We’re going to look at Titus. We’re in this new series. Titus: Order In A World Of Chaos We’re in Titus chapter 2 this morning. As we look at Titus 2:1-5, we’re going to have special attention to the instructions that are given to Titus on how he shepherds older men and older women in particular. Let’s read those verses together.

1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

May God encourage us through His Word today!

On a recent trip to Colorado to visit our son, Daniel, and his family, Kimberly and I stopped in a Good Will store. We were looking for some toys for our grandson, when Kimberly spotted an ornately framed painting for sale. She looked at it with a smile and said, “What do you think of that painting?” I glanced in the direction and I said, “Looks fine.” Then I sauntered away. I didn’t have a negative response to it, but nothing fired in my soul over it. During our time in the store I noticed that Kimberly made her way back to gaze upon the painting 2 and 3 times.

Now sometimes I admit that I am a bit slow on wifely observations, but even I picked up the clue phone on this one. I recognized that picture had captured in her soul a kind of beauty that brought her joy. I walked over and I just simply said, “Let’s get it.” She said, “Really?” I looked at the price and now being really thankful that we were in a Good Will store, I said, “Of course!” (Laughter!) We got to the counter and the cashier said to me, “Would you like the senior discount?” (Laughter!) I looked behind me to see who she was talking to. Then she said, “It’s 15% off.” Well, at that point, while my pride was wounded, my penny-pinching manner sort of lifted up and I said, “Yes, I’ll take the senior discount.”

When we arrived back home here in Peoria and carried the painting into our living room, suddenly I could see some things that I hadn’t seen prior. I could see the allure that Kimberly saw in this painting. The painting matched our décor perfectly. The red hat on the woman in the picture matched the red in two other paintings. The blue flowers in the little girl’s hair matched another wall hanging. The browns in the tree branches matched the color on our walls. The painting communicated something to me when it was in its proper place. It communicated warmth. In short, this painting adorned our home. It added a peace, a tranquility, a quiet beauty to the space in which we live. Kimberly has a talent and ability to adorn our home that enables me to experience kind of added calmness and quietness. A sense of sanctuary is a wonderful thing.

Today in Titus 2, God speaks about the importance of our adorning the Gospel of God. When God saved us from our sin, He connects us to life’s very key purpose. That is to enjoy God. So we connect with Him to enjoy Him and to help others then see that He is the absolute best of beings. He is first place. He is altogether valuable. How is it that we would give witness to our world that God is actually worth worshiping and He is worth giving our lives to? The answer that Scripture gives is through the way that we behave and the way that we relate to one another in the church family. That’s a primary means of glorifying God.

People listen to the message that our lives tell about God. That’s the point of Titus 2. People listen! We are constantly communicating something about God to the people around us. That something might be a message that is really good. That something might be something that is dim and tragic. But as followers of Jesus we are always giving witness just simply through the way we behave and through the way we relate. Paul emphasizes this truth three times here in Titus 2. I’m going to look at some verses from verses 1-10 to catch this context.

To young women in the church Paul says to Titus to have these older women

4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands,

Why? Why would Paul care that older women invest themselves in younger women for this training? He says

that the word of God may not be reviled.

He says there is some practical importance to it. It’s going to help them. It’s going to help their family. It’s going to help their children. But he drives to the central point that it’s because believing women are saying something about God. If we get older women to help younger women, then the message of the younger women’s lives would be that the Word of God that reveals God would be lifted up. It wouldn’t be reviled.

To young men in the church Paul says

Titus 2:7-8 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned,

Again, why? Well, because life is going to be happier for all of this. You’re going to be more blessed. You’re going to experience people in a better way. All of that is true, but here’s the driving point.

Titus 2:8 …so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

That’s to say about the Gospel, about our witness for Jesus. Then to bondservants, and this is where we get the word “adorn.” I love this!

Titus 2:9 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything;

Of course, he’s talking about followers of Jesus who are bondservants.

Titus 2:9-10 …they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith,

Again, why? Why is it so important that if you’re a believer and you’re a bondservant, that this is the character of your life? Why?

