Sent, Shaped, and Seen | Dave Lanuti

Hey, hope.

How you doing? Why don't we staying to our feet

and we'll give the Lord praise.

Let's dance like David did,

Huh?

There's a song that never season, day,

night never ends.

The elders and living creatures

lay their crowns

before there's a sound of worship

rising to the king

Of maje,

Of resounding declaration.

Hear your sing.

Praise.

Praise

The rocks. Cry

in.

We won't hold back anything.

We, the two weeks old

the king be

Lives

Of power

and on our praise now and forever

Ing The

Of And

now and forever.

Praise

lives.

How you doing? I hope. Well,

Why don't you do yourselves a favor?

Why don't you get to know somebody that's next to you,

find out where they're from,

what they're doing this week, uh,

And

but there's a

Who,

holy

Jesus Christ

Throne.

Jesus Christ

is worthy

Only You.

Who is who Is worthy.

Only

You Jesus.

Only you Jesus

Of all.

Oh, you're,

yes, you're

Us.

How high I

turned and spoke your name

into the night, then through the

darkness

Soul.

So great.

The

Your Forever.

Jesus Christ,

Salvation in Your name, Jesus Christ,

hallelujah has lost His,

That

The

hall has lost,

have salvation.

Jesus Christ,

Jesus Christ,

Jesus Christ

Church, can we sing that chorus again?

Just one more time together.

Sing Hallelujah.

Praise The Who Send Me Free

has lost its Grandpa, you

salvation, in name Jesus Christ.

Father, we thank you that you are our living hope

we can celebrate because of what you have done in our lives.

Speak to us now as we open your word.

Father, we love you and we give you all of our praise

and your precious and holy name.

Amen. Church, it's been so great worshiping together.

Why don't you grab a seat?

Oh, I love that song. Jesus Christ is our living hope.

I don't know if you really, really have thought about that,

but hope is powerful.

You know, I was reading in a book recently

and it really challenged me

'cause I've always thought of myself

as an optimistic person, a you know,

half glass, full kind of person.

And at moments I've prided myself in optimism.

And this book was saying, you know,

optimism at the end of the day.

Although it, it, it's helpful, it's a feeling.

But the difference in optimism

and hope is hope is actually anchored in something.

It's not just a feeling. It's anchored in our future,

especially for us as believers in Jesus Christ.

If we've accepted his salvation, our hope is anchored

in a future with him forever and ever.

And it's also anchored in the past,

in his finished work on the cross

through his death and resurrection.

So much more than a feeling, hope is powerful.

And Jesus Christ is my living hope.

And if you've placed your faith in him,

he is your living hope.

Hope is real. Hope is good,

and I think it's a pretty good name for a church as well.

So welcome to Hope Community Church.

It is so good to be with you guys.

I'm thrilled to be with you today.

If you're in the room, welcome. Thank you for coming.

If you're watching online, thank you so much

for taking time from your busy schedule to tune in

and be with us for these moments together

where we worship God, where we learn from his word.

If you're new in the room

or online, we would love to connect with you online.

You can just put there in the chat, Hey, I'm new

and we would love to connect with you online.

If you're here in the room, we would love to connect

with you after the service at an area

that we call our next steps area.

So when you're leaving, just look to your left

and you'll see our next steps area.

And we would love to help you with any questions

that you have or online or in the room.

If you simply text the word new to 7 2 9 8 9, we can connect

with you that way as well.

Well, today, this weekend is our final installment in this

incredible series that we have been in called Field Notes,

just going verse by verse, chapter by chapter

through this letter

that Paul the Apostle wrote over 2000 years ago

to a particular pastor named Titus.

And isn't it amazing that these words

that were written primarily to one person,

but also Paul meant for it to be shared with others,

and it was shared with us so many years later,

and the word of God is still rich and powerful,

and we're learning so much,

and we're remembering so many good things.

So I'm so glad that today we get

to learn some more from this powerful little letter,

and we're gonna hear from one of our pastors

and my good friend Dave Lenti

Paul, a servant of God

and an apostle of Jesus Christ

to Titus my true son in our common faith.

I write to you now with instructions on how to equip

and establish a local church fueled by God's grace.

We must strive to be equipped

and established in sound doctrine, qualified leadership

and godly living

Well, hey, I am Dave.

It is an absolute honor to be with you guys here today.

If you brought your Bibles, you can turn with me to the,

the very tail end of Titus, like the very super, super end,

the part with all the names and the places

and the personal greetings.

