Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace 02.09.26
Transcript
- 0:04This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
- 0:08Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
- 0:12County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
- 0:16continues teaching through God's Word.
- 0:37As children of God, as Christians, we should be
- 0:40obedient people, he said. Obey and seek to please our
- 0:45masters in everything, willingly giving ourselves to their
- 0:49authority. It shouldn't be disrespectful.
- 0:52He said that that we should be well, pleasing in everything,
- 0:55not answering back. We shouldn't be disrespectful.
- 0:58There's a difference between explaining A misunderstanding
- 1:03and having a hostile debate with someone who was in authority.
- 1:07CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, made the
- 1:11comparison between your temper and rats in the cellar.
- 1:14When you suddenly turn on the lights in the cellar and rats
- 1:17scurry everywhere, it's not that your movement produced the rats.
- 1:22They were already there. The same is true of your temper.
- 1:26When someone provokes you, the way you react only reveals what
- 1:29was already there. Today, Pastor Lewis challenges
- 1:33you to check what kind of character you have, even when
- 1:36you're in tough situations. Now.
- 1:39Here's Pastor Lewis in Titus Chapter 2 with today's edition
- 1:43of Living Waters of Grace. As we go through the book of
- 1:46Titus by now, I'm sure you can see that it's a very rich book
- 1:50and it's really hard to put time limits on going through Titus
- 1:53because it is very rich and there's so much in it.
- 1:55It is a teaching epistle and therefore it's very important
- 1:58not only to us as pastors or leaders, but it's important to
- 2:02everyone. There's so much instruction and
- 2:05so much godly direction that we get in the book of Titus.
- 2:08That is just, it's an awesome book.
- 2:10When Paul wrote this to Titus, the instruction was to put
- 2:13things in order. That was the whole premise,
- 2:17putting things in order. Let's set the church in order.
- 2:21And then and by setting the church in order, we set
- 2:23ourselves in order. We set each other in order.
- 2:26You see, our teaching should really be a blending, and this
- 2:29is what Paul was instructing Titus and Timothy is the fact
- 2:34that the teaching, our teaching should be a blend of not only
- 2:37doctrinal teaching and given true doctrine, but also it
- 2:42should be practical admonition. It should be about how to walk
- 2:47out, how to live out what it is that we're teaching.
- 2:52Last time we were together, we talked about the older men and
- 2:54the older women and the things that the Lord admonished them to
- 2:57do in their lives, the exhortation that he had for
- 3:01those group of people. But it was not just an
- 3:04exhortation, but he also challenged Titus to be an
- 3:08example. Not just to give the words, but
- 3:11be an example of what it is that you are asking the people to be
- 3:17as you build them up with your teaching.
- 3:20Actually, Paul wrote more about Titus as an example in the book
- 3:25of Titus than he did actually as him teaching the doctrine.
- 3:29It's important that he be an example.
- 3:32You see, whatever a pastor or leader, whatever a leader wants
- 3:37the people to be, whether you're a parent, whether you're a
- 3:40teacher in school, whether you're a, a, a, a pastor or
- 3:44leader in church, whatever it is that we desire to see in other
- 3:50people, we must first be the example of that ourselves.
- 3:57And when we do that, we teach more that way or just as much
- 4:01that way as we do by just giving words.
- 4:04So as we look here in verse 9, Paul goes on and he continues to
- 4:08teach Titus about God's heart for how to serve him.
- 4:13And in this way, he now goes to that fifth group.
- 4:16Remember we said that there were five groups that the Lord was
- 4:20actually speaking to. The first was the old men and
- 4:23then the second was the old women.
- 4:25And then he spoke to the young men and the young women.
- 4:28And this fifth group now is to bond servants.
- 4:31And if we if we were to look at it today, it would be employees,
- 4:35OK or workers OK. So as we, as we walk through
- 4:38this, think about it in terms of not just being slaves in the
- 4:41conventional sense, but also being workers or employees of
- 4:47people with corporations. And this is what he says here in
- 4:50verse 9. He says exhort bond servants to
- 4:53be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in
- 4:57all things, not answering back, not pilfering not but but
- 5:01showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of
- 5:09God our Savior in all things. So he first thing he says, and
- 5:14as we talked about before, these bondservants, these are willing
- 5:18people who are willingly giving themselves to be slaves.
