Straight Line, in a Crooked Culture

We're starting a new study in the book of Titus this week, a book that speaks to those who are living in a chaotic climate and how they should walk with Jesus and show forth His glory. I think it speaks to us in our day, living in a chaotic world. So, open with us to Titus and follow along.

How are you guys doing? Good! A couple of things before we get into the Scriptures today: we are going to be starting in a new book. We finished 1st Timothy last week, so we're going to be getting into the book of Titus today.

Before we do, I don't know if it's appropriate, but sometimes I feel kind of weird saying "Happy Memorial Day." However, I do think that it's something we should acknowledge. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, a very important holiday in our nation's history. Most of us will probably have a holiday tomorrow, which is kind of the unofficial start to summer for a lot of people. That is something to be happy about.

However, over the next 48 hours, as we celebrate Memorial Day, I think it's really important for us to remember that one of the reasons we are able to celebrate and have a day off in a free nation like ours is because many people have given their lives in defense of our nation. They have paid the ultimate sacrifice, and we are absolutely grateful for what they have done. Amen. So, maybe just take some time to consider that reality over the next 48 hours. It's an awesome thing to reflect on.

Also, if you've been a part of Cross-Connection Church for any length of time, then you know that we have been very involved for many years as a church in foreign missions. It's still a very important part of who we are as a church. One of the places we have been actively involved with for about the last eight or nine years is in southeastern Africa, specifically Mozambique, through a ministry called Cross Connection Outreach. They have a very similar name to ours because we kind of stole their name—well, no, not kind of; we did.

Today, we are blessed and privileged to have the overseers and leaders of Cross Connection Outreach here with us, Luke and Kristen Ryder. We have a little video to show you about their ministry so you can get acquainted with them if you've never met them before. So, let's check that out.

Hi, my name is Ama, and this is my mom and dad. I'm Kristin. My name's Luke Ryder. Our ministry is Cross Connection Outreach. We work in Mozambique, Africa, and we've been there...

For the last 13 years, the focus of our ministry has been to work with illiterate people groups and bring the gospel to them in relevant ways. In our area, people do not need more printed Bibles; they have needed Audio Bibles. We have been actively recording different languages, distributing Audio Bibles, and using our native missionaries to help us start Audio Bible listening groups. In these groups, people can sit down and press play on a solar-powered MP3 player that has the New Testament recorded in their mother tongue, allowing them to hear God's Word.

Another focus of Cross-Connection Outreach is to take care of people's practical needs in our area. One of the ways we do that is by providing a water well repair ministry. We go to rural villages where there is a need for this service; they do not have access to the parts and have not been trained to do it themselves. Our native missionaries will repair the wells, offer the necessary accessories closer to their village, and train them how to do the repairs on their own in the future.

The best part of this process is that we often gather a group of about a hundred people. Water is extremely important in these villages, and they can only get it from one source, one hand pump. When that pump is broken, it is a big deal. While we are repairing the well, a hundred people easily show up, and after the well is repaired, we share the gospel. Everyone hears the message of the living water of Jesus Christ.

We also have a four-year Bible school in Villain Couli. This aligns with our desire to train native missionaries. People go through a four-year formal Bible school with us, and after that, they are ready to go out and plant their own churches with correct theology, teaching the teachings of Jesus.

Another ministry we have is school outreach. We actually use local tailors in villages to help cut and sew new school uniforms, providing jobs for them. The new uniforms are given to students at local schools in need. We conduct a huge school outreach where sometimes there are 300 kids. We use games where children play for about five minutes, followed by a three-minute Bible teaching. The kids go from station to station, hearing the gospel presented to them in six or seven different ways all in the same day.

Through the game and the message, there is a message that they never forget. When they put that school uniform on, they remember the message of Jesus's love that they heard that day.

We have a lot of prayer requests, and we need people to get behind us daily and pray for us out there. In general, for our ministry, we need prayer for our native missionaries. They are the Mozambicans that we work with day in and day out, sharing the gospel alongside us and often on their own as well. We ask for prayer for their families, for their financial support, for their health, and for them as they convey the gospel to their own countrymen.

We also need prayer for our health. Over the years, we have faced many health challenges. I have had malaria almost countless times; it is an annual issue for us. My poor wife recently suffered from tick bite fever pretty badly. It is by the church here and your prayers that the Lord heals us, sustains us, and keeps us out there, able to do what we are doing.

