With Grace & Peace

My name is Casey. I am on the preaching team.

It's always a privilege to preach.

If it's your first Sunday, welcome, I'm glad to have you.

If you don't know me personally, everyone on the preaching team

kind of has their their go to illustrations.

For Cole, it's family in wrestling, occasionally fishing,

mainly wrestling, sometimes family.

For me, I would like to tell you that it's literature.

I would like to present as this literary buff.

That's a lie. I am a video game buff.

I did not pick the font that said welcome to Frontier.

However, it was apartment. So whoever did that, 10 out of

10, buckle up. We're going to have a video game

reference in the beginning because there's a video game

series actually have a tattoo of my favorite character from the

game, but the franchise is called Dark Souls.

Ceres is famous for its difficulty.

It's beautiful and dying worlds and it's world building and and

something in the industry called earned narrative.

That essentially means that it doesn't just like give you the

story. You have to like actually earn

the story. If the stories in the item

descriptions, it's in the small details in the landscapes.

It doesn't just tell you a story like a book does.

You have to earn it. The whole thing is a very

difficult package. The tattoo I have is of a

character named Sigword, or Sigvard of Katarina, and the

reason I even bring them up is because there's a staple of the

franchise and actually of the producers of this game.

All of their games have this staple called the bonfire.

These are the checkpoints in a video game.

If you're familiar with video games in general for the past 40

or 4550 years of video game history, a checkpoint is

somewhere in a game or once you hit it, if you mess up, if you

lose, you don't go all the way back to the beginning, you go to

the the checkpoint. So if you're 2 hours into the

game, you get a checkpoint. That two hours isn't all lost.

You go back to like at the 2 hour mark.

That's what the bonfire is. However, in Dark Souls they

serve more purposes than just a checkpoint.

The most important and immediate 1 is that a bonfire is a place

of rest, just like in real life guys.

The the bonfire is a checkpoint mechanically, but more

importantly, in a game like Dark Souls that's notorious for

difficulty, it's a place where you're just like going to take

like a couple of minutes and catch your breath.

It's a quiet place to sit in a hostile land.

Sometimes though, in this game, if you're lucky, if you've

tracked down some of that narrative that I say you have to

earn, if you've tracked it down, there are characters woven

throughout the game and you'll encounter them at these

bonfires. And, and something really common

with this game is that the characters are not rife like me

or Joseph or Cole with dialogue. They don't have boatloads to

say. In fact, they say very minimal,

very, very little dialogue from almost every character.

In fact, I'm going to speak about the same amount of words

this morning as the combined total of all characters in the

game Dark Souls 3, which is my favorite video game of all time.

However, when you do encounter a friend in these games, there is

a common theme. Many of the gentler, more

notable characters, including Sigvard, the character on my

tattoo, will utter the same thing.

There's three Dark Souls games, and all three, the good

characters, are going to say the same thing at these bonfires.

The words be safe. Again, the words are be safe.

And if you're familiar with the games, you will know at first

blush that that statement is like a hilariously dismissive

platitude. It's like a joke.

The games are grueling. You are supposed to fail and

fail and fail and fail. The games are made for you to

die over and over again. So much so that there is an

Internet on the meme or a meme on the Internet.

My bad. You might not even know the

games, but there's a chance that you've seen like a real or a

short where somebody falls off a bike or runs into a wall or kids

collide on a playground and then the red letters appear and the

screen goes black and it just says you died or you tried.

It's a meme on the Internet that's from Dark Souls.

Because the game is grueling. So every time a character says

be safe you would know that it is hilariously dismissive.

What are you talking about brother?

I died 8 times between my walk from the last bonfire in here

and I do that same walk 8 times to get here.

It's grueling out there my guy. What do you mean be safe still?

They say it frequently. The good and memorable

characters all say it be safe. Moreover, they mean it.

You can hear it in the voice acting.

Despite sometimes different goals, aspirations, or hopes,

when you encounter a friend in those fractured and dying

worlds, they will make sure to tell you.

Not ask you, but tell you to be safe.

It never bothered me that they did this within the bounds of

the game. With how lonely it is, I knew by

a select few that I was cared for.

