2026: Living in God’s Grace | Titus 2:11-15 | Pastor Andrew | 1/11/2026

If you don't have a sermon outline, some

guys are coming forward to give one to

you. I want to encourage you to take one

and um have it there in your hand as we

study the Bible together. Our church

believes in studying the Bible and I am

very excited about this message um

because of its origin a little bit.

You know, the beginning of the year is a

beautiful time. Pastor Ruben helped us

last Sunday as we enter into this year

and think about 2026.

And um as I stand today to preach from

God's word, I will just say to you that

God changed the plan a little bit. Uh

while we were in Greece, the Lord laid

this passage on my heart. Um and so I'm

going to be preaching from that. and he

laid it on my heart actually for the

missionaries that were there and uh for

their families. And God has morphed that

into a conviction that you need to hear

this message and that your life and your

2026 is going to be stronger because of

it. Um do you enjoy sunrises?

I enjoy sunrises.

You know, in Lamentations 3, it says,

"God's mercies are new every morning,

and his faithfulness is great." Well,

I'm one of those people that need his

mercies to be new every morning because

I sin a lot. I blow it a lot. And

there's times when I go to bed seeking

his grace and uh his favor with a world

of care on my mind, whether it be about

myself or whether it be about the church

or about my family. But there's

something about the morning. There's

something about each morning that God

tells us that his mercies are new. If

you haven't discovered that, I want to

encourage you. Some of you, the alarm

goes off, you're flailing for it, you

get it, and you run for the shower or

the coffee maker, and then you run out

the front door of the house, and you

speed in South Florida traffic to

church, I mean to church, to work. And

that is no way to start the day.

Um, I want to encourage you um to be

finding

God's grace in the mornings. I took this

picture. Go back one picture. Go back.

Uh, I took this picture this week. Um,

and uh, I, you know, it's just a

beautiful thing. In fact, Pastor Jason

and I were together when I took that

picture. I also took another picture

this week and I will use it um for our

title slide in 2026 living in God's

grace. I want to encourage you to live

in God's grace in 2026. And I believe

that this passage from Titus which we

studied a few years ago um though uh a

very different application this morning

in a way um we're going to be coming to

this. So, if you have your Bible, turn

with me to there to Titus chapter 2. And

Titus 2 · chapter mention

um uh in the life of our church, we

always want to know where a passage is

in this course of scripture and what

does it mean? And so, if you're new to

us, we always look at the context. And

as a student of the Bible, I just want

to encourage you when you start to read

the Bible, start to find out where what

is the context of this passage. And so

very briefly um I want to mention that

notice the context of this passage. The

Apostle Paul leaves a guy named Titus

on an island called Cree to straighten

out several corrupted churches. So this

island um takes two or three hours to go

across it in a car. It's a large island

out there in the Mediterranean. And uh

there were many churches by this time,

probably around 60 AD. And those

churches that had been planted, listen

to this, even though they were new

churches, they had already succumbed to

some corruption. They had already had

trouble. They already had some real

problems. In fact, notice what some of

these problems are that the Apostle Paul

wants straightened out. The churches had

problems with doctrine. The churches, so

they believed the wrong things. They had

problems with ungodly leadership

and they had problems with worldliness.

So the sinfulness of the world and the

culture had made its way into those

church families and they were struggling

with that. So the Apostle Paul tells

Titus to appoint new leaders. He's

saying get rid of the bad leaders and

bring in new leaders who are qualified.

And that's the reason we see um in Titus

Titus 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 right at the beginning. Do you

have your Bible open? Look at Titus

Titus 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 over there where it's it's

talking about the qualifications for

elders. And so this is one of the places

in the scripture where we see that given

and it's because he has to appoint new

leaders. In fact, if you have your Bible

open, look there, chapter 1 and verse 5.

Look what he says. The Apostle Paul to

to Titus. He says, "This is why I left

you in so that you might put what

remained in order and what? Appoint

elders in every town as I directed you."

And then he goes on to describe what

those elders should look like and should

be like. So very very important

beginning here. And uh I want us to read

this passage of scripture. As we come to

Titus chapter 2,

Titus 2 · chapter mention

we see this beautiful snapshot

of what God's grace can mean to us. Look

what it says. Verse 11.

For the grace of God has appeared,

bringing salvation for all people. Verse

12, training us to renounce ungodliness

and worldly passions and to live

self-controlled, upright, and godly

lives in the present age,

waiting for a blessed hope, the

appearing of the glory of our great God

and Savior Jesus Christ. Verse 14, 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. Look

what he says in verse 15 to to Titus.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke

with all authority.

