Titus 2:11-15 The Theology We Make Visible

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Don Filcek; Titus 2:11-15 The Theology We Make Visible

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series to the next generation, learning from Paul's words to Titus.
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Let's listen in. Go ahead and be seated. And God knows what can comfort our hearts in times that are difficult, and he saw fit to have me preaching him this passage in a time of loss, in a time of sadness.
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So I want to encourage you to get comfortable as much as possible. Keep your Bibles open to Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 15, so you can see that what
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I'm saying is coming from God's word. And then if at any time during the message you want to get up and get coffee, juice, or donut, the hole's back there.
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You're not going to distract me if you need to use the restroom, but our goal is to mine the depths of these five verses here for the remainder of our time together.
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We live what we believe, and I said that last week, and that was a good introduction to that passage, and it's a good introduction to this one too, but from the reverse.
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We live what we believe. If we believe it's going to be 20 degrees out, we dress differently than if we believe it's going to be 85 degrees out, right?
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Don't you anticipate? Don't you look forward? Don't you have some kind of a sense of doing something different on the basis of what you think is going to be the case?
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The first half of Titus chapter 2 that we looked at last week emphasized a life lived out of the gospel, and it really emphasized those things that we do, those behaviors, those character qualities, that self -control that defines a life that has been embraced by the gospel, but then this week is answering the question, what gospel?
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We who have faith in Jesus Christ last week were being called to live like it, but this section this morning starting with verse 11 begins with the word for.
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You see it in the English Standard Version there, for. He calls us to live lives of restraint and self -control for this reason or because of what we read in this next section.
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And as I said in my introduction, our lives are to be lived based on two appearings. The first appearing of Christ to redeem us, to bring forth the grace of God.
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The second appearing, that will be the fix, for he will come and bring with him the fix for all things, the very glory of God.
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So our outline highlights two rocket boosters that launch us out into the world with love and power and a commitment for godly living, a life of worship.
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And the first fuel tank is first, this is our first point, the first appearing of Jesus, verses 11 and 12.
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The second fuel tank is the future appearing of Jesus, verse 13. And then lastly, the last fuel for our lives is
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God's reason, the reason that he gives, the focus really of the fuel that he's giving to us.
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So I just want to point out, God isn't seeking to wind us all up this morning to go aimlessly into an energized life.
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We're not called to be frenetic in our busyness without focus, but he's going to focus that by the end of the text.
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So let's begin with the first fuel tank for our lives of lived out in godliness.
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The first is the first appearing of Jesus here in the text. This tank is made up all of grace.
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God has presented us with a gift in the first appearing of Jesus our Lord, thinking
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Christmas, thinking incarnation, but all that he did in his life. Grace is further defined in verse 11 by the phrase bringing salvation.
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So verse 11, it says he comes bringing gifts for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.
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Those are parallel statements with a little more definition in the second half. So verse 11 is like saying grandpa and grandma showed up with gifts.
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They came bringing new bikes. Well, the gifts and bikes are synonymous, but bikes are a little more specific than gifts, right?
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And that's what this is. Salvation is the specific thing that God has given us through his grace in sending forth his son.
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The entirety of scripture is quite emphatic that salvation is not applied to all people, and so we have to deal, and I kind of went back and forth.
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I have to decide what I'm going to share because I study a lot more, and I read a lot more than I have time to present up here, but I decided to go into this a little bit more in depth.
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Look with me at verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. So are all people saved?
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That's a question that we have to answer in this. All of scripture is emphatic that salvation isn't applied to all people, that universalism is a heresy.
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It is a false doctrine. Not all will be saved, but this passage seems to look like it.
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So I just want to point out, faith is the way that God's gift is received. A person has to express faith in order to be saved, and I stand with several commentators and scholars that I read this week who believe that this phrase, salvation for all people, is colored by this context where Paul is writing to Titus, specifically on the island nation of Crete.
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Paul has left Titus there to establish and build up churches, to appoint leaders there, and to help shore up the work that Paul had already done there, and so Titus is there.
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Crete was the wild, wild west of the Roman Empire, and they had a reputation, that reputation expressed by one of their own speakers, and they thought of him as a prophet, and he said this back in chapter 1, verse 12.
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He said, all Cretans are liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. How many of you might be surprised that the gospel takes root into a culture like that?
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Okay, and I think that Titus was, and Paul was, and it was a work of God, it wasn't like they expected it, but God gave growth there.
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And Paul here in verse 11 is simply reminding Titus that God's plan in the new covenant is not limited to a nation like it was in the old covenant.
