Jump Start # 3344

Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”

The grace of God—those very words make some nervous. We know that we are saved by grace, yet we seem to always have to put an asterisk by that expression. It’s like the ole’ baseball player, Roger Maris. In 1961, he hit 61 home runs that season. That broke the decades long record held by the legend Babe Ruth. However, baseball had extended the number of games by that time and Maris actually played in more games in a season than Ruth did. So, for years in the record books, Maris was at the top of the charts for most homeruns in one season, but there was always an asterisk, indicating that he played in more games.

And, when it comes to grace, our asterisk always includes repentance, baptism and living a godly life. We are saved by grace, but…We often fear unless we include those other things, some might get the idea that grace is it. They might conclude that God does it all and we just sit back and enjoy the ride. But anyone serious enough about God, ought to look at what God says and they’d see that grace has conditions. If it didn’t, then everyone is saved and no one is lost.

Our verse tells us that grace has appeared. What a wonderful message that is. It appeared doing two things. First, it appeared bringing salvation. We are saved by grace. And that grace is for all people. Not a specific race, not a specific nationality, but rather to all men. The grace that has saved you, saves me. The grace that saved those first disciples, saves people today. That grace has a name and it is Jesus. Jesus has appeared. The redeeming salvation that came through His death and resurrection is what changed the course of our eternity. Hope abounds because of Jesus.

Second, grace instructs. Grace teaches. Grace isn’t finished with salvation. There is something that follows. That godly, righteous life is what grace teaches us. Given a second chance, we don’t go back and make the same mistakes again. We’ve learned. Grace has taught us. What we did, didn’t work. What we did, was sin. What we did, took us away from God. Now that grace has appeared, we do better. We live as if we have sense, and not as an animal. We live the right way or righteously. And we live godly, pleasing our Father in Heaven.

Without grace there is no salvation. Without grace we don’t make it. Some thoughts for us:

First, perfect as we try to be, we are not. We fail. We fumble. We sin. We see others doing the same. Some are quick to want to bring thunder from Heaven upon them. And, through this, we leave the impression upon the young and the new, that if you make a mistake, you’re out. God will have nothing to do with you. What terrible fear and guilt fills the heart with such thoughts. Until we repent, God will have nothing to do with you, is how many see it. And, from this twisted thinking, grace has been left out. Worship is a mere exercise in hearing how bad we are and the image is left of “wait until your Father gets home,” fear.

But, that’s not the message we get from the Psalms. That’s not how the apostles viewed it. Gracious, forgiving and merciful is the image they paint of our Heavenly Father. He is a God that longs for us. At our best, we are not very good, but God’s love is greater than all of that.

On the back of my office door, I have several stick figure pictures drawn by my grandchildren. Several are supposed to be me. I love looking at them. If I were to list them on Ebay, I’d get no bids. If I took them to the Louisville art museum and asked if they’d like to display them, I’d likely be laughed out of the building. But they are precious to me. Drawn in love, given in kindness, and displayed as masterpieces, they remind me of what my work must look like to the Lord. The Master who authored this amazing Bible, must smile as He sees these Jump Starts and think, ‘How cute.’ But, knowing the love, effort and joy put in to them, He sees our work as masterpieces.

Second, grace changes us. It’s more than simply getting a mulligan in life. It’s an opportunity to learn and to do things right this time. It’s seeing our sins and what led to those lousy choices. It’s seeing the way that God expects us to live. And, through that, we become better, stronger and more Christ-like.

There is many a person I have met through the years that had believed and was baptized, but little did they change. Same smug and selfish attitudes. Same greedy, tightwad, keep it all to myself spirit. Same pointing the fingers at others and quick to judge and quicker to condemn. Oh, they sit in a church building on a Sunday, but grace hasn’t filled their hearts. Jesus is described in John’s Gospel as being full of grace and truth. Full of grace—wouldn’t that be wonderful if that was said of us?

Kindness, compassionate, forgiving, going out of the way to help, those are the qualities of a person who has spent time with Jesus. Godly. Righteous. A true disciple. Changed by the grace of God.

Third, there seems to be a passing of the baton through our passage today. God has extended His grace to us and as it changes us and we learn from that, we become gracious to others. We become a little slower to make a comment that condemns. We are less likely to see what is wrong and more able to praise what is right. Complaining is pushed out by a thankful heart. And, within our families and within our fellowship, the grace of God runs richly through us. The spirit of helping rather than driving away takes over.

