WEBVTT 00:00:00.540 --> 00:00:08.180 As a church family, Titus Chapter 3, we're ending this chapter today and I'm gonna talk a little bit with a few verses at the end of this book that 00:00:08.180 --> 00:00:11.640 we haven't hit on yet, and talk specifically about our church. 00:00:12.260 --> 00:00:13.500 I want us to just really... 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:20.860 This is the clean-up batter's position here this morning on things that we just haven't touched on as it relates to healthy church. 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:29.520 You know, I want to start off with this thought today, and that's just to recognize that this morning, this room, this is God's 00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:30.620 team. 00:00:31.220 --> 00:00:38.240 What makes a church important isn't the facility you go to worship in, it's the people around you, and it's the health of 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:44.360 the heart of the individual that sits beside of you, or even your own personal heart as it relates to your relationship with God. 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:47.920 God's people are called to live out his mission in this world. 00:00:48.020 --> 00:00:52.590 When God created the church, he created the church for a purpose, and what you do matters. 00:00:53.720 --> 00:01:00.760 It reflects on this world the goodness of who He is, and when we gather together on a morning like this, I 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:07.940 don't want to take for granted just how sacred and special these moments are, and how sacred and special that you are 00:01:07.940 --> 00:01:11.780 to the world because of what Jesus has called you to do. 00:01:12.220 --> 00:01:19.220 When you think about the beauty of scripture and the way God has worked throughout scripture, in 1 00:01:19.220 --> 00:01:22.370 Kings, God has his people build a temple. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:26.680 It became the place where his presence dwelt, the kind of glory of God. 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:31.050 If you wanted to meet God, it was known that the presence of the temple is where that took place. 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:38.080 The interesting thing about the temple was that only one person could actually go into the building one time a year, right? 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:39.280 It's like building a church building. 00:01:39.560 --> 00:01:46.780 All of us worship in the parking lot, only one person can walk in, but when the first temple was built, there was a tabernacle that followed 00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:47.620 Israel around. 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:51.680 They finally built the first temple, 1 Kings 8 records what happens. 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:58.920 It says, “When the priest came out from the Holy place after they commissioned it before the Lord, the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:05.920 could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of Lord filled the house of the Lord.” And, so they saw the beauty of God's presence 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:07.180 made known in this temple. 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:10.060 But, something happens between the Old Testament and the New Testament. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:12.420 In the Old Testament, God dwelt in this temple. 00:02:12.420 --> 00:02:13.340 That's where his presence was. 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:15.710 God wanted his temple to be a place for the nations. 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.850 Jesus comes and says he's gonna destroy the temple and in three days rebuild it. 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:20.340 He hangs on the cross. 00:02:21.040 --> 00:02:28.220 He says to tell us all paid in full, meaning the payment for your sins paid in full, and he tears the temple in two, 00:02:28.220 --> 00:02:31.380 and it's to signify that the presence of God no longer dwells in the temple. 00:02:31.440 --> 00:02:35.920 In fact, in the Book of Acts, which is the only historical book that we have in the New Testament... 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:38.440 By category, it's the only historical book. 00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:39.970 You can learn history from the New Testament. 00:02:41.660 --> 00:02:46.320 It falls under that category and you see the disciples talking over and over about this idea of the temple. 00:02:46.820 --> 00:02:53.200 Look what it's saying in chapter seven and chapter 17, the most high does not dwell in houses made by human hands. 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:57.260 Or, chapter 17, the Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands. 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:05.920 What they're recognizing for us is the sacredness of really who you are because what happens in the New Testament is rather than this facility where people 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:08.850 gather that you have become the temple. 00:03:09.380 --> 00:03:16.380 1st Corinthians 3:16, 6:19 both say that, but in 2nd Corinthians 6:16, another verse, it says, “For we are the temple of the 00:03:16.380 --> 00:03:23.540 living God just as God said I will dwell in them.” God's desire was to make his presence 00:03:23.540 --> 00:03:29.800 known in your life, to reside in you as you give your life to the Lord because of the payment Christ has made for you on the cross. 00:03:30.420 --> 00:03:32.680 God dwells in you, and is with you wherever you. 00:03:33.140 --> 00:03:37.880 In fact, he gave that promise to his people as they live for him in this world. 00:03:38.200 --> 00:03:45.300 He says this in Hebrews 13:5, “For He Himself has said I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” When you think in the Old 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:47.640 Testament you want to experience the presence of God, you go to the temple. 00:03:48.700 --> 00:03:54.280 All of a sudden, God's presence is no longer in the temple and you say to yourself, “Okay, how in the world are we ever going to experience the presence of God? 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:58.960 What hope do we have?” Then, God gives this promise to you that He will dwell in you and with you. 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:07.520 Though he left the physical temple, He will never forsake you. 00:04:09.100 --> 00:04:10.900 God's presence is with you always. 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:13.860 In fact, that's the promise He gave you in Matthew 28:20. 