Welcome to the Wilton Baptist Church, where we worship God, walk with others, and win people to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm Pastor Steve, and our congregation is pleased to share this message with you today, and we pray it'll be a blessing and encouragement to you. Blessings as you listen or watch. What makes Christianity different from all the other what we would call religions around the world? What makes it different? Years ago, this question was posed and discussed at a conference. And some of the participants in this discussion were arguing that Christianity is unique based on the teaching that God became man. And then some in that conversation objected and said, well, there's other religions that say that God became man or will become man. And then someone said, well, what about the resurrection? There's similar doctrines in other religions. They say there's a resurrection. I looked it up. Some, depending on which branch of Judaism you're looking at, some would say there's a resurrection. And Islamic followers, they would say there's some kind of resurrection at some point as well. C.S. Lewis was in that conversation, and he's a renowned theologian, apologetic person, and a writer from years ago. And he was a strong defender of Christianity, and he came into that conversation, and he sat down as they were talking. He said, what's everyone talking about? What's this debate and discussion all about? They said, well, it's the uniqueness of Christianity. What makes it unique? And he said, oh, that's an easy answer to that question. He said, it's grace. Grace, God's grace is a unique feature of Christianity. And of course, everything is based on the resurrection, not just a general resurrection, but the resurrection of Jesus himself. But he said, the answer to that would be grace. At the very heart of the gospel is this supreme truth that God accepts us with no conditions whatsoever. We just simply place our faith, our trust, our dependence on Him, and this atoning sacrifice of His Son who came, was made flesh and came and dwelt among us, who died on the cross in our place and rose again on the third day, who's waiting for us to come to heaven. And we just rely on the grace of God. And that is the difference. We are saved by his infinite grace, not by our moral character, not by our works of righteousness, not by our religiousosity and things such as this, not by commandment keeping or church going. We are saved by grace through faith. And so the biggest difference would be that fact, Jesus is alive and by God's grace, we can be saved. Our passage here is Titus chapter 2 and I've really enjoyed studying this book and we've had a lot of good feedback and people are making awesome decisions in their walk with the Lord as we're going through this book. So we're in chapter 2 and we'll be looking at verses 11 through 15. Notice in your copy, it's also on the screen, for the grace of God, that bringeth salvation hath appeared. That's the word epiphany. It's appeared. It's showed up. It's arrived to all men. And I love that. It's for everybody. Anthropos is the general term for mankind. He's talking about humanity, not just male, but female as well. This grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to everybody, to all men. teaching us that denying ungodliness, that's a way of saying no, just say no to ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Perhaps this is a verse that every Christian should know and every young person should know. This verse is a great way for us to choose to live and notice as he continues looking for that blessed hope and a glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. We are looking forward to that epiphany. If you would, the appearing that the Christ showing up arriving for us. We're looking forward to that day when a trumpet sounds and the rapture takes place and we meet the Lord and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We're looking forward to that. that moment in time, looking for that blessed hope of the glorious appearing and the great God our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Here is another of the occasions of the 10 verses, 11 times we have the word good in Titus. And so we're learning about this good life that God intends for us to have. And here's one of those times. Here's a good, the word good means good or beautiful, zealous of good or beautiful works. these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority let no man despise thee and so here's paul writing to timothy or titus rather in this pastoral epistle telling him here's what you need to know to share so this is a message for titus for the churches he served, for us today as well. We've been looking at good preaching. That's where we started in chapter one. And for good preaching, you need good pastors. And then there's good minds that we've examined. And then there were good mentors. And now there's a message that is built upon this foundation. And Titus, I want you to tell this doctrine and this teaching about the grace of God. Tell the people about God's grace. Paul tells Titus to use these five verses to exhort and to rebuke the congregations that he would be assisting on that island of Crete. Notice verse 15. These things speak, so talk about these things, and exhort That's that word, parakaleo, it means to call alongside. We get the word Holy Spirit as it comes from that as well, paraklete. And so, to exhort means to strongly encourage. You're gonna come alongside somebody and strongly encourage them. I'm not ahead of them, I'm not behind them