Titus: Grace Saves and Grace Transforms

So we're in Titus chapter two.

What we talked about two weeks ago is that the gospel, uh this idea that the good news that Jesus is enough for us, the gospel is it's a totally different way of thinking.

It's different than legalism, it's different than license.

And what we said is like legalism and license, a lot of people use this metaphor like sort of like a seesaw, and you need to get a balance between the two.

And we said, well, no, it's not really like a balance, it's just it's a totally different way.

Like, don't even use that metaphor, use a different metaphor because it's a different way of thinking.

And the new thinking is not balance.

The new thinking is I no longer have to perform obey to be accepted.

I'm already accepted, therefore I obey.

It's a different way to think.

I'm completely, utterly, fully accepted, therefore I obey.

All right, so that was sort of chapter one, and we tied that into chapter two a little bit, and now we're going to flesh out chapter two this morning.

And so let's read a little bit.

Um I got ten verses to read here, so uh so hang with me, they're there in the bulletin.

Chapter two, verses one through ten.

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

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

Older women likewise are to be reverent in 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.

Likewise urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Show yourselves 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 be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

So that's that's what our lives should look like.

That's what that's what it should look like, is that.

Bondservants 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 our Savior.

Well, that's quite a list.

You're reading that, you're like, whoa, okay.

Um, and this is the moment where you can begin to sort of uh tell you the truth, you can begin to just compare yourself.

Right?

Like this is where a lot of times Christians would begin to compare ourselves, or we just feel defeated right away, or we compare ourselves to feel successful in one area and then feel defeated in another area.

Or perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, we will be willing to embrace what Paul is teaching here, and that is what we're gonna learn the rest of this passage is to rest in God's grace that not only rescues us but also changes us.

But if you've been around the Christian world for a while, and maybe you have or maybe you haven't, then you'll learn this if you continue around the Christian world.

We love to look at each other.

We love to look at like who's spiritual and who's not, how spiritual are you, and then inevitably how we feel is we feel we aren't quite transformed enough.

I've been a Christian for 23 years.

Some of you have been Christians for for longer than that.

I've never felt transformed enough.

There's never been a time where I said, you know what, I mean, I'm just really I've made it.

My transformation, I'm feeling very transformed today.

I'm feeling very successful as a Christian.

Like that's never happened.

I mean, even this past week at the Blue Skies camp.

Uh one day we're uh walking to the pool in the afternoon and have this break, and so taking the girls to the pool, and there's a whole bunch of guys washing the cars of uh the guests who are going to drive home.

And all I'm thinking about is like, how do I, how do they not see me go to the pool so I don't feel bad that I'm not washing the cars?

Like, like I'm 23 years into this, I'm still trying to figure out ways how to skip out of things I should be doing.

I don't know if you're like that.

You catch yourself thinking something, you're doing something, you're like, how is this still in me?

How has this not gotten better?

How have I not gotten better?

And it's because while while I'm being transformed into a reflection of Jesus, I'm still in me.

Yeah, I mean, Jesus is in me and the Holy Spirit resides in me, but I am still in me.

Messy, selfish Russ is still in me.

So we read this list, and it's what we should be, and is what we should aim to be, and at times, in certain ways, it is what we are, but at the same time we read this list, you know you're not this list.

You know it.

So we were at Disney World in April, and we think we're so clever, we think we're so smart because we had read online, we read that they were opening the gates early at 7 a.m.

instead of 8 a.m.

And so we're so smart and clever, and so we're gonna wake up really early, and we're not staying on the resort property, so we have to wake up even earlier to drive there, to park and walk and do all that.

And so we wake up like it's dark out early, it's like 5:30, you know, get ready, drive there, and we're so clever, we're gonna get the you know, the secret knowledge, the gates open an hour early, and we're gonna get in there, we're gonna hit more rides in like the first hour.

And so we get there, and there's some other people, you know, they know the same thing.

We're all looking at each other, all kind of proud of each other.

We all know this, the gates open an hour early, and we park and we walk and we're walking, and we're so excited.

