WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.120 And go to the book of Titus. 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.320 We continue our study in the book of Titus together. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:09.519 And today we're going to be launching into the last chapter of Titus, chapter three. 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:19.519 I've titled this message, and I don't often give you the titles of the sermons. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:21.760 Always gracious. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.760 That's a beautiful phrase, isn't it? 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:25.679 Always gracious. 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:29.920 You say it slowly, always gracious. 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:33.520 And you can almost imagine it being framed, can't you? 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:48.399 You know, that you might walk into a Christian bookstore or happen into your online Christian uh retailer, and you'll see these inspirational posters, and a little black-bordered, beautiful scene of the Rocky Mountains. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:56.880 And then sitting above the Rocky Mountains would be in this wonderfully uh developed typeface, always gracious. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:01.439 And you you look at that and you think, you know, that's that's pretty much me. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:14.480 You know, it's you know, it's it's meant to be aspirational for some folks, but you know, it's uh it's there, and I think I'll get that poster just to remind myself that you know I'm one of those kind of people. 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:16.319 I'm always gracious. 00:01:16.640 --> 00:01:35.760 And then Monday arrives or Tuesday or Sunday afternoon with the parking lot still in your rear view mirror, and all of a sudden, things have come into your life that are going to pressure test whether or not you're always gracious. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:41.519 And maybe you can consider going home and meeting one of your neighbors. 00:01:41.840 --> 00:01:46.079 No, not the worst one, but the most persistent one. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:59.120 The one that's come to you four, maybe five times, and uh they've come with the same issue, with the same tone, with the same persistence, and you open up the door, and there they are again. 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:14.719 And you say hello, and you smile, but the space between your thoughts and your smile on your face, that's a distance you'd rather not articulate. 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:30.159 Or maybe you could consider one of your coworkers who, in what could only be described as professional attribution, has in a meeting taken credit for something you've done at the workplace. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:37.360 And you've sat in the meeting and you've just sort of smiled and you're thinking, always gracious. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:41.199 And so you just let it slide for a little bit. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:49.840 Until a few hours after the meeting, another one of your coworkers just excitedly talks about what that co-worker's accomplished. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:54.639 And all of a sudden you're realizing that always gracious needs a pretty big top-up. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:09.199 Too often we feel the gap between the things that we affirm here on Sunday and the moments that we live on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Sunday afternoons. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:13.680 And today we're going to hear that phrase again, always gracious. 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:17.039 But it's meant to come into our actual lives. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:23.599 It's meant to be how we interact with actual people and living in this actual world. 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:39.759 And we can feel the gap between those two things, and the Lord knows this, and that's why he's written these things for us, because what Paul is going to direct the church and what he's directing us under the inspiration of God is something vital for us. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:46.080 And I want to say right at the front that what Paul doesn't say is try harder. 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:52.400 He's not just here calling us to try harder at being always gracious. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:58.159 He's got something far better and far more interesting to say about that. 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:09.360 And so if you stay with this until verse 3, we'll get to that point where he tells us what that far better and far more interesting way of being always gracious lies. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.639 But before we get there, I want to make two observations. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:16.399 First, an observation about where we're at. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:26.160 This is something we need to remember because we can only understand what is being directed here when we understand where it's happening. 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:32.240 And here we see that it's in the middle of a church plant on the island of Crete. 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:35.439 And we've noticed that before when we went through chapter one. 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:43.680 And in that chapter, the Apostle Paul quotes a Cretan poet who says this about his own people. 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:51.199 That they are evil beasts and lazy gluttons. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:58.399 Now, that's not an examination from somebody on the outside who thinks that their culture is better than the Cretan culture. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:00.240 This is one of their own. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:02.480 This is their own poet. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.560 It's a cultural self-assessment. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:11.839 And the Apostle Paul is quoting it without irony, as a matter of fact. 00:05:12.079 --> 00:05:17.120 And so Paul is not surprising the people of Crete about these things. 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:18.959 This is home for them. 