Doug McMasters: It's a delight for us to worship together.
Doug McMasters: I'd invite you to take your Bible and go to the book of Titus with me.
Doug McMasters: This is our last look at Titus through our series that started in March.
Doug McMasters: It's been a short journey, but it's been a very enriching one.
Doug McMasters: Last week, um, our friend and gospel partner, Johnny Gravino, was in London, and I took the opportunity to point him to a few places he might want to visit.
Doug McMasters: Uh he was in a certain part of London, and I directed him to a church and a house on City Road in London, Wesley's Chapel.
Doug McMasters: It's the place where Wesley is also buried, but it's also where he lived.
Doug McMasters: And in March 2nd, 1791, uh it was also at the age of 87 the place where Wesley died.
Doug McMasters: Wesley had been in a room there for four days, and people had gathered around him, waiting with him until he passed from earth to heaven.
Doug McMasters: And as he's lying there in bed, uh he just sort of gathered some strength and rallied a little bit, and he opened his eyes and he said, Best of all, God is with us.
Doug McMasters: Beautiful words.
Doug McMasters: I love those words.
Doug McMasters: You think about all that he did, uh, traveling 100,000 miles on horseback, and some people saying he preached some 40,000 sermons and started a movement that's still encompassing the globe.
Doug McMasters: And he could have talked about all sorts of things, all those experiences and relationships and movement.
Doug McMasters: And he only had one thing to center on.
Doug McMasters: Best of all, God is with us.
Doug McMasters: The last words of a person are often very, very meaningful.
Doug McMasters: Not always, but sometimes they can be really, really helpful.
Doug McMasters: I remember my mother telling me, even when I was a boy, about my great-grandmother, you know, when she passed away, and she was lying in bed, much like Wesley was, and turned a certain direction and said, My, it is so beautiful, and then passed away.
Doug McMasters: I found out later that she was a believer.
Doug McMasters: I'd none of none of my family were believers at the time, but my mom brought a book to me after I was converted, and she said, This was your great-grandmother's.
Doug McMasters: Is it any good?
Doug McMasters: And it was a D.
Doug McMasters: L.
Doug McMasters: Moody book.
Doug McMasters: I was amazing to see.
Doug McMasters: Last words.
Doug McMasters: Here we are at the very end of Titus.
Doug McMasters: The last words.
Doug McMasters: And you know, as we've gone through Titus, it might be easy just to pass by these and to close things down quickly and just move on to the book of Acts, like we will next week.
Doug McMasters: As we've gone through Titus, three short chapters that have been very, very enlightening, as Paul has directed us about what kind of leadership should be put into a church and how the gospel fuels older men and older women and younger men and younger women, and about how we relate uh in society and with one another.
Doug McMasters: It'd be easy to say, look, we're ready to go to the book of Acts.
Doug McMasters: We've we've got our bags packed, they're in the car, we're at the door.
Doug McMasters: Goodbye, Titus.
Doug McMasters: We're on our way.
Doug McMasters: But we shouldn't do that.
Doug McMasters: Because what we have here are some things to see.
Doug McMasters: But it would be easy to read these things and think, well, you know, is there much here?
Doug McMasters: Um, we'll talk about a city that we've probably never even thought about.
Doug McMasters: And we're going to mention some names in a couple seconds of people whose names are a little difficult to pronounce, actually.
Doug McMasters: And there's a lawyer in here who shows up one time in Scripture, and then we don't hear anything about him in any other place.
Doug McMasters: It'd be easy to go, well, I'll just skim this last little bit of Titus and move on.
Doug McMasters: Well, please don't.
Doug McMasters: Because here we see something in which Paul's last words describe to us what he really thought about the church.
Doug McMasters: So let's read these verses together and then we'll look at them.
Doug McMasters: Verse 12.
Doug McMasters: When I sent Artemis or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me in Nicopolis, because I've decided to spend the winter there.
Doug McMasters: Diligently help Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their journey, so that they will lack nothing.
Doug McMasters: Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works for pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful.
Doug McMasters: All those who are with me send you greetings.
Doug McMasters: Greet those who love us in the faith.
Doug McMasters: Grace be with you all, or with all of you.
Doug McMasters: Now, in these closing words, Paul shows us that the church is not just a place to attend, it's actually a gospel life in which we all are a part of.
