WEBVTT 00:00:00.740 --> 00:00:07.960 The book of Titus is a really important book I think for anyone to study and especially for our church, because our church is a church plant, and Titus is written 00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:09.020 to a church plant. 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:15.780 What that means is the Apostle Paul sent Titus to this place called Crete, in order to see the church established. 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:20.810 Paul's thinking about the people there, wanting to reach them and wanting to see the church thrive. 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:24.480 What does it mean to be a part of a healthy church making a difference in the lives of people around them? 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:27.700 Paul writes this book to Titus. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:29.750 Titus was a Gentile. 00:00:30.520 --> 00:00:33.480 The island of Crete was a very Gentile place. 00:00:33.480 --> 00:00:34.250 It was a very rough place. 00:00:34.660 --> 00:00:41.780 Titus was a pretty tough dude, but it tells us in Titus chapter 1, verse 12, that Paul quotes one of their own people 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:46.880 from Crete, and one of their own people said that Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:49.080 All right, so you think about planting a church. 00:00:49.360 --> 00:00:57.070 This is one of the darkest, most difficult places that you could plant a church, and Paul's saying the church can still have a different in even the darkest of places. 00:00:57.380 --> 00:01:03.880 This is important for us because no matter where you find yourself in life, no matter how dark the day may be, the greater light is in Christ. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:05.280 God can make a difference. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.410 Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 00:01:07.780 --> 00:01:14.860 God has you in a place for a specific reason, and understanding why the church exists and how the church should function is very important. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.500 We've said this repeatedly throughout this message. 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:20.700 The reason your church exists isn't just to have church on Sunday. 00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:22.420 God created a movement. 00:01:22.420 --> 00:01:25.970 When Jesus said I will build my church, he said the gates of hell will not prevail against it. 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:30.320 As we rest in the promise of who he is, and he describes himself as the rock. 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:38.860 So on Jesus' promise of his identity, he calls his church, which he created for his purpose, to be a movement in this world, to make a difference in 00:01:38.860 --> 00:01:40.800 darkness, as light that represents him. 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:44.380 Jesus said, as it relates to the church, that he is the head. 00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:45.000 We are the body. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:47.500 You are the extension of Jesus in this world. 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:51.880 When God wants to work and move his miracles in the lives of others, he wants to work through his people. 00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:53.540 What we do is important. 00:01:53.780 --> 00:01:55.540 We don't want to do things just to do things. 00:01:55.540 --> 00:01:56.680 We don't serve tradition. 00:01:57.060 --> 00:01:57.940 We serve Jesus. 00:01:58.440 --> 00:02:05.640 We leverage tradition for the purpose of reaching the hearts, and if what we're doing isn't working, then we need to change what we're doing for the 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:06.840 sake of Christ and the benefit of others. 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:11.600 God calls us to live for his glory, to the benefit of people. 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:16.560 In fact, when you love Jesus, you love what Jesus loves, and what Jesus loves is people. 00:02:17.720 --> 00:02:19.000 You see this heart in Paul. 00:02:20.100 --> 00:02:27.140 He's writing to Crete because he cares about people, and he cares about the church reaching people for the glory of God and 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:28.060 to the benefit of others. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:35.120 A promise all the way back to Abraham, was through you, all nations or all people groups would be blessed. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.480 God calls us as a light into the world, to always think outwardly. 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:42.200 It's not about us and this building and that's the end. 00:02:42.420 --> 00:02:46.440 It's about what Jesus does in us so that he works through us for the glory, for his glory to the benefit of others. 00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:50.220 So when Paul starts thinking about the church, let me just say it like this. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:58.500 If you were part of a church, what would it look like to establish a healthy group of people, making a difference for Jesus? 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:04.100 If you think about your church, if it were gone tomorrow, what would people miss? 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:07.940 What difference if any do you make? 00:03:09.200 --> 00:03:09.700 Do we make? 00:03:11.420 --> 00:03:13.140 So Paul is thinking about the church. 00:03:13.220 --> 00:03:20.480 He knows God's called them to make a difference and so, he starts sharing from this passage a perspective as it relates to the church 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:24.840 that it's healthy to build on and impact the lives of people around you. 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:29.300 So in Titus chapter 1, he started off in the identity of himself. 00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:34.400 He labels his own self in the presentation of who he is to this people group to Titus and to the church. 00:03:34.440 --> 00:03:36.140 He calls himself in verse 1, a servant leader. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:41.120 Though Paul was an apostle, he doesn't identify himself primarily as the apostle. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:42.140 He just calls himself a servant. 00:03:43.640 --> 00:03:46.860 In calling himself a servant, he then goes on from there and talks about healthy leadership. 00:03:48.380 --> 00:03:54.180 We think about leadership in society around us, leadership in society around us is all about getting to the top of the pyramid so you can tell everybody below you what to do. 00:03:55.420 --> 00:03:57.580 But biblical leadership is the exact opposite. 00:03:58.620 --> 00:04:02.220 It's about leveraging all that God has given you to help others become all that God has called them to be. 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:04.450 It's about getting beneath people. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:06.360 In fact, Jesus did that with his own life. 00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:13.140 He came as king of kings, Lord of Lords, became the servant of servants, to the point of giving his life on the cross. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:22.120 Now in emulating his king and savior, Paul labels himself as a servant leader, and then describes to the church what healthy leadership 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:23.020 should look like. 00:04:23.320 --> 00:04:25.490 He reminds us that we are all called to be leaders. 