Additionally, we are asking for prayer for the new location we are working with. We are engaging with a new tribe called the Batonga people. It is a small, coastal tribe that is largely illiterate and sustained by their fishing industry. Witchcraft is a significant issue within this tribe. We need to first build a ministry team so that we can begin to do an audio Bible recording and outreach among this tribe.

Last year, we moved into the Batonga people, and our goals there are to build a new ministry team and disciple a new group of men and women who will one day be the spiritual leaders in that area. A big way to involve the women is through our dream this year of building a job training and discipleship center. These two initiatives are one and the same; we want to use job training skills and placing people in jobs as a natural platform to disciple them. Out of that project is where our next ministry team is going to come.

Come up here in the light so we can actually see you. We want to pray for Luke and Kristen and the new work that God is doing. For many years, they have been in a place called Vilanculos, as you heard in the video, and they just moved to a new area called Tofu. As soon as they moved there and got their home built, a cyclone came through and destroyed it all. Some of you knew about that and were praying for it and helping finance the rebuilding efforts. There are a lot of new things that God is going to be doing, and they are really excited about it. We will probably even be taking some people there in the next year or so.

We want to lift them up to the Lord in prayer. They will be here until the end of June for Luke's brother's wedding. If anyone wants to come up and pray with us, come on up, and we will lay hands on Luke and Kristen and lift them up to the Lord. As they come up, would you all bow in prayer with us?

God, I thank you so much for Luke and Kristen, the example that they are to me, and the blessing that they are to me and to this church. Lord, I thank you for the blessing that they are to Your kingdom. I pray that You would continue to pour out Your Spirit and Your grace upon them. We thank You for the adoption that has gone through with Alma. We thank You for adding Alma to their family.

Lord, we ask that You bless this family and use them to be a bright, shining light in this new area in Tofu. God, use them to share the good news of Your grace with the people there and to raise up new national missionaries who can reach their own community. We know that no one is better suited to reach into the communities of Mozambique than the Mozambicans. I thank You for the vision that You have given to Luke and Kristen to share the gospel and to disciple those who are saved, that they would do the work of the ministry there.

In their own country, we asked God for great fruit at the end of 2018 going into 2019. For the next ten years, we lift it into Your hands, Lord. We ask that You would do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. Bless this couple; bless their family health-wise, emotionally, spiritually, and in every way. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all those agreed said, "Amen."

With that, we are going to get into the Scriptures. As I said, we're going to be in a new book called Titus. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of the ushers will bring you one. If you do have it, open to Titus and stand with me, please. Titus is just after 1st and 2nd Timothy. We spent the last six months in 1st Timothy, so just turn a little bit to the right from there, and you will find the small book of Titus.

We're going to pick it up right at verse 1 of chapter 1. Titus 1, verse 1: "Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior, to Titus, a true son in our common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior."

Father, as we look into the Scriptures this morning and in this passage that twice reminds us that You are God our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You that You are the Savior of us and of the world. Lord, You desire to rescue people from sin and death, and we thank You for Your rescuing power. We thank You for Your grace, mercy, and peace that are described in this passage. We pray, God, that we would be those who experience the joy of grace, mercy, and peace, and not only that we experience it, but that we extend it to others.

So, God, do work in our lives by the working of Your word and Your Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated.

I think it is important, anytime that we open the Scriptures, to remind ourselves that the events chronicled in this book—or maybe we should say books—are significant. The sixty-six books contained in the Bible were written by forty different authors over 1,500 years. When we open up the books of Scripture, it is really helpful for us to remember that the events chronicled here actually happened. There are stories in the Bible that are just stories, like the parables of Jesus, but the vast majority of what we find in here are actual events that occurred in actual places at an actual time in history.

As we come to this new book, the Book of Titus, it's helpful to keep this in mind. I also think it is important to remind you, or perhaps inform you for the very first time, of some of the things that were happening in the world contemporary with what was taking place in this book at the time that Paul wrote this letter. What was the condition of the world when he wrote this letter to Titus?

We are told from the very first word of the Book of Titus who is writing it. He announces his name. In the culture of the day, the writer would typically announce himself at the beginning of the letter, unlike our modern practice of putting our name at the end. This is one of Paul's thirteen letters in the New Testament, and he identifies himself as Paul. He tells us specifically who he is writing to in verse 4: to Titus.

We are given some immediate information about who is writing and who it is being written to. If you have been around the New Testament for any length of time, then you know the name Paul. You have likely heard it quite frequently because he dominates much of the Book of Acts, which is the early history of the church. He also wrote thirteen letters that make up most of the New Testament, so the name Paul is generally familiar to many people.

