Trustworthy Sayings - Part 1

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.

Amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I want to ask you to take it and open it up to Titus chapter 3.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

Titus chapter 3.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, I'm on page 998.

There's one on your row there somewhere, a black hardcover Bible.

Titus chapter 3, as I said earlier, we begin a new series today.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

It'll be a five-part series entitled Trustworthy Sayings.

I was reading just in the Bible, as I'm kind of prone to do on occasion.

It helps with my job, you know.

And so I read this phrase.

Paul says, This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the chief.

And I thought to myself, I've read that before.

Not that I'm the chief, but that trustworthy.

So I got to look at it.

And five different times, Paul uses the phrase.

He says something, and then he says, This is a trustworthy saying.

It's almost like he's saying, hang your life on this.

This is trustworthy.

This can support the weight of all your questions, of all your curiosities, of all your depravity, of all your needs, of all your spiritual appetites.

And I want us to begin this morning by looking at one of these trustworthy sayings he writes about in Titus chapter 3.

Titus 3 · chapter mention

And to get the context, we'll start reading in verse 1.

He says this remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now, the saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

These things are excellent and profitable for people.

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, quarrels about the law, fights about predestination and election.

Uh-oh.

Is that not in your version?

He says, quarrels about law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

Verse 10, as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, and he is self-condemned.

Paul is writing to Titus, actually, now.

By the way, just to give you the context, he left Titus on the island of Crete, and that's where Titus is in his charge.

And the book of Titus is only three chapters.

And so if you ever want to impress your friends, just read the book of Titus one Saturday morning over a cup of coffee.

And they say, What'd you do today?

Well, I read a book in the Bible, entire book.

They'll be like, wow.

It's three chapters.

Come on, give me that hard.

But in these three chapters, he says a lot.

And I want to focus on what he says in chapter three with this trustworthy saying.

There's basically five things.

And I want to move pretty quickly through the first three, slow down for the fourth one, and then do the fifth one and be done.

Fair enough?

First thing he says as far as a trustworthy saying is just what I call practical righteousness.

Practical righteousness.

Look in verse one.

Now let me ask this question before you look in verse one.

How many of you, just by a show of hands, would say, Sometimes I wish I knew more about the Bible.

I wish I could say things like other people say them.

I wish I could have conversations like other people have them or something like that.

How many of you have thought that before in your life?

Could I see your hand?

Hold it up real high.

Look around.

I'm gonna help you out today.

Put your hand down.

Because you say, What do you mean practical righteousness?

He says, basically, you want people to believe that there's a God and that you know him.

Here's how you show it.

This is practical righteousness.

Look at verse one.

He says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy towards all people.

What do you mean when I say practical righteousness?

What I mean is that one of the most tangible expressions, you don't have to be a conversationalist, you don't have to be a theologian, but you do have to be kind.

You do have to be courteous, you do have to avoid quarreling.

You say, why?

Because that's one of the practical ways that you show people that not only is there a God, but you're in a relationship with him because it expresses itself in the simplest, most practical ways.

What we've done in America is we've stepped over the practicality of being right with God, of being a Christian, and we want to have this vocabulary, this theological mind, and we want to have these incredible experiences.

Hey, just be kind.

It stands out like I mean like a spotlight.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

Look back to chapter 1, if you would.

Titus chapter 1, look at verse 12.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

You say, Well, that's easy.

They lived during the biblical days.

I mean, this is 2012.

Come on.

I mean, it's a dog-eat dog world.

Nothing's changed.

Look at chapter 1, verse 12.

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

This testimony is true.

Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and the unbelieving, nothing is pure.

But both their mind and their consciences are defiled.

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Hear that last sentence.

He says they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

And because these people, these Cretants, these people that don't know God are unfit for any good work, guess what?

That's where practical righteousness comes in because he says in verse one, he says, hey, be obedient, be ready for every good work.

Be ready, be the guy at work when an opportunity comes up to go the extra mile.

Be the first guy to go, hey, I got that.

Don't worry about that.

I got that.

I can stay 20 minutes past.

