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On Jun 29, 2008: Titus 1:1-4 · Teachings On This Day On FerventWord

• You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2008. We were singing together in worship, said something along the lines of, Jesus, I would go to the ends of the earth for you. And as we were singing that, I am challenged, and I extend that challenge to you with the question, would I go? Would I go to the ends of the earth? Would I be available if God wanted to send me very far away? And I want to challenge you with that as well. Are you a person who is so committed to the Lord Jesus Christ that if he were to send you wherever he might send you, would you be willing to go? Richard and I were talking and praying this morning because we received in the mail an invitation to go with Cave Chapel Costa Mesa on a mission trip to kind of deep in the heart of Africa there in Uganda and some of the surrounding areas. And so it was an interesting time as we were talking about that. Of course, the first thing we see is the price tag and go, but you know, if it's God's will, He could do it. But... The question is, would we be willing to go? Would we be willing to head out and go to the farthest reaches of the earth in order to represent Jesus Christ? Are we the kind of people that would be willing and able to do that? As we start the book of Titus this morning, we learn from the things that are said about Titus in the scriptures that he was such a man, that he was willing and that he was ready to go and to fulfill the will of God no matter what it cost him and no matter what the odds were against him. We actually don't have a whole lot of information about Titus from the scriptures, but His name is only mentioned 12 times there in the New Testament, and eight of those times are in the book of 2 Corinthians, as Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, because Titus had delivered the first epistle, 1 Corinthians, to the church of Corinth and had been doing some ministry there. And so Paul talks about him there in the book of 2 Corinthians. We learn from the book of Galatians that Titus was baptized. A Greek, he was not a Jew like many of the writers and people involved in the New Testament that we read about. But he was a Greek who loved Jesus Christ and who was ready to serve him and walk with him. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul says of Titus that he is my partner and fellow worker. He holds up Titus to the Corinthians and says, this guy, he's my partner. He's right alongside me. He has the same heart for you that I have and he co-labors with me. He's believed to be a young man, possibly a little bit older than Timothy. And as Paul is writing this letter, Titus is stationed on the island of Crete, there in the Mediterranean Sea off the northern coast of Israel. As he's stationed there in Crete, he has a difficult task ahead of him. Because there's lots of opposition against the church there in Crete. Paul tells him in verse 5 of chapter 1, For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking. There were some things that were lacking in the church. There was leadership that needed to be established. And so Paul is going to tell him to appoint elders to establish leadership there within the church on the island of Crete. There was also false teachers and false doctrine that was being spread. And so Paul tells them to stop the mouths of the false teachers. He has to put a stop to the false teaching that is taking place. Paul also tells them to teach sound doctrine. The people need to be instructed on how to live, how they're supposed to walk, and how we are to conduct ourselves as Christians. And so we're going to be looking at these things in the coming weeks and how Paul is encouraging Titus to continue on to press forward in those things. But before we get to that, this morning we're looking at verses 1 through 4, which is Paul's greeting to Titus as he introduces the letter. And here in Paul's greeting, we have four things that I want to point out this morning. Four points that I believe are important for every one of us who who are believers in Jesus Christ. Number one, we'll look at the bondservant of God. Then we'll look at the promise of God. We'll look at the commandment of God. And finally, we'll look at the family of God. So the first point this morning, the bondservant of God, we find it in verse 1. It says this, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness. Paul starts out the letter introducing himself, which was the normal custom of that day. You can imagine they were writing on scrolls, and so you wouldn't want to unroll the scroll all the way to the bottom to find the name, like we sign at the end today. But he introduces himself right at the beginning, Paul, and he calls himself by a couple of titles. First title is a bondservant of God, and then he calls himself also an apostle of Jesus Christ. We're going to come back and talk about the bondservant, but let's talk about this other title first, the Apostle of Jesus Christ. Here, Paul is establishing his credentials. He has special authority because he was sent by Jesus Christ. The word Apostle simply means one who is sent, and he was sent by Jesus Christ. He was commissioned by Jesus to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Now, of course, Titus knew this. He was long a traveling companion of Paul. But Paul is probably establishing his credentials for the