The name Titus, however, may not be as familiar. Titus is an interesting character in the Bible because he shows up a number of times in Paul's letters. He is mentioned in Galatians, Corinthians, and Timothy, and obviously, we have a letter written directly to him. He appears at key points in Paul's ministry, and you can kind of piece together his significance through these references.

To understand the landscape of Paul's ministry, it is intriguing that Titus's name never appears in the Book of Acts. This is a bit strange, considering he was clearly with Paul. In fact, when you read between the lines of one of Paul's letters, specifically his letter to the church at Galatia, you realize that Titus was probably a convert to Christianity during Paul's first missionary journey. He was a Greek individual who spoke Greek and likely lived in the region of Galatia.

Paul's very first missionary journey is chronicled in Acts chapters 13 and 14, where Paul and Barnabas went out to plant churches and preach the gospel. It is likely that Titus got saved during this journey. Not only did he get saved, but it seems that at the end of Paul's first missionary journey, when Paul returned to his home church in Antioch to share the good things that God had done, he brought Titus back with him. We know this because Paul mentions Titus in his very first letter to the church at Galatia.

What is strange, however, is that Titus does not show up in the Book of Acts, even though he was with Paul during that first missionary journey and when he returned to his home church. He was even with Paul when they went down to Jerusalem, as told in Acts chapter 15. After completing their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas were preaching the gospel to non-Jews, which was quite revolutionary at that time. Here was Titus, a convert to the ministry to Gentiles, amidst a hubbub in the church in Jerusalem about why they were preaching the gospel in the same way to Gentiles.

Paul and Barnabas had to go to Jerusalem to share the good things that God was doing among the Gentiles. Titus was with Paul during this trip, as confirmed in Galatians chapter 2. However, in Acts chapter 15, it is only recorded that Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with the church because Gentiles were coming to faith. The church in Antioch of Syria determined that Paul, Barnabas, and certain others should go to Jerusalem to share with the elders and the apostles there. Among those certain others was Titus, as stated in Galatians chapter 2, yet his name is never mentioned in the Book of Acts.

Titus is a convert to Christianity under Paul's ministry. He is a disciple of Paul and a collaborator with him, but he is essentially a silent partner in the ministry. His name is not well known; it doesn't appear frequently in the passages. In some ways, I think that Titus's life and ministry teach us a really helpful lesson.

Point one: It is good to be faithful even when you are relatively unknown. Perhaps that is easy for you. Maybe you are among those who would much rather remain anonymous. You might be one of those who likes to be behind the scenes, preferring to be incognito so that no one ever really knows who you are in your faith and in your life following Jesus.

However, I have to confess that I find within myself a desire for notoriety, a desire to be known. I don't think that's entirely uncommon in the culture we live in during the 21st century. In fact, we live in a culture where it seems like a lot of people just want to be known. Perhaps more than any other time in history, we have the ability—through social media, the internet, and the networks available to us—to be known like never before.

Now, we have scores of people in our day who are pursuing likes, clicks, views, and subscribers. It’s almost as if, when you look at our culture, the mantra is that he who dies with the most subscribers wins. There is a constant push in our culture to be known and to make yourself known.

However, any fame or notoriety that a person might attain in this world is, in every way, temporary. That is why it has been called "15 minutes of fame." Any sort of notoriety that a person could have in this life would be entirely temporary. Therefore, it is far better to be faithful before God, like Titus. Though you may be unknown in this life, if you are faithful to God—who, as we are told in this passage, cannot lie and promises eternal life—then the Scriptures make it clear that your faithfulness is what truly matters.

It is very clear that you will be rewarded by Him eternally, and I would say that is far better than a whole bunch of views on YouTube. Amen. There is this call to faithfulness, and I think that Titus is a picture of that somewhat silent partner, an unknown, obscure faithfulness to God. I think it's a really important value.

Titus was a co-laborer with Paul, but a silent partner in the ministry. At the close of the Book of Acts, Paul is found, if you go and read through Acts chapter 28, the very last chapter of the Book of Acts. You find that the Apostle Paul is in the city of Jerusalem, and he's there under basically house arrest. He is there because he was put in jail when he was in Jerusalem several years before. The charge that came against him, the accusation from those who were accusing him, was that he was causing sedition against the Roman government, which was a capital crime in that day.

Paul was a Roman citizen, so he appealed to the highest court of the land. This meant that he was going to have to be taken to Rome, extradited to Rome, and stand trial before the highest court of the day. Acts 28 leaves us in that place, in the kind of tension of what’s going to happen, as he is under house arrest.