We’ve received grace so that we can extend grace. What a beautiful gift God has shared with us. We have been forgiven so we can forgive others. We have been given hope so we can give others hope. The grace of God doesn’t stop with us. It merely flows through us. A powerful image and a powerful picture of simply sharing what has been shared with us.

The grace of God has appeared…

Roger

Jump Start # 3121

Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age”

Recently I preached a two part lesson on grace. I called the miniseries, “Grace before Salvation,” and “Grace after Salvation.” It’s the after part that we probably could spend more time on. That’s where our verse today is directed. It’s not pointed towards those who need to be saved. It’s written to those who are saved. We still need grace. We need grace as much after salvation as we do before salvation.

Grace teaches us. It teaches us to live better than we have. It teaches us to live differently than what we have. Grace is one of those qualities that the more you get, the more you pass it on. We have been given grace and so we ought to extend grace to others. That’s hard for many. We tend to see things as black and white. We are quick and ready to throw the book at someone who has stepped over the line. We want mercy, but we often have a hard time giving mercy to someone else. Jonah had a problem with this. The older brother of the prodigal had problems with this. Many of the Pharisees had problems with this. The servant in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 18 had problems with this. And, truth be, sometimes you and I have trouble with this.

Why is it that way? You’d think we ought to be the fastest to forgive, quick on grace and generous with second chances. But many times it’s not that way. The stares. The whispers. The gossip. The questions. It’s led some to understand that God gives second chances, but His children won’t. Some are ready to come back to God, but they are hesitant about coming back to church. So, why is it that way?

First, some have never learned from Grace. Our passage says Grace instructs or teaches. But to learn, we must be teachable. Some don’t want to learn. Some don’t want to extend grace. Some are willing to shut the door on others and lock them out for good. Now, just how do we learn from grace?

• God’s generous love and compassion reminds us that it’s not about us, but all about Him. We were not loveable. We were not good. We were not nice. Yet Jesus came. He came before we stopped doing wrong. He came before we made promises to do better. He came before we showed any signs of improvement. He came at the worst time because we were at our worst. Why do people get caught up in the “paying forward” concept in some coffee shops? The car in front pays for your order. That’s really nice. Don’t even know who that person was. So, in turn, you pay for the guy behind you. He in turns pays for the guy behind him. A whole chain of paying for someone else’s order. It all started with the first person was nice and generous. God was the one who started. He was the first. He extended grace to us. Now, it’s our turn. Grace has been given to us. There is someone behind us. Will we extend grace to that person?

• Second, sometimes we forget how awful we were before Jesus. Now that we are right, we’ve forgotten that we were once wrong. Becoming cleansed, it’s easy to look down upon the filth and dirt of others and be horrified at how they are living, all the time forgetting that we weren’t much different before God saved us. Our patience can run thin with some people because their journey with the Lord is truly a journey. Up and down. In and out. All around and all over the place. Some have repeatedly asked for forgiveness. Some have “gone forward” more times than we can count. We wonder why they can’t ever seem to get things right. We must remember, Grace teaches.

• Third, we fail to see the connection vertically and horizontally. In mathematics these may be separate, but not in God’s world. The vertical influences the horizonital and what we do horizontally directly impacts the vertical. By vertical, I mean our relationship with God. By horizontal, I mean our relationship with one another. A person cannot be right with God and wrong with his fellow brother. How we treat each other, helps or hurts how God treats us. Jesus siad, ‘If you do not forgive, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.” When we do not know this or understand this, then what I do in our fellowship will have nothing to do with my walk with the Lord. If I do not see that these sets of lines intersect and what happens in one influences what happens in the other, then I’m bound to struggle with giving grace.

Grace teaches. Have you learned anything from grace?

Roger

Jump Start # 2318

Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age”

ESPN, the cable sports program, once ran a segment during football season in which they would show clips of bad plays, mistakes, missed calls and bloopers during the game. The segment was titled, “C’mon Man.” The host would shout, “C’mon man, what are you thinking…” I loved watching this, because it was so funny.

Our verse today from Titus, reminds us that because of God’s grace we ought to have learned some things. God’s grace is never deserved, expected nor something that God has to grant to us. Grace doesn’t make sense. It’s not getting off on good behavior. It’s not bestowed upon us after we have cleaned up our act. Without the grace of God we are not going to make it. We cannot be good enough, do enough, or be righteous without God’s mercy, favor and forgiveness.

