Titus 3:1-8 - Big Head Jed and Grace-Given Christians That Pass It On

Well, well, well, well, well, well.

Good morning.

Good evening. Good afternoon.

I hope you're having a holy jolly Christmas season. And man, we are December 11th.

It's crazy. Two weeks from, is your Christmas shopping done?

No. Today, I'm moving.

Today's the day.

I am moving today. I will never see you again after this day until the next time I face time. That's kind of sad.

Oh, it's like, I thought you'd like being depressing.

No, it is.

It is sad for me. It's probably a very happy thing for you.

I'm not going to tell you about the party I had last night.

Rejoice in that you were gone. Oh, all right. What about that party?

Well, the after.

The after.

After you say goodbye to us, then you're like, all right, now we're gone.

Now we're going to rejoice.

Okay, that makes sense.

Okay, anyway, so December 11th, two weeks for Christmas. So what are you doing? Do you guys even know what you're doing for Christmas yet?

We, I do.

I'm not going to say it on here just in case any robbers might be in the area and that way they know exactly what my plans are for Christmas like a home alone type thing.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

So I can't I can't tell you all I can tell you is that it's going to be great and that it will be my first time celebrating Christmas with my hearing loss. No, no, no, I have celebrated Christmas with them. Okay.

First time celebrating Christmas with my brother-in-law and oh yeah, and my nephew. Yes, and I am super cool.

Yeah, that's exciting.

They are just so you all know, my nephews are adorable. They have gigantic heads, so cute little little bobblehead baby boys. What's your nickname?

Big Head Jed and then his younger brother Jed Jr. It's not their actual names, but those are the nicknames.

I found that out a couple of weeks ago as we were just talking and he was FaceTiming and someone said, look, Big Head Jed, and I was like, what are you talking about?

And they are wonderful and I love the Christmas season and excited for everything that comes with it. Love hearing songs about Jesus from people that at no other time of the year would be testing about Jesus. Yeah, it's wonderful.

I love hearing it and I like snow. I don't totally love ice on the road.

That's where you're going to be going.

I'm very aware. Yeah.

Anyway, well, I will tell you this. We're in Titus. We're going to finish up.

We got this week and next week and then the 25th. And just so you know, our listeners and viewers, of course, next we're going to be pre-recording the next two. So, Bryon will be here in those and people will be confused.

Like, hey, I thought he moved. So, just so you know, you're going to see Bryon and I together the next couple of weeks. But then next week, I'm going to tell you, we'll tell you what is happening as we move forward.

But today, let's just jump into our study and the Book of Titus. And chapter number three is where we are.

Of course, Paul writing to Titus, encouraging him to help believers and help the churches and create the island of Crete to know how to live for the Lord.

We don't need to recap everything, but just helps set up leaders, what godly leadership looks like, how it affects the home, how God's grace should impact the Christian's life. And why don't you do this real quick?

I'll read it today, but before I read it, why don't you just give kind of something from Titus that has stood out to you already that's like maybe a recap thought.

Yeah, I think one huge encouragement to me from the book has been the fact that the Holy Spirit living inside of us and God's grace that he imparts to us changes us and it changes us completely.

That people that were always lazy, evil beasts, lazy gluttons can become people that are blameless, that are zealous for good works, that are good parents and husbands and all of these things.

It's just such an encouragement that God can change people and God can change me.

Yeah, it's the ever-reaching effect of God's grace. His grace just continues to reach into my life and I love it. So let's do this.

We're going to go today to Titus chapter 3 and we are doing verses 1 down through verse number 8. Is that what we decided? That's correct.

And I love this. I love next week's. Verse 9 is one of my favorite in the whole book of Titus, but anyway.

Verse number 1 of chapter 3, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.

For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

But when the kindness and the love of our God and our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom

He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that

those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. Man, what a powerful passage.

There is so much here, and I already have some things that I want to say, but I want to turn it over to you first. What are some thoughts you get from these eight verses?

And of course, I know verse four and five are something that you have appreciated and liked. I think you mentioned that last, we talked about this last, but I can't remember now. But what's something that stood out to you from these verses?

Yeah, I think one thing that sticks out to me is just how applicable, even though this was written 2,000 years ago, how applicable it is to even American culture today.

Yeah. And I think some of the reasons that Paul lays out for the things that he gives are very applicable to us today as well.

So, therein verses 1 or 2, 1 and 2, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed. Yeah.

