“Power to Persevere”

What do you do when things gets tough?

Jim Valvano is a name that maybe some of you know. Jim was an American basketball player and later, a college basketball coach. He coached in the college ranks for twenty three years and his coaching legacy was cemented when he led the 1983 NC State Wolfpack men’s team to win the college basketball championship. But even if you don’t know the name Jim Valvano, I would bet that you know something of his life’s legacy. Jim received a lifetime achievement award in 1993, six weeks before cancer would take his life. He started his acceptance speech by acknowledging the fact that cancer had taken its toll when he said, “Time is very precious to me. I don’t know how much I have left and I have some things that I would like to say.” And he used the remainder of the speech to encourage every one, in the face of even the most extreme of adversities like terminal cancer, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”

Don’t give up. Persevere in and through and despite your challenges. How many of you are experts at perfectly persevering through challenges? Probably not many of us, I suspect. I mean, what do we look for every time with any problem? The quickest fix! We want the quickest answer or result possible, right? And what happens when there is no quick answer or result? We do the exact opposite of what Jim Valvano said - we quit. I didn’t know this until I heard about it last month… You have heard it said, “new year, new me,” haven’t you? Do you know when all those January 1 resolutions that launch newcomers to a gym or get people started on a diet end? Apparently it’s been studied. A majority of those resolutions end on the second Friday of January, a day now known as National Quitters Day.

I don’t believe that anyone toes up to the starting line of a race with the expectation that they’ll throw in the towel midway through the race. Some of you are wondering, “Who said anything about running a race? I’m not in for running.” No one who sets their mind to start bringing about a change or accomplishing a great goal does so with quitting in mind. And yet, there are things like National Quitters Day because persevering is difficult.

What if I told you that we do not have within us what’s needed when times get tough? Because we don’t. Brothers and sisters, we’ll need to fix our eyes upon the Lord. For what? Well, let me ask you this,

What if God has provided us exactly what we need to persevere?

I want you to know that God has provided exactly what we need to persevere through the toughest challenges we’ll face, especially the tough challenge we’ve been preparing for as a church family. We’ve been talking about how we can become a healthier church as we prepare for our journey to renovate and enhance this church’s campus so this church can continue to be a beacon of gospel light for generations to come. To say it simply, when we’re on that journey, we will face challenges, both individually and together, corporately.

And by the end of our time together this morning, it’s my prayer that we’ll come to see exactly what God has provided for our perseverance. And I want to begin to unpack this by first calling us to recognize the God has provided for you and I

Grace as a Gift

Let’s turn our attention to Titus 2:11 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people…” Paul’s for to start Titus 2:11 is significant. With use of that tiny, three-letter word, Paul is giving us a conclusion. We saw last week that Paul instructed Titus and other pastors to teach the churches in Crete sound doctrine, to pair together older men with younger men, and older women with younger women, all for the building up of godliness of the people in the Christian churches in Crete. We heard from God last week about the concept of mentoring and in our brief time together then, we came away with the understanding that our availability and willingness to pursue godliness in our own lives is contingent on our willingness to depend on one another, and we said that if we did depend on one another, it would be our greatest strength as a church family. And we all got outside our comfort zones and invited a family you don’t know to lunch, right? If not, hopefully you’ll come to recognize the immense blessing that awaits you when you do.

Something else we’ve got to recognize, if we’re to understand Titus 2:11, is just how daunting a task training the churches in Crete in godliness is going to be for Titus and the other pastors. Something we need to remember about Cretans is what was told to us in Titus 1:12, which is that Cretans would say of themselves, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” How could anyone set their mind on establishing churches where the people describe themselves as liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons?

It’s by first recognizing and remembering that not a single one of us builds a church. Who does? Jesus said, Matthew 16:18 “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” How has Jesus set out to build his church? First step: motivated by grace to appear. In other words, by coming to earth to be both God and human as one born under the law and to fulfill the law perfectly. To die the death we deserve for our sin.

Humanity is the pinnacle of all that God created when he spoke all things into existence and with Jesus entering into time as the God-Man, we are reminded that God is the one who has initiated bringing salvation. God wants to save people. Remember, Jesus said in John 12:47 “… I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” God is the initiator of bringing salvation even though God is the one who humanity has sinned against. My friends, have you ever considered the goodness and generosity of God?

