Titus 3 Peacefully Subversive

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches from his series to the next generation, learning from Paul's words to Titus.

Let's listen in. Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here. And it's good to be together with God's people this morning. I hope you're here, at least in part, out of a desire to grow in faith this morning.

That's why we gather together, that's a fundamental reason for church is that we would grow together in community, together with others in our faith.

We're gonna be closing out a series in the book of Titus this morning. It's a short book that contains

Paul's instructions to a young man that he mentored in ministry. And the primary theme of the book could be summarized in those three short chapters, practice what you preach, practice what you preach.

That's kind of the overarching idea of the book. And the way that Christians interact with the world around us seems to always be up for debate.

I don't know if you noticed that. There's a lot of variety of opinions and thoughts about the way that Christians interface with our culture.

And in part, I would suggest to you that that's due to the very nature of the gospel itself. How we are saved, how we are brought into the

Christian faith creates an opportunity for us to think through our lives and discern on our own.

The gospel is not a set of rules. The gospel is in a call to behave ourselves. In the gospel, we are rescued from our sins and renewed in the

Holy Spirit so that we can devote the rest of our lives to good works. And that's gonna look different to each person and each context and each culture.

So I've entitled this sermon, Peacefully Subversive. Peacefully Subversive because we're a people who have a counter -cultural message and we are called to live counter -cultural lives.

We are subversive, but not hostile. We are subversive, but not antagonistic.

We are subversive, but not rebellious. Subversive has the idea of undermining things.

And there's nothing that undermines the sin -cursed cultures of the world, including our own, quite like the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is subversive to cultures of mankind, of humanity, where sin has its way in our hearts and in our lives and in our systems and in the way that we do things.

The gospel of Jesus Christ itself is subversive. So ask yourself this question before we go to read the passage together.

And it's a question that you might wrestle with and you might actually, at first blush, not be able to answer.

Are we called to swim against the tide or are we called to change the current? Are we called to swim against the tide or are we called to change the current?

I don't know about you, but I don't have it in me to change any currents at all. I don't have that ability. I can't do that.

But what I can do is I can swim against the tide and point in a different direction. I believe the call on Christians in this world is to live in such a way that our words and actions point away from the sinful course of this world, the sinful way of the world around us.

This passage highlights the call to live differently in a world that is constantly calling us to get in line and conform with sinful patterns.

Do you feel it? Raise your hand if you feel that. Is the world around you calling you to just stop striving and just go with the flow, just go our direction, just go our way?

The world is like that. This passage comes with beautiful reasoning as to why we are to live unique lives in this world after we've been saved.

The gospel itself, the very way and method of salvation draws us into lives that are primed to do good works.

We undermine the sinful structures of culture not by shouting louder, not by planting yard signs, and certainly not by being jerks at our workplace.

We are peacefully subversive by doing good. If the standard of life around us is mean -spirited, unkind, and sinful, then how many of you know that by being nice, you're being subversive?

Just by being kind, you're being subversive. So let's open our Bibles, Scripture, journals, or devices to Titus chapter three.

We're gonna read the entire chapter together. It's not gonna take too long, but recast. Again, I like to emphasize this is

God's holy word. This is what he desires to communicate to us here in this gathering this morning. So follow along in your devices, or your

Scripture journals, or your Bibles, Titus chapter three. Here is God's word. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

These things are excellent and profitable for people, but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

As for a person who stirs up division after warning them once and then twice have nothing more to do with them.

Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self -condemned. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

Do your best to speed Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing, and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

Let's pray. Father, we have a privilege of encountering you through the pages of Scripture, the things that you desire, and the things that you have done for us.

Father, I pray that you would let the reality of this text settle on us in a new and fresh way. We can become so acquainted with the

Gospel, so acquainted with the cross that we assume and think that there's something more that we've got to move on to.

Now we've been saved, we've been rescued. Now where's the meat? Where's the real thing?

The Gospel is the real thing, and it's very clear in this passage that it's to be the center driving force of our lives.

Father, what an awesome thing. It just makes no sense to me that you would say over my life, justified, regenerated, mercy, grace, your loving kindness.

Father, these things are awe -inspiring to me that you would apply those truths to me when

I know myself. Father, I pray that you would give us all in this room a fresh wonder at the awesome glory of the

Gospel that is meant to fuel the way that we live in this world. That what this world needs is very little that we have to offer aside from the good news, that that is what the world needs.