At some point between the years 63 and 64 AD, nearly 2,000 years ago, Paul was released from that prison. It was referred to as his first imprisonment. After he was released, we know from what we can piece together in the Bible and from tradition that Paul, along with at least Timothy, went to revisit the churches that Paul had planted and pastored in Asia Minor. The chief church there was in the city of Ephesus.

We know, because we just studied First Timothy, that when Paul went to Ephesus with Timothy, he left Timothy there to do the work of the ministry. Paul probably visited some of the churches of Galatia during that period of time. We also know that he went to Macedonia, where the chief city at that time was Philippi. It is clear that he went down into Greece, and as part of that journey, between his first imprisonment in 63-64 AD and his ultimate death through execution in 66 AD, he made his way to the huge island in the Mediterranean called Crete, and Titus was with him.

Titus was with him because we find here in this passage in verse 5. Look at Titus chapter 1, verse 5: "For this reason I left you in Crete." This has become Paul's new modus operandi. He's on this journey, and he has Timothy and apparently Titus with him, along with who knows who else. He goes to Ephesus and tells Timothy, "You're staying here. See you later." Ultimately, he ends up in Crete with Titus and turns to him, saying, "Hey, by the way, remember that whole thing I did with Timothy in Ephesus? You're staying here. See you later. I'm out."

Then he writes back to Timothy and Titus, sending letters of encouragement and exhortation as they do the work of the ministry. It may be reading into the Scriptures, but I believe that Paul was seeing the handwriting on the wall. He knew that his time was short and that it was time to pass the work of the ministry on to those who would carry it on. He passes it off to Timothy, saying, "Hey, you're the bishop or the pastor, the overseer of the church at Ephesus." Then he says to Titus, "You're the bishop or the overseer of the churches there in Crete. I'm leaving you here for a very specific task. I'm going to write back to you to encourage you in what to do."

So, he gives the ministry to Titus in Crete. Paul and Titus were traveling through Macedonia, Asia Minor, and Greece down to Crete, and the year is about 64 or 65 AD.

Let me bring you back to what I said a moment ago. I think it's helpful sometimes to remember the cultural climate in which these events were taking place. To do that, we need to have a little bit of a history lesson. You may have found, as you've been a part of this church for any length of time, that I like history. I have spent the better part of the last 15 years reading and studying a lot of history. Maybe you find history fascinating like I do, or perhaps you're like most people who think, "I have more pressing issues in the present to consider than the past."

There are many who spend far more time concerned with the things of the present day than considering the past. However, here's what I find: every time I start to look back into history, I realize that things have not changed all that much over the last 2,000 years. Yes, there has been a lot of advancement and progress in areas of science, technology, and medicine.

Electric vehicles in space? Don't ask if we should; that's a dumb question. Of course we should! But we can. I mean, we have advanced technologically. It's phenomenal what we are able to do.

However, when you start to look into history, you realize that we haven't really advanced all that much as people. The people of 2,000 years ago are very similar to the people of today. So, thinking about history, it's good to go back and consider the climate in which Paul was living, ministering, and writing. This means we need to look back not just to the time of 64 or 65 AD, but we need to backtrack about 90 to 100 years.

In the first century BC, there was a massive geopolitical shift that took place in the year 49 BC. This shift had huge implications for the previous six hundred years. One of the great players in world dynamics was the growing power of Rome. By the 1st century BC, Rome held a grip on pretty much most of the known world of that day. There were about 50 million people at that time under the oversight of the Roman Empire. It spread all the way to what is modern-day Iran, which was then Persia, and all the way west to the British Isles. The expanse reached down into northern Africa.

From about 700 BC until the 1st century BC, we see the ascendancy of Rome. During most of that time, what was pretty amazing about Rome was that it existed as a republic for most of its history, up until the 1st century. One of the dominating influences of the Roman Republic was the Senate, and they were very proud of their form of governance from about the mid-6th century BC until the mid-1st century BC. In fact, much of our political landscape here in the United States of America in the 21st century is built upon the foundation of the Republic of Rome from more than 2,000 years ago.

However, in the 1st century BC, things began to shift. The Republic was weakened through civil unrest and division. Sound familiar? In 49 BC, the Senate of Rome...

Decided to try and stabilize and to bring back the Republic, the Senate granted phenomenal power to an individual called Julius Caesar. In 49 BC, the Senate voted to give him dictatorial power over the Republic. However, five years later, a group of senators realized that this may not have been a good idea. They conspired to assassinate Julius Caesar, believing that by killing him, they could restore the Republic to its former power and influence.