Titus 2:10 …so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

The word “adorn,” you might circle it. I think it encompasses really the purpose behind all of these instructions to older men and older women and younger men and how older women relate to younger women and then to bondservants, that we might adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. That word “adorn” is used in New Testament times of arranging jewels in a manner that allowed the natural brilliance of the jewels to shine, to be seen. The idea is that jewels stuffed in a box are beautiful and valuable, but they’re not seen. They’re not put on display. So a wise jewelry store displays jewels in a way that shows their beauty. When people walk by the window, they stop and they gaze, and they “Oooo” and they “Ahhh.” This is the goal of the Christian. It’s to live life in such a way that the wonder of Christ is communicated through us.

The main idea we’re going to trace here in chapter 2 is that God’s people do not make God beautiful. So this is not about adding value to God or adding beauty to Him. God is infinitely attractive. He is infinitely valuable. He holds an objective wonder all in Himself. So we don’t make God beautiful. But God’s people can arrange our lives in a way that puts God’s wonder, His value, His beauty on display. That’s the point. So how do we do that? How do we arrange our lives in a way that communicates the greatness and the glory of God? How do we do that?

Again, this passage helps us in some really practical ways. There are specific instructions to older men and older women that we’re going to focus on this morning. Next week, Pastor Josh will take the same idea with younger men and younger women. Don’t ask me why we arranged it that way. Paul’s encouragement to Titus begins this way. As a leader in the church,

1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Paul is counseling Titus to shepherd this congregation who had some specific problems. There was some conformity to the world in the lives and families of this church. His first general statement as he makes application about having elders minister to the church through shepherding is

1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

The word “teach” there is interesting. It’s not so much to preach. That word is used elsewhere related to sound doctrine. It’s not even to instruct. But this particular word simply means to talk with, to have conversations regarding sound doctrine with the people in your church. Paul encourages Titus to personally interact with the members in the church, here particularly, the older men, we’ll see first, then the older women, and then finally to have conversations with younger men. He says to have conversations with the people in the church about sound doctrine and how it relates to life.

This is a theme that ought to occupy the conversations of the church family. The implication here is that the members of the church were active in doctrinal conversations with church leaders. None of these commands or instructions to Titus can really be applied apart from verse 1. Talk with the whole of the church about sound doctrine and all of its implications and all of its applications. Press sound doctrine into the lives of the brothers and sisters inside the church. We see this commitment right away in the early church. When the church was started in Acts chapter 2, it says the whole church

Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Acts 2:46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

In other words, there is a kind of relationship among the people of the church where we are living life together. A key aspect of living life together is we talk about the Gospel a lot in all kinds of practical applications. So we talk about the Gospel when we sit with our brothers and sisters as we watch our kids play basketball. How does the Gospel relate? How does the Gospel relate to how we’re responding to referees when they make a bad call? How does the Gospel respond when the coach doesn’t play our son or our daughter when we know they’re the best player on the team? How does the Gospel relate to why we’re here in the first place? Why would we even invest ourselves in playing sports?

You see, with something as practical as that and everything else, there is not one section in life where the Gospel doesn’t intersect. He says talk with and teach sound doctrine. Have many, many conversations about everything so that everything relates back to who God is and what He would have us to be and what He would have us to do. So here’s the principle. The church is a community of believers who make the teaching of the Gospel, the conversation surrounding the Gospel a central part of our life and our daily conversations.

When we follow Jesus together, we will connect formally and informally with our brothers and sisters in our own local church. We connect with them for worship and for prayer and for encouragement and for shared meals and for joint ministry unto God and for fellowship. In the midst of all this relationship, it becomes really common for us to talk about our common faith. It’s not as though we don’t talk about the things that unbelievers talk about, things like politics and about wars that are taking place and about sports and about recipes and about education, about the price of gas, and all these things. It’s that dominant, underneath that, if we’re following Jesus, if we’re living a healthy Christian life, if we have a healthy church, right there at the center of those conversations is the Gospel.

