As I promised you yesterday, I am sending you the second part of the impromptu message my husband preached in regard to the Titus 2 Woman. The message is still centered around verses 3-5 of Titus chapter 2, so be sure you have your Bible ready to refer to. And now, let's continue on, picking up where we left off yesterday....
"To be chaste....to be discreet.....to be keepers at home. You know, when someone asks you the next time you are out filling out some application or something and they say, "What is your occupation?", tell them, "I am a Titus Chapter Two Verse Five Woman!" Because they are going to down play it if you say homemaker, or housewife, or mother or at home mom. Tell them, "I am a Titus Chapter Two Verse Five Woman!" And when they say, "What in the world is that?!" You say, "Go look it up!" "I am a Titus Chapter Two Verse Five Woman!" And put that down on that paper and be proud of it! How many times have you said quietly, "I am just a homemaker...I'm JUST at home." What do you do for a living?? "I'm JUST a housewife...." JUST A??! JUST A??! No - I am a Titus Chapter Two Verse Five Woman!! And that is what you need to say! Because you know what?! If you are ashamed of it, the world will just continue to put that thing down more and more and more... Be PROUD that not only does your husband want you home, not only does your husband work hard in order to keep you home, that your God would HAVE you be home, and that your children DESIRE for you to be home - be proud of it, and tell them I am a 'Titus Chapter Two Verse Five Woman'. BE PROUD OF IT - don't make any apologies for the fact that you are an at home mom!! "to be keepers at home...." I hope ALL you ladies are PROUD to be at home moms!! I believe that is part of being a MOM. I think under the definition that God has set forth as to what is a mother, I believe part of it is to be AT HOME. For a MOM to take her babies, and turn them over to somebody else to watch over them and raise them, you have GIVEN UP some of your motherhood! Same way if you are constantly going out to McDonald's or Pizza Hut to bring home the dinner, I think you've GIVEN UP some of your responsibility as a wife! So think about that, and take pride in the fact that you are an at home mom!
The Bible then says next to that, that you need to be 'good'. You know isn't that a funny thing? In all of Titus chapter two, it's got all these things that we are to teach the young women to do: be sober, love their husbands, love their children, be discreet, be chaste, be keepers at home....and then the Bible has one four letter word in there, it just says..."good". I want you to be 'good'. You know, that almost sounds like we're two years old doesn't it? God says, "Now I want you to be good!" Just like we tell our children... Isn't that funny that God would have to tell us to be good? Ladies, why here in Titus chapter two does God find it necessary to have to tell keepers at home to be good?? Because there are not too many mom's, not too many women, that are keepers at home that are CONTENT in being a keeper at home. For you to be GOOD, I believe God is saying you need to be CONTENT at home. He says you're to be a keeper at home (comma) and now be good. Be good at what God?? Be GOOD at being a keeper at home, be GOOD at being discreet, be GOOD at being chaste, be GOOD at loving your husband....be GOOD! Because you can be an at home mom....and not be GOOD! Is that not true?? I'm not a good at home mom, I never spend time with my kids! God gave me the opportunity, God GAVE me the opportunity to be AT HOME, and I'm not being very good at it. I don't spend any time with my children. I don't take thirty minutes to get alone with God every day. I don't have any time with my husband. I never prepare a hot meal for my honey when he gets home. I don't feed my children nutritious food, I give them fast food all the time. I am not a GOOD Titus Chapter Two Verse Five At Home Mom. I need to be good, amen? WHATEVER we do, do it heartily as unto the Lord - BE GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO!
