Titus 3:1-3 - Always Gracious

And go to the book of Titus.

We continue our study in the book of Titus together.

And today we're going to be launching into the last chapter of Titus, chapter three.

I've titled this message, and I don't often give you the titles of the sermons.

Always gracious.

That's a beautiful phrase, isn't it?

Always gracious.

You say it slowly, always gracious.

And you can almost imagine it being framed, can't you?

You know, that you might walk into a Christian bookstore or happen into your online Christian uh retailer, and you'll see these inspirational posters, and a little black-bordered, beautiful scene of the Rocky Mountains.

And then sitting above the Rocky Mountains would be in this wonderfully uh developed typeface, always gracious.

And you you look at that and you think, you know, that's that's pretty much me.

You know, it's you know, it's it's meant to be aspirational for some folks, but you know, it's uh it's there, and I think I'll get that poster just to remind myself that you know I'm one of those kind of people.

I'm always gracious.

And then Monday arrives or Tuesday or Sunday afternoon with the parking lot still in your rear view mirror, and all of a sudden, things have come into your life that are going to pressure test whether or not you're always gracious.

And maybe you can consider going home and meeting one of your neighbors.

No, not the worst one, but the most persistent one.

The one that's come to you four, maybe five times, and uh they've come with the same issue, with the same tone, with the same persistence, and you open up the door, and there they are again.

And you say hello, and you smile, but the space between your thoughts and your smile on your face, that's a distance you'd rather not articulate.

Or maybe you could consider one of your coworkers who, in what could only be described as professional attribution, has in a meeting taken credit for something you've done at the workplace.

And you've sat in the meeting and you've just sort of smiled and you're thinking, always gracious.

And so you just let it slide for a little bit.

Until a few hours after the meeting, another one of your coworkers just excitedly talks about what that co-worker's accomplished.

And all of a sudden you're realizing that always gracious needs a pretty big top-up.

Too often we feel the gap between the things that we affirm here on Sunday and the moments that we live on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Sunday afternoons.

And today we're going to hear that phrase again, always gracious.

But it's meant to come into our actual lives.

It's meant to be how we interact with actual people and living in this actual world.

And we can feel the gap between those two things, and the Lord knows this, and that's why he's written these things for us, because what Paul is going to direct the church and what he's directing us under the inspiration of God is something vital for us.

And I want to say right at the front that what Paul doesn't say is try harder.

He's not just here calling us to try harder at being always gracious.

He's got something far better and far more interesting to say about that.

And so if you stay with this until verse 3, we'll get to that point where he tells us what that far better and far more interesting way of being always gracious lies.

But before we get there, I want to make two observations.

First, an observation about where we're at.

This is something we need to remember because we can only understand what is being directed here when we understand where it's happening.

And here we see that it's in the middle of a church plant on the island of Crete.

And we've noticed that before when we went through chapter one.

And in that chapter, the Apostle Paul quotes a Cretan poet who says this about his own people.

That they are evil beasts and lazy gluttons.

Now, that's not an examination from somebody on the outside who thinks that their culture is better than the Cretan culture.

This is one of their own.

This is their own poet.

It's a cultural self-assessment.

And the Apostle Paul is quoting it without irony, as a matter of fact.

And so Paul is not surprising the people of Crete about these things.

This is home for them.

They know they're in a culture that is self-oriented, that is antagonistic, and that is hateful and greedy.

And it's into this context of Crete that Paul sends Titus to serve.

And he's given a mission, a mission that I think a lot of us would look at and go, well, thanks for the offer, Paul.

I hope you can find somebody who could do this.

This is a mission that's somewhat like Mission Impossible, you know, where Titus receives this message.

If if you choose to accept this, kind of thing, it's difficult.

He is to establish elders, he is to oppose false teaching, and the primary thing is he's to ready the church for engaging that kind of culture with the gospel.

And what he is telling the people here, and what he's telling us, because our culture, I think, could be identified quite quite a bit along similar lines as the Cretan culture, is that the proof of the gospel isn't simply a proof of argument, it's a proof of presence as well as argument.

And what Paul is doing here is telling these people that it is significant the way they live, the way they speak, the way they serve, the way they conduct themselves within the context of this culture is going to have an influence for the gospel.

And so he leads them to understand that sound teaching, sound doctrine leads to sound living, that what you believe shapes how you live.

And so this is chapter three.

Paul is digging in here to the people in Crete to help them understand how to interact in this society and culture and the way it is with the gospel that's now come to them.

