1 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:08,680 This last week we've had a lot of rain and there's a rainy, 2 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:13,320 cold day Monday, and I went to my community group gathering and 3 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:16,480 it was a lovely night. But I noticed that something has 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:21,240 been missing through our study of Titus, and it came to me that 5 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:24,600 night as we were sitting around, we'd eaten some real good red 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,760 bean chili, which went perfect with the the kind of colder day 7 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:30,440 that we'd had. And we eaten this this chili. 8 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,320 We sit down. We'd start to discuss the 9 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,120 passage from last week. In last week's passage, if you 10 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,120 were here or in a community studying it, you know, is all 11 00:00:38,120 --> 00:00:41,960 about how to be a man or a woman who is discipling younger men 12 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:43,680 and younger women. If you're a younger man or a 13 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,400 younger woman, how to find someone, how to look for 14 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:50,200 someone, how to be trained up to be kind of in, in earnest, A 15 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:53,400 respectable person, a respectable man, a respectable 16 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,160 woman. And our conversation kind of 17 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,400 turned that way. How do you become or really what 18 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,720 is the characteristics of people that you respect in your life? 19 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:03,960 We talked a lot about that. I talked about men and women 20 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:06,040 that that we look up to and want to be like. 21 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,280 And as the discussion wind wound down, I started to just feel 22 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:13,200 like we were kind of missing a big part of what we needed to 23 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,440 talk about that night. The question that was in my 24 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:17,760 brain was, was how, how do you become that? 25 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,240 And you may have noticed the, the lack of this thing that 26 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,800 we're talking about today, as we've studied through especially 27 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,560 the, the first part of this letter, we had John Whitaker 28 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:30,200 preaching on the 1st 4 verses. And he shared, if you remember 29 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,840 the, the table analogy. And he said there's four things 30 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:36,320 that Paul instructs Titus in that are really the 31 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:40,760 fundamentals, the foundations for faith in God, for following 32 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,080 Jesus. And he said those four things 33 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:45,560 really make up if it's a table, the, the table legs. 34 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,840 And he said that the first thing is faith, the second is truth, 35 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,720 the third is hope and the 4th godliness. 36 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:57,720 Now, if you guys maybe ordered a, a table from IKEA or maybe 37 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:01,680 drove down to Salt Lake City and drove back, you would open, 38 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,920 imagine opening up a package of a table from IKEA and it's 39 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:09,759 missing this thing, this thing that John, not in his theology 40 00:02:09,759 --> 00:02:12,360 and his sermon, but in the four things he talked about the, the 41 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,480 tabletop. There's no tabletop. 42 00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:16,840 Imagine open up a package and realize, oh man, I should 43 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,760 somehow return this and have to get this back because there's no 44 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:21,320 tabletop. The tabletop that we're talking 45 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:23,240 about today. The thing that holds everything 46 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:25,760 together, the four things that John talked about, the whole 47 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:29,680 really letter of Titus that makes this not just sound wisdom 48 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,840 for a culture or a religion or a world, but makes it particularly 49 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:38,040 Christian because really these things, faith scientists have 50 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:39,560 faith in what they believe in truth. 51 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:42,440 They're after truth. Hope and godliness are words 52 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:44,040 that get thrown around in our culture. 53 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,600 Godliness just being, you know, morally superior or right, 54 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:49,960 things that the world cares about, things that definitely 55 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,320 other religions care about. But what makes this, what makes 56 00:02:53,640 --> 00:02:57,720 our mission and what makes the message of Jesus in particular 57 00:02:58,080 --> 00:02:59,440 different? What sets it apart? 58 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:03,000 And it's this idea of grace, grace. 59 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,760 And so if you felt this, and my guess is that most of us have 60 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:10,480 throughout this study that all these things I've talked about 61 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,440 wanting to be a reverent, respectable man or woman, you 62 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:15,480 might say that's a great idea, but how do I get there? 63 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:17,920 Maybe you've wondered that. How do I get from where I'm at 64 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:21,480 as somebody who is a little godly to being someone who 65 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:24,760 others look to as a person of faith, a person of godliness? 66 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:27,240 Or maybe you're on the outside looking in saying, you know, I 67 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:28,600 don't. I hadn't really begun that 68 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:30,560 process of faith. I'm new to church. 69 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:32,640 I've just joined in the last several weeks. 70 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:36,440 I don't really know the message totally, but how do I begin this 71 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,080 process? It seems like others are way 72 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:40,760 further along. This message of grace is for 73 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:43,200 you. Grace is what gets us into the 74 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:46,880 Kingdom and what continues to help us become more and more 75 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:51,120 like Jesus's Kingdom people. So we'll be in Titus chapter 2, 76 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,880 verse 11 to start if you'd like to turn there. 77 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:56,640 And Paul connects this with this word 4. 