00:04:13.920 --> 00:04:15.080 I will be with you wherever you. 00:04:15.460 --> 00:04:20.660 In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 and 2nd Corinthians 1:22, you are sealed by God. 00:04:21.660 --> 00:04:29.140 That word for sealing is actually an important phrase in the early church in this time period when a ruler, 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:33.000 a dignitary, would seal something, his stamp of approval could not be broken. 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:37.460 The only one that could break his seal was his authority or someone more powerful. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:41.290 There were times where his seal couldn't even be broken based on the edict, or the decree, that he made. 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:50.960 When Jesus is saying He's sealed you, there is no one more powerful than God that can break that seal, so 00:04:50.960 --> 00:04:51.720 you belong to him. 00:04:53.420 --> 00:04:55.940 His presence is with you wherever you go. 00:04:57.900 --> 00:05:03.000 How sacred and special you are to this world. 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:08.820 How we treat one another, what is said here, is so important because you are important. 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:11.880 Christ in you. 00:05:14.580 --> 00:05:15.760 What a gift that is to us. 00:05:17.220 --> 00:05:24.380 What a gift that makes you to the world, and the understanding of what God has called you to now in light of what 00:05:24.380 --> 00:05:25.760 He has done for you. 00:05:27.020 --> 00:05:34.740 I think about Alpine Bible Church, and where God has us, there are a people around you, a generation beyond 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:41.840 you that can be blessed by your pursuit of God and desire to know Him and make Him known in 00:05:41.840 --> 00:05:42.300 your life. 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:48.560 One of the things that we've said together in this series is that you will make a disciple of something. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:51.980 God calls us to be disciples of Him. 00:05:52.040 --> 00:05:55.170 We said the church exists, we don't define its purpose. 00:05:55.240 --> 00:05:56.600 God declares its purpose. 00:05:56.940 --> 00:05:59.570 It's in the two greats, the great commission, the great commandment. 00:05:59.820 --> 00:06:05.530 The great commission is go in the world and make disciples of all nations, but he tells of what. 00:06:06.080 --> 00:06:13.320 In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit because you will make a disciple of something, and the reason you will make a disciple of something is because 00:06:13.320 --> 00:06:15.360 your heart cherishes and values something. 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:17.540 You will worship something with your life. 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:24.860 You will attribute worth, value and meaning to something, and what your heart longs for, what your heart aspires to will attract other 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:26.540 people to want to belong to that. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:28.280 You will make a disciple of something. 00:06:30.100 --> 00:06:31.080 Question is of what? 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:33.510 What do you love? 00:06:33.660 --> 00:06:34.320 What do you care about? 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:39.170 What's important to you? 00:06:40.080 --> 00:06:46.480 Understanding your influence is significant to understanding what God has called us to in this world. 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:55.460 To examine our hearts and look at our desires, and recognize what are we producing and is 00:06:55.460 --> 00:06:56.360 it worth producing? 00:06:58.260 --> 00:06:59.540 God calls us to live on mission. 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:04.680 God challenges us to grow in our relationship with Him. 00:07:04.700 --> 00:07:10.720 At the end of the Book of Titus, He really positions two ways to think about our lives. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:18.040 In verse 9-11, He says it like this, “When you think about living intentionally in life, living on purpose and pursuit of God, 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:25.160 and knowing Him and making Him known in this world,” he says this, “But, avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife, and disputes about the 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:27.380 law for they are unprofitable and worthless. 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:37.620 Reject the factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.” The 00:07:37.620 --> 00:07:42.220 warning in this passage is that it's easy in our lives to get distracted. 00:07:43.640 --> 00:07:50.800 Recognize within these verses that what's happening in the life of this individual is that they're having external debates over 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.560 secondary issues that really don't matter in the grand scheme of life. 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:57.950 They're not really focusing on heart struggles. 00:07:58.960 --> 00:08:01.360 The secondary things, ultimately who cares. 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:06.920 It's like you get in a circle to make a difference, and you end up just talking about weather, where you went hunting and who won the football game. 00:08:08.660 --> 00:08:18.220 I mean, it was pretty cool to watch the University of Utah last night, I have to admit, but does 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:18.580 it matter? 00:08:20.580 --> 00:08:23.000 Is that what we remain fixated on? 00:08:25.080 --> 00:08:31.000 I know within the passages of scripture, getting into particulars about this, I know Paul doesn't have football in mind. 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:32.240 Football is not even invented here. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.900 In verse nine, he refers to this as foolish controversies. 00:08:37.780 --> 00:08:39.570 Avoid foolish controversies. 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:44.140 You think, I want to go back and figure out what exactly these guys were arguing about. 00:08:44.179 --> 00:08:47.000 I could see Titus writing, “Here's the church, here's the questions they have. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:54.340 Paul, how could you respond to this in a Godly way?” Paul says very simply, “Who cares?” Nobody cares about 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:55.560 that. 00:08:55.860 --> 00:08:56.380 What's the point? 00:08:56.520 --> 00:09:00.520 Some problems are just so petty, they're not intended to be addressed so get over it. 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:02.560 That's really what he's saying here. 00:09:03.380 --> 00:09:08.040 “Titus, this is stupid.” The foolish controversies. 00:09:08.040 --> 00:09:08.500 Really? 00:09:08.540 --> 00:09:10.340 Is this what we're going to fixate on as God's committee? 