Jason, it's been 20 years. Ms. Prairie Vans, 20 years. My kiddos, the two with me, weren't even born yet. Isn't that crazy? So now, and you're over here stretching, bending over like, don't laugh at me. I'm totally on board with where you're at. I get it. I feel it. I feel your pain. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. We come, we gather out here. Every time I think of the importance of prayer, goodness, you got up early, prayed long, and they were looking for you, even to the point where they seem kind of irritated, like, where have you been? We've been looking all over for you, but you gave us an example of how important prayer is. If you prayed, how much more so do we need prayer? Your church, you said it was a house of prayer. Thank you for an opportunity to get away and to pray, to focus and pray and seek your face. Thank you for your word, which you gave, Father, so that we have a solid foundation to build upon. Not a man's opinion, but we have a North Star, we have a compass, we have a light that is lighting up our path before us. Please use this time to convict us of sin and confirm your promises to us and to give us guidance and direction that we would walk into the future guided by your word, walking on big faith of which you are worthy. May we walk By huge faith, and it be pleasing to you, for without faith it's impossible to please you. You are our number one desire. By your grace, by your mercy, we pray, may that be said all the time. May we, at the end of this, love you more and love our fellow man more and be more like Jesus, like you, Lord Jesus. So to that end, we ask your blessing upon our prayer advance. We pray these things and pray for the grace and the preaching and the hearing. Sinners preaching, sinners hearing. that at the end of it, Lord, you might grow us to be more like you, Lord Jesus. For your glory, we pray in your name, amen. Amen. So it is good that for 20 years now, and 17 for us, we've been coming out here as men, out in the middle of nowhere. It's good to cut away all the distractions. It's really good to cut away all the distractions and be able to focus, hey, focus on prayer. I love it when I, you know, come up from praying and boom, see something like that. It's good for us to get together, especially as men. Right now in our world, one of the big swirling question marks Something that is in the daily news is a constant flood of information about the roles of manhood and womanhood. Much controversy, much disdain, a lot of fighting over manhood and womanhood. So it is good for us as men to come out here and celebrate God's design for manhood. It is also good for us to come out and study Titus, a book that has a father writing to his son in the faith. Wonderful opportunity to see one of the world's premier individuals, Paul, the Apostle Paul. If you had to pick out surely the top five individuals in the world in all of history I would say the Apostle Paul's got to be up there in the top five. Obviously, Jesus, he's on a shelf always. I don't mean to get, this is not a comparison where Jesus even fits in. He is God. That's different. He's our Savior, our Lord. Everything is a long distance second. But then you have John the Baptist, whom Jesus said, among women, there is no greater is John the Baptist. So OK, he gets that top slot too, because if Jesus said it, amen. But then right behind is a guy by the name of Paul, who, quite honestly, God used him. It's God's doing. I don't idolize the Apostle Paul. It's God's doing. God did it. But God did something so massive through the Apostle Paul that I don't think anyone else in history comes close to doing what God did through Paul. God brought about the New Covenant doctrines written down, inscripturated in the text of Scripture for all time. He brought that about, the New Covenant, in through Paul. Now that is so massive when that time period came whereby God used Paul to bring about the Jew and the Gentile together. Before that time, the Gentiles were the dogs. God was going through the Jewish nation, and solely through Israel. They were so used to that, this was so massive, so normative for everyone, as they looked at Yahweh, This was the norm. It was always for the Jewish nation and no longer. So when we look at the book of Acts, you cannot look at the book of Acts without understanding the massive shift that God brings about. That shift is so huge. You have to understand that when God, it is no surprise God was doing the overt miracles that God was doing. because the shift was that big. going from the old covenant to the new covenant. And God used a man named Paul. So when Paul would show up at the synagogues and proclaim, Jesus, he is the Messiah, he's the one. He is the one that all the prophets have been prophesying about up to this point. He came, he died on the cross, he is the one. The suffering servant that fulfills all of the text, Jesus is the one. It's no wonder they beat the fire out of him. I mean, just constantly, nothing but constant turmoil for Paul. Over and over and over. Of course, he articulates that in 2 Corinthians 11. He articulates that. Well, that brings us to a question that I had coming up this week as I was studying through the text. Couple questions came up in my inbox. First one was by Candace Owens, and she had this question, would you sell a piece of your soul for a million dollars? And she did her podcast on that. Now, Candace Owens is a professed Christian, and great conservative values. She's used by the Daily Wire, puts out a lot of good stuff, all right? Stuff