women to love their husbands and children. Now this has, again, because we see throughout history this rising and this falling and this coming to the Word of God and falling back away. We see the same symptoms begin to come in place when we fall away from the Word of God.

We see this idea we saw before the Reformation where the the Catholic Church said, we take care of the religious stuff, you take care of your stuff, bring us your money, and we'll take care of everything you need on this end. You're not smart enough to know the things that we know, so we'll take care of it. And then we come to the Reformation where we say, I will die to get the word of God into the hands of the common people because they will see how corrupt this system is, and they will come to know the one true God who will save them. Brothers and sisters, the church can't save you. The church doesn't have the power to save.

It's only in Christ. And As we come away from the Word of God and we come back into a religious system, it comes back to this again, to where there's more separation between the people and there's separation between what we would call— sorry— what we would even label and say the clergy, that there's there's clergy and laity and there's a separation. Where do you find that? Where in the Bible. There's elders and teakins and evangelists and believers in Christ, and we're all on the same team, and we're all called to know Him.

Amen? What does that mean? There's no separation. That your life is in Christ. That actually my relationship to you as a brother is more important than your relationship to a secular brother.

It means that there should be intimate connections between all of the brothers and sisters in Christ. When I look out, how could you not be excited? I'm going to be with you all for eternity. I'm gonna see Brody next door. And after we worship Christ for about 100, 000 years, we might go see if there's some fish to catch.

But not very long, I kind of like Christ. But I like Brody, too. We're called to be one in Christ, called to be one in each other. We're called to be involved in each other's lives. In Titus 2-5 it continues on, What are the older women to teach the younger women to be self-controlled, to be pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God might not be reviled?

So we have, and I'm not going to go through, we could do a sermon on each one of these, we're not going to go through them all, but you are to teach the younger women to be self-controlled, to be pure, to work at home, to be kind, to be submissive to their husbands. Can I tell you that this list is completely offensive to our culture? It is completely offensive. Now listen, Listen again to Titus 2 and then we'll talk about why this is offensive. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good. So after this, these last three words, They are to teach what? They are to teach what is good. And so we ask, well, what is good? The Bible tells us what is good.

Teach them to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, to be pure, to be working at home, to be kind and submissive to their husbands. So the Bible says that these things are what? Good. Our culture says these things are terrible. Why are our families falling apart in our culture?

Because they completely contradict the Word of God. They call evil good and good evil. This is essentially biblical womanhood. Biblical womanhood is to be self-controlled, it's to be pure, it's to be working at home, kind, submissive to their husbands. This is biblical womanhood.

So why do we, because we see it in our culture, it's obvious. I even heard today that there are groups that are encouraged to interrupt church services and cause all their chaos and all these things because they're afraid they're going to lose the right to murder their babies. Why is this offensive? Why do we struggle? Because it's not just the outside, it comes inside the church as well.

We live inside of a culture and we say things that we don't even understand are strange. In fact, and I've said this before, so many times and still we go to Walmart and everybody sees four kids with us. It's not easy with four kids, especially if somebody else wants to come this way. I remind my kids to all stay on the side. And while the people look at us strange, and we've even got lots of comments from people, how do you get your kids to behave this way?

I'm like, this is just how kids are supposed to behave. Nothing special. Teach them the Word of God. But more often than not, I've had lots of comments, especially younger, don't you know what causes children? Why do you have so many children?

Even inside of my family. I don't understand you, how many kids do you want? You know what my response is? All of them. Yours too, to be honest, but I'm kidding.

The Bible says, be fruitful and multiply. In fact, women have the highest calling in the world. Because a pastor, he will try to disciple people whom are already raised. And I'll have a couple hours a week maybe to try to do that. My wife will have years discipling my children.

In fact, if I was, I'm not, I'm not, don't promote gambling, if I was a gambling man, the person that I can, that myself and my wife can spend hours and hours and hours and weeks of time discipling I would expect them to fare better. Obviously it's God who calls, it's God who saves, but God also works in ways. God also works typically if God is going to call someone, he gives them Christian parents. I mean that's not always, there's exceptions to this rule, but it is what is typical. So, let me, I'm gonna run out of time.

Why do we struggle with biblical womanhood? The first reason why we struggle with it is, one, we've already looked at, older women aren't teaching the younger women. We find this command inside the church, but in modern American Christianity, it typically does not go on. Why is it not going on? Because for the most part, I believe, because We begin to fall away from the Word of God at some point.

And we begin to turn it back into the come to church once a week and do your thing and go about your lives. That's not biblical Christianity. Older women aren't teaching younger women to love their husbands. They're not teaching them. They're not the ones who would step in when the younger woman is having a rough day and maybe she's ready even...

I've had experiences in my life where they're ready to Take off. They don't need their pastor. They need an older woman. They need someone who's been through this. I've been through a lot, but I've never been a woman.

