Titus 4 | Guest Speaker: Bryan Robinson

Good morning.

Let's start.

I'm going to pray first and then we'll continue on in worship.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this church.

Thank you for what you're doing here.

Thank you for using Sam and his gifts and Russ and his gifts.

I pray just that you would make the next step clear for our church and the decisions that are being made.

I thank you for allowing us to have a place where we can come and feel the rest of your love.

And just grateful for the specific people that you brought here today.

And I pray just that we would know your love in a real way.

The speaker most of all.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

So I'm up here.

I'm an elder.

My name is Brian Robinson of this church, and I'm very thankful that Russ has some time to rest, although it gives me a great appreciation for what he does every week.

And I look forward to maybe hearing Brad or Bo or one of the other elders the next time Russ is out for spring break.

So I have to say, first of all, today is Master's Sunday, which most of you that probably doesn't really matter that much, but to me it matters a lot.

So I have my master's.

I didn't go, have my master shirt, see some other master's shirt.

Who got to go to the masters this year?

Wow, a lot of people.

Nice.

So I'm jealous of that.

I started going, I've been about six times, just practice round lottery.

I don't have badges or anything like that.

But I have great memories of going with my dad and then with friends and things like that.

And the last time I went, I actually took Mandy, who is not quite the golf fan.

Mandy's my wife, not quite the golf fan I am.

She appreciates it, but I was like, you'll you'll like it.

It's beautiful.

I think you'll have a good time.

So we went and she did.

She loved it.

And we were driving home.

And I thought Mandy actually had the best line about the masters I've ever heard.

We're driving home.

And I said, What'd you think?

And she was like, it was great.

I had a good time.

But it was kind of unusual.

And I said, What do you mean?

She said, It was like a grown man's baby shower.

And I said, What do you mean?

What are you talking about?

It's great.

It's not a baby shower.

I don't like baby showers.

So she said, number one, the men's restroom lines were ten times longer than all the female restroom lines.

Number two, the men rave all day long about the egg salad and pimenta cheese sandwiches.

And number three, the men will stand in line in order to shop.

This is the only place that that happens.

And I have participated in all of those things and love it.

So apparently I might like men's baby showers, I guess.

I'm not sure what that says about me.

But I'm excited to watch it this afternoon.

Go Jordan Speath.

I hope he wins.

So back to back to so I'm passionate about the masters, but the things I'm most passionate about are the gospel of grace, because it has changed my life.

I'm gonna take, we're gonna take a break from Genesis today and we're gonna talk about Titus.

And this passage, the reason why I chose this passage is it's Paul's letter to a young church planter.

It's a new church.

Um and Paul is writing to him and giving him some instructions.

Um it's only three chapters.

You could probably read it in like 10 or 15 minutes.

Um, but I thought it would be relevant to our church what he says.

Um it's also one of the most concise kind of gospel summaries in the Bible.

He's very efficient with his use of words in Titus, and I think these five verses in particular kind of take us through who we are, who God is, and what this means for us.

So that's what I'll be talking about today.

Um let's dig into the passage.

I'm just gonna go kind of verse by verse through this passage.

Um, verse three starts with, we were once fools.

And he's talking about our life apart from God.

Um, how are we foolish?

Um I think there's there's three ways.

Um, there are more ways that I'm foolish, but there's three ways that we're foolish.

Um, one is um the height of foolishness is that we can save ourselves, that we have the power to do that.

We have no ability to save ourselves.

We are the problem.

Um, Paul Tripp, who's a speaker, uh pastor, and a seminary professor, says, anytime I try to run away from myself, I always end up with myself at the end of the run.

Um, I can relate to that a lot.

Um, like on weekends, you know, you look forward to work being over and you go home and you look forward to these things like a like a beach trip or a vacation or the end of the day or a beer or whatever it is, and those are all good things, but I think if we put too much weight on those things, they will not fulfill us.

It will be exhausting.

Um so I think that's one of the ways is that we can save ourselves.

The second way I think that we act foolish is we live as if we have power.

When things are good, um, I'm very quick to take credit for that.

Um, and I'll give an example of that involving my my four-year-old son James, whom I love dearly.

Um I have four kids.

Sydney is 12, Meg is 11, Allie is six, and James is four.

And God, I tell people all the time, God has humbled me through a four-year-old strong-willed male child, um, whom whom I love again.

But um this story involves me taking credit quickly for something that was just a gift.

And it turns out I do this pretty often.

Um so one day, about seven or eight years ago, I was driving to go play golf with two friends, and I just had two girls at this time.

They both had boys, pretty strong-willed boy, you know, good good boys, which is great.

Um, and we were talking about disciplining our child our children.

Um so they were talking about spanking.

Forgive me, I'm a I spank sometimes, so that might not be okay, but I do sometimes.

Do time James has we've exhausted everything with James.

We spank, we time out, we take away, but I do spank.