Doug McMasters: And he mentions here, and three things that we'll look at, that we're a people who are sent, and that we're a people who supply, and that we're a people who strengthen.
Doug McMasters: And those three words are going to wrap around our focal points here.
Doug McMasters: The first thing I want us to see is that the church is a sending culture, a sending people.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 12.
Doug McMasters: When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I've decided to spend the winter there.
Doug McMasters: Now, Paul is not stationary.
Doug McMasters: He's sending this letter from Nicopolis, this city of victory.
Doug McMasters: But it's important to know what Nicopolis is.
Doug McMasters: It's a relatively new city in the northwestern part of Greece, and it's close to the Adriatic Sea, and it is one of those places where roads from the north and the south and the east converge as they move out to sea.
Doug McMasters: This kind of place could be literally a crossroads, an intersection of different places, a convergence of movement of people, and a place from which you can launch.
Doug McMasters: And notice what Paul says about this.
Doug McMasters: I have decided to winter here.
Doug McMasters: I think he decided to winter here purposely because of those travel routes and because of the ability to network in different places with different people.
Doug McMasters: He wants to be ready and he wants to be active in engagement and movement.
Doug McMasters: And the movement is already arranged.
Doug McMasters: When I send either Artemis or Tychicus to you, come to me, Titus.
Doug McMasters: So Artemis and Tychicus, both trained men, both tested kingdom workers, are now at the ready to go to Crete and to relieve Paul or Cyprus, rather.
Doug McMasters: Not Crete, I'm sorry, Crete.
Doug McMasters: I'm gonna have to apologize to Konstantinos.
Doug McMasters: I'm getting I'm getting places in Greece mixed up in my head.
Doug McMasters: To relieve Titus.
Doug McMasters: And Titus is released, released to come back to Paul, released to be gathered back and perhaps even sent out to some new place.
Doug McMasters: Now you might read this and think, well, this is just a bunch of administrative detail.
Doug McMasters: But think about it differently.
Doug McMasters: Think about this as organized gospel mission, not just administrative details.
Doug McMasters: Paul is showing us what he believes that the church is, that it is a group of sending people, that there's a culture of movement here.
Doug McMasters: He's lifting our eyes beyond our regular gatherings and the things that we do together here in order to see our connectivity in the broader gospel work.
Doug McMasters: And that's a pattern that we see all through Scripture.
Doug McMasters: We're going to spend some time in the book of Acts together over the next several months, and we will see a lot of that.
Doug McMasters: And I just want to mention a couple of places for us this morning.
Doug McMasters: Acts chapter 13, for instance.
Doug McMasters: The church is there and Antioch, and it's growing and it's developing, and the ministry of the word is flourishing, and there are several leaders there.
Doug McMasters: And God says to the church, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I've called them.
Doug McMasters: And so what does the church do?
Doug McMasters: Well, they don't form a committee and they don't call a vote, they fast and they pray.
Doug McMasters: And then they recognize, and God is active.
Doug McMasters: And in verse 4, it says, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went down to Seleucia.
Doug McMasters: So the church ascending, the spirit is sending.
Doug McMasters: There isn't some contradiction there.
Doug McMasters: There's this pattern of spirit involved and spirit-initiated and spirit-energized movement of people.
Doug McMasters: In Acts chapter 14, after finishing that first journey, they come back.
Doug McMasters: And from there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had completed.
Doug McMasters: And after they arrived, they gathered the church together and reported everything God had done with them and how he'd opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Doug McMasters: And they spent a considerable time with the disciples.
Doug McMasters: Acts 14, 26-28.
Doug McMasters: So here's this idea of sending, reaching, returning, reporting, gathering again, and then Paul goes again for a second time into another missionary journey.
Doug McMasters: And in Acts chapter 18, he comes back again.
Doug McMasters: And he's received back by the church.
Doug McMasters: The church is there to receive, to strengthen, and to send.
Doug McMasters: And so what Paul is showing us in these words here at the end of Titus is that is part of who we are.
Doug McMasters: We are a people who through the gospel are moving the gospel in various places.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Philippians 2 and how this movement idea comes up.
Doug McMasters: I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, he says.
Doug McMasters: And then he says, I hope to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, and I'm confident in the Lord that I myself will come.
