Grace-Energized Women Are Discreet

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Jesus loves absolutes. He always used them in His teachings, through contrasts: Light vs. Darkness, Heaven vs. Hell, Life vs. Death, Broad way vs. Narrow Gate, and so on.

Those absolutes continue into the church that bears Christ’s Name. We have to choose go His way or ignore His way. The clearest choice of all involves our minds.

Either we choose to have a God-controlled mind or a World-controlled mind. Either we give in to a Media-saturated mind or pursue a Word-saturated mind. That was the challenge that the Lord directed Paul to lay before the church at Crete and to all of us since.

God-Controlled Minds

“To be discreet” in Titus 2:5 in my Bible is a translation of one Greek word sophron, but actually this word is virtually untranslatable by any one English word. It is variously translated of sound mind, discreet, prudent, self-controlled, chaste, having complete control over sensual desires. The Greeks derived it from two words which mean to keep one’s mind safe and sound.

In Titus 2:5 This word describes a woman with a mind surrendered to God’s control. Her mind is surrendered to God’s gracious sanctifying power; and she learns to govern every instinct and passion until each has its proper place and no more.

As we delve into this verse, God’s Word makes one thing perfectly clear: God wants your mind under His control.

More than anything else God wants to saturate, influence, fill, direct, dominate and control your mind.

If God has your mind – He has your body,

If God has your mind – He has your emotions,

If God has your mind – He has your appetites,

If God has your mind – He has your time,

If God has your mind – He has your money . . .

Do you see the point? The one who gets your mind gets it all. Your mind is the prize! Everything else is just the scraps.

The battle is for our minds. Satan is seeking to steal the minds of God’s children. Your mind is the key to knowing God. Only a mind stayed on the Lord can have perfect peace. A mind devoted to Christ is the road to God’s plan for your life!

God wants your mind given to the pursuit of His Kingdom, His Word, and His Christ!

The grace-energized life of Titus 2 is a roadmap for all who want their life to count. It is God’s pathway of disciplines to choose each day in the power of the Spirit of grace.

We have come to the eighth element of a godly woman’s life—as described and prescribed by God—and that is a God-controlled mind, a Word-saturated mind, a Christ-seeking mind.

Grace-Energized Women Have God-Controlled Minds

The Holy Spirit of the Infinite and Unchanging God of the Universe breathed out through Paul a list of life-choices, godly character traits, grace-energized actions that please God and are useful to Him.

God’s plan to work in the world is His church[1]. Christ’s church may be described as a group of people, energized by grace, doing the impossible for the glory of God.

In this next grace-energized trait we see Paul point to the godly woman’s mind. This word is our entry into one of the most vital areas of our life as believers—the realm of our minds.

This is the only universal character quality of this list. In the space of just six verses in Titus Paul declares this quality God desires is stated as part of the life of godly older women (2:4), godly younger women (2:5), godly older men (2:2), godly younger men (2:5), Biblical elders (1:8), and—to every Spirit-filled and Spirit-led believer (Titus 2:12; c.f. Romans 12:3).

So as we look at this word from God it is first of all in context to be the personal life-choice for younger women; and secondly, it is to be the curriculum on the mind of godly older women as they spend time nurturing younger women; and thirdly it is for every man in the church whether in a leadership role or not—because it is universally applied to every believer in Christ’s church.

Twelve Characteristics of Grace-Energized Women and Mothers

We are studying the eighth of 12 characteristics for grace-energized women, found at the start of verse 5. As a review please follow along as we look at the entire scope of what God wants trained, and then examine this eighth characteristic.

v. 4 that they admonish the [grace-energized] young women

1. to love their husbands,

2. to love their children, v. 5

3. to be discreet sophron (KJV/NKJV); “self-controlled” (NIV); “sensible” (NAS),

4. chaste,

5. homemakers,

6. good,

7. obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. (NKJV)

The Greek word God inspires Paul to write is sophron translated in the New Testament as “discreet, sensible, or self-controlled”. The meaning of this word is vital to our spiritual lives. God is asking for believers to desire and seek by His grace to be:

“serious about spiritual things; not being known as a clown; living a disciplined life: self-controlled and not addicted to anything; in control of your choices, knowing your priorities; serious about life; temperate and avoiding excesses; a clarity of thought that leads to an orderly life.”[2]

A further application of this word would be: to be seen as thinking about life through God’s filter, the Philippians 4:8 grid.

Sadly it seems that Satan has caught many believers off guard. While they carefully avoid many obvious doctrinal dangers, perhaps the most powerful mind-robber has been overlooked. Satan is neutralizing the power of so many godly minds, little-by-little every day through the onslaught of the media that overflows us like a raging flooded river.

Beware of Mind-Neutralizers, Your godly mind can get neutralized by modern[3] media that has reset the Moral Acceptability Threshold.

Here is the test: “Do the things that once offended you now entertain you? Are you able to enjoy the company of television programs, videos, and movies that have values diametrically opposed to yours? This moral drift is important to understand, for it continues unabated. Extrapolate ten or twenty years into the future and it is frightening to imagine what media content awaits us.” [4]

Your godly mind can get neutralized by modern media that has reset the Shock Threshold.

In the past, if we saw blood, killing, or tragedies on the evening news, it would disturb us for weeks. Today, however, the rule of the newsroom is, “If it bleeds it leads.” Movies are worse. Beginning about thirty years ago, succeeding waves of movies relied on more and more violence to attract crowds. Audiences became numbed to the repulsiveness of each level of violence, so directors had to enhance the horror to maintain interest. Such common fare no longer elicits anguish from society, and more troubling is that believers who regularly watch these images seem to have no shock over the sin.

Is your godly mind troubled that God defines spiritual adultery in Ezekiel as the sin when His people followed the advice, customs, and practices of the pagans instead of Him?

The idols Israel followed had to do with pagan practices about their health, their business, their safety, their future security, and so on. They had abandoned God as their source of truth for life, and they spent and invested more time getting help, counsel, direction, and advice from everyone but Him.

Ezekiel 20:31 “For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not be inquired of by you. NKJV

Our world spends most of their time seeing the world through the world’s eyes which is our media world. Today more and more believers are finding their world view, values, and guidance for life from TV, secular books, unsaved professionals, magazines, commercials, and the internet. Sadly, they follow that secular and ungodly direction more than God and His Word.