rest of the church as this letter would be read publicly before them that they would understand the authority that goes along with the position that Paul had, the credentials that he had and the authority that he had within the church as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. The faith is the set of essential doctrines that the church teaches, that God's chosen people adhere to. So Paul is an apostle according to those teachings and doctrines of the people that God has chosen. And he goes on to say, "...the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness." "...in accordance with the teachings, the faith of God's elect, as well as the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with, which goes along with godliness." Godliness is an important principle in the book of Titus. He talks about it, not using the same word over again, but using the words good works four more times in this book. The word godliness is formed from two different words. The one word to worship and the second word well. It means to worship God well. It can also mean devotion or piety. To worship God well is not limited to our time of worship as we gather together here at church. But the idea is that we live our lives in a way that is worshipful to God. We live our lives in a way that honors Him, that is in devotion to Him. And so he'll be talking about that. Those who acknowledge the truth must have in their lives and must be accompanied with godliness. It must be accompanied with works that are displayed as a result of the faith that they profess. It's one of the issues that is taking place here in the church in Crete because later on in chapter 1 in verse 16, Paul tells Titus that there are those who profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. Paul tells Titus later, there's those who profess to know Christ. There are those who claim to be Christians, but by their lives, by their works, by the way that they live, they deny Him and they're disqualified from every good work. It must be pointed out, and I'm sure I will bring it up over and over again as we study this in the coming weeks. Works do not save us. Good works cannot add to our salvation. They can't increase how much God loves us. They don't impact our relationship with God in that way. But good works should follow, must follow, in the lives of those who have made a genuine commitment to Jesus Christ. James talks about this in James chapter 2, dealing with faith versus works. And the point of James is... If you say that you have faith, but there's no change in your life, there's no evidence of that faith in your life, then that kind of faith cannot save you. The faith that saves, genuine faith, is accompanied by good works. Life that is lived in service to God. Life that is lived in devotion to God. It's accompanied with godliness. Not that there's perfection, but... We're in a process of being changed and grown, but there will be change, there will be transformation, there will be the evidence of that. And so Paul says, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness, the acknowledgement of the truth which is followed by devotion to God, which lives are changed and lives are demonstrating that they've acknowledged the truth. Going back to the beginning though, he says, a bondservant of God. And this is the first point this morning, the first thing I want to look at, because this title that Paul applies to himself really applies to every believer in Jesus Christ. The word bondservant, in the Greek it's the word doulos, it's a common word that's referred to often. Perhaps you've heard it before, but it means one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another. His will altogether consumed in the will of another. The bondservant, this title that Paul gives himself, is one who is in a permanent condition of servitude. It's not a temporary thing, it's not an off and on thing, but it's a permanent condition. Paul is saying, I am permanently a servant of Jesus Christ. The second part of this though, it says his will altogether consumed in the will of another. It means that Paul is saying, I am a permanent servant or slave, could be also translated that way, of Jesus Christ. And my will is consumed with his will. In other words, His will is what consumes me. His desires, His plans, His purposes, what He wants, that's what consumes my life. That's what fills my life. That's what I'm passionate about. Paul is saying, I am consumed in the will of God. And in this, he's following the example that Jesus Christ set for us as Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. preparing to be arrested, to be taken away and be crucified. He goes with his disciples to pray. And he leaves them, he goes off by himself, and three times he goes before the Lord. And his prayer is this, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus' prayer is essentially this, Lord, if there's another way that people could be saved. if there's another way that they could enter into eternity and receive the fullness of your plans for them, Lord, then don't let me go through this. Don't let me endure the cross. Take this cup from me. But he adds on to that, Lord, your will be done, not my will. He was altogether consumed in the will of God. What mattered most is God's will, what God planned and what God desired. He says, not my will, but yours be done. That is a bondservant. That is a doulos. The immediate challenge for you and I then is, can we