God’s grace is shown in Hosea buying back his unfaithful wife. It is shown in the father celebrating the prodigal’s return. It is shown in Jesus not condemning a guilty woman caught in the arms of another man. Grace has allowed us to be forgiven, cleansed and righteous before God. We will be in Heaven not because we can name the books of the Bible in order or have perfect attendance at worship. We will be in Heaven because of God’s grace. Our faith and trust in God and His amazing mercy, love and grace for us, has made it possible for us to be Heaven bound people.

In our verse today, grace has changed us. Because of God’s grace we live sensibly, righteously and godly. When a policeman pulls you over for speeding and rather than giving you a ticket which you rightly deserve, he warns you, that’s a form of grace. As you pull back onto the highway, if you smoke your tires, and kick up a bunch of rocks on the hood of the police car, you’ll find your grace gone. You’ll get pulled over again. The cop will say, “Didn’t you learn anything?”

So, here is my “C’mon Man” List:

• Here’s the guy who comes to worship but won’t stick around for Bible Class. C’mon Man! Do you think you don’t need to learn? If you got it down so well in your mind, why aren’t you teaching?

• Here’s the person who spends the entire worship watching the crowd. They count how many times people go in and out. They notice who is sitting where. They pick up on what people are wearing. All of this gives them more ammo to talk about others. C’mon Man! How can you sit through a whole worship and miss God? You see all the faults of others, you notice who falls asleep, who is playing on their phone, and yet you never see that you have failed to worship God as well. What is worship about?

• Here’s the person who barely gives any money on Sunday. Oh, he could. He has it, but he won’t let go of it. But as soon as services are over, and one of the kids comes up to him selling cookies or a fund raiser at school, he opens his wallet and goes overboard. C’mon Man! There’s nothing wrong with helping the kids out, but where’s your heart at when it comes to God’s kingdom? It takes money to keep the building nice. It takes money to print things, mail things and put things out on social media. It takes money to help preachers and do the good that needs to be done. You may not be able to preach. You may not be able to put things on social media. You may not be in contact with preachers all over the world. But what you can do is support those things. Support it with your heart, your money, your love and your prayers. If it were up to some folks, the kingdom would go bankrupt because they’d rather buy cookies than see good being done spiritually.

• Here’s an elder and he’s gotten cranky in his old age. He’s forgotten that he’s a shepherd. He likes to boss, yell, and demand people to do things. People cower around him in fear. No one would dare talk to him about a personal problem because they know they will get a brow beating. He has forgotten that these are God’s people. C’mon Man! You can’t treat people that way. You’ll run them off. You’ll kill the church. You are setting a bad example. This is not how Jesus acted. This is not Biblical leadership. Men will run from the opportunity to serve because of the way this is being done. Abuse and fear and domination do not belong in the toolbox of the shepherd.

• Here is a young Christian. He loves the Lord. He is busy all the time. He brings friends with him to services. He is doing all that he can. Some are jealous of him. Some think that he is doing too much. Some talk about him in a negative way. C’mon Man! He is doing more than the rest combined. Don’t get in his way. Encourage him. Help him. Pray for him. He is showing the rest of us what we ought to be doing. If we keep discouraging him, and throwing water on his fire, he’ll get disappointed and quit. We don’t want him to be like the rest of us. We need to be like him.

• Here is a preacher who said something in his sermon that wasn’t correct. Someone pointed it out to him and now the preacher blows up. How dare anyone question him, is the atmosphere he presents. Rather than being humble, thankful and corrected, he makes a little thing a big thing. C’mon Man! You’re not the Lord and you certainly aren’t perfect. So you went to college. Big deal. You don’t know everything. If you can take a little criticism given in love to make you better, maybe you ought to get out of the way and let someone else preach. Word gets around. No one wants to cross the preacher. His ego gets the best of him and he begins to believe that he runs the place. “The place” is the church, and it’s not his, but the Lord’s. Get over it, Mr. Preacher. Calm down. Change your spirit it will ruin you.

• Here is a congregation that is sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bank roll grows and grows and no one wants to spend a dime. C’mon Man! The church isn’t in the banking business. Fear that something bad could happen keeps all the money safe in the bank. The building looks like a dump. Preachers could be supported. A presence on social media could spread the word. But that won’t happen in this place. They just keep adding more and more money. Some begin to question why they even give on Sunday. It just sits in the bank doing nothing. Get some insurance and keep just a little for a rainy day, and then have some faith in the Lord. Put that money in circulation and help the kingdom where you can. You wonder if this group ever read about the one talent man burying the talent in the ground. Not much difference here.