My perilous journey mattered. Conversely, just as Be safe in a

dangerous world seems like a comical and hypocritical

platitude. I think we can all say that we

are insulted of dismissive things like the statement,

thoughts and prayers, sentiments expressed in our culture.

You've all heard it. We've all made jokes about it.

I don't know when that meme started, but the culture

sensitivity to it arose after the Columbine shooting in 1999.

It had to come about during the first era of the Internet, and

then, of course, exploded when we all had access to our shared

corners of the Internet, social media, thoughts and prayers.

It sounds insulting in a trying time.

It sounds meaningless in the light of tragedy.

Yet still, even critics of these sentiments, embracers of the

meme, will find themselves uttering similar sentiments.

Why, when others experience difficulty, we all vociferate

our sentiments of get well or hang in there or thoughts and

prayers. Why?

Why are some platitudes OK? Why are some swatted away like

cumbersome words hanging over us?

In today's text, I hope to jab at those questions.

Frontier Church. And by doing this, I want us all

to see the bounty of simple utterances and blessings.

I want us to see that sometimes the most simple, memorable,

repeatable things given to you by others in trying times are

ultimately the most valuable, and I want to give you all the

same hopeful utterance we will encounter here in the text.

However, if you have not been here for the first segments of

Paul's introduction to Titus, let me rapidly summarize it for

you. Today we're going to be reading

Titus. There's only 1 chapter, verse 4,

Part B. So who is Paul writing to?

That guy is Titus. But who is Paul?

A servant and apostle of God? See the first verses.

Who is Titus again in the first few verses?

Paul's true child in common faith and the appointed pastor

of the remnant in Crete. Where and what is Crete?

While church? Crete is a larger island off the

southern coast of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea, still there

today. It's approximately 250 miles

away from Athens, and it's where I get one of my favorite joke

insults that I call my friends a cretin.

And why church is Paul writing to Titus?

This is a quote for the sake of the faith of God's elect and

their knowledge of the truth. Or, less cryptically, because

Titus is the pastor of a small remnant of churches in Crete and

they need help. Crete is an island with bad

soil, bad people, and bad faith actors even in their own

churches. Today we are finishing up this

introduction in Titus in the 1st 4 verses.

So if you're unfamiliar, Titus is the 10th last book in the

Bible out of 66. It's 56.

So it is all the way towards the end.

And it's super easy to miss because in most Bibles,

regardless of your font, it's going to be one page, not front

and back, one page, just one side.

So it's easy to mix miss. And because of the many

printings, you never quite know where it is.

So if you start Revelations and count 10 letters back, 10 books

back, you're going to get there pretty easily.

So if you would all please rise with me, whether in body or

spirit for the reading of God's Word.

A couple of things. I'm actually going to be reading

all first 4 verses of Titus again.

But for the sake of our text, what I will be covering today is

very, very much just the very end of the of the last verse.

Hang on there for a second while I also struggle to get to Titus.

Didn't mark it here. There we go.

Mine happens to be 2 pages by the way, which is rare.

So Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the

sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth

which accords with godliness and hope of eternal life, which God

who never lies promised before the ages began and at the proper

time manifested in the Word through the preaching with which

I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior to

Titus, my true child in common faith, grace and peace from God

the Father and Jesus Christ our Savior.

You may be sitted, seated Frontier Church sitted.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for

today. I thank you for the opportunity

to be a part of this preaching team, the trust that they they

put in me when they invited me to join.

I pray for the kiddos. I pray for the parents.

This is the Sunday before school starts.

For most people here, there are teachers.

They're parents of new students, their parents hanging on with

students who have been in the game for a long time, their

students just joining the fold and students not looking forward

to going back. So I pray Forrest, I pray for

tame excitement at the opportunity to learn and to

study and to spend time with peers.

I pray that the transition would be smooth as possible and in all

things difficult and easy, especially for those in that

category this coming week. I pray that there would be rest,

that there would be small moments of rest, that we would

be reminded of your hope in all difficult times.

Senior Son's name, I pray. Amen.

So guys, luckily for me, or perhaps unluckily, the text is

extremely simple. I read all first 4 verses.

However again to hover in on what I'm actually covering.

Grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ Jesus

our Savior. That's all I've got for you

today. We can pack up.

