2024 Pastors Conference Session 2

“Saved for Godliness”- Jon Payne

Well, good morning, everyone. It's a joy to be here with you. I am assured of the Lord that CJ will not be interrupting the message, but if he does, it's okay. It's fine and God will meet us. But wasn't that just delightful last night? I so hope that if you came discouraged, that just that one message will cause you to leave encouraged and full of hope and faith. That's so much our desire as a leadership team that you would go home full of faith for the ministry that God has called you to and I'm grateful that I hope that one message alone will accomplish that in your hearts.

We want to reiterate every time we're up here how grateful we are to be one of you. It is a high privilege to be a Sovereign Grace pastor because of the other Sovereign Grace pastors. I have never known a day of pastoral ministry without many, many friends in the ranks of Sovereign Grace pastors and knowing that we are in this together, that we love the same doctrines that we are building churches, aiming in the same direction that we love the Lord Jesus and just want to see his glory spread and knowing that there's those that know you and know that about you and are eager to help you in that, that's what it means to be in pastoral partnership and Sovereign Grace. And so thank you for making pastoring a joy just by your existence and even more so by your kind encouragement and friendship throughout your regions, to the leadership team, to each other. So receive our gratefulness. We pray God sends you home full of the Spirit and joy.

If you would open in your Bibles to Paul's letter to Titus, Paul's letter to Titus. We're going to be focusing on verses 11 through 14. I'm going to give some context at the beginning of that and then I'm going to give some recommendations for leadership on the backend, but we're going to be focusing on those three or four verses and I'd like to remind us of what we remind our people every Sunday that what we're about to read is God's word and it doesn't just have power for people. It has power for pastors and their wives. So let's read it with that expectation.

Titus 2:11, ESV:

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." Lord bless the preaching and the obeying of your word.

CS Lewis begins his classic Narnian book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with the following sentence,

"There was once a boy named Eustace Scrubb and he almost deserved it" CS Lewis says. If you know the book, but it's been a while, you haven't read it, lemme give you an overview of Eustace Scrubb's story. This introduction in brilliant Lewis style leads us to a page after page, chapter after chapter character of describing a truly horrible boy. This Eustace is self-centered. He is godless, he is condescending, and as the book unfolds, his character actually progresses in negative directions showing increasingly despicable expressions until finally in the magic of the land, his internal character transports him, transposes him and he becomes a dragon; a grotesque and loathsome and lonely dragon because his inside is now seen on his outside and it is at this low point in his journey that Eustace meets the great lion, the Lord of the land, and he meets Eustace with grace. He is literally regenerated. He is regenerated by grace. He is given a miraculous rescue. But here's the point; that rescue only begins the rest of Eustace's story for two plus more books of the series. This character is described in fits and starts in struggles and challenges in missions and failures and successes. Two more full books, this character is described. Lewis, after the regeneration, describes it this way, he says "it would be nice and fairly true to say that from that time forth after Aslan met him for the first time, Eustace was a different boy. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There was still many days where he could be very tiresome, but most of those I shall not notice."

The cure had begun. We watched the cure work through relapses, through struggles, through obedience, through disobedience. We watched the cure work over two plus more books and when we last see Eustace, he bears no resemblance to the boy at the beginning. We last see him charging into a final battle against the forces of evil ready to lay down his life for his friends and the truth, and lay down his life, he does. He bears no resemblance and here's why. The grace that saves also transforms; the grace that saves also transforms. Grace doesn't just save, it doesn't just rescue. It also changes. And if we can put it in biblical terms, God's grace produces godliness. God's grace that saves also transforms. It produces godliness. Godliness, living a God-centered life. We mean much more than mere morality. We mean morality driven by a passion for God, godliness, honoring God and all that we say, think and do; exhibiting Christian character exuding from Christian motives, rejecting sin, progressive sanctification. These are values that we have, by the grace of God and by the gift to us of our founding generation, always upheld in Sovereign Grace and proclaimed from Sovereign Grace pulpits to our people, and godliness must remain an unapologetic public proclamation of the goal of grace in Sovereign Grace churches, and this is especially true in a culture that is increasingly celebrating ungodliness, and increasingly, sadly, even in churches, godliness and sanctification takes a whispered back seat to the front runners of more positive Christian doctrines, not so in Sovereign Grace. In Sovereign Grace, grace still produces godliness and so we pastor with that aim.