- 5:22This isn't forced labor people. And just as Paul identified
- 5:26himself at the very open of the letter, he said that he was a
- 5:29bondservant of Jesus Christ, bondservant of God, and an
- 5:32apostle of Jesus Christ, which means that he is willingly
- 5:35submitting to the authority of God and our Lord and Savior
- 5:40Jesus Christ, just as it is that he's asking these people to be
- 5:44as well. He says, as bond servants, be
- 5:47obedient. That means willingly come under
- 5:49the authority of those who are over you and this is what God is
- 5:54expecting. This is a testimony when even in
- 5:57situations like that, and I'm sure they were harsh situations.
- 6:00I mean the Romans or the the people who were over these,
- 6:04these men and women who were slaves.
- 6:06I'm sure sometimes those situations were harsh, but he
- 6:09says as you come under them willingly submit to them and be
- 6:14well pleasing in everything. If you remember, he said that
- 6:18the Christians were disobedient people.
- 6:22So he's saying that as children of God, as Christians, we should
- 6:25be obedient people. He said obey and seek to please
- 6:30our masters in everything, willingly giving ourselves to
- 6:34their authority. It shouldn't be disrespectful.
- 6:37He said that we should be, well, pleasing at everything, not
- 6:40answering back. We shouldn't be disrespectful.
- 6:42There's a difference between explaining A misunderstanding
- 6:47and having a hostile debate with someone who is in authority,
- 6:52speaking to someone in a disrespectful tone.
- 6:55There's a difference between the two.
- 6:56We can explain a misunderstanding or we can even
- 7:00explain a situation where we feel like we may be wrongfully
- 7:03accused of something, but there's a difference between
- 7:06that and engaging in a hostile exchange and Paul's saying you
- 7:10don't answer back. You're not.
- 7:12You're not to be talking back to your servant, to your servant
- 7:16leaders or to your masters. He said not pilfering and this
- 7:21pilfering is is meaning basically saying don't be
- 7:24stealing, don't steal, don't steal from your place of
- 7:27employment, thieving or taking things that don't belong to you.
- 7:31And, and basically Onissimus in the book of Philemon, this may
- 7:35be one of the things that Onissimus was had probably
- 7:38committed. That was a sin that he probably
- 7:39committed that caused an issue taking something that didn't
- 7:44belong to him. And he's telling us as servants
- 7:48or he's telling us as employees to not steal.
- 7:51What a awesome, what a terrible testimony that would be that
- 7:55someone accused you as a Christian, excuse me, accused
- 7:59you as a Christian of stealing, of stealing.
- 8:03And people, you know, there's definitely report that it
- 8:05happens all the time. People take pens and paper.
- 8:07They take pencils, little things.
- 8:09They think that the company won't miss reams of paper.
- 8:13One piece of paper turns into a ream of paper and and other
- 8:17things. I mean, I know that there are
- 8:18times that I worked at at places and the bosses will get
- 8:21everybody together and say, listen, we got toilet paper
- 8:23that's missing. You know, I mean people, you
- 8:26know, find out that there's, you know, they they need toilet
- 8:28paper and they don't have it at home.
- 8:30And they figured that the company won't miss a couple
- 8:32rolls of toilet paper. But this is not right now.
- 8:36There are times when companies will say, hey, look, we have an
- 8:38excess of that, Please take as much as you need.
- 8:41We have an excess of this, you know, please help yourself and
- 8:44take as much as you need. That's different, but to still
- 8:48is not a good testimony. And then he talks about he says,
- 8:52but showing we should show all good fidelity.
- 8:56That means show honesty, show trustworthiness about show
- 9:00faithfulness in our jobs. That's the testimony that we're
- 9:04looking for that a worker should be able to say or an employer
- 9:08should be able to say that you as a woman or man of God, you're
- 9:13honest, you are trustworthy, you're you're loyal.
- 9:18These are good things. These things bring glory to God
- 9:21and to God's word. And then he goes on and he said,
- 9:24the reason why we do that is so that they may adorn, meaning the
- 9:29the bond servants, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our
- 9:33Savior in all things that they adorn the docs.
- 9:36That means be clothed, that you were clothed with the doctrine.
- 9:40You're not just spewing it out. You're not just speaking it out,
- 9:44but you're actually clothed with it.
- 9:46It, it it's visible. It's it's like you wear it like
- 9:49a garment. The goodness and the
- 9:51righteousness of God. And what a testimony that is
- 9:54without even necessarily having to tell people, yeah, I'm saved.
- 9:57But meanwhile, you know, you're loading up your car with things
- 9:59that don't belong to you or you're talking back to a boss
- 10:02and you're speaking to them in a disrespectful way.
- 10:05And then you say, oh, hey, by the way, I'm saved.
- 10:06You know, why don't you come and visit our church?