I want you to notice one other thing before we dig into the text here, and it is to mark out what Paul says right there at the beginning of verse one in chapter three.

Remind them.

Remind them.

Just pause there for a second and think about that.

The word is not instruct them.

The word is not instruct them as though these are people who don't have this information and are now in a place of needing to receive the knowledge.

It's remind them.

Reminding people who have already received this message, who have already understood it, who have already agreed with it, who have perhaps patterned their life for a time in it, but now have laid it aside and it needs to be strengthened.

They need reminded.

Some of them have set it aside, like perhaps I do too often, my keys when I get home.

And the next time I have to go somewhere, I'm scrambling around the house going, where did I put those things?

And there's some folks in the church here who are doing the exact same thing.

They're going, Oh, I'm about to go outside, I'm about to meet my neighbors, I'm about to go into the workplace, I'm about to go into the marketplace.

Uh, what do I need to bring with me?

How do I get there?

There's a difference between a congregation that doesn't know something and a congregation that's forgotten something.

One needs a teacher, the other one needs what Paul is telling Titus here: reminding, to keep something always in focus, to ensure that it stays at the forefront of our understanding, that it becomes the leading edge of our interactions.

That's the reminding that Paul's talking about here.

And that's what this message is going to be for all of us: a reminder for all of us to take the things that Paul is saying to Titus to give to this church and to keep those things front and center as we step outside these doors and as we interact with each other inside these doors.

So we're going to look at three points this morning.

We're going to notice, first of all, the reach of gracious living.

And then, secondly, we're going to see the behavior of gracious living.

And then we're going to talk about the ground or the basis for gracious living.

How far grace reaches, how grace behaves, and how we can actually be gracious in our interactions.

So the first one, the reach of gracious living, and we find this in verse one.

Paul doesn't begin where we think he might.

He doesn't open with the community of faith here when he talks about being gracious.

He doesn't start with a gathered congregation, with the people who are committed by covenant relationship with one another.

And he's not calling us to be gracious with people with whom we might have a minor theological difference, with whom we might have a stylistic difference of whether or not we like modern songs or ancient hymns.

He's not talking about gracious of people who say, Well, I like the NIV and you like the King James Version or you like the SV or whatever.

He doesn't start there.

Look where he begins.

He begins on the outside.

Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.

And what Paul does here is he begins to show us the reach or the extent to which gracious living goes.

And it goes well outside our walls.

It goes well outside our covenant community.

It goes not even into the workplace or the marketplace.

It goes into the relationship that we have with authorities and governmental places.

And so these three commands that he offers in this verse are like concentric rings of water.

We've got our posture, and then we have our disposition, and then we have our actions.

And here he says that our posture is to be one of submission.

Submission to rulers and authorities.

Now take a look at that.

How stark it is.

Submit yourself to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work.

Paul doesn't add a caveat here.

He doesn't add a qualifier here.

He doesn't add a modifier here.

He is not saying this is a command that you are to follow when you live under the authority of philosopher kings of exceptional virtue.

These are Cretan authorities, by the way.

The always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

Guess what?

They get elected or they get appointed to office.

These always liars, these evil beasts, these lazy gluttons, are in places of authority as much as they're in places in the marketplace.

And what Paul is saying is that these Cretan authorities, these people under Roman governance, whatever their character, or whatever the quality of their decisions, or whatever their personal conduct, regardless of that, we are to be in a posture of submission.

And it doesn't say submit yourself to those people who have deemed by their behavior to be worthy of that tip of our hat to them.

It simply says be submissive.

And here's why.

Because our posture of submission to governing authorities is not determined by the quality of their authority.

And because we're members of a different kingdom while still living within the context of this one, we can act differently than anybody else.

And so Paul in Romans 13, as we read together, gives a fuller theological rationale for all of this.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

And there, Paul is talking about the functioning of civil society and the necessary constructs that make civil society happen by putting people in place to award what is done that is good and to punish that which brings destruction to that civil society.

And within the economy of common grace, we are to be those who would help promote the common good and to submit ourselves to those structures that allow for us to live a quiet and peaceable life.

And so a believer who's securely rooted in the kingdom of God, who understands that we're genuinely free, because no matter what happens in this world, we are loved by God, and nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Because of that, because no earthly power can threaten any of that, we can live as free men and women in this context.

We can live even in a submissive posture because we know a freedom that nobody else knows.