Let no one disregard you.

So this is a very serious statement.

This is a very clear statement about how

a church

should be operating as a congregation

and also how Christians should operate

as individuals. And I will add this

morning as I did when we were in Athens,

Greece with the missionaries, I was

dealing with the parents and I said this

passage of scripture can also be applied

to your home, to your family.

So I want us to see this that God

intends for us to live in his grace.

And you know there's a there's a lot of

people when people talk talk about grace

there's a lot of people who kind of

distort the idea of grace. In fact about

25 years ago there came a very um

pervasive theology and evangelicalism

that just really as there was a focus on

grace it it kind of came to the idea of

grace grace. grace. Do whatever you want

because God has grace. I mean, this is

the amazing thing about God's love and

his grace and his forgiveness is is that

you just you don't have to worry about

anything because everything is under the

under the grace of God.

And I would say that there's always

potential for distortion, right?

And um so what we want to see is what

this really how this really applies and

how we as Christians as as Titus was

called to live in his day on Cree and as

we are called to live in 2026 in our day

in South Florida. It's this present age.

One of the things that some of the

missionaries pointed out as we were

talking about this passage was one of

them just quickly said, "Isn't it

amazing that," and by the way, we were

just a not very far from Cree when we

were in Greece, but one of the one of

the things that the missionary pointed

out was, you know, it says here in verse

at the end of verse 12 that we are

called to live godly lives, underline it

there, in the present age.

Well, the Christians 2,000 years ago on

Cree were called to live godly lives in

the present age. And we are called to

live godly lives in the present age

because this word is to us, too. And the

other thing that's interesting is is

that there's nothing new under the sun.

The church has always struggled with

toxic leaders, bad doctrine, and

worldliness.

We see that that's part of human nature.

That's part of our flesh. And that's the

reason we have a table set before us is

that Jesus died to redeem us.

And so whether you're in CIT 2,000 years

ago or whether you're in South Florida

at this present moment,

this message is for us. And God calls us

to live in a very powerful way to live

in his grace because that's truly where

this passage begins. In fact, look at

the main theme. If you would fill these

in, God's saving grace does not merely

forgive us,

but it forms us for life in the present

age. You see, there's a lot of times

when we only think about the forgiveness

that comes from grace. Listen, there's

so much more to the true effectiveness

of grace in a believer's life. It is

God's grace that empowers you. It's it's

called enabling grace. There's saving

grace that will forgive you, but there's

enabling grace

that will give you the strength to obey.

And that's really what this passage is

talking about. It's talking about both

of those. Surely, you see it there in

verse 11. for the grace of God has

appeared bringing what? Salvation for

all people. So there's the saving grace

of God, but then it quickly goes to this

enabling grace. So that main theme,

God's saving grace does not merely

forgive us, but it forms us for life in

the present age. Look at the second one.

The same grace that saves us also fill

it in trains us to live godly lives as

we wait for glory. It's exactly what

Pastor William was talking about in that

second song that we sang, the new song

that we sang. Every step I take, I'm I'm

I'm still I've been saved. I have all I

need in Christ, but I'm still waiting on

that final glory.

And that's exactly what we'll see in

this passage that he's calling us to

look toward the final glory um that he

has for us. I love this. Number one, I

want you to notice this morning this

grace has appeared giving us a totally

new foundation. A totally new

foundation. This is a really really

important foundation to the whole

passage. And I want you to see this.

Look what it says in verse 11. For the

grace of God has appeared, bringing

salvation for all people. So there are

those who in initiation.

They're not to live like they used to

live. They're to live in a new way, a

new foundation. I'm going to ask you to

read verse 11 right there underneath the

outline. Would you read that as I take a

sip of water? But I want you to read

that good and strong. Look what it says

and read it. For the grace,

>> so this this grace and that word

appeared. Circle that word appeared

because it shows up twice in this

passage.

It it's the grace that appears and and

it's that's what God does when Jesus

Christ appears on the scene.

We see that what the full measure of

God's grace looks like through Christ.

The fact that Jesus would die on the

cross for our sins

and then he would bring us new life.

Now, notice this on the outline there.