That's gonna be our text for today.

And while you're turning there, I have a quick word directly

to any NC State fans in the house.

Do we have any of those? Uh, any, okay, I see a few.

That's good. That's good. I I'm an NC State fan.

Um, but I gotta confess to you, sometimes it's hard

to be an NC State fan, right?

We've been disappointed once or twice.

We've been conditioned where

after the a, a bad first half that we can kind

of think like, yeah, I think I've seen this one before.

I know how this ends, I'm out of here.

Well, we're not gonna do that to tie this today.

We're gonna stay in the stadium.

We're not gonna empty it out like Carter Finley Stadium,

when you guys go and you tailgate

and all that, we're gonna stay and finish this thing out.

And the the truth is, many people get to the ending of,

of any book and their reading plan,

and they're like, yeah, I'm just gonna skip over that.

That's not important for me.

But I think what we're gonna see as we make it through

to the end, that God has some really important

truths for us to learn today.

Let me read our text. I'm starting in, uh,

Titus chapter three verses, uh, 12 through 15.

It says this, when I send Artemis Ortus to you, do your best

to come to me at Nelo for I have decided

to spend the winter there.

Do your best to speed Xus the lawyer

and Apollos on their way.

See that they lack nothing.

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works.

So as to help cases of urgent need

and not be unfruitful all who are

with me send greetings to you.

Greet those who love us in the faith, grace be with you all.

Let me pray. Father, I'm reminded today that all

of your word is God, breathed God.

All of it is useful for, uh, training us up for teaching,

correcting, uh, or training us up in righteousness, God.

So as we look at this, this past, uh, this last few words

that you wrote to t this God,

may your Spirit point us toward the truths that you want us

to hear today.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.

It tells us who we are in light of who he is

and what he's done on our behalf.

But what does the gospel look like today?

Is the gospel something that you can point to and say?

Yeah, there it is. That's it.

Is it something you can observe in action

or is it something that's just merely believed?

I think the text today is gonna help us answer

that question, what the gospel looks like today.

And we're gonna take it verse

by verse like we've been doing throughout this series.

So go back with me to verse 12.

It says, when I send Artemis Ticus to you, do your best

to come to me at Nelo for I have decided

to spend the winter there.

Do your best to speed Zeus,

the lawyer in Apollo on their way, see

that they lack nothing.

So the first field note,

the gospel looks like sent people sharing God's message.

The gospel has been from the very beginning

and always will be central to the church of Jesus.

Christ is the gospel that rescues us, that redeems us

and transforms us.

It's the message by which we make disciples.

Disciples are followers of Jesus.

There're those who have put their faith

and trust in what the gospel teaches about Jesus'

death and resurrection.

And so with all the, the names

that we see in these first few verses, uh,

of our text today,

we get this real life like historical account of

how people have responded to the last words

that Jesus ever said before he ascended into heaven.

We can read those words in Acts one, eight.

He says, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and in all Judea and Samaria into the end of the earth.

It's vital that we understand this is our mission.

You have been sent to be his witnesses.

We have a gospel sharing mission.

And as we do this, and as people repent

and put their faith in Jesus Christ and his death

and his resurrection, they become disciples.

And we're called to do this. We're sent

to do this in our homes, in our communities

and in the next town over and to the very ends of the earth.

And also with all the people we see in this text,

we see like from the very beginning

that this has never been a solo effort.

It's never been a solo mission. It's always included.

All of us, all of his church people are being sent all over.

That includes you. And this is still ongoing today,

and you might have missed it,

but in verse 12, there's this,

this huge significant plot twist here for Titus.

I mean, imagine for a moment that you're Pastor Titus

and you get this letter from the Apostle Paul

and you're like, oh, great, the Apostle Paul.

I mean, this might be in the Bible one day.

This is really cool. Let's see what he says.

Let's see the things that he says I need to set in order.

Okay, he says, um, I need to choose some elders

to help fill the leadership void in the church.

Yep. All right, that sounds like a wise plan.

Let's see what else. He says. Ah,

he heard about the false teachers

that we've got running around here.

He says, I need to silence them

and rebuke them that that's not gonna be fun.

But I agree that needs to be done.

Let's see, what else does he say?

He says, I need to teach sound doctrine

to every family in the church,

to husbands, to wives, to children.

Well, I mean, that seems important.

We gotta have healthy families. Let me make a note.