That is the hope in this politically divided time, in this culturally divided time, in a time where divisive seems to be a definition for our culture.

Father, I pray that you would be uniting us under the banner of Jesus Christ and His glorious Gospel, and that you would make us all the more kind in the way that we present the

Gospel, all the more bold about the way that we present the Gospel, all the more devoted and dedicated to the good works that you have for us in a culture that is increasingly mean -spirited and vulgar.

Father, I pray that you would make us shine bright in this, and that even now, just in our worship, there would be a brilliance, there'd be a light, there'd be a glory, there'd be a lightness to our hearts and a joy and a smile and gladness in our hearts for the

Gospel that gives us the cause for which we worship you. We thank you for the good news, we thank you for the

Gospel, and we thank you for the opportunity right now to praise your name in this community, in this gathering together, in Jesus' name, amen.

Yeah, go ahead and be seated and get comfortable, and then re -find your place to Titus chapter three in your device or in your

Bible or your app or whatever. And if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee, juice, or donut holes, take advantage of those back there.

And if you need to use the restroom, you're not gonna distract me if you've gotta get up at any point during the message, but our goal is to keep our focus as much as possible on the word of God for the remainder of our time.

And I wanna begin with a question for us all. How are we to live in this fallen and busted world? What is the interface between the

Christian and the world at large? How do we live and move and breathe in this broken and busted world?

Are we to withdraw like the Benedictine monks who created monasteries or the

Amish who withdraw into isolated communities with very little to do with the outside world? What is right?

What is right in the way that we interact with the world? Is retreat and wait it out a good strategy for life, for the

Christian life? Or maybe we should do the opposite. Maybe we should take it to the pagans like Saint Boniface did, or the moral majority did.

Boniface took a literal ax and cut down the sacred oak of Thor in Germany, allegedly resulting in the conversion of many

Germanic tribes going straight for their idols and attacking at the point. Are we to be on the offensive and therefore get a reputation for being offensive?

The church has tried this, I believe, for decades now in America with flagging results.

Titus ends with an extended section on how, how, how we are to live.

How are we supposed to live as Christians in this fallen and broken place? Our outline is quite simple. The first is a call to humble kindness, verses one through three.

The second is the power for humble kindness, verses four through seven. Some of the most glorious sections of scripture on the gospel are found in this passage.

And then the third is a call to focus devotion, verses eight through 15.

So a call to humble kindness, the power for humble kindness, and a call to focus devotion. The call to humble kindness begins with the words in verse one of chapter three here in Titus, remind them, remind them.

Paul has already discussed these things with the churches in Crete, where he has left Titus to be a young minister there.

But apparently the cretins were like us and needed frequent reminders of what is true in order to stay humble and in order to stay kind.

We know from verse 12 of chapter one of Titus that the cretins were known to be kind of bad people.

And they had a reputation in the Roman Empire, all throughout the Roman Empire, for being bad people, liars, and gluttons, and lazy beasts.

So Paul reminds them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, and to be ready to do good works in verse one.

Now, these three proactive callings may be jarring to our ears. When we think about the call to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, and to be ready to do good works, that doesn't sound particularly

American, especially the first one. Our current political climate is primed to knock us off this calling or to make us disagree with the calling, or at least to misunderstand this calling.

We turn to the exceptions immediately in our minds when we are told to be submissive to rulers. What kind of rulers?

How submissive? We begin to think of the exceptions. But recast, listen to me carefully, don't neglect the rule of thumb being issued here on account of a few exceptions.

In almost every single situation that you personally have ever been in, submission to authorities looks simply like being peaceful, like making peace.

Submission, obedience, and a life of good works is what you and I have been saved for.

This is the standard. And I believe that too many Christians right now seem to be fixing for a fight. Quarrelsome seems to define my own heart from time to time.

Anybody with me on that? Anybody feel just maybe at times like you get a little quarrelsome? You get riled up, you get ready to fight?

But fixing for a fight is not what Scripture is saying here is to be our primary mode of operation.

While obedience to verse one doesn't require that we ignore our system of government that gives many means of protest, don't get me wrong, we've got all kinds of things that we can do about circumstances we don't like.

There's protesting and it includes voting and speaking up and writing to our leaders and all different kinds of things that are legitimate within our culture.

But it's worth mentioning that commentaries that I read separate verse one out into three distinct commands that helps us at least understand what we're being called to when it comes to submit, obey, and be ready.

Those are three separate commands. Submit has two direct objects to it, which doesn't mean a lot of us like English and probably most of us don't.