apply this same title to ourselves? Are you a bondservant of God? Altogether consumed in the will of God, devoted to Him, a permanent condition of service towards Him. See, this title is not only to belong to the Apostle Paul. But it also is to belong to all those who follow Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 9 verse 23, Jesus says to the people who are around him, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Jesus says, look, if you want to be with me, if you want to come after me, if you want to walk with Jesus, here's what he says you must do. Three steps. Step number one, deny yourself. The first thing you have to do if you want to be with Jesus is you have to deny yourself. And this is what Jesus modeled for us when he said, not my will, but yours be done. He denied himself his will and he says, Lord, I'm in obedience to you. I'm going to serve you. Naturally, we are full of ourselves. Jesus said, gives us the power, the strength, the ability to deny ourselves. To deny and to turn from what is natural for us. Looking out for number one and putting ourselves first. And to put something else in that place, which is God. To put Him in the first priority, the first position of our lives. It's where He's called to be. It's His rightful place. And so if you're going to walk with Jesus, if you're going to come after Him, if you want to be with Him, you must deny yourself. Life is not all about you. Step two. He says, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily. Now, of course, quite literally, this is what Jesus did. He took up his cross and he carried it to Golgotha. He took up his cross. Now, of course, What he's saying is not that you have to, you know, get a couple two-by-fours or a couple four-by-fours and build the shape of a cross and carry that around with you everywhere you go. That's not what he's saying. But in the same way that Jesus Christ took up his cross and surrendered his life, he surrendered his life by carrying his cross to Golgotha. In the same way you and I are to surrender our lives, to surrender them to God. Lord, this life is yours. I no longer have rights to it like I once had. I no longer have the right to set the goals, the plans, the priorities. Lord, it's your will. I've surrendered it to you. You do with my life as you please. Jesus took up his cross. And third step, if you want to be with Jesus, he says, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. We need to follow Jesus, to follow his example, to follow his lifestyle, his love, his compassion, his self-sacrifice for others. We find all throughout the scriptures that Jesus is the model for us. He's the proof that we can do it, that we can walk with him, that we can follow after him, that we're to model our lives after his example. And so Jesus lays out the requirements for And add up step one, step two, step three. Add it all up and it boils down to you need to be a bondservant. To deny your will, to deny yourself, rather, to take up your cross and surrender your life and walk in Jesus' steps. To be consumed in His will, His purposes, and His plans. Every one of us without Christ is a slave to sin. Jesus says that in John chapter 8. He who sins is a slave to sin. But by faith in Jesus Christ, we are set free from that bondage. We're set free from the slavery to sin, from the death sentence that we deserve because of our sinful nature. So by faith in Jesus Christ, we're set free. And now what God asks for you and for me is that we would willingly become slaves again. Whole different type of slavery though. Slavery to sin is miserable. Not only that, the master is cruel. Not only that, but the end result is eternal damnation. We're caught in sin. We're bound to it. The master of sin, the sin as a master is a cruel master, will destroy us completely and then will leave us in an eternal state of punishment. God sets us free from that bondage and By what Jesus Christ did upon the cross. And when we put our faith in Him, that slavery is broken. We've been set free. But now God says, now will you willingly become a slave. Not slave to sin, but slave to righteousness. Slaves of God. His bond servants. where we choose to pursue His will instead of our own. His purposes, His plans, what He desires instead of our own. It's what is required to walk with God. Later on in the book of Luke, in Luke chapter 16, Jesus is giving similar criteria for what must be done if you want to be His disciple, if you want to follow Jesus. And He gives an illustration in that portion about who... Who is it that builds a tower but doesn't first consider if they have enough resources to complete the job? It's kind of like this gas station right here. Every time I drive by it, it reminds me. Just right down the street. It's been in the condition that it is for, I don't know, several years now. They started the job, but they didn't have what it takes. And now it's supposed to be something else in a little bit, but they didn't have what it takes to complete it. And Jesus says... In the same way, he says, who does that? And applying that to what he's saying, he says this, come, follow after me. Walk with me. I have great things in store for you, but count the cost. Consider what it's going to take and make sure you're willing to pay that cost. Because what is the cost? What is the requirement? We must become a bondservant, completely sold out to God, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus. We're called to