Walking in a Winter Land

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Imagine if televisions had pipes for antennas. Perhaps they could receive and then blow all the political hot air that fills the airwaves into our homes so we could warm ourselves as we sit in front of the TV, watching all the debates. Speaking of pipes, much of what is being promised to us this political season will turn out in the end to be pipe dreams. We are being told that we can have our cake and eat it too, and it will hardly cost us anything. We are assured that we will be great again and that we are going to win everything, everywhere, every time. Listening to all the rhetoric starts to turn your brain into a mental merry-go-round, spinning faster and faster.

There are only so many times you can go round and round this caucus carousel before the polished political ponies start to lose their luster and the flavor and their promises taste like licking the stick that once held your Tootsie Pop. If all that sounds a bit bleak, then take heart, because we aren’t banking on the next POTUS that’s President of the United States. We are not banking on the next POTUS saving the day, because Jesus has already saved us and is busy preparing a place for us in heaven. None of us knows where the political winds will blow in the months to come, but we do know that this world is not our home, and we have every reason to rejoice this morning because our help is in the name of the Lord. Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, army and warrior, they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick. Remember not the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold,

I am doing a new thing now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert the wild beasts will honor me the jackals and the Ostriches for I will give water in the wilderness Rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people the people whom I formed for myself That they might declare my praise and father we do indeed declare your praise this morning wilderness and desert are apt metaphors for the times we live in. Thank you for the refreshing river your spirit flows into ours. We do not despair nor lose heart because we know who has written the history we are living out. Help us walk in faith and joy and not be like those whose lives are governed by fear or hatred. Renew us, fill us, lead us, and protect us. And if the world should hate May it be because we are acting like Jesus and not like them. Help us now as we seek to align our hearts and minds with one goal, which is to corporately offer up all the glory and honor that is due your name. Amen. There is a laziness that characterizes all of humanity. And then there’s a particular kind of

laziness that’s characterized and practiced among Calvinists. Let me explain. The God of Scripture is sovereign. He answers to no one. He is in constant and complete control. He ordains whatever comes to pass. Quite simply, if he is not sovereign, he is not God. Some churches emphasize this doctrine more than others but it is thoroughly orthodox. It’s not actually up for debate. We can hate it, we can love it, but that doesn’t have any bearing on its truthfulness, its reality. But that’s not all. Some of us just simply don’t believe this doctrine, though we may know it. We go a step further and use it to justify our laziness.

We don’t bother sharing the gospel because we think that if God is in control, then our evangelistic efforts are unnecessary.

We don’t learn from our trials because we think they come from the hand of an unpredictable who’s going to do his will anyway, so what matter does it make? We don’t bother voting or being informed politically because we suppose that God doesn’t need our votes to keep certain parties out of the White House. Well, Scripture teaches something entirely different. It teaches at the same time that God ordains both means and ends, outcomes and the paths to those outcomes. Thankfully, church history is full of examples of faithful Christians who use their confidence in God’s sovereign control to actually energize their activity. From the evangelistic efforts of George Whitfield to the political efforts of William Wilberforce, we can know that if God is in control, like them, they believe that, then we can go forth with confidence in knowing that his will will went out. Paul doesn’t blush or qualify his exhortations to Pastor Timothy or Pastor Titus, to properly esteem their political rulers ungodly

though they may be, and to pray that they would then lead righteously. The ancients knew that kings have a high accountability to the people that they rule, and that God raises them up and brings them down. So in this political season of unrest, we have a duty as Christians to both embrace the sovereignty of God and to optimistically walk in the good works that He has prepared for us. We should pray for God to raise up righteous rulers and we should pray at the same time for Christ’s speedy return. We should work to influence our leaders with patience, grace, even winsomeness, and we should submit to them as of the Lord until such point as they ask us to sin, of course. And then we need to disobey like Christians. We need to disobey faithfully with full confidence in the sovereign goodness of our God. If this for you brings to mind sins that you may have committed that require your repentance, whether it’s apathy or justifying your laziness by referencing God’s sovereignty, well then this is a time for you to repent and

for you to go forward in our time of worship with unharboard sin. If you’re able and interested you’re invited at this time to kneel and I will pray to close us in just a few moments. Father ours is a culture that celebrates the efforts of those who take matters into their own hands with no evident dependence upon you. We promote laziness and we invent new ways to get out of work. Still other times we become incensed when our civil liberties are taken away as we stand by inactively because after all you’re in control. Please forgive us for this and other manifestations of our laziness, for our creative justification of it.

Grant us a confidence in your sovereign control and a right understanding of your character. May our acknowledgment of these things come as readily for us as they did for Job, who blessed your name in the immediate wake of conflict.