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:32.540 In fact, when Paul described leadership in the church in the form of elders in Titus chapter 1, verse 3, he says, "Anyone that aspires to this position, 00:04:32.710 --> 00:04:38.980 it is a noble pursuit." Though not everyone may hold position, God calls us all to be leaders. 00:04:40.440 --> 00:04:45.810 With that leadership comes responsibility but God's placed you in this world to be an influencer in some capacity. 00:04:45.880 --> 00:04:48.260 We all lead in some capacity in this world. 00:04:48.260 --> 00:04:51.600 It's impossible not to because we all influence in some way or another. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:52.520 It is impossible not to. 00:04:55.100 --> 00:04:57.740 The question is, how are you influencing? 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:01.440 What are you influencing people toward? 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:04.000 You share the things you're passionate about. 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:05.710 It comes naturally. 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:09.920 Maybe the inward question is, what comes out Jesus? 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:16.960 Because if it's not Jesus, the question should be, really am I truly passionate about him? 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:24.780 So you see, servant leadership and healthy leadership in chapter 1, and then in chapter 2, he starts talking about how we influence and make an 00:05:24.780 --> 00:05:26.590 impact in the lives of people around us. 00:05:26.760 --> 00:05:31.840 In chapter 2, it's all about the older man serving the younger man and the older woman serving the younger woman. 00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:34.680 Younger man, younger women seeing your place on earth. 00:05:34.940 --> 00:05:41.140 They talk about employee and employer and how God calls you into different seasons of life, different places of life to make a difference. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:50.680 That gave us the stat, some groups have studied, that most people have about 8 to 15 close 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:52.340 relationships in their lives. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:53.400 That's about all we got. 00:05:53.440 --> 00:05:56.210 I know FB say you have 1000 friends, but you don't have 1000 friends. 00:05:56.400 --> 00:05:59.660 You have 1000 people that clicked to follow you, but you don't have 1000 friends, right? 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:04.080 You have about 8 to 15 close relationships in this world. 00:06:04.140 --> 00:06:08.300 Now that changes in different seasons of life because more different people come in and different people go out. 00:06:08.340 --> 00:06:11.140 You have different likes with different people, so you relate to people differently. 00:06:11.320 --> 00:06:15.560 But at any given time, no matter where you are in life, about 8 to 15 relationships with people. 00:06:16.700 --> 00:06:18.500 That's 8 to 15 places of influence. 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:23.400 You can't make a difference everywhere, but you can somewhere. 00:06:25.260 --> 00:06:27.210 You share the things that you're passionate about. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:35.800 So he encourages the church, as we think about what God's called us to in this world, to encourage one another, to model the beauty 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:37.100 of who Christ is with each other. 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:37.960 That's chapter 2. 00:06:38.260 --> 00:06:41.340 Then in chapter 3, he gets into the idea of the world around us. 00:06:43.640 --> 00:06:48.360 To think about the world around us, that what God's doing in us isn't to stop in us but work through us. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:53.900 So in chapter 3, Paul starts wrestling with the idea of right thinking and right living. 00:06:56.080 --> 00:07:03.200 Because of who Jesus is, how that should make a difference in our lives and impact the world around us, it should be a better place than when we 00:07:03.200 --> 00:07:05.260 first arrived, when we leave. 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:07.140 God wants us to make a difference. 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:10.120 It's the right way of thinking and the right living. 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:17.400 Said in a more sophisticated way, we're talking about orthodoxy and 00:07:17.400 --> 00:07:17.980 orthopraxy. 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:18.000 Orthodoxy, what you believe. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:18.440 Orthopraxy, how you live it. 00:07:19.800 --> 00:07:23.340 So Paul starts to lay this out for us in Titus chapter 3. 00:07:23.380 --> 00:07:28.120 As you think about your church as it relates to this church, what does God desire for us to do? 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:33.000 If we are here, how can we make a difference in the lives of the world around us? 00:07:33.080 --> 00:07:33.720 So he says this. 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:35.840 In Titus chapter 3, verse 1, he starts in the most simplistic place. 00:07:36.640 --> 00:07:39.560 Like if you live somewhere, then you're a citizen of wherever it is that you live. 00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:47.440 So he says this, "Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed," 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:49.440 unless they don't do what you like. 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:51.500 Then complain about it all the time, right? 00:07:51.820 --> 00:07:52.040 I'm kidding. 00:07:52.200 --> 00:07:52.720 That's not in here. 00:07:54.180 --> 00:08:01.400 When Titus, this chapter is written, I think it's very important to understand the context for which Paul is writing these words. 00:08:02.760 --> 00:08:06.200 Because Paul is writing Titus chapter 3 when Nero is ruling. 00:08:07.260 --> 00:08:10.340 And Nero is going to be the one that martyrs both Paul and Peter. 00:08:12.200 --> 00:08:14.320 Nero stood against he church. 00:08:15.760 --> 00:08:22.860 Yet, what Paul is saying here is that God didn't create the church to be a thorn in the side of 00:08:22.860 --> 00:08:29.920 authority and leaders, but rather be ready for every good deed. 00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:39.360 The most basic sense of thinking about your influence in the world around you is saying that Christians are called to be good citizens and encouraging 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:43.799 good deeds in the lives of the people that are represented under the authority for which they rest. 00:08:45.880 --> 00:08:52.600 I know, I know government doesn't always agree with your values, right? 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:59.820 In Acts chapter 5, verse 29, when the apostles are brought before the leaders of the Jewish community at the time. 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:07.400 They tell the apostles to do something and the apostles respond back, "Shall we obey man rather than God?" The statement there is to indicate, no. 00:09:07.400 --> 00:09:14.700 When it comes to pursuing God or pursuing the things of this world, no matter who it is and what authority they have, if it conflicts 00:09:14.700 --> 00:09:16.740 with the god that we're supposed to follow, then we pursue the God. 00:09:17.640 --> 00:09:18.240 We pursue God. 00:09:20.620 --> 00:09:27.860 Because what God ultimately wants is intended to be for our good, but in pursuing God, the apostles willingly 00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:32.570 took their licks, because it tells us in the same story that they considered themselves worthy to be beaten for the cause of Christ. 