- 10:08You know, that's going to be very difficult for people to
- 10:10feel justified to come and visit a church like that.
- 10:13But if you're clothed with righteousness, if you're
- 10:16clothed, if you're wearing it like a garment, then that's a
- 10:20blessing. And people, you won't even have
- 10:21to ask them. They'll ask you, where do you go
- 10:23to church? What do you believe?
- 10:26What do you serve? Who do you serve?
- 10:29They'll ask you. And then we move in here to
- 10:31verse 11. And verse 11 is a very, very
- 10:35involved verse because it's it's about more than just what it
- 10:40appears. So we're going to get into
- 10:41talking about the grace of God that that unmerited favor that
- 10:46we have received from God our Savior.
- 10:50I'll read it and then I'll go back and make comment.
- 10:52It says here, for the grace of God that brings salvation has
- 10:55appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and
- 11:02worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
- 11:08in this present age. So he's talking here, and this
- 11:12is basically talking about the first coming of Jesus Christ.
- 11:16And we're later going to talk about the second coming.
- 11:18Paul talks about a lot of different doctrine in Titus, in
- 11:22the book of Titus, but this is the first one that we're talking
- 11:24about. This is like the first coming of
- 11:26Jesus Christ. And I just want to mention that
- 11:29with this grace in which He appeared to all men, and it was
- 11:33a grace that He came to us. He didn't come as executioner or
- 11:38judge, but He came as Savior. He came as a Savior.
- 11:43The Bible says that He came. He was full of grace and truth.
- 11:47And thank God for the truth that He brought.
- 11:50But my God, thank him for the grace.
- 11:53Thank Him for the grace. So he didn't come as his judge
- 11:58or executioner as he could have. And we probably deserved it, but
- 12:01he didn't. He came as Savior.
- 12:04And the Bible says that Jesus Christ came into the world to
- 12:06save sinners. So it was the grace of God that
- 12:10he would, that he would be here, that he would do this.
- 12:13And it also talks about South in talking about this first coming,
- 12:16he actually appeared in two different ways.
- 12:20He presented himself in two different ways.
- 12:23The first time that he presented him that he was presented to the
- 12:27people was when he was born. If you look back in Luke chapter
- 12:312 verse 8, this is what the angels announced to those who
- 12:35would witness Jesus Christ coming to the world.
- 12:39He said, for there is born to you this day in the city of
- 12:45David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
- 12:50And this is the announcement that was made before all, before
- 12:53all these shepherds. And of course they went out and
- 12:56they spoke it and they shared it to everyone.
- 12:58But this was the one of the first times that he was
- 13:02presented to the world as King, as Messiah, as shepherd, as
- 13:10Savior. But then there's a second time
- 13:13and this is what we're talking about today.
- 13:14This is what we're celebrating today, His triumphal entry into
- 13:19Jerusalem, when he came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey,
- 13:25presenting himself as Messiah, as King, as Lord.
- 13:32And the interesting thing about that is that there's, you know,
- 13:35he is the, he is the promised King.
- 13:39He is the promised and rightful king who brings salvation and
- 13:45that's why he came. So the Bible talks about his
- 13:48triumphal entry and and he's a promised king because back in
- 13:52Zechariah Chapter 9, it was already prophesied 700 years
- 13:56before he even came. It was prophesied that he would
- 13:59be coming. So that promise was fulfilled on
- 14:03that day, the promised king, and he came riding on a donkey.
- 14:07He didn't come riding on a horse because he wanted to portray to
- 14:10the people that I'm coming in peace, I'm coming lowly, I'm
- 14:14coming meek, I'm coming as one who is coming to make peace and
- 14:19to bring peace. If he was riding on a horse, the
- 14:23way he's going to come back. He's coming back to make war.
- 14:27He's coming back to establish his Kingdom for eternity.
- 14:33But in that triumphal entry, the Bible said he rode on a donkey.
- 14:38The the, the, the, the a coat, the foe of a donkey.
- 14:44And when he came in, like I said, he was the promised king
- 14:46because he fulfilled that prophecy which says your king is
- 14:50coming to you just and having salvation.
- 14:54He is the rightful king also though, and he's the rightful
- 14:58king because the Bible says that when he came in, according to
- 15:01Matthew 21, that the people were hollering and they were shouting
- 15:05Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David.
- 15:11And the fact that they acknowledged the fact that that
- 15:13he was that, that they said Hosanna, that means save us.
- 15:17They acknowledged his kingship, save us, save us.