Good job guys, let's pray. It's 11 words, 12 if we're

looking at the Greek. Paul is signing the introduction

of his letter with a small prayer.

It's actually called an Apostolic greeting.

Paul uses it a lot. He uses it in Romans, Galatians,

Corinthians. It's a very common usage.

This isn't specific to Titus, however, it it's not only even

used by Paul, it's actually used in post Apostolic writings.

It's, it's a very common, just it's like a greeting, but at the

end of the greeting for a letter.

But I don't know about any of you.

When we moved to Titus, I spent time reading through the small

letter about a dozen times. I hadn't read Titus in a few

years. It's always hard for me to read

Titus. There's somebody in this room

who actually knows the answer. Why?

But my junior year at college, my junior.

Excuse me, my junior year at college, there we go.

Somebody mixed up my papers. I was reading through Titus for

just like a personal devotion. And it was at that time I was

actually going to school to be in full time ministry.

And I was reading through Titus and I was heavily convicted by

the Spirit that I should not pursue full time ministry, which

I just devoted the last three years of my life to goofing off

with the thought that I was pursuing full time ministry.

So really quick to spoil what is to come.

After this greeting. Paul is going to lay a

groundwork for eldership in the church.

And I was convicted that I am supremely under qualified for

leading a church. And Paul's writing this to Titus

because Paul is aware that Crete is in dire straits.

The church there does not have elders.

The people are wayward. It is a difficult Rd. for Titus,

a long stretch to the next bonfire.

So as a last thought before Paul begins to outline what it means

to be an elder and how to appoint them, he offers Titus a

quote. Thoughts and prayers.

Or at least that's how it reads if you're a little cynical.

A Christian platitude. That's how it reads to me, even

though, like I said, it's used all the time.

Now, I want you to spend disbelief and allow me to say,

if I were Titus, a part of me would want to lash out to Paul

in a response letter over that. I wouldn't even make it to the

meat of the text sometimes. I'd be pending that response so

fast. Hey, Paul.

Yeah. I know who you are, even though

you just said it. Shared vision, blah, blah, blah.

Real quick, What do you mean? Grace and peace?

What do you mean by that? And I know it's reductive.

And I know it's unfair as a reader to just insert myself and

my potential cynicism and my modern context into something

much older and, and, and sincere, but a part of me really

reacts that way still. So I just want to be honest to

you, Paul. You know just how bad it is here

in Crete. You sent me here.

You're the one who dismissed me here.

You know, it is an ungraceful land with no peace.

There are pirates and mercenaries here.

What are you talking about? So church really quick.

I just want to walk down the first two active words

themselves, Grace and peace. Grace doesn't really need an

introduction. It's a very famous Greek word.

I wouldn't be surprised if like 50% of the people in this room

knew what it was even in Greek and that even a few of you have

tattoos. Pastors and elders even excluded

by show of hands. If you feel risky, go ahead,

shout it out or raise your hand If you have a grace tattoo in

Greek or if you know the Greek word, go ahead, shout it out.

Anyone. There you go.

There you go. Does anyone have a tattoo of it?

Yeah, great question of karis. That's the Greek word for for

grace, buddy. Karis.

Simple. It is a favor or unwarranted act

of kindness to the Christian grace.

It is the supreme unwarranted act of kindness and love.

It is the summary denial of what we deserved, that is death for

unwanted or unwanted and unwarranted gain of life through

Jesus Christ. Grace is not only that singular

act, but the state we are in by that act that God sees us and

loves us because of Christ's death on the cross.

We exist in the grace of God if we are believers.

Frontier Church. And that's, you know what Paul

is talking about when he says to to the elect in the letter that

the elect are the ones experiencing this grace.

It's a saving grace where we are known and know God through Jesus

Christ. That is grace.

It's very straightforward. So it is peace then?

That is a less popular Greek word and I'd be surprised, just

like I was surprised if somebody didn't know Karis.

I would be surprised if anyone knew or had a tattoo of peace in

Greek. But just like before, if anyone

knows it, shout it out. And it's OK if you don't know.

This isn't a test. I'm not giving out church

points. I've got nothing for you other

than I would be a little impressed, which means nothing.

