Models of the Gospel

Good morning. Oh, that's not bad. The sun is out. It feels like there's some light at the end of

the rainy tunnel. And today's passage has got nothing controversial in it at all.

One of the great things about when you're preaching through a book of the Bible is you

come across passages which you just can't hide from. And that's a good thing because we don't

want to hide from what the Bible says to us. And what we're going to do, we're going to look at

this passage over a couple of weeks. So I'm not going to say everything here. There'll be some

juicy stuff for next week. So come back next week and we'll talk about that next week.

By the way, if you don't know me, my name is Chris. I'm on the pastoral staff here.

I'd love to meet you afterwards if I haven't met you already. I used to have an aunt who,

she was a great aunt, and she had Alzheimer's disease. And for those of you who have got

relatives or friends who've had Alzheimer's disease, you know that it's a terrible disease

and it causes you to kind of forget a whole load of things about yourself. You forget your identity.

You forget who you are. You forget who your family is. You forget what you're doing often

a lot of the time. And my abiding memory of my aunt is going around to visit her in her

flat. And we were there with the whole family. And I remember seeing her that she would forget

that we were there. And she would go out to the kitchen. And outside of the kitchen, there

was a goat. And she would stand there talking to the goat as if she was talking to her own

family. And you didn't know whether you would laugh or you cry. It was one of those kind

of strange situations because she'd forgotten who she was. She'd forgotten what she was about.

She'd forgotten how she was meant to relate to all the people around her.

And that's the kind of case of the church in Crete that we're looking at in the book of Titus.

And that's often the case with us. We get what I might call gospel amnesia. And that's why we're

looking at the book of Titus to remind us of what it means to be a healthy, living church,

knowing who we are and what we're meant to be here for in an unhealthy world around us.

And we kind of mentioned a little bit last week some of the issues that were going on

in Crete at the time. You see, the church planter Paul is writing to his crack elite soldier Titus.

Okay, you know when there's, Titus is like the Navy SEALs. You know, when everything's going out of

hand, you send in your best troops to deal and sort out the situation. That's what Titus is.

He's sent in to deal with a messy situation. The small church, which is in Crete, is surrounded

by a culture which is filled with just lying, corruption, greed, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity.

It's every man and woman for themselves. This church is supposed to be a beacon of light

in this community. But what's happened? Some false teachers have come in and they've started

teaching and saying things like, okay, you've got to stay pure from everybody else around you.

Okay? Sounds good. But then what they would say is, well, the way you do that is, first of all,

believe in Jesus to get saved. But after that, you've got to keep lots of rules. Okay? To be a

really good Christian, you've got to follow the rules. And you should do this. You shouldn't eat

that. You should do this. And that's what's going to make you a good Christian. And that's what we

called last week the performance-based religion. We call it the PBR virus, right? It infected the

church. And when they got the virus, what was happening? It was creating division in families.

And some people who kept the rules felt they were superior. Some people who didn't keep the rules

felt they were inferior. And everybody in their actual lives reflected nothing of the fruit of

love, joy, peace, and the goodness that is meant to flow from the gospel. They've got gospel amnesia.

And so Paul starts off the passage, and have your bulletin with you. And he says, basically,

Titus, but as for you, not like these guys, these other false teachers, but as for you, Titus,

teach what accords with sound doctrine. The way you as the church in Crete are going to be who you're

meant to be is not by telling people to keep all the rules. That's not going to change you. The way

that you're going to be this transformed community is if you teach and you model a lifestyle which is

infected with another virus, which is the gospel of grace. You see, when you get grace, then it shines

out in your actions because you get the PBR virus and it tells you you should not sin. It tells you

you should be different, which only makes you feel bad because you're struggling to do that anyway.

But the gospel tells you, you need not sin. You can be different because we have a savior,

a greater savior, who has defeated the power of sin and whose love and approval is more significant,

more satisfying than any reputation that you could seek, than any desire that you seek to be fulfilled.

