1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,040 Hey, my name's Cole. I like preaching and I get to 2 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:04,920 preach quite a bit here. I'm Lee, Pastor Frontier. 3 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:07,880 If you've got a Bible, go ahead and get that open to the book of 4 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:10,360 Titus. If you don't know where the book 5 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:14,120 of Titus is at, there should be instructions on the inside your 6 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:17,320 Bible, on what page that is. But don't worry, I'll have all 7 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:19,640 of the pertinent text on the screen in front of you. 8 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,760 It's a, it's a short letter that's in the New Testament. 9 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:26,560 So it's probably 3/4 of of the way back. 10 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:30,520 And like Jaron said, this is week 3 of our time in Titus. 11 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:33,720 And this morning what I'm doing is I'm completing my nerdy 12 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:37,360 trilogy of the main characters of the Letter of Titus. 13 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:40,960 Two weeks ago, we looked at the guy who was writing it, Paul. 14 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:43,280 How did that guy come to know Jesus? 15 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:44,880 What does he think he's accomplishing? 16 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:48,720 Last week we talked about these odd, odd and strange churches 17 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:52,800 that popped up on the island of Crete that Paul is writing for. 18 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,480 And what we're going to talk about this morning is the guy 19 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,280 who is going to receive and read aloud the letter in those 20 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,920 churches in Crete. His name is Titus. 21 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,120 Here's how it's going to work. I'm just going to be honest with 22 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:10,120 you. This is not going to be like a a 23 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,000 normal coal sermon for Frontier Church. 24 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:17,160 It's going to air on the side of nerdy and scholastic, and what 25 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:21,440 I'm going to do is I'm going to create a biographical sketch of 26 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,640 this guy Titus. And what you're going to do is 27 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:27,360 you're going to wonder how in the world does this have any 28 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,880 relevance with my life, right? It's going to feel irrelevant 29 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,000 for probably 2025 thirty minutes. 30 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,800 What in the world do relationships with the Greeks 31 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,080 and the Jews in the 1st century have to do with my struggles to 32 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,840 make friends and to know God? If you can stick with me on the 33 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:45,280 tail end of it. Once we've done that heavy 34 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:49,160 lifting, hopefully you'll receive a little bit of a master 35 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:52,840 class on leadership by looking at how Paul develops Titus, and 36 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,040 maybe even a little bit of a master class on how to develop, 37 00:01:56,040 --> 00:02:00,320 cultivate and build gospel centered relationships. 38 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,120 Does that sound good? Good. 39 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,480 One of my favorite quotes from a poet comes from, I think it was 40 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:09,320 Annie Dillard. Somebody asked her how do you 41 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,000 write your poems? And I just love her response. 42 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,720 She said writing a poem is is kind of like building a barn in 43 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:20,280 the middle of a tornado or a thunderstorm with all of these 44 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,600 boards flying around. All you can do, reach out, try 45 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:26,600 to grab a board and then nail it down before it blows away. 46 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:28,200 That's what my sermon is going to be like. 47 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,400 OK, I'm going to throw a lot of stuff at you, a lot of 48 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:32,400 information at you. I'm going to have you circle a 49 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:33,960 word. We're going to talk about Greeks 50 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,640 and Jews, and we might even talk about circumcision if I feel 51 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:40,680 like having fun. Take what you can, nail it down. 52 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:44,320 Oh, you just wait. And who knows, maybe the Lord 53 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,800 will bless this strange little sermon. 54 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:53,880 Heavenly Father, I pray that, you know, sometimes, God, I feel 55 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:58,200 the pressure to try to prove your existence to people. 56 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:03,520 And you are. You're among us right now. 57 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:06,960 You're walking among us. You're with us, You're speaking 58 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:09,000 to us. You're demonstrating your 59 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:12,640 presence to us. I don't have to prove anything. 60 00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:17,760 You're here, Lord. And so I think most of us on 61 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,280 Sunday mornings, we walk in not even really knowing what we 62 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:24,840 believe about God or if we believe in God. 63 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:28,080 And so I think that's most of us this morning. 64 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:31,800 And so if for those who don't know who you are or what you're 65 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,840 like or those who don't know what an experience of your love 66 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:39,040 feels like, God, would you just like, I don't care if it's 67 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,960 through the whole sermon, were like a weird thing that I say or 68 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:47,000 an off the hand comment. Would you just take something I 69 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:53,360 say this morning and just nail that board down just before it 70 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:56,320 flies away and people forget about it with their lunch plans? 71 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,840 Would you just take that board and nail it down onto somebody's 72 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,480 heart and build yourself a little barn or a little house to 73 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:09,040 live in? In our hearts, yeah. 74 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:14,840 Yeah. What could what could possibly 75 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:19,000 be learned about examining an ancient friendship between a 76 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,440 Greek and a Jew from 2000 years ago? 77 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:28,120 The world would say nothing. But I don't. 78 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:29,880 I don't care what the world would say. 79 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:31,080 I want to know what you would say. 80 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:36,080 God, what can we learn as we examine this relationship where 81 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:41,240 Paul calls Titus his true child in a common faith? 82 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:49,280 Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll walk out of here with a deepened 83 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:52,960 relationship with you and a deepened relationship with 84 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:55,840 others. And that would be a miracle. 85 00:04:56,760 --> 00:04:58,680 So perform the miracle for us this morning. 86 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:02,360 Lord, in Jesus precious name, all God's people prayed. 87 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,200 Amen. If you have the capacity, go 88 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:06,960 ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word. 89 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:18,400 Just a simple introductory note to the letter, but there's a 90 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:22,080 strange amount of warmth in in Paul's writing and letter that 91 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:24,200 sometimes we miss if we don't read through it slowly. 92 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:28,040 So here's how it begins. Paul, we met him two weeks ago, 93 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:31,120 a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. 94 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,320 For the sake of the faith of God's elects. 95 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,560 Or these Christians that are on this island called Crete. 96 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,120 For the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge 97 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,400 of the truth which accords with godliness in hope of eternal 98 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:48,520 life, which God who never lies promised before the ages began 99 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,360 and at the proper time manifested in His Word through 100 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:56,400 the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of 101 00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:07,120 God our Savior to Titus. This is not a private letter 102 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:09,120 that Paul's writing and tucking away in his. 103 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:11,920 This is going to end up in somebody's hands. 104 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,160 And Paul's expectation is that Titus is going to take it. 105 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:17,560 He's going to stand in front of these ancient churches. 