Titus 1:1-4

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I know that there are many things on our hearts and mind. All of us have brought things that are weighing heavy on us. I know that all of us are going through something. We are struggling.... and that is okay. We do not need to hide those thoughts and feelings. We do not need to be shy about those things. NO. We do not need to keep them in. We need to address them. We need to allow God, through His word, to speak to these areas of our lives and address these issues. That is why we are here. We are here to encounter the LIVING God who SPEAKS through HIS word… and as we open HIS word, we need to ask HIm to speak to our hearts. We need to give it all to Him… because HE is the only one who knows how to deal with what we are going through. We need HIM. We need to SEEK HIM. We need to REST in HIM. WE NEED to TRUST HIM. HE Knows what is best for us, and we would do well to allow HIM to direct our steps. With that being said, let us pray together and seek after the Lord this morning as we study HIS word.

Let’s pray together.

Broken. Disenfranchised. A mess. Incomplete. Out of order. Undone. All of these words are words that could be used to describe our lives at times. These are words that we could even use to describe the church at times. I do not know about you, but as I look at our church culture in the area.....the word that I would use to describe it would be broken. Something seems off. Something seems wrong. It seems like things are not working the way that they are supposed to be working. Would you agree with that statement? And I do not just mean here... I am talking about the church at large. Churches are struggling… and we need to ask… “What are we to do about it?”

Body:

We are not the only people to ever go through something like this. We are not unique in this endeavor. People all throughout the centuries have had life happen to them. Things have always been hard. We had seen that when we studied Ecc. together. We are also not the only church to ever struggle where it felt like everything was falling apart.

God actually addresses issues like this in the small book of Titus. Titus is typically viewed along with the other “Pastoral Epistles” 1 & 2 Timothy. What is different about these letters from the Apostle Paul is the audience. What we typically have in the New Testament are letters written to the church…but these three letters are written to the Pastors.

Now, maybe you are thinking, “Okay. If you know that we are struggling with many different things and we feel broken.....why in the world are we studying letters written to some Pastors? This has nothing for us!”

What I want us to see, from this letter, is the fact that it does have a lot to say regarding the things we are going through....and it has a lot to say about the direction that we should be going.

Even though Paul is writing this letter addressed to Titus…this letter would have been read to the whole Church so that they would also receive instruction. Paul’s desire for Titus and the church is openly expressed in verse 5 of the letter when Paul say’s “ The reason I left you in Crete was to set right was was left undone....”

There is something off here and Paul is wanting Titus to help make things right. There was brokenness in the church, and Paul is wanting Titus to set it right. The church was heading in the wrong direction…and Paul is wanting Titus to lead the church to make positive changes so that the Church could function the way that God had intended for the Church to function.

But it is not just about the Church functioning correctly..... this letter focuses a lot on Gospel truths that lead to life Change. That is what we want. In the midst of our broken messed up lives....the middle of our struggles…we should desire to know how the Gospel shapes our lives so that we can live out its truth in our lives.

And having an understanding of these things starts right here in the begging of the letter.

If you would, grab a Bible and turn to the book of Titus 1:1-4 with me as we study the Word of the Lord this morning.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. 3 In his own time he has revealed his word in the preaching with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior: 4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:1-4)

We have a tendency to read through these introduction rather quickly and get to “the good stuff”. We know what it says already. We have heard this all before. We understand who the major players are and we know who the book is written to because it is in the name for crying out loud…but…as I have said before, we do a great disservice when we skip looking over what is written here. There is so much here that I want us to see this morning....things that I think are beneficial and healthy for us to be reminded of.

The goal for this morning is for us to see 5 truths from this text. I want us to dwell on what we know to be true and allow these things to speak to our hearts and minds as we are battling with the things we are going through.

God is Good and Gracious. We do not see that explicitly stated in the text anywhere....but that truth is all over this text. We see that from the very first word of the text.. “Paul.” Remember who Paul was. Before he was Paul the apostle....he was Paul the Killer. He was one who persecuted Christians and was trying to destroy the church. He was one who was trying to a stop to Christianity. And yet.... God, who is rich in mercy, saw Paul and He reached down and saved HIM… despite His actions....according to His own mercy. Paul goes from killer and persecutor to being a “servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ...” What a difference that makes in a person’s life.

If God had done that for Paul....what makes you think that you are too far from the grace of God? Many of us, in the middle of our struggles, forget that God is gracious and good. We forget that despite our sins, if we have trusted in Christ as our Savior, we are forgiven and free. There is now “No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I want you to rest in this truth this morning. God is good and gracious toward you.

God wants to use you.

Every single person who has trusted in Christ has been saved for a purpose. God has a mission for you. We see here that Paul calls himself and servant of God....what that means is that God gets to call the shots in his life. God is the one who is directing what ministry activity Paul does. He is a slave of God. What God said to do....Paul was to do.

It is the same way with you. God has a calling on your life. God has gifted each and every one of you with a gift for His glory. No one can say that you do not have a purpose. I think that we get messed up sometimes because we are not able to do the things that we want to do… or feel like we should be able to do… and that is okay. We have to learn to be content with what God has for us.

This can be hard at times. All of us have desires that do not always work out the way that we had wanted them to… but I think that it is at those times that we have to go back to God and ask HIm, “What do you want from me?” “What are you wanting me to do for you?” “How can I serve you?”

Isn’t this the way that it is supposed to be? I think that this is a reason why the church in our culture is so messed up today because we have lost sight of being slaves to God and started making everything about us. We no longer engage in service....we are just more concerned with what we get instead of what we give…and when we start living life that way....we get messed up. We are not functioning the way God had designed us to function.

So, for you, I want you to remember that no matter how you are feeling this morning, God has a purpose for your life. If you have given your life to Christ, then God has gifted and called you to ministry. You are useful.

We Are To Grow In Godliness.

Paul’s calling in life was to help people grow in their faith and increase in their knowledge of the truth. But, look at the text with and see what happens when faith and knowledge increase, what does that lead to? It leads to goldiness. As you are growing in the faith and growing in your knowledge of the Truth, which is the Gospel, your life should start to look radically different that it did before you came to know Christ.

Look, I know a lot of people who know about Jesus but do not really know him. That is common in our area. There are people who think that they have a personal relationship with Christ but in actually they do not. How do I know this to be true? You look and ask.... are they growing in godliness? Does that mean people are perfect? NO! We should never expect that from anyone. We are all broken sinners who need a gracious savior....that is why we started with that truth…but Scripture also talks about how the truth of the Gospel teaches and trains us to say NO to ungodly ways and leads us in becoming more like Christ.

We are talking about progression…not perfection here.

Are you growing in godliness? Are you becoming more like Christ? What areas do you need to give to Christ? How can you grow in your faith and knowledge? God wants you to change. God wants you to grow. God wants you to be different…and He will do that in your life if you seek after Him.

We Have An Eternal Hope.

Godliness has its attachments to the hope we have. I love what Paul says here. Look at verse 2 with me. If you have trusted in Christ as your personal Savior, then you have the hope of eternal life. How comforting is that? No matter how hard this world may be..... there is coming a day when there will be no more pain. There will be no more death and sickness. There will be no more struggle. There will be no more wondering what in the world is going to happen next.

There will be a day when we are FACE TO FACE with God our Savior and HE will wipe every tear away from your face. What a day this will be. It will be a glorious day…and look at what Paul says here..... “That GOD, Who CANNOT LIE..... what a comfort that is. God cannot lie to us. It is outside of His nature. He cannot sin....we can trust Him at His word. And this is a promise that He made before time began.

Unlike the way that we use the word “hope”, the Bible uses it with the connotation of certainty. It is a for sure thing that is going to take place. We do not have to wonder if it will take place....we trust by faith that it is going to take place. We trust God at HIS word.

Now, this promise is conditioned. This is not a free pass for everyone, right? Not everyone is getting into heaven when they die. God has made a way for everyone to get in, and that is through the preaching of HIS word..... it is only through the Gospel.

We are saved not by our works. God is not impressed with how much good you have done in your life....because truth be told you have done a lot more bad than good…if we were weighing the two....which were not.

You and I are only saved by the Gospel message that Paul speaks about in verse 3. We are saved because God in His great Love for us came to a broken world and went to a cross for you. Jesus came and lived the life we could never live and died the only death that we deserve. We had broken God’s law and Jesus came and paid our fines. Jesus took the wrath of God on the cross and died for you. He was then raised 3 days later, defeating sin and death, and ascended into heaven. Now, Jesus welcomes ALL who come to Him in faith and place their trust in Him and repent of their sins. When we do that....we get this hope that is talked about here.

I think that we lose sight of the Gospel and we forget just how much Jesus has already done for us. He has already given us all things. He has already accomplished everything that really matters. He has blessed us beyond what we deserve. We just need to rest in Him.

Conclusion:

There is one more truth I want us to see this morning as we consider this text.

Grace and Peace Are From God.

In a world that seems so broken and fragmented....this text reminds us that there is both the grace we need and the peace we need....and they do not come from us trying harder or accomplishing more....they come from God the Father and Christ Jesus our savior.

We are so prone to try to earn everything....that resting does not come naturally… I know that it does not for me. I want to accomplish things and I want to do them right now. I have to remind myself....slow down…wait on the Lord…do get so worked up…stop stressing..... God is there with you. Take time to breathe. See what He has for you.

I do not want to get ahead of God. I don't want that for you either. I know that things have not been easy....but right now we are called to wait and rest in HIm.

In this season, as we study the book of Titus together, I want us to see what HE has for us. I want us to rest in Him. I want us to take the steps necessary to surrender to Him and His will for our lives.

Let us Rest in His Grace and Peace.

Let’s pray together.