be bondservants. to be consumed with His will, His plans and His purposes, and not our own. So Paul calls himself a bondservant of God. Number two, we find in verse two, he says, Here the second point I see this morning is the promise of God. First, the bondservant of God says, is what we're called to be. Now, the promise of God for those who are His bondservants, for those who are followers of Him. What is the promise of God? The promise of God is eternal life for those who believe. We find this taught all through the Scriptures. Probably the most famous verse of the Bible, John 3, 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The promise of God to those who believe in Him, to those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, to those who follow after Him and are His disciples, the promise of God for them is everlasting life, eternal life. Now eternal doesn't just mean, it's not just talking about duration, it's not just talking about a long time, but it also is referring to the quality of life. It's the abundant life that Jesus promised in John chapter 10. There in eternity where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain. God has glorious things in store for those who walk with Him. In fact, the scriptures say that You can't even imagine what eternity is going to be like with God. The best thing that you can imagine, the most wonderful heaven that you can imagine, isn't going to compare with the reality of heaven that God has in store. The Apostle Paul said, At a point in his life, he wasn't sure if it was in his body or out of his body, if it was just a vision or if it really happened, but he was caught up into heaven. And as he's relating this event that took place, he says, I can't even express, I can't communicate the things that I heard there in the presence of God. It hasn't even entered into the heart of man. Our language can't even express that. the reality of eternal life that God has in store for those who believe in Him. And that's just the things he heard. He said it'd be criminal, it'd be a crime to try to even use our language to share it, but that's just the things he heard. What about the other senses? There's so much that God has in store, way beyond what we could even conjure up in our own minds. And so we're not called to be bondservants with no hope. That's slavery to sin. There's no hope. We're caught. We're trapped. We're slaves. We can't free ourselves. And the result of that life is eternity away from God and everlasting judgment. But we're called to be bondservants with a great hope, a wonderful hope, the hope of eternal life. When the Bible uses the word hope, It's not using it in the same way that we often use it today. We use the word hope often as a wish. I hope I win the lottery. I hope I close the garage door when I left home. I hope, and it's wishful thinking. It's possibly it might happen, but maybe not, not sure. Sometimes a hope is, you know, one to a million odds. But when the scripture uses the word hope, it's not that definition at all. It's not used like that at all. Hope in the Bible is a confident expectation. There's no doubt. There's no chance. There's no probabilities. It's for sure. It's absolutely going to take place. It just hasn't happened yet. That's the way the Bible uses the word hope. So this hope of eternal life is not based on wishful thinking. I hope I make it to heaven. I hope I have eternal life. No, there's a confident expectation. It's absolutely going to take place. Eternal life is promised for those who believe in God. The hope of eternal life is based upon the promise of God. The promise of God. Now, you and I, we're somewhat familiar with promises, right? We've experienced making promises. We've experienced people making promises to us. And for the most part, I think we're fairly accustomed to people breaking their promises in this life. Friends, family, they've broken promises that they've made to us. Salespersons for sure, politicians absolutely. We're used to and somewhat accustomed to someone making a promise and it doesn't always come to pass. We're even used to breaking our own promises. Promises that we make to ourselves, promises that we make to God, promises that we make to others. Many of those promises that we make, we do not fulfill them. We break those promises. How is it that promises get broken? A promise is broken, first of all, when the person making the promise never intends to keep the promise, which means they lied in the beginning. They said the words, they made the promise, but they never meant it, they never intended to keep it. And so, of course, that promise is quickly broken. Sometimes promises are broken because of unforeseen circumstances. Well, I promised to do this and I really wanted to do it and I was ready to do it, but then this happened and then this other thing and these things took place and I was not able to keep that promise. Sometimes promises are broken because we fall short. We just don't have what it takes. We don't have the ability or the resources in order to fulfill that promise and complete the thing that we said we would. So promises are broken all the time for various reasons and we're somewhat used to it. But we need to understand that God is not like us. We make promises and break them. But Numbers chapter 23 verse 19 tells us that God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? There Moses in Numbers 23 is saying, whatever God has said, he's going to do. He