106 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:20,560 He's going to read this letter out loud and explain it. 107 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:29,560 So he says to Titus, my true child in a common faith, and 108 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,320 then next week, grace and peace from God the Father in Christ 109 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:36,800 Jesus our Savior. What's in here? 110 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:44,860 You can have a seat. If you want to imagine it, 111 00:06:44,860 --> 00:06:46,180 imagine it. If you got a pen, go ahead and 112 00:06:46,180 --> 00:06:47,300 grab that. If you have a pencil, go ahead 113 00:06:47,300 --> 00:06:48,500 and grab that. If you have a highlighter, 114 00:06:48,500 --> 00:06:50,860 highlight this. If you just want to play along, 115 00:06:50,860 --> 00:06:54,300 play along. If I were you, I would circle 116 00:06:54,300 --> 00:07:00,620 that phrase to Titus. I never grow old of reminding us 117 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:02,900 that the Christian faith is a historical faith. 118 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:05,520 It didn't happen outside of time. 119 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:07,080 It's not a myth. It's not a fable. 120 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:10,880 It happened in space and time, through real people in a 121 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:13,280 historical setting. Which of course raises the 122 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:16,560 question, who is this? Who is this Titus guy? 123 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:18,120 Now, here's an interesting thing to say. 124 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:21,240 The fact that Paul and Titus even know each other, the fact 125 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:24,200 that they're homies, the fact that they're friends, whatsoever 126 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:26,480 is, to be totally honest, from the ancient world perspective, 127 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:28,880 shocking. I'll give you one reason why, 128 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:34,360 and then I'll tease it out. Paul is Jewish, Titus is Greek. 129 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:37,120 Which begs the question, how in the world? 130 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,120 What in the heck happened? How did these two even become 131 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:41,520 friends? What's the story here? 132 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:43,760 Well, I have a short answer and a long answer for you. 133 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:45,400 The short answer is we don't know. 134 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:49,160 You got me there. The Bible doesn't tell about how 135 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,080 they met. The longer answer is we have 136 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,160 some pretty good idea. Scholars think most likely that 137 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:58,560 the way that a Greek and a Jew would have connected with each 138 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:01,680 other, Paul and Titus would have been probably in Antioch. 139 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:04,440 It's one of the biggest cities in the ancient Roman world and 140 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:07,280 the most likely place of overlap for a Jew and a Greek. 141 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,040 And Antioch would have been the marketplace. 142 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:14,120 It was a bustling hustling marketplace of trading things. 143 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,480 It would have been a multi ethnic hub within the city that 144 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,640 was filled with the sweet smells of baked bread and spices from 145 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,880 all over ancient world. But it was also a marketplace of 146 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:26,360 ideas, right? It was like before they had a 147 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,440 social media Facebook feed. The marketplace was their 148 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,640 Facebook feed, where they got together and they hammered out 149 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:36,000 their ideas, clarified them, crystallized them and argued. 150 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,600 And so the marketplace would have been alive with the smell 151 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:41,960 of bread, but also alive with a noisy crowd, where all these 152 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:46,240 diverse ideas in the ancient world were boom, colliding 153 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:51,880 together through argumentation, conversation, dialogue, or in 154 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:55,720 the sake of the apostle Paul, through preaching. 155 00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:01,000 Probably how Titus would have met Paul before, before Titus 156 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:05,520 even saw Paul's face, he probably would have heard Paul's 157 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:09,880 booming voice in the middle of the marketplace preaching the 158 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:12,360 gospel of Jesus. Now, that would have been a 159 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:15,000 unique experience for Titus because as a great Titus, I'd 160 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,120 grown up with a pantheon of of gods. 161 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:21,320 He was not irreligious. Nobody in that world was. 162 00:09:21,560 --> 00:09:23,800 It was atheistic. Nobody was agnostic. 163 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,600 It was a matter of monotheistic. Do you worship one God or 164 00:09:28,160 --> 00:09:30,440 pantheon? Like how many gods do you have? 165 00:09:30,560 --> 00:09:34,440 And so he would have, he would have grown up with this entire 166 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,280 pantheon of all of these Greek gods. 167 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:41,200 And as, as as a Greek, he probably would have found the 168 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,520 monotheism of Jewish people a little bit stifling and a little 169 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:49,680 bit crusty. But this Titus would have 170 00:09:49,680 --> 00:09:53,840 thought this Jesus thing now that's, that was something new 171 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:58,440 to him. This, this idea that there was a 172 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:02,960 God who was for the whole world, not just a territory, right? 173 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:06,480 Greek gods were territorial. You had a, you had a Greek God 174 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,400 for this and a Greek God for the sea and a Greek God for the sun. 175 00:10:09,400 --> 00:10:12,680 And you know, all these gods over all these territories and 176 00:10:12,680 --> 00:10:16,200 geographies. But this Jesus guy, Paul was 177 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:20,200 preaching this Jesus guy as though he were the God for the 178 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:23,880 entire world. That was interesting. 179 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:28,080 But this was a completely new idea in Titus's world, and so 180 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,640 when he heard Paul's voice booming in the marketplace, 181 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:34,680 proclaiming the life, death, and resurrection of God in the 182 00:10:34,680 --> 00:10:37,080 flesh. A God coming to earth, how 183 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,800 strange. A God dying for sinners, how 184 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:42,440 strange. This was something new, This 185 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:47,720 Jesus guy, I imagine, I suppose I'm hypothesizing that Titus 186 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:50,080 would have been frozen by the preaching of the gospel. 187 00:10:51,960 --> 00:10:56,840 You can grow up here now. Hearing Paul preach it in the 188 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:01,160 marketplace would have gripped him suddenly underneath the 189 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:04,960 spell of the gospel of Jesus. A sudden, strange transformation 190 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:08,200 in Titus's heart probably occurred as he stood there, 191 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:10,440 caught in the jaws of the gospel. 192 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:15,440 A God who loves me, a God who's for me, A God who died for me, a 193 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:18,360 God who didn't stay out there, a God who came for me. 194 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:23,320 This would have frozen Titus. And maybe, maybe in that moment, 195 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:27,480 even in the Apostle Paul's eyes, as the priest swept across the 196 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:35,360 crowd and landed on Titus, not with suspicion, not with 197 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:40,760 disappointment, not with anger, but with warmth, maybe even a 198 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:47,720 warmth that potentially saw something in Titus that Titus 199 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:52,360 didn't yet see in himself. Have you ever felt that So after 200 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:55,920 the preaching of the gospel, as the crowds dispersed, maybe 201 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:01,480 maybe Paul sought out Titus or maybe Titus clamored and found 202 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:04,240 Paul. But the rest is history through 203 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:05,840 the preaching of the gospel of Jesus. 204 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:13,960 The relational bond between Paul and Titus took It's a bit of a 205 00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:17,920 platonic Romeo and Juliet Cathy lesson Montagues right? 206 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:20,920 The likelihood that a Jew and a Greek would be close? 207 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:23,640 Very unlikely. It's a bit like the socias and 208 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:27,280 the greasers from Essie Hinton's book The Outsiders, which I hope 209 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:31,240 you read in your schooling because it's a fantastic book. 210 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:35,080 It's a strange one in a million relationship there, right? 