My name is Casey. I am on the preaching team.
It's always a privilege to preach.
If it's your first Sunday, welcome, I'm glad to have you.
If you don't know me personally, everyone on the preaching team
kind of has their their go to illustrations.
For Cole, it's family in wrestling, occasionally fishing,
mainly wrestling, sometimes family.
For me, I would like to tell you that it's literature.
I would like to present as this literary buff.
That's a lie. I am a video game buff.
I did not pick the font that said welcome to Frontier.
However, it was apartment. So whoever did that, 10 out of
10, buckle up. We're going to have a video game
reference in the beginning because there's a video game
series actually have a tattoo of my favorite character from the
game, but the franchise is called Dark Souls.
Ceres is famous for its difficulty.
It's beautiful and dying worlds and it's world building and and
something in the industry called earned narrative.
That essentially means that it doesn't just like give you the
story. You have to like actually earn
the story. If the stories in the item
descriptions, it's in the small details in the landscapes.
It doesn't just tell you a story like a book does.
You have to earn it. The whole thing is a very
difficult package. The tattoo I have is of a
character named Sigword, or Sigvard of Katarina, and the
reason I even bring them up is because there's a staple of the
franchise and actually of the producers of this game.
All of their games have this staple called the bonfire.
These are the checkpoints in a video game.
If you're familiar with video games in general for the past 40
or 4550 years of video game history, a checkpoint is
somewhere in a game or once you hit it, if you mess up, if you
lose, you don't go all the way back to the beginning, you go to
the the checkpoint. So if you're 2 hours into the
game, you get a checkpoint. That two hours isn't all lost.
You go back to like at the 2 hour mark.
That's what the bonfire is. However, in Dark Souls they
serve more purposes than just a checkpoint.
The most important and immediate 1 is that a bonfire is a place
of rest, just like in real life guys.
The the bonfire is a checkpoint mechanically, but more
importantly, in a game like Dark Souls that's notorious for
difficulty, it's a place where you're just like going to take
like a couple of minutes and catch your breath.
It's a quiet place to sit in a hostile land.
Sometimes though, in this game, if you're lucky, if you've
tracked down some of that narrative that I say you have to
earn, if you've tracked it down, there are characters woven
throughout the game and you'll encounter them at these
bonfires. And, and something really common
with this game is that the characters are not rife like me
or Joseph or Cole with dialogue. They don't have boatloads to
say. In fact, they say very minimal,
very, very little dialogue from almost every character.
In fact, I'm going to speak about the same amount of words
this morning as the combined total of all characters in the
game Dark Souls 3, which is my favorite video game of all time.
However, when you do encounter a friend in these games, there is
a common theme. Many of the gentler, more
notable characters, including Sigvard, the character on my
tattoo, will utter the same thing.
There's three Dark Souls games, and all three, the good
characters, are going to say the same thing at these bonfires.
The words be safe. Again, the words are be safe.
And if you're familiar with the games, you will know at first
blush that that statement is like a hilariously dismissive
platitude. It's like a joke.
The games are grueling. You are supposed to fail and
fail and fail and fail. The games are made for you to
die over and over again. So much so that there is an
Internet on the meme or a meme on the Internet.
My bad. You might not even know the
games, but there's a chance that you've seen like a real or a
short where somebody falls off a bike or runs into a wall or kids
collide on a playground and then the red letters appear and the
screen goes black and it just says you died or you tried.
It's a meme on the Internet that's from Dark Souls.
Because the game is grueling. So every time a character says
be safe you would know that it is hilariously dismissive.
What are you talking about brother?
I died 8 times between my walk from the last bonfire in here
and I do that same walk 8 times to get here.
It's grueling out there my guy. What do you mean be safe still?
They say it frequently. The good and memorable
characters all say it be safe. Moreover, they mean it.
You can hear it in the voice acting.
Despite sometimes different goals, aspirations, or hopes,
when you encounter a friend in those fractured and dying
worlds, they will make sure to tell you.
Not ask you, but tell you to be safe.
It never bothered me that they did this within the bounds of
the game. With how lonely it is, I knew by
a select few that I was cared for.