Now let's dive into Paul's magnificent description of this truth. I want to first give some context because the context adds so much weight as it always does, but adds so much weight to what he says actually in these verses from the beginning of this book. Paul has been helping Titus and exhorting and encouraging Titus to proclaim the link between the grace of God, the doctrine of that grace and the godliness that should adorn it. If you look back there at verse one, he says, "Paul, a servant of God in an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their true knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness". The truth which he is concerned about because of false teachers, which also accords with godliness which he is concerned about because of ungodly practices. He wants Titus to proclaim there that is a link here that must be upheld. In verse five, he requires Titus that elders in the church have exemplary conduct because the preachers of the word should exhibit the adornment that the word is intended to receive of godliness. In verse 10, he makes the case that both false teaching and ungodly living are a plague to the Christians in Crete.

Then in chapter two, he commissions Titus to teach the godliness that accords with sound doctrine and he proceeds to provide not only just general instructions about godliness but very specific applications to seasons and roles in life. Older men, older women, younger women, younger men, all are challenged to adorn the grace of God with godliness that is specific to their own role and season. Then on the other side of our passage this morning, he just directly gets in Titus's face and tells him, you must declare these things, and in the context these things is the reality and the commission that true gospel ministry, true gospel doctrine must be adorned with true godliness. True gospel doctrine which must be defended must also be adorned, and that's what he's telling Titus. You, Titus, must declare these things. You must declare these things; the true doctrine and the true godliness that adorns it.

Now this charge comes to pastors, it comes to us with the same urgency. We are not to pastor with only right doctrine in view. If by that we mean a doctrine of facts and truth that has nothing to do with life, we are to exemplify and to declare the true doctrine that accords with godliness, that is adorned godliness. We are to uphold the precious goal of godliness as the intended design of God's grace. Now in verse 11, having given a large number of imperatives and applications, he sort of reverses his order in Titus. He starts with the exhortations and now he lands here with a great theological statement. He declares his fundamental theological basis here for his ethic of the Christian life. Something has happened, Paul says, something has changed, something profound and defining in the life of God's people. For he says in verse 11, "the grace of God has appeared" and in the original appeared it's emphasized. It's as though he burst into the scene with this theological truth; "appeared", the grace of God. Why am I giving you all these exhortation, Titus? Why am I telling you how to talk to old women and old men and young women and young men? Because the grace of God has appeared in light of the context and his emphasis on the second coming of Christ seems very clear. He is emphasizing that the grace of God has appeared with the coming of Jesus Christ, his life, death, resurrection, ascension; the grace of God has appeared. It has burst onto the scene.

John Stott, when he's describing this passage, he says, it's like the appearing of sunrise that leaps onto the horizon that sends its light into all the landscapes. So the coming of Christ was like the sunrise of God's grace, sending light and energy and saving and transforming purposes into the ends of the earth. The grace of God has appeared and you want to notice this grace, it has appeared in Christ. It brings salvation for all people. This is the saving grace. This saving light of grace has exploded in the person of Christ onto creation here in this dark world. Here finally comes the dawn. Here it comes exploding out with energy and power and heat, salvation for all kinds of people. And isn't this room an example of the truth of that? That all kinds of people have been saved? I mean in this room, in this room we have pharisees and pagans. We have annoying legalists and pot smoking dropouts and that's just being CJ, okay? If you expand beyond that, the number of nerdy and ridiculous sinners in this room is incredible, and grace has saved us all.

Grace has appeared bringing salvation for all people, but Paul's focus here, get the point, is not so much the doctrine of saving grace as it is the fact that, that grace that saves transforms. Do you notice that? We know Paul is well capable of just stopping at verse 11 and spending maybe let's say 11 chapters, so we might have an example of that, 11 chapters on that one point, but for this situation, he is concerned that this grace not be assumed to stop at salvation, but that it also produces transformation.