And this is good news, that we have an amazing savior. And if you get that seed continually sown in your heart,

his love for you, fruit will be born. That's what he's saying. Okay? And he's saying that where you begin

to see the difference, if you want to know whether this seed of the gospel is really working in your life,

then look in, not just here on a Sunday, look in your everyday trenches of life. That's where you'll see

whether you've actually understood the gospel. It's in your private life. It's in your public life.

And what Paul's going to do in this passage is he's going to go through the whole household, basically.

He's going through older men, younger men, older women, younger women, and bond servants.

All of them would have lived in the same kind of house together, and there would have been people coming in

and out of the home. It wasn't like our private kind of Hong Kong homes. It would have been open.

People would have come in, come out. And so your faith is to be seen in the kitchen.

It's to be seen in the living room. It's to be seen in the workshop.

What shines out, if you've got the gospel, is a life which is different.

And Paul basically says, if you look in verse 10, the kind of climax to all of this,

and today we're really just going to focus on older men and older women.

And if you're younger, listen in, because if you don't think you're old,

well, this has still got something for you.

But verse 10 says, do you know what God's great mission strategy for the church is?

Verse 10 tells you what his mission strategy for the church is.

It's not great speakers. It's not great programs. It's not great events.

It's God's mission strategy is ordinary Christians living out their lives,

and verse 10 says, in everything, so that in everything, everything, that means in Greek, everything.

It means like how you're disciplining your kids, how you're treating your colleagues,

how you're changing the diapers of your kids, all those different things.

In everything, our lives may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior.

Adorn means make attractive.

You know, like when I cook food, the food doesn't taste great,

and the presentation doesn't make you even want to taste it.

But when a Michelin star chef makes food, the taste will be amazing,

but the way he presents it draws you, attracts you to want to taste it.

That's in the same way that gospel is meant to do in our lives.

The gospel is always meant to be amazing.

It is amazing news.

But in our lives, our marriages, our relationships are like God's presentation,

so that the world can see this is good, come and taste it.

That's God's mission strategy.

That's what this is all about.

It's all about counter-cultural living,

which draws people to see how beautiful our Savior is.

So the question is, when people look at you,

when people look at Watermark, do they see any difference?

Do they see any difference?

So we're going to focus today on character.

Next week, we'll look at younger men and younger women.

But I want to talk about what character to develop

and then how we build that character.

Okay, just two simple things.

What character did you develop?

You know, we live in an age where we lack heroes, right?

If a Martian was to come down and say,

take me to your leader,

who would you take him to?

Like Taylor Swift, Tim Cook, Li Ka-Shing?

Who would you take them to?

You probably wouldn't take them to somebody of character,

known for character.

Because a hero is someone who has courage to sacrifice themselves

for the sake of others.

But we live in a society which values self-fulfillment

and self-expression more than self-denial and self-sacrifice.

You know, in the past, duty and sacrifice,

particularly for your family,

everyone thought that's what you should do.

And selfishness was wrong.

But because many of you have experienced,

people are just dutiful, often devoid of love.

So what happens is now, culture has shifted.

And the great philosopher Elsa says,

It's time to see what I can do,

to test the limits and break through.

No right or wrong, no rules for me, I'm free.

Let it go, let it go.

And I'm not going to sing it to you, okay?

It's okay.

You can be...

You see, what she's saying,

that's the kind of song of the age, right?

What she's saying is,

you mustn't let others dictate to you how to live your life.

Don't be restricted.

Fulfill your dreams.

Be true to yourself.

Achieve your potential.

Right?

So, work, we have to be fulfilled.

If you're not fulfilled, change your job.

In marriage, you've got to feel fulfilled

if you don't change your partner.

And we're left with very few models of character

who self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

You know, like people in the past,

Nelson Mandela and Gandhi and people who were put in that.

We have very few of those.

Instead, we have celebrities

who do self-expression,

like Lady Gaga or Elsa or continue the list.

And Paul is speaking to his culture,

to the older guys and women,

and he says,

you are to be a people,

not of self-fulfillment,

like all the other Cretans were following that,

but you are to be people of character.

And when the Bible talks about older and younger men and women,

we don't exactly know what age they're talking about,

but in Judaism,

we know that older men or women

could be anywhere from 40 upwards.