00:09:10.520 --> 00:09:13.940 We've got bigger fish to fry here in what God has called us to. 00:09:13.940 --> 00:09:18.320 Let's not fixate on these small issues because they sideline us. 00:09:20.160 --> 00:09:24.650 He begins to share the thought that maybe one of those is the area of genealogy. 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:29.200 Everyone going around trying to tout who they are because of who their parents were. 00:09:32.680 --> 00:09:33.740 God doesn't care who your daddy is. 00:09:37.460 --> 00:09:38.720 God's not interested in name dropping. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:42.700 God's interested in your heart. 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.500 Everyone that comes to Jesus comes to Jesus the same way. 00:09:48.640 --> 00:09:49.250 It's through the cross. 00:09:52.140 --> 00:09:57.450 There is no special privileges based on whoever you might be associated with or wherever you came from. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:00.500 It's Jesus or no Jesus. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:09.760 Avoid these controversies and genealogies, arguing over the law, and Jesus paid for it all. 00:10:11.420 --> 00:10:16.760 When we were condemned in the law of Christ bought us in Him, so Jesus fulfilled all of the law. 00:10:17.700 --> 00:10:19.820 It's Jesus or not. 00:10:19.820 --> 00:10:21.040 Where's your heart in this? 00:10:21.300 --> 00:10:22.800 Then, he just describes it like this. 00:10:22.820 --> 00:10:29.920 He says, “It's unprofitable and worthless.” He identifies this person in the very last verse as 00:10:29.920 --> 00:10:33.170 perverted and sinning and being self-condemned. 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:40.280 This idea of being perverted is really saying he's tearing things up, he's making things worse. 00:10:40.380 --> 00:10:43.860 When you think about what they're contributing to the body of Christ, there's no gain here. 00:10:47.680 --> 00:10:55.400 There's no benefit to it, leaving us with the questions are you holding onto anything that keeps 00:10:55.400 --> 00:11:01.410 you from seeing God working in your life or the lives of those around you? 00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:07.320 What would happen if you just let it go and make priority the things that should be the priority? 00:11:09.430 --> 00:11:15.810 Does it really matter the things that often get us worked up that we fight for, or fight over? 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:23.700 You may not be able to control the things that happen to you in life, but you can control how long you choose to stay there. 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:35.740 Often times in life, and I am definitely this way as a person, that you can have a thousand things go right, but one thing go wrong and 00:11:35.740 --> 00:11:38.100 that's where your mind is for the rest of the day, right? 00:11:39.040 --> 00:11:40.320 The perfectionist mentality. 00:11:42.220 --> 00:11:49.220 You want the hundred things that are all good and wonderful over here, but then there's the one squeaky wheel that in a minute you got 00:11:49.220 --> 00:11:52.270 some quiet time, you can just hear it rotating over and over in your head. 00:11:52.920 --> 00:11:56.820 What Paul's saying is at some point you just got to let squeaky wheels squeak. 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:01.410 The question is well, when do you stop and just let the squeaky wheel squeak? 00:12:01.500 --> 00:12:04.220 Well, he tells you after the second warning in verse 10. 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:11.360 Go to it, do something about it, second time maybe stop by, but man, get over it because what God's called you to in this world is 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:18.420 so much bigger than just to fixate on the one problem when a thousand things Jesus desires to do and work through in your life. 00:12:21.680 --> 00:12:26.080 Find where God's moving and move with Him. 00:12:26.400 --> 00:12:33.740 Let God work through those avenues, so why He looks at how people are pulling away from the 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:39.020 idea of what God desires for the church to do because what God's called them to do is so important, so special. 00:12:39.660 --> 00:12:46.320 He then works, in verse 12 he starts to talk about the way that their minds should focus towards where God has called them. 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:51.790 He says this, “But, when I send Artemis and Tychicus to you.” Paul's like I'm moving on from this. 00:12:52.280 --> 00:12:56.060 Answer the problems, after a second warning, here we go. 00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:56.740 We're moving on. 00:12:56.940 --> 00:12:59.440 We're sending these people out in the world and we're doing things for Jesus. 00:12:59.780 --> 00:13:07.280 When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me an accomplice for I have desired to spend the winter there, diligently 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:12.220 help Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their way so that nothing is lacking from them. 00:13:12.260 --> 00:13:13.580 Great kids names, right? 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:14.960 Throwing those out for you today. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:16.120 Merry Christmas. 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:23.300 Or, our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs so they will not be unfruitful. 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:25.300 All who are with me greet you. 00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:27.400 Greet those who love us in the faith. 00:13:27.540 --> 00:13:28.680 Grace be with you all. 00:13:29.700 --> 00:13:30.130 I love this. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:32.480 He's sending them on a mission. 00:13:33.520 --> 00:13:40.540 I know in Christianity, sometimes you got people that get so worried, they get so focused on the holiness of 00:13:40.540 --> 00:13:40.760 God... 00:13:40.900 --> 00:13:47.420 Good thing to be focused on, but they feel like they need to take the position of God to make sure that holiness is lived out because you can't control everything, right? 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:49.300 God calls us to be holy. 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:52.520 We don't need to be sinful, and you just fixate on that. 00:13:52.560 --> 00:13:56.050 All that you can do is your life becomes about telling people they're doing things wrong. 00:13:56.280 --> 00:13:58.320 You've become the Holy Spirit. 00:13:58.320 --> 00:13:59.930 No one wants to be around you anymore. 