Forgive us for having weak and little faith. We’ve known your word without believing it. We’ve proclaimed it to others at times without speaking it to our own hearts. Help us to know your promises, to rehearse them regularly to our own hearts, and even to you in times of prayer. Help us to not only champion your sovereignty, but then to use that confidence to get to work with joy. We thank you for the work of Christ who knew better than any of your sovereign goodness and what that meant for Him. We’re thankful that He was not lazy on our behalf but rather worked and redeemed us. We thank you then for that redemptive work and because of that we can enjoy forgiveness and we seek your forgiveness even now in His name. Amen. You may stand. Our passage reminding us of our forgiveness in Christ actually comes from the Old Testament Proverbs 28 13 whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy we do not celebrate our sins but we celebrate mercy we don’t glory in our transgressions but we can glory and

having been forgiven what Christ has purchased on our behalf is worth our glorious expression of praise and that gives us even more reason to worship now with gladness. So let’s do that with full hearts and voices. Our scripture reading this morning comes from Titus chapter 3 verses 1 through 11. Titus 3 1 through 11 I’ll be reading from the English Standard Version. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us

richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him. Knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned.” Let’s pray together.

Father, you are merciful. You have not treated us as our sins deserve. You’ve rescued us from the consequences of our sins, and you have given us your word to help inform our thinking and our living in this world. Even as evidenced by this passage, which gives direction for how Christians are to relate to those in authority and even the rest of the world, we pray that these hallmarks would be reflected among the people of Trinity Evangel Church in this community and beyond. And then, of course, we have opportunity to partner with other ministries as well, even thinking of the Good Shepherd Children’s Home and the opportunities that they have under the direction of Saji and Yancy Thomas in southern India to be lights in that spiritually dark part of the world. We pray that you would give them grace. We pray that you would energize their evangelism and their enculturation of those young ladies. We think of the Children’s Law Center of Washington and the gospel driving that ministry, that non-profit. We know that those who lead, Andrew Schneider and his wife, want to place

children in forever homes because you have adopted us. Even at Andrew Classical School, as we train students to do, to actually practice Titus 3 verses 1 through 8 anyway through the the rest of their lives and in a dark and dying world. We recognize that in some senses things will get worse, the dark will get darker, the light will get lighter, and you will return. And we pray that for our part, we would help contribute to the light getting lighter. With confidence, because of the work of Christ and because of what you have said, we come before you in supplication now, asking that you would answer these prayer requests while increasing our dependence upon you.

We think of Christina Barnes’ grandmother who’s on hospice care. We pray that you would grant her peace and comfort and surround her with love in these her final days. May her passing be sweet as of course she knows you and this is a home going for her. For Ralph Durden as he recovers now from his successful cataract surgery that he had last Wednesday, we thank you that it went well, even though there were some complications, some temporary loss of vision and to the side of one of the eyes and we just ask that you would grant patience to him and both Mary Kay, as she is having opportunity to put the drops in his eyes and minister to him, grant them patience.

We ask that you would bring speedy healing to Sean, as he still is recovering from this episode last week. We don’t know, the doctors don’t know what has caused his discomfort, his low blood pressure is bleeding, but we thank you that they’ve been able to rule out a few of the possibilities, and of course, we are very grateful that you are both sovereign and good and you know and none of these things catch you by surprise but in fact you ordain them. So we pray that we would have opportunity to rehearse our Calvinism even now, our championing of your sovereignty while we have opportunity to fill in on his behalf.

We pray that they would be able to accurately diagnose the problem in the coming days to be able to nail down the necessary measures going forward that they need to take. In particular we ask that you would give grace to Morgan, Dave, Gail, Maggie, Calvin, Howley, Keelah, as they try to function as normally possible without Sean while he is laid up. Please allow them to be a blessing to him as he recovers. And please sustain Morgan in particular as she has been combating headaches and other physical discomfort of her own while trying to be an advocate for Sean and keep others in the communicative loop and minister to him.

We thank you for the progress of the Masses’ brother-in-law Fred. He’s still unable to move his left leg, but he is making progress nonetheless. We ask that you grant patience It looks like he has a long road ahead of him, undergoing physical therapy, protect him against any recurrences.

This morning, Chuck Weinberg’s dad is in the hospital once again with some severe pain, likely caused, at least in part, by his diverticulitis. If it is your will, we know that, of course, you are capable of bringing about his speedy healing, and we would ask you that you do that. But please, keep discouragement far from him and from Chuck’s mother. We thank you for the full and blessed life that you’ve given him the last 82 years and that whatever happens, we can be confident that he is yours. And if he does pass on, then he’ll be with you. We thank you for the couple of generations of Christians that he has faithfully discipled and what a rich spiritual heritage he is leaving behind.

We ask that you would provide new work for Andrea Hill as she would love to be able to worship with us consistently and enjoy fellowship in the weekends off. her wisdom and joy in this search process. For others who are out of work altogether, we ask those in our congregation, we ask that you would bring them to the right places, help them to find favors and perspective employers.