will fulfill it. God is not like man. He's not like us. His promises are never broken. His word is always fulfilled. His promises are always completed. And it's an absolute guarantee. No questions about it. We can be assured of this by several things. In the same way that we break promises for several reasons, we can look at these same things with God and understand that His promises will never be broken. First of all, we break promises sometimes because we never intended to keep it. We lied, in other words. But look at verse 2 again. In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie. Yes, it's true. There are some things that God cannot do, and I am so glad for that, and I say hallelujah. God cannot do anything contrary to His own nature, and therefore He cannot lie. Hallelujah. So he will never make a promise that he does not intend to keep. He will never make a promise that he will not fulfill because it is impossible for God to lie. And if it's impossible for God to lie, then everything that he says is the truth since he cannot lie. I can believe without a doubt, wholeheartedly, 100% everything that he has said. God's promises are true. Sometimes we break promises because of unforeseen circumstances. But again, look at verse 2. When did God make this promise? The promise of eternal life? He made this promise before time began. Now it leads some to ask, well, who did he make this promise to? I guess he made it to himself. But before time began, he made this promise. What does that mean? Well, we're not limited to this verse only, but the scriptures teach us that God knows everything. He is omniscient. There is nothing that will be that he has not already known for all of time. He made this promise before time began because he knew that today you would be here and need to be reminded that he has promised eternal life. The point is there is no unforeseen circumstances for God. There's nothing unexpected. Oh, I didn't plan for that. There's nothing that he doesn't know. He sees it all. He knows it all. God will never be shocked. We could never throw him a surprise birthday party. He would know. He always knows. And so God promised eternal life from before time began. Which means that before he even created life, before anything involved with creation took place, he knew Adam and Eve would sin. He knew how long they would live and what the rest of their life would be like. He knew that the rest of us would descend from them and would end up with the sinful nature without the hope of heaven and slavery to sin. And so he promised before he even started creation, before time began, before he even started it, he promised that he would give eternal life to those who would believe. He wasn't responding immediately. Oh man, they blew it. Man, they sinned. I can't believe it. Now what am I going to do? Okay, well let me give them the law. Oh, they can't keep the law. Now what am I going to do? Well, let's send my son. He wasn't reacting to what was taking place. He knew from before time began that we would need eternal life and so he promised to provide it to those who would believe. It's comforting to know before time began, several thousand years ago, God knew every detail about you and he still loved you enough to send his son to die upon the cross for you. to offer to you the opportunity of eternal life. It's a promise He will not break because He knows all the circumstances. There's not going to be any surprises. He knows it exactly and He will keep this promise. Sometimes we break promises because we fall short. We just don't have the resources. We don't have what it takes. But again, God is not like us. He is almighty. He is all-powerful. He has all wisdom and all knowledge. And just as God's promises and prophecies and His Word has been fulfilled from all of history to this point, exactly as He said, without one exception, just as all those promises and prophecies have been fulfilled, they will always be fulfilled for the rest of eternity. His arms are not short to save. He has what it takes. He knows what it requires and He is capable of completing and fulfilling His promises. So He cannot lie. Nothing is unforeseen for Him and He has all power. He is almighty and able to fulfill His promises. Now I had up all these things in my head and turns out guarantee is not really a sufficient enough word to describe God's promises. It's not enough really to describe the surety that we have of eternal life for those who believe in Jesus Christ. Guarantee isn't good enough. What's above guarantee? I don't know. But it's absolutely more true, we can have more confidence in it than anything else in life. Even the foundations of the earth aren't established as much as God's promise for eternal life to those who believe. We don't know exactly what this eternal life will be like. It's beyond our comprehension, beyond our imagination. But here's what we do know. It will be infinitely better than eternal judgment in hell. And so God gives us the opportunity, the surety to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can enter into eternity with Him. That He has in store for us things beyond our comprehension. Things that we couldn't even imagine or think up. Disney illustrators couldn't draw it. Hollywood couldn't picture it. We're not capable of understanding or inventing what God has in store for us for eternity. So like the author of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23, he