Be the first person when you see somebody in need, that you come to their help.

And let me just tell you, one of the people, I have a friend named David Guyan.

David sat right over there.

He was here about a month ago in our services.

And one of the things that first drew me to David Guyon was, and this is not, it doesn't sound very manly, but it's very powerful.

He is by far one of the nicest, most thoughtful people I know.

I mean, beyond, this is David Guyan.

He was here, he spent the weekend with my family and I at our house.

And when he left, and Marcia came out of the back room and she's like, Can you believe that?

And I was like, Oh yeah, that's David Guyan.

He slept.

We have a little, it's called a chair and a half, and it's a sleeper sofa.

Folds out into a single bed.

That's where he slept.

And when he left, he made the bed back up, put the cushions back on the chair, folded the sheets and everything in a nice little pile on the chair, took his towel, folded it up, and put it there, and then on top of it, he left a handwritten note thanking us for our incredible hospitality.

And as my wife was reading that to me, I was like, no, I I should thank David Guyne for his incredible example.

He's always that way.

He's always, what do you mean?

He and I were a part of a uh of launching this movement that still goes on to this day among college students.

And it was a conference and then a conference and then a conference, and then they had this big thing gathering out in a field in Memphis, Tennessee, and thousands of college students were there.

And after it was all over, everybody that was left over on the staff, they all went into town to eat at chilies, and the director was like, I'm buying everybody's.

And there was one person out there with a stick, with a nail in the end of it, and a trash bag walking around.

You know how much trash like 8,000 college students leave behind?

There were more than that.

It looked like woodstock for college kids.

And there's one person, chom, chom, and we're like, Dave, what are you doing?

Come on, man, let's go eat.

Well, I don't somebody's got to pick this trash up.

It's not fair to do this to these people's property.

And there you are at the fork in the road.

Do I go eat or do I pick up trash?

Do I go eat or do I pick up trash?

I'll let you decide what you would have done in that situation.

By the way, some of us hadn't eaten for a long time.

That's all I'm gonna say.

See, you don't have to have, be able to have these incredible conversations or have a big personality.

You do have to be willing to be kind and to be gracious and to be obedient and be and be ready to do every good work.

Why?

Because these Cretans, like these Sugarlanders and these Richmond Rosenberg people, they're disobedient and they're unfit for any good work.

One of the ways that we distinguish ourselves is we say, hey, I'm gonna do that, not because I'm a goody-goody or whatever, but because God, I know the God of the universe, and this is the kind of people he makes you into.

Second thing Paul says is that not only to practical righteousness we see in the text, secondly, you see that everybody has a past.

Look at verse 3.

Paul says, Hey, you remind them to be submissive, to be ruler to the rulers and to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy towards all people.

And then he tells you why.

In verse 3, he says, for, because here's the reason we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Now I don't want to spend much time on it, but do you remember what you used to be like before you became a Christian?

Hello?

Anybody remember that?

And see, I I and I'm not saying go back there in your mind and relive that.

And I'm not saying relive it, I am saying remember it.

Why?

Because you should be struck by this simple phrase.

It could be so different for you.

It could be so different for you.

You did not do anything, as you'll see in just a minute in the Bible.

You did not do anything to affect that change.

It's not like you got tired of sinning and said, I don't want to sin anymore.

I want to be good.

No, he says, Do this.

Why?

Because you used to be this person back here.

And if you're lacking motivation or you're just kind of getting blah, blah, sometimes you just seem to look back and just kind of remember who you used to be.

I remember being in a church in Memphis, Tennessee, and big church, and I'm getting ready to speak, I'm standing there, and the and the worship team is singing uh the this song, and it just says, I don't want to be the same anymore.

I don't ever want to go back.

And behind me, about three rows, I hear I'm like, somebody's smothering a puppy or something's happened back here.

And I turned around, and there's a man in his 60s, and he's got to hold the pew in front of him, and he is trying to hold it together and kind of like and I just turned to the guy and I said, Hey, is that guy okay?

And he goes, Yeah, he embezzled money and spent seven years in prison.

