Are You a Billboard for Jesus? What Titus 2 Says About How We Represent Christ

Meta Description: Pastor [Name] unpacked Titus 2 this Sunday, challenging every generation to ask: does the way I live draw people closer to Jesus or push them away? URL Slug: titus-2-billboard-for-jesus-representing-christ Featured Image: A warm, wide-angle photo of a diverse multigenerational congregation gathered in worship, or a creative image of a highway billboard at sunset with light streaming through — evoking the sermon's closing illustration.

What if the way you show up at work, at home, or at a football game could change someone's perception of Jesus forever?

That's the question Pastor [Name] placed before us this Sunday as we continued our verse-by-verse journey through the book of Titus. Drawing from a memorable personal story about a trip to Boulder, Colorado — where rude fans left him cheering against CU for life — and a trip to Norman, where gracious Oklahoma fans left him unexpectedly rooting for the Sooners, he made a simple but striking point: how people act changes how we perceive what they represent.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, you represent the King of Kings.

Sound Doctrine Shapes Sound Living

Pastor [Name] reminded us that this passage comes right on the heels of last week's text rebuking false teaching in the church at Crete. Paul's instruction to Titus in chapter 2, verse 1 sets the tone for everything that follows:

"You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine." — Titus 2:1

What follows isn't a list of theological propositions. It's a practical, personal call to five distinct groups within the church — older men, older women, younger women, younger men, and workers — each with specific instruction about how their lives should reflect the gospel they claim to believe.

As Pastor [Name] put it, we don't act a certain way to be accepted by God. We act a certain way so that others might think well of our God.

Older Men: Don't Check Out — Clock In

Titus 2:2 instructs older men to be "temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance."

Pastor [Name] was direct: the world tells older men they've earned the right to do whatever they want. But that mindset, he said, trains us toward self-centeredness, isolation, and cynicism. There is no retirement from the Great Commission. If you still have breath in your lungs and gifts in your hands, there are people to disciple and a kingdom to advance.

He shared the story of Phil Oliver, a man with gray hair who showed up on a Thursday night to the church's young adult ministry — not to attend, but to lead prayer. When Phil later witnessed a young adult place their faith in Jesus for the first time, he was, in a staffer's words, "more excited than if he'd just hit a hole in one." That's what this season of life is made for.

Older Women: Live with Reverence, Pass It Down

Paul's charge to older women in Titus 2:3 is to be "reverent in the way they live, not slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good."

Pastor [Name] pointed out that the Greek word for "slanderers" here is diabolos — the same root as the word for devil. Gossip, he reminded us plainly, is the devil's work. Instead, older women are called to live up to what he described as a "sacred office" — daughters of the King of Kings — and then pour that life into the next generation.

He celebrated Jan Wingfield, who reached out to the college ministry simply asking how she could help, ended up slinging pancakes late on a Tuesday night alongside Baylor students, and is now mentoring college life group girls and serving on multiple ministry teams. "In the world," Pastor [Name] noted, "you get less useful as you get older. In the church, you get more and more useful."

Younger Women: Your Life Is a Living Testimony

Titus 2:4-5 calls younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, kind, and busy at home — "so that no one will malign the word of God."

Pastor [Name] was careful to clarify what this passage does and doesn't say. It's not a prohibition on working outside the home — Proverbs 31, Phoebe, and Lydia all demonstrate otherwise. What it does say is that the work done at home matters most. And for every younger woman, married or single, the call is the same: live in such a way that people respect the word of God because of how you follow it.

He also addressed the power of a wife's words, sharing a text his own wife sent him during a stressful week of sermon prep: "So proud of you and honored to get to sit under your teaching." His response? "Give me four sermons to preach. Who else needs me?" Women, he said, have the power to make their husbands climb mountains — or stay on the couch.

Young Men: You Were Made for a Greater Mission

The instruction to young men in Titus 2:6 is brief but weighty: "Encourage the young men to be self-controlled."

Pastor [Name] didn't shy away from the cultural moment. Citing a recent study from the Institute of Family Studies, he noted that one in eight young men is playing video games, gambling, and watching pornography every single day. His response wasn't condemnation — it was a call to wake up.

"Jesus didn't say, 'Pick up your controller and follow me,'" he said. "He said, 'Pick up your cross and follow me.'"

The way to break these habits isn't simply willpower, he explained. It's being consumed by a greater mission. God created young men for things that make their hearts beat — for real purpose, real discipleship, and real spiritual warfare. The mission of God is that mission.

Workers: Your Work Ethic Is a Witness

Finally, Paul speaks to workers in Titus 2:9-10, calling them to be trustworthy, diligent, and honest — "so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive."

That word attractive, Pastor [Name] explained, comes from the Greek root for cosmos. Like the feeling of standing under a vast night sky in awe of the order and grandeur of creation — that's how people should feel watching you work.

He told the story of Jared Almond, a Harris Creek member who works at a local burger restaurant. A staff member eating there that evening assumed Jared must be the manager — he had that much ownership, joy, and attentiveness. He wasn't the manager. He just worked like he was, because he knew he was ultimately working for the King.

Are You a Look-at-Me Billboard or a Point-to-Him Billboard?

Pastor [Name] closed with a smile-worthy image: a Buc-ee's billboard on a Texas highway. The point of that billboard, he reminded us, isn't to make you stop and admire the sign. It's to point you to something worth getting to.

That's what we're called to be — not "look at me" believers who showcase their own success and kindness, but people whose lives make others ask, "Tell me about your God."

As he led us in closing prayer, he asked that our lives would reflect the grace that saved us — that we would be ambassadors who draw people toward Jesus, not away from him.

If this message stirred something in you and you're ready to take a next step — whether that's getting involved in mentoring, serving in a ministry, or simply connecting with someone who can help you grow — reach out at hello@harriscreek.org. There's a place for you here, in every season of life.

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Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): What if the way you live at work, at home, or even at a football game could change someone's perception of Jesus? This Sunday, Pastor [Name] walked us through Titus 2 and reminded us that every one of us is a billboard — the question is, what are we pointing people toward? Read the full recap at the link in bio.

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