pushing them, I'm right beside them, I'm coming alongside, and I'm going to give this instruction to this congregation, to these people. That's what God says to Paul and Titus to do. and then to rebuke. To rebuke means to expose, to correct, to convict, to admonish. And Paul tells Titus and God tells us to call each other, to encourage each other, and to also rebuke with these words that we're about to unpack in our message here today. So from this passage, I will exhort and rebuke us and myself as well. This word grace is found in the first verse we read, verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Charis, grace, means goodwill freely disseminated or distributed by God, especially to the benefit of the recipient. regardless if he deserves it or not. Sometimes we think, oh, I have to deserve God's grace. We don't deserve it. You can't work for it. You cannot earn it. You can never get good enough to be like, oh, I deserve God's grace. We never get there. It is a gift freely. given. The word by definition grace means that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, and charm or loveliness. It also has to do with goodwill or loving kindness in a broad sense. It has to do with showing favor to somebody. They don't deserve it. They haven't earned it. They didn't work for it. But I'm showing favor. I'm showing favoritism towards this person. I'm showing kindness, extreme kindness. It's used in Scripture sometimes of a kindness of a master towards his servants, of God towards people, and to be committed or commended to the protecting and helping favor of God, the apostles. The New Testament writers at the beginning and ending of a lot of the letters that you read, the short books near the back of the Bible, a lot of times they say, grace be with you. And a lot of times they end and they give their final paragraph saying something about God's grace. They want to extend that. They craved, one person wrote, they craved God's grace to be benefited or blessed upon their congregations. And that's true for us. We live in and are thankful for God's grace. Sometimes Christians do not enjoy God's grace. They may live in constant fear or constant anxiety. Sometimes we are consumed with things that are out of our control. We don't embrace God's grace. I exhort you, enjoy God's grace. The good life embraces God's grace every day. What fear do you have? What anxiety is there? What is it that seems to overwhelm you? Take a step back, take a breath, pray, and look for God's grace in your life and be thankful for that. And so that's my exhortation. Then there's a rebuke as well. Others abuse God's grace and they'll say, I'll do whatever I want. You know, God will forgive me. Oh yeah, you're forgiven. I'll be forgiven, but... That's what Romans chapter 6 talks about, and it's abusing God's grace, taking advantage of God's grace. And so I would rebuke that mindset today. Don't take God's grace for granted. The good life lives in God's grace. Well, will he forgive you if you ask? Yes, but don't abuse God's grace. Grace is not a license to sin. We'll talk about that in just a little bit. So the good life embraces God's grace. I have three questions as we start. What good is grace? Why is grace good? And why should I embrace grace? I'll give you four answers to those questions. The first one is found in verse 11. We need a ready life. And grace results in and makes available a ready life. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." It's available for anyone who's looking for it, for any God seeker who wants it. And for the skeptic and the scoffer and the atheist and the agnostic and those who are genuinely seeking, God's grace is available for each and every one. And according to this, it's manifested, it's revealed, it's there if they would have a lens in their eye, a lens of faith to see God's grace. That's what's needed. We don't know when our last breath will be, but we need to be ready for eternity. Two weeks ago, I walked into the building around 7.50. Colin was walking out of the ladies' room. Colin Brown was walking out of the ladies' room with cleaning supplies in his hand, taking care of stuff. He would always come and tidy up. And he retired from cleaning the building, but he still would come Sundays. He just wanted to keep helping and doing what he could. He'd come out. We always had good talks hours before anybody got here. And he'd be cleaning, and I'd be prepping, getting things ready, and things like that. But he walked out. We talked for a little bit. And then I saw him later on carrying trash out to the dumpster out here. On Tuesday, Carol, his wife, left around just before 2 o'clock. in the afternoon. And he was sitting in a chair, said, you know, I don't feel good. She gave him a wash rag, and he was wiping his face there. And she left. She went to work. And probably in the next half an hour or so, we don't know exactly, he had a heart attack and died. He was such an example of someone who was wanting to be productive and serving until the very last moment in life. Not everyone can do that, but every life stage, by the way, you can still pray, you can still serve, you can find something to do to serve. But he's such a model to me of someone. But the point of what I'm trying to say with his story is we don't know. We don't know. A week and a half ago, a 42-year-old man over in Milton, there's a paper factory over there, was doing his job and somehow got either pulled in or fell into something and at the paper factory, he was smashed or he was killed somehow in this industrial accident. I guess several years ago, I'd performed a funeral for one of his grandmothers. And so the family said, we want you to come and preach this service. And this was Wednesday, just four days ago. And this place, this funeral home place, I had to park like two blocks away. And I walked in, the place was standing room only, not just for the visiting hours, but for the service as well. People were standing like in the aisle, like I was speaking and different setup, but people were standing right along everywhere, not just the back walls, it's everywhere. And we shared the gospel. But I would imagine, and I think you would agree, his name was Anthony or Tony. He went to work that day expecting to come back and go bowling that night. That's what he liked to do. We don't know when our moment is, but we know this is a fact. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Colin had trusted Christ. Anthony had heard the gospel when I preached at the funeral service several years ago. And we got to be ready. We got to be ready. Are you ready for when that moment is when you take your last breath? Sometimes when we preach this and say this, when we hear this, we think, oh, it's the other guy. Someone else will die. Someone else will have a car wreck. A student, where my oldest goes to college, had a car wreck this last week. This student athlete, Christian young man, and he had a car wreck. A drunk driver died in the car wreck, but hit him. He's nearly dead. He's alive, but they had to amputate his leg, at least one leg. And I mean, he's alive as far as I can tell. You don't know when this is going to happen. But you've got to be ready. It could be an accident. It could be natural causes. It could be some kind of an attack. It could be just, it's your, it's, by the way, it's all your time to go. We don't know when that appointment is. There's no prolonging it or changing that. God knows when it is, but we gotta be ready. Are you ready? Have you trust to Christ? Grace brings about salvation. Grace is this unmerited, unearned favor of God. And this grace has appeared to all, but you gotta see it with eyes of faith. I believe in the gospel. I believe in the pre-incarnate Christ. I believe he came physically to this earth, and he lived this perfect life, and he died a cruel death, shedding his blood, taking the place for my sins, and he rose again three days later, and 40 days after that, after walking the earth, he ascended into heaven, and he's seated at the right hand of God, and he's looking forward to coming back for us and receiving us unto himself. That's the complete gospel, and there is a future in eternity with him. And so, have you trusted Christ For yourself, salvation is possible. It's available for any seeker, anyone looking for God. By the way. Every one of you today. Apparently woke up. Because you're here. That's grace. You're still breathing. That's grace. The grace of God is experienced every waking moment and even those sleeping moments when we're still alive. Every day we have that. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. That's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Oh, but God commendeth his love toward us. He demonstrated or proved his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, in spite of our sin, Christ died for us. That's grace. We didn't deserve that. That's an example of grace. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. He gave them the power. That means authority. It's like a legal idea. They can become sons and daughters of God when they believe Jesus, receiving him as their Savior. That's how you become a Christian, believing and receiving. I love that verse. I love that truth. Have you received God's grace? Number two, what else does grace do? Why is it so good? It can result in an educated life. Notice what the grace does. Grace teaching us. Grace is teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. This word for teaching, it's an unusual word. It's not the one that I normally use that would be like didactic teaching, like didactic teaching is give and take, like we're having a conversation in a classroom or in scattered group, we're talking and it's back and forth like this. This term teaching has to do with training or chastening children. Specifically, not just like adult education or all ages education, but specifically teaching children, chastening children, correcting children. Here's the way to do this. Here's a better way to do this. Oh, you should do it this way instead of that way, or do this or don't do that. Training children in particular. Now, this is where God's grace comes into play because God the Father is teaching us. God's grace, he's using his grace to teach us as his children, here's how to live. Here's what to do. Here's how to be. God is telling Paul, Titus, the church, and us, here's how to live in this present world. We should be learning these things and be teaching these things. Now, we should not assume that teaching Bible truth about God and Bible truth about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and salvation and the second coming of Christ will automatically cause a Christian to follow Christ or to do the right thing. They make their own choice. You make your own choice to be here. You make your own choice to follow the Lord. And there's a conscientious choice that we have to follow Christ. So we don't just assume that. We make personal choices each and every day. So we need to hear Bible preaching. We need to read the scriptures. We need to be taught and to be learning. But doing right is active. These verses here, teaching, it's