Looks like it's time to start a reengage

and hope for parents again.

Let's see, what else?

Ah, there's some, some reinforcements coming.

There's some new pastors coming that I need

to make sure I take care of before I leave the church

and move to necropolis.

Wait, what? I'm leaving. I'm being replaced.

That's right. Pastor Titus finds out right here

that he's being replaced

as the pastor in the church in Crete.

I think we can agree none of this stuff that, uh,

Titus has been commanded to set an order is gonna be easy.

None of it is gonna be comfortable for Titus.

And I think if we're honest, we all tend

to move toward what's comfortable,

what's familiar, what's easy.

I know I do, but when we rightly understand the centrality

of the gospel mission that we have, that we're on,

we can't hold too tightly to our, our current circumstances,

to their comfort of the familiarity.

You see, the the place

where you're living might not be the place where you,

you retire in the, the job

that you have today may not be the job that you have

tomorrow, the health that you're enjoying today.

It, it might change completely

by the time you go to the doctor.

Next. God often calls his people

to new things into new places, and it's never by accident

and it's often uncomfortable.

In fact, it's worth asking.

If you think God is calling you to something

that's really familiar and really easy

and really comfortable, it's worth asking, is it God

that's actually calling you to that?

Or is it just you? And I'm not saying

that comfortable things and,

and pleasures and all that is bad.

If God has given you those, praise him. Enjoy him.

Give him glory for that.

But as I look through scripture, what I see is God has,

I can't find one example of God calling someone specific

to something really easy and familiar and comfortable.

And if there's any parting shots that Paul gives to Titus

before he signs off this letter, I think we can agree.

It's in verse 14. He says this, let our people learn.

In fact, this is the last command, the last imperative given

to Titus in this letter.

Learn that the people of God need to be learning.

And by extension that pastors

and church leaders need to be teaching.

This is not a new idea he's

introducing here in in the closing.

In fact, if you've been tracking along, he,

he shared this idea throughout the word teach has

already been used three times.

The word taught past tense.

Another time the word doctrine, which basically means

biblical teaching four more times the command

to remind them three more times.

It's clear from start to finish of this letter that pastors

and leaders of this church need to be teaching.

And that everyone here needs to be learning.

And the command form of learn in the Greek, it's manino.

I love this, that it's a cognate

with the word disciple itself, meaning that followers of g

of God, disciples are by nature learners.

I think that's really cool. And since we're commanded

to learn, we, we need to be reminded how disciples learn.

Well, before I was a pastor, I was a teacher for 11 years.

And basically a teacher's job is

to make sure students learn that's what they do.

And so, uh, my job, um, is to teach these kids.

And, and in my observation,

what I've learned is there's three basic

ingredients needed for learning.

You need instruction, you need observation,

and you need practice, instruction,

observation, and practice.

Let me give you an example. My son recently

learned to play the guitar.

And actually he's getting really good,

but he didn't learn to play the guitar just

by reading a book about guitars.

He didn't learn by, uh, uh,

by just getting together in a men's group

and talking about guitars.

He learned through instruction and observation and practice.

So, uh, for instruction, he's got this app that he goes to

and he can look up the chords to all the songs he wants

to learn for observation.

He goes to YouTube and he watches these

master guitar players.

He sees the shape of their hands

as they form these complicated chords.

And he observes the songs by listening to them over

and over hearing the rhythm and the tempo.

So he knows how they're supposed to sound,

and then he practices repetitions are required.

He practices and he practices

and he practices until it sounds just right.

Instruction, observation, practice.

Paul has been saying these same things from start to finish

of this book that disciples in the church need instruction.

We need observation, we need practice.

And our instruction comes right here.

Biblical doctrine is our instruction.

This is why we gather weekly to learn what God's word has

to say because we so quickly forget.

It's why we teach classes like re-engage

and hope for parents so that you can see

what biblical doctrine has

to say about the most important relationships in life.

But we don't just need instruction.

We also need observation.

We need strong parents modeling what it looks like.

We need strong husbands, strong wives.

We need strong single men and strong single women.

We need, uh, pastors and elders

and mentors in place that are living out the kind

of godly living that we are to observe

and model our lives after.

We need to observe and learn from them.

And we need practice. We need repetitions.

We need to practice what we're learning is true,

what we're observing in others.

And thankfully, life gives us those opportunities in every

single interaction, in every single relationship.