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Our minds have a hard time wrapping around the way that this was such a radical concept to religious people during this time.
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This was a huge, huge shift in thinking. You see, the Jews and the
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Gentiles both had the same conception of religion, despite the fact that the pagan
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Gentiles worshipped a pantheon of gods, and the Jews worshipped one God, but there was still something that was in common that had to be broken down.
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Because the Gentiles perceived of their deities as regional and local, and they would worship in a certain town a certain god or goddess.
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They thought of them as kind of their political patrons. And the Jews thought of Yahweh as their
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God, for they themselves alone, they would not eat with Gentiles, they would not associate with Gentiles, they did not like Gentiles.
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And so they thought of Yahweh as their God. So when Pentecost happened and the gospel spread throughout the known world, and in the book of Acts it became clear to those early
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Christians that the gospel is a message for all people, that was a monumental shift in the theological thinking of the day.
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That was a major shift in the way that people conceived of religion in general. So Titus, what we have in our text, would be mind -blowing to them.
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Titus, a Gentile convert to a Jewish rabbi, is bringing the knowledge of a
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Jewish rabbi who claimed a sacrifice for all people. Jesus is not a local
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Savior. He is the Savior for all people, or they will not be saved.
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Do you see it? That's what he's saying here. Not every single human is going to be saved through this sacrifice, but it is the only sacrifice given by which anyone will be saved.
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And it is a message that goes to the Japanese. It is a message that goes to the
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Chinese. It goes to Saudi Arabia. It must go for it to be believed and for people to be saved.
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Jesus must be heard and must be preached for salvation to be brought, for grace, that grace in the bringing forth of salvation.
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But that grace and salvation were not given for us to be just merely an end in themselves. It is not acceptable to claim that you received his gift once upon a time if you have not grown in faith in him.
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If there's no evidences in your life, but you say, I was around a campfire one time at camp when I was a kid, and they said throw your stick in the fire if you want to believe in Jesus, so I threw a stick in the fire where I stood up and I said it, and now
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I'm saved because I did that one thing that one time. No, there's something more to this because the grace of God that brings salvation, look at verse 12, training us.
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For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, training us. It brings us along.
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It educates us. It guides our lives. The grace of God that brings salvation also trains we who believe it to renounce, to say no to, some translations have, to renounce or put away or say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.
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The very way that God provided salvation is educational for us. How did he save us?
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How did he save us? He sent a king to us in a manger. He sent a king to us in a manger.
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He sent a compassionate teacher. He sent a healer and a deliverer who did not merely model a good life, but gave himself as the perfect sacrifice.
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He saved us through loving sacrifice. And that loving sacrifice is meant to be a potent fuel for our renouncing, day in and day out, moment by moment, hour by hour, renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions.
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The word we saw repeated last week all throughout instructions to older men and older women and younger men and younger women.
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What was the repeated phrase? What was the repeated word? Is anybody here last week that remembers what the theme was for last week?
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Self -control. Self -control. Renouncing evil thoughts and wicked deeds that tempt us is the response to grace and salvation.
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Self -control, the internal check that says, ah, don't go that way.
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Ungodliness is a compound word, by the way, in Greek. It's a simple word, and I like to break it down to these two parts because it really gets to the heart of what is an ungodly response.
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What does it mean to be ungodly? It is without worship. That's what the word is directly in Greek.
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Worshiplessness. We are to live, church, we are to live worshipful lives, moment by moment, sowing minutes and hours and resources and energy in love for the one who saved us by his love for us.
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Amen? So, the Puritans thought of our emotional life as divided in two parts.
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The feelings. The way we feel divided in two directions. They thought of it as conceived of a difference between passions and affections, and they used those two words copiously in their writings.
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You see the word passion and you see the word affection a lot in the Puritan writings. Passions are the raging fleshly urges and sinful desires, those wicked impulses that must be renounced, must be said no to, while godly affections are the character qualities that God desires in our lives that push out those wayward affections.
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How many of you have ever just tried to get rid of a sin? Just tried to root it out without replacing it with something, without putting something in its place?
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It doesn't work. Godly affection is that which displaces the worldly passions.
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This passage seems to agree with the Puritans on that. There are worldly passions that rage within each and every one of us to a person.
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And the question is, will we renounce them? Will we instead lean into affection for God through self -control, uprightness, which is justice and godly living?
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Will we lean into those things? Will we be changed? And another way to ask it, have your affections been changed?