He's fine.

And I was like, he doesn't sound fine.

And he said, He's never gotten over being forgiven.

And then it landed on me.

And I want to put it to you when did you get over being forgiven?

See, we act like that's why we choke people over this 50 cent debt and we forget we've been forgiven about$50,000 debt.

It could have been so everybody has a past.

Thirdly, Paul tells us that first impressions matter.

First impressions matter.

You say, What do you mean?

Look at verse 4.

He says, but after he says, you know, for we ourselves, and and hey, don't, don't, don't forget.

Then he says, but when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

You say, What do you mean first impressions matter?

Look at verse 4 again.

But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, he could have said, you know how many attributes God has?

How many character qualities he has?

But here's the two that God puts on display towards you and I and towards everybody.

He says, But when the goodness and the loving kindness, when I said it could have been different, if you don't don't turn there, but just make a note in Exodus.

I think it's Exodus 23, about verse 27, God's promising the children of Israel that he's going to provide for them, he's going to clear the way for them.

And one of the ways he's going to do that, he says in the Bible, and I will send my terror ahead of you.

He could have sent his terror, he could have delivered his message.

It couldn't have been goodness and loving kindness.

It could have said, you know, but when the when the terror and the hatred of God.

But instead he says, But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, goodness, it refers to as moral kindness.

Loving kindness, that word, it's a Greek word, philanthropia.

Philanthropia.

It's where we get our English word, philanthropy.

Philanthropy is when people have a lot of money so much that they got to figure out how to give it away before they die.

You know there's people in the world like that, don't you?

Yes.

And if you're here in our service, I'd like to meet you and buy you a cup of coffee.

No, just philanthropia.

You know that we as we sit here in this room, and it used to be two nights a week, then it went to three nights a week.

Last I heard, it was four nights a week.

The Gates Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates, the printers at their offices run all night printing out checks for the money they're going to give away.

It just, just, just, just, don't, don't, don't, don't, and they just give it away.

And they're like, oh, I don't want this, and I'm sure not going to leave it all to my kids.

I'm going to leave my kids some, but I'm not going to rob them of the incentive of working hard and appreciating what they have.

And so four nights a week, the printers just run all night.

Can you imagine being the secretary and you leave and you hit print and you come back the next day, and they're just folded in stacks, and then they just send them out.

It's automated.

They send them out.

Philanthropy of the Bible says that God's that way, that people are that way, because God's that way.

When the goodness and the loving kindness of God, he could have sent his terror to deliver the message, but he didn't.

Why kindness?

Why is God this way?

What is it about God that of all the attributes that he has, he says, listen, I want to make a first impression with my goodness and my loving kindness.

Three reasons I want to give you this morning, and I want to back it up with the Bible.

Number one, to lead you to repentance.

To lead you to repentance.

Why does God begin?

His first impression is his goodness and his loving kindness to lead us to repentance.

The Bible says it like this in Romans chapter 2, verse 4.

Romans 2:4

Don't turn there.

Just write it down.

He says, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and his forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Now don't just hear kindness leads us to repentance.

Hear that first part.

So you don't presume upon the riches of his kindness.

Not only is God kind, but he could start printing checks right now and print them for the rest of eternity and never run out of kindness.

But here's the warning that God sends to us.

He says, don't presume.

Don't get it wrong in your head and think, oh, I got a lot of time.

I can do whatever I want.

You see, God's not only kind, he has other attributes, but the first impression that he relates to humanity with is he says, hey, my goodness and my loving kindness, my philanthropia, the way I love people is the thing.

And the reason I do this, the reason that's the first impression I made is because I want you to repent.

Second reason he tells us is to motivate us towards obedience.

To motivate us towards obedience.

Every once in a while, my wife gives me a little speech about how I'm too nice to my kids.

And I'm like, what do you want me to do?

I grew up in a home of yellers and screamers, and people at my stepmom would slap you on the back.

You better get in there.

So I remember as a little kid just thinking, you, you, maybe if you live different, we'd respect you and do what you ask us to do.

