The Chair
The Productive Life, part 4
Wildwind Community Church
April 2, 2006
The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. The scholar, pastor, poet, and writer Eugene Peterson translates that passage:
Titus 2:11 (MSG)
11 God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone!
God is ready to give and forgive. Do you have a need? God wants to provide what you need. Have you committed an offense against God? God wants to forgive you, no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what you have done, no matter how far away from God you think you are.
In the first half of the second chapter of Titus, old, experienced Pastor Paul tells younger, less experienced Pastor Titus what he must teach to the various groups of people in his church. Last week we saw that basically Titus’s main duty was to teach them to embrace lifestyles of moderation and what? Self control. Paul urges Titus “teach your people to control themselves, to live lives of restraint and self-control.” And you might ask, “Why? What’s the big deal about self-control? Why do these things have to be taught to these groups of people?” And here in the 2nd half of Titus 2, we see the answer to that question. Why do you need to teach self-control to these people? Why should we be learning to live moderate, self-controlled lives? Because the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to every human being. Because God’ readiness to give and forgive has been made public and salvation is available to everyone! Here’s a point I really need you to understand this morning.
God is able to forgive any and every sin. God is able to bring freedom and healing to any and every person. God is able to reach into any and every life and bring new life to any and every heart. The question is not God’s ability to give, that’s not what’s up for grabs. The question is our ability to receive. That’s what’s debatable. That’s what’s up for grabs and in doubt. The question is not whether God loves you, it’s whether you are capable of allowing him to. After all, how many of us are lousy at allowing human beings to love us in the limited, albeit sincere ways human beings try to love us? If we are terrible at allowing human beings to love us in a limited and imperfect way, how much more terrible will we be at allowing God to love us in an unlimited and perfect way? If it’s hard for us to let our friends see us with our house dirty, how much harder should we expect it to be to allow God to see us with dirty minds, dirty hearts, dirty hands? The question is not whether Jesus died for you, the question is whether you are capable of accepting such a magnanimous gesture. After all, most of us would find it extremely difficult if, having come to our dirty home, our friend rolled up their sleeves and began cleaning – behind the toilet, around the sink, up on the high ledges where eyes never see. We would struggle to allow ourselves to be so vulnerable as to allow someone to clean our dirt. And yet God, through Jesus, has seen – and offered to clean – dirt that is far more embarrassing, far dirtier than anything in your home or mine. Still, God’s readiness to give and forgive has been made public, and salvation - a soul-cleaning that never ends – is available to everyone. To EVERYONE!
So why learn self-control? Because self-control is the key to being able to receive this from God. There is no question that God is able to give it. The question is whether you will be capable of receiving it. I want you to return to the picture of your friend with their sleeves rolled high, scrubbing the floor behind your toilet. I want you to imagine how you would feel standing there. Would you be like me, wanting to rush over and shoo them away, tell them you’ll handle it but thanks so much, trying to make light of the mess, make excuses, stand in front of them to keep them from seeing, anything to keep from having to accept what has been offered? What would it take to not do that? What would it take to stand there leaning against the opening of the bathroom door with your arms crossed chewing on a toothpick while your friend cleans your toilet? Would you not have to resist every inclination in you? Would you not have to humble yourself and place yourself at the mercy of this friend who is serving you? Would you not have to fight the urge to do whatever it takes to make it stop?
My friends, that is why self-control is required in the spiritual life. Because God’s readiness to give and forgive has been made public and a life-long, refreshing but sometimes horrifically embarrassing soul-cleaning is available to all. God wants to get on his hands and knees in your heart, and go to work on the places no one sees, the places you figure you don’t have to dust because no one knows what they look like, the places you get to neglect because they’re behind your toilet where everyone else is frankly just too grossed out to spend much time hanging around. And you’re counting on that.
I’m seeing God – Jesus Christ – on his hands and knees, getting ready to go to work on the dirtiest parts of our lives. I’m seeing human beings standing embarrassed and shocked and repulsed by what God is about to do. I’m seeing this:
John 13:3-9 (NLT)
3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.
4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist,
5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him.
6 When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, "Lord, why are you going to wash my feet?"
7 Jesus replied, "You don’t understand now why I am doing it; someday you will."
8 "No," Peter protested, "you will never wash my feet!" Jesus replied, "But if I don’t wash you, you won’t belong to me."