211 00:12:35,080 --> 00:12:36,520 You got to realize in the ancient world, there were a 212 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:41,000 million walls in that world that sought to separate Paul and 213 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,680 Titus from one another. Custom, culture, even 214 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:45,040 circumcision. We'll get around that. 215 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:49,080 But after hearing the preaching of the gospel, it seems like 216 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:52,160 those walls came down and Titus was set. 217 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:56,760 He would give up everything, leave behind everything. 218 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:01,440 Paul would take him under his wing, and they would move the 219 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:06,720 gospel forward in whatever way they could. 220 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:12,280 Maybe even Paul looked at Titus and said, dude, you might. 221 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,480 I don't know if you've ever thought of yourself this way, 222 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:18,400 Titus. You might be a church planner. 223 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:24,280 Who knows? So naturally, Paul, Titus grow 224 00:13:24,280 --> 00:13:26,760 close together. And as they start to move the 225 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:30,640 gospel forward in the ancient world, the gospel took root at 226 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:33,360 this strange little island we learned about called Crete, 227 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:36,640 learned about this last week. That's where this letter is 228 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,480 going to this little island called Crete where all of a 229 00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:42,600 sudden there are these messy little churches popping up that 230 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:44,600 are, when I say messy, I mean messy. 231 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:47,400 They're full of literal pirates, right? 232 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:51,000 They're filled with mercenary soldiers and even false 233 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,360 teachers. And so as these churches started 234 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:56,760 to pop up and grow, and Paul, of course, being an apostle, had a 235 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,480 million other issues to attend to, he needed to put somebody on 236 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,400 Crete to put things into place. So who do you think Paul brought 237 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:06,440 with them and left behind on the island of Crete to help these 238 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:09,560 churches establish a foundation of truth? 239 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:17,160 Who's the guy? Verse 4, Titus and voila, we 240 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:23,880 have the historical reason why this is even in your Bible. 241 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,520 But it begs another question. OK, I see that they're boys, 242 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:31,440 they're homies, they're close. Paul calls them is what's he 243 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:35,640 called them true child in a common faith. 244 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:44,080 But why Titus? I think there's two reasons. 245 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:47,720 One reason why I think Titus was the perfect leader that Paul 246 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,400 picked for the island of Crete is because it seems to me that 247 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,320 Titus was a leader of connection. 248 00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:59,200 Can you guys say connection? When I say connection, I what I 249 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:02,480 think what I mean is I think Titus was naturally very 250 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:05,280 relationally intelligent. I think Titus and I'll show you 251 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:07,880 where I get this. I think Titus was natural, a 252 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:10,880 very empathetic and caring and nurturing leader. 253 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:12,720 There's a couple different verses in the Bible that lead me 254 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:14,240 to believe that. I'll give you one. 255 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,200 This is second Corinthians 8. Paul's writing to the church in 256 00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:19,960 Corinth at this point in time. Titus is over in Corinth helping 257 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,400 out that church. And listen to the way that Paul 258 00:15:22,400 --> 00:15:26,120 describes Titus. He says thanks be to God into 259 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:37,160 the heart of Titus, the same earnest care that I have for 260 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,520 you. So the word care here has 261 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:42,080 obviously connotations of gentleness and thoughtfulness 262 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,880 and empathy. And this is helpful to see 263 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:50,880 because you if you want to be a leader, you need to have 264 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:56,120 empathy. I'll give you one reason why 265 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:02,760 People who do not feel like you understand them won't follow 266 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:05,240 your leadership. They won't. 267 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:10,440 People who don't feel understood by you will not follow your 268 00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:12,520 leadership. Now consider Crete. 269 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:17,200 Crete is a flippin mess. It's going to need a leader who 270 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:21,080 can sit down with a literal pirate, right? 271 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,720 A literal pirate learning to follow the ways of Jesus and 272 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:29,040 have such a gas tank of empathy and patience that they can sit 273 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:33,000 down and say, hey, I understand why you would steal from those 274 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,160 merchant ships in order to provide from your family. 275 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:39,360 I don't think you're I, I don't hate you. 276 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:41,520 I don't think you're a terrible human being. 277 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:44,720 I get why you would do it. I think that you honestly love 278 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,200 Jesus. But the way of Jesus forbids you 279 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:51,520 from stealing anymore. Those were those were the like 280 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:54,560 the types of conversations Titus was having wasn't like, hey, is 281 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:57,000 God real? Titus was like, hey, stop 282 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,840 killing people with your sword. OK as a pirate. 283 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:02,280 Like that's the type of discipleship that needed to take 284 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:06,160 place and and Crete. And so naturally this place 285 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:11,480 needed a leader with an enormous gas tank of patients care and 286 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:14,000 empathy. And that seems to be quite 287 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,520 naturally put in Titus by by God. 288 00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:24,200 But listen to me. I am pro empathy. 289 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:30,480 OK, I'm on team empathy. I really am. 290 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:39,560 But however, empathy untethered from conviction and truth is 291 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:46,000 just a relational drug. As good as necessary as 292 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:52,800 connection, care, empathy is for a leader, it is a danger if it's 293 00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:58,880 not balanced out by an equally strong dose of conviction, 294 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:05,560 truthfulness and doctrine. Here's the way my favorite 295 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:09,040 leadership author, Edward Friedman, A pastoral candidate. 296 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,400 You know what I'm saying? Friedman says it this way. 297 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:17,720 He says, quote, brave leaders are the immune system for the 298 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:21,720 entire body. An immune system regulates the 299 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,040 body's functions and processes and ultimately what was the 300 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:27,800 immune system do? It defends the body by fighting 301 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:31,480 off infections. So a leader with high degrees of 302 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,840 empathy, which are important, it irreplaceable. 303 00:18:36,760 --> 00:18:39,320 But the Bible says that a pastor needs to be gentle. 304 00:18:39,360 --> 00:18:42,200 So it's this is not like a take it or leave it thing. 305 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:46,040 OK so empathy is good, but a leader with high degrees of 306 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,720 empathy without equally high degrees of courage cannot be the 307 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:52,480 immune system of the institutions they lead. 308 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,920 Instead they will function as step up Transformers. 309 00:18:55,920 --> 00:19:00,400 Meaning if the anxiety in the room is 100 watts, if the only 310 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:03,800 gift the person has is empathy, then the solely empathetic 311 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:08,320 leader will take on the anxiety in the room, absorb it, and then 312 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:12,360 amplify it back and increase the anxiety up to 11,000 watts. 313 00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:17,400 So leaders also need a backbone that allows them to stay in 314 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:23,000 touch without getting zapped to remain non anxious. 315 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:29,120 Love empathy, but it needs to be balanced by equally strong 316 00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:32,280 dosage of truth and conviction. Which brings me to the second 317 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:34,560 reason why I think Titus was a good fit for Crete. 