My perilous journey mattered. Conversely, just as Be safe in a
dangerous world seems like a comical and hypocritical
platitude. I think we can all say that we
are insulted of dismissive things like the statement,
thoughts and prayers, sentiments expressed in our culture.
You've all heard it. We've all made jokes about it.
I don't know when that meme started, but the culture
sensitivity to it arose after the Columbine shooting in 1999.
It had to come about during the first era of the Internet, and
then, of course, exploded when we all had access to our shared
corners of the Internet, social media, thoughts and prayers.
It sounds insulting in a trying time.
It sounds meaningless in the light of tragedy.
Yet still, even critics of these sentiments, embracers of the
meme, will find themselves uttering similar sentiments.
Why, when others experience difficulty, we all vociferate
our sentiments of get well or hang in there or thoughts and
prayers. Why?
Why are some platitudes OK? Why are some swatted away like
cumbersome words hanging over us?
In today's text, I hope to jab at those questions.
Frontier Church. And by doing this, I want us all
to see the bounty of simple utterances and blessings.
I want us to see that sometimes the most simple, memorable,
repeatable things given to you by others in trying times are
ultimately the most valuable, and I want to give you all the
same hopeful utterance we will encounter here in the text.
However, if you have not been here for the first segments of
Paul's introduction to Titus, let me rapidly summarize it for
you. Today we're going to be reading
Titus. There's only 1 chapter, verse 4,
Part B. So who is Paul writing to?
That guy is Titus. But who is Paul?
A servant and apostle of God? See the first verses.
Who is Titus again in the first few verses?
Paul's true child in common faith and the appointed pastor
of the remnant in Crete. Where and what is Crete?
While church? Crete is a larger island off the
southern coast of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea, still there
today. It's approximately 250 miles
away from Athens, and it's where I get one of my favorite joke
insults that I call my friends a cretin.
And why church is Paul writing to Titus?
This is a quote for the sake of the faith of God's elect and
their knowledge of the truth. Or, less cryptically, because
Titus is the pastor of a small remnant of churches in Crete and
they need help. Crete is an island with bad
soil, bad people, and bad faith actors even in their own
churches. Today we are finishing up this
introduction in Titus in the 1st 4 verses.
So if you're unfamiliar, Titus is the 10th last book in the
Bible out of 66. It's 56.
So it is all the way towards the end.
And it's super easy to miss because in most Bibles,
regardless of your font, it's going to be one page, not front
and back, one page, just one side.
So it's easy to mix miss. And because of the many
printings, you never quite know where it is.
So if you start Revelations and count 10 letters back, 10 books
back, you're going to get there pretty easily.
So if you would all please rise with me, whether in body or
spirit for the reading of God's Word.
A couple of things. I'm actually going to be reading
all first 4 verses of Titus again.
But for the sake of our text, what I will be covering today is
very, very much just the very end of the of the last verse.
Hang on there for a second while I also struggle to get to Titus.
Didn't mark it here. There we go.
Mine happens to be 2 pages by the way, which is rare.
So Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the
sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth
which accords with godliness and hope of eternal life, which God
who never lies promised before the ages began and at the proper
time manifested in the Word through the preaching with which
I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior to
Titus, my true child in common faith, grace and peace from God
the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior.
You may be sitted, seated Frontier Church sitted.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for
today. I thank you for the opportunity
to be a part of this preaching team, the trust that they they
put in me when they invited me to join.
I pray for the kiddos. I pray for the parents.
This is the Sunday before school starts.
For most people here, there are teachers.
They're parents of new students, their parents hanging on with
students who have been in the game for a long time, their
students just joining the fold and students not looking forward
to going back. So I pray Forrest, I pray for
tame excitement at the opportunity to learn and to
study and to spend time with peers.
I pray that the transition would be smooth as possible and in all
things difficult and easy, especially for those in that
category this coming week. I pray that there would be rest,
that there would be small moments of rest, that we would
be reminded of your hope in all difficult times.
Senior Son's name, I pray. Amen.
So guys, luckily for me, or perhaps unluckily, the text is
extremely simple. I read all first 4 verses.
However again to hover in on what I'm actually covering.
Grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ Jesus
our Savior. That's all I've got for you
today. We can pack up.