Salvation is available to all

to all. There's there's no one that it's

not available to. In fact, we see a

little hint of this in verses 1-10 just

before our passage. It's old men, young

men. You know, he goes through that

list. We studied that a couple of years

ago. Look what it says. Old men, young

men, old women, young women, and even

free people or slave people. God's grace

is is there in how we are to behave, how

we are to live our lives. Cree had all

of those. And there's a lot that we see

here that that this is for everyone. Not

only salvation, but also that we would

grow

in grace of holiness. Notice this.

Salvation comes through grace. It only

comes through grace. Starting point,

folks, what did we just talk about? For

those of you who are in starting point,

does anybody remember what I said? And

don't

answer Andrew. Don't give that. Sally

solution. Don't give that. If you're in

starting point,

what did we say grace means? Do you

remember those two words? What did we

say?

>> Very good. undeserved favor.

Undeserved favor.

This is what grace is. It's undeserved

favor. And it's the only way in which

we're saved. While we were still

sinners, Christ died for us. Now, notice

this. In the context of Titus, cit was a

mess. There was a great deal of

immorality and ungodliness.

Well, you could put out there to the

side, South Florida, too.

Paul doesn't begin the call to reform

through law, culture, war, or shame. He

doesn't begin the call to reform through

those things.

What Paul does is he says

it's grace. That's where our passage

begins here. He's calling them out of

the worldliness. Really get this. Our

passage begins in verse 11 with the

grace of God has appeared. That's what

calls you to godliness,

not the law. Not somebody standing up

and saying, "You terrible cretins, you

need to give, you know, and railing at

them about this and railing at them

about that. Why don't you do this? Why

don't you do that? Why don't you get up

and have your quiet time with God? Why

don't you give as you should give? Why

don't you stop being immoral? Why don't

you stop lying? Why don't you limit your

diet? Apparently, they were glutton.

That's what it says. Um, you know, you

need to do all these things.

That's not the motivation.

The motivation to live a godly life is

because grace appeared. God had grace on

you. So, we don't we don't do these

things because we want to be saved.

Finish it with me. We do these things

because we

>> are saved.

>> Praise the Lord. You got it. Some of you

are wondering what just happened.

There's a big difference in doing what

is right. Even coming to worship or

letting the guy in in traffic or

forgiving the crazy neighbor or whatever

it is that you have to deal with in

life. There's a big difference in doing

that because you are saved versus you

want to be saved. The true message of

the gospel is we do what is right

because we're God's. We've experienced

God's grace.

We have experienced it. So this is so

pivotally key to your parenting

that you learn to parent in such a way

where grace flows through you to your

child. And yes, we discipline. Yes, we

have a high standard. Yes, we do all

those things, but we do those things

from the lens of grace, not law.

The law only condemns.

Grace, as we have said in our main

theme, trains us for righteousness.

And this is true Christianity. This is

the true message of the Bible. So, we've

been given a new foundation. It's a

beautiful foundation.

So, for 2026, I want you to know this.

Notice this. Sheran Hills, um, in

Sheridan Hills, we do not trust in

clever schemes,

but we trust in Christ's finished work

at Calvary.

That is what this church has to be based

on. We're not trying to come up with a

better website, a cooler this, or a

cooler that. In fact, here in the life

of our church, we often say cool is

fool. So, our pastors don't even try.

Um, so, sorry, I've got these shoes.

They're not $200 sneakers. Whatever. We

We're not trying to be cool. We're just

simply trying to be faithful. And that's

how we should all be in our lives. Um,

this is what God's called us to.

Friendship with the world

is

war

with God.

Friendship with the world is a very

dangerous thing. Now, we don't hate the

world. We love the lost and we pray for

them and we want for them to come to

know Jesus. We really do. I mean, I

really do. I I love the fact that the

god that the god of the gospel is still

saving people right now this morning at

Sheridan Hills

there were I believe many in starting

point one immediately came to me

afterwards and said I was over here

until this morning I think I'm over here

I was believing and trusting in religion

but this morning that's finally over I'm

I'm looking to the cross

praise the Lord

So, we're not looking for clever schemes

to be cool and be attractional. What

we're seeking to do is to look to the

finished work of Calvary and live our

lives in worship.

For your family, godliness at home

begins with grace received, not pressure

imposed.

