Okay. Grab your Bibles and open to Titus chapter one, Titus chapter one. That's page 1099 in those blue Bibles that are the ushers give out 1099 book of Titus. And as you're doing that today's mother's day, as you know, all of us are celebrating moms and wives and grandmas and others that we call mom that we might have in our lives. And moms today might be a great day, but mothering is hard work. And you're like, duh, no. What do you know about that? I don't. You know, I have no idea. But I can only imagine how tiring and frustrating and messy and stinky and crazy mothering can be. So moms, as many of your pastor, let me remind you that mothering is what you do. It's not who you are. You are a sinner saved by grace. You are declared right with God forever. So whether your kids listen or not, whether they love your food or hate your food, whether they love you or hate you or somewhere in between, what your kids do, do not define you. Jesus defines you. You are free from slavery to sin and slavery to seeking God's approval through your good works. You are adopted into the family of God. You are a full heir of the inheritance that only Jesus deserves for all that he did to save us. So whether your kids are the smartest, the most athletic, the most liked in school or not, whether they are successful or bums, again, that doesn't define you. Jesus defines you to rest in what he's already done for you. Not what you're trying to do or trying to get them to do or trying to get them not to do. Rest in Christ on this Mother's Day. And one other thing. I know there's mommy blogs and YouTube and TV and pop psychology, but go to God's word for help. It's usually the last place we go. but it should be the first. The Bible is sufficient for everything you're going through, everything. It is sufficient for life and godliness. It has what we need. It has what you need. So go there. Today, for many, it is a celebration. It's leaving here and going to brunch and flowers and balloons and good food and presents and all of that. And for others, it's not a celebration. It's a catastrophe. Like Sean said earlier. So whatever it is for you today, before we jump into Titus, I think it would be good for us to pause and just and pray together. OK, so join me in prayer, please. Oh, God, on this Mother's Day, like Sean said earlier, and like I've been praying all day. Whether today is a great if today is a great day, you rejoice with those who rejoice. And if it's not, you weep with those who weep. You are a comfort. You are a very present help in time of need. So grateful to you for promises like you will never leave us or forsake us, that you are with us always, and that you are near. You're so near that you live inside your people. Our bodies are your temple. We have no need for temples because our bodies house your presence. So I pray for the moms here today. I pray for your grace and your goodness to continue to use them, to continue to use their lives and use their ideas and use their creativity to be a blessing to kids and a blessing to husbands and that that would be reciprocated. And I pray for those who right now Mother's Day has a source of pain. I pray you would give grace to remember that you are near, you are there, you know. Please, please do these things in our midst. Please do these things in each of our hearts, I pray in Jesus name, amen. So the book of Titus, if you're a guest this morning, this is the perfect day for you to be here, because we are starting a brand new book of the Bible that we're going to work our way through probably for the rest of the year. So it might take us that long to get through three chapters. And it's called the book of Titus. Now, look at chapter 1, verse 5. Paul writes this letter to a man named Titus. And Titus is on the island called Crete. Crete is in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. You might be thinking, like, what in the world does that have to do with us today? Well, that's my goal today, to show you why this is important. On this island, there is tension, there's catastrophe, there is craziness going on. So there are churches that have no leaders, there's false teachers running around, there are people saying they're Christians, but living like that he doesn't exist. It seems things are a mess. And so, and Paul's like, hey, Titus, I'm gonna, hey, let's go to Crete. Hey, Titus, guess what? I'm, I'm taking off, but I'm leaving you here. So you just, you, you deal with this stuff. And so Titus is trying to figure everything out. And so Paul sends him this letter and says, Hey, um, here's, here's what I want you to do, Titus. So if you're wondering why, why are we looking at the book of Titus as a church? Why are we going to spend the rest of the year going through this book? Well, there is a method to the madness. If you're a guest here this morning, what you need to know is that we turned four years old on May 17th. So we're a three-year-old church. We are a very young church. And in order to try to bring a turnaround and see God change this church, what we did was we said, well, let's start with Jesus. Let's look at a gospel. Let's start in the book of Mark and say, OK, remind us who Jesus is and what he said and what he did. and take us back to the core of what Christianity is all about. And then from there, we went to the book of Galatians because we said, you know, we really need to get this message of salvation right. Because there's so much confusion out there about what it means to be saved and how do you get saved and how do you get God's acceptance? Is it through good works? No, it's