SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for having me here.
SPEAKER_01: It is a privilege.
SPEAKER_01: I love getting to see other churches worship.
SPEAKER_01: And just it's just a great reminder that God's church is worldwide.
SPEAKER_01: We don't see that often enough when we stay in our own environments.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's just really, really enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be in Titus.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to walk through all three chapters, if we can, through this entire weekend.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start just on chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: And I want, here's my hope for you and for City Church.
SPEAKER_01: I want us to understand what it looks like, what it feels like when we are both at home with God personally and we are home together.
SPEAKER_01: That is so important.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure how things are in the Republic of Ireland, but in the United States, churches are dying quickly.
SPEAKER_01: So in the last 25 years, there's 40 million adults right now.
SPEAKER_01: That's 15% of the entire population in America that used to go to church.
SPEAKER_01: They are dechurched, they no longer want it.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that there's not a lot of Christians in the Republic of Ireland as well.
SPEAKER_01: So we are a family.
SPEAKER_01: We have to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you thought we were, in America, we had conflated politics with churches and culture with churches that's all crumbling and falling apart in realizing not only do they not belong together, they tear one another apart.
SPEAKER_01: And so the churches that are thriving, and there's some that are, that are thriving, are growing, are churches that understand that now this is God's household, that this belongs to Him.
SPEAKER_01: So that is my hope and my prayer for us today.
SPEAKER_01: Um I moved, as I mentioned, to Mark, and Mark has been such a good friend.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, just had the chance to meet him last summer at a conference and just became fast friends.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so it's been a joy to get to know him, and he's really served us well.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, as I mentioned, we moved from California in 1998.
SPEAKER_01: We were young, I had three kids, uh, and I did not want to be married anymore.
SPEAKER_01: We were Christians, uh, but life was very different than what we thought.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we were in our late 20s, and I had gotten a job.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we lost my job, so that wasn't fun.
SPEAKER_01: And we ended up, uh, we didn't want to move.
SPEAKER_01: All of our family was in California.
SPEAKER_01: We had no desire to do that whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: But we prayed.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't go to church much, we didn't see the use for it, but we were still believers.
SPEAKER_01: We still would say that we knew Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so we prayed, and God opened up.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you should hate that when you pray and God opens up, like he answers you, and you're like, well, no, not that one, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm looking for a job on the West Coast.
SPEAKER_01: God opened up a church or he opened up a flying position on the East Coast.
SPEAKER_01: And we, I mean, we had to go.
SPEAKER_01: So uh our marriage is falling apart.
SPEAKER_01: We had three kids under eight.
SPEAKER_01: Um, my wife hurt her back and couldn't work.
SPEAKER_01: We were out of money.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we lost our home.
SPEAKER_01: It got went back to the bank.
SPEAKER_01: It was terrible.
SPEAKER_01: It was like the worst season of our life.
SPEAKER_01: And only in the midst of that did I see, like, that's where God got my attention.
SPEAKER_01: That's where I understood that until you, the saying, it sounds a little campy, but until Jesus is all that you have, you don't actually realize that he is all that you need.
SPEAKER_01: That is where the church became real to me.
SPEAKER_01: That is where the church migrated from something that I go to when I need to get juiced up on the weekend or feel good about myself or get a little bit of Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: A little bit of Bible, uh, to like, I, this is life.
SPEAKER_01: This is living water.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: These are my people.
SPEAKER_01: That was a transition that and God used that.
SPEAKER_01: Um and your participation here in City Church is is huge.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you feel about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you feel about you and the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you feel about these people that you're around.
SPEAKER_01: But you have a story, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's it's and it's big.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a small story.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll be willing to hear it, God will use you.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, think about like Jesus after his resurrection and his ascension, after three years of ministry, there weren't a lot of people that were following him, especially after he was murdered publicly, right?
SPEAKER_01: That tends to make your followers go away.
SPEAKER_01: But there were 120 people, and the Spirit of God came, just like Jesus said, like, hold tight.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna send the counsel, I'm gonna empower you to be my witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit of God comes at Pentecost, and those 120 people changed the world, right?
SPEAKER_01: They overturned empires.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't do it through violence, they did it as the family of God.
SPEAKER_01: So don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: So our goal is just to understand what it takes to thrive as God's household.
SPEAKER_01: Um, a little bit of context here.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not preaching this.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't me teaching.
SPEAKER_01: So we'll try to do a little QA at the end.
SPEAKER_01: Um so I just, but we have a lot of content to cover, so it's gonna be a little more low-key.
SPEAKER_01: Just I'm not sure how it works over here, but this isn't me teaching a little bit different.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so who this is the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he wrote most of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: This is about 30 plus years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's writing this letter to Titus, who was a faithful coworker.
SPEAKER_01: They had worked together.
SPEAKER_01: You see him show up in Galatians.
SPEAKER_01: Titus is really good as like he's that guy you call when everything falls apart.
SPEAKER_01: I understand that life.
SPEAKER_01: So he he was there uh when at Corinth when the church had issues.
SPEAKER_01: He took special offerings.
SPEAKER_01: He seemed to be that guy that Paul would lean on when there was trouble, and in the church there was always trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but they worked together.
SPEAKER_01: This church was on Crete.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's a little island about a hundred miles south of Greece, was known for piracy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was not like you don't go to places like that to live unless you like want to be away from people and do your own thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: They were not in the normal society.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they they they scrolled away and kind of lived how they wanted to live.