I want to give us two points and then I'll get into some recommendations. Two points that summarize what this grace that has appeared in Christ does. First, it trains us in godliness, this grace that brings salvation, it trains us. Look at verse 12, this grace that has appeared bringing salvation that came with Christ. What does it do? What is it getting done? It is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. Paul says, our students in the school of grace, we've been plucked out of the gutter and planted in a school room and we're looking around at each other, surprised because we wouldn't have thought we were good candidates for this school and we were not. But here we are in a school room and there is a teacher and his name is Grace. And Grace is about training us, discipling us, exercising us towards godliness. Grace exercises us to reflect in our own lives the godliness that appeared in Christ ultimately and is meant to be displayed in those that he saves.

As he always does, Paul frames this training negatively and positively. Grace trains us to reject the sins of our old way of life. We're to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and we're to live self-controlled, upright and righteous lives. In this present age, godliness incorporates both this rejection and this embracing and we can't reduce it less than that. It requires rejecting of ungodliness and it requires embracing true godliness. Both of these things are essential to the training that grace gives. We must reject, we must say no to a self-centered, a self-indulgent life. We are to renounce ungodliness; living as if there is no God, as if we are the God of our own world, where to reject those worldly passions that pursue the lusts of the flesh, the desires of the flesh towards sin. We're to reject those things and instead of them we're to replace them with self-control where we tell our flesh to please God instead of living to please our flesh. We're to live upright. We're to live godly lives that point towards God in his holiness and righteousness that declare to him that our lives belong to him and that we are eager to obey his laws.

Now, I know we have these categories. I am literally preaching to the choir, but I want to ask us first to pause and consider as pastors, as pastors' wives, as leaders; are we applying that truth to our own life? Right now, I want to urge us, are we applying that truth to our own life? Right now we have not yet graduated the school of grace. Amen. We have not yet graduated the school of grace. We are not yet glorified into perfect godliness and actually the sure and steady march of tragic news about evangelical pastoral failures should warn us, even those that have ministered for decades, should warn us, this school does not let out until we die or Christ returns. It is a temptation for pastors to look back on previous victories of godliness and to skip a day. Brothers and sisters, we can't skip a day. There is no vacation from the school of grace. It doesn't matter how old we are or how many grades we've passed or how many tests we crushed, we can't skip a day in the school of grace. Grace is still teaching us. The question is whether we are still listening with the same eager attentiveness as pastors and wives and leaders as we once did. There is still more for us to learn, more that the grace of God even right now is teaching us. It's training us to reject ungodliness currently in our life and it's training us to become more godly. Grace doesn't stop training after a period of years or after ordination or after our kids are grown or after the grandkids are around. It doesn't stop training us. Therefore, we must not stop being trained.

If we can look back and recognize a few classes completed in this school, there is great reason to rejoice. Perhaps Grace taught us to overcome some old habit or to put on some new one. Good, praise God, but grace is still teaching. Does God have our attention right now? Right now? Does he have our attention? Where is Grace teaching you right now, right now, things you've surely preached or counseled that we need to apply right now? Let me encourage this and let me particularly exhort the young men who are coming into ministry. Let me encourage you to be diligent in the school of grace for your own godliness. And let me respectfully caution the older men and the older ladies; do not grow weary in this school. We desperately ask you to finish the school. Well, perhaps for some of us it's not so much that we're ready to skip school is that we feel like we're constantly held back. Here we are. I've been in second grade for 43 years. I'm constantly held back from this training regimen. I can't seem to get forward. I'm fairly certain I heard that lesson before and it leads to discouragement. Perhaps, regret. It seems my friends have all graduated into middle school. I'm still working on my primary colors and I can't move forward on the basics and perhaps perhaps the godliness that we need to be trained by yet again is the godliness of trusting the finished work of Christ. There is a self-control of doubt and condemnation that is one of the classes that doesn't go away until we die. The godliness of self-control of our thoughts is needed and we need to learn that lesson as well.