Good job guys, let's pray. It's 11 words, 12 if we're
looking at the Greek. Paul is signing the introduction
of his letter with a small prayer.
It's actually called an Apostolic greeting.
Paul uses it a lot. He uses it in Romans, Galatians,
Corinthians. It's a very common usage.
This isn't specific to Titus, however, it it's not only even
used by Paul, it's actually used in post Apostolic writings.
It's, it's a very common, just it's like a greeting, but at the
end of the greeting for a letter.
But I don't know about any of you.
When we moved to Titus, I spent time reading through the small
letter about a dozen times. I hadn't read Titus in a few
years. It's always hard for me to read
Titus. There's somebody in this room
who actually knows the answer. Why?
But my junior year at college, my junior.
Excuse me, my junior year at college, there we go.
Somebody mixed up my papers. I was reading through Titus for
just like a personal devotion. And it was at that time I was
actually going to school to be in full time ministry.
And I was reading through Titus and I was heavily convicted by
the Spirit that I should not pursue full time ministry, which
I just devoted the last three years of my life to goofing off
with the thought that I was pursuing full time ministry.
So really quick to spoil what is to come.
After this greeting. Paul is going to lay a
groundwork for eldership in the church.
And I was convicted that I am supremely under qualified for
leading a church. And Paul's writing this to Titus
because Paul is aware that Crete is in dire straits.
The church there does not have elders.
The people are wayward. It is a difficult Rd. for Titus,
a long stretch to the next bonfire.
So as a last thought before Paul begins to outline what it means
to be an elder and how to appoint them, he offers Titus a
quote. Thoughts and prayers.
Or at least that's how it reads if you're a little cynical.
A Christian platitude. That's how it reads to me, even
though, like I said, it's used all the time.
Now, I want you to spend disbelief and allow me to say,
if I were Titus, a part of me would want to lash out to Paul
in a response letter over that. I wouldn't even make it to the
meat of the text sometimes. I'd be pending that response so
fast. Hey, Paul.
Yeah. I know who you are, even though
you just said it. Shared vision, blah, blah, blah.
Real quick, What do you mean? Grace and peace?
What do you mean by that? And I know it's reductive.
And I know it's unfair as a reader to just insert myself and
my potential cynicism and my modern context into something
much older and, and, and sincere, but a part of me really
reacts that way still. So I just want to be honest to
you, Paul. You know just how bad it is here
in Crete. You sent me here.
You're the one who dismissed me here.
You know, it is an ungraceful land with no peace.
There are pirates and mercenaries here.
What are you talking about? So church really quick.
I just want to walk down the first two active words
themselves, Grace and peace. Grace doesn't really need an
introduction. It's a very famous Greek word.
I wouldn't be surprised if like 50% of the people in this room
knew what it was even in Greek and that even a few of you have
tattoos. Pastors and elders even excluded
by show of hands. If you feel risky, go ahead,
shout it out or raise your hand If you have a grace tattoo in
Greek or if you know the Greek word, go ahead, shout it out.
Anyone. There you go.
Does anyone have a tattoo of it?
Yeah, great question of karis. That's the Greek word for for
grace, buddy. Karis.
Simple. It is a favor or unwarranted act
of kindness to the Christian grace.
It is the supreme unwarranted act of kindness and love.
It is the summary denial of what we deserved, that is death for
unwanted or unwanted and unwarranted gain of life through
Jesus Christ. Grace is not only that singular
act, but the state we are in by that act that God sees us and
loves us because of Christ's death on the cross.
We exist in the grace of God if we are believers.
Frontier Church. And that's, you know what Paul
is talking about when he says to to the elect in the letter that
the elect are the ones experiencing this grace.
It's a saving grace where we are known and know God through Jesus
Christ. That is grace.
It's very straightforward. So it is peace then?
That is a less popular Greek word and I'd be surprised, just
like I was surprised if somebody didn't know Karis.
I would be surprised if anyone knew or had a tattoo of peace in
Greek. But just like before, if anyone
knows it, shout it out. And it's OK if you don't know.
This isn't a test. I'm not giving out church
points. I've got nothing for you other
than I would be a little impressed, which means nothing.