that we would agree with, we would readily agree with. No problems there. We're not here today to perseverate over something that she said. We want to get God's word in. That's the reliable compass. Amen. And I say that because the next guy that came up with another question that was on the horizon that was huge is Jordan Peterson. The question that he had was, is there a mode of vision that enables resilience in the face of catastrophe? And if you're familiar with Jordan Peterson, that's no surprise because he's so stoic. He says a lot of really good stuff. He is used highly. Not used, God is using him. But he can only go back to natural law. Let's be clear, when I mention Jordan Peterson, he's only going back to natural, general revelation. He is not a believer. He does not have special revelation. He needs a relationship with Jesus, and I pray he gets that. When I say general revelation, natural revelation, I'm talking about Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament, his works, Psalm 19. First half is natural law. Man can look out at natural law and it should be painfully obvious that there is a God. Now this is important because when it comes to Jordan Peterson, his arguments are built off of natural law. Even though he would go to evolution and all these other things. Fine. I expect that from him because he needs to know Jesus. But I can get some good things from him when I look at the way he explains because he is having a massive impact on who? Young men. young men out there all over. So as we gather together in a men's prayer advance, one of the primary spokesmen right now out there in the ether is Jordan Peterson. I like a lot of things that he has to say. One example is there is male and female, and that should be so painfully obvious that it's stupid to think otherwise. And we are doing harm, he's talking about himself in terms of psychological community, we are doing harm to these people that are, that we are trying, that recently the American, either the Medical Association or Psychology Association, whatever the latest, elitist group is, has put out a policy that you are to have gender-affirming care. He said it is not helping people, it is hurting them. Alright, amen. Well enough. Because he will go back to natural revelation and say it's painfully obvious. Aren't we blessed? We have that because we have the birthright of Scripture. Isn't it funny how they attack Genesis 1? Their attack is on Genesis 1 from the very beginning. Creation. They attack creation. And male and female, He made them. It takes those two to give the image of God. It's painfully obvious. It's straightforward. And when he goes back to that, he will then say, if we go to gender affirming and put it on the level of... Temperament, it becomes subjective. You have male and female, that's objective. We know that, Genesis 1. And then the temperament analysis that they do in psychology is subjective. It becomes subjective, and he will acknowledge that. And I'm thankful he does. His question is, is there a mode of vision that enables resilience in the face of catastrophe? In other words, do you, when you look out at life, Are you chasing towards something that is so big that if a catastrophe happens, you will not fall apart? You will say, that won't keep me from doing this task. I am going somewhere. For him, That's where well-being is found, to have some kind of transcendent purpose. And there's truth to that. Why? Because, I would say, biblically speaking, we have that as our birthright. We have a transcendent task that we are headed towards. So I had those two questions, but I have a third question coming from our text. That would be the Rob Huddleston question, which no one's asking, because they're like, Rob who? Alright, my question would be, is there a vision sufficient to make you willingly a bond slave? Is there a vision sufficient to make you willingly a bond slave? That kind of covers the first two questions that would say, look, I'm not willing to sell my soul because I'm a slave. And this is a vision big enough that it doesn't matter what comes my way, I continue to press forward with this vision because I'm a bond slave. That's exactly what we see with the Apostle Paul. Let's read the text. In Titus, here we come to Titus writing to his younger son, spiritually speaking, younger son in the faith. And Titus is, just a real quick note on Titus, Titus is like your clean-up man, the fixer. He's the fixer. I mean, he ends up, but he's dropped off by Paul. He's told go to Corinth, go to Dalmatia, go here, go here. He's fixing all these problems. Wouldn't you just love to have that role? Well, I mean, it's something good to be said of Titus, right? I mean, that's a huge thing to be said of a younger son in the faith. This is my star pupil, so to speak. I can drop him off at all the problem zones. He cleans up the mess. He knows how to do it. That's a huge thing to say about his younger son in the faith. All right, we're going to pick up the text. Titus 1, Verse one, Paul, remember our question is, is there a vision sufficient to make you willingly be a bond slave? And what do we have? We have, it starts off, this is just the salutation, this is just the beginning, opening of this letter that the apostle Paul writes to his younger son in the faith, Titus. Paul, a bondservant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of God in the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness. There's so much theology just wrapped up in the first sentence. So packed with theology