The Church of Eleven22 - Humility Wins - Titus - Wk 3

Episode Date: April 13, 2025

What if the greatest danger to your faith isn’t rebellion—but forgetfulness? It's time to stop being dumb and start being a disciple. Whether you're religious, rebellious, or feeling too far gone���there’s grace for all y’all. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do grab them, we're going to be in Titus 3. You are here on a very, very big day. And you know what today is? Some of you are like, yeah, it's Master Sunday. And we're going to see if Rory can hold them off or if Deshambo can make a move or you can't ever count Scotty Sheffler out. And if that's where your mind is right now, praise God, we're glad you're here. We built this church for people like you. And some of you were like, oh, no, this is Palm Sunday. Where are the palms? Well, we don't really do that, okay? because I think it's crazy that we built this whole tradition around celebrating, like totally missing the point. You realize that? They're all saying, Hosanna, bless it, they see who comes in the name of the Lord, and Hosanna means Lord save us. And when he didn't save us, that same group gathered again on Friday and said crucify him, kill him. So I'd be real careful with the palms thing, but I'm not trying to bust on your tradition. Today, we're going to wrap up this series in Titus. And next week is Resurrection Sunday.

Amen? And so I'm Pontlett, you're here. All right, we're going to jump right into it. Titus 3-1 says this, remind them. So that's what I'm going to do today. I'm just going to remind you of some things that maybe you've heard before. How many of you ever need reminding?

Do you need to be reminded of things? Oh, goodness gracious, me too, okay? I mean, in fact, there's a whole section in your phone and it's just called reminders, right? It's like a calendar. And you tell that to remind you of things that you said you would do, like I would go to this meeting, right?

Or you ever forget to, like, pick your kids? kids up from school? I mean, you've been doing it all year, but that one day you're like, oh yeah, we have children. I forgot about those, all right? Do you ever do that? I need to be reminded of all kinds of things. One of the things, my son, who he went to college this year. He's a freshman in Tallahassee, and I miss him so much, mostly on Thursday nights because that's trash night, and when it's my turn, but I have to be reminded to take the trash out. And if my neighbors didn't bring the bins to their front yards, my trash would never go out, because I can ever remember the day. You ever forget to take your trash out? That's a whole different week,

isn't it? You're like, well, how trashy are we? Good gracious. You make your neighbors take their trash home in their pocket. Don't leave your trash here. You ever be, you ever walk into a room? I do this now. I'm 51. I don't know what's happening in my brain. Walking to a room and you're like, I came in here for a reason. How about the fridge? You ever do that? You're just looking in the fridge. What are you looking for? I'm sure it was food. I'm sure I came here for food. I lost the sock two weeks ago. Do you know where it was? On top of the sock that I already put on the same foot.

That's what I did because I was trying to watch something on YouTube. We need to be reminded. That's right, two socks, one foot, couldn't find the other one, spent three minutes looking for the sock. All right, so anyway. And what's crazy is you would think that we would remember the most important things in the world. Like your anniversary, need to be reminded of that, right? And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I'm telling you, man, we have like gospel amnesia. And here's what's crazy. The longer you're in church, the more likely you are to catch churchitis. It's like a disease. And you can forget the gospel. And you start coming here so much and doing so many good things that you believe we begin to actually think that we earned it or that we deserve it or that we belong here. But I don't know about those people.

I don't know if those people belong here. But we've earned our seat. And part of the reason that we're studying Titus is because we forget that it was mercy. It was the mercy of God that saved us. And we start to think that we did something to deserve to be saved. And instead of responding to God's grace with humility, then we can begin to default to pride and judgment and think we are better than those people because we're right and they're wrong. And instead of being countercultural, we begin to mirror the culture.

And we're just as angry and divisive and self-serving as everybody else. And so Paul says, all right, Titus, pastor of this church in Crete, the way that you're going to create a spiritual revolution in this little gross island called Crete, which looks just like the country we live in right now, he said, we're going to start a countercultural revolution that is bathed in the humility of the good news of the gospel. because before we ever did anything to deserve it, he saved us. Titus 3.1 says, remind them. And here's where he starts.

To be submissive to rulers and authorities and to be obedient and to be ready for every good work. You see, most of the Cretans and a lot of Christians today are ready to fight. What we've got to be ready to do is be ready to be humble and submissive and ready for every good work. Now, we are supposed to fight, but our battle is not against flesh and blood. Our battle is against the enemy and evil and darkness. And then he goes on to say, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy towards all people. He is talking about being submissive to rulers and authorities to be obedient to them

and does not speak evil over them. This includes today our government leaders. Listen, our enemy is not a political figure. Our enemy is the enemy. And by the way, our Savior is also not a political figure. Our Savior is Jesus. Don't ever get these things confused. Now, do we speak out against these things?

For sure, but there is a way to disagree without dishonoring. And then listen to this list. He says, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy towards all people. That could be a four-week series in and of itself. See, what Paul's going to do, Paul's in the habit of doing this at the end of his letters, okay? Paul's in the habit of, in the beginning, he explains things like in great detail. And then at the end, he's like, oh yeah, and by the way, I've got 43 things that I need you to do and not do, ready to go. And he just like shotguns them. But he does this after he explains the why. And what that means is

the imperatives follow the indicative. And I know you don't know what those words mean. I didn't either. Here's what it means. Martin Luther said that. So I looked it up. An indicative is when you state something that is true, and an imperative is something you do because of the truth.