Sometimes, I think especially as Americans, our country was started through a rebellion against taxation and against a host of things.

I think there's a little bit of that inside all of us, where we have a natural kind of stick it to the man, you can't tell me what to do type of thing. And I see here a reminder to be subject to rulers and to authorities.

Hating those that God has placed over us isn't a mark of spirituality. Right. I think obviously you can temper that with the end of verse number one, to be ready for every good deed.

To, there in verse number two, to be gentle, showing every consideration for all people. That the Cretan authorities and rulers were not likely to have been fine, upstanding Christian people.

But the encouragement is, as God's grace is working through us, realize that those that have not yet experienced the grace of God are not likely to behave or to walk or to act as though they have God's grace.

And he tells them, be subject, be obedient, have consideration for all people, be gentle, don't be contentious, don't speak evil of anyone, don't slander anyone.

Says, for we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, spending our life in mouse and envy, hateful, hating one another. And I think that's something that as Americans, we can, it would be a good thing for us to adopt.

Yeah.

That for our rulers, that at points are, he says, we too. So he's saying, these people are foolish, disobedient, deceived.

They are all of those things, but realize that they are not the enemy, as Paul would say elsewhere in Ephesians 6, it's Satan and his demons and the spiritual powers that are our enemy. Mankind is not our enemy.

Those are people that we seek to love and seek to share the gospel with.

And we can even in political discourse, even while we stand for truth, we can do so in a way that is gentle, not contentious, not slanderous, because we want everyone to experience the kindness and love of God or Savior that we've been given.

Yeah, I think it's interesting to look at this and put together all of what we've already studied and basically understand that Paul is like, he really is saying the grace of God that has saved you really should impact every level of your life.

You could almost look at verses 1, 2, and 3 as a separate list of things.

You really could, and I know that it all kind of flows, but you really could look at it and understand even, and it would be applicable, him saying, all right, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good

work. There's a thought. Okay, also, so let God's grace affect your, how you view legislation and legislators, but also let it affect how you view speech, speak evil of no one.

Let it affect how you approach people, be peaceable, be gentle, showing all humility toward all men. There's just this underlined thought of regardless of what area of life, God's grace should touch it, God's grace should impact it.

Of course, then we go to verse number four and five.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior, love of God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness, which he has done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy

Spirit. It's just him saying like, hey, I love how it ties in what you were saying to verse number three. Like God's grace has worked in you. Like you, okay.

Well, man, I don't want to take it all. So what do you got? What's the thought that stands out to me?

No, no, no.

You do your thing.

So here's what I just say. I think that as a Christian, the longer we're saved, the more we distance ourselves from what we were saved out of in a negative way. And here's what I mean by that.

Like, you know, we look at something, okay, in our culture, like you and I, we could look at our culture and see the lostness of people, people without God who do not want anything to do with God.

And we almost go, oh, my word, I would never, even in my time without Christ, I would never. And we distance ourselves. And this is Paul, like, no, you were there too.

But God's grace and kindness appeared to you. And now you're not. So let it impact your life.

Does that make sense?

Yep. Well, and I think they're in verse five. He reminds them that God was the one that saved you.

That was his kindness and his mercy. Yeah, it was not by your works of righteousness. So it wasn't that you were really great and that everyone else was just terrible.

He says God poured all that love and mercy, kindness and grace and the Holy Spirit and Jesus' sacrifice. He poured all of that on you.

So don't view people, don't view your rulers, don't view other people, a family member, or a coworker, or a neighbor. Don't view them through a hateful lens.

Yeah.

Of going, oh, these cretins suck. But that we would have a genuine heart that goes, man, if God can pour all of that out on my life, yeah, I don't know who he might pour it out on next.

And I think that these verses kind of function as a reminder of hope.

Yeah, completely.

That it could be that, you know, I think of Paul in Philippians 4, when he tells the Philippians, hey, those in Caesar's household, greet you.

Yeah.

That there's kind of that expectancy and that wonder of, you never know when God's grace might work in an authority's life. You never know when God might work in, you know, some random person's life.

And that ought to inspire like hope and awe and grace in our hearts towards other people.

Yeah, completely.

Because no one is guaranteed to be without Christ forever.

Yeah. Well, it almost goes back to what you said last week. Like God's grace should be at so much work in us that we can impact others to come to Christ.

Like I think all too often, and maybe this might be the challenge I would throw out today, all too often we underestimate the impact that Jesus can make in others through us. Yeah. And this, so there's two things I want to say about it.