318 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:39,240 He was a leader of connection. He was also a leader of 319 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,400 conviction. I personally, I personally, this 320 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,200 is a guess again, OK, I'm hypothesizing I personally not 321 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:48,120 because I don't love the word of God, but because sometimes we 322 00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:51,520 fail to see the emotional relational depth within the word 323 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,280 of God. So I personally think that 324 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:58,120 having a backbone was a learned skill for Titus and not a 325 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:00,960 natural skill for Titus. I think he had to develop and 326 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,400 cultivate that who a sue. He wrote a Pulitzer Prize 327 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,880 winning book called stay true. He has this little quote on 328 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:08,960 friendship. He says quote. 329 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:10,880 There are many currencies to friendship. 330 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,360 We may be drawn to someone who makes us feel bright and 331 00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:15,840 hopeful, someone who can always make us laugh. 332 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:19,000 Perhaps there are friendships that are instrumental, where the 333 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,520 appeal is what they can do for us. 334 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:25,320 There are friends we talked to only about serious things, 335 00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:28,960 others who only make sense in the blitzed merriment of deep 336 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:30,600 night. What a wonderful sentence that 337 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:32,240 is. Wow. 338 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,720 There are friends who only make sense in the blitzed merriment 339 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,840 of deep night. Some friends complete us, while 340 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:44,000 other friends complicate us. I personally think my hunch is 341 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:49,200 that Titus was drawn to Paul because he was strong where 342 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:52,080 Titus was weak. And the reason I say this is 343 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,080 because if you look at the Jewish culture of that day and 344 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,840 the Greek culture of that day, they actually create pretty 345 00:20:57,840 --> 00:20:59,800 predictable types of human beings. 346 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,680 The Jewish atmosphere that Paul grew up in prized faithfulness 347 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,720 to truth, prized doctrine. Breathing that air as a child 348 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,080 would naturally produce a more bold, courageous, brave person 349 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:14,760 like Paul who stands on the corner of the marketplace and 350 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:17,640 preaches the gospel and lets all the criticisms bounce off of 351 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,360 them. The Greek atmosphere that Titus 352 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:24,600 grew up in prized intellectual curiosity more. 353 00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:29,200 There was more openness to different ways of thinking about 354 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,280 this God and that God. And so naturally, the Greek 355 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,920 culture would have produced somebody who's more empathetic 356 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,480 towards others, probably like Titus. 357 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:49,080 So my hunch is that see Titus seeing Paul so confident in the 358 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:54,280 gospel, right, that the criticism bouncing off of him on 359 00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:57,280 the marketplace, standing his ground with a backbone. 360 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:02,480 My hunch is that seeing Paul so convicted made a light bulb go 361 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,960 off above Titus's head, and he thought, I wonder if you've ever 362 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:07,360 thought this before? Huh. 363 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:19,620 I should probably be more like that, luckily for Titus. 364 00:22:21,060 --> 00:22:25,180 If you did think that, luckily for Titus, following Paul around 365 00:22:25,180 --> 00:22:28,260 on a daily basis would have been a master class for boldness, 366 00:22:29,260 --> 00:22:32,720 read the book of Acts. Dude has a backbone. 367 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,160 I'll give you my favorite holy crap moment from Paul and 368 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:37,840 Titus's relationship. Master class on what does it 369 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:41,520 look like to stand your ground and stay convicted in the truth. 370 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,320 It would have been amazing for Titus to follow Paul around in 371 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,560 the ancient world. Paul mentions this moment in 372 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,760 Galatians 2 verses one through three. 373 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:53,760 OK, he says Galatians. After 14 years I went again to 374 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:56,480 Jerusalem with Barnabas taking who? 375 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:00,280 And he took Titus along with him. 376 00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:03,000 What happened when they went to Jerusalem? 377 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:05,160 Well, Paul tells us what didn't happen. 378 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:10,480 He says even Titus, who was with me was not forced to be 379 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,160 circumcised, even though he was a, a Greek. 380 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,080 He what? He didn't have to do what to his 381 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:17,120 what? What happened? 382 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:22,960 What what is it? What does that have to do with 383 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:24,840 anything? Titus wasn't forced to be 384 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:27,400 circumcised. Well, OK, the moment that Paul 385 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:29,600 is writing to roll up your sleeves, we're having some fun 386 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:32,920 here. Grab a towel, bite down on it. 387 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:38,280 Luckily for you, the moment Paul's writing about is 388 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:42,760 documented in Acts chapter 16. I'll give you the SparkNotes 389 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,040 cold IKEA version of it. So Jerusalem's churches at that 390 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,400 point in time were still predominantly Jewish, which 391 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,600 meant that there was a lot of Jewish custom in there. 392 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,280 And naturally that created a lot of arguments of like, OK, well, 393 00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:55,240 what? What does a person have to do to 394 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:57,200 follow Jesus and to be a Christian? 395 00:23:57,480 --> 00:23:59,640 Paul was preaching the gospel of grace. 396 00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,040 Paul said faith alone in Jesus alone you're in. 397 00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:06,960 That's everything. The Jewish people were like, not 398 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,120 so fast there, cowboy. The Jewish people were like, 399 00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:13,760 well, we've been doing all of this other stuff for super long. 400 00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:17,320 So we think that you've got to do these other things in 401 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,200 addition to believing in Jesus in order to be saved. 402 00:24:20,360 --> 00:24:23,960 For instance, we think that people should be circumcised, 403 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:26,600 otherwise God doesn't love them, right? 404 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:29,200 This was you can criticize them. It would have felt pretty 405 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,040 natural for these Jews in Jerusalem to think that way. 406 00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:33,800 Yeah, Bros got a snip snap there. 407 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:35,720 You know what's in circumcision? Otherwise they're not 408 00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:37,760 Christians, and otherwise they're not really dedicated. 409 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,640 Now, this was a form of works based salvation. 410 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,000 You got to do something in addition to believing in Jesus 411 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,480 that Paul's entire career was opposed to. 412 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:52,960 He hated us. It ran contrary to the gospel of 413 00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:56,240 grace. And so, luckily for Paul in 414 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:00,840 Jerusalem, they decided to have a council on the matter. 415 00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,360 Let's get together and let's make an official decision. 416 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:08,840 Does a person need to be circumcised to be fully included 417 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:11,840 in the church and to be a full member of the family of God? 418 00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:14,360 Let's have a council on it. So what do you think Paul did? 419 00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:20,480 Paul's like, I'm going, bro, I'm coming. 