And so what Paul has been doing all throughout the first three chapters of Titus, as he has been laying out the good news of the gospel, and because of the good news of the gospel, if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, There are some things that you were supposed to do and not do, not in order that you would be saved, but because you are saved. And here's four of them, number one, to speak evil of no one. This includes online.

I looked it up. That we're never supposed to speak evil of a person. Even if we think the person works for the evil one, we're not supposed to speak evil of that person. Why? Because our battle is not against flesh and blood. Now, listen, in our great country, we have First Amendment rights, and for sure, we protest and we do all the things and we speak truth, but it is different thing to point out policy

that points to destruction as opposed to vilifying a person. We speak evil of no one. The next one, avoid quarreling. Avoid quarreling. This one also includes online. If, this is a note I wrote down, you ready for this? If and when you were looking for a fight, you are out of step with the Spirit of God.

And on my own note, I went, uh-oh, I don't know if you can tell this about me, I like a fight. I like theological fights, I like philosophical fights, I like physical fights. You know what I mean? I go to a gym or grown men fight each other and pay money to do so monthly. You understand what I'm saying? I like it. I like it, I like it. And that might not be a good thing.

You see, peace is a fruit of the spirit. Picking a fight is not. You know, one of the ways to just ruin the day. for somebody that loves to fight. You want to drive a narcissist crazy. You just look at him and go, I'm not going to fight with you about this. Their head will explode.

The crazy thing is they don't know they're a narcissist because nobody ever knows their one. I could be one. I'm talking about myself. I don't even know. Okay, that's just how that goes. So speaking of evil of no one, avoid quarreling.

How about this? Be gentle. I mean, men, is this even a goal for you? I mean, you're even trying to be gentle? Is it a goal in your life to be like, You know what I want to be known for, my gentleness. I mean, you think about this. There will come a day when you die.

I hope you realize this. Every single one of us, I don't know if you realize this. I read it in the paper this week. The death rate in America hovers right around 100%, all right? So every one of us, we're going to die. It'll be sad probably, all right? And here's what we're going to do. We're going to dress you up, put you in a box, dig a hole, throw dirt in your face,

come back to the church, eat potato salad, talk about what a great guy you are. Now, please live in such a way that we want to lie about you when I stand up at your funeral. All right, don't mean me make stuff up. But do you even want somebody to get up and be like, let me tell you, Larry was so gentle. That's not even a goal for many of us. And yet the Bible says that when Christ invades your life, gentleness is one of the fruits of the spirit. Don't you realize this? You see, especially men, here's the thing.

We want to be tough, and there's a place for tough. But what we have to learn is to be tough for and tender with. and not the other way around, to be tender with the people that God has called us to love and serve and to be tough on their behalf. But oftentimes, what we are is tough with the people that God has called us to love and serve. You see, gentleness isn't weakness, man.

It's just knowing how to use that strength for the flourishing of other people. And then he says this, okay, because of the gospel, show perfect courtesy. Do you show perfect courtesy? You know what this means? That means, not when people deserve it, but even when people don't deserve it, are you perfectly courteous?

And this includes your highway courtesy. Like in a car, are you perfectly courteous? I have talked to several 1122ers that have confessed to me that the reason that they don't put an 1122 sticker on their car is they're not trying to ruin the name of Jesus in our church based on their lack of highway courtesy. Perfect courtesy is the thing about this. Have you ever been to a really nice hotel or restaurant? How do they treat you?

Can you imagine walking into a really nice stackhouse? And they're like, what are you doing here? You're late. That's not how they treat you, right? They treat you with such regard. This is how we are supposed to treat one another. So think about this. Here's what we, as believers, if you're not a Christian, you do whatever you want, okay?

But if you're a Christian, then what we are supposed to do is speak, of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle, show perfect courtesy. Can you imagine, okay, if you were to interview your average American right now and you were to say, hey, when I say Christian, what comes to mind to you? And they go, oh, they're so gentle. They're perfectly courteous. I mean, we got a PR problem, don't you think? You see, what we were, what Paul is saying to Titus is, man, do you want to revolutionize the island of Crete, which is a bad, bad place? Then what's going to happen is it's going to be humility in the way you treat one another, and so you're going to stand out from the way they live in such a way that it is going to be

countercultural. And why do we do this? Verse three, for the reason that we act this way, for this is going to, for some of you, this is going to be a little abrasive, okay? for we ourselves were once foolish disobedient let astray slaves the various passions and pleasures passing our days in malice and envy hated by others and hating one another in other words the apostle paul says part of the reason that you don't speak evil and you avoid quarreling and you're gentle and you show perfect courtesy is because i know this world is acting a fool and so did you

fool don't ever forget where you came from don't ever forget where you came from don't ever forget what you've been saved from. And again, the longer that you've been a Christian, the more you begin to think that you earned it, and we begin to get arrogant. And we begin to think, we're the smart ones, and everybody else is the dumb ones, and we're right and they're wrong,

and you can begin to get church-idus and look down your nose at other people, and you cannot simultaneously look down your nose at any other human being and keep your eyes up on Jesus Christ, author and the perfector of our faith. These things are impossible to do. you see you've been lied to if you're not a believer i've got some terrible news for you right now okay

and again man if you're like 25 and younger the water that you have swammed in your whole life has been nothing been a big fat lie you have been told by your kindergarten teacher that you're precious and that you're a puppy's breath and you're a rainbow and a skittle all right look here skittal all of that's a lie you are a crooked and depraved wretched selfish ego-maniacal black-hearted idol-worshipping sinner. That's who you are. And if you're like, I'm offended, it's because you're an arrogant sinner

and you want us to worship at the altar of you, every single one of us by nature and nurture. We're like the seagulls on Nemo, just going, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. It is. I mean, think about it. You've spent time taking pictures of what you eat as if any of us give a crud about what you eat.