through faith in Christ. Well, now that we got the message right, we went to the book of Jonah because we said, like, we need to take this message to other people, the Ninevites in our lives, the people that are around us that need the message that you know so well, the gospel. And then we get to the book of Titus because Titus is about the church. So as these people are coming to Christ and as people are gathering here and continuing to gather here, We need to know what is the church supposed to be? What is the church supposed to do? And that's what Titus is all about. So today we begin our trek through the book of Titus. And now if you've been here before, this is gonna feel a little different than most messages that I give here. This message is gonna be almost exclusively aimed at your mind. So for some of you, I just spoke your love language. You're like, love Bible. I want to know about this island of Crete. How big is it? How wide is it? Tell me about the people that lived there. Are they nice? Are they not nice? Tell me about Paul. What did he do 2000 years ago? Did he run over here? What did he go over there? What did he do? Who did he talk to? You want to know you are the Bible nerd and you want to know, like, give me every, tell me every little detail in here from 2000 years ago. Now, That's more of a Bible study than the sermon. And while I do that on Sunday mornings, that's not all I do. That's not even the bulk of what I do. That's because Bible nerds aren't the majority. Most people come here with one question in their mind. Is there something in that book that's going to help me? That's what most people are asking. Right, if God spoke and he spoke in that book, can it help me with my life? Does it speak to the things that I'm going through? You know, the needs that I think I have versus the needs that I really have. Is that book a relic from 2000 years ago or is it relevant to my life today? That's what people wanna know when they come here on Sunday. And so each week I try to balance those things, research and relevance. But not so much this week, the nerds win. The nerds win this week. That's because we need to know the background stuff so that we can see why a letter written 10,000 miles away, 2000 years ago between an apostle, whatever that is, and his friend, why that should matter and does matter for each and every person here today. Let's start with the ground rules for understanding the Bible, okay? The first thing we need to know is that no book in the Bible fell out of the sky with a Post-it note on it that says, this is God's word, save it, put it in a book called the Bible. None of them did that. That's not how it worked. Each book in the Bible was written by a real person to real people at a specific time in history for specific reasons and to accomplish specific goals. And that includes Titus. So my goal here is to show you some of those things. Who wrote it? Why did he write it? Who did he write it to? Where did he write it? Why did he write it? All those things. Because God used every author of scripture to perfectly convey what God wanted to say, even down to the letter. using the author's specific background and education and vocabulary. So what Christians say about Jesus is that he is truly human and truly divine. And the same thing is true about the Bible. It is truly human and truly divine. The words of God himself through the words of chosen men. Titus is no different. So this letter has a story about how it got from God's mind into your lap. So what I wanna do is kind of walk you through that. So let's start point number one with the story of the letter. The story of the letter. Look at chapter 1 verse 1. The first word is what? Chapter 1 verse 1. The first word is? Paul. Paul, right? Because he's the author. He's the author. That's one of the ways that you can tell a good Bible teacher from a bad Bible teacher. Ask them this question. Who wrote the book of Titus? If they're like, I don't know. Scholars say, blah, blah, blah. Just walk away. Ignore them. They're not a good Bible teacher. Why? Because it says it right there. Paul's the author. Now, I had a guy ask me last week, so how did those 27 books get into a collection called the New Testament? Like how did Titus get into this book? So remember, we're going God's mind to your lap. How did it go from God's mind through Paul's fingers to your lap, okay? Well, what happened is Paul writes this letter to Titus and it goes to the island of Crete and he gets it in his hands. Now, in that moment, when that letter arrives to Titus, the people there, including Titus, read it, And it's coming to them with the force of God, that this is God's word. So they have to determine like, is this really God's word, or is this just a really good book? Like there's God's word, and then there's good books. And then there's really bad books, right? Just three kinds of books. So there's God's word, is this God's word, or is it a good book from Paul? And so they take a look at the letter of Titus, for instance, and they have three tests. And the first test is this, was it written by an apostle? Well, guess what? Titus was. Automatic, in the Bible, done, written by an apostle. Actually, 21 of the 27 books of the New Testament are written by apostles. And so those were automatically Matthew, John's writings, Paul, Peter, so on. If you're like, what about those other six? Talk to me after. Moving on. Second test that the Christians in the early church were using was, was this book accepted across the Roman Empire? So if it was only accepted locally in different regions, but not