already. Verse two, in the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago, but at the proper time manifested, even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior to Titus, my true child, in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. He starts off with Paul, a bondservant of God. From the get-go, so even as Jordan Peterson would talk about Vision, as you look out in the horizon, there is what is and what will be. What is is what we see before us and what has gone on in the past, and then tomorrow is the future. How do you look at the future? It is our birthright to say, I look at the future as a bondservant, from the very beginning. My first place in my thinking is, I'm just a bondservant that serves Jesus Christ. Well, that makes a huge difference. My question when I, as second generation, we're praying for you, oh my goodness, we are so praying for you. Why? Because we're praying that you take up the mantle and run. The question is not, what is going to get you money in a career? The question from your homeschooling or any kind of schooling is not, what do you want to be? Now the question for the normal person out there is, what are you gonna do when you graduate? When you grow up, whatever, what are you gonna do? That's not the Christian question. The Christian question is, what does He want me to be? Or not even want, but created me. It's what does He want me to be, too, yes, but He created me for a purpose, for a reason. The right worldview or perspective is as I look into the future, is I look into the future with an anchor for my soul which says whatever comes my way, I know that God created me to handle it in a certain particular way. God called me, created me a particular way. And that's powerful. He creates you without any arms? You know what I'm saying. Exodus 4.11, who made man's mouth? That's enough right there in that text. When Moses is talking to the Lord, and God looks at him and says, who created man's mouth? And Moses says, I can't speak. Well, who created man's mouth? In other words, who created handicaps? You got a handicap? It's still because God created you that way? Do you want to say that God didn't create me, I evolved, or you want to get mad at God because He made you a certain way? I wouldn't advise it. I would not advise it. Why? It's not just because it's not smart to go against God, and it's not. It's dumb to go against God, obviously, but because there's joy in the way He created you to be. Be the best me that He created you to be. He created you. And again, you get into the gender distinctions. Did God create you to be a man? Well, be a man. Be the best man that God created you to be. He creates you to be a woman? Be the best woman. Why? Because that's what bond slaves do. Now, a note on bond slaves. If you go back to the evid bond slaves of the Old Testament, they were the ones that would willingly... I mean, there's two categories. There's categories of slaves, right? There's the unwilling and the willing. Well, this is a category of willing slaves. They would take him, they'd pierce the ear at the door, put the gold earring in there, and a person could become a willing slave for life, serving a master. And that's obviously the picture that we are to have with Jesus Christ. God, my Father, I am willingly your slave. Whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want it. Paul says, he starts, I mean this is front-loaded, this is just great. Hi, I'm a bond slave. Why? Because freedom doesn't come by being able to choose whatever gender you want to be. That's not freedom. That's bondage. Freedom comes by being a slave tied to Christ. Period. You're going to be a slave either way. Every one of us is going to be a slave either way. So when you look into the future, whose slave are you going to be? You're going to be a slave of your own sins? You're going to be a slave of the oligarchy? You're going to be a slave of Jesus Christ. It's only in... Look, if Jesus created you to be one way, you don't want to try to be another way. There's no freedom in that. That's like a fish trying to jog a marathon. You'd be miserable doing it, and you'd be no good at it. Women trying to be men. They'll be miserable, and that's why they're, you know, all the optics on it are not pretty. It's sad. And it's nothing but struggle the whole time. Life's hard enough. Jesus said that. Every day has its own trouble. If Jesus said it, he's talking about you following him, you're still gonna have troubles that you have to struggle through. Don't compound it by going against God and the way He made it, made life and you and me. I chunked this up into three questions that I would like to add that go along with the principle. The first one is, the first principle is God calls people. And when I say God calls people, I'm talking about the Latin word going loco, vocare, to call. It's the vocation. You have a calling. God calls people. It comes from the next phrase, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. God called him to do that. Now there's a sense to which we're all called, that word apostolos is one sent out with a message. Well, there is a sense to where every one of us is sent out with a message. We're all part of the ambassadors of Christ speaking to the world for Jesus Christ, speaking to the physical realm, the material realm, going out and witnessing, gospel evangelizing. We're not called to this. You understand the difference? Apostle Big A, there was only 12. There's no more ongoing apostles. Paul was set aside as one born out of time, specifically