78 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:58,320 So this word stands there to say. 79 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:01,760 Everything that Paul has said previously is leading up to this 80 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:03,200 moment. Everything that he said from 81 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:09,240 verse 1 of chapter 1 to now is pointing towards this 4 Like why 82 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:12,120 does all of this matter? How does all of this work? 83 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,520 Why does it matter to raise up elders who are above reproach 84 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,240 and the husbands of one wife who can manage their households 85 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:19,440 well? Why does that matter and how do 86 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:21,959 you get there? Why does it matter to be a 87 00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:24,320 person who disciples other people and how do I do it? 88 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:29,880 It all comes back to this four he says the grace of God that 89 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:33,920 brings salvation has appeared to all men. 90 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:36,440 Now, as we get into this, you might be wondering what 91 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,440 salvation is in particular, and Paul will explain to this to us 92 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,440 in a bit. But in particular, what's 93 00:04:42,440 --> 00:04:45,760 difficult about this passage and anytime you talk about a word 94 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,680 like grace is that when I say we're going to talk about grace 95 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,440 today, some of us sit back and say, great, I already know about 96 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:53,040 it. This will be an easy one for me. 97 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:56,920 Some of us sit back and say, oh, I'm a little bit nervous because 98 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:59,880 the church that I was a part of or the movement I was a part of, 99 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:02,920 or teachers that I've followed have used grace in a way that's 100 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:05,400 been hurtful to my heart and my mind and my soul. 101 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,160 And maybe you don't know where you stand on grace because 102 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:10,960 you've been conditioned in one of two ways to believe something 103 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:13,680 false about grace and you're saying, OK, great, a message on 104 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,400 you think you know what grace is, but you really don't. 105 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,560 So to get us started, first I want to talk about two false 106 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,760 definitions of grace. Two things that our culture, if 107 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:24,880 you talk to most people in Boise, they might say one of 108 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:28,840 these two things. So you might have heard this, 109 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:33,200 especially if you're from a Mormon or Uber like religious 110 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:36,800 self-righteous background. I'll read to you a verse from 111 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:38,880 the Book of Mormon, just to be clear from the Book of Mormon. 112 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:41,680 So don't take a a screen picture of this and say that's my new 113 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,240 life verse. This is from second Nephi and 114 00:05:44,240 --> 00:05:45,920 this is what it says. It's going to start off really 115 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:50,160 good for we know that it's by grace that we are saved. 116 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:51,440 Sounds pretty good so far, right? 117 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:53,440 And for those of us who are seasoned in the faith who say 118 00:05:53,840 --> 00:05:56,720 yes and Amen, maybe the the Mormon church isn't that 119 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,080 misguided. But we read on after the comma, 120 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:04,960 after all we can do now, hopefully that makes most of us 121 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:06,280 cringe. And some of us, probably more 122 00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:09,200 than others of your experience is one of being a part of a 123 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:15,800 church or religion like this. Grace, after all, you can do one 124 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:18,800 staff member here at Calvary, we're going through the verses 125 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,040 together this week and she's an ex Mormon. 126 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:22,960 And she said the way that I always understood grace as it 127 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,480 was taught in the Mormon church was after everything that I did, 128 00:06:26,840 --> 00:06:29,160 grace was the little bit that covered it. 129 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:32,760 But I had to do everything that I could have done. 130 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:36,880 So in other words, if God looked at my life and said you could 131 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:42,280 have done 80%, but you only did 60% or even 79%, grace will 132 00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:46,200 cover that extra bit, but it won't cover what you didn't do. 133 00:06:46,240 --> 00:06:50,080 And so you're out. Grace in the Mormon faith and in 134 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,960 people's minds like this is that extra little bit that gets you 135 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:54,160 there. So if you do everything you 136 00:06:54,440 --> 00:06:57,920 everything correctly, grace will add that little bit because 137 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:00,040 God's so perfect that we, even if we do everything perfectly, 138 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:02,120 we can't quite get there. And his grace is sufficient to 139 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:06,080 cover that little gap. So like a booster to getting to 140 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:10,680 godliness in the Protestant faith, you might have heard this 141 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:14,520 people say something like God helps those who have helped 142 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:16,440 themselves. So after you've done everything 143 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:20,080 you can to bring yourself to God and to write your life, then God 144 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:22,320 will help you out and he'll give you the grace that you need. 145 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:24,800 And it's really the same, the same thing. 146 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:27,520 So grace isn't a booster, doesn't just cover that last 147 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:29,000 little bit. Grace covers everything. 148 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:31,320 But it's also not the opposite of this. 149 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:35,280 Some people and then maybe the less religious context, 150 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:37,800 especially in a city like Boise, this would be maybe the 151 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,040 definition of grace that you'd hear from somebody on the 152 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:42,160 streets. This comes from Dietrich 153 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:45,160 Bonhoeffer and it's not what he believed, but he's pointing out 154 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,760 he's a German theologian, the problem of what he called cheap 155 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,560 grace, grace that doesn't cost everything. 156 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:54,360 He is famous for his book Cost of Discipleship, and this is 157 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:58,160 what he says about cheap grace. Cheap grace is without 158 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:02,400 discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus 159 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:07,360 Christ living and Incarnate. And so cheap grace is when we 160 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:10,040 say, you know what? You can have grace to live 161 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:12,800 however you would like. And I know we've all have heard 162 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:15,160 people who, and we've probably been tempted because this kind 163 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,320 of sounds fairly nice. Well, I can have grace and I can 164 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:20,600 get that that card that gets me into heaven. 165 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:22,440 But my life on earth doesn't have to change. 166 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:24,880 I can enjoy all the pleasures that I want to enjoy. 167 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:26,280 I can do all the things I want to do. 168 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:30,520 I can enjoy all the things that the world has to offer and then 169 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:32,840 know that I'm covered by the grace of God. 170 00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:36,679 But bond offer says that grace needs to come with discipleship. 171 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,760 It comes with Christ dying and then calling us to take up our 172 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:44,080 cross and follow him day after day, month after month, season 173 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:48,240 after season, life, afterlife. And So what is grace in in 174 00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:50,800 Paul's mind? Here's a biblical definition of 175 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:53,600 grace. The word that Paul uses is 176 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:59,280 charis, and it literally means that God in his kindness gave to 177 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:01,920 us an undeserved and active favor. 