So, if you're going through a midlife crisis at the moment,

okay,

40 or upwards was considered to be an older man,

more or less,

and an older woman.

But let's look at what the passage says

about older men and older women.

Verse 2.

I'm looking at your bulletin.

It says,

older men are to be sober-minded,

dignified,

or worthy of respect,

that's what it means,

self-controlled,

sound in faith,

in love,

and in steadfastness.

I don't know if you noticed

that pretty well

every one of those characteristics

are everything that the Cretans weren't.

Okay?

Everything,

sober-minded,

that means not drunk.

Everyone else was getting drunk.

Dignified,

that means worthy of respect.

Something in your character

that is worth respecting

and looking up to.

Nobody else was doing that.

The sound in faith,

love,

and steadfastness.

Sound means healthy.

You ought to be healthy.

And this sound doctrine

is meant to lead to sound faith,

love,

and steadfastness.

We don't always kind of say the word

steadfastness.

Do you know what that means?

That means grit.

That means godly grit.

You know,

there's a psychologist

who's done a study on grit,

and she's called Duckworth,

and she says,

grit is the ability

to persevere

in pursuing a future goal

over a long period of time

and not giving up.

It's having stamina.

It's sticking with your future

day in,

day out,

not just for the week,

not just for the month,

but for years,

and working really hard

to make that future a reality.

Grit is living life

like it's a marathon,

not a sprint.

That's what Paul's saying.

Older men should have that.

Now,

I know not every older man

fits into this category,

and if you're younger,

listen up to these things,

but I know many older men

get to the point

where you feel like

you've done enough.

You know,

you've made enough money,

you've served enough,

and you begin to coast

spiritually.

You know,

what I often see is

people lose themselves

in their work.

You know,

they lose themselves

in their hobbies,

in their golf,

in their gadgets,

in all these different things,

and the whole direction

of your life

becomes about

getting enough money

to make sure

your kids

are just safely in college,

and then you can retire,

and then life

will be wonderful.

Wonderful.

And some of us

have lost,

have stopped

boldly

taking steps

of faith,

and having a godly

day-to-day grit

where we're seeing

how can I serve?

How can I love people?

How can I,

who are the people

that I can be investing

my life in?

Because you're coasting,

and you've lost

godly grit.

I don't know

if that's you.

Because if that's you,

what I often see happening

is as people go on

later in life,

and life has been

all about your own

fulfillment,

then things don't

kind of work out

your way.

You get kind of grumpy,

and cynical,

and stubborn,

and you think,

oh,

these young kids

these days,

you know,

they think everything

should fall into their laps,

not like we were

in the old days.

I wonder

if you can see

that in you.

Because if you can,

in the Bible,

there's just this amazing

guy who I think

is so inspirational.

He's called Caleb.

Caleb,

I mean,

he's the dude.

I mean,

when Israel

is going into

the promised land,

and they kind of

go in,

they send spies out,

first of all,

to go and scout out

the land.

And they go in there,

and there are these

big guys in there,

but it's an amazing

land.

The spies come back,

say to the people

of Israel,

hey,

this land,

it's amazing,

but there's some

big people there.

They're frightening.

Don't think we should

go in there.

But Caleb,

and one other guy,

Joshua,

say,

no,

we can go in there,

because our God

is bigger than those guys.

He's bigger than those guys.

But everyone else

refuses to listen to them,

and they just kind of

wander around the desert.

Fast forward 40 years.

Whole generation

has died out

except for two people.

Caleb and Joshua.

Caleb

is 85 years old.

He's 85 years old.

The people of Israel

go into the land,

they take Jericho,

and they're kind of

just beginning to settle

into the land.

And do you know

what Caleb does?

He's 85 years old.

He goes up to Joshua,

and he says,

hey,

Josh.

He says,

God promised me

that there's an area

over there

where there are people

who are against God,

and he's promised me

that I should go in

and take that land.

And I want to go in there

because my God is great,

and he's always done

what he said he's going to do.

So will you let me go?

And Joshua says,

okay, fine.