Not pressure imposed. If we keep getting

back to the motivation of grace and our

children learn that this is our great

motivation, it can really change some of

the tensions and some of the

frustrations. When they begin to see

that we're seeking to live in God's

grace, honoring him, even as this

passage is going to suggest,

then our children can begin to see, oh,

it's not all about the law and doing the

dos and the don'ts of the law, but it's

about living in the grace of a loving

God. And that's why we seek to love him,

to reflect him, to obey him. How about

for you? you personally,

you do not outgrow grace. Instead, you

build your life on it. You build your

life on grace.

Um, we don't come to salvation and then

think, okay, now it's just time to do

all the time and the the doing becomes

the great focus after salvation. No, the

grace continues to flow in our lives and

that's what motivates everything we do.

The key principle of this is grace is

not the reward of godliness. Instead, it

is the root of it. God doesn't give you

grace because you're godly. No, God

gives you grace so you can become godly.

And there's a very big difference. So in

2026

that may we live in God's grace as the

source of our hope. Well, how does this

happen? We see it up there in verse 12.

Look at the box on the top of the page.

Verses 11 says, "For the grace of God

has appeared, bringing salvation for all

people." Verse 12, look up there at

verse 12. Oo, key word. Training us. Can

you circle that word? Training. Verse

12. Training us to do what? to renounce

ungodliness and worldly passions and to

live self-controlled, upright, and godly

lives in the present age. So in verse

12, we see this grace trains us and here

it is, it's our present formation

and that's in as in being formed.

Um,

in Europe we use a different word than

the word disciplehip. Okay. So in

Christian communities

there's the issue of salvation, coming

to know Jesus and what he did on the

cross and placing our faith totally in

him. That's that's coming to salvation.

But part of that eventually goes into

something we call disciplehip.

And disciplehip is when you continue to

grow in becoming a follower of Christ

like a disciple. You're following

Christ. And so when we talk about

teaching people Christian people who

have now become Christians to grow, we

talk a lot of times about disciplehip. I

think it's really cool in French

and in a lot of places in Europe, the

word isn't disciplehip. The word is

formation.

You're forming them. you're forming your

life differently now. So, it's kind of

like a potter has clay and a potter has

the the the clay that's spinning there

and the potter is using his hands and

he's using his tools to form this vessel

into a usable, useful, beautiful thing.

That's kind of the mentality of what God

is doing with us when we go on to grow.

He's forming us. It's formation.

And so in in French we we say it's we

use that word. Um and I and I I remember

when I was learning to speak French and

I was starting to hear that I thought

that's good

>> because a lot of times we don't know

what disciplehip really means and the

fact that it's changing the shape of our

life.

But this is formation. And so here's

what grace does. Grace doesn't just save

you. It saves you, but it also trains

you. It forms you. And the word training

is kind of difficult. The word training,

it's kind of like when when you're

talking about child rearing. I mean, is

potty training hard?

Very often, yes. That's a difficult

thing, right? There's a lot to clean up.

There's a lot there. they're they're

finally getting it and things will go

well for a little while and then they

regress a little bit, right? So,

whatever. But it's it's consistency and

I'm sitting here looking at Sam and I'm

looking at all these moms. His Johnny

had three sons and everything. Hope

they're all potty trained by now. Um

um are they all potty trained guys?

Okay. Um you know, we we kind of go

through this training training. Well, we

have people in our church that are

physical trainers. They they help people

to get their health under control, their

activity under they they're training,

they're they're doing the exercise,

they're doing the workouts, they're

doing this particular

um the particular activities in order to

train it. Now, it's not easy and

sometimes it's hard. This is part of the

Christian life is that it's the

disciplined development or the formation

of this. And so what we see here in this

verse is is that grace is not passive.

Fill it in. Grace is active.

Grace is active in your life. And you

need to start to see and understand and

think of grace that way. There's a lot

of times we go through a difficult time

and they and we talk about grace and we

talk about God's grace saving us and

that's good. But do we talk about God's

grace for each day, each moment? And do

we think of it as simply like this peace

thing where God gives me peace in the

midst of trouble? Well, listen, it may

be a training thing where God's grace is

to come upon your life so that you

actually learn to do some things

differently. And I want us to see what

some of those things are. Um, first of

all, we want to notice the bidirectional

nature of grace. Fill that word in.