with a calling, a woko, a vocation. God called him to do something that was so huge, so radical, that it was a divine personal calling that God, Damascus Road, appeared to him. Perfect man for such a time as this. So, first of all, God calls people. He's calling his children. He calls people. So, my first question along those lines is, know who you are. When we think of vision, do you know who you are in Christ? Know who you are. When we talk about vision, who are you? And we know this much, you're a man. You're not out there wandering, and it's sad the way they tell people nowadays, they can't even figure out what's my gender. It's heartbreaking, but I try to get myself into, what would it be like if we were growing up in this world today? Oh my goodness, and I was told over and over and over that I can pick my gender. I wonder sometimes, would I really believe that mess? Natural law tells you, no, you can't just pick, we know this, you can go to the farm and figure that out. Male horse, female horse, all right, we can go, but if I'm told that over and over, how difficult, and there's people buying into it on national scale. Know who you are. Paul knows who he is. He is a bondservant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He is set aside to deliver a message, a specific message for the faith right there, faith of those chosen of God. Now, we're a lot of theology packed in here again. Talk about Reformed doctrine. There it is. Chosen of God. You have to deal with that. I know that that is not always popular, but it's chosen. It's picked. Eglechan. You're chosen. Chosen of God. The faith. And God does this by faith. By pistis. Faith. Trusting in that which is unseen. There's good evidence as to why we believe what we believe. This is not stick your head in the sand, Believe it because we said it. No, there's good reason to believe why we believe what we do believe. The faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of truth. Wow. Now Jesus said he is the way, the truth, and the life. Truth is what the battle is over today. The postmodern comes along and wants to say there is no truth. There is no absolute truth. Truth is relative to what you make of it. That's why they can jump from that platform and go straight into, what's your gender? They can jump straight into insanity. What is the truth? We have as our birthright the absolute truth, objective truth that God has given to us. So when we look at the lay of the land going forward into the future, we can have a true north compass. We know that we're not just trying to figure it out by ourselves. We can figure it out on the fly as we go. That must be horrible. How anxious does it make you when you have no clue what your gender is and where you're going or what you are doing in life? Very sad. and the knowledge of truth. This is Paul, bondservant, apostle, one sent out with a message for the faith of the chosen, those who are chosen by God from the foundations of the world, Ephesians 1, and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to. Now here's the rub. You see the rub right here? We're talking about objective truth, not subjective truth that changes. We're talking about objective truth. And here's the rub, which is according to godliness. This objective truth is connected directly to morality. That's right. The Republican Party needs to understand this. It's not OK to just put trans, what's her name? Trans at CPAC. Lady Magga, we have totally lost all our roots. We have totally lost our moorings here. Objective truth is connected to morality. You can't get away from it. And you can't just be up there promoting conservative principles and think that somehow you're going to be able to compromise and bring in things whereby God would say, that's an abomination. It's impossible. It will never accomplish that which they're hoping that it will accomplish. Now, for us, our second generation, for you guys, for us, when you look out at the horizon of the future, you're not as lost as a goose in a snowstorm. You know ahead of time there is a compass, it's objective, true, and I can bank on it. And I know when I look at the truth that I find in God's Word that it really means something. And I can't just come up with it on my own. What kind of security does that do for you? It makes us secure. It affects us emotionally. I can take on tomorrow. I can take on the next trial that comes knowing that God guides and directs. Men need to do that. Men need to be able to take on that next trial. And as a bond slave, and as somebody that cannot be bought or bribed, say, wherever God has taken me in the future, I know He's already there. I know the problem is not gonna be bigger than He is. And I know that He has given me a true standard to go by. I'm not making it up on the fly as I go. That's good. That provides you as a second generation young man at 12 years old, I can train myself to go back to God's Word and let it guide me instead of being clueless. So, young men, you've got a compass. You're not coming up with it on your own. When you're asked, do you know who you are, where you're going? I know who I am. I am a bondservant of Christ. He has created me specifically to be a male. And guess what? Males typically do, by God's design, they get married and have children and have families. That's all in Genesis 1, 2, and 3. If that were enough to guide you, you're way ahead of the pack in today's world. That's so good. You're not cast upon a sea of worrying about this crazy world we live in. It is in accordance with godliness. It's