178 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,360 So God looks on us and says you don't deserve this, but I'm 179 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:08,320 going to actively and the keyword actively, it's not just 180 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:13,200 in the past, but it's currently happening, Have favor on people. 181 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:15,720 In other words, I'm going to give you this beautiful gift 182 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:19,360 that when I look at you, instead of seeing brokenness and sin, 183 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:23,160 I'm going to see my son Jesus going to see him. 184 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:25,840 And So what Paul, Pauls definition of grace or idea of 185 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:30,040 grace is 1 of incongruency. So what that means is that God's 186 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,560 grace is so lavish and so beautiful and so good that his 187 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:36,560 gift could never be matched by anything that we could bring. 188 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:39,800 So God's gift is up here, our gift is down here. 189 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,800 But as we respond to grace, there is something that happens 190 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:46,440 in us. So grace does a work in US. 191 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:49,240 And so Paul says that grace has appeared. 192 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:51,440 So it's showing up. And he says this grace has 193 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:53,200 appeared to what? To who? 194 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:56,560 All men, all women. And this is key because in a 195 00:09:56,560 --> 00:09:59,360 culture like ours, just like Titus, remember Titus is on an 196 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,960 island called Crete. And imagine Titus stepping foot 197 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:05,680 on this island, knowing that there's a few enclaves of the 198 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:08,440 gospel, a few churches and houses scattered throughout the 199 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:12,520 the island, but that most of the island does not know about the 200 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:14,720 gospel of grace, doesn't know about Jesus. 201 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:18,160 And if they do, they've maybe perverted it in some ways. 202 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:20,320 Remember what he says about Cretans, what Paul says about 203 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,240 Cretans earlier. They're liars and evil beasts. 204 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:26,720 And it can be tempting for Titus and it can be tempting for us to 205 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,120 say, well, you know, there's some things in the gospel that 206 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:31,880 are kind of hard. So I'm going to, I'm not going 207 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:33,880 to include those when I preach the gospel here. 208 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:37,280 And there's some things in the gospel that aren't quite there, 209 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,160 but I'll add them because the people on this island will 210 00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:43,840 really be helped if I just soften the blow there and give 211 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:46,840 them a bone and allow them to have those things. 212 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,520 And I'll still preach Jesus. His name will still be included. 213 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,640 And it'll still be a message of, of, of God's Kingdom, but 214 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:56,360 slightly changed. And we look at that saying, you 215 00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:57,840 got to stay true to the gospel message. 216 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,480 And the temptation is true for all of us to say, hey, Boise, I 217 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:03,680 know there's some things in the gospel that are really hard, so 218 00:11:03,680 --> 00:11:06,360 let's change them. And Paul says it's one gospel 219 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:09,280 for all. There's not a gospel that comes 220 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:11,320 through any other person other than Jesus. 221 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:13,840 He's the way. He's the truth and the life. 222 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:16,800 Now grace is this kind of transactional thing. 223 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:20,120 So those outside the Kingdom receive grace to enter the 224 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:22,920 Kingdom and it's beautiful and we rejoice in it. 225 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:27,440 That's what he means by saying that grace has that God brings 226 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,800 salvation. Grace that brings salvation has 227 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:31,000 showed up. It's bringing it. 228 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:34,640 It has arrived, but it doesn't stop there. 229 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:40,880 Paul continues verse 12 and he says grace teaches us grace 230 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:42,920 teaches us. So grace is this kind of 231 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,360 transaction where you once were a Sinner, you once were outside 232 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:50,240 of Christ and now you're a child of God, but it doesn't leave you 233 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:53,600 there. Grace is not simply a moment in 234 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:55,440 time that you said I I believe in Jesus. 235 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:58,040 I prayed the prayer at the front of a stage with a good friend 236 00:11:58,040 --> 00:11:59,960 and I got baptized. Now I'm good. 237 00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:04,040 It's also an ongoing process of transformation and change. 238 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:08,600 So grace teaches us, Paul says, that denying ungodliness and 239 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:12,960 worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly 240 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:17,680 in the present age. Now, how does grace teach us, 241 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:19,120 right? We think about grace as a 242 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:22,400 concept, as a word, as a doctrine, and that's beautiful. 243 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,120 But how does grace act as a teacher? 244 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,000 Well, one, Paul is saying two things. 245 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,600 He's saying that grace is a teacher in that you cannot learn 246 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:33,920 anything outside of grace. Grace is what saves you and 247 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:37,280 grace is also what helps you to see anything that you need to 248 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,240 improve and change and see in your life. 249 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:43,160 And helpful way to think about this is the second way Paul 250 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:46,320 means this is that grace has appeared, he says, and what he's 251 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:49,280 pointing to is that grace has appeared in the person of Jesus. 252 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,240 God has always been a gracious person. 253 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:54,720 Look back to his descriptions of himself all throughout the Old 254 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:58,440 Testament and you see God is a gracious God. 255 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:01,200 You see, that's the way he acts and moves and responds to 256 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:02,520 humans. He's gracious. 257 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:07,800 And yet Paul says that grace appears and he's meaning Jesus. 