Birectional. That means it goes both

ways here. And the birectional of it is

there's a negative side of it that goes

to the what you're going to stop. And

notice this, it's to renounce

ungodliness and worldly passions. But

then there's the positive that talks

about you're going to live a

self-controlled, upright, godly life. So

there's some things you don't do and

there's some things you do. And there's

a there's a difference. Now, this is

where some of the people that were off a

little bit on understanding grace a

couple of decades ago misled a lot of

people where they kind of ignored this

whole section. They would just say, "Oh,

it's just all about grace. Don't worry

about it. God will work it out." Oh,

you're having sin problems? Don't worry

about it. God will work it out. Just

look to his grace. just said like there

was this ethereal mystical thing of

looking at looking for God's grace and

thinking about forgiveness but not

knowing how to overcome your sin habits

as if it's just okay it's all covered

under the blood.

My friends, that's a very dangerous

mentality to have. What we begin to see

in scripture, and we see it certainly in

this passage, is that grace was given to

train you. And that training means doing

away with some things and taking on

other things. Some of you really need to

listen to my voice this morning and

understand that God's grace is calling

you to leave some of your sin and some

of your mentality that you're thinking

that's very worldly.

You need to listen to that. You need to

say, "Lord," maybe even right now, you

would say, "Lord, what things in my life

are you putting your finger on?

What part of my thinking

is not of you?"

Because you may be calling me to leave

those things as you're calling me to

bring on some things. And and here's the

thing that I I also want to say at this

moment right along these lines. I always

want to say this.

God will not ever take anything from you

that he will not replace with far more

value.

We're always afraid, well, God's going

to take this fun thing away, or God's

going to take this valuable thing, or

God's going to take this security thing

away from me, and it's it life is not

going to be better because God's going

to God is requiring me to give that up.

Listen, he will replace with joy and

fulfillment and provision a thousand

times over the sinful things that you

want to hold on to if you'll let him.

And so go on and grow. Be willing to ask

the question, Lord, what about my

Instagram

is not honoring to you?

Lord, what about my finances? What about

my schedule?

What about my work life?

What about my marriage? What about my

parenting?

What about my hobbies? What about my

inner thought? What about my

entertainment?

What is not honoring to you? And don't

be afraid that he listen.

Hebrews 11:6 says, "For the Lord is a

Hebrews 11:6

rewarder of those who seek him." This is

seek him. You don't have to be afraid

that he's going to that you're going to

miss out on anything. The whole FOMO

thing, it doesn't work with God. You

don't need to have any fear of missing

out when you are right with Jesus.

You're not going to miss anything. Young

lions suffer want and hunger, but those

who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

That's Psalm 34. So, I want you to see

this that you're never going to miss out

on anything. Um, Sheran Hills, we form a

counterculture that is unlike the world.

You know, Sheran Hills, the inside of

Sheran Hills shouldn't be just like the

world. We ought to be different. If the

world is super racist and all divided,

we shouldn't be that way. If the world

is super greedy and super stingy, we

shouldn't be that way. If the world is

super fleshly and sexual, we shouldn't

be that way. If the world is super

sensitive and, you know, always

offended, easily offended, we shouldn't

be that way. You see, we should be we

march to the beat of a different drum.

We march to the beat of the Holy Spirit.

And he has saved us. He's given us grace

to live a different way. So your family,

our homes are training grounds, not

performance stages. You're not just

trying to get your kid to perform like a

little circus monkey and do the right

thing. Instead, you know, don't just

train out of that. Listen, go for the

heart. Train grace in from the

beginning. And then notice here with me

for your own life, spiritual growth is

learned and glad obedience. Obedience is

not a bad word. It's a good word. You

don't need to dread obedience. Obedience

is wonderful. It may be hard and

difficult at moments, but it is super

super good. Notice this. Spiritual

growth is learned and glad obedience,

not what?

>> Robotic response.

God doesn't make robots. He doesn't want

you to be a robot. He wants you to be

one who loves to obey.

And again, that you obey not because you

want to be saved, but because what?

>> You are saved. And there's a very big

difference in motivation. So the key

principle is this. Grace doesn't lower

God's standard. It empowers obedience.

That's what it does.

God's grace doesn't lower the standard.

That's that's what all the free grace

folks used to emphasize

um and maybe still do. Instead, what it

does is it empowers obedience. In fact,

notice these two passages of scripture I

have here. They immediately came to my

mind as I was thinking of this. Romans

Romans 6:1

6:1. What shall we say then? Are we

continue? Are we to continue in sin that

grace may abound? You know, the idea

that, well, God lo I God loves to

forgive and I love to sin, so just let

grace abound. That sounds good.

Circle the beginning of verse two.

By no means.

How can we who died to sin still live in

it?

Now, key thought at that point is this.