Irene a Rene to give more structure to what that weird

sound I just made is peace means it's it certainly does mean

tranquility or calm calmness. That is like the reality of it.

But there's there's actually more.

It contains more in the Greek. It has an implication of depth.

So you can imagine its calmness with a focus that the calmness

comes from a lack of strife or need.

So it's it's it's calmness is because there is not turmoil and

there is not need for reconciliation, even as deep as

reconciliation within a relationship.

That's what Irene means in Greek.

And the reason I wanted to define these is because they

stand in contrast to Titus task at hand in Greek in Crete.

If you perceive them simply as hopeful sentiments, thoughts and

prayers, it just reads like another platitude.

So why is it not? What is Paul telling Titus as he

sets his letter up in the conclusion of this introduction?

If we don't ask simple context questions, we will probably

dismiss the depth of hope that Paul is laying out here at the

end of this introduction for his beloved friend Titus.

So what makes Paul's grace and peace sincere and some random

thoughts and prayers insincere? I think there are very 22 church

very important clarifications to consider when we evaluate

whether something is genuine with love and concern and hope

versus a simple banal platitude. The first one is simply who is

speaking. We already covered who Paul is,

but part of the equation for evaluating the sincerity and

depth of the concern and hope is in that relationship between the

two. Paul genuinely cares about

Titus, he loves Titus, he cared about Titus long before he

appointed him to Crete. They traveled to Jerusalem

together and later Paul appointed him to be the letter

bearer to the struggling church at Corinth.

This is key to understanding why Titus will have no doubt in the

gravity of hope and prayer that Paul is offering him at the

close of this introduction. Simply put, their relationship

is allowing Titus to go. There's no way he's just like

throwing smoke out. This, this is this is important.

Just like I look out at you guys.

If any of you offered me, like if I told you it was a difficult

time and you said, hey, I'm praying for you, that wouldn't

be unless I was being really cynical that day and that would

be something I need to work out. If any one of you said, Casey,

thank you for sharing, I'm praying for you.

That would that would have gravity to it.

And the only reason it wouldn't is because I was failing, not

because you were insincere. I know I'm cared by you guys,

and I hope that you feel the same way about those close to

you that you were cared for, even if it is simple words to

those that really care from you. Simplicity is often more than

enough. Their prior long trial

relationship adds trust in the speaker.

As I was saying, Titus knows Paul means it because of their

relationship. It isn't just some open air

utterance that Paul is saying in reaction to a trial.

Oh, it's really hard here, Paul. Yeah.

Well, grace and peace, my guy. That's not, that's not it.

It there is so much sincerity in it.

Paul hopes for and believes in Titus mission that he appointed

him to. And not only is Paul sincere as

an author of this quick prayer greeting, but Paul is also

evoking the object by which the sincerity comes from, not just

Paul. And so forgive me when I said

the object I'm talking about God the Father and Jesus Christ the

Son, 2 persons in the Godhead, the Trinity, but God the Father

and Jesus Christ the Son, they're the source of this grace

and peace that Paul is encouraging Titus in this is

even more important than who said the thing, the what of

where the blessing comes from. I think the issue with many

platitudes is that there is no hope in the outcome because the

sort, those, the source those hopes come from is it best and

neutral. Nothing.

Thoughts and prayers. Well, if I don't really know the

person or if I read it online, I don't know their sincerity.

I don't know what their thoughts are, I don't know what their

prayers are, so why? Why would I?

Why would I be comforted by that if if there's no personal

relation and if the source they're citing isn't something

that I can I can trust? Thoughts and prayers isn't so

bad, it's just that it's a little flat.

It's not like the person is saying thoughts and prayers to

Satan for you in these troubling times.

That would be ludicrous, but just because it isn't that

ludicrous doesn't mean it has value added either.

Thoughts of what? Prayers to who?

Paul does not mince or allow Titus or the reader to wonder

about these things. Church.

Paul's explicitly clear about the origin of the grace and

peace that he is praying for. But not only is he explicitly

clear about the origin, I think pointing to the origin in this

instance will tip us off to something even crazier.

Not only is Paul explicit about where this is coming from, but

the where itself is indicative of greater value than a general

platitude could ever offer. That's the value of the

Apostolic reading. That's why it shows up in the

letters Church. This may sound weird, but what I

mean is that God is more valuable.