Doug McMasters: And then he says, It's necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker, and fellow soldier, as well as your minister and messenger who has served my need.
Doug McMasters: So what's happening here?
Doug McMasters: There's gospel movement of people as they as they serve the gospel in different ways.
Doug McMasters: And all of this is based upon that great commission in Romans 10, where it says, How will they hear without a preacher?
Doug McMasters: And how can they preach except they be sent?
Doug McMasters: And so the church is to take that up.
Doug McMasters: Sending for us as a people is not an option.
Doug McMasters: It's not optional.
Doug McMasters: It's essential to the gospel proclamation.
Doug McMasters: God gathers his people, God grows his people, and then God moves some of those people to go different places.
Doug McMasters: And so we're not just a community, we're actually a missional organization.
Doug McMasters: We're a missional organism that gathers together for this purpose.
Doug McMasters: And why do we do it?
Doug McMasters: Because God is a sender.
Doug McMasters: We send because he's a sender.
Doug McMasters: Listen to these verses.
Doug McMasters: God sent his son, John 3, 17.
Doug McMasters: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Doug McMasters: God sent his spirit.
Doug McMasters: Jesus said in John 14, the Father will send him in my name.
Doug McMasters: He sends the apostles in John 20.
Doug McMasters: As the Father has sent me, so send I you.
Doug McMasters: And then that great commission in Matthew 28: go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Doug McMasters: Make disciples of every nation.
Doug McMasters: A sending church is aligned with the heart of God, who is a God who moves with the good news to people.
Doug McMasters: Now think about a harbor.
Doug McMasters: Think of with a bunch of boats there, fishing vessels, all roped, tied, docked in port.
Doug McMasters: You think it's a beautiful sight.
Doug McMasters: And yes, they have to be there.
Doug McMasters: And some of them might even have to go to Dry Dock for a little while, and some of them are there.
Doug McMasters: It's all quiet and serene looking.
Doug McMasters: But you know those fishing vessels aren't made simply to look pretty in the harbor.
Doug McMasters: Those fishing vessels are meant to be out on the waters.
Doug McMasters: They have a mission to accomplish.
Doug McMasters: And a church that simply gathers and doesn't send is like a fishing vessel that's anchored and never moving.
Doug McMasters: We're supposed to be on a mission, moving the gospel and sending it forth.
Doug McMasters: Listen to what Paul said to the Romans, and I think this is a very enlightening statement.
Doug McMasters: He's talking about his gospel work as an apostle and talking about reaching the unreached areas, which at that time would be Spain.
Doug McMasters: And he says, I've strongly desired for many years to come to you whenever I travel to Spain.
Doug McMasters: Now listen to how he says this.
Doug McMasters: For I hope to see you when I pass through and be assisted by you on my journey there.
Doug McMasters: Now listen to what Paul assumes there.
Doug McMasters: First of all, he assumes that the gospel needs to advance.
Doug McMasters: And he assumes as an apostle that he is going to be on the front edge of that advance.
Doug McMasters: And he assumes that the church in Rome is going to be prepared and able and activated and eager to participate in that gospel advance.
Doug McMasters: And so this text that we're looking at, yes, it's descriptive.
Doug McMasters: And yes, it would be easy to pass by.
Doug McMasters: Yeah, you know, these guys whose names don't flow easily from my tongue, they're going and coming.
Doug McMasters: Yeah, okay.
Doug McMasters: Paul is describing a culture here that needs to be and is, I believe, very much a part of our culture here.
Doug McMasters: And what are the implications of this for us particularly?
Doug McMasters: Well, I want to mention a few.
Doug McMasters: First is we need to learn to see ourselves as deployable.
Doug McMasters: And I'm going to pull from my military background there.
Doug McMasters: Being in a place where you're ready to be sent, where you're ready to be launching out somewhere on a mission.
Doug McMasters: And so we need to be asking the question: do I see myself as someone God might send and use?
Doug McMasters: Now, before you think I'm going to send all of us out to Indonesia, I want us to think missionally, not just geographically here.
Doug McMasters: To be ready to be sent, to be in a place where, like Paul assumed of the Romans, that they were going to be engaged and that they were going to be energized to participate in gospel work.
Doug McMasters: And before the Antioch Church was called to send Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul were in a position of being ready to serve and were serving.
