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Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and we are starting today a study in the book of Titus.
This is day one in our study. We're going to focus on chapter one verses one to
three today, and we're also going to focus on what this whole book is about and
how it can make an impact in my life and in your life as we take a look at God's
Word together.

Let me begin by reading Titus one, one to three. "Paul, a servant of God and
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.

" As we begin our study in the book of Titus, we're beginning a study in a book
that really talks about how God can make an impact on your life so that you can
make an impact with your life. We're beginning a study in a book that talks
about how to build a healthy church, which by the way, when you build a healthy
church, that's how God begins to make an impact on your life so that you can
make an impact with your life and through your life. This is a book, the book of
Titus, it's all about church building blocks.

It's about leaders and teaching and people and how you build in a healthy way.
In this book, we're going to find out that when you build leaders, you build on
character. You need a lot of things to be a good leader.

The leader of a church needs a lot of things, a lot of skills, a lot of
abilities. They need to be a good teacher, they need to be a good motivator, but
Paul says you build on character. If you don't have that, you're not qualified
to lead.

So building block number one is leaders. Building block number two, we're going
to see in this book, is teaching. And Paul says again and again in this book
that teaching is built on lifestyle.

It's a book about sound doctrine, the doctrine that you can hold on to. It's a
book about how to act because of who God is. It doesn't matter what you say,
Paul says again and again, if you don't have a lifestyle to back it up.

That's where the power in your teaching comes from. Leaders you build on
character. Teaching you build it on lifestyle.

We're built on Christ, the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ, the grace
that God pours on our life in Jesus Christ. That's how we build in our lives. In
fact, in this book that Paul wrote to his son in the faith Titus, and we're
going to take a closer look at Titus together tomorrow.

In this book, Paul talks about how the people of God can make an impact. In
chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, he talks about three things that need
to happen in our lives. In chapter one, he says you have to be selective in
order to make an impact with your life.

In chapter two, he says you have to be attractive to make an impact with your
life. In chapter three, he says you have to be devoted to make an impact with
your life. Chapter one, be selective.

Be selective about who you follow. Be selective that you follow someone who's
teaching the truth of God and not some false teacher. I grew up in a small town
along with Rick Warren, we grew up in the same small town in Northern
California, where a guy by the name of Jim Jones was leading a church.

And in that church, a lot of exciting things were going on. Healing was going
on. The church was doing things in the community.

The poor were being reached, and so some chose to follow him. And he went from
leading the church in that town to taking the church to lead it down in San
Francisco area, and then he took the church and he took it down to Guyana. And
that's where all those that followed him lost their lives.

He led them all to suicide. He led them all to death. Be selective about who you
follow.

We need human leaders. A lot of people look at that and they think, well, I'm
not going to follow anybody, then I'm just going to follow Jesus Christ. Well,
you have to have human leaders.

We learn by example, and there are leaders in the church. But you be selective.
And how do you be selective?

You check their character. You check that their character is being lived out
based on what God says. And we're going to find out as we walk through these
chapters that there's a comparison that Paul works.

Are they pursuing dishonest gain? Or are they people who don't pursue, don't
live for financial gain, but live for Christ? Are they people who are hospitable
or are they people who are detestable?

Those are the kinds of words he uses as he compares the true teacher to the
false teacher, the true elder to the false teacher. Are they loving good? Are
they unfit for doing good?

Are they self-controlled or are they living out with actions that deny God? Are
they upright or do they have corrupt minds and consciences? Are they holy or are
they disobedient?

Do they hold firmly to the truth or do they teach what they shouldn't be
teaching? Are they disciplined in their daily life or are they just mere
talkers? Paul just paints these two pictures and he says, "Be selective about
who you follow.

" That's how you make an impact. If you follow the wrong person, obviously
you're going to go the wrong direction. And so you think, well, I'm just not
going to follow anyone.

Follow yourself the wrong direction. You'll go the wrong direction. You're going
to follow someone or something.

We're built that way. So be selective and make sure you have the right kind of
leaders in your life. Be selective and then be attractive.

And Paul in chapter two talks about sound doctrine, solid truth. He talks
particularly to some groups in the church, older men and older women, younger
men, younger women, and he says to them, "You want to really be attractive in
your life? Here's how the truth makes you truly attractive.

Here's how the truth makes a difference in who you are. " And we're going to
look at that as we walk through the book of Titus together. And then in chapter
three, he says you need to be devoted, and he talks about what you devote
yourself to.

Be devoted to being obedient, be devoted to doing good with your life, be
devoted to peace, be devoted to consideration of others. It's interesting to me
that as Paul talks about being devoted, he focuses more on relationships than on
tasks. When I think of being devoted, I think of what I want to accomplish.

Paul talks about being devoted to who you love and how you love them. And how do
you live this life of devotion? In chapter three we're going to find out that
you don't forget who you were, that you were a person enslaved by passions,
enslaved by the things you wanted to do.

Don't forget who you are. Now you're a person who's justified by grace. And
don't forget where you're going.