The grace of God has appeared teaching us…C’mon Man, don’t you get it? We are to be changed, better, spiritual and engaged in the kingdom. Haven’t we learned anything from grace?

C’mon Man! That’s one way to look at this.

Roger

Jump Start # 1294

Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bring salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.”

  We have run a mini series this week on the subject of Grace. We looked at Ephesians 2 and salvation by grace. We then looked at Ephesians 4 and giving grace to others by what we say. Today, we learn from Titus 2, that grace teaches us how to live. Grace is not a one time event. It’s not a “one-and-done” concept that is found only at the beginning of our walk with the Lord. Grace extends beyond salvation. Grace becomes a part of the life of a Christian.

In our verse today, the apostle reveals that grace teaches us to avoid two negative characteristics and to develop three positive qualities. Grace teaches us this.

Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. Stop pursuing wrong. The gift of salvation is precious. It ought to change us. Without God’s grace, ungodliness and worldly desires become a way of life for us. This is where we were before God saved us. These two negative qualities reflect a heart that is on it’s own. It has no divine guidance. It does what it wants and that usually is wrong and leads to trouble.

Ungodliness is without God. Ungodly thinking. Ungodly talking. Ungodly defines many songs and movies today. Irresponsible. Indifferent. Selfish. Crude. Rude. Offensive. This is life without God. Living for today. Denying any absolutes. Refusing to be told by anyone, what to do. Loud. Obnoxious. Heartless.

Worldly desires is simply that. They are not the desires of Heaven. It’s not a person who has his eyes set on the above. He is running out of control. He is governed by his passions. He is like an animal. Immoral. Drunk. Sick with sin. This was the prodigal when he came to his senses. This is where we were when God saved us. By faith we saw something different, something better. The righteous way was the best way. We turned and came to Christ. God saved us.

Now, this same grace tells us to avoid that former life and to fill yourself with righteousness, godliness and sensible living. Live right—that’s righteousness. Right by God’s standard. Right according to the Bible. Live Godly, the very opposite of ungodly. Live with God in your life. Make choices that are based upon God. And, live sensibly. The prodigal came to his senses and came home. Living with pigs isn’t sensible. Wanting to eat pig food doesn’t make sense. Spending all that was given to him wasn’t very sensible. Running away from home didn’t make sense. There was a lot of senseless actions by that prodigal. But then he came to his senses. He reflected. He saw. He understood. He came home.

Live that way. This is what grace teaches us. God gave us a second chance, so don’t turn around and jump back into the mud of sin. God rescued your life, don’t lose it again. Learn something. Be different this time. Be smarter this time. Allow grace to show you how to live.

Remembering that Paul is telling Titus to teach these thoughts to believers, we understand that Christians can fail to learn anything from their salvation. They can be no better off. They might start going to church some, but the insides are still a mess. This is where the Pharisees were. Jesus compared them to a dish that was clean on the outside, but the inside had last week’s food dried on it. UGH. Disgusting. That was their hearts. They needed the grace of God. They needed the grace of God to teach them things.

So what this really comes down to, are you better now that you have been saved by God? Is your behavior, attitude, outlook, words, heart taught to be more like Christ? A person who gets baptized, but doesn’t change his insides is no better off than the person who never came to Christ. A re-wiring of the house must take place. His thinking is different. He is different. He is a new person in Christ. Done are the old ways, the old thinking and the old habits. Done are the way he used to be. He’s learning and changing all the time. He’s getting stronger spiritually and his heart is becoming more of a servant. Less about him and more about others. That’s what he’s learned. He got that from grace. God has been good to him, so in turn, he tries to be like that to others. Hopeful, helpful, kind, sweet, spiritual—what a change that takes place.

It’s tragic to see some who have never learned anything from grace. They are still the same ole’ stubborn fool that they have always been. They become a part of a church family, but they are a pain. They are hard to get along with. They tend to be rude. They boast in telling it like it is, no matter whose feelings they crush. They  don’t get the big picture because they have never learned. They delight in trying to be the big shot in the church. And in all of this, they wound, run off, and keep the church from growing. So unlike Jesus, they are. They know a few verses, but they really don’t know the message. Grace hasn’t taught them a thing.

Paul was wanting the preacher Titus to share this with others. Grace teaches. Are we learning? Are we getting it? Are we any better?

Without grace, what a mess we would be in.

Roger