The statement you just made, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. I think that connects to what He said about the Cretans, because they're teachers, right?

They've infiltrated the Christianity and they've been teaching heresy, but they've been exalting themselves. And so I'm putting myself in just a church goer that's newly saved in Crete, hearing these things.

Well, then I'm beginning to think, Oh, well, maybe I am worth something, and maybe I am good, and maybe I have a part in my salvation. And here's Paul writing to him, like, saying, No, no, no, you've got to remember, it is all God.

It is all God's grace, not by your works. You think you've done some good things. No.

It's all Him, and that grace that came to you, we saw that last week, that appeared to all men for salvation, it's still working.

And I love how he closes this section out in verse number four, when he's like, by the way, this is really profitable for everybody.

Because it is, like, God's grace saved me, and God's grace desires to sanctify me and use me each and every day as I go throughout my day at interactions. And man allowing God's grace to not just stop at salvation.

But I don't know, what are your thoughts on application? Like, what can we learn from this that would help us as we go through this week?

Yeah. I think verses 1 and 2 are very helpful for us. That our Christianity is meant to be lived out with and to other people.

That there, it affects our relationship with the law. It affects our relationship with the good that we do to other people, how we talk about other people, the attitudes that we have with other people.

And one that I see in here, to be gentle, showing every consideration or all humility for all people, is one that we don't often treasure. We view strength and boldness as really great traits, which they can be used correctly.

But I think we often underestimate what God can do through gentleness, through humility, through showing consideration for other people.

And I think, as that's one of the things that's listed as, hey, Jesus saved you so that, there in verse seven, or verse eight, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. Yeah.

That this week, we're all going to interact with people.

That's really good.

That we will not naturally, in our flesh, be gentle with or show humility to. So challenge you today. Today, this week, intentionally be gentle towards those that might be in this list.

Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved. Yeah.

We will all interact with those people, but just as Jesus was gentle and kind and patient with you, and just as he is kind and gentle and patient with you, express that same love and gentleness towards other people this week.

I love that thought because you, when you said that, you made me think to ask you like if you go home today and you're kind of just short with Samantha, you know, just, I mean, you guys are moving, got a lot of stuff going on, and she responds to you

by putting her arm on your shoulder and saying, hey, I love you. It's okay. Like that gentleness, what's that going to do to you? It's going to, number one, convict.

Like, oh, but number two, cause you to go, oh, I need to do this with you. And so it's a great, it's a great challenge because that's a good reminder for all of us.

Like when we show gentleness and humility with people, we definitely are going to help others in that around us.

And I want to close today by just kind of on my mind, you know, verse number five, it says it's not by the works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, they saved us.

You know, I know that those of you that watch us and are on our podcast listening, most of you know Christ, but there might be somebody out there today that's watching or listening, and you don't know that heaven is where you'd spend eternity.

Listen, I want to tell you, it's not our works. It's not a good church or baptism or anything like that that gets us to heaven.

It's his mercy, that his death, burial and resurrection and the mercy and grace that he shows by dying on the cross for our sin in our place. Then he rose again from the dead to prove that he's God, to prove that he can be trusted.

If you're out there, you're listening, you're watching and you have a question like, I don't know where I would spend eternity. I don't know that Jesus is in my life. I would encourage you to reach out to us.

I'd love to show you from scripture. I'd take your phone call, text message, email, whatever.

We would love to help you learn that Jesus desires to have a relationship with you and forgive you and bring you back to that restored relationship with God that you were made for.

Verse number 5 just stood out to me and reminded us that, man, there might be someone out there that doesn't know Christ, that's listening or watching. If that's you, if you have a question about that, reach out to us.

For those of us that know Christ, hey, let's go out this week and let's be a great picture of what Brian just said, being a believer whose God's grace has impacted my life, specifically in that area of being gentle with those around me, and walking

humbly this week. God embraces humility and pushes away that pride, so great challenge, but anything else?

I think that's about it.

All right.

Other than just that of the random verse from Proverbs, a gentle answer turns away wrath.

So good.

So I look forward to next week finishing out the Book of Titus, and look forward to, was it verse 9 you said is one of our favorites from the book?

I love verse 9. Verse 9 has caused many an argument between me and some other people. So I'll tell you more about that next week, but we'll have a good time.

So see you then. Have a good week and be praying for Bryon and Samantha heading out to Maryland. And we will look back to being here next week and have a great week.

Bye.