SPEAKER_01: And there was crisis.
SPEAKER_01: So this church, however, this got started.
SPEAKER_01: Some people think that it was on Paul's fourth journey, missionary journey, but nobody really knows.
SPEAKER_01: But a church showed up on Crete, and they had a certain culture that wasn't good.
SPEAKER_01: So it was not operating as a healthy home at all.
SPEAKER_01: So the Apostle Paul writes this letter.
SPEAKER_01: It was to Titus, but as you look at the end of the letter, it says right here, Grace be with you all.
SPEAKER_01: So it's meant, like most epistles or letters, to be read to the entire church.
SPEAKER_01: So this is not just to Titus, it's primarily to him, but he would have most likely, or somebody would have read that letter, like we're doing publicly, so that everybody could have the benefit of that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but things were going sideways.
SPEAKER_01: And the way that things were going sideways is that they were using another gospel.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, God's word was not the most plausible voice in their life anymore.
SPEAKER_01: They were self-willed.
SPEAKER_01: They said, That's good, I'll take that in advisement.
SPEAKER_01: But there's other ways that I need to justify myself.
SPEAKER_01: There's other ways that I can find value, and it just destroyed everything.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a little bit off, it completely destroyed the church or was destroying the church.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna jump in there and we're gonna learn a little bit about what the Apostle Paul recommends to them and how they respond to that.
SPEAKER_01: So a little bit, so words, uh lexicon here, church.
SPEAKER_01: When I say church in here, or when we're talking about the church, you can think household.
SPEAKER_01: It's used that way.
SPEAKER_01: So think household of God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how you see the church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we don't, the church does not have a good reputation in the United States, um, especially in the northern part of the country.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think, I don't know how you think of the church.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think of this household, like as a home.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, most churches met in homes.
SPEAKER_01: So it was very easy for them to understand that, but I want you to think household.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, when we hear the word grace or gospel or salvation, uh, I want to think, I want you to think transformation.
SPEAKER_01: This is a very Western idea that uh we're saved by information.
SPEAKER_01: You are not saved by information at all.
SPEAKER_01: Like you can have information that can do nothing for you.
SPEAKER_01: It can actually take you further away from God because information will uh will make you think, I've got this.
SPEAKER_01: I understand.
SPEAKER_01: So grace is not about information.
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing less than that.
SPEAKER_01: You have to hear the true gospel, and and the apostle Paul will say that, but it has to be embraced.
SPEAKER_01: You have to assent to it, understand the facts, and agree to them.
SPEAKER_01: That still doesn't save you.
SPEAKER_01: You have to embrace the gospel in its fullness.
SPEAKER_01: You have to.
SPEAKER_01: And what will happen is that grace will change your life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, it might be a small thing.
SPEAKER_01: So this is where some of the people in the church on Crete were messing with people's heads.
SPEAKER_01: They would say, unless you look like this, you're probably not saved.
SPEAKER_01: Unless you're keeping the law of Moses and Jesus, you're probably not saved.
SPEAKER_01: So that's not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about grace gives you a new identity, as Mark mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: What's your identity?
SPEAKER_01: Who asked that to a person, by the way?
SPEAKER_01: Um, it gives you a new identity.
SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with you?
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: We'll all talk.
SPEAKER_01: Mark go other and we'll talk later.
SPEAKER_01: Um it gives you new loves, it gives you new life.
SPEAKER_01: So the gospel is not something that you add on to your life, or it's like I grab onto it.
SPEAKER_01: It is something that creates new life.
SPEAKER_01: It transforms you from out of a kingdom of darkness where you are self-willed, but confident that I'm getting it right, into a new kingdom, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where Jesus is king.
SPEAKER_01: So think through those into think, use that framework as we're walking through this text.
SPEAKER_01: So we have this little clever acronym.
SPEAKER_01: I normally don't do this, but you know, I got bored, and so I did it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's it's just an easy way.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna walk through these five letters, Titus, as we as we open up the book.
SPEAKER_01: So today we're gonna talk about um true faith and irreproachable leaders.
SPEAKER_01: The big idea for this whole letter is that God's household thrives on this foundation when it's built on first true faith, secondly, on irreproachable leaders.
SPEAKER_01: So those are that now that's I know what you're thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: Are you thinking, oh, Mark and you know, Peter and I no.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, nothing less than that.
SPEAKER_01: But the whole point of giving qualifications for leaders in this letter is so the entire home looks like that.
SPEAKER_01: When you raise kids, you don't raise them to just figure out life on their own, do you?
SPEAKER_01: They will take on the family resemblance.
SPEAKER_01: Not only do they have your DNA, maybe, unless you adopted them, but even if you did adopt them, they still grow in that identity of what it means to be your family.
SPEAKER_01: So that we get this wrong in this letter.
SPEAKER_01: We think, oh, these are just for the leaders.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: These qualifications are extremely unremarkable.
SPEAKER_01: They're very basic stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So, theocentric servants, this is where it comes to the church whole.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we are to operate as God-centered servants, meaning this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean by God-centered.
SPEAKER_01: Your greatest concern in this community is not you.
SPEAKER_01: That grace has so affected your life and so changed your affections that you are most energized by how people around you are doing.
SPEAKER_01: And you become other-centered.
SPEAKER_01: That's how a family works.