You're heirs of the hope of eternal life. That's what we'll focus on as we talk
about being devoted. Now with that in mind, where we're headed in the book of
Titus, let me go back to verses one to three.

Let me go back to where he begins because he begins, he starts strong. Let me
read those verses once again for you. He starts 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 a 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. " Paul starts strong here
really with three pairs of truth that play off of each other in ways that
strengthen our understanding of the truth. He talks about slave and apostle, and
then he talks about faith and knowledge, and then he talks about the beginning
of time and the appointed season.

First he begins by saying, "I'm a slave and I'm an apostle. " It's a pretty
amazing pair of truth. He says, "I'm a slave of Jesus Christ.

I follow him. I humbly do whatever he asks me to do, but I'm also an apostle of
Jesus Christ. I've been given a position of authority in God's church to lead
God's church in a direction that lets Jesus Christ be seen in God's church.

" You have slave, that's humility. You have apostle, that's authority. Paul had
both, humility and authority.

Now some people ask, because you know Titus is a friend of Paul's, we're going
to find out more about that tomorrow, why in the world would Paul introduce
himself in a letter to a friend? Well, it was the way that all letters were
written in that day. If you think about it, these letters went such long
distances, you had to be sure that you knew who it was that was writing.

You wanted to make sure you knew who was writing because it might be a different
Paul. If you wrote and you said Paul to Titus, and Titus gets it and says, "Is
this Paul Smith or Paul Jones? " And he wrote back and said, "Paul Smith or Paul
Jones.

" Then you wrote back. That could take three, four, five, six months just to go
back and forth and figure out who it was. So they wrote very clearly in the
beginning of their letters who they were.

And as the Spirit inspired this letter, the Spirit inspired Paul to remind us
all that there is humility in our lives and authority in our lives because we
follow Jesus Christ. Now I'm not an apostle, you're not an apostle, but you do
have the authority of living out God's Word in your life. And without humility,
there's no authority.

Without the humility of knowing that we're just saved by grace, there is no
authority of living out God's Word in your life. So you have slave and apostle.
And then he talks about faith and knowledge.

He says, "I am an apostle, I am a slave for the faith and for the knowledge of
God's elect, those whom God has said, 'I'm choosing you out of the world to live
the kind of life that I want you to live. '" Faith and knowledge. Trust and
knowledge.

To trust him is to know him. And to know him is to trust him. And Paul says this
faith, this knowledge, this knowing him and then growing in the knowledge of
him, both of those he say rest on hope.

Now this hope that he's talking about here is not a wish. Hope in the Bible is
not a wish. We say, "Oh, I hope it happens.

" We're wishing it happens. Now in the Bible, hope is a certainty that we do not
yet see. And he says it rests on this certainty that we're going to be with him
someday.

And then Paul goes a bit deeper. He says, "This hope, the foundation of that is
God's character. " He says, "God does not lie.

" We're going to find out as we go through this book that the people in Crete to
whom Paul is somewhat writing because Titus is serving these people, that they
were known as liars. And Paul just in the beginning of this book reminds us that
God is never a liar. The truth of the matter is their culture had taught them
that everybody lies.

And so it would be easy for them to think of God as a liar. And Paul reminds us
here at the beginning that God cannot lie. That's his character.

It made me think as I read this, what has my culture taught me that everybody
does? What has my culture taught me that I have been applying to God? My culture
might teach me that everybody is tolerant, they'll tolerate any sin.

And then I apply that to God and I think God will just be tolerant of sin. No,
he will not because he hates what it does to his children. He hates how it hurts
his creation.

What is it that I'm confused about concerning God because of the culture that I
live in? I let God's word speak to me and that changes me. He talks about slave
and apostle, three pairs of truth.

Talks about faith and knowledge. And then he talks about the beginning of time
and the appointed season. From the beginning of time, God's had this plan, this
plan for salvation, this plan to rescue us through Jesus that we're going to
talk about through this book.

But it's at the appointed season that he showed it. God's plan always has a
season, an appointed time. There is a difference between God's will and God's
timing, even in your life.

God may be willing something, but it's not quite time for it yet. Now when it
comes to salvation, knowing Christ, that appointed season has arrived. It is
time for us now to all get to know him.

And my prayer as I go through this book, as you go through it with me together,
is that God will in great ways cause you to get to know Jesus in new ways, in
ways that refresh your faith and strengthen your daily life. In fact, that's
what I want to pray for right now as we begin. Would you pray with me?

Jesus, your word is so powerful and we thank you for it. And we ask that you
would strengthen our hearts through your word. And I do pray that you would
refresh our faith as we walk through this book.

I do pray that you would show us in new ways how we can follow you. Lord, I know
that Satan tempts us to give up. Instead of giving up, help us to look up to you
and to find in you the hope, the strength that we need, a hope that will never
fail us.

Thank you that we serve a God who does not lie. Thank you that we serve a God
whom we can trust. In your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to talk about who is this Titus after whom
this book is named.