They are bound by the dictates of those rulers.

We are not.

And so in civic engagement, we can be submissive when there are others who would think that the differences call for warfare.

Let's move on.

He says obedient.

He moves from posture to disposition.

And what he's calling for here is the kind of disposition that's not compliance, like maybe parents you've seen in your children who uh you know go to do what you told them to do, but their face shows you that they're not exactly happy about doing what you just told them to do.

We've all observed and probably offered that kind of disposition.

But here is an obedient disposition that engages legitimate authority and serves the real purposes that God has given that authority for, so that the world will not unspool into chaos, that there will be a civil structure and a society that protects the common good, and that we are participants in making sure that God's common grace operates well and we don't stand against it.

And then he says, ready for every good work.

Now look at the context again.

This is in the context of verse one where he's talked about civil rule, where he's talked about obedience to them.

This is not private holiness that's practiced behind drawn curtains.

This is public contribution.

This is, well, let's paint a scenario.

There's a need in the town.

Perhaps there's been a flood or there's been a fire, and people's homes have been destroyed, and it's been weeks, even months, and they haven't gotten on their feet.

Maybe it's an organization in the town that's run out of volunteers, or maybe there's people that are in need that need tutoring or help in the area of expertise that you have.

Maybe it's a place of meeting those who are down and out where they could get food and help and clothing.

Be ready for every good work means showing up in those places.

It means going into those areas of need.

And the town is not wondering if the people of God will show up.

They know they will, because they're people ready for every good work, not scrambling to get ready, not going, should I do this, but ready for every good work, looking for needs within the context of our civil society and being an agent for good in those places, not just in our posture toward ruling authorities and not just in our disposition toward the things that lay down upon us as laws, but ready to enter into the community and to do good.

To do good.

Now let's back up just for a second and reinforce this.

What Paul is telling Titus is to help the church and Crete, who live in a society where people are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons, that the significance of the gospel needs to be demonstrated not just by rhetoric, but by our reputation.

Our reputation.

To know that because we're in Christ, we are free to be a good neighbor, that we're free to be a good citizen, that we're free to be those who can offer a credible witness for the gospel by entering in and engaging our society in a way that's ready to do what is good.

And so the question we have to ask ourselves as we look at this is this is my engagement, is my engagement with the public world consistent with a person who knows that they're a member of another kingdom?

Is my life genuinely ready for every good work?

Or has the culture entered in?

Has the cultural moment and the political atmosphere, with all of its legitimate questions and all of its genuinely difficult ones, entered in in such a way that it's turned my public posture into one of a combatant rather than a Christ-like presence?

That's what Paul's calling us to ask ourselves.

And the antidote is this we belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

No election, no policy, no failure of civic leadership, no evil person in any city or any nation can touch what Christ has permanently secured for us.

We belong to.

To that kingdom.

And that settled identity is what leads us to be able to do this, to be able to look at verse one and say, okay, I can be in my posture submissive.

I can be in my disposition obedient.

I can, in my action, be ready for every good work.

Because I live like a person who's already free.

I'm not bound by these things.

I don't need culture to affirm me before I step into it.

I could be distinct because I'm already owned by God.

So let's look at the second point here.

The first point talks about the reach of gracious living, and the second one leads us into the manner of gracious living.

This second movement gets pretty close to home.

To slander no one, to avoid fighting, to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.

He's taken our posture toward governing systems and institutional authorities, and he's now moving to our manner to all people, with actual people, with the people that we meet every day, meeting them in convenient and unconvenient times, good and bad moments.

And the first thing that Paul says is this slander no one.

I want you to hear the Greek word.

I don't often give those out, but I want you to hear it because I think you'll you'll understand.

Blasphemo.

Does that sound like an English word we have?

Do not blaspheme other people.

Now we narrow this word, blaspheme, and usually use it only in the context of talking about God.

You've blasphemed God.

But here Paul is taking it away from just that narrowed understanding and applying it to everybody.

Do not speak in a blasphemous way about anyone.

What does that mean?

Do not slander anyone, do not defame anyone, do not speak in a destructive way about anyone's reputation.

That's what he's talking about.

It's broad and it's unqualified.

And the reason it's broad and it's unqualified is because there are a lot of people who try to wiggle into the place where we'd make an exception about it.

There are a lot of people whose behavior, whose conduct, whose personality is such that we would say, well, that person I can blaspheme.

That person I can speak evil about.