Keeping all this in mind, we have to be so much to be thankful for in Christ. We ask that you would energize our worship as we even filter these prayer requests through the sieve of your sovereignty, knowing that what comes out is perfect and pure. We pray that your spirit would be at work among us and help us to sing as you deserve. So we ask that in this process you be pleased with what you see and hear among us even now. Because of that we ask these things in Christ’s name. Amen. Father Son like that just can’t help but lift the soul right into your very presence. We have just sung how wherever we turn, wherever we look, Whatever we experience, there you are at work.

And indeed, our souls must cry out, how great thou art. We are embarrassed. We are saddened by the times when we forget that, and we let the things of life, from the heavier things to even the more mundane things, we allow them to cause us to freak out. We forget that you are sovereign. forget how great thou art. And Father, as we approach the study of your word, even now, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, who was the word incarnate. We thank you for having given us your word and written form that we can look at it. We can study it. We can understand it.

Those two, Father, are expressions of how great thou art that you haven’t left us here alone to figure it out for ourselves. And so help us now as we spend the next few minutes just pondering, considering what you’ve written in the book of Titus chapter 3 to us that you might let it sink in and challenge us anew. It’ll be a new or be a familiar passage for many of us, but a passage that we probably all have room for improvement in. So help us, help me as I speak to be clear and may the hearts of the receivers be prepared as well. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may have noticed that my sermon title is a twist on a popular Christmas song, Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

Taking the wonder out gives a whole new meaning to the phrase and describes the mindset that a lot of people, Christian or otherwise, operate under. When you think about the word winter, we talk about nuclear winters. an older person is said to be in the winter of their life. For whatever reason, winter is often associated with death and decay. We all know Christians who talk a good game about joy, but their life is a virtual winter land. Why?

Political pundits are talking a lot about angry voters out there who are rooting for the non-establishment candidates. Included in this group of angry voters are a lot of so-called evangelicals. It does appear that there is a lot of freaking on going out there within Christian circles about how bad things are getting political or otherwise and there certainly are some pretty good reasons to be concerned. One political curiosity that has come about is the unexpected embrace of evangelicals that the embrace evangelicals have given to presidential candidate Donald Trump. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to turn this into a political sermon. In large numbers, professing Christians have thrown their support to Trump over other candidates who seem to have a much clearer profession of faith in Christ and who espouse similar conservative viewpoints. Now it’s not my intent to stand up here and endorse one candidate over another, and I’m not speaking publicly for any particular candidate, but this particular case will serve to lead me into what I

want to talk about. I came across a blog this past week written by a gentleman named Paul Prather who’s a pastor and a columnist and he was writing about a poll that was conducted recently by a political scientist named Matthew McWilliams. McWilliams was curious as to who was supporting Trump and why. He writes the following regarding his findings quote, I found that education, income, gender, age, ideology, and religiosity had no significant bearing on a Republican voter’s preferred candidate,” he said. Only two of the variables I looked at were statistically significant. Authoritarianism followed by fear of terrorism, though the former was far more significant than the latter.

So he found that authoritarianism was the common denominator attracting people to somebody like Trump. He goes on to give his characterization of what he calls authoritarian Christians. According to McWilliams, they are described this way, quote, in a world overrun by brigands and terrorists, authoritarian Christians prefer a ban, bar, and bomb president even if he’s a self-promoting heathen, end of quote. Now Prather, who wrote the blog, provides some of his own commentary on McWilliams findings. He divides Christendom broadly into two camps, those who he says live according to law and those who live according to grace. He defined these two groups this way. So according to Prather, here’s what the law group looks like. They are all about God’s authority, the Bible’s authority, church leaders authority, men’s authority, civil authority. They are the church’s cops and prosecuting attorneys. They serve a stern God who lectures dryly from above, brooks no descent, and expects them to flog the daylights out of the dense and disobedient. They

operate largely from their own fear, fear of God’s wrath, fear of being wrong, fear of outsiders, fear of the public’s jeers. And then he defines what he calls the grace group this way. They are a people who serve a God who is unimaginably merciful, infinitely liberating, and surprisingly understanding of every kind of birdbrain. They believe their job, being his children, is to love all colors and nationalities and faiths and political views and theological quirks. They are about forgiving their enemies and making peace and welcoming strangers and helping the poor, no questions asked. Grace folks drive the authoritarian mad.”

Don’t get too hung up on those definitions, but you get the gist. Given these two groups of Christians, Prather says it makes sense to him that so many authoritarian Christians are drawn to Trump. He writes, to these law folks, he, Trump, stands for authority. He’s large and in charge and vindictive and brazenly unapologetic.