all over the Roman Empire, the Christians were like, yeah, we're not really sure if that's God's word. So we're talking about those that were not written by apostles, but outside of that. Well, what about the book of Titus? Not only was it written by an apostle, but it was accepted all over the Roman Empire. So second test passed. And then the third test was the test of inspiration. It goes like this. Does God use this book, use these words to save people and sanctify people? Are people saved and growing because of the words in this book? And then second, Does something written in this book contradict something in books that are already accepted as scripture? If there was any contradiction, if there was anything that was like, yeah, it disagrees with Romans and be like, nope, sorry, this is not inspired. This is just a good book, but it's not a God book. See the difference? Three tests. Apostle, acceptance, inspiration. I tried to think of another A word, but there just wasn't one. So I failed my preaching class. So a book like Titus, had all three. And so that's why it's in your Bible. So now we've gone God's mind, Paul's pen, your Bible. And what we find when it comes to this book are some incredible things. Like this book of Titus was quoted in a document that was written in 95 AD. That's before 100 AD. And you're like, duh. Yeah, it is. It's before 100, but you know what that means? That means that there were Christians, there could be Christians alive at that moment who saw Jesus. There could be Christians, definitely Christians alive at that moment who heard the apostles preaching. So they would have been able to say, oh yeah, no, no, no, no, that's not scripture. But they didn't. They actually used it as scripture as early as 95 AD. There are church leaders before 200 that are quoting it as scripture saying, Paul wrote this book, Titus, and quote the book of Titus. And these men weren't all roommates in the same house. They're spread all over the Roman empire. Again, showing that the book you have in your hands from the earliest days was considered scripture, God-breathed. Now, Paul sits down to write this letter to Titus. Where did he write it from? Answer, what's the location? Unknown, nobody knows. Your guess is as good as anybody else's. When did he write this? Again, nobody knows. One scholar I read said it's impossible to attach a year to when Titus was written. And here's why. Chapter one, verse five, notice what it says. This is why I left you in Crete. See now, someone who knows the Bible goes, wait a minute, when was Paul in Crete? Paul was not in Crete at any time in the book of Acts. So how in the world, how did he get to Crete? Did Luke just kind of forget that? Not likely. So what's happening here? Here's what's happening. The book of Acts ends in chapter 28 with Paul in prison. ideas that he got out. And when he got out sometime around 62 AD, he started preaching, sort of going around the Roman empire. He started going to various places and preaching and teaching like he always does. And then he got to, he said, Hey, Hey Titus, let's go to Crete. Let's go preach to the people there. And so they did that chapter one, verse five. That's why I left you in Crete. I left you there. I was there with you. And so what happens is that when we compare what he says right here to Acts 28, and then we compare it to 2 Timothy, we know, well, Paul was killed during the persecution sometime around 64 to 67 AD, somewhere in there. So if Paul gets out of jail at 62, and he's dead by 64, That could be a two-year span where he wrote the Book of Titus. If he dies in 67, that would be like a six-year span, a five-year span. So scholars go back and forth. If you're wondering, you know, what date do I put on it? There it is, around 63 AD. And the reason I think that is because Paul doesn't talk about persecution. You get to 2 Timothy, and he's saying, hey, Christians need to realize you're going to be persecuted. Hey, Timothy, you need to suck it up. Because persecution is what's going to happen. I'm going to die, but hey, I'm going to see Jesus. He's not talking like that in Titus, and I think it's because the persecution hasn't happened yet, but whatever. Now, who received this letter? Well, duh, it's called the Book of Titus for a reason, right? But I don't want you to think of Titus like me. Titus wasn't a lead pastor. Titus is what we would call an apostolic representative. He's a representative of the apostle Paul. He is Paul in that church because Paul can't be there. So he would take Paul's authority to the churches that Paul ever saw and say, hey, this is what Paul wants you to do. So he and Timothy and others are Paul when Paul can't be there. So they stay and do the work that Paul started until Paul says, hey, it's time for you to leave. Like look at chapter 3, verse 12. Look at 3.12, talking to Titus. Titus is not going to stay on Crete for his entire life. That's not the job. That's not the job he signed up for. Chapter 3, verse 12. Paul says, when I send Artemis or Tychicus, a couple more representatives, when I send one of them to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis. So you're not going to stay there forever, Titus. You're going to take off and you're going to come meet me. Now having said that this letter was written to Titus, I want you to look at the last verse, chapter three, verse 15. In the last two words, you all. What is that? Yeah, what is that? What is that? You know, what is you all? It sounds like Paul becomes a Texan all of a sudden. Like, what is you all? If he's writing just to Titus, it's for