420 00:25:20,520 --> 00:25:23,240 I'm going. And you, I'm going to do I'm, 421 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:26,560 I'm not just, I'm not just going to it. 422 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,800 I'm bringing Titus with me. I like, I can't prove this. 423 00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:35,360 I like to imagine that he didn't even tell Titus why he brought 424 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:39,360 him with him, right. Like you just kind of snuck him 425 00:25:39,360 --> 00:25:40,480 in. Like, hey, Titus, you want to go 426 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:43,800 to, you want to go to a Christian Passion conference 427 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,840 now? Chandler's preaching, Piper's 428 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:47,920 preaching. You want to come to the school 429 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:50,640 conference? Titus was like, yeah, I want to 430 00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:53,240 learn how to be a leader, right? And so they roll. 431 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,200 They roll into Jerusalem. Paul's like, I'm crashing the 432 00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:57,240 party. I'm going to bring an 433 00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:59,600 uncircumcised Greek with me just to make my point. 434 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:02,640 I'm going to do it. So the two of them arrive in 435 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:06,520 Jerusalem, only batting 500 in circumcision between the two of 436 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:07,520 them, one out of two. It's not. 437 00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,000 It's not. It's great baseball. 438 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,800 They'll get in the Hall of Fame, not great in Judaism, in 439 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:12,800 Jerusalem. OK. 440 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,320 So they walk in, only one of them circumcised. 441 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,680 And as they walk into the council, the tension in the room 442 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,080 is already thick. They're already arguing, right? 443 00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,920 This is heated. Paul. 444 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,440 I don't know. He's probably smiling, right? 445 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,160 Because. Because push back. 446 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,320 And criticism for Paul is like protein. 447 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,720 He loves it. So he walks into the thick 448 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:37,400 atmosphere. He's like, yeah, baby, let's, 449 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,280 let's do this. And Titus sits down. 450 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:43,280 They sit down, ready to hear about the subject at hand. 451 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:47,080 Somebody gets up to announce it. We're talking about whether or 452 00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,000 not a person needs to be circumcised in order to be a 453 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:50,800 Christian. You can imagine Titus. 454 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:55,600 He goes ghostly, pale white, clutches his pearls, goes, What 455 00:26:55,600 --> 00:27:01,040 do they want to do? Paul's like, relax, bro, I got 456 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,920 you read, read Acts 16. They start pressing him on it. 457 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:06,680 All right? They don't leave it like a 458 00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:08,480 hypothetical, like, hey, let's draw. 459 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:10,240 Should a person be certain? Let's draw it out on the 460 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:16,040 whiteboard. They, they press after Paul and 461 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:19,760 Titus, right? They, they're like, hey, you're 462 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,840 not circumcised. And it's hard for us as modern 463 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,560 people to understand what the big deal about circumcision was. 464 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:27,080 Do you like, do you ever hear stories like this? 465 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:28,320 And you're like, what's the big deal? 466 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:35,120 Well, I'll give you 3 no brainer facts about the ancient world, 467 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:36,920 about circumcision that made it a big deal. 468 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,880 I won't be terribly crude. I'll just say the facts and you 469 00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:41,600 can choose what you want to do with your imagination. 470 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:48,440 Here's #1 here's number one, they didn't have fact number 471 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:50,240 one, why circumcision was such a big deal. 472 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,480 They didn't have social media, duh. 473 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,680 But because they didn't have social media, they actually had 474 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,040 to choose other ways of boldly declaring their faith rather 475 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:03,360 than just writing it on their bio. 476 00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,960 They couldn't just host what they believed. 477 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,600 They had to actually, I know this is a novel concept. 478 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:12,280 They had to actually show it with their lives. 479 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:18,720 And suppose there was a certain part of male anatomy that was 480 00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,920 more tender than the other parts of male anatomy. 481 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,600 It would make natural sense that to see whether a person was 482 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,880 really in or out on this whole God thing was their willingness 483 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,960 to embrace pain in that particular area. 484 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:42,800 Are you guys following me? Do you want me to stop #2 #2 485 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:45,680 Here's why it was such a big deal in the ancient world. 486 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,480 They didn't have painkillers in the ancient world. 487 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:58,320 Yeesh #3 they didn't have sharp metal blades or knives or 488 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,200 surgical knives. What they had were stones. 489 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:06,400 Yikes, give me a towel, I'll bite down on it and let's do 490 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,200 this. All of that forms a culture that 491 00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:16,920 says we all did it. Abraham did it in his 90s. 492 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,800 Bro, are you not really committed? 493 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,320 So you see how this all forms a culture where, like, this is 494 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,920 actually a big deal to them. So as they're arguing about 495 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:29,800 this, you can imagine a man sharpening stones in the 496 00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:32,400 background while making shady eye contact with Titus. 497 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:37,480 Step up to the plate, bro. And in a stunning display of 498 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:44,920 gospel conviction, Paul says no. Not going to do it, bro. 499 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:51,680 Paul stands his ground. He doesn't capitulate, he 500 00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,640 doesn't give any ground, he doesn't cave. 501 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,440 He preaches the gospel. He says no, The gospel of Jesus 502 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:04,680 is by grace through faith alone, apart from any works of the law. 503 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:09,880 Amen. Nothing you can do will save 504 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,120 you, only the saving work of Christ. 505 00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:17,600 So you can be circumcised or not, You can eat meat or not. 506 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,720 If a person has faith in Jesus Christ, that's the one and only 507 00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:23,720 thing that makes them a Christian. 508 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:28,360 And Paul wins the argument. Titus breathes a large sigh of 509 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:29,960 relief. And I'm assuming a deeper bond 510 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:32,240 of affection and gratitude between Paul and Titus emerges 511 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,040 as a result of this. Can you imagine what their 512 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:39,000 friendship felt like after that? You are my dog, OK? 513 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,560 I'll follow you wherever you want to go. 514 00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:45,320 I'll follow you, right? A deep breath and here's here's 515 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,920 the point. Titus learned this was all 516 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,360 training for him as a leader. Paul's not just bringing him 517 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:56,000 along as an object lesson and put him on the cutting board. 518 00:30:56,160 --> 00:31:00,120 This is all a leadership lesson. Titus learned in this very 519 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:05,600 nerving situation, what it looked like to be a leader who 520 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,000 didn't let people walk all over him. 521 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:16,160 He learned and this experience very anxious top room, what it 522 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:21,560 looks like to stick to gospel doctrine alone and to not let 523 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,360 people bully him into compromise. 524 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:27,520 And these two pieces of his personality coming together 525 00:31:27,720 --> 00:31:31,400 would have made, I think, Titus a very convicted leader and a 526 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:35,080 very connective leader. And this is the critical blend 527 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,640 of the Christian leader. They must be connected and 528 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,680 convicted and pathetic and truthful. 529 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,920 Not 5050. It's not about picking like, oh, 530 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,760 you know, I'm just 80% conviction, but 20% connection, 531 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:50,200 right? It's not. 532 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,640 You can't be like, yeah, relationships are my thing. 