Speaker: Greg Sanders

PLAN FOR SUCCESS

If you have your Bible, let’s go to Titus 3. Last week, we finished chapter 2. And Paul kind of makes an overarching statement to the church in chapter 2, and that is that we should live in this evil world with self-control and right conduct and devotion to God. Just these three things that we put in front of ourselves as a family. 

Self-control, something we are to put on. Pretty simple. It’s a control of self. I would offer to us that we should never forget that the Lord has a standard for how we handle ourselves, and that standard is right conduct. And Paul’s really teaching this to the church. 

And I think it’s interesting because Paul’s teaching to the church is because he’s concerned about how they represent the Lord and the world around them. I wonder if we worry enough about that in a good way, if it’s on our minds enough to just ask the question: how is my life-pattern revealing Jesus to the people I live around? 

Now, some of us might be honest enough to say, I’m doing pretty good, unless it’s conflict, then I struggle. It’s in those moments that Paul’s really pushing on the church, saying, I want you to live with self-control, which means I want you as a believer to never let your emotions and your passions lead you. I want you, as a believer, in those moments, to push pause, take a deep breath, and put on the right conduct. 

Anybody struggle with that? Anybody ever noticed how hard it is to shut down when you start winding up? So, what’s it look like for us as the people of God to build a process that gives us space to honor this request? That’s my question. 

CREATING A BATTLE PLAN

And I know we touched this last week, but I don’t know that we really dug into this. This is for sure not where my notes were, but here we go. We didn’t really dig into what it looks like to have a process as a believer that we’ve set apart with the Lord and said, When my passions begin to be too strong, when I’m going out of sorts, here’s my commitment to You, here’s what I’m going to do. Have you ever considered that? What’s your battle plan before the Lord to manage those places? 

Francis Frangipane, in The Three Battlegrounds, will talk about the enemy being banished to outer darkness in Genesis. Lightless regions is what it means in the Hebrew. He said the enemy loves to dwell in places where there hasn’t been understanding brought in. I.e, we haven’t thought about it. We haven’t considered it. The enemy gets to dwell there. 

So, think about this from a life index. Obviously, Paul’s dealing with relationships, obviously, Paul’s dealing with the workplace, obviously, Paul’s dealing with the places that we live most frequently. 

What’s the battle plan as a believer look like? It. Could your battle plan be as simple as, I’m going to push time-out, and I’m going to say, I need to excuse myself. I got to go talk to Jesus. What would that look like? Could the battle plan be immediately going, Hey, I know right now I’m out of alignment with the Lord. Would you forgive me? 

Can you imagine saying that to your boss? Hey, right now, I’m just not representing Jesus in the way He’s asked me to. Would you please forgive me for that? I need to go get my head on straight. 

Pastor Rick Fry, who was here with us a few months ago, one of our overseers, he makes a statement that I love. It’s one of my favorite things he’s ever said. He said there’s times when I have to go sit in the prayer room, and I got to sit there until my head and my heart and my mouth can align.

And I’m like, How long does that take? He’s like, Sometimes it takes all day. He’s like, I will get up and start to leave and realize I’m still angry. I got to sit there until my head and my heart and my mouth can align. That’s a battle plan. Could I suggest each of us needs some type of battle plan that gives space for our head and our heart and our mouth to align with Jesus? 

If I could ask anything, based on what Paul says here in Titus 2, he reminds us to keep our eyes on eternity. He says, “While we look forward to that day when the Lord appears.” What he’s saying is, the reason you’re going to do this isn’t because you’re awesome. You’re going to do this because you don’t actually want to stand before the Lord and say you didn’t. 

You’re going to give an account for how you lived. You’re going to stand before Him and say, In those moments, I chose my passion, I chose my sensuality, I chose my arrogance over You. Or you’re going to stand before Him and say, Because of my love for You, I crucified my flesh in those moments. 

DEVOTION TO GOD

See, what Paul’s talking about is this Galatians 2 thing where he says, “I’m crucified with Christ, yet I live. But this life I live, I don’t live according to the flesh.” So, what does it look like, church, for us to take self-control and right conduct and say, These are no longer cool ideas. These are priorities in the Kingdom that Jesus has said I expect from My children. Self-control and right conduct become devotion to God. 

Let me say it differently. Tell me you’re devoted to God, I’ll ask you the question: are you self-controlled and do you live in right conduct? Well, sometimes. Great. We’ll fix the places you don’t. 

Let’s fix the places we don’t. Well, that seems legalistic. No, no, no, no. It seems like discipline. Discipleship is being a learner under discipline. It means as a follower of Christ, I am in this constant process of asking myself, What areas of Greg Sanders are not submitted to Jesus? And those are the areas we work on. 