Is your godly mind troubled yet that today’s teens (the 31 million 12-19 year olds, some of them may be living in your house) have a world that has been defined for them more by computer games, TV, social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook, movies, advertisements for Apple, Nike, Sony, Gap, Old Navy and the web — than by God’s Word?

Half of all teens are from a broken home, and 63% have both parents working. All of them, down deep, need adult guidance. In A Tribe Apart, author Patricia Hersch said, “Every kid wished they had more adults in their life, especially that their parents would invade their lives”.

Is your godly mind troubled yet that video’s, movie’s and television’s effects are so well known to be disastrous to the life of any child or adult?

Statistics by secular research has concluded what undisciplined media saturation causes.

A shortened attention span: that means a media saturated person can’t think about God very well.
Reduced linguistic powers: that means a media saturated person can’t talk about God very well.

Is your godly mind troubled yet that to attract and hold its audience, the entertainment industry feels it has to parade the taboos of culture: adultery, promiscuity, homosexuality, incest, violence, and sadism?

As a result the lowest of activities become commonplace, and even morally cachet.

Ephesians 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. NKJV

Is your godly mind troubled yet that what you choose for your mind today will shape your eternal future?

If you choose to be entertained by godlessness–it will callous you;
If you choose to be entertained by sensuality–it will defile you;
If you choose to be entertained by violence–it will desensitize you;
If you choose to be entertained by evil–it will distance you;
If you choose to be entertained by worldliness–it will discourage you;
If you choose to be entertained by Satan’s mind–you will forfeit the blessings of having the mind of Christ.

Let’s be blunt: don’t say you are committed to Christ unless you are disciplining your mind for the active pursuit of godliness!

Words that God Chose for Us

That brings us back to the plan of God for your mind. When the Lord set out the description of the godly New Testament woman of grace He chose a word that deeply communicates His desire. That word is the Greek word sophron.

There are many ways to study the Bible: book studies, chapter studies, verse studies, subject and topic studies, background studies—but perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Bible studies are those that examine closely the individual words that God chose to use in His Book. That is what we will be doing this morning.

Because God’s Word is the best commentary on God’s Word join me for a study of this very uniquely Christian word. God used this word only to describe believers, and makes it a quality He wants to see in all believers.

The basic meaning of this word sophron in the New Testament (a Greek word here as an adjective) is being serious about spiritual things; living a disciplined life: which means self-controlled and not addicted to anything.

Sophron is part of a family of New Testament words that use the noun, verb, adverb, and adjective form of the very same word. Let’s look at these words in the order they appear in the Greek vocabulary of the New Testament.

God Wants You Serious About Spiritual Things

This word (Strong’s number 4998 sophron: of a sound mind, sane, in one’s senses; curbing one’s desires and impulses, self-controlled, temperate) is an adjective that occurs 4x in the New Testament:

Titus 2:5[younger women] to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. NKJV
Titus 2:2that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; NKJV
Titus 1:8[an elder] but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, NKJV
I Timothy 3:2A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; NKJV

God Wants You Restoring Others to Serious Spiritual Living

We find this same word as an action verb (4994 sophronidzo verb 1x) describing the need for the older, godly grace-energized women to exhort earnestly the younger women by “restoring them to their senses, so they moderate, control, curb their minds”. That is the sense of this word in–

Titus 2:4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, NKJV

This same word is found as an adverb (4996 sophronos adverb 1x: ‘with sound mind, soberly, temperately, discreetly’) further down in this chapter.

Titus 2:12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, NKJV

God says that His grace-energizes us into being serious about spiritual things;
His grace teaches us how to live a disciplined life: which means self-controlled and not addicted to anything;
Believers energized by God’s grace are in control of their choices, seeking out God’s priorities;
God wants us serious about life, temperate, and avoiding excesses;
God’s grace gives us a clarity of thought that leads to an orderly life;
His grace leads us to thinking through the Philippians 4:8 grid.

God Wants You Regaining a Confident Mind

Again we find this word in a noun form with another shade of meaning (4995 sophronismos noun/masc. 1x: ‘an admonishing or calling to soundness of mind, to moderation and self-control; self-control, moderation’) as Paul encourages Timothy his son in the faith. Timothy exhibited a problem many believers struggle with, he was timid and fearful. This verse was Paul’s strong encouragement to him in his struggle.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. NKJV

Even a casual reading of II Timothy 1:4-8 leads us to see that Timothy was fearful, timid, felt worthless even to the point of tears, and even struggled with being ‘ashamed’ of his ministry for the Lord.

Note that Paul does not harshly rebuke him, but gently reminds him of many things. He tells Timothy he has nothing to be ashamed of. He had a great upbringing though his father didn’t help, his mother and grandmother were godly (II Timothy 1:5; 3:14-15). Paul reminds Timothy of his special position as a choice servant of the Lord, personally trained (Acts 16:3) with a special gifting (II Timothy 1:6). In short Paul says there is no reason that Timothy should be timid and fearful—yet he was!

Timothy appears to have a life-long need for encouragement to be bold and go on serving the Lord. It is very possible that the stomach problems he struggled with (I Timothy 5:23) were directly tied to his emotional problems of a fearful and timid personality.

If you are a person that feels uncomfortable around people, if you draw back from people who reach out to you, if you feel inferior to others, and you are afraid of always saying the wrong thing so that people dislike you—then welcome to the club.

One of the greatest pastors and servants of the Lord of all time was so much like you. Timothy, son-in-the-faith to Paul, servant-of-the-Lord to the largest church of the New Testament world was just like you. Paul does not chastise him, scold him, rebuke him harshly, or say that he was unspiritual. Rather, Paul says give your mind back to Christ’s control each time you start to fear.

The fear, the discomfort, the feelings of inferiority and shame that Timothy felt were just part of living inside a fallen body, with flesh-influenced minds and emotions. The solution was to make a conscious choice by faith to keep surrendering his mind back under Christ’s control. Paul way saying–

Timothy, God’s grace can energize your mind to understand who you are in Christ;
Timothy, His grace teaches your mind to live a disciplined life: which means self-controlled and not addicted to anything including fear and timidity.
Timothy, believers energized by God’s grace are in control of their choices, seeking out God’s priorities which include fearing not;

Do you see the point? The one who gets your mind gets it all. Your mind is the prize! Everything else is just the scraps.

The battle is for our minds. Satan is seeking to steal the minds of God’s children.