He’s as good an approximation of their God as they’re likely to find in such gone to blazes world.” Ouch. He’s as good an approximation of their God as they’re likely to find. That’s a pretty stinging remark. Now there are plenty of things that we could pick at in McWilliams’ poll or Prather’s blog, but I think it does lend support to the reality that there are no small number of Christians who live and respond to life very much like your average non-Christian. I’m talking about people who are saved and who will be in heaven, but who have lost sight of who they are in Christ. They continue to exhibit old fleshly patterns in how they live life and respond to it. It’s become hard to distinguish them from non-believers except for the religious jewelry they wear or the bumper stickers they have on their cars. I’m talking about church going, choir singing, Bible studying believers who have lost sight of their identity in Christ and who have succumbed to the anger and the freaking out that marks

our culture today. It’s no wonder that the voice of the Christian is becoming faint in the ears of our culture. We preach a message of hope and resurrection and then mope along with the doomsayers. We preach that the truth will set you free, but we walk around rattling our chains of fear, doubt, and worry. Now you might accuse me of using a hyperbole and maybe I am, but But is what I’m saying that far off the mark? What we need in the midst of the doom and gloom blaring from every media orifice is a good reminder from scripture. And so if you want, you can follow along as we go through Titus chapter 3 verses 1 through 8.

In Titus 3, we come to a passage where Paul is instructing Titus to remind the Christians of some things. He wants to remind them of who they are in Christ, who they once were apart from Christ, And finally, what the Father, Son, and Spirit did in bringing the change about. And kids, in your kids’ corner, that’ll be the three main points, remembering who we are in Christ, who we were in Christ, and what God did in bringing us to Christ. Titus was an elder who had been assigned by Paul to oversee the churches on Crete. It wasn’t an easy assignment. Titus 1.5 tells us that he was supposed to set in order what remains, and it appears there were a lot of things to set in order.

Crete is a large Mediterranean island located between Syria and Malta. It is southeast of Greece and north of Africa. The island itself is about 160 miles long, and it varies in width from five to 35 miles, so it would easily fit in the Puget Sound area. It had an ethnically diverse culture, including many Jewish settlers. Christianity was possibly introduced during Paul’s stay on the island, During his trip to Rome, we find some recordings and acts that would indicate that. The Cretans were known for a lot of things, some good and some not so good. Historically, their civilization had been known as a great one.

At the time that this letter then is written, the time Letter to Titus is written, the Cretans were known for their expertise in archery and sailing, and they were also known for their skills in the art of ambushing in times of war.

they had another reputation. They were known for their immorality and their untruthfulness. Paul refers to this in Titus 1.12 where he quotes a Cretan prophet who said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. How was like that for your moniker? Another example of the Cretan’s tarnished image was the expression that was commonly used to Cretanize. If you said somebody was cretinizing which it was a synonymous what they are lying Polybius the Greek historian wrote of the cretins as being constantly involved in insurrections murders and internecine wars that’s the kind of place where Titus was called to be a pastor doesn’t quite sound like a typical church the churches in Crete had attracted many rebellious men empty talkers and deceivers, especially of those of the circumcision, according to Titus 1 10. It was apparent that Titus would have his hands full as he went about the task of setting things in order. So the first thing he said, instructed Paul’s instructing Titus to do is

then to remind them of who they are in Christ. We see a list of six traits that should characterize follower of Jesus. As we as we are moving through these now these next six characteristics, I’d like you to be asking yourself how well they describe your own life. So picking up there in verse 1, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. So let’s take them one by one. The first trait of a Christian is that they are submissive to rulers and authorities and obey them. The command tells us to willingly place ourselves under the authority of our civil authorities. We actually consciously place ourselves under their authority. Now this can’t possibly apply to our situation today, you might be thinking. Paul didn’t know how bad our current White House administration was going to be when he wrote this. He didn’t know about all the

ungodly legislation our leaders were going to enact. I was talking to a fellow believer some time ago who for years had not paid any federal income tax even though he should have been. Part of his justification was how bad the government was. He argued that since it was not honoring God, since the government was not honoring God in many of their decisions, he had no obligation to come under their authority. There’s only one problem with that thinking I pointed out to him. It wasn’t biblical. What do you think the Roman government was like when Paul wrote Romans 13 when he says to submit yourself to the governing authorities? He wrote that letter at the time Nero Claudius Caesar was Emperor of Rome. One author describes Nero this way, he describes them as one of the most despicable manifestations of human flesh ever to disgrace this planet.

There’s an insult for you. Submit to the governing authorities, Paul, to the most despicable piece of human flesh to ever disgrace this planet. This was a man who had had his own mother killed and who turned Christians into human torches to light his evening garden parties. We may not like all of our political leaders today, but I’m pretty sure they’re not quite in Nero’s league yet. It does not matter how good or bad our ruling authorities may be, we are still to submit. Proper submission is demonstrated by a proper attitude towards the authorities. You can’t be in submission to and gripe about your leaders at the same time.

It follows that if we are to be subject to the ruling authorities, then we must obey them as well. We may not like all the laws and regulations that they set up, but this command requires that we obey them. And as Jonathan mentioned in his prayer, the only exception to this is when man’s laws are in violation of God’s laws. If obeying an earthly leader would cause you to disobey God, then you must disobey man. And in this situation, you are still in submission by accepting the consequences your disobedience may bring about. You may go to jail for your disobedience, but that may be the exact right thing to do. We live in a society where moral relativism has become the norm. As a result, many base their choices to obey or not on what they perceive the outcome will be. They think it’s a dealer’s choice when it comes to obeying. If obeying is convenient, I will obey. If If disobeying is more convenient and not too costly, I will disobey.