And then mad if we don't like it. Don't you realize this? You see, we're not mistakeers that just need to tighten up a little bit. Every single one of us are these things, foolish, disobedient, let astray, slaves the various passions and pleasures. Are you a slave to your passions and pleasures? You're like, no, okay? Did you fast every Wednesday from sun up to some day?

Well, now you're a legalist. No, you're a slave to your passion and pleasures. We've passed our days with maliciousness and envy, and there's been hate going both ways. And the reason that I tell you this is because I love you. I love you enough to diagnose the problem. Can you imagine going to a doctor and him saying, hey, I don't want to hurt your feelings. So we do a lot of good work here at this clinic.

We just don't diagnose sickness. That's not the doctor you would go to, is it? No, no, no, no, no. You see, we would love you enough to let you know that the heart of your problem is that you've got a problem in your heart, that we are by nature and nurtured. It's foolish, disobedient, let astray, slay,

slaves of passion, malicious, envious, and full of hate. That's who we are. Don't believe it? What if God only held you accountable to the things that you said you would live up to? How would that work out? Not good. Not good. Like, how's that New Year's resolution going right now?

You still crushing that one? No, because none of us in and of ourselves have even the ability to do what's right. And so Paul says Titus, when you preach to your piece, remind them. Don't look down your nose in anybody like that because we were all like that. Then in verse four, I love this so much, okay? I'm going to let you, I'm going to give you a little head start here. Open your Bibles, look at it, and I know what I already told you to do it, but you're a sinner and you didn't get your Bible out, okay? That's fine. We're doing Bible study here, okay? What is the first word of verse four? But I've told you before,

I like big butts and I cannot lie, especially ones like this. The condition is not good. foolish, disobedient, selfish, hateful. But that's not the end of the story. That left to our own accords, hell is our only destination. Some people have come up to me and said, Pastor, do you mean to tell me, what you're saying without Christ, I'm going to go to hell? That's exactly what I'm saying. They go, is there any hope for me? Apart from Jesus, no. But before you ever did anything good in your whole life, listen to this. This is such a. beautiful sentence. I don't know how I've missed this for a long time. I studied the Bible like for a living and somehow this one has, I didn't know the sentence. But when the goodness and loving

kindness of our God and 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. That is the gospel. That's a big butt right there. I'm telling you. Listen, man, I can't get over the gospel.

I'm just telling you, I can't get over the gospel. I can't get over the idea that he would save me. You know why? I know me. I'm the worst sinner I know. Because I see your sins on Instagram. And I'm not saying they're good. They're not good.

Y'all should clean that up or unfollow me. man, I don't want to see your trash. But I can only see the manifestations of your sin. I know every evil thought I have in my mind. I know every evil desire I've had in my heart. I know all of the doubts. I know all of the times I've hurt other people. I know all the times I lie when I mistreat people,

when I use somebody else for my own benefit. I know every single one of them. And yet he stands by my side and he stood in my place and he did not have to. And yet he chose to. save me, I cannot get over this sentence, the gospel. Then he came after me. And so he says, but the reason the butt is there on the backside of the fact that we

ourselves were wards foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves, et cetera, et cetera, is my past doesn't define me. That I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it. And yet he saved me. In fact, when he saved me, I wasn't even looking for him. I was working off community service hours at camp, and he came and got me. It's not exactly the own road to salvation, is it? And yet, he saved me when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared.

That God's goodness and loving kindness has a name, and his name is Jesus. Jesus is the goodness of God. Jesus is the loving kindness of God, and Jesus is the salvation of God. Jesus is the goodness. of God. At our women's encounter that we hosted a couple weeks ago, Lisa Turkhurst was preaching here. She's a preaching beast.

She said these words, God is good, and he is good at being God. And you are not. You've tried it. You've tried it, and you didn't do good. In your omnipotence, you tried to rule somebody else's life, and I check with him, it didn't go good.

They didn't like it. Stop. You've tried to be the master of your own universe and you didn't do good. God is good and good at being God. And then I would add this, okay? And if you add Romans 828 to that, that God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose.

If you're going through a situation right now and it's not good, then God's not done because he is at work for the good. And he might not make it good until you're face-to-face with him, but eventually he will make it good because he works in all things for the good of those that love him because that's what God does because God is good. Jesus is the goodness of God. And Jesus is the loving kindness of God. Now this is written in Greek, but the Hebrew word that gets translated loving kindness

is this Hebrew word called Hasid. And it's a picture, it's a word picture. Hebrew is like a visual language. And it's a word picture of a nursing mother. The loving kindness of God is like a nursing mother to her child. And maybe you've read or heard that the Bible says that God is a jealous God. That doesn't mean that God is jealous of you. That's silly.