If you can still live in it,

what does that might what might that

indicate?

>> Maybe you're not saved.

So, if you just sit there and defend all

your sin and you go, "Ah, it's no big

deal. God will get over it."

That may indicate you don't know the

Lord. And so, it's worth it's worth

testing yourself. We're told in

scripture, test yourself to see if

you're in the faith. Well, here we we

want to obey the Lord. Again, Satan

always tries to convince us that God's

going to take something away and we're

going to miss it. And we need to go back

to Psalm 34 that says, "Those who seek

the Lord lack no good thing. You're

going to have everything you need." Look

at Ephesians chapter 2:es 8-10. Starting

point, people, we studied this one real

good this morning. Look what it says.

There's that verse again. Verse eight.

For by grace you have been saved through

faith. And this is not your own doing.

Remember it says that twice. Starting

point folks. This is not your own doing.

It is the what?

>> The gift of God. Circle the word gift.

Very important. A gift is free.

Verse nine. Here it is again. Not as a

result of what?

>> Works that no one may boast. And then

verse 10, which we didn't look at in

starting point, but this is very key to

this message. Look at verse 10. For we

are his workmanship. You see, Christ on

the cross worked to save us and make us

new in him. For we are his workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for what?

>> For good works. So good works are a big

deal to God. If you were at starting

point and we put the big X over all

those arrows indicating the arrows of of

good works, right? It's not that good

works are not important. It's just that

good works won't save you. And the real

picture here is is that God has prepared

us. He saved us for good works. He wants

us to grow in good works. And that's not

just holding the door for somebody.

That's a wide range of living with your

wife with grace and patience. Living

taking time with your children to teach

them as we should. It is giving where we

need to give. It is caring where we need

to care. It's not being obsessed with

all of our wants and our happiness and

our entertainment, but it's starting to

look outward

as Christ did.

So, these are the good works of a life

that's not when they come into the room

thinking everybody, you know, what does

everybody think of me? Instead, when you

come into the room, you're thinking

about everybody else. By the way, that's

that's two different ways in which

people enter a room.

Some people enter the room and think,

"I'm here." And other people enter the

room and they go, "You're here."

That's a very big different way to live

your life.

And if you struggle with the I'm here,

ask God to change that. And if you're a

Christian, let me tell you that he will.

He will help you stop being so

self-conscious and so selfish that when

you walk into the room, you think, "I'm

here." Instead, you walk into the room

going, "Oh, look, look who's here. How?"

You know, and we focus our lives on

others instead of ourselves. Because you

see, the first one is miserable.

The first one is no way to live your

life. When you get over yourself and

start looking to God and looking to

other people, that is when living

becomes fun.

>> Fun and fulfilled.

So notice this here that we are called

to this look at at walking in obedience.

So we're called to Yes. fill that in

that we should walk in these good works.

We're called to walk in them. Finally, I

want you to see this as we close this

morning.

Number three and number four. Number

three, we get from verse 13.

Grace

reorients our hope and this is our

future expectation.

So look at our passage up at the box at

the top. Look up there at the top. Verse

11. For the grace of God has appeared

bringing salvation for all people. Verse

12, training us to renounce ungodliness

and worldly passions and to live

self-controlled upright godly lives in

the present age. And then here it is

verse 13.

Waiting. There's that word again,

waiting for our blessed hope, the

appearing of the glory of our great God

and Savior Jesus Christ. So in verse 13,

we see that already but not yet thing

that Pastor William was talking about

the beginning of the service. We already

are in Christ, but we still have

promises that are yet to be fulfilled.

He we we're not in heaven yet. So the

already of our salvation, the not yet

that we're not there yet, but it's

coming. That which is coming is greatly

inspiring. And that's what verse 13 is

saying.

How do you live the Christian life?

Well, you don't just look back at the

cross, as wonderful as that is. You look

at the promise of his second coming and

all that is going to happen when we are

caught up together with him in the air

and when we are finally with the Lord

and it's no longer possible to sin and

we live in eternity and death is over,

disease is over. There's no more

leukemia and there's no more broken

relationships and there's no more debt

and there's no more stress and there's

no more anxiety. It's all done.

>> And we we we we have to be mindful of

this promise

because that's what gets you through the

hard times.