But I never said that because I'd get beat again.

But anyway, but the other day, my 14-year-old who's got ideas about how I should parent her, said to me, and I quote, you need to raise your voice and yell some.

Really?

Yeah, because I mean if you'd raise your voice and yell, then then then then what?

Well, you think I mean business?

You don't think I mean business?

I'll show you how much business I mean.

Well, see, when you talk like that, I know you mean business.

I mean business.

I don't have to yell.

See, God's like, hey, I got I ain't gotta raise my voice.

What do I have to do to get your attention?

What do you mean to motivate us towards obedience?

Romans chapter 11, verse 22 says this.

Romans 11:22

He says, Note then the kindness and the severity of God.

He's kind.

And is as kind as he is and wants to be and can be, look at me, beloved.

He can be severe.

And he will be severe.

Why?

To motivate you to obedience.

Note the kindness and the severity.

There's a balance in God's nature.

The kindness and the severity of God.

Severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off, he says.

Third thing, third reason God uses kindness is to give us an expression of to grace, to give expression to grace.

Say, well, what do you mean?

If you ask people what is grace, most people go, well, you know, if you've been in church a long time, you say, Well, grace is God's riches at Christ's expense.

Then ask them, what does that mean?

I don't know.

I wrote it on the back of my bulletin one time, never forgot it.

Why does God say, Hey, my goodness and my loving kindness?

Because he wants to kind of give some granularity, he wants to break it down.

And so you can get your life around it.

The Bible says it like this in Ephesians chapter 2, about verse 7, after he talks about and says, Hey, as for you, you are dead and your trespasses in sin.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

But God, who's rich in mercy, made us alive.

Made us alive.

Why did he do that?

What this is one of the reasons, because the verse goes on and says, He did this so that in the coming ages.

You know how long that is?

God has so much goodness, you don't have a frame.

They don't make calendars for the coming ages.

Go to the bookstore tomorrow and say, I'd like a calendar that covers the coming ages.

Like, dude, we got 2012 calendars on sale for half off.

They don't have, you don't have a frame of reference for how long that is.

That's how much kindness God has.

He says, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace.

How does he show the immeasurable?

And by the way, how do you measure what can't be measured?

The immeasurable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

He says, Hey, I want to give you a frame of reference for my grace, and here's how I'm going to do it.

I'm going to be kind towards you.

So when you lose your temper, when you yell at people, when you go off the deep end at work and just rail on your coworkers just because you're the boss.

Or do they walk away and believe about God?

See, God says this.

Hey, one of the reasons that I'm, or actually three of the reasons that I'm the way I am, but one of them right here is I want you to understand grace.

Because that's the first impression God makes is his goodness and his loving kindness.

Mark that, and we'll come back to that in just a minute.

Fourth thing, and this is where I want to kind of slow the car down.

You ever go on vacation with your kids and you're driving and you're coming up on something you know is interesting, like for us, we go on 45 and we go to Dallas.

Every time, if we don't point out the big white man, as we call him, our youngest Sophie gets mad.

Now, the big white man is who?

Sam Houston.

That's right.

And it's just a big statue.

I've seen it.

He's got like a walking stick that's bigger than this building, okay?

But if we drive by that, and she's like, Dad, where's the big white man?

Right here in the driver's seat where the big white man is.

But no, so we're going through Huntsville, and Marcy's like, oh, big white man, big white man.

And I'm like, if somebody was listening to our car, they would think, these are the most prejudiced people in the world.

Why don't we say that's Sam Houston?

He founded this or something.

But when you come up on these little points of interest, you got to point things out to them.

I want to slow the car down and I want to point out a few points of interest, if I could.

Look if you would.

By the way, verses five to seven in the Greek language, it's all one big long sentence.

Look at verse five.

He picks it up there.

Paul says, he says, after he says, But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us.

Mark those three words.

He saved us.

You say, Why do you say that?

I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but a lot of people act as if they did God a favor by allowing him to convince such an intellect of themselves to believe in him that somehow we saved God from irrelevance by letting him know us.

