Sermon Tone Analysis

God’s Great & Glorious Gift of Grace

12.24.22

[Titus 2:11-14] River of Life (Christmas Eve)

What’s your first sign that Christmas is coming?

We don’t have the typical weather cues for Christmas.

Yes, it’s been “cold" here, but don’t say that to anyone else across the country this week.

So what’s your first sign that Christmas is coming?

More than likely, the first sign that Christmas is coming is when you go to the store and suddenly, everything that was decorated for Thanksgiving—or sometimes Halloween—has been replaced by something red or green, shiny or sparkling bright.

Often times, it’s the ads on your screen that first announce Christmas is coming.

One of the first signs for me that Christmas is coming, is a text message.

“What do the kids want for Christmas?”

And that’s a hard question.

Not because I have no idea, but because I have to have enough ideas.

I have to have an idea for my wife and I, my parents, her parents, my siblings, her siblings, and so many other friends and family that reach out because they want to get my kids something for Christmas.

They all have to be different and I have to remember who I told what to because if I mix it up, well it’s be pretty clear come Christmas.

My children are blessed to the point of being spoiled, but they’re not alone.

It can be hard to get a gift for a kid, especially if you don’t have one that age.

You’re not sure what they like, what they’re into, or what is popular that particular Christmas.

So, a lot of times, people will ask kids what they want for Christmas.

And most kids are all too eager to rattle off their lists of what would make a great gift.

Maybe you made a Christmas list when you were a kid.

Do you remember anything on it?

Do you still have any Christmas presents from when you were a kid?

Most kids Christmas presents are short-lived.

The toys and stuffed animals don’t stay so fun for long.

The clothes & shoes don’t fit or they’re no longer fashionable.

The gadgets break.

The tech slows down or becomes unsupported.

So kids move on to the next thing.

But as you get older your Christmas list changes dramatically, doesn’t it?

You want things that, ideally, are going to last longer than a year.

You don’t want things that only entertain you for a brief moment.

You want things that give you significant and lasting joy.

You want things that are more meaningful than material.

Why?

Because you’ve grown up.

You've matured in that time.

And your idea of a great Christmas has, too.

Tonight, as we gather in God’s house, around God’s Word, with God’s people, we have a great and glorious gift to unwrap.

God’s great and glorious grace to us.

In Titus 2, we see that God’s grace is not a concept.

It’s not just a characteristic of God’s personality.

(Titus 2:11) God’s grace has appeared, bringing the powerful work of salvation to all people.

Something that appears you can see & hear & know.

God’s grace is a person.

God’s grace (Titus 2:14) gave himself for us, to redeem us from all wickedness.

Our God appeared to be our Savior.

In Titus 2, we are told why God appeared to be our Savior.

Each of us faces a daily struggle.

This present age is packed full of pitfalls.

God’s identifies two types of struggles for us: (Titus 2:12) ungodliness and worldly passions.

What on earth is he talking about?

Let’s start with the second, the worldly passions.

These are the powerful and persuasive cravings we all have that lift our spirits for a little while and then leave us wallowing in self-loathing and guilt for much longer.

Things like gluttony & greed, lust & anger.

Worldly passion is why Vegas is so bright & entertaining, exciting & also open 24 hours.

When we give into our worldly passions, initially, we get a dopamine dump.

We feel really good.

Then we feel really bad.

But you don’t have to be in Vegas to contend with worldly passions.

These passions are why we have those extra cookies and that extra drink.

Worldly passions are why we lose our temper during a time that is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year.

It’s why we can’t rejoice when others receive the good things we think we deserve.

So much of the what our culture says is must see TV are slickly packaged attempts to stimulate our worldly passions.

Gruesome violence, gratuitous scenes of carnal activities are all meant to excite our worldly passions and make us feel good.

But the single-minded pursuit of feeling good has ruined careers, marriages, relationships, and lives.

It’s not that God hates joy.

(Ps.

104:15) He created food and wine to gladden the heart.

He embedded joy in a job well done & blessed relationships with many joys & pleasures.

But when that pleasure rush is all we’re after, we treat other human beings like objects & we spurn God’s love too.

you have to be able to say no to some things that feel good in order to be the person your friends & family need and the person God created you to be.

Sin never delivers what it promises.

And you want to be that person.

You may not think you want to be godly—I mean who has the time or the energy—but listen to how God is described.

God is patient.

God is kind.

God is not self-seeking.

God is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.

God never delights in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

God always protects and perseveres.

God never fails.

Does that list sound familiar?

It’s from 1 Corinthians 13.

You maybe heard it last at a wedding.

Love is all those things.

But God tells us in his Word that (1 Jn. 4:8) God is love.

And even in 1 Corinthians 13, God tells us that (1 Cor.

13:3) if we do not have love, we gain nothing.

In fact, (1 Cor.

13:2) if we do not have love, we are nothing.

But you are not nothing to God.

That is why the grace of God appeared, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

In that little town Bethlehem we have love in flesh and blood, God’s great and glorious gift of grace.

Sin never delivered what it promised, but God always gives us more than we could hope for.

God recognized the grip worldly passions had on us.

He also knew that godliness was so far out of our reach that we would give up.

So he (Jn.

3:16) gave his Son and that Son (Titus 2:14) gave himself for us.

Repeatedly, we see Jesus, the great and glorious grace of God, giving himself for us.

He gave of his time in teaching the crowds.