And uh these two guys were telling me that sometimes when they have spanked their sons, they've had to step away because they've lost, they lost their temper and they get angry and they're like, that's this is not a good situation right now.

I need to walk away.

So I heard them telling this, and that had never happened to me.

So I thought in my head, man, I'm so glad that I'm so relaxed.

God made me so calm that I can't even relate to what they're talking about, you know?

Man, they lose their temper.

That's oof.

I'm glad I hadn't lost my temper.

So God gave me jam, he heard me thinking that, and he was like, and here you go.

Why don't you try your little formula, your little parenting books out on that?

And um, so that um is interesting to me now because on a on a serious note, like I spanked James, he looks at me, he does the exact same thing again, he'll go right back out to like doing whatever it was he's doing.

Sometimes hitting his sisters, sometimes sitting could tell you a lot of different things James does.

Um but I have ended up, you know, in a place where I lose my temper, and um it has broken me some days.

Like some days I've spanked him and held him and and been angry at him and um finished and just sat in my room and cried because I did not think I would be the kind of parent that did that.

I thought I was this calm, laid-back guy.

Um so that illustration is just to show the point that when things are good, when I had these pretty compliant daughters that when I spanked once, like for a month, are good, I was pretty quick to take credit for that.

Like I was pretty quick to say, you know, I'm reading the right books, and you know, I'm a pretty good dad, I'm pretty chilled out.

Um so just another example of God humbling me, and it's actually a very good thing, and I still need it badly.

Um the last way I think we're foolish is we're so so resistant to surrender.

Um often when a wife or a close friend um confronts me or us in love, I can feel my chest tighten.

Um, and I feel you know, me calling up my inner lawyer, how I'm going to defend myself in this way, or what I'm gonna say, or what I'm gonna point out about this person that actually says that's not true.

Um Paul Tribb also says the tightening in that chest that you feel, it's called self-reliance.

I thought that was a really good quote.

Um, because I was feeling that tightening a lot this morning, and uh I realized that's because I'm relying on myself.

Um so when we do this, we're actually defending ourselves from help instead of receiving it.

Um the next uh next verse, verse four, the goodness and loving kindness appeared.

I think uh the most important probably word in this passage, in just my opinion, is the word appeared.

Um it is a passive, we are passive in this process.

Um what my foolishness of sin needs, my only hope is an appearance.

Um Jesus actually had to appear because there was no hope for fools before him.

This was a closed circle.

Um when we're depending on ourselves, eventually we're gonna be exhausted or become prideful.

Um J.D.

Greer, who's a pastor in North Carolina, says true godliness is a consequence of understanding that God came and found us.

Um again, we're passive in that.

Again, the quote is true godliness is a is a consequence of understanding that God came and found us.

And I think it's interesting chapter two of Titus also uses this word appearance.

And I looked in a few different versions of the Bible, and it all uses that word, which is it is done unto us.

It is not something that we are going out and doing or earning.

The next verse is pretty clear about that.

Verse 5 says, It is not because of works that we've done, it is a gift given to us.

Um so why do we like to earn it?

What what in my flesh or what in our flesh um enjoys the earning?

So I'm a firstborn of three boys.

I am the elder brother, like literally.

Um I love to give them advice um all the time because they need it, obviously.

Um so I think the reason I I really like to earn.

Um, and I I like to earn because I think at the end of the day, it gives me control.

It gives me a certain amount of power over my own destiny, or at least the perception of that.

And I don't think that that's uh that's a good thing, and it has led it led to a lot of exhaustion in my life when when I'm trying to earn it.

So I think that's why Paul includes that in this verse.

It's not a coincidence that he includes not because of works that we've done.

We're so quick to go there.

Um verse six the Holy Spirit has been poured out richly.

Um, it is not of us, but in us.

I could talk a long time about those verses, but I think the important thing is that this is something that has been done from outside of us and is being done now inside of us.

It is something new that is not from our flesh, not from us.

Um this appearance of God leads to a facet of grace that we don't often talk about.

So I love that we are a church that talks a lot about grace.

Um, but one definition of grace that I don't think that we talk about much, or I don't hear about from many people in general, is this definition.

Grace is the power of God.

I think we often hear it in terms of unmerited favor or one-way love, which are both great definitions, but I think grace is God's power.

John Piper, who's a pastor in um Minneapolis, writes Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned.

Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin.

Grace is power, not just pardon.

Um and I'll give some verses about that, some other verses.

Um just you can write these down if you want to.

I'm just gonna read them.

Second Corinthians nine, verse eight, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Um the last verse I'm gonna read about grace being power, 1 Corinthians 15, 10, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Um of the kind of founding principles of the church when when we were meeting with Russ, and um this church was getting started, is there was a quote that said, and I don't even know who said this, Grace does not just motivate us, it animates us.

So grace can motivate us, which is a good thing.

Um for example, I I love to watch The Passion um last week before Good Friday, because it reminds me of what was done for me, and I think that can be a very good thing, and that can motivate me to think about Christ.