Minor examples of that for us as Christians would be just the issue of speeding. I’m late for work, I can justify it, so I’m going to break the law and speed. Christians should obey simply because it is right, even if obedience is inconvenient and costly. The second trait Paul gives us, you guys all pass that first test, okay. The second trait Paul gives us is that Christians are ready for every good work. Five times in the Book of Titus we are reminded to practice good deeds. Paul wants us to understand that genuine Christianity is always marked by good works. This is true within the community of believers and it is also true in the larger community within which we live.

So it’s not just limited to us and these four walls. It goes out into the community. Galatians 6-10 tells us, so then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. It’s just not limited to our own group. Unfortunately, in an effort to avoid preaching a social gospel, many Christians have shied away from opportunities to do good works in the community. We often fail to do good works because we simply aren’t paying attention to the opportunities that exist all around us. We just put our heads down and plow forward in our lives and we’re just not taking the time to look around and see what opportunities are there for some good works.

The result is that the unbelievers are left to do the good works and then they can control the message of what is good and right. Sadly, in our communities today, it is the pagans, it is the unbelievers who are dominating, providing the care, taking care of the needs in the community. but they also get to give the message of what is good, what is right, what is honorable, and the Christians are encouraged to stay in their stained-glass aquariums. The command is to be ready for good works. This implies a readiness, willingness, and eagerness. It is also a major way of spreading the gospel.

Consider Matthew 5.16 which says, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your God who is in heaven? What kind of opportunities are we missing to let our light shine so that the people out there will give glory to our Father who’s in heaven? This is more than just responding when asked about or when asked but requires us to proactively seek out opportunities for good works. It’s not just simply sitting there and saying well if somebody asks somebody call sure I’ll be happy to help but this is actually out on the hunt looking for opportunity. It’s It’s another example of the kind of work image bearers are called to do.

The next trait a Christian should have is that they do not speak evil of anyone. If this trait were lived out universally in our culture, it would eliminate over 50% of the political ads and more than 90% of the political conversations going on in our living rooms. It is very common today to hear people slander our civil leaders.

Christians it is never appropriate for us to speak in an evil or derogatory manner about any leaders or anyone for that matter. We are commanded to pray for them. When we resort to mean speaking we effectively eliminate our witness. Of course, unkind words are not reserved for just our leaders. From bosses to spouses to children to unpleasant neighbors, we invariably sin in this area by saying things that are unkind and leave a bad impression in other people’s minds about the people of whom we speak. The New American Standard version of Colossians 4-6 says this, let your speech always be with grace as those seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should respond to each other. It’s kind of a curious verse. How does grace and salt relate in that verse? We use salt to enhance the flavor of food. We don’t use it to try and make the food less tasty, more tasty. In the same way, our speech should be seasoned with grace and thereby enhance our words in the ears of the hearers. Evil speaking has the opposite effect. What effects have your words had on those

around you this week? Have your words built up? Have they edified? Have they encouraged others? We do not care in the test so far. The next trait of a believer is that they avoid fights or quarrels. We’ll skip that one and move on. Now we got to talk about it. This command is limited to just the times we are talking. I wrote down this command is limited to just the times we’re talking. So my humor, right? Get sense of humor. This command only applies when you’re talking. That’s the only time you don’t have to quarrels when you’re talking. It includes all the times we’re talking about politics or other contentious topics, whatever conversations we get in, we are to avoid the quarrel. It is very easy to feel resentment towards all the ungodliness we see around us. Sometimes leaders make decisions like our Roe v. Wade that really upset us. Even in situations like these, we are called to be uncontentious. We are not to be belligerent or quarrelsome. Romans 12, 18, very plain, he says, So far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

Now being peaceable does not mean we simply accept evil and learn to live with it. It does mean that we not resort to evil words or actions to try and effect change. The bombing of abortion clinics is an extreme example of what we’re not supposed to be doing. Peaceful protests within the scope of the law are perfectly acceptable. Not being quarrelsome does not mean being limp pacifist. The apostles were pretty bold and even brazen as they went about spreading the gospel. So we’re not talking about being weak at all here. We speak up, but not in a quarrelsome way. They spoke boldly before civil and religious authorities, but never in that quarrelsome manner.

Contrast this with many of the protests we see today marked by nasty signs, angry shouts, and disruptive behavior. When Christians resort to these tactics, It is especially offensive. You probably have seen in the news over quite a few years now a group called the Westboro Baptist. Good example of what not to do. They are known for showing up in military funerals in other venues and causing a very ugly scene. They are particularly upset by our society’s acceptance of the homosexual agenda, and we would agree with that. But their protest tactics are as ugly as they are sinful. All right, the fifth trait of a Christian is that they are gentle.