Go in and take that mountain.

And off goes Caleb

on his, like,

Zimmer frame,

on his little walker,

up the mountain

to go and fight

these people,

to overtake it

so that this land

becomes part of God's

promised inheritance

to him.

85 years old.

Most of us

would be wanting

just to sit and watch

the TV at that age.

Not Caleb.

Caleb was still going.

He had godly grit.

I want to be like him

when I'm older.

Don't you?

Do you want to be somebody

who's just managed

to get a handicap

of 25 in your golf

and you're content?

Because when you get

to heaven,

God's not going to say,

how good was your handicap?

He's going to say,

how were you faithful?

Where did you persevere?

Where did you have

sound love,

faith,

and steadfastness?

So some of you here,

you need to hear,

have you got gospel amnesia?

Have you forgotten

what God has called you

to be?

And the call for you

is stop coasting,

step up.

God wants to use you

to be a godly man

who's going to influence others.

So look out,

serve,

look to see who you can mentor,

look to see who the people

around you are

because God will use you.

That's the guys,

someone worthy

of looking up to.

But it works the same

with the older women too.

Verse 3,

it says,

the older women,

they are to be reverent

in behavior,

not slanderers

or slaves to much wine.

Reverent in behavior,

that's a word

that means

there is a godliness

that flows

from the inside out.

Flows from the inside,

there's something

innerly attractive

which just flows out,

it flows out

into your speech,

it flows out

into your conduct,

it flows out.

Just like with men,

there's temptations

for older women.

I heard one speaker

who said it like this,

older women

can sometimes

quit caring

what people think,

so they lose

their filters

on speaking their mind

or talking badly

about people.

Anyone know

what I'm talking about?

He said,

what is significant

is that that ugly spirit

was always there.

It was just hidden

under the charms

of beauty

and the desire

not to appear mean.

But as you get older,

he says,

your natural physical

beauty fades

and you quit caring

what people think

and then this selfish,

ugly character

comes out.

You see,

by contrast,

there are older women

that I know

who are tough as steel.

They've been through life.

They are not

pushovers at all

but they are the sweetest,

most loving people

that I know.

And they seem

more beautiful

in their older age

than they ever did

in their younger years.

Their beautiful character

grows and shines.

I don't know if you know

people like that.

I know people like that.

There is something

attractive about them.

I used to go

and visit two old people

in their 80s.

Every time I visited one,

I went away thinking,

when I'm your age,

I want to be like you.

I went to another one

and I came away thinking,

God,

please don't ever

let me be like her

when I'm her age.

Because you see,

we will display

in our old age

the fruit of the seed

that we've been watering

in our lives.

And what would it look like,

this preacher said,

if your physical beauty,

charm,

and your filters

were stripped away,

how beautiful would you be?

It's challenging, right?

It's challenging.

Because whether you're a guy

or whether you're a woman,

there is a,

we talked about

there's an outside of the cup

and there's an inside of the cup.

There's what you want others to see

and then there's what's hidden

in your heart.

You can clean the outside

and make yourself look beautiful

on the outside.

But what happens is

old age strips much

of the outside away.

Your success,

overtaken by others.

Your physical beauty,

sagging.

The education background

where you can't remember

anything you learn.

And what you're left with

is what spills out

from what was inside.

Someone once said,

be more concerned

with your character

than your reputation.

Because your character

is what you really are

while your reputation

is merely what you think,

is merely what others

think you are.

Right?

Be more concerned

with your character

than your reputation.

But the question is,

if you want to be someone

worthy of respect,

if you want to be someone

reverent in behavior,

how do you grow

to be somebody

of that character?

And so this is the second thing

I want to talk about.

It's just this growing,

how do we develop

this character?

There's a few things

I want to just mention.

First thing is this.

Character

is built

in the ordinary,

everyday moments

of life.

There's one or two,

there's three or four

major things

that happen in your life,

you know,

school,

marriage,

kids,

retirement.

In between

all those years,

there is 10,000

little moments

that come our way.

It is in those moments

and how you see

and respond

to those moments

that will develop

and change your character.