We simply just need to learn

to see the people God puts in front

of our eyes every single day.

Instruction, observation, practice.

Okay, so what are we supposed to be learning?

Well, let's look back at verse 14.

This might sound familiar if you've been tracking along

with us throughout the series.

He says, let our people learn

to devote themselves to good works.

The gospel is not an intellectual pursuit.

Field note number two,

the gospel is lived out with good works.

We're not commanded to learn just for the sake of learning.

We're commanded to learn sound doctrine for the purpose

of living it out.

The gospel isn't just our means of forgiveness.

Gospel living is never intended to be passive.

The gospel invites us.

It it invites us to, to enjoy that freedom in a response

by leaving our me centered way of, of living behind

and enjoying the abundant life

that good works can provide for us.

The gospel demands of response from our lives.

Jesus taught this idea in John 14.

He says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

In other words, if you love me, then you'll live this out.

Look at what Jesus' brother said, uh, James.

He said, what good is it? What good is it my brothers?

If someone says he has faith

but he does not have works, can that faith save him?

What good is that? So also, faith by itself,

if it does not have works, is dead.

Still not convinced. Look at

what Paul says in Ephesians two 10.

He says, we were,

we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

For what? For good works.

Bonus one, the Apostle John,

I don't know if we have this on the, on the side screens,

but he says in one John two, four, that if you claim

to know him but you aren't obeying his commands,

that you are a liar.

Well, that's uncomfortable.

Devoting ourselves to good works is not just

what we're supposed to learn.

It's why we're supposed to learn.

And it's how we're supposed to be living our lives.

And this is all about the gospel. Don't misunderstand.

It's all for the mission.

If you're lacking purpose, as you sit here today,

the gospel supplies that for you.

Think about what devoting yourselves to good works does.

First in your own heart.

I mean, we saw it last week in the, in the,

in the previous paragraph, uh, right

before this text that we were once foolish, disobedient,

let astray slaves to various passions and pleasures.

See, apart from the gospel,

before the gospel entered our lives, the way

that we walked was in service

to our own imaginary tiny me kingdom.

This tiny kingdom, a kingdom of one, you living

for yourself, devoting yourself to yourself

and expecting everyone else to devote themselves to you too.

So with every good work that we do in response

to the gospel, we're reminding ourselves it's

actually not about us.

That we can set aside our selfish ambition and vain concede,

and even just for a moment that we, we would learn to live

for others as we serve them.

Paradoxically, this is where you find joy in life.

And, and then that's what it does in your own heart.

But think about what devoting yourselves to good works does

for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of those

who are hearing the message.

We're trying to share this message that you've been called

to share the good news of Jesus' death

and resurrection, the forgiveness

that he offers by his grace.

We're, we're not called to just walk

around and tell people this.

We're we're commanded to live it right where you are

in your homes, in your community, at work,

in the grocery store, at the soccer field,

every single day in each interaction,

in each relationship in life.

Paul is saying, we have to learn

to devote ourselves to do this.

In fact, the gospel sharing mission depends on this.

There's absolutely nothing mystical to this field.

Note number three, we need to learn to align our lives to

what we already believe is true about Jesus Christ.

There's a gap. What good is it if we claim

to have faith, but we're doing nothing about it?

It's no good at all. Paul says, it's fruitless.

James says it's dead.

John says, you might be a liar if you claim to have that.

Be careful. There are eternal implications here.

A sincere claim to faith is not synonymous

with a sincere saving faith.

The evidence of saving faith is good works,

or perhaps more strongly put.

The evidence of inauthentic faith is a lack of good works.

In other words, it's possible to,

to have good works apart from faith.

Just look at every single humanitarian

organization on the planet.

But it is impossible to have true,

authentic faith apart from works faith

and good works are inseparable with true faith.

Good works aren't a burden, they're a joy.

But Paul is saying they have to be learned

because it doesn't come naturally to us with our me kingdom.

Selfish hearts.

So notice Paul suggests

that some needs are more urgent than others.

And, uh, whatever campus you attend, you need to know

that there are urgent needs that need to be met by you so

that we are not seen as unfruitful.

There's needs that you can meet

and your campus pastors can tell you more about that

as the at the wrap up or go find them and ask them.

But I wanna look, I wanna examine what are the good works

that Paul is telling Titus that he, his church needs

to devote themselves to,

because I think we can learn from these as well.

Well, to do that, we gotta go back

and look at the whole letter as a whole.