SPEAKER_01: Upright citizens, so that that speaks to not just inside the church or inside the household, but how do we look outside?
SPEAKER_01: How do I look like when I go to work?
SPEAKER_01: How do I look when I go to, you know, school?
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like?
SPEAKER_01: What does the home look like when we're scattered?
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, steadfast devotion to good works.
SPEAKER_01: If we're to understand Ephesians 2, that is the purpose, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're to live our life holy unto God.
SPEAKER_01: Even says that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works.
SPEAKER_01: So good works are kind of like the evidence, if you will, if that's not too harsh, but the joy, if you will, of what it means to be in a love, trust, relationship with Father, Son, Spirit, the living God.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna walk through that.
SPEAKER_01: First, uh, we're gonna talk about true faith.
SPEAKER_01: So God's household thrives on a foundation first of true faith.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna cover the first four verses here.
SPEAKER_01: So, uh, what is true faith?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first, it's Paul's faith.
SPEAKER_01: What you wanna see is that this gospel is not just a letter that circulates, it's not just information, it's not just something that Paul said, Hey, I've heard this, because this is very common in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: We have a new philosophy.
SPEAKER_01: We have this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you gotta listen to this podcast.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing, right?
SPEAKER_01: It we still think like that, it's the next big thing.
SPEAKER_01: But this was not, this is very personal to Paul.
SPEAKER_01: This was his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, a servant of God and apostle of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So he's a servant, and in the ancient text that would have been slave.
SPEAKER_01: And that means that it was like an indentured servitude, do los.
SPEAKER_01: So he sees himself as a servant, but a servant can walk away the way he uses it, but he stays.
SPEAKER_01: He uses his freedom to give his life to God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's a servant, he's humble, but he's also an apostle.
SPEAKER_01: An apostle is someone who has seen the living Christ and has been sent out by him to be a witness of him.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is what he does.
SPEAKER_01: So he's embracing that call, and he's calling the church in Crete to embrace it with him.
SPEAKER_01: Would you guys like food over here?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you a question?
SPEAKER_01: Would you send somebody to a really expensive restaurant if you've never been there before?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who said that, but I'm not gonna listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, maybe that's valid.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's valid.
SPEAKER_01: The apostle Paul's not doing that.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, this is my faith.
SPEAKER_01: Not of me, but I'm living this.
SPEAKER_01: He experienced great loss because he followed Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is his faith.
SPEAKER_01: He's humble, he's a man under submission, he's under authority.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna call people to do stuff, he's gonna call people to be submitting to one another, but he himself is a man who has given his life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's a servant, he chose to stay.
SPEAKER_01: He's humble, but he's also confident.
SPEAKER_01: He understands the gospel, and he's not gonna budge on it.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not gonna say things like if you agree with it.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna say this is this is life or death.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I know this to be a fact.
SPEAKER_01: Give your life.
SPEAKER_01: He's witnessed the risen Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God knocked him off his horse.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was violent.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul was so self-willed.
SPEAKER_01: Paul was absolutely confident that his life was approved by God, and he was completely blind.
SPEAKER_01: And then God blinded him to show them that.
SPEAKER_01: So he was, he was the he says, I'm the worst of the worst.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the chief of sinners.
SPEAKER_01: That is not poetic language.
SPEAKER_01: He actually destroyed the church, he oversaw the stoning of a deacon.
SPEAKER_01: How many deacons in here?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say we're gonna take you out back.
SPEAKER_01: Share with the nice.
SPEAKER_01: Um, right?
SPEAKER_01: So this is Paul's faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is personal to him.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, a true faith is a promised faith.
SPEAKER_01: Uh in the verse two, it says, in the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies, promised before the ages begin, and at the proper time manifested or brought to light in his word through preaching, which Paul had been entrusted.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what we need to understand, but I promise faith.
SPEAKER_01: This faith is not a moral system or a mantra or simply some way to find personal peace and to build an identity where I have a meaning in life.
SPEAKER_01: That is really not what the gospel is here for.
SPEAKER_01: Now it'll give you those things, but again, in a Western mindset, we can reduce the gospel to psychological peace and identity, and it's more than that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not here for personal meaning.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, because in Genesis, God says, I'm gonna overcome evil.
SPEAKER_01: He actually makes the promise to the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: Eve's right here, your child, one of your children is gonna crush the head of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: That is what he's out for.
SPEAKER_01: The whole thesis of the Bible is that I will be your God and you will be my people and we will dwell together.
SPEAKER_01: That's where all 66 books are going.
SPEAKER_01: So it's something deeper than your psychological well-being, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's something deeper than you can have meaning if you understand the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That is true, but it's much deeper.
SPEAKER_01: It's a promised faith.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about the elect.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about this promise came before the ages in eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: This God always had you in mind.
SPEAKER_01: You were never unwanted.
SPEAKER_01: How do you feel about that?
SPEAKER_01: God plans this out, he brings it to light through the preaching of the gospel and through people like the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_01: It's a promised faith.
SPEAKER_01: So it's he uses the word hope, the hope of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what that means to us usually.
SPEAKER_01: Hope means I sure hope that happens.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that may happen.
SPEAKER_01: I want it, I don't know if it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We we agree.
SPEAKER_01: Biblically speaking, it's something I have already.
SPEAKER_01: Hope in the Bible, especially when it's used this way, is it's not something that I hope for, it's something that I have.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: So it's something that you have.
