Titus: Resting and Growing in Astonishing Grace

Well, you guys know how much I love the bears up in Alaska at Brooks Falls.

About this time of year, I start talking about the bears.

I force these stories and illustrations upon you and thank you.

I appreciate it.

Well, quite the drama, quite the drama always at Brooks Falls.

Quite the drama has developed since the spring.

Here's a picture of two bears up at Brooks Falls.

These bears are actually sisters.

This is bear 909 and 910.

If you're in the community, in the bear community, you know about this stuff.

And so that's 909 and 910.

In the last couple of years, 910 and 909, they've been raising their families together.

They've been raising their cubs just as just family together, extended family.

And then this spring, the drama developed because 909 separated from her little cub, little two and a half-year-old cub, which was about the normal time to do that.

But little 909 wasn't ready yet.

Yeah.

And so quite the drama developed.

But 910, an aunt, adopted her, took her in.

I know.

I mean, the internet went crazy.

Tens of us were just involved in this.

And we were just overwhelmed.

I mean, so adoring, right?

I mean, no, there's actually a lot more nerds out there than you think.

There's like tens of thousands of people for all this.

It's crazy.

Alright, so 909 Jr.

gets a home.

Internet went crazy.

We couldn't get enough of this, right?

Because you see little 909 Jr., you thought she was gonna be all on her own, and then 910, Aunt 910 takes her in, and you get to see 909 Jr.

basking in this safety and acceptance, right?

All this bear grace, right?

It's so good.

She's been adopted into a family, right?

Now, why am I telling you this?

Well, do you remember last week?

We don't have to live as orphans in the world when we are actually the beloved children of the Abba Father.

And so the point that I hammered last week was where we rest our hearts changes everything else.

Everything else changes when we rest our hearts in the place we actually belong.

Titus chapter 1, we're studying the book of Titus.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

Titus chapter 1, Paul challenges us to avoid the traps of legalism, but also to avoid the trap of license.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

And then Paul gives us this third way, this gospel way.

See, when we know that the Abba already loves us, when we have our identity secured, we don't have to pretend anymore.

Jesus plus nothing actually does mean everything and is everything for us.

You're not loved as you should be, you're loved as you are because Christ was for you as you should be.

And Titus chapter 2, it helps us see God's lavish grace that's given to us, and it takes us on a journey.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Chapter 2 takes us on a journey of what does it mean to be in a healing process and a growing process.

So at the beginning of Titus chapter 2, we'll chop it up and make some comments.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

Paul says what Christians should be like.

Titus 2, 1 through 10.

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

That word sound means healthy, healthy doctrine.

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and steadfastness.

Older women likewise are to be reverent behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good.

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Now, quick pause.

Working at home does not mean you can't work outside the home.

That's not what it means.

Theologian J.B.

Phillips says it this way: he says, She is a home lover, meaning that your love and care for your home is a core priority of your life.

And submissive to a husband does not mean less than, and it does not mean subjugated.

It means to be humble, respectful.

Now, who are these women to be respectful toward?

Verse 6.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything.

They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God or Savior.

So, by the way, just a little context here, this is an ancient text.

Paul would have been writing to a people, some of which were enslaved.

Now, Paul is not affirming slavery, but Paul is saying, if you are enslaved, even if you're enslaved, be of good character.

Now, all that's quite a list for any of us.

You probably found yourself somewhere in that list.

Quite a list of who we should be.

It's easy to come away from a list like that and just feel like you're not quite enough.

Like, why am I not any better at age 44?

Why don't I have it all together yet?

Surely I've had enough time.

And the reality is that while we may be becoming better in some area or one area, suddenly we realize we don't have our acts together in some other area.

And in this way, the law guides us, this truth of who we should be.

It guides us, but also crushes us.

Which is what makes grace actually mean something.

Grace doesn't mean anything without truth.

Seeing what is true and right only increases our astonishment of God's lavish love for us.

So how do we live a life of transformation, the Christian life, without being beaten down, condemned, crushed, worn out?

Well, Paul has something to say about it.

Verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

And then the same sentence continues into verse 12.

So this is still about the grace of God training us, the grace of God training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

So a few points here.

Point number one salvation is by God's grace.

So you being a child of God, welcomed into the family, being a Christian, salvation is by God's grace, not a spirituality of merit.

That's what verse 11 says for us.

Here's a definition of salvation.