Now synonyms for this would be moderate, humane, compassionate, and tender. And the opposite of gentle would be words like harsh, rough, cruel, or callous. Some might see gentleness as synonymous with weak, but it can actually be quite powerful. Proverbs tells us that a gentle answer turns away wrath. How many conflicts on a personal or national level have been escalated because one or both parties failed to be gentle in the early stages of conflict? The examples in our world of this are pretty humorous. I was online just kind of looking for examples where this is true, and I found an example where online where they were talking about the pastry war.

And here’s just a brief description I found online describing this war. It lasted for about a year, and it was between the French and the Mexicans. So here’s how the pastry war got started. In 1828, angry mobs destroyed large parts of Mexico City during a military coup. One of the victims of the rioting was an expatriate French pastry chef named Romontel, whose small cafe was ransacked by looters. Okay, so they broke in and stole all his donuts. Mexican officials ignored his complaints, Sir Romontel petitioned the French government for compensation. His request sat on notice until a decade later when it came to the attention of King Louis-Philippe.

The king, so he’s now petitioned, they stole my donuts and they won’t pay me back. He’s appealed to his king, it sits in wherever for 10 years. The king finally gets it. And the king was already furious that Mexico had failed to repay millions in loans and now he demanded they pay 600,000 pesos compensate the pastry chef for his losses. That’s a lot of donuts. When the Mexicans balked at handing over such an astronomical sum, Luis Felipe did the only reasonable thing you could think a king would do. He started a war. 250 men lost their lives in this war, and the famous Mexican general, Santa Ana, who had been in retirement, came back out of retirement to lead the charge, and he ended up losing a leg in the battle.

Eventually, the British government had to step in and broker a peace deal. You just can’t make these things up. Truth is stranger than fiction. So there you go. Now there’s your history lesson. You know all about the pastry war. When Gayle and I had a personal example of gentleness and what it can do, it comes from Gayle’s and my own life. When we first moved into our home almost 30 years ago, we moved into a neighborhood where most of the people were already into the retirement years, years and here we are coming into this baby season of life. You can imagine their thoughts as they saw us pull up. But we had several run-ins with one particular neighbor. There were several times we felt pretty exasperated and retented to give them a piece of our mind.

But wisdom prevailed and we practiced gentleness as we worked through the issues. Eventually we saw a turn in their attitude and we became really good friends. They even started joking about adopting us as their kids, and we were able to assist them quite a bit in their old age. And today, the surviving widow, she’s off in our retirement home now, but she really became to think of me particularly as her son, and we attribute that to just a little bit of gentleness going a long way. Our society is sorely lacking today in gentleness when it comes to expressing viewpoints. Shouting and finger-pointing have replaced civil discourse.

live in homes where walking on egg shills is the norm, lest someone with a bad temper is set off. We are called to be peacemakers, but that won’t happen if we are not defined by gentleness. The final trait of the godly person Paul mentions is that we are to show perfect courtesy towards all men. The word used here can also be translated as gentleness or meekness. It carries the idea of being humble in spirit and other oriented. Vines, if you look up a definition in there, they describe it as an attitude that’s the opposite of self-assertiveness and self-interest. It is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down because it’s just not occupied with self at all.

It’s a very other oriented trait. This person puts others before themselves and seeks to serve rather than to be served. They are not preoccupied with their needs but are sensitive to the needs of others. You won’t find them pushing and shoving as they jockey for position in line. You’ll find them giving their place to someone else. You won’t find them shouting over others so as to be heard, but rather listening with care to what the other person has to say. Don’t confuse this kind of person with the doormat person. They are not weak. They are meek. They practice giving preference to one another with honor, as Romans 12-10 instructs us to do.

So, how are we doing with our self-examination? Does this describe your life as you respond to the decay outside the church and the messiness inside it? Are you submitting to the authorities in your life from the heart? Are you laboring in good works and preparing yourself to do even more?

Are you gentle in your interactions with others and do you avoid quarreling and speaking negatively about people? Do you look forward to ways to put other people’s needs before your own? It’s not a very long list, but I suspect all of us can check the needs improvement box on the evaluation form. What would our culture look like if this list characterized the people? What if it just characterized those who follow Jesus? What kind of a politician would this kind of a person be drawn to? What kind of impression would this kind of a person leave on those who do not know Christ. That was Paul reminding them of who they are in Christ and then he moves on to reminding them who they were before Christ. He goes on he says, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, let us stray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. It’s interesting to note that the The character qualities that Paul has been espousing that believers should have, that

they should demonstrate, are the antithesis of what we formerly were like. In other words, believers aren’t just decent people who are made even better by the gospel. God did not look down and say, there’s some good raw material I can work with, let’s just make them a little bit better. We were these kind of people that I just read. Disobedient, evil people, and we need to understand that there’s been a radical change. When a person comes to Christ, we are re-cored. Whereas now we have access to the wisdom of God, we were trapped in our foolishness. The word foolish means complete lack of understanding of something.