SPEAKER_01: You you possess it, although it may not be manifested the way that you want it now, nobody can take it out of your hands.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that you can do or will do, there's nobody that can separate or yank that from you.
SPEAKER_01: That's a promised faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only that's covenant faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only way that you can have security and grow in your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: The only way, because if you don't believe that, you will be living your life to earn God's approval instead of living your life out of God's approval.
SPEAKER_01: And they're wildly different.
SPEAKER_01: They don't, here's the funny thing, it doesn't look different on the surface.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, many times people that are trying to earn God's approval look better externally, but inside they're dying.
SPEAKER_01: But this is a promised faith.
SPEAKER_01: He's delivered you from the domain of darkness, and he's he's opening up good works to you so that you can resemble Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: You're born of God now.
SPEAKER_01: You're born of God.
SPEAKER_01: So secondly, it's a it's a promised faith.
SPEAKER_01: Third, it's a preached faith.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Crete, well, we talked about Crete a little bit, but one of the things about Crete is it was a place for villains.
SPEAKER_01: It was not a good place.
SPEAKER_01: It became a byword in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're a Cretan, right?
SPEAKER_01: One of their own prophets, probably Epimenides, said, I mean, he Paul quotes him right here.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, gluttons.
SPEAKER_01: This was actually true.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Crete thought or they embraced the idea that they were the guardians of Zeus and his tomb on Mount Ida there.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, Zeus was the deceiver.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we got business done.
SPEAKER_01: So it was actually embraced on Crete, a virtue was deception.
SPEAKER_01: So when Paul says God never lies, that's a big deal to them.
SPEAKER_01: God is not just trying to manipulate you or change your life through misinformation or to get you to do what he wants you to do, like a God in mythology would do.
SPEAKER_01: This word actually transforms you.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe his word, it will change who you are forever.
SPEAKER_01: It will enter you into a relationship with him forever.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a preached faith that comes in absolute truth, and we can embrace you can test it.
SPEAKER_01: Believe it and see what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's not, well, just you know, think these things, pray these prayers, and maybe if you're lucky, God will be real.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's an embraced, you can embrace this because it's true.
SPEAKER_01: This true faith is also a practice faith.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's really big about this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is a gift, right?
SPEAKER_01: Faith is a gift that creates new life, but it also empowers new living.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know, again, I don't know how it works in Ireland, but I know how it works in America.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, faith is just something you embrace and then you go to church, and then you just live your life.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't really change you.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says that these evil Cretans or these false teachers were professing that they knew God, but they were denying him by their works.
SPEAKER_01: They they were saying, No, we know God.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, you should live with God like we do, you should follow him like we do.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's like, they're denying him by their works.
SPEAKER_01: Their lives are screaming that they don't know God.
unknown: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they're not perfect?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: It's because they are trying to justify or find value or find salvation on their own terms through their own actions.
SPEAKER_01: It's a practice faith.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_01: Right off the point.
SPEAKER_01: That Paul, the servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake, listen to this, for the sake of the faith of God's elect, not just for the sake of the elect.
SPEAKER_01: That would be good.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Paul's doing something for us.
SPEAKER_01: For the sake of the faith, that's how important that the preached word in embracing it through trust is.
SPEAKER_01: For the sake of the faith of the elect and their knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Knowledge, so knowledge matters of what is true, which accords with godliness.
SPEAKER_01: So when you embrace the gospel truth, it should change your life.
SPEAKER_01: So the truth that we embrace comes out of our lives, regardless of what we say.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul wants this gospel to spill out of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I think belief in Jesus seems pointless to people.
SPEAKER_01: In one regard, because we privatize and partmentalize our faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's vibrant right here, right?
SPEAKER_01: Safe here for the most part.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe some of you guys are unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be around people.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're still seeking great, like you're in the right spot.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be around people that are living this out, listen to what they listen to, evaluate it.
SPEAKER_01: You have to do that.
SPEAKER_01: It's practiced.
SPEAKER_01: Watch it.
SPEAKER_01: But Christians, we compartmentalize and we privatize our faith.
SPEAKER_01: We don't adorn it, as the text says, or wear it when we go out.
SPEAKER_01: We just put it on when we come in here, right?
SPEAKER_01: And that's good.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to practice it.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing a series at Portico Church in Charlottesville called Controversial Topics right now.
SPEAKER_01: It started off with abortion, right?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Just light talking.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Goes into sexuality and gender and politics and all kinds of stuff that we teach in our membership class because people need to know.
SPEAKER_01: They're not the most important things in the Bible, I'll tell you that, but they're really important to culture right now.
SPEAKER_01: So if it's really important to culture, we need to give an honest answer to it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, anybody in their right mind, pastors hate this kind of stuff, you would think the church would evacuate.
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: People are tired of us nuancing truth and saying, well, it depends.
SPEAKER_01: No, it actually doesn't depend.
SPEAKER_01: How we apply it, right, can have compassion.
SPEAKER_01: And it depends.
SPEAKER_01: But truth is truth.
SPEAKER_01: And we're finding that it's drawing people in that have never been to church before.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, okay, I get it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably not going to go with you there yet, but I want to know what the Bible says?
SPEAKER_01: And not just in just doctrines you're picking out of it, what does the whole arc of it say?