But has two direct objects, rulers and authorities. In other words, who are we supposed to submit to?

Rulers and authorities. Obey does not have a direct object supplied.

Who are we to obey? Not supplied in the text, meaning that we are not told directly in this text who we are to obey.

It doesn't say obey rulers and authorities. It says be subject to them, which is a distinct command from obedience.

This passage is found in Scripture. I don't know if you noticed that. And Scripture consistently tells us who to obey.

Who are we to obey? The Lord God. We obey

God. It would make sense that we are to be obedient to Him, subject to authorities, subject to rulers, but obedient, first and foremost, to God Himself.

We are to be also, third, ready to do good works. As we consider what it means to have a humble kindness in our reach and touch with the world,

Paul starts by putting our lives in proper perspective. He says, you need to understand that this is true of your lives, church.

This is true of each one of us. We are under authority. We are under God, and we are called to serve.

Do you see that as what God has placed in your heart and in your life? Is that true of you?

Do you recognize that you are under authorities, that you are under God, and that you are called to serve?

Does that describe your life? When I use the word subversion, it sounds like a call to be sneaky and undermining to our government or undermining to cultural norms, and it kind of is.

That is what I'm suggesting that we are being called to throughout this passage. But I wanna be sure to focus our attention on subversion of sin alone.

We are to be subversive in our attitude and our response and our work in the world against sin.

We don't subvert leaders. We don't subvert institutions, but we are seeking to undermine sin at every turn.

Do you hear me? That is what we're to be subversive towards, and the way we counter that evil and wickedness is by, according to this text, a humble kindness.

That is the tool that we are to use. That is the method we are to use to subvert the wicked ways of the world, meaning that we don't speak evil of other people, the text tells us.

We avoid quarreling. We are not picking fights and seeking to provoke arguments. Now, that doesn't mean that we won't get in an argument from time to time just by saying the truth.

Sometimes we get into an argument in some context. Sometimes it might be the way you're saying it, but not always.

Sometimes you say the truth in a loving way and it still results in an argument, right? Because I don't know what

I'm talking about. So we might get into arguments from time to time, but this passage, you have to understand, is painting in broad brushstrokes our attitude in this life matters.

And so I think a fundamental question to all of us, especially in this divided time as a nation, are you ready?

Are you ready? Ask yourself this legitimate question. Over your life, you as a person, are you more ready to go out into this week and do good works, or are you more ready to fight?

Which are you more ready for? This text is saying one of those is right and one of those is wrong.

Seriously, answer that in your head. What am I primed for? What am I eager for? What am I ready for? Bring it on?

Or acts of kindness and goodness and love, which of those are you preparing for?

Kindness to coworkers? Or this week, are you hoping to get some good digs in? We are called here, clearly, all throughout scripture and right here when it talks about speaking evil of no one, we are called to tame our tongues, church.

If you've been in the habit of speaking evil of others, cut it out. Your antagonistic political assessment of leaders is not winning anyone.

Speaking the truth in love during this season is fair game. We are indeed called to speak the truth in love, but passing along bad mouth memes is against the calling of this passage.

This requires substantial discernment in these divided times, and if you need some help navigating how involved to get in these things,

I would love to talk with you. And I wanna hear, I've gotta state this emphatically. If you've tuned out for a second, please, please, please, you're gonna misunderstand this message if you don't understand the heart with which

I'm bringing it. First of all, I wanna be thoroughly biblical, but some of you are gonna hear me saying up here, you're gonna wrongly hear me saying and think that I mean, get less involved, and I don't mean that at all.

I would encourage you to get more involved. As the Lord calls you to speak the truth into your culture with boldness,

I encourage you to get more involved, more involved in kindness, more involved in truth, more involved in proclaiming the gospel.

So it couldn't be further from the truth that I'm trying to marginalize the church, or one more spokesman for silence, sit down, and shut up church.

That's what the world is telling us. I'm not telling us that. I don't believe the text is telling us that. But I do absolutely believe that this passage is calling us as a church to keep the shots above the belt in our rhetoric.

Do you get what I'm saying? Be the kindest person at your workplace. Be a bringer of truth, but be the kindest.

Be the nicest. Be the most gentle. Be the most loving. Be the first one to lean into generosity towards those in need, amen?

Like that's what we're talking about here. Keep your shots above the belt, and be ready, eager to do good to those around you.

That's the calling. And when Paul tells Titus to speak evil of no one, who does he list as an exception?