It's not hot out yet, still cool out, and we get up to the gate, and we're so ready, and it that would the gates open early for anybody who stayed on Disney property.

And you're like, oh, okay, so so let they'll corral the the others.

Um over here, you can wait for an hour with your children, right?

For an hour, corralled for an hour.

Are you getting the picture?

While these other wonderful, beautiful people walk by with their Disney shirts on and they're cruising by, checking through, taking the ferry, it's cool out, getting the head start.

And finally they release the for us and they herd us.

We're herded at this point because there's a massive amount of people at this point.

All of our cleverness is totally gone.

And and so they herd us to the ferry.

We're not even allowed to take the train.

We didn't figure that one out.

We weren't happy about it, and so we have to take the ferry, and we're all herded over there.

And finally we get in, and it's still cool out.

Like if you've been to Disney, you know how important that is, and so it's still cool out, and so we're we're doing rides, and we're we're happy, and and everything's good, and the people watching is the best thing about Disney World more than the rides, and so slowly you're starting to watch people and people getting a little more angry, a little more angry at each other as the day goes on.

And I think at some point we were in line for some you know really vital ride that you you know we just had to ride.

And start to look around and and you start to see um it's getting a little bit hotter, and everybody's getting a little hungrier, right?

And everybody starts to argue, and strollers are hitting against each other, parents are arguing, and you know, and it's just for the for the love, we're gonna have fun.

Like we are we are here, and for the love of it, we will have fun and smile for Instagram.

Well, you you are gonna smile for Instagram right now, and then you start to look around and you start to see that there's a whole group of people, and maybe you're one of these people, like you got the Disney shirt on, and like you got a Disney bracelet or something, and um, and like you're like you're like cutting lines.

There's stuff going on.

You're like, what, what, what was that?

Where you know, there's like a secret line, a fast pass line, and like you went online and you reserved stuff.

I don't know, like you're laying out at the pool with Mickey in the afternoon.

I don't even know what's going on.

I'm just the moron, you know, like in my normal shirt and my normal clothes, and I'm watching this these other people, and they know stuff, and they look it and they got it, they have it going on, and I'm the moron over there, and I'm looking at this, and you just start to feel like, I mean, all these people, they really have it together.

I mean, this group of people, they are so smart, they are so clever, they were not the morons herded like cattle at 7 a.m.

over there with their kids.

I mean, these people have it going on.

And me, I am so far from that, right?

Like, like for this like Disney transformation process, I am not even close to this.

And this is what we do.

We do this.

We do this at Disney World, we do this at the at the gym, we do this if you can go to a NASCAR race.

I mean, we do it at church.

We do this.

We compare ourselves and then we take on the burden of the lack of transformation.

This is what we do.

And it just kills the day.

Right?

It absolutely kills the day.

It kills the possibility of what can go on that day, kills the possibility for the sake of the metaphor, it kills the possibility of the transformation that Mickey Mouse might do in your life.

I mean, it just kills it because we just think like at this point in our lives, we should have our acts together.

Like at this point of being a Christian, that I should be better.

I should have, I should have known to go online and reserve the fast pass.

I should have known this.

I should have known some secret knowledge.

I should have known something here.

I mean, do you ever feel like you just haven't changed enough?

Like you should be better at this point.

And it's a guilt created by this idea that when you become a Christian, that the Christian life is going to be one of an endless, upward sloping, feeling better about your godliness.

And the reality doesn't match up.

It's not an endless, upward sloping feeling better about your godliness.

Paul definitely did not feel an upward sloping feeling better about his godliness throughout the New Testament.

So the question comes, is like, okay, how do we enter a process of transformation as people and as Christians?

Which is what verses 1 through 10 are?

Like, this is how we should, this is what we should look like.

I mean, legitimately Paul's saying, this is what we should look like.

We should look like this to the point that unbelievers look at us and they don't even have an argument towards us.

We should look like this.

So how does this happen to the point where we're not being beaten down by it?

Well, read it two weeks ago.