Renewing a God-Controlled Mind

Your mind is the key to knowing God. Only a mind stayed on the Lord can have perfect peace. A mind devoted to Christ is the road to God’s plan for your life!

God has a will for your mind and that is for your mind to be given to the pursuit of God, His Kingdom, His Word, and His Christ!

How do we bring our minds into captivity?
How do we fix our eyes on Jesus?
How do we discipline our minds for godliness?

Probably the first and most powerful way to do all that is to put on tight, our helmet of salvation.

Paul told Timothy to stir up the gift given to him. We aren’t sure what exactly it was, it might have been faith, or the teaching gifts of a pastor. But it was miraculous and came by the laying on of Paul’s hands, from God.

But this evening we will learn about a miraculous gift we must stir. That gift also came the instant that God laid His Hands upon us. And that gift is our salvation.

The best way to get your mind back under God’s control is to think the truth. The helmet that we are to wear as believers is the helmet of what? Salvation. Pull on the straps and fasten tight your helmet of salvation. Surrender again your mind to God’s control. Energized by grace, allow God’s truth to saturate your mind and see what He can do with you.

[1] Christ’s church has a mission that Paul summarized as pleasing God (I Thessalonians 4:1). This mission is accomplished by the proclamation of a message Paul summarized as the gospel of grace (Acts 20:24). The message of grace—that God did everything possible to be done and anyone can come to Him merely by faith seems impossible. But the most amazing part of all that the Lord is doing is His plan to do all this by a method is spelled out in Titus 2:11-14—Paul summarized as energized by God’s grace to live in a way that is otherwise impossible.

[2] These definitions are from MacArthur, Shepherdology: A Master Plan for Church Leadership, Panorama City, CA: Masters Fellowship, 1989.

[3] Adapted and quoted from Swenson, Overload, p. 137-160.

[4] Al Menconi, “Our Collective Soul Is Dying” Minnesota Christian Chronicle, 16 February1995, p.6.

Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles to Titus chapter 2. As you’re turning there, we’re looking this morning and using our minds to think about our minds. And we’re going to look at the next quality element characteristic that characterizes a woman whose life is energized by God’s grace. And it’s in the fifth verse of the second chapter of Titus. And you’ll want to be there.

As you turn there. I want to remind you something about Christ’s ministry. Jesus had a habit in His ministry of demonstrating His great love for absolutes. I don’t know if you ever noticed that Jesus loved to bring people to the point where they realized that they only had two choices in front of Him. They had to choose between life and death or between Heaven and Hell, or between the broad way and the narrow way, or between light and darkness, or having the sun or not having the sun. Jesus always reduced it down to two choices, not, I’m somewhere in between, but just choose. And that is a wonderful characteristic of His earthly ministry.
That concept, those absolutes, that choice that needs to be made carries into His Church that bears His name. And we are presented consistently by the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter’s ministries as they wrote, and James also in his early epistle to the church that we have to make a choice, in our life, either God’s way, our own way. There’s no middle ground. You can’t be half and half. He said you can’t serve two masters. Remember, Jesus clearly said that. No one can serve two masters. You either love the one and hate the other, or you hold the one and despise the other. No one can serve. And in that context, God and mammon or money. You got to out and out go one way.
This morning Paul brings us to that point. Christ’s desire is that we see there are only two choices for us as His Church. And specifically in the fifth verse we’re talking about a mind, our minds. And this is in the context of Godly women. But before I go too far, I want to tell you, this is the only universal quality in this list. The second chapter of Titus presents 12 character qualities that exemplify a godly man’s life and 12 that exemplify a godly woman’s life. There are some that are older godly men, younger godly men, older godly women, younger godly women. 24 characteristics in all. This is the only one that’s in all four categories. This same word we’re going to look at is describing godly older men, and elders, and godly younger men, and godly older women, and godly younger women. And then finally, this word is used twice in the Bible that says every believer should have this mind controlled by God. So, wherever you are, if you’re a godly older woman, thinking of how to train a godly younger woman. If you’re a godly younger woman, thinking how to maximize your life for the Lord. If you are a godly older man and are in leadership or not. And if you’re a godly young man and want your life to be impactful for the Lord. Or if you’re just anything in between, God says I want to control your mind.
So, while I’m talking to the ladies specifically this morning, God is speaking to all of us this morning. God wants us to have a God controlled mind. Either we choose to have a God controlled mind and a Word controlled mind, a Spirit controlled mind, or we give in to what the world offers us, a media saturated mind, a mind that is driven by just the world around us. It’s driven by whatever is currently pushing on our emotions or heart; or we have that stability and that power and that clarity of mind that comes of having a Word saturated, God controlled, Spirit led mind. All that is contained in just one little word. It’s amazing.
This list we’re going through in the Greek language are just one worders. Lovers of husband, one word, philandros. Lovers of children, one word, philoteknos. And then this word, this discreet or self-controlled, or whatever rendering you have in English is. Again, just one word and it speaks of God protecting, controlling our minds. Either we choose to have that God control mind or we give into that media saturated mind, that worldly mind. And the Lord directed Paul to present the church at Crete, that’s specifically where this letter went and those original recipients, that’s the primary interpretation of the Word of God, what God meant to those people to whom it was written, but the secondary and also the primary application to us is God wants us to surrender the control of our minds back to Him.

Titus 2 in verse 5. The little phrase we’re looking at in the New King James is to be discreet. That’s how Titus 2:5 is translated in my Bible. It’s one Greek word, the word sōphrōn. But actually, this word is virtually untranslatable by any one English word. That’s why, depending on what Bible you’re holding this morning, it’s variously translated as of sound mind, or discreet, or prudent, or self-controlled, or chaste, or having complete control over sensual desires. All those are in the galaxy of Bible translations where this word would show up in the English language. The Greeks actually derived this word from two Greek words, which meant to keep one’s mind safe and sound. In other words, it was a guarded mind. It was a mind that was protected. And I really think that’s the sense that the Lord wants us to have. I call it a God controlled mind.
In Titus 2:5, this word describes a woman with a mind surrendered over to God’s control. That’s what the older women were to encourage the younger women toward having, a mind that is regularly and consistently surrendered over to God’s control. Because remember, there’s only two choices. Either God’s controlling your mind or you and the world around you and your circumstances and emotions are controlling your mind. And there’s no in between. You can’t just say I’m a blend. No. Either you have, at this time, surrendered your mind to God’s control or you haven’t. It’s like you have the son or you don’t. So, either you consciously, as the apostle calls us, give your mind, surrender to God’s gracious sanctifying power, learning to govern every instinct and passion until each has its proper place and no more, or you’re not doing that. See, it’s a sanctified mind that’s yielded over to the Lord.
As we delve into this verse. God’s Word makes it very, very clear that God wants your mind under His control. More than anything else, God wants to saturate, influence, fill, direct, dominate, and control our minds. And the reason for this is, you know that the whole spiritual realm is in our mind. Now, our bodies, our flesh, our emotions, everything else influences that but the meeting place, the spiritual meeting place between us and God is in our mind. He doesn’t walk around and we bump into Him during the day, walking around, we go, oh, hi. Good to see you. No, He meets with us in our minds. We pray and communicate with Him. His Word ministers to our spirits as He energizes us by His spirit. All that is in our minds. That’s why the mind is so important.