In January of 44 BC, they assassinated Julius Caesar. Unfortunately, the outcome was not what they had hoped. After his assassination, his adopted heir, a man named Octavian, took power. Octavian was far more ruthless and power-hungry than his adopted father had been. Over the next 22 years, he became essentially unassailable; no one was able to challenge him. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate voted to give him absolute power and bestowed upon him a new name: Augustus. He became the first emperor of not the Roman Republic, but the Roman Empire.

For the next 90 years, Augustus's family maintained their position under that dynasty. During this period, individuals such as Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius occupied the seat of Emperor. By the time Paul was living, ministering, and writing, there was a man named Nero in power. In the year 65 AD, when Paul was in Crete writing this letter to Titus, Nero had been Emperor for about ten years. Nero was absolutely a lunatic.

Let me give you a list of some of Nero's accomplishments to illustrate just how unhinged he was. First, he murdered his own mother.

Nero married two different men. At one point, he kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, killing her and their unborn child. He built a giant golden house, which was basically a palace for him to experience pleasure. You can use your imagination to understand what that meant in the first-century Roman world. This man, who married two men, also erected a hundred and twenty-foot tall bronze statue of himself.

Nero was a musician who loved the arts and fancied himself one of the greatest musicians of the day. He would gather people together for his own performances in theaters, where he would lock the gates so that no one could leave. He would give extended performances that could go on for hours. One historian notes that during one of those performances, a woman went into labor and had to give birth there because no one could leave while he was playing.

He fancied himself an athlete and remains the most decorated Olympian in all of history. In one Olympic Games in the year 67 AD, he achieved eighteen hundred and eight victories, even in events he did not compete in. In the year 64 AD, he is known for being the one who brought about the Great Fires of Rome. At the time, he was not willing to take the blame for it. He wanted certain parts of the city to be torched so they could be rebuilt to his liking. To divert attention from himself, he promoted a rumor that it was actually a group of people within the Roman city called Christians, followers of the Way, who were responsible for the fires. This turned public opinion against the Christians.

Interestingly, this occurred in the year 64 AD, which is very likely when the Apostle Paul, who was incarcerated in Rome, was released. He just so happened to be in Ephesus and Crete during that period. Additionally, Nero is known for ultimately having the Apostle Peter put to death, as well as Paul. The only thing that could have made things worse in the first century would have been if Nero had had a Twitter account, and thankfully, he didn't.

Now, at this point, you may be wondering what this all means.

All of this came to a head in the year 65 AD. It was during this time that Paul was probably writing this letter to Titus in Crete. In 65 AD, there was a group of conspirators within the Roman Senate, one of whom was the former tutor of Nero during his youth, a Roman Stoic by the name of Seneca. This group conspired to put the madman Nero to death, believing that the chaos had gone too far and that it was time to intervene. Their conspiracy was brought to Nero's attention, and he forced them to commit suicide. This was what dominated the headlines in 65 AD.

Why do I bring this up? In the midst of this chaotic climate, we read this from Paul: "A bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. But has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior, to Titus, a true son in our common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Here is something we need to recognize: virtually all of Paul's ministry, especially his writing ministry, took place in that cultural climate under the authority of Nero overseeing Rome. What is striking is that when you read through Romans, or First Corinthians, or Second Corinthians, or Galatians, or Ephesians, or Philippians, or Colossians, or Philemon, or First and Second Timothy, and Titus, and First and Second Thessalonians, you never see Nero's name mentioned. You never see him mention the insanity of the Emperor, the unrighteous conduct of the Emperor, or the bad leadership of the Emperor. In fact, the closest you can get to any sort of political commentary from the Apostle Paul in his first-century writings is this.

Chapter 13, verse 1 states, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance

Calling, he was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Though Rome would burn and its Emperor was a raving lunatic, that would not change the nature, power, and position of God. It would not change the calling of His Apostle Paul. He would maintain faithfulness to God no matter the cultural climate. This is so important for us to grasp and hold on to.

We read in Titus chapter 1, the second half of verse 1: "according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began."

Point number 3: It is good to remember that we live in hope of God's promised eternal life. Listen, church, that’s exactly what we need to remember today. We live in hope of God's promised eternal life, and this is God who cannot lie. He promised it; therefore, it is absolutely certain. This is not a wishful thinking kind of hope; this is an absolute certainty of eternal life.