Go ahead and look at it. Shout out the exceptions. I hope it's quiet. There are no exceptions.

Who are we allowed to address harshly? Who can we spear with our evil speech?

Who's fair game? The answer is no one. We are not called to fight ever, ever, ever to fight evil with evil, but we are called to overcome evil with?

Good, you guys got it. Talk about subversive. We don't use the methods of the world to accomplish the plans of heaven.

Let me say that again. We do not use the methods of the world to accomplish the plans of heaven.

Instead, we shock the world with our kindness. We shock the world with our peace.

We wow the world with our perfect courtesy.

Maybe there is no calling that the church has gotten more wrong than this one. We have tried to become the loudest voice, the most dominant voice in our culture, when

God is ultimately calling us to humble kindness. Further, we are to be gentle, showing, the text says, perfect courtesy toward all people.

This looks like a quiet, peaceful, honest, and confident life based on the truth.

This is subversive in a world where self -affirmation takes the place of genuine love for others, where wickedness is valued over goodness, where kindness has been replaced by vulgarity.

Do you see the shift in our culture? Are you feeling it? What is our culture if it's not vulgar and crass?

Isn't it? I hear things walking down the grocery store aisle that I would not have heard 20 years ago.

And it's just everywhere, right? It's in our faces, and I mean, it's all over the place.

So how many of you know it doesn't take much kindness to shine in a culture like ours right now? It doesn't take much to be the peacemaker because everybody's at war.

I say subversive because we do, we do desire change, do we not?

Raise your hand if you want to see a change. We want to see a change. But that change is a change brought about by the church under the radar.

It is subtle. It avoids brash attacks, but instead, seeks to work from within the culture.

Like Jesus telling us the kingdom of heaven is like a little leaven. The kingdom of God is like a little leaven in a lump of dough.

It can't be seen. But man, does it have a dramatic impact on that lump of dough.

By the end, it changes everything. The kingdom of God is not brought in by us and our attacks.

It isn't expanded. The kingdom of God will not ever be expanded by swords and violence and harsh shouts of anger.

That's not gonna accomplish what God is calling us to, church. Submissive to authorities, obedient to God, ready for good works, tongues in check, not speaking evil, gentle, courteous toward all, ready to give an answer without being argumentative.

Do you see it in the text? Do you see our calling? And the reason that we can be gracious in this way to the world is simply that we can relate to the world.

Look at verse three. We ourselves were once like the world. We call them vulgar.

Can we not be vulgar ourselves? We call them crass. Can we not be crass ourselves? We ourselves were once ignorant.

That's the word foolish. It means without knowledge, openly rebellious, deceived and enslaved to passions and pleasures.

Many here know this reality by personal experience while some of us in the room have to take it by faith because we were saved at a young enough age that we take it on faith that we also were on the road to misery before we were rescued.

Do you know what I'm saying? Some of us were on the way there when he rescued us and some of us got there. Some of us got to the realization of the misery of a life lived outside of Christ.

The self -centered life is a life of misery. And full stop, the self -centered life is a life of misery.

Bitter relationships, the way he describes it here, bitter relationships, dissatisfaction, shown in constant envy.

The word envy there meaning dissatisfaction. How many of you know that envy is a sign that you want more?

There's something that you don't have that you want. You're never quite satisfied in a self -centered life.

Bitter relationships, dissatisfaction, constant envy, hated at every turn and hating others at every turn.

The change is meant to be visible in all of us.

Our ability to be kind and courteous and gentle and ready to do every good work is in sharp contrast to the world's ways of living.

And if we would just major on the calling that God has for us in this chapter, I'm convinced that the church will shine brighter and brighter and brighter as the world is set in dark relief, as rather the church is set in the dark relief of a divided world.

This call to humble kindness is contrasted to the ways of the world. Misery in relationships, envy, enslavement, think about that, the world is enslaved to their passions and pleasures, constant foolishness.

Without the gospel, these things would still define us. Without God breaking in, those things are true of you and me.

But we've been changed and the power for a humble kindness is explained clearly in verses four through seven.

That's our second movement in the text. If you're taking notes, we're moving to the second point, the power for humble kindness.

The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, appeared, appeared in Jesus Christ.

Goodness, loving kindness of God in Jesus. So listen carefully, church, if you are wondering what you have to offer into this highly divided climate in America today.

We are being told here that the answer to the need of our culture is the arrival of the goodness and loving kindness of Jesus Christ.