In other words, if God has your mind. He has your body. If God has your mind, He also has your emotions. If God has your mind, He also has your appetites. If God has your mind, He has your time. And if God has your mind, He also has your money. See, God knows that the battle is for our minds. The one who gets your mind gets it all. Your mind and my mind is the prize. Everything else are just the scraps. The battle is for our minds, and Satan is seeking to steal the minds of God’s children. And it hasn’t changed.
In the 1st century Crete, there were so many competing voices for the minds of the believers. Especially, you remember in the context of this, these people were saved out of paganism. If you’re here long enough ago, you realize that the Cretins are the forebears from which come the Biblical Philistines. And so, if you want to know what the Cretins were like, just think Goliath. Just think of a Philistine. Just think of that paganism. And those people were steeped in that godless-ness. They came to Christ and they were brand new in Him, but there were still competing voices for their attention. And so that’s why in verse 5, the Apostle Paul tells Titus that God wants your mind. You women need to know, he said, that a mind stayed on the Lord is the only way to have peace. So, a mind devoted to Christ is the road to God’s plan for your life, that He unfurls one step at a time as you yield in obedience to Him. God wants your mind. He wants it given to the pursuit of His rule. His Word and the glory of Christ.
And the grace energized life of Titus 2 is a roadmap. It’s how to focus our minds on what causes us to glorify and magnify the Lord, the goal, the purpose, the reason for our existence to glorify Him. This morning, we come to the eighth element of a godly woman’s life as described and prescribed by God. And that eighth element, which is right there, the first word of the fifth verse, the first phrase is a God controlled mind, a Word saturated mind, and a Word seeking mind. Let’s read again Titus 2, and I’m going to start in verses 4, and then read all the way at the end of verse 5, only to keep you in context of what exactly the Lord wanted, this package to be taught. And then we’ll pray.
Titus 2 verse 4, that they admonish. And by the way, that is the same word that we’re looking at, the older women were to. To have this God controlled mind and use that God controlled mind upon the young women. Verse 4. To love their husbands, to love their children. Here we are, verse 5, to be discreet. One word in the Greek language right there. Sōphrōn. New King James and King James say discreet. If you have the NIV this morning, self-controlled. If you have the NAS, sensible. Okay, so that’s the word we’re looking at. Chased, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands. And then comes the purpose for all this. Why do we need young women to love their husbands and children and be discreet and chaste and homemakers and good and obedient? Because the end of that fifth verse that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. That’s bow before the Lord in prayer.
Father in Heaven, I pray. That You will accomplish Your purpose and desire in Your Church. That every one of us would think about whether or not we are consciously, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, yielding back our minds to You. Not getting into the human reasoning, the human understanding, the human view, the fleshly response in the mind. That is the way we were wired at birth, but that we would allow You to renew our minds and that we would have God controlled minds. That we would have minds that Your Word dwells in, richly. That Your Spirit fills. And that is a conscious, willful choice. That’s why it was to be taught, and that’s why these God controlled minded older women were to come alongside these younger new ones and say, this is the sanctifying work of God that He has accomplished in my life by His grace. And He wants to accomplish it in yours. May You continue that work in all of our hearts and all of our minds. May we go out of here yielded and surrendered and desiring to stay that way.
And when we do fall and fail and get anxious and get fearful, or get angry and get lustful, may we not allow our humanness to begin to beat ourselves down and descend further away from You. But may we realize that You have already forgiven us of that sin, and all we have to ask is for Your cleansing, and that You will restore us, renew us, and we can begin again. I pray we wouldn’t handicap ourself, that we wouldn’t beat ourselves down. The world and the flesh and the Devil are doing enough of that, may we yield to Your Spirit and rest in your gracious forgiveness, in renewing. In the name of Jesus, we ask this. Amen.

The Holy Spirit, the infinite and unchanging God of the universe breathed out through the Apostle Paul this list of characteristics. Every word of God is pure, as Proverbs 30 says. Every word of God is breathed out, theopneustos. It’s the breath of God. Every word of God is inspired. And therefore, as we look at this list of life choices of Godly character traits, we see grace energized actions that God wants us to have, to please Him and to be useful to Him. So, this list is so important.
God’s plan to work in the world is in His Church. And in this next grace energized trait, this eighth one, this discreet God control mind, we see Paul pointing to a godly woman’s mind. This word is our entry into one of the most vital areas of our lives as believers, because it’s the only term, as I said, that’s universal for every realm of the Church. Let me just show you what I mean. If you look at Titus chapter 2, verse 4 and. And see in that verse, that word that they admonish the young women. That’s that word that is the word for this God controlled mind. If you look down in verse 5, it’s the word discreet. Same exact word.
If you look up in verse 2 of chapter 2, it says that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate. Again, this word temperate right there, it’s the same word. So, it’s so far, it’s three times in this chapter. Verse 2, verse 4, verse 5, then it says that the godly younger men are to be sober minded. Look at verse 6, right there. Same exact word that they are to be this mind that is under God’s control. If you back up to verse 8 of chapter 1 you notice that elders are to have this quality. Look at Titus chapter 1 and verse 8. It says, but hospitable. This is a description starting in verse 7 of a bishop or an elder. And verse 8 continues the list, says that they are not to be greedy for money, verse 7, but hospitable, a lover of what is good. Here it is, sober minded. And by the way, it’s in the same list in 1 Timothy 3:2, if you look over there. It’s the same word that’s used for elders. So, this is a trait for elders. This is a trait for godly older men. This is a trait for godly older women. This is a trait for godly younger women. This is a trait for godly younger men, in verse 6. And then look down in verse 12, because it’s the same concept in Titus 2 in verse 12. It says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live and there’s the same word.
Now, by the way, the same word sōphrōn is in adjective form, noun form, verb form, and adverb form. But it’s the same word that’s in different contexts. Sometimes it’s an active verb, sometimes it’s an adverb. Sometimes it’s a descriptive adjective. Sometimes it’s a noun just stating a character quality. But it’s the very same word in all of these lists. And so, God says, every Spirit filled and every Spirit led believer should have their mind submitted to God’s control.
So, as we look at this word from God, it is first of all in context to be the personal life choice for younger women. That’s the essence of verse 5. Every younger woman should make it a conscious life choice. Lord, I want to have my mind under Your control today. And I don’t want to be dominated by my thoughts and my desires and my anxieties and my conflicting double mindedness, but I want a singular focus on You. So, number one, every younger woman.
Secondly, is to be the curriculum on the mind of godly older women. As they spend time nurturing younger women, they should be thinking of ways that they can portray how they have matured through their mind being fixed on the Lord. Remember, Isaiah? Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is what? Stayed on thee. It’s the same concept in the Old Testament. That tranquility, that completion, that perfection of peace that comes in our lives of our mind being under God’s control, stayed on thee is the Old Testament way of saying God controlled.
But thirdly, not only the younger women and the older women, but thirdly every man in this church, whether in leadership or not, because this word is universally applied to every believer. So, this is on all of our minds a conscious choice to yield, to stay. Whose mind has stayed on thee. To do that yielding our mind to God’s control.