9 Simon Peter exclaimed, "Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!"
Jesus said to Peter, “If I don’t wash you, you won’t belong to me.” To belong to Jesus is to set aside the part of us that resists letting him wash our feet, see our dirt, know our secrets – to present ourselves to him just as we are and allow him to wash us, to bring salvation to us. To begin making us clean.
I love this scene with Jesus and Peter here because there’s something so important yet so subtle that we could easily miss it. Peter has dirty feet. Jesus gets ready to wash Peter’s dirty feet. Peter resists. Jesus explains that Peter cannot belong to Jesus unless Jesus washes him. Peter gives in and allows Jesus to wash him. Now, for the next few minutes, Jesus has work to do. Jesus begins washing Peter’s feet. Peter’s feet don’t come clean as soon as Jesus begins to wash them. But do you realize that the minute Peter sits down and gives his dirty feet to Jesus, something incredible, something miraculous, has already happened inside Peter? See, you must realize that the moment Peter sits down is the moment of surrender, the moment where he stops placing his will against the will of God, and says, “Have your way with me.” This is the first, and I believe greatest, act of faith, because all other acts of faith spring from it. After you sit down in the chair, God will have much more to do in your life. A lot of washing needs to be done. But sitting down in the chair was one of the greatest acts of faith you will ever do. That’s why we celebrate all kinds of spiritual moments, but asking Christ into your life is special – it takes something huge to sit down in the chair. It’s the one act of faith that makes all future acts of faith possible.
To belong to Jesus, to give your life to God, you must surrender. Surrender is the greatest act of self-control. You resist your urge to resist, to fight, to make excuses for your dirt, to pardon your mess. And as you do this, you give yourself to God – you allow God to reach places in you that have always been off-limits. You allow God to show you how much you needed to be washed. You sit there as Jesus washes the dirt, and you watch it fall into the bowl, dirtying the water, and you realize that now – for the first time – you are receiving what you need. You are humbled, humiliated, but ecstatic. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Titus 2:12 (NIV)
12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
We must learn self-control not because that’s what God needs in order to forgive us and bless us, but because self-control is what we will need in order to receive God’s forgiveness and blessings. That’s the bottom line. God’s grace teaches us to say No to ungodliness and worldly passions. But you cannot forget that up until the moment you allow Jesus to wash you, up until you sit down in that chair, up until you surrender your life to him, you have spent your entire life saying Yes to ungodliness and worldly passions. It will take you a lifetime to learn to say No to them. What Paul is telling Titus to teach to his people is nothing less than what they will need to train themselves to do in order to become more and more capable of receiving what God has freely given them.
Many who are not Christians want God to do something for them. Relieve the stress of their lives. Heal them or someone they love. Drop a big check in the mail. But they are not willing to sit down in the chair. They are not willing to let God wash them. They are not willing to exercise self-control and surrender. They want to “take it on the run” as an old REO Speedwagon song said. They are busy engineering their own lives and want God to just add to the mix. They don’t want to sit down in the chair and let Jesus wash them. They do not want to transfer ownership of their lives – money, time, talent, priorities, everything – to God.
Many who are Christians, once upon a time sat down in the chair and asked God to wash them. They surrendered. They put their feet in the bowl. Then suddenly they stood up and said, “That’s probably good. I surrendered, didn’t I? I mean, I invited you to wash me. I know that’s your intention and I thank you for it. Now let’s not get out of hand with it.” In other words, many Christians live non-productive spiritual lives. They once surrendered themselves to God, but perhaps at the time they did not realize that they were surrendering to a life of being washed – a life of sitting in the chair while God cleans the dusty places, the embarrassing places, the neglected places, the places that are so dirty you stopped looking at them years ago. And even the places that you thought were clean enough, thank you very much, and felt perfectly proud of before God came along and began wringing towel after towel of dirt out of them.
Isaiah 64:6 (NLT)
6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.
Self-control is a requirement for the spiritual life because it’s only through self-control that we are capable of receiving what God has freely given. It is only through self-control that we can allow God to do the work that is required in our lives. It takes self-control to sit down in the chair. It requires that we stop fighting and surrender.
Titus 2:12-14 (NIV)
12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
13 while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
14 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.
Living a life of self-control requires what? That we keep surrendering!!
I’m not going to spend time on verse 13 this morning. I’m going to deal with that on Easter Sunday when I’ll be talking to you about hope. I want to finish today’s message by focusing on verse 14. We see here that Jesus Christ gave himself for us for two reasons:
1. To redeem us from all wickedness
2. To purify for himself a people that are his very own.
It’s 2006. It seems not much gets redeemed anymore. About the only time we use the word “redeem” in our everyday language is when we talk about “redeeming” a coupon of some kind. In this context, redemption carries with it the idea of an exchange, the idea specifically that Jesus exchanged his life for ours.