Doug McMasters: And so being one of those people who can be deployed, it begins with small steps of obedience and daily, weekly, monthly, yearly habits of faithfulness and service.
Doug McMasters: The second question we need to address in this is are we ready to release people to go?
Doug McMasters: Now that's a hard question because sending always costs something.
Doug McMasters: Antioch wasn't sending strangers, they were sending two of their best, men who were serving the church faithfully.
Doug McMasters: They were sending people whose absence they would fill.
Doug McMasters: Barnabas and Saul were contributors, but they went.
Doug McMasters: And so ascending church has to love the kingdom and the gospel so much that it's willing to sacrifice, that it loves the gospel advance more than our own comfort.
Doug McMasters: And I think we we can say yes to that question here.
Doug McMasters: That we do love the mission of God, that we are willing to send our best, that no matter how much we want those beloved people to stay, God wants them to go.
Doug McMasters: And we must be willing to let them go.
Doug McMasters: And so a few weeks ago in May, I was able to spend some time with Ray Moore.
Doug McMasters: How wonderful it would be to have Ray and Dana and the children here serving alongside of us.
Doug McMasters: Last night I was talking to Kevin Cooney.
Doug McMasters: How wonderful it would be to have Kevin and Sarah and the family here serving among us.
Doug McMasters: On Friday, I spent a few hours with David Parker.
Doug McMasters: How delightful it would be to have David and Val here and serving among us.
Doug McMasters: And I had a little signal chat and about to talk on Wednesday with Chad and Emily.
Doug McMasters: How wonderful it would be to have Chad and Emily here serving among us.
Doug McMasters: That would just be wonderful to have mingling here.
Doug McMasters: Sending is costly.
Doug McMasters: And it's in that sacrifice we discover something about worship.
Doug McMasters: Another thing we need to think about when we think about being ascending culture is that we actively support those who go.
Doug McMasters: Being ascending culture means that we're a partnership culture, not just a goodbye culture.
Doug McMasters: We're people who actually are engaged in that partnership, where we recognize that our prayer is not just simply a nice thing that we say to folks as they go, but it is a participation in the work that they are doing.
Doug McMasters: And that our resources are not merely moments of charity and gifts, but rather an investment in gospel expanse.
Doug McMasters: And we recognize that our encouragement is not just a personal statement, but it can be the very fuel that keeps someone moving when they're three years into learning a language that's hard to still get their mouth around.
Doug McMasters: Or communication being a lifeline for them.
Doug McMasters: And so we need to think of these folks that we send as extensions of our ministry and not just memories of wasn't it fun when they were here?
Doug McMasters: Another thing that this calls us to is discernment about who God might be sending next.
Doug McMasters: That's a question that the elders think about and pray about when we think about people serving in different places here, about how God is moving particular folks into their development of their spiritual gifts and their maturity as believers and where they might be moving toward and serving.
Doug McMasters: But we also need to think about perhaps not serving well here, but serving somewhere else.
Doug McMasters: And it's not just for the elders to consider, it's for all of us to consider.
Doug McMasters: Is there someone among us God is moving?
Doug McMasters: And can we as a church recognize that this is someone God is preparing for a different place for a different people so that the gospel might be brought to all nations?
Doug McMasters: And then we have to ask ourselves what about my personal availability?
Doug McMasters: Am I one of those ones who're ready to be sent?
Doug McMasters: Now, yes, that could mean going to different countries.
Doug McMasters: It could mean going to different churches, it could mean going across the street.
Doug McMasters: Because I'm not thinking so much geographically here, but on mission.
Doug McMasters: And you can go and be sent on mission to a conversation, to a workplace, to your home where your your family doesn't know the Lord.
Doug McMasters: You can be sent to your neighborhood.
Doug McMasters: Am I available to move?
Doug McMasters: Now let's move into the second point because the church here that Paul sees is not just one that has a sending culture, but it also has a provisioning culture.
Doug McMasters: They're not just people who send, they're people who supply.
Doug McMasters: Look at verse 13.
Doug McMasters: Do your best to speed Zenus the Lawyer and Apollos on their way.
Doug McMasters: See that they lack nothing.
Doug McMasters: Now, here's something to consider.
Doug McMasters: Paul's writing this letter in Nicopolis, and he's got Zenus and Apollos with him.
Doug McMasters: And uh they're kind of like, what are you writing there, Paul?
