New Year New You
CCCAG December 27th, 2020
Scripture- Titus 2:11-14
The year 2020 has been a year to remember hasn’t it?
A quick recap-
The beginning of the year Pastor Roger went home to be with Jesus, followed by our sister Audrey a few months ago. We miss both of them dearly.
Coronavirus- shutting down much of life
The very tumultuous elections that we just went through with lingering doubt
Many of our cities, including Tammie and mine hometown Kenosha saw devastating riots that left buildings burned and lives upended. Couple that with coronavirus shutdowns, many small businesses have closed, never to reopen again.
Despite all of these obstacles we did have a few bright moments-
1. we still managed to become a General Council affiliated church once again
2. Because of the faithfulness of God and our church, our budget rebounded after almost being decimated by the plumbing emergency during Pastor Rogers funeral
3. We have no lost anyone to COVID in our immediate church family, although several have lost relatives to this disease
4. We have not lost any members during our shutdown. As far as I know, everyone remains committed to our church.
So as we enter into 2021, what should our attitude be? I know what you are thinking- I can’ even think about 2021 yet, I haven’t recovered from 2020. Most of us are exhausted from 2020- I am.
Scripture tells us that there will be times like this- times that we will be overwhelmed, stretched thin, or just simply tired of the drama that is our lives.
In fact, Jesus gives us a break down about the times we are living in right now. In Matthew 24, he gives a pretty detailed timeline concerning the end times, and I think verse 12 sums up where we are today-
Matt 24:12-14
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Today in America, we exist in an atmosphere of fear, mistrust, doubt, and even some have developed a hatred of others who might not share our worldviews or opinions of how things should be.
I’m going to say something a bit controversial this morning but it’s the truth- in large part, the American version of Christianity has been hijacked by many in political power to represent a voting block instead of being the embassy of Jesus Christ that shines light into the darkness.
So with this in mind, I want to give a new focus for the upcoming New Year. I want to see what the bible says that can help us refocus our lives to live in a such a way that we can represent Jesus and HIS kingdom.
Intro Titus- Paul’s emissary, secretary, pastor of Crete
Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
NIV
Prayer
I. Grace of God
To frame the rest of this message appropriately, we need to define what grace is because many of us have had this idea shaped by the world and not the bible.
Grace is the unmerited favor of God. In common language- God loves you even though you don’t deserve it.
Another way of say it is to break the word grace down to an acronym in which each letter stands for something.
In this case- God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. In other words, Jesus paid your sin debt to God so that you can receive the richness of his forgiveness and love.
That’s what Grace is, but grace is so big and encompassing, it is not just a truth, but a truth that needs to be responded to through action.
The apostle Paul in writing to Pastor Titus breaks grace down into three specific areas that we should review this morning-
A. Saves us (verse 11) grace brings salvation
Paul further emphasizes this-
Eph 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
If we were to boil down this thought to once sentence it’s this- you have nothing to do and nothing to contribute to your salvation. Jesus did it all.
Here is the problem-
Most of us if we are honest unconsciously do things to try to earn our way into heaven or at least God’s favor.
We think- if I do this, or don’t do that, then God will bless me more and I deserve that blessing- that’s the dangerous part
There are a two main reasons why that is a dangerous mindset for us to be in as we enter into 2021-
1. It takes away from Christ Jesus’ work on the cross.
When Jesus said it was finished- HE meant it. HE did the work. Nothing we can do can add to it, or make it better. In fact, the bible says that our works or deed we do to try and earn God’s favor or blessing are like “filthy rags”. The verse that says that- Isaiah 64:6 is referring to the menstrual cloth that woman would use during that time of the month. You might say- that’s really gross, well that’s what Isaiah is trying to show us- our attempts to gain God’s favor by our own effort is gross because of everything Jesus did on the cross.
2. Using our works to win God’s favor bring with it and encourages pride in ourselves.
Have you ever cleaned out the fridge, and in the back there is some Tupperware dish containing a leftover that has sat for a long long time? It’s growing a new lifeform in there, the lid might be a little swollen because of the gas build up inside it, and the fuzzy material is very obvious. If you grew up like I did- you never, ever ever through away Tupperware so you have to open it and empty it out to wash it, and the smell that comes out of their makes you want to gag.