>> This is what can rescue you

from mental illness in so many ways. As

we focus on heaven,

emotional stress, as we learn to look

forward to heaven, as we learn to the

promises that have been made,

this is beautiful. So, waiting for our

blessed hope, the appearing of the glory

of our great God and Savior Jesus

Christ. Now, that's the second word

appearing. In verse 11, we see the grace

of God has appeared. In verse 13, we're

waiting again for that which hasn't

happened yet. It's the appearing of the

glory of our great God and Savior Jesus

Christ because he is coming again. He

came a first time and brought grace.

He's coming a second time. The Bible

fits together, by the way, like lock and

key. It's just beautiful the way this

works.

So, fill it in. For the true Christian,

the way we live is deeply affected by

our future hope in Christ. For the true

Christian, the way we live is deeply

affected by our future hope in Christ.

Do you have a future hope in Christ?

Do you think about that? Is it on your

mind? Are you looking forward to his

appearing? Are you looking forward to

your death and new life in Christ? You

say, "Well, no preacher has ever asked

me, are you looking forward to your

death?"

You know what? In a strange way, you

can.

I mean, there's a lot of times when

stress comes along way, Marcy and I just

kind of look at each other and go, "Man,

I wish he'd come today."

Or there's even been times when we go,

"Well, there's been times we're on

flights, you know, the plane's going all

over the place and everything, and

you're just kind of sitting there and

everybody else IS GOING, "OH, NO." AND

we're going, "Oh, yeah,

it's coming."

I mean, do you have that faith?

You can

for a true Christian the way we live is

deeply affected by our future hope in

Christ.

This second appearing fuels

faithfulness.

It fuels faithfulness for everyone

between Christ's first appearing in

Bethlehem and his second appearing as he

comes with the clouds.

And you can see those in Revelation,

Matthew, and Zechariah.

How about the third one there? Our hope

is not in circumstances improving,

but Christ returning.

Circumstances may not improve, they may

deteriorate.

You may die of L Garerri's disease.

You may die of Morgllan's disease. You

may die of whatever it may be. I mean

there. But listen, the circumstances of

this earth is not what we are depending

upon. What we are depending upon and

looking forward to is the return of

Christ

when all things are made new.

This is the beautiful. So for Titus, the

cret and culture like ours lives for the

immediate moment.

The immediate moment. But Paul calls

them to anchor their hope in

escatological

hope. Fill that in. Essatological hope.

You say, "Why in the world is that

pastor giving us such a big word?"

Because it's a really important word.

You should understand the idea of

esquetology. Esquetology is this. And

now I want you to see it here. Here's a

a dictionary definition of it. And

notice where we're going to focus here

where it's circled. See the big circle

here. It's relating to death, judgment,

and the final destiny of the soul and of

humankind.

So esquetology has to do with for the

Christian the ultimate and final

salvation.

It's when you go past death and you go

through the judgment and Christ is

standing there in your place and there's

the final destiny of the soul which is

safely in the grace and in the hands of

God.

So notice again here Paul calls them to

anchor their hope in escatological hope

which is all of his promises that he has

made concerning the end. And you can't

anchor your hope in that if you don't

know what they are, which is why we

study the Bible. The last one here is

notice that Paul identifies Jesus as our

great God and Savior Jesus Christ. I

didn't want to miss that concerning our

Christology. Who is Jesus? Well, here

the Apostle Paul makes very clear this

is our great God and Savior Jesus

Christ. This is one of the very very

clear statements of the Bible regarding

who Jesus is.

our great God and Savior. So for 2026,

Sheron Hills, we encourage one another

to remember our blessed hope. Fill it

in. To remember our blessed hope for

your family. We train our marriages and

our p parenting on our future reward.

So if if you if you work on your

marriage and you work on your parenting

with all of the picture of where we're

ending up, it makes it so much more

worthy. And then for you, your deepest

pains and fears can be calmed by fixing

your eyes on the promise.

When we fix our eyes on Jesus, the

author and the perfector of our faith,

we have the peace that surpasses all

human comprehension.

This is Hebrews passage. This is

Philippians passage. This is the picture

of God's great peace. And the key

principle is this. We live godly lives

not to earn the future, but because the

future is secure.

Let that be your motivation for choosing

Christ instead of crazy ideologies at

FAU or UF or FSU or wherever you go to

college. No, I'm focusing on the secure

hope that there is in Christ, not the

ideologies of the world that are going

to come and go.

We live godly lives not to earn the

future but because of the future is

secure in Christ. Number four, finally,

God redeems an entire people. And we see

this God redeems an entire an entire

people, his people. It's God's people

and our identity is together in that.