SPEAKER_01: Why would you say that?
SPEAKER_01: Is it just because you feel like the church is better than society?
SPEAKER_01: No, if you believe the Bible, we're the worst of the worst.
SPEAKER_01: We're terrible people.
SPEAKER_01: Good people don't get drawn into Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, good, strong people are repelled by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So stop nuancing your truth.
SPEAKER_01: Wear it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be rude.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not worried about this group being rude.
SPEAKER_01: That's not ever going to be a problem.
SPEAKER_01: Practice it.
SPEAKER_01: True faith number five is partnered faith.
SPEAKER_01: This is the beautiful power of what the apostle Paul is going to give us here.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4, he says, To Titus, my true child, and a common faith.
SPEAKER_01: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, the gospel creates a family.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul didn't have associates, he didn't have staff, he had sons.
SPEAKER_01: He had people that were like family to him.
SPEAKER_01: And honestly doesn't even mean he liked all of them.
SPEAKER_01: Can we just can we separate that for a minute?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, does that mean I have to like everybody in the room?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We celebrate Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: It's a big thing in America, but like it's so stressful because you're like, oh man, crazy uncle's gonna fight with mom, right?
SPEAKER_01: We know that's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be people in your family you don't like, but you treat them as extended family and you and you love them.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul loves Titus, and he's younger than Paul.
SPEAKER_01: My what is what does he say?
SPEAKER_01: My true child.
SPEAKER_01: It's truer than blood.
SPEAKER_01: Um true child in a common faith.
SPEAKER_01: We share this.
SPEAKER_01: It's partnered, it's meant to go out with us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a gal in Portico Church, and she was from Sri Lanka, and she um came to faith in America, and it was a great cost to her because her family, and especially her father, was Hindu, and he rejected her completely and disallowed her from being a part of the family anymore, and it broke her heart, and her heart is still broken.
SPEAKER_01: There's people that come to Jesus that give up everything.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And we, I will tell you this, it made me nervous because I'm like, oh, we have to be a home.
SPEAKER_01: Because if Lakshmi can't be here and get everything she needs in this family, she just lost her whole family.
SPEAKER_01: Then she'll have to find it at work or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not how the church is supposed to work.
SPEAKER_01: It's a partner of faith.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel creates a family and she's thriving, but we had to learn that, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's certain people in your city, if they come to Jesus, they lose everything.
SPEAKER_01: Like, are we ready for that?
SPEAKER_01: God's household thrives on this foundation of true faith.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of things we can get wrong as a church, a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of things we do get wrong, but we can't get this wrong.
SPEAKER_01: If we get this wrong, there's nothing left.
SPEAKER_01: Then we're just people in a room.
SPEAKER_01: True faith.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's Paul's, it's promised, it's preached.
SPEAKER_01: We practice it together, we partner it.
SPEAKER_01: People are people want something real, folks.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I think about when I think about AI?
SPEAKER_01: People are just, they're tired of, they don't know what's real anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Especially people under 40.
SPEAKER_01: They just don't, right?
SPEAKER_01: They've oh sorry.
SPEAKER_01: That was supposed to be young for me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay, people under 30.
SPEAKER_01: Um, they don't.
SPEAKER_01: They don't.
SPEAKER_01: Everything's fake, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've got AI, you're like, oh, I gotta put that in chat GPT so it sounds like a good email to my boss.
SPEAKER_01: I have to write, I'm watching reality TV on Netflix.
SPEAKER_01: Um everything you consume is artificial.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not judging it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm right there with you.
SPEAKER_01: We but we're dying for something real.
SPEAKER_01: You're dying for some your city is dying for something real.
SPEAKER_01: God will God is real.
SPEAKER_01: When the apostle Paul says, um, before the ages began and at the proper time, manifested, he's manifesting this truth through his word.
SPEAKER_01: That word is used a few times in Titus.
SPEAKER_01: It's epiphenero, it's light.
SPEAKER_01: He is like the gospel shines the light on what is real.
SPEAKER_01: If you do that, people come.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus will appear to people through your home.
SPEAKER_01: This home right here, this household.
SPEAKER_01: They will see him as you preach him, they will feel him as as you as you serve him and as you love one another.
SPEAKER_01: People want something real.
SPEAKER_01: And in my experience, it's not the convictions of Christianity that chase people away.
SPEAKER_01: We're so terrified of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's the fact that we're just not a we're just too afraid to live in them.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We walk out and we're like, well, you know, we're just like, oh, so you don't believe in it?
SPEAKER_01: That's weird, because you did your did your dad make it to church?
SPEAKER_01: I would like to No, I go.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, then I have questions.
SPEAKER_01: You're like later, later, I gotta right?
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, this is God's business.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna save anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm terrible at evangelizing.
SPEAKER_01: I I I I the just yeah, I I worship Jesus and He's coming back on a white horse.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of other stuff in between that.
SPEAKER_01: You want to learn?
SPEAKER_01: They're like, what?
SPEAKER_01: So you you can take the pressure off yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna make God more real or less real to people.
SPEAKER_01: He'll do that.
SPEAKER_01: You you just you show them off, right?
SPEAKER_01: You embrace them, and it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it takes a bunch of us to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, friends, this is a true faith, first and foremost.
SPEAKER_01: You are a beloved heir.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that you belong to the living God?
SPEAKER_01: And he's not like we'll see.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: They're okay.