Fortunately, Paul doesn't stop the passage there and he helps us to understand how this could happen.

Verse 11.

For, that's a big, big word here.

I mean, coming in right after all of that, he says, for the grace of God has appeared.

And here's what it does: bringing salvation for all people, number one, number two, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

There's a summary of verses one through ten right there, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself up 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.

This is perhaps the most concise explanation in the Bible of gospel-centered living.

That all these things we should be, but we are not yet.

All these things come to fruition by embracing God's grace for you.

And this is why it works.

It works like this, because while we are being rescued by our inability to cause transformation, we are being transformed by the very same power.

I'll repeat that.

While we are being rescued by our inability to cause transformation, we are being transformed by the very same power.

So what this means is it means like if your house is on fire, the fireman is also the carpenter.

It's the same man.

He comes in and he rescues you, and then he starts to rebuild the house.

It's the same man.

That's the grace of God.

I say it a lot.

Grace relieves our hearts.

We don't have to be afraid anymore.

We are accepted as we are, not as we should be.

So we are no longer reacting and living out of fear, constantly trying to build an identity or trying to form our core inner self out of something that's unhealthy or some sinful life.

We are at peace with ourselves through Jesus, and this is what creates verses 1 through 10.

So let me sum it up.

Two clear points.

I'm summing up everything I just said already, and that's this.

Very clear.

Even as I read the passage, I said them.

Verse 11, God's grace brings salvation.

Now, for me, my background growing up, uh, salvation, are you saved?

Are you saved?

I'm saved, are you saved?

I mean, that was like the language where I grew up.

And all that meant was is like, are you going to hell or are you not going to hell?

But it's it is more than it is that, but it's more than that.

And let me give you a working definition here.

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

And God's grace does that for us.

Verse 12, so verse 11, God's grace brings salvation.

Verse 12, it's not over, story's not over.

Right?

Story's not over.

Verse 12, God's grace brings godliness.

The slate is clean.

So we don't have to operate out of fear anymore.

And Christ is in us.

And we don't even have to operate out of the burden of measuring ourselves constantly because the slate is clean.

That's the thing that helps us get better.

It's so interesting that the thing that helps us get better is the fact that we know we don't have to get better to be loved, and that's the thing that helps us get better.

So I read this excerpt this week as I was studying and reading about transformation and Christian transformation.

And so this book called Good News for Anxious Christians, and here's a quote from it, and it's not in your bulletin, so you're just gonna have to hang with me as I read it.

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

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 experiences, which is to say, ourselves, into the focus of our lives.

And that's why transformative experiences get so shallow.

We remain the same, ever-changing, consumeristic self through 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 inessential.

So maybe you've moved through the Christian life and been able to measure yourself and how good you are compared to other people or how good how close you are to God on a constant daily basis.

Maybe you've moved through that and you've done okay.

For me, it nearly killed me.

I mean, just always needing the next emotional, religious hit, like the next devotional, like what I already knew was never enough to rest in.

I always needed to know something else to do.

The next change had to happen in order to feel validated before God.

So I was constantly insecure and lacked peace because my faith was really about me.

It was about what I did.

It's interesting in the Bible that uh the metaphors for personal growth and transformation are always really slow processes.

Like a tree growing and producing fruit, a seed turning into a plant, a farmer plowing and farming.

And all of this is oddly comforting because it's reality.

It's your reality.

It doesn't sell like a necessarily a book really well, but it's reality.

Do you remember when Extreme Home Makeover, the TV show first came out?

Remember, it came on Sunday nights, it's like pre-DVR.

Everybody was watching it.

Were you watching it?

Let's just confession.

Did you cry?

Confession.

Has anybody cried?

Let's let's let's have an honest moment here in church.

Has anybody cried with Ty Pennington at the end of Extreme Home Makeover?

My hands up.

I'm not le I'm not lying.

I'm legitimately, right?

They find the saddest possible family and story and legitimately sad.

And then they're gonna build them, if you don't remember, they're gonna build them a house in a week, which is an insane idea if you've ever built a house.