Irene a Rene to give more structure to what that weird
sound I just made is peace means it's it certainly does mean
tranquility or calm calmness. That is like the reality of it.
But there's there's actually more.
It contains more in the Greek. It has an implication of depth.
So you can imagine its calmness with a focus that the calmness
comes from a lack of strife or need.
So it's it's it's calmness is because there is not turmoil and
there is not need for reconciliation, even as deep as
reconciliation within a relationship.
That's what Irene means in Greek.
And the reason I wanted to define these is because they
stand in contrast to Titus task at hand in Greek in Crete.
If you perceive them simply as hopeful sentiments, thoughts and
prayers, it just reads like another platitude.
So why is it not? What is Paul telling Titus as he
sets his letter up in the conclusion of this introduction?
If we don't ask simple context questions, we will probably
dismiss the depth of hope that Paul is laying out here at the
end of this introduction for his beloved friend Titus.
So what makes Paul's grace and peace sincere and some random
thoughts and prayers insincere? I think there are very 22 church
very important clarifications to consider when we evaluate
whether something is genuine with love and concern and hope
versus a simple banal platitude. The first one is simply who is
speaking. We already covered who Paul is,
but part of the equation for evaluating the sincerity and
depth of the concern and hope is in that relationship between the
two. Paul genuinely cares about
Titus, he loves Titus, he cared about Titus long before he
appointed him to Crete. They traveled to Jerusalem
together and later Paul appointed him to be the letter
bearer to the struggling church at Corinth.
This is key to understanding why Titus will have no doubt in the
gravity of hope and prayer that Paul is offering him at the
close of this introduction. Simply put, their relationship
is allowing Titus to go. There's no way he's just like
throwing smoke out. This, this is this is important.
Just like I look out at you guys.
If any of you offered me, like if I told you it was a difficult
time and you said, hey, I'm praying for you, that wouldn't
be unless I was being really cynical that day and that would
be something I need to work out. If any one of you said, Casey,
thank you for sharing, I'm praying for you.
That would that would have gravity to it.
And the only reason it wouldn't is because I was failing, not
because you were insincere. I know I'm cared by you guys,
and I hope that you feel the same way about those close to
you that you were cared for, even if it is simple words to
those that really care from you. Simplicity is often more than
enough. Their prior long trial
relationship adds trust in the speaker.
As I was saying, Titus knows Paul means it because of their
relationship. It isn't just some open air
utterance that Paul is saying in reaction to a trial.
Oh, it's really hard here, Paul. Yeah.
Well, grace and peace, my guy. That's not, that's not it.
It there is so much sincerity in it.
Paul hopes for and believes in Titus mission that he appointed
him to. And not only is Paul sincere as
an author of this quick prayer greeting, but Paul is also
evoking the object by which the sincerity comes from, not just
Paul. And so forgive me when I said
the object I'm talking about God the Father and Jesus Christ the
Son, 2 persons in the Godhead, the Trinity, but God the Father
and Jesus Christ the Son, they're the source of this grace
and peace that Paul is encouraging Titus in this is
even more important than who said the thing, the what of
where the blessing comes from. I think the issue with many
platitudes is that there is no hope in the outcome because the
sort, those, the source those hopes come from is it best and
neutral. Nothing.
Thoughts and prayers. Well, if I don't really know the
person or if I read it online, I don't know their sincerity.
I don't know what their thoughts are, I don't know what their
prayers are, so why? Why would I?
Why would I be comforted by that if if there's no personal
relation and if the source they're citing isn't something
that I can I can trust? Thoughts and prayers isn't so
bad, it's just that it's a little flat.
It's not like the person is saying thoughts and prayers to
Satan for you in these troubling times.
That would be ludicrous, but just because it isn't that
ludicrous doesn't mean it has value added either.
Thoughts of what? Prayers to who?
Paul does not mince or allow Titus or the reader to wonder
about these things. Church.
Paul's explicitly clear about the origin of the grace and
peace that he is praying for. But not only is he explicitly
clear about the origin, I think pointing to the origin in this
instance will tip us off to something even crazier.
Not only is Paul explicit about where this is coming from, but
the where itself is indicative of greater value than a general
platitude could ever offer. That's the value of the
Apostolic reading. That's why it shows up in the
letters Church. This may sound weird, but what I
mean is that God is more valuable.