1 But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

God’s Design for Older Men in the Church

2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Right away, we see older men. The big question is who are the older men? Just as I was surprised by the senior discount question at Good Will, most men who are older have not yet realized that they are in that category. Today, if you’re listening to this message and you’re wondering, “Am I now in the category of an older man?” the answer is yes. The fact that you’re wondering that indicates that you are. In other words, look around you and ask the question, are there some younger men here in the church? If the answer is yes, that means you’re an older man. You’re older to them. A 40 year old guy seems young. Tom Brady is still playing at that age. Nonetheless, younger men will still look and say, “Yes, but you’re not my peer. You’re older than me. I consider you older. I relate to you differently than I relate to other 21, 22, 23 year olds.”

The implication in verse 2 here is that older men in the church are to adorn the Gospel, connecting that to the purpose found in verse 10. They are to adorn the Gospel by being connected in vital ways to the younger men in the church, by living life in front of them so that younger men can see an example, can see the kind of life that older men are living. Too often in modern times, older men grow more isolated from their church family as they age, rather than more connected. It’s tempting to begin to withdraw in the season of later years and to simply do what we want to do. We perhaps have more freedom as we get older. We perhaps have more freedom financially, more freedom in terms of specific responsibilities. Maybe our children are grown. We don’t have to have other people dictate our time as much. But here, God has a word for us, doesn’t He? He says, “Titus, teach the older men not to disengage from relationships in the church, but rather, to be right in the midst of the church family, right in the midst of younger men, living exemplary lives for the strength of the church and for the adornment of the Gospel.”

I have divided the six qualities that Paul mentions here in verse 2 into two broad categories. Those categories I’ve placed these specifics in is the category of worthy of respect and mature in Christ. So first, the older men are to be

Worthy of Respect

God uses three specific words to describe the kind of character that is worthy of respect. The first He says is sober-minded. That word literally means to be clear-headed, especially in situations where other people are not clear-headed. Often, people react to problems with an emotional knee-jerk reaction to events, to relationships, to trials, to difficulties. Sometimes actually this can be particularly true of older men because we’ve gotten stuck in our ways and we haven’t learned. So we’re kind of in a pattern of a knee-jerk reaction, not having clear-headedness in the midst of crises. Often, people rush to judgments without first understanding what actually has been said or what is actually going on and why a problem exists. Sober-minded is the opposite of that.

It’s thoughtful. It requires an ear that listens well and understands others and understands circumstances through a grid of Scripture. Sober-minded is to use Scripture to think more clearly about life. It’s to have an eternal perspective and not just a perspective that is bound by time. A sober-minded man is one who is quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. So he says older men, make sure you do that. What’s interesting as we get older, ideally, as we learn, we have more to say. So it’s tempting to start being the kind of person who always speaks, who always says, “Let me tell you…” Here he says sober-minded means I’m going to slow down and I’m going to wait a bit so that what I say would be more reasonable and more relevant to the people who hear.

Then he uses the word dignified. This quality does not mean that older men are stuffy, that they don’t have sense of humor or never act in fun-loving ways. It does mean however, that the tenor of their life is serious about serious matters. It’s a demeanor toward life to see it’s more than frivolity, more than superficial. Older men are not to be negligent in treating serious matters carelessly or to avoid them. They are the kind of people who don’t merely talk about sports or finances or hunting or the weather or politics. But they engage with others in a serious way about matters that are central to life. They engage with others about sound doctrine, about the Gospel, about who God is, about what God has done and what God is continuing to do. It’s a way of life that displays the wisdom of God in conversation. They are sober-minded and dignified.

Then it says they are self-controlled. This means that a person responds to his own impulses wisely. In passion, he doesn’t fly off the handle. He keeps his cool. He responds to crisis in a way that brings confidence and calm to other people around him. He doesn’t lash out in anger. He is not impulsive with his money. He is not carried away by lustful sins. Instead he says “No” to all forms of sin with self-control. He is not the Coach Bobby Knight of the church who has a ton of leadership skill and talent and insight, but spoils it through untamed emotion and boiling frustration.