This quote by Thomas Wilcox of Honey Out of the Rock makes the point we need to have the self-control that he exhorts is true. He says,

"Do not despair; hope still when the clouds are blackest even then (here's the self-control) look toward Christ, the standing pillar of the father's love and grace, set up in heaven for all sinners to gaze upon continually. Whatever Satan or conscience say, do not conclude against yourself. Christ shall have the last word. He is judge of quick and dead and must pronounce the final sentence. His blood speaks reconciliation, cleansing, purchase redemption, purging, remission, liberty, justification, nearness to God, not a drop of this blood shall be lost. Stand, self-control. Stand and hear what God will say. Often a time we have to take our soul in our hands and say, set yourself in this seat. You will learn this lesson again, stand, and hear what God will say for he will speak peace to his people that they return no more to folly. He speaks grace, mercy, and peace. There is a self-control against the indulgence of sin. There is a self-control against the indulgence of self condemnation. There is a need for us to stay in the school of grace that rejects legalism and license that presses us to the image of Christ until he returns or we die and become like him."

We also want to apply this for our pastoring. The presence of the negative and positive classes in the school of grace means for pastors that we must boldly represent both sides of sanctification. We must confront ungodliness and also require godliness If we are to be faithful teacher's aides in the school of grace and that's all we are. We are just teacher's aides. We're just handing out the assignments. We're just helping people with their homework. That is what a pastor is. The homework's been given, the lesson has been brought and we're just saying, look, you didn't notice this point in the lecture. That is all we are doing really, but we have to do both sides of that and I find that the confrontation of the negative sometimes is harder than the inspiration towards the positive and it's worth reminding ourselves that if grace is training Christians to renounce ungodliness, pastors must be telling them to renounce ungodliness, too. Grace is working to produce a godly people so God's spokesman must be doing the same, especially again in a culture that celebrates ungodliness, and at a time and this is grieving, at a time when some who even dare to call themselves pastors and churches are actively affirming sin.

Surely those who wish to be faithful teachers' aides are not lacking in the courage necessary to confront ungodliness and worldly passions and to require godliness, self-controlled and upright lives. We also just want to say it's a burden of the leadership team that the doctrine of sin and the doctrine of sanctification not quietly recede out of sight, sort of die away, with the first generation; an understandable zeal for holiness from a revival out of a very unholy decade, not necessary in this greater age of sophistication and understandings of doctrine. Titus 2 hasn't gone anywhere and Titus 2 tells every generation what they're supposed to do as pastors. So we will follow this command and we will teach godliness and renounce ungodliness from the pulpit and in the counseling room.

And if this explanation of grace training us was not enough, Paul adds a description that is meant to motivate us even further. Grace is not just training us. Grace is, point number two, Grace is preparing us for Christ's return. Grace is preparing us. Notice this delightful phrase. The effect of godliness has a certain quality, and I'm doing it in two points because of the length, but these phrases they just build on what's been said before. Paul's making one main point. Grace produces godliness. What kind of godliness does it produce, Paul? Well, the kind that is waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And yet notice again, Paul is eager to get to the effect of that preparation; is to remind us that he gave himself to redeem us from lawlessness and to purify us for himself. Paul is burdened here. He has a particular pastoral burden. Yes, he wants to celebrate the blessed hope and the joy we have of Christ returning and he is well able to celebrate all the good news that that is. But he wants to attach that to this burden of a godly people in this passage. Yes, he wants them to be encouraged and to enjoy this anticipation, but he wants them to anticipate it as a reminder that the reason the Christ who is returning came was to purchase those who were ungodly and to make them godly for himself. There's a synchronism in this passage. The grace of God appeared in Christ. It trains us in godliness. It prepares us for the one who is to come who died and gave himself for us so that we would be godly.