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:01.040 Paul's like, “Look, man. 00:14:01.280 --> 00:14:04.640 You can't do that in people's hearts, but here's what we're going to do. 00:14:04.680 --> 00:14:09.540 We're going to send people, and we're going to look for people that want to see Jesus made known in their lives, and we're going to share that with them. 00:14:09.700 --> 00:14:19.760 We're going to partner with that, and we need to at some point just let those things go so we can move forward in what God has called us to do together.” Verse 00:14:19.760 --> 00:14:23.420 14, he really gets to the crux of what he's about. 00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:26.840 He's sending all these people around, but here's what he's after. 00:14:28.580 --> 00:14:35.680 Our people must learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs, so that 00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:37.140 they will not be unfruitful. 00:14:39.620 --> 00:14:40.020 I love this. 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:42.560 We need to learn. 00:14:44.540 --> 00:14:46.310 We need to learn what this looks like. 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:50.670 We need to always be engaging with your mind to see where God is working. 00:14:53.170 --> 00:14:55.640 The place that God has put you in this world is so important. 00:14:58.170 --> 00:15:04.060 I don't mean to say this to stress us out, because look guys, I think I've said this to us a few times. 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:06.060 You can't make a difference everywhere. 00:15:07.300 --> 00:15:14.270 Sometimes we can get so overwhelmed by all the needs in the world that we just get paralyzed and not able to move forward because we can't simplify. 00:15:17.020 --> 00:15:21.580 You're not going to make a difference everywhere, but you can choose to make a difference somewhere. 00:15:23.660 --> 00:15:30.660 God builds relationships in your life, in different seasons of your life, to make that difference, but in our minds, it 00:15:30.660 --> 00:15:37.740 becomes our responsibility to remember how precious it is in where we live, and to never let our thought go from how we can glorify God where we 00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:37.860 are. 00:15:39.960 --> 00:15:45.940 Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs. 00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:51.320 This idea of pressing need is a thought of what's actually important. 00:15:52.760 --> 00:16:01.060 You see in verse 9-11, here they are fixating on secondary issues that really aren't going to matter five seconds from now, but 00:16:01.060 --> 00:16:09.660 our people really need to hone in on the heart, to minister where people are, to 00:16:09.660 --> 00:16:11.760 meet those pressing needs. 00:16:13.180 --> 00:16:20.360 I love the way he says it here at the end, "so they will not be unfruitful." When 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:27.460 we get stuck in things, we can't let things go, we can't move forward because we're there, that's the 00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:27.910 danger. 00:16:28.040 --> 00:16:34.760 You become unfruitful, but God's desire for us in this verse is to do good deeds, to meet pressing needs so that we are not unfruitful. 00:16:36.760 --> 00:16:38.880 I like thinking about this word fruit for a minute. 00:16:38.880 --> 00:16:41.860 It's painted in the scripture for us. 00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:48.270 When you think about fruit, probably the most famous passage is Galatians, chapter five, walk in the spirit and you're going to bear fruit. 00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:49.660 That's what it tells us to in that passage. 00:16:50.340 --> 00:16:57.360 Here's the neat thing about fruit, and where I want to position this verse for us because it talks about doing good deeds, and it talks about bearing fruit, 00:16:57.740 --> 00:17:01.960 but I want us to recognize that good deeds aren't necessarily bearing fruit. 00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:03.920 These are two different things. 00:17:03.940 --> 00:17:05.859 That's why they're distinguished in this verse, okay? 00:17:06.260 --> 00:17:13.400 You certainly do good deeds, and from that you see fruit bore, but when the bible talks about fruit, it's not actually talking about physical 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:14.150 deeds. 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:19.410 When you're reading Galatians, chapter five, often times it references the word fruit. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:22.069 It tells us the fruit of the spirit and then it goes on to describe it. 00:17:22.300 --> 00:17:24.140 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness. 00:17:24.520 --> 00:17:25.800 Those aren't really deeds. 00:17:25.900 --> 00:17:29.760 Those are fruits of the heart that come out because of the spirit. 00:17:29.760 --> 00:17:31.280 They're relational words. 00:17:32.360 --> 00:17:39.380 The reason I think this is important for us to recognize is because when we talk about deeds, the deeds that we do as a church are never intended just to be a 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:40.660 deed done unto itself. 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:49.180 That the intention behind anything that we do as God's people ministering for his kingdom is always about the heart that we desire to reach for God's glory and encourage 00:17:49.180 --> 00:17:49.700 in Him. 00:17:51.240 --> 00:17:54.720 Now, we don't love people just to simply manipulate them to get them to come to Jesus. 00:17:55.600 --> 00:18:02.740 We love people because Jesus loves people, and in loving people the way Jesus calls us to love people, the attraction is that they see the beauty of that love 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:05.300 is birthed out of what Christ has done for us. 00:18:06.020 --> 00:18:12.860 The result maybe that they come to know Jesus, or if they do know Jesus, they're encouraged further by Jesus, but we're not here to just manipulate the heart. 00:18:12.920 --> 00:18:20.160 We love hearts because God calls us to love hearts, but the point of all this is to say look, what God is after is fruit, and what fruit is isn't 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:27.200 simply accomplishing a deed, but to leverage works in order to minister to hearts because what Jesus ultimately cares 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:28.090 about is people. 00:18:30.860 --> 00:18:34.900 When we talk about bearing fruit as God's people, here's how it starts for us. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:39.220 Galatians 5, walk in the spirit and you will bear the fruit. 00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:49.000 In the life of the believer, it begins by surrendering your heart because it's not my fruit, and 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:50.170 it's not fruit I can fabricate. 