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:28.800 They know they're in a culture that is self-oriented, that is antagonistic, and that is hateful and greedy. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:35.759 And it's into this context of Crete that Paul sends Titus to serve. 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:46.720 And he's given a mission, a mission that I think a lot of us would look at and go, well, thanks for the offer, Paul. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:49.360 I hope you can find somebody who could do this. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:56.480 This is a mission that's somewhat like Mission Impossible, you know, where Titus receives this message. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:03.360 If if you choose to accept this, kind of thing, it's difficult. 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:16.879 He is to establish elders, he is to oppose false teaching, and the primary thing is he's to ready the church for engaging that kind of culture with the gospel. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:38.560 And what he is telling the people here, and what he's telling us, because our culture, I think, could be identified quite quite a bit along similar lines as the Cretan culture, is that the proof of the gospel isn't simply a proof of argument, it's a proof of presence as well as argument. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:57.279 And what Paul is doing here is telling these people that it is significant the way they live, the way they speak, the way they serve, the way they conduct themselves within the context of this culture is going to have an influence for the gospel. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:08.160 And so he leads them to understand that sound teaching, sound doctrine leads to sound living, that what you believe shapes how you live. 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:12.959 And so this is chapter three. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:25.120 Paul is digging in here to the people in Crete to help them understand how to interact in this society and culture and the way it is with the gospel that's now come to them. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:34.800 I want you to notice one other thing before we dig into the text here, and it is to mark out what Paul says right there at the beginning of verse one in chapter three. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:36.879 Remind them. 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:39.519 Remind them. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.879 Just pause there for a second and think about that. 00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:47.600 The word is not instruct them. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:56.800 The word is not instruct them as though these are people who don't have this information and are now in a place of needing to receive the knowledge. 00:07:57.519 --> 00:07:59.120 It's remind them. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:18.000 Reminding people who have already received this message, who have already understood it, who have already agreed with it, who have perhaps patterned their life for a time in it, but now have laid it aside and it needs to be strengthened. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:19.600 They need reminded. 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:26.480 Some of them have set it aside, like perhaps I do too often, my keys when I get home. 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:31.920 And the next time I have to go somewhere, I'm scrambling around the house going, where did I put those things? 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:37.360 And there's some folks in the church here who are doing the exact same thing. 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:45.440 They're going, Oh, I'm about to go outside, I'm about to meet my neighbors, I'm about to go into the workplace, I'm about to go into the marketplace. 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:47.679 Uh, what do I need to bring with me? 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:49.279 How do I get there? 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:57.360 There's a difference between a congregation that doesn't know something and a congregation that's forgotten something. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:15.840 One needs a teacher, the other one needs what Paul is telling Titus here: reminding, to keep something always in focus, to ensure that it stays at the forefront of our understanding, that it becomes the leading edge of our interactions. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:19.919 That's the reminding that Paul's talking about here. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:39.600 And that's what this message is going to be for all of us: a reminder for all of us to take the things that Paul is saying to Titus to give to this church and to keep those things front and center as we step outside these doors and as we interact with each other inside these doors. 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.120 So we're going to look at three points this morning. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:48.799 We're going to notice, first of all, the reach of gracious living. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:54.720 And then, secondly, we're going to see the behavior of gracious living. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:00.720 And then we're going to talk about the ground or the basis for gracious living. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:12.159 How far grace reaches, how grace behaves, and how we can actually be gracious in our interactions. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:16.720 So the first one, the reach of gracious living, and we find this in verse one. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.919 Paul doesn't begin where we think he might. 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:28.080 He doesn't open with the community of faith here when he talks about being gracious. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:34.080 He doesn't start with a gathered congregation, with the people who are committed by covenant relationship with one another. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:45.519 And he's not calling us to be gracious with people with whom we might have a minor theological difference, with whom we might have a stylistic difference of whether or not we like modern songs or ancient hymns. 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:52.399 He's not talking about gracious of people who say, Well, I like the NIV and you like the King James Version or you like the SV or whatever. 