That’s God’s reaction to you proclaiming your own righteousness before other people and then trying use Jesus as a footnote to that.
I’m a Christian- therefore I don’t wallow in the mud like you do.
Listen- if you are trying to win God’s favor or enter heaven based on your own actions- you are twice doomed. One because by trying to impress God by your own righteousness means you are rejecting Jesus’ work on the cross for your sin (John 3:16), and two because you set yourself up as an idol for people to look at instead of pointing them to the savior.
That’s why we trust in God’s grace, but what else does it do for us on the day to day level?
B. Teaches us (verse 12) say no to worldly passions
Now it sounds like we are talking out of both sides of our mouths here. On one hand we want to trust in Christ’s atonement- his finished work on the cross to help us to gain heaven.
Our father doesn’t just leave us covered in the muck of sin. He picks us up and begins to clean off and clean out the residue of the junk Jesus just saved us from.
There is a process that begins when we repent of our sins called Sanctification. Sanctification is the process God uses to make us more like Jesus.
That’s why the next thing Paul says here is that we are to be molded into Christ’s image-
C. Molds us into Christ’s Image (verses 12-13) self controlled, upright, Godly lives
How does it mold us into the image of Christ? That’s what sanctification does.
Sanctification has two different elements to it- the positional and the practical.
The positional side of sanctification is that once you surrender your lives to Jesus Christ, you are saved and covered by the blood of Christ.
You are saved period and amen.
What about the practical. The practical is God’s discipleship process that changes us from a rebel to a saint. It’s removing those old rags of sins and clothing us in the righteousness of Christ.
You see this foreshadowed in the Old Testament. Everytime the people were to meet God, they were told to wash their clothes. The idea was that they were to stand before God clean of any dirt or filthiness. the reason God had them do this is to symbolize a future spiritual truth.
In Zechariah chapter 3, there is a man named Joshua who stands before The Lord. Joshua is representing the people of Israel and is depicted as standing there in dirty robes with Satan accusing him of all the sin of the people. There is another person there called the Angel of the Lord which in the Old Testament is Jesus prior to his birth. The Angel of the Lord tells those in attendance to put a new robe and new headwear upon Joshua because he is taken away his sin.
We also see this in the New Testament in the Book of Revelation. In Chapter 7 John sees a great multitude of people that he can't even count. John asked an Angel who are these people?
The angel replies- “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Before I got saved out read this in the Book of Revelation and not understand how you make something white by pouring blood on it. Many times, blood is a permanent stain you can't get it all the way out, the best you can do is cover it a little.
That is until I became a Christian and really started to understand everything that Jesus did for me on the cross.
My sin is permanently wiped away through the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. If God were to open our eyes into the spiritual realm this morning, anyone here who is saved would be wearing a gown so white it would be blinding for our human eyes to look at it.
That’s positional sanctification. As long as you continue in your faith, your spiritual destination is sure and you remain a child of God.
Practical sanctification on the other hand is the day to day influence of the Holy Spirit through grace in your life to change your character from that of a rebel against God into a sanctified saint.
That is what Paul is telling Titus here.
Let’s look at the power of grace and how it can help us in the New Year.
II. Power of Grace-
A. Teaches us to say no
Many of us will remember the Reagan presidency. With every president comes a spouse who has a cause they want to promote during their husband’s presidency. In this case Nancy Reagan’s cause was an antidrug initiative called “Just say no to drugs”
It probably helped a little to help people not try drugs in the first place, but it did little good to help those who had already tried drugs and were now addicted.
In the church, we can say “Just say no to sin”, but how do we address those who are already addicted to it?
Sin addicts would be a great way to describe humanity as a whole wouldn’t it? Even us in the church have our areas that have not come completely under the control of God.
Fortunately, with salvation comes a born again new heart, a new mind, and a new spirit that’s connected with the Holy Spirit to help us to say no to sin and help us in the practical sanctification.