- 15:21And they acknowledged that he was the king through through
- 15:23David or through the line of David because they called him
- 15:26the son of David. And he in the flesh, he was a
- 15:30son of David, but in the spirit he was a son of God.
- 15:35And the Jews acknowledged him in that time on that very first
- 15:38Palm Sunday. We understand that when he was
- 15:40coming through that they had palms and they were laying palms
- 15:45before him and they were laying their clothes before him.
- 15:47And they were basically creating a, a red carpet treatment for
- 15:51him to be able to come into the city.
- 15:55But that was another way of acknowledging that He was king,
- 15:58or they're acknowledging him as king, because that is the way
- 16:01that they receive the procession of royalty when it comes to
- 16:05their cities. They put their clothes before
- 16:09them, they put all these things before them, and they caused
- 16:11them to come in. Well, this is exactly what Jesus
- 16:15did. But many people that were there,
- 16:18they thought He came in because He was coming to now establish
- 16:22the Kingdom and to knock over Roman rule and to establish
- 16:25themselves as the king and take back our nation.
- 16:28But that's not why He was coming.
- 16:31He was coming because he was going to.
- 16:34He was going to defeat, but he wasn't just going to defeat
- 16:37Roman rule. And that's where the palm
- 16:39branches come in. You might wonder, why do we have
- 16:42palm branches? Why is palm branches symbolic of
- 16:45Palm Sunday, right? Well, they mean a number of
- 16:49things. First of all, palm branches are
- 16:52symbolic for victory and peace, triumph and eternal life.
- 16:58So when, So when Jesus came in, and he came in as victor, but he
- 17:03was victor because what he was about to do, He would be a he
- 17:07would have victory over sin and death.
- 17:11He came in as peace because he was the Prince of Peace.
- 17:15Jesus is our peace and he brought peace between God and
- 17:19man. He was triumphant because Jesus
- 17:23triumphed over Satan, and he did it publicly on the cross.
- 17:28He was triumphant over saving and eternal life.
- 17:31Jesus came in. He is our hope of eternal life.
- 17:34His resurrection is our hope for eternal life.
- 17:39So when Jesus came in, all these things were important, but he
- 17:44didn't just come in just to establish himself as king or
- 17:48establish himself as Messiah, but he also presented himself as
- 17:54a lamb that would be slain. He was the Lamb.
- 17:58He was the one who was the blimp, who was the that was
- 18:00without blemish and without spot or wrinkle.
- 18:04He was the perfect sacrifice. And he presented himself that
- 18:08way on Palm Sunday. And I just wonder, you know, in
- 18:13my own life, have I allowed Jesus to have a triumphal entry
- 18:19in my life? Does he sit as king on the
- 18:23throne of my heart? Do I acknowledge him as king?
- 18:27Do I call him king? Do I submit to his kingship, to
- 18:31his lordship in my life? And one of the ways that we can
- 18:37show that is through our good works that Timothy or Titus
- 18:43continues to talk about here in the book of Titus.
- 18:46But not only did he come to establish those things, but the
- 18:49Bible said in verse 12 that he's teaching us that denying
- 18:53ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly,
- 18:57righteously, and godly. Jesus coming to give us
- 19:01salvation was not just so that we can be saved and then sit
- 19:04down like we have now. We don't have nothing else to
- 19:06do, but it's for good works, which is the evidence to
- 19:12unbelievers that a change has happened in our lives.
- 19:18The power of God working in our hearts is through the good works
- 19:22that we offer to others or that we show others, He said We
- 19:27should deny ungodliness. We should deny worldly lusts
- 19:33and, and, and, and, and we should live soberly,
- 19:36righteously, or upright and godly or God like back in
- 19:43Ephesians chapter 4, the Bible talks about putting off the old
- 19:48man. So when Jesus comes into our
- 19:50life, there's a change and we take off those things that were
- 19:54old, those things that used to be.
- 19:57Ephesians 4 and 22 says that you put off concerning your former
- 20:01conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the
- 20:04deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
- 20:09that you put on the new man which was created according.
- 20:13To God in true righteousness and holiness.
- 20:18And we do that in this present age.
- 20:20And it's important that we do it in this present age because
- 20:22there's so much darkness, there's so much evil, there's so
- 20:24much wickedness, and they need to see God's light.
- 20:27So it's more important. It's even more important now
- 20:30that we live a life that shows that there's a difference, a
- 20:34life that shows that the power of God is working in our lives.
- 20:39The world needs to see that. And you know, we may not
- 20:43understand, we may not know it, but a lot of the people in the
- 20:46world want to see that because the opposite is so hopeless.