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:54.240 He doesn't start there. 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:55.919 Look where he begins. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.000 He begins on the outside. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:07.120 Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:15.679 And what Paul does here is he begins to show us the reach or the extent to which gracious living goes. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:18.879 And it goes well outside our walls. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:21.679 It goes well outside our covenant community. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.080 It goes not even into the workplace or the marketplace. 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:32.320 It goes into the relationship that we have with authorities and governmental places. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:40.080 And so these three commands that he offers in this verse are like concentric rings of water. 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:46.879 We've got our posture, and then we have our disposition, and then we have our actions. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:50.960 And here he says that our posture is to be one of submission. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:55.919 Submission to rulers and authorities. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:11:58.799 Now take a look at that. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:00.639 How stark it is. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:07.120 Submit yourself to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:11.039 Paul doesn't add a caveat here. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:14.399 He doesn't add a qualifier here. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:17.519 He doesn't add a modifier here. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:27.840 He is not saying this is a command that you are to follow when you live under the authority of philosopher kings of exceptional virtue. 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:33.279 These are Cretan authorities, by the way. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:38.720 The always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:40.080 Guess what? 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:44.559 They get elected or they get appointed to office. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:57.279 These always liars, these evil beasts, these lazy gluttons, are in places of authority as much as they're in places in the marketplace. 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:18.799 And what Paul is saying is that these Cretan authorities, these people under Roman governance, whatever their character, or whatever the quality of their decisions, or whatever their personal conduct, regardless of that, we are to be in a posture of submission. 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:30.159 And it doesn't say submit yourself to those people who have deemed by their behavior to be worthy of that tip of our hat to them. 00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:33.759 It simply says be submissive. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:36.399 And here's why. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:45.360 Because our posture of submission to governing authorities is not determined by the quality of their authority. 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:11.600 And because we're members of a different kingdom while still living within the context of this one, we can act differently than anybody else. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:20.080 And so Paul in Romans 13, as we read together, gives a fuller theological rationale for all of this. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:28.320 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:50.960 And there, Paul is talking about the functioning of civil society and the necessary constructs that make civil society happen by putting people in place to award what is done that is good and to punish that which brings destruction to that civil society. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:15:07.279 And within the economy of common grace, we are to be those who would help promote the common good and to submit ourselves to those structures that allow for us to live a quiet and peaceable life. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:26.399 And so a believer who's securely rooted in the kingdom of God, who understands that we're genuinely free, because no matter what happens in this world, we are loved by God, and nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:38.240 Because of that, because no earthly power can threaten any of that, we can live as free men and women in this context. 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:47.120 We can live even in a submissive posture because we know a freedom that nobody else knows. 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:51.039 They are bound by the dictates of those rulers. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:52.960 We are not. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:04.559 And so in civic engagement, we can be submissive when there are others who would think that the differences call for warfare. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:07.200 Let's move on. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:08.720 He says obedient. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:11.200 He moves from posture to disposition. 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:31.039 And what he's calling for here is the kind of disposition that's not compliance, like maybe parents you've seen in your children who uh you know go to do what you told them to do, but their face shows you that they're not exactly happy about doing what you just told them to do. 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:38.320 We've all observed and probably offered that kind of disposition. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:17:09.920 But here is an obedient disposition that engages legitimate authority and serves the real purposes that God has given that authority for, so that the world will not unspool into chaos, that there will be a civil structure and a society that protects the common good, and that we are participants in making sure that God's common grace operates well and we don't stand against it. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:14.799 And then he says, ready for every good work. 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.079 Now look at the context again. 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:24.799 This is in the context of verse one where he's talked about civil rule, where he's talked about obedience to them. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:29.599 This is not private holiness that's practiced behind drawn curtains. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:33.200 This is public contribution. 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:37.519 This is, well, let's paint a scenario. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:38.880 There's a need in the town. 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:48.640 Perhaps there's been a flood or there's been a fire, and people's homes have been destroyed, and it's been weeks, even months, and they haven't gotten on their feet. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:59.119 Maybe it's an organization in the town that's run out of volunteers, or maybe there's people that are in need that need tutoring or help in the area of expertise that you have. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:07.119 Maybe it's a place of meeting those who are down and out where they could get food and help and clothing. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.240 Be ready for every good work means showing up in those places. 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:15.359 It means going into those areas of need. 00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:19.759 And the town is not wondering if the people of God will show up. 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:54.880 They know they will, because they're people ready for every good work, not scrambling to get ready, not going, should I do this, but ready for every good work, looking for needs within the context of our civil society and being an agent for good in those places, not just in our posture toward ruling authorities and not just in our disposition toward the things that lay down upon us as laws, but ready to enter into the community and to do good. 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:56.880 To do good. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:01.920 Now let's back up just for a second and reinforce this. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:28.160 What Paul is telling Titus is to help the church and Crete, who live in a society where people are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons, that the significance of the gospel needs to be demonstrated not just by rhetoric, but by our reputation. 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:30.480 Our reputation. 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:42.720 To know that because we're in Christ, we are free to be a good neighbor, that we're free to be a good citizen, that we're free to be those who can offer a credible witness for the gospel by entering in and engaging our society in a way that's ready to do what is good. 00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:59.599 And so the question we have to ask ourselves as we look at this is this is my engagement, is my engagement with the public world consistent with a person who knows that they're a member of another kingdom? 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:06.559 Is my life genuinely ready for every good work? 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:12.240 Or has the culture entered in? 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:32.079 Has the cultural moment and the political atmosphere, with all of its legitimate questions and all of its genuinely difficult ones, entered in in such a way that it's turned my public posture into one of a combatant rather than a Christ-like presence? 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:37.920 That's what Paul's calling us to ask ourselves. 00:21:39.279 --> 00:21:43.119 And the antidote is this we belong to a kingdom that cannot be shaken. 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:58.319 No election, no policy, no failure of civic leadership, no evil person in any city or any nation can touch what Christ has permanently secured for us. 00:21:58.960 --> 00:21:59.599 We belong to. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.839 To that kingdom. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:11.839 And that settled identity is what leads us to be able to do this, to be able to look at verse one and say, okay, I can be in my posture submissive. 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:14.240 I can be in my disposition obedient. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:17.920 I can, in my action, be ready for every good work. 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:21.599 Because I live like a person who's already free. 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:23.920 I'm not bound by these things. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:29.519 I don't need culture to affirm me before I step into it. 00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:33.680 I could be distinct because I'm already owned by God. 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.559 So let's look at the second point here. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:44.960 The first point talks about the reach of gracious living, and the second one leads us into the manner of gracious living. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:50.000 This second movement gets pretty close to home. 00:22:50.960 --> 00:23:00.799 To slander no one, to avoid fighting, to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people. 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:24.160 He's taken our posture toward governing systems and institutional authorities, and he's now moving to our manner to all people, with actual people, with the people that we meet every day, meeting them in convenient and unconvenient times, good and bad moments. 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:29.519 And the first thing that Paul says is this slander no one. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:31.680 I want you to hear the Greek word. 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:36.559 I don't often give those out, but I want you to hear it because I think you'll you'll understand. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:38.160 Blasphemo. 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:41.039 Does that sound like an English word we have? 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.640 Do not blaspheme other people. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:50.960 Now we narrow this word, blaspheme, and usually use it only in the context of talking about God. 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:52.799 You've blasphemed God. 00:23:53.359 --> 00:24:00.400 But here Paul is taking it away from just that narrowed understanding and applying it to everybody. 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:06.079 Do not speak in a blasphemous way about anyone. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:09.039 What does that mean? 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:22.000 Do not slander anyone, do not defame anyone, do not speak in a destructive way about anyone's reputation. 00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:25.680 That's what he's talking about. 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.240 It's broad and it's unqualified. 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:42.880 And the reason it's broad and it's unqualified is because there are a lot of people who try to wiggle into the place where we'd make an exception about it. 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:54.880 There are a lot of people whose behavior, whose conduct, whose personality is such that we would say, well, that person I can blaspheme. 00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:57.359 That person I can speak evil about. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:02.880 That person's reputation is such that I could, oh, I'm just being accurate here, is this. 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:08.400 Paul doesn't give us that kind of wiggle room. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:20.799 Don't speak evil, don't slander, don't destructively talk in a way to deconstruct anyone's reputation. 00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:23.839 No one. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:36.319 Why is he telling this? 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:41.839 Because our voice is to be shaped by something other than contempt. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:52.079 As believers, we have something better to do with our speech than to be destructive and contemptuous with it. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.799 It doesn't mean that we have no voice in public issues. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:04.240 It doesn't mean that we stay absolutely quiet about things that are of moral consequence. 00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:18.799 There's a big difference between what is truthful speech, what is insightful speech, what is evaluative speech, and speech that is meant to be destructive. 00:26:19.119 --> 00:26:21.359 There's a big difference between the two. 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:27.039 He goes on to avoid fighting. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:29.759 ESV says quarreling. 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:32.799 And it's literally non-fighting. 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:44.960 And it's not talking about being a pacifist here, but we are not to be a person that's oriented toward being controversial and full of conflict. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:47.359 We don't run to the fight. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:55.279 We're not a person who's perpetually ready to tangle in a fighting controversial way. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:01.759 And this for us, I think, is an extreme temptation. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:07.359 Because we live in a cultural moment that rewards contentious point making. 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:14.880 All you have to do is turn on any one of the news broadcasts that are cycling 24-7 all over. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:16.960 Pick any of them, it doesn't matter. 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:20.079 More liberal leaning or conservative leaning, it doesn't matter. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:23.839 And you get two or three people in the room, and guess what they do? 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:26.720 The cameras pan back and they just watch. 00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.920 How contentious is this going to get? 00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:32.480 Who's going to voice over the other one? 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:37.440 Who's going to be so argumentative and point making that they win the moment? 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:43.839 Nothing gets resolved, but everybody's emotions have just ratcheted up about five steps. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:46.160 Let us break for a commercial. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:50.559 They haven't fixed the problem. 00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:54.960 They haven't worked through the rationale for any of those points. 00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:57.519 They've simply got you agitated. 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:08.160 So you'll come back after the break and be ready for the next one, which they're going to sell to people who want you to buy what they're offering. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:09.920 That's what it's about. 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:16.559 But we live in a culture that is full of emotional heat and not reasoned arguments. 00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:20.960 We live in a culture where the sharpest edge is the one that wins. 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:31.839 We live in a culture where the social media algorithms, if you spend even five minutes thinking about them, are rewarding the things that cut through it all. 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.519 They measure and they reward the quarrelsome. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:43.680 And there's a version even in Christianity where that's the case. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:49.519 Where faithfulness is substituted by a willingness to fight. 00:28:50.880 --> 00:29:09.119 Where the person who's most ready to engage every controversy, where the person who's ready to challenge every wrong person, or the person who sits there in discernment ministries, who is ready to be engaged in conflict itself, seems like the most committed in the room. 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:12.480 But that's not how Paul's ordering it here. 00:29:13.359 --> 00:29:23.200 He's saying not the passive person, but the non-combative person is the one who's the most committed in the room. 00:29:24.960 --> 00:29:26.799 Third, to be kind. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:33.599 And I'm going to mention the SV a couple times here because in these next two there's a little bit of a flip-flop. 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:36.799 But to be kind, the SV says to be gentle. 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:43.599 And this is a very, very rich word, and it it resists easy translation. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:30:01.839 Aristotle used this word when he was describing a person who decided not to take advantage of rights that they had, and was able to relinquish those rights even though they were in a position of pushing for them. 00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:09.039 So being kind and being gentle in the English language doesn't quite get there, does it? 00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:16.799 A person who chooses not to enforce every right that they legitimately are entitled to. 00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:39.440 And you think, ah, that's a lifestyle choice. 00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:40.720 That's not a right. 00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:47.920 But they'll stand there and say, This is a right. 00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:58.799 And Paul is telling us not to be just another subculture, but to be a counterculture. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:08.559 By being some some in someone and some people who are distinctly different than those who are saying, This is my right. 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:17.519 You can afford to be, because you belong to a different kingdom. 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:25.279 The fourth one he says here in our manner of gracious living is to show gentleness to all. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:30.799 And again, this sort of bleeds over into what the ESV said about the previous one. 00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:37.119 And the ESV puts it this way: show perfect courtesy toward all people. 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:40.160 I like that. 00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:44.400 Show perfect courtesy toward all people. 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:52.720 Not people who deserve our courtesy are to be the recipients of our courtesy. 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:59.119 Not people who've reciprocated our courtesy are to be the recipients of our courtesy. 00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:06.720 Not people that share our convictions or our background or our neighborhood or our political positions deserve our courtesy. 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:10.319 No, perfect courtesy to all people. 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:17.519 A Christian witness that's warm and generous to everyone. 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:29.920 A Christian witness that is warm and generous to everyone and not cooler to those on the outside than we are to those on the inside. 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:40.240 Again, what is Paul doing here? 00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:58.240 He's telling us that the gentleness that we have to all people, in the middle of cultural temptations that would drive those things out of our head if we paid any attention to what the cultural pressures are, is that the credibility of the gospel is on the line. 00:32:58.559 --> 00:33:12.720 That the community in Crete needed to see a distinct people who swam a different way than everybody else, who lived their life in completely distinct ways that would catch people's attention. 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:17.119 Because it's exactly the opposite of what they would expect someone to say. 00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:32.880 And so he's saying here that we are to live this way, not with the people that it's easy to live this way with, but to live this way with the people where it's hard to live this way with. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:43.519 To live this way with those people who have given us every reason to write them off, to live this way with them. 00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:58.960 He's getting into a far deeper reason why we do that in just a second. 00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:08.000 And if you're here this morning and you're thinking, I just need to be better at this, we're going the wrong direction. 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:17.440 Because it's more than this, it's about a person who's been reached by something that makes the difference in how we conduct ourselves. 00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:22.800 And that distinction matters because it changes everything. 00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:51.599 If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been graciously spoken about in Christ. 00:34:54.079 --> 00:34:59.760 You're not described with contempt, you're received as a child of God. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:10.960 You are spoken about in language by God that's different than any language you've heard people talk about other people in this world. 00:35:11.599 --> 00:35:24.960 God speaks to you and about you in ways that are far different than the break room at work or the locker room at the gym or in the quiet spot where the gossip happens. 00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:56.320 God speaks to you that you are in Christ, that you are delivered from destructive judgment, that you're a child of God, that you're the son or daughter of the Most High, that you are one of his chosen ones, that you are saints, and the list goes on and on and on of beautiful names that God puts on us by grace. 00:35:58.079 --> 00:36:04.960 And it's from that reality that we can be specific in how we address other people. 00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:13.039 And this is substantiated by our last point, the ground of gracious living in verse three. 00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:28.880 Why do we offer our posture toward civic authorities with submission and obedience and engage in our culture with readiness to do every good work? 00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:34.800 Why do we handle every single person in a respectful, courteous manner? 00:36:35.599 --> 00:36:40.239 Why do we uphold their reputation with words that aren't slanderous? 00:36:40.480 --> 00:36:42.159 Look at verse three. 00:36:42.480 --> 00:36:50.639 For it's the Greek word gar, which means not and or therefore, but because. 00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:59.599 Because it is the reason behind everything verses one and two talk about. 00:36:59.920 --> 00:37:01.679 Why do we live that way? 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:02.639 Because. 00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:27.519 And verse three is not a command, it's a memory, because we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. 