I've not had to deal with my wife. Nope, I've never dealt with my wife walking through the mud and then walking through the house to the kitchen. Never dealt with it. In fact, I am a huge proponent of biblical counseling, and I study to some extent biblical counseling, and I enjoy working with people, but it shouldn't be the norm within the church. The norm within the church should be the younger women going to the older women for advice.

Is this happening? And I'm not just picking on our church. This is an America, probably worldwide problem because we have fallen away from the Word of God. Secondly, I believe we are blinded by the world's systems. Brothers and sisters, the highest calling for a woman in the world, let me, I say this once in a while and it's not to puff me up, but I want you to understand the highest calling for a man is to be a pastor.

It's higher than US president. It's a higher calling. The highest calling for a woman is not to be the CEO of Microsoft, it's to be a homemaker. And when the world asks you what do you do and you say homemaker and they're like oh. The same reaction I think brother Dave told me one time he was at a fancy eating thing and a woman turned to him and said, well Dave what do you do?

He said, well I farm and and I also drive truck during the winter time and he said that woman promptly just turned his back to him and never talked to him again. I think that woman was just as wrong. We need truck drivers. There's nothing wrong with that. But more importantly, Homemaker is the highest calling.

Essentially they should turn their chair towards you and be in awe of you. Because hear me women, when you are doing what God has called you to do. And I understand that some of you aren't in a position to where this is possible, but when you are raising your children, when you are being a homemaker and you are discipling your children, your pastor and your husband and all of those brothers and sisters in Christ should look at you in awe. And your pastor does. I am thoroughly blessed with many of you and I am thoroughly, some of you aren't in that position and I am still in awe of how you care for your family when life isn't normal.

It is the highest calling. Why is the world so busy about blinding you into their system? One, we know in Romans 1 that the world is of a depraved mind, a debased mind. Their mind doesn't work right. Sin causes your mind to not function correctly, and that's where we find most of the world.

But we also see the enemy's schemes. In a poem, a famous poem written by William Wallace in 1865, it was entitled this. It said, the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. Is it a surprise that our world wants you to send your children to the government for their training earlier and earlier and earlier every year? It's because they know this well.

Hitler knew this well. All of those who want to rule the world know this well. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. Now inverse of this, mothers who are raising your children and discipling them, if we are devoted to this, if we are honoring Christ in this, it is Christianity that will rule the world. Don't give up your highest calling for something infinitely less.

And number three, the third reason why we struggle with biblical womanhood is we have no contentment. How does this happen? We hear the world say it all the time well you got to have some purpose in your life You need to go to college and you need to go get a job, and you need to have something to give you fulfillment. Why don't we have fulfillment in discipling our children? Why?

I think one of the William Gouge, or Gouge? Gouge? I don't know, Everybody calls it Gouge? Gougie? In one of his books, he writes to this pitfall.

He says, Yet there are many who having no public employment think they may spend their time as they please. He's first talking about men. It says, either in idleness or in following their vain pursuits and delights day after day and so cast themselves out of all sense of calling. Such are many masters of families who commit all of the care of the house to the wives and waste their whole time in idleness, luxury, and gratification of their senses. Such are many wives who spend their time lying in bed adorning themselves and gossiping.

Such are many young gentlemen living in their father's houses who partly through two indulgent and negligent parents, and partly through their own headstrong affections and rebellious will, run without restraint wherever their corrupt lusts lead them. These and others like these make themselves to have no sense of calling, even though God's providence places them in legitimate callings and such callings as supply them with enough employment. Now, he was lived a long time ago, and he writes a little bit hard, but let me tell you what he's saying in a nutshell. When we are given a calling by Christ, when a woman stays home and takes care of her children, there is this extreme temptation, and the same temptation comes to men who don't have employment, there's this temptation to dive into laziness. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon, I think it was Charles Spurgeon, or maybe it was William Gougey, who said that if you are called to be a homemaker, you have enough work.

You don't need other things. You don't need, in our world, you don't need Netflix binges. You don't need tons of time on the TV and scrolling through Facebook and all these things. All these things make our flesh feel like they're being appeased, but it will leave us in a pit of despair because we will say, my position has no value. That's what he's saying here.

Young men, if you devote all of your time to playing games and having fun and doing these things and you never learn to work and to accomplish and specifically as young men to obey your parents and to apply your life in this, you will soon begin to ask yourself, what am I even here for? You become a wandering person who begins to question the meaning of life. We find this in movie stars and people who get rich, win the lottery. Anybody that turns their life over to idleness and luxury and playing games and sitting on couches and watching movies all day, they almost always fall into depression. Why?

Because they begin to say they have no contentment. They have no purpose. And I go in this long tirade to say to the women, the world is telling you if you don't go get a job, your life is meaningless. And can I tell you that this statement, which is proclaimed over and over and over and over again by the world, is a statement from a debased mind? And they are the miserable people.

Devote your life to discipling your children, to devote it to respecting your husband and loving him, you will find meaning because the meaning is in Christ. Now let me finish up. The highest praise of a woman, We find the second highest praise in Proverbs 31, 28. It says, her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, he praises her.

When you get older and your children Tell the world what a blessed blessing we had by our mom. That's going to be the praise. That's the highest. It's not going to be my mom. She got the gold sticker on her plaque for selling so much Avon.

I'm just making things up. I don't know if they have that. It's not going to be. My mom was the CEO of Microsoft. Your children are gonna remember, did my mom love me?

Did she love Christ? The highest praise we find, which is of anyone, we find in Matthew 25-21. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your Master." Friends, I read an amazing book. I've read it before a long time ago. I read an amazing book the last couple weeks. It's entitled, Knowing God. And what he made, J.I.

Packer made very clear is that life is about knowing God. That's all. That's all. And you can chase all kinds of rabbit trails for fulfillment, and at the end of them you'll find yourself at a dead end, in a pit of despair. Life is about knowing God.

You will only find fulfillment in that. Young men, if you're on a path wandering, wondering what life is, what you're supposed to do, I can tell you, you're supposed to know God. And you will stay in this pit of despair. You will stay there. You will stay wandering, and you will try this, and this, and this, and this, hopefully not go into the drug world and get really pulled into this.

But at the end of it all, what you will find out if you talk to any man of Christ, you are searching for the wrong thing. Life was about Christ. Fulfillment is about Christ. And mothers, women, if you want fulfillment, if you want purpose, draw near to Christ. Bring your kids.

It's all. People say Jesus is all we need, He's all we have. He's all the world has. Every other path is a path of deception. Look at Luke chapter 11, 27 through 28.

He said, as he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which you nursed." Now look, Jesus, she is setting Jesus up for a Great Mother's Day present for Mary, right? What does Jesus do? He said, but he said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Now I don't think that he's giving a contrast here. I don't think that he's putting his mom down, But I want you to see this.

Absolutely, we are blessed by mothers. But you know what's even better? You know what's even far surpassed? This. Blessed is the mother who hears the word of God and keeps it.

Blessed is the mother who knows Christ. Blessed is the mother who disciples her children. Blessed is the mother who is self-controlled and pure and working at home and kind and submissive to her husband. This morning we're blessed because that's of many of you. I am so thankful.

Our church is alive not because you have a clever pastor, in fact your pastor, if it wasn't for Christ, I see myself as dirt. It's the mothers in here who are going to, God is using to bless His church. We are so thankful. I am so thankful for you. I'm so thankful when your children know the Word of God.

I'm so thankful that you're discipling them. I hope that I don't grieve over them because I can't explain how God does this in hearts, but When a family leaves the church, they're stealing their kids from me too, because I love their kids. And that should be true of all of us. But you have no idea, When you resist the temptation of the world, when you resist their ideology, and when you obey the Word of God, what a blessing that is to me and to the elders and to this church. Finally, come back to Titus 2, 3, through 5.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slave 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. Now look why this is so important. The last words of this verse 5, it says, that the word of God might not be reviled. That word, the word word is the Greek word logos.

We could even say that when older women aren't training the younger women and when we're not growing in these things as women, we are reviling Christ's name. The world looks at you and they hate it. They hate that it says, and I've done pre-marital counseling and I've experienced the disgust in people's eyes when I bring this topic up. The world hates it that you would submit to your husband. They don't mind it when you go to you know to the factory and submit to the guy your boss there, but they hate it when it's your husband.

Back to the whole agenda thing, but do you know what if you don't? When a wife isn't submissive to her husband, she's reviling Christ, and the world knows it. They may not like what the Word of God says, but they will know if you follow it or not. And when we begin to say, well, that was from an older time. We begin to do alphabet soup with the Bible.

And where does it end? We tear Christ apart. We say, well, that's not for now. This isn't for me. I don't like that.

Just take that out. We revile him. Christ has been so amazing to save us. Christ has been so amazing to change us. And this morning in this room we have the greatest evangelism force in the world.

It's mothers. Obeying the word of God. I thank God for you. You're such a blessing to your church. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Father, I know as we come to the Word of God, as so often I have, and we see the standard that's set forth, and there are some who might look at this and they might fall into despair, but Father, that's not the intent. Father, the intent always of us when we come to the Word of God and we don't measure up is that we repent and we throw ourselves at your feet and you redeem us and you change us. Your Word says today is the day of salvation that I may have blown at my whole life, but today is the day I can throw myself at your feet in repentance and faith. And today is the day I take up the word of God and I beat my flesh into subjection, that I might glorify you, that your word might not be reviled.

Father, this morning we thank you for mothers. I thank you for each and every mother in this room. Whether they begin to apply these things when they were young or father even today as they examine themselves as they desire to apply the word better in their life. Father, thank you for them. Father, I pray above all, as the world shoots its lies about us, that each of us would come to understand that there is only fulfillment in Christ.

There is only fulfillment in knowing you. And that Father, not just the preacher, but that each of us are called to pour our lives into knowing you and enjoying you and enjoying you for all of eternity. Father, help us in that, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.