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:38.080 They stood up and they stood to bless. 00:09:39.640 --> 00:09:42.640 I like the way that Paul says it in Titus. 00:09:42.820 --> 00:09:50.220 We didn't get a whole lot of time to spend in this verse last week, but I just want to point it back out to you in Titus chapter 2, verse 13, in talking about the authority 00:09:50.220 --> 00:09:57.520 of which we rest under, he says, "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Christ Jesus." 00:09:58.740 --> 00:09:59.100 I like that. 00:10:00.420 --> 00:10:03.800 It's as if, Paul's not ultimately here putting his hope in politics. 00:10:04.180 --> 00:10:07.600 It's like as if, no matter what the earthly kings do, that his king still reigns. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:15.020 When he talks about this king, the phrases that he used for Jesus, he says that Jesus is both God and his rescuer. 00:10:16.020 --> 00:10:23.340 What a good king that is, in his pursuit, so all of his hope in glory is in the identity of who this is that he is representing in this world, this Jesus 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:30.340 who is both God and king, and serving under 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:30.840 that great king. 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:33.580 He calls us to bless and not curse. 00:10:34.780 --> 00:10:39.740 To pray for those that may be against us, to seek peace with all men, it tells us in Romans. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:46.840 I like the way that Paul says it, sort of a similar statement as Titus 2, in Philippians chapter 2. 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:53.480 Philippians chapter 2, Paul is actually in jail writing this letter because of his faith in Christ. 00:10:54.840 --> 00:11:03.420 In the time of Rome, anyone that was a Roman citizen was expected to give a certain pronunciation from their lips in the loyalty in their heart, and 00:11:03.420 --> 00:11:08.400 on the pronunciation on their lips and loyalty of their heart, it was "Kaiser Curious," or Caesar is Lord. 00:11:09.140 --> 00:11:13.860 As Romans worshiped many gods, they saw Caesar as a God and worshiped Caesar. 00:11:14.680 --> 00:11:22.260 To be a Roman citizen and not pronounce Kaiser Curious, was contradictory to the Roman belief system. 00:11:22.460 --> 00:11:27.870 When the early church comes along and they believe in one God, the church started getting persecuted. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:35.180 It was interesting that the claim brought against Christians as they are being persecuted for their faith is that they are actually called atheists, 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:36.540 because Rome believes in all these gods. 00:11:36.760 --> 00:11:41.200 Here comes this people group that only talk about one god and it's as if they're atheists all together. 00:11:41.740 --> 00:11:47.700 The church gets persecuted because they didn't believe in the gods and they wouldn't pronounce Kaiser Curious, Caesar is Lord. 00:11:49.220 --> 00:11:56.280 Instead Paul said this, "Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God 00:11:56.280 --> 00:11:59.540 the Father." This statement was scandalous. 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:07.140 Just imagine Paul in jail, because of his faith in Jesus, and he says, rather than Kaiser Curious, he says Christos Curious. 00:12:08.420 --> 00:12:09.940 Caesar is Lord, take this letter. 00:12:10.180 --> 00:12:11.100 Deliver it to people. 00:12:11.100 --> 00:12:13.520 I mean even holding this thing could get your head cut off. 00:12:14.600 --> 00:12:15.740 What is Paul doing? 00:12:15.760 --> 00:12:23.920 He's showing the loyalty in all of this belongs to Jesus, and so when you think about where you live and your allegiance, I 00:12:23.920 --> 00:12:30.020 know you want to be for the people around you, and I also recognize your allegiance ultimately belongs to Christ. 00:12:31.260 --> 00:12:32.490 So let me say it like this guys. 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:40.330 Sometimes we look at the world around us and we just grumble and complain. 00:12:42.380 --> 00:12:44.860 It's not what it's supposed to be, right? 00:12:45.800 --> 00:12:49.920 I mean a generation ago it was so much better, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. 00:12:50.260 --> 00:12:53.630 Let's just all build a bunker and hide and let the world go to hell in a hand basket. 00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:56.280 God's done a good thing here and then that's it, right? 00:12:56.500 --> 00:13:01.400 Everything else is unsaveable, but when you look in the book of Titus, chapter 1, verse 12, he's saying to us, look. 00:13:01.660 --> 00:13:08.860 Even the darkest places, these evil beasts, these lazy gluttons, God can make a difference because greater 00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:10.620 is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 00:13:11.560 --> 00:13:11.680 Look. 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:20.060 If you live in a country that's everything you want it to be, that's 90% Christian, or you live in the most difficult country on planet earth and it's 1% 00:13:20.060 --> 00:13:23.960 Christian, when you wake up tomorrow, it should never change what you do. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.120 Always for the glory of God to the benefit of people. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:29.500 I love Martin Luther's quote on that. 00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:37.320 They asked him once, not King Jr, but Martin Luther in the 1500s, "If tomorrow was the last day that you had on planet earth, what 00:13:37.380 --> 00:13:39.560 would you do?" Would you imagine that? 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:40.280 You sit beneath him. 00:13:40.640 --> 00:13:43.970 You see him as this great giant in the faith and here you are as a student. 00:13:44.020 --> 00:13:47.260 You're like, okay I'm not, I can't be Martin Luther, but I want to do that one thing. 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:48.380 I can make a difference. 00:13:48.500 --> 00:13:53.900 Then he just looks and he says, "I'd plant an apple tree." What do you do with that? 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:54.460 Right? 00:13:54.520 --> 00:14:02.560 But what Luther is saying, he's saying, "Look, I'm going to be who I'm supposed to be, regardless of what tomorrow holds, regardless 00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:09.700 of what people do around me, regardless of how good or difficult it may be, God always calls you to be a difference maker 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:16.620 and to be light in this world." When Jesus was about to be crucified on the cross, after he says this to his disciples in the upper room, he's with them. 00:14:16.900 --> 00:14:18.820 You can imagine, your world's falling apart. 00:14:18.880 --> 00:14:20.090 Oh Lord, how are we going to make a difference? 00:14:20.160 --> 00:14:21.740 Oh gosh, this is going to get so dark. 00:14:21.740 --> 00:14:22.240 You're going to get persecuted. 00:14:22.300 --> 00:14:23.780 What are they doing to do to us, right? 00:14:24.220 --> 00:14:25.040 All these bad things. 00:14:25.040 --> 00:14:32.140 Jesus looks at them and says this, in John 14, verse 1, "Let not your heart be 00:14:32.140 --> 00:14:33.190 troubled. 