Titus' eyes only, why would he say you all? Answer, because the recipients of this letter are Titus and all the Christians on Crete who are supposed to read this letter too. That's why it says you all there because he's writing this to Titus. Titus is supposed to read and go, hey guys, you need to read this too. Cause this is what I, this is what Paul wants me to do. And Paul's in charge. He's the apostle. He's in charge of all of you. And so we're, I'm just doing what he wants us to do. So another question I remember, I warned you at the beginning, this is nerd. This is a nerd message. Okay. Nerd message, nerd moment. Why are there Christians on the island of Crete? It's in the middle of nowhere. Like, how do Christians get there? Well, no doubt some were saved when Paul and Titus showed up there. But I think there were Christians there before that. And that's because in Acts chapter two, it's the day of Pentecost. And all of these Jews are in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, for this feast, and all the Christians show up and they're speaking in other languages. And what it does in Acts 2, verses 10 and 11, it says that all of these various people were there that day. And one of the people groups that's there are people from Crete. So what happens is these people from Crete are introduced and they see this miracle, hearing the gospel in their own language. I think some of them believed, went home, saved. And then there are these churches. So these are second generation churches on the island of Crete. And there's all the problems of second generation churches. False teachers coming in, no leadership, nobody listening. People saying they're Christians, but living like they're not. Sound familiar? That's what's happening on the island of Crete. And so Paul says, hey, Titus, I'm peacing out, but I got a job for you. You need to stay there, chapter one, verse five, and set things in order. Well, what did Paul want Titus to accomplish? Let's look at it. Point number two, the structure of the content, the structure. What is the, from point A to point B to point C, what is the flow of the letter? What was the point that Paul's trying to make to Titus? Here's what I want you to do. Well, if we take a step back, we go, well, this letter doesn't look any different than any other Roman letter. In the first century, it has a beginning, a middle, and end. It has a greeting, and the body of the letter, and a conclusion. So it's pretty normal in that sense. But each part, the beginning, the middle, the end, all emphasize the same truth. And so I want you to see this. This greeting at the very beginning, verses one to four, emphasizes God's promise to save people. Those people hear the gospel, they believe the gospel, they are given eternal life, but notice chapter one, verse one, they marry two things. They marry the truth, notice, with a godly life. That's very important. Now, Paul starts in chapter one, verse five, saying, Titus, you gotta get some order into these churches. You gotta fix what's going on here. So the first thing you need to do is you need to appoint some leaders. You need to appoint some pastors. They need to shepherd these churches and they must have godly lives. They must have a godly family. They must have firm doctrinal convictions. They must be able to teach the truth and defend the truth. And that's because there are these false teachers running around. They're splitting families. They're taking people's money. They're spreading lies. These leaders need to be in those churches to give theological stability so people aren't chasing after those false teachers but are grounded in the truth. And chapter two begins, and Paul explains the obligations that Christians have. He says, hey, Titus, here's what I want you to tell those Christians, older men and older women, younger women, younger men, slaves, which are like employees today. How are they supposed to live their lives in this world? They are to be models of good works for this purpose. Look at 2.10. Christians are to be models of good works, 2.10, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God. Adorning a doctrine is kind of like, you've got the door on your house, right? It's just a plain door. Can you do something like you hang a wreath on it? You adorn it, you make it look pretty. He says, our good works make the doctrine of Christianity look beautiful. We'll come back to that. Look at chapter two, verse 11. Our godly lives, changed lives come from the truth we believe. Look at 2.11. Grace is considered something like, oh, you know, God's gracious, so I can just kind of do whatever I want. And that's not in the Bible. You know where people get that? Their feelings. They trust, they go to their feelings, they go to their emotions and go like, like we just sang, oh, you're a good father. And you know, you know that I'm just so sinful. I know you don't care about my sin. You know that I'm sinful, and so, okay. Chapter two, verse 11. Notice what grace does. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. We know that God's grace, people are saved by grace, but notice this. The grace of God has appeared, verse 12, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Wait a minute, grace doesn't excuse sin, it actually teaches us to say no to sin. It actually teaches us to say yes to what it says there. Godly lives, lives committed to Christ. In other words, to be more and more amazed at God's grace is to become more and more like the God of grace. Does that make sense? The deeper you go into understanding God's grace for you, the higher you will live in obedience to the God who showed you that grace. Paul continues with the Christian's obligation, chapter three, he wants Christians to be model citizens. And notice chapter three, verse two, we are to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy towards all people. That sounds like Christian Twitter, right? It sounds just like that. That is what it is to read Christian posts on Twitter. No, not at all. Why are we supposed to be like that? Because we're no different than lost people. The only difference between us, between Christians and non-Christians is grace. We were lost too. And the reason we aren't lost now, chapter three, verse five, is He saved us. Notice, not because of works done by us in righteousness. He didn't save us because we earned his acceptance by our good works. That's not how this happens. No, he saved us, notice, according to his own what? Mercy. You're saved by grace and grace alone. Notice that mercy had a goal though. Look at chapter three, verse eight, the saying, the saying that the gospel that is recounted here in verses five, six, seven, the saying is trustworthy, that Jesus saves sinners. And I want you to insist on these things. Why? So that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. You see that? That's what we're supposed to do. That is what grace, that's what mercy is supposed to produce in our lives. People who are devoted to good works. And then the letter closes, but just in case we miss it. So we've got the beginning, we've got the middle, we've got the end, the conclusion, and the end reiterates something we saw at the very beginning and in the middle. Look at this. There's some final instructions. And then one last reminder, just in case Titus misses it, the Cretans miss it, and we miss it. 3.14. and let our people learn to devote themselves to what? Good works. Good works. So Titus has two parts. Church organization chapter one, Christian obligation chapters two and three. Or if you want something a little easier as you kind of think through the whole book, Christian leadership, chapter one, Christian life, chapters two and three. That's kind of the book of Titus in a nutshell. Now, we kind of sped through Titus really fast. You're like, wait a minute. Why is it going to take you nine months to get through Titus? You just did it in nine minutes. Well, there's a lot of really rich stuff in here that we, we need to ponder. Like I've said before, Paul didn't write a tweet. Hey, figure this out. See, uh, like he gave us all this rich truth and really God through Paul gave us all these, this rich truth. And so we want to mine that truth. But if you were to take Titus, for instance, and read it, three chapters probably take you about eight minutes to read. If you were to do that about three or four times, there would be these ideas that would bubble to the surface. Like he keeps repeating himself over and over. And so point number three, let's look at the simplicity of the themes. They're simple because they're obvious. The more you read this book, the more you realize, okay, there are some things that's really on Paul's mind that he really wants to get across to Titus and the people there, and by extension, us. That first theme, no surprise, is God. And it's the answer to every question. Well, He is the hero of the Bible. He is the main theme of every book. He is the most important person in the book. He's there at the beginning. He's there at the end. He is the consistency throughout all the Bible, God. But now 13 times this word God is used, but at most of those times, look at chapter one, verse four, Most of the times that this word God is used, it's used of God the Father. Notice it says there, 1-4, God the Father. Now, listen to everything Paul says to Titus. Like, this is the God that we serve. This is God the Father. Chapter 1, verse 1, he is Paul's master. He's the one who elects people to eternal life. And you're like, whoa, what was that? Look at chapter 1, verse 1. For the sake of the faith of God's elect. Well, we'll talk about what that means in the coming weeks. Look at chapter 1, verse 2, the Father, notice, cannot lie. He's the promiser of eternal life for all who believe. He's the giver of eternal life through the preaching of the Word. Three times the Father is called the Savior. He's the one all pastors are accountable to, 1 5. He's the one who's denied when people claim to know Him but don't live for Him, 1 16. He's the one people claim to know. He's the one who looks good in the good works of Christians. He's the giver of grace. He's the one Christians are trusting in for eternal life. But it's not just the father that this word God is used for. Look at chapter two, verse 13. If you ever get a knock on the door from someone who's like, hey, hi, we're from the local kingdom hall. And yeah, we don't believe Jesus is God. He's just an angel. Take him here, chapter two, verse 13. Christians who are living godly lives in this present age, thanks to God's grace in their life. Notice what it says here, verse 13. They're waiting, Christians are waiting for our blessed hope. This hope that, well, this is not like the lottery. I hope I win the lottery. This is a settled conclusion. We know this is happening. We know this is coming. Like guessing or wishing or hoping, we know it's coming because Jesus rose from the dead, waiting for our blessed hope. What is that? It's the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So like the Father, Jesus is also called the Savior three times in Titus, which is interesting. Same title is used for the Father and the Son, but