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Do you even identify affections within you? That is, love for God and desire for His ways.
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Is that in you? That's a fundamental question. I mean, kind of like 1 John exists to kind of get to the bottom of that.
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Do you have love? Is there love for God and love for others in your heart at all in any way, shape, or form?
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That's a measure, that's a good diagnostic for whether you belong to Him. You belong to Him. Your affections for Him and for His ways are awakened.
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And your desire to suppress and push down ungodliness, to worship
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Him, to love Him in the way that you live, internal restraint, justice toward others around us.
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That's the word upright. A life oriented toward God is the purpose of our lives in this present age, says
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Paul to Titus here. In this present age, this is why we're living. Why are you still breathing?
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Why didn't He take you straight to heaven when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Why didn't He just, it's, we're done.
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Mission accomplished, and takes you home. We're still breathing because He's left us here as an object lesson for the world, that we might find more worshipers for His name by showing
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His glory, by showing how He can transform and change a life. And the Greek words ungodliness in verse 12 and godly, they are like opposites.
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So training us to renounce ungodliness, that word without worship, and worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright and godly lives, that word ungodliness and godly are opposites in the
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Greek language. Ungodliness means without worship, while godly is a compound word that means good worship.
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So transformed. This is the contrast. We were once without worship, once without worship, and now we have been brought in by God's grace and salvation to a place of living out lives of good worship to Him.
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Our church's mission is to worship Him and find more worshipers for His name. And that highlights a reality that all of us know.
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The world is full of people who refuse to worship Him. They will worship lots of things that are not
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God, regarding God and His grace and salvation. There are people who have zero worship at all.
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They are without worship in relationship to God and Jesus Christ His Son. But through the gospel we have the privilege to introduce some to the grace of God so that they in turn might be awakened to His great worth and in opening their eyes to see
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His great worth and how much He's loved them, that they would gladly bow before this One who has loved us so much.
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He loved us even while we were sinners, even while we were His enemies, sinning against Him.
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He loved us and sent His Son to die for us. So our current life is to be lived with a glance backwards at all that the first appearing of Christ has done for us.
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There's a lot to it. The grace of the Father ascending the Son, the humility of the Son in becoming a man, the sinless perfection that He lived for us, the intense love expressed in His subjecting
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Himself to torture and death for us, and His victory over the grave on the third day.
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Don't miss that. Glorious things. All these components in His first appearing are meant to train us to say no to ourselves, no to worldly passions as we live in the present age.
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But it isn't just a backwards look that fuels our hope, but we are those who are also fueled by a trustworthy hope in the future.
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Verse 13 emphasizes the future appearing of Jesus Christ, and that's our second thing.
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While we live in this present age, we always have one eye on the past and one eye on the future.
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We are waiting for our blessed hope. And I believe it's quite possible, if we're just honest, for many of us in this room to be overly invested in this world.
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Dave was talking about it a little bit in between songs there. But are you waiting for and hoping for the return of Christ?
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Is that your blessed hope? Blessed meaning happy -making. Is that your happy -making hope?
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Or is there just a little more that you want to do here? A little bit more in this world, a little bit more of this life, a little bit more of fill in the blank.
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Some of us are hopeful right now and a political candidate. I don't know why. Some of us find hope in entertainment.
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If there's a football season about to start, some of us get jazzed up about that. Or you're excited about vacations, or you're excited about retirement, or grandkids, or graduations, or weddings, or, or, or, and on and on it goes.
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And those things are not bad. Hear me carefully. We're not an anti -fun church.
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Those things aren't bad, but they are not good if they are taking the place of your blessed hope for the return of Jesus Christ, who is our great
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God and Savior, and he's coming back for us. Amen? You looking forward to that?
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All right. Our lives are to be lived out of gratitude for what he has done for us, but also lived out of anticipation for what he will do for us.
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Gratitude, backward glance, and then anticipation, forward glance.
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Past and future come together into the present in a catalytic power to fuel our daily lives in the moment -by -moment worship of him.
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You say to me, Don, you have not at all described my life just now. I feel a cloud over me at every turn.
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Life is hard, and it just seems like I keep getting knocked down. And I would ask you, if that's you, if that's you and you just feel that, like you're just kind of like,
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I would love to live that way, but I'm just not, I would ask you with all gentleness and kindness, is it possible that your attention is focused more on the present than it is on the past and the future?
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Is it possible that you've turned your attention away from that which God has done for you in Christ and promises he will do for you in the future?