00:14:34.680 --> 00:14:38.120 You believe in God, believe also in me. 00:14:39.230 --> 00:14:40.720 In my Father's house are many mansions. 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:49.320 Behold I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also." There's hope. 00:14:52.660 --> 00:14:54.900 I think people in this world know that the world is broken. 00:14:56.840 --> 00:14:58.980 I think we look for things to cling to. 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:02.100 That's why we care so much about politics, right? 00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:06.330 The solution, the solution, the solution, for at least two more years, until the next round of elections come around. 00:15:07.320 --> 00:15:08.310 Then it's all pandemonium again. 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:16.120 We know the world's broken, and yet what the pronouncement is in this passage is that there is a kingdom that transcends. 00:15:17.340 --> 00:15:24.360 He's going to show us in this story how for the world that this becomes our hope and how your position in this world to make a difference becomes so 00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:28.240 paramount beyond these governmental things that we often fight against. 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:30.280 There's a greater kingdom. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:36.460 I know Paul [inaudible 00:15:31] place and God cares about things in our world, but I don't think he cares about certain things as much as we think he does. 00:15:38.880 --> 00:15:46.440 His kingdom's far greater and the solution far more important than to be derailed by 00:15:46.440 --> 00:15:49.200 things that ultimately may not matter at the end of the day. 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:52.820 So he says this, to be ready for every good deed. 00:15:54.260 --> 00:15:55.840 Don't get lost in that garbage. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:57.600 Live to bless. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:15:59.140 Be ready for every good deed. 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:04.860 He says then in verse 2, "To malign no one." Do you know why he says to malign no one? 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:09.500 Because when people act stupid, it's easy to do, right? 00:16:09.540 --> 00:16:16.660 But to malign no one, but rather to be peaceable and gentle and show every consideration for all men, for we also were once foolish 00:16:16.660 --> 00:16:23.460 ourselves, disobedient, deceived and slaves to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life on malice and envy and hateful, hating one another. 00:16:24.800 --> 00:16:27.720 We're doing this good for all people. 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:31.980 He says at the end of verse 2, look malign no one because we're taking consideration for all men. 00:16:32.900 --> 00:16:33.780 All mankind. 00:16:34.900 --> 00:16:41.620 God's called you, and the scope of the aim of Crete, Paul's thinking all about the Cretans and how he can reach them for the cause of Christ. 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:45.240 A pursuit that's greater than just this world. 00:16:47.060 --> 00:16:53.980 He recognizes, he recognizes that there's a battle within all of us, right? 00:16:54.100 --> 00:16:57.200 Even this morning, who's king of your heart? 00:16:59.780 --> 00:17:05.920 There are only two kings that you can serve, yourself or Jesus. 00:17:07.740 --> 00:17:10.500 He starts to describe the way that we pursue the kingdom of self here. 00:17:10.520 --> 00:17:17.599 He says, "For we also were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived." The pursuit of our live we made about ourselves because we thought that was 00:17:17.619 --> 00:17:24.640 the right thing, and so in order to please ourselves because we're the king of ourselves, we then pursue after our lusts because we think that's what 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:25.740 brings us pleasure. 00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:31.340 But here's what he says on the back, at the end of this pleasure, is we spend our life in a malice and envy and hate and hating and hating one another. 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:36.060 Why in the world have we put ourselves on the throne, if we think that's the an answer to life, do we end up with such negativity? 00:17:40.100 --> 00:17:47.220 The answer is oftentimes we make ourselves God of this world, thinking that we are God and things 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:49.440 in this world are about serving us for our pleasure. 00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:54.560 We find that the things that we own, we don't really own them, but rather they own us. 00:17:58.340 --> 00:18:05.980 When they own us, our appetites are never fully indulged and therefore 00:18:05.980 --> 00:18:13.060 when we see other people having the things that we think bring us such pleasure, in our hearts, we start with this attitude of envy and hateful and 00:18:13.060 --> 00:18:14.830 hating one another and this malice. 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:20.280 You're preventing me from getting what I want, what will ultimately make me happy because you have it. 00:18:22.020 --> 00:18:22.400 So we destroy. 00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:33.500 So Paul is showing us in this story that when our lives aren't given to him, to the Lord, and our heart turned over to him to be a blessing 00:18:33.500 --> 00:18:39.000 to those around us, that it pursues our own lusts, and our own lusts, we become enslaved to those things because we don't really own them. 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:46.480 They end up owning us and in owning us, we hate those that hold the things in which we desire because we want them, and 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:51.760 we become malicious in pursuing them. 00:18:51.760 --> 00:18:52.220 Then he says this. 00:18:54.560 --> 00:19:01.200 But, and this but introduces something radical for us in the changing of our lives. 00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:07.380 This I think is what sets Christianity apart from every religious belief in the world. 00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:08.640 This is what I would say. 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:16.120 In these two verses, and if anyone memorizes anything out of Titus, it's typically these two verses because these two verses are paramount to our faith. 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:23.640 These first five verses, for me, I think are some of the most precious that I hold to in my life in scripture, as I live a life which 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:25.300 God calls me to in him. 00:19:26.260 --> 00:19:31.360 Whatever someone's ever told you about Christianity, if you could just forget that for a minute and just hold these two verses. 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:35.240 This gives the basis for why we do what we do. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:44.740 "For when the kindness of God our savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he 00:19:44.820 --> 00:19:51.940 saved us." So what it's saying at the beginning of this verse, but which is opposing a life that 00:19:51.940 --> 00:19:59.080 lives for self-made pleasure, but something else happens that changes the pursuit of our heart and it's this God and savior 00:19:59.080 --> 00:20:01.680 which we saw in chapter 2, verse 13, is Jesus. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:04.280 Who's appeared to save us. 