in the Old Testament, multiple times it says there is no other Savior. God says it multiple times, there's no other Savior, I don't know of any. Isaiah 43, 11 has God saying, quote, besides me, there is no Savior. So if there is no Savior but God, and Jesus is rightly not a Savior, but the Savior, Then Jesus is what? Jesus is God. And in this book, Jesus is also seen as the one who commissions Paul for ministry, the one who will return to the earth, the one who sacrifices himself for our sins, the one who purifies his people of remaining sin, and the one who is the spirit comes into a person's life through the son. And speaking of the spirit, third person of the Trinity, chapter three, verse five, notice that. His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Spirit. Third person of the Trinity is here as the regenerator, the one who gives new life, spiritual life, eternal life, the one who takes the spiritually dead person and resurrects them, give them new life, who makes them new creations. So this first main theme is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. And the second group, you 17 times here, is related to this idea of truth. So words show up in this book like true and truth and, and the word word and sound doctrine and a couple of phrases like trustworthy saying, and, and these things, all of that come together to show that there is a body of doctrine. There are ideas that Paul saying, Titus, you got to get this stuff out to the people in Crete. Because lost people are saved when they come to the knowledge of the truth. Chapter one, verse one. The word preached is how people believe in Jesus and are saved. One, three. Pastors must believe the gospel, which is called the trustworthy word. It's a word that you can trust. So they can instruct Christians in sound doctrine so that they can refute those who contradict it. Christians need to be taught and corrected so that we're sound in the faith, that we're firm and established, that people can't say something and it rocks our world theologically. We're like, no, I'm grounded. I know what I believe and why I believe it. False teachers are mentioned in chapter one and chapter three. What Paul says is, hey, those who follow the false teachers, they, quote, turn away from the truth. Pastors are only teach, quote, what accords with sound doctrine, two, one. They're to declare it, exhort people with it, insist on it, rebuke people with it, like the truth is supposed to be the core of their ministry, advancing and promoting the truth. In chapter two, verse five, chapter two, verse 10, Christians shouldn't act in any way that brings shame on the truth. The message of God's grace in the gospel is called trustworthy and excellent and profitable. Because when a person believes it, that's what happens in their souls. That's what it does in a person's life. It blesses those who trust in Christ. The third and final theme is simple to see. If you read through the book of Titus, you cannot miss the theme of works. Works, chapter three, verse five, God saved us, quote, not because of works done by us, but when he saves us, it produces, that salvation produces good works. That's the most often used phrase in Titus, good works, six out of nine times, the word works is used, it's good works. So pastors, chapter two, verse seven, are to be models of good works in all aspects. Their lives are to be exemplary. Like if other Christians lived like that, they would have healthy, God-honoring lives. Christians are to be zealous for good works, ready for good works, devoted to good works. Look at chapter two, verse 14. Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are what? zealous, fanatical about good works. Look at 3.1. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. Like, give me a chance to do something good. And he said, Christians like, that should be us. Where could we do something good in this world? Look at 3.14 again. Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works. Now, by now, it might be obvious why Paul wrote the letter to Titus. We've been starting at the big picture and making our way down to this final idea, this singularity of purpose. What is the point of this book? The point of the book is simple, really. The point of the book of Titus is this. Live what you believe. None of this half in, half out, wishy-washy, I'm a Christian on Sunday, I'm not the rest of the week. Live what you believe. There is a connection between sound doctrine and a godly life, that right belief produces right behavior. Grace-obsessed people are godly people. Like, don't we need the message of the book of Titus in the church today? Right? Hey. God knows I'm weak. Doesn't care if I sin. He knows I'm, you know, I'm just dust and not that's what dust does. God, you know, I'm already forgiven so I could just live however I want. Again, they didn't get that from the Bible. I got that right here. The lying lawyer inside their hearts is like, Hey, don't worry about obedience. No big deal. God's gracious. Live how you want. That's not the book of Titus. Now, while it's true that the message of Titus is live what you believe, I think Paul takes it one more step. So take a look at 2.5. Why is it that young Christian women are to live godly lives as described in chapter two, verses four and five? What is the reason? Notice verse five. It is so that the word of God may not be reviled. Well, who's gonna revile the word of God? Not other Christians, but who? Non-Christians. When a non-Christian sees a Christian living an ungodly life, they go, uh, that whole Christian thing you're talking