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How can we survive when the bottom drops out in life? How can we survive those dark nights and those dark seasons, and not just dark nights, but sometimes it seems to go on, and it seems to go on, and it seems to go on?
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Encourage us all to stay anchored to the historical appearing of our Lord for grace and salvation, bringing it to us, and keep looking forward to his great appearing when he will bring forth the very glory of God.
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There is a day coming when his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That day is not today.
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Well, it could be. It could still happen. But there is a day when every tear will be wiped clean.
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There is a day when death will be no more. There is a day when justice will be completely applied.
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There will be a day of righteousness, healing, laughter, and amazing great glory.
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Nothing I've said here is meant to minimize that backward glance, that forward glance. It's not meant to minimize the pain or hardship you're currently going through.
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It is just to remind you that your pain and hardship isn't the only reality that speaks over your life if you belong to him.
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In the past, he has sealed your glorious future.
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And now we come to the last section of the text where we see God's reason for fueling us. We can think of like wayward energy, right?
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How many of you have ever just seen that, like that antsy energy that you find in a little kid? Do you know what
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I'm talking about? And they're just bouncing all over, no real focus, no real attention. Or maybe you have a pet, maybe particularly a dog, that's just always running around, always running around, always running around, and there's no real focus.
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There's no real, what are you doing, doofus? And it's just. Every Thanksgiving for several years, our entire family on Linda's side have been getting together at a church -owned warehouse.
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Yes, they own a warehouse where their youth group meets, a fairly large church. But they let us use their warehouse to celebrate in a tradition developed surrounding two -liter bottles and a loading dock.
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We use the two liters first as pins for turkey bowling. Does anybody have any idea what
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I mean when I say turkey bowling? You set up two -liter bottles like pins and then take a frozen turkey and chuck it at them, and the kids love it.
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And as they've gotten older, it's gotten more dangerous because they can push that thing a little harder than they used to be able to.
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But see how many you can knock down, and there's always a little trophy or something. But when those two liters are all nice and shaken up, we chuck them off the back of a loading dock and watch them take off like rockets.
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And I think we might even have a little video here. Now, that one didn't take off super well. But yeah, a lot of energy, a lot of potential energy there.
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And we've even had them at times. You just don't know where it's going to go. You chuck it up there. Sometimes they take off and they just go.
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Sometimes they come right back through the door at us. So that's always really fun too. It's fun. It's a little dangerous because you just don't know where the two liters under pressure are going to go.
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We have them, like I said, come back. And all that energy without a focus or without a purpose is wasted.
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But Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from lawless living, to make us a pure people owned by him, fueled up and on fire for what the text tells us here by the end, good works.
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There is a purpose behind his empowerment and it is that we would do good.
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Verse 14 focuses all that energy toward good works and blessings. Jesus gave himself as a substitutionary sacrifice.
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He died for us and he did that on purpose. He was not an unwitting victim.
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He was not caught in a scheme of salvation from the Father nor was he caught by the violent intentions of wicked people.
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He volunteered to be the pathway of grace and forgiveness and salvation for you and me.
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And he did this to buy us back from wild, lawless, reckless living. Christians are not to live their lives without a standard.
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We do not do whatever is right in our own eyes. We have the Bible that tells us the will of God and shows us his desires for us.
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We seek to follow the truth in love for our Lord. His intention in saving us was to carve out from among the masses of people a specific purified people for his own possession.
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Owned by him. Washed by him. Bought by him.
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Set on fire by his love, boiling over in our love for him and for others.
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I find that convicting. I don't know if you do too. But I mean a question mark over this, looking at the end of this text.
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Am I, am I zealous for good works? Look at verse 14. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
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Am I zealous? Sold out? Boiling over?
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White hot in my desire to do good for others? And what gets you fired up?
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What gets you excited? Is it loving service for the Lord? Is it loving your neighbor as yourself?
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Is it telling others about the past and future appearance of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Does that, does that get you pumped?
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Here is the pinpoint focus of verse 15. Paul tells Titus to declare these things.
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This stuff. Make this your messaging. Make this your social media presence. Make this your go -to conversation with anyone who will listen.
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And be sure that you only follow leaders who strongly stand for these things. Only follow men and women who have confidence in the grace and salvation brought through Jesus Christ and who have their hope placed in the right thing.
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His return in glory. Paul tells Titus here, let the components of these last four verses be your loud, frequent, and loving declaration to all people.
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What's the world hearing from our mouths? What are they hearing from what we type? What we write online?
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What is the gospel that you're communicating to others? You're communicating something.