Doug McMasters: Well, you know, just writing to the church.
Doug McMasters: You know, it's Titus has got some things that need to be done there.
Doug McMasters: Okay.
Doug McMasters: How's it going to get there?
Doug McMasters: Well, you're going to take it to them.
Doug McMasters: That's how it's going to get there.
Doug McMasters: Okay, well, that's going to cost some money.
Doug McMasters: The lawyer's always thinking about money there, right?
Doug McMasters: And he says, Yeah, yeah, I know.
Doug McMasters: He said, I'll I'll put in a note there.
Doug McMasters: Make sure Xenus and Apollos are taken care of.
Doug McMasters: Zenus is like, okay, good.
Doug McMasters: That's that's great.
Doug McMasters: Zenus and Apollos get to the church, Titus opens it up, and he's he's reading this, and he's like, Did you read this letter, Zenus?
Doug McMasters: Apollos?
Doug McMasters: Okay.
Doug McMasters: So it it puts it puts the pressure on them to like, we need, we need to measure up here, right?
Doug McMasters: We need to we need to help out here.
Doug McMasters: They've these guys have made the journey, they've delivered the letter, the congregation's now hearing it, and all the guys who brought it to them are standing in the room and they're reading these words right here.
Doug McMasters: Do your best to speed Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their way.
Doug McMasters: Okay, all right.
Doug McMasters: You know what that means for us, church.
Doug McMasters: It means we need to be providing, providing for their need.
Doug McMasters: See that they lack nothing.
Doug McMasters: So Paul is saying, look, don't just thank them for the travel that they made.
Doug McMasters: Don't just wish them well.
Doug McMasters: Don't just pray for them as they go back or wherever they might be headed off to.
Doug McMasters: He says, be active and participatory in providing for them in the labor they've already exacted on your behalf.
Doug McMasters: And make sure that they can be sent on their way.
Doug McMasters: Now, tie that in with verse 14 because I think that's the key.
Doug McMasters: Verse 14 says, Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.
Doug McMasters: Paul is doing more in these two verses than simply talking about the reimbursement of travel expenses.
Doug McMasters: He's doing more than saying, make sure you cover all the receipts that get handed to you.
Doug McMasters: What he's saying here is that the Lord's people need to develop a heart of generosity and care and develop it in greater ways.
Doug McMasters: Because notice the word that he uses there.
Doug McMasters: Let our people learn.
Doug McMasters: Learn.
Doug McMasters: That same word, practiced, intentional, repeated, learning, is the same kind of learning when a student sits under a tutor, practiced, repeated, intentional learning.
Doug McMasters: And what Paul is saying here is that we as God's people should devote ourselves to practiced, intentional, purposed generosity.
Doug McMasters: He's saying that generosity is something we can learn.
Doug McMasters: It may not be initially a default of who we are, because guess who's at the center of every single one of our lives?
Doug McMasters: We are.
Doug McMasters: Every one of us.
Doug McMasters: Every one of us have our eyeballs ingrown and turned inward.
Doug McMasters: Every single one of us.
Doug McMasters: But when the Spirit operates within us and we see God's world and ourselves and him as he sees it, we learn to take on the character of God who is gracious and generous.
Doug McMasters: And he says, learn to be generous.
Doug McMasters: Learn to take care of others.
Doug McMasters: Move toward that more and more.
Doug McMasters: Just like you learn a language.
Doug McMasters: Chad and Emily are learning a language right now.
Doug McMasters: And what does it take for them?
Doug McMasters: Well, they've got to drill the vocabulary in their head.
Doug McMasters: They've got to repeat the grammar over and over again.
Doug McMasters: They have to force themselves to say these words over and over until they start to become normal in their mouth as they speak them.
Doug McMasters: They need to practice and practice and practice over time until there's fluency.
Doug McMasters: They're not going to be fluent in a moment.
Doug McMasters: And you're not going to be generous in a moment either.
Doug McMasters: Scriptures tell us here that we can move into the fluency of grace.
Doug McMasters: We can move into this generosity and fullness of heart.
Doug McMasters: And so he wants us to see this very, very administrative detail under the rubric of gospel grace.
Doug McMasters: That we're not just sending people because of the gospel, but we're providing for gospel workers.
Doug McMasters: And so he tells us this that we should do so.