A long time ago, Good Housekeeping gave for women’s benefit, a list of six clues to discern a man’s character. It’s interesting because a lot of these apply to this verse, Titus 2:2. Most of them have to do with self control. They suggested these things if you want to know a man’s character. One, watch him drive in heavy traffic. That’s pretty good! Two, play tennis or golf with him. Three, listen to him talk to his family when he doesn’t know you’re listening. So how does he speak to his kids and to his wife? See how he treats waiters and cashiers. Fifth, notice what he’s willing to spend money on. Finally, look at his friends. God directs Titus to help older men have these qualities that suggest a wisdom of life that is worthy of respect. Then he says that they are also to be

Mature in Christ

The first set of qualities really are generally true about just good men. But now he drives that there is a specific focus for older men in the church related to their worship of God, related to their relationship with God. Notice in verse 2 he says they are to be sound in faith. Sound just means healthy. They are to be men who walk with God in love and obedience. They’re to be men who listen to God’s Word and are still learning about what it means to know God and to live for His glory. They are men who submit their lives to the shepherding of God, to His guidance. They’re not seeking to please themselves, but their desire above everything else is simply to please the Lord. Such a one then in being healthy in faith is looking for ways to pass on that faith, particularly to pass on that faith to younger men in the church so that they can grow in faith too, they could have this valuable thing called faith. Such an older man uses his gifts to strengthen his own local church in her mission and in her worship. They are to be healthy in faith.

Then he says sound or healthy in love. It describes a person who really cares for other people. He gives himself not for selfish gain, but for the benefit of others, for the flourishing of others. He doesn’t see his church family as a place to go to or a meeting to attend, but he sees his church family as a people to love. He is always on the lookout for “How can I love other people, here? Because of my presence in their life, how can I see that they would have spiritual benefit?” He wants to invest his life in others to help them in their worship of God.

He is quick to forgive when he is wronged. He often overlooks offenses. He refuses to let resentments drive his relationships. He not only cares for his friends, but he loves his enemies too. He is healthy in love. His love isn’t dependent, in other words, upon the other person’s response. It’s wholly dependent upon him being a recipient of God’s infinite love. He refuses to be the cause of broken relationships. He refuses to get up and walk away from the table and give up on people. He is a peacemaker. The older men in the church should be the happy old guys and not the grumpy old men.

I remember when my son Jackson was a little boy. I was trying to teach him about diet. He loved candy, like all kids do. I said, ‘You don’t want to eat so much candy.” He said, “Why not?” I said, “Because you’re going to grow up to be a fat old man.” He said, “But dad, all the fat old men I know are really great!” (Laughter!) Well, that’s tough to argue. He knew some godly men who were happy old guys, who weren’t just selfish. They weren’t mean.

By the way, healthy in love over time in a man’s life gives him greater confidence to actually share love with others. So he is more willing to welcome others. He’s not like, “Oh boy! How are they going to think of me?” He’s gotten past that because in his life, he just practices love. He says, “I’m not thinking about whether they’re going to like me or not. I just know that so many people need to be loved and I’m going to be the one who provides that.”

Next is sound or healthy in steadfastness. It describes a person who doesn’t waver in his allegiance to God. He doesn’t break fellowship because he is hurt. He doesn’t say, “Okay, that happened. I’m walking away.” He steadfastly perseveres in his relationships, even when it would be easier to quit them. He trusts God when trials hit his life and he doesn’t give up following Him when human solutions may relieve him of difficulty. He is steadfast in following the path and trusting God. He is not a summer soldier or a sunshine patriot who abandons his troop when the winter snow flies, but he continues serving the Lord even when difficult problems arise. He is steadfast.

So we ask the question, what impact would the church have upon the world for Christ if it were filled with older men like this who are sound in faith, sound or healthy in love and healthy in steadfastness? Wow! There are some applications, here. First, place your faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. This is the implication that these are the kind of people who know God. They’re the kind of people who have been forgiven. They’re the kind of people who have been redeemed, zealous, and purified. We’re going to talk about that in a couple weeks forward. So this is where it starts. It doesn’t start with saying, “I have to do better,” because all of it starts with the life of God in the soul.

