Timothy and Titus – Inconspicuous Leadership
Our small group gathering brings out a lot of interesting thoughts as we open God’s Word in our home. Last night was no exception. “How we respond in anger shows what is in our hearts.” “Helping others must come for a pure heart avoiding self.” “We can’t quote Scripture and then act the opposite.” These people whom we only met a few months ago have become fast friends in the faith. We help each other in prayer and focus on God and decide what God wants for us in His transformation of us. We speak out readily on what does not match God’s Word. We encourage each other and pray for each other. Wait…isn’t that what Paul is telling Titus to be and do? Why, yes it is!Read and study The Word. Show others how God works His Word into our lives. “Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine”, says Paul to Titus. Teach the older men and women to model the faith. AND, here is the kicker that most leaders miss…”DO IT YOURSELF”! You cannot and must not tell others to do what you are not willing or too lazy to do yourself. THEN those who are against us will have no evidence to bring us down. They will try, but their efforts will fail in the end. This, my friends, is the blessed assurance to stick with the faith, hope, joy, peace of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
This is a God-Filled life lived with integrity. Healthy. Robust.
Titus 2, The MessageA God-Filled Life
1-6 Your job is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior. Also, guide the young men to live disciplined lives.
7-8 But mostly, show them all this by doing it yourself, incorruptible in your teaching, your words solid and sane. Then anyone who is dead set against us, when he finds nothing weird or misguided, might eventually come around.
LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #16: SHOW, TELL, MODEL THE FAITHCharacteristics –
–We are all ministers, called to stand for what is right and good, invited to join God in His work to tell the world about Him, to give Him glory, to help people find and follow Jesus.
–Model the faith as you teach the faith.
–Be men and women who live lives of temperance, dignity and wisdom, with a healthy faith, full of love and tenacious endurance, with reverence for God, giving Him glory for all.
–Most of all love well, as Jesus taught us to love unconditionally, not as the world does with conditions.
–Our behavior reflects what we say we believe.
–Our behavior tells others Who God is and what He can do in our lives. So, what IS our behavior telling people who live around us?
–Sometimes we speak. Most times we model the faith with our very lives.
Dear Heavenly Father,
We look over what Paul is telling Titus with Your Word and we fall short. We repent of times we go about life all by ourselves. Give us wisdom, insight and understanding to model what we believe well, in ways that give YOU glory and honor and point others to You. Life is all about You in us. Continue to transform me. Transform Your church. Transform the world through Your people.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Titus 1, The Message
Characteristics of Leaders of Hope
6-8 You take over. I’m about to die, my life an offering on God’s altar. This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is the shouting—God’s applause! Depend on it, he’s an honest judge. He’ll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for his coming.
Dear Heavenly Father,
2 Timothy 3, The Message
Leadership Characteristics – 
Character Traits – 
20-21 In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.
Leadership Characteristics –
We love watching DYI, Makeover and How To shows! Randy and I will sit for hours to watch shows that tell us how to improve our home, car or yard. It is comforting somehow to know exactly how the work is accomplished in the best way by professionals who it all the time. Projects of significance are done best when the right method and materials are used to get it done. We know it will last longer because it was done right…according to those in the know!
1-7 So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.
THE METHOD:
To Be Bold with God’s Gifts
LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #8: It’s not about us.
Running Hard
Leadership Characteristics – 
So, who has real power? What does it mean to be “rich”?What is enough? The answer, according to Paul who speaks wisdom to Timothy is, “A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God.” He reminds all of us, “Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.”
6-8 A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough.