Beloved, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his And then there's four phrases Paul uses by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Just note verse six, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

I thought about this this week and I cried.

Because when I grew up, I had a stepmom and she was like the meanest person in the world, and we would have Kool-Aid.

Anyone remember Kool-Aid?

I drank Kool-Aid back when it didn't have sugar in it.

It just came in little packets, and you had to add your own sugar.

And so we would get black cherry Kool-Aid, my favorite.

And because we're poor, she'd add more water than you're supposed to.

And then she was stingy with it because we'd have to sit down and we couldn't pour our own Kool-Aid.

She would pour us all a half a cup and she would say, Take four bites before you drink some Kool-Aid.

And I remember thinking, I hate you.

You are the stingyest, so I have bologna sandwich stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I'm like, No, that's only two bites.

You got two more.

Okay.

And I would just eat my sandwich thinking, why is this so hard?

What is wrong with these people?

I read this week.

And I want, I'm not kidding you.

I cried because I was reading the Bible and it says in verse 6, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

That little voice inside of me said, I ain't giving you half a cup.

I ain't making you take four bites.

I'm not sitting there watching you to see.

And by the way, if you spilled your Kool-Aid, you didn't get any more.

You got punished.

That's what you get for being clumsy.

And God said, And by the way, I, because I'd forgot all about that until the Holy Spirit said to my desk and said, By the way, I know you're clumsy sometimes too.

And if you spill it, I'll give you some more.

So my kids spill something, and they do, and they have, and they will.

I mean, Marcy, Marcy had fixed this beautiful meal.

Sophie knocked her milk over right in the middle of it.

And she looked at me and she went, no big deal.

And then Marcy's like, I'm glad we taught our kids that, but that was and it's not like they don't understand consequence and behavior.

I'm just not gonna yell at them and hit the table and go, Why are you so clumsy?

See, he's not like a wicked stepmom.

He doesn't give you a half a cup and say, take four bites and then take a sip.

He poured it, he lavished it out on you.

He poured it out on you.

Look at verse 7.

He says, Whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Why?

So that being justified by his grace, that's the third phrase, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That's the fourth phrase.

Let me just break it down if I could.

Number one, that first phrase, by the washing of regeneration, it says that he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

By number one, the washing of regeneration.

You ever read things in the Bible and you think, what in the cat hair does that mean?

The washing of regeneration.

By the way, regeneration is kind of like your car, you get up on one morning and your battery's dead and your neighbor comes over and jumps you off.

That's regeneration.

All of a sudden, something gets ignited in you that wasn't there before.

But don't ask theologians about the washing of regeneration.

Don't ask preachers because we'll give you a bunch of goofy, big long words.

Ask little kids.

One of the first jobs I had after I became a believer, I went back and worked at the camp where I was converted, and we had youth camp all summer, but one week we had kids' camp.

And the camp director was all, I was, I was beg off from kids' camp because those little kids are deviants.

I mean, they're just everywhere.

It's like trying to play with mercury.

It's just there, and I said, please, I don't, I can't work with little kids.

Oh, the little kids love you.

You're gonna get third graders.

And they didn't come for the day and leave, they came and spent the night for four nights.

That's five days, in case you don't know.

In case you don't have a lunar calendar.

Five days of every moment.

Oh, Neil, would you tie my shoes?

Can I ride on your back to the cafeteria?

Oh, he rode yesterday, and so I'd have one on my back, one on my shoulders, and I'd be holding the hands of two of them walking, and the cab doctor would just smile.

These kids love you.

I hate you.

Shut up, okay?

I haven't been a Christian long enough to appreciate this kind of love, okay?

And I'd get those kids off of me, and I'd be just sweating profusely.

And I had to get up and go to the window and serve them their food and get it back.

I don't like that.

Can you cut this food up?

And I was like, I'll cut you up and throw you in the lake if you don't shut up and eat.

You're gonna get half a cup, and you better take four bites and then chew it up.

We're explaining the gospel all week.

And it never failed.

I mean, kids in my group would say, I want to know Jesus.

And I thought, this is cute and everything.