Secondly, young men, seek out a mentor in the church who can help you grow in Christlike character. Again, the implication, and we’re going to see this even more strongly in the words referencing to older women, but God intends for older men and younger men in the church to have relationship. Older men, look for God-given opportunities to invest your remaining years in teaching and encouraging young men to live for Christ. There is a hunger there. There is a real hunger for a lot of young men who are pursuing Jesus Christ to have some older men speak into their life. Some of them have none. Some of them have one or two maybe. But every young man I know would say, “I would benefit.” Every young man I know who is growing and wanting to pursue Jesus would say, “Yes, give me some more of that. I want some more of that.” Ask God to give you a vision, a passion for His church. This all relates to relationships in the church. Then adorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the life that you live. Just keep growing.

God’s Design for Older Women in the Church

3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

We look at the qualities listed for older women to say this is what I want to focus upon. The first quality is to be

Worshipful in Life

In other words, it’s to have a life of worship. Here it says in verse 3 they are to be reverent in behavior. That word “reverent” is a lovely word. It means “temple-like.” It’s like a high priestess. It is one who is in a temple just living their lives for worship. It’s used to describe a woman who knows that her calling in life is to draw near to God and to serve Him willingly and joyfully in everything. She loves the Lord Jesus and she labors in all of her life to please Him, to honor Him. Her present day life is filled with sacrificial service to God. Thank God for older women who have lived their life for the glory of God! Thank God that we have many here in our own assembly. But then also such a person is to be

Life-giving in Speech

He says in verse 3 they are not slanderers. Paul wouldn’t have listed the problem of slander among the older women in the church in Crete if gossip and maligning speech among them had not been a real problem. He says, “Titus, you’re going to have to talk with them and teach them. Help them because this is a real problem.” The word “slanderer” is translated as “devil” 34 times in the New Testament. Slander is a tool in the devil’s woodshed that never gets rusty from neglect. Satan oils that tool and sees that it’s used every day in God’s precious church.

This word slander literally means to “throw objects at people.” It’s the kind of speech that injures. It injures those often who are not present. The slanderer creates rumors that are like sharp spears thrown, injuring hearts, dividing relationships and destroying people. The slanderer seldom knows that they’re slandering. That’s the issue. That’s why Paul says to teach them. If you ask the slanderer, “Are you slandering?” the answer is, “No. I’d never slander anyone.” So make sure to teach them. Help the older women to observe it in their lives and to turn from it. A Christ-like older woman doesn’t use her tongue to damage other people’s reputations or to tear away at the love that others would give them.

Consider for a moment the damage that gossip and slander do to people whom God loves. After hearing slander, the person who has listened to slander is likely to love the one slandered less, to respect them less, to esteem them less, to want to be near them less, to have joy and fellowship less. All of that happens because of a word that is spoken and listened to. Even if the hearer says, “I’m not sure if I really totally believe that,” they are impacted. That esteem, that love, that care for the person that previously was here, now is brought down just simply by a word. You see how destructive that is. He says to tell the older women because they’re leading in this. They’re leading in the conversations that women have in the church. Slander is one of the most murderous of sins. Paul says to make sure you check it. Help older women to lead the way. I think of Psalm 15 that says

Psalm 15:1-3 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

God gives us the gift of speech so that we can build one another up in the faith and so that we can stimulate love in relationships in the church. Older women can use their words to build younger women’s esteem for church leaders who shepherd. To build their esteem for other godly older women who may give counsel and encourage them and sometimes bring correction. They can use their words to build up esteem for their peers. Instead of being in competition among the younger women, they can be used to say, “How can we speak highly and advance the good of others?” Older women can use the gift of speech to build up younger women’s esteem for their husbands so that’s it’s not like a “Let me tell you how bad my husband is,” kind of session. But rather, it’s a time of respect and a stimulus of love and esteem. Slander rips all that good influence apart.