258 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,640 Jesus has appeared, He's lived, he's died, he's rose, and he 259 00:13:11,640 --> 00:13:14,280 brought grace in his appearance. And so one way to think about 260 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:18,120 this, grace teaches. In other words, the Holy Spirit 261 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:22,320 teaches or Jesus teaches. So how does grace, how does the 262 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:24,880 Holy Spirit, how does Jesus teach us? 263 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:27,720 Three ways that I'll highlight this morning, Revelation, 264 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:30,720 correction, and direction. So the first is revelation. 265 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,880 Now as we go from many of us putting our faith in Jesus years 266 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:40,080 ago to stepping foot year after year into church and into life 267 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:44,120 with God, it can be sneaky, but the enemy wants us to believe. 268 00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:49,680 Our flesh wants us to believe that we somehow got ourselves to 269 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:52,200 God just a little bit. So maybe when you gave your life 270 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:54,520 to Jesus, he said, yeah, it's all God and none of me. 271 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:57,240 But as you've gotten further away, you do remember. 272 00:13:57,440 --> 00:14:00,360 Yeah, I did read all those books that helped me research the 273 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:02,160 resurrection, you know, and I did. 274 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,960 I did show up to church several times, reach out to several 275 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:07,880 people. You know, I did start to prime 276 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,640 my heart in my life to get me ready to, to receive God. 277 00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:15,880 And the grace, grace teaches us that apart from Christ, we could 278 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:20,280 never know God. And grace reminds us that apart 279 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:23,560 from God calling us, we would have never felt the need to 280 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,120 Google, to search, to read, to show up to a church, to ask a 281 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:30,720 friend about their faith. We would have never given our 282 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:32,360 lives to Jesus. We would have never not just 283 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,400 given our lives to Jesus, but no one about him. 284 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:36,480 And this is what we leave as Christians. 285 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,560 The Bible is clear that we serve for God who is outside of time 286 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:41,160 and space. He created everything. 287 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:44,760 He's the maker of all things. He's infinite and uncomparable. 288 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:48,920 And our minds could never comprehend God and we could 289 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:53,760 never find God unless what? Unless he had made himself known 290 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,400 himself, unless God took the initiative and said, there are 291 00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:00,880 people in this world that I want to know and I want to know me, 292 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,400 and so I will make myself known. And he's made himself known in 293 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:07,600 two particular ways, he says, through nature. 294 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,680 And so the grace of God has allowed us to go out on a hike 295 00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:13,680 in the foothills and to see the way that nature functions and 296 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:18,400 say, wow, this really teaches me about some of the nature of God. 297 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,360 This teaches me about who God is, the greatness of God, the 298 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,120 beauty of God, whatever those lessons are that you draw from 299 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:25,960 nature. But then we step foot into 300 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:29,520 Scripture and we see, we get a very particular revelation, very 301 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:33,160 clear picture given to us by God through the authors of the 302 00:15:33,160 --> 00:15:35,480 library of Scripture about who he is. 303 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:40,080 And it's only by grace that we pick up the Bible and read it 304 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,320 and can understand and know and picture what God is like in some 305 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:48,000 little tiny ways that he makes available to us through these 306 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,560 writers. So grace teaches by giving us a 307 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:53,320 revelation of who God is, but also giving us a revelation of 308 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:55,480 who we are. Any time we've had a 309 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:59,920 recollection of, oh man, this thing in my life needs to go, or 310 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:02,320 this thing in my life is really cool, I should work on that 311 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:04,560 strength. Anytime we've had that, that 312 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:07,600 comes from God, it comes through grace and that leads us to the 313 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:09,840 next thing. Grace teaches us through 314 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:12,840 correction, teaches us through correction. 315 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:17,520 Paul says this denying ungodliness and worldly lust. 316 00:16:17,640 --> 00:16:21,840 Grace teaches us to deny things, and we all know what the denial 317 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:23,960 is like. And I just want to camp there 318 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:26,480 for a moment because it's very important that we get the first 319 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,840 part right to then get the second part right, because grace 320 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:30,240 gives correction and then direction. 321 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:34,760 But first, Paul says it gives correction and the denial of 322 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,040 these things, ungodliness and worldly lust, that word is 323 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:40,320 important. It's not the I'm going to, I'm 324 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:42,640 going to be ungodly less or more. 325 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:45,760 I'm going to be ungodly a little bit, a little bit less in my 326 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:48,800 life or a little bit less around those people, or I'm going to 327 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,040 give in to the worldly less, a little bit, a little bit less. 328 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:55,040 It's that we're going to deny those wholesale. 329 00:16:55,680 --> 00:16:57,480 But now how does that work? Because I've talked to several 330 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:00,240 people in the last few weeks that have kind of been 331 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:02,320 struggling with this. They've been believers for a bit 332 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,560 and they're still struggling with not denying some of these 333 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:07,440 things. And Jesus gives us a really 334 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,680 clear picture as we've studied his way, the way of Jesus, the 335 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:15,359 sermon on the plain, as he talks about how we deal with the 336 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:19,160 heart, he says to the people standing around, he says, do 337 00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:22,920 not, you've heard, he said do not murder, do not murder. 338 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:27,240 And Jesus says that that that in some ways is kind of an easy 339 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:29,560 thing to do. I look around and probably most 340 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,400 of us in the room are going to take a guess, are not murderers 341 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,120 and don't necessarily struggle with the temptation to murder. 