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:07.340 His love for mankind has appeared to save us. 00:20:07.360 --> 00:20:10.160 God's love is rescuing us. 00:20:11.840 --> 00:20:17.210 Which begs the question how does God's love save us and change us? 00:20:18.840 --> 00:20:24.440 He gives the thought that we often go to religiously in the very next phrase. 00:20:24.620 --> 00:20:31.620 He saves us, look at this, "Not on the basis of deeds which we have done and righteousness." Religious mentality is to say God 00:20:31.620 --> 00:20:34.420 saves me and rescues me by making myself lovable. 00:20:35.520 --> 00:20:38.980 He can't stop loving me because I've made myself so lovable to him. 00:20:38.980 --> 00:20:41.520 Therefore he loves me, right? 00:20:42.560 --> 00:20:46.840 Or oftentimes, we'll say well how does God save your or how does God change your life? 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:49.520 Well he saves me after I've done all that I can do. 00:20:50.020 --> 00:20:54.240 I've done the certain status quo and therefore made myself lovable. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:55.820 So it's after all I can do. 00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:00.160 Let me just ask, have you ever just thought through some of that. 00:21:00.220 --> 00:21:06.920 I know it can sound like a nice pithy cliché statement, but just consider it for a minute. 00:21:12.040 --> 00:21:12.620 After everything you've done, then God loves you. 00:21:12.620 --> 00:21:20.260 Because if you ever had opportunity to pray, spend some time in prayer that day or go maybe instead to the movies with a friend and you 00:21:20.260 --> 00:21:23.940 chose movie over praying, how unspiritual of you right? 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:30.200 Or have you ever had opportunity to read the Bible or get on Facebook to read posts that won't matter in five seconds from now? 00:21:30.760 --> 00:21:34.830 And you chose to spend two hours on Facebook and then tried to convince your friends of why you don't have time to read the Bible? 00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:36.800 You ever done that? 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:44.640 Or have you ever had the opportunity to give to someone in need because you had a little extra money, you had an opportunity to give to someone in need and you just drove right past them thinking, but I want to spend that on this next item 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.060 that I am thinking about, right? 00:21:47.900 --> 00:21:50.700 If you've ever done those things, can you really say that you've done all that you can do? 00:21:52.380 --> 00:21:55.180 And if you didn't do those things, now you know you can't do all you can do. 00:21:55.280 --> 00:21:56.860 So therefore, can God really save you? 00:21:59.400 --> 00:22:02.260 It's impossible. 00:22:03.360 --> 00:22:05.000 We fall short. 00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:08.200 There's never enough. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:13.240 In fact, it doesn't even answer the question, what about the bad that you've already done? 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:14.740 Does doing good undo the bad? 00:22:16.760 --> 00:22:24.180 James chapter 2 verse 10 says it like this, "If you have sinned and been guilty of one area of the law, you are guilty of all of it." The 00:22:24.180 --> 00:22:25.180 law isn't intended to free you. 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:30.720 The law's intended to condemn, Romans chapter 2 and 3, Galatians chapter 2 and 3, the same thing. 00:22:30.940 --> 00:22:34.360 Go read those chapters today if you're trying to think through the purpose of the law. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:36.900 It's not about, it's not about your salvation. 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:39.660 So this still begs the question, how does God save us? 00:22:39.660 --> 00:22:43.640 Because it tells us very plainly, it's not based on what we do. 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:46.020 Look how this person describes it here. 00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:48.440 Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness. 00:22:49.800 --> 00:22:55.960 It's saying even those deeds, even if you think they were good deeds in which you have done, that's not how it happens. 00:22:58.360 --> 00:23:00.580 So how does God save us and change us? 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:02.280 He then goes on. 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:08.780 Not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but look. 00:23:08.800 --> 00:23:10.530 According to his mercy. 00:23:11.220 --> 00:23:13.000 For the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:13.500 --> 00:23:14.340 He goes on from here. 00:23:14.360 --> 00:23:15.240 I'll do that in just a minute. 00:23:15.800 --> 00:23:17.850 I actually want you to see how God flips this here. 00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:21.500 Because you think how does God save us, and everyone thinks it's about what you do, what you do. 00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:25.440 Then all of a sudden he gives this exact opposite statement, but according to his mercy. 00:23:26.860 --> 00:23:30.240 Because what mercy is saying is you don't actually want what you deserve. 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:34.540 Mercy is God withholding what you deserve. 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:38.460 When it comes before a holy God, is he compares himself to you. 00:23:38.460 --> 00:23:41.360 I know oftentimes we think in life, well there's the murderer. 00:23:41.640 --> 00:23:45.420 Go get him God while I scan through the pearly gates, right? 00:23:45.580 --> 00:23:46.200 I am not a murderer. 00:23:46.800 --> 00:23:47.900 I didn't do that in life. 00:23:47.900 --> 00:23:48.920 Yeah, let me in, right? 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:50.040 That's how we tend to think. 00:23:50.040 --> 00:23:50.860 I'm better than him. 00:23:51.820 --> 00:23:52.860 That's not how God compares us. 00:23:54.940 --> 00:23:55.960 He compares us to his holiness. 00:23:58.060 --> 00:23:59.240 It's not the standard that we pick. 00:23:59.580 --> 00:24:00.980 It's the standard of who he is. 00:24:02.860 --> 00:24:08.260 Anytime we've ever sinned, I think it's important to know that sin isn't just what we do against one another. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:15.520 Sin is sin because it ultimately violates God when you tell a lie to someone, yeah that lie can hurt them, but what makes a lie 00:24:15.520 --> 00:24:16.900 a lie is that God is truth. 00:24:18.540 --> 00:24:21.900 When you tell a lie, you oppose the one who is truth, that creates all truth. 00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:26.330 Every sin you ever do is first against God before it's against someone else. 00:24:27.360 --> 00:24:31.380 That's what Jesus said to us when he came on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. 00:24:31.380 --> 00:24:38.420 He said, you know "The law says you shall not murder, but I tell you he who has had anger in his heart has committed murder already." Yeah, you may not have killed the 00:24:38.420 --> 00:24:44.050 guy down the road when he made you angry, but your heart sure wanted to. 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:51.060 Because the action that breeds murder was birthed in a heart of anger. 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:54.820 Your problem isn't you have this behavior modification. 00:24:57.040 --> 00:24:57.860 It's a heart transformation. 00:25:00.100 --> 00:25:01.060 We can't control our heart. 