I would suggest that it is easier to maintain faithfulness in a chaotic climate if we have this hope. I'm not saying it's easy, but it is easier to maintain faithfulness when we have this as our hope.

Now, there are a couple of things at the end of verse 1 that I don't want to leave without commenting on. First, notice that it says "according to the faith of God's elect." I will simply say this: If you have faith, then you are God's elect. I think this is important because there has been contention and division within the church for the last 500 years, and it will continue until Jesus comes back. I am certain of it. This division exists between God's sovereign election and our free, responsible will in salvation.

This debate will continue, but I don't have time to get into all of that. I have four minutes left, and I still have a whole bunch of points to get through. So, just to simply say, if you have faith, you are among God's elect; you are elect in Christ. If you want more information on that, please let me know.

Then read Ephesians chapter 1 very carefully, and there you'll find this: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." Just as He chose us in Him, we are elect, chosen in Christ, and we are in Christ by faith. If you've put your trust in Jesus, then you are among the elect. Therefore, if you are God's elect by faith, you should grow in the fruit of godliness.

Point number four: it is good for faith to produce the fruit of godliness as we seek to be faithful in a chaotic world. As we walk in hope of eternal life, the promise of eternal life in God, it is good for our faith to produce the fruit of godliness in our lives. This is really what this letter is about. This letter describes sound faith according to sound doctrine that produces sound conduct. That's why I'm calling this series "Sound Check." It's checking us: do we have sound faith in sound doctrine producing sound conduct from our lives?

That's what we're going to see in this letter as we go through these words. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all humanity, as we are told in Titus chapter 2, verse 11. That grace teaches us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. God's grace comes to us, saves us, and teaches us how to walk in righteousness. The chaotic world we live in needs to see Christians walking in godliness.

Paul was writing to Titus, who was overseeing the churches of Crete. The island of Crete was known for being a gluttonous, lying group of people. He says you need to walk in a way that makes you stand out in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. In verse 2, he writes, "In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His..."

Word through preaching was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior to Titus, a true son in our common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Eternal life was God's plan and His promise going all the way back to the beginning. This is His plan and His promise always, and now He has made it known.

For the last two thousand years, God has made it known. How has He made it known? He makes it known through the proclaiming of the good news. It is good for us to proclaim good news—the good news of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. What should we be about as the people of God? The same thing that Paul was about two thousand years ago. That is what a chaotic world needs: the good news of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The world of the first century did not need Paul's political commentary and prescription; that's why he never gives it in the thirteen letters of the New Testament. He never provides his political commentary, and I'm sure it was probably infuriating to some of the people who lived in his day. They might have wondered, "When are you going to say something about Nero?" Paul would respond, "I'm not. I'm going to talk about Jesus."

Why? Because Jesus is going to be on the throne a lot longer than Nero. Similarly, when people ask, "When are you going to start talking about Donald Trump?" I would say, "I'm not. I'm going to talk about Jesus." Yes, we have a primary election coming up in a week and a half, and that's good. If you're over eighteen, you should vote. I'm not going to tell you how to vote; you should vote in line with the principles of the gospel.

However, the world doesn't need my political commentary; the world needs Christ. Here's an observation I've made: I'll be forty in a year and a half, which is striking to me. In my relatively short time on this planet, I've observed that politics doesn't change people, but the gospel does. The gospel changes people. So why did Paul never give any political commentary in the first century under the raving lunatic that was Nero? Because Paul understood that the gospel is far better, and I think we need to be reminded of this.

The world needs Jesus. It needs the gospel. The world needs Christians who walk in line with the gospel and bear the fruit of godliness in their lives. The world needs to see that because Jesus is ultimately the answer to the problems that we, as a people, face. Every one of those problems is rooted in sin, and Jesus addresses the root problem. Every political action we try to take will address only the symptoms, not the problem.

May we be those who are focused on the root problem. Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer?

Father, I thank you for the challenging words that come to us from the Scriptures. I pray, God, that we would take note of these things, that we would think on these things, and that we would be challenged by them. Perhaps there would need to be conviction, maybe reproof, but ultimately correction, so that we would know how to walk in righteousness for Your namesake and Your kingdom.

So, God, do work in us by the working of Your word and by the power of Your Spirit right now and this week. Help us to be those who are not ashamed to proclaim the gospel. We have been commanded to do that. Jesus, You said in the Gospel of Mark, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." God, give us boldness and the stirring of Your Spirit to do just that in hope of eternal life. Help us to walk in a way that brings glory to Your name. We pray this in Jesus' name.