Live a devoted life Titus 3:12-15
Notes
Transcript
Church of Christ Dapto
The Letter to Titus
Lesson 11-Live a devoted life
Titus 3:12-15 As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives. Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
There is work to be done
Titus 3:11-13 As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.
Those who work for Christ’s Church are to be assisted by those who are members of the Church.
Learn to live a devoted life
Titus 3:14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.
Titus 3:8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
To be devoted means to have a single aim and to persevere in that aim no matter what.1
This verse is a command from God for His people, not just an admirable aim!
We are to have the aim of doing what is good as a major focus of our lives, not a secondary consideration.
This command is based on the understanding that being devoted to doing good is something that has to be learned and must continue to be learned throughout our lives.
How can you learn it?
Accept that you need to learn.
You cannot learn unless you accept that you do not yet know, or that you have learned the wrong and need to change to learn what is right.
Psalms 119:7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Proverbs 22:25 do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.
Know what you need to learn.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: ... that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honourable,
2 Corinthians 5:15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Desire to learn.
If you are not hungry you cannot be fed.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Develop a hunger by truly believing that the things of God are the only things that truly satisfy.
If you are not hungry for His Word, it is because you have filled your life with the idols of the world. Remove your hunger for your idols and you will cause hunger for God’s Word.
John 6:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
Seek to be taught the Truth.
Isaiah 55:2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Make a change in the focus of your life. Change the directions of your mind. Change the ways you seek satisfaction. That is the first step in learning Truth.
John 6:57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Work to understand the teaching.
James 1:25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
True learning is a lifelong endeavour, not and easy and instant fix for a present problem. It demands commitment and a priority in your life. Your desire for learning must have a higher priority than your desire for an “easy” self-centred life.
Apply the teaching.
James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Examine your dedication to the teaching.
2 Timothy 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
Are you continuing in the teaching, or picking and choosing?
Are you continuing in the teaching or giving up?
Persevere in the teaching.
1 Timothy 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Are you showing the signs that you have really learned the teaching?
Has what you have been taught become part of the foundation for your life?
How can you know you have learned to live a devoted life?
You provide for daily necessities
It is a myth perpetrated by false teachers that being concerned with the ordinary things of our lives does not really glorify God, and is only for those who are less spiritual.
God knows all that we need and provides for us often by giving us the means to provide for ourselves and others.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
We are to be an example for the world in our commitment to working, even on the mundane matters of life. We do not work for our own ambition or to gain more money. We work to glorify God because He commanded us to.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, labouring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.
You are not unproductive or unfruitful
Why would we be unproductive by being unfruitful?
Matthew 13:22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
If we make the decision to focus more on the pressures of the world, and the desire to be richer, then we render ourselves unable to learn Truth because we choose to learn ungodliness.
Ungodliness does not bear fruit that God is pleased with.
Productiveness is shown in the results of your work in providing for yourself and your family, and in the changes in your spiritual life made evident by your behaviour and attitudes.
2 Peter 1:5-8 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through learning the qualities Christ has called us to exhibit by being our example, and persevering and continuing to grow in them, we will be productive and effective in His work.
Learning from and about Him means we have learned to be like Him.
What are you to learn?
You have something to learn.
You are commanded to learn it.
You are to learn to devote yourself to doing what is good.
Doing what is good is to be an aim and focus in which you persevere for the rest of your life.
This devotion, achieved through the commitment to learning and applying the Word, has an aim.
The aim of your devotion to doing what is good is to give you an effective and productive Christian life and turn you away from being unproductive and ineffective.
The test of the effectiveness of your learning will be the quality of your good works and the glory they bring to God.
Titus 3:15 Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
Next Lesson: Complete the work Titus Chapter 1 to Chapter 3
Focus Verse: Titus 2:7,8
Summary Verse: Titus 2:13-14 Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.