So here's the point in this battle with sin that we have to preach and live. It has an end date, it has an end date. There is a day when the school is let out, when the bootcamp ends, when the fight concludes, and that day is when the one who gave himself for our sins, both their guilt and their power being relieved of us, appears in the clouds and the purpose of his death was not just to save us from wrath but to create a people that will be like him because they will be his own possession. That is incredible good news for the person, the pastor, the pastor's wife that is beleaguered with the difficulties of sin, because our battle with sin, our desire for godliness, what is it characterized by; waiting for something to come. Grace prepares us. It produces a godliness that is waiting. It produces a godliness that is prepared by grace for the end of that fight. Not the end of godliness but the end of hard godliness. Hard godliness is temporary, hard godliness is temporary.

I want you to make this very personal right now. Hard godliness. Do you struggle with your temper? Temporary. Do you struggle with doubt? Temporary. Do you struggle with unbelief? Temporary. You struggle with self-control? Oh, it's temporary. Do you struggle with being a gosh awfully critical individual? Temporary. You will be more encouraging, full of joy, full of peace, full of self-control in heaven than the most godly person you have ever imagined in that trait on earth right now. Amen. Why? Because you worked hard? No, that was just the evidence of the grace that will then appear again when that Christ returns. And the ones he will return to are the ones who have been straining toward that end and then find he comes to complete it. What are we waiting for? Our blessed hope. A deliverance from the misery of this world? Yes, absolutely. The joy, deliverance from future wrath? Yes, fundamentally, but also the joy of knowing that we have gradually become, and will that day be, what he died to make us, a people of what? For his own possession.

Listen, there is a danger. There is a danger. I say this very carefully, in the love of the indicatives, and the danger is that you could forget the indicatives are meant to describe a relationship with God. They are not mere truths, abstract out in the universe somewhere, to be believed and defended. They are truths about God. They are truths about God and his people. They are truths that allow relationship with God and his people. They are meant to create a people that reflect God that can rightly be seen as belonging to God, even as the disciples were, those who could be seen to have been with Jesus and ultimately not just in their preaching, but finally also in their practice, there should be people in this world. There should be people in this world that if someone could be honest, they would say, you know what those people look like? They look like they're getting ready for Jesus to come back. They look like they're trying to be like Jesus as if they belong to him and are wanting to look more and more like him so they would fit in his company. They look like people that are zealous to be righteous. They look like people who are eager to do good works. They look like, actually, you know what they look like. They look like people that belong around Jesus. And the Christian says, that's what we're trying to look like because one day we will be. Amen.

It's a blessed hope that also motivates current effort. It's a blessed hope that also motivates current effort. The fact that Christ is coming reminds Paul, wouldn't it be fascinating to just see into Paul's brain because then you preachers know this; how do you organize a sermon around this guy? He has a thought and then that reminds him of another thought and then that reminds him of another thought and then he just explodes with thoughts. And Jeff acts like it's easy. It's not easy. Structure follows grammar. Oh sure, sure it does. It's an explosion. How do you organize an explosion? But his remembering of the blessed hope causes him to remember the death of Christ and a little explosion goes off. Christ gave himself on the cross. He was our penalty. He died so that those pagans and Pharisees wouldn't face wrath. He was our redemption price. He was the lamb.

But no sooner can he think about that explosion, then he says he didn't just redeem us to save us from that wrath. He had an object in view, a people that could live with him, but if they were going to live with him, they couldn't just be set free from judgment. They had to be like him. They had to be like him. So why did he die? He died to purchase them not just out of wrath. That this astonishing phrase, not just out of wrath but out of lawlessness and into zeal. He died to purchase you out of lawlessness, and me, out of lawlessness. Stamp that in the mirror. Let's look at that every morning; Jesus died to redeem me out of lawlessness. Jesus died to make me fit for his company to mark me as belonging to him. Jesus died so we would be suited members of people he can fellowship with forever, zealous for good works.