00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:34.559 How can I live with a posture of submission and obedience and readiness to good work? 00:37:34.719 --> 00:37:35.679 How can I be kind? 00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:37.199 How can I not rebile? 00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:40.880 How can I be in a place where I'm courteous to all? 00:37:41.920 --> 00:37:45.519 By holding a memory in place. 00:37:50.159 --> 00:37:52.400 Just take a moment to run through these. 00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:57.440 They're not abstract, and they're definitely not comfortable words. 00:37:58.320 --> 00:38:00.079 But we need to hear them. 00:38:00.960 --> 00:38:10.159 We too were foolish, not uninformed, but people who knew what life should be lived like, but don't do it. 00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.320 That's what foolishness is. 00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:18.320 Disobedient, refusing to do the things that should be done. 00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:24.159 Not out of ignorance, but because of our preference, to do it our way. 00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:29.440 And we would justify it in such a degree that it just seemed like the right thing to do. 00:38:29.760 --> 00:38:33.920 But it really was nothing more than our own self-will. 00:38:34.719 --> 00:38:35.920 Deceived. 00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:41.679 Now this one rubs us wrong because we don't ever like to think of ourselves as deceived. 00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:46.239 We have participated, however, in being led. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:59.280 We have offered ourselves in subjection to forces and patterns and habits and cultural currents that run contrary to God and his express purposes. 00:38:59.840 --> 00:39:06.880 And those things have been a current and a stream far larger and swifter and more powerful than us. 00:39:08.159 --> 00:39:10.880 And we've said yes to it, and guess what? 00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:15.039 We got washed down the river like everybody else. 00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:16.559 Deceived. 00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:21.599 Enslaved by various passions and pleasures. 00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:25.199 Well, I just thought this was a lifestyle choice. 00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:28.800 Or this was something I want to do with my buddies after work on a Friday. 00:39:29.039 --> 00:39:32.000 Or this is, no, it's slavery. 00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:33.840 Slavery. 00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:41.199 Not merely influenced by our appetites, shackled by our appetites. 00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:46.079 Living in malice and envy. 00:39:47.119 --> 00:39:53.599 Living in such a way where there's a disposition toward others that would rather we be better off than them. 00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:59.519 And if they're better than we are, then we are not happy for them. 00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:17.039 And I had just given my first wedding, uh officiated my first wedding at Ohica Castle. 00:40:18.480 --> 00:40:21.599 I had no idea what Ohica Castle was until I showed up there. 00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:23.599 I thought, what a weird name for a building. 00:40:24.079 --> 00:40:25.679 What is Ohica Castle? 00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:27.920 And I get there and I realize where I'm at. 00:40:28.079 --> 00:40:34.960 This is the second largest private home in the United States ever, besides Biltmore. 00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:37.599 Kudos to Carolinans. 00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:46.800 And I get there and I and I came away from that and I saw what a Long Island wedding was like. 00:40:48.719 --> 00:40:54.320 And I said to my friend, I said, I don't think the Long Islanders want to keep up with the Joneses. 00:40:54.719 --> 00:41:00.239 I think the Long Islanders want to be the Joneses that everybody else has to keep up with. 00:41:00.719 --> 00:41:02.639 And that was how it felt. 00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:10.719 And our society calls us toward that. 00:41:11.760 --> 00:41:14.719 Hateful and detesting one another. 00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:22.480 A reciprocal relationship in society where we're always positioned with guardedness or antagonism. 00:41:23.360 --> 00:41:26.400 Because we're in this combative relationship. 00:41:28.639 --> 00:41:31.280 Now notice what Paul does with this. 00:41:31.519 --> 00:41:35.760 This is the grounds upon which gracious living is to be enacted. 00:41:36.320 --> 00:41:39.519 And he starts by exposing where we were. 00:41:41.199 --> 00:41:43.840 Very much like Ephesians chapter 2. 00:41:44.239 --> 00:42:04.079 You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and by desire by nature were children of wrath, even as others. 00:42:04.400 --> 00:42:08.079 This is Paul writing the same thing in a different place. 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:14.320 And what he is describing is not a subset of particular people. 00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:20.719 He's saying, all of us, and he's including himself. 00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:34.880 Paul, this religious, pharisaical, obedient, law-keeping person, is saying, That is me too. 00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:44.639 And what the Bible here is describing is what we in theological terms call total depravity. 00:42:45.360 --> 00:43:00.880 And it's not total in the sense that we are the worst that we possibly can be, but total in the sense that there is a pervasiveness about sin that affects every dimension of who we are, internal and external. 00:43:01.440 --> 00:43:11.440 That it affects our will, it affects our emotions, it affects our thinking, and it definitely pervades into our behavior. 00:43:12.880 --> 00:43:15.519 That's what total depravity is. 00:43:16.079 --> 00:43:27.199 And what Paul is saying by pulling us into this diagnosis is to help us to realize that the remedy is not inside of us. 00:43:28.239 --> 00:43:31.360 The remedy lies outside of us. 00:43:33.280 --> 00:43:36.000 And this is not pessimistic. 00:43:36.159 --> 00:43:38.719 It's the only reason for hope. 00:43:39.519 --> 00:43:46.719 Because if you understand this diagnosis, you know it's not just about try better tomorrow. 