533 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:58,160 Truth isn't my thing, right? It's 101. 534 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:02,040 See, This is why you need friends, because you're going to 535 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,240 hit your notes off the table and you're going to be lost. 536 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,520 And then you've got a will cook in your life, bro. 537 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:11,600 Dude, I didn't have a sermon analogy to end it with. 538 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,800 I might come back to that, thanks homie. 539 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,320 Didn't need it. It's not 5050, right? 540 00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:21,640 It Christian leaders need to be 100% empathetic, caring, 541 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:28,040 empathetic, connected, loving, and 100% convicted of the truth. 542 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:32,040 This is important to recognize because in a lot of times people 543 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:35,520 just, they naturally have a, they have a propensity towards 544 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,280 one or the other. And to have one at the expense 545 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:40,560 of the other always results in disaster. 546 00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:44,240 Like if you have a, if you have an empathy fetish, then what 547 00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:46,840 you're going to be able to do is make people feel really 548 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:48,840 understood. But if you don't care about 549 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,760 truth and doctrine, you, you will. 550 00:32:52,760 --> 00:33:01,000 You'll be the type of leader who empathizes, empathizes people 551 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,960 all the way to hell. You'll see them drowning in the 552 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:10,440 lake of fire. And rather than leaning down and 553 00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:13,720 trying to pull them out, you'll say, I can see how your family 554 00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,400 of origins would make you jump in this lake of fire. 555 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:23,720 There's a lot of us who have just a doctrinal truth 556 00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,600 conviction fetish, and if that's not equally balanced out by care 557 00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:31,200 and nurture, then you'll just end up starting a bunch of 558 00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:35,920 bullying fights with people. And you'll make the truth look 559 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,520 ugly to people. And you'll be the type of people 560 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:43,960 who goes around wielding truth in such a way without any 561 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,840 relational warmth that people will jump into the lake of fire 562 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:53,440 just to get away from you. So you don't want to pick one or 563 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:55,960 the other. You want to say, God, where do I 564 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,400 need to grow? Do I need to grow as a leader in 565 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:05,000 conviction, or do I need to grow as a leader in connection? 566 00:34:13,690 --> 00:34:17,489 Crete needed both of them. You'll see that as you walk 567 00:34:17,489 --> 00:34:20,010 through this letter. Absolute crapshoot. 568 00:34:21,250 --> 00:34:24,810 There's literal pirates. There's mercenary soldiers. 569 00:34:25,199 --> 00:34:27,159 These people love Jesus, but they were a mess. 570 00:34:27,159 --> 00:34:30,000 Mixed into that group was false teachers eager to leverage the 571 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,639 church for their own agenda, arguing, fighting, stealing on a 572 00:34:33,639 --> 00:34:35,760 daily basis in these churches in Crete. 573 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,520 But do you know what doesn't sound as hard after the 574 00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:43,840 Jerusalem circumcision debacle? Leading and loving pirates. 575 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,760 Titus was well trained to walk into this environment with both 576 00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,520 conviction and connection. So of course, who did Paul trust 577 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:54,880 enough to leave behind and Crete to lead these churches through 578 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:57,760 establishing doctrine and truth and training up elders to lead 579 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,000 the church and teaching the church how to live out the 580 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,120 Christian faith? You know, Paul left Titus behind 581 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,280 and Crete. And So what this whole letter 582 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:12,760 is, is it's Paul writing to Titus a manual for how to be a 583 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,120 church. They don't know how to do it, 584 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:18,600 how to be a church. And as we walk through it, we'll 585 00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,200 probably recognize that we don't know how to be a church either. 586 00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,040 We have our own struggles. And I love the way that Paul 587 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:27,320 like, did you see what Paul calls Titus? 588 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:34,760 He he calls him a true child of the common faith. 589 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,400 Why true child? True child? 590 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:42,920 I think because Paul didn't have any biological children. 591 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:44,320 He never knew what that felt like. 592 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,040 But because of the gospel in the church, do you know what? 593 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:53,720 Paul had a lot of children. Why is that modifier true in 594 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:55,840 front of the word child? Why true child? 595 00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:59,400 Because Paul wants to let you know that father son 596 00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:03,120 relationships or mother daughter relationships in the church are 597 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:08,840 not second rate relationships. Family is not a metaphor of the 598 00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,680 church wrong. It's a fact of the church. 599 00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:18,760 The church isn't like a family. The church is the family of God. 600 00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,240 You're either good or bad at acting like a family. 601 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:25,520 You're not either a family or not a family. 602 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:30,640 It it's the reality. And so Titus de Paul is a true 603 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:33,760 child of the common faith. You feel the depth of this 604 00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:35,560 relationship. You feel the warmth of this 605 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:37,160 relationship. I'm doing all of this 606 00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:39,760 biographical sketch, trying to get a picture of Titus and Paul 607 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,560 in your imagination. I'm doing all this because I 608 00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:46,800 just want to boil it down to a single question and ask you, do 609 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,880 you want these types of relationships? 610 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:53,920 You don't have to be best friends with everybody in the 611 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:55,960 church. You don't have to be tight with 612 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:57,840 everybody who wants to be tight with you in the church. 613 00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:03,040 It's OK to have boundaries. Also, the quality of your life 614 00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:06,000 will be determined by the quality of your relationships. 615 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:10,560 It's just a fact. You don't have quality 616 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,280 relationships. Life is not going to feel like a 617 00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,760 quality of life. And that's not just pop 618 00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,360 psychology crap. That's theology. 619 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:24,600 The you can't get rid of the feeling in your heart I want 620 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:26,560 deep relationships. You can't get rid of it. 621 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,680 And the reason it's there, it's because it might be the best 622 00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:34,120 evidence that God exists in the entire cosmos. 623 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,040 It's evidence of the God whose image you're created in. 624 00:37:38,680 --> 00:37:43,600 The Christian God is triune, He's Trinity, He's three persons 625 00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:46,320 and one godfather, Son, Holy Spirit. 626 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:49,360 They're distinct in personhood. The Father's not the Son, the 627 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:51,880 Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit's not the Father, and 628 00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:56,360 they're one in essence. The Father is God, the Son is 629 00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:59,040 God, the Spirit is God and they are one. 630 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:03,720 God is He is literally like the essence of his character. 631 00:38:03,720 --> 00:38:09,320 He is relationship to be created in his image means if I don't 632 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:12,080 have deep relationship, I'm going to feel dead inside. 633 00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,200 And if I do have deep relationship, I can deal with 634 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,440 all the other crap. I can do the taxes, I can do the 635 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,880 50 hour work weeks, I can do the sleepless nights. 