Grace is preparing us for Christ's return. The ones who are trained by grace for godliness are eagerly waiting for Christ as the one who gave himself so that they would be godly. Who you're waiting for makes all the difference in how you prepare for their return. And no one knows that more practically than dads who are watching the kids. When mom has been gone, there are so many things that I suddenly see the day that Lory's coming back that I would not have seen if I wasn't thinking that she was coming back. And it's just a standard in the home. You can't deal with what's going on right here in this disaster with the standard of dad, because then frankly it'd probably be fine, and there's living things growing in places and it's not good. It's bad, but there's a better person coming and that better person is going to see what's been going on here. So let's prepare with that better person in mind, shall we? I'll do it. And you do it so that when that better person walks in the door, it's not a bad moment. We don't want to tempt the need for trusting God with providence in the life of our dear wife and mother when she walks into this home and realizes yes, they've learned nothing of what I've attempted.

Brothers and sisters, there is a much better person coming, a much better person coming. It's not onerous to prepare for him. We want him to walk in and say, yes, not perfect. But yes, notice our hope is not, perfectly done, good and faithful servant, just well done. We're preparing for that better person because his grace revealed in his death was preparing us for godness.

Before we close, I'd like to make four pastoral recommendations, four pastoral recommendations. I promise they won't be long. Recommendations about categories of local leadership that I think we must give attention to if we're going to be the pastors that represent this passage.

Number one, Cultivate Pastoral Fellowship. Brothers, let me encourage us to seek fellowship. I don't have any one organizational principle in mind here. Just the concept that we would pursue pastoral fellowship, first from our wives, and also from our fellow pastors. When we are struggling with discouragement, let someone know it. When we're aware of some temptation that is deeply troubling us, even as we minister, let's let someone know it. Let's look to encourage and build up our fellow travelers toward this day. Cultivate pastoral fellowship, and for you solo pastors, cultivate it from the pastors in your region. Shepherds should surely be willing to shepherd shepherds. Shepherds should never be above being shepherded. Older pastors, let me respectfully challenge you, encourage you, to not assume godly habits in the younger pastors and interns around you. It may be something that it would never cross your mind somebody wouldn't be doing or would be doing. Let me encourage you. Please ask obvious questions. Unapologetically, please ask obvious questions. Unapologetically, I find it to be the case in my own life already and I assume it'll just grow with age, that age tempts either toward a soft permissiveness or a hard cynicism. But grace trains us toward a hopeful godliness. So please, older pastors, let your words reflect that kind of grace, the grace that trains towards a hopeful godliness.

Recommendation number two, Prioritize Application in Preaching. Prioritize application in preaching. I do mean here; ensuring that there is enough space in our sermons to linger on the necessity of application and to illustrate what that application may include. I would encourage us, we never apply without explaining, but we should not explain without applying. Leave time for application in the messages. And I also want to encourage us, I mean this in terms of preaching through the application sections of scripture itself. It strikes me, there's a number of sections that just address a particular type of person. And as we're hunting for our own self-made applicational categories, we would do well to look at the ones that the Bible has already provided to us. How do I speak to the young women in this? What about the young men? What about older men? Categories of preaching application. What might I possibly want to emphasize in this? Well, maybe we would want to look at the sections of scripture that specifically address those seasons and assume that those are timeless needs and not temporary categories.

I would also want to strongly encourage everybody that preaches and everybody that talks to a preacher regularly, to listen to Jeff's breakout session, “Putting God's Word to Work,” the task of application in preaching. We are not going to be a godly people unless we have application as a part of our preaching. It has always been a part. We have been benefiting from it for 40 years. Let's continue the practice.

Third category, Champion Biblical Counsel. Champion biblical counsel. It's sad to me that many Christians, especially younger Christians, will turn to any kind of counseling except biblical counseling for help in life's challenges for a marriage problem. Where's a marriage therapist? A problem with self-control? I need an addiction therapist. A trouble with parenting? I need a parenting therapist. I'm not discounting there are valuable therapies in the world, and yet too often these therapies in this age are focused on the idol of me and do not start with the Bible and God. And we have to be those that remind people, look, you are not the center. And that's probably what's leading to a number of these problems. And if they're going to a therapy and maybe not all are, but if some are going to a therapy that is attempting to help reinforce the idea that I have to be emotionally stabilized and satisfied, well then no wonder they're going to have a hard time bumping into scriptures where God is at the center.