342 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:37,640 But then Jesus says that might be easy. 343 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,640 Uh, but what's harder is he says, you've heard of said don't 344 00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,920 murder. But I say to you, even if you 345 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:50,200 are angry in your heart towards your brother, you have committed 346 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:52,880 murder in your heart towards him. 347 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:55,840 And you hear that and you say, oh man, I'm real. 348 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,480 I'm realizing now that man, I don't struggle with with the 349 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:01,360 temptation to murder, but I definitely do struggle with the 350 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:04,240 temptation to be angry. And maybe the Spirit begins to 351 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:08,240 work on your heart to heal you of that and to point you out at 352 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:10,600 times when you're angry and you need to repent and seek 353 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:13,280 reconciliation. And then there's a kind of a 354 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:16,360 third level to this. And it's the level that we all 355 00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:19,040 know by the people that have been walking with Jesus for a 356 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:23,640 long time, some of us in the room, who when you look at their 357 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,920 lives and when things happen to them that the average person 358 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:29,480 would be angry about. And you're looking at them and 359 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:31,840 you're wondering, are they going to, are they going to get angry? 360 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:34,400 And you look in their eyes and you look at their demeanor and 361 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:38,040 it seems like not only did they restrain themselves from getting 362 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:43,040 angry, but that their automatic response was not anger, but was 363 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,440 forgiveness, was love. And that's what the Holy Spirit 364 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,840 is, what grace ultimately does. It gets down into our bones and 365 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:54,280 begins to change the way that we automatically respond to people. 366 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:56,720 And so actually it's the grace of God. 367 00:18:56,960 --> 00:18:59,800 Every time the Spirit brings up something in your life that is 368 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:02,920 is off some sin, something in your mind, something in your 369 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,360 heart, ungodliness, worldly lust, it's the grace of God that 370 00:19:06,360 --> 00:19:10,560 shows up and says that thing, thing that that you think you 371 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:13,320 enjoy or want or the way that you think you should respond. 372 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,120 Actually, I have a better way. And this is a beautiful 373 00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:20,600 doctrine, the doctrine of grace. At first it might sound like, 374 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,080 oh, that's kind of tough. And there's a lot of tough 375 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:24,920 doctrines in Christianity, right? 376 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,520 There's a lot of things that it's kind of tough to talk about 377 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,920 at school or at work or amongst people who aren't believers. 378 00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,960 You know, doctrine of sin is tough, doctrine of hell 379 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:36,400 difficult. You know, sometimes maybe feel 380 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,000 like, oh, I don't want to necessarily go straight there 381 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,480 with people. The doctrine of grace, the fact 382 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:45,040 that God would give himself for people like us and would not 383 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,280 just leave them, not just say, hey, you're good where you are, 384 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:50,680 but would say I love you so much that I'm going to bring you into 385 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:53,240 my Kingdom and all of the brokenness of your life. 386 00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:58,240 I want to heal. That leads us to the direction 387 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:02,640 the Spirit through the grace of God directs us to live a certain 388 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:03,960 way. I have a good friend who's often 389 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:07,000 would say that getting rid of the baddest stuff in your life 390 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,560 is important. But it's equally as important to 391 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,320 fill those new voids with good stuff, otherwise the bad stuff 392 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,040 will come right back in. And so the spirit, the grace 393 00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:19,480 gives us correction, tells us those are the things you need to 394 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:22,400 get rid of. But he also gives us direction. 395 00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:26,760 And he directs us in three ways. The first, Paul says, is to be 396 00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:30,480 sober soberly, teaching us to live soberly. 397 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:33,480 And I love this, as one commentator says this about 398 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,560 soberly. He says you are a real human 399 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:41,760 being, so don't diminish your humanness by drunkenness or 400 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,240 other kinds of behavior that make you more like an irrational 401 00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,560 animal. You're a creature designed to 402 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:49,880 find fulfillment and being generous and kind to others. 403 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,360 Drunkenness and similar behavior results first in you being 404 00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:58,560 selfish and then in your being harmful to your own self in 405 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:02,560 return. So in short, the spirit through 406 00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:08,760 grace teaches us to make the best decisions every time, to be 407 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:11,440 self controlled to the point that we can always see clearly, 408 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:15,920 to know what exactly to do. Now imagine today as you're 409 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,400 watching football. That's your cup of tea or 410 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,360 whatever you watch. Imagine if Eli Lilly put out a 411 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:24,440 drug that could do this pill that you took. 412 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,840 It could give you the the ability to see clearly into 413 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:30,960 every decision of your life and make the right choice. 414 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,520 How many people in our world would would buy that? 415 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:36,880 This is the beauty of grace. Grace is that thing that gives 416 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,640 us the ability to say, I'm going to learn how to be the person 417 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:42,960 that can choose the right thing every time. 418 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,280 The right thing that brings flourishing to my life, but also 419 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:50,200 to the lives of those around me. Next, Paul says it teaches us to 420 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,040 live righteously. And sometimes we can kind of 421 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,200 view righteously as this negative thing, like, I'm going 422 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,480 to get all these bad things out of my life. 423 00:21:57,880 --> 00:21:59,840 But the idea here is much more full. 424 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,680 It's not just getting bad out of your life, but it's about 425 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:05,360 getting bad out of your life and the lives of those around you, 426 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,920 as well as bringing in justice and goodness. 