00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:58.180 It's the fruit of the spirit, and the spirit only moves in my life when I'm surrendered to the calling that God has placed on me. 00:18:59.820 --> 00:19:01.640 Jesus, I give over my life to you. 00:19:03.560 --> 00:19:10.780 I don't want to remain stuck in secondary issues that keep me trapped from living a life that's unfruitful, but 00:19:10.800 --> 00:19:11.720 your kingdom and glory. 00:19:13.080 --> 00:19:14.060 God, your will be done. 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:23.540 When I walk that path of surrendering to him, yes, I may physical do things but the pursuit 00:19:23.540 --> 00:19:30.740 of physically doing things is to bless the heart of others, because the fruit of the spirit is all about relationship. 00:19:32.500 --> 00:19:34.940 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. 00:19:36.080 --> 00:19:37.200 I want to serve God's people. 00:19:38.700 --> 00:19:39.740 I want to serve this world. 00:19:41.100 --> 00:19:47.560 I don't want to be unfruitful, but I want to be a part of a community that makes a difference. 00:19:47.600 --> 00:19:49.710 I want to be the church that makes the difference. 00:19:52.260 --> 00:20:02.160 You think some people like to be the best church in the community, and 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:04.360 I want to be a cool church. 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:06.920 I want to be the best church that we can be, right? 00:20:07.020 --> 00:20:11.460 Some churches get focused on competing with other churches in order to be the best church in the community. 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:12.640 I don't want to worry about that. 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:16.580 I would rather be the best church for the community. 00:20:18.100 --> 00:20:19.190 Do you understand the difference? 00:20:19.300 --> 00:20:23.040 There's the best church in the community, it's a popularity contest, and then there's the best church for the community. 00:20:23.840 --> 00:20:29.980 The best church for the community isn't really about the popularity contest, but just living to bless the lives of other people around them. 00:20:32.080 --> 00:20:39.340 In the end of that, people, they may praise you, they may not praise you but the glory goes to God through that, right? 00:20:39.340 --> 00:20:42.820 I like the way the early church said it in Acts 15. 00:20:43.580 --> 00:20:47.560 Church exists not for me. 00:20:49.900 --> 00:20:52.040 I know I get benefit from the body of Christ. 00:20:52.620 --> 00:20:59.680 I know there's love and encouragement in the body of Christ, but God called his church on a mission to bless the lives of people around them, to be 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:00.720 a light in this world. 00:21:01.940 --> 00:21:09.100 I don't walk in on Sunday about what I can get, but if I walk in rather like this, what can I give? 00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:15.620 When I live a life that desires to bless people and it creates that common culture, here's what happens in the people around me. 00:21:16.100 --> 00:21:21.100 They live their life for that reason, too, and the church community becomes contagious. 00:21:21.280 --> 00:21:22.240 It becomes a beautiful place. 00:21:23.740 --> 00:21:31.100 We don't get fixated on all sort of traditions that become un-relatable to the society around you, but rather we step 00:21:31.100 --> 00:21:38.180 into the church and we ask the question, “How can we establish a church in a way that blesses the society around us?” You see that a lot 00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:45.460 in churches, that they start to die, because they get so fixated on their own tradition they can no longer connect with the people around them, and 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:50.740 they would rather hold to their tradition and die than to figure out how to leverage what God's giving them to bless lives around them. 00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:54.600 In fact, in Acts, chapter 15, you see the heart of that in the church. 00:21:55.820 --> 00:22:02.530 In Acts 15, they're having a debate among the apostles as it relates to the gospel, and then when they reach the conclusion this is what they say. 00:22:03.300 --> 00:22:07.310 It just gives us a little peering into where their heart is as they see their church in their community. 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:14.480 It says this, “We should not make it difficult for the gentiles who are turning to God.” That's how they see 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:14.900 their community. 00:22:17.120 --> 00:22:18.880 God, you've called us in this world. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:24.500 You've made your light known in us, where your spirit has sealed and dwells. 00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:27.080 Your presence is in us wherever we go. 00:22:27.480 --> 00:22:34.580 God, you came and sought me out to bless me and my life that I may know you, enjoy you, all of 00:22:34.580 --> 00:22:40.520 the days of my life into eternity in your presence forever, and God, you desire to work that same miracle... 00:22:40.520 --> 00:22:45.490 You're that same miracle working God that worked in my heart, that desires to work in the heart beside of me. 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:53.080 God, how can we use us as your people to reach more, to bear fruit for your kingdom? 00:22:55.360 --> 00:22:55.960 Acts 15. 00:22:57.560 --> 00:23:00.400 We should not make it difficult for the gentiles who are turning to God. 00:23:02.840 --> 00:23:05.680 We don't want to put extra obstacles in front of people. 00:23:07.980 --> 00:23:12.320 We just want them to know Jesus desires to make Himself known in their lives. 00:23:13.780 --> 00:23:20.820 The truth is difficult enough to wrestle with in our lives because the truth calls us to die to self, and we sure do 00:23:20.820 --> 00:23:21.840 like making self king. 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:27.160 But, in calling us to die to self, it calls us to live for something far greater than ourselves. 00:23:28.820 --> 00:23:31.600 There's a wrestling that happens internally in all of us when that happens. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:36.460 We should make the truth the only obstacle people have to wrestle with in order to know Him. 00:23:37.840 --> 00:23:39.620 You see this attitude in the church. 00:23:39.700 --> 00:23:46.740 They have this servant heart for the benefit of others because Jesus served them, but let's not make it difficult for the gentiles who are turning to 00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:50.160 God, that they may know and enjoy God. 00:23:50.860 --> 00:23:55.520 We think about our church, how does that look in our culture? 00:23:55.520 --> 00:24:02.540 How can we do this in the context of where ABC presently rests because there are people around us and a generation 00:24:02.540 --> 00:24:06.370 beyond us that, as we pursue Jesus, can be a blessing to this world? 