That's not weird, but also more real and not in like some social
kitsch way. The way that we use real.
I mean real in the sense that there is more reality to God
than your thoughts, your prayers, person next to you, the
bench you're sitting on. He's more real than any general
neutralness of a thought or prayer.
And if God is more valuable and real than the grace and peace he
offers by consequence also have to be more valuable and real.
So at the same time, Paul is not only praying for these things
for Titus, which he is, but he is also reminding Titus of the
essential state of the Christian, that is, the
Apostolic greeting. It's the whole gospel in five
words. This is not fake and it happens
to be abstract of personal sentiments and emotions.
What I mean is that Paul is not only praying for this for Titus,
but it is a statement of the nature of a redeemed Christian.
The elect that Paul refers to. All experience this and it is an
existential experience that transcends human emotions and
sentiment. Sentiments which can be shallow
and fickle like myself. My emotions and sentiments wax
and wane like the tide. Super, super fickle, but not the
grace and peace of God the Father in Jesus Christ the Son,
our Savior. Paul is well, well aware of the
difficult road ahead of Titus. It will be fraught with peril,
risk, frustration, and few rests between trials, few rests
between bonfires. But Even so, Titus can walk
knowing he exists in the grace and peace of his saving faith.
The grace and peace of God is not circumstantial.
Frontier Church. I've been thinking about this as
I come to church every Sunday. Recently.
Work has been brutal. I talked about it the last time
I preached on Psalm 69, where instead of just half of a verse,
I read over 30 verses. It's been ramping up this work
that's been killing me since January due to some
mismanagement, some horrendous contract work.
Not like contractors, but like contract at the higher level.
But really since the third week of June.
This isn't boastful. If anything, like please help
make it stop. But since the third week of
June, I can claim with numbers that I have now done over a
year's worth of production. So in a little over 11 weeks,
based on what my, you know, I was hired full time, what me and
the company agreed is a fair amount of work for what I make.
I've done about 5X that. So in about 3 months I've done a
little over a year's worth of work.
It's exhausting. It's truly an insane pace.
I had to reformat my entire process and help my team get
used to that adjustment so that we can even attempt to keep up
and have this level of success because of how far behind we
are. And the truth is, it's still
like not enough. Doing a year's worth of work in
11 weeks and I'm still like insurmountably behind.
It's just so frustrating. I can't catch up despite how
hard I work. I am exhausted and it feels like
I am living Sunday to Sunday. Sunday is my favorite day of the
week, but by the time I reach it, it's just so easy to be
cynical. I'm living church service to
church service, bonfire to bonfire.
When I show up, people I want to see, that's you.
I wait all week to see you guys. I get so excited you check in on
me and I'm disappointed in myself to report that things
aren't better yet at work. And a wicked part of me, a
cynical part, will try and receive the prayers and concerns
you will offer me as contrite or insincere or platitudinal.
Just a response customary of awkward situations where someone
is having difficulty and the other isn't.
Those middle neutral statements of half hope.
I imagine at this, at this time or at these times that we all
have the ability to do this. We crave attention and care and
then when it is offered, we do not see it for what it is, A
reminder of the greater reality that we are participating in
within the church. Being reminded of the grace of
God and our difficulty or of the peace that the saving work of
Jesus Christ has is ever appropriate.
This grace and peace in every trial, That grace supersedes the
cynicism that may try and creep into my heart from this
difficulty. That peace supersedes the
turmoil of my experiences happening currently.
Even if I do not feel it, my soul rejoices again.
Because the grace and peace that God offers is abstract of
sentiment. Being reunited with God and
salvation, it warrants nothing other than the highest
sentiments. But because we're human, we
sometimes can't offer that. But the good news is, the grace
and peace don't require you to have the right sentiments.
They're true when you're angry at God.
They're true when you're exhausted.
They're they're true regardless. God's truth is more real than
your experiences and your emotions.
God's grace and peace are so much greater than the sum total
of your negative experiences and sentiments.
This doesn't mean you automatically feel better.
I shared that with you. I'm talking about this right
now. I don't feel better.