What's the solution? Pastors. Pastors that uphold the real center. It's like people in the middle ages running around and saying, I can't understand why we can't make these equations work with the earth at the center of the universe. The math doesn't work. It's so annoying. We'll just ignore it. Then here comes this radical and says, perhaps we were wrong. Perhaps we're not the center. And I notice that as I put that at the center, the math works, guess what? Christianity doesn't work with you at the center. It doesn't work. And any therapy that's trying to make that work is just going to create more problems. But pastors have to have courage, have to have courage because we have to represent the one who has authority, not just helpful advice but commanding authority that makes us different than every other kind of therapist. That requires courage. And yet we must do it because there is a great danger today that people would drift away.

Listen to this, these wise words from William Edwards in Theology for Ministry, the Festchrist for Sinclair Ferguson. He says,

“Individual sins are not what most threatened progress in sanctification. The greater danger is framing our lives with a false narrative or an alternative story that stands in opposition to scripture in his exhortation to Timothy to preach the word. Paul describes the danger in this way, having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. The myths to which Paul refers are propagated so that, listen to this, those who inhabit them can suit their own passions. This is the backstory behind every sin; placing myself and my desires at the center of the story. Grasping, this is essential for sanctification, there are ultimately only two meta-narratives, the story of scripture in which Christ is central and the fictitious myth in which I claim to be the leading role.”

Amen. Biblical counsel is just restoring the center, it's restoring the center in people's lives that have put themselves at the center. We must prioritize, champion, biblical counsel.

Fourth: Champion and Equip Family Discipleship. Champion and equip. And let me note before I move on, please listen to Josh Blount's breakout session. Even if you're not going, I mean listen to everything Josh writes, good gracious, and says, but listening to his breakout session Still Competent to Counsel, whether you're going to it or not. Fourth: Champion and Equip Family Discipleship in God's design. God-centered homes are a crucial pillar to God-centered churches. God has given to parents, Christian parents, the tasks of discipling their children, of building their marriages in a way that represents God's gospel. And yet the family, no surprise, is under attack in the culture. No surprise that churches crumble towards the truth when families have not been bolstered by pastors for many years, such that that pillar is removed.

Pastors must envision and champion the God-centered home, reject the unbiblical idea of a neutral home or passive parenting, and also equip marriages and parenting with biblical sanctification and discipleship tools. Listen, Paul says to Titus, declare these things, which means we preach it, we preach this stuff, we preach the grace that accords with godliness, we preach it and in preaching it, let's also apply it in these ways. Let's build structures and equipping moments that help people. And you pastors that are not regular preachers, thank God for you because if we preach it but don't apply it, and applying it often, often requires much more application than most Christians think, and much more pastoral help than most Christians believe.

Ladies, I also know you'll be well-served in your marriage by Betsy Ricucci's session today. And men, let me encourage you whether you're going or not, to listen to Brian Chesemore on the God-centered home. Brothers, we are to declare these things. Christ died to make a holy people, God's grace, the grace that saves transforms, let not our zeal for godliness burn low.

I said at the outset that we see Eustace Scrubb charging selflessly, ultimately to his death in the final fight. I should have said that's the last time we see him in the land of the dying. We see him again in the land of the living. And that boy who most certainly deserved that name is robed in royal clothes and crowned with honor, as will you be. We are all Eastace Scrubb and so are our people. That's the people Jesus decided to save. That's the people he chose to make his own possession. And that's the people that His grace makes godly.

Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for the unspeakable honor of being claimed by you for salvation and godliness. Lord, wherever that gift has diminished in our minds or our ministries, restore it to its rightful place of honor. Let us courageously and wisely and graciously and humbly and gratefully preach and model this goal of your grace. And Lord, may school be out soon. Yes, we're ready for the fight of godliness to be over. We're ready for the "well done". But until you make that moment arrive, we'll be preparing for it. In Jesus' name, amen.