And the term good works

or works itself is used eight times throughout this letter.

Okay? He's not introducing something new.

And, uh, as we go back

and look at that, uh, you might think that good works.

I think our mind naturally goes toward these large scale

humanitarian efforts like, uh, feeding the hungry

and finding shelter for the homeless.

Those things are good and,

and they're talked about elsewhere,

but they're not here in this text.

Those aren't the good works that Paul is talking about.

Go back and look at them. You'll see that the good works

that he describes are all lived out in our daily

interactions with other people.

We'll see that the good works he talks about are all about

character in our relationships

that good works are never impersonal.

That in every interaction

and every relationship that we would learn

to devote ourselves to good works

by showing godly character with others.

Let me remind you of some of the good works.

Paul calls out specifically, he says, showing integrity,

dignity, sound, speech, that that means just speaking

what is true, self controlled, obedient, quiet,

not quarreling, gentle showing courtesy to all people,

showing hospitality, not arrogant, not quick temper,

not violent, not greedy.

These are, are just a few of the kinds of good works that,

that Paul has told Titus he needs to teach.

And we could look at each single one of them and,

and preach a sermon on every single one separately.

But for today's purposes,

we're just gonna look at one self-control.

We need to learn to devote ourselves to self-control.

This term, uh, appears four times in this letter.

So that repetition alone should get our attention.

The, the word self-control.

It means, uh, temperate, moderate in passion,

sensible curbing one's, uh,

tendency toward overly emotional outbursts.

We need to learn to be gentle.

We need to learn to be courteous, not angry.

People holding up signs at rallies, not fighting

for what's right with, with violence, not engaging in

loud heated debates all over the place,

not posting long angry rants on social media.

We need to learn to devote ourselves

to a different way of life.

By the way, I I have never once argued or debated

or fought someone into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I've never seen that happen.

And Paul is saying the same thing.

We should live different than that.

We should be quiet, we should be dignified,

we should be self controlled.

And don't misunderstand me.

I'm not saying that we should be passive.

In fact, I'm saying that we should actively pursue

godly, uh, good works.

That we should be pursuing good deeds all

for the sake of the gospel.

That every interaction, every single relationship on earth

as we go about sharing, uh, these good works with them,

that the gospel itself would be

so much more clearly communicated

than our words could ever do.

I mean, you guys, how are we supposed

to share a compelling gospel?

The greatest story of love this world has ever seen?

If we're walking around angry

and arguing with everyone, our lives need to match

what we believe is true in the gospel of Jesus.

We don't want to give people an easy excuse

to dismiss the message because our lives don't match up.

This is a, a good point for me to pause

and to confess, I need to devote myself

to learning self-control.

I like to think of myself as a passionate and direct person.

Uh, the pastors around here, in fact, they find my level

of passion and my level of direct directness like hilarious.

Um, and sometimes in meetings they will intentionally say

things that they know will fire me up just,

just to amuse themselves.

They, they do this. I I am a passionate person.

They know that actually Pastor

Dwayne, he's the worst at this.

Um, sometimes I say things that are true, but

because I lack self-control, they should just,

they're things that are better left unsaid.

You want to hear a confession, uh, of one

of the dumbest things I ever said as a pastor

of, of course you do.

It might be the only thing you remember today, right?

Um, one day back when I was the Apex Campus pastor,

this woman walked up to me after service

and she was really mad about something.

I honestly don't remember what she was mad about.

Something what I thought was trivial.

Either it was too loud or not loud enough or too hot,

or not hot enough or too much haze or maybe not enough haze.

I don't know. It probably wasn't, not enough haze.

No one's ever asked for more haze.

But anyway, she was really mad

and she actually asked for an apology.

She said, you need to apologize to me.

And I found that really aggressive. And so I did.

Here, here's what I said. I said, you're right.

I do owe you an apology. It actually is our fault.

Somewhere along the way, we made you think that our services

around here are all about you.

I'm so sorry about that. Yeah, that's what I said.

Her jaw dropped and then my jaw dropped,

and I thought, oh my gosh, tell me that.

I didn't just say that, that I was just thinking that,

please, but no, I said it.

And no, I never saw her again at a hope service

ever again, as you can imagine.

And also side note,

I am no longer the campus pastor at Apex.

Uh, um, Doug is way nicer.

He is way more self-control than I could ever be.

The point is, I'm still learning.

I need to devote myself to learning self-control.

