Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- Faithful Conduct pt 2 - Titus 2:1-18 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

All right, good morning. It's good to see everybody. I'm glad you're here. I just want to invite you to stand with us. We'll pray. We'll get this party started. Father, we come before you today, and we just thank you for another day. Thank you for another opportunity, Lord, to be in your house, Lord God, and just may we lay everything aside. Lord, all the burdens,

all the worries, Lord, all the grief and the sorrow, Lord, that we may be dealing with, Lord God, just lay it all aside and to focus on you, to worship you, and to lavish praise upon your holy name this morning, God. We ask your blessing upon this time, and in Jesus' name, amen. Here, I praise you. Pray you'll be with each of us today. Be the great comforter that you are.

Give us your peace. Help us to remember what you've made us to do. And we're here to glorify you, Lord. Pray that you'll help us to do that. And everything we do and everything we say, let it honor your name, Lord.

We thank you that in you, Lord, you've given us to rejoice in that.

We just want to come to you this morning, and Lord, just acknowledge that it is you, God, that that fills our breath with, excuse me, fills our lungs with breath. God, we just, we thank you for all that you do for us, for all the ways that you provide for us, all the ways you take care of us, for all the ways that you love us, that you show us grace, and we thank you. Not just on Sundays and Wednesdays, Lord, but for the breath that you give us each day. For all the blessings that you bestow upon us. For all the ways you take care of

us and provide for us, God. For all your grace and your mercy, your wisdom and your love, Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Father God, now as we come to the time in your word, God, I pray that your Holy Spirit move mightily this morning, God. Lord, I don't want this to be just another Sunday. I don't want this to be another regular Sunday. I want this to be another regular

service lord i just want it to be of your holy spirit lord so just come this morning move mightily lord god speak through pastor ryan and give us ears to hear and hearts to receive it lord and more than that lord give us hearts that are willing to do your word to act on it lord god we love you and we praise you in jesus name all god's people said amen let's take some time and greet one another good morning if you could begin to locate your seat grab your bulletin we'll get ready to go over some announcements welcome to calvary chapel i'm glad that you have joined us this morning a handful of things to take note of as always on the left hand side the things that

are going on different bible studies to be plugged into in the middle section just a couple of reminders first of all if you're interested in learning about how you can get involved and serve in some way come talk to me after the service also uh directory pictures begin today so if you if you signed up for today make sure that you go uh go back there when it's when it's your time uh there's also more opportunities coming up so if you haven't signed up to be a part of our church directory make sure that you get signed up for that and if you have any questions and in between the services you can talk with aaron and lauren and if you are signed up for pictures again they'll be back here in this room so

take note of that and then fellows we have a men's breakfast coming up this saturday so come join us for uh some food and some fellowship together it's always a great time and those are the things that are going on so if you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning we are going to be in psalm 124 psalm 124 looking at the new american standard for this part so that we sound the same if you need a copy should be one in a row around you and as you're turning to the other side of the room we're going to be talking about the psalm 124 psalm 124 if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word i will read

the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 124 a song of a sense of david had it not been the lord who was on our side let israel now say had it not been the lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they would have swallowed us alive when their anger was kindled against us the waters would have engulfed us the stream would have swept over our soul then the raging waters would have swept over our soul blessed be the lord who has not given us to be torn by their teeth our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper the snare is broken and we have escaped our help is in the name of the lord who made heaven and earth father

i thank you for the promise that's given to us there in psalm 124 lord that our help is from the lord our help is from you who made heaven and earth and lord if you have made the heavens and the earth then is anything too hard for god and so lord help us to rest in that salvation that we have in you in that sustaining power that you have in our lives and so father speak to us now by your word we pray and father in a time that's been a very heavy week lord we need to be reminded of exactly what we're going to learn this morning and that's that the grace of god is sufficient for everything that we go through in our lives and so father instruct us where we need instruction lord convict us where we need

that conviction and comfort us where we need that comfort in our lives we just pray these things father in jesus name amen you may be seated if you would open up in your bibles to the book of titus chapter 2 titus chapter 2 today we come to part two of our series out of titus chapter 2 which is faithful conduct we said that there were two things we would look at in titus chapter 2 as far as faithful conduct was concerned we would look at the instructions for faithful conduct but then we would look at the grace that's given to us for godly living well as we all know it was a very heavy week that we uh that we dealt with this week and quite frankly it's been a heavy

two or three months at least in my own life as we've dealt with just kind of a lot not only as a congregation but as a world as a as a nation we've watched a lot of very difficult things happen in our lives and i'm more impressed upon with the fact that what we need right now is we need a true moving of the holy spirit we need a true a true work of god's grace and we as believers in jesus christ need to be those with faithful conduct because what the what the world needs to see right now is is the world needs to see authentic christianity authentic christianity that has lived out in boldness authentic christianity that has lived out in love and authentic christianity that has lived out faithfully before the world around us the last