And the next week we had I had senior guys, and I was like, finally, people that can go to the bathroom by themselves and tie their own shoes.

One of them, one of the groups I had, I had three guys in my group from Mississippi.

And they got off the bus, and every one of them had a round circle in their back pocket.

Quit looking at my backside, okay?

They had a round circle in their pocket, and I just eased up to them.

I didn't want to embarrass them.

I said, Hey, by the way, guys, this is a tobacco-free campus, okay?

You can't have your snuff here.

How'd you know we had snuff?

You got these perfect round, worn white circles in the back pocket.

That's where you keep your can.

And I said, just give it to me.

I said, here's the deal.

If you start having withdrawals, come see me.

We'll go out in the woods and I'll let you have a dip.

Man, you ain't gonna do anything in my Copenhagen, are you?

No, I dipped that one time and I saw visions I don't ever want to see again.

I don't know what's in that, but that stuff is stout right there.

I had my head between my legs and spit was coming out.

Like no, thank you.

I'm done.

Two of those cats became Christians that week.

On Thursday night, one of them came to me and goes, Man, I'm having withdrawals.

Can we go out in the woods and have a dip?

And I said, Absolutely.

I went to my foot locker, got there two cans of Copenhagen.

That cat with one hand peeled the lid off of that and bit.

It was all in his teeth, and I was like, Man, you've been eating worms?

What in the world?

And so we're sitting out there in the woods, and I got a flashlight.

It's pitch black, it's 11 o'clock at night, and they're spitting.

I go, man, that's the best dip I've ever had.

Man, I'll tell you what.

And then one of them said, Hey, uh, should I quit dipping Copenhagen now that I became a Christian?

And I said, Absolutely, and you shouldn't dance and chew, and you shouldn't date girls that do.

No, actually, I said this.

I said, Why don't you quit dipping when God tells you to quit dipping?

Because if I tell you to quit dipping, as soon as you get away from me, you'll start dipping again.

See, there's a difference between having guilt and having convictions.

So you dip for the glory of God.

And I said, speaking of God, how are you doing with God?

You just became a Christian this week.

This is why you should ask people.

Don't ask preachers.

I said, What's this feel like for you?

I mean, it's everywhere in his mouth.

He said, You know what?

It's like God took a rag and just wiped me from the clean from the inside out.

And I opened my mouth to say something, and nothing came out.

I was like, The washing of regeneration is what happens when God takes a rag and just wipes you clean on the inside.

That's what Paul says.

The second phrase that he uses, I just want to point you to, is he says, the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

The renewal of the Holy Spirit.

He says, He saved us, not by works that we have done, but what has he done?

What has he done?

Number one, Paul says, He washed us clean on the inside.

Uh one of my little day campers, one of my little kid campers, excuse me, he said to me, I said, What does it feel like to be a Christian?

He says, It's like God gave my heart a bath.

Hold your calls, we have a winner right here.

Second thing Paul says, it's a renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Now, when he says the renewal of the Holy Spirit, not renewing of the Holy Spirit as if you once had it and then you lost it and you had to get it renewed again.

No, no, no, no.

It's more like the renewal that occurs when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you.

Does that make sense?

You hear the difference?

It's not like, well, the Holy Spirit was there, and no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It's like when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you, when God takes a rag and wipes you clean from the inside out, he comes and lives inside of you by his spirit.

And the byproduct of that is renewal.

If you've ever bought a house, anybody here ever bought a house, not a new house, but a house that was owned by somebody else?

Anybody?

Anybody?

And the realtor walks you in the house, and the first thing they say, I remember we were looking at houses, they would get to the door and unlock the door, they'd say, Now, don't focus on the paint and the wallpaper and the fixtures, because all this can be redone.

Just focus on the layout.

I can't focus on the layout.

I walk in and I'm like, for the love of Pete, that is the ugliest wallpaper in the world.

And the realtor hates when you say that, by the way.

I'm like, 1976 called the won't the shandelier back.

And then she looks at my wife, and my wife's like, he's not gonna stop, just keep going.

