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(upbeat music) - Welcome back to week four, day two of our look through the New
Testament. We're looking at the book of Titus today as we go through a book a
day. And I'd like to begin by reading Titus chapter one, verses one to three.

Paul starts that book by saying, "Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus
Christ, "for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge "of the truth that leads
to godliness, "a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, "which
God, who does not lie, "promised before the beginning of time. "And at his
appointed season, he brought his word to light "through the preaching entrusted
to me "by the command of God our savior. " Now, these are the first three
verses.

Paul hasn't even said who the book is to yet, and he's already preached a whole
sermon. He has a lot to say, obviously, in this letter. Titus is a book about
how to make an impact in your life.

It's a book about how to build a healthy church and make an impact. It's a book
about how to live a life of impact. And when he gets to verse four, he says,
finally, who the book is to.

To Titus, he writes, "My true son in our common faith, "grace and peace from God
the Father "and Christ Jesus our savior. " Paul is a Jew, and Titus is a
Gentile. These are two men who would never even have met except for the grace of
God and Jesus Christ.

Jews did not speak with Gentiles. They didn't eat with Gentiles. But by God's
grace, now they're partners together in ministry.

Paul's able to say, "My true son in the faith. " What do we know about Titus? We
know that he was a Gentile.

He was a Greek. Galatians 2:3 tells us that. We know that Paul had this
relationship with him that was a partnership in ministry and even more.

He called Titus my brother in 2 Corinthians 2:13, my partner and fellow worker
in 2 Corinthians 8 23. He called Titus here my true son. So out of that, we get
this sense because Paul used that phrase towards those people he'd won to faith
in Christ.

So he was won to faith in Christ by the apostle Paul. And we know that Titus
went on to serve God in many, many ways. He had ministries in Corinth, 2
Corinthians 12 18 tells us, and Dalmatia, 2 Timothy 4 10 tells us.

The book of Titus tells us he had ministries in Crete. Apparently, as you look
behind the history of this, Titus was Paul's troubleshooter. He went to churches
that were having struggles, problems, Corinth and Crete, before that Jerusalem,
and he helped them in those problems to see God's goodness and grace.

He had a character, 2 Corinthians 8 16 to 17 tells us of concern, of enthusiasm,
of initiative. He was perfectly suited for this role. And this ministry
partnership that Paul had with Titus, it was very important to Paul.

Let me read a couple of scriptures to you. 2 Corinthians 2 13, Paul writes and
says, "I had no peace of mind "because I did not find my brother Titus there.
"So I said goodbye to them and I went on to Macedonia.

" He said goodbye because he wanted to see Titus. It was so important to him. 2
Corinthians 7 6, he says, "But God who comforts the downcast "comforted us by
the coming of Titus.

" So they had this strong relationship. And out of this relationship, they did
ministry together. Paul had asked Titus to help strengthen the churches in Crete
and the believers in Crete.

And he's writing now to encourage his son in the faith. And as he writes, he
talks in this book, one way to look at it is, he talks about how to make an
impact. You want to make an impact?

He talks about three things. You gotta be selective, you gotta be attractive,
and you gotta be devoted, those three things. You gotta be selective,
attractive, and devoted.

To make an impact, you have to be selective. You have to focus your life. And as
Paul talks to Titus about this, he says you have to be extremely selective about
who you follow.

Who is leading the direction of your life? Rick Warren and I grew up in a town
where a guy named Jim Jones was leading a church. At that time, most of the
people in the town thought it was a fine church, but many of the believers knew
that there was a problem because the preaching wasn't gospel preaching and the
focus was on Jim Jones, not on Jesus.

Healing was going on. The church was doing good things in the community. The
poor were being ministered to.

And so many people followed Jim Jones. And as you know, the history of that
false cult, they followed him to their grave. Now we do need human leaders.

Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ. " But we have to be selective. Are we
following people who are following Christ?

Or are we just following people who are doing good things? So how do you know if
these are people that you should follow? Well, you check their character.

Paul talks about that in chapter one. He actually, if you look through the
verses carefully, he gives a back and forth comparison of the kind of character
you should look for and the kind of character you should watch out for. So he
says, are they, in verse eight, pursuing, not pursuing, dishonest gain?

If they're, somebody who doesn't seem to be living for money, that's a good
check. So maybe you want to let that person influence your life. Or in verse five,
he says, are they living for the sake of dishonest gain?

