Many people in the world today are just messing around with their lives, frittering their days away with lesser things. Too few people today are on a mission for God. Our lives, no matter if they're short or long, are still a mere dot next to the line of eternity. It is a line that goes on forever. And in a very real sense, what happens to you in the line is determined by what happens in the dot if you're living for Jesus or if you're living for yourself. God is the creator of everything. You are a creature. Are you messing around trying to acquire a few more pebbles of this world or are you on a mission for your creator? storing up treasures in heaven. That critical perspective makes all the difference in the world. Paul had that perspective square between his eyes. He says, look, living for God may make me less popular. I may even be mocked, tortured or imprisoned. This may wreck my hope of a good retirement by the beach, but it's okay. Really, Paul, why is it okay? Because it's not all about me and my mission. I'm about God and His mission, and if I'm doing that, the rest takes care of itself. God will take care of me in this life, and my eternity will be incomparably better. We get a glimpse into Paul's heart and Paul's mission for God in his introduction to his letter to Titus. So turn there, if you will, in the Bible to the book in the New Testament, almost at the end, that is called Titus. We started last week studying verses one through four. We want to keep keep on that today. Verses 1-4, let me read it for us. Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect, and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised before ages began. and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Now, in this introduction, last time we noted, there are ordinary features of an introduction of a Bible letter or any letter from the ancient days. But in this specific introduction, there are also some extraordinary elements. The ordinary elements are the author, the reader, and the greeting. The author, verse 1, Paul, the reader, verse four, to Titus and the greeting in the verse for grace and peace from God, the Father and Christ Jesus, our Savior. So that's ordinary. That's typical of a letter to be written in that way during that time and in that place. But the extraordinary part is the assortment of theological puzzle pieces that Paul kind of dumps out in the description of himself there in verses 1, 2, and 3. He doesn't just say, from Paul to Titus. He just goes off and he's got all those different assorted puzzle pieces, if you will. And we noted last time that Titus was Paul's good friend who knew all of those puzzle pieces. He knew all of those theological descriptions of what Paul's mission was about. So it seems rather unusual that Paul would load up this little letter with all of that truth. What we discovered, though, was that Titus was Paul's young deputy. left on the rough-and-tumble Mediterranean island called Crete. Paul and Titus had apparently been together, seen some people, come to Christ. Then Paul left. The sheriff left town and left everything in charge of Deputy Titus. And so, this letter is from Paul to Titus, yes. And it is for Titus, yes. But it's not just for Titus. It's for the crazy Christian Cretans as well. So that Deputy Titus could reach into his coat pocket and pull it out and say, this message comes from the sheriff. And so what I'm doing as I'm getting these churches together is I'm just doing what the sheriff told me to do. It's not just about me. It's about me and the sheriff. And the sheriff, of course, is an apostle of Jesus. So really, it's about Jesus. That's what I'm doing. Now, we saw last time that Paul described himself in two ways. He said he was a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. The word servant, we said, really, it's better translated slave of God. It is a term of great humility. But then he says he's an apostle of Jesus Christ, which is a term of great authority. An apostle is a fully authorized representative of Jesus for the establishment of new churches. And that's what Paul was. There was only the 12 disciples plus Paul. Judas was knocked out of that by betraying Jesus. They added Matthias and then Paul. So there's really only 13 of these capital A apostles. And Paul was one of them. Then we began to see the purpose of his offices. So he had these two offices, a slave of God, an apostle of Jesus, and then he gets into this long string of descriptive elements which are really the purpose of his offices. And the beginning of his purpose was for the sake of the faith of God's elect. Last time we looked at scriptures from different places showing that God has chosen a people for himself out of the pool of humanity that has rejected God. God basically says, OK, everybody, because of their sin, rejects me. But I am going to choose a people of those rejecters and open their hearts so they get it. so that they will see their sin and see me and they will repent and they will believe. So that is what Paul is talking about when he talks about God's elect. But the fate, the fact of God's sovereignty does not excuse man from his responsibility. So, just because there is a big wad of humanity that says, I don't want anything to do with God, and just because God sovereignly chooses some of those to override their no vote, if you will, does not excuse unbelieving man from their responsibility, when they hear the gospel, to repent and believe. You are responsible to repent and believe. If you hear the truth about God and sin, you hear about Jesus, you hear about the cross and the resurrection, you hear the offer, your sins can be forgiven. If you will repent and believe, you are responsible to do those things. You will be held accountable if you don't do those things by God at the judgment. Secondly, believing men and women are also responsible to proclaim the gospel to others, to tell others this great news about Jesus. And that's what Paul is doing. He says, I'm a slave of God. I'm an apostle. for the sake of the faith of God's elect. In other words, I do what I do so that these people, I don't know who's the elect. That's God's business. I just do it to everybody that God gives me opportunity to. I tell them about Jesus so they will believe. That is my mission. That is what I'm about. But that's not just what I'm about. And in the same way you and I are about that same thing as well even though we're not apostles we do qualify as slaves of God and we're also responsible to take the opportunities God gives us to tell other people about Jesus and the wonderful truth of salvation in Christ. But as we'll see now Paul's mission for God did not end with just the elect believing. Look at later on in verse 1. He said, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and, connects these things together, and their knowledge of the truth. And their knowledge of the truth. This would be the gospel message with all of its manifestations and applications that we find all over the New Testament. So 1st Timothy, chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Notice that salvation and the knowledge of the truth are kind of seen as the same idea here. Then in 2nd Timothy, chapter 2, verses 24 and 25, And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. and that they may escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. So again, the knowledge of the truth, we see, is the gospel and the gospel implications. In 2 Timothy 3, verse 7, he talked about a couple of false teachers who were always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. So when we see in Titus his introduction, he wants God's elect to believe, but he also is concerned about their knowledge of the truth. The gospel applies to unbelievers, but it also applies to believers. The New Testament commands that we love and see throughout the letters of the New Testament and the gospels and all these things are all grounded in the gospel of Jesus. That is why we sometimes talk about the need to remind ourselves of the gospel daily, because it makes sure that we're building our understanding of the truth on a solid basis, a solid foundation of grace. God did what he did for you. so that you would be saved. You're saved by grace, not by your works, not by your performance. You can never be good enough to be pleasing to God on your own. It just isn't going to happen. So it's important to realize that as you see a New Testament command, that the goal of that is not just to pull your bootstrap up and say, all right, work harder, do more good works. Instead, we go back to God's grace again and say, in and of myself, I'm not going to be pleasing to the Lord by working hard. I'll never be able to work hard enough. But praise God for sending Jesus, who died for my failures. That's the knowledge of the truth. You know that truth, and then you're filled with gratitude. You're filled with a clear conscience before God, and you're filled with motivation to live out the implications of that truth. That's what Christian life is all about. And that's what Paul says he wants to do. I want to share Jesus and proclaim it so the elect will believe. And so everybody will be built up in the knowledge of the truth. As Christians, it is vital to keep growing in full, precise and complete knowledge of God's truth. That is part of your mission from God and your mission for God, to know Him better as you learn and refresh your knowledge of God's Word. So I want to ask, how's your Bible reading going in this brand new year? We talked a couple of weeks ago about the importance of having a Bible reading plan. And I hope that maybe you've looked up some of the links that are out there online or found a different plan. Maybe you've got a study Bible and you say, all right, this is going to be my plan for 2011. So you kind of have your plan to read the Bible as opposed to just kind of the random flip it open and see if you get a fun verse. You know, that's not the most effective way of doing it long term. I'm not saying that it's not appropriate to flip open the Bible and just start reading. But in terms of long term growing in the knowledge of the truth, that tends not to get it done. So you have your plan, but then you have to work your plan. And that takes discipline and hard work. I know it. Even already in 2011, I've had some moments where it's like, all right, I know my plan for this year. I'm doing the plan where you stick three bookmarks in your Bible, Genesis, Job and Matthew, and you read like a chapter or two of each one and keep moving the bookmarks. And if you do it right, all your bookmarks hit the next spot at the end of the year. So you can like read the whole Bible and you're not just stuck in Leviticus. Anyway, you know, you can. I'm just saying, listen, even if you're a pastor, Leviticus is hard work. So you're always got something good going and it keeps you on your plan. But I'm having to work my plan. I'm having to work and it doesn't always feel right. I'd rather be doing other things, throwing snowballs or whatever. You know, I don't want to be reading my Bible right now. But you do it day by day. You work your plan so you can grow in the knowledge of the truth, which makes you more equipped to do what God wants you to do. Colossians chapter one, Paul talks about this in his prayer for the Colossians. In verses 9 and 10, he says, And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So Paul says, look, Colossians, I don't know you guys, but I hear you're believing in Jesus. So I've been praying for you. Here's what I'm praying that you will grow in your knowledge of the truth, that you'll understand it so that you'll do it because there's a direct connect between understanding the truth and living it out. And that's the same thing he says with Titus as he's describing his mission. The very end of verse one says, which accords with godliness, which accords with godliness, that is a lifestyle of devotion to God, reverence for God manifested in a mature Christ like life. John Stott says any teaching that doesn't lead to godliness is necessarily bogus. So if you see somebody on TV with extra big hair, or extra shiny hair, or something like that, and they teach something, and they say it's from the Bible, but it doesn't lead to a godly life, it's bogus teaching. You don't get good teaching that leads to a bad lifestyle. Good teaching, true teaching, leads to a godly lifestyle, and true understanding of it as well. This was a big problem with the false teachers on the island of Crete. Just look down a couple of verses to verses 11, verse 12 and following. Paul says. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. In other words, there's some rascals on the island of Crete. There's some real rascals. And Paul says they're claiming to be believers. They're claiming to be Bible teachers. But look at their rascally lives. It isn't right. It isn't true. If your lifestyle doesn't match up what you're saying, you're teaching is not right. So got to know the Bible, got to know the gospel. But Bible knowledge and gospel knowledge is not an end. It is a means to an end. It is a means that you would have a heart devoted to God and that you would be living for God. True knowledge produces godliness. The grace of God instructs us to deny our ungodliness and to live for Jesus. So if you have no godly life direction, I'm not talking about being perfect because we're never going to be perfect in this life, but the direction of your life, then I wonder if you're growing in the knowledge of God's book, the Bible. And if you have no hunger to learn God's word and you don't really care about it, I'm going to start wondering if you have faith in Jesus at all. You see how Paul's mission all fits together. I'm a slave of God. I'm an apostle of Jesus to see the elect believed, to see them grow in the knowledge of the truth so that they will become more godly. Now, verse two adds another piece to the puzzle. And I was thinking about this as I was writing my sermon notes. I've been calling it a puzzle pieces, but it's really more like a chain. You know, it's like puzzle pieces, but they kind of link in a straight line. Or, if you need it put on a little lower level. Remember pop beads? When you had those little kids, the babies have the pop beads, and one sticks into the other, sticks into the other, you make the little necklace or whatever. And that kind of thing, and suck on them, and all the stuff babies do. Anyway, this is kind of like theological pop beads. Paul just adds another bead, and adds another bead. So, verse 2. In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. So, in hope of eternal life. Now, this phrase has easy parts and hard parts. The easy parts are the actual words themselves, what they mean, the meaning of the terms. Eternal life means Quantity. It's forever in heaven. Eternal life means quality. It's divinely rich. It's knowing God and having indestructible joy because you are in a right relationship with God. The hope of eternal life points to the future aspect of eternal life. Yes, it's true that if you're a believer in Jesus right now, you have eternal life. Remember John 3, 16, whoever believes in him has eternal life. You have it. However, you don't have the full package yet. The full package comes when Jesus comes back. In fact, when Jesus comes back is called later on in Titus, the blessed hope. That's our hope. When He comes back, our faith will be sight. We'll be with the Lord forever and ever, enjoying the full package of eternal life. Now, when the Bible talks about hope, it's not just a wishful thought. I hope we'll have eternal life someday. I hope I'll get a new car in 2011. I hope I go in a new vacation. You know, it's not that. It's not wishful thinking. It's confidence. It's expectation. Basically, it's saying, I haven't seen it yet, but I'm every bit confident that it's there and it's going to happen. It is totally certain, it is just not visible and tangible yet. And so this hope gives us confidence, encouragement, and strength. So that's the easy part. Hope, eternal life. I get that. I can handle that. The harder part is, what exactly does this phrase, in hope of eternal life, modify in the introduction? What does it go to? What does it connect with? Which link does this pop bead go with? Does it modify Paul? the servant of God and apostle of Jesus. Is he doing what he's doing for his hope of eternal life? Or is it Paul's people's hope of eternal life? In other words, I'm an apostle and a slave so that the elect will believe they'll grow in knowledge. They'll become more godly towards their hope of eternal life. Now, both of those are true. The elect have hope of eternal life and Paul has hope of eternal life. In chapter three, verse seven, Paul does include himself so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We might become heirs, all of us together. I think Paul means in the introduction, the elect. I'm working hard as an apostle. so that they will believe. People will believe in Jesus. They'll know the truth. They'll become more godly and they'll have a hope in eternal life. But like I said, Paul is part of that as well. Now the next piece, which attaches to the certain hope, is that phrase, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. Now, kids, question for you. You've got to be six years old or under to answer this question. Can God do anything? Got a yes. Any others? Just call it out. Can God do anything? Lots of yeses from the six and unders. OK, let's now change it to seven and older. Can God do anything? Still some yeses and now counterbalance with some no's. There's some no's here. How do we know that? Why would you say God can't do anything? Pastor John, you just read in the Bible that God cannot tell a lie. God cannot tell a lie. So little kids who said, yes, God can do anything. Really, what we want to say is God can do anything he wants to. God can do anything that's a God thing to do. But he can't sin and telling a lie is a sin. And the Bible says right here and says a few other places as well. God can never, ever sin. Aren't you glad God can never sin? I mean, have you ever thought about that? Let yourself go there for a second. What if God could sin? It would be really bad. Oh, I love you. I have a great plan. I'm working in your life. Whoops. Not today. Having a little bit of a bad day down there. Woke up on the wrong side of the heavenly bed. Boom. Sorry about that. Whoa. We would be toast if God could sin. But God, not only does God not sin, He can't sin. He can't go against His character. And His character is 100% true and truth. It says in Hebrews 6, verse 18, So by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. One of the means of giving these Hebrews confidence was to point them to the character of God. It is impossible for him to lie. Here's a verse in one of those hard books back in the old Old Testament in Numbers, chapter 23, verse 19. Listen to this. The Bible says, God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? That is absolutely true words coming out of a bad guy, Balaam, but it's absolutely true and right. That is the character of God. He is the not lying God. He is the unliable God. He is the free from falsehood God. He is absolutely faithful and true. And so, when we look at that, what the significance of that is, we've got this hope of eternal life. How certain is our hope? Our hope is incredibly certain because God who never lies promised. A promise is a personal declaration made to another person or perhaps to oneself that certain conditions will be met. We know about promises. Okay. It just came from a campaign season. A couple of years from now, well, even before that, we'll have endless commercials, endless YouTube clips of politicians making glorious promises. Vote for me and I'll give you 10 great things, says the liar. Not that they're all liars, but campaign promises are noted, are infamous for their unreliability sometimes. It's only as good as the person who makes the promise. Isn't that right? I mean, so if one guy who's a known liar promises you ten things, and one guy who is known to be a man of integrity, rock-solid integrity, only promises you two things, who should you believe? Well, how many people say, oh, the ten, because that's a lot more than two. It's like, yeah, but you're not going to get any of those ten. Go with the person of integrity who promises you two that you can count on. You understand the point. So here's the deal. Think about it now again. God has promised you eternal life. And how rock solid secure is that? It is totally rock solid and secure because God promised and he is the unliable God. He is unable to break his promises. It always comes true. So therefore, you can have absolute certain hope of eternal life. Now, there's an interesting little pop bead puzzle piece attached to that phrase as well, where he says he promised before the ages began. What in the world does that mean? Well, there's a couple of other verses in the New Testament that sounds similar to that. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, it says that God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. There's other verses as well. Basically what the point is, God's intent before creation was for his people to enjoy eternal life. In other words, there seems to have been an inner Trinitarian promise that was made before time began. God the Father promised God the Son that he was going to save a people for the Son. It's incredible. So you see verses sometimes that talk about how the cross and Jesus was predestined before the foundation of the world. And that seems amazing to think of as well. In what sense was Jesus on the cross before Adam and Eve came into being? Before the days of creation happened? How could that be? Because it was so secure in the plan of God from eternity past, it can be said, Jesus, the Lamb, who was slain before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13, 8. And it goes right with Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 that we looked at before, that God chose a people for himself before the foundation of the world. What we see now is It's an inter-trinitarian deal. God gave Jesus these people before the foundation of the world. There was no chance Jesus would come to earth, live, die, and nobody respond. No chance. No chance that God would come to the earth, He loves these people, He's going to make this offer, and none of them would respond. I'm going to crush my son on the cross for the sins of humanity with the hopes that somebody responds. No chance at all. How do we know that? Because God has a people. He chose them before the foundation of the earth so that He would open their hearts, so that they would respond. So when God crushed Jesus, He was crushing Jesus for your sins and my sins, for all those who repent and believe. It was purposeful and it was effective. This promise was made of eternal life before the ages began. Now, in contrast to that, look at verse three, which says, And at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching Would you stop there? So in contrast to before time or before the ages began there in verse three, is this proper time? How do we know about God's great plan of salvation? Because at the proper time, he revealed it. He told us all about it in his word. And then he spread that knowledge through preaching. The preacher is a herald. He's like the town crier making an official announcement. You know that guy? So before they've got internet or anything like that, even before TV or radio, if the king has a message, he just sends out his messengers. They've got their little parchment thing. They go to the middle of town. They get up and what are the first two words out of their mouths? That's right. You guys know all about this. Hear ye, hear ye, right? In certain cultures, that's what they would say. And then they give the message of the king or the ruler. The job of the town crier is to make the message of the king absolutely clear and absolutely understandable to the people who are listening and going about their business. It is not the job of the town crier to be cool and creative and to have all the people think the town crier is really great. It is just the town crier's job to get the message out. It's not the town crier's job to get you to do the message. Now, I'm speaking for the king. I'm just saying, you know, the army's right behind me over here. It's their job to get you to do what I'm saying. It's not my job. It's just my job to make it absolutely clear and plain. And then it's your job to do it if you're the people of the town. Well, that's what Paul said. A preacher is supposed to do. A preacher is a herald. He's giving the official announcement. It can be from a pulpit. It can be on a street corner. It can be one-on-one as you proclaim to your friends. Here's what God says the message of Jesus is. All that counts as proclaiming the message of God. Now, here's a great thought. We've talked about eternity past, when God made this inner Trinitarian promise between the Father and the Son to save a people. And we've talked about eternity future, the hope we have of eternal life that will go on forever and ever. Don't live for the dot, live for the line. Eternal life, that line we should be living for. And so when you come to the moment in time of preaching, it's like eternity past and eternity future meet in time and space right here, right now, as it's being proclaimed. I don't know what you do with that. I just think that is cool. And so I thought I would share. So I liked it. Especially as the preacher, that's a really good thought. So Paul was one of these town criers. And apparently, as we see, as he goes on in verse 3, this was not something he just went to a job fair and decided. He didn't take a survey and go, hey, I think I'll be a town crier for God. That looks like a good thing. It's got good benefits. Likes it. I like the work hours. I like to travel. He didn't say any of that. He says this. He says, through the preaching. So at the proper time, it was manifested in his word. through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior." So, he didn't sign up for this. This was a sacred trust. This was a mission God gave him, actually commanded him. He would be disobeying God if he didn't herald God's message. In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, he says, Woe to me, condemned am I if I do not preach the gospel. John MacArthur said that God's word is the sole source of content for all faithful preaching and teaching. So again, how does this apply to all of us? We are not apostles, but we are all slaves of God, and we all should be on God's mission. And part of that mission, yes we grow in our knowledge of the truth, refresh our knowledge of the truth, but part of that mission is proclaiming Jesus. Again, your job as a herald, a private one-on-one proclaimer or proclaiming in the opportunities God gives you is not necessarily to get results, but you better get the King's message right and get the King's message across to others. We want to see the elect believe. We want to see people grow in gospel knowledge. We want to see people live it out through true godliness. We want to see people have a hope of eternal life. Whatever else we do, this needs to be part of it if we are on God's mission for our lives. Now, notice that Paul says he was commanded by God, our Savior, at the end of verse three. That seems a little strange to call God our Savior. In fact, verse four says Christ Jesus, our Savior. And we find throughout Titus, God is called Savior, Jesus is called Savior, and they go back and forth. Now that's totally okay, because Jesus is 100% God, but it would be a very big problem if Jesus wasn't 100% God. Why is that? Because if you're in the Bible and you call somebody and you claim that you're under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, this is 100% true, and you say, God, our Savior, in verse 3, and Uncle Mo, our Savior, in verse 4, it sort of cheapens it, doesn't it? Go put your head kind of like this, up and down. It kind of cheapens it, doesn't it? You can't just do that. It's not interchangeable, interconnected. It is a God thing to be a divine savior, to save us from His wrath, to save us from our sins. It is something born in the heart of God. It is something enacted in the life, death, resurrection of Jesus. This also shows us, because he said he was commanded by God, our savior, that salvation is the heart of Paul's entrusted message. Again, it was born in God's heart. It was fulfilled in the work of Jesus. The message of salvation is the message that Paul has been entrusted with. Now we get to verse 4, at last. Here's who it's written to. See all that stuff. Again, common letters. Paul, from Paul, 2 Titus, grace and peace. But it's taken us a while to get to 2 Titus. But there it is, verse 4. 2 Titus, my true child in a common faith. Now, last time we saw all about Titus, Commando Titus and his story from the references throughout Paul's letters. How many references to Titus are in Paul's letters in the New Testament? Be sure to put your answer in the form of a question. No, I'm just kidding. Thirteen, how many of those were in Second Corinthians? nine of them. So nine out of thirteen references to Titus were found in 2 Corinthians. So we kind of last week went through the New Testament and looked at kind of what we could piece together of Titus' story from this letter as well as what the rest of the Bible says and it turns out he's kind of a spiritual commando that Paul leaves in really hard, difficult situations. This This mission in Crete is no small task because of the character of the Cretans as we've seen. These were pretty crazy people, pretty rascally people that Titus was going to have to deal with. So to Titus, my true child in a common faith. True child is a term of affection and probably means that Titus was led to Jesus by Paul himself. and that they're in a common faith, that is, Paul the Jew and Titus the Gentile are both fellow believers in the same gospel. And he's basically saying here, Titus, you are a capable man to receive and implement these instructions. You are my true child. We are in this common faith together. You are the man for this mission. And then there's the greeting, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Grace and peace was kind of common greetings in the ancient world, but in this case, they are theologically charged. Grace is a theological term. It means God's favor or God's blessing on ill-deserving sinners. Grace to you. I wish you God's blessings, even though you don't deserve it, even though you actually deserve God to punish you because of the life you've lived. I wish you God's blessings. And I wish you peace, overall well-being, like the old Hebrew expression, Shalom. And it comes from being at peace with God, first of all, and that comes from grace. So I wish you God's grace that he will bless you in spite of what you deserve. And I wish you peace over all well-being because you're in a right relationship with God. You've got peace with God. Now you can have peace within your heart as well and over all well-being. And these two blessings don't come from me. It's no big deal if I say, hey, grace from me to you. Well, thanks, John. Really nice. Guess I can take that to the bank. That and a quarter gets me a cup of coffee, right? That kind of thing. Not so much a Starbucks. Anyway, but these blessings are great because they come from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Savior. Both must be fully united and involved for the blessings of grace and peace to be experienced by Titus. All right, Titus, I gave you this introduction filled with stuff that you already knew, but it didn't hurt you to hear it again. Plus, your hearers on Crete really need to hear it because you're my deputy and I'm the sheriff. But I also wrote this. I think the Holy Spirit had me write this for some folks in Sharpsburg almost 2000 years later. because they need to know about my mission, too, because they have a mission from God that they need to be on and they need to be about. And the stuff in my mission, says Paul, is stuff that should be in their mission as well. You may not be apostles, you Sharpsburgers, But according to God's word, you are slaves of God. You've been bought with the blood of Jesus. He's the master. You're the slaves. And you have a mission from God. Yeah, I know He's given you callings and jobs and things like that. And whatever He has you doing, some of you in school, that's fine. But that's just part of it. The big picture is what God has for you to be doing. Believing. knowing the truth, becoming more godly, having a hope in eternal life, and telling others about this glorious good news. If that's not part of your life, you're just messing around with the world, adding a few trinkets that are going to pass away when you die. There's so much more to this life than just the trinkets of this world. We need to be on God's mission, which we get from God's Word spelled out for us in this great introduction from Paul to Titus. And I think we can take that home as well as we evaluate our own lives accordingly. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for this wonderful passage, even though it is filled with complexity. We thank you. That really has some really interesting and great truth packed into it. As we move into the next sections, we're well aware they're so much more easy to understand and so much more practical and applicable. But I pray that you would do your work in our hearts from this passage. and that you would help us to evaluate our lives. Are we on your mission, Father? And if not, please make it clear areas that are out of bounds with your mission. Because this whole life is just a dot, and eternity is a line. And I pray we would be people who would live for the line. people who would live for eternity, getting on your mission instead of just living for ourselves. In Jesus' name, Amen.