427 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,520 And maybe a fuller idea here a better word would be to talk 428 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,520 about living justly in this present age. 429 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:18,360 The Christian who understands this understands that that grace 430 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,040 allows us to be God's agents God's Kingdom people in this 431 00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,760 world and to bring our lives into alignment but also the 432 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,400 world around us. Why Jesus praise godfather your 433 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:32,120 will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 434 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:38,880 If a nonprofit or an NGO had this kind of report that itself 435 00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:42,000 was perfectly righteous, perfectly just, and that every 436 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:44,880 continent, every nation, every people group, every situation it 437 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:49,240 put itself towards always got perfectly and righteously 438 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:53,240 justice done, how many people would want to give to that 439 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:55,400 organization? It'd be the organization to end 440 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,040 all organizations. And yet that is what Grace does. 441 00:22:58,600 --> 00:23:02,560 It brings justice to the lives of those who are controlled by 442 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:06,320 it and by the lives of those who are around those who are living 443 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,360 in grace. And by grace it changes the way 444 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:10,040 that we interact with those around us. 445 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:15,600 Finally, Paul says that grace directs us to be godly, godly. 446 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,440 And we can really look at the whole Titus up to this point. 447 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,800 It's the markers of being godly. And you can break godly really 448 00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:25,920 into two particular things. One being devoted to God, so 449 00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:29,320 godly people are devoted to to the King, they're devoted to 450 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,640 Jesus. And we all probably would, would 451 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,720 nod our heads yes, I'd like to be a devoted person to God, but 452 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:40,680 I need the grace because lo and behold, Monday, Tuesday comes 453 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,440 and I love the Lord. But as I wanted to dedicate my 454 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:48,080 life to Him and be on fire for him every day and be devoted 455 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,400 fully to Him, the temptations and the lusts of this world 456 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,120 sneak in. I get lazy, I get tired, I make 457 00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:57,920 bad decisions. I become devoted to myself or to 458 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,440 the passions of my life. And instead of being godly, 459 00:24:01,440 --> 00:24:04,080 devoted to him, I become devoted to other things. 460 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,240 We need the grace of God to keep us devoted to God, and we also 461 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:11,920 need the grace of God to be godly, In other words, to become 462 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,640 like Him, to become like Jesus, Jessica said. 463 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:17,760 Like our goal in Calvary communities and as a church as a 464 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:21,800 whole as we gather on Sundays, is to overtime be a community 465 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,800 who looks more and more like a Jesus looks more and more like 466 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,040 if Jesus were us individually with our unique personalities 467 00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:33,240 and skills and families and jobs, he would do the things 468 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:34,600 that we would do. Like we're making the same 469 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,680 choices that he would make. And that's, that's our goal. 470 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,400 What a beautiful thing that is, that grace teaches us to be like 471 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,320 Jesus. Read the gospels as we've done 472 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,400 and imagine being Jesus. Imagine that kind of life, the 473 00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:51,600 kind of peace, the kind of joy, the kind of love that he had for 474 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:53,800 others. And who wouldn't want to be like 475 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:58,000 him in that way? So grace directs us, and grace 476 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,280 not only directs us in how we should live, but also directs 477 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:03,880 our eyes. Verse 13 says Paul says this 478 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:08,480 Titus looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of 479 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,560 our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. 480 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,840 And I love these words looking and with hope for the glorious 481 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,720 appearing. So as followers of Jesus who 482 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,080 have received the grace, grace reminds us that this world we 483 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,280 see is not the way that things end up. 484 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:29,200 It's not the way that things will be and God through his his 485 00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:32,080 word has given us pictures through the teachings of Jesus 486 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,280 of what that future world looks like. 487 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:40,720 And so as Christians, we get to say by grace, we no longer are 488 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:44,800 defined by anything other than what the future holds for us in 489 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:48,160 the Kingdom of God. If you ask most people, I guess, 490 00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,560 probably even in our church, but definitely on the streets of 491 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:52,240 town. And you said, tell me about 492 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,520 yourself. We probably all would start 493 00:25:54,520 --> 00:26:00,480 with, while I was born in such and such a place and I grew up 494 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:04,240 with these parents and this is what they're like and these 495 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,000 siblings. And maybe if you're close with 496 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000 this person, you'd share some of the ways that you had gone 497 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,360 through some tough times in your life, some of the trauma or sin 498 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:14,320 that has been done to you or around you. 499 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,520 And you just talk all the way through, probably to your 500 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,440 present day. And then you would stop and say 501 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,800 that's who I am. What Grace teaches us is that 502 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,920 the most true thing about you and I is not what's brought us 503 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,640 to this point, but it's about that that future world. 504 00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:34,120 What's most true about us is what we will be who we will be 505 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:37,760 for an eternity in Christ in his Kingdom. 506 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:41,120 And so we have the ability to say, you know what, my life may 507 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:44,600 have been hard and I may have been misformed and misinformed 508 00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:49,600 in different ways, but I know that in the end I made to rule 509 00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:51,960 and reign with Christ in his new creation. 510 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,960 And so I can have what Paul says, blessed hope knowing 511 00:26:57,480 --> 00:26:59,880 knowing that's what hope is. It's not just the the way that 512 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:01,640 we use it often is like wishful thinking. 513 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,760 I hope I get that bonus at the end of the year or I hope I get 514 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,120 this to get for Christmas. Like I kind of hope it's going 515 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:09,240 to happen. I wish it's going to happen. 516 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:10,440 I think it might, but it might not. 517 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:14,840 It's this confident expectation this will happen. 