like active. So that means the recipient is learning. these things that God has for us to learn. So it includes saying no to the flesh. Say no, he says, to deny ungodliness. Ungodliness means impiety. And we don't use the term impiety. I mean, definitions can be very formal sometimes. No sacredness or no reverence for God. That's what piety means. And so ungodliness, say no. It's how to say no back in the 80s. Just say no is a slogan for drugs. worldly lust. The word lust has to do with desires and passions. One person wrote about a bleak satisfaction that we have in life sometimes. We are disgusted by the things that we desire, and we desire what disgusts us. And that's true sometimes in our life. The apostle Paul said this in Romans chapter 7. If you ever feel like you have a conflict between doing right and doing wrong, and maybe your soul is kind of unsettled about a decision, Read the book of Romans chapter seven in particular. Paul said, now, then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Okay, it's not like the cartoons, like here's Satan over here. Here's this angel over here. It's not exactly like that. In your soul, you're three persons, body, soul, and spirit, but your flesh is saying, do wrong, think selfishly, be evil, because it's our human nature. Evil comes naturally. And so Paul was saying, there's a battle in my heart to do wrong. And then my spirit, my soul's like, hey, let's do right, Paul. Let's shape it up. Let's do right. Let's see what he says. In Romans 7, verse 23, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body? of death. That is the results of the works of the flesh. It's death. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Paul is telling Titus that here's something that you need to teach your congregation, and we need this as well. Saying no to the flesh is something that we should do. Say no to the flesh, and yes, to the spirit. So say yes to the spirit. How do you do that? He says we should replace those wrong things. We should live then soberly. That means of a sound mind. This guy is thinking right. Righteously and godly in his present world. What's your mind like? It should be a sober-minded mind. A sound, healthy mind. Thinking clearly. Thinking godly. Articulating and seeing and understanding right and wrong more effectively each day. Righteously, that's just and upright. It's what is right, just like the root word there, righteously, it's right. And then godly, piously, in a way that shows strong religious beliefs and devotion, it's a sacredness, a reverence for God. That's what this godliness is. One Christian counseling lady, Diane Lanberg, Lanberg? Lanberg wrote in a book for women about pursuing excellence. He said, pursue excellence as a mother, but pursue it also as a person, a wife, and a woman gifted by God. So whether you're a man or a woman, we should pursue that excellence and be seeking how can I serve the Lord and how can I fight against this idea of my flesh that just wants to do the easy thing or the sinful thing or the wrong thing. D.L. Moody wrote, I thought when I became a Christian, I had nothing to do but to lay my oars on the bottom of the boat and float along. But I soon found that I would have to go against the current. There is a current in your body, your flesh going against what is right and here is your soul and spirit trying to do what is right. Here is the current, let's go the wrong way, let's do the wrong thing, let's say the wrong stuff, let's look at the wrong things. And here's your soul and spirit. There's a battle that you're going to be in. Notice how he says it's in this present world. In this present world. And the word world has to do with the time and space. It's a time. In this present age. In this present era. He's not saying wait to serve God one day. Or wait till you get older to do what's right. That's not what he's saying. He's like right now. This present age, right now, in this present world, don't wait for another time. It's active in its tense. Sometimes you've perhaps read the Bible and you've read about Enoch and Noah. And sometimes people think, well, Enoch must have had an easy life. You know, he was singing hymns and floating on clouds, and it must have been really good for him back then, because there's two guys that walk with God according to scriptures. Noah is one, Enoch's the other, and Enoch was not, for God took him, and he just went on his cherry up into heaven. He didn't die. An amazing story. about Enoch. I'm sorry, he didn't have the chariot, but Enoch didn't die. He went on up to heaven. But people think, well, he must have had an easy time. The book of Jude tells us, Jude tells us he had a hard time. There was ungodliness, there was wickedness, and he was a preacher of righteousness. And it talks about how all these people are saying condemning things and critical things and hard things. And that's probably, and if you read Jude, I read it, in response to Enoch's message about God and righteousness. Noah, he was a practical man. He preached for about 120 years. He preached righteousness. He preached we better be ready because the floods are coming. And people give him a hard time as well. And it was a difficult thing, not a single convert, just his family, his immediate family, but thank the Lord for that. And so these men were preaching righteousness in an era, in an age, in their time, just like we're preaching righteousness and godliness in our time, in our era, right now. So we need the same message today. A ready life, an educated life, a focused life. Verse 13, looking for that blessed hope. or happy