In this case, the something would have been the knowledge of God. The wisest unbeliever on earth is still the biggest fool in heaven. Corinthians 120 where is the wise man where is the scribe where is the debater of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world whereas now we are called to be submissive and obedient we were just the opposite in our disobedience before salvation all of our good works were like filthy rags according to Isaiah now we’re called to do good works that God has prepared for us to do according to Ephesians 2 10 we were enslaved all kinds of passions and pleasures, and hurting others along the way, but now we are gentle and we have self-control.

We were given to malice, envy, and hate, but now we are characterized by being peaceable, considerate, and humble. The magnitude of these sinful character traits in a non-believer may vary from person to person. Not everybody is equally bad, equally evil, but the fact remains that these traits describe what we were formerly like. I think Paul reminds the Christians what they were like, not to rub their noses in it, but to make them stop and glorify God for the amazing change that He brought about in their lives. Believers don’t ever make the mistake of somehow in the back of your mind that somehow we were basically pretty decent people, that’s why God saved us and we’re not like those heathen out there in the world.

were every bit as he even as they were. We were as every bit under the condemnation of God and we just need to keep impressing upon our hearts what God did in transforming us. Remembering who we were can also generate then more sympathy for the lost and less of a critical spirit in us towards them. The lost are blinded by Satan. Living out the six traits of who we are in Christ will bear more fruit than trash talking about the lost as though they are the enemy. And I do think we are guilty of doing that at times. We begin to speak of the unbeliever as the enemy and they do certainly many things that we do not like, but they are lost. They are blinded and we hope and pray that God will save them. But us trash talking them is not going to win them. Us living these six traits is what’s going to make the difference. Well, Paul then finishes this section by calling to our remembrance exactly how we were saved. He makes it clear that our salvation was all God and not in any way our doing. As he rehearses how we are saved, we see all three members of the

Trinity actively involved in the process. He writes, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.”

If our Bibles were somehow animated, if our Bibles were somehow animated, I imagine that this transition from verse 3 to 4 would be full of flashing lights and happy noises. You were all these horrible things, but wait, there’s more. That’s not the rest of the story. You can almost sense Paul’s eagerness to get to this part of the lecture. With one word, Paul transitions from some really bad news to the best news mankind’s ever received, but God. A proper understanding of God’s holiness and our sinfulness should bring us to our knees and in total thankfulness for what he’s done in our lives. Paul lists three attributes of God that led him to bring salvation to us. Those attributes are his goodness, his loving kindness, and his mercy. One aspect of God’s goodness is his willingness to give of himself without reservation. Luke 6 35 reminds us of God’s kindness towards all men and his expectations that we will be like him in that regard. It says in there that for he God himself is kind to ungrateful

and evil men. Does that sound like us? Kind to ungrateful and evil men. Even ungrateful and evil men, God’s goodness is displayed. The fact that he doesn’t execute judgment immediately each time we sin is proof enough of God’s goodness. I always shake my head in an amazement when people say, God’s not fair. And I’m saying, bite your tongue. I don’t want God to be fair because we would be instantly annihilated or off to hell. We wouldn’t be here. God’s loving kindness is the second attribute of God in Paul’s, that Paul lists. The word used here for love is philanthropia and it can be translated love of mankind. We get our word philanthropy from it. It involves more than just the emotions. It is a love that sees and need, feels deep compassion, and acts to alleviate the situation it sees. God is genuinely concerned about the condition of man and is moved by compassion for it. You can’t help but think about the verse where Jesus was standing over Jerusalem and weeping over Jerusalem and how I

would have gathered you like a mother hand gathers chicks under her weans.

That’s the sense of what we’re talking about. That’s the attitude that God has as he looks down on man. This verse affirms that God deeply cares for us and is always at work in our lives. And then the third motivation we read about is his mercy. The mercy of God goes hand in hand with his kindness and love. It’s an action word. The mercy of God causes him to feel pity for man’s plight and to do something about it. That’s something of course was to send Christ. Romans 9 22 through 24 shows us how the mercy of God mitigates the wrath of God because we again we were all about God as love but we forget about that God is also a wrathful God. So just kind of listen to this these few verses. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he is called not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? The wrath of God is a rubber band, that’s a poor

illustration, but it’s getting tighter and tighter and tighter and someday the wrath of God will be unleashed. But the mercy of God is holding it back for a season as he’s gathering his elect to himself. The Father driven by his goodness, mercy and loving kindness saves us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit who he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. By this time we ought to be feeling pretty good about what God has done for us. But we must not get smug. All of this attention from God wasn’t because we deserved it. Verse five reminds us that he saved us not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness. There is nothing man can do to commend himself to God. We know that truth, we all know it here. But we still sometimes fool ourselves to think that, hey, I’m not so bad. We do a good work and we pat ourselves on the back. Salvation begins with the Washington regeneration and it continues by the renewing of the Spirit. The Washington regeneration

simply refers to rebirth. Jesus himself said that we must be born again. Now some have used this verse to support the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, that is, you must be baptized to be saved. This verse is not speaking of the ordinance of baptism at all. The Washington regeneration refers to the fact that we are made entirely clean. Ephesians 5 26 also refers to rebirth as a washing.