SPEAKER_01: City's okay.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's crazy about you, absolutely head over heels in love with you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's calling you to represent his house, which doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_01: If I were God, I'm like, they're never gonna do it right.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I'll do it myself.
SPEAKER_01: He's calling you to represent his house.
SPEAKER_01: So the home that thrives, right?
SPEAKER_01: God's household is built first on a true faith.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, and this is as far as we'll get for this session, it's built on irreproachable leaders.
SPEAKER_01: So reproach means you see that word twice in the text, a beyond reproach or above reproach.
SPEAKER_01: I don't do you guys ever use that word in Ireland?
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody say, well, that was about beyond reproach?
SPEAKER_01: No?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you guys sound smarter than I do, or the Americans do, so I never know.
SPEAKER_01: Reproach, it reproach just means it doesn't mean perfect.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean that you're perfect.
SPEAKER_01: It just means that nobody in the community can say, oh yeah, that guy's a, I mean, he's he's a player.
SPEAKER_01: He's always like flirting with everybody.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, right?
SPEAKER_01: It means that there's nobody can actually say that's who you, that's that's a part of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean you're perfect.
SPEAKER_01: It just means if we're going to install these people as leaders, these men as elders, they have got to line up to this, not perfection.
SPEAKER_01: So we need to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: We need to understand that very deeply.
SPEAKER_01: God's household thrives on a foundation of true faith, but also irreproachable leaders.
SPEAKER_01: Um, see, when grace, when grace hits you, one of the things that it does is it takes you as a self-seeker, and now you be you want to become a servant leader.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, well, I'm not a leader in the church.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: You lead things all the time.
SPEAKER_01: You lead yourself, talks about being self-controlled.
SPEAKER_01: Um you might lead in some formal capacity in the church, you might lead at work.
SPEAKER_01: But how you do that radically changes.
SPEAKER_01: You you came out of the womb seeking self.
SPEAKER_01: When you're reborn, you become a self-servant leader.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul's, here's, I mean, you see the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's his decision or his solution to what was happening was to rebuild the home.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts with that.
SPEAKER_01: He starts with dads, basically, of the church, which is really all an elder and overseer bishop is.
SPEAKER_01: You're just a dad.
SPEAKER_01: And you and now in an American context, they would say, Oh, so that means they're better?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Do that means to make up all the rules?
SPEAKER_01: No, it doesn't say any of that.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't say they're better at leaders.
SPEAKER_01: No, I can tell you for a fact that men in a community like this are usually worse leaders because we have less emotional understanding of things.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Can I get a hallelujah?
SPEAKER_01: Um you're to take responsibility, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're to place yourself in the community second to see others thrive.
SPEAKER_01: That's what dads do.
SPEAKER_01: If you're under good leadership, you should feel seen, heard, and developed so that you can walk fully in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now we do a bad job of this, but I'm just, Paul is attacking it first, not with a his concept is very, very basic.
SPEAKER_01: Starting home.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna go through some of these, but I want you to understand it's these are made for elders, but the reason they're made for elders is because they're supposed to be a model of everything for us.
SPEAKER_01: So that means that these are your qualifications too.
SPEAKER_01: If you're like, what should it what should a disciple of Jesus look like?
SPEAKER_01: That.
SPEAKER_01: What should a dis like a mature Christian look like?
SPEAKER_01: This starts in the home.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting, the closest relationships are the one we look closest at.
SPEAKER_01: All right, because a lot of times you can look good externally and be falling apart inside or in your home.
SPEAKER_01: So it starts with a husband of one wife, literally a one-woman man.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're married, that means like you, you all of your energy goes towards your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: That's not common today.
SPEAKER_01: People want options.
SPEAKER_01: If you're single, like you, like you save, like, I mean, you should be dating if that's God's calling you to get married and or calling you not to get married, like then that's a whole different thing.
SPEAKER_01: And for singles, like you still have a place in this home.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I find singles, I think God loves you more.
SPEAKER_01: Married people are like, ha ha ha, what?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he talks about it.
SPEAKER_01: If if you can remain single, if God puts that calling on your life, if you can do that and not burn with desire, then great, because you're not double-minded and you can do great things for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So don't see yourself as you're outside of this.
SPEAKER_01: We're all part of this.
SPEAKER_01: But we get this idea that a one, like your emotional, spiritual, physical oneness with your wife.
SPEAKER_01: Must you've been married?
SPEAKER_01: No, we don't think Paul was.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Jesus was in his 30s and single and had a bunch of friends.
SPEAKER_01: Like that's a small miracle, right?
SPEAKER_01: So uh home first.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, children of faithful.
SPEAKER_01: This means little kids.
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't mean adult kids, the way the word's organized.
SPEAKER_01: So your little kids don't have the the capability for abstract thought yet.
SPEAKER_01: Their minds don't work that way until they get into their teens.
SPEAKER_01: But so they they will listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, theoretically, they will listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: So is your house or is it respectful orderly?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, do kids know their dad and love them and trust them?
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna speak to American culture.
SPEAKER_01: We we expect our men to be children.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna say that.
SPEAKER_01: We expect to seek first entertainment and consumption, right?
SPEAKER_01: What you consume, uh, city league sports.
SPEAKER_01: Like these are the things that make you a man.
SPEAKER_01: It's terrible, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is not what Paul's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Like, stop seeking entertainment first and start seeking people first, right?