And the very next thing says, "obedient to their own husbands." Obedient to their own husbands..... You know what? It's more important for you to be obedient to your own husband that it is for you to be obedient to Pam's husband! Many times people will obey the pastor before they will obey their own husband. If I tell you to do it, you'll do it! BUT, will you do it if your own husband tells you to do it?? The Bible says you be obedient to your OWN husband! Why do you think this is at the end of this list and right after the word 'good'? Because it's probably one of THE hardest things for a woman to do, is to obey her husband. Have you ever felt slighted by the fact that God has chosen your position as a position of submission? Have you ever resented God that He did not give you positions just like this? Have you ever thought that God looked on you as less because He asked you to submit? God respects your position JUST AS MUCH as He respects your husbands - JUST AS MUCH! God is NO respecter of persons! And a woman that submits to an UNGODLY man, is reverenced and honored by God regardless of the man she follows, because SHE is maintaining HER position. "...to be obedient to their own husbands...." You know, it's EASY to obey your husband as long as you agree with him. "Honey, I'd like you to take some time off for yourself and go to Walmart and shop for three hours while I watch the kids." "Yes, honey, I'll obey you!" That's an easy one, isn't it?? But, what if he says, "Honey, I've noticed lately that you haven't been spending any time with the kids and I'd like you now every morning when you get up right after breakfast, to have a one hour devotion with the kids every day. And that means the night before you go to bed you should prepare that devotion. I want it done EVERY day, do you understand?" Then what would your face look like?? ANYTHING that your husband asks you to do, within the confines of God's Word, MUST be done in order for you to find favor in the eyes of the Lord. Anything.....anything! Does the Bible not say that? Does the Bible not tell us that in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22-24 clearly? It says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." Now, what do you think the Bible means by "in everything"? Everything? Everything that would not go against this Book! Subjecting yourself unto the higher powers.... You obey your husband until which time WHAT your husband is telling you to do is in contradiction to the Word of God, THEN you obey the Word of God. Subject unto the HIGHER powers... In other words, as long as whatever my husband tells me to do is UNDER God, and it's not contrary to the will of God, I have to do it! Now it says, "as the church is subject unto Christ.." What do you think that means? Am I, as a Christian, allowed to have a SEPARATE will from Jesus Christ? No! The Bible tells me in Phillipians 2:5 to put on the mind of Christ. And I need to surrender - Romans 12:1&2. "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that GOOD, and acceptable and perfect, will of God." I must be found in the PEFRECT will of God as a Christian. I must totally submit, and surrender and transform MY will INTO HIS will to be found in the perfect will of God. Now - "as the church is subject unto Christ" - we are the church, we're Christians. So as a Christian submits himself to the will of Christ, so must a wife submit her WILL to the WILL of her husband - in EVERYTHING. You mean even the finances? EVERYTHING! You mean, how I decorate my house? If it matters to him - EVERYTHING! Everything?? EVERYTHING! You say, "that is a REAL DEMEANING position!" Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.... If you fear God, you'll understand that what He asks you to do - even if we don't understand it sometimes - is for your own good! You will be blessed as you obey the Word of God....
And the next point: "....that the Word of God be not blasphemed." You know what that means? The Bible says you are an epistle right? And you are read of ALL men. If the Word of God is blasphemed, it is because we have a testimony CONTRARY to the Word of God! And people are reading our lives... And so people read our lives and they are looking at you and they say, "That's not a holy woman! There is a false accuser! She's WAY out of balance in her life! She's not a teacher of GOOD things! She's not teaching the young women to be sober, she's a fool! She's not teaching them to love their husbands, she hates her husband! Look at how she obeys him! She doesn't love her children, she spends no time with them! She's not discreet, she's not chaste, she's not a keeper at home, she's not good, she's not obedient to her own husband...." And then that woman is going to try and share Christ??! She can't! You can't share Christ because it's hypocrisy, it's a slap in the face of God! No different then a Christian bowing his head to pray while a beer is sitting in front of him at the supper table! "Oh Dear God, please bless this beer to my body." That is a reproach to God! Just as it is a woman who is not doing the things we have said here today, and yet goes out to try and share Christ. She has blasphemed the Word of God! The greatest witness you have ladies is your life! Your mouth is really on the lowest rung - it's your life! There are people all over the world today HEARING about what they should be doing. But there's very few ladies in the world SHOWING what we should be doing! We are in dire need of Proverbs 31 women!! The question is today: Do you resent God for making you a woman? Because of the position He has asked you to fill, do you resent Him for it? Do you resent men? There are some women who have such hard lives with fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers and bosses etc. that they absolutely resent men! Do YOU resent men? Don't ever be bitter against man because of his position. And don't be bitter against God for man's position. When you find holiness, and you find that perfect will of God for your life, then and only then will you be able to be fulfilled and joyful and content. Whereby they LEARNED to be content.... You have to learn to be content.... I hope ALL of you ladies... you know, I must say this: Over the last year, most of our church related problems have been female related, and I don't know exactly why that is. Is it because women are not happy in their place and so they try to assume the place of the man, speaking things that they ought not, saying things they shouldn't be saying? Strong resentment, strong envy, jealousy, bitterness, competition, just total conflict everywhere you look! Ladies, I am asking you in this church, as the man that God has set up here - as your pastor - learn to be content with your position as a woman! Then and only then will God be able to richly fill you and bless you with all the joy of Christ that He came that you might have. He came that your joy might be full. Your joy will never be FULL until which time you've learned to be content as a woman. That is how He made you, that is how He expects you to be - so do it, and do it heartily unto the Lord! Amen?
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As I read this message over the last two days, I also enjoyed the privilege of hearing it at the same time. No doubt it is received differently and maybe not understood as clearly unless you can 'hear' it as well as read it for yourself. While I realize you all could not 'hear' the tone in which my husband preached this on the spur of the moment, still the truth is the truth no matter how it comes to us, and it needs to be obeyed, amen? Obedience should always be our response to the truth! Ladies, if God has dealt with your heart using the truth here today, I hope you will respond with a willing and obedient heart and become a genuine "Titus 2 Woman."
God Bless,
Pam
Isaiah 60:1&2
Copyright 2000 Pamela A. Iannello
Continue to "Titus 2 Woman", Part 1