Um they're gonna build them a house in a week.

Ty, um, he's gonna go build a special room.

Do you remember this?

He goes building a special room.

You know, like I'm working on a special room for you.

And then he takes a shirt off at a certain point in the show.

And the carpenters are like the most beautiful people.

At one point they find like a lady carpenter, and they're like, where did she come from?

I mean, this is an amazing show.

And they build it all in a week, like a crew's coming in, they're gonna make it on time, and then at the end they come in and they're crying, they've been in Hawaii for a week, and you're crying with them.

But what we know is good houses are not built in a week.

They're not.

Not like houses that last like decades and decades or a hundred years.

I mean, that doesn't happen.

It can't happen.

But man, we love that story.

Don't we we just love the idea.

We love that idea that transformation could come that quickly, that that in a week I could be that glorious.

It could all be that easy.

And Paul's just letting his boy Titus know.

Like it's it's by the grace of God you are rescued and you are transformed, and you need it to be grace that fuels your transformation because it takes a while.

And some stuff's gonna get cleaned up right away, and then it's gonna pop back up.

You thought it was gone, it's not gone.

Some stuff goes away right away, doesn't come back.

Other stuff you never realize is there, shows back up.

And you need the grace of God to be the transformative fuel because along the way, you're realizing I'm not as good as I thought I was.

So you need the same force to be the rescuer and the transformation.

And this past week, when I was at the Blue Skies camp and we have these sessions in the morning, and there's probably 25 parents, and their children, one of their children has cancer, and they sit in a room, and Christian and I sit in this room with them, and Christian and I don't really talk.

We listen and they just talk.

Like, here's our story.

Here's how we've seen God in it, here's how we feel about it.

And some parents are just angry.

Some parents are don't know, and some people have turned away from God because of it.

Uh some people maybe never believed in God and they don't know what to believe now.

And this one guy uh he he shares his story and he says one night um he's a recovering doper.

He I mean he was a hardcore doper,$1,500 a week for cocaine.

He was hardcore, and then he gets cleaned up, and he goes to NA and he goes to A and he gets cleaned up and he becomes a believer, and then this hits his little girl, his two-year-old, gets cancer.

It's the kind of cancer where she she might not live.

And he says he's out in his shed one night, and it was uh it was Easter, Easter night.

And he grabs a two by four and he just takes the shed apart.

He said he just beats down everything in the place until he was physically exhausted.

He could no longer destroy anything else, and he goes out and he lays in the middle of his backyard, and he said, It's as if the Lord just says to him, Are you finished?

Are you finished fighting?

And he just hears the Lord in his heart say, I love that girl too.

And my son died.

Remember, this is Easter, Easter Sunday night years ago.

My son died and rose again.

My son suffered that I might love her.

And I do love her.

And then he says this in that group session, when so much of the hope is solely in the healing of the child, he says, which is radically different than a lot of the other statements, he says, I don't know if she'll be okay, but it will be okay.

And he says, I would never offer her up to be a great witness to the world of how good God is, but it's not a bad consolation price.

You're going like, where does that where does that kind of fruit of the gospel come from?

Right?

I mean, that that's like the that's the statement the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Where does that come from?

Well, I'll tell you where it doesn't come from.

It does not come from five tips of how to get through suffering.

It comes from hearing a voice of love.

See, the transformation into that kind of fruit comes by hearing a voice of love.

It comes by grace.

And when he was made nothing, and in that brokenness, he found rest in God's grace, and then it begins to work.

That's pretty good.

God, we confess we desperately need your grace.

We are not as we should be.

We read this list in verses one through ten, and we're not always dignified, we don't always use great words, we're not always self-controlled, we're not always reverent, we're not always submissive, we are not always these things.

We know we should be.

Help us to be them.

God, help us to help us to be godly to the point that an unbeliever has no argument toward us, but at the same time, we need your grace to rescue us because we're not these things.

We we need you.

And we need you for the rescue and we need you for the transformation.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.