[Music] welcome to true woman 201 my name is Nancy Lee Dumas and I'm here with my friend and co-author Mary casseon over the next few weeks we're going to be discussing the elements of womanhood that are covered in our true woman 201 interior design Bible study now wouldn't it be fun to have a talented designer come into your home and give it an extreme makeover you might want to get rid of that ugly threadbare sofa and those mismatched drapes and give the walls a fresh coat of paint update the decor and create a coordinated new
look from top to bottom well home renovation is a great illustration for what happens when we let the Lord do a work in our lives he wants to do a radical renovation of your heart and if you let him he'll give you an extreme makeover a brand new interior design [Music] well Mary I've never been through childbirth you have three sons I have no biological children but I feel like we've just been through a different kind of childbirth mmm with this book in fact I've come to call it the eternal book because we've been working
on it for two years we it's been way overdue so what two two years that's been like being pregnant for a long long long time and it's great to see this come to be and to look at what God has given birth to the second in a two-part series on Biblical womanhood so 101 released few years ago and starts with the Genesis record talks about Genesis creation the fall why we were created how manhood and womanhood were destroyed by the fall that's our Divine Design is a subtitle of true woman 101 mhm and then 201
talks about interior design so we flip over to the new testament to the book of Titus and talks about how redeemed womanhood ought to look in the life of a believer so let's start by reading the first paragraph of Titus chapter 2 and then we'll talk about a little the context for this whole series why don't you read beginning in verse 1 there but as for you teach what accords with sound doctrine older men are to be sober dignified self-controlled sound in faith in love and in steadfastness older women likewise are to be reverent and
behavior not slanderers or slaves too much wine they are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children to be self-controlled pure working at home kind and submissive to their own husband's that the Word of God may not be reviled we've picked out 10 elements that are evident in the passage that pertain to godly biblical womanhood and that concept of elements goes back to the idea of interior design now I'm not much of a designer at all but you are really how your house looks beautiful I can't
take any credit for that though I rely on people like you who are good at it but you know that when you're doing a design like you came in and spruce stuff this set yesterday and there are certain elements that have to be part of every interior design elements you have to do something with the floors floor coverings you have to do something with the walls and I think that pertains well to our theme of interior design and how the Lord changes us from the inside out and the elements that we see here in Titus
may look different in different women's lives and in different seasons of our lives and depending on your personality right may look a little bit different and yet they are common to who we are as women and what God wants to do in our hearts from the inside out so we're going to unpack those elements over the next 10 sessions and they apply to women in every season of life married single younger older they're gonna be practical applications for all of us as we look at each of these ten elements now Before we jump into those
that the first element of discernment let's just step back for a moment and look at some context of the book of Titus Titus was a pastor on the island of Crete and he may have been led to the Lord by the Apostle Paul we don't know that for sure but they were friends they've been co-workers in ministry and so Paul writes to this pastor and says there's some things that you need to know as a church as a pastor how to address living in the culture in which you live so tell us a little bit
about what that background was in Crete well it's important to understand that I think because it helps us see that that our culture has some of the very same pressures as this this particular culture in Crete because in Crete it was it was an island and it was a major trade route so very metropolitan there and the Romans had gone in and they had built all sorts of Coliseum's and places for entertainment for arts and culture there's a lot of ethnic diversity it there were some Jews living there but it wasn't just Jewish there there
were a lot of Greeks and Romans was also bustling with immorality it was bustling savory reality that was that was one of the things and and also to eyes actually was proverbial in the ancient world for being dishonest so there was a lot of dishonesty a lot of ethical problems not just moral problems but ethical problems in the culture in the community and a lot of people who would just fabricate stories just to get ahead or to get what they wanted and then the backdrop of the whole culture this is in the Roman Empire Nero
is the emperor at the moment the church is being persecuted it's about to get worse and so Paul has this sense of urgency as he writes to these believers so there's pressures from without and there are pressures from within because there's some false teachers we're twisting scripture they're playing with people's minds and emotions and getting them to believe things that aren't true and Paul puts all this together and he says look how can the church survive in this era much less thrive and not only that but how can the church be a light in a
dark culture and in a dark world and boy I listen to this and I think is could anything be more relevant for our era so relevant I think we have so many of the same pressures we have pressures from without the the immorality the the questionable morals being pushed and ethics and teaching so teaching that actually came from within the church false teaching and and and sadly we see that also that that some of the teaching that is coming up through the church community is not always sound it's not in line with sound doctrine and