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:15.480 God, what can you do in my heart right now that who I am leaves a legacy that outlasts beyond me, and 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:22.560 it may not be that they remember me, but the remnants of what we are 00:24:22.560 --> 00:24:26.680 about, because of this church and this community. 00:24:29.080 --> 00:24:34.980 Let us not to get caught up on the secondary issues, but to pursue people for the cause of Christ, loving them as Jesus loves. 00:24:35.120 --> 00:24:37.420 We said we don't invent the purpose of the church. 00:24:37.580 --> 00:24:44.860 Jesus called the purpose of the church, and we recognize that wherever God calls His church to in this world, which is throughout the whole word, that the 00:24:44.860 --> 00:24:47.080 gospel need looks different in different places. 00:24:48.380 --> 00:24:53.740 We say within the context of Utah, one of the most powerful things that people fight against here is loneliness. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.400 That's a result of sin. 00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:59.140 As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, Adam and Eve were separated from their relationship with God. 00:24:59.180 --> 00:25:00.010 They knew that they were naked. 00:25:00.260 --> 00:25:01.800 They ran and they hid, and they clothed themselves. 00:25:02.280 --> 00:25:07.450 They see a division in their relationship between one another and their relationship with God, and people don't know what to do with that. 00:25:09.120 --> 00:25:14.200 The default in human nature is to think that religion is the answer, and religion will never get you there. 00:25:15.040 --> 00:25:16.420 Religion is never the answer. 00:25:17.100 --> 00:25:22.980 Religion only teaches you how to cover yourself up more in order to try and pretty yourself before God, but religion will never do that. 00:25:22.980 --> 00:25:30.040 In fact, in the Garden of Eden, as soon as God came to Adam and Eve, and He saw their religion of fig leaves on the outside, he stripped them of their fig leaves and He promised 00:25:30.040 --> 00:25:32.050 them the coming of the Messiah who would die for their sins. 00:25:32.460 --> 00:25:33.460 The answer isn't religion. 00:25:33.460 --> 00:25:36.000 The answer is Jesus and the relationship with Him for which you were called. 00:25:37.120 --> 00:25:37.800 Jesus paid it all. 00:25:39.760 --> 00:25:44.040 There's a need in our society, in this loneliness, that God calls us on missions. 00:25:44.040 --> 00:25:45.700 We say it very simply in our church. 00:25:46.460 --> 00:25:53.560 We want people to experience that transformation in Jesus, because we understand it transforms our 00:25:53.560 --> 00:25:55.110 relationships for Jesus. 00:25:57.900 --> 00:25:59.080 Your life was made that simplistically. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:04.120 You're created to know God and to enjoy Him for all of eternity. 00:26:06.220 --> 00:26:07.000 You don't define your purpose. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:13.320 God did when He made you, so coming to Him, we find the basis for which we exist. 00:26:13.820 --> 00:26:20.220 When you think about our culture, we've asked the question as a church over the years, how can the ABC do this well? 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:25.920 How can we create a culture that values this, that upholds our mission as a church? 00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:33.160 I'm just going to go through these very quickly, but these are seven thoughts that we've said okay, if we just walk with these thoughts as it relates to 00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:40.120 our church, we can see a culture within our lives that lives to make a difference in the community that we are in. 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:48.260 This first one is more of a belief than it is a value, but I like to keep this at the forefront of the our lives because this 00:26:48.260 --> 00:26:51.460 was at the forefront of Paul's way of thinking. 00:26:52.220 --> 00:26:55.990 In Philippians, chapter three, Paul solidified his whole life. 00:26:56.600 --> 00:27:03.040 Philippians, chapter three, is the chapter where Paul gave up on his religion and stepped into a relationship with God. 00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:08.940 He listed everything that made him a religious man, and he said I counted [inaudible 00:27:06] and I pursue this one thing, that I may know Him. 00:27:11.320 --> 00:27:18.520 This becomes important to the vitality, the health of any church that you can't do anything effective for Jesus without first walking with Jesus. 00:27:20.380 --> 00:27:22.220 You can not impart what you do not possess. 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:32.320 We say as a community that when we walk out of this church building, what you do beyond these walls are important, but 00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:39.420 it makes this moment so valuable because this is where your heart connects with God, and it should continue to connect with God as you leave, but in that connection to God, 00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:42.360 that's where the overflow of your relationship with God impacts this world. 00:27:44.140 --> 00:27:48.860 Our heart's desire is to know God in all that we are. 00:27:48.900 --> 00:27:54.140 This thought of worship, connecting to Him, and delighting in Him both now and for all of eternity. 00:27:55.040 --> 00:27:57.600 The way that we connect with Him is through His truth. 00:27:57.780 --> 00:27:59.160 Truth is the catalyst for change. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:00.780 Truth transforms. 00:28:00.780 --> 00:28:02.020 Truth frees us. 00:28:02.360 --> 00:28:04.380 Truth is a means by which we worship God. 00:28:04.380 --> 00:28:11.580 Jesus told the woman at the well, “He who worships must worship me in spirit and in truth.” It's not who you say 00:28:11.580 --> 00:28:12.080 God is. 00:28:12.080 --> 00:28:13.960 It's who God says He is. 00:28:15.160 --> 00:28:18.780 To know the truth of this God, because that is the only God that can set you free. 00:28:19.220 --> 00:28:20.690 To have faith in something. 00:28:21.830 --> 00:28:27.380 It's faith and truth that saves, not just simply faith, and that truth is in Christ, right? 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:35.740 You can have all the faith in the world, but if what you believe in isn't true, it doesn't matter, but a little bit of faith in 00:28:35.740 --> 00:28:37.830 what is true can make all the difference in the world. 00:28:42.030 --> 00:28:46.640 It's not the size of your faith, but the size of your God. 00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:49.000 We don't just say it's about truth. 