You think God looked at your truck and was like, oh, I wish I had that truck. You dummy. What's he need to ride? He's already there. There's nothing that you have that he needs. That's not what that means. It means he's jealous for you. And so physiologically, the way it works is when a baby cries, there's a physiological reaction in the mother

where she produces what the baby needs. And when the mom says what you need is me, she's not being selfish. She's being jealous for her kid because if her kid cried for something and she gave it Mountain Dew, you're going to have Ricky Bobby when you grow up. It's not going to be good for you, man. So the most loving thing that a mom can do is give the child herself because that is what the baby needs. And when you and I cry out for hopes and dreams or we're in pain or whatever it is, when we cry out for, we cry out for God, it's because we have what Blaze Pascal said. We have a God-shaped vacuum

in our soul. And the only thing that can fill that is the one that created us. We were created in his image and for a relationship with him. And so for us to try to try to fill that with anything else will kill us and God is jealous for us and wants to give us what we need. And what we need is him. That is the loving kindness of God. And that's what he does in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the loving kindness of God. And Jesus is the Savior when the goodness and the loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared. You see, the Bible would have us know that grace is not an idea. Grace has a face and His name is Jesus.

That Jesus is the Savior. When we sang that song, worthy of your name, you know what it means? The name Jesus means God saves. So when we sing that, we say, Jesus, you did everything required. of God the Father for us to be saved and reconciled back unto him. That Jesus is the Savior, the rescuer, the Redeemer, the ransomer, the hell defeater, the forgiver, the stain washer, the chain breaker, the penalty payer, the spirit giver, the promised keeper, the king of kings and the Lord of the Lord's, that's just who he is.

This is who Jesus is. And just in case you miss it, verse 5, he saved us. And how about this? and he wanted to you see for a long time I thought well yeah well he saved me because he had to I mean you know I found the loophole in 1 John 1 9

that if I confess my sins he's faithful in just to forgive us of all sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness and as if God was kind of like he's like all right you pray to receive me so now I got to let you in heaven that's not how it goes man he wants you mark 313 says and Jesus called to himself

those who he desired he wants you and he doesn't want you because you're awesome. You're not awesome. He wants you because he is awesome. Because he is love and out of an overflow of God's love for God's self, he has placed his love on you. Like in Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son.

I mean, there ain't a mama or a daddy out here right now that if you've got a prodigal out there ruining their life, what do you want more than anything? You want that boy, you want that girl to come to their senses and come home. And if they would just turn and come home, what would you do? Skulled them? No, no, no, no.

Not if you know the loving hand of the father. You would run to him. You would cover their faces and kisses, and you would say, welcome home. And this is God's heart towards you. That even though, again, man, we're pretty jacked up. And I know some of you're like, even me, but I don't even agree with God with all of these things.

Of course you don't, because you're a fool. But he loves you perfectly, and he wants you, and his desires that you would come home. And he saved us because you're savable, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. Please hear me, man, you can't earn it. Your baptism will not earn your salvation. First communion will not earn your salvation.

Praying a prayer at an end of a service will not earn your salvation. You can't earn it. But according to his own mercy, mercy is not getting. what we deserve. And what we deserve is an eternal punishment separated from God in hell. And some of you're like, well, that's a little severe, isn't it? Oh, you have no idea how severe sin is. See, we all know this to be true. Okay, we all know it's not just what you do, but who you do it against that determines the penalty, right? I've told you this 100 times, but we have so many new people, okay? If today, when you're leaving the service, you get mad and

kick your chair, that's not awesome. Please don't kick our chairs. But nothing's really gonna happen to you, all right? Now, if you kick a person on the way out, you might get arrested. You kick a cop, you gonna get tased. You kick the president, federal penitentiary. You kick the pope, purgatory. It's not real, but it's fine, all right?

If you go home and kick your dog, that's not good. You kick a cat, it's not even a sin. We know these things to be true. We know these things to be true. And every single time we sin, the big ones and the little ones, whatever category you put it in, Every single time we sin, it is treason against the Most High King.

It is a slap in the face against the eternal king and judge. Psalm 51, David, is repenting of his sin against Bathsheba and her old husband. And it was murder and adultery. And yet in Psalm 51, he says, I have sinned against you and you alone, oh God. Every sin is against God. And because God is a just God, all sin must be paid for. And I know sometimes people are like, well, why didn't God just forgive people? You know, nobody's perfect.

I forgive people all the time. First of all, no, you don't. And you're not holy and righteous. Can you imagine if the person that you love the most was molested, raped, and murdered, and they caught the person, and he confessed to the crime. And yet the judge sat up that day and looked at him at sentencing and said, you know what, nobody's perfect, don't worry about it. You're free.

What would you say? well you know everybody deserves a second chance that's not what you would say you would say nope you do not deserve to sit on that bench because you were an unjust judge and god is not an unjust judge all sin must be paid for but because of god's mercy jesus is going to make the payment on our behalf second corinthians 521 says that god made him jesus who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of god that at the cross of jesus that at the cross of jesus Christ, you see the perfect justice of God poured out on sin in a sinful world, and simultaneously you see the perfect grace of God with his arm stretched wide open saying, this counts for

anyone who would believe that when I died on the cross, it counted for you. This is the gospel, that 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. That God doesn't just kind of save you. He doesn't just kind of love you. He richly pours out his love on you. That word rich in the Bible, it means more than enough.