SPEAKER_01: Start building up the community, start seeking to develop people in your family, your churches, your cities, your neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_01: And this is for all of us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, have the character of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So he lists five vices and then six virtues.
SPEAKER_01: This again, who's this for all of us?
SPEAKER_01: All of us.
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: So, not, not arrogant.
SPEAKER_01: You're not afraid to be wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna pop through these.
SPEAKER_01: You have a willingness to share power.
SPEAKER_01: Who's this for?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Pattern of humility and repentance, not arrogant.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, second, not quick-tempered.
SPEAKER_01: Are you known for your outbursts or more for what you hate than what you love?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you known as emotionally stable and an encourager?
SPEAKER_01: Not a drunkard.
SPEAKER_01: Do you turn to substances to reduce stress and to make life, family, and friends bearable?
SPEAKER_01: Can happen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, not violent.
SPEAKER_01: Do you how do you use your presence and your physicality?
SPEAKER_01: Especially dudes.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna throw this out to you.
SPEAKER_01: But not just dude.
SPEAKER_01: Like, do you I've seen guys push in in an argument?
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's well, it's it's different if it's two dudes, I think, right?
SPEAKER_01: That they're more comfortable in that environment.
SPEAKER_01: But I've seen men flare up on women.
SPEAKER_01: It's not okay.
SPEAKER_01: Like how you use your physicality really, God cares about that.
SPEAKER_01: You're physically, you're not, you know, invisible.
SPEAKER_01: You have a physical body.
SPEAKER_01: How are you using that?
SPEAKER_01: Not greeting for gain.
SPEAKER_01: Are you content with resources that you have?
SPEAKER_01: Uh are you walking in a spirit of entitlement?
SPEAKER_01: Does your head say, God owes me?
SPEAKER_01: Like I've sacrificed for him.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do we embrace?
SPEAKER_01: It's not just getting rid of something.
SPEAKER_01: This is how it works.
SPEAKER_01: We're called to love what God's loves.
SPEAKER_01: So we're called to embrace the things that God embraces.
SPEAKER_01: Hospitable.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, your life, is it open to believers and unbelievers?
SPEAKER_01: Do people have access?
SPEAKER_01: Now we know some people are just more comfortable with unbelievers for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_01: Some people are more like, you know, these are comfortable with Christians.
SPEAKER_01: We're called to hold both.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, are you a lover of good?
SPEAKER_01: Kind, warm?
SPEAKER_01: Are you self-controlled?
SPEAKER_01: That we're just in here four different times for every group.
SPEAKER_01: That means you have a submission and a dependence on God, especially when you need other people to overcome temptation or to be encouraged upright.
SPEAKER_01: Your life actually looks good to the people around you because it is, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's holy, it's upwardly motivated.
SPEAKER_01: You have this nagging concern that God is not getting his glory and you wanted to see him get the glory.
SPEAKER_01: And disciplined.
SPEAKER_01: Like, do you initiate a pattern of pursuing God in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Is your yes, yes, and your no-no?
SPEAKER_01: That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: These are simple character qualifications that we require of elders.
SPEAKER_01: But we desire this for all disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We desire this.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God calls us to, mature disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And it's unremarkable.
SPEAKER_01: It's all character.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you get a competent leader that doesn't have character, they will destroy everything.
SPEAKER_01: So that is the pattern that Paul sets for his church, for his leaders, for his people, for his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: This is who we're called to be.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, he says, for this means, here's why, Titus.
SPEAKER_01: This is why he left you in Crete, that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
SPEAKER_01: He goes through that.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, for, here's why.
SPEAKER_01: There are many who are insubordinate.
SPEAKER_01: That means they have not submitted to the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And they're empty talkers and deceivers.
SPEAKER_01: This is Cretan.
SPEAKER_01: They have their own gospel, they have their own justification.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that they're upsetting whole families.
SPEAKER_01: Upsetting, that's where we get that word catastrophic.
SPEAKER_01: So it's like taking a dollhouse full of furniture.
SPEAKER_01: I've actually done this before, don't ask why, right?
SPEAKER_01: And flipping it over and shaking it with somebody.
SPEAKER_01: This is the idea.
SPEAKER_01: Destroying entire families.
SPEAKER_01: They're teaching what is false.
SPEAKER_01: But why?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because whatever fills your life is forming your life.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever words take root in your life, whatever you put in your ears will shape your entire life.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you listen to and hold on to is shaping you, whether you want to or not.
SPEAKER_01: Like, well, I'm not trying to shape my life, I'm just trying to listen.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever fills you forms you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to false words, you will still love it.
SPEAKER_01: Paul knew this.
SPEAKER_01: You need to get your house in order, Titus.
SPEAKER_01: You need to put mature disciples, men as elders, that will stop seeking unjust gain, that will put themselves second and step down so that they can lift up the congregation.
SPEAKER_01: And you need to rebuke these people that are teaching falsely.
SPEAKER_01: These are self-willed people.
SPEAKER_01: These are people that love their own voice more than the voice of God.
SPEAKER_01: These are people whose the most plausible voice in their life is their own voice.
SPEAKER_01: Is that you?
SPEAKER_01: How do you judge things?
SPEAKER_01: Do you always say, well, we'll see?
SPEAKER_01: And like a brother or sister in Christ says, I don't know, man, I think you need to like kill that.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Is your own voice the most plausible voice in your life?