It's the annoyances,

it's the struggles,

it's the things

that you're facing right now.

This is what is shaping

your character.

Whatever age you are,

whatever age you are,

you are right now

becoming the person

you will be.

You are right now

making decisions,

you are choosing

who you will become.

Did you know that?

This week,

you are becoming

part of that process.

You know,

you're forming

the bedrock

of the rest of your life

this week.

And the thing is,

you can't say,

well,

when I'm less busy

then I work on my character.

You can't say that

because every day

you put off forgiving,

every day

you stay utterly obsessed

by your work,

every day

you actively continue

in criticalness,

you're adding another brick

into sealing up

the wall of your heart

and cementing in habits

of ungodliness.

That's challenging.

And as you get older,

you know,

it becomes even harder

to change

and harder to knock down

those walls.

But where do we go with this?

How does God change us?

James 1 verse 2 says,

James 1:2

Consider it pure joy,

my brothers and sisters,

whenever you face

trials of many kinds.

Consider it pure joy

because you know

that the testing

of your faith

produces

steadfastness,

grit.

Let steadfastness,

let grit

finish its work

so that you may be

mature and complete,

not lacking anything.

Testing of your faith.

Romans 5 says this,

We rejoice in our sufferings

knowing that suffering

produces endurance.

That's grit.

Endurance produces character

and character produces hope.

And hope doesn't disappoint us,

it says,

because God's poured out

his love in our hearts.

Did you hear what it said?

He said,

there's no three-month course

on character

where at the end

you get a certificate

and it's like,

ooh, made it.

Character is built every day

through the testing

of your life,

through the circumstances

that you go through,

the ups and downs of life,

everyday life

in your home.

What's going on

in your workplace?

That's where you learn character.

You know,

do you know how you get a,

you make a gemstone

like a diamond

or a ruby

from being a rough stone

to being smooth?

Do you know the process,

how it works?

It's through abrasion.

It's through rubbing

the rough stone

with all of its imperfections

against another hard,

gritty surface

continually over time

until it gets smoother.

right?

But do you know

what happens is

as the process

of kind of grinding

happens,

it creates heat

and you have

to stop it overheating

because if you allow

that heat to continue,

it will crack the gem.

So what they do

is they pour cold water

onto the gem

to stop it

from overheating

and cracking.

over time,

it then becomes

this beautiful

shaped diamond.

That's how God

grows our character.

You see,

we're all rough diamonds.

We all have

so many things

in our lives

where if I was

to create the list

of all the things

I wanted to change,

it would reach

higher than the room.

But what God does,

he brings abrasion,

he brings rubbing

into our lives

through circumstances

to knock off

those edges.

Tim Keller said,

suffering is

God's gymnasium.

It reveals

our spiritual weaknesses

just as a workout

reveals physical weaknesses.

You see,

I don't know

what he's bringing

into your life

right at the moment.

You know what

I tend to do?

When he brings

people,

annoying people

into my life,

when he brings

circumstances

frustrating circumstances

into my life,

I think everything else

and everyone else

is the problem.

Right?

It's,

I mean,

it's my wife,

it's my family,

it's my job,

it's my this,

that's the problem.

But actually,

what God is doing,

he's inviting us

to see what is

inside of the cup

in our lives

and to begin

to knock off

the edges

in our lives.

I think I may have

shown you

this before,

but let me,

let me get in trouble here.

There's some water

here.

If I,

if I shake this water,

it came out of the cup,

why did the water

come out of the cup?

Why?

Okay.

Did it come out

because of shaking?

Maybe.

But why didn't tea

come out?

Because water

was inside the cup

already.

Right?

You see,

the shaking in life

is our circumstances.

People,

things.

That shakes us.

But what comes out

your reactions,

your anger,

your frustration,

all of those things,

that actually reveals

what's actually

already inside.

inside.

And so,

it's amazing

how God,

God brings people

into your life.

Like,

I thought I was

fairly sensitive

before I got married.

And then I realized

I'm as sensitive

as a sledgehammer.