That's not weird, but also more real and not in like some social

kitsch way. The way that we use real.

I mean real in the sense that there is more reality to God

than your thoughts, your prayers, person next to you, the

bench you're sitting on. He's more real than any general

neutralness of a thought or prayer.

And if God is more valuable and real than the grace and peace he

offers by consequence also have to be more valuable and real.

So at the same time, Paul is not only praying for these things

for Titus, which he is, but he is also reminding Titus of the

essential state of the Christian, that is, the

Apostolic greeting. It's the whole gospel in five

words. This is not fake and it happens

to be abstract of personal sentiments and emotions.

What I mean is that Paul is not only praying for this for Titus,

but it is a statement of the nature of a redeemed Christian.

The elect that Paul refers to. All experience this and it is an

existential experience that transcends human emotions and

sentiment. Sentiments which can be shallow

and fickle like myself. My emotions and sentiments wax

and wane like the tide. Super, super fickle, but not the

grace and peace of God the Father in Jesus Christ the Son,

our Savior. Paul is well, well aware of the

difficult road ahead of Titus. It will be fraught with peril,

risk, frustration, and few rests between trials, few rests

between bonfires. But Even so, Titus can walk

knowing he exists in the grace and peace of his saving faith.

The grace and peace of God is not circumstantial.

Frontier Church. I've been thinking about this as

I come to church every Sunday. Recently.

Work has been brutal. I talked about it the last time

I preached on Psalm 69, where instead of just half of a verse,

I read over 30 verses. It's been ramping up this work

that's been killing me since January due to some

mismanagement, some horrendous contract work.

Not like contractors, but like contract at the higher level.

But really since the third week of June.

This isn't boastful. If anything, like please help

make it stop. But since the third week of

June, I can claim with numbers that I have now done over a

year's worth of production. So in a little over 11 weeks,

based on what my, you know, I was hired full time, what me and

the company agreed is a fair amount of work for what I make.

I've done about 5X that. So in about 3 months I've done a

little over a year's worth of work.

It's exhausting. It's truly an insane pace.

I had to reformat my entire process and help my team get

used to that adjustment so that we can even attempt to keep up

and have this level of success because of how far behind we

are. And the truth is, it's still

like not enough. Doing a year's worth of work in

11 weeks and I'm still like insurmountably behind.

It's just so frustrating. I can't catch up despite how

hard I work. I am exhausted and it feels like

I am living Sunday to Sunday. Sunday is my favorite day of the

week, but by the time I reach it, it's just so easy to be

cynical. I'm living church service to

church service, bonfire to bonfire.

When I show up, people I want to see, that's you.

I wait all week to see you guys. I get so excited you check in on

me and I'm disappointed in myself to report that things

aren't better yet at work. And a wicked part of me, a

cynical part, will try and receive the prayers and concerns

you will offer me as contrite or insincere or platitudinal.

Just a response customary of awkward situations where someone

is having difficulty and the other isn't.

Those middle neutral statements of half hope.

I imagine at this, at this time or at these times that we all

have the ability to do this. We crave attention and care and

then when it is offered, we do not see it for what it is, A

reminder of the greater reality that we are participating in

within the church. Being reminded of the grace of

God and our difficulty or of the peace that the saving work of

Jesus Christ has is ever appropriate.

This grace and peace in every trial, That grace supersedes the

cynicism that may try and creep into my heart from this

difficulty. That peace supersedes the

turmoil of my experiences happening currently.

Even if I do not feel it, my soul rejoices again.

Because the grace and peace that God offers is abstract of

sentiment. Being reunited with God and

salvation, it warrants nothing other than the highest

sentiments. But because we're human, we

sometimes can't offer that. But the good news is, the grace

and peace don't require you to have the right sentiments.

They're true when you're angry at God.

They're true when you're exhausted.

They're they're true regardless. God's truth is more real than

your experiences and your emotions.

God's grace and peace are so much greater than the sum total

of your negative experiences and sentiments.

This doesn't mean you automatically feel better.

I shared that with you. I'm talking about this right

now. I don't feel better.

I'm nervous about tomorrow. Many of you are going to school

for the first time. Some of you probably downstairs,

but some of you are going to school for the first time.