about is a bunch of garbage. If it can't change you, why do I think it's going to change me? Look at chapter two, verse seven. Why should leaders, church leaders, model good works? Verse eight. So that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Opponents within the church? No. Opponents outside the church who look at church leaders and go, you guys are a bunch of hypocrites. Well, if they are a bunch of hypocrites, that's a good thing, but Paul says, no, live a godly life of good works so that when people say that about you, oh, you're just in it for this, or oh, you're just a hypocrite, you can go, uh, point to where? I'm not perfect. But point to where there is something that is not above reproach. That's what he's saying. He says, don't give them any reason to look at your life and go, yeah, there's no reason to be a follower of Jesus. Look at you guys. Are you seeing a pattern here? This isn't godliness and obedience for obedience sake. There's a higher purpose. Let's look at 210. Why are Christian employees supposed to be model employees? So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God. Translation? The good works of Christians make God look good. Those works are like a fragrance, a most beautiful fragrance that hits the spiritual noses of non-Christians and goes, wait a minute, maybe there is something special about Jesus. Because you're working differently than everybody else. What's going on with you? Christians are to be models of good works, zealous for good works, ready to do any good work, and devoted to good works, though we're not saved by good works, but why? because I think Titus is about godly living for an ungodly world. That's what I think this book is about. Godly living for an ungodly world. What do I mean by that? The word for is critical. That's why it's in caps. Paul wants Titus to be godly. He encourages Christians in Crete to be godly, encourages us to be godly, so that the ungodly will see our lives, think Jesus is great, trust in him and be saved. In other words, God uses our changed life to change other people's lives for eternity. Our changed lives because of the gospel make the gospel believable to an unbelieving world. And the opposite is true too, right? How many people have stopped going to church because they've gone, those leaders are just a bunch of hypocrites. They're really in it for this. They're really in it for that. I don't need to go to church. They're just like the people at my job. How many children refuse to go to church because of the hypocrisy of their parents? Mom, you're telling me to follow Jesus, but look at how you're talking to dad or look at how, dad, look at how you're cheating at your job. What are you talking about? Jesus is important. No, he's not. How many people just done with all of this because of the scandals and the controversy and the un-Christian, ungodly behavior of Christians. Don't forget, Jesus put it this way, John 13, 35, all men, that's the world, all people will know you are my disciples if what? If you're cool, if you're nice, if you get all the arguments right, all people, the ungodly around us will know we are disciples of Jesus if we love one another. If we put others' interests above our own, if we carry each other's burdens rather than pretending we don't see them, if we look beyond all that separates us and are different than the world that we see on our newsfeeds and we're like, no, I'm not going to be angry like that. No, I'm not going to promote that. There's far more that matches all of us than divides us. And that's where Jesus also says, John 17, 21. He says, when Christians are united and forgiving and gracious and peacemaking people, that unity causes the unbelieving world to go, hey, there might be something to that Jesus, because they're united and everyone else in the world is fighting, but not them. There's something different about them. They'd stand up and notice. They're not like everyone else. They're different, but it's a better kind of different. Maybe there is something to that Jesus thing. So if you want your friends to be saved, your life is either giving Jesus credibility or it's removing credibility. If you want family and coworkers, other students at your school to be saved, your life is either giving or taking Jesus credibility. If you want your kids to be saved, your life gives Jesus credibility. If it doesn't really matter to you, it won't matter to them. If other things are more important to you, other things will be more important to them. The lost world is watching, and here's what Jesus says. Jesus gives them permission to test him by our lives, by the way we treat each other. Is that crazy? You would think, hey, no, point of the resurrection, like, that's how you know if he's legitimate, because he rose from the dead. Jesus is like, yeah, I'm gonna put the responsibility on you. how you treat each other, the godliness of our lives, the way that we interact with each other, tells lost people if Jesus is legitimate or he's just a fraud. So the book of Titus is very relevant for us, because all of us interact with people who need Christ, right? All of us are. And Titus comes along, this book that God had Paul write to his friend 2000 years ago and says, hey, the principles that I had my friend Titus try to promote on the island of Crete, I wanna do that in the city of Gilbert. I wanna do that here because you're surrounded by your Nineveh and those Ninevites in the East Valley, they need to know your Jesus. and they will know him by our lives. So that's what we're jumping into with the book of Titus. Let's pray.