Do you know,

I'm,

you know,

God brings people,

if you're married,

your marriage is

one of the greatest

tools God wants

to use to make,

grow your character.

If you're single,

the people God

places around you

and your work

is one of your

greatest tools

to grow your character.

But we look at it

and we think,

God,

get me out of here.

And God says,

I'm growing grit

in you.

Keep looking to me.

Because the choices

we make when we're

faced to those things

determine whether

you'll become

a beautiful old person

or one you want

to avoid.

How do we do this?

Because

when I'm infected

with the PBR virus,

my own performance,

how do I choose

to change?

The way I respond

is this,

to these things

which come out

in my life

when I see my

imperfections,

all of those things.

I justify myself.

I justify myself

because what I do

is I show all the good,

all the things,

the big sins

that I've avoided.

Okay?

I've show all the big sins,

I've avoided those things

and I forget to see

the blemishes

of my character

which are kind of

inside the cup

and I just say,

that's just me.

And, you know,

it's just small.

And again,

Tim Keller says this,

he says,

while our thoughts

always seem small to us

due to the natural

self-justification

of the heart,

they often don't look

small to others.

As a result,

these small thoughts

cause large swathes

of the Christian population

to have little influence

on others for Christ.

You see,

we stop adorning

the gospel

in our responses

because we justify

ourselves

because we don't realize

that the good qualities

that we think we have

also have a shadow side.

For example,

you're a person

who has strong convictions.

That's good.

But you're also

sometimes unteachable,

opinionated,

don't listen to others,

won't admit you're wrong.

Yeah,

won't admit you're wrong.

Right?

You may be friendly

and outgoing,

that's good.

But we're so easily offended

and hurt by others'

real or imagined criticism.

You may be laid back,

it's good,

not stressed easily.

But maybe you're also

apathetic

and not passionately

loving people.

We all have,

every one of us,

myself included,

we look at one side

of the coin

and say,

look,

look,

I have strong convictions,

I'm very friendly,

I'm great.

But we don't see

the flip side

of the coin.

But our spouse

sees the flip side

of the coin.

Your colleagues

see the flip side

of the coin.

Everybody else

sees the flip side

of the coin.

But how do we

work through that?

What we need

to keep us from cracking,

when those things

come out,

you need the cold water

of the gospel

poured into your life.

Because otherwise,

what you're going

to go away with

is you're going

to go with,

either you're going

to go with feeling

crushed and condemned

because I'm not good enough.

Or you're going

to get into how,

okay,

I should do this,

I shouldn't do this.

That's going to be

moving to PBR virus syndrome.

The gospel does

a couple of things.

What it does is this.

First,

it helps you to see

your own sinfulness,

your own flaws.

You recognize.

You recognize

that your worst

character flaws

are the ones

that you're most blind to.

Do you know that?

The worst character flaws

that you have

are the ones

that you probably

don't even realize

you have.

You see,

they're the ones

that I minimize

and I justify.

You know,

when I'm in a fight

with my wife,

I can see all her flaws

very clearly.

It's amazing.

But I'm totally

blind to my own.

And I say things like,

I'm not worrying,

I'm just concerned.

I'm not being harsh,

I'm just honest.

And you know,

those things

are good things,

but actually,

on the right occasion,

those are good things,

but often,

we allow them

to mask the shadow side

that we fail to see

that our worrying stems

from not trusting in God,

our harshness stems

from pride

and lack of love.

And the gospel

helps you to see.

So if you're married

and I was to ask

your spouse,

what's your biggest flaw?

Character flaw.

I wonder

whether you would say

exactly the same thing

as your spouse would.

If you're not married,

if you're single,

I wonder

if you went up

to a friend

and asked them,

what do you think

my biggest flaw is?

What they would say

and whether you would agree.

And I challenge you

to go and do that.

Go and do that.

Because if you're concerned

for character,

then you want to be able

to see

where the areas

in your life

you need to grow in.

Or you'll see

where,

if you don't want to do that,

where you're just concerned

about outside of the cup.

But the second thing

that you'll see

to help you

to see

your own flaws

is people around you.