connected to morality that calls into question our hearts. What is the condition of our hearts? Godliness is tied directly to the character and nature of God, which comes up right here in the next verse. In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. Morality is directly tied to Jesus in what is noble and right according to His standard. According to what God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. So much just packed right there. First of all, in the hope of eternal life. One of the things, one of the reasons why we can face tomorrow, face whatever, as Jordan Peterson would say, having resilience in the face of catastrophe. How do you have resilience in the face of catastrophe? How do you have resilience when your mom dies, your dad dies, your son, your daughter dies? Catastrophe. The worst scenario. His question to his students was, what are you going to do when you show up at the funeral where your family member died? Are you going to be one that brings hope and healing, or are you going to be the one that shows up and is a real problem to the whole family? For Jordan Peterson, he would say, well, isn't it obvious you ought to show up and bring healing to the family? And we would say, natural law tells you, yeah. What do you want to be, a jerk or somebody that gets along with people? You want to be somebody that just creates problems or you want to be a helper to solve problems? And that's just on a natural law level. And it should be obvious. Well, how much more as a bondservant of Christ do we want to show up at the catastrophe and be an instrument of healing hope? Why? Because we have the hope of eternal life. We have hope. They don't have hope. Now Jordan Peterson doesn't even have hope. I mean, if he asks the questions long enough to where he gets down to the ground floor, it's, what is this all for? If it's just a matter of just being a good guy and picking that path and being happier in this life, well, I get that. All right, that's what you get, but that's all you get, and then you have to deal with, is there really a judgment day coming? If you can answer that, if you can say, my sins are forgiven, now the second generation, you want this as a part of who am I? You want this. If you can't say, I am a forgiven child of God, you're in trouble. You need to be able to answer that. You answer that one. Everything else is secondary. If I know I'm not going to hell, I'm going to be the worst preacher on God's green earth ever. And y'all can say, man, that was terrible. I got nothing out of it. I am not edified. You are a worthless preacher. Please don't ever come preach again. I can say, oh praise God I'm forgiven. I can stand before Jesus and God one day knowing no hell for me. That puts me way ahead of the pack and gives me great joy if I stop and meditate on that. After I cry for a little while, I'll get on with it and say, I'm redeemed! I'm forgiven! Praise God! Forever with Jesus. Nothing even comes close. Nothing even comes close. So why would I not have joy at being Christ's doulos, His slave, when I have the hope of eternal life? that carries through the worst of circumstances. The worst! I don't care what you got. And I know we've seen some really bad things happen, but nothing compares to having the hope of eternal life at the end. It just doesn't. The hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. One of the things that I resisted was the idea that God made covenants in time past. You have the difference between dispensationalism and covenantalism. If you've been studying your theology, some of you who have been running in these circles, you're familiar with the words dispensationalism and covenantalism. And one of the things That I resisted was when I would hear, God made a covenant with Adam, a covenant of works, and I resisted that, and then there was a covenant that God made in times past with Jesus Christ, a covenant of redemption, right? Y'all familiar with that, anybody? Okay. Well then, I come to this passage, and that's what we're looking at. God made a covenant with Jesus. This literally, it says, before time's eternal. If you wanted to say, God made a covenant with Jesus, this is the passage to do it with. And I looked at that and I thought, before times eternal, okay, you got a point. Now, this is not a big issue. It's not a big issue. Don't worry, Jason, you don't have to hang me. I was like, don't mess with my dispensationalism, you covenantalist. It's not that big a deal. The point is just that this is where you would draw from. The father making a covenant with Jesus before time ever began, that he would be the one who redeems Mankind, but even more than that even more than that if you look over at Hebrews 13 17 I confess I'm I stole this from I didn't steal it. It's he does John MacArthur But the analogy was beautiful and I loved it and want to be able to pass it on. Hebrews 13 verse 20 it says, Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant. Through the blood of the eternal covenant. There it was again. What's that eternal covenant? Well, it's not the new covenant. It's not the old covenant. I would say they have a point when it's the covenant that the Father made with Jesus that He would be the covenant of redemption, the covenant of His redeeming mankind. Now here's the beautiful part of it. You see, going back to Titus 1. Verse 1 it says, For the faith of those chosen of God. When did God choose? If you look at Ephesians 1, it's chosen from the foundations of the world. It's chosen back then. At that point in time, and