518 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,760 So it's as true for me as my past is. 519 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,400 And it's actually more true because it's what God has done. 520 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:26,640 And this is what the idea of, of the blessed hope appearing to us 521 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:29,240 is. And I love the, the word that 522 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:31,760 that is used here for, for looking for waiting. 523 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,160 It's not just the idea that like, hey, I'm going to going to 524 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,200 kind of keep my eye out, but it's waiting expectantly. 525 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:40,680 And not just waiting expectantly, like, oh, I can't 526 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,200 wait for them to get here. But almost as if you've invited 527 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:46,880 someone over for dinner. And as you are waiting for them 528 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,600 to come over, what do you do? Well, you prepare the meal and 529 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,680 you vacuum the floor and you clean things up and you tidy the 530 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:54,480 house. And this is this is the idea 531 00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:56,840 they were looking. We're waiting for Jesus 532 00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:59,240 appearing. And we're not just waiting like 533 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,400 I hope it happens today. It might, it might not, who 534 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:03,360 knows, but we're getting things ready. 535 00:28:03,360 --> 00:28:04,560 We're saying, I'm going to get my life ready. 536 00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:06,520 I'm going to get the world around me ready. 537 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:10,440 I'm going to be a Kingdom person looking to the heavens, waiting 538 00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,520 for the coming of the Lord, but also knowing that in the waiting 539 00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:17,640 to have a job to do, I have a things to put my hands to and 540 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,440 all the way looking continually to that good and perfect future 541 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,720 of a new life with Jesus, knowing that that future is more 542 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,000 true about us than anything in our past. 543 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,960 Next Paul says it says this about who Jesus is. 544 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:38,400 So this Jesus who has appeared gave himself for us. 545 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,560 Now, apart from eternity defining us, the most defining 546 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:46,000 moment of our lives, of your life, is this one defining 547 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:52,080 moment that happened for Jesus. He gave himself for us that He 548 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,680 might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for 549 00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:59,320 himself His own special people, zealous for good works. 550 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:03,520 Look what grace teaches us to see, and this might, you know, 551 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,240 as you read through it, the idea that Jesus gave himself as 552 00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,080 people who have been in church maybe for a bit, they can feel a 553 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:11,520 bit like, yeah, yeah, I know that. 554 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:15,200 Just imagine stepping into this building for the first time. 555 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,360 Imagine being here and you're coming from another religion or 556 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,480 background that is unreligious and hearing that there's a 557 00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:25,640 creator God who made everybody who made you and me the, the 558 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,400 world we live in, the universe, the cosmos has all been 559 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,960 fashioned in his handiwork. And then some humans messed it 560 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:38,200 up and God's solution was to give himself to them to say, you 561 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,280 know what, even though you messed up, I'm going to give 562 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,920 myself for you. And we see on the pages of the 563 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:44,840 gospel is what that giving looked like. 564 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:49,040 Looks like Jesus coming as a baby to poor parents in a small 565 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:50,360 town. It looked like Jesus living a 566 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:53,400 hard, difficult life and during all the things that you and I 567 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,120 have to endure. It looked like Jesus going to 568 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,840 the cross and enduring the punishment that we deserved for 569 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:00,840 our sins. It looked like him giving 570 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,120 himself to the tomb for three days as he waited. 571 00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,400 And it looked like him giving himself to resurrection and 572 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:11,000 being resurrected from the grave and living again with his people 573 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,160 for another 40 days before he gave himself to be ascended to 574 00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:17,160 the right hand of the God the Father, where he's sitting now, 575 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:21,880 still giving himself for us as he intercedes for us before the 576 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,240 Father. This God stepped into time, this 577 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:29,400 great God and our Savior Jesus Christ gave himself for us. 578 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:33,200 Let that not be lost on us. And He did this to do what? 579 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,360 To redeem us from every lawless deed. 580 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:40,080 The idea of redeem here is one of like buying out of something 581 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,320 literally to pay a price for. And so Jesus says, I showed up 582 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,920 and you people were enslaved to something. 583 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:50,800 That something is sin. Lawless deeds is the word that 584 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,760 Paul uses here. And I bought you, I paid the 585 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:55,800 price for you. And so you're no longer owned by 586 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:58,160 those things. And so the gospel, the grace 587 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,880 says that you are free now from sin and you're free now to not 588 00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:04,080 do sin. He paid the price and he's given 589 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,600 us the power to live differently because we aren't just freed 590 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:11,960 from sin, but we are now together, slaves to Christ bond, 591 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:15,160 servants of the Lord who live every moment by the grace of 592 00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,000 God, devoted to the king. And so he does this. 593 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:22,920 He purifies us and is listen to this, his own special people. 594 00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,680 This is important because yes, each individually you are 595 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:30,480 special, we are special and God chose you and he has a unique 596 00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,720 story in your life bringing you out of sin into redemption. 597 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,760 But Paul is makes it clear here that this people is Jesus 598 00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:42,200 people, and that this people is is plural, that we most fully 599 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:44,760 represent the family of God when we are together. 600 00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:48,160 We most fully represent the special people of God when you 601 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,120 and I are functioning together, helping one another, reminding 602 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:54,720 one another of grace, giving one another grace, and ultimately 603 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:59,120 pointing each each one of us to the grace given to us by God 604 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:01,720 himself. And then Paul closes with this 605 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,880 line. Zealous for good works. 