Paul says they are not given to much wine. I have attached this trait to Life-Giving in Speech because wine often accompanies fleshly speech of all kinds. We think of the kind of things that too much wine unleashes. There is cursing, malicious words, condemnation, lying, gossip. The culture of Crete was one given to drunkenness. Apparently, the older women in the church entertained one another and enjoyed some drinking parties. Paul said to teach them not to be given to much wine. Then finally, there is the quality of being

Invested in Discipleship

They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women

Next week we’re going to talk about what they are to train, what young women are to listen to, the teaching that young women are to receive. But let’s just stop there for a moment and think about this. God’s instruction to older women is that they are to teach what is good and to train young women. Who does that include in the church? The answer is older women. Is that just the pastors’ wives? Is that the elders’ wives? Who is it? No, that’s older women. If you are in the category, and here, I’m really delicate. (Laughter!) If you think you might be in that category, God has a call for you. It’s a call that is universal upon every older woman who is following Jesus. If you’re qualified as a person who is following Jesus and because of God’s grace you become a godly woman over years of your life of worshiping Jesus, here’s what God calls you to do. There is really not an exception to this. God calls you to teach the younger women and to train younger women.

I know in our culture, we get so isolated from each other. We can come to a big church and kind of sit down and not have much relationship, but this is sort of central to adorning the Gospel. If a church is to be a church that presents Christ and presents the Gospel, adorns the Gospel, helps one another to present God as being this awesome, attractive, valuable Being that He is, then this has to happen. Older women have to get involved and commit themselves to the lives of younger women. It’s true for older men as well, I think by way of implication. The way we experience community in our local church is designed to attract people to God. We adorn the Gospel when we submit to God’s commands regarding these relationships that we have with each other. So what might hinder an older woman or man from these kinds of relationships? We think of a few things. I’ll give some applications.

First, we can become too preoccupied with our own personal life to invest in younger women who are not part of our direct family, our physical family. So we get preoccupied with our house, with our hobbies, with our friendships, with our grandkids, etc., and have no time, no space. God just says to teach the older women to leave some space in their life for this. We can become too disconnected from the church family in order to connect to younger women. We might say, “I don’t know any younger women here.” Well, we can get too disconnected. We can become too overwhelmed with sins. A spiritual crises would disqualify us. We can become too focused on our own needs. We can become too distracted from the Great Commission so that it’s no longer rolling through our heart. We are no longer even reminded that this is a call of the Lord.

So what are some applications for older women? Again, I think a lot of these are applicable to older men, too. Pray that God would open a door for you to encourage younger women in their life and faith. Pray. That’s where it all begins. Ask God to give you a vision for it and pray that He would open an opportunity. Secondly, begin to invest in shared ministry with younger women. That’s really how we can get this conversation going. That’s what the church stimulates. Third, be bold and invite a couple younger women to lunch. Just say, “I’m interested in your life. I’d love to pray for you.” Just start there and see what happens. But be bold. Take the initiative. Fourth, pray daily for younger women in your church. Know who they are. Know what their needs are and pray. Fifth, seek counsel from your church leaders to discover new avenues. We would love to talk with you about that. Titus is supposed to help make this connection between older women and younger women. Six, don’t give up this quest to adorn the gospel through your relationship with younger women. Don’t give up on that. Hear the call of God upon your life.

Older people are a church’s treasure if they are sound in faith and sound in love and they give themselves to Christ for His mission. They are a treasure in the church. If God has placed you here, you’re a treasure. If you walk by faith, sound in faith, sound in love, sound in steadfastness and you’re giving your life, I believe there is going to be such joy for you and such joy for the church. He says at the end of verse 10, and I love this,

Titus 2:10 …so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

For the glory of God, it is through these relationships, through our behavior of walking in a certain way before the Lord in obedience and then connecting in relationship older men and women, connecting in relationship to younger men, connecting in relationship to younger women, that the Gospel is adorned and the vision of God grows more and more clear to see His beauty and His value and that’s worth everything.