I would offer that we have an enemy that loves to say, You’re doing great in all these areas, don’t worry about that one. Here’s why: he is fundamentally aware he has no ability to separate you from the love of God. Scripture says that he’s convinced he has no ability to alter your salvation index because that’s sealed by the blood of Jesus. 

He’s also aware that what he can do is keep you idle and losing reward. And when we don’t live with self-control and right conduct, we are forfeiting reward. We’re forfeiting the very thing that the Lord wanted to give us, which is this reward. That’s the heart of God, is to give us opportunities to live the Kingdom correctly, so that when we stand before Him, He can lavish upon us reward. 

You’re like, I don’t want reward. I just want to get in. I bet when you see it, you want it. Most people don’t care about an inheritance until they get it. They’re like, Oh, that’s awesome. That changed my life. 

He has a desire to pour out and lavish reward on us. I actually think what happens in that moment is we, in that moment, are going to say, I now know I loved Him because I was willing to live with self-control. I was willing to bridle myself. I get to give that back to Him as an evidence of my love. 

Ray Stedman will write this: He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. There’s only two things that He does not possess: it’s my attention and my affections. I choose self-control and right conduct, I choose that before Him as a gift. 

STRATEGY FOR BATTLE

Here’s my question, back to it: what’s your battle plan? Do you remember being in elementary school when we would do the fire alarm drills? And it seemed like they were always in the middle of winter. Washington State, where I grew up, it was always raining. 

What was the point of the fire drill? Why would we do that? Because we understood that there’s a certain amount of preparedness that has to have practice. I have to know what’s going to happen in the event of an emergency. 

Why? Because in the event of an emergency, I don’t think well. Has anyone ever noticed when passions are high, you don’t think well? Like, the stupid index goes way higher? So, how do you and I build a fire drill with the Lord, so to speak, a battle plan with the Lord, so to speak, that we understand when self-control wants to go out the door, when right conduct wants to go out the door, Here’s what I’m going to do, Lord. 

I would offer that if you don’t have a practiced battle plan, you will fail. You’ll end up trying to make it up on the fly, and it’s not going to work. Has anyone ever done that besides me? 

You’re like, How do I build a battle plan? It’s really easy. I would offer you sit with the Lord and say, Can you give me a strategy? Why would I do that? Why would I sit with the Lord and ask for a strategy? Because when I live into it, I’m obeying Him; and when I obey Him, it draws faith. And when I draw faith, it brings pleasure out of Heaven.

So, I’m stepping into this index where I now can honor the Word of the Lord, live in obedience to what He’s asked of me, and get favor into my life because I did it. It also is going to increase self-control and right conduct. Guess what you can’t do if you are in the middle of a battle plan and you’re pulled away and you’re alone with the Lord? You can’t do something stupid to the world around you. 

What happens if your battle plan is, I need to go take ten seconds and just talk to Jesus and let Him help me calm down. Great. So, you’re at work and one of your employees, or maybe it’s somebody around you, does something really dumb, high-level stupid, you kind of want to just lose it on them and be harsh? And your battle plan is, I got to go to the bathroom because me and Jesus got to talk? 

In the time you shifted that and went there, you give the Holy Spirit time to calm you down, give you wisdom, give you a strategy, and then when you come back out, you make right decisions instead of bad decisions. 

That’s what Paul’s talking about. He’s talking about living with an intentionality and an intelligence to where we don’t allow our emotions and our passions to govern us– wonderful servants, terrible masters. I’m talking about how do you live in control of those things? What is your plan of action? 

Yes, this was a beautifully truncated teaching because we have twenty-eight seconds left today. But the point is, I think last week, we dug into something that we didn’t vet, the reality of what’s it look like to do this? 

Here’s my challenge: sit with the Lord, probably not this week, I’d say, do it today. Take some time, get with the Lord, and say, Hey, I need You to help me build a battle plan. Here’s what I’m going to commit to do when I feel my emotions taking over. Put light into a lightless region, expose it. That make sense?

Okay, let’s stand. Worship was too good to stop, so I figured I would just land the plane faster today. Was anybody tested in that area this week? Do you find yourself going, Huh? 

What happens if the Lord is so excited about His people living controlled and right, that His goal is something as practical as, what did we learn today in church? I got to build a battle plan for my emotions because if I don’t lead them, they’ll lead me. It seems like a worthwhile idea. 

Holy Spirit, thank You for the day. Lord, sometimes I think we say thanks for Your leadership, but it actually feels like You just led us into something very real and practical. Thank You for that. Thank You for just all aspects of this morning, just the sweetness and the tenderness of Your presence. 

Thank You for growing us up, raising us in all the right ways, into all the right things, that we would grow like You, Jesus, into full stature of maturity, that we’d be people that really represent You in the micro moments as well. We love You. We honor You. It’s been good to be in Your house today. Jesus’ name, amen.