00:28:49.160 --> 00:28:56.220 It's truth and love, and there's a big difference there because some people like to preach the truth just to show others how right they are, how right 00:28:56.220 --> 00:28:59.000 they are and how wrong others are, and that's not the purpose of it. 00:29:00.860 --> 00:29:07.280 God gives us truth to serve us that we could experience the truth for which we were called to be set free in Him. 00:29:07.420 --> 00:29:10.680 We don't use truth to beat people up, but to serve people in Jesus. 00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:17.740 It's not about proving we're right and other people are wrong, but to understand the grace which set us free as God gives 00:29:17.740 --> 00:29:19.870 His grace to set others free as well. 00:29:21.860 --> 00:29:25.660 We know God, and we share the truth and love, our attitude and the way we present. 00:29:26.120 --> 00:29:28.180 To be right in the wrong way is to still be wrong. 00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:33.440 We want to share this truth and love. 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:35.430 The next is connect in community. 00:29:37.140 --> 00:29:41.440 You can't love as Jesus calls you to love without having people to love around you. 00:29:43.740 --> 00:29:45.940 It is impossible to follow Jesus without a community. 00:29:47.580 --> 00:29:49.100 If you don't belong to a church... 00:29:49.500 --> 00:29:50.640 It doesn't have to be Alpine Bible Church... 00:29:51.620 --> 00:29:55.020 it is impossible to do what Jesus calls you to do without belonging to a community. 00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:01.600 Jesus calls you to bear fruit by loving on those around you. 00:30:02.860 --> 00:30:06.540 God has placed you on a team to make a difference in this world. 00:30:07.520 --> 00:30:11.030 To not be a part of that team is to not be a part of what Jesus calls you to do. 00:30:11.560 --> 00:30:12.660 This is Jesus's bride. 00:30:14.180 --> 00:30:15.120 Don't beat up on his bride. 00:30:16.560 --> 00:30:23.580 I don't think Jesus will take that lightly, but we care about what Jesus's bride does, and therefore we care about the people that 00:30:23.580 --> 00:30:24.720 make up Jesus's bride. 00:30:25.980 --> 00:30:33.100 God desires for us to connect in community and, I said in the beginning, if Utah's such a lonely place for some people, if we struggle with that, this should make 00:30:33.100 --> 00:30:34.840 community highly important to us. 00:30:36.020 --> 00:30:37.480 To understand who we are in light of who God is. 00:30:37.800 --> 00:30:43.500 When God gives us spiritual gifts, the spiritual giftedness that God gives us, is intended to be related in community. 00:30:43.800 --> 00:30:47.520 You can never exercise what God's given you to exercise without having a community to exercise it with. 00:30:49.580 --> 00:30:50.460 Love is love. 00:30:50.700 --> 00:30:57.720 When we talk about God being love, and if you belong to God, who is love, you can't love as God calls you 00:30:57.720 --> 00:30:59.100 to love without people to deeply love. 00:30:59.400 --> 00:31:00.990 Love loves when it's difficult love. 00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:08.690 I know sometimes church can get messy, but that's exactly where Jesus wants to work, in the middle of that mess. 00:31:09.060 --> 00:31:11.750 Connecting in community, God created you to belong. 00:31:12.360 --> 00:31:16.600 God didn't create the church just to come sit in rows and hear a message and call that spirituality. 00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:22.870 God called us to be transformed in Him, and that transformation, it's impacting the way that we interact with each other. 00:31:24.620 --> 00:31:25.800 We become all things to all people. 00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:29.980 I love this thought. 00:31:30.390 --> 00:31:31.940 Well, I don't have clicking power anymore. 00:31:35.090 --> 00:31:36.000 There we go. 00:31:36.120 --> 00:31:37.360 Become all things to all people. 00:31:39.780 --> 00:31:43.080 All people assume really that there's no limit to our love. 00:31:45.840 --> 00:31:50.100 God is looking at the world, and the Apostle Paul is saying God's called us to reach a world. 00:31:50.100 --> 00:31:56.640 In order to reach a world, I've got to meet them where they are, whether it's Jew, or gentile, Greek, or barbarian. 00:31:58.420 --> 00:32:02.620 I don't expect them to jump hurdles to meet me where I'm at. 00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:04.600 Jesus called me to go meet them where they are. 00:32:06.460 --> 00:32:13.620 This is why I say sometimes in church, it becomes stale because we make it about tradition and that tradition gets so disconnected from the outside world that when someone steps 00:32:13.620 --> 00:32:20.660 in, they're like, “I don't fit here.” This is a weird story, but when we first started 00:32:20.660 --> 00:32:27.800 ABC, I grew up in an educational basis to become a pastor where I had to wear a 00:32:27.800 --> 00:32:30.600 suit everywhere I went, and I hated it. 00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:33.440 I bought one suit, and I wore it every day. 00:32:34.060 --> 00:32:37.680 I think by the end of the time of my graduation, I didn't have to hang it anymore. 00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:38.470 It just stood up in the closet. 00:32:39.140 --> 00:32:40.670 I finally threw it away a few months ago. 00:32:41.220 --> 00:32:42.550 I'm too fat to fit in it now. 00:32:43.860 --> 00:32:51.120 I remember when we started ABC, talking to my wife I said I just 00:32:51.120 --> 00:32:52.550 want to dress like people dress on Monday. 00:32:53.020 --> 00:32:55.080 I don't want to create hurdles. 00:32:55.300 --> 00:32:57.300 You might wear a suit on Monday, and that's fine. 00:32:57.880 --> 00:32:58.460 Wear what you wear. 00:33:00.260 --> 00:33:07.480 I told her, I thought this was profound, I'm like, “I'm going to wear jeans.” I tell that to her, she's like, “So?” 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:10.860 You don't understand, Stacy, I'm wearing jeans. 00:33:11.300 --> 00:33:13.820 So? 00:33:13.820 --> 00:33:14.900 All right, all right. 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:16.860 It's only a big deal in my head, right? 00:33:17.670 --> 00:33:24.700 There's certain things in our lives that if we care about people 00:33:24.700 --> 00:33:31.800 around us, we should care enough to want to reach them where they're at, and that should be the heartbeat 00:33:31.840 --> 00:33:35.380 of this church, to make a difference in jeans. 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:37.360 That's weird. 00:33:38.170 --> 00:33:42.850 I won't use that next service, but you guys get privy information, I guess. 00:33:45.080 --> 00:33:47.780 We don't compromise. 00:33:47.900 --> 00:33:50.530 What I'm saying is we just want to contextualize the gospel. 00:33:51.460 --> 00:33:55.680 People need a safe place to know God and grow in Him. 00:33:57.100 --> 00:33:58.060 God doesn't care what we wear. 00:33:59.240 --> 00:34:01.140 Dressed up or not dressed up, it doesn't matter. 00:34:02.820 --> 00:34:05.210 Next for us in becoming all things to all people is... 00:34:06.180 --> 00:34:06.990 Go through these a little quicker... 