I wrote it down here from Dr. MacArthur. He says, the Father tells the Son, I want to give you a love gift. a redeemed humanity. So, back in that day, and I'm just using his words because I agree with him, I think it's awesome. You look back at the Father telling Jesus, I am going to use you and give you, because of your perfections, because of my love for you, I'm going to give you a redeemed humanity that will worship you forever. It's quite a gift. A bride, give you a bride, it's quite a gift. Chosen, handpicked, pulled out, redeemed, to come and worship the Son who is worthy. That's how worthy Jesus is. That's a beautiful picture. That's an eternal covenant that deserves to be played out on the big screen. It's just awesome. Now, I add to, who are you? Well, the believer can say, I'm one of those chosen, hand-picked worshipers of God that God blessed the Son with to worship Him for all eternity. Well, that changes the way we see the future. That changes the way I see tomorrow. But at the proper time manifested even His Word. Okay, looking at verse 3. But at the proper time manifested even His Word. Once again, manifesting What is the fifth dimension? The fourth dimension? Whatever you want. Heaven is right there. But we can't see it, right? You've got Elisha saying, Lord, open his eyes. If God manifested it, it would just poof. We would see it. This is dependent upon the Lord God Almighty. I don't know when I look out at the future what exactly is coming down the pipe. I can't see everything and even the information that I am taking in right now, I don't always see it rightly. I see it skewed and I see it from a sinful perspective. But you can trust this. You're going to see what God wants you to see. You're going to see what you need to see when you need to see it. Why? Because you know a sovereign God who has called you, has chosen you from the foundations of the world, picked you out so that you might be and I might be able to say a sovereign God could have stopped me or could have put me there. But He didn't. He didn't. So I will just say, praise you, Lord. And I will look to tomorrow, knowing that He controls the landscape, and have vision. All right. We get down to, but at the proper time manifested even His Word. His Word is theopneustos, God breathed. It is the infallible Word setting the anchor for everything we do. We can build upon that foundation. That's Matthew 7. It's a firm foundation that should make us very secure. that is something that makes us secure in the light of tragedy or makes us also at the same time a lot less vulnerable to the bribes and the temptations of the world because we look at God's Word and we recognize and walk by faith and say the trinkets of the world are just, they're just vanities. I don't really need that. I don't want that because I live day-to-day trusting that a sovereign God is going to give me whatever I need. His Word is the anchor. And He brought it about in His due time. You could say, why didn't He bring about the Word earlier? Or you could say, why didn't He bring Christ to die on the cross earlier? Because He's writing the story in Galatians 4.4. In the perfect time, Christ was brought forward. It's because He's in charge, He's sovereign. You okay with that? You okay with God doing things that you don't always understand? You okay with looking at tomorrow saying something may happen where I might not understand everything. You okay with saying I don't understand? How can God choose? Well, don't shrink back from the Word just because you don't understand. Because I don't understand. I press forward. But at the proper time manifested even His Word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted. Now this Look, he was entrusted. That's the second question. What has God called you to do? Know who you are and know what God has called you to do. This sets our vision, sets our path. Paul knew that he was entrusted with the proclamation, kerusso, the proclamation, the preaching of God's Word. That kerusso goes back to the town crier, you know, where Sun's up, so should you! I don't know. Or whatever it was. Dickens movie or something. They would have a town crier that would come and they didn't obviously have email and all of that. They would have a town crier that would come and proclaim the news to them. Way back in the day. Right? That's Caruso. and charigma, and all of these words that have to do with the proclamation of something. And Paul was proclaiming something that was world-changing. Of course, we live in America. You trail it back. Why is that important? Because the Gospel hit the shores of America and changed everything. And created a different way of doing governments, which ended up blessing the world. Well, you go back before that. What was that? That was Reformation. When we went back to God's Word. And then the Gutenberg Press. It was mass-produced. And then, and then, and then. But it's been Gospel advances all along the way. that provide for the world, provides untold countless blessings for the world all over the place. It was all in God's due time. but at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted." Was it Wycliffe that said that he wanted a plow boy to be able to read English? Wycliffe? I think it was Wycliffe who said he wanted to be able to translate it into English so every plow boy would be able to read God's word for himself. Wycliffe or Tyndale? It might have been Tyndale, yeah. The point being, we are so blessed to have a Bible on every shelf. Gideon's, I love it. They got a Bible in all these