we're gonna talk about the importance of that today so in the first chapter he says the church needs biblically qualified leaders people who are examples to the flock they know how to teach correct doctrine they know how to correct false doctrine then he comes to chapter 2 and he deals with the church body the church body and what's interesting so interesting in chapter 2 is that he doesn't just give these general instructions that here are some important things for all Christians he breaks it down into specific groups so you have him speaking to women and
you have him speaking to men and then not just to women and to men but to older women younger women older men younger men and so he gives these instructions that are sex specific and also age specific and why do you think the sex specific instructions men and women well that's an interesting question because some of the issues that he covers in this text for instance purity holiness kindness self-control self-control you're thinking well men need that as well but men and women are different and I think that there's a difference in these lists because of
our the way that God created us is male and female and so we have some particular tendencies when it comes to how we behave or how we sin even our sins specific tendencies and so Paul addresses this sex specifically and we're going to unpack that and talk about that through our series okay let's jump into the first one okay that element of discernment is Serna the text says teach what accords with sound doctrine and I think as soon as we hear that word doctrine some people think they think of professors old stodgy professors with thick
glasses talking about things that aren't aren't very relevant but doctrine is so relevant whether you admit it or not everybody has the doctrine it may not be the doctrine that's according to the Word of God but doctrine is simply what we believe and what we believe about life what we believe about God and how we live that out so doctrine is incredibly important and so Paul doesn't just say teach doctor and he says teach sound doctrine what's that mean it actually means healthy so something that's that's healthy it's in line with the word of God
it's accurate it doesn't have impurities in it it doesn't have germs or bugs that are gonna make you unhealthy it's going to be good for you and it's going to be good for you according to what God says is good for you and that is the plumb line that's what helps us know is this sound is this teaching I'm hearing in this book I found in the Christian bookstore on Amazon is what they're saying sound doctrine how do we know it's not what do I think it's not what I hear on revive our hearts and
I feel about it how I feel about it or what I has been passed out of me it's hold up this book and say does it line up with this is it plumb with this word and that's really critical to having discernment it is so critical that's what discernment is all about going and evaluating what you are hearing and deciding is this indeed in line with the word of God and having discernment biblical to sermon that's based on the Word of God it doesn't just happen we have to be intentional about it I love that
verse in Hebrews five that talks about having our senses trained to discern right from wrong good from evil it takes training it takes practice it takes some tension ality takes being students of god's word to say does this line up with Scripture and I think it is something that we need to cultivate in our lives and it is so important for women to cultivate discernment in their lives because we are faced with so many different choices and so much different information even regarding womanhood we see it even in the church we we have choice a
choice B choice C and and which is the one that lines up or if I'm facing a decision in my life should I pursue higher education in this career should I go for that career should I marry this this person what you know making those decisions even even the small daily decisions how do I spend my time do I watch this do I invest in that and so there there is such a multitude of decisions for which we need discernment and we're defining a sermon as the ability to have right thinking right thinking it's not
just cuz I read this on some blog it's not just because this person I follow has this way of thinking including people who love and read our books and go to our conferences we're not the plumb line we're not the standard everything we say needs to be evaluated does this line up with God's Word and if we don't have that kind of right thinking and discernment we're gonna be vulnerable to all kinds of winds of doctrine mm-hmm and the scripture is important too to dictate our behavior as well to line our thinking that way and
that that filters out into behavior right thinking leads to right living so if we're not thinking in the right way we can usually see that that that trickles down into poor decisions and into our living our lifestyle choices aren't aren't correct if we aren't thinking correctly now I've heard you teach quite a bit on a passage from second Timothy three it talks about women who are not deserting give us just a thumbnail sketch of what that kind of woman is and how the lack of discernment impacts her life well the weak willed woman that's a
that's a whole mouthful but that's actually the term that scripture uses and scripture says that we are ought not to be weak willed women we ought to be women of discernment and being weak-willed and always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth never able to discern truth is the characteristic of a woman who lacks that strength of character and and often the woman who is so enmeshed in sin and loaded down with sin and isn't able to discern what God would have for her and the picture there is that she's
actually taken captive yes taken captive by people who will prey on her by wrong ways of thinking she becomes a prisoner she thinks she's free because she can do what she once think how she once just lived this free life but she's really not free she's really a slave and that's where we end up if we don't have clear thinking sound doctrine biblical discernment it says enslaved to all sorts of passions and desires that she does not control they control her and and she's burdened with sin always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth
it's it's a sad indictment of what happens when we do not work at discernment and work at following the Word of God and you know this concerns me so much for women because they may say well I'm a discerning woman and I go to church I read my Bible but then that woman may go and she may turn on the television and she may be watching something that's that's really unsound when it comes to thinking and doctrine and I see women always shrug that off and or often shrug that off and say that doesn't affect
is in effect I'm strong enough I know what's right entertainment just entertainment I know what's right I know what's wrong it's not going to have an impact on my life and I think that often a lack of discernment stems from this pride in our lives where we think we know and we think we know enough and we're not going to be impacted by evil and so we allow it into our lives we allow wrong thoughts we wrong television shows or books that we read we allow those things into our lives and then bit by bit
they impact our thinking and when we look at it every failure in our lives every sin every moral failure every time we have an attitude problem it all stems back to wrong thinking which is why we need to say what is it that I'm not thinking right about and we're wanting people to heal the surface issues of our lives many times but not willing to go back and do the hard work of going down to the foundation and saying what am i believing that has led to this why am I having to have a boyfriend
all the time why am I having to fulfill these illicit passions what am i seeking for what am i thinking that is leading me to this or something like why am I losing my temper with my child all the time why why am i angry why am i snippy with my husband constantly and in and taking a look at those and it's not just the behavior usually when we dig down there is some faulty thinking an attitude of entitlement an attitude that that I know better perhaps pride lack of humility it's wrong thinking that leads
to wrong behavior so that humility is so important in cultivating discernment having a teachable spirit being willing to put my thinking in my life under the microscope and even to have other people and we've done this for each other at times we've had some conversations this week where I've said to you this is something I struggle with in my responses in my life and and you're speaking into that and we're actually part of a group of women that do that for each other and sometimes when one of us is just not thinking soundly and the
opposite of that is kind of insane you know we're not thinking right when our emotions are controlling our lives rather than the Word of God we say to each other have you thought about this or is your thinking wrong in this way but it takes humility to be willing to have somebody in your face having those kinds of conversations or just bringing up the Word of God I just find that that when a sister challenges me or anyone challenge me for that matter but it's particularly someone whose knows the stuff and the issues in my
life but challenges me with Scripture and and just bring the scripture to bear on it it makes such a difference so in cultivating discernment for ourselves in helping one another cultivate a sermon because that's a it's a project for us as a body of believers women we need each other this is the older women and the younger women we're going to be looking at in over these weeks in this study but as we discern learn discernment for ourselves help as older women as we help younger women to have discernment the starting place is the Word
of God get into this book learn how to study it read it think about it and I'll tell you what if we're filling our minds and our hearts and our time with the world's entertainment and shows and books and movies even things that there may not be something wrong with but we don't have time for this we've got time for Facebook but don't have time for this book and I found that through my own life a lot of times and then I'm gonna start to think in the ways that everybody on Facebook is thinking but
if I live in this book that's why I want to have a well-used Bible and it requires daily input in take by myself in a local church in the context of a community of believers really putting our roots down deep into the soil of God's Word if we want to be discerning women mm-hmm and discernment again we'll right thinking leads to right living so if we want to be women who display the beauty of the gospel who show what God God's ways and God's Word is all about then we need to be women who are
in the Word of God and not just reading about the Word of God because that's another thing we do and and that's a good thing to do is to listen to programs about scripture or to read books about scripture but we need to open this book for ourselves and to read it for ourselves and become familiar with it and have it root deep in our hearts so that when we when we hit those decisions and I know that often I've done that in life where where I've come up to a decision that I'm facing and
the Lord will bring to mind a scripture that I've read or there will just be a sense that this this is a little bit off this isn't quite right and then time demonstrates down the road that that indeed it was God's holy spirit that was moving in my heart and and giving me the sense through what I had read in Scripture of which direction to go or something to resist or some idea that perhaps was just a little bit on yeah right developing discernment I think it would be great Mary as we start this series
and women are going to be journal journeying with us over these next weeks for us to just pray and ask our listeners to join with us in praying that God will give us this heart of discernment and so Lord we thank you for your word it is beautiful it is good it is true it is right it is powerful it is transformational thank you for the gift that it is and thank you that you loved us enough to give us this book of Titus and to speak these words of instruction and exhortation into our lives
and now as two women who would call ourselves older women we want to live out these principles and we want to be helpful to younger women in knowing how to live them out we want to model these things we want to teach these things and we still need to be taught so teach us and help us teach others and lord help us all to develop cultivate discernment to have lives and minds and thinking and roots that are rooted and grounded in your precious and true word and then may our lives reflect the beauty and the
wonder of what you have revealed to us through your word we pray it in Jesus name Amen [Music] you you