Salvation is God's work on our behalf, in the person of Jesus, to rescue us from the judgment of our sin, to bring us into freedom, fellowship with God Himself, restoring us into a kingdom of life and love that is both now and forever.

So we could say this we are His by His work, not by our work, which is incredibly freeing.

Because we're all just putting ourselves to death, working ourselves, trying to justify ourselves before God and in the world in front of other people.

And where do we find secure identity?

Well, in the place that you belong, as God's child.

Which brings us to what actually happens.

What happens when you set your heart at rest in God's love for you?

Point number two, godliness, a God-centeredness, is empowered by God's grace, not a performance-oriented faith.

We don't have to move on from God's grace to work harder for God.

We're justified by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.

And that one-way gift of justification actually fuels the Christian life.

I love this quote by Philip Carey.

It's in Good News for Anxious Christians.

The idea that we are supposed to have some superior blessing beyond Christ crucified for us is profoundly perverse.

As if Christ were not the fount of every blessing, the one in whom we find all holiness and goodness and wisdom for our lives.

It's an idea that makes our experience, which is to say ourselves, into the focus of our lives.

And it isn't just timeout, isn't that exhausting?

Just to make yourself the focus of your life, to have no outside source of love and validation?

Carrie goes on.

And that's why transformative experiences get so shallow.

We remain the same ever-changing consumeristic self, all the transformations.

Whereas what we have, if we are nothing but ordinary Christians, is greater than all the experiences in the world we have Christ Himself.

God in person, the bridegroom, the beloved who gave his life for us and who promised to give his own spirit to be with us.

Everything else is in essential.

So Carrie's saying we're more than consumerists, just needing the next religious high.

We're actually receivers of God Himself, and it is incredibly, eternally secure in Christ for us.

And so maybe you go high and maybe you go low in terms of your Christian life, but your security as God's child is secure.

Because it's Christ's work for you.

Point number three: God's love is not a result of our transformed lives.

God's love is the source of our transforming lives.

You're not loved after you get your act together.

You're not loved more after you become a better Christian.

God's love for you that finds you in your weakness and your failure and your mess and your dysfunction is actually the source of transformation.

Do you remember my sage from last week?

I showed you the sage.

Remember, I planted it last year, I planted it at the wrong place.

I showed you this picture of this struggling sage.

I planted it, remember, I planted it in the shade of my trampoline.

It was the wrong spot.

It didn't belong there.

Sage loves the sun.

And so back in May, I realized my mistake.

Oh my God, you know, look what I did.

It's a struggling sage.

And so I moved it over to the other side of the trampoline, and within six weeks, did six weeks, flourishing.

Same sage.

It just needed to rest in the place that it belongs.

Now, what does this sage need to do to flourish?

Only rest in the place that it belongs.

See, we don't move on from God's grace, we grow deeper into it.

It's actually the way that we grow.

Here's how our church redeemer words are core value of growth for the Christian.

What does the Christian life look like?

We grow in the grace of God by living more deeply in the great wealth of our beloved identity in Jesus Christ, as we know it through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

The Holy Spirit uses this deepening to heal and transform us.

This is a rest from our self-reliant striving as to know a spiritual growth that only occurs by God's work in our lives.

This growth in grace is a lifelong process filled with imperfection and grace, confession, and peace.

Years ago, I had a friend, he had dated this girl for a while, and they dated kind of on and off, and then they broke up.

This was like right toward the end of college.

It might have been a year out of college, been a while.

They hadn't talked in a year.

And he suddenly realizes that he loves this girl.

Hadn't talked in a year.

He gets in his car, he drives 10 hours to the beach.

He has to tell her this revelation of love.

He finds her, he tells her this revelation he has.

He actually loves this woman.

I love you.

I'm gonna spend the rest of my life with you.

I want to marry you.

Took some convincing, but she eventually said yes.

They're still married.

Love does that.

We do we do stuff like that.

Love changes everything.

You'll work three jobs to provide for your children.

And you'll do it.

And you'll keep doing it.

You'll sleep in those horrible hospital chairs.

Horrible.

And you'll sleep there because she might wake up.

And you'll do it because of love.

And that's just human love.

Isn't that amazing?

That's just human love.

That's just a taste.

That's a taste.

Now imagine a love that's so perfect.

Never failing, regardless of anything you do or don't do, say, don't say, think, don't say.