That's the hope. Our culture doesn't need our rules. Our culture doesn't need our sanctimonious judgments.

Our culture needs the love of God available through Jesus Christ, our Lord and King, amen?

They need him. What's he done for us, church? What he's done for us, he can do for others.

He saved us, not because of our works done in righteousness, not because we were so good, but only according to his own mercy.

All of this section focuses on the work of God that produces change in his people.

He saved us. That's the movement.

Him saving us. Where are we at? Well, we're at the bottom of that.

Where's the top? Him. This text just highlights thing after thing after thing that God has done for us in our salvation.

We didn't earn it by our good deeds. He says it emphatically, but God just decided to be merciful to us, and our salvation is truly a

Trinitarian activity. Our salvation was activated by the Father, verse four, applied by the

Holy Spirit, verse five, achieved by the Son, verse six. Activated by the Father, applied by the

Holy Spirit, achieved by the Son. The Spirit has washed us and cleansed us, and we are made new through his regeneration, and we are renewed, a word in Greek that means reborn.

How can we respond so differently in this fallen world around us? Nothing short of the activity of the triune

God at work in our life is to blame. It's him washing, it's him regenerating, it's him renewing.

We now have the power to walk as agents of the Lord in the world through the power of his saving and regenerating work in us by the salvation given to us, by faith in his work alone.

And Jesus has generously, richly, lavishly poured out the

Spirit on us. We don't just get a stingy, tiny little piece of cake, but we've been given more, more than we can eat.

Richly, lavishly, generously pouring the Spirit out on us. And in this saving work, we've been declared justified.

That's no longer guilty. Think about that over your life. Justified, no longer guilty.

How many of you have days that you don't feel that way? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if your faith is in Christ.

Doesn't matter how you feel. You are justified in him. By his grace, what is grace?

Free gift. Free gift, unearned, unmerited. Not because you're a good person, not because you caught his attention.

His free gift. And we've been adopted into his family as heirs, which brings us in line with the hope for eternal life.

That's the hope of salvation, eternal life. Why is Paul rehearsing the gospel here at the end of Titus?

He's explaining for us the way we live, and it flows out of the gospel truth.

I fear that many of us cannot make sense of the call to submit to authorities. It doesn't make sense to us. It just doesn't line up.

Or we maybe disagree with it, or we disagree with the call to avoid quarreling. Come on,

Don, how else are others gonna believe if we don't cause a few brawls? If we don't stir up arguments and dissent?

And for many of us, perfect courtesy went out the window when the other side took the gloves off, right?

It's important for us to understand that we are here in this passage and in my message talking about methods and not about the worth of arguments.

It's about how we work with the world, but your causes matter to you. I get that.

The things that really get you riled up really get you riled up, and some of them are quite serious, aren't they? Some of the things that you look out at our culture, they really disturb you and they disturb me as well.

They're problems, they're difficulties, they're things that we wanna see changed, there's things that we wanna see overcome. But we are talking about methods and not the worth of your argument when it comes to this passage.

So what I really believe this passage is calling us to is subversion, wink, wink, that kind of subversion, because God has made us to be leaven.

We exist in this culture to impact the culture under the radar, undermining sinful ideas and thoughts that set themselves up against God, tearing down strongholds and every thought that raises itself up against the kingdom of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we do it through the method of humble kindness.

But if this strategy makes no sense to you and you would like to scrap it for your own strategy, consider where you stand then in relationship to the gospel.

Do you believe that the true hope for the world is the appearing of God's goodness and loving kindness in Jesus?

Do you believe when I say that that's what the world needs from you? If we don't, and we don't bring that message, who will?

Who's gonna bring that? Who's talking about that at your workplace? Who's talking about that in your neighborhood?

Who's talking about that at your family gatherings? Anyone? If not us, then who's gonna say it?

Because the hope for our culture, the hope for any people, is their connection to Jesus Christ.

That is the hope. Do you believe that salvation comes by his mercy or do you think you earned it?

If you think you earned it, it makes sense to me that you're out there telling others to earn it too, but that's a false message.

That is not the message of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that it took a miraculous work of the spirit in washing and regenerating and renewing you before you could live for him?

If not, then it makes sense that you're out there telling others to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get better.

The church has been calling the world to act like us for decades without the truth.

The truth is they can't. The truth is they can't act like us.

They can't be what God has rescued us to be. What they need is more than reform.

What we needed was more than reform. They need this glorious message of hope that God is good and he has come in loving kindness to rescue.

