BECOMING GODLY IN AN UNGODLY WORLD

INTRODUCTION
Godliness outside of the Word of God and an intimate relationship with Jesus and others will not happen. Gods Word is how he reveals himself to us.His word is our plumb line, our standard.

TITUS 1:1-2
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of Gods elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godlinessa faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.

Principle: KNOWLEDGE OF GODS TRUTH LEADS TO GODLINESS

TITUS 2:1-1

Paul is exhorting Titus in his responsibility to speak the things of sound doctrine

Just as a little baby needs the right conditions to grow and develop, so must we as Christians be in right relationships for the feeding and rooting of ourselves in the Word of God.

We need to be in an environment and relationship that nurtures the Word of God IN us.

Principle: SOUND DOCTRINE will produce a rooted Christian who then will produce fruit. The renewing of our minds comes from reading, hearing and meditating on the Word of God.

TEACH-TRAIN-BE AN EXAMPLE
is what Paul is instructing Titus to train Christians to do.

To teach, train, and be an example requires a teacher, student relationship. This is the relationship of a disciple, or a mentor, and a mentee. We need these close relationships to develop into godly people.

JOHN 13:35
By this all men will know that you are my DISCIPLES, if you have love for one another.

We are exhorted in Matthew, A disciple is not above his/her teacher, nor a slave above his master. There is no higher ground in Gods kingdom. (Matt. 10:24)

Principle: DISCIPLESHIP/MENTORING IS THE TEACHING OF SOUND DOCTRINE AND IS COMMITTED TO THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF GODS WORD IN OUR DAY- TO- DAY LIVES.

Three Important Things We Should Keep in Mind

Train to love Spiritual growth Accountability

A. TRAIN TO LOVE

Jesus in the book of John commands us to Love one another (John 13:34-35, John 15:17)

Matthew 22:37-39
Jesus tells us, YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

Principle: Our relationships with others is the manifestation of Gods love in our lives.

1 John 4:12.If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. From our innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

B. SPIRITUAL GROWTH
OUR INNER PERSON will grow when we are in a right relationship with God and one another. It will develop fruit.

In Gal. 5:22-23, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, selfcontrol.

Principle: You know you are producing fruit from the inner manifestation of the Holy Spirit IF others defer to your purity/godliness.

Spiritual Growth Promotes: ACTION The fruit KINDNESS involves an outward action and is gentle.

In Luke 7:13 Jesus demonstrated kindness, He SAW the widow bringing her only son out of the city for burial, He FELT compassion, then He ACTED in saying Young man arise.

Spiritual Growth will:

Stretch us out of our comfort zones. We will grow spiritually when we get involved in another persons life.

It will develop our patience, acceptance as we learn to love one another.

Principle: A close relationship with another will grow us up spiritually, and deepen our faith in God. We will learn to respond properly to stress, pain, and suffering in our lives.

C. ACCOUNTABILITY

"If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry."
-- African Proverb

Why is accountability such a "hot topic" today? Why is it important?

It is estimated that a lack of systemic accountability costs Corporate America tens of billions of dollars a year in terms of employee theft, rework, return of defective products, inefficiency, workplace conflicts and misunderstandings.

This, in turn, leads to ineffective work practices, quality control issues and differentials in work practices, as well as leadership and supervisory behaviors and loss of valuable employees due to disillusionment, discouragement and cynicism

Billions more in income is lost by companies who lose formerly loyal customers because of a lack of accountability that results in substandard to poor customerservice norms, resulting in customerservice experiences that "turn off" the customer.

In addition to this, developing and consistently holding accountability at all levels of an organization is made even more difficult today with the increasing complexity of today's marketplace,

geographic separation

increasing workplace diversity

more demanding customer behaviors and practices

differences in leadership styles

more self-reliant or independent employees.

discontinuities in terms of technology and service solutions

What is accountability?

Accountability is: "Doing the right thing consistently, day in and day out, in tasks and relationship interactions to fullfil or further the mission of the organization."

Accountability is a systemic issue and must be understood in terms of a systems approach if it is to really work in any group, family or organization.

It is a system of individuals, linked in a chain of mutuality, taking personal and group responsibility to achieve something meaningful -- the mission of the family, organization or entity.

We can call this the "Chain of Accountability." Why a chain? Because, like a chain, your accountability is only as strong as the weakest link in your system.

For example, if the sales department of a company is operating at 100% accountability but the shipping department is only at 20% accountability, then the sales department is pulled down in the eyes of customers as only 20 percent accountable.

A great example of this "chain of accountability" comes from an officer in Naval Search and Rescue, whose mission statement is...

"That others might live."

"When you are on that chopper, trained, prepared and 100 percent accountable to pick up someone who is "down," your ability to rescue is only as good as the mechanic who serviced the rotors or the loader who gave you the right ammunition or the person who checked your lifting winch.

The linkage of each person taking maximum accountability in order to fulfill the mission is vital.

One break in that human chain and not only will the mission not be realized, but lives will be lost."

To reach the unreachable star...