hope, and a glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Looking has the idea of to receive for oneself. It's not like, I don't know if it's going to happen or not. I'm looking with anticipation because I've accepted the fact Jesus is coming back. I've accepted the fact that there is an eternity, and I'm able to go there, so I'm looking for Jesus. Now, here's our problem today, especially With our modern society, I don't think we were created for constant news cycles and constant social media interaction. Things are off the rails because we are on overload. We're really on overload, okay? We can't really comprehend it all. There's so much happening in this world that we can get our eyes off of Jesus. Oh man, the election, these wars, all these problems, paying my bills, you know, there's a lot of things that are wrong. But the Bible tells us to be looking for that blessed hope. Don't be so preoccupied with the here and now that you're not focused on eternity. that you're not looking forward to Christ's return, this blessed hope, this happy expectation that we have of Christ appearing for us. Adrian Rogers, a well-known preacher, I enjoy his messages. He's already in heaven, but he wrote, knowledge comes from looking around, wisdom comes from looking up. But to be wise and what to do, you've got to keep looking up for Christ. Keep looking for that trumpet, listening for the trumpet and looking for the clouds to open. We're looking for this blessed hope. As we engage with the culture, as we live in this world, I hope that you're not drowning in the culture or being overwhelmed by this present world, but looking up and beyond. the present. David said, I'll lift up mine eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help. Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heaven. In Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, wherefore seeing, we also are encompassed about. So great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. So you do need to know where you're taking your next step, but we're looking ahead, we're looking up, we're looking towards the finish line. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In a life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who gave himself for me. You see, that sounds like a focused life. I'm focused on Christ. I'm going to translate that then into my everyday life, a ready life, an educated life, a focused life. And finally, verse 14, a clean life. Jesus, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. purifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." The word redeem there means to pay the ransom. To pay the ransom for our sin. Have you ever watched a film or read a novel or maybe a TV series and somebody was kidnapped? Somebody was held hostage, and maybe it's in a civil setting. Maybe it's in a war setting or something. And then some demands are made from the captors. And they're demanding, and they may have left a ransom note. Or they make a phone call, and what do you want? OK, we're going to negotiate this. OK, we want $1 million in bonds, and we want a helicopter to escape. OK, you've seen stuff like this. You've read things like this. Jesus paid the ransom for your captivity. He paid the get out of jail. He paid the I'm captured by sin debt so that you're no longer captured by sin. That's what he did. And it's a lot better than a million dollars or a helicopter. Your sins and the captivity because of your sin is released. You don't have to be controlled by your sin. This goes back to the previous points is that it's our flesh and our spirit are always battling each other. But Jesus paid for your sin. I love how one person compiled these sayings. The father proposed redemption for sinners. The son provided it in his atoning death on behalf of them. Someone said the death of Christ did not terminate, but it did germinate his work. Those who ignore the cross empty the gospel of all meaning, leaving sinners to wander hopelessly in sin. On Golgotha, one man died in sin, one man died to sin, and one man died for sin. In remaining on the cross, Jesus was saying there was nothing in all God's universe he would not do to provide redemption for all who would believe. Oh, such a message is captured right there with Jesus on the cross, paying your ransom, purchasing you back to God, redeeming your soul. Jesus paid for you. One person said, the strangest truth of the gospel is that redemption comes through suffering. Out of all the massive things and stuff And the all powerful ability of God, because he owns everything. It wasn't monetary. It wasn't financial. It wasn't some just fill in the blank with something that you think is amazing. He didn't get that. He sacrificed himself. Jesus gave himself. So that you could be free from the captivity of sin. where you were held captive by your sin, it's no longer true. We still have a battle. But you're no longer captive. Jesus paid it all. All that price, that ransom, was paid. And notice what he talks about. He says he redeemed us from iniquity. The word iniquity has to do with lawlessness, lawlessness, and just doing whatever you want. There's no conditions. Purify to cleanse us. He's the one that cleans us up. And that can be slowly over time, but there is an immediate change in your heart when you trust Christ, just like that. He starts to change you from the inside out. Notice how then it becomes positive. A Christian becomes zealous. That word means eager. It's a word that we get zealots from, or zealous, just a great zeal and enthusiasm, like the zealous back in the day of Christ. They