It's hard, right?

I mean, even when we have instruction,

even when I read God's word every single day, even when,

when, uh, I have mentors around me, people that I look up

to, to observe from, even when, when, when I have practice

and every interaction and every relationship, learning

to devote ourselves to self-control is just hard.

Let's just confess that.

I mean, how are you supposed to learn to show self-control

to your spouse or to your ex-spouse

when they disappoint you or they hurt you?

Again, students, how are you supposed

to learn self-control when you walk into class on the first

day and you see that kid that's been bullying you online?

How are you supposed to learn self-control with,

with the simple things, the everyday things like posting on

social media, things

that make us look better than we actually are.

We need to learn self-control.

And sometimes instruction, observation

and practice aren't enough.

We inevitably fall short.

In fact, maybe you're sitting here today

and you're thinking, yeah, I know that I fall short.

In fact, I know there is this impossibly huge gap

between the way I'm living my life and,

and the God that I say I believe in.

And I hope no one else will find out how big that gap is.

Well, the truth is, we all have that gap.

None of us measures up.

And so there's one more thing we need in order to learn

to devote ourselves to these kind of good works.

Paul gives it to us in the last five words of this letter.

He says, grace, be with you all.

Grace is good news, you guys.

And Paul knew we needed one more reminder of his grace.

Grace is the undeserved love of God to all people

revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

Feel. Note number four, God's grace closes the gap between

how we live our lives and

what we believe about Jesus Christ.

For the Christ follower grace fills every gap.

What we don't know, grace teaches what we don't have.

Grace provides what we are not. Grace makes us.

You guys look at this verse. It's incredible.

Uh, it's from two Corinthians nine, eight.

Paul says, 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, all things, all times.

That's how big his grace is.

And we've seen throughout Titus that God's grace,

it teaches us, uh, it it teaches us in two directions

that not only saves us, it teaches us to say no

to certain things, to renounce bad behaviors so

that we can say yes to better things.

His grace encourages us

and enables us to do what we couldn't do without it.

But we have to be careful. This relationship that exists

between work, uh,

and grace in the gospel is often misunderstood.

There's some bad theology traps that we can fall into.

So let me remind you of a few.

The first one is this, that, um, that we could think that

by our good works, we could somehow earn some credit into

our God accounts by what we're doing, by serving

or by tithing, that we could somehow tip the scales in our

favor or climb the rope on our own

effort to get into heaven.

Well, let me make this as clear as Paul does in scripture.

We are saved by grace, not by our good works,

but for our good works.

Good works don't make us acceptable to God.

That's the opposite of what the gospel teaches.

Jesus didn't come so that he could teach us how

to make ourselves acceptable to God.

Jesus came to save those who

by their nature are unacceptable.

That's the gospel. That's the good news.

And there's another trap that we often fall.

And there's people here that say, you know what?

I don't have to do good works. This isn't for me.

Since God has executed a not guilty verdict on my life,

because of the grace of Jesus Christ,

I don't have to do good works.

His law doesn't matter to me. In fact, I'm not under law.

I'm under grace. And that last part is true.

It comes from Romans six 14.

But the fact is this, that the law

of God is written on the hearts of his children in order so

that we might know what it is to love him.

That's Romans two 15.

See, God's law and God's grace,

they're not an opposition to one another.

Grace and obedient works.

They, they go together like two petals of a bicycle.

I wanna explain what this looks like in my own life.

Uh, God's grace humbles proud hearts like mine.

When I remember God's grace, it teaches me to ask

for feedback in areas that I'm weak, like self-control.

His grace teaches me daily to pray and ask for his help.

His grace teaches me to apologize

to my wife when I've wronged her, his grace,

it also encourages me.

It spurs me into action.

When my life is getting lazy

or sloppy, it starts to close the gap between what I believe

and how I'm living my life.

And his grace allows forgiveness.

I don't know that there's anything better than I can tell

you that because of the grace of Jesus,

if your faith is in him, you are forgiven.

I'm forgiven. And God made a way for for us to walk in

that forgiveness every single day.

Your debt has been paid in full, his grace,

it saves us, it trains us up.

It transforms us.

This is the story that the Bible tells from

Genesis to Revelation.

The Bible is a story of rescue.

The Bible is a story of redemption.

And perhaps above all the, the Bible is a story

of God's loving grace for you and for me.

The Bible tells us that we were created in God's image,

not not an accident by some primordial sludge

that came together and started living and, and thinking

and breathing and loving.