And that's a absolutely critical part of

this passage. Look what it says here in

verse 13. And it says, "Waiting for our

blessed hope, the appearing of the glory

of our great God and Savior Jesus

Christ." And then here it is, verse 14,

"who gave himself for us to redeem us

from all lawlessness and to purify for

himself." Underline it, a people for his

own possession.

What an amazing thing that God calls

you. If you're in Christ, you're a

people. You're a person for his own

possession.

You're you're intimately his.

He He says, "You're mine."

When I was a father of two little girls,

I would hold them and I would look at

them and I would say, "You're mine.

You're mine."

I would tell them that over and over

again. And then one of them said they

listened too much in Sunday school and

they said, "No, I'm God's."

Got a point there, kid.

But in an earthly sense,

we love that picture. And God says,

"That's how I feel toward you.

You're mine. I love you."

Oh, how we need the love of God.

Notice this. Fill it in. The great hope

of our life in 2026 goes back to the

power and the beauty of Christ's

sacrifice

to redeem us and to purify us. Why? So

that we may live for him.

My friends, the table that is set before

us is to remind us of what he did for us

and the beauty of that. And oh, what a

way to live 2026

in grace. It says the grace of God has

appeared to you,

appeared for you in Christ.

So that we can live lives that are

meaningful, not lives that are passing

away.

Some of us need to really think about

renouncing ungodliness in our homes,

in our work,

in our own minds.

renouncing ungodliness and worldly

passions

and to live self-controlled,

upright, and godly lives for him.

Why do we do all that? Because he laid

down his life for us.

Reflection questions. Here we go.

Number one,

when you think about 2026,

what is your greatest

concern?

What is your greatest concern? You know,

you should probably take some time and

think about that

right now.

Maybe you should think about that this

week. Lord, what's on my mind? What am I

concerned about? What is what is really

important to me?

Number two,

when you think about 2026, what is your

greatest hope?

Maybe another way to ask that is, what

is the source of your hope?

Is it your own paycheck?

Is it your children?

Is it your parents? Is it is the source

of your hope your health?

Is it the hope for

the power ball?

Let me tell you something. Far more

powerful than the power ball is the King

of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So whatever your concerns are and

whatever your hopes are, we really need

to think about that and then live in

faith

toward those things. Number three,

how does this is a key question for you.

How does the reality of the cross of

Christ and all that it represents affect

these two things? Your concerns and your

hope.

See, if you're concerned about lost

people getting saved,

you're looking at the cross. If you're

concerned about whether or not you're

living a more holy life

for the glory of God, you're concerned

for the cross.

If you're

hoping in him,

the cross is on your mind.

I really want to challenge you to

consider those things. Let's pray

together. And I'm going to ask if you

would to stand with me as we pray.

Father, heaven in heaven, Titus chapter

Titus 2 · chapter mention

2 reminds us that grace has appeared

and it's appeared not only to save us

but to enable us to live for you.

And Lord, I thank you for that glorious

truth. Thank you, Lord, that our hearts

can be encouraged with this. Thank you

that your word is encouraging

as it invites us in.

Father, I pray that this morning that

those in this room who have not yet come

to your grace, they've never yet trusted

in your grace, they've been kind of

looking and trying to figure it out. I

pray that you would give Lord the grace

and the faith that they need to believe

to say if never before then certainly

now I want to place all of my hope in

the cross of Christ.

Even right now, Lord, I pray that they

would have the grace to repent of their

sins and say, "Lord,

these are yours.

I give them to you.

Forgive me. Wash me clean.

Make me yours.

Never let me trust in anything else ever

again other than you.

Lord, I pray for that. I pray for that

this morning, especially as we stand in

front of this table.

And Lord, for believers in this room, I

pray that God, wherever we've been

toying with the world or Satan has kind

of deceived us into fear or disobedience

or things that don't matter. I pray that

this morning that you would help us to

repent.

Say, Lord, take my heart. Take my whole

heart.

Wash it clean.

Create in me a new heart.

Thank you that this table represents the

price that you paid for us.

And I pray that this morning that you

would help us to be prepared for this in

our hearts.

Lord, for those who should not observe

this, who have not yet come to faith or

those who are

for whatever reason resisting you.

I pray that you would help them to have

the wisdom not to participate.

But Lord, for those who were willing and

wanting

you,

I pray that they would receive your

grace through this

beautiful reminder of your love in Jesus

name.