were just gung-ho. He says we should be gung-ho for these good works. Just all in, every Christian should be serving God in some way, in some capacity, somewhere. Every one of us. You see, grace is not a license to do wrong. Grace is a license to do right. This isn't passive stuff. It's not like, oh, now that I'm saved, I'll stop doing bad things, and that's good enough for God. He'll accept that, but there's more proactive to this. It's, I'm going to be doing good things now, not just not doing bad things. Not just not doing bad things. And there's a lot of double negatives there. but you're doing good things in its place. If I had the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of John, the meekness of Moses, the strength of Samson, the obedience of Abraham, the compassion of Joseph, the tears of Jeremiah, the poetic skill of David, the prophetic voice of Elijah, the courage of Daniel, the greatness of John the Baptist, the endurance and love of the apostle Paul, I would still need the redemption found through Jesus Christ. that's available by His grace. You can't earn it, you can't work for it, you can't be religious enough. It's not by following commands or following religion, it's all by God's grace. With this redemption, Jesus starts to change our lives and we start to become more like him. I've not arrived, I still wanna become more like Christ. As Christians, we wanna become more like Christ each day. Friends, I want to encourage you with this. If you're wallowing in the darkness of sin, in the gutter of evil, get up. Get up, get out of it. Let Jesus cleanse your life. If it is that you're being selfish and not actively serving the Lord, not doing good works, not finding ways to serve, even if it's in small things, even what seems to be insignificant, those things need to be done with consistency. Sign up. Find what it is God wants you to do, to be proactive in doing those good things. Our good works honor Jesus and point others to his grace. I'll conclude with this. There's but one true, real, and right life for rational beings. Only one life worth living, and worth living in this world, or in any other life, past, present, or to come. And that is the eternal life which was before all worlds, and will be after all have passed away. And that is neither more nor less than a good life, a life of good feelings, good thoughts, good words, good deeds, the life of Christ, of God, and in God. See, we get to live this life now. We're looking forward to this life that this author is writing about in the future, but we get to live this good life to some degree every day. Every day you live in God's grace, you have the opportunity to embrace the grace that God offers to us to have this good life. Are there going to be challenging times? Absolutely. Is there going to be difficulties? Yes. Am I going to struggle at moments with doing right and doing wrong? Yes, but you have God's grace. embrace and enjoy God's grace. We will live the good life perfectly forever in eternity because of God's grace. But in the meantime, we get to try it. We get to try it with the help and by the grace of God. Let's take a moment and answer some questions on the screen. We'll also have a time to pray here. And you can respond to this. Here's a couple questions for you. I want a ready life. I want salvation. Is there anyone that says, I have not trusted Christ, but I would like to know more about trusting Christ. I want to be ready for salvation. I'm not sure that I'm ready if I were to die, that I would go to heaven, that I would be with Jesus. Is there anyone like that? Just briefly raise your hand around here. Okay, God bless, thank you. Second question is this. I want to learn and be more educated about living for Jesus. There's some things I want to keep learning. None of us have arrived. I admit that for myself. We need to keep learning about God's grace and how to live for Christ. That's my prayer today. I want to keep learning and growing in Christ. I see a lot of hands. Are there others? Yes. Good response to that. God help us. And then my focus needs to be on eternity. Jesus is coming. I can become distracted. God, help me to stay focused, looking for the blessed hope, looking for Christ, looking beyond today. Is that your prayer today? Anybody like that? Okay, awesome, awesome. God bless, yes. And then finally, by God's grace, I'll let God clean my life. I will live a redeemed life. I'm free to do what's right. I want to embrace this truth today. I'm free to do what is right. I'll let Jesus cleanse me. Anybody like that? I see a lot of hands again. As I pray, commit these decisions to the Lord. And if you've not trusted Christ, you want to talk about that later. Let's talk. Let's discuss salvation through Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this powerful and challenging message about the grace of God. We are so thankful. We don't deserve it. We cannot earn it. But your grace is available and ready every day for us. Your grace has revealed what salvation is, and we pray if there's one without Christ, they would choose you today. For Christians, help us to live the redeemed life, to live lives that are focused upon you and that are clean in your sight. Help us with the battle, the struggle that Paul talks about. of going back and forth between our flesh and the spirit. You've equipped us with your spirit, with your word, help each Christian to follow you more effectively each day. Lord, we pray you'll bless us now as we go. Thank you for this time to gather to worship. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.