Amen? That's what the world needs from us. The power for humble kindness in this broken and busted world is found in the way that we've been saved, the way that we've been rescued.

He saved us by mercy. He saved us by grace. He saved us by his love. And he rescued us then to live out his mercy and his grace and his love.

And in case any readers misunderstand our calling in this life, Paul intensely narrows the focus of our lives to this one main thing.

He narrows it in verse eight to the gospel. The Christian life is not as confusing as many make it out to be.

And so we see a call to focus devotion in verses eight through 15, the final section here.

Paul tells Titus to insist on these things. This is what is trustworthy.

And within the church, we are supposed to be constantly coming back to this gospel that fuels a life devoted to good works.

These things, these gospel truths of him saving us, him justifying us, him cleansing us, him renewing and regenerating us, all through his goodness, his mercy, his loving kindness, his grace.

These things must be held at the center. These things are to be insisted on, says

Paul, because this is what is excellent. This is what is profitable. Paul leaves his young protege,

Titus, there in Crete. And he says, this is what matters. This gospel message is what's going to produce and be profitable and be excellent in the community of Crete, where wickedness was abounding.

The challenge, though, for us, and this is a serious challenge, because it's almost like Paul is speaking to us in America.

He knows, because God is the author of this thing. God is the one who knows. It applies so incredibly directly to our circumstances and situation that even the challenge that we face, he's addressing here.

And the challenge is found in verse nine. You can look with me at nine for just a second. But avoid, there's gonna be some things that tempt you.

There's gonna be some things that call your attention away from these things, these gospel things, justification, mercy, grace,

God reaching down. There's gonna be some things that are gonna grab your attention, and they're gonna claim to be your message.

They're gonna call your attention, and you're gonna desire to follow these other things in verse nine.

We'll be tempted to major on things that are unprofitable and worthless, where he's just told us the gospel is what is excellent.

The gospel is profitable in your family. The gospel is profitable in your workplace.

The gospel is profitable and excellent in our culture. But there are things that are unprofitable and worthless, and I fear that many in the church major on these things.

We're gonna be tempted to engage the world at the wrong level, on the wrong methods, on the wrong things. The world is constantly seeking to shift the narrative of you in the church to all kinds of discussions that are not the gospel, right?

Do people who reference the Bible and the church that are not

Christians, go just blog, I mean, just type in a Google search of any verse, and you'll end up with people there who claim to be experts.

Do they primarily talk about the gospel? Is that their concern? Is that what they're really concerned about is how loving we are?

How we've been saved and rescued, and how we are sinners and we're broken and we're thoroughly like them, aside from the grace of God?

Is that what they really primarily get aggressive about? No, it's other things. They don't wanna hear about life change, for obvious reasons.

Satan would love for the world to turn attention away from Christ, and he would love for us to be passionate about all kinds of things that are not the gospel.

How many gospel -believing Christians have adopted the wrong message?

Now, hear me carefully, church. Oh, I mean this with all sincerity. You can have political opinions.

You can even have strong political opinions. You can do the next diet fad. You can be the self -appointed spokesmom for public schooling or private schooling or homeschooling.

You can promote vegan, paleo, Pilates, bar, yoga, and even the latest Bible study from Nancy Lee DeMoss.

You can talk about Michigan football. You can talk about the Lions. You can stock up on ammo. You can prep for the apocalypse and build your bunker.

But church, I plead with you, don't get to the end and find that it's been worthless, that what you've devoted your life to has been worthless, that it's been empty and unprofitable to the kingdom of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Do you get what I'm saying? Do you feel it? What are we sowing this short life to?

That which is profitable and excellent or that which is worthless and unprofitable?

So many things will tug at your attention this very week. Maybe even this afternoon. Maybe right now your device is tugging at you.

I don't know. But don't get to the end of this life and find that what you have sown, your time and your energy, and what you've grown, your following, because you have a following.

You do. You just do. You just have people who look up to you. You have people who like you. You have people who are listening to you.

You have people that you influence. It varies from person to person, but you have some clout.

What are you spending that on? What are they hearing from you? What will you have done here in this place and in this world that was excellent and profitable for your king?

Peaceful subversion is a lifestyle of loving simplicity. I'm not calling you all to be heroes.

This passage isn't calling us to all be Moses or to all be Abraham or all to be heroes of the faith.

It's calling us to a lifestyle of loving simplicity, imploring and pleading with others to know the goodness and loving kindness of Jesus while there's still time.