Because I don't have a realtor's eye.

If you're a realtor, you can see things because she's walking.

No, that's not a weight-bearing wall.

Now you can take this wall out, or you can cut a big window right here, and you can move this and you can move this, and I'm just like, What?

You got polo ponies on the wallpaper in your bedroom.

What is this, Donald Trump?

And by the time we were done, every time we look at a house that was that was uh an older house, the realtor would say, you know, you could do this and you could do this and you could do this.

And then and I'm telling you, you could do a lot of things with this place.

By the same token, when you become a Christian, God comes to live inside of you by his spirit.

And he says, I'm gonna do a lot with this place.

Some of it's gonna be paint, and some of it's gonna be wall.

By the way, there'll be a room in hell where you remove wallpaper for a thousand years.

I don't care what they tell you at Aztec rental, you can't, oh, this machine makes it so easy.

It's not easy.

They are lying.

Telling you something, you'll be swearing against everything that ever existed, and they're peeling that stuff, and it just peels a little strip about that, and you're like, I hate that realtor.

See, the renewal of the Holy Spirit's like my wife.

I don't get this, ladies.

I don't get this.

My wife's new addiction is a show called House Hunters International.

And mom, shut up.

Every one of you, shut up.

Because she's gonna be in the second service going, see that my wife will watch it back to back to back to back, and I'm like, this they're not even Americans, okay?

These people live in Morocco.

I don't care what house they buy.

Because they look at three different houses, and it's the same thing every time.

Well, don't focus on what you see.

You know, focus on the possibilities.

Hey, focus on turning the channel.

No, we don't turn the channel.

My wife sits and watches strangers, people she's never met and will never meet, pick out a house.

That is the whackedest thing I've ever heard in my life.

Why am I telling you that?

Look at me.

Because some of you are disqualifying yourself from this because you're looking at it like I look at houses, not like a realtor looks at houses.

The Holy Spirit, the renewal of the Holy Spirit is when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you and says, We're gonna remove this wall, we're gonna paint that, we're gonna rip up this carpet and get down to the hardwood floors, and we're gonna sand them and refinish them.

This place, because the only thing I like about House Hunter International, I don't want to say this too loud because my wife will go, see you me, you like it, is they they pick the house and then they show what it's like six months later.

And they show all the things that the people did.

God's that way.

He comes to live inside of you and he changes not what you do, who you are.

Third phrase that Paul uses to describe it that we need to understand today.

He says they've been justified by grace.

Look there if you would.

We're just about done.

You still with me?

He says that in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Verse 7, so that being justified by his grace, what does it mean to be justified by God's grace?

What it means is this, and this is all I want you to hear today about this.

We could get all into justification, expiation, and penal substitution, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Here's what it means for you today.

You'll never be punished for past sins.

You feel what just happened in here?

And it wasn't y'all going, I don't understand that.

Look at me.

Some of you lay in your bed at night and you feel like God's getting back at you for something you did years ago.

See, being justified by grace is being made right by this grace of God.

He's not punishing you.

Now, will there be consequences for sin?

Absolutely, but never punishment.

He doesn't look down and go, I got a record of that.

And just when you think you're doing good, see, unless you understand being justified by grace, here's what'll happen.

Anytime something bad happens to you, the thought will go through your head, is God getting back at me?

Look at me.

God exhausted all of his getting back at you on his son on the cross.

So you've been justified, you've been made just as if you never sinned by the grace of God.

Fourth phrase that Paul gives us he says, Your heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

You're like, I what?

Heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

What does that mean?

It means your future is as certain as the means by which it was secured.

Let me say that again.

That's why I had you mark those three little words.

He saved us.

He saved us.

That shouldn't lead you into some theological discussion in your community group tonight.

It should lead you to your backyard to lay down and do snow angels on the ground.

Why?

Because your future, see, we're heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

My hope of eternal life and the fact that I'm gonna inherit that I'm an heir.

I'm not just a servant, I'm a son.

And as a son, I'm an heir.

I stand to inherit something that my father has bequeathed to me.

Why?