00:43:47.199 --> 00:43:50.639 It's not about I'm going to turn over a leaf. 00:43:50.880 --> 00:43:55.679 It's not about, well, I'll just start going to church now and things will start working. 00:43:56.480 --> 00:43:57.840 It's not that. 00:43:59.199 --> 00:44:04.239 When you Understand this diagnosis, you say, I need a doctor. 00:44:05.199 --> 00:44:08.960 I need someone who can do something for me. 00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:14.000 That's the only way I can be reached with any benefit. 00:44:15.280 --> 00:44:20.480 A person who feels himself hearing all these things and says, Well, you know, I'm just slightly unwell. 00:44:20.559 --> 00:44:22.639 I could probably do a little better tomorrow. 00:44:22.880 --> 00:44:26.320 Is not going to go the place they need to go for true help. 00:44:29.199 --> 00:44:36.639 This person who looks at this diagnosis and goes, Oh, yes, I do remember. 00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:39.119 Oh yes. 00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:40.960 Oh yes. 00:44:42.960 --> 00:45:00.079 Who calls out to the Lord and says, Lord, it's not my brother, it's not my sister, it's not my mother, it's not my father, it's not the stranger, it's not the neighbor, it's me, it's me, it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. 00:45:00.800 --> 00:45:05.599 That is where the next verse reaches. 00:45:06.159 --> 00:45:08.079 Take a look at verse four. 00:45:09.199 --> 00:45:18.079 When the kindness of God, our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us. 00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:37.679 What's the ground upon which we are able to be in a place of submission and obedience and readiness in public action and discourse? 00:45:39.760 --> 00:46:02.559 How are we to be the kind of person who's always kind, who's always courteous, who doesn't slander by remembering, by locking in in front of us a recognition of who we are apart from God's intervening mercy and grace in Christ. 00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:07.519 That's it. 00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:21.920 The reason why we can be gracious to that neighbor who's persistent, who's brought up the problem four or five times in a row to us, because we were once a person who couldn't manage ourselves. 00:46:23.440 --> 00:46:38.719 The reason why we can be gracious to that uh professionally attributive co-worker is because we were also people who were self-oriented. 00:46:41.039 --> 00:46:50.880 The reason why we can not speak evil of others is to recognize that we too were once organized by the passions and pleasures of our own desires. 00:46:53.760 --> 00:47:12.559 The reason why we can be gentle, where we can relinquish rights that are naturally owed to us, is because God hasn't spoken to us according to what is right, but what is merciful? 00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:27.440 And the only reason we can stand here this morning has everything to do with what God has done rather than what we have done, and it's grace. 00:47:29.280 --> 00:47:47.679 And so, what is that first main word, that chief perspective, that always in front of you lens that you're to have when we step outside the walls of the covenant community of Christ? 00:47:48.559 --> 00:47:56.000 When we reach into the workplace and the marketplace and the neighborhoods and our social functions. 00:47:56.480 --> 00:47:58.480 What is that one thing? 00:47:59.199 --> 00:48:00.159 Remember. 00:48:01.199 --> 00:48:07.360 Remember the grace of God, keep it always in front of you. 00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:09.920 Let that guide you. 00:48:10.400 --> 00:48:14.480 Now, next week we're going to unpack verse four and following. 00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:20.480 But we need to see the front side of the diagnosis before we see the power of the remedy. 00:48:21.199 --> 00:48:33.199 And part of being the kind of believers that God is calling us to be in a society like we have is by recognizing that we were part of that society also. 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:39.679 We were very happily members of that kingdom, but now we're members of a different one. 00:48:40.400 --> 00:48:46.159 And remember from whence you've come and remember where you are. 00:48:46.719 --> 00:48:47.920 Let's pray. 00:48:51.760 --> 00:49:09.440 Father, these words have not been comfortable for us to hear, but they have been very clear, and they have been very pointed, and they speak to all of us in our vulnerability. 00:49:10.559 --> 00:49:38.079 Because, Father, it's easy for us to be swept up in the tide of the culture, to sit with a difficult person and have an internal eye roll, to hear about a person enslaved to things that are destroying them and be impatient, to look in this world and become part of the contentious. 00:49:53.119 --> 00:49:55.119 And so, Father, give us a memory. 00:49:56.400 --> 00:50:03.599 Give us a memory, not one that produces guilt within us, but a memory that produces compassion from us. 00:50:05.039 --> 00:50:20.000 That remembers that we're not two steps ahead in some moral progress, that we're not up the ramp in gradual improvement, or recipients of grace, that we've been found. 00:50:21.840 --> 00:50:40.960 And help us when we engage with our society to remember that we were there, right where they are, to remember that we've been reached and that the grace of God has found us in the middle of our foolishness and our slavery and our days spent with greed and malice. 00:50:42.559 --> 00:50:51.840 And so, Father, help us to embrace that phrase, always gracious, because you have been gracious to us. 00:50:54.239 --> 00:51:07.039 And Father, I want to pray for someone in this room who's not a believer, who came in this morning, and they've been listening to this message and they've recognized something. 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:16.480 And Lord, I pray that it hasn't been some aspirational aspect of it that they need to walk out of here and try to be always gracious. 00:51:17.199 --> 00:51:21.119 But, Father, that they would recognize what we all need to recognize. 00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:30.880 That the self we present, that the self we prefer to be, that the self that we show in public is not who we really are. 00:51:32.400 --> 00:51:39.440 That we're foolish, enslaved, hated, and being and hating. 00:51:40.400 --> 00:52:01.360 And I pray, Father, that this wouldn't be a motivation for them to feel simply judgment and condemnation, but a recognition that this is a diagnosis of their need, and that you're a God who in your goodness and your loving kindness has appeared precisely for people that verse 3 describes. 00:52:02.559 --> 00:52:08.239 And I pray that they would not think that they have to resolve who they are before they come to you. 00:52:08.719 --> 00:52:11.760