If everyone who calls themselves a Christian in America got this calling right from Titus, I believe that we would turn this ship around in a hurry.

I really do. I mean that with sincerity. I trust this word enough. I trust the gospel enough to have an impact that if we just caught fire with, you know how revival would start in America?

It could start in this room by everybody taking this message to heart and going and sharing the gospel.

It could start right here. We got enough people right here. We're not gonna cause it.

The spirit has to cause revival, but it is often on the shoulders of people who take his word seriously and go and do it.

Just go and live it. Just go and believe it and worship him as the crown of your life, as the chief end of your existence.

Not making money, not getting another house on the beach. Those things aren't wrong, but if that's drawing your attention, if that's drawing your energy, do you get what

I'm saying? What are we focusing on? By the way, the way we turn this thing around is on the basis of that humble kindness that shares the gospel and backs it up with our actions and then lovingly leans into the truth.

It's not gonna be on the basis of being a really big voting block, but it's on the basis of the way that Levin works.

It works behind the scenes, under the radar, in private and personal conversations, one -on -one, time and time, changing the lump overnight, over time.

But within the church, Paul goes on to say there's gonna be people who stir up divisions. Seems a little out of context, but I'll bring it back around because it does tie in with the main point here.

The word in Greek for stirring up divisions is heretic, one who stirs up division.

It doesn't, by this point in history, that word heretic in Greek did not have the nuance of theological division.

It was just straight up a word that meant one who divides things, one who divides people.

And the one who wants to knock a church off the gospel game is to be admonished once, and if they persist,

Paul says, admonish them again, and if they still persist, we are to have nothing to do with them.

This is absolutely, in this case, a three strikes and you're out kind of thing. What we have here is an orderly and kind disagreement within the church over central things, over the gospel.

Paul warns Titus that there are some who are warped and sinful, and they prove themselves to be self -condemned by their own rejection of the gospel itself.

Even these two verses that can look out of place still speak to the central focus of the gospel as a church.

Churches are an organization that can be focused on a variety of issues. We can take our attention and point them towards all different kinds of things.

We could take on political issues of the day. We could take on the moral issues of the day. We can lower our shoulders, form up ranks, and charge against a whole host of wicked things going on all around us.

But the church has never, hear me carefully, church, all throughout the ages, the church has never lacked targets for our offensive, have we?

There's always been a target and it moves. There's always something new, always some new sin, always some new problem, always some new cultural manifestation of evil in our midst.

But when we choose a target, we immediately slip away from that central calling. We are the only ones who can point people to the real help.

We're the only ones. We are saved so that in word and deed, we point to the

Father who has shown His goodness and loving kindness by giving mercy, forgiveness, and newness of life to His people through the

Holy Spirit. And all of this compliments of the Son of God who died for us. So that look in the middle of verse eight, look for the word so that, in the

English Standard Version, so that, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

Why did He save you? There it is. So that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

Even in his closing remarks, Paul circles back around to that central calling. He first explains his future plans.

He's gonna send Artemis or Tychicus to Crete to relieve Titus, at which point, Paul wants

Titus to head northwest to the city of Nicopolis, meet him there and spend the winter there with Paul, ministering in that place, a fairly large city that is not even recorded in the book of Acts.

There are places that Paul went and proclaimed the gospel that we know very little about. We don't know about his ministry in Nicopolis. He went there, met with Titus there,

Titus and Paul ministering in a new city. But this letter to Titus was likely carried, most scholars believe that it was carried by Zenos the lawyer in Apollos.

So they're carrying it there. So he writes at the end of the letter, when they arrive, they're gonna arrive with this letter. He doesn't say all that, but he says,

Paul says to Titus, speed them on their way with ample provisions. They're gonna drop you off a letter, make sure that they're well provisioned for the remainder of their trip, probably going back to Paul.

And he once again highlights the call to the church to devote themselves to good works. Very rare in the ending does he give instructions like this so that it emphasizes again the purpose of the letter, practice what you preach, so that they will be ready to help with urgent cases of need and bear good fruit.

And Recast, I just wanna point out that I've seen you as a church that leans into urgent need. When there's a major need, our church does a great job surrounding people to provide and to encourage and to build up.

I appreciate that about this church. But Paul records greetings to the church in Creed and then closes with a written desire for God's gift, his grace, his favor to be on them.

And that's the end of Titus. Now I don't wanna sound like a broken record repeating, repeating, repeating the same message.