It reminds myself of the gospel.

Unfortunately for me, eventually that will wear off.

I will forget again and again, and I continue to forget.

But I think it's important to recognize that grace, the Holy Spirit is now in me.

It animates me.

It's not just something that I remember and it motivates me to be good, because unfortunately I'm not I'm not that good and my memory will wear off.

Um Galatians 2.20 is a verse that speaks to this being in us or being something that was done unto us.

Um I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Um my kind of thought pattern when things are hard to kind of bring this into my head in a practical way is I can't, you can through me, which is a recognition of my powerlessness and his strength that is in me.

So it's I can't, but you can through me.

And there's power in that passivity.

I think often I go to my own strength and I try to be good and I try to be patient.

Um another example of this, um, my wife who's not here today, last weekend, um we were we were in a pretty good, pretty good argument.

I'm sure most of you that are married cannot relate to that.

Um arguing with your spouse, and you're probably wondering, how do you argue with Mandy Robinson?

Like she's the nicest person I've ever.

Um but I do.

I am that guy.

I want to be right a lot of times.

So um she um had a death in her family, and it was really affecting her, and I could tell, and um I can okay, there's a lot, there's about to be a lot of eyes in all these sentences, so I desired to reach out to her, and I desired to take the kids and play with them so she could rest, and I desired to do all these things for her.

I never asked her what I can do to help you.

I just did it on my terms.

And each time I did it, it's kind of like you're gonna respond.

How how are you going to respond to what I just did?

Um, because your response doesn't seem like you completely recognize the power of what I've just done.

And I think the problem with all that is I'm counting up in my head all the times that I've done something.

And wait, it wasn't quite responding back the way that I felt like it should have been responding back to.

Um, there's too many eyes.

Um, this is all just comparison one against the other and comparing.

And that again is just a closed circle.

It will lead me to exhaustion and despair, um, or sometimes pride, but eventually exhaustion.

Um the Christian life is about the Christ, not about the Christian.

Um, and when I'm doing those things, um, I'm making it about me, and even her response has to be on my terms.

Um when we have Christ in us, we are passive.

His power is in our weakness.

Um, when we have this, we're now free to go to the back of the line.

Um when I'm talking to someone, we're free to listen to what they say rather than interrupt.

You know, you hear someone talking and they're talking about something, and you you get this idea of, oh, I can respond in this way.

Instead of waiting for their lips to stop moving and getting your point across, you can actually listen to what they're saying.

Because it doesn't have to be about you anymore.

Um when our security is in Christ, not in our self-worth, how good we feel, how much we make, and how our spouse makes us feel, I think this can actually be a dangerous thing in a good way.

Um I think it creates fruit, and I think I've seen that in this church.

It creates magnetic community and um all these things that we desire, but that is not the point.

The point is Christ living in us and the Spirit coming to us.

Um I'm gonna go down to verse 8.

Talks about um so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

So I'm a big grace fan, and whenever I see good works, it kind of makes me nervous.

I'm like, how how are they gonna frame this because they're about to put me to work?

I don't I don't like just being told that I need to I need to do good works.

Um but at the same time, it's very important.

I think Paul is telling this to Titus because he's a new church.

Um, it's important to the community around this new church to see that what they're believing is bearing fruit.

Um, it's truth.

So I think the point here is hit clearly in this passage, the imperatives, the commands are grounded in who we are.

This is not us.

And I think the big trick to make this is we devote ourselves to good works.

We we don't believe this, because I think this is what my flesh wants to believe, is that I devote myself to works so that I get his goodness and loving kindness.

Um I think it's the other way around.

Um we have his goodness and loving kindness, it appeared unto us, um, therefore now we're free to devote ourselves to good works.

Um and there's a big difference in those two things.

Um in conclusion, uh, we don't have to put ourselves in the center anymore.

Um we don't have to act self-sufficient anymore by grace.

He's rescuing fools, people that were once foolish, and making them wise again, wise enough to be humble.

Um it's really easy, or I would say it's easier for me to believe that God loves sinners and he sent his son for sinners, but I think it's harder for me to believe that God loves me today, the version of me that is sitting in this red chair, that no one knows that God loves you today, this version of you, not a cleaned up version.

Um so the practical application of all this, I think, the answer is an appearance.

Often I hear a message and I want to know what am I supposed to do about that on Tuesday morning at work.

Um, it's not about the how, it's about the who.

Um, the how is turning to him, seeking his face.

Um the how is it means I know that he is with me.

Um so let's pray and conclude.

Heavenly Father, um, thank you so much for again this church and what you're doing here.

I pray um this week that we would know that you are with us and that we would feel your presence in a real way.

Um we can't, but we trust that you can through us.

And uh I pray that we would experience that.

I pray that you would increase our faith.

And um, I just pray that in all that we do with this church and our worship and taking communion, that that we would glorify you.

And uh thank you so much for your son.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.