The Greek word that God inspired Paul to write, sōphrōn translated in the New Testament in these different ways, discreet and sensible and self-controlled. The meaning of this word is vital. And so, what I did is I, and I always do, this is my normal habit. After I get all done mapping out and studying everything I can from the English Bible and then the Greek language, then I take my books. And this week someone even joked, they told me that there was not an inch of space in my desk. And I had about 20 or 30 books that in some place or another, allude to Titus 2. And I looked through every one of those authors and looked at how in their studies of the language of the Bible, in their study of the application of the Bible, how they translate this and I got a list. This is what, between all those authors, what God is asking for believers and desires for us by His grace to be. And these are, this is how all the different respected great Bible commentators translated this word, sōphrōn. It’s fascinating, because it shows up in so many different passages that though they might not be attributed to Titus 2, it’s the exact same word in 1 Timothy, or it’s in 1 Corinthians, it’s in 2 Corinthians, everywhere in Acts, and it’s even in the Gospels. And wherever it is I looked at how they rendered that word. And this is a listing of them.
They describe a person that is serious about spiritual things. This was interesting. This was Gene Getz’s comment. He says, a person whose life is not known as them being a clown. Now that’s good, that was impactful. You should not ever want to be known as a clown. As someone who always is funny and always keeps everybody in stitches. Humor is wonderful and it’s good medicine for the soul, but there is a sanctifying effect that removes a godly believer from ever being known as a clown. That was a good insight from Getz. Living a disciplined life, self-controlled and not addicted to anything. That was MacArthur’s rendering. In control of your choices, knowing your priorities, serious about life, temperate and avoiding excesses, a clarity of thought that leads to an orderly life. All that is this one word. It’s huge. It’s for all of us.
Sadly, it seems that Satan has caught many believers off guard. While they carefully avoid many obvious doctrinal dangers, perhaps the most powerful mind robber has been overlooked. Satan is neutralizing the power of so many godly minds little by little every day through the onslaught of those things that cause us to not be focused on God.
Now, for just a moment, I want you to think with me what would keep an individual from being serious about spiritual things. What would make an individual think that being a clown was a noble thing? What would, what spiritually would cause us not to live a disciplined life, not to be self-controlled? What would make us desire to be addicted to something? What would start controlling our choices if God didn’t? What would change our priorities if they weren’t governed by God. What would make us not be serious about life, not temperate, and what would cause us to seek excessive things? There is a constant bombardment in our world, and it is Satan’s desire to keep us from the mind of God. This is the most powerful realm. Our mind is the meeting place where the world and the flesh and the devil are in conflict against the Spirit of God and His Word, and there’s this constant battle in our mind.

What is the danger we have? How does Satan get us? This is Satan’s way of neutralizing our mind. And I want you to sit back and think about the world you live in. Your godly mind, number one, can get neutralized by modern media. Now I’m subsuming under media. Music, images, video, music, videos, games, the internet, going to the movies and watching tv. Okay? Those are media. They’re all forms of media. I guess you could put, antiquated magazines and newspapers into that, but that’s really getting passe. It’s all electronic, and it’s digital, and it’s alive, it’s in full color and technicolor, and Dolby Surround Sound.
Media. Number one, media has reset the moral acceptability threshold. Now, here’s a test that you all can take right where you’re sitting. Just think in your mind, okay? Do things that once offended you, now entertain you. Have you changed enough that 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago or 1, 2, 3 years ago, what used to, right away when you’d see it that was just offensive, has it slowly become a form of entertainment to you? Are you able to enjoy the company of television programs and videos and movies and games that have values that are diametrically opposed to God’s? Media has changed the moral acceptability threshold, and its lowering it all the time. It’s constantly at work to lower our threshold of what we won’t tolerate. And God says that is a real neutralizer of your mind.
The moral drift is important to understand because it continues unabated. If you just extrapolate 10 or 20 years into the future, it’s frightening to imagine what media contact will be existing around us. It’s dropping so fast. Every barrier is being crossed. There used to be words you couldn’t say in public. There used to be images you couldn’t see in public. There used to be events that were never talked about in public, and the threshold is just dropping. It’s getting so you just don’t know what’s going to come next. Just extrapolate out 10 or 20 years because it’s not going to get better. The world is not getting better and better and better. It’s actually getting darker and darker and darker. So, your godly mind can get neutralized by modern media. That’s reset the moral acceptability threshold.
Secondly, your godly mind can get neutralized by modern media that has reset the shock threshold. Now, we’re not talking about morally acceptable. We’re talking about stuff that just shocks us, think about it. In the past, if we saw blood killing or tragedies on the evening news it would disturb us for weeks. Any of you alive, do you remember the Kent State National Guard? You know that scene what was it in the 70s I don’t know. I was going to, the Vietnam War at that time must have been the 70s mid 70s, where they shot that student and they laid, and the blood was running down. That was just, do you remember some of those images from the past that just the whole nation got sick? Now blood, killing, tragedies? It’s a rule of the newsroom, if it bleeds, it will lead.
Movies are worse. Beginning about 30 years ago in the 70s, there were succeeding waves of movies that relied on more and more violence to attract the crowds. And audiences became numb to the repulsiveness of each new level of violence. So, directors have to enhance the horror to maintain interest. Such common fair no longer elicits anguish from society. But what’s most troubling is that believers who regularly watch these things aren’t shocked at the sin that they see. See, media not only has neutralized us about moral thresholds going down now, we’re not even shocked at seeing sin graphically portrayed in front of us.