- 20:52Suicide attempts are up. People are desperate and don't
- 20:58have an answer. They need to see our good works
- 21:02so that they can see the God in us that they may have something
- 21:07to trust in, something to believe in, and we need to do it
- 21:11in this present age. And then we go on to verse 13.
- 21:13Now he's going to talk about the second coming.
- 21:17He says, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of
- 21:21our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
- 21:25Now I want to also mention that there's a couple times here
- 21:28where Jesus is equal is is named as God in this in this verse, in
- 21:33this chapter. The first time was back in verse
- 21:3610 when he said that we should be that they adorned the
- 21:40doctrine of God, our Savior in all things.
- 21:43That was a reference to the deity of God, to the deity of
- 21:47Jesus Christ. And then here we see it again,
- 21:51looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great
- 21:54God and Savior Jesus Christ. So when people try to tell you
- 21:58that what the Bible never says that, that that Jesus is God,
- 22:03the Bible never says that. Well, this is one place you can
- 22:05bring them. He said it twice.
- 22:08They said it twice. There's one place you can bring
- 22:10them. So he's talking about that
- 22:12second coming, that that time when we are looking forward to
- 22:16him coming back. And that's our hope as
- 22:18believers, that's our hope as Christians, it's our hope as
- 22:22those who live for the Lord that we're going to see him again,
- 22:25that we're going to see him. We're going to, we're going to,
- 22:27we're going to be able to love his appearing.
- 22:30Paul talked about the fact that when he sees him, he knows he's
- 22:33going to receive a crown of righteousness.
- 22:36And not only him, but everyone who will love his appearing will
- 22:40receive a crown of righteousness.
- 22:42So this coming, this, this second coming is, is something
- 22:46that we all look forward to. And that's our hope.
- 22:49That's our hope for the appearing of the future return
- 22:52of our great God and Savior. You know what?
- 22:56If it happens in the next 5 minutes, I'll be happy.
- 22:59I'd be OK with it that we never have to go to our cars again and
- 23:03drive anywhere else. If it happens before I even get
- 23:06to my car, I'll be OK with it. I just want to see him.
- 23:10I just want to be with him. I want this to be over.
- 23:14But then again, He has a plan and a purpose for keeping us
- 23:18here. And that plan and purpose has to
- 23:21do with the good works that He's calling us to do and to be.
- 23:25So while we're here, abode and abide and occupy.
- 23:30So then in verse 14, He goes back to talking about what he
- 23:35does. The first time that he comes, he
- 23:37goes back to talking about his sacrifice.
- 23:39So he says here in verse 14, who gave himself for us?
- 23:43That's who we're looking for. We're looking for the one who
- 23:45gave himself for us. So that's why we can't be
- 23:49looking for no other king. We can't be looking for no other
- 23:52God because it was only one who gave himself for us.
- 23:57This has been Living Waters of Grace, a ministry of Pastor
- 24:00Louis Harrell of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
- 24:04Today's message has been on the book of Titus.
- 24:07This book is a master class in how Christians should live in
- 24:11modern culture. Titus was ministering to the
- 24:14people of Crete, an island off the coast of Greece, but he was
- 24:17facing many challenges. The Cretans who came to know
- 24:21Jesus seemed to assimilate Jesus into their existing culture
- 24:25instead of allowing themselves to be transformed by the Holy
- 24:29Spirit inside of them. Others were fully devoting
- 24:33themselves to Jesus but shutting themselves off from the world
- 24:37around them. The Apostle Paul encourages
- 24:40Titus to help his audience find a middle ground where they can
- 24:44live in this world while still following a different way of
- 24:47life in Jesus. If you would like to learn more
- 24:51about what it means to faithfully follow the teachings
- 24:54of Christ in a world full of darkness, we'd love to get
- 24:57connected with you in person. If you are in Greensburg, PA,
- 25:02we'd love to invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel
- 25:06Westmoreland. We meet every Sunday at 10:30 AM
- 25:09at 400 E Pittsburgh St., Ste. 6B.
- 25:15Also, if you visit us at calvarychapelonline.com, you'll
- 25:19find links to our mobile app, our giving page, and our contact
- 25:24form where you can leave a prayer request if you have one.
- 25:28Before we go off the air for today, we ask you to invite
- 25:31someone to tune in next time right here on Grace FM 91.7 or
- 25:37streaming online at Grace Radio dot FM.
- 25:41Word of mouth is the best way to spread the good news of the
- 25:44Gospel with those who are hungry to hear.
- 25:48Until next time, this has been another edition of Living Waters
- 25:52of Grace.