00:25:03.420 --> 00:25:07.740 No matter how much religion you put on it, you'll never be free. 00:25:09.080 --> 00:25:12.680 Religion will always condemn because you're never good enough. 00:25:14.420 --> 00:25:22.580 God shows us and rather than giving you what you do deserve, he saves you on the basis of his mercy by 00:25:22.580 --> 00:25:24.880 withholding what you deserve to give you something else. 00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:25.180 Look what it says. 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:31.400 "Through the washing of regeneration or renewing of the Holy Spirit." Now these two words are powerful words. 00:25:33.520 --> 00:25:39.850 There's only two times in scripture, this word for regeneration and this word for renewing is used in the Greek New Testament. 00:25:41.280 --> 00:25:43.000 Both of them create this incredible imagery. 00:25:43.380 --> 00:25:49.580 It's sort of like a superhero imagery, if you let me play on that for a minute, because Stan Lee just died and I'm still grieving, all right? 00:25:49.980 --> 00:25:51.820 You think about superheroes. 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:57.990 You ever get that question, you show up in one of those awkward groups where no one knows everyone and some of us think, okay how are we going to ice break this? 00:25:58.060 --> 00:25:59.380 What question? 00:25:59.380 --> 00:26:00.080 Okay I got it. 00:26:00.100 --> 00:26:04.920 If you were a superhero, what superpower would you have? 00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:09.780 You know when you're young, the answer is always either to fly or to have like super speed, right? 00:26:10.120 --> 00:26:12.400 But when you get older, I know what the answer is every time. 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:15.970 Every time, guys, it's invisibility, especially if you got kids. 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:18.480 It's like, "Mom!" Invisible. 00:26:19.020 --> 00:26:20.480 "Dad!" Invisible. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:22.310 It is definitely the right answer. 00:26:22.660 --> 00:26:29.660 But when you think about superheroes, my kids love superheroes because they see the good guy going in, saving 00:26:29.660 --> 00:26:31.480 the day, stopping the bad guy. 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:38.210 But on the back end of all that stopping of the bad guy, it still leaves a wake of destruction and death. 00:26:38.380 --> 00:26:45.560 It shares the story of how, whoever flies in, Ironman or Nerdy Spiderman or whatever hero you like, and 00:26:45.560 --> 00:26:51.450 it saves the day, and then it doesn't tell the story of how everyone's left in their devastation to figure out how to pick up the pieces and rebuild. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:56.920 Superhero's super but at some point his superpower has limitations. 00:26:57.040 --> 00:26:59.940 If you're a superhero, what superpowers would you want? 00:27:00.680 --> 00:27:01.780 I think I changed my answer now. 00:27:03.180 --> 00:27:08.240 I think I'm going to go with regeneration or renewing, but I don't want that. 00:27:09.280 --> 00:27:11.710 I'm just thankful Jesus has it, because this is what it means. 00:27:13.620 --> 00:27:15.940 Regeneration carries this, probably the idea that you're thinking of. 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:20.120 You get an arm cut off, you're like, "Regenerate!" Like dead person, regenerate back to life. 00:27:20.280 --> 00:27:21.680 Tree falls over and dies, regenerate. 00:27:21.940 --> 00:27:23.050 Dog gets run over, regenerate. 00:27:23.580 --> 00:27:24.680 It brings it all back to life. 00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:25.920 That's exactly what it's saying. 00:27:25.940 --> 00:27:32.940 It's like it's taking the things which are dead, the things which cause pain, the destruction which you see, and it makes 00:27:32.980 --> 00:27:33.330 them undone. 00:27:36.080 --> 00:27:39.020 When God first uses this idea of regeneration, Jesus does. 00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:41.620 It's in Matthew chapter 19, verse 28. 00:27:42.040 --> 00:27:43.520 What he's actually talking about is all of creation. 00:27:46.100 --> 00:27:50.460 To look in the pain of a mother's eyes and saying, "No tear wasted. 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:54.660 Regenerate." Making all things new. 00:27:56.760 --> 00:27:57.860 All bad done away. 00:27:59.220 --> 00:28:02.310 The glory of the goodness of God in victory made known. 00:28:03.260 --> 00:28:05.440 Regenerate, right? 00:28:05.540 --> 00:28:07.040 But not only is the word regeneration important. 00:28:07.580 --> 00:28:14.780 It's also the word renew, and the only other time this word, this exact wording in Greek is used is in Romans chapter 12, verse 2, a beautiful passage, these 00:28:14.780 --> 00:28:15.560 first two verses. 00:28:16.200 --> 00:28:18.180 Because Paul lays out the gospel for the first 11. 00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:26.200 Then he gets to chapter 12, and he says this, "I beg you brothers, by the mercy of God, withholding his wrath, that 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:33.330 you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable act of service." And look what it says, 00:28:33.380 --> 00:28:40.960 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Renewed. 00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:47.250 So even if God regenerated everything, it still doesn't fix where the ultimate problem rests. 00:28:47.340 --> 00:28:48.160 Really that's in my heart. 00:28:50.300 --> 00:28:51.880 God doesn't just fix the external. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:53.560 He renews it from the inside out. 00:28:55.240 --> 00:28:58.700 Regenerate, renew. 00:28:58.840 --> 00:29:01.520 The reason Paul cares about creed is because this God came into his life. 00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:10.820 As God has known him in his darkest place in his heart, God desires to make himself known in the lives of the people 00:29:10.860 --> 00:29:16.600 in Crete and the lives of the people around you, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:18.160 He goes on from there. 00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:20.640 Let me move forward a little quicker here. 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:27.680 He says in verse 6, he says, "Whom he poured out upon you richly in Christ Jesus our savior, in Jesus Christ 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:31.740 our savior." So he's saying, when God did this, he didn't just save you from something. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:32.770 He saved you for something. 00:29:32.800 --> 00:29:37.500 When Jesus' mercy and grace is made known, God just didn't fill your cup up. 00:29:37.600 --> 00:29:42.760 It is overflowing with the goodness of who he is, so that being justified by his grace. 00:29:42.820 --> 00:29:45.000 So this means, justified means being made right. 00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:48.220 So that when God sees you, he doesn't see you in your religious performance. 00:29:48.760 --> 00:29:51.500 When God sees you, he sees the blood of Christ covering your life. 00:29:51.950 --> 00:29:53.300 Jesus, when he paid for you, paid it all. 00:29:53.300 --> 00:29:57.520 So being justified by his grace, grace is not a work. 00:29:57.520 --> 00:30:02.620 In fact, Romans 11:6 tells us if work is added to grace at all, it is no longer grace. 00:30:02.620 --> 00:30:08.220 It's something else, but it is not grace because what makes grace grace is that it is absolutely free. 00:30:09.100 --> 00:30:12.420 God knew you did not have the ability to save yourselves. 