Doug McMasters: Now notice the other side of that.
Doug McMasters: Look at what he says in verse 14.
Doug McMasters: So that they will not be unfruitful.
Doug McMasters: That's a heavy word.
Doug McMasters: Unfruitful.
Doug McMasters: It doesn't mean a destroyed tree.
Doug McMasters: The tree's still there.
Doug McMasters: The roots are still there.
Doug McMasters: It still grows in the summer.
Doug McMasters: It still has green leaves all over it.
Doug McMasters: But when the time comes to pick the fruit, there's nothing to pick.
Doug McMasters: Unfruitful.
Doug McMasters: And that means a church can have excellent doctrine.
Doug McMasters: A church can be full of its calendar events.
Doug McMasters: A church that has a pastor who preaches the word faithfully and still be unfruitful.
Doug McMasters: It has the look of growth and life and existence, but not the fruit there.
Doug McMasters: And it's not because the truth isn't there, it's because the truth isn't active there.
Doug McMasters: Now notice some churches that show that gospel kind of provisioning fruit.
Doug McMasters: I want to take you, just listen to 2 Corinthians 8.
Doug McMasters: Poor people, severely tested people.
Doug McMasters: But notice what Paul says about them.
Doug McMasters: He said, During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed into a wealth of generosity on their part.
Doug McMasters: Now the gift might have been small, but the heart wasn't.
Doug McMasters: He said, Of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints.
Doug McMasters: Paul is probably standing there saying, guys, you've you've had it hard.
Doug McMasters: You've had it rough.
Doug McMasters: You have needs of your own to take care of.
Doug McMasters: And they're like, No, Paul, we want to give.
Doug McMasters: We want to give to them.
Doug McMasters: And he says they did this not just as they as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by God's will.
Doug McMasters: That is a generosity that goes beyond spontaneity.
Doug McMasters: That's a generosity that's been driven and learned in their heart.
Doug McMasters: They didn't just get there in an instant, in a flourish, in a rush.
Doug McMasters: They were purposed and eager to give.
Doug McMasters: Paul talks about the Roman church doing the same thing.
Doug McMasters: Who wanted to give to, as Gentiles, to the Jewish saints in Jerusalem because of the need, because they had been recipients of the gospel from there and now wanted to return through the generosity and gratitude of their heart that they had been the receivers of the gospel message.
Doug McMasters: Philippians 4.
Doug McMasters: Paul talks about a church there who is giving and caring for him as he goes.
Doug McMasters: Why do we provide?
Doug McMasters: Well, the same reason why we send.
Doug McMasters: God sends his son, God sent the Spirit, God sends the apostles, God sends the church, God provides.
Doug McMasters: God has provided for us at infinite cost.
Doug McMasters: He is given to us.
Doug McMasters: He who is rich became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich.
Doug McMasters: God provides.
Doug McMasters: We are on the road of sin, destitute, broken, without any bread or any nourishment at all, nothing but beggars on the road to destruction.
Doug McMasters: And God comes and says, I'm giving you my son.
Doug McMasters: Live, eat the bread of life freely.
Doug McMasters: Paul in Romans 8 said, He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Doug McMasters: There's no reserve in God's provision.
Doug McMasters: And so when we move to pressing needs, whether it's inside the church, or maybe it's in a missionary effort, or maybe it's just caring for somebody whose need has come across our understanding.
Doug McMasters: We're not just providing a resource, we're engaging in the very generous, giving, grace-filled heart of God.
Doug McMasters: Now let's move to the last point here.
Doug McMasters: Not only is the church a people who send and a people who supply, but they're also a people who strengthen their web of grace.
Doug McMasters: So the church is a sending culture, the church is a providing culture, but it's also a relational web of grace.
Doug McMasters: And these last words, verse 15.
Doug McMasters: All who are with me send greetings to you.
Doug McMasters: Greet those who love us in the faith.
Doug McMasters: Grace be with all of you.
Doug McMasters: Those words might sound like formalities, you know, like the last tagline you might put on your email as you say goodbye to someone, that one that you just habitually put down and maybe not give a lot of thought to.
Doug McMasters: Don't think of this that way.
Doug McMasters: All who are with me send greetings.
Doug McMasters: A group of people around Paul, invested in what's happening with Titus on Crete.