Is your godly mind troubled? That God defines spiritual adultery in Ezekiel as the sin of His people following the advice, the customs, and the practices of the pagans instead of Him. Did you know that? You can look it up sometime. Ezekiel 20:31. That whole fact, that whole chapter in Ezekiel, this is what God said. The idols that Israel was following had to do with their Pagan practices. The pagans had idols that affected their health, their business, their safety, their future security, and so on. And the Israelites abandoned God as their source of truth to understand life, and they began looking at the pagan understanding of life, and they spent and invested more time getting help, and counsel, and direction, and advice from everyone but God. See that? That’s basically, that’s a description of Israel in the Old Testament. They abandoned the Lord God, the living and true God, and they started looking to idols.
Now, what we think of is that they were all running and bowing down to Buddha. It wasn’t that there were idols that had to do with the planting of their crops, they had to do with the fertility of their fields, they had to do with their own fertility and having children, they had to do with making money and doing well in business. And they saw the pagan ways and their pagan ways were much easier to follow than the harsh absolutes of God. And so, Ezekiel said this, for when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So shall I be inquired of you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord, I will not be inquired of you. God says you’re getting all your information and help and guidance for life from the idols, then you aren’t going to get any from Me.
Our world spends most of their time seeing life through their own eyes. Our media looks at life through human eyes. And today, more and more believers are finding their worldview, their values, and their guidance for cc from television, from secular books, from unsaved professionals, from magazines and commercials on the internet. Sadly, they follow that secular and ungodly direction more and more rather than God and His Word. It’s almost the last resort for some believers. Oh, does God have something to say about that? Oh, I’d be interested in that too. Rather than first and seeking Him. And that is a way that our godly mind is troubled and that we don’t have a God controlled mind.

And then does your Godly mind get troubled by the fact that today’s teens, there are 31 million of them today that are between 12 and 19 years old, and some of them might be living in your house? Does it trouble you that most of them have a world that has been defined for them more by media than by God’s Word? They don’t have biblical parameters that are constantly before them because there are so many avenues that media comes. History is being rewritten, moral absolutes are being reconstituted, and all of that is coming so fast, and all of that militates against a God controlled mind. Half of all teens are from broken homes. 63% have both parents working. And almost every teenager down deep needs adult guidance. In fact, one author recently wrote, every kid wished they had more adults in their life, especially that their parents would invade their lives. Interesting. But if you invaded it, do you have a God controlled mind to even show light, is the question.
Is your godly mind troubled by the fact that videos and movies and television have a deleterious effect on all of us, as far as meditation? When we watch media, it shortens our attention span. That’s why it’s a rarity to have people sitting for 30 and 40 minutes listening to what they would call a monologue, a lecture, because that is not in any other media form that people enjoy. They have to be held in 15 and 30 second intervals by constant little changes. And the attention span is just so shortened. That’s why it’s so hard to know God, because it takes a long time to be still and to come before Him and to get His Word in and to yield our minds and surrender to Him and then to begin prayerfully to engage Him in His Word. It’s very hard if you have a shortened attention span.
And then we have reduced linguistic powers. Most people that are heavily into media don’t really know how to talk and frame their thoughts. You talk to people that are heavily influenced and they don’t think deeply, and so they don’t speak deeply. And most people are so entertained that they don’t really carry on in depth conversations. So that affects the Christian ability to impact the world because we have. A diminution of our linguistic powers and we can’t communicate about God very well.

I could go on and on about what’s going on to hold its audience. The entertainment industry feels it has to parade everything God says is wrong. Adultery and promiscuity, homosexuality, incense, violence, and every other kind of sadistic thing before us. As a result, the lowest of activities have become commonplace and actually morally acceptable. And God says in Ephesians 5:12, it’s shameful to even speak of the things that are done to them as secret, let alone know them, sing them, watch them. All of this goes against a godly mind. So, if you choose to be entertained by godlessness, your mind will be calloused. If you choose to be entertained by sensuality, your mind will be defiled. If you choose to be entertained by violence, you’ll be desensitized to the Spirit of God. If you choose to be entertained by evil, God will be distant from you. Isaiah 33 clearly says the only way to see God, the King, in His beauty is to dwell in a place where you refrain from things that offend Him. God says, if you want to be entertained by evil, I will seem to be far from you. If you choose to be entertained by worldliness, it will discourage you. If you choose to be entertained by Satan’s way of thinking, you’ll forfeit the blessings of having the mind of Christ. If you and I are committed to Christ, we will not grow unless we’re disciplining our minds.

That brings us back to words that God chose for us. And I want you to look in your Bibles at a little journey with me because I want to show you about what Paul said to these believers, and I want to take you through all the occurrences. In fact. God’s plan for our mind is that the Lord describes what a godly New Testament believer looks like. We’re in the middle of that list in Titus 2. In God’s description, He uses one word that deeply communicates His desires. Okay?
Now there’s many ways you can study the Bible. There are book studies. Study the whole book of Genesis. There are chapter studies you study the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. There are verse studies. You look at all the implications of one verse. 2 Corinthians 5:21, for He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. And you look at that there, there are topic studies, there are subject studies, there are thematic studies. But one of the most amazing ways to study the Bible is what we’re going to do for just a few moments this morning. And that is a word study, looking at every single occurrence of a word in the Bible and looking at exactly what God communicates through that word.
So, let’s do a little word study, because God’s Word is the best commentary on His Word if you join me in this study of this very uniquely Christian word that God uses only to describe believers. This word, sōphrōn, and all of its verb and adjective and adverb forms is only descriptive of believers. And it’s a description, God says, I want in all believers. Okay?
In fact, for a minute, turn back to Romans chapter 12 in verse 3. Now, we won’t get to examine all the implications of this verse, but I want you to see one wonderful truth about this. What is the first desire God has? After he gives the great Romans 12:1-2, we all know I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, you present your bodies so you get the body given to God and then renew your minds and get your minds renewed. And then what’s the first quality that God wants every believer to have? It’s in verse 3, and what’s the first one mentioned in verse 3? It says, for I say through the grace given to me, Romans 12:3 to everyone. Now that’s as universal as you can get. Who is among you every single believer that this is the essence, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt each one a measure of faith.
Did you know that word soberly is the word we’re looking at? God says, don’t have an inflated view of yourself. Don’t have a too high or too low a deflated view of yourself. I want you to have your concept of life, not an overestimate of yourself, not an underestimate of yourself. I want you to think under my control, and that’s the first desire of God after this great passage on dedication and surrender. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. The very first thing he says in verse 3 after that is, I want you to not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. But to think sōphrōn, to think soberly well, how do we think soberly? Let’s go back to Titus 2 and let’s start. The first way that we think soberly is that we have to realize that God wants us to have our desires and impulses to be under His control. And so that’s why it says in verse 5, the younger women are to be discreet. Now if you look up the word discreet in the English dictionary, that the definition of that is someone who is very in English, someone who is cautious and controlled in the way that they present themself, their words, their actions, their behavior.