In fact, John is going to say in 1st John, oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we would be called children of God. You know what that word lavish is? You know what it means? It means, oh, that's too much. If somebody, if you think somebody lives a lavish lifestyle, you're like, oh, that's too much. Reagan's sitting right over here.

When she was little, she would take bubble bass at our house. And she was this big, man. And we had one of them big fancy tubs that you have to have, but nobody ever gets in except for the babies when they do bubble as you know what I'm talking about. And she's this big, and the tub is this big. And we would put bubble bath in there and then leave. And then when we came back, she had lavished the bathroom with suds. I don't know.

I don't know if she's doing gymnastics in there. I don't know. But the bathtub could not contain the sud. and it was a lavish experience that when God looks at you and he puts his love on you, it's not just enough so you can eke into heaven. He lavishes it and lavishes it and lavishes it to the point where you can't contain it and it gets on everybody around you. This is what happened.

He richly pours it out by the washing up regeneration, that he rips out that heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, and he begins to give you a heart that can love him back and renews you with the Holy Spirit. This means the old you is gone and you have become a new person, a new creation. So you don't have to do the stuff you used to do because you're not the person you used to be. You are alive and you are new. You see, when we believe that Jesus died on the cross that it counted for me, you can believe because God has regenerated your heart.

We are saved by faith, by grace, through faith, not by works. And even the faith you have is a gift of God. You can't even brag about that part. I mean, do you think the reason you're a Christian is because you're so smart? and everybody's so dumb and you're just smarter than them. No, no, no, no. It's because God gave you a new heart. And when you believe in him, you are renewed.

Jesus calls it this, that you would be born again. This is a very famous interaction that Jesus has with a religious leader named Nicodemus. And Nicodemus comes to Jesus, John chapter 3, comes to him at night. He's like, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus says, you've got to be born again. And it just goes right over his head, man. and he asked the worst question you've ever heard in your life.

How can a man be born again? Must he enter his mother a second time? And Jesus is like, good gosh, man. What? Are you talking? Stop. No, no, no, no. Just like you have a physical birthday,

you've got to have a spiritual birthday that you've got to be born of flesh and of the spirit and put your faith in Jesus Christ for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. So that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That when you put your faith in Jesus, this is crazy. You are justified. That's a legal term. This isn't a perfectly complete definition, but it'll help you remember it. To be justified because of what Christ has done for you, this means that when God looks at you, it's just as if I'd never sin.

Because I no longer hold my record of debt. I hold the perfect life of Christ and I get credit for his life. And in that moment, you become an heir according to the hope of eternal life. That if you're in Christ, you're a co-air with Jesus and all that he has is yours. You see, honestly, most Christians, most church people don't believe the gospel. There's a, Barnard did a study in about 60% of people that go to church and check the Christian box on the survey. and honestly it doesn't matter if you think you're a Christian. It matters if God thinks you are.

And they say, 60% of them says that my good works will determine whether I spend eternity in heaven or hell. That is not the gospel. This is what it says. And then even believers in Jesus believe half the gospel. Ray Cortiz, a pastor out of South Florida, Presbyterian God, preached the best sermons ever been preached here in the history of sermons preached here. Back in saturated in one year, he shared this with us. Most Christians only believe half the gospel.

And here's what I mean, if I were to ask you, if you were to die tonight and you're standing before God and say, why should God said, why should I let you in my heaven? And you were to say, because I believe in Jesus died on the cross, it counted for my sins to forgive me. That is true. That is true. That is true. It's just not the whole truth. The whole truth is that Jesus died on the cross to forgive me on my sins. And when I put my faith in him, he imputed me with his.

righteousness. And so now I'm an adopted son or daughter of the most high king. So to be technically correct, you are not a wretched blackhearted sinner. You were a wretched blackhearted sinner. And now you were holy and just before your heavenly father. And the analogy that he gave is so good. He says, imagine you had a trillion dollars in debt. And you went to the bank and you're like, there's no way I can pay this off. And the bank president came and said, I forgive you of your debts. Would you be pumped? You'd be totally pumped. But if that's all that happened when you left the bank, what would your status be? You would be broke and then you would have to earn a living.

That is not the gospel. The gospel and the bank analogy is you go to the bank, you're like, I can never pay this off. And the bank president comes down and says, you know what? I want to forgive you of your debt. And I want to adopt you as my own son or daughter. And here's the keys to the bank and the debit card and all that I have is yours. Now when you left the bank, can you imagine somebody's talking crap about the bank? I don't like that bank.

You'd be like, I like that bank. And I like the banker. The president adopted me. That's a good bank. And you wouldn't say that so that your debt would be forgiven. You would say that because he had forgiven you. You know what it means to be an heir? It means that you get an inheritance.

In fact, in the gospel, there's this guy called the rich young ruler, and he goes it to Jesus. And he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? You see the problem in this question? because what do you do to inherit to earn an inheritance? You have to be a son or a daughter. There's nothing you can do to earn an inheritance. That you have to be a son or a daughter. And then he goes on to say this.

This saying is trustworthy. In other words, that big sentence, starting in verse 4, going all the way to verse 7, that sentence is true. It's important. It'll change your life. It'll change your eternal life. So you should write it down.