Because my future is as certain as the means by which it was secured.

And so that's what Paul says.

And fifthly and finally, I just want to say too it all comes full circle.

Look at verse 8.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to what's the next two words?

Say it again.

This saying is trustworthy.

See how simple trustworthy sayings are?

This saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to what matters, to good works.

What do you say?

What do you mean it all comes full circle?

Look back at what leads us to God.

What does God use to make a first impression on us in verse 4?

But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God.

That's why he says in verse 1 and 2, hey, remind them.

Remind these believers on the island of Crete, where they are brutes and liars and evil beasts and lazy gluttons.

That sounds like my family reunion right there.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work.

Why?

Because when you and I do good works, we're not earning our salvation.

We're demonstrating the fact that we already have it.

And we're demonstrating that this is who God really is.

He could have sent his terror ahead of him, he could have destroyed everybody, but instead, his first impression is his goodness and his loving kindness, his philanthropia, his love of humanity and mankind.

He says, Well, what do you mean it all comes full circle?

Let me just say it like this, and I'll be done.

Sometimes you and I are the goodness of God to someone.

Sometimes you gotta go.

Like I get to go a couple doors down.

My neighbor is battling throat cancer.

He's lost about 30 pounds, extensions his pants up with his belt, doesn't have any hair left.

Some days he feels good, and some days he can hardly stand up.

He said the other day, just off-the-cuff remark, I'd scalp my yard because by the way, you need to scalp your yard and apply some weed and feed right now.

If you hadn't done it, go home today.

And he said, Yay, I saw you scalped your yard, or mowed your yard and everything.

I don't know what I'm gonna do with mine.

I do.

You're gonna do nothing with yours because I'm gonna take care of it.

Not because I want to do some good deeds, because God's not saved me according to works of righteousness which I have done.

Just, I'm not gonna sit here and let that go on and me two doors down, fully able to go down there and mow his yard.

And by the way, not am I gonna mow it, but my 14-year-old is gonna mow it.

She doesn't even know it yet.

I get to tell her today.

Matter of fact, take your little nap because it's I don't know if it's gonna be dry enough today, or if not today, tomorrow when you get home from school, we got a couple hours of daylight.

We're gonna go down there and scalp that yard and put some weed and feed on it for Mr.

Jerry.

And she's a good kid.

She'll say, Uh-oh, uh, okay.

Okay, is Sophie gonna help?

No, Sophie's not old enough.

Let's say you're gonna go to Costa Rica and tell people about Jesus.

Let's be Jesus to our neighbors.

You and I, in practical righteousness, get to practice kindness and goodness to people as a reminder to them that God really is real.

This is a trustworthy saying.

Let's pray together.

And go, Holy Spirit.

I just pray that uh we wouldn't make this harder than it has to be.

Sometimes we preacher types like to use big words to distinguish ourselves from our people.

But you use little words to connect yourself to your people.

You use words like goodness and loving kindness, my philanthropic heart towards you.

I love you so much, I'm not gonna give you money, I'm gonna give you myself.

I'm gonna come live inside of you, is what you said.

And you have.

And I pray for anyone in this room today who's never been wiped clean on the inside.

They would just come up to one of us who'd be available down front and just say, you know what, I'd like to know more about that.

Or maybe we could just pray with some people.

But more than anything, Lord, let us bring our lives up around trustworthy saints in a day and age where people say anything to get elected.

And desperation is taking hold of candidates as they see their poll numbers going in the wrong direction and they scramble.

We just want to sit down on something that's trustworthy.

We want to give ourselves to something that's real, and that's what we've done.

It's because of your mercy.

It could have been so different for us, God.

It could have been so different.

Thank you for mercy today.

Let us replicate what we've received.

That is our prayer.

Make it our experience in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Hold your hands out and speak a blessing over you.

Your God has made himself accessible.

And in making himself accessible, he's made himself imitatable.

That's why the Bible says, be imitators of God as dearly loved children.

Depart now, you dearly loved sons and daughters of God.

And just be children.

Be winsome and free and curious, but be children.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.