And so, whether you look at this from the Greek context, which is huge, or if you just look at it from the way that the translators wanted to render it, the same idea is there that this is a person who is controlled. So, the younger women, God says God wants you to be serious about spiritual things. The younger women are to be seriously spiritual. In fact, in another part of Scripture it talks about in shame faced sobriety. How do you like that? Old English shame, shamefaced sobriety sounds like I talked about last week, wearing black clothes and having a bun and having your face pulled back in a permanent pole. Everything’s real tight, but that is not, that does not mean puritanical never smiling like the early history of America. It doesn’t mean that. It means a mind that isn’t given to wandering off. Paul put it this way, in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, bringing every thought to the obedience of Christ, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought under Christ’s control.
So, number one, Titus 2:5, older women were to sit next to younger women and saying, how are you doing at having a growing seriousness about spiritual things now? Where would the conversation go? You could ask them; do you spend a time with the Lord until you hear His voice in the Word? And if not, what hinders that? Do you constantly have the television playing in the background as a constant rumble in the background? Do you constantly have some music playing in the background? If so, what is the content of that rumbling in the background? Are you even aware of it? Have you looked carefully at what it is that you spend time entertained with? And is that promoting seriousness about God or is that promoting Satan’s agenda, worldliness and distraction?
So, 2:5. Verse 2, look back at verse 2, here’s the second time this word is used in this chapter. The older men are to be sober, reverent, temperate. Same idea. It’s the idea that older men are to have a serious view in life. That they’re supposed to be serious about spiritual things. It is all the way through life that we realize that we only have a short time to live for God, a short time to redeem the time, a short time to bring glory to His name, and then our whole life is going to be brought and laid before Him, and He’s going to put a blow torch on it and burn away everything except what pleased Him. Now that’s something to be serious about.
Thirdly, in verse 8 of chapter 1, an elder is supposed to constantly, the third time this word is used, it says, an elder is supposed to be sober minded. He is supposed to think seriously about spiritual things. Now all of us know that one, and you wouldn’t want an elder that’s known as a clown, and God would say they’re not qualified. But whatever you think of is the serious mind of an elder. That exact word is what God has just said in Titus 2:5. For younger women in Titus 2:2 for older women, and in first or later on in verse 12, for all of us. Who are believers.

So, number one, the word, sōphrōn, that’s just the noun form of this that occurs, describing it, and the adjective form in the adverb. This word first of all, means a seriousness about spiritual things. Now look at verse 4 of chapter 2, because here’s a different form of this word. This is the verb form. It’s the sōphrōn, only that has an ending -izō which makes it a verb. It’s only used once in the whole Bible, and it describes the need for older, godly grace energized women to exhort younger women. And this word in the verb form, here’s what the Greek dictionary says. That they, in English it says admonish and this is the definition of the word, that they restore their pupils to their senses so that they become moderate, controlled, and curbing their minds to spiritual living.
So, the older women, Titus 2:4, are to train and instruct and mentor the younger women to restore them to their senses, so they are not carried away by the waves of whatever is going on in the world. And they get caught up and they get carried away. You ever heard someone, they’re carried away with this? A person whose mind is God controlled, doesn’t get carried away with everything that goes by, they have an anchor. And it says that they should admonish. Sōphronizō.
Now look down at verse 12 of chapter 2 because it’s the same word again, only this time it’s an adverb. Sōphronōs. And it says this: teaching us, Titus 2:12, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly. We should live with a sound mind. God says that His grace energizes us to be serious about spiritual things. So, if you’ve experienced God’s grace… we still have humor, we still have joy, we still have merry heart, but we’re exceedingly serious about God and His kingdom and His desires for us, and the direction of our life and the brevity of our life and the content of our talk. His grace teaches us how to live a disciplined life, which means self-controlled, not addicted to anything. There should be a regular, a person who has a God control mind should regularly be analyzing himself to see if they’re addicted to anything. If there’s something that is nudging God out of supremacy in their life, nudging His Word out of priority in their life, nudging the fellowship of God’s people and the ministry for Christ out of an active part of the schedule and there should be a constant analysis. That’s what the serious considering of whether or not we’re addicted to anything. because when we’re addicted to anything, it usually pushes God right out of our mind and our life.
God wants us serious about life, avoiding excesses. He wants us have clarity of thought, and it leads us to thinking in a Philippians 4:8 model. Do you remember Philippians 4:8? Whatever things are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and loving, of good report, that’s what we think about. A mind which is under God’s control instantly, when stuff is coming toward us we say, wait a minute. Is that true? Is that honest? Is that just? Is that coming slanted or a little twisted? Is that pure? Is that lovely? Is that a good report? If there have been any virtue of any praise, think on those things. There’s a Philippians 4:8 grid.