00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:19.780 I mean that's the point of Romans 3 and verse 5, "Not by works of righteousness by which you have done, but according to his mercy in withholding 00:30:19.780 --> 00:30:22.230 what you do deserve," because you don't want what you deserve. 00:30:24.340 --> 00:30:31.920 To regenerate and renew, pouring this out on you richly, so that you would be declared right by 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:32.900 his grace. 00:30:33.140 --> 00:30:35.540 We would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 00:30:36.400 --> 00:30:38.260 So it's not just rescuing from the darkness. 00:30:38.500 --> 00:30:44.770 It's a whole new identity in living that you become an heir with Jesus, as he is king of kings and Lord of Lords. 00:30:44.800 --> 00:30:47.430 You are in his kingdom, belonging to him. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:50.500 Paul's passionate about this. 00:30:50.620 --> 00:30:58.040 This is the orthodoxy of what Christianity is all about, and this is what we carry into this world so that we can live it in orthopraxy. 00:30:58.400 --> 00:30:59.620 This is where he goes in verse 8. 00:31:01.220 --> 00:31:02.320 This is a trustworthy statement. 00:31:03.840 --> 00:31:06.720 I like those, because I don't like being lied to. 00:31:09.060 --> 00:31:10.110 You ever vouch for somebody? 00:31:11.240 --> 00:31:11.890 They'll be a good employee. 00:31:12.220 --> 00:31:13.260 Hire them. 00:31:13.260 --> 00:31:13.360 Right? 00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:16.680 And then you have to swallow your pride after that. 00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:20.300 I'm not vouching for anyone ever again, right? 00:31:20.580 --> 00:31:21.310 They were liars. 00:31:22.500 --> 00:31:23.760 It's not fun to be lied to. 00:31:25.500 --> 00:31:27.140 This is what Paul is saying to us in this statement. 00:31:28.780 --> 00:31:33.780 There's no reason to be disappointed or ashamed, because God will never disappoint. 00:31:36.360 --> 00:31:43.580 "This is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will 00:31:43.580 --> 00:31:48.980 be careful to engage in good deeds." So he's saying to us in this passage, listen. 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:56.780 There's a truth that we proclaim and because the truth that we proclaim and believe, there's a certain way that we are to live and 00:31:56.780 --> 00:32:03.860 he says we want to proclaim this truthfully and not be ashamed of it because of the way God calls us to live so that we can do this carefully." Now this isn't like I got to do this 00:32:03.860 --> 00:32:05.160 carefully because I might screw it up. 00:32:06.840 --> 00:32:11.620 But he's saying, be thoughtful. 00:32:12.080 --> 00:32:13.400 Don't let the world happen to you. 00:32:13.420 --> 00:32:14.480 You go happen to the world. 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:18.780 Be intentional about the place God's got you. 00:32:18.780 --> 00:32:24.050 You can't make a difference everywhere, but you can make a difference somewhere, and you have relationships to make a difference. 00:32:25.940 --> 00:32:28.320 If this truth is this freeing, it becomes that important. 00:32:29.300 --> 00:32:32.810 I heard a story once of a guy that was in California. 00:32:33.100 --> 00:32:40.180 An earthquake happened and he was driving in the night, and he saw in front of him the car driving just off a little bit in the distance, then all of a sudden, he saw 00:32:40.180 --> 00:32:40.800 the car disappears. 00:32:41.620 --> 00:32:48.880 So he slams on his brakes and he runs ahead to see why in the world this car just randomly disappeared, and he found out that the bridge was gone and a 70 foot 00:32:48.880 --> 00:32:50.660 plummet to the bottom to your death. 00:32:51.080 --> 00:32:58.440 And this guy put on his brakes and he starts running to his car and he can see traffic come on and he's just flailing his arms on the street trying to get cars to stop, and all they thought was this 00:32:58.440 --> 00:32:59.380 guy's insane. 00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:01.010 Lock your doors and hit the peddle right? 00:33:01.280 --> 00:33:05.280 He just watched car after car plummet, trying to stop them. 00:33:05.320 --> 00:33:08.040 All of a sudden he sees a bus, and he decided this is it. 00:33:08.780 --> 00:33:09.170 This is it. 00:33:09.320 --> 00:33:13.380 This bus is full of people and if this bus is going off the cliff, it's taking me with it. 00:33:13.860 --> 00:33:21.120 So he started just flailing his arms and eventually the bus stopped and the driver happened to just get out and at least ask enough, are you crazy or is there a reason, 00:33:21.340 --> 00:33:21.460 right? 00:33:21.720 --> 00:33:26.290 The guy informs him that what's taken place ahead on the road and that they would plummet to their death. 00:33:26.340 --> 00:33:31.880 So the bus positions himself not only to save the people on the bus but anyone else that could come through there. 00:33:31.960 --> 00:33:32.580 The point is this. 00:33:32.680 --> 00:33:33.920 The guy said this about that event. 00:33:35.160 --> 00:33:42.390 That when the magnitude of what the message he had to share was so important with reckless abandonment he did not care what people thought about him. 00:33:44.690 --> 00:33:46.990 It was too valuable to hold on. 00:33:49.340 --> 00:33:51.040 Guys, I think Jesus was the same way. 00:33:54.120 --> 00:33:55.480 I know there's tact in the way you do it. 00:33:55.540 --> 00:34:05.680 You don't want to just punch people in the arm and make them hate Jesus because you just but if Jesus really regenerates, renews, the 00:34:05.740 --> 00:34:07.980 thought of the way we share this becomes important being careful. 00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:17.060 Let me just look at this thought for one more minute in thinking about orthopraxy because he's saying what you say and how you live 00:34:17.380 --> 00:34:19.929 to be intentional for the sake of the world around you. 00:34:20.260 --> 00:34:27.699 Paul in these verses has shown us the attitude for which we are to consider as we go into this world, because he said 00:34:27.699 --> 00:34:36.300 to us in verse 2, "Malign no one, to be peaceable and gentle, considerate 00:34:36.300 --> 00:34:37.320 for all mankind." Why? 00:34:39.260 --> 00:34:39.500 Here's why. 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:40.260 Because they were you. 00:34:42.840 --> 00:34:47.980 For we also once were foolish ourselves. 00:34:48.780 --> 00:34:49.360 Malign no one. 00:34:50.860 --> 00:34:53.080 Rather Paul tells us how to live in the universe too. 00:34:53.100 --> 00:34:56.159 And the reason why is because we used to be those people. 00:34:58.300 --> 00:35:00.900 Honestly, sometimes we still struggle with where we are. 00:35:02.600 --> 00:35:04.960 Paul is sharing in this passage the heart of a world changer. 00:35:06.820 --> 00:35:10.160 The heart of a world changer rests on this one area. 00:35:10.720 --> 00:35:13.440 They never get over what Jesus did for them. 00:35:15.180 --> 00:35:16.110 That's the beauty in this passage. 00:35:16.300 --> 00:35:17.620 You see it in verse 3. 00:35:17.620 --> 00:35:24.360 "For we were once foolish ourselves," and then verse 4, "But God. 00:35:25.500 --> 00:35:32.600 But when the kindness of God our savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not because of what we've done, but because of what he has done 00:35:32.600 --> 00:35:39.660 for us." This is why I say for me, this is my favorite section of scripture, because it reminds me of the heart of compassion which Jesus 00:35:39.660 --> 00:35:41.220 desires to built in all of us. 00:35:43.040 --> 00:35:45.030 Jesus had a heart of compassion for this world. 