That person's reputation is such that I could, oh, I'm just being accurate here, is this.

Paul doesn't give us that kind of wiggle room.

Don't speak evil, don't slander, don't destructively talk in a way to deconstruct anyone's reputation.

No one.

Why is he telling this?

Because our voice is to be shaped by something other than contempt.

As believers, we have something better to do with our speech than to be destructive and contemptuous with it.

It doesn't mean that we have no voice in public issues.

It doesn't mean that we stay absolutely quiet about things that are of moral consequence.

There's a big difference between what is truthful speech, what is insightful speech, what is evaluative speech, and speech that is meant to be destructive.

There's a big difference between the two.

He goes on to avoid fighting.

ESV says quarreling.

And it's literally non-fighting.

And it's not talking about being a pacifist here, but we are not to be a person that's oriented toward being controversial and full of conflict.

We don't run to the fight.

We're not a person who's perpetually ready to tangle in a fighting controversial way.

And this for us, I think, is an extreme temptation.

Because we live in a cultural moment that rewards contentious point making.

All you have to do is turn on any one of the news broadcasts that are cycling 24-7 all over.

Pick any of them, it doesn't matter.

More liberal leaning or conservative leaning, it doesn't matter.

And you get two or three people in the room, and guess what they do?

The cameras pan back and they just watch.

How contentious is this going to get?

Who's going to voice over the other one?

Who's going to be so argumentative and point making that they win the moment?

Nothing gets resolved, but everybody's emotions have just ratcheted up about five steps.

Let us break for a commercial.

They haven't fixed the problem.

They haven't worked through the rationale for any of those points.

They've simply got you agitated.

So you'll come back after the break and be ready for the next one, which they're going to sell to people who want you to buy what they're offering.

That's what it's about.

But we live in a culture that is full of emotional heat and not reasoned arguments.

We live in a culture where the sharpest edge is the one that wins.

We live in a culture where the social media algorithms, if you spend even five minutes thinking about them, are rewarding the things that cut through it all.

They measure and they reward the quarrelsome.

And there's a version even in Christianity where that's the case.

Where faithfulness is substituted by a willingness to fight.

Where the person who's most ready to engage every controversy, where the person who's ready to challenge every wrong person, or the person who sits there in discernment ministries, who is ready to be engaged in conflict itself, seems like the most committed in the room.

But that's not how Paul's ordering it here.

He's saying not the passive person, but the non-combative person is the one who's the most committed in the room.

Third, to be kind.

And I'm going to mention the SV a couple times here because in these next two there's a little bit of a flip-flop.

But to be kind, the SV says to be gentle.

And this is a very, very rich word, and it it resists easy translation.

Aristotle used this word when he was describing a person who decided not to take advantage of rights that they had, and was able to relinquish those rights even though they were in a position of pushing for them.

So being kind and being gentle in the English language doesn't quite get there, does it?

A person who chooses not to enforce every right that they legitimately are entitled to.

And you think, ah, that's a lifestyle choice.

That's not a right.

But they'll stand there and say, This is a right.

And Paul is telling us not to be just another subculture, but to be a counterculture.

By being some some in someone and some people who are distinctly different than those who are saying, This is my right.

You can afford to be, because you belong to a different kingdom.

The fourth one he says here in our manner of gracious living is to show gentleness to all.

And again, this sort of bleeds over into what the ESV said about the previous one.

And the ESV puts it this way: show perfect courtesy toward all people.

I like that.

Show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Not people who deserve our courtesy are to be the recipients of our courtesy.

Not people who've reciprocated our courtesy are to be the recipients of our courtesy.

Not people that share our convictions or our background or our neighborhood or our political positions deserve our courtesy.

No, perfect courtesy to all people.

A Christian witness that's warm and generous to everyone.

A Christian witness that is warm and generous to everyone and not cooler to those on the outside than we are to those on the inside.

Again, what is Paul doing here?

He's telling us that the gentleness that we have to all people, in the middle of cultural temptations that would drive those things out of our head if we paid any attention to what the cultural pressures are, is that the credibility of the gospel is on the line.

That the community in Crete needed to see a distinct people who swam a different way than everybody else, who lived their life in completely distinct ways that would catch people's attention.

Because it's exactly the opposite of what they would expect someone to say.

And so he's saying here that we are to live this way, not with the people that it's easy to live this way with, but to live this way with the people where it's hard to live this way with.

To live this way with those people who have given us every reason to write them off, to live this way with them.