If you see that it's all about money, don't follow that person. 'Cause then your
life's going to become all about money. In verse nine, he says, are they
hospitable?

Or in verse eight, are they detestable? That's a pretty easy decision. In verse
10, are they loving good?

Or in verse 10, he says, are they unfit for doing good? In verse 11, are they
self-controlled? Or in verse seven, do they have actions that deny God?

He's just painting these two different pictures. Are they upright? In verse 12,
or do they have corrupt minds?

In verse six, you can hear that from the way people speak. Are they holy? Verse
13, or disobedient?

Verse nine, do they hold firmly to the truth? Verse 15, or do they teach what
they shouldn't? In verse four, are they disciplined?

Verse 14, or are they mere talkers? As you look at the comparison of these, you
see, okay, is this the person who's following Christ? Or is this the person
who's following themselves, their own selfishness?

Be selective about who you follow. Second, he says, you gotta be attractive. He
talks in this section about sound doctrine, meaning solid truth.

In chapter two, verses 11 and 12, Paul writes, for the grace of God has appeared
that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and
worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this
present age. It's interesting, in this chapter, he talks about attractive older
men, attractive younger men, attractive older women, attractive younger women.

But he doesn't talk about physical attraction. He talks about spiritual
attraction. You want to live an attractive life.

The way to make an impact with your life is to live an attractive life, a life
that people are attracted to. And there is a way to live that attracts people to
the good news of Jesus Christ. Paul talks about it in this chapter.

And then number three, he talks about, you want to live an effective, you want to
live a focused, you want to live a life that really makes an impact, you gotta be
devoted. You have to be devoted. You can't just live based on, well, I hope
something good happens.

You gotta decide, what am I committed to? What am I devoted to? He talks in this
chapter about what to be devoted to, being subject to rulers and authorities,
being devoted to obedience, to readiness to do good, to not being a slander, to
being peaceable and considerate.

Being devoted to these things, he says. He also talks, I think of most interest
to me, about how to be a devoted person. He says in verses three to eight, don't
forget who you were, don't forget who you are, and don't forget where you're
going.

That's how to be a devoted person. Don't forget who you were, don't forget who
you are, and don't forget where you're going. Who you were, you were enslaved by
passions, he says.

Who you are, you're justified by grace. And where you're going, you're heirs of
the hope of eternal life. In fact, let me read those verses, and you can just
listen for those three things.

Paul says, at one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved
by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated
and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our savior
appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things that we had done, but
because of his mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom
he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our savior, so that having
been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal
life. This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to stress these things so
that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing
what's good. That's how to be devoted.

In verses nine to 11, he talks about what to avoid if you're going to be devoted.
He says, avoid foolish arguments. That'll just take away your devotion.

It'll get you caught up in what you're talking about rather than what you're
doing. And then in verses 12 to 15, he talks about why we should be devoted. And
we think of these huge reasons why we should be devoted, to make an impact on
eternity and to change the world.

And of course that's true, but Paul takes it down to the reality of everyday
life. In verse 14, he says, our people must learn to devote themselves to doing
what's good in order to provide for urgent needs and to not live unproductive
lives. Paul says, you know why you need to be devoted?

Because of daily provision and life production. There's some needs that your
family has that the church has. So we need some devoted people.

And if you live an unproductive life, it's not going to be much of a witness for
Jesus Christ. So he says, just a simple day to day is why you need to be
devoted. I think some people think their devotion hasn't gained them anything
'cause they don't have notoriety.

God never promised that. But he did promise his faithfulness in the day to day.
He did promise his faithfulness even through the problems.

And God has used your life if you've been devoted in more ways than you can
imagine. We'll see it when we get to heaven. Let's take a minute to pray
together.

Father, we want to make an impact with our lives. So help us to look not at what's
going to happen 20 years from now, but at the next step we're going to take. How can
we live with devotion?

How can we focus our hearts on you in such a way that people can be attracted by
the life of Jesus in us? That we can live a life that makes a difference in the
daily needs of not only ourselves and our families, but the other people that
are around us. Jesus, we cannot be devoted without your power.

And so we ask for it today. In your name, amen. Well, tomorrow, the book of
Philemon teaches us how to resolve conflicts.