Romans 3:23-24 (NIV)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Another definition of “redeem” is to restore the honor or worth of something. Jesus redeems us from wickedness. Sin and our inability to live apart from it, has robbed us of our honor and worth. It has taken from us the dignity God created us to have. Jesus restored that honor and worth to us when he died for us, why? Because if the king of the world gives his life for a peasant, it imparts value to the peasant, doesn’t it? Jesus reestablished our honor and worth when he gave his life for us. He imparted value to us in the eyes of God when he did that.
A third definition of “redeem” is to exchange or buy something back for money. Paul wrote at a time when many people owned slaves. If a slave was able to come upon a sum of money equal to his/her value on the market, they could redeem themselves – they could buy their own freedom by giving this sum of money to their master in exchange for their freedom. The Bible teaches us that that is what Jesus did for us. God found something that would pay the debt you and I owed because of our sin, and that was his own life. He came to this world as Jesus Christ and ultimately paid and cancelled that debt for us. We were ransomed.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
This brings us to where I want to wrap up this morning. You are not your own. You were bought at a price. That means that you were ransomed away from the obligation to spend eternity away from God because of sin, and ransomed into the obligation of obedience to God. Obedience to God requires self-control. We cannot honor God with our body if we do not bring our body under control. We must learn to speak with appropriate tenderness and compassion. We must learn to love selflessly. We must learn to dedicate ourselves sexually to one person in marriage. We must learn to manage our moods and attitudes and what we allow ourselves to dwell on. We must learn self-control.
Why? First of all because God redeemed you, bought you at great cost to himself. You may not like that you have been bought by God. But that doesn’t matter. The story in the Bible is that you were a slave to sin and you were bought by God. Even if you had not been bought by God, you would still have been a slave to sin. It’s not God’s buying you that made you a slave to sin, it’s the fact of your sin. God just provided a possibility of you not having to pay for it. Some people say, “Well I didn’t ask Jesus to die for me. He can keep it to himself.” Well, it’s fine that you didn’t ask. He did it anyway. And it’s fine if you reject it and don’t want it. Some people act as if it’s rejecting Christ that condemns people to hell. What the Bible says is that we were condemned to hell already because of sin. That’s already where we found ourselves, and God simply made it possible for us to escape the long-term consequences of sin. Some will choose to accept this, and others will not. Those who do not will stand a good chance of facing life without God both in this life and the next and that’s exactly what they’d have faced anyway had Jesus never died for them. God didn’t cause us to need him by dying for us. God died for us because we needed him. Those who choose not to accept that are exactly where they would have been had God never sent Jesus in the first place. God redeemed you and you owe yourself to him.
The second reason we must learn self-control in this life is because God wants to purify for himself a people that are his very own. In other words, God wants to spend time with those who want to belong to Him. Not everyone does. This is their choice. But God wants to purify for himself a people who love him, acknowledge him, and follow him for who he is. Many things compete for our allegiance in this world, and all the while God is purifying for himself a people that are his own – people who do what pleases him and avoid what does not, who understand that his will for their lives is better than anything they could want for themselves and are willing to stake all of their lives on it. This requires self-control above everything else.
Paul writes to Titus to tell Titus how to instruct his people to become godly – to become people God is purifying for his very own. He says self-control, surrender, is the key. As we learn to control ourselves, God purifies us to belong to Him, we become people who are eager to do what is good.
So where are you this morning? Have you gotten up in that chair to allow Jesus to give you that life-long soul-washing? Have you surrendered? Are you still resisting?
I’ve told you before nothing expresses the deep parts of our Christian faith better than hymns. We want to sing a new hymn for you this morning. Well, it’s new for us. Some of you will know it, some won’t, but you’ll pick up on it. And what I want to do is encourage you to sing it this morning as a prayer. Maybe you need to get in the chair – surrender to Jesus Christ. Maybe you just want to sing it to God as a song of recommitment, where you strengthen your resolve to live your life as a follower of Christ. But I encourage you to take the song seriously and if you sing this song as a prayer to God in your heart, and you decide that today is going to be the day when you decide to get in the chair learn to start receiving the forgiveness of God, please fill out a card and let us know so we can follow up with you as you ask us to on the card. We want to help you on your journey.