says, "...let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promises faithful..." He who promises faithful. Hold fast to our confession of hope. Hold fast to the truth. That if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you put your faith and trust in Him, if you serve Him and walk with Him, you have guaranteed, even more than guaranteed, absolutely certain, eternal life in store for you. Abundant life. Again, not just duration, but quality beyond our wildest dreams. So number one, we're called to be a bondservant of God. Number two, we have the promise of God, which is eternal life. Number three, we find... In verse 3, it's the commandment of God. Verse 3 says this, But has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior. The commandment of God. What is the commandment of God? The commandment of God, Paul says, is preaching. Again, he says, He's manifested His word through preaching. His word is revealed. God reveals Himself, His message, through preaching, And he says, preaching was committed to me according to the commandments of God. God commanded me to preach. And through that preaching, his word is manifested or his word is revealed. Now, when Paul uses this word preaching, he doesn't mean necessarily from the pulpit, which we traditionally might think. Paul preached the gospel when it was before many or before few. He preached the gospel there in the Roman court before King Festus and all those who had gathered. But he also preached the gospel to Lydia and a few other ladies who had gathered there by the river in Philippi. To preach simply means to proclaim, regardless of the size of the audience. The command of God to Paul was to preach the gospel, to proclaim the good news. And in the same way, the command of God to you and I is to preach, to proclaim the good news of what Jesus Christ did for us upon the cross. This is the way that God has chosen to reveal His Word. It's the way that He's chosen to reveal His message by preaching or proclaiming by His servants. In Matthew chapter 28, verse 19 and 20, we have what we often refer to as the Great Commission. Jesus there, as he's about to ascend, he says, So he gives the command to go and make disciples. But he adds the assurance, I'm with you. But notice at the end there, he says always, even to the end of the age. Now we're not at the end of the age yet. The age is still going. But do we have any of those 11 disciples that were gathered there when Jesus gave them this command? Now they've all died. They've many thousands, several thousands of years ago, 2,000 years ago or so, they've died. They've gone to be with the Lord. Which indicates to us that this command was not just to those 11. Till the end of the age, He is with His disciples. That's you and I as believers in Jesus Christ. And the command to us is to make disciples, to teach them to observe the things that Jesus has commanded, to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. It's our job, it's our task, it's what has been commanded to us and many other ways as well. I won't get into that, but we're called to make disciples. Now there's a saying, and perhaps you've heard it, witness is not something you do, it is something you are. It's not something you do, it's something you are. The emphasis there and the reason why this is stated is that you need to live your life as a witness. Your life needs to be an example of Jesus Christ and to testify of Jesus Christ by the way that you live and the way that you conduct yourself. And that is true. We are to be a witness with the way that we live. But I think the emphasis there necessarily shouldn't be there that that's the only way that we're a witness because witness is also something that we do it's something that we say because we've been commanded to proclaim the gospel living your life as a witness is important it's vital we need to walk the talk but we also need to talk the walk Living as a witness is a way to open the door to be able to proclaim the gospel message. It's the way that we get the opportunity to share with others the truth of Jesus Christ. Our lifestyle, the way that we live, is the method by which people will open up themselves to hear what we have to say. Now understand that God could have revealed himself and his gospel in any other way that he wanted. He could have chosen to reveal his message by writing it in the clouds every day. And every morning we'd come out and we'd see him writing with the clouds the gospel message. And we'd look, oh great, God's proclaiming his message today. Or he could have had angels appear at every home every night to tell and to speak forth the message of God. God's God. He has all power, all knowledge. He could have Put an article on the front page of every newspaper every day to proclaim His message, to share His love, to share the truth. He could have done anything He wanted, but He chose one way to proclaim the Gospel message, one way to share the truth of His love. He chose to use us, to use His bondservants to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and His love for us. We're the only way that He's chosen. There's a few exceptions. He reveals Himself first. to them in visions and dreams, and there's a lot of that going on in the Muslim community. But the main way, the primary way that God reveals Himself to others, that they hear the Gospel message, is by someone who believes in Jesus Christ, living their lives as a witness, have the opportunity and do proclaim what God has said and what God has done for us. Obey the command of God. Preach the Gospel. Share with the people around you the good news. Be instant, in season and out of season. Be ready to tell them of the love of Jesus Christ because God is not willing that any should perish. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 4, it tells us that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. This is what God desires. So stay with me. Track with me here. If this is God's will, if this is what God desires for all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, then if you and I are bond servants, if we are consumed with the will of God... then like God, we will desire all men to be saved. We'll be consumed with the desire for other people, the people around us, to hear the news, to come to the knowledge of the truth, to receive it, and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You will preach the gospel because God desires all men to be saved. So be consumed, be passionate for what God is passionate about. Be a bondservant and preach the gospel. Whatever opportunity God gives you, to many people or to one at a time, proclaim the word of God through Jesus Christ. So we have the bondservant of God, the promise of God, the command of God, and finally number four, the family of God, found in verse four. He says, "'To Titus, a true son in our common faith, "'grace, mercy, and peace, "'from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, "'our Savior.'" Here is the family of God, as Paul calls Titus, a true son in our common faith. Jesus told his disciples that in this life they would have much tribulation. For you and I as Christians, we know, we understand, the Christian life is not promised to be easy. There's much difficulties. We're going against the flow. There's problems that arise because of our faith in Jesus Christ. But the good news is that we're not in this on our own. We don't have to deal with these difficulties. We don't have to deal with these struggles. And we don't have to face this world all by ourself. We are in a very real way a family. Paul calls Titus his true son in the faith. We have brothers and sisters in the Lord. We also have moms and dads, mothers and fathers who have ministered to us and discipled us and raised us up and mentored us in a walk with God. Those who have helped us Those who have been spiritual authorities in our lives. And we're all united together as a family, as the body of Christ. Jesus said in Luke chapter 8, when his mom and his brothers had come to kind of pull him away, they thought he'd gone over the top a little bit too much. And he was inside a house and there's people all around. And the message is brought to him, hey, your mother and your brothers are outside. They want to see you. And Jesus says, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. We're a family. As we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, as we hear God's word and put it into practice in our lives, we're a family. We're united together under the common bond of Jesus Christ, the common bond of his love. In our faith, we have brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers united who are here with us. We're not alone. You don't have to do it all by yourself. You don't have to struggle and be so lonely. You're not isolated. God has made you, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, a part of a wonderful family. I think it was about a month ago that I first met my neighbor, the guy next door to the apartment. And we passed each other kind of on the sidewalk, on the path. And I had my backpack that I carry around everywhere and I keep all my stuff in it. And he sees the backpack and he thinks it's kind of big, so he says, Whoa, are you going backpacking or are you going hiking or something? And I was like, No, I'm just going to church. And he got all excited. His eyes lit up. Well, what church do you go to? And we started talking and it turns out he's a brother. He fellowships at Calvary Chapel Chino Valley. And it was interesting and it happens all the time, but always it's remarkable to me that there we had that conversation. We'd known each other for 30 seconds. We went from strangers to brothers instantly. There was an instant leak, a common bond. And it happens all the time. Being part of the family of God is awesome and wonderful. You can meet people around the world and spend three days with them and it's been like you've been with them your whole life and that love that you have for one another. And it's just incredible what God can do in His family through one another as they minister to one another. But you know, being part of the family of God is more than just that experience of being stranger to a brother or sister and having that close-knit thing so quickly. There's also the strength that comes from an intimacy between brothers and sisters in the Lord. There's an incredible strength that comes from knowing that there's brothers or sisters that got your back. They're with you in the fight. They're with you. They're praying for you. They're supporting you. They're lifting you up before the throne. There's great strength that comes from being able to share with one another what God is doing, the difficulties you're facing, the fears, the problems. And we can share and encourage with one another the things of God. You know, I want to encourage you that there's a great importance to being involved in a fellowship. Whatever