636 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:21,480 If I have relationships, I'm good. 637 00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:24,280 You're built that way. You're wired that way because of 638 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:26,600 what God is like. But here's the rub. 639 00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:29,480 The modern human being has cultivated a view of friendships 640 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,440 that echoes the slogan of Target. 641 00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:34,840 Expect more payless. That's everybody in the room. 642 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:36,480 Why relationships are hard for us? 643 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:38,960 It's because we expect more and we payless. 644 00:38:39,240 --> 00:38:42,360 We have expectations for our friends that we don't hold 645 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:47,720 ourselves to. And so we go on our life as a 646 00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:51,640 crusade of destroying relationships and then leaving 647 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,320 them, destroying them and leaving them not dealing with 648 00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,440 problems. And the reason why is because we 649 00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,720 have expectations for them that we don't have for ourselves. 650 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:03,320 If the friendship isn't deep enough, it's because they never 651 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:05,800 asked me questions about my heart, It's them. 652 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,600 If the friendship isn't strong enough, it's because they never 653 00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:12,240 do anything nice for me. It's them. 654 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:17,880 If if the friendship doesn't take, if it's not constant 655 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:22,400 enough, it's because they never pursue me, right? 656 00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:24,440 Marriage counseling is this way, right? 657 00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:28,480 Couples famously get together and he said, she said, your 658 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:30,400 friendships are like that too, right? 659 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:33,360 You all whenever your relationship isn't working out, 660 00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:36,680 you always look at it and say it's because of him. 661 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:43,920 It's because of her and I. I need you to listen to me for 662 00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:49,040 your joy and for your sake. Stop the healthiest thing you 663 00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:52,760 can do if you want to develop deep lifelong Jesus centered 664 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:59,560 relationships. You take the responsibility for 665 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,120 the quality of your friendships and put them on your own 666 00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:07,040 shoulders. If you do that over the long 667 00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:10,400 haul, your relationships will get deeper and wider and you'll 668 00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:14,520 blame less and enjoy more. But you've got to be willing to 669 00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,360 look at the weaknesses in your friendships and say, OK, that's 670 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,120 my responsibility. Too many minor people, they 671 00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:25,400 just, they refuse to get on the field and play and they sit in 672 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:30,640 the nosebleeds willingly. They sit in the nosebleeds and 673 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:34,320 then they complain about the view, right? 674 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:38,080 If you stand at a distance from people, you'll throw rocks at 675 00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:38,960 them. I guarantee you. 676 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,600 If you stand at a distance from our church, you're going to 677 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:45,000 throw rocks at it. It's always how it works. 678 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,240 But the people who give more are invested more, experience, more 679 00:40:48,240 --> 00:40:51,840 joy in it. And so I know this is hard to 680 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,200 hear, but are you lonely? You go start up a conversation. 681 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:56,720 Do you wish somebody would pray for you? 682 00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,480 You go pray for them. Do you wish somebody would 683 00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:02,200 encourage you? You go encourage them. 684 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,120 You can actually control that. You can't control them. 685 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:07,040 Do you wish somebody would initiate with you? 686 00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:10,320 You go initiate with them. The ultimate form of hypocrisy 687 00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:14,520 is you expecting something to be in a relationship that you're 688 00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:19,520 unwilling to bring. Yeah. 689 00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,280 The ultimate form of hypocrisy is you expecting something to be 690 00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:28,200 in a relationship that you're unwilling to bring in. 691 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:33,440 The Christian standing in the blood of a God who sees 692 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:36,280 relationship is so valuable that he shed his own blood for it. 693 00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:41,360 The Christian goes to the cross and says here, my Lord, send me, 694 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:53,640 send me here, my Lord, send me I it's Some people think the 695 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,120 church is just about truth, and it is absolutely. 696 00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,720 If you miss truth and you miss doctrine, you don't have a 697 00:41:59,720 --> 00:42:01,120 church. So I'm a truth guy. 698 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:09,840 But if all you have is truth without relationship, I don't 699 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:13,880 even think Satan finds the church a threat. 700 00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:18,360 When did Satan, like have you read Genesis? 701 00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:21,080 Ask yourself the question, when did Satan show up in Genesis? 702 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,280 It's not when God creates Adam. It's not when God creates the 703 00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,160 cosmos. It's not when God creates the 704 00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:30,000 sun and the moon and the stars. It's not when God creates the 705 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,280 animals. When does Satan show up? 706 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,280 Satan doesn't. Satan shows up when God creates 707 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:38,960 relationship between Adam and Eve. 708 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:42,760 That's when Satan's like, oh, I got to, I got to get in the mix 709 00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,440 of this. That's the threat is the way the 710 00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:47,320 gospel comes through relationships. 711 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,720 I mean, you see this even like God calls Genesis is all a 712 00:42:50,720 --> 00:42:53,040 cascade of God saying that's good, that's good, that's good. 713 00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:55,960 He creates something. He says good, good, good, good. 714 00:42:56,120 --> 00:43:01,000 And then the first instance of not good in the Bible, it comes 715 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,480 before sin is even there. Have you ever noticed that 716 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:10,400 there's no sin? Adam is in, he's walking in 717 00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:16,000 relationship with God, paradise. He's in paradise and God finds 718 00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,560 something to look at and say that's not good. 719 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,320 What is it? It's not good for man to be what 720 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:29,840 alone? Some people say things like all 721 00:43:29,840 --> 00:43:34,960 I need is God, and that's true for your salvation, but that God 722 00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:40,400 that God doesn't actually say that right? 723 00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,680 He he says actually you need my people too. 724 00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:48,040 Not not good for man to be like imagine. 725 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:52,120 OK, this is crazy. Imagine yourself in paradise. 726 00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:56,320 Nobody's there. Nobody's bothering you. 727 00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,120 There's no sin, no shame, no anxiety. 728 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,560 You are in a perfect relationship, harmonious with 729 00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:11,120 God. In paradise, God would call that 730 00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:16,680 not good. Why? 731 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:20,760 Because you need companionship, friendship, relationship with 732 00:44:20,840 --> 00:44:27,160 other image bearers, God. And so that so much of church 733 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:30,920 and the Christian life is allowing the truth of the gospel 734 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:35,320 to work itself out in the context of our relationships. 735 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:37,680 It's massive. I came across a 15 second clip 736 00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,520 on Instagram that I just, I get in these moods where I just get 737 00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:44,600 sappy and soft and I find these stupid clips on Instagram and I 738 00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:46,200 just watch them on repeat, you know? 739 00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,400 And the one that I found that really I just, I watched on 740 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:51,640 repeat for like 5 minutes. All it was was a high school 741 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:53,760 pitcher. He was throwing a strikeout in 742 00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:57,320 the 9th inning. And the strikeout was recorded 743 00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,720 by his dad in the stands on his, on his phone. 