That verse tells us that Christ gave himself up for the church in order that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. There’s no mention of the ordinance of baptism here. Not only have we experienced rebirth but we also are being continually renewed by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is a one-and-done event in terms of our justification but not our sanctification. We need the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit for us to be made into the image of Christ. Rebirth is followed by new life. It’s the spirit of God that energizes us and enables us to live a life pleasing to God. Second Corinthians 3 17. I know I’m giving you a lot of verses, but just to remind ourselves of these truths. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the spirit, all about the process of sanctification. As we look more into the mirror, look at Christ, look in his

word, we become transformed. The spirit of God takes us through the transformation process from who we were in the flesh to who we were are in Christ. Notice that the spirit has been poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ. The idea here is that there is no lack of power to do all that God has called us to or to handle whatever circumstances he has come our way. Sometimes life gets so discouraging that we think to ourselves that’s it. I’m done. I’m just tired. That is not the spirit talking. That is the flesh. The Holy Spirit can and will energize us, but we have to walk by faith in obedience. The fact that the Spirit has been poured out through Jesus Christ reminds us that the work required to make our salvation possible has been done. It is finished and we don’t have to gin up anything in order to make ourselves more presentable to God.

The result of this trifold work of God is that we are now heirs to eternal life. I’m afraid we read things like that and it just doesn’t impact us like it should. If I told you that you’ve all just been made heirs of Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, your ears would prick up and your eyes would widen as you considered what that meant. Admit it, your pulse just went up a couple beats per minute. How does that compare to being an heir of God, the Father, in joint error with Jesus Christ his Son? That ought to make the pulse quicken just a bit, I would think. It is easy for us to become dull to the realities of who we are in Christ Jesus.

Throughout history, God has instructed his children to remember. They were to remember what life was like before and after God intervened. The problem has always been that man has a very short memory, especially when dealing where God’s dealings with him are concerned. Go through the survey of the Old Testament. You would just be convinced these guys to never brain how quickly they forget what God did until I remember to myself when I’m accusing them of not having a brain. I then remember how often I forget what God did. I realize I’m the same cut out of the same cloth by calling us to remembrance, once again, Paul has given us the reason why we can and should live our lives, separate and distinct from the rest of the world. There is a reason we should act differently than the world does. There is a reason we should be full of hope and joy and confidence. And there is a reason we should not be freaking out about who the next president of the United States will be or any else, other matter for that fact. Believer, remember who you were and more importantly who

you are. When you do that and live it out consistently, it just might begin to change the culture for the good. Let’s pray. Well Father, as we’ve briefly considered these few verses, nothing new, nothing that we haven’t heard before, but I dare say lots that we have, need improving on. And Father, we so easily do get suckered into the freaking out we see in our culture we too begin to gripe and complain and struggle to be to cheerfully submit to our authorities we do make critical comments we use our names almost like a cuss word Lord help us to not be like that help us to be like the people who you have made us to be and may in so doing may we be the kind of people then who are really making an impact on our community as they look at us and look at us walking about in joy in peace and happiness recognizing that yeah there’s a mess to going on and needs to be cleaned up but again in perfect peace perfect hope perfect joy just guide us now on the rest of our time together father and help us just again continue in our attitude of worship this morning and

praying Jesus name. Amen. You can go ahead and stand and we’ll invite the those are gonna lead us in worship to come on back up. This is the time in the service where we have our opportunity to worship in the form of a giving to the Lord and so we’re gonna invite Andy or whoever is here today to bring the offering forward and again let’s just continue in our worship and really really seeing our hearts like people who really understand what we were and who we are now in Christ. Now comes our fourth C, communion. After that preaching we have a lot to be thankful for and that’s what I want to focus on as we think about it before we partake in communion. We’ve reached the point in our service where we as believers get to celebrate all that we have in our Lord.

Just listen to the verses four through seven in today’s passage from Titus that Jim shared with us this morning. But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing and regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So that being justified by His grace, We might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. What a blessing. How much of that is just amazing that God has done that for us, those of us who are believers.

And that’s why we celebrate communion in our church. We want to be just ever grateful for what God has done for us. We have an open communion in our church. That means anybody who is a believer is welcome to partake with us. And we have our tradition where we stand and then we come through the center aisle, get the things, then come back out, sit down and then we all partake together. So let’s get up and take the bread together.

So now we got commissioning, all right? The last C, our fifth C and the charge. So now is the time for your pastor to encourage all of you who believe to go out into his world, God’s world, and be the light that he has made you. Again, a reminder in the passage that Jim taught today, Titus 3.8. Thus the saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. Excellent and profitable for people. So now the benediction, Colossians 3, 12 through 17. Put on then as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against you, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so also, you also must forgive.

And above all these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Go and be filled.