If you did what I asked you to do and get out of Bible, you should underline it, even if you're going to leave our Bible here, so the next person that picks it up realizes that this one's important. You should highlight it. If you're looking at your Bible through a device, then you should copy and paste it and email this to yourself. If you don't have a highlighter, you should bite your finger and bleed on it so you can understand this saying is trustworthy and true. You should memorize this. We should read it again. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done, us and 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. That'd be a good place for a clapper and amen right there, all right? This is what we believe. And he says, and I want you to insist on these things. Titus, when you're preaching, you've got to remind people not to forget the gospel because it leaks. We forget it. And the whole world has a different message.

Where else in your life does the verdict precede the performance? Everywhere else in your life, it said that the world is, all right, we'll see how you do. And then we'll evaluate. And in the gospel, before you ever do anything, except believe you receive the right to become a child of God. He says, I want you to insist on these things. So that, so here's why, so that those who have believed in God, so if you consider yourself a Christian, this is this,

may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for all people. Again, we don't do good works so that we will be saved because we are saved, it drives us to do good works. I wrote a book about this. We did a whole series about this last year. We call it Run Over by the Grace Stray. There's a whole bunch of people that claim to know Jesus,

but the life doesn't look any different. There is no such thing in the Bible as an unfruitful Christian. Now, we don't all check the sanctification boxes in the same order, okay? So I'd be real careful about trying to be like the fruit police on somebody else. There's a group of people that did that in the Bible. They're the Pharisees. They're like the Klingons, and Jesus didn't get along. with them. So we're not supposed to be all judging about each other, but the grace that doesn't

change you won't save you. And the illustration I used is like getting hit by a train. Can you imagine if you were late to church and I say, hey, where you been? You were like, I got run over by a freight train. I would look at you, sir, I don't think you did. Your member's only jacket, it has no blood on it. Your khakis are still pressed. You have your eyeballs and all your teeth. Your hair is amazing. I don't know how all you are, but well done. I don't know how you did that. Have you seen somebody hit by train? You want to ruin a Sunday? YouTube cow hit by train.

Ain't a lot of cow left. You understand? And yet, if you claim you got run over by train and you don't show any physical evidence, then help me understand how you claim to have encountered the grace of Jesus, which is exponentially more powerful than any locomotive you'll ever see on this planet.

And so this is what he's saying. That when you get run over by the grace train, and it changes everything about everything about everything. So I want you to be devoted to good works. Why? Because these things are excellent and profitable for people. So I'm going to make this one really, really easy for you. I'm going to give you a good work that you can be a part of.

On April the 28th, we have a worship night right here, and all of the proceeds go to support some kids that we love dearly at Seymark Ranch. Seymart Ranch is a home down in Clay County or a series of homes. And these are for kids, mostly teenagers. Then this world has failed. You see, when sin entered the world, it held the door open to everything painful and broken and everything got broken. Everything got broken at the macro level. That's why we have like hurricanes down to the micro level. This is why your cells want to obey sometimes and you get cancer. And it broke systems, everything. And these kids are victims of those kinds of things, but God has surrounded them

with Christian families and the Church of 1122 has decided to demonstrate a good work towards those kids because when God saw us broken, he sent Jesus to rescue us. And the moment we got rescued, we became a part of the rescue team. And we want to surround these kids with love, love, love, love, that's what we're going to do. So on the 28th of April, I want you to come to a worship night right here. I want you to buy tickets. Text C-mark to 441122. Mack Powell will be here.

You all know third day? Your love, oh, Lord. that guy, he'll be here. And our worship team will be here, and I'll talk a little bit. And I know what some of you're thinking, you're like, well, I can get that for free on Sunday. Listen, you foolish, selfish son of a gun. That's not what we're talking about. We need to raise money for C-Mart, and so we're going to show up and pack this place out

and buy more tickets than you need, and you want to be a gospel witness on the 27th when somebody's like, what are you doing tomorrow? But hey, you want to come with me and we want to support these kids? This is why we do this, because it is profitable for people. like these kids. But how many of you know it's not enough to just do the good thing, there's some other things you can't do.

You ever try to get on a good diet and all you do is add good food, don't take away the bad food? How's that work out? It's not fair, is it? Eat chicken breasts all week. One piece of cake at the end of the week, over, all right, so.

But, avoid, there's some things we're supposed to avoid. Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law. for they are unprofitable and worthless. You see, there's some things you just got to stay away from, man. As a believer in Jesus, if you're serious about your walk with Christ. Now again, man, if church is like a hobby and you just come here because you're trying to get her to go out with you, it's going to fail

because we raise godly women around here and she's going to see you out, sucker, and it ain't going to work for you, okay? But if you're serious about Jesus, we should avoid anything that takes our eyes off of Jesus. And some of the things that you're doing, It's not necessarily a sin. It's just stupid. Like, is Netflix a sin?

About 90% of it, yes. I mean, think about it, right? Like, if we did the things on stage that you do on the screen, you'd be like, oh, you're not supposed to do that. Why not, man? You watch it every night. And you're like, how does he know? Oh, we know.

It's not good. And so we need to avoid those things. Like, Hebrews was going to say it this way, that we should fix our eyes. on Jesus, the author, and the perfective of our faith, and that we should lay aside all the things that hinder. And I don't love that translation, lay aside. It sounds like you're doing laundry.