00:34:07.140 --> 00:34:07.980 is equip disciples. 00:34:09.260 --> 00:34:16.340 If what we produce isn't reproducing then we need to question what we produce because what Jesus desires for us to do is to reproduce as His 00:34:16.340 --> 00:34:19.280 people, to make disciples, equip disciples. 00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:23.429 Not even just make them, but equip them, which means we empower people to do the work of the ministry. 00:34:25.179 --> 00:34:26.159 Guys, can I tell you this? 00:34:28.280 --> 00:34:35.480 For whatever reason in church history, at least in recent, we've become so program-oriented that we just create these programs 00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:37.600 and we busy ourselves to death. 00:34:37.639 --> 00:34:44.239 Sometimes you'll step in churches, they've got so many dag-gone programs going on, and you look at the people and they look like they're running ragged because they're serving the program. 00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:47.900 There's nowhere in the bible that says create a program. 00:34:49.179 --> 00:34:56.219 There can be a place for it, but really the goal is God calls us to make disciples and just answer the question how can we 00:34:56.219 --> 00:34:56.440 do that? 00:34:58.740 --> 00:34:59.820 Get this. 00:35:01.400 --> 00:35:03.680 The proven method is know God's word and share that. 00:35:04.560 --> 00:35:06.290 It's like God gave us a bible for a reason. 00:35:07.020 --> 00:35:08.120 Believe it or not. 00:35:08.200 --> 00:35:10.120 It's not bible program and insert Jesus. 00:35:10.160 --> 00:35:12.230 It's just know the bible and share that with others. 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:13.600 It doesn't have to be complicated. 00:35:15.960 --> 00:35:23.000 Do you know the most effective people to reach people for Jesus are God's people with a heart that desires to make a difference for Jesus? 00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:26.780 You don't have to wait for the church to create a program to do that. 00:35:28.720 --> 00:35:33.420 You just go where you are because God called you as His church where you are to make a difference for Jesus. 00:35:35.500 --> 00:35:36.320 I'm not stressing that. 00:35:37.500 --> 00:35:38.860 You're not even the Holy Spirit in that. 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:41.300 You're not the super hero to save the day in that. 00:35:41.540 --> 00:35:42.600 That's Jesus's job. 00:35:45.950 --> 00:35:47.290 You just be the hands and feet. 00:35:48.520 --> 00:35:49.180 You don't have to know every answer. 00:35:50.320 --> 00:35:57.160 Just talk about what you love about Jesus, and if you don't know the answer, say, “I don't know but this is one area Jesus can grow me. 00:35:57.620 --> 00:35:58.390 I'm going to go learn that. 00:35:58.660 --> 00:36:03.620 Thank you for helping me.” That's what happens when you serve Jesus is you grow in your relationship with Jesus. 00:36:04.980 --> 00:36:12.000 God calls all of us to grow in that, and to see disciples made, and then to think of the scope of the magnitude is not 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:19.020 finished until we've reached the nations, that God calls us to do it here but to think about everywhere as we do this for His kingdom. 00:36:19.260 --> 00:36:23.360 God is about the ethos, the people group, all peoples, all nations. 00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:30.180 That's why things like Christmas, we point to different places throughout the world where we can make an impact because God's desire is for the world. 00:36:30.980 --> 00:36:31.820 The last is this. 00:36:31.940 --> 00:36:32.220 To celebrate. 00:36:35.260 --> 00:36:42.360 The reason we put this last is because sometimes we can get so busy at doing things that we forget just to appreciate what's 00:36:42.420 --> 00:36:42.920 been done. 00:36:44.640 --> 00:36:45.280 I like this. 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.920 To know, to share, to connect, to become, to equip, to reach and to celebrate. 00:36:52.340 --> 00:37:00.080 This is really where we make this a culture, a cultural attitude in us because what you celebrate, you 00:37:00.080 --> 00:37:00.300 replicate. 00:37:02.140 --> 00:37:09.520 What we're saying is a group of people, when we cheer about seeing lives impacted for Christ and people making a difference for Jesus, when 00:37:09.520 --> 00:37:16.660 we celebrate that, what we're saying is this is it, this is exactly what God called us to do, this is exactly who God has called us to be in the lives of people around 00:37:16.660 --> 00:37:16.840 us. 00:37:16.940 --> 00:37:17.740 Keep doing that. 00:37:19.460 --> 00:37:25.840 You see somebody doing something around you that impacts your heart or makes a difference to somebody else, stop and just say thank you. 00:37:27.020 --> 00:37:30.560 It's not about accomplishing the task, but it's about loving that heart where it's at. 00:37:31.200 --> 00:37:38.320 If we leverage anything in our church to ever do this, make your spiritual job here to be the celebratory 00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:39.780 person of ABC. 00:37:40.040 --> 00:37:45.040 If we all took that hat on, how beautiful that becomes in a church community that's like “I can't wait to go there. 00:37:45.100 --> 00:37:52.280 I did one thing this week, and seven people are going to congratulate me about that.” If we just celebrate that in our culture, how beautiful that 00:37:52.280 --> 00:37:54.100 becomes for us as God's people. 00:37:54.140 --> 00:37:55.660 How can we make a difference? 00:37:58.740 --> 00:38:04.260 That's what Paul says in Titus, to not get fixated on these secondary things. 00:38:05.420 --> 00:38:12.520 Rather, verse 14, to always be thinking or learning to engage in the good deeds to meet pressing needs 00:38:12.520 --> 00:38:19.580 so that we will not be unfruitful because what God cares about is 00:38:19.640 --> 00:38:20.740 the heart of those around you. 00:38:23.100 --> 00:38:28.840 Thomas Carlisle said it like this, “A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. 00:38:29.640 --> 00:38:31.920 A nothing, a no man. 00:38:33.200 --> 00:38:40.260 More men fell out of lack of purpose than lack of talent.” God's gifted 00:38:40.260 --> 00:38:44.100 you, and that's exactly how Paul's ending this verse. 00:38:44.140 --> 00:38:48.230 He talked about healthy church, but you can't write all that in three chapters. 00:38:49.340 --> 00:38:55.060 What he's getting our mind to engage the understanding is we always need to keep the eyes open to where God's moving. 00:38:55.060 --> 00:39:02.100 Learning to engage in good deeds, meeting the pressing needs for the culture which God has called us to make 00:39:02.100 --> 00:39:09.420 a difference so we don't walk away as an unfruitful church because not only are we a great church in the community, but 00:39:09.440 --> 00:39:10.910 we're a great church for the community.