Now keep going to 2 Timothy 1:7 because this is probably, and we’re going to have to end on this one, this is probably the most beautiful usage of this word. God wants you serious about spiritual things. God wants you restoring others to being serious about spiritual living. But thirdly, God wants you to regain a God controlled mind, a mind that is under His control. This word, this time it’s in a noun form, sōphronismos, is in verse 7, and this is a famous verse you all know. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a, there it is, and of a sōphrōn mind, a God controlled mind.
Even casually reading the verses surrounding the seventh verse, in fact, if you look from verses 4 to 8, you would see that Timothy was fearful, timid, he felt worthless even to the point of tears. He even struggled with in the eighth verse being ashamed. Paul says don’t be ashamed. So, Timothy was a real interesting character. Note that Paul does not harshly rebuke him for his timidity, fearfulness, worthless feelings, and his shame. What does Paul say in verse 7? He gently reminds him, God didn’t give you a spirit of fear, Timothy. God’s given you a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. Do you see how he dealt with… and you can almost see how the Titus 2 model is. It’s this, Paul is doing it as a godly older man to a younger man with Timothy, he’s doing this God controlled mind thing, this sōphrōn word with Timothy.
Paul told him he didn’t have anything to be ashamed of; he had a great upbringing. That’s verse 5. Though his father wasn’t very helpful, his mother and grandmother were godly. Paul reminds Timothy of his special position. He was a choice servant the Lord personally allowed Paul to train. And the whole story of that’s in Acts 16, especially the third verse. He says in verse 6 of 2 Timothy 1 that Timothy had a special gifting. In short, Paul says there’s no reason for you to be timid and fearful. He said, there’s no reason. But the truth is he was. Okay? Paul said there’s no reason for you to be this way, but he acknowledged that he was. He says, you’re often in tears. You’re fearful. You’re ashamed at times. What do we do about this? Timothy appears to have a lifelong need for encouragement, to be bold and go on serving the Lord. It’s very possible, if you look at 1 Timothy 5:23, that his stomach problems were related to this timidity and fear. Remember how Paul said 1 Timothy 5:23 drink a little wine for your often infirmities of your stomach, so it could be all this is directly tied to his emotional problems of a fearful and timid personality. So, what does that mean?
How do we apply a God controlled mind? One area, if you’re a person that feels uncomfortable around people, if you draw back from people who reach out to you, if you feel inferior to others, if you’re afraid of always saying the wrong thing so people will dislike you, then welcome to the club. One of the greatest pastors and servants of the Lord of all times was so much like you. Timothy son in the faith to Paul, servant of the Lord to the largest church in the New Testament world, was just like you. Paul does not chastise him, scold him, rebuke him harshly, or say he was unspiritual. Rather, Paul says get your mind back to Christ’s control every time you start to fear, every time you start being anxious, every time you start being a little ashamed, every time you start being timid, every time you start crying because of your worthlessness or your failure, whatever you’re crying about, Timothy.
The fear, the discomfort, the feelings of inferiority and shame that Timothy felt were just part of living inside of a fallen body with a flesh influence mind and emotions. The solution was to make a conscious choice by faith to keep surrendering his mind back under Christ’s control. What he was saying, because he takes the same word, he’s saying; Timothy, God’s grace can energize your mind to understand who you are in Christ. You might not feel it, you might not sense it right now, you might just be all in total thickness to your stomach over what’s going on, but God’s grace can energize your mind to understand who you are in Christ, Timothy. God’s grace teaches your mind to be disciplined, which means self-controlled. And don’t be addicted to anything, including your fear and timidity. We can get addicted to our fear. We can just get so we’re just used to it, that’s just how I respond. And God’s grace is, no you don’t have to respond that way. I can change you God says.

Paul was saying Timothy, believers energized by God’s grace are in control of their choices. Seeking out God’s priorities, which includes God’s priority of you fearing not. Now, do you see the point of all this? The godly older ones in the faith were come along, after they learned it themself, were to come along the younger ones and say God’s grace wants to energize you, to on a regular basis, surrender the control of your mind back to God. The one who gets your mind gets it all. Your mind is a prize. The battle for our minds is going on, and Satan wants to steal our minds. Our minds are the key to knowing God and only a mind state on the Lord, Isaiah 26 says, can have perfect peace. Only a mind devoted to the Lord follows God’s path and plan for life. God has a will for our mind, and that is for our mind to be given to the pursuit of God. So how do we bring our minds into captivities?
How do we, as the writer of Hebrews says, fix our eyes on Jesus? How do we, as Paul said to Timothy, how do we discipline our minds for godliness? How do we do this? Probably the first and most powerful way to do it is to put on tight our helmet of salvation. Paul told Timothy to stir up a gift given to him. We don’t know exactly what that gift was. I. It doesn’t say in the Bible, it could have been the gift of faith. It could have been the gift of pastor teaching, that Paul miraculously laid his hands on him and gave to Timothy. But that gift also came the instant God laid His hands on us, and that gift is our salvation. And the best way to get your mind under God’s control is to think the truth.
The helmet of salvation is what we are to wear as believers. We are to pull on and fasten tight the helmet of salvation and energize by grace, allow God’s truth to saturate our minds. If you want to be a mind under God’s control, and if you want to be one who brings and disciples others to have their minds under control, then you and I have to be a person who allows God to control our mind. And the most beautiful metaphor God says is, take and wear the helmet of salvation. Every time we begin feeling like the Romans more highly than we ought to think or more lowly like Timothy was and we ought to think, we should strap on our helmet of salvation. Do you have a God controlled mind? God wants you to have a God controlled mind. And He wants to energize you by His grace to live that way. Let’s bow for word of prayer.

Father in Heaven, I thank you. That You move Paul by Your Spirit, inspired to write your expectations. And if we want to please You, then we want to yield to what Your desires are for our life. We thank you for the younger women that You address this to, and the older, and all the men, and so that’s all of us. And I pray that we would endeavor to surrender as often as needed, our minds to Your control. But Father, there are some here who maybe don’t even know You. And I pray that they would realize that the first and most important of all the choices they make is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to turn in simple faith to You, to change their mind about life and to realize that You are the only hope they have. And that You’ll bring about a change in every realm of their life. You are the savior. You are a redeemer, and I pray that any who don’t know You yet. Whose hearts are being stirred and convicted and moved by Your Spirit will speak to someone, to You first and to someone else, and realize that You offer salvation today.
And for those of us who know You, may we surrender our minds right now. And say God, I want to bring my thoughts, my mind under Your captivity. I want to put on my helmet of salvation. I want to realize that You bought me, that You indwell my mind, that You are to be supreme. And I know I slip and slide and fail and wander, but when I do that, I want to repent. I want You to cleanse me, and I want to come back to a mind under Your control. In your precious name, we ask this, and for Your glory we pray, amen.