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If somebody spends an eight hour shift with you for multiple days in a row, what do they get out of you?
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They know your gospel already. They already know what you're about because you're communicating it to them. Do they know anything about Jesus after working with you for a year?
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Do they know anything about Jesus after working with you for five years? Ten years? Do they know your political views?
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I'm guessing they do. Do they know where you stand on social issues? I'm guessing that they do. Do they know where you stand on diet and exercise?
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I'm guessing that they do. Your opinions, your plans, you've got all kinds of ways and things that you're communicating to them.
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But do they know the gospel through us? Paul tells
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Titus here, let these verses be your loud, frequent, and loving declaration to all.
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Exhorting people, he says here in verse 15, exhort people, which means encourage people to live these things out.
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And rebuke with these things. Rebuke with these truths in all authority. When it comes to authority,
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I will not ascribe it to myself in many things. I don't like to take authority up on myself. I prefer to teach the word, get up here, teach it, and let it rest.
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I prefer to pray for people. I enjoy giving spiritual counsel. I don't think of myself in any fundamental way as authority, but when it comes to these things,
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I will stand in authoritative confidence over these things. I will stand in authoritative confidence over the gospel.
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I will exhort and rebuke in this church with all authority when it comes to defending what is written in this passage.
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Jesus came bringing salvation. That's not up for debate. Those saved renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.
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That's not up for debate. We are saved to live self -controlled, upright, godly lives.
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Not up for debate. Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior is returning for us. Not up for debate. He sacrificed himself for us.
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Not up for debate. He brought us back from sinful lives. No debate there.
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We who have faith in Him belong to Him. Not up for debate. Those who are His are saved to do good works.
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Not up for debate. The last statement to Titus here highlights the danger of leadership.
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Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. How does a leader do that?
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Anybody can disregard me. Anybody can blow me off. Anybody can say, Don doesn't know what he's talking about.
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How would we do that? Many will seek to discredit or disregard leaders, or even you, where you're at.
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But when a Christian leader stands on the gospel truth, he is called to let nobody knock him off that game.
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As far as the gospel goes, don't allow others to easily dismiss you. How do we do that? I would suggest to you by persistent confidence.
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Persistent confidence in the gospel. The call to speak the truth in love doesn't mean that we soften the message to a suggestion or being asked to suggest things versus declare things, but our message is one that we declare.
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It's one that we proclaim. We are like heralds. We are not writing the message.
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We're not softening the message. We're declaring the message. We do so in love, but that doesn't mean that we have to soften it.
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We can step out in confident boldness as we implore people to accept the lordship and saving work of Jesus Christ.
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Love involves a persistent boldness with the truth. So let's allow verse 14 to serve as our communion introduction as we come in for a landing here at the tables this morning.
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Any of you who have asked Jesus Christ to save you are welcome to these tables if you're at peace with others in the room.
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If you're not, then I encourage you to skip communion this morning and seek reconciliation as soon as possible so you can be restored to the peaceful fellowship in Christ.
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That's really what is symbolized in this. That's why we do it together. That's why Christ gave it to us to do together as an activity when the church gathers.
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It is for the purpose of our unity surrounding the gospel. But we are called to remember Christ as often as we do this.
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And the focus of verse 14 should be our focus in communion. Jesus gave himself to redeem us from living our own way.
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He purified us by taking our sins on himself. And through faith he has bought us and made us his own.
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So that from this reminder of his loving salvation that sets us free, we might go out this week zealous, zealous for good works, able to joyfully serve others, able to freely give and receive love, able to walk in self -control, justice, and godliness.
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So come to the tables to remember and then go out with one eye on the past and one eye on the future.
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Jesus came first to redeem us. He is coming again to set it all right. So let this truth be the fuel for your life in this next week.
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Let the gospel empower you. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for just this refresher.
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I think most people in the room are acquainted with the gospel. Most have been embraced by the truth.
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Most believe it and trust it. But it is so good for us to come back time and time again to remember what has been done for us through Jesus Christ in the past and what he promises to do for us in the future.
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Let that create a stability in our present. A stability that when the storms of life come, we know that our feet are rooted on solid ground in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And Father, as we have an opportunity to come to the tables to remember your son who gave himself for us, I pray that we would lift up our eyes and see that we're not alone, but others are here just as needy as us.
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Coming to those tables, recognizing what Christ has done for them. I ask that you would empower us through the gospel this week.
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Empower us in our messaging, empower us in the way we live, the call to holiness and godly living, but also just in the routine day in and day out of trust that there is a firm foundation.