That will then help us to be
B. self controlled
Virtually all of us have been on a diet of some type in our lives. Diets are all about self control, which is why we hate them so much.
We are American’s and we love our excesses.
But we are also Kingdom Citizens and with that comes a new ethic and way of thinking- to be self controlled in our actions so that we represent our King well.
God asks us to have self control for the same reason a physician scolds us about our weight, cholesterol, drinking, ect- he want us to have the best life we can have and God knows the destruction a lack of self-control can have.
That’s all- God is a concerned father that wants what is best for his kids.
That’s why He wants us to be upright and Godly
That’s the end process of sanctification. To Represent Jesus Christ to a world that desperately needs him.
This was true in 2020, and will be even more true in 2021 as the day of the Lord continues to draw nearer.
And that leads us to the last point of today's message and that is that we are running out of time.
Verse 13 of Titus chapter 2 says that there is an event coming call the glorious appearing. Many of you may have heard about this under the term the rapture or the Day of the Lord.
The rapture is a term for an event that occurs most likely right before the tribulation starts that's described in Revelation and Matthew chapter 24.
It’s described in first Thessalonians chapter 4
1 Thess 4:13-18
13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
What I've just described is what theologians throughout the centuries have called the rapture. It's Jesus coming in the clouds to call his church to heaven prior to the judgments of the tribulation.
Those who believe that this is an actual event say it's because God does not want his children to have to face the horrors that will come when the Antichrist takes over the earth and the judgments that will fall on him and anyone on earth during that time.
The question is who gets to go to heaven with Jesus?
When I got saved, I was taught about the rapture I was told that anyone who has accepted Jesus Christ gets to go on the rapture. It was part of the benefit you got through being born again.
I don't know if I necessarily believe that anymore. I don't think simple belief qualifies you for this event and I'll show you why.
The Bible strongly indicates both through prophetic writings and through the very teachings of Jesus that those people who go in the rapture are those who have made themselves ready.
let me give you a couple of scriptures
Rev 19:7-8
7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."
NIV
So the question is- what does the bride do to make herself ready?
To answer that we have to look back biblical customs because these scriptures are referring to something that is specific to how they did things back then concerning marriage. In ancient Israel when a couple decided to get married there was an engagement.
It was a little different than what we consider to be an engagement because that point the couple was considered to be legally married although they had not consummated the marriage physically.
The husband would leave and go and prepare a place for his wife. That may involve building his house or getting a business established to support that wife.
Whatever it was he would be gone for a period of time usually around a year.
During that time the wife would be making herself ready. She would be making herself beautiful, making linens for the house, and entering in to a training by the local married women that would teach her how to run a household and raise children.
At that point the husband would return to get his wife and they would have the formal wedding ceremony and consummation at that point.
What does that mean for us?
Jesus is the husband in this scenario. Jesus is doing his part right now.
Jesus said, John 14:1-4
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
Jesus put himself in the role of the husband in this marriage- that he was going to prepare a place for us.
Our role then is that of the wife- to make ourselves beautiful to him, and learn to become a good helpmate to HIM.
That needs to be our focus for 2021.
For how we do this-I point you to Matthew 25. I strongly encourage you to read and study them in their entirety, but for now I’ll just summarize the main points.
In Matthew 25, there are two parables that Jesus gives us that directly tie into what this means.
1. The parable of the wise virgins. The main point is found in Matt 25:13
"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
NIV
This refers to a heart that is anxious to see Jesus.
2. Parable of the talents
Talents was a monetary denomination- like a dollar, or euro. In this parable, God gives his 3 servants some talents. The first two use this money to gain more for their master. The 3rd hides his talent and has nothing more to offer his master when he comes to settle accounts and his judged harshly and thrown out “into the outer darkness”.
The outer darkness can be a description of the tribulation- that you missed the rapture.
It’s not about money- it’s about where you are investing your time, energy, and focus for 2021.
Both of these parables, and the final story point to a people who are actively living for Jesus- not just attending church once in awhile to ease their conscience.
So for this new year of 2021, no matter how much trial and tribulation we go through, I want us to be a bride that is making herself ready.
Prayer