744 00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:04,080 And the title of the video was, it was like a 10 second. 745 00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:06,880 It was 10 seconds. And the title of the video was 746 00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:11,280 my dad's reaction to my final strikeout in the game. 747 00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:15,200 So dad's watching his son. Son throws a strikeout and the 748 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:18,320 dad's responses, he starts screaming into the phone after 749 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:19,960 the strikeout. He starts screaming with pride 750 00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:21,800 and joy. He's like, he goes, yeah, baby, 751 00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:23,720 that's my boy. He says it like 5 times. 752 00:45:23,720 --> 00:45:27,360 He's like, that's my boy. Yeah, baby, that's my boy. 753 00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:30,200 And I was like, oh man, that's, that is so sweet. 754 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:35,560 And then what took it to the next level was a pinned comment 755 00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:38,320 underneath the video, the comment that they pinned to the 756 00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:42,920 top. Some random anonymous stranger 757 00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,520 on the Internet was watching this father celebrate his son. 758 00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:52,320 Yeah, baby, that's my boy. And typed out the comment, The 759 00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:59,120 stuff I would do to hear this. There are people in this room 760 00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:05,200 never had a father figure, mother figure, coach, authority 761 00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:09,680 figure, teacher, ever. They would do anything to hear 762 00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:12,160 it. They've never had an influential 763 00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:14,040 figure in their life. Look at them and say, yeah, 764 00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:18,440 baby, that's my boy, that's my girl right there. 765 00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:27,240 And that breaks God's heart. It is not good for woman or man 766 00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:31,200 to be alone, and God has a solution for that. 767 00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:39,640 His solution is to die on a cross to redeem people and to 768 00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:42,160 make them into a family called the church. 769 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,320 And so the church, it's supposed to be the play. 770 00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:48,280 It's not just the place you go to hear preaching. 771 00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:53,240 I love that you love that. The church needs to be the place 772 00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:55,120 where people who have never heard. 773 00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:59,360 Yeah, baby, that's my boy. And think the stuff I would do 774 00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:01,600 to hear this. The church needs to be the place 775 00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:06,520 where we don't have to do any stuff to hear that we're friends 776 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,600 or spiritual fathers, Spiritual mothers look at us and say to 777 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:13,200 it, you're kicking butt as a mother. 778 00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:15,760 That's my girl. Go get it right. 779 00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:18,080 It's so important for us to have that. 780 00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:20,320 Jesus shows us this at the foot of the cross. 781 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:22,760 Gosh, OK, I'm sorry. Just look, give me this and I'll 782 00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:27,640 be done. When Jesus is, when Jesus is 783 00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:31,560 dying on the cross, he's stretched out in pain. 784 00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:34,680 He's being crucified. He's absorbing the wrath of God 785 00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:36,360 for all of the sin of this people. 786 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:40,280 He's dry to the bone, man. He's bleeding from every square 787 00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:42,840 inch of his body. And standing in front of him are 788 00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:45,240 a lot of people, but two people in particular. 789 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:49,320 His mom, right? Mary's watching all of this. 790 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:51,640 This is mom. He loves her. 791 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:56,320 There's also John, the only disciple who didn't bail on him. 792 00:47:56,520 --> 00:48:00,120 That's his buddy. OK, Jesus is about to leave. 793 00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:04,520 And it is not good for Mary to be alone and it is not good for 794 00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:06,760 John to be alone. Those two are just 795 00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,920 acquaintances, right? I'm, I'm assuming Mary and John 796 00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:12,160 bumped into each other while Jesus was hanging out all 797 00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:13,400 together. They knew each other. 798 00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:17,280 They were acquaintances, but Jesus didn't want them to remain 799 00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:20,240 acquaintances. And so he bleeds for them on the 800 00:48:20,240 --> 00:48:21,760 cross. And do you know what he says to 801 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:23,680 Mary? He looks at Mary and he says, 802 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:31,320 mother, behold your son. And he says to John, John, 803 00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:36,560 behold your mother, what's going on in the blood of Christ there? 804 00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:40,640 He's not just saving individuals from their sin. 805 00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,480 Yes, he is, but he's establishing in his blood, in 806 00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:46,680 the shadow of the cross, a family. 807 00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:51,800 He's giving his mother to John to have a mom, and he's giving 808 00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:54,440 John to his mother to have a son. 809 00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:58,320 And if you stand in the blood of Jesus long enough and in the 810 00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:02,200 shadow of the cross long enough, you should be knit together with 811 00:49:02,240 --> 00:49:05,360 other believers so that you become a spiritual mother or 812 00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:07,760 father or a spiritual son or daughter. 813 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:13,840 Jesus died for you to have deep discipleship oriented 814 00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:19,520 friendships that magnify and put the glory of Jesus on display. 815 00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:25,360 That's what's behind this verse. That's why Paul can look at a 816 00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:32,800 Greek but have anything in common with and say, you are my 817 00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:39,720 true child in the faith. It's so moving and touching. 818 00:49:42,640 --> 00:49:45,160 And I think it's the gospel that allowed Paul to look at Titus 819 00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:48,880 and say, hey, you might be a church planter. 820 00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:54,280 You might be a, you might be a a great friend. 821 00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:57,280 I think you can become a great follower of Jesus. 822 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:01,520 You might become a great worship leader, whatever The thing is, 823 00:50:01,600 --> 00:50:06,040 have you ever seen something in somebody that they haven't seen? 824 00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:10,720 Maybe you want to start doing that by the power of Jesus this 825 00:50:10,720 --> 00:50:14,080 morning, Heavenly Father, I pray that you would make a make us 826 00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:20,960 into a family. Make us people who are the 827 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:23,640 people behind us in the pews right now. 828 00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:28,920 That's our mother and father in the faith, the people who are in 829 00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:32,880 front of us right now. Those are our true children in 830 00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:34,800 the faith, our true sons and daughters. 831 00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:38,520 And so would you build this church together? 832 00:50:39,240 --> 00:50:43,200 Would you make Paul Titus relationships, mother, daughter 833 00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:45,280 relationships, father son relationships. 834 00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:48,920 May the church be the place where people who look at a 835 00:50:48,920 --> 00:50:51,400 father celebrating his son throwing a strike out and 836 00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:54,320 yelling, that's my boy, where people who say I would do 837 00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:58,080 anything to hear that this is the place where they should hear 838 00:50:58,080 --> 00:51:01,080 it. And if they don't hear it from 839 00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:03,800 other people, that's a shame. If they don't hear it from other 840 00:51:03,800 --> 00:51:06,440 Christians, that's a shame. But if they don't hear from 841 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,800 other people, I pray that they would hear it from you, that you 842 00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:12,320 in this moment, right now, would look at those whom you have 843 00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,240 adopted and made your family, and that they would hear 844 00:51:15,240 --> 00:51:18,200 themselves by virtue of the gospel alone, That they would 845 00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:23,520 hear you say, My beloved daughter, my beloved son, in 846 00:51:23,520 --> 00:51:28,800 whom I am well pleased, would the familial affection of a 847 00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,880 heavenly Father floor us this morning. 848 00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:36,040 Please do that in and through our hearts. 849 00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:39,600 In the precious name of Jesus, all God's people prayed man.