I'm nervous about tomorrow. Many of you are going to school
for the first time. Some of you probably downstairs,
but some of you are going to school for the first time.
Others of you are returning. Some of you are for sure
excited, Others of you might be nervous.
You might be a parent who's nervous about your kid going to
school for the first time. You have these emotions that
seem to contradict what we assume grace and peace to be
about. But the truth is the grace and
peace don't make you quote feel better.
You are better from from an existential standpoint.
That's why Paul can have confidence in saying grace and
peace. It's not just a thoughts and
prayers church. I don't want us to be cynical.
I know we can all struggle with it.
But I don't want to show up to church after a long week or get
a message from a concerned friend and receive their care as
something that's like vein or banal or too general to my
situation or for my liking. I don't want to be the
determiner of the validity of their sincerity.
I know I have the option to appeal to that infinite well of
hope because the person appealing and what they are
appealing to are more real, that is, God and his grace and peace,
than the temporary emotions and experiences that are concerning
me. Back to video games, there's a
specific time in Dark Souls 1 where you encounter a character
at a bonfire in an especially difficult spot.
Notoriously difficult The character's name is Laurentius
of the Great Swamp. He too will tell the character
the player to be safe, one of many and it is very
contradictory to the whole field of the game be safe in a very
difficult game. But he had something else that
the first time I encountered it. And I, I like, I've sent it to
friends and reels because it's like, it's such like a in the
moment he says it, it's so almost contradict.
It's like existentially contradictory to the game.
But it is so sincere. It just sticks with me and it
makes me think of grace and peace.
So not only does he say be safe, but when you leave the bonfire,
Laurentia says be safe, friend, don't you dare go hollow in
dark. Dark Souls, the whole franchise,
overtime characters lose their humanity.
It's a part of the world. You're becoming less human.
The process is called Halloween. The way in the narrative that
characters prevent Halloween is pursuing things greater than
themselves. It is one of the most profound
statements in the entire game. You are surrounded on all sides
by trial, great difficulty, hallowed creatures trying to
kill you, to stop you. And here this man, at this
bonfire you barely know, a gentleman covered in tattered
clothes looks to you and at one rest spot in a very mire of
tribulations sees you and sets you on your way with the line.
Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go hollow.
And an even greater sense. This is Paul's last introductory
words to Titus. In the upcoming weeks we are
going to traverse the great difficulties surrounding Titus's
ministry. We will see Paul's general and
acute instructions for how to build up this local community.
The Titus is shepherding and the road is fraught with peril, both
emotional as it is difficult to be a leader in a church, but
also physical as we know that there are cutthroats, pirates,
bandits, mercenaries, all on Crete.
So there is a real sense of danger.
There's soldiers here and not like governmental soldiers,
soldiers for hire, where coin determines the the choice of who
they attack, who they kill. And still Paul made sure to pray
for Titus and remind him grace and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Savior. And now beloved, I'm going to
say the same to you. And I hope that every week you
will greet me with the same. I hope that you will crush the
cynicism, cynicism that may well up in you from difficulty and
see the person who is praying for you and wishing you rest in
peace as well as see the source that they are evoking by
uttering those words, grace and peace from God the Father and
Christ Jesus our Savior. As you go Frontier Church week
after week, Sunday after Sunday, there are many difficulties
ahead outside the rest of the church, the bonfire here, but it
does not change the reality of the that grace and of that peace
that you experience in your relationship with God.
So I'll say it one more time and I hope you would say it to me
whenever things are difficult. Grace and peace from God the
Father and Christ Jesus our Savior church.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for
today. I thank you for the grace and
peace you have given by sending your son dying on that cross on
behalf of us, imputing your righteousness that we have an
existential peace that transcends.
When I'm really frustrated with you about how work is going,
that when somebody I love, who I get to see once a week at
church, puts a hand on my shoulder and just says, I was
praying for you this week, Casey, I know things are
difficult. I love you what I pray for
everyone else in this church that we would look forward to
those very simple, seemingly contrite sometimes greetings and
take them for what they really are, an acknowledgement of the
deeper existence and reality of being a believer that we have
your grace God, and that you have given us peace through
Jesus Christ your Son. See your son say my pray.
Amen.