Like that's crazy.

No, that God spoke and we were created in his image.

And because we're created in his image, that means

that every single person on earth has

dignity inherent in them.

That we should treat them with respect just

because they're also made in God's image.

But sadly, tragically, we see that the image of us,

God's image, uh, in us rather has been spoiled.

It's been tainted by our sin.

And after sin enters into the story, we see

that God doesn't just give up on us and move on that.

Instead, we see God

as this relentless pursuer and lover of people.

And he puts this plan of action into place,

this rescue plan, this plan of redemption,

this plan of grace.

And by grace, God gives us his law.

He gives us his commands.

These are his grace that he gives it to us.

It's not to, to keep us locked up in a box and not have fun.

God's law teaches us what's right and wrong.

It keeps us away from the things that are,

that are gonna hurt us from the guilt and the shame

and the suffering that sin causes.

God's law is a grace to us.

The problem is none of us is able to keep it.

Each of us have failed over and over.

We're all found guilty.

And so by his grace, God sends his only son Jesus Christ,

God himself in human form.

And nobody lived like Jesus lived. You should see the grace.

You should read about it in the

gospels, the grace He showed others.

No one lived like him. No one loved like him.

He was obedient to all the places in this that we failed.

He was victorious in every way that, that we were defeated.

And then amazingly astonishingly by his grace,

Jesus willingly hung on a cross for you and for me.

He endured a brutal execution, taking our place, one perfect

sinless sacrifice in exchange for all of us.

And Jesus didn't stay dead

By God's grace, he rose again.

He's alive. We sang about it today. He is our living hope.

He's a he's resurrected.

And the moment that we confess that the moment

that we believe, the moment we confess with our mouth

that Jesus is Lord,

and we believe in our hearts

that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.

Titus says in three seven

that we will be justified by his grace.

Justified. That word I I was taught years ago

that justified, meant, justified, never sinned.

I gotta tell you, it's so much better than that,

that we were, when we're in Christ,

we're not put back into the way that things were with Adam

and Eve before sin.

It's so much better than that.

We learn that scripture teaches us that he

who knew no sin became sin on our behalf so

that we could become the righteousness of God.

You guys, that's unthinkable the victory that we sang about,

that Jesus, uh, accomplished his obedience, all of

that is credited to our account if we are found in him.

That's good news. This is by grace, not by work so

that no one can boast.

And having accomplished all that he set out to do,

he ascends into heaven.

And he's seated right now at the right hand of the Father,

the, the, the writer of Hebrews.

He says, he's upholding the universe by the word

of his power, by grace,

he's holding everything together in your life.

He's giving you the breath, you're breathing,

he's sustaining it all.

We learn that he lives in constant

intercession on our behalf.

It's like he's seated at the right hand of the Father

and he is saying, yeah, that one

right there, that's our boy.

That's our girl. Holy and beloved and righteous and pure,

because I paid the price for them.

They're debt is paid.

And Jesus doesn't leave us by going to heaven.

He doesn't leave us alone. By his grace,

he sends the Holy Spirit that when we put the moment,

we put our faith and trust in Jesus, the Spirit indwells us.

It lives He, he lives within us. He transforms us.

He molds us. He shapes us.

He's growing us up into the measure of the stature

of the fullness of Jesus Christ.

Paul says in Ephesians four,

his grace is closing the gap between

what we believe and how we live.

His grace is in planning in us a new hope and a new purpose.

It's allowing us, uh, this new mission to share this grace

with others, that as,

as we join in this worldwide rescue mission,

as we live out these good works, as we share the good news

of Jesus' death and resurrection, that we will get

to experience this life change in other people.

That we will see people right in front

of our eyes move from death toward life.

They'll find freedom by grace.

His family of families is growing today by grace.

His kingdom is expanding.

We celebrate it every time we celebrate a baptism.

And by grace, his story is not over.

Jesus is coming back.

And when he does make no mistake, evil

and all of his proponents are gonna be

judged and punished forever.

But those of us that remain faithful to the end, and I pray

and I'm found among them, I pray my wife

and my children are found among them.

I pray that you remain faithful to the end.

No matter how hard the world gets, no matter

how shiny the things of the world are, remain faithful

to the end because if we do,

his word teaches us that we are gonna be exalted,

we're gonna be glorified, we're gonna be

with him forever in eternity.