SPEAKER_01: If it is, that's danger zone.
SPEAKER_01: Are you being pastored by podcasts?
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: They have no authority structure.
SPEAKER_01: They're not in authority to anyone.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's in authority.
SPEAKER_01: He's under authority.
SPEAKER_01: Titus is under authority.
SPEAKER_01: The church is very simply organized like a home.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that, and I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15 to the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.
SPEAKER_01: Both their minds and their consciousness, their conscience are defiled.
SPEAKER_01: If you fill it long enough, you lose it.
SPEAKER_01: You lose the ability, I think, to see light.
SPEAKER_01: Think of it this way your conscience is not the light.
SPEAKER_01: It lets the light in so that your mind can judge it.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see?
SPEAKER_01: When you choose to reject God's law, when you check when you choose to reject God's grace and be legalistic, when you when you reject Him, what happens is that window gets smudged.
SPEAKER_01: So the light doesn't come in as bright.
SPEAKER_01: You spend enough time doing that, you become darkened.
SPEAKER_01: And I no longer see that light.
SPEAKER_01: Think I do.
SPEAKER_01: I think my mind is making proper judgment, but I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is you defile yourself.
SPEAKER_01: So even the pure things that are good, I'm like, I don't even hear it anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing my own thing.
SPEAKER_01: That is what Paul will call a shipwrecked faith or a seared conscience.
SPEAKER_01: And here he calls it a darkened conscience, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's defiled.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, they profess to know God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the funny thing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's not funny at all.
SPEAKER_01: They're actually trying to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: They're not trying to hurt people.
SPEAKER_01: They're just like, you guys are getting it wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Like, no.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why would Jesus come and then tell us we don't no longer have to do the mark of a covenant in circumcision?
SPEAKER_01: Why would Jesus come and say you don't have to hold the Passover anymore?
SPEAKER_01: You guys are out of your minds.
SPEAKER_01: Like, God is going to judge you.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't even want to be there when it happens.
SPEAKER_01: They're not trying, they actually believe.
SPEAKER_01: They're so darkened.
SPEAKER_01: They've rejected God and His Word for so long, they don't have the ability to judge rightly.
SPEAKER_01: That conscience is a, is like the blinds are down.
SPEAKER_01: The light doesn't come in.
SPEAKER_01: The only light they have is internal.
SPEAKER_01: And it's darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is pure.
SPEAKER_01: So when we ended up in Virginia, and I remember this day, we we could fly for free, so that was good.
SPEAKER_01: But we were out of money, and we came back from the holidays, and we came back home, and our house had been broken into.
SPEAKER_01: And they took, they even took the Lion King VH, VHS, ever heard of a VHS?
SPEAKER_01: They took the kids' blooming Lion King videos and all my wife's clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Like we were just like sat.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is it, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why would I follow you?
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I still thought it was transactional.
SPEAKER_01: And this little tiny church that we didn't like that we'd started going to out of just desperation, but the gospel is so clear.
SPEAKER_01: Like, um, I hear the knock on the door, and there's this odd-looking couple there, and they were just holding stuff and they didn't say anything.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hi.
SPEAKER_01: Said hi, we're deacons at the church.
SPEAKER_01: We heard you were like not doing too well.
SPEAKER_01: And it broke me.
SPEAKER_01: They had this huge thing of spaghetti, and the church just pulled us in and took care of us.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody took my wife shopping, and not like to the goodwill, like she, like, you know, like Prada, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Like this person was very wealthy, and they're like, no, we're gonna set you up.
SPEAKER_01: And so they were the gospel had taken root in this church, and you could see it because their lives, the the truth that they professed was working out in godliness in their life.
SPEAKER_01: Not perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that was the day I understood.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably when the call to ministry started for me.
SPEAKER_01: I have to be about this.
SPEAKER_01: Like this, this is universal, it's everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: It's in India, it's in Ireland, it's in Canada.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's the church is unstoppable.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the household of God, and this is family.
SPEAKER_01: So that's when it became family to me.
SPEAKER_01: And my question for you as we close out this first session is two things.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, are you at home with God?
SPEAKER_01: Like, do you feel, and you're never gonna say completely, but do you feel at home with God?
SPEAKER_01: Like, do you yourself, not here, and you might feel at home here, but do you feel at home with God?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus said this.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and the father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking about the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of his power.
SPEAKER_01: That's in John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, are you at home with God?
SPEAKER_01: Is he maybe a better way to say is are you letting him, right?
SPEAKER_01: Are is he at home in your life?
SPEAKER_01: And the second thing I would say is are Is this God's home?
SPEAKER_01: How is this God's home?
SPEAKER_01: Can people that are strangers come in?
SPEAKER_01: Can they do that?
SPEAKER_01: Can can can they get their questions answered?
SPEAKER_01: Um do we hold one another accountable?
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody ever in your friend group say, I don't know, man, that doesn't look great.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody check you?
SPEAKER_01: If they don't, it's not safe.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to be rude.
SPEAKER_01: Are you at home with God?
SPEAKER_01: Because God's household thrives on this foundation.
SPEAKER_01: To start with, true faith.
SPEAKER_01: True faith.
SPEAKER_01: Not just the idea of God, but this is personal to God.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you and irreproachable leaders because we're all called as disciples of Jesus to live this way.