You know, you're doing laundry and laid aside. That word lay aside means it's like, doodle. It's like fighting words. And there's some things in your life that you've got to just go, get off of me, man. Now, is that thing of sin? No, it's just stupid. Like, if every time you watch your favorite cable news, you get ticked, maybe that's not the best thing for your relationship with Jesus.

Or maybe all the podcasts that you're listening to, because listen, I have to pay attention to this one, because I can go down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole or the pre-truth rabbit hole in one second, right? About all the conspiracy, about government and aliens and the pyramids and about my, all the things, man, I can do that. But is that thing stirring my affectionist for Jesus? There may be some things in your life. If every time you get online, you leave with a shrunken heart towards the Lord, then you need to change your habits. And I'm not, listen, man, how about don't be dumb, be a disciple. There's a T-shirt for you.

And somebody who's just do dumb stuff all day and then wonder why we're not walking in the footsteps of Jesus. Avoid foolish, controversies, genealogies, dissensions, quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. And then also in that Hebrew's verse, it says, lay aside everything that weighs you down and the sin that so easily entangles. Where are you tolerating sin in your life? and you think, I got this. Brother, you ain't got this. Whether it has to do with sex or stuff or status, that there is someplace in your life

and you are tolerating sin, you're going to continue to feed it, and what you think is a pet is going to grow up one day and be a predator, and it will take you out. Avoid these things. Verse 10. As for a person who stirs up division,

which is also a distraction. Do you know what the thing Jesus prayed for in the longest prayer that we have recorded in the whole Bible. He prayed that the church would be one. He prayed for unity, not uniformity. And anybody that tries to divide God's church is doing the work of the enemy,

not doing the work of the spirit. In fact, do you know why Jesus said that we should be one? He said that we should love one another as God the Father and God the Son are one so that the world may see and believe. Here's what this means. The way we're supposed to love one another as a church

is we are supposed to be a movement for all people that loves Jesus and loves each other so much that when the world looks at us, they're like, what in the heck is happening over there? They got all kind of people going over there. They got white people and black people and Asian people and Latino people and people and people, just whatever a people is, all of these people, they've got different political parties and socioeconomic classes and people that live from the north and the south and from the east and to the west.

And all of these people are unified around one thing and that one thing is the cross of Jesus Christ, and it brings everybody together. And we live in a world that says, me and you ain't supposed to be friends if we disagree on anything. And Jesus says, I'm greater than any disagreement. So as for the person that stirs up division, after warning him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him. So are we supposed to forgive people?

We are. Are we supposed to be in relationship and reconciled to all people? Nope. And you're like, what? Well, first and foremost, you warned them once or twice. I mean, you talk two people and not about them. But there are some people, listen, one of my best friends, and she's a therapist, Rebecca Maxwell, taught me about boundaries. She made me read this book called Boundaries.

And that it is a very healthy thing to understand that I'm an image bearer of God, and I'm not going to bring anybody into my life that drags me away from who I am and who I am in Christ Jesus. Okay? Forgiveness, yes. Now, somebody's going to push back and be like, yeah, but doesn't Jesus love all people? and hang out with all people? Yeah, you want to jot this down? Yes, he did. But number one, you're not Jesus.

Number two, Jesus was always the influencer, not the influenced. Didn't Jesus go to parties? He did. He did miracles and people got saved. You got drunk and got in a fight. This is not the same ministry. He says, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condembed. See, my coach used to just say, show me your friends, and I'll show you your future.

You can pray for people. You share the gospel with people. you love people and there are some people that you avoid for the sake of the mission of Jesus Christ and he loves them more than you do you pray for them you share the gospel with them but if they are consistently dragging you away and creating division then the mission of Christ is greater than their negative feelings and then he ends the letter now again the Holy Spirit was writing a letter not a sermon so it's not like the biggest bang at the end he just gets real practical and the reason he gets real practical, it's because this is an actual event.

You ever been on a group text, and everybody's going to meet up, and then write it at the end, it's like, all right, you bring the salsa, don't forget my jacket. Is that kind of thing? That's what's happened here. He says, when I send Artemis or Tecacus to you, he's going to send kind of a helper for Titus. Do your best to come to me at Nicopolis. That's where he's going to stay.

For I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zinas, the lawyer. See, this is a movement for all people. Even lawyers can be Christians. and Apolis on their way, see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works. He really wants you to go to the C-Mart concert. That's what he wants you to do.

So as to help cases of urgent need and not to be unfruitful, all who are with me send greetings to you, greet those who love us in faith. You see, Crete was a mess, and so was our culture. And Paul didn't tell Titus to shout louder and fight harder or flex their moral superiority. No, no, no, no, no. He said, remind people of what the gospel has done in your life, and you treat people the way Jesus has treated you. And then you watch what happens.

And then I love, I can't tell you how much I love the way this thing is. Then he says, grace, be with you all. This isn't just a private letter to Titus. Titus is supposed to read this to the whole church. And he says, grace. And how many of you know, we're going to need grace, right? Grace is the thing that redeems us that makes us right with God. And grace is also the thing that we need when we stumble and fall and skin our knee.

We fall on that same grace. And then he says, grace be with you all. Now, I know we got a bunch of Yankees here. Welcome, we love you. We're glad you're here. So glad you're here. We build a place for people like you, okay? But we've got to teach you some dialect.