week as we looked at that and as though as we looked at those instructions for faithful conduct we saw we saw a great gauntlet laid down for us we saw we saw a standard set that that appeared to be very difficult for us to keep i think we would all agree with that that if we are to live as god has called for us to live that it's going to be a difficult thing to do and in our strength i would say it's going to be an impossible thing to do but we don't have to live it in our strength as a matter of fact the last thing that we need to try to do is to try to live this in our strength because what we'll find every time is if i try to live as god has called me to and the strength that i have i will fail every

single time and i will live an inauthentic life and and and i will give in to all of the things of the world instead what we need is a strength outside of ourselves something that's bigger than we are to give us everything that we need in order to live as god has called for us to live and god has provided that for us in his grace and so today as we look at this i want you to be reminded that if we are to be who god has called for us to be it will truly require grace for godly living and so we pick up in verse 11 of chapter 2 and it says this for the grace of god has appeared bringing salvation to all men instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live sensibly righteously and godly in this present age looking for the blessed hope

and the appearing of the glory of our great god and savior jesus christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession zealous for good deeds these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority let no one disregard you and so as we look at these last handful of verses there's four things that we're going to see we're going to first of all see grace for salvation the second thing that we'll see is grace for sanctification the third thing that we'll see is grace for expectation and the fourth thing he's going to tell titus is to tell them these things it's an exhortation that's given to us so the first thing that we'll look at is grace for salvation start

again in verse 11 it says for the grace of god has appeared bringing salvation to all men philip yancey in his book what's so amazing about grace starts off by saying that grace is the last great word that's given to us in scripture grace is the last great word that we have to hold on to because the one thing that separates christianity from every other religion in the world is grace as a matter of fact there was a group of of thinkers that gathered together and they were all discussing the different world religions and they were trying to decide what is it truly that separates christianity from everything else and c.s lewis walks into the room and sits down at the round table can you imagine being at a table where he's one of the

people that's there sits down at this table to discuss and they said lewis what do you think is the thing that separates christianity from all of the world's religions and he said that's the simple answer one word grace because it's truly the great word that we have in the greek the word is charis and it means unmerited favor it's interesting to do a little bit of a study on the word grace and to find all of its uses throughout scripture do you the first time that the word grace is used is actually given to us in the book of genesis it's truly translated favor but it's the same idea of grace it's a different word because it's hebrew and not greek it's the same translation transliteration of the word there and that word is used in connection

with with noah as as god lays out his case against the world in order to bring about a worldwide flood to start over with one family and and we're given all of the filth that's going on in the world all of the garbage that's going on in the world to the point where god says my spirit will no longer strive with man he's got 120 years left meaning that from the time that god makes this proclamation to the time that noah gets on to the boat with all of his family there's going to be a flood in 20 years he says judgment will come and i will wipe this world clean but noah found grace in the eyes of the lord or some of your translations may say but noah found favor in the

eyes of the lord in the midst of judgment noah found grace if you move into the new testament you'll find that the greek word charis is used over 148 times i would say that's a pretty important word in scripture would you all agree with that it's an important thing for us to pay attention to well i did a little bit of digging into the word grace uh with a with a word study and i found this kind of interesting i sort of pieced together a little bit of all of the great big things that i read it says this grace according to the greeks is a gift that was given without being deserved on the part of the receiver and without the expectation of return on the part of the giver in other words grace is something that is given not because it is deserved but

because it is simply a gift that is given and the giver expects nothing in return in this case the giver is none other than god himself and the receiver is us the receiver us we don't deserve any of it and god knows he may not get anything in return and yet he still chose to give us grace he said for the grace of god has appeared bringing salvation to all men that phrase appeared means to become visible or to make an appearance now you should ask yourself a question right now because it's the question i asked myself as i was studying and i think i asked really good questions the question that i asked myself when i was studying was when did grace appear what does he mean by grace has appeared like like all of a sudden there's

just a big light bulb shown like you're in the middle of the desert there's nothing out there and all of a sudden this neon sign lights up grace what does he mean by it has appeared one of the commentaries that i read pointed it out so clearly he says what he tells us here is that grace is making an appearance and it is personified and manifested in none other than jesus christ himself what are we told in the beginning of the slide it jaws in the destroying of people just need to hope much better and i'm gonna prove this just to you here is grace is making an appearance and it is personified and manifested in none other than jesus christ himself What are we told in the beginning of the book of John?

That the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. That we have beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. When did grace appear to us? Well, the day that Jesus appeared onto the scene. The day that Jesus showed up and was baptized. And we were told that the heavens declared that this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And the Holy Spirit descended upon him and he began that earthly ministry and we began to see grace. Because Jesus himself was the gift that was freely given. That was undeserved by us as the receivers and expected nothing in return from the giver. And yet was still given to us. You see, that grace appeared the day that Jesus stepped foot onto the scene. And it was truly manifested by his sacrifice on the cross.

And it was sealed for us by his resurrection from the dead. The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men. The Greek word salvation, or the word for salvation is the Greek word soterios. And it literally means exactly what it says. To be saved. Salvation. And that's what God's grace brings to us. The number one question is, why is it so amazing that grace brings salvation?

And do you know, that's the problem with the world right now. Is they don't know that they need salvation. I think they realized it a little bit more this week. I think the entire world realized a little bit more this week that they needed salvation. You see, weeks like this are hard, are they not? It's hard to experience the things that we've gone through in this last week, in this last month.

And for me, in the last few months. It's hard to take those things in. But while difficult, these things are necessary. Because God has to bring difficulty in order for us to realize our need for him. Because in our flesh, we will continue to believe the lie that we can be our own God. Until the difficulty comes into our lives and we realize that we are a poor excuse for a deity.

And we realize we need something outside of ourselves. And so for those in the world, I've noticed lots of comments show up on social media posts of people saying, I haven't been to church in a really long time, I'm going back this Sunday. I don't own a Bible, but I bought one because I wanted to start reading it. I haven't been to church. I haven't been to church ever in my life.

But this Sunday feels like the right Sunday to start. And my favorite post that's gone around is a quote from Charlie Kirk that says, Today is a good day to tell someone about Jesus. I got a text from one of my college kids this week. And I had told them about some Bible study materials that I could get them so that they could start ministering to their own team.

Because they can't always make it to our FCA meetings. And so the night that he passed away, I got a text right after Wednesday night service. And the text said, Everything that just happened with Charlie Kirk made me realize that I need to become a force for Jesus on my campus. Because the grace of God has appeared and it brings salvation to all men. Why do we need salvation?

Because we were lost and dying in our sin. Because sin had brought death into the world and death was destroying our culture. And so God said, I have to do something because I love them so much that I can't let it continue. I will take on the form of a man and I will come down and I will dwell among them. And I will show them what grace really looks like. I will show them what love really looks like.

And I will in a completely undeserved fashion give my life on behalf of them. And I love that it says it has appeared to all men. Meaning that this grace is universal. It means that gospel is for everyone. Because it is the great uniting force of the world. If you want to see what God has truly intended. Then you will realize that God has intended for all men, black, white, slave, free.

I don't care what your background is. I don't care what your socioeconomic status is. The gospel is for everyone. It doesn't mean everyone is going to receive the gospel. But it means it is available for everyone. Because the grace of God brings salvation. The second thing that he tells us is that the grace of God is for sanctification. The grace of God is for sanctification.

I want you to notice what this says. It says instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. And to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present age. It says that the grace of God trains us. The grace of God instructs us to do some things. I think it is interesting the word that is used there. The word that is used there for instructing can also be training or teaching.

And it is actually the word that is used for a person. For a slave that would have been in charge of the education of a child. That is in Roman times. That is exactly what the grace of God is for us. It carries with it the idea of this. That the grace of God is for the teaching. For the encouragement. For the correction. And for the discipline of the believer.

That is what God's grace is for us. Have you ever viewed it that way? Because God's grace was not just given to forgive us of our sins. Although that is an incredibly important thing that God's grace does for us. But God's grace does not stop the day that you are saved. God's grace begins the day that you are saved. That is when God's grace is truly beginning to be poured out into your life.

And now its job is to instruct you. And I love that the job of the grace of God is to instruct us. Because I have found that working with young people and teaching them. There is one thing I have to continue to show to them. And it is grace. You know why? Because they are going to make mistakes. They are going to do it wrong sometimes. They are going to make an unwise decision.

They are going to fail in the way that they are supposed to do something. They are going to slip back into an old habit. And I have to continue to show grace. And that same grace that teaches us is the grace that continues to correct us gently. That is one of my favorite prayers in all of scripture. I believe it is Jeremiah that says it. It might have been in the Psalms.

It says, Lord correct me but gently. And that is what God's grace is so good at doing. It is continuing to give us the opportunity to grow. Because that is what grace does in our lives. And I say that because I want to remind us all of something. That as we continue to try to live out godly conduct. Have a little grace with yourself. Don't give yourself license to sin.

But give yourself a little bit of grace to know that you are never going to be perfect on this side of eternity. That there is always going to be a growing process on this side of eternity. And at the end of the day, you are just a human being. The Psalms puts it this way. You are nothing but dust. Right? And so God is continually patient with us because you are but dust.

And so as we realize that, we have a little bit of grace with ourselves. But can I also say that we should have a little bit of grace with each other. We should have a little bit of grace with the person that is sitting next to you. Especially with the person that is sitting next to you as your spouse. Have a little bit of grace with them. Have a little bit of grace with the people that are around you.

And when you see them make mistakes, rather than coming down on them. Maybe you come beside them. When you see them make mistakes, rather than judging them. Maybe you become an advocate for them. Rather than showering shame on them. Maybe you pour a little grace on them and say, I realize what you have done was wrong there. But why don't I come alongside you and see if I can help you out.

See if we can walk through this thing together. Because that is having a little bit of grace for each other. You know why? Because that is what the grace of God does for us. You see, we are called into a walk with Jesus Christ. Have you ever used that phrase and really thought about what that means? It means a walk with Jesus Christ. That means every day Jesus is with you.

And He is continuing to teach you. And He is continuing to guide you. And He is continuing to instruct you. And He is continuing to correct you. And when you fall down, He helps you back up. And when you need strength, He helps you to stand. That is what He does for us. Because walking with Jesus, listen, is walking with grace. Because what is the personification of grace?

It is Jesus. See, the longer you walk with the Lord. The longer you understand what it means to be a Christian. The more you realize that this is not a relationship. The more you realize that this is not a religion that we follow. It is a person that we follow. This is not a book that we read. It is a book about a person that we are learning. Because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

And it teaches us. It teaches us. And what does it teach us? Well, the first thing it teaches us is it teaches us what not to do. It teaches us what to deny. And it says two things. The first thing it says to deny is ungodliness. Ungodliness. And its base form, the word ungodliness, means that which is irreverent towards God. That which is irreverent towards God.

But the idea of ungodliness is not only ungodliness in action, but it is also ungodliness in attitude. And I actually tend to lean towards the second one. That this is what it is teaching us to not have. It is teaching us to not have an ungodly attitude. You see, all of our actions spring from an attitude. Right? All of our actions spring from an inclination of our heart.

What is the one thing when you are working with, I love all you young kids, but I just got to tell you right now. The one thing that will burn my biscuits every single time I work with kids is bad attitudes. Right? I can handle somebody that screws up. I can handle people that make mistakes. I got zero problem with that. But if you buck up with an attitude, that is when I get a little irritated.

Right? I am like, you know what? We are about to go around. And then I have to remember to show some grace. But the first thing you have to deal with is an irreverent attitude. Right? Because once the attitude is corrected, the actions will take care of themselves. And so it teaches us. And so it teaches us to deny those ungodly attitudes. To teach us to deny those ungodly mindsets.

Those ungodly thought patterns. So first of all, it teaches us to deny ungodliness. But then the second thing it says that it teaches us to deny is it teaches us to deny worldly lusts. The idea is the lusts or the desires of this present age. Worldly and moral desires. I found that definition of this present age to be kind of interesting. Because the idea of this present age is all of the things of the world that are thrust into our faces on a daily basis.

That we cannot escape. We can only learn to deny. Isn't that great? We have to learn to deny those things because they are going to be around us all the time. Why does God's grace have to teach us to deny the irreverent attitudes? And to deny the worldly lusts? Because that's what's in front of us all the time. The worldly attitude is what's innate within me.

The worldly lusts are what are innate around me. And I have to continue to deny those things. The problem with popular Christianity today is that popular Christianity today does not teach you that you have to deny those things. Listen, let's make it more popular, Ryan. Let's have a happier message. Let's be a little bit happier about these things. Well listen, you'll be happier if you learn to deny those things.

Because the true death that comes into your life is from giving in to all of the worldly lusts. The true unhappiness in your life is giving in to all of the worldly lusts. If you want true joy in your life, it comes from living a holy life. Because joy is found in the presence of Christ. And sin can't be found in the presence of Christ. Therefore, if I want to be found in the presence of Christ in fullness of joy, I must deny the ungodliness and the worldly lusts.

The beautiful thing is, my walk with Jesus Christ, my walk with grace, teaches me how to do that. It teaches me how to do that. Because the longer that you walk with Jesus, the more you realize that fullness of joy comes in walking with Him. Fullness of death comes in walking in sin. And slowly but surely, you learn to part those two ways. And to pursue the things of God, no longer the things of sin.

It says it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. But it doesn't just teach us the negative. This is the beautiful thing about grace. And the beautiful thing about scriptures. It doesn't just teach us what not to do. Because what happens if you only focus on what not to do? What's the one thing you think about constantly? What not to do. Right? I was talking to some athletes the other day.

And they're like, man, the coach just keeps telling us, we can't make mistakes. We can't make mistakes. And I'm like, you know what the problem with that is? If you always think about not making mistakes, you know what you tend to make? Mistakes. Because you're always thinking about not making mistakes. Instead, you have to focus that positively. Well, what does God?

If that's what I'm not supposed to do, then what am I supposed to do? It says, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. And to live sensibly and righteously and godly in this present age. Instead, it teaches us how we're supposed to live. And there's three things he tells us. Number one, we're supposed to live sensibly. We've seen this word show up quite a bit, right?

As a matter of fact, as we were given all of the godly conduct almost every day. Whether it be the elders or the groups that were mentioned in the beginning of chapter 2. All of them were told to live sensibly. And how does it look like to live sensibly? It means to live sober or with wisdom. If you want to live with wisdom in the world, then you have to walk with the grace of Jesus Christ.

Because it continues to teach you to have wisdom in the world. And listen, I know some of y'all, you better start walking closer with Jesus, right? Because you need some wisdom. We need that in our lives. And grace teaches us how to do that. It teaches us how to approach situations with the right kind of wisdom. It teaches us how to live in the world with the right kind of wisdom.

And to live soberly in the world that's around us. And to not be swayed by every single thing that comes along. But to be a steady individual who lives sensibly. The second thing it teaches us to do is to live righteously. Righteously, the word righteously means to live upright and in accordance with the law. So if I'm going to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, that means I need to replace that with righteous living.

With things that align with what God's word has to say. Upright things in my life. That if I'm not supposed to be hateful, that I'm supposed to show love. That if I'm not supposed to be angry, that I'm supposed to be forgiving. That if I'm not supposed to be lustful, I'm supposed to be pure. That if I'm not supposed to be dishonoring to the people that are around me,

if I'm not supposed to be disrespectful to the people that are around me, then it means I need to show respect to the people that are around me. And it teaches me to live sensibly, but it also teaches me to live righteously as I walk with Jesus. The personification of grace in my life. The third thing it teaches us to do is it teaches us to live godly. Godly can simply be referred to as reverently.

In other words, a continual reverence towards God. Can I be honest with you and say that the longer that I've walked with Jesus, the more reverent I've become in my life? And you're probably thinking to yourself, wow, I can't imagine how you would have been when you were 18. Me neither, because it was bad, right? But I've learned to be more reverent towards God in my life.

And one of the things that's happened to me the older that I've gotten is I'll have a tendency to just kind of stop and just see God in the little things of my life. And have that reverence towards the fact that I can see God's hand in the middle of what's going on. And I can just stop and I can just say, man, I just see God's hand written all over it. Because this.

This is what God does. And you learn to just be a little bit more reverent. As a matter of fact, when events like this week happen, it makes you sit back and it makes you realize just how much more deeply you need to dig into that relationship with Jesus Christ. Because again, you can see the hand of God in it. I found it fascinating this week I've been listening.

I don't always get to listen to things on the radio, but this week I've had a couple of opportunities to listen to David Jeremiah. If you didn't listen to David Jeremiah this week, he's been teaching on Joseph. The life of Joseph. And he first of all focused on the difficulties that he went through and then the purity that he had to experience as he fought against Potiphar's wife.

And then towards the end as his brothers come to him there in Genesis chapter 50 and they're like, hey, listen, we realize we did that whole slavery thing with you. That's kind of our bad. And by the way, Dad said you should forgive us. And Joseph says, am I in the place of God? You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good. And one of the parts of my life that has learned to be reverent towards God

is to begin to approach everything with, Lord, what good are you going to bring out of this? Because I know that you don't waste any tragedy. You don't waste any difficulty. You don't waste any hardship in our life. You always bring something beautiful out of it. You always bring something good out of it. And that has just been marinating in my brain all this week

as I thought, what good is going to come out of this? I was talking to a group of kids about September 11th the other morning, Thursday morning, because these kids weren't going to come out of this. They weren't alive when that happened, right? Like two of the teachers that were in there with me were three when this happened. I'm like, what does this mean? How can this be?

That's dumb. But anyway, so we're talking about it. And I said, you don't realize, like, that was a life-altering event for us. Everything in the world stopped, almost COVID-esque, where it's like we all just, nobody knew what to do. We just, like, stared at our TV screens because we didn't have phones, right? Right? We just stared at our TVs and went, what are we supposed to do with this?

And do you realize that churches were packed that next month? Because everybody realized something tragic happened. We need to find God. We need to find what God's going to do. And that same thing is going to take place with what happened with Charlie Kirk. I've already seen it happening, of people going, we've got to go find God. We've got to figure out where God is in all of this.

And God will always use it for good. Because that's what his grace does. And the reverence that we have for God continues to grow as we see his grace. Take the worst of things and bring something beautiful out of it. It says, It says, It says, And one of the commentaries that I read did such a fantastic job of pointing, pointing something out. It says, Those three things, those three statements, soberly, righteously, and godly,

deal with every aspect of our lives. Right? So follow me on this. First of all, it deals with our inward life. Because to be sober means to be self-controlled in our inner man. In other words, grace teaches me to be the right sort of person on the inside. Because it teaches me to be sober and self-controlled in my life so that my inner man is under the control of the Holy Spirit.

My inner man is under the control of what God's word has for me to say. But not only does it deal with my inward life, second of all, it deals with my outward life. Because my outward life is to be upright and righteous in my relationship with other people. And it not only transforms me on the inside, it begins to transform my relationships with other people.

Because now I live uprightly and righteously with the people that are around me. And so I live a good outward life. But not only do I live a good inward life, soberly, I live a good outward life uprightly, but I live a good upward life. Because I am fully devoted in my reverence and my obedience to God. As I live a godly life. Isn't that great? The grace of God changes every part of me.

It changes my inward life, it changes my outward life, and it changes my upward life. As I learn from the very giver of grace, Jesus Christ himself. But grace is not just for salvation. Grace is not just for sanctification. Number three, grace is for expectation. Notice what it says. Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,

who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Looking for the blessed hope. Looking for the blessed hope. That word looking means awaiting and confidently expecting. Awaiting and confidently expecting. Awaiting and confidently expecting. And this is what God's grace does to us.

Because as our inner life becomes what it's supposed to be and as our outward life becomes what it's supposed to be and our upward life becomes what it's supposed to be, we start to realize that this place isn't our home. And we begin to look with expectation. We look with expectation at what's coming. And what are we looking for? We are looking for the coming of Jesus Christ.

We are expectantly waiting for the coming of Jesus. And as I've pointed out to you lots of times, when you are expecting something to come, you wait with earnestness in your heart. And you prepare yourself for that coming. You prepare yourself for that thing. And as you prepare yourself both mentally and physically for that thing, that expectation continues to grow.

And you think, well, I can't go do that right now because I'm waiting for this. And it begins to change our viewpoint. Because God's desire is that we would live expectant lives. There's a theological term for that. It's called the doctrine of eminence. The doctrine of eminence. The doctrine of eminence says this. Jesus could come back at any point in time.

Whatever your theological thoughts are on the end times, I don't care. What I do know is this. Jesus is coming back. And it could be any point in time. We may not all be right about the way it happens. But we can all be 100% right about this one thing. Jesus is coming back. And if we know that Jesus is coming back, then we prepare ourselves for it. How do we live expectantly?

Well, we live expectantly by allowing God's grace to teach us to be holy. We live expectantly by allowing God's grace to teach us to be sober in the way that we live our lives. And we wait expectantly by being about God's business through his grace while we're here. But he says that grace brings expectation into our life. Because what we're looking for is expectation.

What we're looking for is the appearing of none other than Jesus Christ himself. And I'm going to point out to you how he describes Jesus to us. Because I think this is fascinating. I think Paul gets distracted really easy. Have you ever noticed that when he writes? Like what he'll go into has nothing to do with his point. He's like, we're looking for the coming of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Man, I love that guy. And look at what he says. Who gave himself for us. Wait, he already talked about salvation. Yeah, but he talks about it again. Who gave himself for us. To redeem us from every lawless deed. To purify us and to make us his own special possession. I want to break down those statements because I think they're really important to us. Right?

So the first thing it says about Jesus, the one that we're waiting for is that Jesus is the one who gave himself for us. Well, how did Jesus give himself for us? Well, it started off by him laying aside his glory. He laid aside his glory and came down and took on the form of a man. And he lived a perfect life among us. And then he gave himself for us on the cross.

Sometimes I think we discount that because of how much we've studied it. We discount that because of how much we've talked about it. And we can't help it, we have to talk about it a lot because it comes up in Scripture a lot. But we don't always think about the depth of what he went through for us. Of him giving himself for us. Because when he gave himself for us, he took all of the shame of you upon you.

I was teaching out of Genesis chapter 3 the other day. Talking to some people about it. And I said, you know, the biggest thing. The biggest thing that sin brings into our life is sin brings shame. Separation from God, all that stuff, yeah, absolutely. But it brings that shame into our lives and it makes us want to hide. The reason why we want to hide is because we know how ugly sin really is.

And so we hide that from everybody else. We try to hide that from God and we try to cover it. We're just living in that shame. We live in that guilt. And that shame and that guilt is what Jesus took upon himself on the cross. So that you and I don't have to. So that we don't have to live in that shame any longer. We're told that Jesus gave himself for us. And what did he give himself on the cross in order for us, in order to do for us?

To redeem us from every lawless deed. Every lawless deed. In other words, everything that we've ever done that is opposed to the righteousness and holiness of God. He redeemed us from those things. That word redeemed means to release upon the payment of a ransom. To release upon the payment of a ransom. Well, what was the ransom? The ransom payment that was made for us.

Well, we are told in the book of 1 Peter that we were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold. We were redeemed with the very precious blood of Jesus Christ himself. See, it comes back to the cross again. It comes back to the cross because that's where Jesus paid for it. That's where Jesus redeemed us from every lawless deed. From everything that we've ever done that's opposed to the holiness of God.

That it was in the face of the holiness of God. He redeemed us from those things. And not only did he redeem us from those things, but he purified us from those things. The word purify means simply to make clean. One of my favorite passages in all of scripture comes out of the book of Isaiah. It says this, it says, Come now, let us reason together, you and I, declares the Lord.

Because though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. And the fact that Jesus has made us clean, I think is one of the greatest truths of all of scripture. Because again, what do we tend to wear around on ourselves? We tend to wear around on ourselves all of the things from our past.

We tend to wear around on ourselves all of the shame of the sins that we've committed. As a matter of fact, have you ever been around someone who really truly feels the shame and it's like they just can't help but confess everything that they've done to you and they don't feel worthy of anything? Or maybe they walk around looking downcast all the time and it's because they don't realize that they've been purified. Instead, they think that they're still wearing around all the sins of the world.

Again, I don't know if that's you today. I don't know if that's you, but I want you to know that if you've come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He has washed you white as snow and you never have to wear those again. Not on this side of eternity. Not on the other side of eternity. Because that's what He is in the business of doing. He's in the business of purifying you.

And that's who you are positionally. But not only that, He's making you clean practically. In other words, in your everyday life, He's continuing to purify you. He's continuing to make you clean in the things that you do. So that the old things of sin that you're ashamed of, you put away and you start walking in the new things of righteousness. He has purified you.

And so, this Jesus that we're looking for expectantly, that the grace of God has put this expectation in our heart for, first of all, gave Himself for us by becoming a man and dying for us. He redeemed us with His own precious blood. He has purified us with His own precious blood. But notice what it says about who we are now. So that we can be a people of His own special possession.

In other words, you belong to Him. You're with Him now. Right? You are the possession of Jesus Christ, stamped on your back. You belong to Him. And I think that's such a cool thought. That you're a part of the family of Jesus Christ. You know what gives you your worth? Before you come to know Jesus, the fact that you were created by God. You know what gives you even greater worth after you come to Jesus?

The fact that you've been chosen by God. And that you're now His own special possession. And nothing can ever take that away from you. You belong to Him. He loved you so much that He made one of you. He looked at the world and said, the world needs one of you. So He created one of you. But then He said, but I don't want to spend eternity without you. I'm going to die for you.

So He chose you. He chose you to be His own special possession. I don't know what your thoughts are on any of those things. I don't really care what your thoughts are on any of those things. Because that's what the Bible says. The Bible says He chose you to be His own special possession. But not just so that you could be excited that you're His own special possession.

But that you could be a people who are zealous for good deeds. A people that are zealous for good deeds. In other words, a people who always want to do what God has called for you to do. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. That's salvation. And it teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. That we can live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

That's sanctification. Because we are looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Who loved us. Who redeemed us. Who purified us. Who gave Himself for us so that we could be His own special possession. That's expectation. But now that we've seen the salvation, the sanctification, and the expectation. Let's look at the exhortation that He says.

Talking to Titus, He says this. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. As He comes to the end of this chapter, He gives this strong exhortation to Titus, right? And the exhortation that He gives to Titus is, He says, These things speak to the people. It is a strong exhortation for a Bible teacher. It is a strong exhortation for a pastor.

What are these things that He's talking about? Well, everything that He just discussed in chapter 2. What godly conduct is supposed to look like. What grace for salvation is supposed to look like. What grace for sanctification is supposed to look like. And what grace for expectation is supposed to look like. He says, speak these things. Why does He have to tell Titus to speak these things?

these things. And why does he have to tell him to not let anyone disregard you and that he should do it with authority? Because he just gave him a difficult task to do. He just said, I want you to go out and tell everyone what sin really looks like. I want you to go out and tell everyone the depth and the danger of sin in the life of people. And I want you to tell everyone what

holiness looks like. And I want you to tell them that they're not living holy and that the only way that they can is by the grace of God that's given to them. In other words, I want you to go and offend everyone with the gospel so that their lives can be transformed by the gospel. That's why he had to tell Titus, speak these things with authority and let no one disregard you. Kind of

sound familiar? He said, I want you to go and tell everyone, change my mind. Prove me wrong. And I want you to do it boldly. Why do you have to tell Titus that? Because who were the Cretan people? Well, they were lazy. They were gluttons. They were people that were allergic to work, right? They were people who were living according to their flesh. And he had to now go and boldly tell

them, stop living according to your flesh and live according to what Scripture has to say. And it's going to be an unpopular message, but you have to give it anyway. So Titus, speak these things. Have you noticed throughout the pastoral epistles and quite frankly throughout Scripture how often we have to be told to do that? How often we have to be told, we have to be given the

exhortation, don't stay quiet. Don't be quiet. Don't be shy about these things. Don't be nervous about these things. Don't be timid about these things. Instead, be bold about these things. Have authority about these things. Speak these things. Why? Because in our flesh, we don't want to. In our flesh, we want to keep our mouths shut. We want to sit back and sit home and stay away so that we don't rock the boat, so that we don't

cause a problem, so that we don't hurt friendships, so that we don't offend somebody, and quite frankly, so that everybody likes us. And so we have to be told throughout Scripture, speak these things. I see people say this sometimes. They're like, listen, Jesus would have been loving. Everybody loved Jesus. Really? They crucified him. Do you think everybody loved Jesus?

No. He was incredibly controversial. Jesus was a lightning rod for controversy in the world that he lived in. Why? Because he was willing to stand up and ask questions. He was willing to stand up and speak truth. He was willing to stand up and speak truth. He was willing to stand up and speak truth. And he was willing to stand up and be unpopular because he knew he had a commission

and a calling to speak these things, to tell the world, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so he tells Titus, speak these things. And do it with authority. And don't let anyone disregard you. Don't let anyone despise you. Go in the authority of the Scripture. So I have a question for you. Do you think maybe that exhortation is for us too? I really don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't

know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I realize that maybe you're not a pastor. I realize that maybe you're not Titus. You're not called to do what he was called to do. But we've all been given a great commission to go out and to make disciples. Today is a really good day to tell someone about Jesus.

And I'm going to tell you what he told Titus. Speak these things. Matter of fact, the Amplified Bible or the New Living Translation. I don't remember which one it was. Should have written it down. One of the other translations I read said it like this. Tell them these things. Maybe that's a better way to state it. Tell them these things and do it with authority.

Do you know that you have the authority of scriptures behind you? That you have the authority of the Holy Spirit behind you? That you have the authority of the grace of God behind you? And what he wants you to do is to tell them these things, not in your own power or strength. That will fail. But in the power of the Holy Spirit through the grace of God for the glory of God.

Because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And it's going to teach you to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age as you look for the appearing of our great God and Savior who gave himself for us, who redeemed us, who purified us, and who made you his own special possession. And he didn't just do it so that you could be happy that you're his special possession, but so that you could go out and do good works. And the good works that he wants you to start with is to tell them these things.

Do you ever think maybe that's a commission for you too? No, Ryan, that's for somebody else. My job is to sit in the chair. No, it's not. No, it's not. We have a plaque just outside of this church. And it says, one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.

Over the last three months, I've watched three great men of God go home to be with the Lord. All at different stages of life. All in different positions. All in life. All with different callings in their life. But three great men of God have gone home to be with the Lord. One's my father. One was Glenn Davis. And now one is Charlie Kirk. And they were each given a little bit of a different calling

in the way that they lived it out. But they each had the same commission to tell them these things. And I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that they lived that. They lived that out in the way that they lived their lives. I watched it every day of my life. Growing up. My dad told people about Jesus. I remember going on vacation one time. And we went out and we visited a guy that was one of the teachers at the school

that my dad went to. He actually ran the school. My dad went to the school for the blind up in Kansas City. And all those boys lived there. And they got to know the guy that was the head of the school really well. And he became like a father figure to all of them. And when I was about eight years old, my dad got a hold of him again somehow. I don't remember how because I was eight years old.

And we went out to his house in Colorado. And we went out on vacation. And I remember, believe it or not, my dad was a really good horseback rider. And so they went horseback riding through the mountains. And they were gone all stinking afternoon. And I was like, when are they coming back? I want to do something besides sit in this house. Well, on the way home, I learned.

They took so long because my dad was sharing the gospel with them. And that day, Doc Olson, that's the old I always called him, came to know Jesus. His Lord and Savior. Because my dad was willing to tell him these things. One life will soon be passed. And only what's done for Christ is going to last. But listen, brothers and sisters, you can't do it in your own strength.

You can't just decide today, yes, today's the day I become the person that tells people about Jesus. I'm going to live like God wants me to live. You'll fail. Today needs to be the day that you seek the grace of God in your life. To live these things. And to tell these things. Amen. Hey, listen, I'd like to invite the worship team to come up. And if everybody would bow with me.

Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for the time that we're able to have in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for the grace of God that we have to rest in. Lord, the grace of God that we can find our hope in. And Lord, I thank you for that power of the Holy Spirit that is at work inside of each one of us. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. And Lord, I just pray for a fresh filling of that grace this morning.

And as a matter of fact, I've thought about this all weekend and I do feel like it's what I'm supposed to do. I just want to invite us all in here, just with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I want to invite everyone in here to do something. If the message is born witness with you this morning, and you know that you need a greater outpouring of God's grace, a greater outpouring of God's spirit, a greater outpouring of God's grace in your life, I want to pray for you, but I want you to make a bold step of faith. I just want you to stand up.

I just want you to stand up like you've never stood before to say, I need God's grace in my life. I want to live this out. I want to be who God has called for me to be. But I know it's going to take God's grace in my life. I know it's going to take a fresh filling of God's Holy Spirit in my life. And so just stand up so that I can pray for you. Praise God. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. And so, Lord, I lift up each of these people that's standing right now. Lord, each person in here that is so desperately in need of a fresh filling of your grace. And, Lord, I just pray right now that you would pour out your Holy Spirit afresh on each person. Lord, that you would baptize them afresh in your Holy Spirit. Lord, that you would fill them to overflowing with your grace.

And, God, that your grace would do its work in their life. That it would teach them. That it would train them. That it would give them expectation. That it would empower them to be who you've called for them to be. To not only live faithfully, Lord, but to walk faithfully. And, Lord, to declare faithfully the truth of Jesus Christ. And so, Father, do your work in our hearts and in our lives, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, listen, if you need prayer, I'm going to be right down here at the front. So feel free to come up. And I'm happy to pray with you during this prayer. And I'm happy to pray with you during this last song. Thank you for your word. It is sharp and it is powerful. And we praise you. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.