Think about how we handle our business as humans. If someone damages your car, who do you expect to pay to restore your car to what it was before it was damaged? The person who did it, right? You’d never say, “That’s OK, I’ll cover it.” We conduct our affairs with “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” outlook. Not so with God! Who remembers the story of the Prodigal Son? When the Prodigal returned home, he expected rejection because he’d really done his father wrong, but instead received a joyful welcome and a celebration. This pictures the grace of God beautifully—no matter how far we've strayed, no matter what it is we’ve done, God is always ready to embrace us and gift us a fresh start. Just like that father, He rejoices in showering us with grace that we never deserved!

For you and I to persevere on the journey set before us, we need to remind ourselves daily that grace is a gift from God. We have and we will make mistakes along the way, and while we need to learn from them, at the same time, if we are God’s children by faith, our fellowship shouldn’t be marked by feelings of shame and criticism. That stuff hinders our relationship with God and with others. Here’s something each of us can do as we prepare for the journey: start journaling where you’ve seen God’s grace at work in your life. Doesn’t have to be super long stuff… Jot down an answered prayer, a moment of kindness, a day that was simply beautiful. Remember grace as a gift will allow us to persevere when all sorts of negative stuff wants to set in.

That will help us when we recall that God has provided

Grace as a Teacher

We turn back to Titus 2:12 to see that since the grace of God has appeared in the Person of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to all, that grace of God serves to teach God’s children. While salvation is available to everyone who would confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead, when Paul says, “training us,” he’s talking to and about the Christian experience. He’s referring to people who belong to Jesus by faith. How are Christians being trained by God’s grace? The grace of God, receiving the life in Christ that we didn’t deserve, teaches the Christian to pursue living in ways that honor God, which includes rejecting the ways that people who do not know God act, think, and speak.

We’ve already been given hints of the ungodly behaviors of the people in Crete who weren’t Christians. People were living in excess, were ripping each other apart with their words, and didn’t have any sense of order in their lives. And for the Christian who has received God’s grace, that same grace that saved them is teaching them to live with moderation, to recognize the power of our words and that they should only be used for the building up of others by pointing them to Christ and obedience to his Word. See, grace enables things like self-control in the life of a Jesus follower.

Grace is what empowers change in our lives. Grace is what has called us to be something more than who we were before we met Jesus. Grace has called us to be sons and daughters of God and to live god-honoring lives.

Think of a caterpillar for a second. You see that caterpillar and it seems like all its ability is just limited to crawling around, right? Yet, within that caterpillar is the potential to soar. When the right conditions allow for the caterpillar to be transformed, it breaks free from what constrains it and it emerges as a butterfly. Grace is not a passive influence upon the life of a follower…it’s an active teacher. God’s grace is the power of God to free you and I from the limitations of sin and to live a life that reflects God’s glory!

Here’s one way to think about this… In Devine, so many of us are trapped by the worry of our image or reputation in the community. I’ve seen so many of you unnecessarily stressed about this. Take this week to reflect on how God’s grace invites you to live differently. First of all, I promise you, no one thinks about or talks about you as much as you think they do, but even more than that, is all that worry about what others say about you worth it? Shouldn’t what God has to say about you matter more? If you’re a child of God by faith in Jesus, then hasn’t God spoke over you: Isaiah 43:1 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Let God’s grace teach you that you have been set free from all your former ways.

And one way for that to come to be is by remembering

Grace as a Hope

Paul ended Titus 2:12 that grace teaches you and I to live godly lives in the present age. As we transition to Titus 2:13, Paul is tipping his cap to his Jewish roots. There are two concepts of time for Jews that we Christians have inherited. There’s the present age and the age to come. The idea of the present age is to refer to any time in history, whether it’s 2,000 B.C., the first century when our Lord Jesus walked on earth, 2025, or 3025 if Jesus has not returned. The present age covers the time between the creation and Jesus’ return. Even though God’s grace has arrived in the present age, this present age is still characterized by disobedience to God, evil, suffering, and death. So as God’s children, we have received God’s grace and that same grace is sufficient to defeat wickedness in our lives, but we have to pursue that with intention.