Okay. See, we have this word called y'all. And there's like, there's like you, if I go, you come here. I mean, that dude right there, you come here. If I say y'all come here, it's plural, but it's kind of many plural. That's just some y'all come here. This word, you know what this word is? All y'all.

See, you say you all. No, that's what you put your furniture in when you're moving. That's called you all. This is all y'all. In the grace of Jesus, you want a gospel in a sentence? Grace has a face, and his name is Jesus. Paul is saying grace be with all y'all. And you were like, even me?

Yeah, even you. You know who needs grace? All y'all. Me too, man. My question to you is this, have you received the grace of God through his son, Jesus Christ? You see, some of you are legalists,

and you don't know what. Nobody knows they're a legalist. You just think you're serious. You need grace. Let me put this down here. I'm going to get real offensive. It's just, you know. whatever, ready?

Listen, if you grew up in a Southern Baptist church or any kind of church with the word fundamentalist in it, like independent fundamentalist or independent Baptist or something, something fun. If you grew up in anything with the word fundamentalist, a lot of mental, not a lot of fun, I don't know if you realize that. Or if you grew up Catholic, dude, I'm so glad you're here. But what can be taught is you think that you earn your salvation. Like if you grew up in one of those like kind of extreme Baptist churches,

what you were taught is if I don't do these things, then I'll be clean before God. Or if you grew up Catholic, you may have been taught that there was a religious activity that you must participate in in order to open yourself up, to be imparted, not imputed, with grace. Neither of those are the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is that he came to do for you what you could not do for yourself. and there's no thing that you could do to make yourself right before God. And so if that's you, if you've been really good at being good at the church stuff, you need grace.

And today you could receive the grace of God. And then there's some of you, and you were what we would call licentious. That means you prayed a prayer when you were 11 at one of those camps, and now you think, I can do whatever I want. You can do whatever you want. You're just not a follower of Jesus. I mean, if you felt the fields one time, a long time ago, raise your hand or pray to prayer, but you have not surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,

then you have a total misunderstanding of grace. Grace is not freedom to sin. Grace is to freedom from sin, that Jesus has paid the penalty of your sin, that the Spirit of God in you is redeeming you and changing you and giving you some victory over the power of sin, and that one day you'll be free from the very presence of sin. There's nothing cheaper about grace. It costs Jesus everything. And then there's some of you. And you just think like you're a spiritual loser.

You think, yeah, man, God can't save me. Pastor, I appreciate all your little stories and stuff, but you don't know what I've done. If you are the kind of person that say, you don't know what I've done, you don't know what Jesus Christ did for you. And there is more grace in Jesus than sin in you regardless of what you've been told

or where you've been or what you've said or what you've done. And no matter how many times you've struggled and stumbled and followed. fallen, the grace of Jesus will outrun you running from him every single time. So whether you're the legalist or the licentist or the loser, the person that thinks, I'm pretty good. You need a savior. You need grace. You need grace. No, no, no, no. You need grace to surrender to him. And you think, I'm too far gone. No, no, no, no, no. There's nobody, nobody that's too far gone. So I want to ask you, have you received the grace of God through the person and work of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ. Today you could receive that. And you say how? Well, first of all, you've got to admit it. I need grace. And then you've got to believe. And the Bible says, for all who believe will receive the right to become children of God, that you believe that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. Even if you can't explain regeneration and renewal and justification and atonement, that's fine.

And then you call on the name of the Lord. Acts 1013 or Romans 1013 says for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved when you pray that prayer all right God I admit it and I believe that when Jesus died on the cross somehow that counted for me and God would you save me I call on the name of the Lord that is a prayer that he answers 100% of the time and that could be you in this very moment right now would you bow your head would you close your eyes and if you were ready to call on the name of the Lord if you were ready to confess your sin to believe on Christ for your salvation and receive the free gift of grace that changes everything about everything about everything,

then right where you are right now as a symbol of you calling on the Lord, would you lift your hand as high as you can? And would you just say, Jesus, I call on your name, would you save me? And it's not a hand in the air that saved you. It's belief in the resurrected, crucified Christ that does. And I promise you, in this moment, you're regenerated, you're renewed, the Spirit of God is deposited in you. And you have the hope of eternal life.

our good and gracious heavenly Father God, we love you more than anything because you first loved us. God, I thank you and I praise you for that man and that man and that man right now who are calling on your name. God, that we are on holy ground because we are in the presence of the only eternal miracle that these people have been brought from death to life. And God, for all of us who have been walking with you for a minute, would you just remind us of the good news of the gospel? may we never ever forget what you have saved us from and that it is you and you alone who have saved us and because of that may we be devoted to acting like people who know what it's like to be loved and forgiven so may we go out into this world in love and forgive and we pray this in Jesus name amen

church would you please stand as we respond we're going to sing we're going to sing we're going to sing and we're going to sing like we're celebrating because we are. And we're going to bring our ties and our offerings our first and our best as an act of worship to the only one that deserves it, and we are going to pray. And I would invite anybody and everybody to come up here and get on your face before an almighty God who loves you and wants you and cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you.

So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond. The reality is everything already belongs to God. And when we give financially, we're acknowledging that we trust him. If you just watch this and feel led to make a donation, text the word donate to 441122, or visit co.e22.com slash donate. Your generosity is not only an act of worship, but an investment so all people can discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ.