Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Titus 3:3-7

TITUS 3 CONCLUSION

I want to take us into chapter 3, verses 3-7. I feel like we’re kind of on track. We had a plan, but I feel like the Lord’s taking us a little bit different direction. But I really want to talk about closing out the Book of Titus. 

My last thought with this book, I feel like what the Lord’s really digging in on is this concept of carrying the nature of Christ. What does it look like, and what does it mean to be a people who carry the nature of Christ? 

In chapter 3, verses 3-7, Paul will say this: “Once our lives were full of envy and evil. We hated others and they hated us.” I love how he begins it. “Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled by others and became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures.” 

Catch that phrase, “Once we, too.” It’s a wildly indicting statement about all of us as people. One of the dangers I see in the modern church is we start to forget the pit we were dug from. We forget that once we, too, were disobedient and foolish. 

And the danger of “once we, too,” when we forget that, is we begin to reenact that foolishness and that disobedience because we just get so comfortable with salvation that we become wildly disconcerned with what it looks like to carry the actual nature of Christ in our daily lives. 

And so, Paul’s reminding the Cretans, and I think he sees this happening. What he sees is a church that doesn’t look like Christ, it looks like the world instead. And he’s saying, I need you to understand that you, once too, were just like them. But there’s a life you’re supposed to live in. 

And listen to what he says about it. “Our lives were full of evil and envy. We hated others and they hated us.” What Paul’s pointing out in Titus 3 is, Hey church, Jesus met you in your ugliness and sin. He found you in your condition of gross hatred, disobedience, arrogance, anger, malice. 

I think it’s pretty easy to say that Paul’s declaring here very simply, we’re not good people. I have said this for years: Greg Sanders, without Jesus, is not a good person. How many would agree with me? Not about me, but about yourselves, that you without Jesus, not a good person? 

We have wildly selfish natures, and yet Jesus found us in that condition. Why? Because He loves us. Please don’t let that just greeting card off you in your mind, Yeah, He loves me. Consider this: He deeply loved me in that condition. He was as in love with me in that condition as He is now in this condition. 

He didn’t find us, point out our sin, and say, Look, you’re a sinner. What He really said to each of us, if we think it through, and we soften our hearts long enough to remember it, He said, Look, here’s where you’re at. Here’s where I want to take you. If you’ll trust Me, I’m going to take you there. 

Paul will go on and say, “But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and his love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy.” Paul’s statement is, Hey guys, Jesus revealed His goodness to us, not ours. He showed us His acceptance, His love. How did He do that? He modeled His life for us. 

CHRIST’S LIFE OVER OURS

I think we have been confused, deceived maybe, that we believe there is a life in Christ that is about being saved, and I get to do what I want. I would love to offer the entire central message of the Book of Titus is there’s only one life, you either choose to live His life or you don’t. 

You do not get your life with Jesus. You can do that, we’re going to see it shortly because Paul tells them, basically, it’s a choice, but what you’re sacrificing if you choose that is everything that is connected to the blessing of Jesus. 

The most miserable believers in the world are the ones that understand they’re saved, but don’t live like Him because they live a life that has no power and no authority, and they’re just under constant conviction. That is a miserable index. His plan was that you learn to live by following His example. 

One of my favorite Christmas songs is O Holy Night. The reason it’s one of my favorite ones is this phrase: “Truly he taught us how to love one another.” That if we allow it, He will lead the way, teach us, guide us, coach us in what it looks like to love the world around us. 

Paul goes on and says, “He washed away our sins and gave us new life through the Holy Spirit.” I want you to think about what Paul’s teaching. He’s telling them, He dealt with your sin. He dealt with your sin. You are no longer guilty of your sin. You’re not. He dealt with it. The Scriptures say very clearly that once and for all time on the cross, He dealt with sin. I don’t care what you’ve done, I don’t care when it was, He dealt with your guilt. 

Do you know that the sin you created yesterday and the sin you created forty years ago, the answer’s the same to both? It’s reconciled through My blood. You’re like, Wait, so I could keep on doing this stupidity, and I’m still saved? That is kind of what it teaches. 

But the argument is, why would you want to? Why continue on in something that brings imminent death when the opportunity to step into something that brings supernatural favor is there? 

Paul’s statement to them is He gave us new life through the Holy Spirit. What’s Paul mean? There is no new life unless you’re living with the Holy Spirit. You’re either in constant conversation and connection to the Holy Spirit, or you’re in your dead life. 

You see, we’ve bought into an illusion that I can check in with the Holy Spirit once a while, but my life is pretty much, because I’m saved, I’m living the Christ life. Not so. It’s a life connected. It’s a life deeply linked to the Holy Spirit. 

I want you to catch this: by giving us the Holy Spirit, He gave us the power to walk clean and to actually fully live the Christ life. So, the argument of, I’m just a sinner saved by grace, I’m not perfect, while I understand the context, and I would agree you’re not. Neither am I. It is possible to live this life through the Holy Spirit. 

You can actually live– let me catch this so you can throw it on Instagram, say I’m a heretic– you can actually choose to live without sin to the level you’re willing to live with the Holy Spirit because sin has no power over you. The cross dealt with your sin nature and made it powerless. 

Galatians will teach it this way: you now have two choices: every single decision you make is rendered unto two choices, flesh or Spirit. You can choose Spirit, and it will rule over the flesh. Or you can choose flesh, and the Spirit will convict you, and you have to go back and fix it. That’s Galatians. 

You can walk free– hear this phrase– you just have to want to, and a lot of times we don’t want to admit the truth, which is, I want what I want because I want it. I chose sin because I wanted to. 

Has anyone ever had someone apologize to you and say, I don’t really know what happened? You’re like, That’s the worst apology in the world. You do know what happened, you just don’t want to take ownership for it. What happened was you were an idiot, you just don’t want to say it. I was an idiot, I wanted to be unkind, I wanted to be mean, I wanted to be whatever, fill in the blank. I just don’t want to tell you that because it makes me feel bad about myself. 

What happens if the first step to getting into truth is by admitting what you really are? That was a terrible decision, it was unchristlike, I need you to forgive me. Okay, cool. Because I can’t throw stones at that. My answer is, Yeah, I get that. I live that. Paul’s statement here is you have, as in, you are in possession of the Holy Spirit. You just have to want to walk with Him. 

BONDAGE HAS BEEN BROKEN

“He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.” What does that mean? Paul’s telling them, Jesus dealt with your patterns and your bondages. Please hear me, every curse is broken at the cross. You are not subject to historic bondage after Jesus. You can choose to align with it, or you could choose to fight against it. 

I know this flies in the face of a lot of therapeutic speak, but Biblically, every curse was broken. That’s what we’re taught. I don’t ever mean to say you don’t have a process to walk out. How do I learn to align with that truth? There’s a process. 

I’m a massive proponent of counseling therapy, I think it’s really important. But I want you to understand, none of you in this room, if you are in Christ, are living under bondages that are not broken. What you’re living under are habits that haven’t been broken. 

From a spiritual dynamic level, there is no authority in your life other than Christ. The enemy loves to parade as an agent of light, to come around and say, I have authority. You have to do this. You haven’t worked through this. You haven’t broke this. This is a generational thing you haven’t fixed. 

And the church eats it up. Why? Because it makes us feel bad, and it gives us a reason to say we’re doing something. The truth is, No. In Him, I live and move and have my being. It was broken in Him. Now, I have to figure out how to align with what He has said, and I have to be willing to say to places where I don’t, Hey, that’s sin, and it’s stupid. I’m not doing it anymore. I need to learn new habits. 

People can come alongside you, help you, coach you, teach you new habits. I love that. But you need to be able to look in the mirror and say, Every curse was broken. I am not subject to the powers of hell because of the cross, because I have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me. 

Oh, is that just sweeping it on the rug? No, no. Trust me, I see lots of stupid. I get it, but it’s because we partner with something that is pretending to have authority that actually doesn’t. 

If I’m crucified with Christ, yet I live, but this life I live, I no longer live according to the flesh, I live according to every word that comes out of the mouth of God. How many of those dysfunctions are coming out of the mouth of God? It’s in alignment with something that is being proposed as truth, but it’s not. 

Now, if in this moment, you’re like, I don’t feel validated right now, I’m sorry. This is the truth of what Scripture says about what Christ did. Christ in you is the hope of glory. It’s not your health and your movement towards health. Do we need to get healthy? Yes, if you’re exhibiting dysfunctions, it means you’re not aligning with Christ. The answer is repentance, always.

First and foremost, I repent of this behavior, this attitude, this whatever it is. It’s not my mom’s fault, it’s not my dad’s fault, it’s not some family line issue. It’s sin, and it’s my choice. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we can say, Holy Spirit, I don’t want to align with this, I don’t know where it all comes from, will you help me learn how to walk out of this? Lead me. Guide me. Teach me. In that is health. 

But if we allow ourselves, the enemy loves to put a facade in front of us and say, You are like you are because of boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and we take it hook, line, and sinker. And Paul’s statement of the Cretans is, You have the Holy Spirit. You have been made free. Walk like it. 

I want you to consider that we come to the bread and cup table every week. When we take that cup, what we’re declaring, according to Corinthians, is the blood of Christ, the blood He shed. I know it’s grape juice, and it tastes sweet, but I want you to think about it in real time on the cross, when there were nails through His wrist, there were nails through His ankles, and there was real blood that was running out of His body. 

That blood fiscally, spiritually purchased the right for you to be free from your bondages. When we align with the lies of the enemy, and we allow those bondages to keep us held, what we’re saying is the blood of Christ wasn’t enough. That’s anathema. Should never be said of the Church. 

We should stand in every moment and say, I don’t have to go there because the blood of Christ sustains me. I’m a new creature. Behold. What does it say? Some of the stuff in my history passed away? It says, I’m a new creature, all things are new. I know this is the anti-self-help talk. I’m sorry. 

Paul said he declared us not guilty because of his great kindness, and now we know that we will inherit eternal life. Have you noticed that in these things that Paul says to the Cretans, all five of them, are things that Jesus did, not us? 

He’s essentially saying He’s done everything to create freedom for you. What you have to do is choose it. I want you to hear this. He said our histories are dealt with. He’s promised us eternal life. 

It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter what you did. It doesn’t matter if you were the worst drug dealer in the world. It doesn’t matter if you were a murderer. It doesn’t matter. Your history has been dealt with. 

CARRYING HIS NATURE

What does matter now, is do you align with Him? Are you going to live His life? Are you going to live yours? I would remind us of what we just quoted: I’m crucified with Christ, yet I live, but this life I live, I do not live according to the flesh. 

My old life, my old identity, died when I met Jesus, and now my new life is Him. I no longer have the freedom as a believer to live my life. I could choose it, it just doesn’t mean it’s the right choice. At the moment I choose my old life, what I’m saying is, I don’t want Your life. I just want the benefit of being saved. 

I would offer that all the reward you will ever be able to lay at His feet is going to come through the level of His life you are willing to live. There is no reward you can lay at His feet for getting saved. Everything you will offer to Him as gratitude is born out of your willingness to carry the nature of Christ on your life and to take the suffering that is required to carry His nature because it’s not easy. 

Carrying His nature is the place where we learn to die to ourselves. This is what I want to do, this is what I feel like doing, here’s my native response, I’m crucifying that, and I’m choosing His response. That’s what it means to carry the nature of Christ. 

But what about my identity? It’s in Christ. According to what Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, yet I live. Uses two different words. The first one is, I am crucified, ego, yet I live, means to be placed within a family. Two different words, if you look it up in the Greek. In other words, Paul said the ego dies when you come to the King, and you’re grafted into a family. 

In Joseph’s life, there’s this statement that’s made. Pastor Gary taught on it when I was growing up, and his phrase was that out of Joseph’s life, we learned this principle that God places the lonely in families. That’s always been what He’s about, is grafting us in, not just fixing our individuality. 

So, Paul’s statement is: Jesus gives us a choice. We either choose to trust Him and what He did and live this life, or we don’t, and we stay in our old patterns. I want us to hear this because this is really the crux of what I feel like Titus is about: Jesus will not choose His life for you. He won’t force you to carry His nature, but He does give you the power, each one of us has the power, to choose it that was given to us by the Holy Spirit. 

SURRENDERING TO THE GOSPEL

The word surrender is the idea of yielding to something. Could I offer that the secret to this is yielding to His nature? Just surrendering? There are three places in Scripture that talk about it, and there are three things that I think are key in carrying the nature of Jesus. 

One: carrying the nature of Jesus begins in the mind. Philippians 2 will say it this way: You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. The word attitude here means to think, to regard, or to consider. 

What’s that mean? You win the mind game, you win the game. In Philippians 2, we don’t have time to dig into it deeply. It’s one of my favorite aspects of the Scripture because what it teaches is that Jesus was God and didn’t consider equality with God something to be grabbed onto. 

What’s that mean? It didn’t identify Him. Can you factor that? He’s God, and it didn’t speak to His identity. Instead, what He allowed to speak to His identity was His ability to submit to the Father. He saw at a higher value to surrender to the Father’s will than to be God Himself. 

When you think about Trinitarian theology, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, how they’re all in this mutually preferring relationship, it just blows your mind to consider that Jesus, in this moment, didn’t see being God as the highest call. He saw being submitted as the highest call. He did not think equality with God a thing to be grasped, but instead took on the form of a slave and died. 

And Paul says this: this is the attitude you must have in you to do this. You must see submission, surrender, and death as the highest call. Death to what? Yourself. How much would marriage change if those three things were applied? How much would work change if those three things were applied? 

I would offer that Jesus was incredibly secure because His position and standing didn’t inform His identity. What informed His identity was His intimacy with the Father, because it’s the place we see Him constantly drawing from. 

In Proverbs 23, there’s this statement, says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” What’s that mean? It means, if you win the mind game, you win the heart game. If you win the heart game, you win the attitude game. 

Second thing: carrying the nature of Jesus must reveal in our behavior. Romans 13, we have to get here before we shut it down. “The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or quarreling and jealousy.” 

You see, all of us did pretty good until quarreling and jealousy happened because we’re like, Oh, I’ve moved past that. I don’t do that anymore. We’re like, Oops, time out, that’s still there. “Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.” I love that phrase. Clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

What is Paul getting at? You have to have Him on you. It has to be evident to the world around you that He’s on you. That’s what it means to carry the nature of Christ. So, Paul’s statement here is, let go of the behavior that’s not of Him. Put on the nature of Christ. Learn to act like He did, treat others like He did, and respond like He did. 

Then lastly, in John 5, I think carrying the nature of Jesus is about reflecting the Father. Jesus makes a statement I love: “I only do what I see the Father do.” I think by extension, we can say it this way: I only say what I hear the Father say. 

Jesus disciplined Himself to reflect Heaven, never to reveal earth. If we’re going to carry the nature of Christ, we have to have a discipline where we’re unwilling to just let ourselves out. 

Jesus lives in this intimate relationship with the Father. Could I ask a question? If Jesus, on the earth, required an intimate relationship with the Father to survive, where do we get off believing we don’t? 

How much more are we in desperate need of a daily encounter with Heaven to survive? Because that’s the model. From Him, we learn how to live. We’re to run our actions and our responses through His lens. 

Paul makes a statement in verse 7 I want to read for us. “These things I’ve told you that are all true. I want you to insist on them so that everyone who trusts in God will be careful to do good deeds all the time.” 

Catch what he says there: the evidence of trusting in God is the willingness to carry the nature of Jesus. If you’re not willing to carry His nature, it’s rooted in the fact that you don’t trust God. You believe your way is better than His, and that’s got to be dealt with. Paul’s statement here is, this is a good life, it’s good for you. 

Wonderful in theory, only important if practiced. Can we say, as a people, I am carrying the nature of Christ? Because if there’s areas where the answer is, I’m not, I’m not carrying the nature of Christ, I know it, it’s got to be dealt with. No excuses. 

None of the stupidity of, It’s just who I am. Stop that. That line of stupidity keeps us from health. It is an easy human answer that gets us off the hook. And the answer is, I need to be on the hook because He went to the cross. I need to allow the piercing of my own psyche enough to say, I got to lay this stuff down. He went to death so I could. It’s a travesty if I won’t lay this stuff down. 

Stand with me, please. I want us to go into bread and cup as we seal the day. I feel like the Lord, even through worship, just wove this stream. And church, it is just this simple: it is time for us to put away old things. It is time for us to carry the nature of Christ. 

And there’s an authority in the room today for you to say, I’m done. I’m done with the old, I’m done playing around with my old nature. Today I choose You, and I will carry Your nature from this day forward. 

Do not say that lightly. Do not pray that casually. But I promise you, if you pray it with intention and with authenticity, you’re going to get met by the Lord like never before. You’re like, Well, how do I do that? If there’s stuff coming to mind right now where the Lord’s like, Hey, you know this area and this area? Great. Just tell Him, I agree with You. That’s stupid. 

That’s what it means to repent. I agree with You. That’s dumb. Lord, will You teach me how to not live that way? Will You teach me a better reaction pattern? Will You teach me a better answer? Will You teach me a better nature? And trust Him. 

Maybe you’re hearing, you’re like, I just don’t trust, I don’t know how to trust God. Well, that’s a good place to start repenting of. I say this to Him all the time: It is not Your fault I don’t trust You, it’s my fault. You are entirely trustworthy. It’s just I have trust issues. And Lord, I need You to help root into me where I have trust issues. 

Why don’t I trust You? I don’t know, it’s not Your fault. I know that part. But if it’s in my family line, if it’s in my history with leadership, whatever it is, will You root it out? Get it out of me so I can trust You. 

That’s what it means to pray like David. Give me the desire to do Your will. It’s okay to know where you’re at. It’s not okay to stay there, and it’s not okay to excuse it. 

So, Jesus, we stand before You. There’s a weightiness, there’s a holiness in this moment. And Lord, I just will let the room know I don’t care about the clock right now. God, I feel like You’re doing something in this house this morning that’s important, and so we just invite You, Holy Spirit, to come and deal with us. Bring conviction, bring the light that only comes from You to show and expose what has to be exposed, so we can walk out the other side different. 

As we take the bread and we take the cup, we do this in remembrance of what You did, the cross You went to, the way You went to it, the life You lived prior to that. And we just say, Lord, we want to be a people that carry the nature of Jesus, that are clothed in the presence of Jesus, so be with us as we take the bread and we take the cup.