hotels. I think it's great. God's Word will not return to him void. God's Word is so foundational. And here, the caution is don't take it for granted. We are blessed. There's been a lot of blood spilt over this. God, by His grace and mercy, has brought it to pass whereby we might have access to... Can you imagine that? The creator of the universe writes a book and it sits on your shelf. It doesn't make sense. What kind of sense does that make? You read over your love letters, you know, multiple times and still the Creator of the universe invites you into communion with Him and the book sits on a shelf. Amazing. And I'm guilty. I'm guilty. which I was entrusted, that's Paul, according to the commandment of God our Savior. God commands, of course the bondservant just listens and obeys. Alright, God our Savior, that's theos, and soteriology, we get soteriology from this word Savior. This is important because it's going to come up again in the next verse, but pressing on. To Titus, and you can look at the different places that Paul would send Titus, but for a quick glimpse, let's go over to 2 Corinthians 8. Titus is the fixer. I like to call him the fixer. I think he's just an amazing character. I don't see anything Negative? Did you guys see anything negative in your study of Titus? I mean, I don't see anything negative written. I see things like 2 Corinthians 8, 16. But thanks be to God who puts the same earnestness on your behalf in the heart of Titus. Corinthians had all kinds of problems and who did Paul send? Titus. Why? You look at that, it says, look, Titus cares about you with the same earnestness that I do. Titus wants you guys to get this right, straighten it out. He wants your blessing and benefit as much as I do. This guy is a mature believer who's willing to go into the nasty situations for the love of Jesus and the love of you. He loves you. He wants the best for you. He wants to lead you into healing this problem. And they had They had so many problems in Corinth. Loads of problems. Look at it in 2 Corinthians 8, 23. He's my partner and fellow worker. Paul was blessed. You know, reading it to different locations, we can find many different texts in Scripture talking about how they left Paul. Left Paul, left Paul, left Paul, left Paul! You know how that feels! To be left all alone! Titus was faithful, he was a partner. Man, it's good to have those, and you consider those people to be such a blessing after you see, after we watch so many a second generation fall away! How happy are you to see one of your friends sticking with it, and you're not the only one? That's a blessing. Titus was a blessing. Titus, my true child in a common faith. I ordered up the sound effects. Putting emphasis on this, my true child. We all know what that means. We're talking about Paul, who was a father spiritually to Titus on his one, I think it was his second missionary journey. Now, that's another thing to be said, is Titus was involved in the big controversy coming in Galatians. Paul says, even Titus did not feel compelled to be circumcised. This is the beginning of the new covenant church and all the problems that they're going through, and Paul looks at Titus, who's going along doing ministry with him, and says, you don't need to be circumcised. This is a big deal in Acts 15. This is a real problem. Titus takes a stand. Titus is not Mealy Mouse. He doesn't say, oh, I don't want the controversy. Can't we all just get along? I want to go home. No. Titus and Paul are together saying, this is what we've been preaching, and we need to come to terms with it. God used him in a major way. Titus, my true child, in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. You see that? Christ Jesus our Savior in verse 4. Same wording as God our Savior in verse 3. God and Jesus are the same ones. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There's where you end up. And here's the deal, because I was just talking to somebody about this last week. It was a different word, but we are a people who are okay with, I don't understand it all. But having said that doesn't mean I'm sticking my head in the sand. What it means is, I see texts like this, Christ Jesus our Savior and God our Savior, where Jesus is put on the same level as God. And I say, I'm not going to shrink away from that. I'm not going to try to explain that away. I just say that's what it says. God and Jesus are on the same plane. There's no way you can get around it. You've just got to accept what it says and don't try to shrink back. So I just take it as it is. So you are hemmed in. If you don't like the word Trinity, you call it what you want. Fact is, you're hemmed in to at least admitting God and Jesus are on the same plane. You can't shrink back from that. And the early church was only trying to put words to explain a difficult truth that they saw in God's Word. They did a really good job. I would hate to be tashed with that. I cop out. I just say, well, that's what it says. I'm not homo, or not homo, homoousios, or all those big, they wrestled with the words and the way they were going to say it and how they were going to say it. I get the point. Point is, you don't want to take away from the divinity of Christ or the humanity of Christ. Why? Because they're both there. If you take away from either one, you end up Jehovah's Witness on one side or some kind of Gnostic on the other, and it's not orthodox. Why does church history matter? It's because they spent a lot of time trying to articulate these things, and you're hemmed in to agreeing with