He's getting into a far deeper reason why we do that in just a second.

And if you're here this morning and you're thinking, I just need to be better at this, we're going the wrong direction.

Because it's more than this, it's about a person who's been reached by something that makes the difference in how we conduct ourselves.

And that distinction matters because it changes everything.

If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been graciously spoken about in Christ.

You're not described with contempt, you're received as a child of God.

You are spoken about in language by God that's different than any language you've heard people talk about other people in this world.

God speaks to you and about you in ways that are far different than the break room at work or the locker room at the gym or in the quiet spot where the gossip happens.

God speaks to you that you are in Christ, that you are delivered from destructive judgment, that you're a child of God, that you're the son or daughter of the Most High, that you are one of his chosen ones, that you are saints, and the list goes on and on and on of beautiful names that God puts on us by grace.

And it's from that reality that we can be specific in how we address other people.

And this is substantiated by our last point, the ground of gracious living in verse three.

Why do we offer our posture toward civic authorities with submission and obedience and engage in our culture with readiness to do every good work?

Why do we handle every single person in a respectful, courteous manner?

Why do we uphold their reputation with words that aren't slanderous?

Look at verse three.

For it's the Greek word gar, which means not and or therefore, but because.

Because it is the reason behind everything verses one and two talk about.

Why do we live that way?

Because.

And verse three is not a command, it's a memory, because we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

How can I live with a posture of submission and obedience and readiness to good work?

How can I be kind?

How can I not rebile?

How can I be in a place where I'm courteous to all?

By holding a memory in place.

Just take a moment to run through these.

They're not abstract, and they're definitely not comfortable words.

But we need to hear them.

We too were foolish, not uninformed, but people who knew what life should be lived like, but don't do it.

That's what foolishness is.

Disobedient, refusing to do the things that should be done.

Not out of ignorance, but because of our preference, to do it our way.

And we would justify it in such a degree that it just seemed like the right thing to do.

But it really was nothing more than our own self-will.

Deceived.

Now this one rubs us wrong because we don't ever like to think of ourselves as deceived.

We have participated, however, in being led.

We have offered ourselves in subjection to forces and patterns and habits and cultural currents that run contrary to God and his express purposes.

And those things have been a current and a stream far larger and swifter and more powerful than us.

And we've said yes to it, and guess what?

We got washed down the river like everybody else.

Deceived.

Enslaved by various passions and pleasures.

Well, I just thought this was a lifestyle choice.

Or this was something I want to do with my buddies after work on a Friday.

Or this is, no, it's slavery.

Slavery.

Not merely influenced by our appetites, shackled by our appetites.

Living in malice and envy.

Living in such a way where there's a disposition toward others that would rather we be better off than them.

And if they're better than we are, then we are not happy for them.

And I had just given my first wedding, uh officiated my first wedding at Ohica Castle.

I had no idea what Ohica Castle was until I showed up there.

I thought, what a weird name for a building.

What is Ohica Castle?

And I get there and I realize where I'm at.

This is the second largest private home in the United States ever, besides Biltmore.

Kudos to Carolinans.

And I get there and I and I came away from that and I saw what a Long Island wedding was like.

And I said to my friend, I said, I don't think the Long Islanders want to keep up with the Joneses.

I think the Long Islanders want to be the Joneses that everybody else has to keep up with.

And that was how it felt.

And our society calls us toward that.

Hateful and detesting one another.

A reciprocal relationship in society where we're always positioned with guardedness or antagonism.

Because we're in this combative relationship.

Now notice what Paul does with this.

This is the grounds upon which gracious living is to be enacted.

And he starts by exposing where we were.

Very much like Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and by desire by nature were children of wrath, even as others.

This is Paul writing the same thing in a different place.

And what he is describing is not a subset of particular people.

He's saying, all of us, and he's including himself.

Paul, this religious, pharisaical, obedient, law-keeping person, is saying, That is me too.

And what the Bible here is describing is what we in theological terms call total depravity.

And it's not total in the sense that we are the worst that we possibly can be, but total in the sense that there is a pervasiveness about sin that affects every dimension of who we are, internal and external.

That it affects our will, it affects our emotions, it affects our thinking, and it definitely pervades into our behavior.

That's what total depravity is.

And what Paul is saying by pulling us into this diagnosis is to help us to realize that the remedy is not inside of us.

The remedy lies outside of us.

And this is not pessimistic.

It's the only reason for hope.