God has called you, That church is not just about coming on Sundays and sitting through some worship and enduring a long Bible study. Even though I get the most amount of time, it doesn't mean that this is the most important part of church. We need church. We need the body of Christ because we're a family. And if you're not involved, if you're not plugged in, if you're not... in fellowship. And by fellowship, I mean more than just, you know, hanging out together. But if there's not that intimacy between you and other believers in Jesus Christ, you're missing out. It's why we keep 30 minutes between first service and second service. So you can come early. So you can fellowship and spend time with others and get to know one another and strengthen each other and encourage each other and pray for one another. It's why we don't kick you out right away after service. Because we want you to be encouraged to stick around. You need one another. We're the family of God. There's great strength that comes from being close together, upholding one another and praying for one another. It's the way that God has designed us to be. And as Californians, I think it's especially true that we get so isolated and so independent in our thinking and all I need is me and Jesus. And that's not true. God created the body of Christ and created us to need one another. We need each other. We need those brothers and sisters in our lives. We need the strength that is provided by spending time with them, by ministering to them and allowing them to minister to us. There's something about a family that, well, you're allowed to be more open. The relationships are more intimate because they know your weaknesses. They've seen you grow up. They've seen you all through life. My dad gave me a call last night because he saw a movie and he was reminded about how whenever I would see a movie and I would come home and I would act it out when I was young. And whatever it was, I'd be the main character and I was the star and I'd be doing whatever it was they were doing in the movie. So impressionable. They know everything about you. And so there's more intimacy in that relationship. And in the same way, sometimes as Christians, we keep each other distant. We hold back. Oh, I don't want to share with them that struggle or that difficulty or those things that I'm going through. And what it does is it lessens the amount that we can minister and be ministered to. We're the family of God. Paul says, you're my true son in the faith. Now, I understand some families treat each other terribly. And even sometimes within the body of Christ, there's, well, there's those relationships that someone treats another terribly. But how are we to treat one another terribly? I like what Paul says here in verse 4. To Titus, the true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Here's how we're to treat one another. With grace, mercy, and peace from God. Show each other grace. It's undeserved favor and kindness. So treat other people, treat your brothers and sisters in the Lord with favor and kindness that they don't deserve. Treat them as if they're worth more than you think that they're worth. Treat them better than they deserve. The same grace that we receive from God, we are to extend to them to show them grace, but also mercy. Mercy is not receiving the punishment that is deserved. And so as we spend time together and minister to one another, let's show the mercy of God in the same way that He doesn't deal with us according to our sins, but He does deal with us according to our sins. Don't deal with others according to their sins, the way that they've wronged you or the way that they've blown it. Listen, they know that they've done wrong. You don't have to beat them over the head with it. Show them mercy. Don't give them the lashing that they deserve or the sarcastic tones that they deserve. Withhold judgment. Withhold punishment. Show to them and extend to them the mercy of God, but also the peace of God. Peace is... security, tranquility, or harmony between individuals. Show them the peace of God. This is how we're to relate to one another as a family. Not always stirring up trouble and causing fights and talking behind their backs and gossiping, but there's to be harmony, there's to be security in our relationship. There's to be loyalty there and the peace that's nice and soothing and peaceful. We should not be irritating to be around to the body of Christ. But there should be peace. We need to give to them the peace of God, the same peace that He gives to us. The worship team is going to come up and close us in the last song. I want to encourage you this morning on these four things that we looked at. Number one, to be a bondservant of God. One who is a permanent servant of God, altogether consumed in His will, holding fast to the promise of God, the hope of eternal life. based upon His promise and beyond what we could ask or think. I want to encourage you to be obedient to the commandments of God. God chose us to proclaim His message of life to the world around us. He desires all men to be saved, so preach the gospel and proclaim His truth. Number four, be a part of the family of God. Minister to one another. Show each other grace, mercy, and peace from God. We've got a wonderful family that God has provided for us. Don't take it for granted. Don't disregard it. He's created us with a need for one another. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.