You gotta read about it in Revelation 21

and 22, that what we've been after, what God's been

after from the very beginning will become true.

That we will be as people

and he will be our God forever the way that it was designed

to be, except this time without sin ever having a chance

to separate us again from the love

that is ours in Christ Jesus.

It's a story of grace

that we read about from beginning to end.

It's a story of the gospel. It's available to you.

I wish I could describe his grace better to you.

I wish I had more passion. I wish my words didn't fall flat.

I hope I sing about his amazing grace until the day I die.

I'm glad you stayed with me to the end.

I'm glad you didn't leave early

to go tailgating like an NC State fan after halftime.

Otherwise, you might have missed one last reminder to Titus

of his amazing grace.

The gospel demands a response.

Imagine what it would look like if we all responded

by living the gospel, by sharing the gospel.

It demands a response. So how will you respond? Lemme pray.

God, I thank you for your grace.

I ask today, what does the gospel look like?

I think it looks like your son, Jesus.

God, I pray that we wouldn't just people that walk

around talking about Jesus,

although we probably need to do that more.

God, I pray that we would be people that live your gospel,

that we devote ourselves to learning these good works.

God, that in every interaction

and in every relationship,

that we would see the people right in front of us, God,

that all of it would be for your glory and for our good.

Thank you for your amazing grace, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Such A good word.

Such a good reminder. And Paul, the apostle,

so faithfully reminded Titus, which these

so many years later is continuing to remind us

of his amazing grace, I hope the grace

of our Lord Jesus Christ still amazes you.

Or maybe for the first time it clicked tonight

and it amazes you.

And if something is happening in your heart, in your life,

and the grace, the unmerited, kindness, unmerited favor

of God, not about your good works to earn something,

but about how much he loved you and gave himself for you.

If that's making sense for the first time, man,

don't leave here without talking to one of us

or going to next steps.

Or if you're online putting something there in the chat

ham beginning to understand his amazing grace.

And I love how Dave showed us so clearly

that it's his amazing grace that closes,

that gap closes man.

And I need that grace daily that closes that gap between

what I believe, what we believe and how we live.

And one of the ways that we live out those good

works is in serving.

Dave talked about urgent needs

because that's what Paul talked about,

good works and urgent needs.

And at each of our campuses here at Hope,

we have urgent needs for people to step up

because we are a family

who loves God follows Jesus and shares hope.

But how we love God, how we follow Jesus, how we share hope

happens through our family responsibilities.

Some might call them family chores,

but those responsibilities are good works.

And those responsibilities sometimes look like welcoming

people into the parking lot

or into our church as a part of first impressions.

Sometimes those good works, those good responsibilities

that serving looks like raising up the next generation

by pouring into them in kid city

or in middle school ministry or high school ministry.

We have urgent needs.

And if the Holy Spirit is working on you to get involved in

what he's doing in

and through this church, I wanna encourage you just do this.

Text the word serve to 7, 2, 9, 8, 9.

It'll take you to a link. You'll be sent a link.

And then on that link, first thing you do,

put the campus that you attend.

And as soon as you put in that campus, you will see

those urgent needs at the top of the page there.

We would love for you by the grace of God. Don't worry.

And don't worry about not being equipped to do it.

The grace of God fills that gap. And we'll help you out too.

I know some of you are planners in this place,

and so you like to plan things far in advance.

So knowing that we wanted to leave you today with some dates

to save that are coming up in the month of August,

two very important dates to put on your plan.

The first is August 10th.

It is our Vision Night, our All in Vision Night.

It's going to be at 5:00 PM right

here at the Raleigh campus.

It's where all of our campuses come together.

We're gonna worship together, we're gonna pray together.

We're gonna hear from Jason, our lead pastor, some

of our elders about where God has us, where he's taking us.

And we are in an exciting season.

So please plan to join us on the 10th for

that all in Vision Night.

And two weeks later on the 24th, it's going to be similar,

but it's what we're calling a campus family

prayer experience.

And at that time, at that gathering,

that prayer gathering families

of the campuses coming together, praying together,

hearing from the campus pastor

and other campus leaders of what God is calling us

to do specifically in our communities.

So please be with us on the 10th of August and the 24th.

If there's anything that we can do to serve you

or your family, please let us know if you're here

with us today and your new stop

by our next steps if you're joining online, thank you

so much for being with us.

And as Paul said, as he ends the letter and we end tonight.

Grace be with you all. Amen.