But I'm on social media enough to know that many of you are passionate about a whole bunch of things. I refrain from commenting on some of them.

But sometimes I wanna ask as gently as possible. So I'm asking you here, and you can just guess if it's you that I'm talking to.

Sometimes I wonder and I wanna write to you on that post and I choose not to. So I'm saying it here. Is that kind?

Sometimes that's my thought when I read what you post. Is that kind? Sometimes my thought is, is that maybe foolish controversy?

Is that maybe a foolish controversy? And I'm betraying that, I think it is. Is that profitable would be a question?

Is that really profitable? Is that really helpful? Is that excellent? Is that really gonna advance some cause?

Is that gonna advance somebody closer to Christ? And then lastly, what I sometimes wanna just post is directly, is that the gospel you want to preach?

Is that really what you wanna be known for? Is that the message of your life? Are you gonna get to the end of your life and say, at least

I posted that political meme? I mean, standing before God as your judge,

Jesus Christ standing there and it's like, good job, well done, good and faithful servant. You were really obnoxious online.

Good job. Is that gonna be Jesus? I don't think so. I don't think so at all.

I think the tears that he will wipe away, I think are a lot of regret. I think when it says he will wipe away every tear, that means that there's tears.

There's gonna be opportunities that we know we missed where we meet him face to face and we stand there with the crowned one who loved us and will indeed,

I believe, be very personable and wrap you up in a big hug and say, welcome, I'm glad you're here.

I think the regret will be on you. I don't think he'll put it on you. I think you'll feel it. I say, how could

I not have served this one more? How could I have been ashamed to say his name in my workplace?

How could I have been ashamed of him in my neighborhood or my family gatherings? How could

I not talk this one up? Are you getting what I'm saying there? We are called to be peacefully subversive.

I believe that every single person in this room would like to see a little change in our culture. We raised our hands and I got a pretty emphatic hand raise on that one.

But I fear that we don't all see the same solution, what I believe is the biblical solution. It's right in front of our noses and we actually practice it.

We enact it every Sunday. We're about to. We enact a ritual to remind ourselves of the only hope we say we know.

We're gonna come to these tables in a minute and what we're doing in getting to those lines and heading back there and taking a cracker and juice or coming up to the front and doing that, what we're saying is this is it.

This is the thing. This is what we needed. And this is what the world needs.

Jesus Christ, his goodness and his loving kindness applied to as many lives as we can reach.

That's probably not gonna happen with a megaphone at the corner of West Main and Drake, okay?

But it very well could happen if each one of us reached one. You know what

I'm saying? Subversive, like leavened, all of us doing our part to see that the entire lump of dough is leavened, that this community is saturated with the message of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus Christ and his sacrifice is indeed your only hope, then I wanna invite you to the tables to participate in uniting, the uniting of this community.

That's what this is, the uniting of this community under that glorious, cleansing, regenerating, mercy -giving, justifying sacrifice of Jesus.

But if you're at odds with others here in this room or in this church and you've not sought peace, then I encourage you to skip communion until you can reconcile with them, but otherwise come to the tables to remember, to remember, to remember.

I'm gonna keep banging this drum. I will keep insisting on these gospel things, as verse eight tells me, because this is where the only hope for individuals and for our society can be found.

So let's come back to the center of our faith in communion this morning together, and then let's go out from here equipped to resolve, to live peacefully subversive lives, lives of humble kindness, primed for good works, because the great goodness and loving kindness

God has clearly and abundantly lavished on us. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for the glory, the glorious gospel, the hope of eternal life, just the awe -inspiring reality of justification, being declared righteous.

Your mercy, your grace, the regenerating and renewing work that you would give us rebirth and empower us and walk with us by your spirit day by day, that we might be empowered to do good works, that we might be empowered toward boldness with our faith.

Father, I pray that you might even start something in us and with us here in this place in terms of our boldness and our just clarity in our workplace, that we're not just good people, but we have a good

Savior, a good Lord, a good King, and it is through your goodness and through your loving kindness that we've been made new.

I pray that we would never take that on ourselves, that yeah, I'm a good person because I'm a good person. I'm only a good person because of what you have done for me.

Help us to be people who testify to your glory, to your kindness, to your grace, to your mercy, to your power, to your authority.

More of you and less of us. And may we actually be the leaven that you desire us to be in our communities.

I pray that you would call each one of us in our hearts now to what you desire for us to do, having heard this message in Jesus' name, amen.