606 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,040 Over the last several weeks as a church, we've been talking a lot 607 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,800 about zeal. And if you or a man who went to 608 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:13,600 the men's gathering a couple weeks ago, really the last 609 00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:17,240 couple of them, or it's a man's retreat, you know that we've 610 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,600 been talking a lot about zeal. Zeal to do good, zeal to be men 611 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:25,040 and women who live godly lives. And the important thing to note 612 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,720 from this is that zeal has to be in the right place. 613 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,560 Grace begets zeal and zeal begets good works. 614 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:36,960 Grace leads us to zeal. Zeal before grace creates all 615 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,360 kinds of problems. Zeal after grace, zeal in 616 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:44,360 response to grace. Zeal by grace leads us to good 617 00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:50,880 works, zeal to good works. And so if you're lacking zeal, 618 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,760 or as you've gone through this passage, if you're lacking hope, 619 00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:57,200 or if you're lacking the ability to feel loved by God or by 620 00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:01,360 others, you're feeling the, the, the question in your bones, do I 621 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:05,280 really belong to this people? They all seem so good. 622 00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:07,880 They all seem so right, or they've really been making me 623 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,080 mad. What do you need to focus on? 624 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,480 None of those things. It's the grace of God. 625 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,080 The grace of God brings hope. The grace of God brings you 626 00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:20,880 grace brings belonging and hope, freedom from the lust of this 627 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:23,680 world. Grace points us to where we are 628 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,280 going. And so as we close, this is my 629 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:28,200 encouragement for us this week because there's a lot of great 630 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,080 verses in Titus, a lot of great ones, a lot of great verses in 631 00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:33,600 the Bible as I've read through this one this week. 632 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,840 And I don't think that I'm that I'm being biased just because 633 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:38,240 it's one of the ones I got to teach on. 634 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,720 I think this might be the best verse of all of Titus. 635 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,680 And I think it's the verse that powers all other verses in 636 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:47,200 Titus. And I think it's a sneaky kind 637 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,000 of life verse. You know, I've never talked to 638 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,240 anybody and said, Hey, what's your life verse? 639 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,280 And they said Titus chapter 2, verse 11 through 14. 640 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:55,600 I've never, I haven't heard that ever. 641 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:56,960 Maybe that's you. That's awesome. 642 00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:01,520 But my encouragement to us is this because the grace of God is 643 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,240 so important, because the grace of God is key to everything 644 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:05,560 we've talked about and we'll talk about. 645 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:09,040 And it's key to not just your life now, but your life here on 646 00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:11,560 out. The enemy wants to come in and 647 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:15,400 confuse us as to what grace is, wants us to go to the right or 648 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:19,000 to the left and not understand the true doctrine of grace. 649 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,600 And so my encouragement to us is this week to to really think 650 00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:25,159 about this verse. Run it over in your mind again 651 00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:28,520 and again to the point that you memorize it. 652 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,080 The point that this gets so deep into your brain that it gets 653 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,040 into your bones and becomes something that that as John 654 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:37,360 Whitaker said when he was teaching on truth in the first 655 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,400 week of Titus, he said, I, I want to, if I get cut, I want to 656 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,639 bleed Bible. And this is a great verse to 657 00:34:43,639 --> 00:34:46,560 bleed when we are cut. And so I'll ask that you guys 658 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,560 would stand with me as we close and have us do a little exercise 659 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,040 this week. We'll try to memorize this 660 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:54,920 verse. And if it's very simple, it's 4 661 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:56,800 verses. If you took a verse a day and 662 00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,560 memorized it, rolled it over in your brain, you could memorize 663 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:03,760 it by Thursday and you take 2 verses a day and memorize it by 664 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,120 Tuesday if you'd like. But what I want us to do to kick 665 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:10,240 start that process, to kick start this in our brain, to get 666 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:13,280 just rolling over as we leave, that it might stick and you 667 00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:15,720 might remember not any of the words that I've spoken, but 668 00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:18,920 simply the words that of Paul to Titus about the grace of God. 669 00:35:19,240 --> 00:35:21,360 That we might have a clear picture as a Church of what 670 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,600 grace is and isn't. We're going to read it together 671 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:29,240 out loud and my encouragement to us is to read it as joyful and 672 00:35:29,240 --> 00:35:32,600 as happy as possible. This verse is, you know, we've 673 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,560 studied some hard stuff like being reverent people and how do 674 00:35:35,560 --> 00:35:37,640 you get to be a leader and all that stuff. 675 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,800 This verse is 1 to read with joy, to read with a smile on 676 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,480 your face, a Hallelujah if you would like, hands raised, 677 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,720 clapping however you'd like. But let us read this verse 678 00:35:46,720 --> 00:35:49,400 together. These verses, together with joy 679 00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:56,800 for the grace of God that brings salvation, has appeared to all 680 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:02,760 men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we 681 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:06,680 should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the 682 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:11,000 present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious 683 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:15,840 appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave 684 00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:20,160 Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless 685 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:25,720 deed, and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for 686 00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:29,880 good works. Thanks for joining us today. 687 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,920 If you would like to watch the full service, check out the link 688 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,760 in the description. For next steps and to learn 689 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,040 more, visit calvaryboise.com.