them. You have no other options. It's what the Word says, don't shrink back from it. Okay, I want to close up with why it matters. Okay? Know who you are. Know how God is using you. One thing to say real quickly about know how God is using, what I'm talking about is second generation, walk, learn to walk with Jesus, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. That's all there is. Be able to face tomorrow, be able to look into the future, and the vision is, I'm listening to do what God would have me to do. For some, it's be a plumber. For some, it's gonna be an IT person. For some, all these vocations that God calls you to, the point is, He does the calling. I'm the bondservant listening, and He does the calling that gives me an eternal purpose that is bigger than any trial that will come my way. It's bigger and the reward for it is more precious than anything that the world has to offer me. That gives me a vision that is a lot bigger than the vanities of the day or the sufferings that may come my way. All right? Now let me close with this illustration or something that's contemporary. There's a girl by the name of Chloe Cole. Anybody familiar with her? Yeah, Chloe Cole. And it's just heartbreaking. She transitioned when she was like 12 years old. Now listen to me. This is why this stuff matters, what we're talking about. As a, she started going through puberty when she was like nine. when she was 12. So this is a young girl going through puberty at an early age getting advanced before her friends, her peers. So you can see this happening as she starts to mature early physically as a girl. But Then at about 12 or somewhere along the line, when all the other girls catch up and then go well beyond her, their bodies change and look more voluptuous and woman-like. Now she's struggling with... How do I deal with, I feel so different, in fact I am different, and I'm not like them, and I'm more like the guys, because I'm built and shaped more like the guys, and I get along with the guys and like competing with them. You can see how easily it would be to think, especially if you have the world telling you all around, the psychologists, the professionals, the elite of the day, Your teachers telling you, well, maybe you're just a guy in a girl's body. Now you would think that that's insane, but what does a nine year old do think? What does a 10 year old think? What does an 11 year old think? And they're a lot more trusting of their parents and the pros. They haven't had life's experience telling them that that guy, he hasn't got a clue. You can look at the situation differently, but at that age, so at 15, she gets a double mastectomy. Double mastectomy. You remember back in the day when if a woman got cancer, breast cancer, and had to get a double mastectomy, it was a horrifying experience? Now, it's just part of transitioning, so you can experience the freedom of being the gender that you want to be. And this is sanctioned by the American Medical Association. This is a nuts world that we're in right now. Why does it matter that we embrace who am I? I don't want to be, number one, I don't want to be awash in a wave of the sea just like this young lady. Poor thing. Know who you are. Who did God create you to be? What does God have for you to do? Paul knew he was entrusted with that shift, theology shift, going from Old Covenant to New Covenant and preaching the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus Christ, that His death, burial, and resurrection paid for the sins of all of the elect. Paul knew, and we're blessed, that we too can walk ahead into the future knowing that God wants to guide and direct you. He's an intimate God that calls you to walk humbly with Him. Calls us to walk humbly with Him. And why does it matter? Because right now, currently, it's an insane world that is nationally, politically sanctioning the mutilation of children. It's unreal. She's suing, why's her name come up? Because she's suing Kaiser Permanente. huge medical conglomerates. Because no one along the way told her that you're gonna regret this decision, or even gave her warnings about what's going to happen. She realizes that now, she's 18, and she talks about how she's going through, probably going through all the different hormonal changes that 40 and 50 year old ladies go through. Now she does at 18. She'll never be able to breastfeed her children. She regrets all of that. Poor thing's dressed up as feminine as, you know, here's a young lady that now is being as feminine as she can possibly be. Wearing a dress, growing long hair, wearing makeup, when so many young ladies just fight against that. She wishes she had it all to do over again. It matters. It matters. Our calling matters. Young men, men, what we do here matters. Know who we are and know what God has called us to do, just like Paul. as he is delivering to the world, as a bond slave of Jesus Christ, delivering to the world a life-changing, world-changing message that had not aforeto, that point in time, had not been brought forward. Through much blood, through much pain, he was more than willing to go. Is this, I consider it, what'd he say? I consider it all but done. Let's finish with that. Philippians 3. Let me just close with that because this is a guy that has a picture of the end, the hope that lies at the end that is so big he considers everything that the world had to offer to be dung. Philippians 3. 8. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having the righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Let's pray.