Because if you understand this diagnosis, you know it's not just about try better tomorrow.

It's not about I'm going to turn over a leaf.

It's not about, well, I'll just start going to church now and things will start working.

It's not that.

When you Understand this diagnosis, you say, I need a doctor.

I need someone who can do something for me.

That's the only way I can be reached with any benefit.

A person who feels himself hearing all these things and says, Well, you know, I'm just slightly unwell.

I could probably do a little better tomorrow.

Is not going to go the place they need to go for true help.

This person who looks at this diagnosis and goes, Oh, yes, I do remember.

Oh yes.

Oh yes.

Who calls out to the Lord and says, Lord, it's not my brother, it's not my sister, it's not my mother, it's not my father, it's not the stranger, it's not the neighbor, it's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

That is where the next verse reaches.

Take a look at verse four.

When the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us.

What's the ground upon which we are able to be in a place of submission and obedience and readiness in public action and discourse?

How are we to be the kind of person who's always kind, who's always courteous, who doesn't slander by remembering, by locking in in front of us a recognition of who we are apart from God's intervening mercy and grace in Christ.

That's it.

The reason why we can be gracious to that neighbor who's persistent, who's brought up the problem four or five times in a row to us, because we were once a person who couldn't manage ourselves.

The reason why we can be gracious to that uh professionally attributive co-worker is because we were also people who were self-oriented.

The reason why we can not speak evil of others is to recognize that we too were once organized by the passions and pleasures of our own desires.

The reason why we can be gentle, where we can relinquish rights that are naturally owed to us, is because God hasn't spoken to us according to what is right, but what is merciful?

And the only reason we can stand here this morning has everything to do with what God has done rather than what we have done, and it's grace.

And so, what is that first main word, that chief perspective, that always in front of you lens that you're to have when we step outside the walls of the covenant community of Christ?

When we reach into the workplace and the marketplace and the neighborhoods and our social functions.

What is that one thing?

Remember.

Remember the grace of God, keep it always in front of you.

Let that guide you.

Now, next week we're going to unpack verse four and following.

But we need to see the front side of the diagnosis before we see the power of the remedy.

And part of being the kind of believers that God is calling us to be in a society like we have is by recognizing that we were part of that society also.

We were very happily members of that kingdom, but now we're members of a different one.

And remember from whence you've come and remember where you are.

Let's pray.

Father, these words have not been comfortable for us to hear, but they have been very clear, and they have been very pointed, and they speak to all of us in our vulnerability.

Because, Father, it's easy for us to be swept up in the tide of the culture, to sit with a difficult person and have an internal eye roll, to hear about a person enslaved to things that are destroying them and be impatient, to look in this world and become part of the contentious.

And so, Father, give us a memory.

Give us a memory, not one that produces guilt within us, but a memory that produces compassion from us.

That remembers that we're not two steps ahead in some moral progress, that we're not up the ramp in gradual improvement, or recipients of grace, that we've been found.

And help us when we engage with our society to remember that we were there, right where they are, to remember that we've been reached and that the grace of God has found us in the middle of our foolishness and our slavery and our days spent with greed and malice.

And so, Father, help us to embrace that phrase, always gracious, because you have been gracious to us.

And Father, I want to pray for someone in this room who's not a believer, who came in this morning, and they've been listening to this message and they've recognized something.

And Lord, I pray that it hasn't been some aspirational aspect of it that they need to walk out of here and try to be always gracious.

But, Father, that they would recognize what we all need to recognize.

That the self we present, that the self we prefer to be, that the self that we show in public is not who we really are.

That we're foolish, enslaved, hated, and being and hating.

And I pray, Father, that this wouldn't be a motivation for them to feel simply judgment and condemnation, but a recognition that this is a diagnosis of their need, and that you're a God who in your goodness and your loving kindness has appeared precisely for people that verse 3 describes.

And I pray that they would not think that they have to resolve who they are before they come to you.

But Father, they would come just as they are.

The only way that that happens.

And Father, that they would recognize what we're going to look at next week, that the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for humanity has appeared.

And he saved us, not by works of righteousness which he have done, but according to his mercy.

Lord, awaken them to that mercy, that saving power, that reach that you give to sinful people.

And so, Lord, I pray for us that we wouldn't just be aspirationally gracious, occasionally gracious, but that you would give us the architecture of gracious living in remembering who we are, and remembering whose we are, and remembering what you've done for us in Christ.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.