The Spirit of God uses this limitless welcome we have with the Abba because of Christ's work for us.

This creates an enormous amount of healing in our hearts for all the justification that we're doing in the world to try to find worth.

Or the justification we're doing in our religious life to try to be forgiven or righteous.

And now when we're free and we're secure within the being a child of God, begins this nourishment and this flourishing.

We can get theological.

I know some of you want to get theological.

Bible nerds, raise your hand.

Bible nerds.

A few of you, Bible nerds, here we go.

Our sanctification is worked out in us as we ongoingly rest in our justification through Christ alone.

Isn't that good, Bible nerds?

Amen, Bible nerds.

This week I kept thinking about that needy woman in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

You remember the story?

Jesus was headed to Galilee, he has to go through that town Samaria, which was odd because the Jews despised and avoided the Samaritans, but he's there.

Remember, he's there at the well, and he's speaking to this woman, the Samaritan woman, middle of the day.

So he's in a place he shouldn't be.

He's talking to a person he shouldn't talk to.

And it's a beautiful image for us of how God pursues us in our need.

He actually finds us in our mess.

Even as we feel beat down or worn out, failure, an outsider.

John 4, verse 7, a woman from Samaria came to draw water.

John 4:7

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.

For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask, ask for a drink from me?

A woman from Samaria, for the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.

So it's the middle of the day, really hot.

It's like the Middle East, right?

A hundred and something degrees.

And she's getting water.

So she's clearly trying to avoid some people.

You wouldn't draw water at this time of day.

So she's trying to avoid people.

She's an outsider.

There's some shame.

Something's going on here.

Verse 10.

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him.

And he would have given you living water.

The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.

Where do you get that living water?

So she's not quite picking up on it quite yet.

Verse 12.

Are you greater than our father Jacob?

He gave us the well and drank it for himself, as did his sons and his livestock.

Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

So Jesus is speaking about our primary needs, massive needs, that drive so much of our life.

Love, acceptance, validation, forgiveness, righteousness, worth.

Where do you get these things?

Do you have to earn them?

Or is it possible we could receive these?

Verse 15, the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, or I have to come to draw water.

And Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come here.

Strange in the story.

She's not totally picking up on it quite yet.

And Jesus replies, Go get your husband.

And she says, I don't have one.

And he says, I know you've had five.

You're living with another guy.

And Jesus isn't shaming her, but the law is at work here, meaning the truth is at work.

This is the truth about her life.

And this is not what we would say is a healthy or godly life.

Creates a lot of mess and dysfunction.

And Jesus puts his finger right on it because we need the law to guide us, and then the law will crush us into our need of Him.

And so Jesus is not shaming her, he's welcoming.

It's a disruptive grace to shepherd her to a provision of love that she's looking for, and it can actually quiet her heart.

Now the story goes on that this woman picks up on what's going on here and receives this Jesus to be her Messiah, righteousness, validation, worth.

That he knows her and he loves her.

He fully knows her and fully loves her, which is the question we're all asking.

Could somebody possibly fully know me?

And fully love me?

Well, she realizes that God incarnate actually does.

And so she runs back into the village, starts telling other people, which is interesting because aren't these the people that she was probably trying to avoid by drawing water in the middle of the day?

See, something happened to her.

Grace.

One-way love disrupted her dysfunctional, messy life.

And then something happens in her.

It flows out of her.

There's a flourishing that happens here.

It doesn't fix the complexities of her life.

It doesn't make her perfect.

But there's a nourishment in a flourishing.

And do you remember our prayer?

I said it last week for the book of Titus.

Jesus, astonish, nourish, and flourish our hearts with your love.

And to end the sermon, I want us to pause before we go to the communion table and to pray that for ourselves.

Let's pray together.

God, we are more like this woman than we want to admit.

More like that little bear cub needing a family than we would like to admit.

We are in search of acceptance and worth and validation and forgiveness and righteousness.

Thank you that you pursue us in our need.

You love us where we're at, not as we should be.

Help us to be more astonished by your lavish love for us.

That is one way and it is coming at us and it is finding us.

May it nourish our hearts.

May it set a security and a worth, a freedom in our forgiveness, a freedom in our righteousness.

And then would there be a flourishing God?

Would our would our life our hearts and our lives flourish?

Would we grow in this great identity we have as your children?

And may we know you in greater ways, in deeper ways, as our Abba Father.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.