And we Christians will actively participate in grace’s power to put to death our sinful ways while we wait for our blessed hope. That blessed hope arrives in the age to come. That age to come starts when our Lord Jesus returns and that age will never end - it will last for all eternity. In that age to come, any authority or power or rule that has opposed God’s kingdom will be destroyed. In the present age our bodies are marred by sin and its effects, but in that age to come, the physical bodies of God’s children will be completely redeemed. No more sin and no more death. In that age to come, Jesus’ new creation will reach its fullness.

When I was a kid, I used to collect baseball cards. There was one card I always dreamed of owning - a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I would spend my free time looking for it, trading cards with friends, and hoping someday I would find it. I imagined what it would be like to hold a mint Griffey, Jr. card in my hands. Just like that childhood hope, grace gives us something to look forward to, a promise that cannot be broken. See, grace isn’t just about what we receive; it’s also about the hopeful anticipation of what’s to come – a life lived in the fullness of God’s promise!

You and I who are in Christ have got to remember that in this present age, we already enjoy blessings of the age to come. Jesus Christ is already reigning as King and through you and me, his kingdom is being proclaimed. We have already received the new birth which is the beginning of the new creation in the age to come. We have already received the seal of the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our eternal inheritance.

Thinking about this… Last week we saw how there should be mentoring relationships between older and younger men and older and younger women. If we were looking for threads of conversations in those groups, as challenges and needs are shared with each other, perhaps those conversations can include how the hope we have in Christ’s return affects our daily lives. Calling each other to remember that Jesus is in fact returning might just be the word we each need when the chaos of life and the world seems overwhelming.

It might also bring us to remember

Grace as a Zeal

Let’s remember that God in Jesus Christ has initiated bringing salvation. Salvation is a gift that is offered by God to anyone who would receive it, but make no mistake, that initiating grace wasn’t God snapping his fingers and wiping away our sin. To do that would be to go against the justice of God. Sin demands atoning, it demands repayment and as it turns out for each of us, our sin is too great for any one of us to repay. And as Paul tells Titus here, Jesus the Mighty gave himself as a sacrifice. For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin even though he never sinned and God did that to purchase us from our pitifulness and to purify us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. In Christ, we have been made ambassadors for Jesus.

You know how ambassadors work, right? Think about the ambassadors that we send out around the world from our country. When we place an ambassador in England or in China or in Bolivia or Zimbabwe, those ambassadors are representing the United States to the English and to the Chinese and to the Bolivians and so on. Our ambassadors don’t do anything or say anything that they haven’t been told to do or speak by our president. That’s the exact same idea that carries into how Christians are ambassadors for Christ. Every place there’s a Christian, that’s Jesus placing an ambassador for his kingdom on foreign soil. When we go around Devine or drive into San Antonio or go anywhere else in this world, as Christians, we are always on foreign soil because our home is not of this world.

Now, when our country sends out ambassadors to foreign countries around the globe, they not sent out to sit on their hands, but they’re sent out to communicate and represent the interests of the United States. And guess what, when Jesus redeems you and me, when his free gift of grace that is his suffering and death on the cross is applied to any one of us by faith, then in making us ambassadors, he hasn’t done that so that we would sit on our hands either. He’s done this so you and I would live out a commitment to doing good as grace has changed us. Who we were is not who we are in Christ.

When the Christian receives God’s grace, they’re made truly alive, they’re set on the path to live the fullest human experience, a life filled with good works in response to the grace received from God. The Christian becomes someone who gives and speaks grace, like an ambassador, on behalf of the King and the kingdom of grace. Think about that time when Peter was filled with zeal rather than fear when he stepped out of the boat and onto the water. For the Christian, grace empowers us to rise above our limitations and to live completely for Jesus. And for this church, goodness and good works can become our hallmark.

By the way, this is another way that mentoring is so necessary! Seek out a mentor younger person or seek out a mentee older person. Why? Because those are the ideal relationships to share challenges and victories in living the good and godly life. They are the ideal relationships where you and I can find strength and accountability and maybe even greater zeal for good works as we represent Jesus.

Grace as Authority

Paul concludes our passage with a direct word to Titus and by inference, to any pastor in a local church. As Paul is telling Titus, God’s grace must be declared. Moved by grace, Jesus has done everything necessary for man to be reconciled and restored to God such that Romans 10:13 “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Titus and every pastor in time must declare the Word of God because Romans 10:17 “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Isn’t it God’s grace that the hymn writer has in mind when he pens

By God’s Word at last my sin I learned;

Then I trembled at the Law I’d spurned,

Till my guilty soul imploring turned, to Calvary.

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;

Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.

Turn to the cross of Jesus, call upon his name and be saved! What grace! What glory!

And Paul adds, that what God’s grace is seeking to do in the life of the Christian must be something the pastor both encourages brothers and sisters to pursue and when necessary, so as to encourage brothers and sisters to faith in keeping with repentance, for the pastor to rebuke actions and speech that falls short of godliness.

There was a Christian pastor in the 1800s who got severe backlash because of his views on grace. He was stubborn about what he believed God’s Word said about grace and it wore people out. What’d he believe? He believed that God’s grace not only brings forgiveness of sin but it commands our loyalty and obedience to Jesus as King. He preached that God’s grace transforms the life of the follower of Jesus so that the Christian is empowered to lead a life of integrity and purpose and godly character. He preached about proper order in the church for the sake of the kingdom. He held his congregation to that standard.

Full disclosure, I’m right there with that pastor. I’m sure I’m wearing your patience thin with all this stuff about sitting up front and going to lunch together and mentoring relationships and the like. I’m sure I challenged some when I spoke about pastors and deacons a two weeks ago. And yet, pastors like me are compelled to encourage us to see that God is calling us to something more than business as usual. God has defined the lanes we’re supposed to minister from. God has given to us a family to love and to build up and to journey with.

And even though orderliness and a spiritual family might sound appealing to us, order and family are not the foundation here. God’s grace is. God’s grace is what rules anything we teach. God’s grace is what governs how we conduct ourselves. God’s grace is what should control how we behave and think and speak.

See, God’s grace is what reminds us to uphold purity and integrity in our lives. And at times, we can get off kilter on that, can’t we? Some times, this thing called pride can get in our way and we can forget how grace actually levels the playing field. Some times, in our pride, we come to believe that we’re spiritually superior to others. There are Christians who constantly remind others how they’re the one who led them to Christ. There are lay leaders who believe business meetings can’t take place without them present. There are Christians who tout how it’s easier to count the number of church committees they haven’t been on to make sure everyone knows how important they are. Pride just has a way of silently creeping in and influencing so much.

And yet, grace is a leveling force. I dare you to engage in a conversation with someone who has a different background than you. I dare you to engage in a conversation with someone who isn’t a Christian. I dare you to do that this week and when you do, listen to them actively and do not judge them. After that conversation, spend time just thinking about how grace has been abundant in your life and how grace calls you to extend humility and understanding to others.

And after walking through this passage, we’ve come to understand more about grace - grace as a gift, as a teacher, as a hope, as a zeal, and as authority. And I hope that we’ve come to realize that God has given us everything that we need to persevere for the journey he’s laying before us in his grace. When we set out together on this building program, we’ve got to hold fast to the reality that

Grace must shape our everyday lives

The grace of God is pushing you and me, as brothers and sisters, to pursue goodness and to live authentically. For every Christian in the room, we’ve been called into the marvelous grace of Jesus and in that, we have been given an identity as a holy people. We’ve been set apart from the rest of the world for God’s good purpose and at the same time, Jesus sends us out to courageously live out our faith in practical ways that honor God and serves others. When we have a proper understanding of God’s grace, that will propel this church to live out our faith through righteous living and do you know what we’ll do? We’ll show everybody in Devine the goodness of God. And we can go out and do that and we can be faithful along the way, even when times get tough.

We will face times in our lives or in the life of our church where we will feel wearied by our circumstances. We will want to give up, despite what Coach Valvano said - “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” Well, I’m here to say that we can’t persevere, we can’t avoid giving up, apart from God’s enabling grace. And when we’ve received grace as a gift, submit to grace as a teacher, look to grace as a hope, live with grace as a zeal and authority, then we find ourselves doing what Isaiah told the Israelites. You remember what Isaiah says in the fortieth chapter, don’t you?

Isaiah 40:31 “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”