You know,

in a world of celebrities

with few role models,

you need to surround yourself

with godly people.

Because you know,

that's what our community groups

are about.

Do you realize?

It's trying to surround yourself

with a group of people

who want to grow

in their walk with God.

because you rarely

learn your faults

just by being told

your faults.

You need to be shown

your faults.

And do you know

how you get shown

your faults?

It's,

when you're brought

next to a person

who's living

the way you should

be living but aren't,

okay,

it's,

you may not think

yourself as impatient

or abrasive

or oversensitive,

but then when you come

next to somebody

who's incredibly patient

or who's very gentle

or who's very compassionate

or very content

and then you suddenly see,

oh.

You see,

that's God

putting his finger

on something

to say,

now I want to begin

that process

of refining you.

So are you surrounding

yourself with godly people?

That's the question.

Because don't expect

to grow character

if you're not.

Not godly,

character.

Because the people

you surround yourself

with,

you'll become

like those people.

But it's all very well

to say,

okay,

now I see my character

flaws.

That can be quite depressing.

We see all the things

which are wrong with us

that still can sound like

you should,

you should,

you should be better.

But what the gospel

comes in and says,

how do you change?

How do you stop

from cracking

under the weight

of condemnation

or the weight

of your own

sinfulness

that's released?

You need the cool

water of the gospel

to flow into your soul

daily.

And what I mean

by that is this.

If you take time

to consider

just how deep

God's love

and kindness

for you

really is.

That's why we did

communion.

That's why

when you spend time

with God,

you remember

that in spite

of the fact

that I and you

are as broken

as anything,

He didn't give up

on us.

He showed

complete compassion.

He died

to make you

perfect and delightful

in the Father's eyes.

He gives you

His righteousness

which means

He takes off

this stinking,

filthy clothes

of all my sinful

character flaws.

He takes it off

the performance

that I couldn't do.

He then puts

on His beautiful

robes of righteousness

on me.

He looks at me.

He looks at you.

If you have trusted

in Christ

and says,

beautiful,

beautiful,

beautiful.

There's nothing

you can do

to make me love

you anymore.

There's nothing

you can do

that will make me

love you

any less.

You're secure.

And we say this

every week,

but you know,

do you know

the reason why?

It's because

I'm going to go out

tomorrow and I'm

going to forget it.

And you're going

to forget it.

Because when you

begin to see

that kind of love

daily,

it will melt

your heart

and you'll

begin to hate

the character

flaws in you,

not tolerate them.

And you won't

be about

justifying yourself

and ignoring them.

You will hate

them because you

think,

if God can love

me that much,

how can I keep

rebelling against

Him in these ways?

And character

is grown,

not through being

perfect.

We'll never get

there until

Christ comes,

but it's

through repentance.

And repentance

will become a

habit,

a way of life

as a child

learning to walk

who keeps

stumbling

and she reaches

her hand back

to her father

to pick her up,

set her back

on her feet again,

and that just

becomes a habit

of the heart

again and again

and again.

And repentance,

not justifying

myself,

but running

back to a

father who

loves me

will give you

godly grit

to run a race,

to give you

a humility

to see your

character flaws,

but a confidence

that you are

loved and

accepted and

you'll shine out

like a diamond

increasingly in

the world.

So when you go

into your home,

when you go

into your

workplace,

you don't have

to justify

yourself.

You're secure.

And that,

in an insecure

world,

will adorn

the gospel.

Let's pray.

Father,

I pray that

you would,

I pray that

you help us

to actually

want to be

people of

character.

But we

can't make it

just by

ourselves.

We need

you.

We need

you.

I recognize

in my life

I so often

trivialize the

things which

are just as

blemishes,

but Lord,

help me to

face them.

Help us to

face them,

but not to

run away

because it's

so painful

facing what

we're really

like sometimes,

but to realize

that that cool

water of the

gospel pours

onto the heat

and takes

away that

heat so

that we

see you

and we

love you

and we

see how

beautiful you

are.

And that

causes us to

want to

follow you,

to want to

love you,

to want to

love our

families,

to want to

love the

people around

because you're

good.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.