Doug McMasters: Greedy, greet those who love us in the faith, a relational connection there with the people in the church and Titus himself.
Doug McMasters: Faith being the bond.
Doug McMasters: Grace be with all of you.
Doug McMasters: These are not closing words of formality.
Doug McMasters: This is a picture of what the church actually is.
Doug McMasters: Right in the middle of all of this are people who love one another because of the faith, who have this bond of shared trust in God, who have a shared life in the Savior, who have a shared understanding of the movement of the Spirit as it gracefully fills them with its fruit.
Doug McMasters: These are people who share all of that together.
Doug McMasters: And it's not an obligation, it's those who love one another.
Doug McMasters: Notice that marker there, that they love each other.
Doug McMasters: A church is not defined outwardly in our society by its address or its denominational tag, or even necessarily by its doctrine, though doctrine is absolutely vital.
Doug McMasters: But doctrine without this next part goes nowhere.
Doug McMasters: Love.
Doug McMasters: It's not enough to just be correct.
Doug McMasters: It's enough, it has to be devotion and doctrine united together as one.
Doug McMasters: And they're fueled together by love in the faith to one another.
Doug McMasters: So there's relational love, there's love for the truth, there's this web in which these people strengthen that together.
Doug McMasters: And they do so in these few words of greeting and connection.
Doug McMasters: Now notice the last words.
Doug McMasters: Grace be with all of you.
Doug McMasters: Listen to the first words.
Doug McMasters: Verse four of chapter one.
Doug McMasters: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Savior.
Doug McMasters: Paul opens the letter to Titus with words of grace.
Doug McMasters: Paul closes the letter to Titus with words of grace.
Doug McMasters: That means everything in between, every statement about answering the devious teachings of false teachers, to setting up and establishing men of integrity and truth, to calling the church to have a relational connection across generations, to the church showing how it portrays itself in society.
Doug McMasters: All of it is bound within the brackets of grace, every bit of it.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Ephesians.
Doug McMasters: He does this a lot of times.
Doug McMasters: Ephesians 1, 2, the beginning.
Doug McMasters: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: How does he end it?
Doug McMasters: Ephesians 6.
Doug McMasters: Grace be with all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
Doug McMasters: Galatians, now the book of Galatians, if you know it, is one of the most confrontational books in all of the New Testament.
Doug McMasters: Paul is trying to pull them away from legalism back to the gospel of grace.
Doug McMasters: And he skips all of his usual Thanksgiving statements about the church and he dives right into the problem.
Doug McMasters: But not until he says this grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And after all those hard words that he gave the Galatians as he tried to bring them back to the awareness that they had drifted and left the truth, he says this, Galatians 6.18, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters.
Doug McMasters: It ends with grace.
Doug McMasters: Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians.
Doug McMasters: This church, he had started.
Doug McMasters: This church that had watched him minister among them with the proclamation of the gospel, and they were converted.
Doug McMasters: And they're gathered because he was there.
Doug McMasters: And some people come in and say, you know, you know, Paul's really not that impressive of a guy.
Doug McMasters: You know, he doesn't speak well.
Doug McMasters: He's kind of kind of, well, he's kind of plain.
Doug McMasters: You know, he's not impressive.
Doug McMasters: And he doesn't come with the connections that we have.
Doug McMasters: Paul has to validate his apostolic ministry to a church he started.
Doug McMasters: How frustrating that must have been.
Doug McMasters: To that church.
Doug McMasters: He ends his letter with this may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Doug McMasters: Wow.
Doug McMasters: Grace, grace, grace, grace.
Doug McMasters: Starts Titus, finishes Titus.
Doug McMasters: Starts Ephesians, finishes Ephesians.
Doug McMasters: Starts Galatians, finishes in Galatians.
Doug McMasters: This letter we've been looking at is bracketed by grace.
Doug McMasters: It is the gospel architecture that makes our bond together what it is.
Doug McMasters: This is why we love one another in the faith.
Doug McMasters: This is why we're able to say, greet those who love us in the faith.
Doug McMasters: Say hello to the rest of the church.
Doug McMasters: There's that connection there that goes beyond the fact that we enjoy the similar things, or we've got a similar idea about what our personalities mix might be, or shared interest of any particular type or sort.
Doug McMasters: Or the fact that we've simply resided next to each other for years.