00:35:46.100 --> 00:35:52.950 He became as we were to understand our suffering, so that he could relate to us, and then calls us to do the same. 00:35:54.140 --> 00:35:56.860 Jesus wept, the Bible tells us with compassion over Jerusalem. 00:35:58.020 --> 00:36:05.080 Jesus on the cross, while people crucified him, said, "Father forgive them." He understood what it was like to 00:36:05.080 --> 00:36:06.000 be in human skin. 00:36:08.740 --> 00:36:15.880 He calls us to be the same, to care for the people around us and to never forget what Jesus brought us 00:36:15.880 --> 00:36:17.700 from and what Jesus has brought us to. 00:36:17.740 --> 00:36:23.240 Remembering our past without Christ allows us to fight for a future for people in Christ. 00:36:24.860 --> 00:36:29.260 This becomes important guys, because this answers the question for us, what kind of church do you want to be? 00:36:30.720 --> 00:36:34.800 Jesus is the hope of the world, and we are his body by extension. 00:36:36.220 --> 00:36:38.720 Therefore Jesus desires to work his hope through you. 00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:44.480 Don't wait for people around you to be the answer because God sent you. 00:36:48.060 --> 00:36:53.740 Say it like this, that we should be willing to do whatever it takes, short of sin for people to know and enjoy Christ. 00:36:56.420 --> 00:36:57.140 You are the church. 00:36:59.480 --> 00:37:01.270 You are God's messenger. 00:37:02.300 --> 00:37:04.440 You are God's answer. 00:37:04.580 --> 00:37:10.620 Now sometimes we look at the church and we think, Jesus has done a great thing, but the rest of the world, oh, it's unsaveable now. 00:37:10.750 --> 00:37:15.900 Let's bury ourselves and let it go to hell in a hand basket, while we just appreciate what God's done around us. 00:37:16.060 --> 00:37:23.220 Yes, God has done a good thing, but the point of Titus chapter 3, verses 1 to 5, is that God's not finished doing a 00:37:23.220 --> 00:37:23.700 great thing. 00:37:25.620 --> 00:37:32.090 He is poised to continue to allow his miracle to work, through the hands of his people. 00:37:33.420 --> 00:37:41.320 As we remember where our hearts are apart from him, and now where our hearts rest because of him and 00:37:41.360 --> 00:37:47.420 invite others into that, as a church when you look at Titus chapter 3, verses 1 to 5, I can tell you this. 00:37:48.620 --> 00:37:50.580 We aren't in the heart of religiously perfect people. 00:37:54.720 --> 00:37:56.860 We're in the heart of a broken, sinful world. 00:37:59.640 --> 00:38:04.800 People that know that they need Jesus, or they need something at least. 00:38:06.620 --> 00:38:07.980 I think people know this world is broken. 00:38:09.800 --> 00:38:10.800 They look for a solution. 00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:17.500 That's why we get so many passionate people about so many topics in our society. 00:38:19.880 --> 00:38:20.500 But here's what we know. 00:38:21.820 --> 00:38:22.710 It's all broken. 00:38:25.860 --> 00:38:26.720 Jesus is the solution. 00:38:29.870 --> 00:38:32.480 Yeah, sometimes, and I should end with this. 00:38:32.700 --> 00:38:35.600 Sometimes we recognize our place in the world. 00:38:35.940 --> 00:38:43.300 I realize guys that being a light for Christ can seem overwhelming and daunting, but 00:38:43.300 --> 00:38:44.030 I want to remind you. 00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:47.220 God isn't calling you to be the savior. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:50.200 He already holds that title. 00:38:52.580 --> 00:38:55.100 What God's calling you to do is simply introduce people to him. 00:38:56.640 --> 00:38:58.740 Serve them, love them, speak truth to them. 00:39:00.980 --> 00:39:07.800 You'll naturally care and share the things that you're passionate about, but can I tell you some of the best ways I think I've learned to do that in my life? 00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:10.700 Meet them where they're at. 00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:15.440 Ask them what they've got going on in their life. 00:39:16.720 --> 00:39:17.420 Care about their heart. 00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:20.760 Listen to their story. 00:39:23.120 --> 00:39:27.920 As you listen to their story, share your story of how God changed yours, your life. 00:39:30.460 --> 00:39:36.300 I think asking questions of people begins to just show that you care about their soul. 00:39:38.100 --> 00:39:41.470 Jesus calls us to care about the hearts that we come in contact with. 00:39:43.560 --> 00:39:47.890 God cares about how you treat the person that you have the least to gain from in life. 00:39:49.420 --> 00:39:54.640 What do you say to the guy at McDonald's when he gets your order wrong or the person checking out in the supermarket when they take too long? 00:39:57.040 --> 00:39:58.450 God cares about that heart. 00:40:00.140 --> 00:40:03.800 God cares about how you treat that heart, especially when you don't have anything to gain from them. 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:11.670 Asking questions shows that you genuinely care about them, and Jesus was the master at that. 00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:16.580 Can I tell you one of the best ways to get a spiritual conversation started with people? 00:40:16.600 --> 00:40:18.430 Is just to ask them, what do you think about Jesus? 00:40:22.070 --> 00:40:23.360 What do you think of who he is? 00:40:25.940 --> 00:40:27.820 You get to share who you think Christ is. 00:40:27.900 --> 00:40:34.960 You saw a verse, Titus chapter 2, verse 13, or the section of scripture today, to walk through it, because here's what happens 00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:36.340 in our lives when we hear this message. 00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:43.500 These last two verses say this, that, "But to avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, strife and disputes about the law for 00:40:43.540 --> 00:40:44.690 they are unprofitable and worthless. 00:40:44.940 --> 00:40:50.980 Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned." He's saying this. 00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:58.540 Because it gets easy to get sidetracked, sometimes we make these things important that aren't important, like in Paul's day 00:40:58.540 --> 00:41:04.440 they cared about these certain controversies and genealogies, like God cares who your dad is, like that's going to make a difference. 00:41:04.920 --> 00:41:05.780 God cares about your heart. 00:41:07.640 --> 00:41:08.980 You don't get to name drop before God. 00:41:11.220 --> 00:41:11.990 Genealogy is not going to matter. 00:41:14.680 --> 00:41:17.440 We can get sidetracked in these secondary issues that make no difference. 00:41:19.220 --> 00:41:26.280 Or, we can get into a tiff with someone that's a factious person and the frustration of working with that 00:41:26.280 --> 00:41:27.810 person can lead our hearts astray. 00:41:28.420 --> 00:41:31.640 You know what the best way to find out if someone really wants to learn about spiritual things? 00:41:32.300 --> 00:41:32.740 Ask this question. 00:41:32.880 --> 00:41:34.200 If what you believe isn't true, do you want to know? 00:41:36.840 --> 00:41:38.580 That will tell you if they're open to a conversation or not. 00:41:40.460 --> 00:41:47.620 But the point is in our lives to see this, that God has you in a place to make a difference, and what Jesus does in your heart 00:41:48.580 --> 00:41:55.740 is too important to let it stop with you because the transformation that God has brought into your life is 00:41:55.740 --> 00:42:01.120 a blessing to the lives of those around you, and you want them to experience that blessing too. 00:42:02.240 --> 00:42:08.880 Because just as God changed your heart in the midst of that darkness, that same miracle-working God is on the move today.