Others of you are returning. Some of you are for sure

excited, Others of you might be nervous.

You might be a parent who's nervous about your kid going to

school for the first time. You have these emotions that

seem to contradict what we assume grace and peace to be

about. But the truth is the grace and

peace don't make you quote feel better.

You are better from from an existential standpoint.

That's why Paul can have confidence in saying grace and

peace. It's not just a thoughts and

prayers church. I don't want us to be cynical.

I know we can all struggle with it.

But I don't want to show up to church after a long week or get

a message from a concerned friend and receive their care as

something that's like vein or banal or too general to my

situation or for my liking. I don't want to be the

determiner of the validity of their sincerity.

I know I have the option to appeal to that infinite well of

hope because the person appealing and what they are

appealing to are more real, that is, God and his grace and peace,

than the temporary emotions and experiences that are concerning

me. Back to video games, there's a

specific time in Dark Souls 1 where you encounter a character

at a bonfire in an especially difficult spot.

Notoriously difficult The character's name is Laurentius

of the Great Swamp. He too will tell the character

the player to be safe, one of many and it is very

contradictory to the whole field of the game be safe in a very

difficult game. But he had something else that

the first time I encountered it. And I, I like, I've sent it to

friends and reels because it's like, it's such like a in the

moment he says it, it's so almost contradict.

It's like existentially contradictory to the game.

But it is so sincere. It just sticks with me and it

makes me think of grace and peace.

So not only does he say be safe, but when you leave the bonfire,

Laurentia says be safe, friend, don't you dare go hollow in

dark. Dark Souls, the whole franchise,

overtime characters lose their humanity.

It's a part of the world. You're becoming less human.

The process is called Halloween. The way in the narrative that

characters prevent Halloween is pursuing things greater than

themselves. It is one of the most profound

statements in the entire game. You are surrounded on all sides

by trial, great difficulty, hallowed creatures trying to

kill you, to stop you. And here this man, at this

bonfire you barely know, a gentleman covered in tattered

clothes looks to you and at one rest spot in a very mire of

tribulations sees you and sets you on your way with the line.

Be safe, friend. Don't you dare go hollow.

And an even greater sense. This is Paul's last introductory

words to Titus. In the upcoming weeks we are

going to traverse the great difficulties surrounding Titus's

ministry. We will see Paul's general and

acute instructions for how to build up this local community.

The Titus is shepherding and the road is fraught with peril, both

emotional as it is difficult to be a leader in a church, but

also physical as we know that there are cutthroats, pirates,

bandits, mercenaries, all on Crete.

So there is a real sense of danger.

There's soldiers here and not like governmental soldiers,

soldiers for hire, where coin determines the the choice of who

they attack, who they kill. And still Paul made sure to pray

for Titus and remind him grace and peace from God the Father

and Christ Jesus our Savior. And now beloved, I'm going to

say the same to you. And I hope that every week you

will greet me with the same. I hope that you will crush the

cynicism, cynicism that may well up in you from difficulty and

see the person who is praying for you and wishing you rest in

peace as well as see the source that they are evoking by

uttering those words, grace and peace from God the Father and

Christ Jesus our Savior. As you go Frontier Church week

after week, Sunday after Sunday, there are many difficulties

ahead outside the rest of the church, the bonfire here, but it

does not change the reality of the that grace and of that peace

that you experience in your relationship with God.

So I'll say it one more time and I hope you would say it to me

whenever things are difficult. Grace and peace from God the

Father and Christ Jesus our Savior church.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for

today. I thank you for the grace and

peace you have given by sending your son dying on that cross on

behalf of us, imputing your righteousness that we have an

existential peace that transcends.

When I'm really frustrated with you about how work is going,

that when somebody I love, who I get to see once a week at

church, puts a hand on my shoulder and just says, I was

praying for you this week, Casey, I know things are

difficult. I love you what I pray for

everyone else in this church that we would look forward to

those very simple, seemingly contrite sometimes greetings and

take them for what they really are, an acknowledgement of the

deeper existence and reality of being a believer that we have

your grace God, and that you have given us peace through

Jesus Christ your Son. See your son say my pray.

Amen.