Doug McMasters: This is a bond that is built out of the grace of God.
Doug McMasters: It's that relational web.
Doug McMasters: So I want to encourage there's some of you here, and I love you, but you come here and you leave.
Doug McMasters: Like 10 seconds after the last amen said.
Doug McMasters: And yes, if you have to go somewhere and there's pressing needs at home, or you have to go to work, or any other reason you're just not feeling well, or there's a list of legitimate reasons for sure.
Doug McMasters: Go without any sense of restraint in your heart.
Doug McMasters: But what relational web, love of those who share the common grace of God, are you building in your life?
Doug McMasters: Because the church is, yes, a sending culture and yes, a providing culture, but it's also a relational web of grace.
Doug McMasters: And that means it is imperative upon us that we do this.
Doug McMasters: And part of it is not just for your benefit, it's for all of our benefit, because God has shaped and molded you in ways that we lack.
Doug McMasters: And your participation in the body of Christ is vital for our mutual growth and development in the gospel.
Doug McMasters: But it's also a benefit to you because the scriptures say, weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
Doug McMasters: Well, if you're you're shooting out the door 10 seconds after the last amen, and you wonder why nobody cares about the thing that hurts in your heart, maybe you haven't stopped to tell anybody about it.
Doug McMasters: Maybe you've never asked someone next to you in the pew, you know, pray for me.
Doug McMasters: I've had a rough week.
Doug McMasters: I think they'd love the chance to just sit right next to you and say, Well, let's do it right now.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray together.
Doug McMasters: And for those of you that stick around, and and I'm saying that only to a few because most of you are here and um, you know, it's two o'clock, and I'm like, can you guys go home?
Doug McMasters: Yeah.
Doug McMasters: I've said more than a few times, look, just lock the door as you leave.
Doug McMasters: I'm I'm hungry.
Doug McMasters: I've got to go.
Doug McMasters: I love what you're doing.
Doug McMasters: Keep doing it because you're doing exactly what this passage is talking about.
Doug McMasters: You're deepening that relational web of grace.
Doug McMasters: It's wonderful.
Doug McMasters: And so here we are at the end of this.
Doug McMasters: I want to take you back to 1791, to London on City Road, to a house where a man is lying in a bed four days.
Doug McMasters: Last words.
Doug McMasters: Best of all, God is with us.
Doug McMasters: You know, it wasn't the first time Wesley said those words.
Doug McMasters: He had said them a lot of times.
Doug McMasters: And what he was saying at the end of his life was something that had marked the whole of his life.
Doug McMasters: It was a recognition that throughout all of his days, through all that travel, those 100,000 miles on a horseback, through all those 40,000 sermons, through all those decisions that were part of the human dimension of a movement of God around the world with the gospel, all of it was covered with this wonderful thought.
Doug McMasters: Best of all, God is with us.
Doug McMasters: And so, brothers and sisters, as we leave the book of Titus this morning, and as we enter into the book of Acts, we don't say goodbye to Titus so much as we carry him with us into the next place that we go.
Doug McMasters: And as we do, we can say we've we are a body of Christ who are bracketed by grace.
Doug McMasters: Best of all, God is with us.
Doug McMasters: Amen.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, we are so grateful that you are.
Doug McMasters: We know that we don't have any handhold that would keep you with us.
Doug McMasters: We are recipients of your love, eternally provided for us, out of the generosity of who you are.
Doug McMasters: Not earned, definitely not deserved, recipients of your presence and your gracious, gracious hand.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, we want to say, best of all, you're with us.
Doug McMasters: Carry us as a body, I pray.
Doug McMasters: Help us to take seriously all those things that we've learned in the book of Titus, to stand for truth, to establish right and good and proper leadership in this church, to take up our roles of older men and older women, teaching and helping the younger generations, of those who are serving still, to be those whose lives are filled with integrity, to be longing and looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to be those who are always gracious, showing our submissiveness and our willingness to be obedient, even in civil society that doesn't know you.
Doug McMasters: Lord, in all of these things, may your grace teach us, may we learn to be generous, may we build webs of love, and may we be willing to release those that you have for purposes that you've designed to see that Christ is named and numbered among people all around this world.
Doug McMasters: And thank you because best of all you're with us.
Doug McMasters: And we pray this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.